Best monk combos

[Carlos Clements]

Ok so what do people think are the best race/monk combos out there and feats to get at each level? Yes I'm thinking of making a second character and might make a monk so I'm asking for input here

[Sean Nichols]

Zen Archer monk human. Nuff said.

[IronHelixx]

Personally, I Love the Dwarven Monk - seriously.  :)

I will drop you an example.

- Jesse [IronHelixx]

[Carlos Clements]

What does that combo gives don't just post the name and say enough said I'm asking for explanations.

[Matt Haddix]

Close, but I'd say an aasimar is better - especially if you use one of the alternate varieties like garuda-blooded (+2 Dex, +2 Wis) or archon-blooded (+2 Con, +2 Wis).  Zen archer is one of the rare classes that doesn't really need a bonus feat from being a human, because they get so many baked in to their class.

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[Carlos Clements]

Is that combo allowed because I heard aasimar had to be descended from humans or is that a heritage choice from the blood of angel section?

On Thursday, May 2, 2013 2:27:44 AM UTC-4, Carlos Clements wrote:

[Balgin, the Dwarf]

There is a heritage section in Blood of Angels. The mortal parent is still human. The heritages offer different variations on the heavenly side of the family tree. Each heritage entry includes two traits. These are not bonus traits but merely access. Members of that heritage can take those traits. If each of the heritages gained 2 bonus traits on top of swapping stuff out then they'd be overpowered.

Additionaly.... (and here's a dirty little trick here but bear with it)....

There's an alternate racial feature in the Advanced Race Guide called Scion of Humanity which allows an aasimar to count as being both an aasimar and a member of the human race for a lot of race releated rules (including feat requirements).

There's a feat in the Advanced Player's Guide called Racial Heritage which is only available to humans and aasimars with the scion of humanity alternate racial feature. This feat allows you to pick yet another race and gain one racial trait from that race. Please note that this does not mean the stuff in the racial stat blocks (which is also called racial traits to confuse us :(). It means traits that race has access to (such as Glory of Old for dwarfs). It also does not allow you to take the human's favoured class options for your aasimar or the racial heritage race's favoured class options either. Those are not racial traits.

While a PFS aasimar has to be of Medium humanoid descent (no small aasimars) you can reskin it. So I could play a very saintly looking dwarven oracle/paladin who is actualy an aasimar that looks like a dwarf (and took scion of humanity, racial heritage: dwarf, one of the racial traits for dwarfs from Dwarves of Golarion or the Advanced Race Guide).

So it's possible to build an elven or dwarven aasimar but it's a massive resource sink during character creation (spending both an alternate racial feature and a feat to count as being 3 races at once). It's not really worth the benefit as you won't be getting the human bonus feat or anything :p. It can be incredibly fun but if you go down this path make sure you really know which direction you're going in. Have a plan and stick with it.

I'd be interested to see what can be done with a dwarven monk. I should imagine the sturdy little fellow would be very good at resisting combat manouvers. I've seen a dwarven monk who took improved grapple at 1st level.

An intimidate based half orc monk could be interesting too with the right feats and traits.

[Mort Swishytail]

Play whatever you want to play. Really. If you wanted to just see stats you would be better playing neverwinter nights 2 on a computer or something. Your characters should have a reason for being what they are and not just another set of numbers.

--

[Brandon]

Some people play PFS for the storyline in the scenarios, viewing their characters as a vessel to get there.  Those people probably do want a quick optimization so they can coast through and see the storyline.

Now, granted, just because I haven't actually met any of those people doesn't make it false.

[Sean Smith]

Honestly, there are so many different ways one could play a monk (archetypes, multi-class, prestige classes, etc), it would really depend on what you were wanting to accomplish. Zen Archer is a master of ranged combat and can be quite fun as a ranged damage dealer (I've had the most experience with this but even this can be built multiple ways). Combat maneuvers and fighting styles can all heavily alter how you might want your monk to turn out. If you have an idea of what direction you wish to go in general, that would better highlight which feats, traits, race, etc that would be most appropriate to get there. If you can provide some more details of your goal, I'm sure we could provide better recommendations as different build ideas usually take different types of combos.

That said, you can pretty much take anything if you want to do it for flavor and fun! Sometimes, that is 1/2 the fun of character creation; coming up with a fun and flavorful story for why your character is what he is.

Thanks,

Sean

[Brandon Cecil]

I guess the major question is, why a monk?  That is, what draws you to the monk class?  Like fighter, monk is extremely versatile but built to specialize, so there's a great number of things you can do with a monk (archer, puncher, grappler, qinggong, etc).  Do you want to multiclass?

A good build isn't so much your starting point as the endpoint of whatever core archetype you're going for and the reason you're going for it.

[Jonathan Choy]

crane style monk tank is pretty amazingly durable, but doesn't get honored as a threat without some kind of damage boosting AoMF... 

grappler monk is great for taking out casters

zen archer and qinggong are good and supposed-to-be-good dpr.

I don't find that I like anything from Monk that allows saves, as the MAD is very strong with the class.

[Anthony Benavides]

Adopted- Idlykin, now you can Monk Barb.

Unarmed figher and master of many forms, lots of styles, full crane at lvl 2 (depending on the order you take the levels), full any style at level 3 (fighter first, no elemental)

Four winds Monk/ Unarmed Fighter- Pick up first elemental style feat

Sohei 2/ Cavalier- Any two mounted feats, no prereqs. Mounted terror!

Empty Hand monk+ various- Equipment trick: rope to whip flurry, take a trait to up dmg/attk etc, also, flurry with a sledge (2d6).

Tetori/Brutal Pugilist 5- count as large, grapple king

Master of Many forms 2/ Wizard x- double int to dmg on ranged and melee attack rolls... acid orb, 1d3+10, but you need to make some Kn checks first.

Teifling drunken master/ drunken brute- tail for fetching that boooze. Or accelerated drinker cheliax trait and some other race.

Rogue/Manuver Master- feint flurry sneak attacks, terrible bab.

And yeah, crane style's nice, quigong monks are fun but some archetypes cannot use the this (you need still mind). There are two prestige classes, Brother of the seal and Champion of Iori, so if you want to move into those you'll want to plan accordingly.

Gunslinger Monk has some synergy too, at least via WIS and dex... not sure on abilities. As does Druid/Cleric, with wis.

 

On Wednesday, May 1, 2013 11:27:44 PM UTC-7, Carlos Clements wrote:

[Sean Erwin]

Gunslinger Monk?  Flurry of of shots?  But would he be a bulletproof monk? :)

Personally I like Flowing Monk

On Thursday, May 2, 2013 12:37:53 PM UTC-7, Anthony Benavides wrote:

Adopted- Idlykin, now you can Monk Barb.

[Brandon Cecil]

I don't think you can flurry with a gun as it is not a monk weapon.  If you want ranged flurry, I would go with zen archer.  You could use shuriken, but at that point you should really be a ninja.  Or multi class monk/ninja.

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[Terrence van Ettinger]

Yes!! I think this is the best thing I've heard all day! Wow I try to make my character with some I what is going to be functional and not die in two seconds, my focus is always on the character as a person, not as a bunch of numbers and tags.

Terrence

Twitter: @LandrasGembar

Facebook: www.facebook.com/anguslaren

Skype: landrasphaelan

Kingdoms Live Code: x5epp7; Hanging/Words with Friends ID: terrencevak

[Matt Haddix]

The two are not mutually exclusive.  There's no reason why a character needs to be incompetent in order to be well-roleplayed.

[Jonathan Choy]

in fact, based on the core concept presented in Seekers of Secrets, most actual Pathfinder Agents are pretty elite. 

Three years of finishing school with pretty top flight instruction in magic, academe, and combat will put you in a different mindset than "farmboy adventurer, 1 each". 

[Anthony Benavides]

Meet Cixyron, favored weapon musket!

On Thursday, May 2, 2013 6:10:17 PM UTC-7, Sean Erwin wrote:

Gunslinger Monk?  Flurry of of shots?  But would he be a bulletproof monk? :)

Personally I like Flowing Monk

On Thursday, May 2, 2013 12:37:53 PM UTC-7, Anthony Benavides wrote:

Adopted- Idlykin, now you can Monk Barb.

Gunslinger Monk has sime synergy too, at least via WIS and dex... not sure on abilities. As does Druid/Cleric, with wis.
 

[Under A Bleeding Sun]

I play a Dwarf Zen Archer Monk who is pretty elite.  At level 9 my low save is like a 12 I believe, with +5 if its a spell or spell like ability.  I think my base AC is 25, but I can pump it all the way to 37(41 vs. giants).  Zen Archers also get so many free feats its insane. If you build crane style and deflect arrow into your build (easy to do really) you can also deflect a melee and ranged attack each round, you really are like a howitzer.   When we fought a dragon, I was the only person who could land a hit besides the gunslinger (who really owned the thing).  I have also on 2 occasions had to solo encounters that were CR's higher than me because the entire party was grappled or fascinated, and a few times it was only my monk and one other party member.  Many of my other characters would have had to retreat at that point and leave the party to die.

One of the coolest monks I've seen was a player in one of my games was a monk (Master of many forms)/Sorcerer (Empyreal/Draconic)/Dragon Disicple, but I think that may not be PFS legal.

I also played a Monk(Maneuver Master) who was pretty tough.  It was a home game, so he went into Psionic Monk and started doing pretty well, but the maneuver master had a lot of weaknesses and he got beat up pretty bad.  I wouldn't particularly recommend it unless you know you have a good party to support you, which in PFS is impossible.

Really, there are lots of good monk combos now, with all the archetypes and more or less monk exclusive feats.  Monk is also surprisingly powerful for a one level dip (though you loose BAB) that I have on a character, great for those saves/unarmed strike and bonus feats.