PDA

View Full Version : Pathfinder Brawler/Monk; Confused by Martial Training and Level Stacking



Drelua
2016-05-12, 02:24 PM
I know that class abilities don't stack between hybrid classes and parent classes unless it says that they do, but, as usual, Paizo found a great way to confuse the issue thanks to Martial Training:
At 1st level, a brawler counts her total brawler levels as both fighter levels and monk levels for the purpose of qualifying for feats. She also counts as both a fighter and a monk for feats and magic items that have different effects based on whether the character has levels in those classes (such as Stunning Fist and a monk's robe). This ability does not automatically grant feats normally granted to fighters and monks based on class level, namely Stunning Fist.
I'll put the relevant rules for the Monk's Robe here too:
When worn, this simple brown robe confers great ability in unarmed combat. If the wearer has levels in monk, her AC and unarmed damage is treated as a monk of five levels higher. If donned by a character with the Stunning Fist feat, the robe lets her make one additional stunning attack per day. If the character is not a monk...
So, if a 5th level Brawler puts on a monk's robe, his AC and unarmed damage get bumped to that of a 10th level brawler. No problems yet. But what if that character then takes a couple monk levels? Martial Training specifically says that Brawler levels count as monk levels as far as a Monk's Robe is concerned, which sounds like they should stack. But there's nothing saying any class feature stacks, so I guess they wouldn't stack without the Monk's Robe? :smallconfused:

It seems pretty clear that a Brawler 4/Monk 4 would do damage as a 4th level character, so 1d8, but what happens if that character puts on a Monk's Robe? Since both count as monk levels for magic items, would their total level get bumped to 13, so 2d6, or do the levels still not stack so the Robe would only add to one, for a total of 9, or 1d10? If they don't stack, does the Robe bump both AC bonuses, so you get an extra +1 dodge from Brawler in light or no armour, and an extra 1 from Monk's AC bonus in no armour? Either way, it seems to do more for 1 of the 2 abilities and less for the other.

I apologize if this question has been asked before, I haven't been following the forums for quite a while and google wasn't getting me anything useful. I hope I'm getting the idea across clearly and that I'm not being too long winded, feel free to ask if you need anything cleared up, any feedback is always appreciated. Oh, and this is likely to come up in PFS, so unfortunately asking my GM isn't really an option. Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading!:smallsmile:

Psyren
2016-05-12, 02:56 PM
It's pretty straightforward - without the robe, they don't stack at all. With the robe, you add the levels together and then add 5, but only for specific purposes (i.e. US damage and AC, but not flurry, ki pool, or martial flexibility.)

Drelua
2016-05-12, 04:20 PM
Hm, I was afraid of that. I kind of thought it might do that, but I didn't want it to. Oh well, straightforward nonsense it is. :smallcool:

Gallowglass
2016-05-12, 04:29 PM
Hm, I was afraid of that. I kind of thought it might do that, but I didn't want it to. Oh well, straightforward nonsense it is. :smallcool:

I have got to ask. For what reason would you NOT want it to stack?

personally, I think its dumber than dumb that a monk 4/brawler 4 doesn't strike as 8th level with strikes. That's certainly a homerule change that seems pretty necessary.

I can't think of any logical reason why someone would want the monk's robe NOT to do this...

Psyren
2016-05-12, 05:56 PM
As Gallowglass said, why shouldn't it? It's a magic item, one can easily explain enabling stacking.

As for US/AC stacking without it, I also agree that that wouldn't cause much issue if it were allowed, but I can also justify their techniques being just different enough that they wouldn't (without the aforementioned magic item, anyway.)

Drelua
2016-05-12, 10:21 PM
Oh, my only problem is that it doesn't make sense to me that it only stacks with the item. A monk's robe could double the base damage of a character with 8 levels of each class, from 1d10 to 2d10.

Then again, I can't really see anyone making a character like that so I guess it's a problem that won't ever come up. I'd only dip a level or two anyway, so it makes the robe a little bit better, but not by enough for it to be too weird.