Is it worth?

[SangoProduction]

Someone decided to play a Paladin 2 / Monk 3 / Fist of the Forest 1.

Due to it being tier 5, it is allowed up to +2 LA for free. They chose Saint.

I hear Saint is like insanely good (pun not intended, but I'll take it). I will admit the Fast Healing looks pretty darn Juicy, and Protective Aura looks really nice, and has a fairly large number of decent bonus effects. What do you think of it?

Also, I was told in a couple of forums that Stats, like Wisdom, count as sources of bonuses, so you can't double dip a Wisdom bonus to AC, can you? (Or quintuple dip Intelligence to AC in my case.)

[torrasque666]

Pathfinder ruled that something that reads "Add your X to Y" and "Add a bonus equal to your X to Y" are separate things, but that you cannot add X to Y twice. 3.5 had no such ruling. It sorely needed it though. Keeps caster cheese under control.

[Red Fel]

Pathfinder ruled that something that reads "Add your X to Y" and "Add a bonus equal to your X to Y" are separate things, but that you cannot add X to Y twice. 3.5 had no such ruling. It sorely needed it though. Keeps caster cheese under control.

This. Now, 3.5 did have the requirement that you cannot gain a bonus from the same source or of the same type twice, but that's not what's happening here. Monks have an (Ex) ability called AC Bonus that adds their Wisdom modifier to their AC, plus an additional level-based bonus. This is an untyped bonus which explicitly applies to touch attacks and when flat-footed, but not when immobilized or helpless, and not when wearing armor or carrying a load. Saints gain an insight bonus - not untyped, and not explicitly (Ex) - to AC that adds their Wisdom modifier, but no additional bonus. While this ability does not make explicit whether it applies to flat-footed or touch AC, a brief glimpse at the sample Saint in BoED (AC 23, touch 12, flat-footed 23) suggests that the Wisdom modifier applies to those as well.

Given, however, that the ability does not include a level-based bonus, applies irrespective of load or armor, and is insight-type instead of untyped, I would say that the source is sufficiently unique to allow them to stack. If you use PF's "Can't take X stat to Y bonus twice" rule, which I think is a good rule, it still won't fly, but since 3.5 doesn't have such a rule, it ought to work.

As for the rest, Saint is an extremely powerful template, provided the PC can keep up the requirements. According to Chapter 2 of BoED, a Saint must:
Be of Good alignment
Possess at least three Exalted feats
Never have lost the benefit of Exalted feats or features due to an Evil act, even if he properly atoned after
At all times behave in an Exalted way as the DM sees it
Be at least 6th level
Make an extraordinary sacrifice for the benefit of another
As well as anything else that the DM sees fit. Given the amount of fluidity in alignment interpretation generally, and the restrictions involved in Exalted alignment specifically, this basically means that (1) the player is seriously committing to an alignment, and (2) the player trusts the DM to have reasonable views about what Exalted means.

The extraordinary degree of trust in the DM is probably one of the bigger turnoffs about the template, as well as the less-than-amazing selection of Exalted feats. Given that the DM can basically screw you out of three feats and a template if you do something of which he disapproves, it can be more onerous than it looks.

[Troacctid]

Saint is definitely strong and pays you back very well for the +2 LA, but it's balanced somewhat by the fact that only a creature with three Exalted feats can qualify for it. Most Exalted feats are either underpowered or niche, so it can be hard to fit them into a lot of builds.

[John Longarrow]

Unless playing with flaws this build won't work at this level.
Even with 2 flaws on a human, you'd have 4 feats at 1st, 1 at 3rd, and 1 at 6th. Saint requires 3 and Fist of the Forest requires 3, one of which you get from Monk.

What the player is trying to do is make an unarmed combatant that adds Wis twice to AC and con once.

RP wise, this is a very hard to run character. They would need to be LG and a member of a militant environmentalist organization. They are committed to living beyond the scope of normal civilization to the point they won't sleep indoors, won't pay for food, and some won't use tools or fire. Unless the player is firmly up for this, I'd suggest asking them to choose another route.

If they simply want a powerful unarmed combatant, I'd suggest they look to Tome of Battle. Improved Unarmed Strike + Superior Unarmed Strike is a great way to make a non-monk martial artist.

[SangoProduction]

Unless playing with flaws this build won't work at this level.
Even with 2 flaws on a human, you'd have 4 feats at 1st, 1 at 3rd, and 1 at 6th. Saint requires 3 and Fist of the Forest requires 3, one of which you get from Monk.

What the player is trying to do is make an unarmed combatant that adds Wis twice to AC and con once.

RP wise, this is a very hard to run character. They would need to be LG and a member of a militant environmentalist organization. They are committed to living beyond the scope of normal civilization to the point they won't sleep indoors, won't pay for food, and some won't use tools or fire. Unless the player is firmly up for this, I'd suggest asking them to choose another route.

If they simply want a powerful unarmed combatant, I'd suggest they look to Tome of Battle. Improved Unarmed Strike + Superior Unarmed Strike is a great way to make a non-monk martial artist.

The LA is offered for free, as in no feat requirements or anything else, as far as I understand. Him being a friend of the GM might also factor in to it. Or it might be the fact that the GM probably hasn't looked over it, yet, as it was only put up this morning.