Kortobahn's page

Hi there fellow adventurers!

So recently there has been argumentative discussion about the rulings concerning how the spells Haste and Slow interact. I came upon this thread talking about the rulings between these spells and was thoroughly confused further

To be specific, I am unsure about the dispelling effect slow has on haste. The following is my understanding of the interactions of the two spells. Slow can be used as a readied action to counterspell haste with automatic success and vice versa. If slow is used on a hasted character, I thought that the spell first had to get through spell resistance as well as have the target character(s) fail their Will Save in order to dispel the effect of haste. My DM believes that the mere casting of slow on hasted characters instantly removes the effects of haste without the need of a failed saving throw

Your experience and knowledge is needed! I look forward to your responses and thank you very much on behalf of a younger adventurer!

So what would be a good approach to getting
Combat Expertise
Greater Trip
Lunge

Idea:
Level 5 Feat: Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike
Level 6 Bonus Feat: Improved Trip
Level 7 Feat: Agile Maneuvers
Level 9 Feat: Combat Expertise
Level 10 Bonus Feat: Medusa's Wrath
Level 11 Feat: Greater Trip
Level 13 Feat: Lunge

Seems like it would take too long to get all of those feats

I'm still iffy on replacing Scorpion Style because I like the fact that it's a good alternative to use if I run out of stunning fists. What would be a good replacement, Improved Grapple or Deflect Arrows?

Scorpion style no, as it specifically states it is a standard action melee attack (so no flurry with it, either). Stunning fist specifically states just once/round, but says nothing about it being a standard action, just an attack.

So you could greater trip then give them the stunning fist. Which is glorious.

Also reconsider greater trip as combat expertise does more than just burn a feat, it gives you still more AC when you want to just flank and try to trip dudes.

Lunge is also a pretty disgustingly good with a maneuver build, because you can stand behind or next to the wall of meat (barbarian, for example), and just trip dudes that approach (and provoke an AoO from your reach) for him to murder.

I can trip people behind another character with Lunge? O_o

Keeping your basic concept in mind, here are the stats I would go with.

Str 14
Dex 18 (16 +2 enhancement)
Con 14 (12 +2 race)
Int 14
Wis 18 (15 +2 race +1 level)
Cha 5 (7 -2 race)

This gives you +1 HP per level and +1 Fort save. You will need the extra Hit Points if you plan to get into the thick of things. AC is nice, but it always comes down to HPs in the end.

I would replace Scorpion style with Combat Expertise. If you read Scorpion Style, and compare it to the Stunning Fist feat that you get for free, you will realize that it will almost always be better to use Stunning Fist. Getting Combat Expertise now gives you the prereq for Greater Trip later and can help boost your AC when needed right away. It can also allow you to get Greater Disarm, which is great for taking things away from casters (wands, staffs, rods, etc).

You don't list your skills, but I assume that Acrobatics and Perception will be a must. And, of course, Use Magic Device. Disable Device isn't as useful as if you were a Rogue, but can still be fun and might fit the concept of Dwarven know-how. Stealth is always good to, in my opinion.

For your 9th level feat, instead of Extra Ki, you might look at Lunge. Getting a 10' reach with your unarmed attacks is a huge advantage.

For more ideas you can always check out Treantmonk's guide. He focuses more on a Str based Monk, instead of Dex, but some of his advise is good for any Monk build.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/treatmonks-lab/treantmon k-s-guide-to-monks

Firstly here's my skill ranks

Secondly

I would replace Scorpion style with Combat Expertise. If you read Scorpion Style, and compare it to the Stunning Fist feat that you get for free, you will realize that it will almost always be better to use Stunning Fist. Getting Combat Expertise now gives you the prereq for Greater Trip later and can help boost your AC when needed right away. It can also allow you to get Greater Disarm, which is great for taking things away from casters (wands, staffs, rods, etc).

I can't select Combat Expertise over Scorpion Style because it isn't included in the monk bonus feats. Also I don't really think Greater Trip will be too beneficial to me because my damage is minimal and wasting two feats just to get an AoO on an enemy would be unwise

For your 9th level feat, instead of Extra Ki, you might look at Lunge. Getting a 10' reach with your unarmed attacks is a huge advantage.

I agree that I'm not sure what I should pick for a 9th level feat but I'm not sure that I would want to take a penalty to my AC for reach. I'm not entirely sure what amazing benefits Lunge has.

Kortobahn wrote:

Is there any drawbacks of having/using a lot of wands?

Wands needed for combat purposes generally, unless custom made with higher caster levels, are not worth it. If your average melee is 4-5 rounds at level 4, do you really want to spend 20-25% of your combat time using that wand of mage armor?

If your get the chance to use it BEFORE the battle then by all means. If you KNOW your going to go more than a few rounds or that you will be hitting more than one encounter in that hour, then go ahead too.

Otherwise, some wands can do some really nice stuff for very little cash if chosen wisely. And UMD allows SO much more at higher levels as well.

Yeah I agree, this is why I only have mage armor for right now, but I am considering shield and cat's grace as my next highest priorities. Oh and of course a CLW or CMW wand.

How about agile maneuvers, improved trip, greater trip to make you a solid grappler and trip/AoO machine?

Oh that does sound great! So I think this might be a more productive set of feats

Level 5 Feat: Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike
Level 6 Bonus Feat: Improved Trip
Level 7 Feat: Agile Maneuvers
Level 9 Feat: Combat Expertise
Level 10 Bonus Feat: Medusa's Wrath
Level 11 Feat: Greater Trip

Question: Can I use a stunning fist/scorpion strike on an attack of opportunity
If I can't then I don't think it's worth wasting two feats (Combat Expertise & Greater Trip) for doing an attack of opportunity when I don't do much damage anyways.
Then this might be a good set.

Level 5 Feat: Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike
Level 6 Bonus Feat: Improved Trip
Level 7 Feat: Agile Maneuvers
Level 9 Feat: Extra Ki
Level 10 Feat: Medusa's Wrath

Kortobahn wrote:

My role in this party is a makeshift rogue and support in battle. I feel like I'm almost the poop character in the group that I'm playing because they have a good balance of characters. I'm playing alongside a Barbarian, Wizard, Cleric, and Ranger, so therefore we have a tank, spells, healing, and range. I know a rogue might have been a good addition to this party but I really do not enjoy playing them.

I'm looking to mostly support my friends in battle by getting into those flanks, moving quickly to someone if they're hurt (pretty ideal for a monk). Therefore I am not looking to have the greatest damage out there but I do want to have a high AC to make up for the lost HP.

Is there any cons to using wands? I intend to slowly put skill points into UMD seeing that skill focus will improve at level 10. And also at the moment, I only have mage armor...

Then it sounds like you've got things covered. Again, personal preference I'd drop to 15 AC or so and do d8+4/flurry hit and have 45ish hp, but if you like what you've got roll with it, again, nothing mechanically wrong here. More of an aesthetic thing.

UMD is fine, and opens up some nice options for you, but you've purposely crippled its advancement in many ways with the Charisma. Until level 10 or so you're going to be handing off your wands to the wizard to get them used on you, which again is totally fine. The other problem with this is 20 is the EASIEST UMD gets. Scrolls are harder. Using restricted items is much harder. Positive Charisma (or at least no penalty) would be a huge help here.

The only other downside here is all of your wand use means you never get access to higher caster-level spells. Mage armor is always going to be 1 hour, bull's strength will always be 3 minutes, etc. And your money is going to be sunk into charge-based items.

An option to get you around UMD might be to go with 1 level of ranger or cleric to get access to the spell lists, which makes those checks all easier (and not...

Thanks for the help, I'm not entirely sure what feats I should take for when I level up. I'm thinking about something like this.

Level 5 Feat: Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike
Level 6 Bonus Feat: Improved Trip or Mobility
Level 7 Feat: Power Attack or Spring Attack
Level 9 Feat: Extra Ki
Level 10 Bonus Feat: Improved Critical or Medusa's Wrath

Note: These are all just my thoughts. There's nothing mechanically wrong with your monk and he seems pretty servicable all told. Here's things I'm looking at from a utility perspective, again in my own opinion:

Who's using the wand for you? As a monk you don't have UMD as a class skill, and with skill focus + 4 ranks you're at a UMD of 7.

Then losing 3 because of your terribad charisma. So UMD of 4? Wand activation DC is 20, which means your wand's going off less than 25% of the time, and you run a good shot of simply not being able to use it that day. (1 time in 4 if you use the wand until it either activates or can't be used, very roughly)

I guess my real question is what's the character do for a group? Most things are going to outdamage you heavily or be regularly plinking your AC. You've spread too far to try and cover AC and damage to be incredible at either, and your HP has suffered as a result.

The monks I've seen work effectively have dumped dexterity and gone light on wisdom. Do you get hit more? absolutely. Can you now pound the stuffing out of things because you have 18 strength in a martial class? definitely.

My role in this party is a makeshift rogue and support in battle. I feel like I'm almost the poop character in the group that I'm playing because they have a good balance of characters. I'm playing alongside a Barbarian, Wizard, Cleric, and Ranger, so therefore we have a tank, spells, healing, and range. I know a rogue might have been a good addition to this party but I really do not enjoy playing them.

I'm looking to mostly support my friends in battle by getting into those flanks, moving quickly to someone if they're hurt (pretty ideal for a monk). Therefore I am not looking to have the greatest damage out there but I do want to have a high AC to make up for the lost HP.

Is there any cons to using wands? I intend to slowly put skill points into UMD seeing that skill focus will improve at level 10. And also at the moment, I only have mage armor with lasts for 1 hour so I'm probably going to use it when I think a battle is coming up and not so much when the battle is happening.

If it were me I'd drop the int to 10 and move the charisma to 11 and place your level 4 stat in charisma. This way you don't take a penalty to Use magic device (since it's cha based =S).

Unless you have a fun role playing idea for a cha 5 character =D then you should totally keep it at 5.

Yeah my friends and I are going to have a pretty casual game, and I think it'll be fun to play the obnoxious player for once, since I'm usually the paladin/sorc/wiz.

I also need the skill points because I'm the makeshift rogue in our rougeless party.

Hey everyone I'd like like some opinions to this level 4 monk build. My friends and I have just started to begin pathfinder and our first adventure is Thursday, anyways let's get to it.

Kortobahn (Monk 4)
Lawful Good Medium Humanoid (Dwarf)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 30 feet
Hit Dice: 37 HP (4D8, +4 Constitution, +4 Favored Class)

Armor Class: 20(+4 DEX, +4 Wisdom, +1 Dodge, +1 AC Bonus), Flat-footed 15, Touch 20

BAB/CMB/CMD:(+3)/(+6)/(+24/+28 vs trip/bullrush)

Full Melee Attacks:
+7 melee: Unarmed Strike (1d8+2/x2)
+7 melee: Dagger (1d4+2 (19-20)/x2)
Flurry of Blows:
+6/+6 melee: Unarmed Strike (1d8+2/x2)
Sub-comment/questions: Is there any feat I can take that is similar to a monster's pounce where I can charge and use a full attack?

Full Ranged Attacks:
+7 ranged: Crossbow, light (1d8 (19-20)x2)
+7 ranged: Dagger 10ft (1d4 (19-20)/x2)

Saves: Fortitude +5 Reflex +7 Will +8

Base Abilities:
STR 14
DEX 16
CON 10
INT 14
WIS 16
CHA 7
Abilities after racial/enchantment modifiers and the ability point at level 4:
STR 14
DEX 18
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 19
CHA 5
Sub-comment/questions: I used the purchase method with 25 points (Yes I asked our DM if that was fine, he said yes) and I am going to RP with that horrible 5 CHA.

Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Weapon Finesse, Dodge, Skill Focus: Use Magic Device, Evasion, Stunning Fist, Scorpion Style
Sub-comment/questions: Wands seem pretty cheap to use for a monk, I mean, as long as you have an excellent use magic device, you can get a nice wand of mage armor, shield, cat's grace, divine power, etc. Is there any drawbacks of having/using a lot of wands?

Language: Common, Dwarven, Orc, Giant

Items: Wand of Mage Armor CL1 (50 charges), Belt of Incredible Dexterity +2
Sub-comment/questions: Besides mundane stuff and healing potions, this is what I bought with the 6k gold allotted to me at level 4

Thanks again for your contributions, and I'm pretty new to the forums so please don't stone me to death if I did something wrong~