While I've seen a few variations of the Monk available and most of them are all right, I had took it upon myself to make a version that was based on the 1st Edition Oriental Adventures and the Dragon Magazine version. I had inspiration to do this based on another person who attempted to make a 2nd Edition version, as noted within the document. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
I gave the Monk more weapon proficiencies over time as I deemed that maneuvers not within the Monk's original fighting style to require spending them. I also did it in order to try to promote usage of the special martial arts weaponry.
I also created levels beyond 17th for players/DMs who may wish to go beyond the usual limitations of the Monk, but with a few guidelines of how to go about it, as well as a fairly high amount of experience required per level beyond 14th (+318,000/level, only 18,000 more than a Paladin or Ranger might need). To be fair, their THAC0 is not as good as a Priest (it is equivalent to roughly a Rogue-class) while their Saving Throws are as a Priest. In addition, I kept their HP die as a d4, but they gain full HD as they continue along the path to higher levels - just like the original Monks.
I kept their thieving abilities as I felt that their training would likely encompass it - open locks in order to undo shackles or cell doors should they be captured (or even open locked chests that might contain important quest items), find/remove traps in order to avoid unnecessary damage or problems, move silently to potentially sneak around their enemies to avoid fighting or to merely get behind them and incapacitate them easier rather than kill them, hide in shadows to avoid detection as well rather than fight (if possible), hear noise to know what might lie ahead or beyond a doorway, and climb walls to use more favorable routes into or out of hostile areas.
Update 9/23/16
- Added notes about off-hand penalties when fighting unarmed
- Added notes about fighting styles
- Level 13 trait that allows for no-check-needed instant-learn on a maneuver now extends beyond it, every 4 levels (17, 21, 25, 29), for up to 5 maneuvers able to be learned this way
- Added Level 18 trait that allows a second martial art style to be learned as an 'original style', at the cost of one weapon proficiency slot, for the purpose of learning additional maneuvers without expending weapon proficiency slots
Update 10/3/16
- Made note regarding specialization and mastery for monks in martial arts in an 'original style' that they know
