[PF] Hungry Ghost Monk - Increasing crit threat range

[DrJazz]

Hello.

I've looked for an answer to this question, but I haven't been able to find anything conclusive.

In a 3.P (so, mainly PF material with 3.X Material subject to DM approval), what's the best way to increase an Qinggong/Hungry Ghost Monk critical threat range? Since the Hungry Ghost archetype becomes especially powerful when you can reliably crit, it would be interesting to see the extent to which the odds can be stacked.

Ideally, we would be speaking in terms of unarmed fighting.

Since crit modifiers don't stack, the best I've seen is either a keen amulet of mighty fists or increased critical (Unarmed). Would it actually be possible to use the swordplay feat, coupled with the tiger stance? This enables your unarmed strikes to deal slashing damage, but would it be enough to qualify for the swordplay feat? It's the only way I've seen that gets me further than the 19-20 crit range unarmed.

Thanks,

[Fax Celestis]

Well, you could try to get into psychic weapon master (https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827d), but it's weird getting it to interact with unarmed strike, and you'd have to drop at least 3 levels on Ardent and spend a feat on Practiced Manifester. However, you could drop another feat on Talashtora and keep most of your monk goodness.

[grarrrg]

A Cestus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/weapons/weapon-descriptions/cestus) arguably lets you deal your Monk Unarmed Damage instead.

Arguably...

[DrJazz]

Good idea on the Cestus! Looking at the weapon entry, you get "While wearing a cestus, you are considered armed and your unarmed attacks deal normal damage. If you are proficient with a cestus, your unarmed strikes may deal bludgeoning or piercing damage."

So not only would you transpose the monk damage to the weapon, but you could also get swordplay to interact with it, since it's piercing damage! This would enable a monk to crit on a 16-20, as long as he burns a standard action for swordplay.


but it's weird getting it to interact with unarmed strike

No kidding, especially considering that, according to RAW, "The weapon must be a standard crystal melee weapon", so barring some weird race choice, right there it's probably going to exclude a monk's fists.


Thanks for all the feedback.

[Fax Celestis]

No kidding, especially considering that, according to RAW, "The weapon must be a standard crystal melee weapon", so barring some weird race choice, right there it's probably going to exclude a monk's fists.

Well, you could play a psiforged.

[DrJazz]

Well, you could play a psiforged.

A fair point, I didn't take those into account. It would take some conversion to make the class work in a PF environment due to the XP sacrificing mechanics. You could potentially avoid playing a psiforged if you use a crystal weapon designed for unarmed damage (such a the cestus or the brass knuckles pre-errata, which we house-ruled).

From a purely theorycrafting point of view, combining this with a cestus, improved critical and swordplay, you could get a 14-20 threat range. I'd think you're sacrificing a lot by that point, though. Dropping swordplay would enable a monk to flurry with a 15-20 threat range, meaning 30% of the strikes would be potential crits. By that point the Hungry Ghost is really taking advantage of it's abilities and becomes a ki machine, but you're making a lot of sacrifices to get there.

Anyway, thanks for the input!

[Fouredged Sword]

Well, one could take levels in Disciple of Dispatter and double the crit range for a Cestus. That puts you at...

17-20 with improved critical
means
15-20 with Dispatter
and
14-20 with swordplay.

[Larsen]

You can take a level in Cleric (Serenrae for favored weapon scimitar) and go crusader's flurry

Edit : oups, didn"t see specifically unarmed fighting