Mystic Fighting Style

[CGNefarious]

So I'm building a level 10 Mystic from Path of War: Expanded and I'm having an internal debate on what weapons to use. Currently my plan is to use Elemental Flux, Mithril Current, and Riven Hourglass. The different fighting styles I'm considering are all Dex based. One would be to use a single katana and fight like normal. The next would be to pair a katana and a wakizashi and go the two weapon fighting route. The third option would be to take the Aurora Soul archetype and go with unarmed strikes. I'm going for a sort of Avatar style firebender (or whatever bender), but right now I'm leaning toward the single katana. My to-hit isn't very high, so I don't know if TWF is the best option. And while TWF takes a lot of feats, so does effectively the Unarmed Strike build. Even with my single katana build, I'm running low of feats already.

And here are my stats so you know what I'm working with.

STR: 12
DEX: 21
CON: 16
INT: 15
WIS: 20
CHA: 14


Have any of you played a Mystic before that could offer any insight into this choice? Is one option clearly better or worse than the others? Is there something else entirely I should consider?

[Vhaidara]

Well, I'm personally biased towards Aurora Soul, especially if you're planning to make a bender-style build. And Aurora Soul actually dodges the issue of feats required for an US build, since you get them as bonus feats. Additionally, TWF has pretty low synergy with PoW unless you take Thrashing Dragon, and from my memory it has almost no synergy with Flux, Current, or Hourglass.

The Katana baseline mystic and the US Aurora Soul probably come out to similar effectiveness, imo. And while I personally love running US for Current and Flux, I can also see the appeal of using yo fave sword to be all up in that.

Stat allocation is very nice. At level 10 you'll have Dex to hit and damage, with Wisdom to Damage and AC. Were those rolled or just the nicest point buy ever?

[stack]

I'll second not going for twf. Flux strikes don't really play well with it. As Kel said, that's more thrashing dragon and some primal fury. If you wanted to mix in some psionics you could go WIS-SAD, but your stats are pretty nice.

[CGNefarious]

Our DM has a pretty nice rolling method. Roll 4d6 and drop the lowest. Do that seven times and take the six highest. If you don't like your array, you can reroll the entire set up to two more times. He also give us +1 to two stats at levels 4, 8, 12, and 16, and then +1 to all stats at levels 10 and 20. It makes it so dump stats are never that painful, and mad classes aren't so bad either.

If I were to go Aurora Soul I'd be getting rid of Mithril Current, which is like half of my counters. I'm not opposed to the idea, but barring Broken Blade (I'm avoiding using it until the errata brings the damage down) what discipline should I look at for replacement? Sleeping Goddess seems to be useless without power points, otherwise I'd probably look at that one. Out of the disciplines listed for the Aurora Soul I'd lean towards Veiled Moon, but I do so on pretty much ever initiator I make. Something about free teleportation just speaks to me.

As for dipping into a psionic class, I'm a bit skeptical of doing such. I mean, if I dip any class, it'll be a PoW class. But what could I get from a psionic class worth delaying my maneuvers/abilities for? (Serious question, not rhetorical.)

[stack]

Goddess gives a few power points, which is enough to make you psionic and let you take psionic feats, which can get you Wisdom to attack. Focusing heavily on wisdom keeps your save dcs up too, but as noted before, with your stats the SAD build isn't as nice as it would be otherwise. A straight dex mystic with a blade may not be complex, but I think should be fun and plenty sufficient functionality wise.

[AoiEMT]

If I were to go Aurora Soul I'd be getting rid of Mithril Current, which is like half of my counters.


The feat Flowing Mithril Fist turns unarmed into discipline weapons if you wanted to swap it back in with a trait.

Or if you go sleeping goddess, Awakened Animus let's you spend Animus in place of power points to fuel the maneuvers and makes you count as psionic for psionic feats and such.

I wish there were a feat for my War Soul that would let me do the opposite (PP for Animus) haha!

[Tuvarkz]

I'd suggest to just take a Rapier and run with it. There is a full attack EF strike, but it doesn't come online until later on.

[Vhaidara]

I mean, Current works perfectly fine with unarmed strikes. And that's part of what I meant about the image I enjoy is using US for Current counters. You basically stand there with your hands in your pockets then go all kung-fu block on every attack that comes towards you. And before they can blink, your hands are back in your pockets and you kick their face in.

[CGNefarious]

While the Aurora Soul gets rid of needing to take feats for Unarmed Strikes, Flowing Mithril Fist, I still find myself a little short on feats. Not by a whole lot, but I'd be unable to take Elemental Flux Style, which I'd like for the versatility. Here is what I'm looking at.




Daisho Expertise
Quick Draw
Deadly Agility
-
Improved Quick Draw
-
Elemental Flux Style, Elemental Flux Shift
-
Mixed Combat








Flowing Mithral Fist
-
Deadly Agility
-
Quick Draw
-
Improved Quick Draw
-
Mixed Combat




In both cases I get a bonus human feat at first level, which I'm thinking of using for Combat Expertise. But it feels weird taking Combat Expertise on a build without reach. I'd take Elemental Flux Style, but I can't at that level. Maybe I should take the alternate Human trait and get Skill Focus: Perform: Dance. That way I can supplement my low AC by making sure my counters always work.

Overall the builds are quite similar. The Aurora Soul would do a bit more damage naturally, but AoMF is a lot more pricey than magic weapons. Is there anything I'm missing and Unarmed Strike build? I've done Natural Attack builds before, but I'm not sure how they differ. Also, doesn't Mixed Combat pretty much mean you will trigger your Mithral Current bonuses 100% of the time?

Also, which [Psionic] Feat gives you Wisdom to attack? I have plenty of maneuvers, so taking a couple Sleeping Goddess maneuvers for that might be worth a look.

[stack]

Intuitive fighting. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/feats/intuitive-fighting-psionic)
Need to stay focused though, so getting a second focus would be needed to use it while augmenting strikes with focus expenditure.