3.5 Warforged Monk

[The Boz]

Hey all! Long time no see! Been lurking for a while, but I decided I'd start posting again. Anyway, here's the thing...
Our group just started a one-off Tomb of Horrors, a killteam of five Warforged, a monk, barbarian, rogue, juggernaut and cleric, all melee. It's going pretty well, DM tells us we're at roughly half right now (just survived the see-saw hall), but I have a few questions regarding my character.
I play the Monk, and he's the party's main tank and a pretty significant source of damage, but there are a few grey areas in the five books that we can't get to the bottom of:
1. How does the Warforged default "armor" interact with the Monk? Does it need to be reduced to make him naked? Does it cost a feat to do this (we couldn't find one)? Does it just give free +2 armor and then count as naked?
2. I'm a level 9 Monk with unarmed damage 1d10. I have Improved Unarmed which makes it 2d8, and I have the Battlefist which makes it 3d8 (with the +1 enchantment)... right? Or am I counting that wrong?
3. Does the increased functional weapon size affect Power Charge/Greater Power Charge? So far we've been playing as no, but I just thought I'd ask.
4. What happens with Purity of Body, Diamond Body and Timeless Body? Being Warforged I already have those immunities, and my DM assures me that Warforged Monks get some other kind of minor bonus in place of these two but we can't find it in any of the books that we've looked in, nothing even mentions it.
5. And finally, what is the in-air (levitating, climbing up thin air, descending etc.) movement speed of a monk (base MS 40) with Immovable Boots (think Immovable Rod x2 in boot form)? One half base? Three steps per round? Full? It would normally be very slow, but these are further enchanted to be triggered by mental command of the wearer, with no buttons or things like that (and another player has a Rod that is voice-activated via free action, no buttons, and that was our DM's norm pretty much for a while now).

[Greenish]

1. The default plating doesn't interrupt monk abilities, no need for feat tax. It's just free +2 AC and enchantable.

2. That's correct.

3. Nope.

4. City of Stormreach has warforged ACFs to swap those out. If you don't have an access to it, you'll have to homebrew something or accept the overlap.

5. What? :smalltongue:

[Kuulvheysoon]

5. And finally, what is the in-air (levitating, climbing up thin air, descending etc.) movement speed of a monk (base MS 40) with Immovable Boots (think Immovable Rod x2 in boot form)? One half base? Three steps per round? Full? It would normally be very slow, but these are further enchanted to be triggered by mental command of the wearer, with no buttons or things like that (and another player has a Rod that is voice-activated via free action, no buttons, and that was our DM's norm pretty much for a while now).

...What? Move speed? With Immovable Rods (in boot form)? HOW?

*Brain explodes*

[The Boz]

Anchor left boot, make step with right boot, anchor right boot, unanchor left boot, make step with left boot, anchor left boot, unanchor right boot, make step with right boot, etc.

[Greenish]

Your move speed with such contraptions would be whatever the DM decrees.

Not really helpful, I know, but what can we say?

[Xodion]

Since activating and deactivating an immovable rod is a move action each, and taking a step (5ft) is a free action, I would guess at one step per round. Really slow. Brilliant idea, though.

[Lateral]

Apparently they're set and unset as a free action. It'd still be very awkward, though, so I'd rule perhaps half speed.

[Coidzor]

Airwalk (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/airWalk.htm)seems a good basis of comparison for such a pair of boots.

[The Boz]

How about half speed and some kind of Concentration requirement to continue moving while in combat/miscellaneous danger?
The boots have been extremely useful so far, and I really like them :)
Thanks for all the help so far!

[The Boz]

Can you charge by freefalling 40 feet and aiming to land on an undead below you with your fist first in his face?

WARNING! TOMB OF HORRORS SPOILERS!
It's amazing how fast my Flurry of Blows becomes a Flurry of Misses. Even charging with 3d8+2d6+6 damage, it was embarassing. +12/12/7 hits basically nothing, and AC 26 is hit by basically everything, and saves 10, 11, 11 are not that good, really. Not at level 9, with 90 HP. Barely survived the Mummy, who managed to roll a 1 as his attack for Slay Living. Also, that 1 was it's only chance of not hitting me.
Yeah, we wiped at the Adamantine Floor Crush Room With The Skull. I got killed by Soulsuck, party tried to Wish me back with the second Gem of Wishes, but the first one exploded. The Juggernaut survived with ~20 HP, but then the second Gem exploded. My only hope is that the detonations took out Ace as well. 400 fire damage really should kill something like that. Oh well. Not likely to play a monk again.

[Greenish]

There's a feat, Battle Jump (Unapproachable East), that allows you to be considered charging when you drop on someone head. Double damage too. Works nicely with Pounce.

[Pumba16b]

"Monk: Monk is a good class choice for a warforged
character. Monks do not normally wear armor, so the
armor bonus inherent to the race is a great advantage.
You can choose to increase that advantage with Adamantine
Body or Mithral Body, but both of those feats
cause you to take penalties to skills important to most
monks. Consider taking Cold Iron Tracery or Silver
Tracery. These feats allow your unarmed strikes to
overcome types of damage reduction that you must
normally find monk weapons of the right material to
defeat. Unlike your natural slam attack, your unarmed
strikes do not deal 1-1/2 times your Strength bonus in
extra damage. If you wish to do that, you must forgo
your unarmed strike damage and monk abilities,
making only a single slam attack.
When a warforged monk gains the wholeness of
body ability, he can use that ability to repair damage
he has taken."

from races of eberron

[Mato]

Can you charge by freefalling 40 feet and aiming to land on an undead below you with your fist first in his face?Who said you have to hit with your fist?

There is some stuff in there that really comes back on you. Like "Furry of Misses"? No notation of PrC/Multiclass and before the 9th level Monks do not of FoB penalties. 20 Str at the 9th level, only a +1 Enhancement bonus, improper Charge damage, pure Monk rather than using superior ACFs, etc.

Overall. You, as a player, should avoid Monk. Not because it's a weak class, which it is, but every low end Class will be insufficient in your hands and someone like you should probably stick to a Druid. Specially in the Tomb of Horrors. That adventure can be called the real D&D game. Straight from the man that invented the game you're playing, it's harder than anything else WotC published and your DM has ran before. Back in the day the DM actually put forth effort to kill you, not hold your hand, and clearing this adventure was something brag able. Like beating Halo in uber elite epic mode or Mew-Two in a Pokeball, whatever you kids are into these days.

You played, you got beat. Learn from it.

[gorfnab]

If you want to do Warforged Monk again maybe consider the Salad Bar Monk: Warforged Monk 2/ Druid 3/ Landforged Walker 5/ Sacred Fist 10 - if you follow the text of Sacred Fist (10 levels of spellcasting out of 10 levels, text trumps table in most cases) this nets you 18th level Druid casting. Plus turning into a Treant and smacking things around can be amusing.