Quilciri's page

The extrapolated progression for huge monks seems to produce silly results.

RAW (afaik):
1st–3rd: 2d6
4th–7th: 3d6
8th–11th: 3d8
12th–15th: 4d6
16th–19th: 4d8
20th: 6d8

Problem #1: going from level 11 to 13 is an 0.5 point increase in average damage (3.7%). The only time an absolute damage increase is that small is when the damage die is 1d4 or less. Even going form 1d4-1d6 is a larger absolute increase (and a 40% average relative increase!).

Problem #2: going from 19-20 is a *50%* increase in damage. That is also ludicrous.

It doesn't seem to be a big enough issue for WOTC or Paizo to ever fix, so here's my suggestions.

1. Do away with the tendency on large weapons to cap die size at d8's (which is another silly rule). This gives you a MUCH simpler table to work with - huge damage is exactly double that of medium. This reduces the level 20 damage significantly, but gives you more even increases between tiers.

1-3: 2d6 (average damage 7)
4-7: 2d8 (9)
8-11: 2d10 (11)
12-15: 4d6 (14)
16-19: 4d8 (18)
20: 4d10 (22)

relative increases:
level 3-4: 28.6%
level 7-8: 22.2%
level 11-12: 27.2%
level 15-16: 28.5%
level 19-20: 22.2%

2. If you want to keep the level 20 monk damage at 6d8 and still have more even increases, you can also ditch the d6 die minimum on larger weapons. This gives what looks like an irregular progression by die rolled, but produces more even results on damage increases. There's no table from this method, though, so you'd have to work out each larger size individually.

1-3: 2d6 (average damage 7)
4-7: 2d8 (9)
8-11: 5d4 (12.5)
12-15: 3d10 (16.5)
16-19: 4d10 (21)
20: 6d8 (27)

relative increases:
3-4: 28.6%
7-8: 38.9%
11-12: 32%
15-16: 27.2%
19-20: 28.6%

Cheers, hope this helps!

Sorry for the necro, I came here from google. Thanks a bunch for the guide, there's a ton of useful information in there.

An argument for the value of phantom steed, however. It's pure action economy. It's almost as good for a caster as haste is for martial.

I always take a mount as a pure spellcaster the very second I can afford it. You spend a point in ride and a bit of gold and you get a free move that you don't have to make a check for unless you're casting a full-round spell or making the mount double-move or run. You can use your actual move to direct a spell, pull out an item, what-have-you.

With phantom steed, not only do you get all that, but you can put yourself effectively anywhere you want on the battlefield each round at no action cost to you. 100ft of free movement at level 10 that ignores all terrain (and ignores everything at 14th) is hard to beat.

I completely agree it is *not* a Fly substitute. Use the spell to fly over baddies and land on the other side of them in one move whenever you want. You can use it for flight (relatively) safely with with boots of the cat or feather fall, and out of combat, it's hands down the best flight available.

Unless you're bunched up with other party members, you don't have to worry about it getting AOE'd much. Even if you have a dick DM that frequently targets the mount specifically, that's still an in-combat action you made the opponent waste in exchange for one of your out of combat actions (yes, it's a 10 minute cast, but look at it this way. If there were a spell you could spend 10 minutes casting that lasted all day and made an opponent in one combat waste at least action, everyone would take it)

It's good enough to warrant a bit of investment, too. I generally mage armor and false life my phantom steed, and I include it when we're doing a round of resist-element on the party. If you have an extra feat and some skill points laying around laying around, mounted combat is worth it for the occasional swing a (non-dick) DM will throw the mount's way.