Armor and Replacing Flurry of Blows


Rules Questions


So I have been working on a purely supportive character that is meant to Aid Another, Bodyguard, and body block the opponents front line. All in all, I have ended up making a Monk 2, Fighter 3, Golden 6 character with 15 feats. Focusing on the Vangard and Mobile Buckler Style feats, it is extremely important that I can use both of them at the same time.

The problem is, Monk "losses flurry of blows while he has armor". If the Monk losses Flurry of Blows sue to armor, what happens to his Archetype skill that replaces FoB? I have 2 possible conclusions.

1. It replaces the class feature entirely from the class template, and remains active unless it states otherwise in the archetype.

2. Archetypes constantly check to see if you have access. If you loss it by wearing armor, you have nothing to 'replace' and loss the archetype power too.


It should be 1. You still have the flurry class feature when wearing armor, it just doesn't do anything.

Edit: now that I read that again, it's horribly worded. So, I'm changing my answer to no official answer. Do what sounds right to you. Expect table variation.


If you replace FoB, you no longer have FoB. The MoMS, for example, can viably wear armor.

Sovereign Court

If you go Sohei you can flurry in light armor.


The problem is the order of operations. In the monk armor section it says if you wear armor you lose the "abilities". But is that loss the kind loss archetypes care about? I think it must not be because archetypes are all or nothing. And so if you truly lost access to flurry of blows, then you'd lose the entire archetype, not just the one ability that gets replaced.


One doesn't choose to use archetype, but first wear armor to figure out if archetype is a legal choice or not.

Apply the archetype to everything first.

You swap out flurry of blows for whatever archetype grants. And can wear armor no problems.

PRD wrote:
When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses his AC bonus, as well as his fast movement and flurry of blows abilities.

If the archetype swapped out flurry of blows, then this sentence doesn't affect the replacement archetype ability unless it specifically states so.

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