Pally-Monk Multiclass

[Mandar]

Has anyone heard of any good prestige classes or feats for this type of character build?

Manny~

[T.G. Oskar]

Argent Fist from Faiths of Eberron.

After the pre-emptive strike, here's the gist of it:

Basically, the PrC combines some of the Paladin traits and some of the Monk traits. Your ki strike improves in a different way, you get a delayed smite evil progression, and alternate uses of turn undead for specific purposes. It also allows you to use your Wis modifier on any kind of armor, but not fast movement or flurry of blows (so you can't make several attacks with your unarmed strikes). There are several losses to it; namely, while you don't miss much by foregoing Monk, you lose the spellcasting progression of the Paladin (Eberron has very interesting spells they can use), as well as the progression of Lay on Hands (again, another loss) for some so-so abilities that are better than what you might gain from Monk or spell-less Paladin but not strong enough for the rest.

Another, if you wish to keep your spellcasting, is Sacred Fist from Complete Divine. This one allows you to upgrade your spellcasting, and it also allows you to treat some of the levels in the class for Monk properties, not to mention several minor abilities.

Basically, you can enter with a minimum of Monk 2/Paladin 4 (which nets you basically all you can get from the class), then get all 10 levels of Argent Fist if you decide to pave away with the spells. You might be capable of doing the same with Monk 2/Cleric 1/Prestige Paladin 4, then mix Argent Fist and Sacred Fist (and get delayed, but still better, Cleric spellcasting), although the requirement for feats may be a bit too much.

There's a feat called Ascetic Knight which allows you to stack Monk and Paladin abilities for smite evil and unarmed strike, which you can get early on or as a bonus feat from Argent Fist (which boosts the feat to allow stacking from Monk, Paladin, and the PrC itself).

All in all, it's not THAT strong, but you can work something out with it; you get Mettle (which complements your Evasion and makes you pretty tough) and a cool capstone, plus some benefits to healing which are nice too.

[LordBlades]

There is a Prestige class in Faiths of Eberron (Argent fist IIRC, just look in the Silver Flame chapter).
Also, with Paladin 4/Monk 1 qualifies for Sacred Fist (Complete Divine), which advances your monk abilities and paladin spellcasting.

As far as feats are concerned, Ascetic Knight from Complete Adventurer allows stacking of Monk and Paladin levels for the purpose of unarmed strike and smite evil damage.

[HunterOfJello]

Good doesn't really belong in the same sentence with paladin and/or monk.

[Psyren]

Don't forget the Ascetic Knight feat from CAdv. Makes Pally and monk levels stack for smite and unarmed strike die.

Secondly, grab the Serenity feat from Dragon Magazine (I forget which one) - that shifts all your paladin abilities that depend on Charisma (like Smite and saves) to Wisdom. Now add a couple more tweaks like Intuitive Attack and you will be Wis-SAD.

[JonestheSpy]

Good doesn't really belong in the same sentence with paladin and/or monk.

Oh do hush up. Just because a character concept doesn't match with your preferred level of powergaming doesn't mean posting just to dis the idea is justified.

[Frosty]

Well Good-aligned...that describes Paladins and has the word Good in it...

[Zaq]

Well, it's true, mixing Crusader with Unarmed Swordsage like you suggested in the OP would get you eight out of the nine schools. The only PrC that would really help with that is Master of Nine, which has its own problems, but just going back and forth between the two would be ok. The exact progression would probably depend on your starting level.

[Cespenar]

I vaguely recall a feat that makes Paladin abilities all Wis-based.

[Psyren]

I vaguely recall a feat that makes Paladin abilities all Wis-based.

*Helpfully points up at his post*

[Frosty]

Going Pathfinder Paladin makes all of your abilities and spellcasting CHA-based, which is nice.

[LordBlades]

Oh do hush up. Just because a character concept doesn't match with your preferred level of powergaming doesn't mean posting just to dis the idea is justified.

IMHO, the OP should be warned that neither paladin nor monk, and also a paladin/monk hybrid are very powerful classes. However this should be done in a constructive manner.

If paladin/monk fits the average power level in the OPs group, the idea sounds like it could be pretty fun tbh :)

[Cespenar]

*Helpfully points up at his post*

Right. Hmm. Okay. Never mind then.

[Lhurgyof]

Shintao Monk from the Oriental Adventurers. If I recall, you don't need pally levels to enter it and it gives you a lot of paladin abilities and goodies (Like letting you increase your stats and silence people)

Edit: To qualify to become a Shintao monk, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Lawful good.
Base Will Save Bonus: +4.
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 8 ranks.
Special: Still mind class ability.

It also advances fast movement, AC bonus, unarmed damage, and flurry.

You can't accumulate wealth, but I'm pretty sure magic items are fine.

[Person_Man]

There is no natural synergy between Monk and Paladin. For each class separately there are a few good options - for the Monk there's Tashalatora, Fist of the Forest, Warshaper, Totemist, Disciple of the Eye, Sacred Fist, Shou Disciple, Enlightened Fist, and a few others. For the Paladin there's Leadership, Battle Blessing, Sword of the Arcane Order, Ashworm Dragoon, Aglarondan Griffin Rider, Knight of the Iron Glacier, etc.

What are your build goals?

[Leon]

Going Pathfinder Paladin makes all of your abilities and spellcasting CHA-based, which is nice.

Which doesnt help a Monk unless you can shift all the monks WIS based fetures off to CHA as well

[T.G. Oskar]

There is no natural synergy between Monk and Paladin. For each class separately there are a few good options - for the Monk there's Tashalatora, Fist of the Forest, Warshaper, Totemist, Disciple of the Eye, Sacred Fist, Shou Disciple, Enlightened Fist, and a few others. For the Paladin there's Leadership, Battle Blessing, Sword of the Arcane Order, Ashworm Dragoon, Aglarondan Griffin Rider, Knight of the Iron Glacier, etc.

Also remember there are implied synergy options; not the best, sure, but there are. Much like Argent Fist, Sacred Fist and Ascetic Knight.

I agree with the application of Serenity; you'll need all the Wisdom you can muster, specially if you decide to spice the class up a bit with Cleric spellcasting, which also bases off Wisdom. It's a bit more cost-effective to SAD-ify the build with several applications of Wisdom, perhaps with a secondary boost to Dex and Con. A dip in Shou Disciple would help a lot, since you could get it before Argent Fist/Sacred Fist and get your Wis to attack and damage rolls.

Inclining may seem like a natural option, but it will end up being better to disregard whatever benefit you may get from dipping Monk or Paladin than following the same path, which is not the idea of the OP. Even a 2-level dip on Argent Fist provides a pretty decent bonus, and while all 10 will kill the spells (as I said before), it's quite decent (mostly the Mettle ability, which while late is still good enough).

The only other decent option would be to go Monk 2/Paladin 3/Sorcerer X (too convoluted), then get both Ascetic Knight and Ascetic Monk. That way, you can take advantage of Sorcerer spellcasting, Monk unarmed strike damage, as well as Cha to AC and saves. But that's a build consisting of three classes, which may incur on multiclass penalties (unless a human or half-elf).