Monks who model their training after that of warriors quickly learn the great power of a well made shield. Monks of the sort couple the shield with a graceful, disciplined style of combat, excelling at both offense and defense with their protective aegis.

Class Features Modifications

Shield Dance: Shield dancers move with both strength and grace, landing a brutal shield bash attack at just the right time. As the monk improves his body and gains skill, his shield bash attacks do more damage, starting at 1d8 with a heavy spiked shield at level 1.

Level 1-3: 1d8
Level 4-7: 1d10
Level 7-11: 2d6
Level 12-15: 2d8
Level 15-19: 3d6
Level 20: 3d8

This replaces the monk's Improved Unarmed Strike and bonus Unarmed Strike damage. The damage numbers scale up a damage dice for large monks and down a damage dice for small monks.

Flurry of Blows (Ex): Shield Dancers use a Flurry of Blows differently than most monks. Instead of using their fists for every blow, one is made with the shield and the remainder are made with fists or feet. When a monk makes a Flurry of Blows, his first strike, made with his shield, is a stunning blow that gives the remainder of the attacks +2 to hit and +2 damage. The remainder are calculated as standard unarmed attacks. At 8th and 15th level, the monk adds an additional attack to his Flurry of Blows.

Stunning Bash (Ex): When a monk lands a shield bash after charging from more than 70 feet away, lands a critical with a shield bash, or makes a shield bash while free falling (not under the effects of the Feather Fall spell or his monk Slow Fall ability), his target is stunned for 1 round.

This ability replaces Stunning Fist.

Spell Reflect (Ex): At 15th level, a shield dancer becomes so adept with his shield that he can reflect spells cast at him or past him. If a spell would pass through or the square occupied by the monk, or hit the monk himself, the monk must make a Reflex save with a DC equal to the spell's DC + 5. If he does, he can raise his shield and reflect the spell back in the direction from which it came. If a spell would pass through a square adjacent to the monk, he can swing his shield at it to deflect it perpendicular to its original path with a Reflex save DC equal to the spell's + 8.

This ability replaces Quivering Palm.

Additional Ratings
Balance:	1 2 3 4 5 ( 3 Votes )
Utility:	1 2 3 4 5 ( 3 Votes )
Clarity:	1 2 3 4 5 ( 3 Votes )