Monk

This skill enables a blinded character to engage in hand to hand combat; without this skill a character may not engage in combat while blinded. This skill does not imply the ability to see. A character using this skill is assumed to be fighting by "feel" and sound, and can only respond to a hand to hand attack and cannot initiate combat with a foe that they cannot perceive. Once combat starts, the character can continue until the target leaves the combat entirely or out runs the player.

This skill cannot be used – ever – to detect invisible characters, but can be used to attack invisible characters that attack first.

This skill allows the character to double their weapon damage for one swing when attacking from behind. The player should double the amount of damage their character is swinging including base weapon damage, Damage Bonus, Strength Bonus, alchemical affects or magic bonuses. The character must be approximately 90 degrees behind their target to be considered behind them. The character cannot reach their arms around the target to use their Critical Backstab skill. A Critical Backstab does not have to be delivered from surprise. This skill can be used with the Waylay skill to double the damage of the Waylay skill. The player should suffix the damage they call with the word “Crit”. This skill is not used if the character misses their target or the attack is blocked. If they succeed in striking their target or if the target calls an appropriate defense, the skill is used. This skill does not double any additional damage from the Heal Wounds skill, Wounding skill, or Elemental Pool Points.

This skill will allow a character to avoid any one magical or physical attack, even from surprise. If the attack is an area affect attack, this skill does not allow the character to move to avoid the area of affect. The character may dodge an attack even while encumbered, for example when carrying a body or other heavy items. The character may also dodge when blinded or unable to see the attacker or the attack. However, the character cannot dodge an attack if they are immobilized in any way, or if they intentionally touch or pick up an item or person. This includes areas or parts of a structure that a character intentionally touches. A character is considered immobile if they are affected by a Pin, Bind, Paralysis, Imprisonment spell or similar effect or if they are held by another character. A character in a Magic Sanctuary spell must drop the sanctuary in order to dodge.

The character must call “Dodge” when they use this skill. This skill is always used once called.

This skill allows the character to skillfully escape from any mundane restraint that bind their arms and/or legs. This includes ropes, shackles, webs, Paste of Binding, Tangler Trees, Entomb attack of an Earth Elemental, etc. This skill will not allow the character to escape from magical bindings such as Pin, Bind, being paralyzed, etc.

Only one use of this skill is needed to free both the character’s arms and legs. This skill cannot be used as a defense and can only be called after the character is affected by the restraint.

The character must call “Escape” when they use this skill. The player may, if they wish or need to, call a Hold to remove the bonds.

By use of this skill, the character can make multiple attacks with only one swing. For each use of one of these tagged skills, the character will deliver damage equal to their Talon damage. For example, if the character deals 8 damage with their Talons and uses 2 Flurry of Blows tags, they will hit their target with 8 damage 3 times. This skill cannot be combined with any other skill except the Speed and Weapon Accuracy skills. The character will need one Speed tag for each use of a Flurry of Blows tag, so if the character uses 3 Flurry of Blows tags, they will need 3 Speed tags as well. You only need one Weapon Accuracy tag since it has a duration of 5 minutes. The character may only use five Flurry of Blows tags at one time in one attack.

This skill is stopped by any master skill that stops physical attacks, for example, Master Parry, Slay Parry or Dodge, or any magical defense that stops physical attacks, but one defense is required for each strike. Therefore, in the above example, the target character would need three defenses to stop all the damage.

This skill is not used if the character misses their target, does not hit the appropriate area on the target, or the attack is blocked. If they succeed in striking their target or if the target calls an appropriate defense, the skill is used.

To use this skill, the character should call “Flurry of X Blows, Y Damage”. If the character misses their target all of the tags used to perform the strike are not consumed. T

he Damage Bonus from instantaneous Strength Bonuses does not add to the damage of this skill. For example, Giant Strength spell, Feat of Heroes spell, Feat of Strength skill, etc. would not add to the damage done by the Flurry of Blows skill.

This skill allows the character to use Talons, with a base damage of 4 points, to represent their hands in combat. All the standard rules for claw combat apply, i.e. the character may not touch cast, etc. However, they gain the ability to use the following skills with their hands (talons): Stun, Critical Attack, Disarm, Cheap Trick, Throat Punch, Master Parry, Shatter Weapon, Speed, Slay, Weapon Accuracy, Waylay, Critical Backstab, Missile Defection, Agony Strike, Assassinate, and Assassin Strike, skills.

When a character purchases this skill they gain the ability to use: Small Weapon, Thrown Weapon, and Quarterstaff. Additionally, any Build Points the character may have spent on these weapon skills are refunded when this skill is learned. So, if a character has Thrown Weapon and Quarterstaff they would get back a total of 4 Build Points.

NOTE: Backstabs, Master Proficiencies and Assassin Proficiencies will work with Talons from the Iron Hand skill.

With their mastery of their spiritual energy, the character permanently gains 20 points of armor. These armor points are lost after all other types of magical armor. The character can reset their armor points by sitting or kneeling and meditating for 5 minutes.

There is no visible effect to this skill. These armor points do not count as physical armor and therefore do not stop poisons.

This skill may be used to parry any physical blow including special attacks such as Critical Attack, Stunning Blow, Disarm, or a blow that does damage, but not the Slay or Soul Strike skills. This skill can be used even if it is delivered from behind, but not if from a surprise attack. It is also possible to parry an attack directed against someone else as long as they are within weapons length. A character cannot use a ranged attack to parry an attack for another. The character may block any low magic or Nature Magic spell that is not combined with a Perfect Aim skill for another character, but they then take the effect of the spell and must call an appropriate defense that will stop the spell in order to avoid the effects of the spell themselves.

A character must have one Martial Proficiency skill per Master Parry skill they wish to purchase. So, a character that wants three Master Parry skills must have three Martial Proficiency skills. The Master Parry skill can be used with any weapon the character has two Martial Proficiency skills of either type. Therefore, if the character has two Master Proficiency skills they can use their Master Parry with any weapon.

The character must call “Master Parry” when they use this skill. This skill is always used once called.

This parry skill allows the character to deflect any ranged attack including ones that use the True Aim skill or use any special martial skill, except the Slay skill. The character should call “Missile Deflect” to use this skill. This skill can be used even if it is delivered from behind, but not if from a surprise attack; therefore it is impossible to parry the Assassinate skill. It is also possible to parry an attack directed against someone else as long as they are within weapons length. A character cannot use a ranged attack to parry an attack for another. The character may block any low magic or Nature Magic spell that is not combined with a Perfect Aim skill for another character, but they then take the effect of the spell and must call an appropriate defense that will stop the spell in order to avoid the effects of the spell themselves.

This skill is always used once called.

When this skill is purchased the character gains a Damage Bonus to their attacks with their Talons. This skill is only usable with the characters Talons and is applied to both of the character’s hands at the same time.

This skill is stackable with itself and all Monk Proficiencies learned are cumulative. So a character with 5 purchases would swing 6 damage with each hand.

Note that Monk proficiencies and skills do not work with claws or talons derived from any other source such as Druid claw, natural claw, natural talons, etc.

By learning to further channel their spiritual energy into their fighting style, the character is able to swing for Magic Damage with their Talons. To use this skill, the character should suffix their damage with “...Magic”. There is no cost to use this skill and they can choose to use it or not when they attack and they do not have to call Magic Damage if they do not want to.

The character’s hands do not really turn into magic, but when the skill is used there is a visible magic aura around their hands.

This skill allow the character to swing for magic damage and should suffix their damage with “...Magic”.

By further mastering their control over their spiritual energy, the Warrior Monk can cause temporary paralysis in their opponents. To use this skill, the character needs to strike their opponent with their Talon in a viable martial target and call “Paralysis Strike”. The target is then paralyzed for 5 minutes. A heal body effect will end the paralysis effect. The character can release their own paralysis effect at will. They can also release the effects of a Paralysis Strike or Paralysis Touch skills with a use of one of their Paralysis Strike tags. The character must touch the effected character with their talon and, therefore, cannot release themselves from the effect.

This skill is stopped by any master skill that stops physical attacks, for example, Master Parry or Dodge, or any magical defense that stops physical attacks.

This skill is not used if the character misses their target, does not hit the appropriate area on the target, or the attack is blocked. If they succeed in striking their target or if the target calls an appropriate defense, the skill is used.

The character can learn to harness their spirit energy allowing them to resist the effects of all diseases – normal or magical – and any poison once per purchase per Tag Cycle.

To use this skill, the character would call “Resist Disease” or “Resist Poison”, whichever is appropriate.

Using this skill, a character may shatter any weapon or shield, regardless of size, using a one-handed edge or a one-handed blunt weapon or larger. Magic, Mithril and unshatterable weapons may not be broken by use of this skill.

To use this skill, the character must strike their target and hit either their body or weapons. This skill can be used as a defense and cannot be called if another character strikes them or they block with their weapon.

This skill is not used if the character misses their target. If they succeed in striking their target, or if the target calls an appropriate defense, the skill is used.

The character must call “Shatter Weapon/Shield” when they use this skill.

By learning to channel their spiritual energy into their fighting style, the character is able to swing for Mithril Damage with their Talons. To use this skill, the character should suffix their damage with “...Mithril”. There is no cost to use this skill and they can choose to use it or not when they attack and they do not have to call Mithril Damage if they do not want to.

The character’s hands do not really turn into mithril, but when the skill is used there is a visible mithril aura around their hands.

By further mastering their control over their spiritual energy, the Warrior Monk can fatally disrupt the spiritual energy of their opponent, bringing them to the Brink of Death. To use this skill, the character needs to strike their opponent with their Talon in a viable martial target and call “Soul Strike”. This skill will not work on Golems or Construct type monsters. This skill is stopped by any master skill that stops physical attacks, for example, Slay Parry or Dodge, or any magical defense that stops physical attacks. This skill is not used if the character misses their target, does not hit the appropriate area on the target, or the attack is blocked. If they succeed in striking their target or if the target calls an appropriate defense, the skill is used. A character must have one Monk Proficiency skill per Soul Strike skill they wish to purchase. So, a character that wants three Soul Strike skills must have three Monk Proficiency skills

Using this skill, a character may automatically strike their opponent with a single blow. To use this skill, the character must strike at the opponent and hit any part of them – a legal body part, weapon or shield. The character prefixes the attack with “Speed”, followed by either weapon damage or a specialty attack such as the Disarm or Slay skills. This skill can only be used with hand to hand weapons and not with ranged attacks.

Since Speed is a master level skill, only a Master Parry or a Slay skill will stop this attack. Even if the Speed skill is used with a Disarm, for example, the targeted character must use a master level skill to stop the attack.

This skill is always used once called.

By learning to channel their spiritual energy into their fighting style, the character is able to swing for Silver Damage with their Talons. To use this skill, the character should suffix their damage with “...Silver”. There is no cost to use this skill and they can choose to use it or not when they attack and they do not have to call Silver Damage if they do not want to.

The character’s hands do not really turn into silver, but when the skill is used there is a visible silver aura around their hands.

This skill has only one use, to overcome obstacles encountered during game play which do not physically exist. It allows the character to traverse narrow surfaces and rope at a normal pace and fight normally so long as one foot remains on the representation. It cannot be used to walk along the roofs of out-of-game buildings or from tree branch to tree branch, but if the Marshal only describes the ledge or if the rope is only represented by a string along the ground then the character can use this skill. The Marshal will have final say as to whether the character successfully uses this skill.

Using this skill, a character can pinpoint the “chink” in their opponent’s Armor, and hit their Body Points directly. The character must suffix the word “Body” after the amount of damage. This notifies their opponent that such damage is to be deducted from their Body Point total. This skill may be used with other damage skills such as Critical Attack and Speed, as well as being an effective way to deliver blade poisons. This skill will work against mundane or magical Armor Points, even those from an Armor spell.

This skill cannot be used with an attack that does not do damage.

Once the character makes their first attack, they can continue to make direct body damage attacks for 5 minutes.