DM Q&A: Monk Fall & Wall Climbing

[Windhover]

Granted, the NWN engine does not really support these abilities, but can I RP my monk having them during times where the Wall Climbing and Fall would be of use?

Thanks in advance

The Advanced D&D  2 edition Players Handbook has this about monks:

Thieves & Monks

"Ascending and descending vertical surfaces is the ability of the thief to climb up and down walls. It assumes that the surface is coarse and offers ledges and cracks for toe and hand holds."

Monk Fall:

Although the chance of falling while climbing walls is the same as that of a thief of equal level, monks can escape taking damage as follows:

- At 4th level (Disciple), a monk can fall up to 20' if he or she is within 1' of a wall.

- At 6th level (Master), a monk can fall up to 30' if he or she is within 4' of a wall.

- At 13th level (Moster of Winter), a monk can fall any distance if he or she is within 8' of a wall.

The monk must have an opportunity to periodically make contact with the wall during the descent. The wall is used by the monk to slow the fall so that no hit points of damage are sustained from the fall. Note that when reference to a wall is made, any similar surface, such as a tree trunk, cliff face, and the like, are equally useful to the monk.

[Munroe]

I would recommend reading over the 3.x versions of the monk abilities. The monk's abilities were changed in 3.x.

However, the answer is still the same on FRC regardless of whether you're looking at the 3.x or AD&D versions. The answer is that it depends on the DM at the time.

The NWN engine does not grant monks those powers, so if you're in a DM Plot and ask the DM to use RP abilities, the DM may or may not let you use them, at their discretion. This is true of other class abilities that your class doesn't have through the game engine as well. You can generally RP abilities outside of DM events as long as they're providing no mechanical benefit, but as soon as they start doing something substantial, it's up to the DM at the time whether they work, or can be done at all.

If you attempt to use an RP ability without consulting the active DM at the time, you may find that the active DM does not acknowledge those abilities, regardless of whether you've used them before.

I would strongly advise you to look at the 3.x version of the class though, not previous (or more recent) incarnations.

The 3.5e version of the monk can be found here (linking to d20srd.org):
www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/monk.htm

It has some differences with the 3.0 version of the monk, but I don't know where that version can be found online.

[Windhover]

Thanks for the explanation, Munroe.

That source has this about the ability, but I gather that it is still up to the DM to grant it or not since it is not supported in the game.

Slow Fall (Ex)

At 4th level or higher, a monk within arm’s reach of a wall can use it to slow her descent. When first using this ability, she takes damage as if the fall were 20 feet shorter than it actually is. The monk’s ability to slow her fall (that is, to reduce the effective distance of the fall when next to a wall) improves with her monk level until at 20th level she can use a nearby wall to slow her descent and fall any distance without harm.