PDA

View Full Version : Player Help Gith Monk / Cleric



Maat Mons
2020-11-10, 05:46 PM
Before Covid hit, I was playing in a game. It's on indefinite hiatus now. But I was thinking about it again.

It was a Curse of Strahd campaign, and I came very close to dying in pretty much every session. So I was trying to plan a backup character. I was having trouble coming up with ideas that tickled my fancy though.

Anyway, I was poking around 5e rules (I'm not overly familiar with them), trying to figure out if a Dex-based Barbarian could be made to work, when I stumbled upon a completely different idea that I kind of like.

It's probably not the most original concept. But what I'm thinking is Githzerai Monk 1 / Cleric [remaining levels]. Not sure on deity. My first thought was Zuoken, but I'm not sure if he's been brought over to 5e?

Speaking of uncertainty, I'm not sure if anyone in the group has Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. But then again, I'm not sure if or when the campaign will start up again. And if it does, I'm not sure if or when my current character would die, necessitating this new one.

For backgrounds, Far Traveler seems appropriate. I'd have come all the way from Limbo. I was also considering Hermit, until I realized I was confusing hermits with cenobites. My character would be a cenobite, not a hermit. In fact, I was considering using the Zerth'Ad'Lun monastery mentioned in the fluff for the 3.5 Zerth Cenobite.

Arcana, Knowledge, and Order all seem like thematically appropriate domains.

Any advice? The current party is a Rogue, a Wizard, and a Fighter (me), if that matters. If memory serves, we're level 3. The wizard is unusually tough for his class. I think his Con in higher than his Int. And he's a Bugbear. The Rogue, so far as I'm aware, is fairly typical. And he's a Human.

I suspect the party will miss having a meatshield if I die, but I kind of don't want to do the same thing twice in a row. Nevertheless, some survivability would be good, because I will have no meatshield unless another party member also dies, and decides to make one.

CTurbo
2020-11-10, 06:25 PM
I'm assuming you want Monk 1 for unarmored defense? This could be a fun character. I'd go Monk 1/Light Cleric X and start with 15 Dex and 17 Wis if using point buy so you can bump both up to 16 and 18 at Cleric 4. If you can roll for stats, get Dex and Wis as high as possible and grab Warcaster at Cleric 4.

I would be tempted to flip back to Monk after Cleric 5 and go Sun Soul Monk. Stick with Monk 3 if you really want to be mostly Cleric.

x3n0n
2020-11-10, 07:02 PM
Related: Others speak very highly of Monk 1/Moon Druid X as well.

Moon Druid is already a great pool of HP if you're looking for a melee tank, and Monk 1 gets you Unarmored Defense while in Wild Shape, which is a huge improvement for almost all beasts.

RogueJK
2020-11-10, 07:11 PM
Related: Others speak very highly of Monk 1/Moon Druid X as well.

Moon Druid is already a great pool of HP if you're looking for a melee tank, and Monk 1 gets you Unarmored Defense while in Wild Shape, which is a huge improvement for almost all beasts.

Yes, I can attest that this makes for a great combo.

Maat Mons
2020-11-11, 11:10 AM
Yes, to a large extent Monk 1 is for Unarmored Defense.

But also, conceptually, I'm trying to capture the mix of martial arts and magic present in the flavor of 3.5 psionics. So I want the character to be able to do a little kung fu. Without Monk, my punches deal 1 point of damage, and can only key off of Strength, which I didn't plan to invest in.

We roll for abilities, so some things are a little up in the air right now.

Moon Druid does sound fun, but shapeshifting isn't really what I'm going for with this character. That might wind up being a future character though.

It turns out that, according to the text, the Hermit background is meant to include someone from a monastery... even thought that's a cenobite, not a hermit... and those words exist specifically to differentiate monastery-dwelling holy men from holy men who shun even the company of other holy men.

I'm considering doing Monk as the first level, the Far Traveler background, and Knowledge domain, picking my skills to be:

Acrobatics
Arcana (double proficiency bonus)
Athletics
Insight
Perception
Religion (double proficiency bonus)
... which seems kind of workable as a skill set for a wuxia priest.

Maat Mons
2020-11-17, 05:40 PM
One question I feel the need to answer is, "Why have I left not only my temple, but Limbo itself?"

Maybe my mentor was killed by an influential individual, I killed that individual in retaliation, but now I can never return to my homeland because there is a price on my head.

Maybe my temple was destroyed by a renegade priest, I mistakenly believed myself to be the only survivor, so I took to wandering in the manner of an ancestor I admire.

Maybe I left to pursue riches working as an assassin, and one of the the leaders of the temple is so incensed that he now gifts weapons of the finest quality upon those who appear before him and declare their intention to kill me.

Maybe I'm someone not played by David Carradine.

Anyone have any ideas?