I've been trying to get back into the swing of things and level Dolza some lately. One of the great things about being a monk was the ability to level in lots of different places without worrying overmuch about alignment. However, I tried going to Lunia last week and i couldnt kill mobs fast enough to keep up with alignment change. Personally, not that you asked, but i think the adjustment is silly. I dont really see myself as becoming more good just by being on the plane. Nor would i envision myself as becoming more evil just by being in Hell. I mean, does the good aligned Knight become evil just by taking the fight to evil's home ground?

Anyway, I think there should be a Zen that helps the monk maintain alignment. It would be great if it replaced the zen of instant death or translocation. I've never really found this zen to be all that great. It allows you to dt and if the door blocks something particularly important you cant trans through it anyway. Back on topic, the new zen would bring your alignment closer to 0. If you were good it would bring you down and if you were evil it would bring you up. The goal of course would be to reach 0 and stay right around there.

I dont feel like this is something too wild or overpowering for monks. Its not like they need a new damage skill or soemthing defenseive. I think it just makes sense and would be a boon to the class as a whole.

While im here, i wonder does anyone else learn the zen of Healing much? I find that it takes too long to be of much benefit and if i'm out playing solo, its alwful dangerous to sit in meditation for long periods of time. Maybe if it gave a form of regen or it wasn't based on ticks it would be used more. Now, maybe i dont understand so well how it works or i haven't used it in a while. It's just never been all that great to me.

thanks dolza

I seem to recall practicing zen of healing one time when i played DS before i learned 30 seconds later it wasnt worth a damn. A zen of true alignment might be cool but like you are saying about the amoria/lunia/hell thing you would be sitting down to meditate more often than you were fighting just to stay near your align. I too disliked the "essence" thing from day one and to this day I will have to agree with Dolza that it seems odd. If a mob is so incredibly evil that it radiates evil from its pores, it should maybe affect your align for each mob like that you slay but just standing in the zone? nope. sorry. Dolza, the best advice I have for you atm is to pay the price for the !hunger each and every gen and then buy align fixers of each kind so you can fix your align in a jiffy. I guess you will then have to deal with encumberance issues which will slow you down and make you less effective, but hey it will let you achieve the one thing all monks spend most of their lives trying to achieve; a true balance between good and evil (a.k.a. Neutrality). I suggested a piece of eq for prime monks that would do that very thing once but it got axed. shrug Overall the monk class is such that you can be very much self sufficient in a short period of time, and while zens are a total pain in the a**, that is pretty much the only down side to the class so i wouldn't expect much relief on this issue. But for the record, yes i agree. -Istari-

Think of it this way:

There are places in the world which evoke a spiritual/emotional/physical response from those that visit it.

I recall visiting a cathedral in St. Louis several years ago. The aura of peace, calm, beauty, and overall "goodness" was something which hit both my wife and I when we walked in. I can only imagine what kind of "power" you would feel walking into the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/tours/sistina/

Now think about how people would react to a visit to the gas chambers or the ovens of Auschwitz? Or perhaps the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

Places have power. I also believe that places can build up and hold the energy of experiences that happen there.

Thus, that's why Heaven makes your alignment shift towards good and Hell shifts you towards evil–it's the energy of the place itself, the events that have transpired there, and the inhabitants all working upon you.

Panzer, i have been to some of the largest and oldest churches in london, barcelona, and munich. There was a nice feeling in each place. however the feeling i got more than "goodness" was a feeling of age and history. these places i no way made me more good.

By the same token I have been to Buchenvald in Germany. Thousands of Jews were burned alive here and lived in the harshest of imaginable conditions. It was depressing and there was a palpable air of despair in the place. This, however did not make me want to burn folk alive or more evil. Just because a place has a particular feeling about it does not change the person visiting that place.

I agree with Istari's thoughts about a particular mob giving a greater or lesser change to your align though. But then again his ideas about encumberance are right on the money too. at the moment i cant afford to carry around a bunch of align fixers. too damn heavy.

dolza

Instead of a zen of true alignment which is probably a pain in the arse to code, I will propose instead a zen that will give monks !hunger/!thirst instead which will allow them to use align fixers as needed. I think it can be justified in that monks as I see them are trained to ignore such feelings until it is a good time for them to address them. The zen would wear off just like the others of course, but this zen should help cure this problem to some degree and might be a helluva lot easier to code??

-Istari-

That's a great idea, Istari.

Mind over body is something which monks have always bene able to accomplish.

Hunger? Hah! Thirst? Please!

Some kind of zen that gives them 24 hours free from eat/drink (or longer, maybe) would be a very appropriate new skill!

Great idea!

I'll be honest and tell you i have NO idea how hard or easy something would be to code. I'm just posting what i think are ideas that might make things better for the class. If there's a better/easier way to do it then i'm all for it. hell, i'm doing good to be able to play the game at all i'm so computer illiterate. Thanks for the suggestions!

dolza

What do you think of these ideas for more monk skills:

Stunned Maneuvers: This skill helps break you out of a nasty stun. High wisdom and constitution help with this.

Iron Body Zen: This zen allows a monk to harden his skin to that of steel, enabling him to resist physical blows as if they were but insect bites.

I would also recommend that the monks be given the "endure cold" and "endure heat" "spells". After all, most of us have probably seen the video of the buddhist monks of the himalayas walking around the mountains in their robes, and even spending the night meditating outside–with nothing but their robes (and maintaining their body at a constant temp!)

about the iron body zen… monks already get zen of Oblivity, which gives 25 or 30 % dam redux if im not mistakin… i dotn think they need more

Since this idea has been completed with the Zen of Dispassion but I want a tweak to the zen I'm gonna resurrect this thread.

The Zen rocks. It would be very apreciated however if you could make messages appear every 10 seconds or so. You sink further into your meditation or something like that. Just so you can see the alignment ticking down so you know how long to meditate for!

No more power, just making a nifty skill that bit niftier

Actually the same fix for Zen of Healing as well would be great.

Additionally :P (pushing my luck here ain't I?) Can Zeta Nerve stop being counted as an attack?

Yeah, I saw somebody zeta a friend last night at Quidditch and he was SLASHED BY HIS WHIRLING BLADES!

Poor monk. I think it was Dyne.

Kudos to you, Dolza, on suggesting Zen of Dispassion. All monks thank you!

Merriam