This is a short PDF presenting a brand new monk class. Unlike the David Carridine-inspired kung-fu wanderer in the Player's Handbook, this class is based on the western ascetic commonly associated with Christian monastic orders. In the intro, the author makes a fairly good case for adding a class like this to the D&D game. Clerics, the author points out, are focused on a wide range of abilities beyond divine magic. There is room, then, for a focused divine caster with a set of abilities more befitting a religious scholar.

The monk class is a weaker fighter than the cleric, with fewer hit points and only one good save. I was disappointed to note that his skill list and skill points are identical to the cleric's, making the monk no more scholarly or learned than clerics. Throw in Turn Undead, access to cleric domains, and the ability to spontaneously cast healing spells, and I'm starting to wonder the point in playing a monk at all.

Eventually, the monk gains access to a unique suite of abilities: Vows and Devotions. Upon reaching certain levels, the monk may select one new class feature from a list of eight. These include appropriate options such as Vow of Chastity or Vow of Silence. The devotions all have latin-inspired names like Devotion to Ars Mentis, which I thought was a neat touch.

However, the mechanics behind the Vows and Devotions are a mixed bag. The worst of the bunch is probably the Vow of Poverty. This vow requires the monk to give up all but his most meager possessions. In exchange, the monk gains a small bonus to his Fortitude saves. Unless you're playing in a very low magic campaign, trading in the thousands of GP in magic items your character is likely to accumulate over his career for a single saving throw bonus seems like a very poor choice. Compare this to the Vow of Chastity, which grants a similar saving throw bonus in exchange for a life of sexual abstinence (a mere roleplaying restriction!) The Devotions are better balanced, although none of them are really inspired in any notable way.

I understand that the author was trying to create a class that emulated the cleric in the same way that the core sorcerer emulates the wizard. I have no problem with keeping monks similar to clerics, but there is very little here to make them interesting enough to play. Sorcerers have spontaneous casting and a different set of skills than wizards. Monks are clerics with worse saves, fewer hit points, and a handful of powers roughly equivalent to a few bonus feats.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The introduction is well written. The author really did a good job selling me on why a class like this is needed in D&D. I also thought that the non-rules bits, such as the paragraphs on why monks might become adventurers, were clear and entertaining. The layout is clean and the background image looks nice on my screen.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There is definitely room for class like this in D&D. Unfortunately, this book fails to deliver the goods. The author made a class that is too similar to the cleric and, ultimately, I don't think many people would be interested in playing a monk as written.

Also, as a minor complaint, the monk table is really hard to read due to a big block of text running right through the top of it.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Some good stuff, and a great Idea. . . I guess I was looking for more.

If you've ever read the old Robin Hood stories, or other stuff about the roaming friars and monks of the time period we are looking at, you'll know they weren't the most reveared lot, while you really couldn't do anything nasty to them because they had church support they tended to be viewed as swindlers and untrustworthy and yet important and powerful. They might not be the most respected, but they had connections that you better respect. I was looking a bit more in this direction and hoping for less clericness and some more spells that might be unique, or maybe some different alchohol effects, a drunken righteous rage or something. Also abilities to beg for money without social stigma and using that to gather information. . .

I guess I was looking for a rogue type socially with healing and religious hook-ups and a nasty staff. What I got was a cleric with no armor and a staff. Seriously it's what, $1? Can't say I was ripped off.

Small edit: I think this job would work better in a world with less magic, where Clerics and Paladins would not be common in cities and a wandering monk would be a source of religion and healing to the average people that they lack otherwise, and would have some social bonuses from that.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Great Idea, and the vow of silence. Lose skills dependant on language to cast magic without verbal. . . that's a cool tradeoff.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It seems like someone had a great Idea and then didn't finish it and threw it out here for someone else to pick up and go with.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

I purchased this item for my GM who is preparing an old school D&D campaign. It seemed like something he would like. After I've read through it, I decided that I liked the Actual Monk also.

This is a six page document describing a class which is exactly as the title suggests. The last page is legalese. An Actual Monk, inspired by Friar Tuck, is much more of a Cleric than a high kicking Monk. In fact, the Actual Monk serves many of the same functions as a Cleric. The Actual Monk casts spells from the cleric spell list, worships, and heals others. There are various details that separate an Actual Monk from a Cleric, but the main difference is stylistic. Whereas the Cleric is more concerned with spreading the religion to others, the monk's focus is more internal with vows.

The Actual Monk is the only class which may benefit from Vows and Devotions. These are extra penalties that the monk may choose to take, and in exchange receives bonuses unique to each penalty. For example, if an Actual Monk takes a Vow of Silence, he learns to cast spells silently even if the spell otherwise requires a verbal component. There are eight Vows and Devotions described on Page 5, and that is more than enough. It would be simple, however, to create more. Here are a couple that I will invent right now.

Vow of Evangelization: The Monk has devoted himself to spreading the converting the infidels to his own religion. He must attempt to convert to convert someone every day if possible. For each convert, the Monk gains an experience bonus equal to that if he were to have defeated the convert in battle.

Devotion of Work: The Monk has a work ethic which requires that he aids in supporting himself and his order financially instead of relying entirely on charity. This involves the monk spending several hours per day at some specific trade. A Monk gains an extra skill when practicing this devotion that corresponds to his trade. The classic example is winemaking.

See, that took me about five minutes.

This product is slight in other areas. There is very little artwork. The flavor text is less than one would expect -- which is either a good or bad thing depending on preference. The stats are thorough and seem to be very well balanced, although I haven't tried making a character yet.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: I like the class itself. This is an excellent alternative to the standard cleric for a game with more historical basis.

I love the Vow and Devotion system. I could see a Paladin and Actual Monk in service to the same deity taking the same vow together. Even though the Monk is the only character who gains the benefit, it adds much style to both characters. Also, the Vow and Devotion system is easily converted to religious characters in other games like a HackMaster Cleric, a Rifts Priest, or a Deadlands Preacher.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I definately got my dollar's worth, so there is little point in making complaints. I would like to have seen some clarification on the gender of the Actual Monk class. This document was written with the assumption that a Monk would always be male, but it isn't listed as a requirement. Furthermore, I don't see any reason why a nun couldn't be constructed using these same rules.

If Postmortem Studios decides to ever release an updated version, there are some other features I would like to see. An example NPC character, a specific order of Monks, pieces of equipment or spells unique to the Actual Monk, or an ever-popular Prestige Class class would bring the product in-line with products offered by other creators here at RPGNow.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Actual Monks is a product designed to introduce a more European version of the monk to D&D. A noble idea, as the author says, when one thinks of monks in a pseudo-medieval context, one might think of Friar Tuck, Brother Cadfael or William of Baskerville (from ?The Name of the Rose?), but rarely of martial artists. This product is an attempt to present a pseudo-medieval European monk as a viable option.

The Actual Monk class itself is a variant on the Cleric, indeed some of the class abilities are lifted from the SRD (nothing wrong with that, but in one case ?Cleric? was not replaced). By comparison to the Cleric, the Actual Monk has lower HD, worse BAB and saves, and the same amount of skills. Their spell casting is essentially the same as a cleric, including access to domain spells and abilities. In exchange, they gain Lay on Hands (like a Paladin) and the chance to take Vows/Devotions as they advance in level. The Vow/Devotion is generally equal to a bonus feat or a little more, though two are quite powerful (Vow of Silence, which allows all spells to be cast without verbal components, and Ars Spiritus, which allows the Actual Monk to gain bonus spells from both of his domains).

Mechanically, the Actual Monk is interesting, but it is weak by comparison to the Cleric. It has the potential to be very interesting role-playing-wise, but there in not much information on historical monks, what they did, or their organization. A second, revised and expanded version of this product would be welcome as it would fill a gap in the available D&D classes.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Good idea and potential . . .<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: . . . but poor execution.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

Actual Monks is a short (6 pages, about 4.5 of content) pdf detailing a new class, a variant cleric based on the medieval-style monk. I like my priests to not all be skilled and trained warriors, so I frequently look for such variant cleric classes. I think this class goes a long way towards having a simple and effective non-combative variant, but it isn't quite there.

I don't really like most fluff text surrounding classes, so I won't go there except to say it's fair. The bulk of the material however is justly reserved for the class itself.

The monk is a divine spellcaster. It has d4 HD and poor BAB, distancing it from the fighting cleric. They still get simple weapons and light armor, unfortunately. I can't say I see Friar Tuck in a studded leather armor, but apparently my conception of the monk isn't broad enough. In return for giving up combat prowess, the monk gets special abilities. These include lay on hands and four Vows & Devotions. The devotions are simply stackable specializations, such as adding +1 to their BAB, which I think are fairly balanced. The vows make an excellent idea ? the monk could take a Vow of Silence, for example, which would allow him to cast magic without ?needing to fulfill any verbal requirements?. I think it's a great idea, but the execution is unbalanced. Most unseemly is the Vow of Poverty, where in return to giving up all worldly possessions (including, based on the text, magic items) the character gets... a +3 bonus to Fortitude. Now a +3 bonus to Fortitude is nice, but it isn't quite balanced against all those lost magic items...

The product is not entirely without editorial blemish. For some reason they refer to ?armour? instead of ?armor?; I can't understand why running the text through a spell checker with the [b]USA English[/b] option tagged on prior to publication is so difficult. The class table has an explanatory text at the top that disrupts the flow; it should be at the bottom. ?Evil monks []may[] take a Feat instead of a Vow, but []may[] still take Devotions? also is logically meaningless (I suspect one ?may? should be ?must?). The document has a watermark background and a colored (but small) border design that I suspect will interfere with some printers (it printed reasonably well on mine, just a little less clear due to the background), and doesn't have page numbers. The class table is also hard to read without any shading to differentiate the rows. It's clearly not designed to be printed.

I like the simple approach this class has taken, and it almost pulled it off. The lack of balanced vows works against it, as do the flaws in the professional presentation. Ultimately, however, I decided to give it a an average (3/5) rating - it's a simple enough derivation that barring flaws I would have given it only a 4/5 (simply for not having that star quality), and with the flaws I think it merits a 3/5. It is, however, dirt cheap. If you like the sound of it, I recommend picking it up, making slight modifications to the vows or so on, and letting it serve as a the priest class. I think I'll do just that for my next campaign.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Simple approach, the V&D idea.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Unbalanced vows, unprofessional at places.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>