Can there be a monk of Besmara?


Rules Questions


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I have this nice Character concept and want to put it to use.
I´m not sure though how to adapt it.
It would be a halfling zen archer monk using a halfling sling stick instead of a bow (houseruled semiofficial exchange of weapon familiarities, legal enough due to flavour).

So can there be a monk of Besmara, who is also a pirate?
Playing a lawful pirate seems kind of tough to me. I´m not used to play lawfull anyway.

The concept is real cool though, using the warslinger racial trait and the halfling feats "arc slinger", "halfling slinger" and "large target".
The normal zen archer and ranged combat feats added this gives a nice bonus. You get +3 to hit with weapon focus and point blank shot and with arc slinger +2 damage on a medium target in 80 feet reach. Then come deadly aim and flurry....

Of course in a house game stuff enhancing bows like certain gloves or bracers could be used on slings too.

Later you can go to combat patrol and combat reflexes, what makes it really nice. Snap shot would be better, but rapid shot is an empty feat for a monk. That should somehow be added to the Zen Archers bonus feat list. At level 12 you could threaten 20 feet around you with improved snap shot.


i dont' see why besmara or pirates couldn't be lawful by having strict laws they follow,
they don't have to attack everybody they think is weak and has stuff they want,
they could just make pirate attacks on certain nations/groups/etc.
they might not be your picture of a straight laced abadar follower, but they can still be lawful IMHO.
being a halfling, it seems plausible to be targetting slavers, but if you know a group engages in slavery, extending your piracy to all their shipping traffic seems reasonable. also, think of the 'privateers' of real world, i.e. pirates sanctioned by one country to attack another countries' shipping. (maybe privateer is the wrong name, but the idea stands) those guys seems like they could have some lawful ones amongst them (even if they also may have neutral and chaotic, just using the privateer charter for expediency and not being lawful in their overall character)

besmaran CLERICS aren't going to be more lawful than neutral, but 'laypeople' don't really have to hold up to that standard, and if they're into piracy i don't see why besmara would be an odious deity to them... after all, (normal) monks just have to maintain a lawful alignment, they don't have to be righteous true believers in cosmic lawfulness (opposing chaos wherever they find it, e.g. deity choice).


Lawful Neutral would be perfectly logical. Just be sure to be consistent about which set of rules you follow, and you'll be fine. Pirates did have rules, they just chose to make up their own rather than follow someone else's.


i don't see why LG is impossible, esp. if you have a rationale like being anti-slavery.
looting slavers' other (non slave) gear is harly out of line for NON-pirate D&D PCs, anyways.

Dark Archive

The monk archetype martial artist allows you to be any alignment too. Something to look at.


i think he's set on the archer monk, and they may not be compatable archetypes.

Grand Lodge

Enlightened Warrior trait will allow you to be Neutral, or Neutral Good, while still being able to take levels in Monk.

If you are not Aasimar, you will need to take the Adopted trait to get it.


There is no rule against being a LN/LE/LG pirate.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Thanks for the help^^

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Quandary wrote:

i don't see why LG is impossible, esp. if you have a rationale like being anti-slavery.

looting slavers' other (non slave) gear is harly out of line for NON-pirate D&D PCs, anyways.

It's really hard to rationalise LG with the edicts of Besmara which include "grab whatever loot you can" and especially the "power to the strong" mentality. It's especially to hard to fit Lawful Good to the pirate mentality. It's hard enough to fit it as a privateer.

Basically when you take Johnny Depp and the romance out of it.... as a pirate, you're a brutal thug... plain and simple. A highwayman who uses a boat instead of a horse.


LazarX wrote:
Quandary wrote:

i don't see why LG is impossible, esp. if you have a rationale like being anti-slavery.

looting slavers' other (non slave) gear is harly out of line for NON-pirate D&D PCs, anyways.

It's really hard to rationalise LG with the edicts of Besmara which include "grab whatever loot you can" and especially the "power to the strong" mentality. It's especially to hard to fit Lawful Good to the pirate mentality. It's hard enough to fit it as a privateer.

Basically when you take Johnny Depp and the romance out of it.... as a pirate, you're a brutal thug... plain and simple. A highwayman who uses a boat instead of a horse.

Even Lawful Good paladins can slaughter whole village of goblins. It's simply a matter of defining who is "in" and who isn't. Pirates do have a code of ethics, and do respect other pirates to a remarkable degree. Just reading the synposis for the later Skull and Shackle adventures reveals that at least some do form a coalition of sorts. If you really want to get technical, most historical figures that we would consider good tended to use brute force when the situation called for it. In a brutal world, sometimes it's a simple matter of survival.

Grand Lodge

The trait is in Blood of Angels.

No need to convince a DM of your alignment difference.

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