Manikus' Monks

[Funky Dynamite]

Hey, Manikus....
You once said you turned Thieves into Monks, how exactly did you do this? And how did you handle their skills, if at all?

[manikus]

I don't recall ever turning thieves into monks...

Uatu and I have talked a fair amount about monks, among other classes that we would like to add to DC (most notably illusionists).

The only thing that I've ever changed thieves into is rogues, and that's just a simple name change in the class.txt file which you then import into DC.
You could add a monk class this way, but it wouldn't be very close to AD&D monks, as DC simply doesn't support a lot of what monks can do and only some of it can be faked.

[Funky Dynamite]

...Oh.
You didn't say used cursed iitems to do it...?
Oh, well, I can figure -something- out....

[manikus]

I suppose something like that could give you some of the abilities. It would be very difficult to give them at the correct time. Plus, unless you're a programmer, you can't cap the XP levels.

All I've tried to do with cursed weapons is make super heroes. Maybe you're remembering my talking about creating mutants?

[Funky Dynamite]

Yeah, I have a few ideas on that myself....

[Funky Dynamite]

Originally Posted by manikus I suppose something like that could give you some of the abilities. It would be very difficult to give them at the correct time. Plus, unless you're a programmer, you can't cap the XP levels. All I've tried to do with cursed weapons is make super heroes. Maybe you're remembering my talking about creating mutants?

Wait...cap the levels...?
You mean monks 1st-2nd ed (whatever) had a level cap?

[manikus]

In 1e, druids max out at level 23, monks at level 17 and assassins at level 15. None of these classes appear in 2e

[Funky Dynamite]

....
In my 2e Player's Handbook, Druids are listed, they effectively maxed out at 16 (17-20 is like a Master, only one is allowed at any given time). Fairly overpowered IMHO, in regards to the other classes, excluding Bards. But Bards were uber back in the day. Then again mine is a later version. (It immediately states in big bold letters "This is -not- 3rd edition.") And I got it about the same time as I got the bulk of my D&D stuff, early to mid ninties.

[Uatu]

In 2e, I don't remember exactly, but level 16 or so had room for only 1 at a time, but you could have any number of higher level druids (hierophant druids) at any time. (The Forgotten Realms sort of got around the 1 at a time thing by having 1 for the druids of each god, I think, although it may have depended on the author.)

Bards also had a maximum level in 1e (don't remember off the top of my head).

I think monks and assassins came back for the 2e version of Greyhawk (one of the later box sets, I think?).

[manikus]

Druids in 2e are not restricted in class advancement as they are just specialty priests - they can go anywhere a cleric can go, so to speak.

I didn't have the bard info at my fingertips, as I haven't put that into a spreadsheet yet...

As for monks, assassins, bards, et al in 2e they are not core classes, i.e. they are not in the Player's Handbook but appear in supplements/adventures. Some other classes that appear - ninjas (non-OA), anti-paladins, etc. I personally think of all of these as homebrew, as far as 2e is concerned.