Pimp My Dwarven Living Monolith


Advice


Alright, so I am considering the following build for PFS:

Spoiler:

Phalanx Soldier Fighter
Sohei Monk

1st
Fighter 1
Stand Firm, Endurance (bonus), Diehard (1st)
2nd
Monk 1
Flurry of Blows, Devoted Guardian, Improved Unarmed Strike (bonus), Dodge (bonus)
3rd
Monk 2
Evasion, Combat Reflexes (bonus), Power Attack (3rd)
4th
Fighter 2
Unflinching, Crane Style (Fighter 2)
5th
Fighter 3
Phalanx Fighting, Iron Will (5th)
6th
Fighter 4
Stalwart (Fighter 4)
7th
Living Monolith 1
Soul Stone, Ka Stone, Toughness (bonus), Steel Soul (7th)
8th
Living Monolith 2
Stone Blood
9th
Living Monolith 3
Fortified Flesh (DR 1/-, 10% Fortification), Vital Strike (9th)
10th
Living Monolith 4
Stability, Tombsight
11th
Living Monolith 5
Fortified Flesh (DR 2/-, 20% Fortification, Immune to Disease), Greater Ka Stone, Improved Critical (11th)
12th
Living Monolith 6
Attunement to Stone
13th
Living Monolith 7
Summon Sphinx, Improved Stalwart (13th)

I was also considering the possibility of going with Unarmed Fighter instead as it would remove the need to go Monk. But I found by going 2 levels of Monk I pick up some nice abilities, especially with Sohei. I get to flurry in armor (officially), I pick up an extra feat that I can use for a much needed Combat Reflexes and get to snag Evasion. There is the Devoted Guardian which matches both in theme and in it's awesome ability to allow me to always act in the surprise round. That should be nice with swift action Enlarge Persons. The bonus on initiative doesn't hurt either. The +3 bonus on all saves is also tasty. The small loss of hit points and a single point of BAB is the only downfalls.

So the idea is to combine a few concepts into one character.

I wanted to be a Dwarf from Qadira and have the whole Egyptian vibe going on. Kinda like Stargate but less tech, more magic. He will be a dark skinned dwarf with stony brown hair and beard. I really want the character to epitomize Dwarfyness, Qadiran, Scarab Sages, Sphinxyness, stoneyness, Guardianishness, durability, steadfastness, etc. (these are all real words, I assure you.)

I had considered the following build but didn't like the lack of shield:

Spoiler:
1st
Fighter 1
Endurance (bonus), Diehard (bonus), Power Attack (1st)
2nd
Monk 1
Flurry of Blows, Devoted Guardian, Improved Unarmed Strike (bonus), Dodge (bonus)
3rd
Monk 2
Evasion, Combat Reflexes (bonus), Iron Will (3rd)
4th
Fighter 2
Unflinching, Crane Style (Fighter 2)
5th
Fighter 3
Armor Training, Steel Soul (5th)
6th
Fighter 4
Stalwart (Fighter 4)
7th
Living Monolith 1
Soul Stone, Ka Stone, Toughness (bonus), Pushing Assault (7th)
8th
Living Monolith 2
Stone Blood
9th
Living Monolith 3
Fortified Flesh (DR 1/-, 10% Fortification), Vital Strike (9th)
10th
Living Monolith 4
Stability, Tombsight
11th
Living Monolith 5
Fortified Flesh (DR 2/-, 20% Fortification, Immune to Disease), Greater Ka Stone, Improved Critical (11th)
12th
Living Monolith 6
Attunement to Stone
13th
Living Monolith 7
Summon Sphinx, Improved Stalwart (13th)

The Dwarven Longhammer is more fitting and I would love to use it rather than a Lucern Hammer. I do not believe it is officially considered a polearm, though, even though it has reach. It isn't in the polearm Fighter Weapon Group.

In either build I will be going with the following:
Craftsman in place of Greed
Giant Hunter in place of Hatred

Traits: 2 of the following - probably the first 2.
Defender of the Society
Glory of Old
Temple Guard

I definitely will be going with Stoneplate and likely a Boulder Helmet for my adjacent attacks. Outside of that I'm not sure what to get for gear. Any suggestions are welcome. Build opinions as well.

With any luck maybe I will one day see this character through to 16th level and become immortal. That should make all the Highlander references that I plan on making with the character make sense. ;)

Dark Archive

This seems kind of all over the place, to be honest: it isn't very focused. Sohei only allows flurry with light armor, from what I can see. Monk Evasion only works with no armor. You are looking to wear Stoneplate, which is the heaviest armor possible (and doesn't have any advantage that I can find over normal plate?). Why Sohie? Why Stoneplate?

I like Living Monolith a lot, but I think you should focus on things that work well with Enlarge Person (trip?), rather than the Sohei bits. I have a very strong PFS tripping/damage build that takes one level of Living Monolith - and it works great.

Can you tell us what it is that you are trying to accomplish? What will this character excel at? What makes them tick?


A Sohei can flurry in mithral medium armor, but they still can't flurry while using a shield, and they can't flurry with a polearm until Sohei 6 (and they also don't get Weapon Training - and thus the awesome Gloves of Dueling - until 6).

It also looks like you're going to be creating a character that eats a -2 to attack from Crane Style, a Power Attack penalty, and a -1BAB from Monk, but that doesn't gain any class bonuses to attack or even Weapon Focus. That's pretty painful for offense, and downright ugly if you're trying to make weakly enhanced unarmed strikes with another -2 from flurry.

Personally I like the idea of a Scarred Rager (at least 2 levels)/ Living Monolith using the Scarred Rager trick where you activate Rage for your turn and then turn it off, so that you're fatigued only until your next turn begins and you can Rage again. This lets you use Rage Powers like Strength Surge every round, and lets you avoid all Rage penalties (including Reckless Abandon) at the cost of being fatigued off-turn. Somehow a Scarred Rager using devastating 1-round-rages seems to fit the Living Monolith theme really well. Or maybe that's just me.

Another really potent and thematic choice would be four levels of Warpriest (Egyptian Deity) plus two levels of a martial class plus monolith, since four levels of Warpriest sets you up with a ton of nice stuff - including a +3/+3 swift-action Divine Favor with the right traits - with only a 1 BAB loss.


Argus The Slayer wrote:
This seems kind of all over the place, to be honest: it isn't very focused.

Meeting the PRC prereqs as early as possible and being able to use a polearm kinda requires that. If you think you can do it better, I'm all ears! :)

Argus The Slayer wrote:
Sohei only allows flurry with light armor, from what I can see. Monk Evasion only works with no armor. You are looking to wear Stoneplate, which is the heaviest armor possible (and doesn't have any advantage that I can find over normal plate?). Why Sohie? Why Stoneplate?

Ah, yes. So you are correct. I can't use Flurry when in Heavy armor. In my defense I was looking here and didn't click on the actual link to the FAQ. It doesn't matter as even if I could Flurry I could only do it with Monk weapons and he isn't using Monk weapons.

Why Sohei? I said why. At this point it is already more "Why Monk?" than "Why Sohei?", though. But to answer your question:
1. Free Improved Unarmed Strike (which I need to get Crane Style).
2. 2 Free feats: Combat Reflexes and Dodge most likely.
3. +3 Bonus to all saves.

While I don't have to go Sohei getting the Devoted Guardian ability is really nice. I have some options, though. Terra-Cotta Monk is very in theme and gives an interesting ability in place of the otherwise useless (in this build) Evasion. Monk of the Iron Mountain is also very thematic and replaces Evasion with Toughness which will later be redundant but will help before I get there. It also gives +1 natural armor. If you don't think Sohei is the best pick for the build do you think one of those might be better?

Argus The Slayer wrote:
Why Stoneplate?

I am getting the feeling you didn't read my post.

Me, earlier... wrote:
I wanted to be a Dwarf from Qadira and have the whole Egyptian vibe going on. Kinda like Stargate but less tech, more magic. He will be a dark skinned dwarf with stony brown hair and beard. I really want the character to epitomize Dwarfyness, Qadiran, Scarab Sages, Sphinxyness, stoneyness, Guardianishness, durability, steadfastness, etc. (these are all real words, I assure you.)

I quoted the relevant bits. But seriously, why NOT Stoneplate? It has the same stats as Stoneplate for a Dwarf. The only downfall is that it weighs more and that is hardly a downfall, especially for a Dwarf. I have seen extra weight actually be a benefit. So mechanically it is basically the same and it is so much more thematic!

Argus The Slayer wrote:
I like Living Monolith a lot, but I think you should focus on things that work well with Enlarge Person (trip?), rather than the Sohei bits. I have a very strong PFS tripping/damage build that takes one level of Living Monolith - and it works great.

You mean like using a reach weapon? You did see the part where he is using a Lucern Hammer, right? Also, as stated in my original thread I plan on going as much into Living Monolith as possible.

Argus The Slayer wrote:
Can you tell us what it is that you are trying to accomplish? What will this character excel at? What makes them tick?

Come on, man... did you read the post at all? I answered this already. See the above quoted part or reread my post.


BadBird wrote:
A Sohei can flurry in mithral medium armor, but they still can't flurry while using a shield, and they can't flurry with a polearm until Sohei 6 (and they also don't get Weapon Training - and thus the awesome Gloves of Dueling - until 6).

Yes, all true, sadly. I had misread the bit about Flurry in armor but as you pointed out it doesn't matter as it wouldn't work for other reasons as well. Sohei still seems like one of the better archetypes for Monk with this kind of build.

I couldn't figure a way to work in Weapon Training as either Unarmed Fighter or Unbreakable Fighter are needed for the feats to get into Living Monolith early. Both of those archetypes give up Weapon Training.

BadBird wrote:
It also looks like you're going to be creating a character that eats a -2 to attack from Crane Style, a Power Attack penalty, and a -1BAB from Monk, but that doesn't gain any class bonuses to attack or even Weapon Focus. That's pretty painful for offense, and downright ugly if you're trying to make weakly enhanced unarmed strikes with another -2 from flurry.

Yeah, forget the Flurry. But you are right, his to-hit is going to be rather low. I'm not seeing a way to fit anything in to mitigate it so I am likely look at throwing money at the problem.

Regarding Scarred Rager and/or Warpriest:
The only Barbarian archetype I had considered was Titan Mauler as it would give me the ability to use a reach weapon one handed. Not only that I but I could keep the Dwarven Longhammer. The problem is that I would take another -2 to attack. This would only be mitigated by Rage so definitely not worth it, IMO.

While Scarred Rager looks fine in general it does not give me the ability to use a reach weapon in one hand.

For Warpriest it would make going Ib desirable but I do not want to do that with this build. This will be a strickly Ka build. Besides that it is lacking in a lot of ways Monk is not: only 2 good saves vs 3, only 1 bonus feat (Weapon Focus) vs 2 (the muchly needed Combat Reflexes and Dodge) and one of the Evasion replacing abilities mentioned above or the Sohei Devoted Guardian.

Scarab Sages

If you're going with Glory Of Old then have you also considered the Steel Soul feat from the APG? It stacks.

Glory Of Old is a Five Kings Mountains regional feat. The dwarfs of Osirion are called the Ouat and sound quite close to what you envisage.

If you're going with the Stone Plate & Boulder Helmet then have you considered the Stonelord dwarven paladin archetype? It's basically not a paladin and could be built up towards the Living Monolith. I can see why you wanted to go with Unbreakable Fighter 'though.


I didn't originally think that I needed to take it apart ability by ability but I will do that now:

Unbreakable Fighter gives free Endurance and Diehard. I really want Diehard for the build as it fits the hard to kill theme. Endurance is needed as a prereq for Living Monolith and I'd rather not waste a feat on it.

Power attack is one of the only offensive feat that the character is taking and I feel that he will need it to be able to successfully push out enough damage to make the enemy not ignore him. It does hurt his to-hit, though.

Monk is to get the free Unarmed Strike that I need to take Crane Style. I am taking Crane Style to pair with Stalwart to get DR/- that stacks with that granted by Living Monolith's Fortified Flesh ability. That is DR 10/- by 13th level. Monk also gives 2 bonus feats one of which is Combat Reflexes which I will need to take advantage of large size + reach. Dodge will also not go to waste as being hard to kill is important to the concept.

Same goes for +3 to all saves that the Monk will give. That coupled with Steel Soul, Glory of Old and Hardy will give the character +8 to all saves that matter (poison, spells, and spell-like abilities).

Iron Will is another prereq. Pushing Assault helps to keep the enemy at bay and away from my team. This feat isn't overly important to me if another can provide a better benefit. Improved Critical also falls into this category.

Vital Strike pairs well with a 1d12 Lucern Hammer especially when it is enchanted with Impact and the character is large sized. 8d6 seems tasty when I am limited to a single attack. So does 4d6 on anything else.

Hopefully that clears up any further direction related questions anyone might have.


Balgin wrote:

If you're going with Glory Of Old then have you also considered the Steel Soul feat from the APG? It stacks.

Glory Of Old is a Five Kings Mountains regional feat. The dwarfs of Osirion are called the Ouat and sound quite close to what you envisage.

*sigh* ... did you read the build? It is there already.

Scarab Sages

Lune wrote:
Balgin wrote:

If you're going with Glory Of Old then have you also considered the Steel Soul feat from the APG? It stacks.

Glory Of Old is a Five Kings Mountains regional feat. The dwarfs of Osirion are called the Ouat and sound quite close to what you envisage.

*sigh* ... did you read the build? It is there already.

Indeed. You're planning on taking it at 7th. That's what I get for starting to formulate a reply late at night and hitting post before I've finished reading the entire post that I'm responding to :P.

I didn't see any mention of the Ouat ethnicity 'though. I added Steel Soul as an afterthought in case you'd missed it. I was mainly suggesting you consider an Osiriani Ouat dwarf over a Qadiran dwarven background. I'm not sure if the Ouat have a presence in Qadira. Perhaps they do.


Balgin wrote:
If you're going with the Stone Plate & Boulder Helmet then have you considered the Stonelord dwarven paladin archetype? It's basically not a paladin and could be built up towards the Living Monolith. I can see why you wanted to go with Unbreakable Fighter 'though.

Ninja'd that in there, didja? ;)

I did consider Stonelord. It does fit flavorwise but it has some issues. The companion wouldn't continue to advance and that is one of the big benefits of Stonelord. Also the DR wouldn't stack, it would overlap. Also also it doesn't provide the ability to use a polemar + shield.

I appreciate the suggestions, though.

Scarab Sages

Lune wrote:
Ninja'd that in there, didja? ;)

Yeah. Late night posting and a conscientious desire not to double post/spam the thread :p.


I don't know as much as I should about Golarion lore. I will look into Ouat as it seems to match exactly what I was thinking of.

Scarab Sages

Do Phalanx Soldier and Unbreakable Fighter stack? You seem to be trying to use both in your build. The two archetypes seem to clash.

Both replace bravery. Both replace a lot of the same weapon training & armour training class abilities.

If you're not taking Unbreakable Fighter then how did you get Endurance as a bonus feat at 1st level? It's not a combat feat. You'd need to take Diehard later on (at elast at 3rd level) which would mean shifting another feat earlier down to level 1.

Scarab Sages

The Ouat are a group of shaven headed dwarven nomads who dwell in the Osirian desert. You can find out a few bits and pieces about them in Dwarves of Golarion (page 28). They are often monastic, might defend Osirion's "valley of the kings" area, may serve Osirian mages as bodyguards....

You might be able to find out more about them in the Legacy of Fire AP, the Legacy of Pharoahs book might have a little something on them. There might also be something in the Mummy's Mask AP but I'm not so sure on that one.

Basically they seem like a monastic dwarven version of Mr T (but more serious).


Balgin, they are two different builds.

I wanted to use Unbreakable Fighter. It was in my original build (the one I posted second) but opted for Phallanx Soldier instead as I wanted to use a shield and a reach weapon.

Ouat: Yeah, I am only finding small scraps on them. But that is definitely what I'm going with.


Oh, you know, you are right. Endurance and Diehard are both General Feats. Shit. Guess I gotta switch Diehard and Power Attack around.


There's a fairly recently released Alternative Dwarven Racial features which allows you to get Endurance instead of Hardy. A steep price to but it does save you a feat and comes with some other minor bonuses, this would open up other fighter archetypes (Unarmed for free IUS and Crane Style with a 1 level dip which saves you the dodge prerequisite).

The new Armor master's handbook has some nice options that could work well here. Specifically there's a feat which allows you to use a shield while wielding a spear or polearm two handed which is way better than being a Phalanx Soldier.

Another path to consider is Warpriest of Irori (free IUS) with the Ib Stone. But that wouldn't allow you to enter Living Monolith before 8th.

Also your math on Sohei is pretty off. 2 Sohei levels don't give you +3 to all saves as you are not factoring in the opportunity cost of other classes save bonuses. I'm pretty sure you should dismiss Sohei here and look into other alternatives which get you IUS and Crane Style of which plenty exist.


Alex: Hm... some good stuff in here. Not sure how I missed that Dwarven Alternate Racial Trait. I think maybe I didn't but dismissed it as not good because it gives up Hardy. If I give up Hardy then I cannot get Steel Soul and that is a swing of 4 points on all saves. I can't see that ever being worth Endurance.

With the feat that you are referring to (what is it called?) it would allow freeing up using another Fighter Archetype. I'm not sure how much that helps, though. Unbreakable isn't desirable anymore due to getting Endurance for free. Unarmed is nice to get IUS and Crane Style. I wouldn't "have" to go Monk anymore, but I kind of want to for the free feats, saves and class ability from archetypes. Unarmed Fighter forgoes Weapon Training though. The best I can figure would be to go with Weapon Master to get Weapon Training early. Or at all in this build as I would not plan on going with more than 4 levels of Fighter.

There is something to be said for that, I suppose. Getting Endurance free allows me to take Diehard as my 1st level feat and Power Attack as my Fighter feat so the build starts off the same. The downfall is that I permanently lose out on Hardy + Steel Soul. But then I don't have to take that feat either freeing it up for the feat that allows using shield + polearm. Basically for 15k I end up getting +3/+3 to hit/damage in exchange for +4 to saves. I guess that is about equal and would help with his to hit issues.

I am not off on my math for Sohei. Or any Monk. 2nd level gives you +3 to all saves. If you mean that I didn't mention what other classes give, you are correct. That isn't a math issue. The entire point I was making is that other classes do not give as good of saves as a Monk. And that is the simple honest truth. The closest I could get is getting 2 good saves which would give +3 in two saves and nothing to the third.

As I said, I am not bound to Sohei. There are other options. I could take Terra-Cotta Monk or Monk of the Iron Mountain. Or I could not go Monk at all. I am open minded if you have other suggestions but bear in mind what you are competing with. Two levels of Monk is pretty solid: +3 to all saves, 3 bonus feats, 8 skill points (which are honestly needed to get the skills for Living Monolith) and a spiffy class ability is hard to beat. If I am settled on taking 4 levels of Fighter (and I am because I can't see getting all the other feats needed any other way) then is there anything better to spend those levels on? But I would love to be proven wrong here.

edit: I am once again dismissing any Ib based builds including Warpriest. This is strictly a Ka build. No Ib, please.


Lune wrote:
For Warpriest it would make going Ib desirable but I do not want to do that with this build. This will be a strickly Ka build. Besides that it is lacking in a lot of ways Monk is not: only 2 good saves vs 3, only 1 bonus feat (Weapon Focus) vs 2 (the muchly needed Combat Reflexes and Dodge) and one of the Evasion replacing abilities mentioned above or the Sohei Devoted Guardian.

When talking about Warpriest 4, I'm definitely not suggesting going Ib stone. Warpriest 4 is a self-contained unit that grants +3/+3 swift-action Favor (with the right traits), free Focus plus one other free combat feat of choice, good fort/will saves, weapon/armor proficiency, some low-level Blessings, and whatever else you can get from Sacred Weapon and channeling or their archetype replacements. Pushing for more casting levels beyond that is totally unnecessary.


I know that the build's one glaring weakness is a low to-hit bonus. That is what I really need to shore up. I could trade out Pushing Assault for Weapon Focus. In fact, I probably should. Without Weapon Training I can't get Gloves of Dueling but a +3 Weapon only costs 3k more than Gloves of Dueling so it isn't that far off until you can start affording both.

I guess I could go with an Opalescent White Pyramid Ioun Stone socketed into a Wayfinder to get Weapon Focus rather than spending a feat on it. Its 10k but that is about the cost of a feat. I could also get a Cracked Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone for +1 competence bonus to attack. Boots of Speed are likely going to be the feet slot item I am going for and that is another +1 untyped to attack for 10 rounds/day.

As for feat choices I could also go with Furious Focus so I don't take the negative to my first iterative attack each round, though I would still be eating it for AoOs. If I went 2 more feats deep into Crane Style I could get Crane Riposte to only take -1 when fighting defensively which hardly seems worth it as I would get no other benefits of those feats.

Other than that I think I am stuck prioritizing weapon enchantments, Strength belts and temporary buffs.

Yeah, I got nuthin else to close that gap. Anyone?


BadBird: Hm. I guess that is one direction. I could take extra traits and pick up Defensive Strategist as well, I suppose. I'm not sure what the other trait you are referring to is. Meh, I think Warpriest is just not my cup of tea. I don't like Brawler either, really.


How about aberrant bloodrager 4? You get reach with your dwarven waraxe (& save on enchanting another weapon by using the waraxe up close too), a +2 attack/damage on full BAB via bloodrage, and you could take the steelblooded archetype if your other pre-monolith level doesn't otherwise give you heavy armor prof.


avr: It would make for a good build. I have another build using Living Monolith that uses Barbarian. Bloodrager is different flavor. I do like the way you are getting reach with Aberrant rather than from the weapon but it is still only during Bloodrage. I just wanted to go casterless for the build and didn't really want to go with a raging build either. Probably would make for a more effective build but just not what I am looking for. Also I did want to go with a bludgeoning reach weapon which there are few of. Thanx for the ideas though. :)


Dwarven Longhammer was added to the Hammer weapon group - here you go! (click the spoiler at the bottom.)

As to the rest of the build...

Alright, as I'm seeing it, build goals are as follows:

* Endurance (prerequisite)
* Iron Will (prerequisite)
* Improved Unarmed Strike
* Crane Style
* Ka Stone Living Monolith option
* Combat Reflexes a plus
* Diehard a plus
* Power Attack to keep up damage

I hate to sound like a broken record and chime along with a lot of the other posters here, but I'm going to throw in another recommendation for 2-4 levels of Warpriest. Irori has a major temple in Osirion and the Master of Masters is an excellent fit as a deity for this kind of character.

The Law and Strength blessings give you great little boosts to attack and damage, and Fervor looks forward to the Living Monolith swift enlarge person, and gives you a few more tricks to add to your arsenal.

Ka Stone can still be selected even if you were a caster, but even the little spellcasting ability is still helpful for Living Monolith, even if you're only using it to swift action cure yourself to stay on the front lines. Worshiping Irori gives you Improved Unarmed Strike for free, and Focus Weapon gives you Weapon Focus in the weapon of your choice, making up for the lower attack bonus.

As for feats, I'd toy with the idea of taking the alternate dwarven racial that grants Endurance (or going Unbreakable with your Fighter levels.)

You could go with something like:

1 (Warpriest 1): Endurance (Racial), Weapon Focus (Warpriest), Improved Unarmed Strike (Warpriest), Diehard (1)
2 (Fighter 1): Power Attack (Fighter 1)
3 (Warpriest 2): Dodge (3)
4 (Fighter 2): Crane Style (Fighter 2)
5 (Warpriest 3): Combat Reflexes (Warpriest 3), Iron Will (5)
6: (Warpriest 4 or Fighter 3 if Phalanx Soldier)

Mix levels around as desired.

This setup gives you all the feats on your wishlist by level 5 and allows you to take whatever archetype you want with your Fighter levels. It also nets you Weapon Focus on top of that in addition to Blessings to shore up your lowered attack roll. As I mentioned earlier, Fervor fits the flavor of the swift enlarge from Living Monolith while making that something your character has been able to do even longer. I would downplay the spellcasting as nothing more than that - just little blessings your character can cast to bolster himself, and nothing more.


Yeah... crap. Longhammers are hammers, not polearms. :(

Another reason to not use Warpriest is that I will definitely be worshiping Torag. I'm going earthy here, remember?

But to be honest that build doesn't look too shabby. I guess one downfall is no Stalwart at 6 which is the earliest I could get it sans full BAB. I guess 7 isn't too far off but it seems too late for a primary schtick feat. You missed that in your first list by the way. Stalwart and Improved Stalwart are very important to me in the build.

I know I'm stuborn and bullheaded and probably people are going to be upset that I'm not taking advice from them but I really just do dislike Warpriest. I'm not married to my build but it does give me everything I want but with low to hit bonus. If I can find some way to up that within the confines of what I want to get out of my build then I think I'm golden.

edit: I think a lot of the suggestions for caster builds (Warpriest and Bloodrager) are my fault. I should have said in my opening post that I want to go martial only for this build. Now I kinda just look like an ass who is dismissing good advice for petty reasons.


Lune wrote:

Yeah... crap. Longhammers are hammers, not polearms. :(

Another reason to not use Warpriest is that I will definitely be worshiping Torag. I'm going earthy here, remember?

But to be honest that build doesn't look too shabby. I guess one downfall is no Stalwart at 6 which is the earliest I could get it sans full BAB. I guess 7 isn't too far off but it seems too late for a primary schtick feat. You missed that in your first list by the way. Stalwart and Improved Stalwart are very important to me in the build.

I know I'm stuborn and bullheaded and probably people are going to be upset that I'm not taking advice from them but I really just do dislike Warpriest. I'm not married to my build but it does give me everything I want but with low to hit bonus. If I can find some way to up that within the confines of what I want to get out of my build then I think I'm golden.

edit: I think a lot of the suggestions for caster builds (Warpriest and Bloodrager) are my fault. I should have said in my opening post that I want to go martial only for this build. Now I kinda just look like an ass who is dismissing good advice for petty reasons.

So I did. And no worries; you opened the door on other build suggestions, but the truth is that if you're dead-set on staying martial (which is fine, by the way), then your proposed phalanx build probably is the way to go.

I do think that Warpriest is going to be stronger than Monk, but I respect if you need to stick with your guns, here. Torag certainly makes plenty of sense - unfortunately the other deities that grant IUS are much less appropriate than Irori would be (I was surprised to find out there were so few.)

I am concerned that your attack bonus is going to be much too low when you're Power Attacking and Fighting Defensively at the same time :/

Dark Archive

Balgin wrote:

If you're going with Glory Of Old then have you also considered the Steel Soul feat from the APG? It stacks.

Glory Of Old is a Five Kings Mountains regional feat. The dwarfs of Osirion are called the Ouat and sound quite close to what you envisage.

If you're going with the Stone Plate & Boulder Helmet then have you considered the Stonelord dwarven paladin archetype? It's basically not a paladin and could be built up towards the Living Monolith. I can see why you wanted to go with Unbreakable Fighter 'though.

A slight correction, the dwaves of Qadira are the Pahmet, the Ouat are a very specific dwarven monk caste, not the main population.


Mechanically Warpries has one big downside for such a build. It devours swift actions like no ones business. This might make it difficult to swift action enlarge.

The Feat in question is Shield Brace it requires Armor Training or Shield Focus. It only works with Polearms or Spears so no Longhammers. But a Bardiche can easily be reflavored as a longaxe...

So here's some further suggestions:

Bloody Knuckled Rowdy

Free IUS at level 1 as well as uncanny dodge, level 2 you get a style feat but need dodge to qulify for Crane Style. For a 2 level dip in bloodrager I wouldn't say that it counts as a caster.

You could go Unbreakable Fighter 3/Bloodrager 2 into Living Monolith like so:

1 Fighter Endurance Die Hard Iron Will
2 Fighter Combat Reflexes
3 Fighter Shield Brace Armor Training
4 Bloodrager IUS Uncanny Dodge
5 Bloodrager Dodge Crane Style
6 LM
7 LM Stalwart

While you don't get too many save bonuses from class levels you get bonuses from fighter 2, Iron Will, being a Dwarf,

As you seem very intent on having strong saves you could consider 2 levels of Cavalier with the Order of the Eastern Star as it grants you some sexy bonuses when fighting defensively including a flat +2 bonus to all saves.

As others have stated you won't be happy with your build above as you will fail at the number 1 rule of tanking being a threat. Feel free to calculate your to hit bonus at level 9 or so and see how it holds up to level adequate AC (23). You'll likely be missing more than half the time and find that PA actually reduces your damage output.


Alex Mack wrote:
Mechanically Warpries has one big downside for such a build. It devours swift actions like no ones business. This might make it difficult to swift action enlarge.

If the only swift-action buff involved is Divine Favor then it's not much of an issue, and if going Living Monolith then there probably won't be other swift-action use than that from a few Warpriest levels.


Gulthor: Thank you for understanding. For the record his attack bonus is too low and I recognize that.

Suthainn: Ah, thank you for the correction. That does give me more information to work with for a short, concise backstory. :) Much appreciated!

Alex Mack: I agree that precasting Bloodrager I wouldn't consider as a caster. And your build works fairly well. I think I may have glossed over the Bloody Knuckled Rowdy. I would likely be using a Lucerne Hammer though as I want to stay bludgeoning.

That build is basically a single feat behind so I could end up getting Steel Soul at level 9 instead and push back Vital Strike to 11th. The only bonus that your build has over mine is Bloodrage. That is helpful for about 10 rounds/day and will add +2 to my attack role. In my build I could afford to pick up Weapon Focus somewhere around 7th or 9th depending on if I want to push back Steel Soul or not. So really it is only a swing of +1 to hit after that but it does give bonus damage as well.

BadBird: If I did go Warpriest I don't think I would have a big action economy issue. I would just prioritize Enlarge Person over Divine Favor. As I get to act in the surprise round that likely means I could swift action enlarge and 5' step then next round on actual initiative if I have a decent roll I could 5' and Divine Favor and if not just engage in melee.


Alright, so lets see what I would have for a to hit bonus at level 9 with some reasonable gear. This will be considering my build with the following gear: +3 Lucerne Hammer (18k), +2 Str/Con Belt (10k), Opalescent White Pyramid Ioun Stone socketed into a Wayfinder (10k), Cracked Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone (4k). That would leave me with about 4k left over from standard wealth by level and spending most of my budget on offense.

This is also considering the following abilities:

Spoiler:

Str 16
Dex 14
Con 14+2
Int 10
Wis 10+2
Cha 10-2

So with that it would bring my attack bonus to: 8 BAB(Fighter 4, Monk 1, Living Monolith 3 with Ka active), +6 Str (16 base +2 level ups, +2 enhancement, +2 size), +3 Weapon, +1 Weapon Focus, +1 Competence, -1 size, -2 Power Attack, -2 Fighting Defensively = +14. So against AC 23 I will be hitting more than half the time, but not by much. It isn't as bad as I had thought but still isn't good.

At this point he is only 2 levels away from getting Greater Ka Stone which will up his Str by another +2, Con by +4, Natural Armor by +2 and give some non-stacking DR (in case I want to forgo Fighting Defensively).

There isn't much more I can think of to fix it with my build. If I drop Vital Strike in Favor of Weapon Focus that frees up 10k gold that I could put towards Boots of Speed giving me another +1 bonus. I could swap out the +2 Str/Con belt for a +4 Str belt giving me another +1. I suppose I could switch my Str and Con in my abilities which would up me by another +1. That would put me up to +17.

If I took Furious Focus instead of Vital Strike (I don't really like this idea) it would give me a +19 on my first hit but would lower my average damage per hit by a fair margin. I would have loved to fit in Impact on the weapon but I don't think I have the luxury of forgoing more straight to hit bonus. I guess without Impact it makes Vital Strike less appealing. Maybe I should get it though because by that level someone in the party would probably be able to afford to give me a Greater Magic Weapon most of the time.


As far as defenses go at that level I think I should be well above average. When fighting defensively I would have the following:
DR 6/-
HP: 102

Spoiler:

18 Con 4*9=36
4 favored class
10 first level
6*3=18 Fighter levels
5*2=10 Monk Levels
5*3=15 Living Monolith Levels
9 Toughness

20% Fortification
Diehard for another 18 fake HP.
AC: 27 (28 if I go with Monk of the Iron Mountain instead of Sohei), 1 less while enlarged, 1 more during Righteous Might 2 levels later
Spoiler:

10
+10 Armor (+1 Stoneplate)
+3 Shield (+1 Heavy Steel Shield)
+1 Dodge
+1 Defender of the Society
+2 Dex

Saves: (Note the lack of a Resistance bonus due to not yet having a Cloak of Resistance. He could easily pick up at least a +1 or gain a resistance bonus from a variety of party buffs.)
Fort: 18
Ref: 12
Will: 13
Spoiler:

Fort: 18 = 9 Base, +4 Con, +2 Hardy, +2 Steel Soul, +1 Glory of Old
Ref: 12 = 5 Base, +2 Dex, +2 Hardy, +2 Steel Soul, +1 Glory of Old
Will: 13 = 5 Base, +1 Wis, +2 Hardy, +2 Steel Soul, +1 Glory of Old, +2 Iron Will

He also has a variety of other defensive qualities like:
Stand Firm coupled with Stability making him an immovable object.
Defensive Training (+4 AC vs Giants)
Stone Blood (immune to bleed and blood drain)
A 20' reach while enlarged and the ability to attack and threaten adjacent creatures due to the Boulder Helmet. Combat Reflexes helps here.
With gear weighing over 300lbs - I count this one as an advantage due to Slow and Steady. ;)

Bear in mind that this is all with throwing only minimal investments into defenses. It is only considering a +1 armor and shield and a +2 Str/Con belt and no Cloak of Resistance, Ring of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armor, etc. He should have better gear than this by now but this is with considering he is going to be throwing most of his wealth at offense to shore up his low to-hit bonus. That being said, it looks pretty decent to me!


Another way to save yourself some feat slots is to pick up a madu and use it for fighting defensively in favor of crane style.

As it's exotic you'd have to spend a feat or dip brawler but it's far less investment than crane style.


You know, another issue that I'm noticing just now (not sure how I missed it) is that 14 Dex is nice for Combat Reflexes but when enlarged it goes down to 12. ...which is too low. I guess I could switch to a Str/Dex belt. Con is more desirable but Dex will give me more AoOs which is better for defense and a higher Ref save.


Hm... Madu is definitely mechanically the better choice. I'm not sure if I could bring myself to using such an ugly thing, though. Looking through some pictures I'm not seeing a very large variety of Madu either. If I could even make it look more like a spiked shield than that snaggly thing then I would go for it.

I will think on this.

edit: Anyway, it wouldn't be in favor of Crane Style. Crane Style allows me to get an additional +1 dodge bonus to AC which converts to another point of DR with Stalwart. That coupled with Acrobatics makes it a total of +4.

Yeah... I don't think it is worth a feat. Still a good catch.


i put spinning rims on him and in his ass i installed some thumping bass speakers...... >.>

you asked for this......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnF2ROKtdMY


Wait... can I actually get a mini fridge?

Dark Archive

Lune wrote:
Suthainn: Ah, thank you for the correction. That does give me more information to work with for a short, concise backstory. :) Much appreciated!

You're welcome, I'm actually playing a Pahmet Barbarian/Living Monolith in a Mummys Mask game at the moment, so it's been excellent seeing how someone else would build a similarish character (mine has gone Dwarven Waraxe/Shield and is the parties damage magnet since the rest are super squishy).


Suthain: What do you think about going with a reach weapon? Do you use Power Attack with your build and if so do you think it is worth it over Weapon Specialization (I understand you can't get it on your barb, but if you could)?


Alright, so had some friends over for a game and had one take a look at the build with me. With his skillful advice we decided it would be best to just forgo Power Attack entirely. I can't stand getting the negatives of both Power Attack and fighting defensively. Honestly, it isn't so big of a loss. I can grab Weapon Focus earlier and fit in Weapon Specialization where I can. Also without taking those negatives it makes Impact a desirable enchantment again and allows me to move Vital Strike back up in the build.

I rebuilt a bit and this is what I came up with:

Spoiler:

1st
Fighter 1
Weapon Focus (Fighter 1), Endurance (1st)
2nd
Monk 1
Flurry of Blows, Devoted Guardian, Improved Unarmed Strike (bonus), Dodge (bonus)
3rd
Monk 2
Evasion, Combat Reflexes (bonus), Diehard (3rd)
4th
Fighter 2
Stand Firm, Crane Style (Fighter 2)
5th
Fighter 3
Phalanx Fighting, Iron Will (5th)
6th
Fighter 4
Stalwart (Fighter 4)
7th
Living Monolith 1
Soul Stone, Ka Stone, Toughness (bonus), Weapon Specialization (7th)
8th
Living Monolith 2
Stone Blood
9th
Living Monolith 3
Fortified Flesh (DR 1/-, 10% Fortification), Steel Soul (9th)
10th
Living Monolith 4
Stability, Tombsight
11th
Living Monolith 5
Fortified Flesh (DR 2/-, 20% Fortification, Immune to Disease), Greater Ka Stone, Vital Strike (11th)
12th
Living Monolith 6
Attunement to Stone
13th
Living Monolith 7
Summon Sphinx, Improved Stalwart (13th)

These changes should bring the attack role up to around +16 or so by level 9 and it will raise to around +19-20 by level 11. The level 7, 9 and 11 feats I can really switch around to any order. Vital Strike provides more damage on a single attack (by average of 3.5 damage vs. 2 from Weapon Specialization) but doesn't help with AoOs of which the character should be getting many. Steel Soul is always good but I think I will have to judge it based on how often I am failing saves which I can't imagine will be very often.

Dark Archive

Lune wrote:
Suthain: What do you think about going with a reach weapon? Do you use Power Attack with your build and if so do you think it is worth it over Weapon Specialization (I understand you can't get it on your barb, but if you could)?

I initially built him with a reach weapon but given my party makeup (Cleric, Sorcerer, Rogue) I really haven't had a chance to use it except in maybe one fight so far (we're halfway through book 3), given that I'm having to move to keep enemies from reaching the casters and end up with foes next to me frequently. If you're used to getting 5 and 6 man groups for PFS though I should think you'll have a lot better chance to use one effectively.

I haven't taken Power Attack as I went the Invulnerable Rager route and am stacking DR via Combat Expertise/Steadfast, but I'm hitting fine with the penalty so it should be perfectly viable. That said I haven't found that I've needed the extra damage so far, but I am using a Furious axe with Rage which adds a lot. With my build, I'd take Weapon Spec every time, but if I was less defensive focused I'd probably pick Power Attack of the two options.

My one wish I'd thought of before getting my weapon enchanted would have been Adamantine, now it's going to cost me a ton to get a new weapon with it =/

I will say Steal Soul has been a godsend for me, there is so much stuff in Mummys Mask that has saves that even with Superstition, Glory of Old and Steel Soul I've been pushed hard to not fail (obviously this is specific to the AP and not PFS in general so you might well be fine without it).


Instead of mixing fighter and monk, mix fighter and warden archetype ranger. 3 levels of ranger gives you endurance as a bonus feat, and the warden archetype will let you pick underground as a favored terrain at first level. What's more stony than favored terrain: underground? What's more guardianish than a warden?


Suthainn: You could always get Impervious enchantment on the weapon. It is about the same as Adamantine. I will be going for Adamantine. Thank you for the first hand experiences of a martial only Living Monolith! It is very helpful.

Emmit Svenson: Hey, not a bad suggestion. I think I have my build down now but I am going to look into that as an alternate.


You can also get IUS at ranger level 1via the archetype that gives blessings... but ranger does't give you proficiency with heavy armor...

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