General Prestige Class : Arcanopath Monk

by James R,. Cordell, Dragon #281

A terrible hate burns in the heart of the arcanopath monk. While some may hate with all their hearts, impotently, the arcanopath encompasses their fury, and learns to use it. The arcanopath's meditations utilize the Rule of arcalos, and its methods of confronting a spellcaster. Once a monk begins to learn the art of the arcanopath, he can never expect safety in the presence of spellcasters again. But the reverse is also true.

Taking this prestige class does not invoke the special monk restriction - if a monk takes one or more levels of arcanopath monk, he can continue to take levels of monk without restriction, following the standard rules for multiclassing characters.

Requirements

To qualify to become an Arcanopath Monk, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

• Alignment: Any lawful
• Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks
• Feats: Deflect Arrows, Dodge, Improved Unarmed Strike, Mobility,
• Base Attack Bonus: +4
• Special: Must find the Monastery of Finithamon amidst the chaos of Limbo, successfully petition the sensei for membership, and have slain an arcane spellcaster.

Class Skills

The arcanopath monk's class skills are Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, and Tumble.

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the arcanopath prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Arcanopaths are proficient with club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, shuriken, siangham, and sling. The arcanopath monk gains the same advantages for using a kama, nunchaku, or siangham as does a monk.

Student of Perfection: Arcanopaths are monks, though they meditate on alternative methods of achieving physical enlightenment. As such, an arcanopath monk gains the unarmed attack bonus, unarmed damage, AC bonus, and unarmored speed as if he were a monk whose level equaled his monk level + his arcanopath monk level. For instance, a 6th-level monk/1st-level arcanopath has an unarmed attack bonus of +5/+2 (as if he were a 7th-level monk). Those who manage to meet the requirements for this class who are not monks gain these abilities as if a monk equal to only their arcanopath monk level.

Clap of Deafness: An arcanopath knows a spellcaster's vulnerabilities. The monk can use this supernatural ability once per round, but no more than once per arcanopath level per day. The monk must declare he is using the clap of deafness before making the attack roll (thus, a missed attack roll ruins the attempt). A foe struck by the arcanopath is forced to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + the arcanopath level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier), in addition to receiving normal damage. If the saving throw fails, the opponent is deafened for round. A deafened character has a 20% chance of spell failure when casting spells with verbal component (as well as suffering a -4 penalty to initiative checks and an inability to make Listen skill checks). Unless specified to the contrary, all spell failure penalties stack. Creatures immune to critical hits or sonic attacks cannot be affected by the arcanopath's clap.

Chop of Muteness: The arcanopath can use this supernatural ability once per round, but no more than once per arcanopath level per day. The arcanopath must declare he is using the chop of muteness attack before making the attack roll (thus, a missed attack roll ruins the attempt). A foe struck by the arcanopath is forced to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + the arcanopath level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier), in addition to receiving normal damage. If the saving throw fails, the opponent is rendered mute for round. A mute character is unable to cast spells with a verbal component (and cannot communicate verbally). Creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected by the chop.

Strike of Confusion: The monk can use this supernatural ability once per round, but no more than once per arcanopath level per day. The monk must declare he is using the strike of confusion before making the attack roll (thus, a missed attack roll ruins the attempt). A foe struck by the arcanopath is forced to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + the arcanopath level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier), in addition to receiving normal damage. If the saving throw fails, the opponent has a 50% chance of spell failure when casting any spell (or attempting to use a spell-like ability) for 2d4 rounds. Unless specified to the contrary, all spell failure penalties stack. Creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected by the strike.

Deflect Spell: The character can deflect incoming ray and energy missile spells. The arcanopath must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to use this ability. Once per round when the arcanopath would normally be hit with a ray or energy missile spell (after spell resistance rolls, if any, indicate the spell affects the monk), the character can make a Reflex saving throw against a DC of 20 (if the ray or energy missile has a magical bonus to attack, the DC increases by that amount). If the arcanopath succeeds, he deflects the spell. The arcanopath must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed. Attempting to deflect a ray or energy missile doesn't count as an action. This is a supernatural ability.

Ki Strike: An arcanopath's unarmed attack is empowered with ki. The unarmed strike damage from such an attack can deal damage to a creature with damage reduction, such as a wight, as if the blow were made with a weapon with a +1 enhancement bonus. Ki strike improves as the arcanopath gains experience, allowing him to make unarmed strikes at 8th level that deals damage against creatures with damage reduction as if the attacks were made with a weapon with a +2 enhancement bonus, and at 10th level to deal damage against creatures with damage reduction as if the attacks were made with a weapon with a +3 enhancement bonus. This ability does not stack with a standard monk's ability of the same name. This is a supernatural ability.

Allseeing Eye: The character can see as if enjoying the effects of a permanent see invisibility spell as if cast by a 5th-level sorcerer. This supernatural ability functions continuously.

Slap of Forgetfulness: The arcanopath monk can use this extraordinary ability once per round, but no more than once per arcanopath level per day. The monk must declare he is using the slap of forgetfulness attack before making the attack roll (thus, a missed attack roll ruins the attempt). A foe struck by the arcanopath is forced to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + the arcanopath level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier), in addition to receiving normal damage. If the saving throw fails, the opponent loses 1d4 arcane spells (or 1d4 unused daily arcane spell slots). The lost spells or spell slots are lost first from the highest level spells the spellcaster can cast, but otherwise determined by the creature struck. If the result indicates more spells lost than are prepared (or unused) at a particular level, spells at the next lower level are lost in the same fashion, and so on. Lost spells (or open spell slots) can be regained normally. Creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected by the slap of forgetfulness.

Empty Hand: The monk can make melee attacks against ethereal creatures within range normally. This is an extraordinary ability.

Reflect Spell: When an arcanopath monk successfully deflects a spell, he can choose to reflect it back at the caster. An arcanopath can use this ability a number of times per day equal to his Wisdom modifier. A reflected spell is, in effect, cast back on the original caster, though the monk rerolls any necessary attack roll (though associated DCs are unchanged).

Sundering Strike of Oblivion: When an arcanopath monk makes a successful slap of forgetfulness, he can automatically convert it to a sundering strike of oblivion once per day. In addition to receiving normal damage and losing 1d4 prepared arcane spells (or 1d4 unused daily arcane spell slots), the foe completely loses knowledge of the lost spells. Spellcasters who loose knowledge of the spells may later attempt a Spellcraft check (DC 10 + the spells level + the arcanopath's Wisdom modifier) to regain each one, failure indicates the spell is unavailable until the next time they advance a level; however, at that time they automatically relearn all their forgotten spells, as well as gain knowledge of new spells as normal for the class. The sundering strike of oblivion is an extraordinary ability.

Arcanopath					Hit Die: d8
CL	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1st	+0	+2	+2	+2	Student of perfection, Clap of deafness
2nd	+1	+3	+3	+3	Chop of muteness
3rd	+2	+3	+3	+3	Strike of confusion
4th	+3	+4	+4	+4	Deflect spell
5th	+3	+4	+4	+4	Ki strike
6th	+4	+5	+5	+5	Allseeing eye
7th	+5	+5	+5	+5	Slap of forgetfulness
8th	+6	+6	+6	+6	Empty hand
9th	+6	+6	+6	+6	Reflect spell
1010	+7	+7	+7	+7	Sundering strike of oblivion

Source: Dragon #281
Dragon Compendium Vol. 1

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