Fargrim Facesmasher, Dwarf Monk

[MachFarcon]

So I may or may not have a slight problem with building too many new characters.

I currently am in a 12th level 3.5 game. While my character hasn't kicked the bucket yet, it's shaping up to look like we might be going to fight some dragons.And not just any dragons. Super-Pissed-Last-of-Their-Kind-Evil-Dragons.

And thus I am currently building my back-up character. And since my current (still living) character is a caster, I'm going with a melee class next time.

Sadly my brain has latched onto a Dwarf Monk. And not just any Dwarf Monk. A Dwarf of Fargrim Legsmasher's caliber.

Fargrim Legsmasher was a Dwarf Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker who I played up to 11 (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UpToEleven) on being a crazy/vaguely sane barbarian. He also thought he was a short orc for the longest time. Also the dice gods apparently loved him. He stared down a greater demon (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StaringDownCthulhu) at level 5. I can provide more details if necessary.

So now I'm left with building a Dwarf Monk who believes that his fists can solve almost problem and doesn't understand the words "Caution", "Dangerous", or "Unbeatable". He sees no problem shouting things like "My Fists Are Hungry!" and "There Was Something On Your Face. It Was Pain!"

Now I know I can build a decent Monk while still keeping inline with Fargrim Facesmasher's (Name Pending) backstory.

But why settle for decent? Why not make an dwarf engine of destruction that happens to use his fists?

Fargrim Facesmasher started at a monk school simply because he liked punching things. While the school was able to teach fargrim how to punch things really, really well; teaching him serenity wasn't so easy. Eventually he parted ways with the school and started traveling the world, taking any job that let him use his fists to complete it.

I currently don't have my books on me and it's not laptop time at work yet, so I can't pull out any ebooks yet so this list might be slightly lacking.
So far, I'm thinking of running Monk 11/Fighter 1.
Picking up the Monk Belt, and the feats Superior Unarmed Strike and Improved Natural Attack.
I'm stopping at 11 for the monk since my unarmed damage doesn't go up past 20th.

Now I the question I pose to the playground is this: How can I maximize Fargrims fists without dipping into spellcasting or going counter to his backstory? All books are valid. Just seeing what you epic folks can come up with.

[Urpriest]

Are you aware of Fistbeard Beardfist (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=6062.0)?

[Gavinfoxx]

You can do this better with no levels of monk. Seriously.


1.) Be a Barbarian
2.) Take Whirling Frenzy (System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/cl...WhirlingFrenzy or Unearthed Arcana) or Ferocity (Cityscape Web Enhancement http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
3.) Take Spirit Lion Totem (Complete Champion, this helps tripping significantly. You might want to get the feat 'Knock-Down', in the SRD at some point as well)
4.) Take Wolf Totem (System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wolfTotemClassFeatures or Unearthed Arcana)
5.) Take Skilled City Dweller-ride for tumble (Cityscape Web Enhancement http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
6.) Take City Brawler (Dragon Magazine #349, you might need to convince the GM on this one. What it actually does is pretty simple: it removes proficiency in medium armor, martial weapons, and shields, adding instead Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, Two Weapon Fighting when fighting unarmed, the improved version at 6th, the greater at 11th, and reduces the penalty with improvised weapons from -4 to -2. Quite good for a 'Monk'. You might be able to just ask for those changes themselves, of something like them.)
7.) Take Streetfighter (Cityscape Web Enhancement http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
8.) Get the feat Superior Unarmed Strike (Tome of Battle)
9.) Get a Monk's Belt (Dungeon Master's Guide or System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#beltMonks. Before you get access to this, just wear light armor like normal.)
10.) Get a Necklace of Natural attacks (Savage Species, this lets you enchant unarmed strike with things beyond +#'s; very useful! You can get the smoking property to get a miss chance on your body, for example, or magebane or sure-striking!)
11.) Get a Fanged Ring (Dragon Magic)
12.) Take Snap Kick (Tome of Battle)
13.) Take Knock-Down (System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown and I believe also Unearthed Arcana)
14.) Take mobility skill tricks of various sorts, especially to do with charging (Complete Scoundrel)
15.) You now have a fantastic and brutal, hard style martial artist!

[MachFarcon]

Are you aware of Fistbeard Beardfist (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=6062.0)?

Hmmm...beard punching is kinda awesome. Hmmm...


You can do this better with no levels of monk. Seriously.


1.) Be a Barbarian
2.) Take Whirling Frenzy (System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/cl...WhirlingFrenzy or Unearthed Arcana) or Ferocity (Cityscape Web Enhancement http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
3.) Take Spirit Lion Totem (Complete Champion, this helps tripping significantly. You might want to get the feat 'Knock-Down', in the SRD at some point as well)
4.) Take Wolf Totem (System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wolfTotemClassFeatures or Unearthed Arcana)
5.) Take Skilled City Dweller-ride for tumble (Cityscape Web Enhancement http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
6.) Take City Brawler (Dragon Magazine #349, you might need to convince the GM on this one. What it actually does is pretty simple: it removes proficiency in medium armor, martial weapons, and shields, adding instead Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, Two Weapon Fighting when fighting unarmed, the improved version at 6th, the greater at 11th, and reduces the penalty with improvised weapons from -4 to -2. Quite good for a 'Monk'. You might be able to just ask for those changes themselves, of something like them.)
7.) Take Streetfighter (Cityscape Web Enhancement http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
8.) Get the feat Superior Unarmed Strike (Tome of Battle)
9.) Get a Monk's Belt (Dungeon Master's Guide or System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#beltMonks. Before you get access to this, just wear light armor like normal.)
10.) Get a Necklace of Natural attacks (Savage Species, this lets you enchant unarmed strike with things beyond +#'s; very useful! You can get the smoking property to get a miss chance on your body, for example, or magebane or sure-striking!)
11.) Get a Fanged Ring (Dragon Magic)
12.) Take Snap Kick (Tome of Battle)
13.) Take Knock-Down (System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown and I believe also Unearthed Arcana)
14.) Take mobility skill tricks of various sorts, especially to do with charging (Complete Scoundrel)
15.) You now have a fantastic and brutal, hard style martial artist!

Sweet. I'll have to make sure he allows dragon magazine. Other then that, Awesome idea. Quick question: Does this allow for 4D8 fist attacks?

[Gavinfoxx]

There's some errors -- it's WOLF Totem that helps with tripping and Spirit Lion that helps with charging.

Assuming level 3, 10 Str, Fanged Ring, Necklace of Natural Weapons: +1, Monk's Belt (this is significantly above wealth by level, but I am doing this for example purposes), with Superior Unarmed Strike @ L3:

LEVEL 3:
unarmed strike with improved unarmed strike: 1d3 lethal
monk's belt at level 3: treated as L5 Monk: 1d8
Superior Unarmed Strike: Treated as +4 monk, for L9 Monk: 1d10
(From Fanged Ring) improved natural attack: unarmed strike: 1d10 to 1d12
Necklace of Natural Weapons +1: +1 enhancement to hit and damage
Fanged Ring: does 1 point of con damage

Total: to hit: +4. Total unarmed damage: 1d12+1, +1 con damage. Note this is with 10 strength, and at level 3 (the earliest the combo can theoretically happen, due to prerequisites for superior unarmed strike). Add a 50 gp potion of Enlarge Person, or a casting of it, or the Expansion Power, and, well... that Barbarian is quite a good 'unarmed' combatant!

Also remember 4d8 is an average of 18 damage per attack. Which, with the Monk's MAD and terrible strength, and your strength focus, you will significantly surpass. Most of your damage should come from strength, after all -- but you'll have high up in the monk chart for sure for the actual dice rolling, no problem. It's not like the dice rolling is that big of a deal, though.

[Metahuman1]

Play an unarmed swordsage. If your DM is crazy see if he'll let you use that feat to stack a Psionic Class progression with monk onto swordsage instead, and then take levels in either Ardent or Psi-Warrior.

Then Dip 1 level each into warblade and crusader.

You are now all kinds of stupidly badass.