Doctor Despair
2014-10-01, 01:21 AM
So I am in my first campaign and I've put a lot of thought into this character, but I want to be sure there's no obvious feats or necessary items I am missing out on because of my inexperience!
Basically, he is being designed based around charging with pounce and spring attacking. My DM has told me that, so long as I do not exceed my movement speed, I can charge toward an opponent, perform a full attack with pounce, and then make a tactical retreat with spring attack. I'm not convinced on this, though, so I plan on taking Travel Devotion and buying Battle Belt to get those after-pounce movements if I really need them.
With this being the case, I put a lot of thought into how to get as high a movement speed as possible by the time I get the BAB for spring attack. By level seven, he would have seventy movement speed through being catfolk (40 base), taking a dip in Barbarian (+10), taking the Quick trait (+10), taking Dash (+5), and wearing cobra straps (five foot step after attacking on a charge). I figured it out that if I am thirty five feet south and fifteen feet east of a character with thirty movement speed, this would let me start and end my turns out of range of walking and charging distance of a normal 30 speed character without reach. To diagram it:
E x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x P x x
I can move north twenty feet, then northwest twice for fifteen movement, perform a standard attack, take a five foot step southeast, another step southeast (15 feet total), and then twenty feet south, ending with a net seventy movement. I'm not sure if the five foot step from cobra straps would count toward making the diagonal movement higher, though, and what I mean by that is... After the five foot step from the cobra straps, would the next diagonal movement count as ten feet rather than five? If it counted as five, maybe dash is an unnecessary investment at that point in the campaign -- or would the speed be helpful? I have no idea what to expect in terms of difficulty progression as the party levels up.
Moving on, I also intend to disarm characters with improved disarm in that method to protect myself from bow users and characters with reach from a weapon. The higher the monk speed becomes, the more characters become vulnerable to this. Once an enemy is weakened enough, I intend to rush them with a charge (making a 45 degree turn with the skill trick twisted charge), pounce on them, and engage with a power attack flurry of blows aided by a flying kick, a leap attack, and maybe a sneak attack if I can flank them in that movement. If I have Travel Devotion active, I can retreat after that, and if I have three charges on the Battle Belt, I could repeat the same flurry of blows for more damage before retreating with Travel Devotion.
The class and feat progression I am following is here, relearning the unarmed feat at level five and dash at level eleven. I've removed naturally learned feats that are irrelevant to the battle strategy:
Class || Feat
Rogue || Sn. Att, Dodge, unarmed (he began human, hence the extra feat)
Barbarian || Fast Move
Totem B. || Pounce, Run, Mobility
Fighter || versatile Unarmed Strike
Monk || Flurry, unarmed, Dash (relearn other unarmed feat), Tw. Charge
Monk || spring attack
Monk || fastmove (no armor)
Monk || Ki Str., Unarmed Damage = d8
Monk || Superior Unarmed Strike
Monk || improved disarm, speed20
Monk ||
Monk || damage = d10, Travel Devotion
Monk || speed30
Monk || kistrike lawful
Monk || greater flurry, Power Attack
Monk || Abundant step, speed 40, Flying Kick (unlearn dash), damage = 2d6
Monk ||
Monk ||Leap Attack
Monk || speed 50
Monk || Ki Str. (Adamantium), damage = 2d8
And of course lv20 monk gets 2d10, which I would reach through superior unarmed fighting.
In terms of items, I was thinking that a Chronocharm of the H.W. could give another free flurry of blows on a charge, and a pair of bracers of blinding strike would just be useful as a free snap kick once a round. I have a pair of gauntlets that have +2 to BAB and damage rolls at the moment, and I'm thinking it might be efficient to just stack frost enchants on them unless dipping into disarm enchants would be more useful. I am a novice at this, so I'm really not sure what else to do from here, even having done some research. Does anyone have any ideas on what I could change with this to do more damage or generally be more effective in the spirit of this build?
Basically, he is being designed based around charging with pounce and spring attacking. My DM has told me that, so long as I do not exceed my movement speed, I can charge toward an opponent, perform a full attack with pounce, and then make a tactical retreat with spring attack. I'm not convinced on this, though, so I plan on taking Travel Devotion and buying Battle Belt to get those after-pounce movements if I really need them.
With this being the case, I put a lot of thought into how to get as high a movement speed as possible by the time I get the BAB for spring attack. By level seven, he would have seventy movement speed through being catfolk (40 base), taking a dip in Barbarian (+10), taking the Quick trait (+10), taking Dash (+5), and wearing cobra straps (five foot step after attacking on a charge). I figured it out that if I am thirty five feet south and fifteen feet east of a character with thirty movement speed, this would let me start and end my turns out of range of walking and charging distance of a normal 30 speed character without reach. To diagram it:
E x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x P x x
I can move north twenty feet, then northwest twice for fifteen movement, perform a standard attack, take a five foot step southeast, another step southeast (15 feet total), and then twenty feet south, ending with a net seventy movement. I'm not sure if the five foot step from cobra straps would count toward making the diagonal movement higher, though, and what I mean by that is... After the five foot step from the cobra straps, would the next diagonal movement count as ten feet rather than five? If it counted as five, maybe dash is an unnecessary investment at that point in the campaign -- or would the speed be helpful? I have no idea what to expect in terms of difficulty progression as the party levels up.
Moving on, I also intend to disarm characters with improved disarm in that method to protect myself from bow users and characters with reach from a weapon. The higher the monk speed becomes, the more characters become vulnerable to this. Once an enemy is weakened enough, I intend to rush them with a charge (making a 45 degree turn with the skill trick twisted charge), pounce on them, and engage with a power attack flurry of blows aided by a flying kick, a leap attack, and maybe a sneak attack if I can flank them in that movement. If I have Travel Devotion active, I can retreat after that, and if I have three charges on the Battle Belt, I could repeat the same flurry of blows for more damage before retreating with Travel Devotion.
The class and feat progression I am following is here, relearning the unarmed feat at level five and dash at level eleven. I've removed naturally learned feats that are irrelevant to the battle strategy:
Class || Feat
Rogue || Sn. Att, Dodge, unarmed (he began human, hence the extra feat)
Barbarian || Fast Move
Totem B. || Pounce, Run, Mobility
Fighter || versatile Unarmed Strike
Monk || Flurry, unarmed, Dash (relearn other unarmed feat), Tw. Charge
Monk || spring attack
Monk || fastmove (no armor)
Monk || Ki Str., Unarmed Damage = d8
Monk || Superior Unarmed Strike
Monk || improved disarm, speed20
Monk ||
Monk || damage = d10, Travel Devotion
Monk || speed30
Monk || kistrike lawful
Monk || greater flurry, Power Attack
Monk || Abundant step, speed 40, Flying Kick (unlearn dash), damage = 2d6
Monk ||
Monk ||Leap Attack
Monk || speed 50
Monk || Ki Str. (Adamantium), damage = 2d8
And of course lv20 monk gets 2d10, which I would reach through superior unarmed fighting.
In terms of items, I was thinking that a Chronocharm of the H.W. could give another free flurry of blows on a charge, and a pair of bracers of blinding strike would just be useful as a free snap kick once a round. I have a pair of gauntlets that have +2 to BAB and damage rolls at the moment, and I'm thinking it might be efficient to just stack frost enchants on them unless dipping into disarm enchants would be more useful. I am a novice at this, so I'm really not sure what else to do from here, even having done some research. Does anyone have any ideas on what I could change with this to do more damage or generally be more effective in the spirit of this build?