building a monk

[kaaskeizer]

yes, i am building a monk ^^
its gonna be a lvl 17 character with a divine rank of 0 (the same goes for the other party members) all stats start at 10, there is point buy off, we get 31 ability points to spend and we get an extra feat at lvl 10

the max u can put into a stat = 18 + racial changes (and then the level depended increases in scores)its a lot! i know!! =D were allowed to take any race, as long as its a humanoid and can speak in a kind of language
anyone know how to turn this guy into a heavy hitter? let me know ^^

im kind of stuck on how many lvls i want to put in monk, and when to lv it, since u cant go back to lvling monk the moment u take another path
i think thats all the info i have..

does anyone have special hints on how to increase the die size/amount of dice when dealing damage besides for the few psion abilitys that allow u to do so?
thanx so far to the people that helped me in the past =D & gods praise the giant that cooked up this playground ^^

-Kaas Keizer

[morkendi]

I did a monk build that worked out pretty good. I did cobra strike monk 2, pally 2, fighter 2, dervish 10. Had to take versatile unarmed strike to qualify for dervish, and I did VoP. I took some feat called animal devotion or something that I can't remember the exact name, but it gave me flight. I have not capped the last 4 lvls yet as we have not played that far. May go druid or scout, though I am thinking warlock or wilder to get a range attack or something.

I have the build in a previous post, but I am at work, so I can't link it. AC, saves, and bab turned out really good. Plus you can move and still do a full attack with some really good damage bonuses from exalted feats and dervish.

[morkendi]

Forgot. With the really high saves from pally and such plus evation and high ac and touch ac, it was really hard to hurt me at all.

[The Trickster]

yes, i am building a monk ^^
its gonna be a lvl 17 character with a divine rank of 0 (the same goes for the other party members) all stats start at 10, there is point buy off, we get 31 ability points to spend and we get an extra feat at lvl 10

the max u can put into a stat = 18 + racial changes (and then the level depended increases in scores)its a lot! i know!! =D were allowed to take any race, as long as its a humanoid and can speak in a kind of language
anyone know how to turn this guy into a heavy hitter? let me know ^^

im kind of stuck on how many lvls i want to put in monk, and when to lv it, since u cant go back to lvling monk the moment u take another path
i think thats all the info i have..

does anyone have special hints on how to increase the die size/amount of dice when dealing damage besides for the few psion abilitys that allow u to do so?
thanx so far to the people that helped me in the past =D & gods praise the giant that cooked up this playground ^^

-Kaas Keizer

Usually, a 1,2, or 6 level dip into monk is pretty good. I personally feel they start to drop off after that. As for the rest of the class, what kind if character would you like to make? Damage dealer? Skill monkey-ish guy? That will impact the rest of the build.

As for increased damage, Improved Natural Attack is a monks best friend. :smallsmile:

[Phelix-Mu]

I did a monk build that worked out pretty good. I did cobra strike monk 2, pally 2, fighter 2, dervish 10. Had to take versatile unarmed strike to qualify for dervish, and I did VoP. I took some feat called animal devotion or something that I can't remember the exact name, but it gave me flight. I have not capped the last 4 lvls yet as we have not played that far. May go druid or scout, though I am thinking warlock or wilder to get a range attack or something.

I have the build in a previous post, but I am at work, so I can't link it. AC, saves, and bab turned out really good. Plus you can move and still do a full attack with some really good damage bonuses from exalted feats and dervish.

There's a feat that can let a monk burn stunning fist attempts at range; I think it's Ring the Golden Bell, from one of the Dragon Magz. And the spell blood wind from SpC works pretty well, but I gues that won't work particularly well with VoP. It's a druid spell, though, so that could work.

[DMVerdandi]

There's a feat that can let a monk burn stunning fist attempts at range; I think it's Ring the Golden Bell, from one of the Dragon Magz. And the spell blood wind from SpC works pretty well, but I gues that won't work particularly well with VoP. It's a druid spell, though, so that could work.

the ki blast feat from phb 2

[Gray Mage]

What books can you use? Are you set on being a Monk (as in the class) or just a magical unarmed fighter?

[Phelix-Mu]

the ki blast feat from phb 2

Nah, the mechanic for Ring the Golden Bell is much better, from what I recall.

Here's from my notes:
RING THE GOLDEN BELL
Prereqs: Wis 13, Improved Unarmed Strike,
Stunning Fist, Weapon Focus (unarmed strike), base attack
bonus +5.
Benefit: A number of times per day equal to 1 plus your
Wisdom bonus, you may inflict unarmed strike damage with
a successful ranged attack. This attack has a range increment
equal to 5 feet plus 5 feet per point of Wisdom bonus. Normal
cover modifiers apply. This attack can deliver any effect your
unarmed strike can normally deliver, such as a stunning
attack due to the Stunning Fist feat.
Suggested Class/Race: Martial Artist
Dragon Magazine #: 319

Hmm, so some benefits over ki blast, some drawbacks.

[kaaskeizer]

Usually, a 1,2, or 6 level dip into monk is pretty good. I personally feel they start to drop off after that. As for the rest of the class, what kind if character would you like to make? Damage dealer? Skill monkey-ish guy? That will impact the rest of the build.

As for increased damage, Improved Natural Attack is a monks best friend. :smallsmile:

was going for an easy going hard hitter, im makin this char for a friend of mine that is still kind of new to the D&D world. so I don't think giving him a skill based character will do too much good for now. also he really wants to stay weaponless, so dervish isn't much of a choice...\

he wanted defensive auras, and things like rage to be the key to his fighting. (with this, increasing and decreasing his damage) much like ken from fist of the north star or goku from DBZ when he uses kaio ken

[Phelix-Mu]

In before punchbarian.:smallcool:

[kaaskeizer]

In before punchbarian.:smallcool:

exactly xD

[kaaskeizer]

What books can you use? Are you set on being a Monk (as in the class) or just a magical unarmed fighter?

all official 3.5 books, and magazines. as long as we can show the original source

[Gavinfoxx]

Here are the major 'replacements' for monk. Are any of these interesting to you?

1.) Unarmed Swordsage, from Tome of Battle. This is the most obvious Monk 2.0. Go take a look at it; the Unarmed bit is an Adaptation of the monk, and it does everything the monk wanted to do.

2.) Tashalatora Psychic Warrior. What you do with this is take a level or 2 of Monk, the Tashalatora feat from Secrets of Sarlona, and go into Psychic Warrior from Expanded Psionics Handbook or the System Resource Document and never look back. Instead of Psychic Warrior, Ardent (from Complete Psionics) can work well, too.

3.) (Whirling Frenzy [System Resource Document or Unearthed Arcana] or Ferocity [Cityscape Web Enhancement]) Spirit Lion Totem (Complete Champion), Wolf Totem (System Resource Document or Unearthed Arcana) Barbarian. Like that barbarian build I linked to, those are the core changes and acf's of the barbarian class to make it more monk-like. Take Skilled City Dweller-ride for tumble (Cityscape Web Enhancement), City Brawler (Dragon Magazine #349), Streetfighter (Cityscape Web Enhancement). I would suggest Whirling Frenzy over Ferocity like that build took. Just get Improved Unarmed Strike, Superior Unarmed Strike (Tome of Battle), a Monk's Belt (DMG or SRD, if your wisdom is high), some light armor (if your wisdom isn't high, or you can't afford the monk's belt yet),, a Necklace of Natural attacks (Savage Species), and/or a Fanged Ring (Dragon Magic). In fact, any of these builds could maybe use those items!

4.) Monk 2/Mystic/Sacred Fist. This monk build uses a divine class, and the 'text over table' rule to get full casting for the Sacred Fist prestige class in complete divine. It works okay with Cleric, great with the Mystic class from Dragonlance Campaign Setting (choose a strong melee domain or devotion [complete champion!]), and pretty good with Favored Soul from Complete Divine. Don't take more than 2 levels of Monk. Focus on long-duration self-buffs.

5.) Monk with a huuuuge variety of alternative class features. Namely: Wild Monk (Dragon Magazine #324), Holy Strike (Complete Champion), Invisible Fist (Champions of Valor), Resistant Body (Planar Handbook), who picks up the 'X Wild Shape' (where X is a descriptor) feats from Draconomicon, Book of Exalted Deeds, and Frostburn. Make sure the DM lets you use your unarmed strikes at the end of your natural attacks, or before them. Focus on Wild Shape forms that get Pounce. Only works as 'powerful' once you get Wild Shape, and if you use a method of speaking while in Wild Shape (Pearls of Speech work), and of getting your gear to work while in Wild Shape as well (Wilding Clasps, or taking it off and putting it on after you shape).

[shaikujin]

Shameless plug: I've got a monk build that does 6k damage per hit in my sig. Though it uses a 2 handed weapon for power attack damage multipliers.

There are many cool monk builds in that thread as well.

Since you don't have restrictions, you can replace the majority of the monk levels.

With a combination some of the items below:

Gauntlet of Talons (the version in Complete Dvine), Monk's belt, Battle Fist, Fanged ring, Tash feat, superior unarmed strike (add monk's tattoo if DM allows it to stack),

you can actually do it with 1 monk level.

Morph the weapon into a gauntlet/cestus/battlefist if you want to look weaponless.

[morkendi]

Here is the build I used. Even though it is dervish, he doesn't use weapons because of versatile unarmed strike which make his unarmed strikes count as slashing weapons. He has leveled a couple more since this, but I just copied and pasted from old post. I just took 2 more levels dervish and got the animal devotion feat.

Built it for a low op game I was invited to. I was told to make a character lvl 12.

Cobra strike monk 2/ pally 2/ fighter 2/ dervish 6.

Feats are weapon focus unarmed strike, combat expertise, versatile unarmed strike, combat reflexes, elusive target, superior unarmed strike, improved natural attack, flay foe, sacred vow, vow of poverty, kai strike, sanctify kai strike, holy kai strike.

Current stats with all vow bonuses. Str 14, con 16, dex 20, int 3, wis 18, cha 16. Ac with out dervish dance but all vow stuff is 33 with 24 flat and 28 touch. Saves are fort 20/ ref 12/ will 10. To hit before dance is 16/12/6 with flurry 14/14/9/4. Damage 2d8+4 plus 2d6 vs evil plus 1d6 flay foe plus 3 to hit and damage when dancing.

The way things work, I can activate dance first round, after that I can move and flurry because they work together.

Turned out fairly well in combat. We went to the temple of Orcus and faced a ton of demons. I was able to use elusive target a lot to make them hit each other as well. Elusive target is an awesome feat.

With evasion and such, very fun character to play.

[kaaskeizer]

so, where do i find vows? & how do they work?


p.s. thank u all ^^

[Karnith]

so, where do i find vows? & how do they work?
The vows are exalted feats, found in the Book of Exalted Deeds. They can only taken by characters of the highest moral fiber, and generally involve swearing off some behavior or action. For example, Vow of Poverty precludes using most items, in exchange for magical benefits that are intended to compensate you for the loss of items, while with Vow of Chastity you give up engaging in sexual acts in exchange for a bonus on saving throws against charm and phantasm effects.

And to answer your second question: Not particularly well, generally.

[Gavinfoxx]

& how do they work?


Incredibly badly. If you want to make one of the weakest characters in the game, make a vow of poverty monk.