Pathfinder Monks

[Grytorm]

Three Questions about Pathfinder Monks

Are their any good dexterity based unarmed monks?

How good are the Alternative Monks class features (Especially Drunken Masters)?

What about the Vows from one of the books (Especially the Vow of Chains)?

[Drelua]

For the Archetypes, I don't know much about Drunken Masters, but I know Qinggong and Hungry Ghost Monk are good. I've also had a lot of fun with the Flowing Monk and Martial Artist. I'm currently running a Flowing Qinggong Monk, although its only at level 4 so all I've done so far is trade slow fall for True Strike, costs 1 ki point. That's a great trade if you ask me. Look at www.d20pfsrd.com (www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk) for a complete list. The vows all look like a terrible trade. The -1 attack and AC, in the case of the vow of chains is only a small inconvenience, but combined with the 10 foot penalty to speed you're losing a fair bit for 6 ki points in 20 levels. I'm rather surprised they don't get a penalty to Stealth, but that's certainly no complaint. This one might actually be worth it, especially if you make a Qinggong Monk, I'm not sure. It's definitely one of the better vows. I have no idea what they were thinking when they decided that the vow of cleanliness which, among other things, makes inable to use your main fighting style against undead, a very common enemy, was only worth 4 ki points over 20 levels.

I don't know about a DEX based monk, although an Agile Weapon (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons#TOC-Agile) is a must for such a character. Ask your DM if you can change the pricing of an amulet of mighty fists to be more in line with a normal weapon. I have no idea why they thought they needed to cost 2.5x as much as a normal weapon enhancement. Be sure to point out to your DM that monks can make just as many attacks with a monk weapon which can be well worth the lower damage die at the normal cost. If that doesn't work, see if your DM will allow 3.5 material. Savage Species had the Necklace of Natural Attacks, which costs the normal weapon enhancement price plus 600 times the number of attacks effected. Same thing as a reasonably priced Amulet of Mighty Fists.

[Krazzman]

Yes you can be a viable Dex based monk. You would be better of with a wisdom base but it can work.
You still want a Kukri if going for Hungry Ghost/Quingong.

Drunken Master can be fun but if looking for optimization it's not that good.
And as far as I can see it, you can't combine it with qingong to trade the other "crappy" monk abilities.

Drungen Master with fighting Styles can be good. (Dragon or Mantis could be good)

If your not going to be a Hungry Ghost monk...forget about a kukri. You now can wear knuckles and deal your monk dmg.

Vows:
Vows can be fun but nearly all there are crap.
The "good" ones would be truth (if it happens to compells your char idea) silence (going silent bob style).

[Stone Heart]

I would advise skipping the amulet of mighty fists and just going with brass knuckles. It may be two weapons to enchant, but thats still not as bad as the amulet, not to mention you could just use one, and attack with it just like somebody using a one handed weapon. Monks also can replace the low damage of the brass knuckles with their own unarmed strike damage.

Its also the only monk weapon I can think of that actually specifies that monks are proficient with it. All the other monk weapons released after the core book monks are not proficient with by RAW. Unless it has been updated somewhere and I missed it.

[Drelua]

I just realized that I was wrong about making a full Flurry of Blows with a single weapon, but if you wanted to save even more money you could just buy 1 weapon and use the extra attacks for maneuvers, maybe make a Maneuver Master Monk, I'm not sure how good that archetype is.

[Grytorm]

Why can't you trade in the other abilities for Ki Powers? The description of the Quiggong Monk says that you can replace the abilities not that you must. And if you look at the chart the abilities that can be traded in are in parenthesis, that probably means something.

Also any involvement with my DM is irrelevant because I have never found a group, (And have a lot of books). The character I had the idea for would be a small blue Goblin drunken master who carries around a barrel of wine on their back.