Monk Discipline Highlights

Dont really care about the overall power of the attack, this is a list of powers that caught my eye for one or more reasons. If you are interested in the perceived balance of all this stuff, the forums are a great place to listen to people bitch back and forth about it.

Crane's Wings
(level 1 at-will): Leap attack. The attack technique deals damage and has a push effect, but since the move technique lets you jump with a bonus, counts as running, and no distance limitation, I foresee many monks using this as a means for getting into the fray (which the power implies). However, its also good for getting the hell out of there if shit hits the fan.
The best part is that since this is an at-will power, by taking it you can basically jump insanely far at level one right from the start, and I have no problems with this (if anything, players will quickly learn the rules on jumping).

Now, for my own level 1 monk I was going to snag five storms so that I can do an area-effect followup attack after leaping into a mob of mooks, but then I looked ahead and saw masterful spiral, which is a level 1 daily stance. It hits a close burst 2, and for the rest of the encounter increases all of your melee touch attacks by 1. The only power that fits the bill is dragon's tail, which lets you prone a target and swap places with an adjacent ally or prone enemy. Since I like it more than white mantis step, I'm gonna opt to pick up dragon's tail for better synergy.

Drunken monkey
(level 1 encounter): This is something that I've always wanted to see for monks, and the name pretty much describes what the power looks like. The attack technique slides a target, who then hits an ally with a basic attack and gains a bonus to the attack roll. The move technique lets you move faster, ignore difficult terrain, and grants a bonus against opportunity attacks from one creature.

Harmonius Discipline (level 2 encounter utility): Nothing really special here, just a handful of temp hit points, and you get an attack bonus when they peter out. I only call this one out since it reflects the fact that, while many 4E powers can do similar or identical functions, its the narrative context that makes them unique.

Dance of Swords (level 3 attack): You make an attack against one enemy, and deal bonus damage equal to twice the number of enemies around you.

Strike the Avalanche (level 7 attack): Wow. I...just...wow. This one is fucking BAD ASS. You make an attack against a creature with a slide effect, and any adjacent enemy to the target at the end of the slide gets hit with a secondary effect that knocks them prone. I really like envisioning a monk throwing a bad guy into his minions, toppling them all over. Or just throwing a minion into the big-bad-evil-guy. The move technique gives you a Speed boost and you cannot be attacked by prone targets.

Strength to Weakness (level 9 attack): You touch an enemy and deal a lot of ongoing damage (save ends). If you miss, you still deal a moderate amount of ongoing damage (save still ends, of course).

Spider Technique (level 10 at-will utility): You can run on the walls and ceiling, but cannot end there or else you will fall (of course, you might want to fall anyway).

Dance of the Stinging Hornet (level 13 attack): You leap onto an opponent's back and punch the hell out of them. The best part is that if the opponent is bigger than you, you can end in their space and keep beating the shit out of them. They arent immobilized in this case, so there is now a foundation for clinging to a monster as it runs around frantically trying to shake you off. The move technique is the same as crane's wings, so you get to jump beforehand.

Ring the Golden Bell (level 15 attack): This one makes me think of buddhist's palm, just without the part where your shirt burns off, since you get to jump 10 squares and hit every enemy within a burst 1 dazing effect when you land.

Wandering Comet Strike and Watchful Hydra Stance (level 25 attack): These both tie for cool factor. Wandering comet strike lets you attack, teleport, and repeat against up to three creatures in total (but none of them more than once). Watchful hydra stance hits everyone with a burst 3, but also increase the reach of your flurry of blows attack to 3 for the rest of the encounter.

Celestial Drunken Boxer (level 27 attack): Now this is drunken monkey on steroids. You hit every enemy within a burst 2 effect, but the attack deals no damage. Instead, each target makes an attack against another target, with an attack and damage bonus.

Heart-Sundering Strike (level 29 attack): The great thing about this attack is its effect. It doesnt matter whether you hit or miss, the target will take a hefty chunk of ongoing damage. The best part? Each time the target fails the save, the ongoing damage increases. So, the shittier your roll, the worse it gets. I love it!

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