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Your math looks to be about 15 off on the AC. +5 Full Plate is 6+5, a Heavy Shield is +2, Legendary Armor Proficiency at 15 is 3+15, 18 dex is +4 and AC starts at 10 for a total of 6+5+2+3+15+4+10 = 45. Did you forget that your Armor Proficiency bonus also scales with level?I could not find that written anywhere in the book. Where is that, out of curiosity? Page 290/291 covers proficiency and proficiency modifiers.
Your math looks to be about 15 off on the AC. +5 Full Plate is 6+5, a Heavy Shield is +2, Legendary Armor Proficiency at 15 is 3+15, 18 dex is +4 and AC starts at 10 for a total of 6+5+2+3+15+4+10 = 45. Did you forget that your Armor Proficiency bonus also scales with level?
I'd be interested in seeing the math done out, but Furious Focus is quite situational too. It's a Press attack so it can only be used on your second or third attack, and it only has an effect on subsequent attacks if the attack it's used on misses. The practical upshot is that it only modifies your third attack, so this has to be a turn where you're making three attacks, and only if your second attack misses and the +5 to the third attack would be enough to convert a miss into a hit or a hit into a crit.
How effective would power attack be if iit could be used as the 2nd and 3rd action instead of the first. So you get a full attack then a -5 power attack. Currently you can’t do this because of the open trait. It works out precisely the same, just look 5 spaces to the right on the chart since the target's AC is effectively 5 higher.
The comparison point is to Sudden Charge from Fighter 1. That's also a two-dot action that lets you Move and Strike, but Sudden Charge lets you move twice your normal speed. Flying Kick letting you Leap is absolutely a trap, because Leap is already a one-dot action and you'd much rather Leap and then Flurry than Leap and then Generic Strike; even if you would use a generic strike after the movement there's no benefit to it compared to just using the actions normally. Flavor aside, I feel like Sudden Charge would be stronger for Monk than this is. It'd take advantage of the Monk's crazy base speed and it doesn't require straight-line movement. Alternatively, give the Strike after landing some kind of bonus such as making the target flat-footed against the attack.
This is easily the most polished product I've seen for a homebrew or semi-homebrew class. I'd rank it higher than most of the official Paizo classes, especially some of the more recent ones that could probably have used another few editing passes, so I just wanted to say: well done. I've mostly just skimmed through the thread, but I've seen a few mentions of a Beguilers of the Inner Sea document with additional Guilds and a few PrCs designed for Beguilers. Is that compiled anywhere online? I haven't been able to find a copy, although it's certainly possible I'm just being blind.
Kind of weirdly, you can actually use Elemental Fist with a weapon regardless. There's no language in the feat about using it on an unarmed attack like Stunning Fist has.
Yeah, I did ignore crit range, mostly because I was only running the numbers at level 8 so Improved Critical wasn't an option yet; it's a good point, though. How important is Ki Focus though, really? It lets you get Ki Strike on your weapon, which can be pretty nifty in terms of overcoming DR depending on what you're facing or totally useless, and I'd argue that it'd also let you perform bonus attacks from spending ki points through your weapon rather than forcing an unarmed attack which is significant. Style strikes should still require the use of the specified body part, though.
I was curious about armed versus unarmed monks, so I did some quick math; if someone wants to check it, that'd probably be helpful. I'm using the two builds Secret Wizard posted and then running the math for level 8 for simplicity's sake, and I'm ignoring magic items for the moment. The weapon-wielding monk will do 5.5 (1d10, Weapon) + 7 (1.5x STR) + 9 (2H Power Attack) = 21.5 damage on each hit. On unarmed attacks, like from the required kicks on Flying Kick or bonus attacks from expending a Ki Point, the damage drops to 5.5 (1d10, Fists) + 5 (1x STR) + 6 (1H Power Attack) = 16.5 damage per hit; you'll also lose Weapon Focus if you Focused your primary weapon. The unarmed monk using dragon style does 5.5 (1d10, Fist) + 7 (1.5x STR from Dragon Ferocity) + 6 (1H Power Attack) = 18.5 damage per hit, with a 3 damage bonus on the first hit from Dragon Style. They'll keep this number for every additional attack, including style attacks. The armed monk is going to pull ahead unless it has to make a lot of unarmed attacks each round (from style feats, etc.); it also has some other advantages, namely that enchanting a weapon is half the cost of an Amulet of Mighty Fists. Unarmed monks can pick up Elemental Fury which is cool, but it costs Ki points you could be using to make bonus attacks or power some of the other cool abilities monks get. But the main advantage that using a weapon gives you is that it doesn't require feats. You can pick up whatever style feat you want, like Crane to pick up a ridiculous amount of AC, or just use the feats for other aspects of character development - all you need is Power Attack and you're set, whereas the other monk is locked into using Dragon Style. Which is admittedly a very solid style, most of the points you're investing are just to keep an unarmed monk on par with an armed one. It's definitely possible I'm missing something, but I thought it was interesting. E: Thinking about it a little, I did ignore the damage progression the unarmed monk will get that the armed one won't, which can be especially good with enlarge.
What's the detail on that build? I've been looking at options for an Unchained Monk and I'd love to hear more about cool things people have built.
I'd be very interested in a guide. Flying Kick seems pretty functional right out of the gate; it lets you get in 15' of movement during a full attack (10' from Fast Movement, 5' from the normal 5' step you can take), and it advances to 25' of movement the level after you get it. And then it gets better from there.
The Flagbearer feat is probably worth a mention. You can still use a buckler in the offhand with it, and it gives you and all your buddies +1 to hit, damage, and saves vs. charm/fear effects. It's a slightly better version of Bless that's always active, and it *does* stack with inspire courage for everything except the save bonus.
Does the Daring Champion archetype for Cavaliers actually work?
I clipped off some of the stuff later in Precise Strike that adds more conditions to it, but there's no feature that calls out "use Cavalier level as Swashbuckler level for the purposes of these deeds" that I've been able to find. I assume that wasn't the designer intent, but unless I'm missing something RAW that deed doesn't do anything for a Daring Champion unless they dip into Swashbuckler itself for some reason.
Champion of the Flame seems to have fairly poor synergy with Daring Champion, especially considering how swift-action starved you're going to be with just the base Swashbuckler features. Spending all of your swift/immediates on Glorious Challenge means you're not getting that much out of the Swashbuckler side, Opportune Parry and Riposte in particular. Something like Order of the Cockatrice seems like it might work a little better, especially since without a mount you'll likely get a little more mileage out of the Challenge feature than you would otherwise. |
