So....monkey as a PC

[felhanded]

Ohai fellow GITP people.

I'll be playing d&d in the coming weekend and my character will be a monkey xD
Basically I'll be playing our druids animal companion though the use of an Awaken spell.

However I've encountered a slight problem with picking my class. I initially thought of playing a cleric, but since we have a new guy in our group who also wants to play a cleric and I allowed him to get the cleric spot instead. As a result I'm pretty blank on what class to pick now, I thought about monk but since a monkey get an absurd low str. score (3) any damage I can do will pretty much be non-existent.

So, I wondered if any of you had any good ideas on what class to pick, I should mention I'm not much into arcane casters, but can be persuaded into playing one if the general class idea is awesome.

Also, is it possible, either through the use of feats or anything class related, to add your dex modifier to your damage rolls instead of str?

Regards

- Felhanded

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Vanara from Oriental Adventures are monkey-like humanoids, or you can use the Pathfinder version (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/uncommon-races/arg-vanaras) as there's not much difference.

An Awakened animal cannot serve as an animal companion, as it's no longer an animal after being Awakened. Also keep in mind Awaken adds two racial hit dice, which is basically two levels in the Magical Beast (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#magicalBeastType) class which are not optional and count toward your character's total level.

[felhanded]

Vanara from Oriental Adventures are monkey-like humanoids, or you can use the Pathfinder version (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/uncommon-races/arg-vanaras) as there's not much difference.

An Awakened animal cannot serve as an animal companion, as it's no longer an animal after being Awakened. Also keep in mind Awaken adds two racial hit dice, which is basically two levels in the Magical Beast (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#magicalBeastType) class which are not optional and count toward your character's total level.

the glory of homebrew rules, we talked about that and decided to look the other way regarding the racial HD's and I would still be able to serve as an animal companion. Should have worded myself better I guess

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

the glory of homebrew rules, we talked about that and decided to look the other way regarding the racial HD's and I would still be able to serve as an animal companion. Should have worded myself better I guess

Still, the added hit dice from being an animal companion will count toward your character's level. Plus the Druid and the whole party would be better off with his own physically useful animal companion, your character being his animal companion only deprives the party of an additional useful body.

[felhanded]

Still, the added hit dice from being an animal companion will count toward your character's level. Plus the Druid and the whole party would be better off with his own physically useful animal companion, your character being his animal companion only deprives the party of an additional useful body.

As a 5 player party, we don't give a damn about if it's useful or not, we play to have fun, and we think this is fun.

[Dessembrae]

I picture a monkey being a.. well, a skillmonkey. Try for a good Int score and go Factotum!

[felhanded]

Think I've heard about Factotum, in which book is that featured?

[Dessembrae]

It's from Dungeonscape.

[RoyVG]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125732) might be worth a look. There a a few ways to get Dex to damage, but most are limited to one or a few weapons. Most also have other limitation, such as being within 30 ft only for ranged weapons.

One of the 'best' melee ways IMO is the Shadow Blade feat, which can be easily take at level 1 using the Swordsage from Tome of Battle. If you go any other route, it will take 3 feats to get it instead of 1, because you need a to be in a Stance from the Shadow Hand discipline to have it activate. The Text says it adds Dex to Damage and does no replace, so you still get the damage penalty for a sucky strength, but it's better than nothing.

As additional advice, if your Strength is low, you should try and find other ways of damage increases like Flaming, Shocking, etc weapons, Sneak attack and other straight up increases in damage. Even if your weapon deals 1 damage, 1d6 flaming and 1d6 Sneak attack improves this to 8 on average. A higher level stance of Shadow Hand (Assassin's stance) gives 2d6 Sneak attack, adding more damage. Tome of Battle is full of these types of damage boosters at early and later levels going so far to even just straight up add 100 damage if you hit with one maneuver.

tl;dr Tome of Battle, because I like Tome of Battle too much :smallbiggrin:.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Beguiler from PH2 would work out, it doesn't rely on Strength at all. It's basically an Int-based spontaneous caster with Rogue skills and a huge automatically-known spell list with mostly enchantments, illusions, utility spells, and a few party buffs and crowd controls. See if you can get him to use (a Rod of) Maximize Spell with Awaken to automatically get Int 18.

[felhanded]

Thanks for all the replies :D

It's decided, I shall hereby be a ninja monkey!

[Emmerask]

I picture a monkey being a.. well, a skillmonkey. Try for a good Int score and go Factotum!

and here i wanted to make that awesome joke... ah well all thats left is to congratulate you sir:smallwink:

[Psyren]

As a 5 player party, we don't give a damn about if it's useful or not, we play to have fun, and we think this is fun.

Then why are you asking for optimization help? Seems an odd approach to take if "you don't give a damn if its useful or not." :smallconfused:

[Razanir]

I picture a monkey being a.. well, a skillmonkey. Try for a good Int score and go Factotum!

Dessembrae: You, sir, have just won one free internet for that comment.

Felhanded: Or go Bard and pick the cymbals as your instrument. :smalltongue:

[Waker]

I'd say go Scout over Ninja. More skill points, Skirmish over Sudden Strike, extra feats and some other handy sneaky type stuff.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Classes for ninjas, in order of effectiveness:

Swordsage or Factotum
Rogue or Scout
Ninja

[unseenmage]

Friend of mine once built a straight Awakened Monkey Monk and wielded an Adamantine coffee mug. Between his climbing and bashing through any lock with that mug he made the best burglar ever.

[Waker]

Classes for ninjas, in order of effectiveness:

Swordsage or Factotum
Rogue or Scout
Ninja

I'd put some other stuff like Bard and Spellthief into there on the middle to low end of the spectrum.

Friend of mine once built a straight Awakened Monkey Monk and wielded an Adamantine coffee mug. Between his climbing and bashing through any lock with that mug he made the best burglar ever.
Lemme guess, he said he was a Java Monkey.

[angry_bear]

Should go Artificer and play Mojo JoJo...

[Psyren]

Classes for ninjas, in order of effectiveness:

Swordsage or Factotum
Rogue or Scout
Ninja


Psychic Rogue overlooked again :smallfrown:

[Captnq]

So... you are playing an anthropomorphic monkey from savage species?

Anthropomorphic Monkey
-4 str, +2 dex, +4 wis, -2 cha
small 30 ft.
Bonus Feat: weapon finesse
Prefered Class: druid
Type: monstrous humanoid

Source:
Savage Species pg. 215 (anthropomorphic)
Monster Manual pg. 276, Monster Manual errata (feats)

Well... You'll want to stick with anything Wisdom based. I'd go with the recommended base class and stick with Druid. CoDzilla seems to be the way to go.