Ooh, as tough as possible, I like the sound of that.
Monk/Paladin/Champion of Irori fits the bill for a character that has unlimited smites per day (against evil and chaotic), can't be hit (against evil and chaotic) and saves against everying (ditto). Also hits like a dump truck.
But if you're starting at lvl 15, you can skip the level of cleric for the hospitaler paladin archetype, more bang for your buck.
Don't forget to start off as an aasimar for the tasty, tasty immortal spark/middle age combo (or heck buy the nacreous grey ioun stone and start off as venerable).
Well, Eldon, I find that I agree with most everything that you are saying. Perhaps the title was a bit rash, I did want to provide the "tricks" for getting the most out of monks, but as it turns out, that really does exclude those new to the game from the party. A sad turn of events.
Unfortunately, this was one of the projects that I wasn't able to come back to for a while (distracted with other things, I'm afraid.) Most people seem to come up with the same objections, so pardon if I don't specifically mention yours.
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You're going to steer them towards a common newbie fallacy: "lots of dice mean lots of power!"
Your weapon's damage dice add very little to your overall damage, given the opportunity cost for size increases.
It really does depend. Lots of dice do add up, especially if you can combine it with strength increases (wildshape, which increases your strength does this the easiest, you tell me what other class gets you huge size in 4 levels and a +6 to str?).
A druid/monk allosaurus iterative attack of 6d8 at 10th level (3 of them) and then 4d6, 3d6, 3d6 for a bite claw claw routine is nothing to be sniffed at, especially if you have 26 strength when you do it.
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Further, Vital Strike is terrible. You should absolutely not mention, as those big dice will just further tempt newbies into ruin.
Agreed. I mean, there was a particular wis based build that I made that could guarantee 36d8 damage per round with it, but in all other cases, it isn't a particularly good investment.
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1) Size works for all martial classes, not just monks. It also makes you easier to hit, and it makes navigating small spaces like dungeons difficult. Also, it encourages thinking that more dice = more damage, while in fact static bonuses and increasing threat range is where it is at.
True. But 4 levels of Druid I've found is the quickest way to huge size, and most classes are too wedded to their weapons to benefit from wildshape. Monks, which can unarmed strike freely as an allosaurus are the exception.
More dice=More damage is a fallacy if you're only getting say 2d8, but when you start getting the quadratic size increases (6d8, 8d8 and 12d8), I feel there is something to be said for it.
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How'bout some actual builds instead of the usual color coded list of unverifiable opinions?
Well, I didn't want to toot my own trumpet too loudly, but I have made the following well received monk multiclass combinations:
Way of the Angry Bear (for all your Mnk/Drd multiclass queries, there is a wis build and a str build)
hmmm… can't help but point out that you suggest Eldritch Heritage (a feat chain that requires a Charisma investment – either though actual stat point purchase/advancement or through expensive equipment purchases), which is one of the few stats a monk can actually dump without losing power. Then you turn around and suggest they get SAD.
Comes with trying to put all my thoughts in one place I'm afraid, there are like 4 builds worth of advice in there. My apologies for the confusion.
1d10 unarmed damage (10th level monk damage, up to 2d6 if you're wearing a monk's belt) I feel is slightly anemic.
Would it be more to your satisfaction if you were dealing 6d8 + 12 unarmed strike damage, with pounce as one of your options such that you could get a full attack on a charge?
With a druid/monk multiclass, by 10th lvl you can probably do 6d8 damage with quite high AC and strength boosted up to 27 with wildshape.
But before I discuss further, you decide whether its something you want to play (and if indeed something that fits in your game).
Keep in mind that that link is probably going to be going away soon as that's campaign setting material which is going to be scrubbed from the site.
I was worried for a moment there, but just checked and they replaced every instance of Irori with "The Enlightened" and removed the setting specific description only. Ha!
Rogue, scout/thug archetypes. Enforcer. Sap Master. Everytime you charge (or later, move 10ft) you do double sneak attack damage. Enemies will then run in fear if you make an intimidate check.
Ninja, Scout archetype. Sap Master. See above, minus the intimidate + invisivbility and later, greater invisibility.
But RAW, power attacking while flurrying with a two handed monk weapon will net you +3 to damage for every -1 to hit, or -1 to AC if you're using tiger style.
I don't suppose my Way of the Angry Bear Monk/Druid can find it's way onto the build guide? 12d8 damage and a wisdom focused or str focused build, take your choice.
Only question, where to put it, as it's half monk, half druid.
So I was playing around with a Monk (Sensei)/Ninja multiclass that used the 12th level ability Mystic Wisdom from the Sensei archetype:
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At 6th level, a sensei may use his advice ability when spending points from his ki pool to activate a class ability (using the normal actions required for each) in order to have that ability affect one ally within 30 feet rather than the sensei himself. At 12th level, a sensei may affect all allies within 30 feet rather than himself (spending points from his ki pool only once, not once for each target).
At 12th level, a sensei may instead spend 1 point from his ki pool (as a swift action) while using advice to provide a single ally within 30 feet with evasion, fast movement, high jump, purity of body, or slow fall. At 18th level, a sensei may spend 2 points to grant one of the abilities listed above to all allies within 30 feet, or diamond body, diamond soul, or improved evasion to a single ally within 30 feet. These abilities function at the sensei’s level and last 1 round.
to give all his teammates invisibility using the Vanishing trick ability from the ninja class.
Is this actually legal? Or are the abilities that you can use mysic wisdom for only the monk ones?
Faq, if you like. I'd like to get a straight answer either way.
So, invariably it's true that monks require a bit more system mastery than most melee classes, which makes them hard to play for novices. So for those of you who want to play a monk, here are my system mastery tips to ekeing out an advantage.
1.)Size is your friend.
Basically the biggest force multiplier for monks is increasing size. A 20th lvl monk's unarmed damage at large size is 4d8 (Improved Vital strike for 12d8). How do we get size mods? I'm glad you asked.
- Various spells like enlarge person, e.t.c. If you can get them (probably involving multiclassing with sorcerer with the empyreal bloodline for wis to casting, more on that later)
- Multiclass with druid for wildshape. 4 lvls of druid and the feat Shaping Focus will get you huge size critters (I recommend the allosaurus for pounce) which is two size increases to your unarmed strike. Druids also have the strong jaw spell which further increases your unarmed strike by two sizes (4 size increases so far, for those keeping track). 10 monk/10 druids do 12d8 unarmed strike damage (Improved vital strike for 36d8)
- Brotherhood of the Seal PrC, its a 1 size increase, but it's better than nothing, and its a monk PrC, nifty.
- Eldritch heritage Orc tree will net you blood of giants eventually, as above, its a 1 size increase, but nothing to sniff at.
2.)Don't be MAD, get SAD
A lot of guides will advise you to focus on strength to shore up to hit and damage, but there a couple of ways to make wisdom pull its weight (which is good because it does a lot of other things for you, AC, ki points, stunning fist DCs, e.t.c.)
- Sensei (Monk archetype), at 2nd level will give you wisdom to hit. A controversial choice given that they lose flurry, fast movement and evasion, but useful in certain builds.
- The guided hand feat, requires you to multiclass with cleric (or take 4 levels of a paladin archetype), but you can use your wisdom to hit with your unarmed strike IF it is your deities favored weapon (so far, thats only Irori).
- The guided weapon ehancement: +1 weapon enhancement only found in an early adventure module. It actually rubs me the wrong way because it is too good. Wisdom to hit and damage, as compared to the agile enhancement which is only dex to damage. If you can get your DM to spring for it, its the best choice (to put on your now cheaper amulet of mighty fists)
3.)Funky mystic Bullcrap
- Gnome Zen Koans: Bewildering Koan is a feat only gnomes (and humans, halfelves, halforcs, aasimars with the human heritage racial archetype who take the Racial Heritage (Gnome) feat) can take. Basically, you make a bluff check as a swift action, and the enemy makes a sense motive check, and if they fail, they lose their action. Hours of stunlock fun. Works best on bosses. Costs a ki point, which is a non-renewable resource (at least in the short term) unless you are a...
- Heavy Drinker: Drunken master monks have basically an unlimited source of ki, as long as they can keep drinking, and if you can get a flask of endless sake, you can do just that. Take the swift drinker trait to get a jump on the action economy (requires 18 con, so you might want to start off with 16 and get a stat boosting item).
- Qinggong monks are the masters of funky mystic bullcrap, and the archetype stacks with basically everything. If you can pull the top two off, you can then also get the ability to fire off Scorching rays basically at will. Ki leech at 12th level isn't a bad choice either.
Hmm, post has run on a bit. Tune in tomorrow for more Monk system mastery (and feel free to add your own).
A defender who fails this saving throw is stunned for 1 round(until just before your next turn).
In the event that you stun someone when it is not your turn (i.e. when you use crane riposte and stun them with the counterattack), how long does the stun last for? Does it last for one round, or does it last until just before your next turn?
I'd appreciate if people could faq this as well, because JJ has stated that it is until just before your next turn (thus voiding the 1 round bit), but since he doesn't adjudicate rules anymore, I'd like a more concrete conclusion.
So tank build means not getting hit first? Yes, follow the build above. Get crane wing first and basically one on one you cannot be hit in melee. Then you get dragon ferocity at 4th and you can do good damage (as opposed to average damage).
I haven't made too any changes to it, as it should still be functional, but I can play around a bit with it in herolab and tell you if any improvements can be made.
Azaelas, I think what you are saying does not actually have a RAW backing. Unarmed strikes can be made with heads, elbows and feet as per the description, name me an animal that you wildshape into without a head?
By RAW, unless you are changing into an ooze or an animated block of wood, you can unarmed strike as a monk.
1.) Size shennanigans. Combine strong jaw and huge size nets you 12d8 unarmed strike damage eventually. (24d8 if you charge and use janni style)
2.) Strength shennanigahs, with dragon style you can do a lot of damage when you wild shape into something huge.
3.) Forget about flurry of blows, just dump it. You can't flurry and then use your natural attacks, so just attack regularly with your unarmed strikes and tack on your natural attacks at the end at a -5 penalty (-2 with multiattack). Hence, archetypes that give up flurry (like Master of Many Styles) are the best for this kind of build.
I have a question about the Allying property. It seems like you're suggesting it can be held in one hand to grant the +3 bonus to your own unarmed strikes, using your other hand, elbows, knees, feet, etc. to do the actual attacking.
But the Allying property specifically states that the bonus is granted to "an ally" (thus the name). Nowhere does it suggest that it can be used to grant yourself the bonus to another wielded weapon. Has that been errata'd somewhere?
JJ seemed okay with the idea (if I'm not misquoting him). Otherwise get an amulet of mighty fists, its cheaper these days (and you don't have to buy the allying property). Its not like you desperately need those plusses to hit and damage (your smiting takes care of that).
Its not a bad strategy (and I have advocated it as an alternative in the past).
Two caveats:
Paladin channel energy gets you nothing. They don't actually have a pool for that. They convert lay on hand uses to it. Completely useless.
Eldritch heritage stuff is very late game, lvl 15. I could try a str build and see if I can stuff it in earlier, however (maybe that wouldn't make for a bad character).
There you have it, all 20 levels of Irori's Champion. I think he's viable at all levels (but much moreso after 5). But please offer your comments.
All he gets at lvl 5 is crane style... Which is just -2 to hit, and a bette AC... What makes him work here?
As I see it the build finally start of at lvl 7 when you get the Ki pool. Then you have channel energy that gives you Ki that gives you smites/extra attacks...
This is what the build is all about.
You also get crane wing, which is pretty awesome. But the first 6 levels you are just a guy with good saves, and a decent AC (if you either have good stats or picked shield + fullplate)
- but damn? Low str, and 1d6 unarmed strikes, 1 smite/day...
- To hit (-2 flurry, -2 Crane style -1 bab) or (-2 bab -2 crane style if not using flurry)...
Lvl 7 is gonna be a big deal...
All quite true. I recommend playing as your basic cleric for those levels, not a front line combatant (granted he doesn't get higher than lvl 1 spells). Use enlarge person wisely to boost strength and damage, turtle when needed with crane style.
It doesn't take too long for the build to bloom though, and yeah, I don't see any other better route to CoI do you? Its always going to be quite schizophrenics, paladin and monk.
If you don't want to go cleric for guided hand, you can always take the sensei archetype and take the TWF feat tree instead (you lose flurry of blows, so you replace it with the TWF tree, CoI is full BaB anyway, so you're not losing much).
Or you could focus on strength and cha like a paladin but have a respectable wis. That works too (fewer ki points).
The bronze gong is nice to have, but what is essential for this build is the ring of ki mastery. Are you going to be able to buy one of those eventually?
Problem being that I need channeling for the channel smite and guided hand feats, so its not conducive to get it even later. (If I could only get channel smite at 5th level, then guided hand I would only be able to get at 7th lvl!)
Our GM is strongly against weird/cheesy combinations, so:
The cleric/gong thing is a no-go. I'd like to stick with just Monk/Paladin.
A level of cleric is a "weird and cheesy" combination? All right then. Its half your ki points for most of your career so I'm not recommending not taking it.
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How would you distribute 20 points? Aasimar *might* not be an option, if not I'd go with Human. We can't roll older age brackets either, so mental stats are staying where they are.
The same organization as before, just with fewer points, prioritize Cha and Wis (Wis over cha in this case presumably) and then everything else can go into Str and Con.
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Any other advice?
If you want to get your damage up, try taking improved eldritch heritage (orc) earlier. By lvl 15 you could havea +4 inherent bonus to str, which stacks with an enhancement bonus.
I'm playing the Legacy of Fire adventure path soon, all I know about it is that it's Arabian-themed and features a good number of evil creatures. I was considering a martial artist to deal with much of the DR that's found (plus the Archetype flat-out cool), but just today I saw the Champion of Irori. Monk+Paladin, and their altered code is interesting (wish I could stay LN but LG will have to do).
The build seems extremely problematic though, the most MAD of them all; we have 20 points to work with for the game, is that going to be enough for a Monk/Paladin?
Ability points are a problem, I personally went for a high cha/high wis build and focused on doing damage with smite. If you have the guided hand feat, you can use wisdom to hit. Aasimar and the immortal spark racial trait will give you some leeway in ability points if you start at middle age.
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Does anyone have recommendations on a build? They seem to specialize in enemies surrounding them for crazy smite cleaves/whirlwinds, I'm not sure if this will be good considering monks low AC, or if the situations will even arise in the Adventure Path.
Based on your decisions, champions of Irori can have one of the highest ACs in the game by lvl 10 with a combination of smite deflection bonus, high wis, crane style, and osyluth guile. I lay out my thoughts on the subject here in my build:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p7ss?Iroris-Champion-A-build-for-inclusion-in- the
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Qinggong Monk is an obvious Archetype pick here, what others? Consider that many of the Champion's attacks rely on Standard actions, so I imagine something that trades out Flurry might be a good swap.
The thing about CoI is that you won't have enough levels in Monk to take any archetypes of value. I also recommend keeping Flurry as most of the CoI stuff can be used when you move and attack and flurry saved for when you get to full attack.
Have a look at my build and I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Does this include the size penalty (say you are using a heavy shield and not a light one), do you get penalized for TWF while using a longsword and a heavy steel shield?
I asked James Jacobs in the relevant thread and apparently you keep your monk unarmed strike as a tiger, catoblepas, triceratops, allosaurus or what have you.
Granted he isn't a rule guy, but it is a semi-official answer.
Monk - is it vanilia monk or some archetype? master of many styles?
The various archetypes didn't help out much. Anything that dumped flurry was straight out (I wanted those extra attacks), of those left I didn't have enough monk levels to make most worthwhile.
I suppose I could have taken Monk of the Lotus to get touch of serenity, but with this character's focus on damage, that seemed a bit self defeating.
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Are Aasimar alternate racial traits legal for PFS?
They are, but aging effects are't. So you can't use the immortal spark trick for no penalty stat gain (though you could just buy one of those anti-aging ioun stones if you're high level enough).
5) Osyluth Guile - do you need the extra AC at this point?
I can still be hit by CR 25 creatures (if the tarrasque rolls a 19 or 20)! Without Osyluth guile, he would be hitting on a 12! Unthinkable, my dear sir.
(Of course if I spend one of my many ki points on AC, the tarrasque is only going to be hitting on a 20 in the prior case and a 16 in the latter.)
1) Stats seems high - would this build work with a 15 point buy?
With 15 point buy and no usage of the immortal spark extra points, you start off with stats: Str 14, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 16 and Cha 15. Not as good, but still doable.
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2) Any room of Noble Scion (cha to initiativ)
The requirement that it be a 1st level feat really hurts my desire to take it. This character needs all the feats it can get at early levels.
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3) Instead of the last paladin lvls - perhaps a dip into Oracle of lore for more cha synergy
Sure, its a net gain of +4 AC at the cost of +1 BaB and +1 damage (paladin levels and smite)
Just popped in to gauge the activity, the build is mostly done, though I always appreciate suggestions (or comments on whether the build is actually a good one, e.t.c.)
Sorry, forgot! You get stars! :). I think people will be interested what he looks like at levels besides 20, though, so add maybe something about him at 8 & 12 and you shall get three stars!
Hi Zenith, if you scroll up on the page, you'll see that I have builds at lvls 1, 5, 10, 15 and finally 20 with commentary for each level.
Sounds good, but how about changing it a wee bit to:
"Irori's Champion: An Aasimar Champion of Irori that has 20+ uses of smite evil/smite chaos/day, amazing saves, AC and an amazing attack routine, especially against evil or chaotic creatures."
Master Endless Spring Lvl 20
Male Aasimar Champion of Irori 10 Cleric (Theologian) 1 Monk 3 Paladin 6
LG Medium Outsider (human, native)
Nuts and Bolts:
Stats (When Power of Giants is invoked) :
Str 32, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 28, Cha 24
Feats:
Clr 1: Channel Smite (1st lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 1: Guided Hand (3rd lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 1: Dodge (Monk Bonus Feat)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 1: Improved Unarmed Strike (Monk Bonus Feat)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 1: Stunning Fist (Monk Bonus Feat)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 2: Combat Reflexes (Or Deflect Arrows) (Monk Bonus Feat)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 3: Crane Style (5th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 3/ CoI 2: Crane Wing (7th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 2/ Mnk 3/ CoI 3: Osyluth Guile (9th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 2/ Mnk 3/ CoI 5: Crane Riposte (11th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 2/ Mnk 3/ CoI 7: Skill Focus (Survival) (13th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 2/ Mnk 3/ CoI 9: Eldritch Heritage (Orc) (15th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 3/ Mnk 3/ CoI 10: Improved Eldritch Heritage(Orc) (17th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 5/ Mnk 3/ CoI 10: Greater Eldritch Heritage(Orc) (17th lvl)
Gear
Boots of speed (10 rounds/day)
Truesight goggles
Bronze gong
+5 Allying Wyroot (3 life points) Hanbo
Amulet of natural armor +5
Belt of physical perfection +6
Bracers of the avenging knight
Cloak of resistance +5
Headband of mental prowess (Wis & Cha +6)
Ioun stone (dusty rose prism)
Ioun stone (pale green prism)
Monk's robe
Ring of freedom of movement
Ring of ki mastery
Vest of armor +8
Gear Value 716701gp, 163399gp leftover for consumables (Spend a bit of that to make my headband of mental prowes into a headband or aerial agility fly at will when I can figure out the formula for it.)
Attack Routine (Hasted and ki point spent): +38/+38/+38/+38/+33/+33/+28/+28/+23
AC: 56, 60 when using a ki point
CMD: 70, 72 vs grapple, trip and reposition
Saves:
Fort: 33
Ref: 27
Will: 37
Discussion:
Wow, what to say?:
Lets start with the weaknesses. This character has a low reflex save, in that he doesn't autosave against a great Wyrm Gold Dragon's breath weapon (has to roll a 6, 5 if he isn't enlarged). Also, against non evil/non chaotic things, a lot less powerful. But everything else, can't hit him, can't affect him and he can literally pound anything up to CR +5 (or possibly higher, I haven't checked yet) into dust, solo.
There you have it, all 20 levels of Irori's Champion. I think he's viable at all levels (but much moreso after 5). But please offer your comments.
So just figured out the perfect feats to fill in the last four feat slots. Skill Focus (Survival), Eldritich heritage and its improved and greater versions (Orc). You can't argue with +12 str and large size. (Ironically this makes my strength higher than my wisdom, so guided hand is useless. However the growth power isn't continuous, and when it is not active, my wisdom is higher).
Some reskinning will probably be needed, maybe instead of becoming a great orc warlord, this character is growing to become like a Solar ancestor?
You'd still only get one AoO because of your low Dexterity.
Ah, well caught. I can switch the 12 in con to a 12 in dex and with combat reflexes this character will have 2 AoOs, more than enough to respond to one critical hit/round (which hopefully is all he has to face).
Or you could switch the belt of giant str +4 for a belt of physical perfection +2 dex +2 str, for a loss in total damage but a gain in the AC department as well as extra AoOs.
Master Endless Spring
Male Aasimar Champion of Irori 9 Cleric (Theologian) 1 Monk 3 Paladin 2
LG Medium Outsider (human, native)
Nuts and Bolts:
Stats:
Str 18, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 24, Cha 22
Feats:
Clr 1: Channel Smite (1st lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 1: Guided Hand (3rd lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 1: Dodge (Monk Bonus Feat)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 1: Improved Unarmed Strike (Monk Bonus Feat)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 1: Stunning Fist (Monk Bonus Feat)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 2: Combat Reflexes (Or Deflect Arrows) (Monk Bonus Feat)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 3: Crane Style (5th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 1/ Mnk 3/ CoI 2: Crane Wing (7th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 2/ Mnk 3/ CoI 3: Osyluth Guile (9th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 2/ Mnk 3/ CoI 5: Crane Riposte (11th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 2/ Mnk 3/ CoI 7: Angelic Blood (13th lvl)
Clr 1/ Pal 2/ Mnk 3/ CoI 9: Angelic Wings (15th lvl)
Gear:
Bronze gong (1 uses)
Belt of giant strength +4 (16k)
Vest of armor +5 (custom armor boosting item in vest slot, same price. We need the bracer slot for something later) (25k)
Cloak of resistance +5 (25k)
Headband of mental prowess (Wis & Cha +4) (40k)
Monk's Robe (13k)
Bracers of the Avenging Knight (11.5k)
Ring of Ki Mastery (10k)
Boots of Speed (12k)
Amulet of Natural Armor +3 (18k)
+3 Allying Wyroot (3 ki points) Hanbo (36301 gp)
Attack Routine (when hasted and using a ki point): +30/+30/+30/+30/+25/+25/+20
Ki points/day: 13 (Lvls + Wis) + 9 (channel energy uses) = 22
3 smite evil attempts/day from levels, so 24 smite evil/chaos/day.
AC (against a single target): 48, 52 if you are willing to use a ki point. Things at your equivalent level CR will not be able to hit you. +2-+3 CR will have difficulty.
Discussions:
Okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous:
So as the levels advance, just keep racking up the bonuses. A couple of things to make life just that little bit better.
1.) You can now use a touch attack to hit things as a standard action. I recommend you leisurely walk up to dragons during the first round of combat, and autohit them for 2d8 + 38 points of damage before things start getting rowdy.
2.) The Allying Wyroot Hanbo. This weapon will help you out in two ways:
a: The allying property will allow you to have enhanced unarmed strikes for less than the cost of an equivalent +3 amulet of mighty fists, and also frees up the amulet slot for more AC boosting items.
b: A Wyroot item will absorb ki points on a critical hit. Champions of Irori get an attack of opportunity whenever an opponent confirms a critical threat on them or an ally with their perfect opening ability (they have to be adjacent to the enemy), which is an automatic critical threat if it hits. Basically, use your Wyroot hanbo to confirm the crit, and you've got extra ki points!
3.) You know that critical threat thing, that happens before your opponent actually does damage to you. So basically here is what happens:
Step 1: Enemy rolls a crit against you and confirms it
Step 2: You deflect the attack with crane wing
Step 3: Attack of opportunity triggered by perfect opening ability (Automatic crit threat if it hits)
Step 4: Attack of opportunity triggered by Crane Riposte
So that is two attack of opportunity whenever an enemy crits you, with one of them likely to be a critical hit (and smite damage multiplies on a critical hit doesn't it?). And you take no damage.
Granted, I just thought of this, but it looks solid. I'm sure people will disabuse me if it is wrong.
4.) Feats are free after crane riposte at 11th lvl. Really. Take whatever you like. Monastic legacy is a good one (even better if CoI levels count as "Non monk levels" for the purpose of Monastic legacy). Angel blood and Angel Wings give you innate flight. Also nice. Just go wild.
Bonus points for readers, suggest to me good feats to take after lvl 11!
Have you thought of writing a guide for the Champion of Irori?
Hmm, no I haven't. I haven't made a guide before, and really, I'm afraid I might not be very good at it. (And its only a PrC, so its a bit more limited in scope than an actual class, a guide might be a bit too much?)
Benefit: Add half the levels you have in classes other than monk to your monk level to determine your effective monk level for your base unarmed strike damage. This feat does not make levels in classes other than monk count toward any other monk class features.
But how does it interact with Champion of Irori levels which state:
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The class levels of a champion of Irori stack with monk levels for determining the effect of his AC bonus, flurry of blows, stunning fist, and unarmed strike class features.
Since a level in CoI is not a level in monk is it considered as a level in a class "other than monk" for the purpose of monastic legacy? (I.e. count 1/2 levels in CoI towards the monk unarmed strike progression)?
Well I did think that, so I had a look while I was drafting the character. Here is what the SRD has to say:
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Multiple Similar Abilities: For items with multiple similar abilities that don't take up space on a character's body, use the following formula: Calculate the price of the single most costly ability, then add 75% of the value of the next most costly ability, plus 1/2 the value of any other abilities.
Multiple Different Abilities: Abilities such as an attack roll bonus or saving throw bonus and a spell-like function are not similar, and their values are simply added together to determine the cost. For items that take up a space on a character's body, each additional power not only has no discount but instead has a 50% increase in price.
But not one word on whether a particular special quality needed to go in a particular slot. So apparently if a magic item has only one special quality, it can go in any slot for the same price.
There is a chance I am wrong however, so if you can point me to where it does say it, my thanks to you.
