Arundor

Mine seems to be missing.

I don't see a need to define the Monk class so rigidly. To use the fighter as an example, no one would ever say characters of the fighter class are *required* to be professional soldiers who fight for their country out of a sense of patriotic duty. Nor would anyone say that fighters are *required* to be former gladiator slaves who won their freedom through victory in the arena. Players are allowed to set up their backstory that way if they want, but the fighter class is open to be roleplayed in almost any way you can imagine as long as it is a character using weapons. Similarly, I think the Monk class needs to be open to many possibilities. Don't say Monks are required to be based on Japanese culture, or that they are required to be Franciscan Friars, or that they are required to be based on Persian culture. I for one *do* want to play a Shaolin kung-fu monk and I think that option should be available for players like me, but the class does not have be to defined so rigidly that it is the only way. Like the fighter class example above, I think we should be able to roleplay the Monk in almost any way we can imagine. And lastly, Wizards use the power of their soul to make fire and lightning erupt from their fingertips. Ciphers use the power of their soul to have telepathy and psionics. I don't see why people have a hard time with the idea that Monks use the power of their soul to empower their unarmed strikes.

Question 1: I think the math can be as complex or as simple as Obsidian wants it to be, as long as they show it. The equations should be visible for anyone who wants to try to understand how they work, regardless of whether they are complex or simple. Even if it would take me an hour to calculate what the computer did in 0.001 seconds, I still want that option available so I can do theorycrafting. Question 2: All mathematical checks should be visible if the player wants to see them, regardless of character skill. Put a toggle somewhere the game options to enable or disable the visibility of explicit skill check data. Edit: To clarify, by "checks" I mean things like skill checks or saving throws. We don't know yet if PE will have those specific mechanics, but that general sort of information is what I'm talking about here. Other sorts of information like opponent HP could be made visible based on character skill, like with the Awareness perk from Fallout. Question 3: The system should not be compromised at all for the sake of mathematical simplicity. If Obsidian feels they need to use complex math then they should. I plan to try to understand all the little details anyway, but nothing says it has to be quick or easy to do so.

The only time I might want a respec is if a patch changes the mechanics and functionality of a skill I had previously selected. I don't like it when the abilities I already selected get retroactively altered. If that happened, I'd either want a respec or I'd just completely restart the character so I could re-plan my build under the new mechanics. I don't think respecs are needed in any other circumstances, as long as the skills and stats have appropriate descriptions so that we know what we're selecting and can plan ahead.

I like this point. For my part, I *do* want to play an Shaolin inspired kung-fu monk. But that doesn't have to be the only kind of monk in the game. Pretty sure PE will have some sort of skill selection system during character creation and level up, and if the right options are made available players can choose to build a monk from a different culture. There have been suggestions that the class should be the flagellant or the friar instead, but I am opposed to it because doing so would pigeonhole players of the class into a single role instead of leaving the option for diversity.

I get the impression that Forton is not the embodiement of monks in the PE universe, but rather a monk who happens to have certain personality quirks. Like how Minsc was not the embodiement of the entire Ranger class. I am strongly in favour of the class being called "Monk". I prefer that they follow in the D&D tradition of being unarmed and unarmoured specialists. I don't think things need to be changed just for the sake of being new. I see the "Eastern" and "Asian" point brought up a lot and I don't really get it. Obsidian is creating a new setting for PE and the origin of Monk traditions can come from wherever they want, it doesn't have to be "the East". However I would prefer to see their skills and abilities look something like the D&D Monk.

Possibly a monk. We don't know yet how similar PE monks will be to their D&D counterparts, but if they can excel at unarmed and unarmored combat then it is the class I'm most excited about and would play it first. Otherwise, I'd go for a cipher. I intent to try all the races eventually, but I think I'll just start with human.

Welcome all new members. I guess we just became an exclusive society. Also, not to be a nag, but I signed up a couple of days ago in the previous thread but I'm not on the members list yet. (link)

Just increased my pledge to join the Order. For title, could I be "Bathroom Key Guard of the Obsidian Order"?

I'm very happy with the concept art. Obviously it doesn't show us everything, but it does seem to indicate that Monks will be designed the way I hoped they would be. Great job Obsidian.

As far as I can see, all access to the expansion pack is currently through digital download. In the future will there be an opportunity to buy a physical box copy of the expansion?

In that case, I will loudly voice my great pleasure and excitement about the Monk class. I absolutely do want unarmed and unarmored kung-fu monks to be one of the skill selections available to them. I get that some people have a problem with kung-fu monks. However one of the stated goals of PE is to provide diverse character development options, so I think it's reasonable to hope that you could build a "shaolin style" monk or a different non-traditional style monk based upon your skill choices. I just want the unarmed martial arts to be one of those options.

Monks are my favourite class in any RPG, and I absolutely want them to use martial arts. It doesn't have to be their *only* choice, but it should be one of them. Putting aside real world monks, a monk class in a CRPG will probably draw heavily from the D&D image which is totally fine by me. The lack of weapons and armour is exactly why I like Monks. When playing as a Monk my effectiveness is based on my intrinsic stats and abilities as opposed to transient factors like what weapon and armour I happen to have at the time. If I do well it's because I earned it from making good tactical choices and good skill selections, not because I bought a nice sword from the last merchant I visited. And yes that's kind of an exaggeration because I know that skill goes into properly playing other classes as well. I don't say that to belittle other classes that rely more on equipment. But for my own personal enjoyment, I like the idea that my character's victories come from his own intrinsic abilities and from my skill in picking those abilities. I like that idea that someone can't just take my weapon and armour away from me and suddenly make me helpless.

You've made me very happy with the news of Monks. Cipher sounds great too. Time to start upping pledges.

Fantastic update. I'm strongly considering increasing my pledge now. Question about Path of the Damned mode. Being a spiritual successor to Heart of Fury, does this mean it can be used to do a second playthrough with a high level character who already completed the campaign? Or is it just a higher difficulty setting that you can select with a newly created character?