elgabalawi's page

i do not have much experience as a dm, so not a lot to offer, but one thing that helps my players enjoy themselves even more is that i sometimes have them make perception rolls when there's nothing to discover. i might describe it as you hear a sound, but decide it was nothing (this can be before - which i realize isn't what you were asking about - or during combat). as much as they try not to metagame by wondering what they might have discovered if they had rolled better, i can see that it totally ups their anxiety in an immersive/good way.

that's all i've got.

With an Int of 8 short of taking multi levels in flowing monk or getting the int up?

I score improved trip with lv 1 Flowing monk.

you could do it with maneuver master, right? i assume that their bonus feats work like normal monk bonus feats in terms of not needing the prereq's, so you'd could get it at 6th lvl

now that i think about it, it seems as though the barrier target word would suffer from that issue for most spells. hmm. if that's how it was intended, maybe they should've just called it "ray from a wall" :-)

in that case, i guess the only use in it is that it would work like a ray but emanating from a wall. not as cool as an actual barrier that sits there, but potentially useful.

so, my question.

can you, for instance, cast torture with the barrier target word? i feel as though i've seen it implied that you could. if so, how long does the barrier last? there's nothing in the description of the barrier target word that i could find regarding this. all i can figure is that we have to assume that it lasts as long as torture's effect would last, but that doesn't really make a ton of sense to me either, i mean it's not as though a burst of torture would be more than instantaneous, but an instantaneous barrier seems to kind of defeat the purpose (not that one couldn't still find uses for it).
any thoughts?
thanks in advance.

thanks for the write up, it definitely helped me get a better grip on it all. i know this is the advice section, but i don't see a lot on words of power in the rules section, so i figured i'd post my question here as well.
can you, for instance, cast torture with the barrier target word? i feel as though you implied that you could. if so, how long does the barrier last? there's nothing in the description of the barrier target word that i could find regarding this. all i can figure is that we have to assume that it lasts as long as torture's effect would last, but that doesn't really make a ton of sense to me either, i mean it's not as though a burst of torture would be more than instantaneous, but an instantaneous barrier seems to kind of defeat the purpose (not that one couldn't still find uses for it).
any thoughts?
thanks in advance.

I haven't been able to find this anywhere.
on the grapple flow chart, if one takes damage from an AoO while attempting to grapple, the amount of damage taken is subtracted from his CMB grapple roll.
once he succeeds with the first grapple, if the defender or his buddies damage our grappler with attacks, does that damage get subtracted from his next CMB roll to maintain the grapple/pin the guy?

like i said, couldn't find this anywhere.
thanks in advance.

Atarlost wrote:

If your GM doesn't permit single weapon flurry you need a non-flurry archetype. The only non-flurry monk that works as more than a dip is Sensei. You get a wannabe bard with a better fortitude save, but it's the best you can do.

The developers have released errata stating that you can in fact flurry with a single weapon (2 handed or otherwise).

Here's and idea - what about using the Double Chained Kama - only always use it as a 2 handed reach weapon?

It's exotic, so it costs a feat. But it's a Monk weapon so you can Flurry with it out of the gate - no cleric/fighter dips required. It also has the trip feature.

So here's how it breaks down: you flurry with your 2 handed reach weapon Kama. You only get 1x STR mod because you're a monk, but you get 3:1 return on power attacks because your a Monk.

But here's the part some people forget - when making AoO's you will get 1.5x STR on damage - which is a little perk for you even though it comes at the cost of the attack being made at your lower BAB.

So now you have a 10' reach and also threaten adjacent with your unarmed strikes. You also only ever need to enchant one end of the double chained Kama so it's a cost effective weapon choice.

If I was building this character I would use Alejandro's suggested stat array and take the Weapon Adept archetype. Human or Half-Elf so you can take Exotic Weapon Proficiency at 1st level. Power Attack at 3rd. The archetype gives you weapon focus & specialization in place of evasion - so you still get your normal bonus feats (you'll have feats out the ying yang). Take combat reflexes for sure. Improved Trip is an option.

Maybe pick up QuickDraw along the way so that you can open combat with a "Perfect Strike" (with one of your other monk weapons) and then draw your double chained Kama as a free action.

hmm, maybe i could start with a lvl of unarmed fighter to automatically get the weapon proficiency as well as to get the bonus style feat.

Atarlost wrote:

If your GM doesn't permit single weapon flurry you need a non-flurry archetype. The only non-flurry monk that works as more than a dip is Sensei. You get a wannabe bard with a better fortitude save, but it's the best you can do.

The developers have released errata stating that you can in fact flurry with a single weapon (2 handed or otherwise).

Here's and idea - what about using the Double Chained Kama - only always use it as a 2 handed reach weapon?

It's exotic, so it costs a feat. But it's a Monk weapon so you can Flurry with it out of the gate - no cleric/fighter dips required. It also has the trip feature.

So here's how it breaks down: you flurry with your 2 handed reach weapon Kama. You only get 1x STR mod because you're a monk, but you get 3:1 return on power attacks because your a Monk.

But here's the part some people forget - when making AoO's you will get 1.5x STR on damage - which is a little perk for you even though it comes at the cost of the attack being made at your lower BAB.

So now you have a 10' reach and also threaten adjacent with your unarmed strikes. You also only ever need to enchant one end of the double chained Kama so it's a cost effective weapon choice.

If I was building this character I would use Alejandro's suggested stat array and take the Weapon Adept archetype. Human or Half-Elf so you can take Exotic Weapon Proficiency at 1st level. Power Attack at 3rd. The archetype gives you weapon focus & specialization in place of evasion - so you still get your normal bonus feats (you'll have feats out the ying yang). Take combat reflexes for sure. Improved Trip is an option.

Maybe pick up QuickDraw along the way so that you can open combat with a "Perfect Strike" (with one of your other monk weapons) and then draw your double chained Kama as a free action.

i had completely forgotten about this thread as well as this build idea, but this has me thinking about it again - thanks

so has there been any change on the weapon adept archetype and the limited weapon selection for perfect strike? it just seems so silly for a chore archetype ability to limit the weapon choice so severely when there's all these newer monk weapons.
just wondering/hoping.

hmm, bummer. thanks for the feedback. that's making me think twice.

are there soft cover issues with grappling that aren't written down? i could understand that, but from reading others' posts on their grapplers it sounded as though grappling folks up helped their teammates as it made the foe's ACs and such worse and worse.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

howdy, i'm thinking of making a grappling tetori monk for a pfs game, but i was a little worried a about grappling's viability in the higher levels, and if in order to be good enough at grappling to be effective i would be too gimped in everything else to do much once we're rarely fighting anything that can be grappled.
any insights would be greatly appreciated.

thanks for the responses jiggly, TG, and Dab.

if one has weapon finesse, can they use their dex instead of strength for the cmb for a grapple check (as folks with weapon finesse when tripping with a rapier, for example, may use their weapon finesse modified rapier attack in calculating their trip attempt)?
or would one have to take agile maneuvers?

thanks in advance

All valid suggestions.

Argh. Auto correct strikes again. Not used to this tablet yet. Thanks so much for the response

Just noticed that it autocorrect the subject heading as well. Whoops

Is this a troll post?

Nope, I meant PFS rules but the autocorrect changed it if that makes a difference.

I'm still a little fuzzy on PDFs rules and am getting ready to head to my first game. Is the feat piranha strike legal? I wasn't sure since it's listed as piano but peripheral.
Thanks in advance

elgabalawi wrote:

hold the phone! i thought for pfs at least it had been determined that there were no...

You do not use the Eimi's enhancements or materials with your unarmed strike. Especially not in PFS. SKR has made it clear on multiple occasions that no melee weapons use Unarmed Strike damage. You try to take it into PFS, you're going to get shot down. The Eimi as written does allow you to make your unarmed strikes as piercing attacks, but you would use your normal unarmed modifiers, not the Eimi's enhancements and materials.

oh man, i had totally gotten my hopes up : )

thanks for the clarification though. i guess their still kind of handy for being able to make the damage piercing but probably not worth making changes just to get them (especially since DR wouldn't be an issue much after whenever i get expose weakness).

elgabalawi wrote:

i'm glad you asked. so someone on the boards was advocating a dex/finesse built martial artist (getting to ditch strength means less damage but a higher dex and wis meaning a better ac and better expose weakness rolls as well as stunning fist DCs was, i think, the basic gist). i thought it seemed interesting but couldn't get anyone to answer about if they pictured it being unarmed or using a weapon to be able to magic it up for cheaper.

The Amulet of Mighty Fists was recently lowered in price. A +1 Agile AoMF should be all you need.

elgabalawi wrote:

then, as i was figuring out how i would do it, it seemed that getting the needed feats (finesse, piranha strike, probably weapon focus) might require a first level fighter dip. if i was going to be using a weapon though, i needed to find a way to be able to use a light "monk" weapon at that first level (at least if i wanted to take weapon focus - i guess finesse and piranha strike ar global, right?). so, that was probably more than you asked for, but that's why i was trying to figure if tengu would help me get there. any thoughts?

Actually, there are quite a few "monk" weapons that a fighter starts proficient in (which is odd because monks are not proficient in all of these):

Cestus, Brass Knuckles, Hanbo, Butterfly Sword, Jutte, Lungchuan Tamo, Shang Gou, Tonfa, and the Wushu Dart

The Tengu Sword Training ability gets you a few of those, while the Exotic training ability can get you any of those after Brass Knuckles as well as these exotic weapons:

Bich'hwa, Dan Bong, Emei Piercer, Fighting Fan, Kama, Nunchaku, Sai, and Siangham

The Emei Piercer is especially noteworthy as it can make attacks on its own, or it can simply be used to deal piercing damage with your unarmed strikes, which lets you deal your full unarmed damage while benefiting from a weapon's enchantments/special materials.

hold the phone! i thought for pfs at least it had been determined that there were no "weapons" that enhanced unarmed damage that could be magicked up and used with a monk's flurry and unarmed damage. i'm far from totally up on this stuff, so are you saying i could use the emei piercer and enchant that instead of (or maybe along with since the AoMF can grant weapons enhancements too) the AoMF? also, i can make a AoMF agile before i give it a +1 enhancement bonus, correct?

The Tengu Exotic Weapon Training lets you become proficient in any Eastern weapon, be it simple, martial, or exotic.

Swordtrained would not apply to Sianghams or Kama as they are most definitely not swords or even daggers. However, I must ask--why would you want proficiency in those terrible weapons? They are the monk's consolation prizes, not actually useful weapons.

For reference, I think the weapons that the Sword-Trained ability would apply to are:

Brass Knife, Dagger, Punching Dagger, Dogslicer, Gladius, Switchblade Knife, Kukri, Sea-Knife, Short Sword, Cutlass, Longsword, Rapier, Scimitar, Sword Cane, Terbutje, Falchion, Glaive (debateable, but it was traditionally a sword blade on a pole), Greatsword, Swordbreaker Dagger, Tri-Bladed Katar, Butterfly Knife, Sica, Falcata, Khopesh, Rhoka, Sawtooth Sabre, Shotel, Aldori Dueling Sword, Bastard Sword, Elven Curve Blade, Two Bladed Sword, Butterfly Sword, Kerambit, Lungchuan Tamo, Shang Gou, Nine Ring Broadsword, Double Chicken Sabre, Naginata (debateable, but it was traditionally an inferior katana blade on a shaft), No-Dachi, Tri-Pointed Double Edged Sword, Bich'hwa, Pata, Wakizashi, Katana, Temple Sword, Urumi, and the Seven-Branched Sword

i'm glad you asked. so someone on the boards was advocating a dex/finesse built martial artist (getting to ditch strength means less damage but a higher dex and wis meaning a better ac and better expose weakness rolls as well as stunning fist DCs was, i think, the basic gist). i thought it seemed interesting but couldn't get anyone to answer about if they pictured it being unarmed or using a weapon to be able to magic it up for cheaper. then, as i was figuring out how i would do it, it seemed that getting the needed feats (finesse, piranha strike, probably weapon focus) might require a first level fighter dip. if i was going to be using a weapon though, i needed to find a way to be able to use a light "monk" weapon at that first level (at least if i wanted to take weapon focus - i guess finesse and piranha strike ar global, right?). so, that was probably more than you asked for, but that's why i was trying to figure if tengu would help me get there. any thoughts?

sweet. thanks so much for all the responses everyone.

but it would include the eastern exotic weapons then.

that makes sense to me since there was no clarification in terms of simple versus martial either.
this would be for a pfs game, so has anyone had any experience in that setting?

ah. okay. thanks for clarifying.

my post right before this was responding to Ss

but it would include the eastern exotic weapons then.
that makes sense to me since there was no clarification in terms of simple versus martial either.
this would be for a pfs game, so has anyone had any experience in that setting?

What Patient Wolf said...

"Exotic", when talking about weapon proficiencies, doesn't mean, "from a foreign country"...it means "requires specialized training to use effectively."

It doesn't really matter if you call it a scimitar, sabre, shamshir, talwar, kastane, shoto, dao, or a saif...if it's a curved sword wielded with one hand, it's going to function pretty much like a scimitar, and use the same Martial Weapon Proficiency.

i'm confused, i think patientwolf's view is that the "exotic trained" trait would NOT include eastern weapons in the exotic category, but it sounds to me like you are saying it would. am i misunderstanding you?

what about a siangham. would that count as sword enough? they reference a punching dagger, so i'm thinking it might.

elgabalawi wrote:

Ssalarn wrote:

The trait would include anything from the Eastern Weapons table, exotic or otherwise. Not all classes will have martial weapon proficiency. A Fighter who is proficient in all martial weapons will be able to use Eastern Martial weapons as well.

thanks for the clarification. that's what i figured, but i wanted to double check. i was editing my post while you were answering, so if you look back at this, what are your thoughts about the kama and the sword trained aspect?

thanks.

I personally think a kama is a little too different from a sword to qualify for the swordtrained ability, but opinions may vary a little here.

argh, you guys are killing me. thanks for the response though. at least your interpretation of the exotic weapon training would help me out :-)

I believe the trait name is intended to mean the exotic weapon types but is being used to mean unusual or foreign. There is several times in the section on eastern weapons that refers to them as exotic when it is not talking specifically about exotic weapon types. For example:

"Characters need not always be of an Eastern-inspired class—such as the ninja or the samurai—or have a background in an Asian-fantasy-inspired nation to take advantage of these expanded choices. An unusual or exotic weapon gained during the course of a hero's adventures or inherited from a relative or mentor with a mysterious past is an easy way to help an otherwise European-inspired character expand his background and stand out from the crowd."

"From wushu's whirling chains and multi-bladed polearms to the awe-evoking mystique of the samurai's gleaming blades, the martial arts of the East evoke images of fantastic weaponry. Exotic even within their own cultures,..."

I think the Tengu trait is using exotic in the meaning of unusual or peculiar and not a reference to the official exotic weapon type.

hmm, so i've got one for each. how about the kama as a sword type weapon that falls into the "sword trained" trait?

The trait would include anything from the Eastern Weapons table, exotic or otherwise. Not all classes will have martial weapon proficiency. A Fighter who is proficient in all martial weapons will be able to use Eastern Martial weapons as well.

thanks for the clarification. that's what i figured, but i wanted to double check. i was editing my post while you were answering, so if you look back at this, what are your thoughts about the kama and the sword trained aspect?

thanks.

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

a couple of quick questions.
1. are eastern weapons just like other/standard weapons meaning that a fighter's martial weapon proficiency means that he is proficient with all the martial eastern weapons as well?

2. i asked 1 in part because of the tengu "exotic weapon training" trait which states they can gain proficiency in 3 + int modifier eastern weapons (which seemed to imply that eastern weapons were considered differently). my question about that trait is, does that include eastern exotic weapons? or just simple/martial eastern weapons?

thanks in advance

edit - and would a kama count as far as the sword trained trait? i can't decide if it being curved similarly to a sickle takes it out of that category.

Martial Artist is reliable constant damage and no tricks up your sleve (works well with sensai for extra hit and damage and mantis style for high DC stuns) - then may as well wear armour as nothing to loose but wis to AC. Sensai gives social skills. Makes for a great mundane hand to hand pugilist, gang leader or scrapper.

Other monks do amazing damage in a flurry and if your a hungry ghost master of many styles (crane and turtle) sacred mountain monk are basically impossible to hit and heal every round (on av) with a full attack. A wuxia supernatural freak who breaks laws of reality.

Oread monks rock if your being a supernatural monk -- extra wis, nat AC, deflect spells etc

now i have even more questions. i don't think sensai is for me because if i go martial artist, i want to be using exploit weakness, which means i'll need a high wiz anyways, but i don't even know what this "hungry ghost" monk is, or the "oread" monk. what's that all about? and/or where can i find out? Edit - my bad, somehow i had never noticed those archetypes. the next question still stands though . . .

oh, and for those talking about the dex/finesse martial artist build, would you be going unarmed or using a kama or somesuch?

thanks in advance.

The arguement against mixing Martial Artist and Master of Many Styles is that is that you lose Flurry of Blows in exchange for getting to use multiple styles at once, which is problematic since that also means you lose:

-Full BAB when full attacking & it's extra attacks(at 5, 10, 15 & 20)
-Twfing Bonus Attacks at each BAB level

So, even with all the cool abilities you get(like x2 str with dragon, a bunch of AoO's with Panther, Sense Motive as AC with Snake, etc) none of them really make up for the loss of flurry, even when combined; short of dm fiat putting you in specific situations to allowing you to maximize those abilities. Like, letting you Panther Style through a crowd of soldiers, getting AoOs to and fro as you go.

So yes, the better thing to do is to go Martial Artist and pick a single combat style line along with Combat Style Master(so you don't have to waste actions to activate it). Then you retain your full BAB & attacks along with your extra TWFing attacks.

quick question - if you go dex/weapon finesse, how do you get decent damage? i'm not trying to be snarky, i really want to know because i like the sound of it, but i can't figure out how you're doing good damage with it if all your stuck with is your damage dice without many modifiers.

thanks in advance.

thanks, that's kind of what i was thinking but wasn't sure if simply being "armed" in both hands would mean penalties.

at the point when i only have one attack, could i keep holding my weapon and then just use stunning fist for my only attack?

thanks. for the record, if i chose to attack and then use stunning fist, it would be because i had two attacks at that point. is that what you were thinking?

so if a feat requires two ranks of a skill, can i take that feat at second level (at the same time i take the second rank of the feat), or do i have to have already had both ranks, so i can't take it until 3rd?

while i have you, if i am fighting with a one handed weapon, do not have twf or flurry, but do have imp unarmed and stunning fist - can i at any point choose to use one of my attacks as unarmed and go for a stunning fist? i assumed so at first, but then i suddenly wondered if there was a problem with that.

thanks in advance.

Would Improved Feint/ Vital Strike be a viable option?

Instead of going for as many sneak attacks as possible, what about going for one big attack with as many die rolls as possible on damage.
Then if you have allies you can acrobatics into position Flank/ Vital Strike/ Sneak Attack.
If your alone Improved Feint/ Vital Strike/ Sneak Attack.

i'm curious about this as well. i was thinking of building a rogue (1st lvl fighter) to be a bit more strength based, use a two-handed weapon, and grab improved feint early and then work on vital strike feats later, but i don't have any experience to know how well that would work out.

howdy. i'm looking for official (or officialish) clarification of the gang up feat. over in an advice post that was looking for help getting sneak attacks for a rogue, someone stated that in the gang up feat, you count as your own ally, so it only needs to be you (the rogue) and one other ally adjacent to the same foe to get the flanking bonus.

does anyone know of anything official that makes this clear?

thanks in advance

Covent wrote:

Remember you count as your own ally so you only need yourself and one other person for this to work.

Wait, really? Well. Now that is interesting...

i second this response. are you super sure of that? :-)

i'd love to hear people's thoughts on this as well, as i'm considering starting up a rogue for a pfs group. i was planning on getting imp feint early and then possibly getting shattered defenses (although admittedly that will be a a good deal later and require dazzling display) if my friend ends up playing a class that will intimidate folks and whatnot, but that's about all i've got.

Even though it doesn't specify, like it should have, that the Dawnflower Dervish ignores the prereqs on Dervish Dance it pretty much has to because no level one character of any race can meet the prereqs for Dervish Dance at level one.

Dervish Dance as a prereq of 2 ranks in perform dance.

That was my thought as well. I just didn't want to show up and have my whole character concept screwed.

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

I'm getting ready to play in my first pathfinder society game andi have a question about the dawnflower dervish arch. It says you get the dervish dancer feat as a bonus feat in place of bardic knowledge. You get bardic knowledge at first level, so i've been assuming that's when you get dervish dance, but it does not specify that you get to skip the pre-reqs (as things like the monk's obtaining stunning fist does), and it does not specify getting it at the bards first level as most replacement feats do. I can't imagine it not doing these things, but it also seems weird not to have specified it.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

It's in the Polearms weapon group.

thanks. i must've been looking at an outdated list.

I'm getting ready to start my first pathfinder society game and am thinking of creating a fighter who uses a fauchard. in reading the list of weapons under the polearm section for weapon training, it's not listed even though it's basically a type of polearm as far as i can tell. doe that mean that i can't take advantage of weapon training with that weapon (or any other similarly not specifically mentioned weapon)? or is it understood that one adds the weapons that make sense.

thanks in advance.

Quandary wrote:

ok... i think my point was that regardless of how you want to 'focus' on the polearm, how often you flurry is a function of how often you full attack... PCs as well as NPCs should be fighting to minimize their enemies full attacks as often as possible, perhaps less so at low levels when most characters' full attacks don't have more attacks than their standards. but not full attacking all the time is not really an indicator of your 'focus' with a weapon, as much as what the situation allowed... no NPC at low levels will regard you as 'un-focused' on polearms just because you aren't making flurry full attacks with it, because fighters with weapon focus in it are not usually making full attacks with it either.

if you don't plan on emphasizing UAS at high levels, a +1 Amulet of Might Fist seems like it would suffice, letting you bypass DR/magic and not really costing that much. If you want to mix it up more, or just have some unique niche abilities like Ghost Touch on your UAS (but not actually be very high in +Enhancement) then that seems good too. or just don't get your UAS enhanced, that isn't 'necessary' to have at low levels before your polearm flurry comes 'online' at 6th or whenever it happens. i was just explaining ways of not needing to flurry with the polearm because it's definitely workable and if that's how you fight until you can flurry with the polearm, it's not that bad. the game is based on slowly sequentially gaining more special abilities, you simply cant expect to depend on doing something that is special or unique (i.e. uses several feats/class abilities) directly from level 1, that's not how the game works, that's how the game rewards higher level characters. if that's so important to you, you need to start play from higher level.

i don't think any GM would have a problem with you flurrying with UAS while holding a polearm in 2 hands, any more than flurrying with UAS while holding a dead cat in 2 hands, or having your hands open, or having your arms

...

Thanks for all the continued feedback everyone. i think in some ways i wasn't specific enough early on in what i was looking for (for instance naming the thread "monk with a polearm" would've been much more accurate than "monk with reach"), and what i was mostly looking for was if being stuck using a polearm with the monk's 3/4 BAB (or maybe slightly worse due to a dip in another class) for AoO attacks or single attacks when i have to move and can't flurry would make those attacks too weak to consistently hit. it sounds like maybe they'd get by (while not necessarily being optimal. any final thoughts on that? i'll try to post what i've come down to at this point later if i can.

elgabalawi wrote:

Lex Talinis wrote:

You can flurry with a meteor hammer - it is a reach weapon - given this much thought?

not much time for commenting tonight, but i don't think meteor hammer is a monk weapon, so i'm not sure how i could flurry with it. is there something i'm missing?

The meteor hammer is from the ultimate combat book (2handed eastern weapon), not 3.5, and if I recall correctly they were going with master of many styles so the flurry is sacrificed anyways. But it retains the monk flavor, has reach and can be used to do a variety of things. It also has good damage at 1d8, has the trip special property and you can drag as a free action if you trip with it.

my bad, with all the different options being thrown around, i sometimes lose track of which thoughts go with which builds.

how can meteor hammer utilize ki throw? ki throw only works with UAS trip attacks.

fyi, there is was a 3.5 cleric archetype that gives up 1 domain to gain full BAB. could be your thing.
it was in the 3.5 version of the campaign setting i believe.

argh, i don't think we're using any 3.5 stuff, but that might have solved my problems.

ok... i think my point was that regardless of how you want to 'focus' on the polearm, how often you flurry is a function of how often you full attack... PCs as well as NPCs should be fighting to minimize their enemies full attacks as often as possible, perhaps less so at low levels when most characters' full attacks don't have more attacks than their standards. but not full attacking all the time is not really an indicator of your 'focus' with a weapon, as much as what the situation allowed... no NPC at low levels will regard you as 'un-focused' on polearms just because you aren't making flurry full attacks with it, because fighters with weapon focus in it are not usually making full attacks with it either.

if you don't plan on emphasizing UAS at high levels, a +1 Amulet of Might Fist seems like it would suffice, letting you bypass DR/magic and not really costing that much. If you want to mix it up more, or just have some unique niche abilities like Ghost Touch on your UAS (but not actually be very high in +Enhancement) then that seems good too. or just don't get your UAS enhanced, that isn't 'necessary' to have at low levels before your polearm flurry comes 'online' at 6th or whenever it happens. i was just explaining ways of not needing to flurry with the polearm because it's definitely workable and if that's how you fight until you can flurry with the polearm, it's not that bad. the game is based on slowly sequentially gaining more special abilities, you simply cant expect to depend on doing something that is special or unique (i.e. uses several feats/class abilities) directly from level 1, that's not how the game works, that's how the game rewards higher level characters. if that's so important to you, you need to start play from higher level.

i don't think any GM would have a problem with you flurrying with UAS while holding a polearm in 2 hands, any more than flurrying with UAS while holding a dead cat in 2 hands, or having your hands open, or having your arms chopped off.

yeah, i meant...

fair enough. and i wasn't so much meaning to imply that i Have to be flurrying so much as i envision this character as primarily attacking with his polearm (simply because that's how i want to picture him in my head) and i wasn't sure how viable that was without the better attacks afforded to the flurry mechanic. and i too like the wisdom synergy between monk and cleric.