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I'm set to play a Suli character, but I'm stuck coming up with a viable character build.
*Note: Does not have to be an Elemental Assault build, it just seems the most viable...
The best ideal seems to make use of the Suli's Elemental Assault ability and going with Monk for the favoured class option of Monk: Add +1/2 point of damage to elemental assault.
Which combined with Elemental Fist ---> Shaitan Style and Monk of the Four Winds, allow me to maximize elemental acid damage.
But... other then that.... I'm stumped.
Example, should I go with Monk of the Empty Hand for a more flexible monk? (Able to use any enchanted weapon as an improvised weapon, so not needing an amulet of mighty fists.)
May be pick up a Belt of Mighty Hurling, Lesser, to make use of str to deal range damage?
OR may be go with another class altogether? Bloodrager, Barbarian, Brawler???
The character backstory is still mailable, so any ideal for a Suli character would be much welcomed.
We had a suli bloodrager in the group he was very good.
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Have you considered a Suli Paladin? Getting +2 to both STR and CHA is very helpful for a paladin. Focus more on the defensive abilities instead of elemental assault. Take the Unscathed trait to raise all your resistances from 5 to 7. 7 points of resistance does not seem a like a lot. But with a paladins saves you will be taking half damage from a lot of spells so it actually is better than it seems. Use a falchion with power attack and you will be doing a lot of damage even without smite evil.
Suli also get a +2 to diplomacy and sense motive which a paladin can exploit better than most characters. Worship Sarenrae and take the trait Ambassador and you can have a +11 diplomacy at first level. This allows you to talk your way out of a lot of problem, but if the enemy is not willing to listen you can beat the crap out of them.
Use your Elemental Assault more as a secondary ability. One thing it does do very well is to shut down regeneration. A paladin will also find it useful for when he cannot smite evil. This actually works really well with the falchion because of the damage is multiplied on a critical hit. Also keep in mind that Elemental Assault is only once a day and has a very short duration. Building a character around such a limited ability makes you a one shot wonder. This is especially true at lower levels when the duration does not last that long. Unless you are playing a fighter you probably don’t have the spare feats to overcome this.
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Well eldritch scion (Magus archetype) does solve the int penalty for Suli, sadly it doesn't stack with their racial archetype. It's not a great archetype tho. As mentioned above they do make great paladin, flame or waves Oracle are good choices too.
The monk for elemental assault is quite frankly the best choice. Probably even better if you can use the Unchained Monk, with thematic elemental ki powers.
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@Hi Mysterious Stranger,
I did seriously consider making my Suli a paladin, but I already have an Aasimar Paladin of Ragathiel as a PFS character and don't want to make a similar character build for PFS.
However a Paladin-Monk combo seems interesting. Which does lead the the question of the Champion of Irori. Would it be viable to have the best of both worlds with the Champion of Irori? Or would it be more like a water down monk...
As for Elemental Assault, I'm planning to pick up Incremental Elemental Assault, which would allow me to use Elemental Assault as below:
Incremental Elemental Assault
Source: Advanced Race Guide
You may activate and quench your elemental assault ability multiple times per day.Prerequisites: Suli.
Benefit: You may use your elemental assault ability in 1-round increments, up to a maximum number of rounds per day equal to your character level. These rounds do not have to be consecutive. Activating the ability is a swift action; ending it is a free action.
Normal: You can use elemental assault once per day. It lasts a number of rounds equal to your class level.
This means I can spread out my uses and combine it with Elemental Fist easily! There is also Extra Elemental Assault, which gives 2 more rounds of Elemental Assault.
*Edit: Just also noticed the Sacred Fist Warpriest archetype. Not sure if it would fit the Elemental Assault ideal.
@Eltacolibre,
Hummm... after looking at the unchained monk, I was sad to find that the Elemental Fury ability uses the same swift action as Elemental Assault, which means I can't really use them together... :(
Not to mention... why does the monk loses the good will saves?? @_@?
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@Eltacolibre,
Hummm... after looking at the unchained monk, I was sad to find that the Elemental Fury ability uses the same swift action as Elemental Assault, which means I can't really use them together... :(
Not to mention... why does the monk loses the good will saves?? @_@?
Mostly due to all the other upgrades, from d8 to d10 Hd, full bab but well any saves, they lowered, would have earned complaints anyway there are many threads about it.
If you don’t want to go for a paladin then probably a bloodrager would work well. It is generally better to go with a class that can take advantage of your STAT bonus. Suli get a bonus to STR and CHA, with a penalty to INT. Monks usually DUMP CHA so that not really that good of a class for a Suli. War Priests also don’t require CHA.
Incremental Assault is still limited by the number of round per day equal to your level. While the extra damage may seem good it is only 3.5 on the average. Since it is energy damage almost any creature with the relevant resistance is pretty much immune to it. It is a cool ability but not really powerful enough to base your character on.
If you want a really off the wall idea for a Suli go for a bard. Maybe an Arcane Duelist or Dervish Dance but focus on STR instead of DEX.
I think the elemental assult is a bit weak to build anything after. I would make a bloodrager, primalist is possible, and go with either destined or somthing like it.
Making the character a rejectet youngster from some village, but having reinvented him self like the son of the ocean and the nigth sky, wanna be mythic, give him a not too impressive Intelligence and playing him like totally ignoring that some folks dont belive his story and telling it every time he get a chance, and somtimes without a chance. He will be effective and fun.
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I have a Suli Master of Many Styles 2 / Bloodrager 7. I took Snake Style to make good use of the racial bonus to Sense Motive and complement my relatively low AC, and have selected several spells with an elemental theme, like Frostbite, which I see as a thematic extension of Elemental Assault without having to invest multiple abilities (Incremental Elemental Assault, Extra Elemental Assault, the monk FCB) into making Elemental Assault a stronger or more reliable damage source.
Hummm... after looking at the unchained monk, I was sad to find that the Elemental Fury ability uses the same swift action as Elemental Assault, which means I can't really use them together... :(
You can, you just can't activate them both in the same turn.
If you want a really off the wall idea for a Suli go for a bard. Maybe an Arcane Duelist or Dervish Dance but focus on STR instead of DEX.
That would be fun. Combat oracle would work well, too.
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Thanks for the input everyone.
Before I decide to drop the elemental assault build, could someone have a look at this break down for my current elemental assault Monk build? I need to know if it is really a non-viable build.
Elemental Assault Monk - At lv 5
Monk of the Empty Hand + Monk of the Four Winds
Ability scores (tentative):
STR: 20(15base + 1level + 2racial + 2boon)
DEX: 13
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 15 (level to 16 at lv 8)
CHA: 9 (dump)
Feats:
Incremental Elemental Assault (lv 1)
Catch Off-Guard (Monk lv 1)
Elemental Fist (Monk of the Four Winds)
Throw Anything (Monk lv 2)
Quick Draw (lv 3)
Shaitan Style or Marid Style(lv 5)
Improvised Weapon Mastery (Monk lv 6)
Traits:
Surprise Weapon (Combat) - +2 trait bonus on attack rolls with improvised weapons
Unscathed (Magic) - Each type of energy resistance you have (if any) increases by 2 points.
Flurry attack with Shaitan/Marid Style and Acid/Cold property weapon at lv 5 is:
Attack Modifer = 5str + 3bab + 2trait + 1enchantment = 11
*Note: Any weapon used will change their stats as per the Monk of the Empty Hand modifications.
Damage = 5str + 1d8
Acid Damage = 1d6 Elemental Fist + 1d6 Monk of the 4 winds + 1d6 Elemental assault + 1d6 acid/cold property weapon + 2 wis
Total: 5 + 1d8 + 4d6+2(acid/cold)
I'm going with Monk of the Empty Hand as it allows me to make a range capable build at higher levels. Picking up the range feats at later levels, by retraining out Throw Anything, once Improvised Weapon Mastery is learned.
I'm hoping by stacking elemental damage, I could use it to by pass enemies with resistance.
Acid is chosen, as it has the least resistance to it, but Cold is a close 2nd, mainly due to Marid Style's extra reach.
So is the above Monk-only Elemental Assault build viable?
Thanks for the input everyone.
Before I decide to drop the elemental assault build, could someone have a look at this break down for my current elemental assault Monk build? I need to know if it is really a non-viable build.
Elemental Assault Monk - At lv 5
Monk of the Empty Hand + Monk of the Four WindsAbility scores (tentative):
STR: 20(15base + 1level + 2racial + 2boon)
DEX: 13
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 15 (level to 16 at lv 8)
CHA: 9 (dump)Feats:
Incremental Elemental Assault (lv 1)
Catch Off-Guard (Monk lv 1)
Elemental Fist (Monk of the Four Winds)
Throw Anything (Monk lv 2)
Quick Draw (lv 3)
Shaitan Style or Marid Style(lv 5)
Improvised Weapon Mastery (Monk lv 6)Traits:
Surprise Weapon (Combat) - +2 trait bonus on attack rolls with improvised weapons
Unscathed (Magic) - Each type of energy resistance you have (if any) increases by 2 points.Flurry attack with Shaitan Style and Acid property weapon at lv 5 is:
Attack Modifer = 5str + 3bab + 2trait + 1enchantment - 2power attack = 11Damage = 5str + 1d8
Acid Damage = 1d6 Elemental Fist + 1d6 Monk of the 4 winds + 1d6 Elemental assault + 1d6 acid/cold property weapon + 2 wis
Total: 5 + 1d8 + 4d6+2(acid/cold)I'm going with Monk of the Empty Hand as it allows me to make a range capable build at higher levels. Picking up the range feats at later levels, by retraining out Throw Anything, once Improvised Weapon Mastery is learned.
So is the above Monk-only Elemental Assault build viable?
it is viable but like every other unarmed strike monk you will regret not taking pummeling style if you dont. And warpriest sacredfist would be better:)
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I totally forgot about Pummeling Style! Thanks for pointing that out Cap. Darling.
Will I be correct to assume that any energy attacks will also be part of Pummeling Style's stack?
Example, if I do the above attack with Pummeling Style and both attacks hit,
Would that mean I deal -
(5 + 1d8 + 4d6(acid/cold)) x 2
=
10 + 2d8 + 8d6?
Also, I'm a little confuse by the wording on a critical hit. Does this means that if one or more of the attacks crit, I row 1 confirmation roll and use that confirmation roll to determine if all the critical threats are crits or normal hits?
I belive the crit thing is that is one of the attacks threathens a crit you Roll to confirm and if you do all the attacks that did will be one big crit. And how it interactive with things like elemental assult is anybodys guess but i would add them togeather.
But is elemental fist not only one one attack pr use and pr round and there fore quite worthless?
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*Faceplam, total forgot about Elemental Fist's limit of 1 attack per round.
Elemental Assault is is better in that it works for every attack made in that round.
Sigh, well I guess I will have to come up with something else then.
This character is for PFS and my 2 considerations are that
1) I got access to a Suli character via boons
and
2) I got a boon giving a +2 to any one ability score on a totally new character via another boon.
Going to have to decide on something more viable.
I think the blood rager is getting the most out of it you can have 18 in str 16 in cha 14 in dex and con 10 in wis and 8 in int. With destined bloodline and a reach weapon you can rule the fish for AoOs to get full benefit from elemental assult and with fates favored you will de a defensive powerhouse as well as a offensive one. Combat reflexes at level 1 power attack at level 3 and the rest is history.