I am playing my first Monk. please help me flesh him out... Pathfinder

[anoblewolf]

Thank you in advance for you help.

I am playing my first Monk in an up coming campaign. I am going to be playing a human unarmed monk, starting at level 3. I am limited to just the core book.

Ability Scores:

STR 16
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 9
WIS 16
CHA 7

I am still having trouble deciding which ability score to add the +2 for being human.

Level 1 Feats:
Dodge (Level one Feat)
Combat Reflexes (Human bonus Feat)
Deflect Arrows (Monk bonus Feat)

I am still having trouble deciding between Scorpion Strike or Improved Grapple.

Also any suggestions as to character progression after level 3 would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you again for you time and help.

[Mystral]

Thank you in advance for you help.

I am playing my first Monk in an up coming campaign. I am going to be playing a human unarmed monk, starting at level 3. I am limited to just the core book.

Ability Scores:

STR 16
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 9
WIS 16
CHA 7

I am still having trouble deciding which ability score to add the +2 for being human.

Level 1 Feats:
Dodge (Level one Feat)
Combat Reflexes (Human bonus Feat)
Deflect Arrows (Monk bonus Feat)

I am still having trouble deciding between Scorpion Strike or Improved Grapple.

Also any suggestions as to character progression after level 3 would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you again for you time and help.

What exactly do you want him to suck at least?

[Chronikoce]

I think I would go with strength or con. Your defenses are never going to be awesome so boosting Dex for 1 more AC isn't going to help too much. You could get rid of the 9 in Int so that you retain some skill points.

How high a level will this campaign reach? If it is only a few levels you should be ok but the biggest problem with monk is that once you get past level 5-6 region everyone else can do the stuff you do but better. Your class features are replicated by low level spells, your damage output (at least in pathfinder) can't really get too impressive, and your defenses are not going to be amazing.

Do you know what other characters are in the party? Because if it is you with a druid, cleric, and wizard then you might end up disliking your class by comparison. Personally I love the flavor of the monk class/monk style characters but I will only play them in low optimization games so that I don't end up frustrated with my choice.

--Edit--
I forgot to mention that if the campaign goes into higher levels you should definitely not try to specialize in maneuvers. The CMD scales way faster than your CMB does so unless you dump all your resources into being good at one maneuver type it will fall off quite hard. If you do focus on a single maneuver you will feel pretty restricted whenever that maneuver is not applicable.

[Secret Wizard]

Add the +2 to Strength. You need to boost your accuracy as high as possible.

Likewise, for your 3rd level feat, you want Weapon Focus (Unarmed).

After that, you probably want to pick up (in no particular order) Improved Initiative, Step Up, Blindfight. Later, Critical Focus. Rest is up to you.

[Kudaku]

What are the odds of your GM allowing you to use the monk version found in Pathfinder Unchained (http://paizo.com/products/btpy9c25?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Pathfinder-Unchained)? It's a lot less work to make a decent character that way.

[Platymus Pus]

In general any class is a better Monk than monk itself.
You'd have more options if this wasn't only core.
Because a core monk is one of the worst.

Don't expect to be doing anything even when you play to your only strengths.
The only advantage you will really have is movement speed.
Seeing as you are playing with a 25 point buy you need a better stat build than that.
You aren't going to have armor really, your ac is going to be poor no matter what.

I wouldn't suggest pursuing a CMB based monk, CMB is always outpaced by CMD on average.
There are also often times CMB doesn't work and wouldn't be effective as thought due to them still having the ability to attack you in grapples

Your main points as a monk are so, unaffected by magic fields, really fast, only good at select skills.
Not that you'll be doing much in one since you're only core.
You're probably better off multiclassing here or maybe opt for a brawler instead.

[Psyren]

If it's CRB-only you're going to have a pretty rough time. No archetypes, no advanced races, no items outside the CRB, and no feats outside the CRB cuts into your options a lot.

Find out if your GM truly meant core-only (CRB only) or the core product line (CRB, Advanced books and Ultimate books.) If it's CRB-only... well, that's doable if you pile on the items, but lose any of the Big 6 and you're going to be suffering badly, and even when you're not it's just going to be boring.