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Monk's Mantle

Aura faint evocation
CL 5th
Slot: chest

Price: 3000 gp (+1), 12000 gp (+2), 27000 gp (+3), 48000 gp (+4), 75000 gp (+5), 108000 gp (+6*), 147000 gp (+7*), 192000 (+8*), 243000 gp (+9*), 300000 gp (+10*)
Weight —

Description: This mantle grants an enhancement bonus of +1 to +5 on attack and damage rolls with unarmed attacks.
Some of these mantles grant special abilities. Special abilities count as additional bonuses for determining the market value of the item, but do not modify attack or damage bonuses (except where specifically noted). A mantle cannot have a modified bonus (enhancement bonus plus special ability bonus equivalents, including those from character abilities and spells) higher than +10. A mantle with a special ability must also have at least a +1 enhancement bonus. It cannot possess the same special ability more than once. A mantle can't grant an enhancement bonus higher than +5.

Crafting requirements: cl 5 (or 3 x the enhancement bonus, whichever is higher). Magic weapon. Craft magic arms and armor, craft wonderous item.
Note: weapon special abilities have their own requirements, these must also be met to apply them to a monk's mantle.

So I've got a couple of questions. I tried to search, but no luck.

Before I start let me first apologize for opening that can of worms that is monk discussion. And let me also say that I'm pretty sure none of this is RAW per se, but I'm curious about folks opinions.

Still with me? Cool

#1. Lets say we have a monk with greater trip and boar shred.

When he trips he gets an AOO. When he hits twice in the same round he adds bleed damage.

If he trips someone (a hit) and then succeeds on his AOO (a hit) does that trigger the bleed damage from boar style?

My inclination is no, but the idea of a monk spring attacking and causing his target to bleed out is very cool.

#2. Can a monk use the stunning fist feat on a combat maneuver performed with his unarmed strike? Aka trip and stun the target.

I'm currently playing one, and enjoying the heck out of it. I'm going to do a rundown of their abilities and why I like them.

Pain Points- This is a nifty ability, but not spectacular. The bonus on critical confirmation is handy. The boost stunning fist DCs is certainly a good thing. The boost to quivering palm DCs is downright amazing when combined with later abilities.

Martial Arts Master- This is a big deal. This lets the monk take fighter only feats. Greater weapon focus and both weapon specialization feats do a lot to help a monk's accuracy amd damage output.

Exploit Weakness- Oh boy, this one here is a hot button. Some people think its terrible, because it requires a roll and swift action to use. Others think its too good because its an at will ability.
Personally I fall somewhere in the middle, but that opinion may change after more playtesting.

What it does: It allows you to do one of two things as a swift action.
1) Make a wisdom + monk level check against a creature or object to get a bonus to hit and ignore DR or hardness of the target.
2) Get a bonus equal to half your monk level as bonus on sense motive and a dodge bonus to armor.
It only works on a single target at a time.
Note: Technically this second ability does not ask for a wisdom check. For those who think the check makes the first ability useless, this could be a decent fix.

Extreme Endurance- Thia eventually makes the Martial Artist immune to: fatigue, exhaustion, stunning, energy drain, and death affects.
This ability is very cool, and for those who've wanted to use monk and barbarian together its a godsend. Immunity to fatigue means you can rage-cycle at will with no ill effects.

Physical Resistance- This gives a scaling reduction to all ability drain and damage. Very cool for avoiding debuffs.

Improved Pain Points- This is not in the book, but the writer said that abundant step should be replaced with an ability that doubles the affect of pain points. Spiffy.

Defensive Roll- As the rogue talent of the same name. Gives you a chance to not die from physical attacks when you otherwise would. Very useful for a front liner.

Quivering Palm- A martial artist gets additional uses of this ability starting at 15th level. Remember how pain points and improved the DCs on quivering palm? Yeah, now you get to do it more than a standard monk. Good times.

Greater Defensive Roll- As the rogue ability. Better odds at not dieing in melee. Its a good thing.

All in all these abilities add up to make martial artists hit harder, more accurately, and take hits better.
Does this make then equal to an optimized fighter or brbarian with a greatsword? Probably not. But does it make them a viable front liner? If they can get a guided weapon, I think so.

Wait, whats a guided weapon you ask?
Its a +1 weapon property from a paizo splat book that allows you to use wisdom instead of strength for hitting and damage. And I think its absolutely necessary for monks to compete in a front-line role.

Its up on the PFSRD. Ask your dm if you can use it.

This concludes why I think the martil artist archtype is amazing.

Thank You
-Cooperton

So were starting a new game soon, its a "thieves guild" game. When I saw the martial artist archetype I decided a non-lawful thieving monk was too good to resist.

But here's my issue, I havn't played a monk since Oriental Adventures came out (that's 3.0 i think).
So its been a long time since I considered a monk, I'm feeling a bit lost. Any advice would be appreciated.

So here's what I have so far.

Stats:
Str: 16
Dex: 16
Con: 15
Int: 20
Wis: 14
Cha: 13
Yeah, we roll stats... I kinda prefer point-buy, but my group likes to roll. And hey, I lucked out this time.

You'll notice a high int, we allow some 3.5 feats, Ill be taking kung fu genius so my monk stuff is based off int.

Traits: reactionary, fast talker
Feat build:
1) b,h: kung fu genius, combat reflexes, improved init
2) b: improved grapple
3) weapon focus; unarmed strike
5) weapon specialization: us
6) b: improved trip
7) vicious stomp
9) greater weapon focus; us
10) b: medusa's wrath
11) dragon style
13) greater weapon specialization; us
14) b: improved disarm
15) dragon ferocity
17) elemental fist
18) b: i dunno... spring attack?
19) ability focus: stunning fist... or maybe quivering palm, since i can do it 5/day by now

I left out power attack because... well there was just too much other cool stuff I wanted, and the penalty hurts on aoos, which arn't full bab unless i trip/grapple

Thoughts?

Thanks

Tl;dr
I'm making a martial artist monk for a thieves guild game, looking for advice.

I do.

The combat style feats are very fluffy and cool, and are clearly intended to be used by monks. Yet monks can't use their bonus feats for style feats (there's probably an archetype that can, but that's neither here nor there).

What do y'all think? Do you think it was a purposeful design choice? Would getting access to those feats while ignoring their prereqs be too good?
Would it be unreasonable to add them into the list of monk feats at whatever level seems appropriate?

Thanks

EDIT: the master of many styles archetype can, in fact, take style feats instead of standard bonus feats... all he has to do is give up his primary attack ability (flurry) in exchange for holding multiple styles at once... which will of course do nothing, cause his low bab means he missed every attack

A player in one of my games is interested in playing a time thief (from super genius games).
I gave the class a quick read on the srd site.
It seems... wonky. Certainly interesting though.

What does everyone think of this unusual 3pp class?
I'm particularly interested in playtest experiences, but welcome all opinions.

Thanks in advance.
-coop

So I've been running a homebrew campaign that I'm calling eberron 4040.
The premise is basically firefly level of tech but grown from the magictech steampunk of eberron.

In order to encourage the use of firearms I've applied several house rules.
1st firearms are martial weapons.
next the non-proficiency penalty for firearms (only) is not -4. Instead non-proficient users of firearms never target touch armor and the crit is reduced to 20/x2.

Basic firearms are all 25% market price, all ammo is 10% cost.

Also I've altered bayonets, they can be attached to any firearm, and the weapon can still be fired.

Finally bows are exceeding rare (read: expensive) and xbows are unheard of.

In addition I have created two "cheap" firearms. I call them cannith craft muskets.
The cannith long-musket is 1d6, 20' range. X2 crit, and only misfires on a 1.
the musket pistol is 10' range and 1d4.

But now I'm in the process of designing some exotic firearms. I'd like suggestions for others.

So far i have 3.
1 gunsword. Simple: revolver+ longsword= better bayonet.
2 shotgun-axe. Greataxe+shotgun. Simple
3 netgun: an advanced firearm. Two handed, essentially a net with a 10' range *increment*

TL:DR: i made a bunch of houserules to make guns better and bows worse. I want suggestions for more exotic firearms.

Thanks!

This originally came up when a player in one of my games decided to make a multi-archetype monk. For simplicity's sake I'm going to frame it in the form of a straight qinggong monk though.

So joe the qinggong monk trades away slowfall for a ki power, doesn't matter which. He does not pick up slowfall later.

He does however later trade some other class features for spider step and cloud step.

The problem is that spider/cloud step base the climb/fly speed on joe's slowfall, which he doesn't have.

Is spider/cloud step useless for monk joe? Or does it use what his slowfall would've been, had he not traded it?

What do y'all think?

Apologies if this has already been asked.
Thanks

So if I have a force bow (magic item compendium) and I fire a smoke arrow (apg) from it, does it still create an area of smoke where it hits? Or does the bow changing the projectile to force mean it's no longer alchemical. What about blunt arrows? Flight? This seems to be a matter of interpretation, but I'm curious what y'all think.

Thanks

A little background first, I haven't really played a full bab class in years. I generally play a rogue or caster. In the game this guy is for my hide in plain sight spring attack rogue was a bit over-optimized, and thus boring. So I decided to retire him and make a fighter.

The rest of the party consists of:
A halfling horselord ranger
A gnome blind oracle of wind
A halfling aberrant sorcerer (blasty)
A dwarf hungry ghost monk
Everyone is lvl 12.
Small and stealthy is the game theme, even the horselord's mount has ranks in stealth. So without further delay

Brock Ironpike str 20 (26 with belt) dex 18 con 18 int 14 wis 15 cha 12. (We roll stats, i was very lucky)

Feats:
1 combat expertise, combat reflexes
2 pike hedge (dragon compendium)
3 improved trip
4 hold the line (complete warrior)
5 greater trip
6 combat focus (phb2)
7 leadership (for a gnome artificer cohort to heal/trap)
8 weapon focus: dwarven warpike
9 weapon specialization: dwarven warpike
10 combat vigor (phb 2)
11 vital strike
12 armor specialization: full plate
And in the interest of completeness, my planned feats for the next 8 lvls.
13 greater weapon specialization
14 greater weapon focus
15 power attack
16 improved vital strike
17 improved bull rush
18 greater bull rush
19 greater vital strike
20 combat stability (phb2)

The idea here is to stand between the enemy and the horselord, using readied actions to deal rediculous damage with the warpike. And attack of opportunity trips to keep them from swarming said halfling so he can charge repeatedly. Later ill aoo to bull rush with my pike so i can brace repeatedly.
This has gotten a bit long, so I'll just say I've read rogue eidolon's fighter guide and I'm open to any suggestions/comments/criticisms.
Thanks in advance

I apologize if this has already been discussed.
I was looking at the shadow dancer released on the prestige class pdf.
They seem to have altered the level requirement to get into the class.
the first level you could qualify for shadow dancer before was 7 because of the 10 ranks in move silently requirement. Your first level of shadow dancer and thus hide in plain sight was held back til 8th level. One level after the wizard could cast greater invisibility.

The new shadow dancer's requirement is 5 ranks in stealth, which means a rogue could qualify by 5th level, taking their first level at level 6. One level before the wizard can cast greater invisibility.

Taking into consideration the new skill system, shouldn't the stealth requirement be 7? At least 6, so that the shadow dancer and wizard get greater invisibility* at the same time.

*As far as I'm concerned hide in plain sight is essentially greater invisibility. Especially combined with spring attack.