Gauntlets, Gloves, and Cestus

Currently:

The Cestus weapons are able to gain a shield AC bonus, and can be used with monk's starting weapon proficiencies, but monks are not able to benefit from their special attack table while using a cestus.

While wielding no weapon, and wearing a set of gloves or gauntlets, a PC (any PC, not just monks) cannot gain a shield AC bonus... but an unarmed monk would gain the benefit of their special attack table.

Now, to me.... there is no functional difference in using a gauntlet/glove or a cestus. You punch the same way with either one. You can block a weapon the same way with either one.

Why should a monk then lose their extra attacks when using a cestus?

Why should an unarmed PC be unable to gain a shield bonus on their gauntlet or gloves, when they can get it on a cestus?

It just doesn't make sense from a play perspective.

To fix both issues, I suggest:

1. Change the AC bonus type on gauntlets and gloves to Shield bonus.

2. Create a new "cestus" weapon that has "Kama" as the base weapon type for monks who want to keep their unarmed attack table and gain the shield AC bonus when using a cestus. (After all, cestus get VFX, while gloves do not.) This would also open up Weaponmaster as a viable class choice for Cestus Monks, which would be awesome.

A link to previous comments.

Making the cestus items base-item type to Kama would be awesome and I believe these unique to Aenea weapons would see alot more use... I always imagined they were targeted towards the monk, but at current a monk is just better either going with a glove/bracer/gauntlet or kama.... I also think there are a slew of other weapons that should have kama as a base type such as bladed fans and sai's...

Well, to be clear, my suggestion is to make a new cestus item, not change the existing ones.

Reason being, if you change existing cestus to base item Kama, then non-monks get screwed into needing exotic weapon proficiency for them. Not my intent at all. The suggestion is based on giving the best outcome for all "punchers" whether they are monks or not, and whether they use cestus or gauntlets/gloves.

Would Love to see some sort of solution to making the additional monk weapons viable choices. If this means my nunchaku do slashing damage, then so be it This would also make those monk weapons finessable, no? Also, I'm in agreement with Dave on the glove AC bonus type.

And while we're in the neighborhood of the topic, is it possible to alter the Weapon Master class to allow for 'unarmed' as a valid weapon choice, or is that one of those hard-coded things?

I think those are all hard coded unfortunately.

But as for cestus weapons for monk benefit... I would say even go with making them kamas. It would suck overall for non-monks in that they would have to pick up exotic weapons, but I see that as no different than needing exotic weapons to use whips, katanas or bastard swords. It's a choice to make in feat selections.

Overall it would be a benefit for monks in having if not a new weapon type per-se, at least a new visual for kamas (which are rather bland).

And it would make the cestus weapons less of a "novelty item" into a viable regular use weapon alongside the kamas, and other weapons.

MannyJabrielle wrote:Overall it would be a benefit for monks in having if not a new weapon type per-se, at least a new visual for kamas (which are rather bland).

That was what I meant, really; making new visuals for the kama out of the cesti and cep monk weapons (sais, wind fire wheels, etc.)

That is totally doable

I think it would be pretty strait forward (if not simple) to create some new kama appearances. It seems like any number of the small more exotic weapon types (Sai, Cestus, Jitte, Katar, Wind Fire Wheel, Tonfa) could be made into kama appearances. I think it would make monks a bit more fun and variable looking. I guess the main oddity would be that even weapons like the tonfa would be slashing damage.

I agree 100% it would kick total arse to have nunchaku, sais, wind-fire wheels, bladed fans, and other exotic martial-arts-themed weapons have the kama base item type so that monks would not be penalized for using them

Yup, it can be done pretty much by making a copy of the mdl file and renaming it to the kama namings, just like adding any other new weapon appearance.