Gestalt monk / Magus or monk / Paladin

[Oakbreaker]

So we are in a small group, 3 players; and my Paladin died saving the party. I enjoy playing disciplined characters so monk shined for me but our party is lacking a few things. We have a rogue and a warmage (we play pathfinder/3.5) and the DM has been very kind I cure wands...so of the 2 which do you think will work better and advice on building them.

[Skerek]

A monk/empyreal sorcerer should work, a monk/paladin would be too MAD to work well.

[Oakbreaker]

MAD? Sorry I am new to forums so some of the slang eludes me

[Weltrath]

Multiple Ability Dependent

Basically you need good stats in several places rather than characters who just need to concentrate on one. Paladin wants Str (or Dex if archer), Con, Wis and Cha for example.

For your gestalt monk, I'd say take something else that doesn't need armor to survive like one of the several Magus archetypes or perhaps an arcane caster. I don't know 3.5 so I can't recommend any classes from that system.

[Oakbreaker]

Then wouldn't a monk/Sorceror be MAD as well because of the Charisma need on top of monk needs? I mean between monk/Sorceror and monk/Paladin we are looking at the sameability needs

[LazarX]

I read that as gestalt Monk/Mayor. :)

We have gestalt Mayors in real life. Ed Koch for instance, won his last term as mayor of New York City by running on both the Democratic and Republican tickets.

[Charon's Little Helper]

If you want to mix monk & a caster - you'd probably be better off with a druid since monks & druids use mostly the same stats.

[Davor]

The Empyreal Bloodline sorcerer uses Wisdom as its casting stat.

[CKorfmann]

I like the Monk/Empyreal Sorcerer combo. It works well, especially for delivering touch attack spells.

If you like the Monk/Paladin combo, you might consider a one level dip into Oracle (on the Paladin side). The Oracle Lore Mystery + Side Step Secret Revelation allows you to swap CHA for DEX with your AC and Reflex save. This leave you with only STR, WIS, and CHA to work about and turns DEX almost into a dump stat, but you still need some for CMD and initiative. A monk might be worried a little about CMD fighting at close quarters and grappling. However, with a high CHA and the Paladin's Divine Grace, Smite, and other goodies, it can be a good thing. However, if you want to lessen the impact of the weak CMD and are at all interested in a ranged attacker, Zen Archer Monk/Divine Hunter Paladin could also be very interesting. With the Oracle dip, you'd have an archer almost completely built off of WIS and CHA. I find that intriguing. The standard Aasimar is an excellent race for this build as well since it gets +2 to WIS and CHA.

If your DM allows 3rd party material, you might also consider Monk/Serene Barbarian. The Serene Barbarian is identical to the regular Barbarian for all things except Rage. Instead of raging, the Serene Barbarian enters a state of serenity and gets +4 to DEX and WIS instead of STR and CON. This is awesome for the Monk's AC and good if you use your DEX or WIS to attack (like the ZAM). You also get +2 to all saves during Serenity. There is the technicality of the mutually exclusive alignment restrictions between Monk and Barbarian, but the creator of the class variant advocates for the Serene Barbarian's alignment restriction to be reversed to any non-chaotic which makes sense. Although, if your DM has a hang-up about this, you could make your PC an Aasimar and take the racial trait Enlightened Warrior to allow you to take Monk levels with a neutral alignment.

I am currently playing a level 8 Aasimar ZAM 5/Serene Barbarian 2/Tattooed Empyreal Sorcerer 1. It's a lot of fun. He is also Mythic which helps make up for the soupiness of all the dips.

Why Barbarian 2?:

Barbarian 2 gives you a Rage power. One that is available is Scent. A target marked with a Pheromone Arrow grants a creature with the Scent ability +2/+2.

Some other good combos might be ZAM/Inquisitor, ZAM/Ninja, Monk/Empyreal Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple, Paladin/Oracle.

For more info on playing with stats, check out this link.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o91Z-s0R7Vf2Ujj1lFqGC5W--9JOyU0I6uC9XRI R5to/edit?pli=1

[Lem_Furryfeet]

If this is non-PFS (Pathfinder Society Organized Play) and you are using say a 25-point buy or even rolling stats, I would take a look at Champion of Irori - a very cool monk/paladin combination. This is even more MAD than the monk class, so is not a good choice for PFS with its 20-point buy. It's covered in one of the player's guides but I can't remember which one.

[Oakbreaker]

I want to apologize for the confusion...it appears I used the wrong blanket term...i was going more for a hybrid class...using the ACG...Secret Wizard has helped me with a monk/druid for a wilderness campaign I am in...this game is Shackled City different DM but same group, she saw the monk/druid or as it is called Stalker and thought that some more of that would be fun...I looked up more on gestalt characters and bit just seems too much...but I don't really want to multiclass if it can be avoided...I just want to have a character that can fill the Paladin shoes without being another Paladin he was tank/healer and I love monks...my first character ever was a monk so I want to bring the class back into the group seeing as I was the only one who liked them...but thank you all for everything thus far I had no idea the forums would be this helpful