Old School Essentials: Monk

So I recently backed the awesome Old School Essentials, and initial draft PDFs of the game have been sent out - including the Advanced Fantasy Genre Rules to enable using OSE to play in AD&D 1e-type campaigns.

The classes are great, but there is one glaring omission: the monk! Well, it's not glaring, as Gavin has explicitly stated he is saving the Monk for an Oriental Adventures-esque book in the future. But I don't want to wait, so I stated up my own!

The Monk below mainly borrows from the BECMI Mystic, as well as the Monk from Labyrinth Lord. I'm assuming the progression stops at Level 14 like every other class in the game.

MONK

Requirements: Minimum WIS 9, minimum DEX 9
Prime Requisite: STR
Hit Dice: 1d6
Maximum Level: 14
Armor: None
Weapons: Any
Languages: Alignment, Common

Level	XP	HD	THAC0	D	W	P	B	S
1	0	1d6	19 [0]	12	13	14	15	16
2	2,000	2d6	19 [0]	12	13	14	15	16
3	4,000	3d6	19 [0]	12	13	14	15	16
4	8,000	4d6	19 [0]	10	11	12	13	14
5	16,000	5d6	17 [+2]	10	11	12	13	14
6	32,000	6d6	17 [+2]	10	11	12	13	14
7	64,000	7d6	17 [+2]	8	9	10	10	12
8	120,000	8d6	17 [+2]	8	9	10	10	12
9	240,000	9d6	14 [+5]	8	9	10	10	12
10	360,000	9d6+2	14 [+5]	6	7	8	8	10
11	480,000	9d6+4	14 [+5]	6	7	8	8	10
12	600,000	9d6+6	14 [+5]	6	7	8	8	10
13	720,000	9d6+8	12 [+7]	4	5	6	5	8
14	840,000	9d6+10	12 [+7]	4	5	6	5	8

Monks are monastic humans who follow a strict discipline of meditation, denial, seclusion, exercise and philosophy in order to obtain a mastery of both body and spirit.

Combat
Monks can use all types of weapons, but can not wear armor or use shields. They can also never use magical protective devices (such as rings or bracers) that act as armor.

Martial Arts
Monks have trained their bodies to become deadly weapons, learning martial arts abilities that improve as they increase in level:
▶ Acrobatics: A monk's natural AC improves by +1 and their movement speed increases by 30’ at 3rd, 7th and 11th level.
▶ Multiple attacks: Monks gain an extra melee attack at 5th, 9th and 13th level. These attacks can either be made unarmed or with melee weapons.
▶ Unarmed strikes: A monk deals 1d6 damage with an unarmed strike and adds half their level to the damage. Their unarmed strikes can damage monsters as if they were magical weapons (though they do not gain the bonus to hit and damage). The effective level of the ‘bonus’ is equal to a fourth of the monk’s level.

Monk Skills
Monks can use the following skills with the chance of success shown opposite:
▶ Climb sheer surfaces (CS): A roll is required for each 100’ to be climbed. If the roll fails, the monk falls at the halfway point, suffering falling damage.
▶ Find or remove treasure traps (TR): A roll is required to find a treasure trap and then another to remove it. This may be attempted only once per trap
▶ Hide in shadows (HS): Requires the monk to be motionless—attacking or moving while hiding is not possible.
▶ Move silently (MS): A monk may attempt to sneak past enemies unnoticed.

Level	CS	TR	HS	MS
1	87	10	10	20
2	88	15	15	25
3	89	20	20	30
4	90	25	25	35
5	91	30	30	40
6	92	33	33	43
7	93	36	36	46
8	94	40	40	50
9	95	43	43	53
10	96	46	46	56
11	97	50	50	60
12	98	53	53	63
13	99	56	56	66
14	99	60	60	70

Awareness
A monk is only surprised on a roll of 1 when checking for surprise.

Self Healing
A monk of 2nd level or higher may, once per day, cure themselves of 1 point of damage for each experience level they have. They do this by concentrating for 1 round.

Speak with Animals
A monk of 4th level or higher may speak with any normal or giant animal as often as they desire; animals understand their speech and they understand the animal’s, though no animal is forced to talk to them.

Resistance
A monk of 6th level or higher only takes half damage (rounded down) from all spells and breath weapons that inflict damage, or one-quarter damage (rounded down) if the saving throw is successful

Speak with Anyone
A monk of 8th level or higher may speak with any living creature that has a language of any sort, as often as desired. The creature being spoken to does not have to converse with the monk.

Mind Blank
A monk of 10th level or higher is immune to ESP, hold and slow spells, magical charms, quests and geas spells.

Fade
By concentrating for 1 round, a monk of 12th level or higher causes their presence to ‘disappear’. No living or undead creature can see them; there is no saving throw. This effect lasts for 1 round per level of the monk; it is dispelled automatically if they attack. A monk can only do this once per day.

Dim Mak
A monk of 14th level or higher is able to touch an opponent with the terrible Dim Mak ability once per day.

The Dim Mak touch can have one of the following effects on the target, who gets no saving throw against the effect but must have no more hit dice or levels than the mystic:

▶ Charm Person (as the spell of the same name, except lasting only 24 hours)
▶ Cure Major Wounds (as the spell of the same name)
▶ Death
▶ Quest (as the spell of the same name except lasting only 24 hours)
▶ Paralysis (lasting 24 hours)

The Dim Mak ability can only be used once per day, and the desired effect must be announced before the attack is made. However, if the attack misses then the Dim Mak is not used up and can be attempted again against the same target or a different target.

Oaths
A monk has many oaths that define their way of life. They must never lie, break a promise or vow, own any possession they can not carry on their person, or doubt their own abilities. They must also donate 10% of all their income back to their cloister. If a monk ever breaks one of these oaths, they are kicked from their cloister.They may not gain any new experience levels, they lose one level per year away from the cloister, and they may not join any other similar cloister. The DM may allow the monk to go on a grand quest to regain their honor and restore their standing in the cloister.

After Reaching 9th Level
If the grand abbot of the monk’s cloister agrees, a monk may build a new branch of his old cloister, attracting 1d6 apprentices of levels 1-3 to train under them. At 12th level, a monk is able to declare their cloister as independent and remove themselves from the oversight of their former grand abbot.

Level Titles

Novice, Initiate, Brother, Disciple, Immaculate, Master, Superior Master, Master of Dragons, Grandmaster