Monk

As a monk, you can channel your ki to empower yourself with several special abilities. Your ki flows through you, waxing and waning with your use of your abilities in battle. Outside of battle, your ki flow slows, limiting how much ki you can call upon at any given moment. You can only gain and use ki while you remain centered (see below).

Your cultivator level for all ki abilities is equal to your monk level. Your key ability is Wisdom.

Ki Pool

Your maximum ki pool is equal to your cultivator level + your key ability score. Outside of combat, your maximum ki pool is equal to your cultivator level, and any excess at the end of combat drains away immediately. So, a 2nd level monk with a 16 Wisdom would have a maximum ki pool of 18 in combat and 2 outside of combat.

Gaining Ki

When you enter combat, at the start of your first turn, you immediately gain ki equal to your cultivator level, which is added to any ki you may already have in your ki pool, up to your maximum ki pool.

During combat, each successful melee attack you make that does not expend ki grants you 1 ki point, up to your maximum ki pool. Successful critical hits grant ki equal to the attack’s critical multiplier. Special attacks which require you to expend one or more points of ki do not grant ki on a hit, nor do attacks made as part of delivering a spell or esoteric ability or when initiating a martial technique.

Additionally, you can spend 1 round meditating to refocus your ki flow to regain ki points. This provokes attacks of opportunity. At the start of your next turn, you can make a concentration check using your cultivator level. You gain a number of ki points equal to your check result, up to your maximum ki pool.

Being Centered

Maintaining a centered state of being is critical for a monk to draw upon internal ki and direct it to flow properly.  Becoming uncentered disrupts the ki flow, causing a monk to become clumsy and awkward. If you are not centered, you cannot gain ki points or use any ability that requires ki, but you do not lose any ki you currently possess.

To remain centered, you must not wear armor or use a shield, must not be encumbered by more than a light load, and must not be armed with any weapon that isn’t part of the Monastic weapon group (or otherwise designated as a ki focus weapon). You also become uncentered if you are disabled, dying, helpless, or unconscious.

While centered, you add your Wisdom bonus, if any, to your AC. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five monk levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level). These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when you are flat-footed. You lose these bonuses when you are immobilized or helpless or become uncentered.

You gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat at 1st level, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites. In addition to the benefits of this feat, your training improves your unarmed strike to make it more effective.

• If you attack with a manufactured weapon or other natural attacks, you can use your unarmed strike as a secondary natural attack with a -5 penalty to the attack roll. Unlike normal secondary natural weapons, you add your full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all your unarmed strikes, even when used as a secondary natural attack.
• Your unarmed attacks may be made with any part of your body, such as fists, elbows, knees, feet, headbutts, and other reasonable attacks. This means that you may make unarmed strikes even with your hands full.
• Your unarmed strike counts as both a natural and a manufactured weapon, depending on which is more beneficial to you. If attacking with unarmed strike as a primary natural attack, you can make additional attacks for a high base attack bonus with your unarmed strike as if it were a manufactured weapon. (However, there is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed, so you cannot use unarmed strike with Two-Weapon Fighting or other such feats.) In addition, it can be affected by spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.
• You also deal more damage with your unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown above on Table: The Monk. The unarmed damage values listed on the table are for Medium monks. A Small monk deals less damage than the amount given there with his unarmed attacks, while a Large monk deals more damage.

While centered, you may make a flurry of blows to attack more quickly than normal. If you spend 1 ki point before you use a standard action or full-round action to make a melee attack, you may make one additional attack at your highest base attack bonus.

You may flurry when making any normal melee attack, including when charging, making a special attack, or using combat maneuvers. This additional attack stacks with the bonus attacks from haste and other similar effects. You may not flurry when making a touch attack as part of delivering a spell or esoteric ability or when initiating a martial technique. However, you may use the attacks to deliver ki strikes and activate ki formations as normal (see below).

You may attack with unarmed strikes and monastic weapons interchangeably as desired in any combination. You take no penalty for using multiple weapons when making a flurry of blows, and you apply your normal Strength modifier to your damage rolls for all successful attacks (not Str mod × 1½ or ×½), regardless of whether you wield a weapon in one or both hands or in an off hand.

Your attacks during a flurry of blows do not generate ki.

Activating a flurry of blows is not considered a ki ability and does not disrupt ki formations (see below).

At 1st level, you learn to harness your ki to empower your unarmed strikes. Once per attack, you can spend ki points to apply a ki strike effect to your attack. You cannot apply more than one ki strike to any attack. Any attack that you spend one or more ki points to empower with a ki strike counts as magic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

Each ki strike has an elemental affinity, which affects your ability to use ki formations (see below). Whether or not the attack hits, you are still considered to have used the ki strike.

Your training with ki improves the powers of your ki strikes, granting your ki strikes improved abilities at 6th level. Your ki strikes further improve at 12th level and again at 18th level. Stronger ki strikes require spending more ki, but you may choose to use a weaker version of a ki strike by spending less ki.

Ki Strikes

• Fires of Purification [Fire]
• Fists of Iron [Metal]
• Flourishing Vines [Wood]
• Grasp of Earth [Earth]
• Water Splitting Stone [Water]

You can combine a ki strike with any unarmed attack that deals damage, with the exception of other ki strikes and martial arts techniques. Martial arts techniques already utilize ki and other energies, making them incompatible with ki strikes. You also may not apply ki strikes when making an attack as part of delivering a spell or ability.

At 2nd level or higher if you make a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, you instead take no damage. Evasion can be used only if you are wearing light armor or no armor. You do not gain the benefit of evasion while immobilized or helpless.

Beginning at 2nd level, you cultivate the ability to circulate your ki throughout your body to achieve powerful effects. There are five basic forms of ki circulation, commonly called “stances,” each of which provides different benefits and drawbacks.

While centered, you can activate a ki stance as a swift action. The stance lasts until you end it (a free action), adopt a new stance, or become uncentered. Each ki stance has an elemental affinity, which affects your ability to use ki formations (see below).

Your training with ki improves the powers of your ki circulation, granting your ki stances improved abilities at the same time that you gain improved ki strikes: at 6th, 12th, and 18th level.

Ki Stances

• Mountain Stance [Earth]
• Ocean Stance [Water]
• Steel Stance [Metal]
• Sun Stance [Fire]
• Woodland Stance [Wood]

At 3rd level, you gain an enhancement bonus to your speed while you remain centered, as shown on Table: The Monk.

At 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter, you can select one ki talent. These talents allow you to perform amazing feats of mystical power and acrobatic prowess by expending points from your ki pool. Once a ki talent is selected, it cannot be changed. Some ki talents require you to be of a specific level or higher before they can be chosen. Unless otherwise noted, you cannot select an individual ki talent more than once.

Much like ki strikes and ki stances, each ki talent can have an elemental affinity which affects your ability to use ki formations (see below).

List of Ki Talents

Beginning at 4th level, you learn to harmonize your ki to create a temporary ki formation, which unlocks a special ki attack. To create a ki formation, you must execute three ki abilities (ki strikes, ki stances, or aligned ki talents) in a particular order. For example, using Fire aligned abilities three times in a row unlocks Breath of the Hidden Dragon, which you can then use on your next attack.

This ability always checks the three most recent ki abilities you used in the current encounter, ignoring any normal attacks, combat maneuvers, unaligned ki talents, or non-elemental ki strikes (such as Stunning Fist). You may move freely while creating a ki formation and need not make all the ki strikes on the same turn.

Other actions can disrupt a ki formation, which forces you to begin again as if you had used no ki abilities this encounter.

• Becoming uncentered, knocked down, or helpless for any reason
• Casting a spell, power, or other esoteric effect (using ongoing effects that enhance or grant attacks, such as magic weapon or making a normal spear attack with Loyal Paladin’s Spear of Light do not disrupt)
• Using a magic item that creates an esoteric effect, such as a potion, wand, or scroll.
• Activating a ki formation also disrupts the ki flow, preventing you from using multiple formations without restarting the ki flow.

Using a ki formation either enhances or replaces a normal attack, allowing you to activate a ki formation as part of any standard or full attack action. You cannot activate a ki formation as part of a special attack, combat maneuver, martial arts technique, or esoteric ability unless the ki formation specifies otherwise, nor can a ki formation be used with a normal ki strike or other ki ability.

Your training with ki improves the powers of your ki formations, granting your ki formations improved abilities at 10th level and again at 16th level.

List of Ki Formations

At 4th level, you gain a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the school of enchantment.

At 5th level, you gain immunity to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases.

At 7th level or higher, you can heal your own wounds. You can heal a number of hit points of damage equal to 2 × (your current monk level + your Wisdom bonus, if any) each day, and you can spread this healing out among several uses. So, a 7th-level monk with a Wisdom of 16 could heal up to 20 hit points of damage each day.

At 8th level, your evasion ability improves. You still take no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth you take only half damage on a failed save. You do not gain the benefit of improved evasion while immobilized or helpless.

At 11th level, you gain immunity to poisons of all kinds.

At 14th level, you gain spell resistance equal to your current monk level + 10. In order to affect you with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds your spell resistance.

Upon attaining 17th level, you no longer take penalties to your ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that you have already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and you still die of old age when your time is up.

At 20th level, you become a magical creature. You are forevermore treated as an outsider rather than as a humanoid (or whatever your creature type was) for the purpose of spells and magical effects.

Additionally, you gain damage reduction 10/epic, which allows you to ignore the first 10 points of damage from any attack made by a non-mythic weapon or by any natural attack made by a creature that doesn’t overcome epic damage reduction. This stacks with all other forms of damage reduction.

Unlike other outsiders, you can still be brought back from the dead as if you were a member of your previous creature type.