Monk Damage ?

[j_spencer93]

Not asking for help making a build but figuring out damage for a character. In the game i allowed him to surpass max damage for a monk (didn't matter though he didn't make it that far, and noticed a mistake on monk and epic monk. monk ends damage at 2d10 but epic says it does not progress past 16th level or 2d8). He would of ended up as a level 20 monk, with a monk's tattoo, monk's belt, superior unarmed strike and gauntlet of talon (+18 effective monk levels for unarmed) and counted as huge (idr how...not sure if it was even right now that i think of it). Out of curiosity what damage would this have been if their had not been a max monk damage cap?
Edit: Mistake on DM part too, he had a monk's belt and i let it stack. As i did with superior unarmed strike too.

[Devronq]

Not asking for help making a build but figuring out damage for a character. In the game i allowed him to surpass max damage for a monk (didn't matter though he didn't make it that far, and noticed a mistake on monk and epic monk. monk ends damage at 2d10 but epic says it does not progress past 16th level or 2d8). He would of ended up as a level 20 monk and unarmed swordsage 10, with a monk's tattoo, monk's belt, superior unarmed strike and gauntlet of talon (+21 effective monk levels for unarmed) and counted as huge (idr how...not sure if it was even right now that i think of it). Out of curiosity what damage would this have been if their had not been a max monk damage cap?
Edit: Mistake on DM part too, he had a monk's belt and i let it stack. As i did with superior unarmed strike too.

The mistake on the epic monk is probably because your looking at a 3.5 phb and the epic level handbook was a 3.0 book that doesn't have a 3.5 version. (Although there is errata and it may have fixed this)

[j_spencer93]

Bingo. I just noticed that. Also noticed i let this player get by with a lot he shouldn't have...removed swordsage levels from the equation because he wasnt even realistically close to them.

[j_spencer93]

actually would anyone even allow monk's to bypass their max damage? I have had a lot of them in game and they are not that great. I have a character that is a Minotaur Thayan Gladiator 3, and prob looking to go into monk then hulking brute so might have to deal with this again if it follows the usually munchkin damage ways of him.

[Brookshw]

actually would anyone even allow monk's to bypass their max damage? I have had a lot of them in game and they are not that great. I have a character that is a Minotaur Thayan Gladiator 3, and prob looking to go into monk then hulking brute so might have to deal with this again if it follows the usually munchkin damage ways of him.

As in go above 2d10? I'd absolutely allow it, they need the love.

[Curmudgeon]

There are lots of ways for Monks to increase their unarmed damage. Improved Natural Attack (unarmed strike) (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#improvedNaturalAttack) is a feat pretty much every Monk should take. A Necklace of Natural Attacks (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20060707a) will let your Monk add magical enhancements to their unarmed strike just as you would with manufactured weapons. The big damage boost, though, is from a daily casting of Greater Mighty Wallop (Races of the Dragon, page 115). Get your party Sorcerer/Wizard to cast that (and maybe buy a level 3 Pearl of Power (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#pearlofPower) so they're not just eating the spell cost) and you're pretty much set.

Damage isn't the Monk's problem; pretty much every other facet of the class is. :smallsigh:

[j_spencer93]

I agree the monk is lackluster, but yes i mean by going over 2d10, and the reason i asked about damage alone is the player that uses monk almost always combines it with Minotaur (we play no la, yet oddly rarely have LA+1 or great classes), and loves his unarmed damage being ridiculous. So was curious as to what it would of came out to by removing the damage cap, and yes i knew about the natural attack improvements. PH directly stats unarmed is a natural attack. Great combo.

[Darrin]

By RAW, a large-sized monk 20 can do 4d8 damage. However, you can increase it beyond that by increasing your size (or your effective size), and you can choose which increases happen in what order. From 4d8, you can use the Improved Natural Attack progression from MM or use the chart in the Rules Compendium to take it up to 6d8, 8d8, then 12d8. That's where the table stops... some people like to extrapolate it further than that, hence you may get King of Smack shenanigans with 48d8 damage.

Improved Natural Attack, Totem Avatar bound to your shoulder chakra, battlefist, and Fist of the Forest may be used to increase your damage by a step or two, but some of these have "issues". Fist of the Forest, for example, can be read very literally to only work if you have exactly 1d8 unarmed damage. But most DMs I'm familiar with just handwave it as a size increase.

[Brookshw]

As Curmodgeon and Darrin point out there are a lot of ways to pump monk dr via size modifiers (and I'll throw in Warshaper as another). Also consider some of the Psionics, iirc there's a feat that would allow an additional 2d6 with the expenditure of your focus.

[j_spencer93]

thanks Darrin, that will help. I was more wonder on how to figure out the damage for the information i gave. That table may help in trying to figure out this damage.
I know psionics can greatly improve this, and so can size increase and yes for some reason my player had his unarmed damage as a medium character raised to huge (not sure why he had it that way, shouldn't he have risen two size categories higher then large?) but those were not present in his build.

[Rubik]

If your monk player wants damage, show him this build. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15474863#post15474863) It stacks magic items and ACFs to give a nearly entirely monk build lots and lots of damage and utility.

And avoid the amulet of natural attacks in the DMG/SRD. It does not allow you to have +X equivalent abilities, as written, but only gives numerical bonuses. Use Savage Species' necklace of natural weapons, instead. And then use a tooth of Leraje from Tome of Magic to get your +5 enhancement kick.

[j_spencer93]

The ideas on here and my reading one punch man lead to my other post.