I run a weekly PF game for my family and friends. One of my players is a role player who went with Kobold Monk. After a bit we noticed he was really in last place doing damage,not a issue of itself as someone has to be last,but the gap was starting to get huge.
At 8th level I let him redo his feats ect to a more optimized build. Now he is doing much better but still isn't even close to the party's other dpr powerhouse the Barbarian.
I can tell this guy really loves his Monk but is starting to feel left behind again. He could in fact do more damage simply by picking up some weapons instead of unarmed(small size blows chunks)but he is INTO the whole unarmed thing.
I don't want to redo the Monk,I lack the skill and to be honest the desire to do so.
What I did think about doing was to add a few Monk only feats to my home game.
Something like a chain of feats to increase unarmed damage by die type.
Perhaps one or two feats that let him swap out his STR for Dex for damage with unarmed attacks.
Would you guys think this would unbalance things the other way? It's hard for me to see even those changes out damaging our crazy two weapon great sword wielding barbarian but perhaps I can't see it clearly.
Any thoughts would be appreciated,Thanks!
A small character with a strength penalty is not going to do a lot of melee damage. Coupled with the monk class, yeah, there's no way he's hanging with the barbarian. Maybe you can drop an agile monk's belt for him.
Yar.
There is one simply enchantment that if allowed and put on an Amulet of Mighty Fists can really turn things around for this guy, provided he has at least a somewhat decent Wisdom Score.
The Guided property can be huge. As written it's ready and good to go, no adjustments or modifications needed, it just needs to be allowed at all.
After that (or if his wisdom is also abysmal), there is also the AGILE property, which is like Guided, but for DEX (and is a more recently published ability as well).
As has been mentioned above, a version of Dervish Dance that allows for any finessable weapon to use dex instead of only scimitars is the next best thing. Just be sure to make this clear (and possible viable) for everyone else as well.
Also as already mentioned, allowing Improved Natural Attack to increase a monks unarmed strike damage is another thing that can help.
My vote would be for allowing the Guided and/or Agile weapon property into the game, and putting it onto an Amulet of Mighty Fists.
~P
monks robes, agile or guided amulet of might fists +n, invent a spell along the lines of Gravity Bow and Lead Blades for unarmed. Fini. Comparing any melee type to barb is kinda silly. They are the melee powerhouse. See AM BARBARIAN's theory craft RAGELANCEPOUNCE.
Ouch, I really for your monk player. I once played a Kobold Monk myself during 3.5. I had a lot of fun, man did it feel like i was fighting to keep my head above water. That said lots of good advice given out. One thought i had was perhaps a mighty fist wraps sort of item. Price them as a magic weapon with the appropriate value in enhancement values.
The player has opted to change characters.
Thanks for the input though guys! The next time someone decides to make a monk I will be a little better prepared.
Sigh,He has fallen in love with the Kobold so whatever it is will have issues. He only wants to play melee with the Kobold.
His role playing of a Kobold is really GREAT but I just see trouble ahead for him combat dpr wise.
Gonna start a new thread and see if someone can come up with a top line dpr(obviously not optimized by race)for him.
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Kobold swarm fighter 9 / Dagger Master rogue x will do very respectable damage to anything medium sized or larger, but it doesn't really take off until 10th level. Basically, it lets you move into the space of a medium or larger creature and they are denied dex vs your attacks. That means you can full attack sneak attack each round and not need to worry about flankers.
Finesse and Agile weapon is needed for this build as well.
Go with the 'fist wraps' or other similar idea. That's generally what we do for the weapon issue. It WILL take up a slot in that the person is holding it in a hand, but can apply it's bonus to Unarmed Strike in general.
Alternatively, simply declare that all "Monk" weapons can do the base damage listed from the weapon type -OR- the Monk's Unarmed Strike damage, whichever the Monk prefers. Without having to consume any plusses or extra GP from the class abilities.
The third alternative being a hybrid of the two, that the Monk weapon provides its bonuses and abilities to the Unarmed Strike, but only ONE Monk weapon may be used at a time per round to grant this bonus (so they don't do something goofy like dual wield Sai with different elemental, crit, and other mods to stack bonuses on the cheap).
Full BAB is a good start, too.
Kobold swarm fighter 9 / Dagger Master rogue x will do very respectable damage to anything medium sized or larger, but it doesn't really take off until 10th level. Basically, it lets you move into the space of a medium or larger creature and they are denied dex vs your attacks. That means you can full attack sneak attack each round and not need to worry about flankers.
Finesse and Agile weapon is needed for this build as well.
Post the build please? I might be playing Mummy's Mask soon, and want to roll a Swarm Fighter into the fray.