Flurry of Crunch

The latest class to be resurrected by 4th edition is the monk. A classic staple of AD&D, the monk has has won awards for most genre bending and made runner up for most useless party member (right behind the bard) in previous editions. 4E has recast these guys in with the other psionic types in a melee striker role.

As melee striker they appear to be fun to play. They get loads of mobility, interesting mult-target attack powers, and yes they still have really good defenses wearing nothing but a bath robe and some fuzzy slippers.

Rather than go into detail about the monk in general I want to look at a particularly interesting build floating around the interwebs, the twin strike monk.

Here is a link to the build on iplay4e. But here are the more important aspects of the build.

• Level 12 Stonefist Monk
• Race: Revenant (Half-Elf)
• Abilities: Dex(21) / Str(19)
• Feats: Half-Elf Soul, Crashing Tempest Style, Unarmored Agility, Two-Weapon Fighting, Two-Weapon Defense, Weapon Expertise (Unarmed), Starblade Flurry, Versatile Master
• Gear: Robe of Eyes Githweave Armor (+3) Amulet of Protection (+3) Blurred Strike Ki Focus (+2), Rhythm Blade Dagger (+1), Iron Armbands of Power (Heroic), Belt of The Brawler
• Powers (partial list): Twin Strike, Stone Fist Flurry of Blows

Before we start getting really crunchy over attacks and damage output, let's take a quick look at this character's AC defense. Hover over the numbers to see details.

AC = 10 + 6 + 5 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 = 30

The genius of this AC stack is the shield bonus granted from Two-Weapon Defense. Because the shield bonus is not granted from actually carrying a shield but instead from an off-hand weapon the feat bonus from Unarmored Agility still applies. Combined with the additional +1 shield bonus granted from the Rhythm dagger it's even better!

You might ask, where is this monk's second melee weapon? It turns out there are three weapons listed in the compendium in the unarmed group. Unarmed Attack, Monk Unarmed Strike, and Spikes Gauntlet. Personally I think this is a poor way to categorize these three things, but then again I also think letting monks qualify for Two-Weapon feats by doing nothing other than use their cool class ability and spend feats is also a poor move. But oh well.

On to the real meat of this build. TWIN STRIKE!

Ranger Attack 1Twin Strike

If the first attack doesn't kill it, the second one might.

At-Will      Martial, Weapon
Standard Action      Melee or Ranged weapon

Requirement: You must be wielding two melee weapons or a ranged weapon.

Targets: One or two creatures

Attack: Strength vs. AC (melee; main weapon and off-hand weapon) or Dexterity vs. AC (ranged), two attacks

Hit: 1[W] damage per attack.
Increase damage to 2[W] at 21st level.

First published in Player's Handbook.

The whole point of this build is applying your Flurry of Blows damage 6 times. Did I say 6? Yes I did. Your ordinary striker, say rogue for example, is getting 3 dice of extra striker damage, once per round. Normally those dice are d6s, but with an extra feat they can usually bump those to d8s. So, 3d8 (13.5 avg) damage per round for a level 11 rogue.

On the other hand, this Stone Fist Monk at level 12, is adding his extra striker damage 6 times and each time the damage is either 11 or 15, depending on if the monk can get find enemies not targeted in the original attack. That's 90 potential extra points of striker damage! Even at epic level our rogue is just looking at 5d8 on his Sneak Attack. That's 22 average per round but to be fair there is a remote chance it could do as much as 40. There are feats to increase potential damage output of the rogue's Sneak Attack damage but nothing that gets it even close to 90.

Take a look at Starblade Flurry, you'll be seeing this in effect real soon.

Starblade Flurry

Paragon Tier
Prerequisite: 11th level, monk, Flurry of Blows class feature
Benefit: When you use your Flurry of Blows power, you can add a single target within 5 squares of you by throwing a dagger or a shuriken that you have in hand. Doing so doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.

First published in Player's Handbook 3.

That was a lot of numbers flying around. Let's try to break it down. Again hover over the numbers to see details.

Twin Strike Attack 1: Blurred Strike Ki Focused Monk Unarmed Strike, Main-Hand, Melee Touch

+ 6 + 4 + 2 + 3 + 1 = +16 vs AC

Hit: 1d8 + 0 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 1d8 + 7 (avg 11.5)

Plus, triggers Stonefist Flurry of Blows:
Targets: One or two within Melee Touch, one additional target within 5 (Starblade Flurry)
3 + 4 + 2 + 2 (+ 4) = 11 (15)

All said and done, assuming you can find targets for all of your uses of flurry 11.5 + 3 x 15 = 56.5. Hell if that's all you did in the round it would be epic. But wait there's more...

Before looking at attack number two, check out the item Blurred Strike Ki Focus.

Blurred Strike Ki Focus

You can master the secret of speed by catching this small mechanical fly in your hands.

Level: 10
Price: 5,000 gp
Implement (Ki Focus)
Enhancement: +2 attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +2d8 damage
Property: You can use your Flurry of Blows power an additional time during your turn, but the two uses of that power must be triggered by two different attacks that you make with this ki focus.

Power (At-Will): Free Action. Trigger: You move at least half your speed during this turn. Effect: You gain a +2 bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn.

First published in Player's Handbook 3.

Oops, take another look at the property. Looks like you need to make two attack using this Ki Focus. No problem, just accept you're going to lose a point of AC and Reflex when using this additional Flurry. It's a good trade. Anyway check out the At-Will Free Action. Talk about OP.

Twin Strike Attack 2: Blurred Strike Ki Focused Dagger, Off-Hand, Melee

+ 6 + 4 + 2 + 3 = +15 vs AC

Hit: 1d4 + 0 + 2 + 0 + 2 = 1d4 + 4 (avg 6.5)

Plus, triggers Stonefist Flurry of Blows:
Second use courtesy of Blurred Strike Ki Focus Property.
Targets: One or two within Melee Touch, one additional target within 5 (Starblade Flurry)
3 + 4 + 2 + 2 (+ 4) = 11 (15)

Total for second attack: 5.5 + 3 x 15 = 51.5.

With both attacks hitting that's 108 damage!

There is a decent chance one of your attacks will miss. There is also a decent chance you will not be able to apply Flurry to the maximum targets. Finally there is a pretty good chance one of your Flurry targets will have to be the target of your triggering attack, lowering your overall damage by 4 or 8 points. It's pretty situational and it's a big range depending on all the factors.

What exactly is the worst case damage scenario? Easy, main-hand attack misses, off-hand attack hits and you have only one target, the target you hit with your second attack. Average damage in this case = 17.5. Seems pretty low huh? Not really. It's comparable with a rogue who is unable to get combat advantage. It just appears low after after staring at all the big, fabulous prizes.

Another typical scenario I foresee is one target adjacent and one target at range within 5. If you hit with your main-hand, and miss with your off-hand, damage comes out to 11.5 + 11 + 15 = 37.5. And that's missing with your off-hand. Damn good for a paragon level at-will striker attack. Damn good indeed! If hit with the off-hand it's another 32.5 damage for a total of 70. For what I see as the common scenario, you can expect alternating rounds of 37 and 70 damage, sustainable for the entire encounter!

The only downside is that this attack sequence doesn't focus fire at all. It sprays damage around a bunch of enemies, which means more enemies on the board longer, meaning more attacks incoming to your party. On the other hand multi-target damage output is great in some encounters.

Verdict: The cheese is strong in this build.

Suggested Fixes:

1. Ban Blurred Strike Ki Focus
2. Change Unarmed Attack to a standard action melee attack instead of a weapon type
3. Change Monk Unarmed Strike to a class feature that just increases damage done with the Unarmed Attack option
4. Change the Monk Unarmored Defense bonus to a feat bonus instead of untyped.