Creating Caine

[Da'Shain]

Hey everyone,

So I just joined an exploration game, and having recently reread the Acts of Caine (http://mwstover.com/books-2/acts-of-caine/) series, my concept for a character was based on, well, Caine from those books. For those who haven't read it, Caine's a rather amoral bastard possessed of nearly unstoppable levels of determination, an attitude where everything is personal, and is "popularly considered to be the best infighter alive." He's known for being an assassin, but actually doesn't do all that much straight assassination, and his fighting style is very in your face, personal, joint-breaking whirlwind of destruction. He favors knives, short swords and, above all else, his fists, while still being scarily, intuitively intelligent, very stealthy/aware, and tactically brilliant.

So I thought for a while about what I wanted to use to build him, and what I settled on was a Monk into some sort of Psionic self-buffing build (either Psionic Fist or Tashalatora/Psychic Warrior), to reflect the supernatural level he eventually reaches and his training in body control/discipline. The campaign started at level 1; we had our first game recently. Luck, or lack thereof, kept him from doing too much that was cool that first session, and I'm looking forward to getting to higher levels where he'll hopefully shine; however, when I told my DM where I intended to take the character, he told me he's not running Psionics in his game, which puts a damper on that build real quick, hah. I should've asked first, but thankfully we only just got to 2nd level at the end of the session and I was planning on taking at least 2 levels of monk anyway.

So I'd like some advice as to where to take this character from here. Currently, here he is:

Jereth, Human Monk 1
STR 13, DEX 18, CON 12, INT 11, WIS 16, CHA 10
Skill Ranks: Escape Artist 2, Hide 4, Know(Religion) 2, Listen 2, Move Silently 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 2
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike (Monk), Stunning Fist (Monk), Weapon Finesse, Power Attack

I know Weapon Finesse and DEX 18 is probably not a great way to go, but it most definitely fits Caine's character as he's not incredibly strong but rather relies on speed and precision to do his damage.

Info about the game:
As I said, it's an exploration game, where I and my party have volunteered to leave a settlement and go out into the world that we know barely anything about. Party members are a Druid, a Paladin, a Fighter, a Sorceror, and me.

Currently, I know that all Completes (except Psionic) and the PH2 are fair game. Material from Eberron can also probably be finagled in, since the Fighter is a Warforged (everyone else is Human). Additionally, the DM has given noncaster classes some buffs. In the case of Monk, the only buff is to raise its BAB to full. For Fighter, they get +2 BAB at first level and 4+Int skill points. For Barbarian, I believe all they get is 6+Int skill points. Rogues get full BAB as well, Rangers get both Combat Styles instead of just one, and I think that Paladins just get 4+Int skill points, although I'm not totally sure.

So there it is. Currently, for my second level of Monk I'm probably gonna take Combat Reflexes and bump the stealth and awareness skills. After that, I'm considering taking a couple of levels of Barbarian to get Rage, Uncanny Dodge and Pounce (from the CC alternate class ability) so that I can flurry on a charge, but after that I'm really not sure where to go, and I'd really like to find some way to progress unarmed damage, speed, etc. while still doing that. I am open to alternate suggestions though. The DM has also said he will allow retraining in some cases.

So, what do people think?

[Da'Shain]

Any takers? Still not really sure what to go for here. Might try to talk the DM into some ToB stuff but not sure that'll fly.

[Aegis013]

If you want to be good at unarmed fighting, you should drop monk relatively quickly, pick up a level or two of Lion Spirit Totem (Complete Champion I believe for the ACF) Barbarian, maybe a couple of levels of fighter (Dungeon crasher from Dungeonscape is good) and go into Frenzied Berserker, (Complete Warrior) taking up Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Shock Trooper, possibly Leap Attack and if you can finagle it in, Steadfast Determination to get Will based on Constitution to get out of the frenzy from Frenzied Berserker.

If you want to use a weapon rather than purely unarmed, weilding a Guisarme (PHB, martial weapon) with Improved Trip is quite good.

But seriously... you'll want to drop monk fairly soon if you want to be good at unarmed combat. Monks are bad.

[Da'Shain]

I know, I'm not planning to be taking much more of monk, but I'm definitely taking at least the second level, and would like a way to continue getting the speed and unarmed damage buffs if possible (perhaps I'll use one of the Ascetic feats from CAdv). With my build, though, getting Will based on CON would be a mistake, as I have 16 WIS and 12 CON to start with. I'm not looking for ridiculously optimized here (hence Monk and hence the focus on DEX), but a build that'll replicate to some degree the character Caine while stil being at least middlingly effective. I'll definitely keep Barb/Fighter in mind, though, and was already thinking about the Barb ACF for Pounce, thanks.

So for now at least, the plan is Monk 2/Barb 1 or 2/?? I might try to go Sacred Fist and try to only use self-buffing spell to refluff it to being less magical, but I definitely do not like the whole "can't use other weapons at all" thing.