Meet the Monk
The Monk comes from The Path of the Wandering Monk, an Avalon Hill hero collection released in 2023 and sold more widely from early 2024. The box holds two Monk figures. The Monk is a human who fights unarmed, drawing on the elements rather than a sword.
The Monk's exact Attack, Defend, Body and Mind values, and the details of its elemental abilities, are on its hero card and the pack's cards; this page doesn't reproduce them. Because the Monk fights without a weapon, read the card closely on one point in particular: what happens if it picks up a weapon or armor from the armory or a treasure card. Some heroes can't use some equipment (the Wizard, for example, can't wear normal armor or use large weapons), and the card is the final word.
What this page does give you is the part of the Monk's game that the core rules decide: where to stand, how many monsters can reach you there, and how long a hero lasts under attack.
Reading the Monk's Hero Card
- Attack is how many combat dice you roll when you attack. Every skull is a hit.
- Defend is how many combat dice you roll when something attacks you. As a hero you block one hit for every white shield, and two of the six faces are white shields, so each die blocks a third of the time.
- Body Points are your health. Every unblocked hit costs one, and at zero you die unless you drink a healing potion or cast a healing spell on the spot.
- Mind Points stand for wisdom, intelligence and resistance to magic. They matter when one of Zargon's Dread spells tries to put you to sleep, frighten you or take control of you; the spell card says how you resist.
Set the Monk's card beside the core heroes' numbers:
| Hero | Attack | Defend | Body | Mind | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barbarian | 3 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 2 red dice |
| Dwarf | 2 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 2 red dice |
| Elf | 2 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 red dice |
| Wizard | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 red dice |
| Monk | see the Monk's hero card | 2 red dice | |||
Where You Stand Decides How Often You're Hit
Monsters can't move or attack diagonally, can't pass over heroes and can't share a square. So the number of monsters that can attack you at once depends only on how many of your four sides are open.
How Many Monsters Can Reach You
- Open floor is the worst square in the room. Four Orcs on four sides means four attacks every Zargon turn.
- Walls are free armor. Backing against a wall removes a quarter of the attacks; a corner removes half.
- Diagonals are safe. A monster standing diagonally to you can't attack you, and unless a card says otherwise you can't attack it either. Use that when you step in and out of a fight.
- Heroes can block too. A friend on one of your sides is a side no monster can use.
How Long a Hero Lasts
The chart below shows the exact chance that a hero with two defend dice is knocked to zero Body Points by Orc attacks (three attack dice each). Find your Monk's Body Points on the card and read across.
Chance of Being Knocked to 0 Body by Orc Attacks
Put the two sections together. A hero with 6 Body Points on open floor can take four Orc attacks in a single Zargon turn, and has a 17.9% chance of going down before the turn is over. In a corner, the same four attacks take two turns, and the hero gets a turn in between to strike back, drink a potion or step away.
The Monk's Turn
- On your turn you move, then act, or act, then move. You can't move part of the way, act, and then finish moving.
- Heroes roll two red dice for movement and may move up to the total (an average of 7 squares). There are no diagonal moves, and you can't move through monsters or walls, but you may pass over other heroes.
- Your action is one of six: Attack, Cast a spell, Search for treasure, Search for secret doors, Search for traps or Disarm a trap. Opening doors, drinking potions and picking things up don't use your action.
Hitting Power
However the Monk's attack dice are worked out, they follow the same combat rules as everyone's: each skull is a hit, and a monster blocks only on the single black shield. The chart gives the exact chance that one attack wounds a monster.
Chance One Attack Wounds a Monster
The example monsters use the 1990 North American monster chart, which fan sources say the Avalon Hill game follows; your monster cards are the final word.
The Monk in the Party
- With a front-liner (Barbarian or Knight): one of you holds the doorway, the other stands beside it or behind. Two heroes side by side close off each other's flank.
- With the Wizard: the Wizard starts with 4 Body Points, the fewest of any core hero. Stand where the monsters have to come past you to reach it.
- With the Elf and the Dwarf: let the Dwarf disarm traps (it needs no tool kit) and the Elf cover with spells while the Monk moves up.
- Potions: drinking one doesn't use your action and can save you at zero Body Points, so a hero who fights at the front should carry one.
Try It at the Table
- Before your first quest with the Monk, read its cards and write down in one sentence what each elemental ability is for: hitting harder, staying alive, or moving.
- In a practice room, put the Monk on open floor with four Orcs around it, then move it to a corner. Count attacks per Zargon turn each time.
- Use the Dice Roller to check the Monk's attack against the toughest monster in your next quest.
Where Next
- Combat & Tactics for doors, line of sight and group fights.
- Treasure & Equipment for potions and the armory.
- The Warlock, the next hero in this guide.