Help me monk... please?

[Shadowscale]

This will be my first time getting back into Pathfinder for a very very long time. All the other players will all be new players, but I really wanted to play the quintessential oozing lawful, calm, cool, and collected monk.

I thought it would be fun to play a pure orc as my race, but beside from that I'm out of really any ideas of how to build this successfully. Are there any archtypes that can help me and should I go for a high strength build or dexterity build?

I already did my rolls and got all high numbers and with my dms static add 4, could have a potential 20 in dexterity or wisdom or 24 in strength.

What are the advantages of a high wisdom and dex build vs a high strength build?

I would really appreciate the help... any good feat choices for the first few levels?

vow of... worth its salt?

[Psyren]

What sources are allowed? Any first party in the PFSRD?

The biggest boon to monks recently came in the form of the Pummeling Style (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/pummeling-style-combat-style) feat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/pummeling-bully-combat) line (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/pummeling-charge-combat), which effectively gives monks pounce when you reach the third one. You can do so quickly via Master of Many Styles, along with a 1-level dip in Unarmed Fighter if you're really in a hurry.

A few of the Vows can help you but you may not see the gains in ki unless your game goes on long enough. Most however provide far too much inconvenience for what you gain, such as Poverty preventing you from using items, and Celibacy preventing you from receiving touch-range buffs from allies.

[Elricaltovilla]

Celibacy preventing you from receiving touch-range buffs from allies.

So Vow of Celibacy turns you into a germophobe? That's just wonderful.

[Psyren]

The good ones are Chains (minor penalty), Truth (many lawful characters do this anyway) and Silence (many low-charisma characters do this anyway, and this gives shy players a fun way to roleplay by stamping and clapping all over the place.) Between them you get 13 extra ki over the course of your career. Fasting is okay too as potions generally stop being necessities once you get into mid-levels, though if your party has an alchemist, then the +3 ki is not worth missing out on all his infusiony goodness.

[Diachronos]

...should I go for a high strength build or dexterity build?

What are the advantages of a high wisdom and dex build vs a high strength build?


It depends on what you want to do with the monk.

A high-Strength build will (obviously) give you a better hit chance and more damage per hit, and it's also going to be useful if you're going to be performing combat maneuvers since it's the default stat used to determine your CMB.

A high-Dex/Wis build will give you a "tankier" monk, since you're getting more AC and CMD from those stats and it's also going to be boosting your Reflex and Will saves. It's also more helpful for a more maneuverable and skill-focused build because all of your movement skills run off your Dex.

For archetypes, the only one I can think of that would be amazing straight out of the gate is Master of Many Styles, because style feats are freaking amazing. Other good options are Qinggong Monk (trade out less useful monk abilities for ones you'd want to use), Monk of the Iron Mountain (More AC), and Flowing Monk (repositioning and trips galore).