Though now under Garlean rule, the city-state of Ala Mhigo once boasted the greatest military might of all Eorzea. Among its standing armies were the monks—ascetic warriors as dreaded by foes on the field of battle as the city-state’s great pikemen. The monks comprised an order known as the Fist of Rhalgr, and it was to this god—the Destroyer—that they devoted their lives of worship. By mastering seats of power within the body known as chakra, they are capable of performing extraordinary physical feats.
Class Traits
Role: Striker. You typically eschew weapons in favor of unarmed attacks, and you avoid armor in favor of maneuverability and agility. Few can match your speed and poise on the battlefield. Your powers are more than simple attacks; they are complex forms that allow you to strike and move with unmatched grace. You lean toward controller as a secondary role.
Power Source: Martial, Limit Break. Your intense focus, constant training, and exceptional talent combine to allow you to harness the ki power within yourself.
Key Abilities: Dexterity, Strength, Wisdom
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth
Weapon Proficiencies: Club, dagger, monk unarmed strike, quarterstaff, shuriken, sling, spear
Implements: Ki focuses, weapons with which you have proficiency
Bonus to Defense: +1 Fortitude, +1 Reflex, +1 Will
Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 5
Healing Surges per Day: 7 + Constitution modifier
Trained Skills: From the class skills list below, choose four trained skills at 1st level: Acrobatics (Dex), Athletics (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), Insight (Wis), Perception (Wis), Religion (Int), Stealth (Dex), Thievery (Dex).
Class Features: Monastic Tradition, Unarmed Combatant, Unarmored Defense.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the monk.
Monastic Tradition
Monks train in a number of traditional techniques, with each monastery focusing on a specific style. Choose either Centered Breath or Stone Fist as your tradition. The choice you make grants you a Flurry of Blows power and a defensive benefit.
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Centered Breath: The Centered Breath tradition emphasizes honing your mental awareness to better harness ki power. This tradition teaches that only by controlling yourself can you control your environment. The tradition’s adherents are typically ascetics, whose monasteries stand in quiet corners of the world where the monks can train and study without distraction. In some of these monasteries, speech is forbidden except for one hour each day. Flurry of Blows: You gain the centered flurry of blows power. Mental Equilibrium: You gain a +1 bonus to Fortitude. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.
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Stone Fist: The Stone Fist tradition is one of physical mastery, relentless exercise, and athletic perfection. Its adherents seek to master their bodies, turning themselves into living weapons capable of supernatural feats of strength, agility, and speed. Monks of the Stone Fist prefer to study among the trappings of civilization. Some Stone Fist monasteries are small schools built in towns and villages, where students work as laborers and artisans when they aren’t training. Other Stone Fist monasteries stand in the most forbidding regions of the world-from the bitter cold of the tundra to the edge of a rumbling volcano-to test their students’ endurance day after day. Flurry of Blows: You gain the stone fist flurry of blows power. Mental Bastion: You gain a +1 bonus to Will. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.
Unarmed Combatant
You can make unarmed attacks with much greater effectiveness than most other combatants can. When you make a weapon attack such as a melee basic attack. you can use the monk unarmed strike, which is a weapon in the unarmed weapon group. This weapon has the off-hand weapon property and a +3 proficiency bonus, and it deals 1d8 damage. You must have a hand free to use your monk unarmed strike, even if you’re kicking, kneeing, elbowing, or headbutting a target. Your monk unarmed strike can’t be turned into a magic weapon, but it can benefit from a magic ki focus if you have one (see “Implements” below).
Unarmored Defense
While you are wearing cloth armor or no armor and aren’t using a shield, you gain a +2 bonus to AC.