Looking for monk race.

[TheUlric]

I'm looking for a reasonable good roleplaying race with a plus to wisdom with a +0 LA homebrew is acceptable.

[Welknair]

{Scrubbed}

[Temotei]

Anthropomorphic bats grant +6 Wisdom and have LA +0. They're usually cited as a cleric or druid race, though, since they do start pretty small. Also, they tend to provoke violence from the DM.

I'm pretty sure there's also an elf race in Faerûn that grants +2 to Wisdom.

[Andion Isurand]

"Lesser" Axani (PgtF + Dragon 297)
+2 Int, +2 Wis
Favored Class: Monk

[Mayhem]

Warforged are pretty good, with natural armour and a natural slam attack

[averagejoe]

The Mod They Call Me: This belongs in roleplaying games.

[Daftendirekt]

Buomman from, I believe, Planar Handbook. +wis -cha IIRC, with monk favored class.

[dgnslyr]

Warforged are pretty good, with natural armour and a natural slam attack

Is there anything Warforged can't do? Also, it's a +2 armor bonus, not actually Natural Armor. I don't think composite plating, the default one, conflicts with monk-ness, because it's only "treated as light armor," unlike the feat-upgrades, where they are explicitly called out as heavy armor or medium armor.

You do eat a WIS penalty, but it's not like it's a huge deal.

[Curmudgeon]

I'd suggest Aasimar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/planetouched.htm#aasimar) for the race (+2 WIS, +2 CHA). You might use the lesser planetouched adjustments (Player's Guide to Faerûn, page 191), but I wouldn't recommend that. Instead I suggest buying off the +1 LA at class level 3 (as explained here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm)), because being an Outsider qualifies you to take the Celestial Bloodline and Outsider Wings feats (in Races of Faerûn). Monks really need flight capability, and this one can't be shut down with Dispel Magic.

[Andion Isurand]

Or perhaps being a lesser Planetouched... you might get the DM to pass you on the Otherworldly feat (PGtF) so you can become an outsider again.

[Vknight]

Either way its a flying martial artist.

[olelia]

I recommend being a Hecatoncheires....that should balance out nicely with the monk.

[Curmudgeon]

Or perhaps being a lesser Planetouched... you might get the DM to pass you on the Otherworldly feat (PGtF) so you can become an outsider again.
Probably not, since Otherworldly is a regional feat limited to just 3 races, not including planetouched:

Prerequisite: Deep Imaskari (Underdark [Deep Imaskar]), elf (Evermeet, Sildëyuir), or spirit folk (Ashane).

[Dimers]

I recommend being a Hecatoncheires....that should balance out nicely with the monk.

Pssh. They've got the same problem as monks -- can't move and full-attack in the same round.

:smallwink:

[Andion Isurand]

Probably not, since Otherworldly is a regional feat limited to just 3 races, not including planetouched:

Aye, by RAW it doesn't work, but it could be something one can try to wiggle for if they don't have buy off available.

[ericgrau]

Monks are not clerics. Strength is your primary stat by far. Even if you do pick stunning fist it's pointless to pump wis more than str or you won't have the attack bonus to hit. If you don't want stunning fist and only want AC then get dex. If you get wisdom you might as well save yourself the time and give up on the character now. You'll have a nice secondary ability... when it hits, and a little more AC. You won't be able to hit or damage very well, especially if you get something with LA. Once you eat, say, LA 3 and get -3 to hit, before level 8 you might want to be a commoner with high strength, feats for martial weapon proficiency, armor proficiency and a magic weapon instead. That'll be more effective. Or instead you could pump strength first of all and make wisdom 2nd (only w/ stunning fist), 3rd or 4th.

EDIT: I looked and I couldn't find a race with both str and wis. You'll have to focus on str. Or please please get wis to AB and damage somehow.

[MeeposFire]

I second warforged. Never underestimate the power of the battlefist.

Also kalashtar make fine monks especially if you add the mighty arms graft so you can use a battlefist (kalashtar are nice since they are one of only a couple races that can use a dragonshard to improve their unarmed damage by 1 size category).

[Darrin]

Buomman from, I believe, Planar Handbook. +wis -cha IIRC, with monk favored class.

Buomman is best if you combine with Dragonborn of Bahumat which, among other things, gets rid of the annoying "can't speak" racial ability.

The best race for monk, though? Tortle, particularly of the adolescent variety. (Dragon Magazine #315, Dex -2, Con +2, Wis +2, Cha -2, NA +3, Speed 20', Swim 10')

[Last Laugh]

Buomman is best if you combine with Dragonborn of Bahumat which, among other things, gets rid of the annoying "can't speak" racial ability.

The best race for monk, though? Tortle, particularly of the adolescent variety. (Dragon Magazine #315, Dex -2, Con +2, Wis +2, Cha -2, NA +3, Speed 20', Swim 10')


Buommans take a vow against speech at an extremely
early age,

If your DM is very nice, he might let Dragonborn Boumman speak. If it seems like you might have a sensible DM roleplay is the only likely way to get around vow of silence. Well, and telepathy.

[dextercorvia]

That's why you play it up as a revelation from Bahumat in the egg.

[hoff]

You should check out lycanthrope in the monster manual page 175.
Weretiger is the best, charge allows full attack.

For weretiger:
Scent (good for trackers)
Low-light vision.
Iron Will feat (+2 Will Saves).
+4 Balance, Hide, Move silently. +8 in grass.
DR 10/silver (yes, it is really 10)
+2 Natural Armor.
It is a big creature in hybrid form and has increased reach and increased unnarmed damage from the monk ability.
Increased speed in tiger form (same speed as humanoid form in hybrid form though).
Natural weapons: claws (x2) and bite, don't know how this would affect unnarmed monk damage though. But you can do a bite attack to start a grapple.
You can afflict your team mates with a lesser version of this lycanthropy.
Str +12, Dex +4, Con +6, Wis +2.
It is core.
LA +3. But this is a template, it's like you are getting Level 3 Weretiger, Level 1 monk. So you have 4 hit dice of HP, 3 feats, 4 BaB, +1 ability score, etc at level 4.

There is a problem with alignment, the master must decide if you can be lawful (monk requires it) as a weretiger (the book says that weretigers are usually pure neutral). If the master doesn't allow it you can still be a werebear (Lawful good) which is almost the same as weretiger (+16 str though, charge doesn't allow full attack).


You can still get another race as the base creature so you could do a half-orc or half-giant werebear to get EVEN more str or wis. If you do a Half-giant you can't become a huge creature though (3x3 squares, even more reach) in hybrid form, but you can probably still be cast enlarge person upon. You can also acess monster feats like Improved natural attack, increase dice die of natural attacks (monks fists is a natural weapon even if you can't use your claws for your monk powers).

The only problem in this build is that you would be using your claws instead of your flurry of blows until level 7 or so (the increased damage and attack far outweighs this, you lose no BaB from taking natural weretiger, all you lose are class features).

[Prime32]

LA +3. But this is a template, it's like you are getting Level 3 Weretiger, Level 1 monk. So you have 4 hit dice of HP, 3 feats, 4 BaB, +1 ability score, etc at level 4.Not how it works. Tigers have 6HD, so an lv1 monk weretiger is a 10th-level character with 7HD. And yes, that sucks.

[dextercorvia]

Not how it works. Tigers have 6HD, so an lv1 monk weretiger is a 10th-level character with 7HD.

Wouldn't they be 11th level unless they were afflicted?

Example:

Joe the Natural Weretiger has 7HD (one from the base creature and 6 from the tiger part), and +3LA. He then takes a class level of Monk and it checks HD=1? No, so he is ECL 11 with 8HD.

Steve the Human Monk1 runs afoul of a weretiger, and manages to survive. (Statistically it should happen somewhere in the cosmos.) He becomes afflicted with lycanthropy. He gains the 6 humanoid HD (from the tiger part) and LA+2. He is now ECL 9 and has 7HD.

[hoff]

Hm, it's still pretty good combo though. I did not make one myself, so I'm not exactly sure of the rules.

[Darth Stabber]

I'd go with human. For those that aren't familiar +0Str -0Cha, extra skillpoints, Extra feat. So you have a bonus to a stat you need and the penalty is to a dumpstat. This race is insanely broken.

[Dimers]

Wouldn't they be 11th level unless they were afflicted?

Example:

Joe the Natural Weretiger has 7HD (one from the base creature and 6 from the tiger part), and +3LA. He then takes a class level of Monk and it checks HD=1? No, so he is ECL 11 with 8HD.

Steve the Human Monk1 runs afoul of a weretiger, and manages to survive. (Statistically it should happen somewhere in the cosmos.) He becomes afflicted with lycanthropy. He gains the 6 humanoid HD (from the tiger part) and LA+2. He is now ECL 9 and has 7HD.

SRD says "A lycanthrope adds the Hit Dice of its animal form to its base Hit Dice for race, level, and class." As normal, the base HD can be "One, from monk" instead of "One for monk and one for human"; there's no rule that says otherwise. THEN you add the animal RHD.

[MightyIgoo]

I'm going to third the recommendation for Warforged. The Wis penalty is not that extreme, you get access to enchantable battlefists, and IIRC the +2 armor bonus does not interfere with monk abilities. Wis only really helps a monk with his AC and his Stunning Fist-- the AC is made up for in the armor bonus, and honestly, you're probably better off going the grapple route anyway.

EDIT: Also, if you're homebrewing, you can have an artificer whip you up a throwing returning chain-driven battlefist = ROCKET PUNCH.

[FafnerMorell]

Anthropomorphic bats grant +6 Wisdom and have LA +0. ... Also, they tend to provoke violence from the DM.

Probably because they drop down on the bad guys and announce "I'm Batman".

[dextercorvia]

SRD says "A lycanthrope adds the Hit Dice of its animal form to its base Hit Dice for race, level, and class." As normal, the base HD can be "One, from monk" instead of "One for monk and one for human"; there's no rule that says otherwise. THEN you add the animal RHD.

I don't see how you could apply an inherited template (natural lycanthropy) after class levels.

[McSmack]

I'm gonna 4th the warforged nomination.
A) because they are wicked sweet
and
B) becasue they are awesome.

Wisdom is a good stat for monks, but warforged have enough bonuses and immunities to more than make up for it. Immunity to disease, poison, nausea, sleep, fatigue, exhaustion, sickened, paraysis, energy drain. No need to sleep, eat or drink. Light fortificaion for free. An AC bonus and a readily available upgrade that can be enchanted AND lets you treat your unarmed stikes as one category larger.
Warforged Monk + battlefists = slaughter.

[hoff]

Something came to my mind, monks get an ability that makes them immune to lycantrophy. But what if you take the template before you get the ability? You are somehow healed of your curse?

[Ashram]

If Pathfinder is allowed, try the Oread from Bestiary 2. They're the earth-bloodline outsiders (Similar to genasi but with statblocks similar to aasimar/tiefling).

+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Cha.

[Greenish]

You won't be able to hit or damage very well, especially if you get something with LA. Once you eat, say, LA 3 and get -3 to hit, before level 8 you might want to be a commoner with high strength, feats for martial weapon proficiency, armor proficiency and a magic weapon instead.Though why you'd burn a feat on Martial Weapon Proficiency when you could burn the same feat on EWP for an improved version of the same weapon is beyond me.

He becomes afflicted with lycanthropy. He gains the 6 humanoid HD (from the tiger part) and LA+2.Lycanthropes get animal HD from their base animal.

[Snu]

A Warforged monk would also be a nice Dirk Gently reference.

[Vknight]

I will also say Warforged for there many uses.

[Curmudgeon]

SRD says "A lycanthrope adds the Hit Dice of its animal form to its base Hit Dice for race, level, and class." As normal, the base HD can be "One, from monk" instead of "One for monk and one for human"; there's no rule that says otherwise. THEN you add the animal RHD.
Your claim is bogus. Lycanthropy occurs in both inherited (natural) and acquired (afflicted) forms.
It’s possible for a certain kind of template to be of either type. The lycanthrope template, for instance, is inherited for a creature that was born with the affliction. It can also be acquired by a creature that is bitten by a natural lycanthrope. You add all relevant hit dice at the time the template is applied. For a natural lycanthrope that's always with zero class levels.
Humanoids and Class Levels: Creatures with 1 or less HD replace their monster levels with their character levels. This rule can never be used for an inherited lycanthrope; they will always have more than 1 HD before their first class level.

Lycanthropes get animal HD from their base animal. The rule doesn't single out solely humanoid HD; it applies to humanoids but works only for "creatures with 1 or less (total) HD".

[Lord.Sorasen]

As people have stated here : Wisdom is a monk's "feature" stat, but not its most important stat. Strength probably is.

On that note, this obviously is a bit different if you're a Tashalatora monk (which I recommend because it's awesome). In that case, there's always half-giant.

[The Cat Goddess]

As people have stated here : Wisdom is a monk's "feature" stat, but not its most important stat. Strength probably is.

On that note, this obviously is a bit different if you're a Tashalatora monk (which I recommend because it's awesome). In that case, there's always half-giant.

You mean Primoridal Half-Giant, right?

[dextercorvia]

RAWsomeness as usual

Thanks for clearing that up. I'll admit that my template-fu is weak, but I was fairly certain that was the case.

[Greenish]

A Warforged monk would also be a nice Dirk Gently reference.You can, perhaps, imagine my facepalm. For a long time, I've been aware of both a warforged's proficiency as a monk, and of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (and it's sequels), yet I've never connected the two. :smallfrown::smallfrown::smallfrown:

As people have stated here : Wisdom is a monk's "feature" stat, but not its most important stat. Strength probably is.

On that note, this obviously is a bit different if you're a Tashalatora monk (which I recommend because it's awesome). In that case, there's always half-giant.There probably are more than a few references to Tashatalora in this thread already, but I'll put my word for it too; it truly is what the developers were aiming for when they developed the class.

[dextercorvia]

Lycanthropes get animal HD from their base animal.

Yeah, I was re-reading that. Which makes it worse (without fractional BAB) since they are a multiclass humanoid/animal both of which have 3/4 BAB.


You can, perhaps, imagine my facepalm. For a long time, I've been aware of both a warforged's proficiency as a monk, and of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (and it's sequels), yet I've never connected the two. :smallfrown::smallfrown::smallfrown:

I'm less than saavy about Warforged Monk (not enough ebberon books), but I did enjoy Dirk Gently's series. Could you enlighten me?

[Snu]

I'm less than saavy about Warforged Monk (not enough ebberon books), but I did enjoy Dirk Gently's series. Could you enlighten me?
Here's a nice passage from the book about the Electric Monk...
http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/adams.html

[Dimers]

This rule can never be used for an inherited lycanthrope; they will always have more than 1 HD before their first class level.

Many applicable animals have fractional hit dice, and fractions round down. Not that that applies to the weretiger discussion.

So what about the "animal is never its first Hit Die" bit? That sounds to me like it's added after class levels exist. And why, in the template stats, would the Level Adjustment line specifically call out the RHD of the animal but exclude the RHD of the humanoid/giant? More to the point, why would the SRD examples ignore the humanoid RHD if one is supposed to add them in?

It seems very much like this is a specific exception to a general rule, if one only implicitly written.

[Curmudgeon]

Many applicable animals have fractional hit dice, and fractions round down.
Actually, there's no rule that monster hit dice round, either up or down. The general rule about rounding fractions is in the Player's Handbook, and applies in that book and generally for playing the game, for playing PC races, and for using base class descriptions. The Monster Manual, which is the primary source for creating monsters (including all relevant aspects of characters with monster hit dice), contains no such rule.