Arcanopath Monk on an Anti Mage Gesalt?

[silverwolfer]

Am just wondering how folks feel about the arcanopath monk on a gesalt mage slayer?

You get your usual anti caster monk goodness (pre level 6) , then arcano path has the ability to , deflect ray spells , full monk ability progression , see invisibility as a permant ability , attack ethreal creatures without fail

Confusion *fail spell chance 50% , silence, deafness .force casters to forgot the highest level spells they know, each once per class level.

So you can silence a mage at level 5 monk 5 times, and still force casters to forget 5 times also, they all run separate meters.

[tyckspoon]

It's not worth ten levels, IMO. It's neat- I really just adore that the class allows you to literally slap spells out of somebody's head- and it's certainly better than continuing in base-class Monk, but it's not all that good for what you want it to do, for the simple reason that all of its anti-caster attacks require you to successfully lay a hand on the caster. If you can do that, you probably can kill or otherwise contain your opponent with more general abilities as well.

I'd get out after 6th; Strike of Confusion is decent (because it works against Spell-likes as well, so it can be used to debuff some pretty nasty critters.. and it lasts longer than the measly one round of the deafen/silence strikes), Allseeing Eye is really handy (if you enter at Monk 5, then you get permanent See Invis at level 11, which is only 1 after a caster can Permanence it anyway) and Deflect Spell is nice. The rest of the stuff is forgettable; Slap of Forgetfulness is excellent flavor but doesn't do enough to immediately end a caster's threat (1d4 spell slots by 12th level? Really? They're going to be mildly annoyed.) Empty Hand is highly situational; if your DM is *really* fond of Ethereal, go for it, but otherwise.. Ethereal beings usually can't hurt you while still Ethereal, so if you're going to be fighting one you should have a chance to punch it while it's on your plane.

If you want to continue with Monkliness, consider finishing off with Monk of the Enabled Hand. Still nothing truly special, but there's some nice melee stuff in there- ability to make touch attacks, counter-strike with an AoO when people hit you, and smack people with high-bonus Bull Rushes when you hit them (combine with a few levels in Dungeon Crasher Fighter.)