Need help making basic chassis into useful member of party

[Xintas]

So I have always wanted to play an Elocater...

WAIT DON'T LEAVE!

I'm only going into it with one level so that I can get scorn earth. I plan on using Cobra Strike Monk and Ardent (Freedom, Light and Darkness, and Deception mantles) to meet the prerequisites.

With speed increases from Monk, Freedom mantle, and possibly Speed of thought + Travel Devotion, I will be fast. Through in Wis to AC plus Deception mantles blur, I'm going to be very hard to hit.

But what do I bring to the party?

I am looking either for:

A. A viable way to build on this chassis to do a respectable amount of damage

or (less desirably)

B. A way to turn this chassis into an acceptable thief style skill monkey without having wasted too much with the first few levels.


Without changing the first few levels, what would you recommend for either option?

[John Longarrow]

Sorry,
With Monk, I have to ask why you won't take Sword Sage instead? 2 levels gets Wis to AC, 4 and Wis to damage. PLUS maneuvers...

[Xintas]

Sorry,
With Monk, I have to ask why you won't take Sword Sage instead? 2 levels gets Wis to AC, 4 and Wis to damage. PLUS maneuvers...

Cobra strike monk gets me 2 of the three prereqs for Elocater, freeing up my feats for things like speed of thought, zen archery/intuitive attack, etc., as well as Wis to AC, ability to make unarmed attacks, and evasion.

[Xintas]

Also, Tome of Battle is one of the only non setting-specific crunch books that I don't have, so I try to avoid using it.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Since you already have 2 levels of Monk and 2 psionic levels you might as well get the Tashalatora(SoS) feat and continue with psionics. Your mantles aren't all that great so it's probably worth taking a mantle with strong powers at first level and staying in the Ardent class for 10 levels for the Dominant Ideal ACF. That also increases your unarmed damage and maxes out your flurry of blows feature.

To take advantage of that look into increasing your unarmed damage as much as possible. (see this handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?127732-3-X-Increasing-Size-Effective-Size-Unarmed-Damage-Reach&p=7081777#post7081777))
Sadly two of the really good unarmed options are in ToB (Superior Unarmed Strike and Snap Kick).

Fill out the rest with either more psionics or take some dips to take advantage of your high wisdom score. (X stat to Y bonus handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?125732-3-x-X-stat-to-Y-bonus))

Alternatively a Psychic Rogue (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b) makes an excellent skillmonkey and can qualify for Elocator easily if your DM allows you to use the Martial Rogue UA variant to exchange sneak attack for fighter bonus feats.

You could also get a decent Swiftblade Gish and still be able to take Elocator without wasting too many feats by simply getting the Hidden Talent feat to meet the psionics requirement. You'd lose 9th level spells though and it probably doesn't fit the flavor you want.

[Xintas]

Since you already have 2 levels of Monk and 2 psionic levels you might as well get the Tashalatora(SoS) feat and continue with psionics. Your mantles aren't all that great so it's probably worth taking a mantle with strong powers at first level and staying in the Ardent class for 10 levels for the Dominant Ideal ACF. That also increases your unarmed damage and maxes out your flurry of blows feature.

To take advantage of that look into increasing your unarmed damage as much as possible. (see this handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?127732-3-X-Increasing-Size-Effective-Size-Unarmed-Damage-Reach&p=7081777#post7081777))
Sadly two of the really good unarmed options are in ToB (Superior Unarmed Strike and Snap Kick).

Fill out the rest with either more psionics or take some dips to take advantage of your high wisdom score. (X stat to Y bonus handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?125732-3-x-X-stat-to-Y-bonus))

Alternatively a Psychic Rogue (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b) makes an excellent skillmonkey and can qualify for Elocator easily if your DM allows you to use the Martial Rogue UA variant to exchange sneak attack for fighter bonus feats.

You could also get a decent Swiftblade Gish and still be able to take Elocator without wasting too many feats by simply getting the Hidden Talent feat to meet the psionics requirement. You'd lose 9th level spells though and it probably doesn't fit the flavor you want.

Thanks! So far all I had come up with was Scout + Rogue and swift ambusher for Skirmish, but that will definitely give me something to look into.

[Bloodgruve]

You could also look at Claws of the Beast for pumpable claw damage and grab Beast Strike feat from Dragon Magazine. This lets you Unarmed Strike and add your claw damage on top. Add in some other powers that give you more natural attacks, think there's a Dragon's Tail, Form of Doom and Bite of the Wolf. You could turn into a natural attack blender of awesomeness. I'm not terribly familiar with King of Smack but you may look there for some more tricks. Just get creative with your mantles and ACF the right ones in... Natural mantle should allow Claws, Tail and Bite. Madness could hold Form of Doom. See if you can get Multiattack also.

Blood~