This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly
The Quintessential Monk
Published by Mongoose Publishing
Written by Patrick Younts
128-page soft cover; $19.95
The Quintessential Monk, Mongoose Publishing's recent addition to its Collector Series of character sourcebooks, follows closely in the footsteps of its predecessors in style, presenting a wide variety of new options for monk characters. Approximately the first half of the book is devoted to this, featuring chapters of character concepts, new prestige classes, alternative fighting schools, combat maneuvers, new uses for old skills, and new feats. The latter half of the book departs from the mechanics of character development and concentrates on various aspects of a monk's way of life, including new weapons, equipment, and magic items, rules on how to run martial arts tournaments, and rules for the construction of schools and monasteries. A lot of information is packed into this book, which will be of interest to both players and DMs.
The section on character concepts provides a number of archetypes -- such as the Temple Orphan, the Wanderer, and the Fugitive Monk -- that help players create interesting backgrounds for their characters, each of which provides minor benefits and penalties that reflect this background. The example concepts provided can also serve as inspirational templates for DMs and players to create their own unique archetypes customized to their campaign world. There are also racial concepts that provide advice on creating monk characters from each . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 13, 2002
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