Good robes for Monks?

[StreamOfTheSky]

I was just wondering what are some good options for robes for a Monk? Since like mages, they don't wear armor, but unlike mages, all the robes that give CL bonus or spellcasting buffs don't help at all. Ghost Shroud would normally be my go-to choice for the body slot, but now that I know the Shadow Cloak exists (Drow of the Underdark), Ghost Shroud's deflection bonus is redundant. Anything else listed in MIC for Body (Non-Armor) is either unappealing or seems grossly overpriced. I guess worse-case I could ask for Monk's Belt to be a robe like in Pathfinder, but that's really not worth the price for a long time, either.

[Thurbane]

I think Curmudgeon makes a case that you can enchant a robe like magic armor, thanks to the wording in the magic vestment spell.

Although that would require rules to exist for a "masterwork robe".

Oh, and this reminds me, we must get around to making a community project of MIC II, which lists all the stuff that didn't make it into MIC (not full descriptions, just an index).

[Troacctid]

Robe of the Vagabond (Complete Champion) is a decent budget option. 6000 gp, and it provides a +1 luck bonus to AC and saving throws. Also part of a set with Sandals of the Vagabond (4000 gp for a +2 luck bonus on initiative and reduce the effects of fatigue and exhaustion by one step), Cloak of the Vagabond (resistance 5 against fire and cold, plus resistance 5 against electricity if you have two other pieces of the set), and Staff of the Vagabond (3600 gp for a quarterstaff that functions as a +1/+1 quarterstaff if you carry no other weapons, and both ends gain the merciful and ki focus properties if you wear additional pieces of the set).

The whole set is pretty good for Monks, actually.

[T.G. Oskar]

I think Curmudgeon makes a case that you can enchant a robe like magic armor, thanks to the wording in the magic vestment spell.

Although that would require rules to exist for a "masterwork robe".

A magical robe is a "masterwork" robe, technically. You wouldn't use the armor enchantment rules as per the PHB - you'd instead use the A&EG version (kind of a specific rule that could be grandfathered), where you add at least a +1 armor bonus (as per the MIC) and further improvements would be exchanged by armor bonuses. Since it's on the "Body" slot, it would be equal to armor; then again, Chahar-Aina and Dastanas are somewhere between armor and shields, and both stack, so YMMV. You could only enchant the weapon up to an effective +8, which is the absolute limit for a Bracers of Armor. You could then use Magic Vestment to get a +5 enhancement bonus to AC if you like.

And yeah - the Robe of the Vagabond was meant for Monks, though I find it a tad lacking - Robe of the Vagabond and Sandals of the Vagabond grant stacking bonuses to AC, saves and initiative, but the Cloak offers a really poor set of resistances and the Staff gets poor enchantments - compare to Scorpion Kama which has a very solid property. The Item Set bonus also kinda fails. Gharyn's Monastic Array is cheaper and has slightly better benefits, but it's like saying "Generic Chocolate Brand A is superior than Generic Chocolate Brand B" - both are generic, and aren't Hershey's, or a really GOOD brand anyways.

[Darrin]

Kimono of Storing in OA, if you can get it at the original price (4400 GP). If your group has access to and recognizes the 3.5 update in Dragon Magazine #319, then 20K is too much.

[StreamOfTheSky]

I think Curmudgeon makes a case that you can enchant a robe like magic armor, thanks to the wording in the magic vestment spell.

Even if I can, I get Mage Armor from an ally already, so until it hits +5 it'd do nothing, and then I'd be paying 25,000 gp for a +1 increase. And then that's it. If you could get bracers of armor in the robe slot (seriously, why is this not a thing? it's the actual full-body-covering armor slot!) you could get up to +8 for ludicrous amounts of money.... I guess the real value would be +1 robes of a bunch of special properties, though I can do that w/ bracers of mage armor already.


Robe of the Vagabond (Complete Champion) is a decent budget option. 6000 gp, and it provides a +1 luck bonus to AC and saving throws. Also part of a set with Sandals of the Vagabond (4000 gp for a +2 luck bonus on initiative and reduce the effects of fatigue and exhaustion by one step), Cloak of the Vagabond (resistance 5 against fire and cold, plus resistance 5 against electricity if you have two other pieces of the set), and Staff of the Vagabond (3600 gp for a quarterstaff that functions as a +1/+1 quarterstaff if you carry no other weapons, and both ends gain the merciful and ki focus properties if you wear additional pieces of the set).

The whole set is pretty good for Monks, actually.

Thanks. That robe's nothing great and my saves and touch AC don't really need the help, but that's the best option so far. I guess around the time I have vest of resist +2 and deflect and natural armor enhancement +1 items it becomes a good deal. Which is pretty soon. The other items seem pretty skippable. The sandals aren't bad but there's just so many other strong items competing for that body slot. :smallsmile:


Kimono of Storing in OA, if you can get it at the original price (4400 GP). If your group has access to and recognizes the 3.5 update in Dragon Magazine #319, then 20K is too much.

Not too familiar w/ OA stuff (including the dastana and such mentioned as well) and it's probably not going to happen. But what's that do? Glove of the Master Strategist is 3600 gp for glove of storing + true strike 1/day already. Honestly don't have much to store anyway, I even made a thread months ago about my "Idle Hands" and trying to find things to fill them with.

[Gruftzwerg]

Glove of the Master Strategist is 3600 gp for glove of storing + true strike 1/day already. Honestly don't have much to store anyway, I even made a thread months ago about my "Idle Hands" and trying to find things to fill them with.

1. Glove of Storing (/Master Strategist) lets your store up to 20 items. it only takes you a free action to store/retrieve an item. weapons, wands, potions, ammunition anything you could need in combat should be stored this way. Just to make it clear, retrieve an item in combat as free action without provoking and AoO.

2. You are a monk. Your idle hands should be holding high magically buffed shurikens.
The Most Overpowered Weapon: The Shuriken (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=10419.0)
get at least some initiative bonuses (like Warning +5)

[Darrin]

But what's that do? Glove of the Master Strategist is 3600 gp for glove of storing + true strike 1/day already.


Kimono of Storing is two gloves of storing combined into a single item. It's worth it if you can get it for 4400 GP (3.0 price of the gloves x2).

As far as what to store in them... if nothing else, then how's your UMD? Two quarterstaves = 4 wand chambers.

[animewatcha]

If I remember Curmudgeon's case was more like this..

Per MIC, give a robe +1 armor bonus ( normal armor bonus strictly RAW per MIC ) for 1,000 gp. Enchant it ( per the normal magic weapon / armor rules with throwing in the exception of bracers of armor rules ) so it has a +1 enhancement armor to AC for 1k gp. The robe now has a plus 2 bonus to AC ( +1 normal armor +1 enhancement ) for a total of 2k gp. Probably not RAI from creators, but RAW in accordance with the books.

This is if I remember Curmudgeon correctly.

[StreamOfTheSky]

2. You are a monk. Your idle hands should be holding high magically buffed shurikens.
The Most Overpowered Weapon: The Shuriken (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=10419.0)
get at least some initiative bonuses (like Warning +5)

We don't play w/ TO stuff like this, and I prefer to keep it that way.


Kimono of Storing is two gloves of storing combined into a single item. It's worth it if you can get it for 4400 GP (3.0 price of the gloves x2).

As far as what to store in them... if nothing else, then how's your UMD? Two quarterstaves = 4 wand chambers.

I'm a Monk, not a GiacoMonk, so my UMD is 0 ranks and 0 charisma bonus, and it's cross-class. I don't think that kimono would be of much use to me. Would be awesome for a dual crossbow build, though, to store one while reloading the other then retrieve it, back and forth.

[Gruftzwerg]

We don't play w/ TO stuff like this, and I prefer to keep it that way.


Well the only thing what makes the shuriken so powerfull is the cheap price. If the cheap price if to overpowered for you, there is nothing that would hold you back to put said enchantments on a regular weapon for the normal pricing.
You asked for something useful to fill your empty hands. The answer is just a weapon with nice bonus effects on it. Shuriken would just be the optimized and obvious choice in case of a monk.
Just choose the weapon and enchantments that you desire / fits your character.

[animewatcha]

Store/retrieving a free action? This got me remembering a bit of a build somewhere that made use of drawing a weapon for flat-flooted opponent and immediately stashign it away as a free action for drawing it again for another flat-foot ac thing. There anyway that can be done with fists + kimono of storing?

[Gruftzwerg]

Store/retrieving a free action? This got me remembering a bit of a build somewhere that made use of drawing a weapon for flat-flooted opponent and immediately stashign it away as a free action for drawing it again for another flat-foot ac thing. There anyway that can be done with fists + kimono of storing?

hm..
I think when you initiate combat with the retrieving, the enemy/target should be considered flat-flooded. But only if the target wasn't aware of you combat intend.
But dunno what else could be done or if there is any class ability to further abuse this.