PATH OF THE WANDERING MONK discussion

[Macula]

OK.. so i kind of feel like this is my time to shine.
I've been following the monk box for a while, and ended up sort of piecing it out with my own proxy figure, so it IS actually a monk.
Because.. whats in the box, is a XiuZhenZhe, or cultivator. (well, two cultivators), and yes, the term is gender nonspecific.
This is a particularly Daoist hero from wuxia and xianxia literature, and C Drama, but, since cultivator sounds like it should be a gardener, and D&D has established that pan asian martial artists are all monks, I can see where they were going.
Cultivators are members of various clans who live seperately from the rest of the world (their area of control being called the Jiang Hu), where they peacekeep, slay demons, look after the locals, and stay out of the very messy affairs of the state. (except in very extreme circumstances).
Now, these particular sculpts, I am not going to lie. seem to be TOTALLY an attempt to get girls to play. The male 'monk', with his eyepatch and hair, looks like a very compy character to Hua Cheng, from Heavens Official Blessing, whilst the Female 'monk' looks like a mix between Fei (Legend of Fei), Feng Wuming (FuYao) and Azula (Avatar the last airbender),
In fact, i'm pretty sure Avatar was a huge influence on the mechanic, because if the designer were an absolute Jai (china nerd), we'd have 5 element cards, not 4.
If you're playing campaign, It's totally in line to begin with one skill, and add a skill every mission, if they've faced an enemy/spell of that type (abominations for water, Gargoyle for earth, cant think of what for air, so probably best to start with that).
The replenishment of powers again, seems to be a D&D short rest by any other name, and it really does make them a bit of a grenade in Tournament. You either finish the fight quickly, or end up on the end of something spiky.

If you are interested in watching some series that really play into this type of character, I REALLY recommend Blood Of Youth (which is all up on Youtube)

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

Yeah he needs to be mobbed, because he can resist any damage the one time on the round with Twisting Torrent. I would say he can use it even if he's under the effects of Sleep or Tempest (or Command/Dominate).

Now the way that Multi-attacks from monsters are being handled, you could say a Polar Warbear strike might only be negated in part (he could roll defense against one of the attacks and use Twisting Torrent to negate the damage from the other) but that's also Zargon's call.

I think rules as written (with the clarifications stated by Doug Hopkins) that's how it would be handled officially.

Is this really anymore broken than the monster rules for Dark Company (where Dark Warriors and Doomguard can block ALL skulls with a single black shield in defense), or the Japanese edition where Gargoyles and (coincidentally named) Dark Warriors have 2 BP and can only be killed if they sustain 2 damage from a single attack (or else the lost BP heals by the time the next hero can attack)? Granted neither of those have been implemented into the remake rules (yet!).

The Monk seems powerful, and he is, but he is also limited in how much more he can grow, as he is limited in weapons and can't add any armor, so mostly he will be collecting potions and mercenaries after awhile.

I've just completed two quests, Bastion of Dread and Race against time, with my mate. I was Morcar, YES MORCAR!!!!, and he tried out the Monk as a new Hero.
The result I was not expecting.
It was a slaughter by the Monk, his Barb and Dwarf were not even needed. He even split his Heros in one quest, sensibly teaming Monk with Wizard.
Monk is hard to deal with in the earlier Quests with few and weak monsters, but I was expecting to at least cause him damage in the centre room in Bastion.
But no, he opened door, jumping onto the table for the extra cd of attack, (homebrew) and activated eye of storm and attacked all my monsters with three CDs.
He wiped out half of them, but avoided my counter attacks, one was fluffed, Gulthor hit him, but was negated with TT.
By then the other hero's were there, and finished the rest off. Gulthor put up a fight on his own, but couldn't get to Monk or Wiz.
All other rooms followed the same result really. I think to negate Monk, EW needs monsters with two attacks and a lot of good rolls. I suppose rooms loaded with more than monsters would help, but that would help Monk get his fire skills easier!!
My mate thought it was hilarious clearing room after room with an unarmed Hero!!

[SirRick]

Just have traps in the room with the monsters. KK and RotWL have some nasty examples of this. If the Monk stumbles onto a trap charging at a monster, he will likely lose his turn. Even if he negates the damage from a trap, Zargon would have to make a ruling on what happens. With a spear trap a Monk would likely be able to continue his turn, but a pit trap or falling rock trap are questionable. If a hero takes no damage from a falling rock trap their turn still ends, for example.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

Yeah, I always understood that when any hero takes any damage, his turn ends anyway.
And if he uses his twisting torrent to cancel it, he then doesn't have it for any monster attacks.
Thing is, if no traps are there, which is common in earlier quests, there is nothing the EW can do, unless he adds a few for 'flavour'!!!!

[Kurgan]

There's also Hazards in the treasure deck.

[wallydubbs]

I too have witnessed the Monk's overpowered prowess especially when it comes to the Game System. I've seen him take out 3 enemies in one turn. This isn't to say he's invulnerable, you might just have to wait until Keller's Keep to put him in a bind. In fact I've even witnessed the Monk die in the Great Citadel of Keller's Keep. While the Barbarian and Elf were dealing with a massive amount of Greenskins the Monk and Rogue wandered into Gragor's room to face off against Gragor, two Dread Warrior and group of Orcs (brought on by Summon Orcs spell). Though the Monk was brave and formidable, he and the Rogue were outmatched. He used Eye of the Storm to get an early attack on the 3 but it wasn't enough to kill any. Used Twisting Torrent to avoid the Lightning Bolt, Strength of Mountain against a Dread Warrior and Burning Spirit killed Gragor and 2 orcs, but after using his techniques he was still blocked off in the room and couldn't get out or reclaim any techniques. The Rogue and rest of the orcs all died, leaving Kubo (Monk) and a Dread Warrior. The Dread Warrior killed the Monk.

So if you could isolate the Monk and get him to use all his techniques, you could eventually break him down. Considering all the Greenskins in Keller's Keep you'll have your chance to threaten him.

[LucaRocks]

So I finally had my first experience with the monk last Saturday. We played Quest 1 of ROTWL. Boy oh boy is this dude a pain. If we played him correctly that is. I ruled (as Zargon) that his beam and other abilities did not affect other heroes so that would have made a huge difference if we indeed played with friendly fire.

I echo what others have said for the most part. Being that most monsters have one BP, it makes him SO dangerous. That power of attacking all enemies next to him allows him to hit two or three guys at a time. So even swarming him can be dangerous. Trapping him in a dead end corridor (which I did) seems to work but even then you have to have a Dread warrior up against him to have any staying power. With most hallways, he can duck around a corner with no enemies and regain his powers. So it really is hard to get him use all his powers.

I also found that the other heroes become more bold when he's around. Since he basically runs point, going into rooms not worrying about damage because of that one power, the others play more aggressive. I added more Dread warriors and mummies on the fly just to give more challenge but it was hardly noteworthy.

The player who used him subbed him for the barbarian and he himself commented that the barbarian and the monk together could run the whole board. And everyone was of the mind that AH will nerf his abilities somehow because of how strong he is.

[wallydubbs]

Bare in mind he only replenishes his techniques when there are no monsters in sight at the beginning of his turn. I've often turned his technique cards straight once all monsters have been defeated just for another hero to draw a Wandering Monster. This can work both in and against your favor. If the Monk runs around the corner to get out of view from monsters, you can try to chase him down so when his next turn comes he won't regain those techniques.
Also note that the Monk doesn't regain his techniques upon using all of them. If he eventually attains the coveted Fire Technique he doesn't get them back right away. So he's vulnerable once using all techniques until all monsters are out of sight at the beginning of his/her turn.

Also note as Zargon you can tweak and refine his "Twisting Torrent" technique. You can fallback on the "Using Elemental Styles," card, that says 'Once per turn, choose 1 technique to activate.' By this you can somewhat twist it to mean he can only use Twisting Torrent on his turn, not on an enemy's turn. This will reduce Twisting Torrent to only avoiding damage from traps, wandering monsters and the Yeti hug.
Speaking of which, I have yet to test him on the Frozen Horror but am curious to see how well he plays against those monsters.

[SirRick]

I was going to try the Monk myself in FH, probably with the Barbarian, Dwarf, and Druid. I’m still going through SQT right now, but the Monk is proving to be valuable for a number of reasons.

[wallydubbs]

Run him through the Barbarian solo quests! If he survived add him in!