Kobold Drunken Master

[Vallum]

I am requested by a friend of mine to play in her game. The DM, however, wants me to make a Kobold character who will eventually have levels in drunken master, (CW), when able to take them. I've been racking my brain on how to not fail and suck as this combo, (at least she didn't ask em to be a truenamer :smalleek: )
So far, I am to make 2nd level character, we roll 4D6, reroll 1's & drop the lowest, (all 6's = 20).
Rolls: 20, 18, 16, 15, 13, 11
Flaws & Traits allowed, avg. gold for a 2nd level character

Tips/Tricks to make this PrC work somehow? I will also be in a large party, (I think over eight people also playing), if that changes anything.

[Cog]

I am requested by a friend of mine to play in her game. The DM, however, wants me to make a Kobold character who will eventually have levels in drunken master, (CW), when able to take them. I've been racking my brain on how to not fail and suck as this combo, (at least she didn't ask em to be a truenamer :smalleek: )
So far, I am to make 2nd level character, we roll 4D6, reroll 1's & drop the lowest, (all 6's = 20).
Rolls: 20, 18, 16, 15, 13, 11
Flaws & Traits allowed, avg. gold for a 2nd level character

Tips/Tricks to make this PrC work somehow? I will also be in a large party, (I think over eight people also playing), if that changes anything.
Combo with Superior Unarmed Strike while not using any Monk unarmed damage progression. You get the full benefit of unarmed damage through your DM levels. Get the flurry you need to qualify for DM from Disciple of the Eye.

[Vallum]

Combo with Superior Unarmed Strike while not using any Monk unarmed damage progression. You get the full benefit of unarmed damage through your DM levels. Get the flurry you need to qualify for DM from Disciple of the Eye.

OhheytheirPrc :smallbiggrin:
Thank you very much for pointing that PrC out. What would you recommend for leveling into that Prc?

[grarrrg]

Tough it out until you can afford to have a (npc?) Druid cast Reincarnate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/reincarnate.htm) on you.
Goodbye massive penalties to Str and Con.
Hello....?


Disclaimer: Doing the above may produce the following side-effects, flying Dungeon Masters Guide, flying Players Handbook, flying Monster Manual, your friends laughing at you because you 'reincarnated' into a Kobold.

[Skaven]

Kobold drunken master sounds epic o_o I wish my current DM would let me play that. XD

[tyckspoon]

Use the Races of the Dragon web enhancement if you can- it adds a claw/claw/bite natural weapon routine, which works alongside natural weapons really well and will let you better leverage your DM's really generous stat rules (you *are* putting that 20 in Strength, right?) Otherwise.. let's see. Pounce-barian would be ideal, since Drunken Master actually gets some pretty nice charge abilities and you'll have lots of attacks, but both Monk and Disciple of the Eye require being Lawful, and most DMs are leery of alignment changes in this kind of situation.

Fighter actually wouldn't be too bad, especially using either the Kobold sub levels (gets +2 Strength and +2 Con over the first four levels in trade for the level 2 and 4 bonus feats, helps make up for being a Kobold in a melee build) or Dungeoncrasher.

Sticking point in just using Disciple of the Eye instead: Drunken Master also requires Evasion, which Disciple does not grant. You may end up with Monk anyway..

Something like Monk 2/Kobold Fighter 4/Drunken Master? Gets you a couple of pretty good bonus feats from Monk, the Drunken Master pre-reqs, and your stats even out to be about as good as other races instead of really bad (after the Fighter sub level adjustments, you come out at -2 Strength/+2 Dex/+1 Natural Armor/Small size/3 natural weapons if using the web article, which is actually not too bad a race.)

Feat allocation would probably be.. let's see, Imp. Unarmed Strike and Dodge come as bonuses from your classes. Use a Flaw for Great Fortitude. That'll leave your actual feats completely free, and potentially access to one more flaw if you want to use it.. which you do, because you probably want to get the Dragon Wings and Dragon Tail feats, which are both 1st-level-only selections. Perform the Rite of Draconic Passage, grab Mage Armor..

... well, being a Drunken Master is actually pretty incidental to all of this, but if you put it together at level 6 you'll have: Strength 18, four natural attacks+1 unarmed strike, the ability to fly, reasonable AC, and a BAB of 5. Could be a lot worse, seeing as how you're a Kobold being asked to go into a combat archetype Kobolds really aren't that good at.

Edit: If one of your large party happens to be a Bard or is a spellcaster with a per-attack buffing spell, you're golden- your access to about twice as many attacks as most characters of your level makes you an excellent force-multiplier for buffing effects. If nothing else, it shouldn't be too hard to snag an Enlarge Person or a Greater Magic Fang.

[Vallum]

superawesomeadviceskillsgo

Thanks tyckspoon, I can always count on your optimizing skills :smallsmile:

Also, I think I can get it past, the DM has it so my alignment restrictions disappear when I become a drunken master.

Edit: Also, the Unearthed Arcana subraces are open... I wasn't sure what to go with. Perhaps Jungle kobold, or something else?

[tyckspoon]

Jungle's probably the best bet for your situation, yeah. Removes the Con penalty (that reduces the incentive to go Kobold Fighter for 4, incidentally, so you could swing something like Monk 2/sublevel Fighter 2/Spirit Lion Barbarian 2) and swaps it for something that is as close to a dump stat as a Monk gets.

[Vallum]

So, refresh me on the break down of Primary and secondary attack, and how to add up/subtract for totals?

eg. 2nd level monk Kobold, makes 2 basic attack (unarmed strike of FoB), dealing 1d4 + 3 (16 str) each, at +2/+2, then my natural attacks(2 claws, then bite), -1/-1/-1, (reduced from multiattack feat), for 1d3 + 3/1d3 + 3/1d3 + 1
so, +2/+2/-1/-1/-1
for 1d4+3/1d4+3/1d3+3/1d3+3/1d3+1

feats: dodge, multi attack, great fortitude, imp. unarmed strike, stunning fist, combat reflexes

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Starting out at 2nd level, you'll be better off using Swordsage instead of Monk, considering there's no drawback for a Drunken Master wearing armor. Something like Unarmed Swordsage 3/ Martial Rogue (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#rogue) 2/ Disciple of the Eye 1/ Drunken Master would work just fine, but if you can't use fractional BAB you'll have a hard time hitting anything with that build. Take the third Swordsage level after the Rogue levels with that.

As for your attacks, here's how it will go:
Unarmed Strike primary: (full attack bonus)/(-5)/(-10), Damage + Str bonus
2 Claws secondary: (one attack per at -5), Damage + 1/2 Str bonus
Bite secondary: (one attack at -5), Damage + 1/2 Str bonus

Flurry of Blows will add one more unarmed strike attack at your highest bonus, but all of your attacks including natural weapons are at the flurry penalty (typically -2). You can TWF with Unarmed Strikes, but again all of your attacks take TWF penalties, plus any other penalties they would suffer. If you take the feat Multiattack your claws and bite will be at -2 instead of -5, with Improved Multiattack they won't be at any penalty at all, but still only add 1/2 Str bonus to damage. When holding a weapon you cannot also make a claw attack with that hand, but you can still make a claw attack with the other hand as a secondary natural attack as above.

[tyckspoon]

So, refresh me on the break down of Primary and secondary attack, and how to add up/subtract for totals?

eg. 2nd level monk Kobold, makes 2 basic attack (unarmed strike of FoB), dealing 1d4 + 3 (16 str) each, at +2/+2, then my natural attacks(2 claws, then bite), -1/-1/-1, (reduced from multiattack feat), for 1d3 + 3/1d3 + 3/1d3 + 1
so, +2/+2/-1/-1/-1
for 1d4+3/1d4+3/1d3+3/1d3+3/1d3+1

feats: dodge, multi attack, great fortitude, imp. unarmed strike, stunning fist, combat reflexes

That's right, although until you can start gathering some more hit bonuses I'd forgo the Flurry attack; the one extra attack roll isn't worth the penalty it puts on your natural weapons. I'd probably do my feats as such:

Flaw: Multiattack
Flaw: Dragon Tail
1st level: Dragon Wings
Monk Class Feature: Imp. Unarmed Strike
Monk Bonus 1: Stunning Fist
Monk Bonus 2: Deflect Arrows (Combat Reflexes is unfortunately not all that good for you, because you'll kinda suck at combat maneuvers and you don't have reach unless you're going to eventually use the 'use a ladder as a 20-foot reach weapon' trick/gag bit from Drunken Master. In which case the feat can wait until you have the Drunken Master levels that enable it.)

Dodge is a Fighter bonus feat, which means you can pick it up in like ten different ways and shouldn't be using one of your precious 1st level feats on it (specifically, if you use my outline with the Kobold Fighter levels, Kobold Fighter 1 locks your feat as Dodge. Which is what you were going to take anyway.) For progression:
Level 3 feat: Great Fortitude
Level 6 feat: Improved Dragon Wings, so you can actually fly.

Can save a couple of feats if you don't want to fly, but I'm not sure what else you could get for those feats that would be a better investment.

[KillianHawkeye]

Why is your DM telling you what to play? Don't you get a choice? :smallconfused:

(I understand putting some restrictions on player options, but telling you what race and prestige class to take??)

[Vallum]

Why is your DM telling you what to play? Don't you get a choice? :smallconfused:

(I understand putting some restrictions on player options, but telling you what race and prestige class to take??)

Simple: I like it when someone gives me an idea to play, and I have to make it work. It helps my improvisation for roleplaying and acting in general. She's a nice person, the DM would never force me to play something, she just wanted to give me a challenge that I asked for.

[KillianHawkeye]

Simple: I like it when someone gives me an idea to play, and I have to make it work. It helps my improvisation for roleplaying and acting in general. She's a nice person, the DM would never force me to play something, she just wanted to give me a challenge that I asked for.

I see. Sounds strange to me, but whatever works!

[Vallum]

I see. Sounds strange to me, but whatever works!

D&D is bar-none the best acting exercise.

[King Atticus]

Whenever I play a kobold I always go venerable dragonwrought kobold. Just by taking the dragonwrought feat (RoD pg 100) at 1st level you get +3 to int, wis and cha without taking any penalties to str, dex or con (Ability penalties due to age do not apply to dragonwrought kobolds.). Not too shabby for the price of 1 feat. :smallbiggrin:

[Rei_Jin]

If you were to go Jungle Kobold, and take 4 monk levels, then 2 kobold fighter levels, you could take Expeditious Dodge instead of normal Dodge, thus giving you +2 to Dodge AC versus everyone when you move 40ft or more in a round.

Also, if you pick up the "Throw Anything" feat, you can throw your improvised weapons and gain your unarmed strike damage, plus a bonus, at range. Certainly not a bad tactic to have.

EDIT: Consider the Prayerful Meditation ACF for monk, to replace the mostly useless Still Mind ability. It's in Complete Champion. Also, the Water Step ACF in Stormwrack can replace your horribly useless Slow Fall ability with something that you might actually use.

[Tokuhara]

My buddy did the following:

Race: Half-Orc
Monk 3/Rogue 2/Half-Orc Paragon 3/Drunken Master 5/Bear Warrior 7

He was a Half-Orc who when he got drunk, became a Panda who threw chairs, tables, basically anything that wasn't nailed down at the start of an encounter (normally, we were able to get a surprise round or at the least, a flat-footed foe), then he'd bum-rush everyone. Very hilarious, actually

[BluesEclipse]

Just remember - if you take Dragonwrought at level 1, you can take Dragon Wings at level 3.

[Vallum]

My buddy did the following:

Race: Half-Orc
Monk 3/Rogue 2/Half-Orc Paragon 3/Drunken Master 5/Bear Warrior 7

He was a Half-Orc who when he got drunk, became a Panda who threw chairs, tables, basically anything that wasn't nailed down at the start of an encounter (normally, we were able to get a surprise round or at the least, a flat-footed foe), then he'd bum-rush everyone. Very hilarious, actually

Who doesn't like being a pandarian brewmaster?

[Tokuhara]

Who doesn't like being a pandarian brewmaster?

The only bad thing was that just as he obtained his first level of Bear Warrior, Kung-Fu Panda came out, so the jokes went a-flyin'

[Vallum]

The only bad thing was that just as he obtained his first level of Bear Warrior, Kung-Fu Panda came out, so the jokes went a-flyin'

Ouch... Oh well, just go with the flow, throw in a skadoosh here and there, and you can qualm the other neigh-sayers.
Or just keep pumping pandarian quotes until everyone is annoyed with you.

[true_shinken]

This could help (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176049).
Builds on page 5.