Help with Monk/Kensai

[TheMeanDM]

I have never played a monk..have been working on one..but no idea what to do for feats.

He will have 7 levels of monk amd 3 of kensai.

My feats I was thinking about were:
Blindfighting
Lightning Reflexes
Weapon Finesse
Iron Fists
Mantis Leap

I haven't created a 3.5 character in close to 8 years..so..yeah...could definitely use some help :)

[Florian]

Try talking to your gm whether you can use the PF unchained monk instead of the truly horrible basic 3,5 one.

[TheMeanDM]

He wants to stick to 3/3.5.

I just dont want to croak the first few encounters :-)

[Rubik]

Unless you're going to really delve through various monk-only options, such as racial substitution levels and alternative class features, don't take more than two levels of monk. It's basically a badly-designed NPC class hiding among the PC classes in the Player's Handbook. Take two levels, and consider taking levels in some other class, prior to kensai. You could always try psychic warrior (and the Tashalatora feat) leading into the psychic weapon master, which does what kensai does, but also has class features. Of course, if you want to enhance your unarmed strike, you'd either have to be a psiforged or PAO'd into something made of crystal, which isn't that bad, actually. In fact, maenads have crystals embedded into their skin, so that might work.

Or instead of kensai, take Ancestral Relic (Unarmed Strike), and consider your body to be "passed down from your ancestors," and if anything would be passed down from your ancestors, it would be your body. You could even combine with the soulbound warrior psywar ACF for a summonable weapon of your choice, which could give you more options than just hitting stuff with your fist. Elvencraft longbow, maybe? Glaive for reach?

So monk 2/soulbound weapon psychic warrior with Tashalatora and Ancestral Relic. You can get a lot of mileage out of that.

[TheMeanDM]

Thanks for the attempt at help but I have no idea what any of you are talking about....but it sounds powergamey...lol..just trying to play something fun I haven't tried before and not embaeass myself and die immediately

[AvatarVecna]

Embarassing themselves and dying js something monks are pretty good at in games that aren't tailored to not take advantage of their weaknesses. If your DM is willing to not screw your character over by giving them special treatment in the assigned challenges, then have fun playing your monk; I can tell you from experience that it can be a very exciting game.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Right, but monks are very bad at surviving and contributing anything to the party, especially at the same time.

If you want to be good at fighting unarmed and unarmoured, take a psionic class (ardent, psychic warrior), zero or one levels in monk, and take two feats: Monastic Training (for that specific psionic class), and Tashalatora (also for that specific psionic class).

Other good options are the swordsage - no need to multiclass/prestige, just straight swordsage - and, for an actual monk-based build, the size increase game with greater mighty whallop, powerful build, enlarge person, monk's belt and so on.

[Florian]

He wants to stick to 3/3.5.

Sorry, can't offer you any help then, as I won't touch the 3,5 monk even with an 10 foot pole.

[Rubik]

Thanks for the attempt at help but I have no idea what any of you are talking about....but it sounds powergamey...lol..just trying to play something fun I haven't tried before and not embarrass myself and die immediatelyThe Tashalatora feat is from Secrets of Sarlona, and it allows levels in one psionic class of your choice to stack with monk for the purposes of your monk AC bonus, and unarmed strike damage and flurrying. It requires some skill ranks and the Monastic Training feat (which allows you to multiclass freely in monk, and is basically a feat tax, since nobody in their right mind would want to go back to monk).

The Ancestral Relic feat is in the Book of Exalted Deeds, and it lets you sacrifice expensive items to imbue one item of your choice with magical properties. That includes weapons, armor, and any other item, whether it takes up a body slot or not. Remember, you can sacrifice magical and mechanical traps, buildings, and other structures, if you have the time to do so, and buildings are really expensive -- at least, according to the Stronghold Builder's Guide.

The psychic warrior is a base class in the Expanded Psionics Handbook and the SRD here. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psychicWarrior.htm) They have an alternative class feature called soulbound weapon (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) which trades a feat and a power known for Weapon Focus and the ability to summon a weapon that automatically gains enhancement bonuses and that you can apply any weapon abilities you want (up to a certain enhancement equivalent). Say you choose an elvencraft longbow as your soulbound weapon, which is a longbow that doubles as a quarterstaff. At level 20, you summon a +5 elvencraft longbow with +4 in weapon abilities on it.

The Psychic Weapon Master (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827d) is a psionic prestige class that can sacrifice XP and some time to imbue a weapon with magic abilities just like a kensai, but the weapon must be made from crystal, which is why you have to be made from crystal if you want to imbue your unarmed strike.

Combine these, and you have a very tough, capable fighter that can augment his monk abilities with magic, and has a number of personal magical items that he can continue boosting as he gains levels. The soulbound weapon in particular can be tailored to whatever oddball challenges you happen to be facing at any given time. I prefer to use it as a Swiss army knife to solve weird problems you'd normally have to buy really expensive equipment to handle. Going up against a hydra but don't have Improved Sunder? There's a weapon ability for that. An army of shadows, ghosts, and wraiths is attacking, and you don't have a ghost touch weapon? There's a weapon ability for that. Getting attacked by an immensely strong enemy sporting mountain plate armor and a tower shield, and you can't hit his AC? Brilliant energy weapons are a thing.

[Troacctid]

So, if you're taking 7 levels of Monk, you'll want to take the Dark Moon Disciple substitution level (found in this (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a) downloadable web enhancement for Champions of Valor) at level 7. That will give you Shadow Blend, making you completely invisible in any illumination less than full daylight. Combined with evasion to protect you from area attacks, you should be very good at avoiding attacks. (It may be worth asking the party Cleric to give you a rock with Deeper Darkness cast on it, which you can keep in a bag when you don't need it.)