Shifter Monk build?

[Kamaei]

Hello, going to be participating within a new campaign and was wondering if anyone could give me some tips or possible suggestions/improvements I can make for my guy. The campaign is suppose to be mostly aquatic and here is what I had in mind in terms of leveling. In hope that the campaign last long, I was going to be the race Shifter with the shifting form of Dreamsight, if I can come up with an aquatic wise creature, take my first 6 levels in Monk, my next 3 levels as a Fist of the Forest and after that either 4 or 5 levels into Warshaper. Since Shifters are able to alter their form at will I am assuming that if I go into the 5th level of Warshaper he would gain Flashmorph. For feats I was going to with 1. Great Fortitude, 1. Monk's Improved Grapple, 2. Monk's Combat Reflexes, 3. Power Attack, 6. Superior Unarmed Strike, 6. Monk's Improved Trip, 9. Snap Kick, after this I have no idea what feats would be the best choice. And for this campaign, we were required to roll for our stats which gave me the numbers 14, 14, 15, 15, 17, 18. Would it be best to be str 18, dex 15, con 17, int 14, wis 15, cha 14?

[A.A.King]

I can tell you now there is no reason to take Warshaper 5. Shifting is already a free action and you only lose more BAB

What sources are you allowed to use? Are you allowed to use Dragon Magazines?

Also, if you don't mind me asking, what is it that you want to do with this character? Shifters are very nice, but you don't seem to be taking any Shifter Feats to increase the number of times per day that you can shift. And before other people are going to suggest you should go Unarmed Swordsage over Monk, what are you willing to change and what must absolutely stay.

Most important question: At what level do you begin?

[Kamaei]

As far as I know, we are beginning at level one. I don't know what sources we can use but I do know he won't allow 3rd party and I would have to see if I can use Dragon Magazines, for what reason? I am still open to change almost anything, I just really wanted to try something with Monk and focus on melee, unarmed striking and monk with FotF and Warshaper seem like a fun idea

[Dr. Azkur]

Aquatic wise creature? The dolphin is pretty smart. You could think him wise...
The turtles in Seeking Nemo seemed to know about life... What about tuna? I don't know... if there's no such thing as an aquatic owl then slap aquatic the template into a regular own and there you have the wisest aquatic animal thing. Or something. That's legit right? If we're throwing templates into stuff that we're not going to play, what about multi-headed creature? No? What about it twice? Come on, That's the Three-headed Sea Owl right there! That's like the national animal of Bolivia or something.

*cough*

Getting serious. To me there is only one sea animal one can turn into and keep their pride, and that's the good old shark. Wise or not.

On the build issue. I would enter Warshaper as soon as possible and leave everything else for the later levels. Warshaper is one of the best PrC a melee combatant can get in my opinion. Fist of the forest is great but I wouldn't delay Morphic Body. This is all secondary, if you want to keep your original order, then I'm not stopping you.

Want some feats? I'll get you some feats: Willing deformities aka hitting yourself with a rock until you get superpowers:
Yeah. Gotta be evil. Not your thing? Think about it. WD Tall gets you 5ft. To your reach, which yes, it does stack with Morphic Reach. Why is this good? Well first of all you're a monk and you flurry. Imagine flurrying from 15ft. Away. Picture what you're arms are doing. They're extending and retracting several times per second out to 15 FEET. If that image alone doesn't convince you then look at the mechanics I guess. Flurrying from afar means you're less likely to have to move, which means you'll flurry more often, which means you're a happy man. Besides, you're also tripping (I would be tripping too with this stuff (http://instantrimshot.com/classic/?sound=rimshot))

Now from here on things get nasty, only read if you're with me on the nasty here.

Beast Strike.
Man this is bad.
I wouldn't want to be those sahuagin or tuna man or whatever it is you're gonna be fighting.
In case you're not aware of that feat: It adds your natural weapon damage to your unarmed strike. To each one. Yeah.
You're a monk. You want this. You know you want this. You can't say no to an extra d8 to each of your punches. You're punching way too much to deny that.
EDIT: OH YEAH! You also get to do you flurry routine and then go with the natural weapons again. This is dirty.

Other stuff you should consider:
-Shou Disciple: PrC Monk with Badassery, Profession (Hitting things hard) and Craft (Heavy Bruises) as the only class skills. This is as solid as things get for monks.
-Warlock*. Yeah Warlock. By itself this suggestion looks like I would screw up a Warblade build. But Warlock + Eldritch Claws + Beast Strike (Which you are getting one way or another, young man). This might even be better than WD Clawed Hands if you pour enough levels into Warlock or your DM rules that Practiced Spellcaster advances Eldritch Blast. If he does, then there is no reason not to go this way, this is... heavy.
You even get to pick a few invocations.
-Warblade. There is no build that doesn't gain benefits from a dip or a small progression in an initiator class. And Oh, are there some treats for you in here, friend. Plus you may need the BAB.
-Barbarian. You're into that whole "ENTERING BOOST PHASE" thing, right? Well the good Barbarian was the first to get that. Plus the Ferocity ACF is activated as an immediate action and it rises your AC instead of lowering it since it changes CON for DEX. Gotta leave the law behind, of course.

*This section may not have been very clear if you're not savvy on the Clawlock concept or have no idea what Dragon Magazine is. In which case let me know.

This has been my contribution for the day.

[A.A.King]

I asked for Dragon Magazine because it has the "City Brawler Barbarian" variant, which especially when it comes to Shifters is a better unarmed fighter.

It also holds the "Beaststrike (http://www.realmshelps.net/cgi-bin/featbox.pl?feat=Beast_Strike)" feat, which is also nice if you take a shifter trait which gives you claws.

EDIT: Ninja'd on the Beaststrike

You might want to check out: The Shifter's Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225294)

[dysprosium]

I forget the issue of Dragon Magazine (but I know it was near the end of the printed run), but there was an article about shifter Monks and had a bunch of feats and a style mastery.

My google fu was found out that the issue was 355