Agreed wholeheartedly with RedGiant's sentiment.
Also two cents of my own: I've recently been playing a pure monk. Monk is the class I've most played, either pure or as main class. Every time I revisit the server monk seems to be getting messed with soon after I start. The initial nerfs were completely understandable given how overpowered monks happened to be. But they are in a decent place power-wise now: you can make them strong but they aren't going to beat out the munchkin minmaxed powergame-to-30-to-roll builds de jour. They are in a decent place right now, not amazing but decent.
These changes look all up to be a mechanical nerf and as stated earlier in the thread, essentially make monk a 'dip' class with virtually no incentive to take pure class levels.
But all of this isn't my main concern, I'm actually sad from the perspective of accessibility. Monk is a base class, not a prestige class. Any of the base classes will be something new players pick when they join the server and, even if they have played through the single player campaign(s), they might still opt for a class that they're unfamiliar with. Presently Arelith is trending more and more towards making each class have some quite complicated, detailed minutia-filled feats and abilities that need some in-depth knowledge to exploit effectively.
New players have a hard enough time making a Fighter or Wizard work while learning the ins-and-outs of combat, skill use and magic, let alone a Monk (in my recent playing experience, a good proportion of the players I've engaged with have been completely new to the server). But at present for all three you can at least give some quick, easy guidance: For fighter, get strength, con, discipline and you'll pull your weight. For Wizard get int and con, and you'll pull your weight. For Monk, get wis and dex and you'll pull your weight. As they put levels into the class, they are automatically handed some nice stuff to make do with: wizards get spells, fighters get bonus AC and AB and a way to heal and cure themselves. Monks get unarmed strike feats for free, graduated unarmed strike damage and attack, uncanny dodge, empty body and a handful of passive immunities, most of which are merely nice to haves in PvE but still allow a newer player to manage the content without knowing all the ins and outs.
These new monk changes are like leveling a fighter, without any of the free stuff fighters get to make them robust enough to play through the server's content even if you botch their bonus feat selection. What do you tell a new player who chooses monk, seeing 'martial artist with interesting preternatural abilities' on the tin? Go for wisdom? Well, no, there's no AC bonus now unless you choose some very particular feats. Intelligence? Maybe if you're playing the mental path and get the psychic blast feats.
Another way to think of it is that making things more complex, detailed and specific is not the same thing as increasing depth and diversity mechanically speaking. What enables that are qualitatively interesting interaction between the mechanics presented. Which is the game with more complex rules and mechanics, Monopoly or Chess? And which of them has the greater depth of play? I think the answers are obvious, and they contradict how the proposed Monk rework has been laid out.
Also now that perfect self is going (again I don't know why - 20/+1 DR was so niche and was only fun fuel for role play really, and if it was only the mind spell immunity, why not just remove that?), will the monk no longer be getting the glowing eyes? I recall a poll being held a little while back where people wanted that to be a feature of higher level monks as a majority. I can't test this because the test server has been locked for the better part of the day. It may seem like a small thing, and it is, but that's part of what can make for some fun role play opportunities.
Part of the fun a full-level Monk is playing off the weird, uncanny, unusual abilities that they have and why they have them. Maybe the rework allows for this but it seems more that they're a 'fighter plus' in terms of stuff they can do, minus some very niche flavor. Another way to put it is "what can monk do that another class can't just as well?" and now I feel the answer is "nothing much". They don't even have the ability to fight unarmed without investing feats, which is an absolute staple of the class. The icon for the Monk is literally a balled fist.
In terms of particular feats, some seem intensely lopsided and I can't figure out why they were put together in the way that they have been. I'll give an example:
Beggar's Staff: "Gains bonus Magic damage vs Animal, Vermin, Beast, and Magical Beasts".
Eight Trigram Spear: Gains bonus Magic damage vs Fey, Aberration, Magical Beasts, Undead, Outsiders,
Nine Sword of the Recluse: Gains bonus Magic damage vs Human, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, Goblinoid, and Reptilian
Of these, why is the spear the one that's doing more damage to undead? Undead's most common resistances are to piercing and slashing. Bludgeoning is absolutely the ideal damage type against almost all types on undead, so why isn't this bonus on Beggar's Staff? The last weapon I'd think to use against undead would be a spear. Also the bonus against what is, essentially, 'player races' given by Nine Sword is by far the most useful option here. Why? Because despite its reduced damage bonus, the most dangerous things on the server by far are other players. Animals, vermins, beasts and magical beasts are rarely the most dire threats.
Another example is the basis in using 'prayer' the Spiritual Discipline emphasizes. That's well and good, but prayer mechanics have been left intentionally opaque as a design feature. This compounds the earlier problems I outlined related to detail and complexity in the class. Imagine a new player choosing this. How would they know how to use it? This isn't a prestige class with specific requirements, it's something you can go for right out of the gate.
My suggestion would be to take the spirit of these ideas, which aren't necessarily bad, and apply them to the Monk class we have now in a way that adds depth without dramatically increasing the complexity of class that's already quite complex and weird for a new player to pick up, let alone a veteran of NWN.