Sorcerer / Monk viable?

So I was kind of inspired to make a sort of pyrokinetic monk inspired by Kyo from King of fighters (for those who don't know the series, something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpQw93KsqLk) Trust me when I say I plan on making an original character/personality but I have barely any ideas on how to do a barebones version of my idea to start.

The current party is made up of a cleric, sharpshooter, samurai and druid. There's really no dedicated caster so I wouldn't mind doing focus in Sorcerer, I just don't want to be a complete pansy in close combat.

We did a typical roll for stats, and I'll say I got a very lucky roll overall (18, 17, 16, 14, 12, 11) and we can put the stats where we want them. I've heard monks are pretty bad unless you get good stat rolls?

Race wise, I feel i'd do either Human, Aasimar or Tiefling. For a sorcerer bloodline, I looked at draconic (probably Gold) or fire elemental. I have no idea about monk archetypes...monk of the four winds maybe? Anyways, if yall have some suggestions I would appreciate it.

Ok, so I had a similar thread going on, and I got some really good advice. Since you seem to be looking to emphasize the monk aspect over the arcane aspect some of this should help you at LEAST as much as it helped me. http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pvxq?The-Punch-Sorcerer-is-it-viable#1

What level do you expect to play through and start at?

In order to truly make it come to life, even with those stats, you should be a crossblooded empyreal/draconic or empyreal/fire so that you only need the 4 good stats you have.

Str 14 Dex 18 Con 16 Int 11 Wis 17 Cha 12 (or if you weapon finesse it and can reasonably expect an Agile AoMF soon Str 11 Int 14)

Or... Go Kensai Magus/Monk as most magus spells are touch spells, and take dex 18 int 17(increase at 4) Wis 16 Con 12 Str 14 Cha 12... you can spell combat a touch spell to discharge with a unarmed strike, Since you can't flurry with spell combat use MoMS monk to get Kirin style and Kirin strike, 1/round after you make a knowledge check to id the creature you can add 2xInt -after a successful attack roll-.

Use the Urumi for a d8 18-20x2 crit monk weapon you get free exotic and WF from kensai, you add dex/int/wis to AC in no armor, pick up crane style to negate hits on you, and cast shocking grasp/other touch spells (vampiric touch comes to mind later) thru your weapon/hands... and if you go up to 3rd level monk you can take monastic legacy feat to count up your unarmed from magus 1/2 levels, if you get to 4 you can Quingong Monk in the mix for barkskin...

We're starting at level 2, and haven't any idea on when its planning on ending, except I know not soon lol. From what I've been looking it up, I guess I envision a gish blaster archetype, play wise.

I will look into the crossblooded, but I heard the one less spell per level hurts unless you take human, and I was interested in doing aasimar (which would make more sense with the celestial bloodline anyways.)

I'll be honest when I say, I don't give two derps about powergaming or making the most powerful character I can, I just want to make something close to the vision I want. Is there any particular monk archetype that would go well with that idea and sorc bloodline?

(And i'll get to reading that thread)

I'll also say I definitely gravitate towards the whole "innate magic power" character design over "prepared ahead of time" for this case. Magus looks interesting but preparing ahead of time doesn't seem to fit for the character I'm thinking of.

What about dragon disciple somewhere in the mix? And is there any specific monk archetypes that would be most conducive?

In that case, Str 16 Dex 18 Con 14 Wis 17(bump first) Int 12 Cha 11.

Aasimar dex/wis garuda blooded are avian types, get acrobatics and fly, and see invis as a SLA. Just flavor them scales no feathers, and roll with it.

Take Empyreal/Draconic and be the child of a celestial dragon, with stumpy wings, and your ancestors ability to see invis(dragons can do it better of course)

Take 4 levels monk 1 sorc, so you get a Ki Pool, and Barkskin (quingong monk, reflavored as scales). Perhaps MoMS (looses flurry, so you have to take TWF if you want to do unarmed) and use the bonus feats for Dragon Style and Boar Style, or just a plain Quingong monk.

Hmm, as far as needing a caster and being gish, there is the Sohie 1/ Emp sorcerer 6/ EK 10/ Sorcerer 3. Nice synergy, buff and wade in, have spells to back things up out of combat.

So I was kind of inspired to make a sort of pyrokinetic monk inspired by Kyo from King of fighters (for those who don't know the series, something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpQw93KsqLk) Trust me when I say I plan on making an original character/personality but I have barely any ideas on how to do a barebones version of my idea to start.

Take a look at Psionics Unleashed and the psychic fist prestige class, there are some monk options in there that you may be interested in, and you can have a real pyrokinetic monk - I would suggest going monk 4/{any psionic class} 2/Psionic Fist {rest}.

As for which psionic class, psychic warrior works best with the monk, but the wilder may well work better with your character concept.

With your ability scores, this could definitely work. I very much disagree with the posters who are suggesting dex as your primary ability score though. Your primary ability scores should be strength and wis. I would start both of those at at least 18 (including racial modifiers). After that con is probably your main stat, followed by dex.

If you want to do blasting and being a monk well, you really need the empyreal bloodline, to make your sorcerer casting wisdom based. If you can combine it with crossblooded (some GMs won't allow wildblooded + crossblooded as it's in principle against the written rules, but I think it's firmly inside the intended rules and in no way overpowered) you probably should. Draconic and elemental are both solid options for the second bloodline, although if you go for elemental variety take primal instead, as the +1 damage per die is really key.

A big question is: do you like the idea of a dragon disciple? If you do, it's a very strong option, but it probably means you'll end up fighting more with your natural attacks than with your fists. If you want to fight with your fists (and combine that with blasting) you're probably better off as an eldritch knight, as you could really use the bonus feats. You really need to take one of those two prestige classes to make both melee and casting viable in the long run.

For the dragon disciple, I'd go master of many styles monk 1 / draconic+empyreal sorcerer 4 / dragon disciple x. Get the dragon style feats as well as weapon focus claws and feral combat training, and spent the rest of your feats on making your blasting better (intensify and empower spell are the main ones here).

For the eldritch knight, I'd go master of many styles monk 1 / unarmed fighter 1 / primal+empyreal sorcerer 6 / eldritch knight x. Taking a level of both monk and fighter is a bit awkward, but you can really use the bonus feats, and you need full martial weapon proficiency to qualify for eldritch knight (you could do 1 level of sohei monk instead, but it makes the path to dragon style really annoying). In this case, you need more dex (for two-weapon fighting), so probably start with 18 str, 17 dex, 14 con, 12 int , 16+2 wis and 11 cha. Get the two weapon fighting feats as well as dragon style and dragon ferocity and some metamagic feats. And power attack, off course.

Thanks to your excellent ability scores, both builds should hit fairly hard, have a good AC, and have a good chance of landing blast spells that deal decent damage. Make sure to get the magical knack trait, as that's crucial to keep your blast spells relevant despite the multiclassing.

I suggested the Dex/wis over Str because as a DD, he's gonna get plenty of Str increases anyways.

I suggested more monk to go into it to take advantage of the Quingong adding barkskin to his list, and a Ki Pool for AC/Extra attacks later on.

The claws are nice, but his normal unarmed attacks will do a d6 (same as sorc 7) and count as magic just from 4 levels of monk(like sorc 5), and not be limited to 8-9 rounds a day. Feral Combat training and WF claws are not good feat choices for someone whose normal punch/kicks do the same damage and bypass the same things. What he should do at that point (since he'll have 4 levels of monk) is take monastic training to count 1/2 his non-monk levels to his unarmed damage, ac, and speed.

I would actually suggest the Tiefling instead of the Aasimar, for the tail, the same dex/wis bonuses (altho you could do the Oni-Spawn Str/wis -cha better in that case, and the alter self spell gives another +2 str buff as a racial).

I also recommend the Dragon Style feats, and would suggest you start with Str 18(race) Dex 18 Con 14 Int 11 Wis 19(race) Cha 10(race)

The difference between unarmed strikes and natural attacks is that you can make 3 natural attacks in one round, while you can only make more than one unarmed attack if you don't go master of many styles monk (and then flurry still never gives more than one extra attack) or take the two-weapon fighting feats. And since dragon disciples don't get any bonus feats, but do get natural attacks (and can later change into a dragon, which has many natural attacks), I think you're better off focusing on those natural attacks than doing two weapon fighting. Also, natural attacks don't take a -2 penalty to hit on a full attack.

By the way, a 4 monk / 1 sorcerer / x dragon disciple will be hopelessly terrible at blast spells. You get 2nd level spells at level 9, with a caster level of 6 (with magical knack). There's just no point trying to blast anything, at that point. So if you want to blast and fight, you really shouldn't take that many monk levels.

@TGMax, does that feat not just count for unarmed damage?

Just to say, as far as options go, sticking with all monk levels and going quinngong monk would give you access to scorching ray and dragon's breath as spell-like abilities. At high levels they can be empowered/quickened with feats.

Punching with added fire damage can be done with elemental fist and efreet style feats, or by having 13 cha taking eldritch heritage for a 1st level blast power and getting the sorcerous strike feat.

So a quinngong monk of the four winds with efreeti style feats could be very nice, or if you didn't want a monk of the four winds you could go the sorcerous strike route. Both use up decent amount of feats though, so how I'd decide is by trying to figure out how many feats you need for punching to stay relevant at higher levels and decide from there. I have very little experience with higher level play so beyond weapon focus in unarmed strikes and power attack I have no idea what's important.

*Edit*
If your DM was ok with allowing +'s to spell damage to count for spell-like abilities then a single level dip into cross-blooded sorcerer for +2 fire damage per damage die would be beautiful. Also, the guy in the video looks like a dragon tattoo would be right up his alley, so tattooed sorcerer to replace the first level bloodline power with a familiar tattoo and take improved familiar later to get a magical dragon tattoo pet could be a nice option. It'd also let you go back into dragon disciple after monk level 12 if the game goes on that long, when dragon breath's damage stops increasing.

Ok, forgive the double post, but you got me curious. Here's the fire-based progression of monkly powers if you stayed as mainly monk. "+" indicates a feat slot that hasn't been spent yet.

If going the sorcerer dip dragon disciple route (with GM blessing):
(instead of going part empyreal just make sure you have 11-13 cha depending on how much dragon disciple you take)

If choosing Aasimar, one possible feat to look at by the way would be Heavenly Radiance, to get even more spell-like abilities
(Like Searing Light or Wandering Star Motes)

Well, originally I was supposed to finish the design today but some people couldn't make it so I got an extra week >.>

We no longer have a cleric starting with us, so the current party is now a samurai, sharpshooter, ninja, druid, and whatever I do. Our cleric was going to be the other frontline fighter/tank for us so I might have to go more into monk than I expected.

While I don't know if I'm going to be doing as much 'blasting' as I first imagined (lol) I still would like the fire theme just as 'character fluff' I suppose, but don't want something that plays like garbage and will hold back the team either.

That being said, I decided against dragon disciple, and as it seems now I'm going to focus more on the monk side, if not completely. Does efreeti style add on to the bonuses of elemental fist? I guess I'm not sure I understand these 'styles' yet

I'd still go monk 4/sorc1/DD at least 4, even if you go back to monk after... that gets you +2 nat armor, +4 str, 2nd level spells, a bonus feat, claw/claw/bite when you use your bloodline rounds...

Dragon style and ferocity, twf, WF claws, Feral combat claws, multiattack. All done by 7th level when you get claw/claw/bite, doing 5 attacks (2 unarmed/2claw/bite) all at +8 (with a 20 str) while having an easy 24-28 AC (shield/mage armor/natural) with all attacks doing d6+10/d6+8/d4+8/d4+8/d6+8. All of this not counting any AoMF, Magic fang/weapon spells, barkskin, or stat boosting items. F-7/R-9/W-11 saves, evasion.

This is assuming Aasimar, human get another feat. Also have your dragon bloodline feat to pick, not included above.

If you stay DD 6, you get to up claws to d6, blindsense, a d6 energy on the bites, +2 con, and another bloodline feat.

You get enough Str bonuses and rolled good enough stats to stay relevant in the to-hit with the monk.

Altho, a pure quingong/four winds monk actually qualifies for DD, since the recent ruling on SLA's counting as arcane caster level pre-reqs. which would be Awesome.

As a semi-related aside, a quingong sensei at level 12.
How would their Mystic Wisdom interact with the quingong spell-like abilities?
Could it be used to give the whole party true strike / barkskin / make dragon breath fire erupt from all of them?

And as far as efreeti style goes, say you were at level 5 monk of the four winds like I posted above. Your elemental fist damage would be 2d6 for the four element types. And with efreeti style as your 5th level feat you could make an elemental fist attack 6 times per day. When choosing to deal fire damage with your elemental fist attack, as long as you are in efreeti style, the fire damage dealt would be 2d6+wisdom bonus if the attack hits, or 1d6 fire damage if the attack misses.

Switching to a combat style only takes a swift action to do and it lasts til you decide to switch to a different one or until the end of combat. Since you only need efreeti style for as long as you're making elemental fist attacks (or if you also take the Efreeti Stance feat, while taking fire damage) there's nothing stopping you investing in a second style for the other combat rounds. Like dragon, boar or crane.