You will struggle until you get the guided amulet. After that it depends on how your GM runs his games, and what you mean by viable. He won't be keeping up with the frontliners for damage so the question is what do you expect to do in the game. Listing them in order of most important to least important also helps.
1. How are you getting +24 damage.
Advice:
Do not take "Hammer the Gap"
It is not as good as it sounds. You are better off with "Dimensional Agility". It allows you an option that can't be measured with number.
With evasion and a good reflex saves lightening reflexes is not needed. What feat you can take in its place depends on your priority list.
As wraithstrike says, viable is really a relative term. Can you match the dps of an optimized frontliner? No. Can you be more versatile? Probably. Can you still have a ton of fun if you are not solely concerned about dps? Absolutely.
I would also consider Combat Reflexes, especially if you have access to Enlarge Person in one form or another. What you take out depends on you. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Snatch arrows, but its utility really depends on your personal playstyle and the style of your DM. But in any event, with your Dex and an Enlarge (whether through friendly caster, wand, potion, etc.) you can get a fair number of extra attacks in.
You'll be just fine. I'm surprised you didn't take Weapon Finesse though with that much Dex.
He did not take weapon finesse because his amulet has the guided property on it.
It allows you to use wisdom to modify your attack bonus. That is why his wisdom is so high. I think it also add wisdom to damage, but I am not sure.
But now it seems his math is off for the attack roll.
BAB 20 for FoB
+10 wisdom
+4 amulet
-2 Fob
should be +32 for the first 2 attack.
I think that given what else a monk can do, that a monk can compete, if not on straight damage. The thing to remember about your frontliners is that they will all get generally the same bonuses from power attack, ability mod, magic enhancement, etc. as the monk. However, they tend to be much less MAD and thus can boost their main stats even higher while keeping their defenses, for the most part, high as well.
Even Enlarge will help out the frontliners as much, if not more, than the monk. Remember that held weapons will also be enlarged meaning they do extra damage. Make that weapon a pole arm or other reach weapon and things are looking even better. Then, even on a level by level basis, a lot of the front runners will outshine the monk from a pure damage aspect because they can qualify for feats like Power Attack and Weapon Focus earlier (assuming they are a full BAB class).
The thing that makes the monk viable, in my opinion, is that they have more versatility both in and out of combat. One of the bigger downsides of the monk though, in my opinion, is that a lot of their "cool" or "iconic" class features like slow fall and fast movement as two examples, are very situational. Slow fall in particular might only really come into play a couple of times over the course of a campaign.
All that being said, I still love monks. :)
Damage Should actually be only 22. Built this with my Hero Lab and i don't have the package with guided. So 22 = 10 (wisdom bonus) + 8 (power attack) + 4 (amulet). So it was adding in the +1 from strength and the +1 bonus from the special ability I put on my amulet.
I beg to differ about not doing as much damage, by 12th he was doing 2d8+18 (with monk robes, power attack and guided. Not to mention by 7th when he gains leadership and has a cohort cast enlarge person his dice are doubled, making it 4d8+18, that's a potential 50 damage per hit with 5-6 attacks at 12th level. The characters in the current campaign we are playing can't even do that much at 17th level, There's a barbarian wielding a 2 handed with 5 attacks doing 2d4+35 ad an archer with 6-7 doing 1d8+30.
Wraith you are forgetting power attack in the FoB.
I did not know the monk was power attacking he will not be doing as much damage as the other classes. The base damage for a weapon is not as important as static damage. The numbers have been run before. You will have competitive AC though, and better saves, and at that level haste or some equivalent will probably be in play, and that pushes the monk farther behind. You might even do more damage without power attack if the monster's AC is buffed.
Potential damage is not enough to go by, and the others can also get similar effects when needed,if they wish. Since they dont have a cohort they might want to use it more sparingly though, or they could also just take leadership.
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Guided helps alot but it is also 3.5 material. Without it you would not be nearly as effective. +27 to hit still seems low for level 17.
Lets see, a barbarian would have +17 bab, +13 str (assuming 36 str while raging), +5 weapon, +2 furious enchant, + 1 haste. so +38, or +33 while power attacking(or +38 on first swing if he has furious focus). He would be swinging for 2d4 + 41 and critting on a 15-20. All while having pounce, DR 11/-, great saves vs spells, Much higher HP, etc etc.
so +38/+33/+28/+23/+18 +5 furious keen Falchion(2d4 +41, 15-20/x2).
AC 37-41 (depending on dex)= 10 + 11 Armor (+5 breastplate) + 2 shield(force ring) + 5 defelection + 10 Natural (amulet and beast totem) + 1-4 dex + 1 luck - 2 rage
or with reckless abandon
+43/+38/+33/+28/+23 for attack and an AC of 32-36.
Lower AC but DR 11/- more than makes up for it.
A fighter would be a little bit better but with less or no DR and a much higher AC, but you get the point. This was all just off the top of my head but if you want a full build i'm sure I would whip it up without much effort.
TL;DR Guided is the only reason monk is competitive and even with it they are still behind. Full martial characters should still be quite a bit above you.
People underestimate the damage dice. 2d10 vs 2d4 is an equivalent of +6 damage. Enlarged 4d8 is an average of 18 damage againt the 7 (2d6) of the falchion. The only thing that really makes the monk stand behind is the critical.
My general suggestion is that 1 ki point is more valuable than 1 attack. The +4 AC is way better when the fight is hard (when the fight is easy just have fun)
If the monk takes barskin with the quiggong his AC bumps by 5 making him leagues above any other melee class, on top of deflecting both melee and ranged attacks, and coupled with his saves makes him easly the brick wall of the party.
And his damage is not that bad for a class that still has more skill points than both barbs and fighters, DD couple of times per day, self healing to some (even if little) extent, and can even scout in ethereal form on top of his competitive stealth.
Overral, you won't kill as much as other classes, but you shouldn't die no matter what and you should contribuite a lot in nearly every situation.
Dekalinder both the barbarian and monk get 4 skill points. Monks contributing in every situation is what they won't do, unless using an archetype.
It doesn't look like this has been mentioned yet, but I'll throw it in: Brother of the Seal. This is a prestige class built to give a monk a bit of rogue like utility and some extra little bonuses. It continues your offensive monk class features such as your unarmed strike damage, stunning fist, and flurry of blows. Unfortunately, you lose out on your scaling AC bonus, but that should not be much of a problem if you plan on getting the monk's robes. Just a loss of 2 AC. You might also miss out on some ki. The only qualification that you do not have with one level of a vanilla monk is the 5 ranks in knowledge(arcane).
The fun part of the class is this: You can hit like you were one size larger with unarmed strikes, and thus it would be rather simple at later levels to hit like you were a huge monk. I cannot even find a reliable table for telling how many dice this involves, but it may well be 6d8. Per hit (4d8 'medium'... but enlarge person is a level 1 spell, no reason not to find a way to use it every battle towards level 20. Basic buffing when you consider that it adds 5 average damage per hit, plus +5' reach). That is enough to make the debate between static and random damage a bit moot. It would require four of the damage dice to roll up ones, and the other two rolling 2 or below, for DR to cancel it out. The only real problem I find with all this is that you might want to discuss just taking average damage per strike when doing flurry of blows. You'd be tossing enough dice to have a sample size that would come out to average anyway.
Edit: Another interesting way to boost up the damage dice: strong jaw. This spell boosts you up another two sizes. On an enlarged monk...that might be 12d8? Again, hard to tell since the numbers are getting into cheese territory. You will need a druid 7th level or above to do cast it for you though.
I was working off of the Brother of the Seal prestige class, which are treated as one size larger. But it is a fine point that that just using these spells on a 1-20 vanilla monk would help to make them competitive.
So my group was debating how viable a monk is vs. other classes. I would like to know if the following build is actually viable vs. other classes of that level. Keep in mind I went through the arduous task of leveling him up from 1st level, and using the character wealth by level table for level 17 as my maximum allowed gold, with a 20 Point buy. I bought appropriate gear at appropriate levels so as I was leveling my character I did notice that it scaled quite well. Feats are listed in order of level attained.
Your build is pretty solid, although myself I'd not have gone for Crane Style. Defensively this monk is very strong, but that's not hard for monks. You have great DCs on your abilities, but I don't get some of your choices - lightning reflexes? Why? You have great saves. No maneuvers is a mistake for a monk, even though they are not often much use at this level, they are great if you go against humanoids. Your damage output is not great, especially compared to the barbarian, but you have managed to avoid the monk's major MAD problem with the guided amulet. The big problem with this is threefold:
1) Guided itself - it's in the SRD, but it's not in any of the major books. Many DM's would not go for it, as a property it adds to attack and damage. It's great if you can get it, but your entire build hinges on it. It doesn't help with some maneuvers
2) If it is sundered or stolen, you are up the creek without a paddle, it's too expensive to have a spare.
3) Against anything with DR/alignment, you are nerfed. A +5 weapon will go through them, but you won't, you'll struggle and there are a lot of DR/alignment foes at this kind of level. Against something with DR 15/Good, for example, your damage output is drastically reduced while the other melee characters are hacking through it with no problems.
Your build actually shows up monk weaknesses very well, insomuch as the entire build is completely dependent on one property of one item to function. Even with it, your monk struggles to compete in damage output, although he is better defended than most other combat classes save a paladin. You've pushed him to the max, and done a good job, but he is "OK" rather than awesome.
Dabbler, is DR/alignment that much of a problem? I do not mean to underestimate DR, but rather advocate the various ways to get around it. I mean, what do character do before they are swinging around +5 weapons or have a weapon with the appropriate alignment? They often turn towards potions and wands.
Bless weapon is a level 1 paladin spell, so it would not be too hard to buy as a consumable item. I realize that it might be a bit silly to rely on them so much, but in a world with so many fiendish threats... well I'd imagine it would be made rather widely available. Heck, rp-wise, I would imagine that a retired paladin might make a nice little business and feel like he is doing good by mass producing such items. So the only major loss would be time spent to buff yourself.
I also realize that there are other alignments needed to cut through DR, but monks' unarmed strikes can count as lawful naturally, and really, how often do you see DR/Chaotic or DR/Evil when playing a lawful character?
EDIT: weird thought-with the mention of how much he relies upon his AoMF, why doesn't he get low quality spares? His build has 401k worth of items, so an amulet with only the guided property would not even cost 1% of that. Sure, he would have no enhancement bonus, but there are other ways to get those through buffing. Although...this plan again relies on the idea that you would take up the casters' time with buffing you when they could be casting battlefield control. Anyway, just getting the guided property on a spare would prevent him from being completely useless.
I think that Dabbler's point is that your main frontliners can do their thing with relatively standard and widely available equipment. If the barbarian loses his +5 greatsword, he can still pick up a greataxe, or another weapon. Even if he can't get it at +5, his static damage is still high enough that he can at least get some damage through, whereas the monk is going to be highly hosed if he loses the amulet and the wizard isn't carrying around wands, etc.
So yeah, you can get other party members to help you out, or you can pick up spare parts, but the frontliners while they still might do the same thing, won't need to as badly.
Dabbler, is DR/alignment that much of a problem? I do not mean to underestimate DR, but rather advocate the various ways to get around it. I mean, what do character do before they are swinging around +5 weapons or have a weapon with the appropriate alignment? They often turn towards potions and wands.
It's a problem when you don't have a means of bypassing it, yes. And yes, you can get around it - if you have the right item. If you apply it before hand. Two 'ifs' that you overcome.
Bless weapon is a level 1 paladin spell, so it would not be too hard to buy as a consumable item. I realize that it might be a bit silly to rely on them so much, but in a world with so many fiendish threats... well I'd imagine it would be made rather widely available. Heck, rp-wise, I would imagine that a retired paladin might make a nice little business and feel like he is doing good by mass producing such items. So the only major loss would be time spent to buff yourself.
The time other classes do not have to take, I must point out.
I also realize that there are other alignments needed to cut through DR, but monks' unarmed strikes can count as lawful naturally, and really, how often do you see DR/Chaotic or DR/Evil when playing a lawful character?
DR/Evil you see a great deal, and it's not the alignment of your character that matters but of your party. If you are in a heroic game, you are likely to face DR/Evil a lot. If you are anti-heroes it's likely to be DR/Good. How many games are concentrated on the law/chaos axis rather than good/evil? Well, I haven't seen one. Come to that, I haven't seen so much as one creature in the Bestiary I that has DR/Lawful. They are rare, making the monk's DR bypass effectively useless.
EDIT: weird thought-with the mention of how much he relies upon his AoMF, why doesn't he get low quality spares? His build has 401k worth of items, so an amulet with only the guided property would not even cost 1% of that. Sure, he would have no enhancement bonus, but there are other ways to get those through buffing. Although...this plan again relies on the idea that you would take up the casters' time with buffing you when they could be casting battlefield control. Anyway, just getting the guided property on a spare would prevent him from being completely useless.
Bear in mind the big problem here is with the AoMF's +5 cap. You have an inferior weapon, because at this level a martial character is carrying a +7 equivelant weapon or a pair of +6 equivelant weapons. They are getting +5 and some properties as well, and a viable spare of nearly the same quality. You lose your main weapon, you lose +4 to hit and that loss is something hard to take, it reduces your DPR even further. He loses his main weapon, he possibly Quickdraws (a feat that does not apply to getting out and putting on your spare amulet) his spare weapon and loses much less.
So you are getting +4 guided (in a single, very rare and very expensive item), where another martial with 30 strength has, for example, a +5 holy weapon - lower damage dice, higher static bonuses, higher threat range, better properties...he's got you beat - even with his spare weapon.
As for buffs, if you need the casters to buff you to be equal to another un-buffed character doing the same job, something has already gone wrong.