The Battlemind
(Cross-posted from the DW Forums. Discussion is probably more lively there.)
This morning I accidentally woke up and designed the Monk for Dungeon World.
So why is this post about the Battlemind? Because I think that’s a better name for what I’m thinking here. It sidesteps the whole orientalism/exoticism angle and gets right to what the class really is, allowing you at your table to place it into the world. It also more clearly differentiates this class for the Fighter with fists as their signature weapon.
The touchstones for this class are my half-remembered 3E psionics rules, the concept of the Monk, and the Greybeards from Skyrim. Usually for a class Adam and I would do a pretty thorough review of what that class looked like in each edition, but this is just an idea that sprung into my head.
So what’s the core of this class?
The Battlemind
You start with these moves:
Oneness
When you have time and tranquility to center your mind and body lose any Focus you had and gain 3 Focus. You cannot have more than 3 Focus at any time.
Stance
When you set your mind and body to combat choose a stance available to you and roll+Wis. Choose three of these stances to be available to you to start with:
- Serpent’s Coil: While in this stance you use Focus to Hack and Slash.
- Troll’s Strength: While in this stance your damage dice is d10+Focus.
- Dragon Turtle’s Shell: While in this stance your Armor is equal to your Focus.
- Dragon’s Foresight: While in this stance you use Focus to Defy Danger.
- Unending Life: While in this stance you cannot die. Don’t make the Last Breath move even if you reach 0 HP. As soon as you leave this stance, if you’re still at 0 HP, you make the Last Breath move as normal.
- Giant’s Reach: While in this stance your body is a weapon with these tags: Hand, Close, Reach, +1 damage, messy, forceful.
On a hit you assume your chosen stance until your concentration lapses. On a 7-9 you must also choose: spend one Focus or be put in some danger (the GM will describe it).
Battlebody
While you wear no armor, have Focus remaining, and carry less than your Load, you have 2 armor.
Fists of Power
Your body itself is a weapon with Hand range.
Damage dice is probably d8 (but see the Stances). HP is likely Constitution+8. Load is probably on the low end.
Focus is the main thing that the class’s moves revolve on. The core moves already demonstrate a lot of the core things moves can do with Focus: Spend it, count it, use it as a bonus. There’s a whole lot of advanced moves that fall straight out of that:
Focused Defense
When you’re in a stance and take damage you may spend 1 Focus and leave that stance to negate the damage.
Expanded Mind
When you use Oneness you gain 4 Focus. Your maximum Focus is 4.
Combat Flow
When you kill an enemy while in a stance you may change stances immediately, without rolling. Just choose a new stance.
Mastery
Choose a new stance to add to your list.
Crouching Tiger
When you concentrate on movement and speed you may spend 1 Focus to defy gravity: for a few moments, so long as you keep moving, you may run up and across any vertical surface.
Restored Focus
When an ally successfully Aids you you may choose to gain 1 Focus instead of taking +1.
Yeah, that’s totally sweet!
Thanks!
So, uh, you just made monks not suck / be awkward complicated – all while eating Eggos.
I wouldn’t go that far, but thanks!
did you not have Eggos?
This is great: simple, fun and gets across all the relevant bits of the monk.
Thanks! I may have to keep working on it.
Is this going to end up in the book, or possibly the class supplemental? It’s too cool to not use, so I’m hopin the answer is yes.
Definitely not in the book—we don’t have enough time to playtest it, order art, all that. But I’ll probably make up a character sheet for it at some point. If you’re not familiar, DW character sheets have the entire class on them, so they’ll be all you need to play.
Readying this reminds me why i was so adamant to back Dungeon World’s Kickstarter. It’s awesome to read something like this, i can really see the monk flying through enemies, defending himself, leaving it’s guard to enter a new one, change tactics and wade through danger unparalled. Thanks for sharing!
Dragon Turtle’s Shell and Battlebody seem to do the same thing. I don’t see why one should use Dragon Turtle’s Shell at all?
Your Focus starts at 3, so if you’re fully focused it’s an armor boost (but not a big one). This is a tricky spot to be in, since if it added to Battlebody it would be too much, but as is it’s barely worth it. It probably points to making Battlebody be only 1 armor which is low from a frontline fighter, but they have the ability to boost it to 3, which is high.
The Battlemind needs Bonds. For some reason I ended up making for for a Dark Sun DW game, which explains #5 and informed #2.
The sacred chants speak of someone much like ____________, but what their path will be cannot be heard.
I gave ____________ water when they were thirsty.
_____________ has a kind soul, this violence must be troubling to them.
It is sad to think, but ______________ is not the sort of person to sacrifice themselves for others.
__________ has the aura of the Defiler about them.
Those are some really, really good Bonds! And yes, the Battlemind will need Bonds and gear and names and all that to get it finished, this was just about getting the core ideas out of my head.
Equipment ? Bedroll, bowl, robe should be enough.
I put an adventurers kit and 5 rations on my sheet for practicality, but this template isn’t defined by their stuff.
I’ve always wanted to reskin the monk in a Druidic/primal spirit flavor where the monk doesn’t mimic an animal but channels animal/elemental spirits directly. I like what you’ve done here, and I hope it ends up as something I can adapt. Nice!
Thanks, Scott!
I’m a bit reminded of the Assassin class in Diablo 2 (and I’m sure a bunch of similar classes in WoW/D3/Diablo-clones that do the same. For that class, each hit with a “combo attack” would add a focus orb to your character (up to five) and a hit with a “finisher attack” would release them all as a bonus.
Anyway, I’ve always liked that kind of mechanic: build up and manage a resource over the course of a combat.
Yeah, I considered going that way with this. It’s certainly a place I can see a DW class fitting.
Hidden Dragon
When you momentarily confuse your opponent, roll +Focus. On a 10+ you exploit the opportunity to disappear, put yourself anywhere within reach unnoticed by your opponent. On a 7-9 your opponent loses track of you but you only gain a fleeting advantage and something else is going to trip you up as established. On a miss, you’re caught vulnerable.
Boot to the head. When you stand your ground against a wave of mooks, say Boot to the Head and make the sound effect for each mook and roll +focus. On a 10+ all the mooks go down from a boot to the head. On a 7-9 you drop all the mooks but choose one.
* Lose an article of clothing
* Lose a weapon
* They get an attack in
On a Miss, the DM makes the Hard Move you have coming for trying this.