[3.5] Ascetic Mage

[A.A.King]

I feel like making an Enlightened Fist (starting at level 1), and to be precise Monk / Sorcerer. Problem is, I want to start as a Monk (as it's more of a Monk then a Caster) yet Ascetic Mage can only be taken after 4 levels of sorcerer and until that my AC would suffer from having Wisdom as a dump state.

So, is Magical Training + Precocious Apprentice + Ascetic Mage as a Human with 1 flaw a good way to make it a more viable build (when you start as a Monk) so that from level 1 on I could participate in Melee Combat instead of being a caster for 4 levels or ? Or am I wasting to much resources into it?

(BTW: Another plus of this combo is that I can use the spell from Precocious Apprentice (which normally has a chance to fail when being cast) to get guaranteed +2 on Attack and Damage for 1 round a day.)

[Red Fel]

So... Your goal is to be a monk with a handful of spells?

Because the problem many melee-casters face is that of the action economy. To wit: You generally can't attack and cast a spell in the same round. So if you're doing one, it means you're not doing the other. And if you're optimizing one, that means that in rounds you do the other, your performance suffers.

So is your goal to be a monk with a handful of utility spells, or a spellcaster who can smack things when he runs out of juice?

[A.A.King]

A Monk with a Handful of spells aiming for Enlightend Fist (which allows you to sort-of cast and attack with Arcane Fist)

[Psyren]

To answer your question, yes Magical Training + PA works. Personally I would just go with Sorc 4/Monk 1 though. Those two feats you blew just to feel like a monk at early levels won't do a thing for you once you hit level 5+.

If you can retrain them though go for it.

[Red Fel]

To answer your question, yes Magical Training + PA works. Personally I would just go with Sorc 4/Monk 1 though. Those two feats you blew just to feel like a monk at early levels won't do a thing for you once you hit level 5+.

If you can retrain them though go for it.

Correct me, though, Psy - Magical Training doesn't actually give you a caster level, does it?

I thought PA required arcane caster level 1.

I agree with going Sorc 4/ Monk 1, though. That's the easy method.

[Psyren]

Correct me, though, Psy - Magical Training doesn't actually give you a caster level, does it?

Magical Training lacks the line from Hidden Talent that its caster level isn't actually a caster level. So it's much more of a gray area.

[A.A.King]

I know it's easier but I'm just wondering if you can do it differently. The order in which you take classes defines your character and right now I'm working (just for a bit of fun) on a bunch different type of Monks from a Monk School. There's bit of a story behind why each of them can be so very different but not going into that. Big catch is though that there first or second level pretty much has to be Monk and remain monkish throughout. That's why I was wondering if this was a decent combo and if it had any other benefits.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You can replace Sorcerer with Wizard and get Kung-Fu Genius from Dragon Compendium or Carmendine Monk in Champions of Valor to replace Wis with Int for Monk abilities. You can even take either of those as a Monk 1 without any effort.