Cleric-Monk: No Sacred Fist or Monk Levels

[Elric VIII]

I really like the idea of a Monk-like Cleric, but I'm just not impressed with Sacred Fist. My go-to build for this sort of character is Cleric 4/Ordained Champ 5/Sacred Fist 10/Cleric +1.

I would like to think of some alternatives to the obvious.


Some Thoughts:


Luminous Armor + Monk's Belt seems useful, even though I'd be missing out on some armor special abilities.


Sacred Fist prevents you from using gauntlets as a vessel for special weapon abilities or spells like Holy Sword. Although, can Blood Wind be used with gauntlets?


The concept can be easily achieved with no actual Monk levels, via IUS, SUS, and Snap Kick.


Divine Oracle is cool for the Evasion in heavy armor, but low BAB is a bit of a bummer.


Sacred Exorcist has some abilities that seem monk-like and it's a good class.


Void Disciple has an ascetic flavor, but low BAB and lost caster levels make it a bad choice.


Fist of the Forest? No thanks, I'm not a Druid.

[MammonAzrael]

Unarmed Swordsage? Aside from that, do you really have to worry about your BAB? You've got divine might.

[TroubleBrewing]

FoF is actually rad as a 1 level dip. Grab Con to AC and a rage you can still cast spells in? Sign me up.

[SurlySeraph]

An Ardent with Tashalatora would do well, if you're not too attached to being an actual Cleric. Even if, something like Ardent 1/ Cleric 3/ Psychic Theurge 10, applying Tashalatora to Psychic Theurge and using Divine Power for your BAB, would work.

A Ruby Knight Vindicator build would also work, if you want to be a ninja cleric; you could build it off Unarmed Swordsage levels for IUS and Wis to AC, and either spend two feats on Martial Study and Martial Stance or dip one level in Crusader.

[Psyren]

An Ardent with Tashalatora would do well, if you're not too attached to being an actual Cleric. Even if, something like Ardent 1/ Cleric 3/ Psychic Theurge 10, applying Tashalatora to Psychic Theurge and using Divine Power for your BAB, would work.

Better yet, use Ur-Priest instead of cleric, then finish off with Ardent for dual 9s. You'll need more Ardent levels up front of course.

[Blackjackg]

It's a pretty simplistic idea, but the OA Shaman class (as updated in Dragon Magazine #318) is a pretty nice combination of cleric and monk (with a dash of druid). Might be worth taking a gander.

Otherwise, the Balance and Celerity domains from Spell Compendium can give a bit of monklike feel.

[Elric VIII]

I like the idea of psionics. They do tend to represent abilities and a mechanic that seems very Monk-like to me.

The Sacred Fist was for Monk progression (Monks belt + SUS =9th level Monk + Sacred Fist for 19 levels of Monk unarmed damage) and OC was for Wis replacing Str. BAB was not too much of a factor, but low BAB means that I have to spend rounds buffing, so I wanted to keep that respectable for when I have to use my free time to keep allies alive.

Thank you for the suggestions.