Playing a Fighter Disguised as a Monk?

[Hexblade]

I had the idea of playing a Fighter disguised as a monk for a small campaign, so at the end of the campaign I could do a twist reveal. Is there any way I can accomplish this? The DM will know about this, so he can help out. I want to do this mainly by RAW, and no cheesy optimization.

[Zanos]

Improved Unarmed Strike->Superior Unarmed Strike combined with good physical ability scores will get you most of the unarmed prowess, although you're going to have trouble keeping your AC relevant for a reasonable cost if you aren't making use of armor. +1 Glamered Full Plate to look like robes, maybe?

What abilities are you trying to replicate? And what's the purpose of the reveal? "Behold, I am not a guy who meditated and trained to be good at punching, I just trained!" It's not like you're revealing your abilities actually come from a deal with a dark power or something.

[Particle_Man]

This is 3.5? What books are allowed? What level will you end up at?

[Seerow]

What abilities are you trying to replicate? And what's the purpose of the reveal? "Behold, I am not a guy who meditated and trained to be good at punching, I just trained!" It's not like you're revealing your abilities actually comes from a deal with a dark power or something.


Yeah this. It's not like you're a barbarian pretending your a wizard or something... Monks and Fighters are basically both just piles of numbers.

But the abilities actually coming from a deal with a dark power sounds fun... Warlock or Binder pretending to be monk could be a lot of fun.

[Psyren]

I like the idea of armor that looks like clothing. I think Ultimate Intrigue has something along those lines.

If you're starting at higher levels, Bracers of Armor and high Dex work too.

[Flickerdart]

But the abilities actually coming from a deal with a dark power sounds fun... Warlock or Binder pretending to be monk could be a lot of fun.
Not a bad plan. The ol' Eldritch Claws + Beast Strike combo deals twice your unarmed strike damage, plus eldritch blast damage, on every unarmed strike. The foot-long laser claws are visible, but you can explain it away as "ki stuff, you're not enlightened enough to get it."

[Zanos]

Not a bad plan. The ol' Eldritch Claws + Beast Strike combo deals twice your unarmed strike damage, plus eldritch blast damage, on every unarmed strike. The foot-long laser claws are visible, but you can explain it away as "ki stuff, you're not enlightened enough to get it."
Bonus: Warlocks have Cha synergy and Bluff in class.

[Hexblade]

To clear things up, all books are allowed, just no shenanigans that DM's wouldn't allow. Secondly, I think I want to switch to Warlock as per recommendation. Thirdly, I have no idea what the level is, but let's assume its somewhere from 10-15, but a table showing level by level advancement would be amazing. Also, I'm kind of dusty, but what's a Binder?

[Flickerdart]

Also, I'm kind of dusty, but what's a Binder?

It's a class from Tome of Magic. Every morning, a binder contacts otherworldly beings called vestiges and makes pacts with them - the binder gets some abilities (typically passive, at-will, or usable every 5 rounds), and the vestige gains some minor influence over the binder (a physical feature and a behavioural quirk). They have great day-to-day versatility, but it can be difficult to excel at a given role.

[Hexblade]

So like a jack-of-all-trades? Sounds like a lot of fun to roleplay.

[ShurikVch]

Don't forget to take Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt) - to pretend it's your Abundant Step, and Martial Stance (Child of Shadow) - to imitate Empty Body

[Particle_Man]

Actually Unarmed Variant Swordsage might in general be a good way to go.

[Hexblade]

The thing is, I don't really need to imitate abilities precisely. My group is pretty casual, their main idea of a monk is a fast guy who punches things.

[icefractal]

For armor, perhaps a Glamered Mithral Shirt - no armor check penalties, so it won't be visibly slowing you down, light enough to sleep in, and it can be worn under some robes to avoid the "someone touches you and notices that your 'clothes' feel like metal" issues. And compatible with most classes since it's light armor.

Psychic Warrior is another class that could do a pretty good job impersonating Monk. Take Inertial Armor as a power and you won't even have a reason to wear armor past a certain level.

[Darrin]

The thing is, I don't really need to imitate abilities precisely. My group is pretty casual, their main idea of a monk is a fast guy who punches things.

Just make sure you intentionally miss a lot, and never do any significant damage when you do hit...

Ok, ok, so hopefully that's now out of my system.

Fighter with Improved Unarmed Strike (1st), Superior Unarmed Strike (3rd), and Snap Kick (6th) can handle the punching things pretty well... in fact, probably better than a monk. For the fast part, Travel Devotion (Complete Champion) could work (10 rounds per day), or Shape Soulmeld: Cerulean Sandals (Magic of Incarnum, +5' per essentia invested). Law Devotion or another soulmeld (Wormtail belt) could help with AC until you get your hands on a Hat of Disguise (1800 GP, very affordable at low levels), at which point you could wear full plate and still "look" like a monk. If any PC with detect magic wonders why you always have an illusion aura on you, say something about "wanted for a crime you didn't commit" back in your homeland.

[lord_khaine]

I just sadly think that your twist is going to be meet with a resounding "mehh... " Because i just cant imagine any way where this twist will be of interest to anyone else besides your.
The only, actual effect this will have, is that there are going to be some false names written on your character sheet. But your still going to move around and punch people/monsters. Its a little like going "haha i wasnt a cleric, i were an achivist in mithril fullplate"

[icefractal]

I did play a Rogue disguised as a Monk once and it was pretty fun - used a quarterstaff (TWF has the same effect as Flurry at low level), wore armor underneath his robes - nobody was very mechanically savvy, so that was enough. The twist there though was more of a personality one - he pretended to be an ascetic who spurned material wealth and comforts, and only took a share of treasure so he could donate it to his temple, but in fact was greedy as hell and stole (not from the party) whenever the opportunity arose.

[gorfnab]

Barbarians can fake being Monks fairly well with the right ACFs. Just using ACFs for Barbarian levels 1 and 2 you get the build setup below.

1. Barbarian - Spirit Totem: Lion ACF (CC), Whirling Frenzy ACF (UA), City Brawler ACF (Drg#349) , Skilled City Dweller (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) (trade Ride for Tumble)
2. Barbarian - Wolf Totem ACF (UA)

So, you get 2 unarmed strikes per round (3 with Whirling Frenzy), full attack on charge (pounce from Spirit Totem: Lion), the ability to trip (Wolf Totem), full BAB, D12 HD, light armor, and Tumble as a class skill.

You could choose Ferocity (CityS) instead of Whirling Frenzy. You would loose out on the extra attack but instead gain a boost to Dex.

[Zaq]

Yeah, I'm honestly fairly confused as to what the desired effect of the reveal would be. Though I suppose if you're trying to present a case study to someone who can't see past classes as being character-defining roles rather than packages of abilities, this might be able to work? I did play in a game long ago where someone was actually a Sorcerer presenting themselves as a Monk, and that was fairly interesting, but that's because a Sorc and a Monk typically play very differently. Whereas a Fighter and a Monk typically walk up to someone and hit them (and usually not all that effectively, depending on exactly how you build the Fighter).

Barbarian does faux-Monk better than Fighter does, especially if you allow PrCs. Fist of the Forest into Frostrager is a pretty natural progression, and both of them allow you to be reasonably decent as an unarmed and unarmored beatstick, especially with some help from Superior Unarmed Strike (though without looking, I think that there's some weird interaction between SUS and FotF) and Snap Kick. But I'm not sure if the central part of your request is "Fighter" or "pretending to be a Monk."

[Dagroth]

I think a Totemist, rather than Binder, would be better at pretending to be a Monk.

Works well with Barbarian too, since they're both illiterate. Which could be fun... playing an illiterate character claiming to be a Monk.

[Kelb_Panthera]

The thing is, I don't really need to imitate abilities precisely. My group is pretty casual, their main idea of a monk is a fast guy who punches things.

If you're not trying to mimic their abilities, at least approximately, what's the point of this again?

Especially at the low teen levels, a monk is almost as much supernatural resistances as it is fist-fighting prowess and speed.

Anyway, you could grab magical training and go into OA's blade dancer. It definitely gets the highly mobile, slightly mystical feel.

[emeraldstreak]

I had the idea of playing a Fighter disguised as a monk for a small campaign, so at the end of the campaign I could do a twist reveal. Is there any way I can accomplish this? The DM will know about this, so he can help out. I want to do this mainly by RAW, and no cheesy optimization.

You have this upside-down.

Whether you are a monk or not depends on whether you roleplay a monk or not. The mechanics (ie class) are under the hood.

So, first of all, you have to roleplay a swindler that is currently masquerading as a monk; or come up with a similar roleplay idea; to imbue meaning in your eventual reveal.

****

Secondly, players who would appreciate the mechanics of your character only fall in particular type, and if your fellows aren't them it would be lost:

- low system-knowledge people won't care if your monk is actually a Monk or another class.
- high system-knowledge people will know you aren't doing any of the things an optimized Monk can do

So, your only possible audience to any "mechanics" statement you want to make a players of moderate system-knowledge.