PEACH Build: Blind-Style "Monk" with Monk Spade

[TheMonkeyFish]

Please Evaluate and Critique Honestly

So... I've been working on this character for a while now. To be honest, I am not someone who normally makes the brawler or fighter character in our group - in favor of something more skill focused in our campaigns (while still contributing to combat the best I can). This will be my first attempt at a martial character who focuses on strength and fighting over dexterity and skillcraft. PEACH to your hearts content.

TL:DR - Blind Monk that uses a Monk Spade with Meditation Feats

Basic Description:

The basic idea (and soul for this character concept) is a Blind Monk whom specializes on the Monk Spade, dancing around the opponent and slapping the enemy with the weapon. The reason I chose to go Fighter over Monk for my first 2 levels are two fold: Master of Many Styles forfeits Flurry of Blows and Monk does NOT get proficiency with the Monk Spade (Whaaaaa?!). Anyway, I'm planning on spending my first 2 Prestige Point on an Alchemist Silver/Cold Iron Monk Spade - which pretty much means that DR is never an issue for my attack.

Level 1 is going to be "skipped" by playing a different build before switching to this one. I'll be running a similar build to see if I like the style, but lets be honest... Being Blind without Greater Blind Fight or Blinded Mastery is just biting your own foot at that point... Level 2 will be tedious, but getting Greater Blind Fight with Scent 10 will help me pinpoint my targets once my non-CN allies point me in the right direction.

Level 3 is going to be both my first major power spike for the character and my most disappointing level by far. Firstly - my Blindness has been upgraded to Blindsight 30ft. Secondly - Flurry of Blows with my Monk Spade. Unfortunately, I am unable to take Power Attack due to the reliance on my General Feats earned thus far. Also, I'm trading my Stunning Fist for Perfect Strike (Which for SOME REASON does not work with the Monk Spade.... WHAAAAAA?!). Oh, I also get the Meditation Master feat as a Monk Bonus Feat because... I can!

Nothing much to say about Level 4 other than the +1 to Strength which increases my damage by 2 (2-handed weapon) and a Meditation Feat. Debating on Body Control, Mindful Meditation, or Sensory Mastery. Each of them give me something unique, though I am leaning on Sensory Mastery for a 40 ft. Scent ability. I also get Weapon Focus for a +1 to attack at this level, which is nice.

At level 5 we finally get POWER ATTACK! Our base attack is only +4 due to the monk's 3/4ths BAB, but we get +6 Damage for our -2 Attack due to Monk Spade counting as a 2-handed weapon (so long as we don't attack with both ends). So we are making 2 attacks at -4 in order to gain a +6 to both attacks, 12 damage if both hits. Unsure if this will work, but with the other bonuses to attack we're getting, I think it should work okay.

We finally get our first mutation at level 6, Eyes Shown Shut, which effectively gives our character a radar of 60 ft., meaning no one is going to hide from him. Also the first level we don't get a feat.

Level 7 we are grabbing Combat Meditation because feat tax. Level 8, this turns into Slow-Time which gives us Haste Once/Day after we use our Full Round Action for Combat Meditation. Also getting another +1 to Strength.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck at level 8 and unable to brainstorm past... I mean, Scarred Body is good for the Monk, and I'm almost always going to be Flurry of Blows using my Monk Spade for multiple attacks with my 2-handed Monk Weapon. Any advice on how to proceed from Level 8 to Level 12?

Important Weapons and Items:

Monk Spade - Cold Iron and Alchemist Silver. (2 Prestige Points). Cold Iron applied to the P/S weapon while Alchemist Silver is applied to be B/S end. Going to be enchanting the Alchemist Silver to avoid the double cost for enchanting Cold Iron but thinking of adding the +1 Magic for damage and attack bonus later on. First purchase pretty much.

Tunic, Snakeskin - +1 Armor and +2 Dex basically mean that I'm getting +2 to my AC with the added bonus of having extra Dexterity for other things. +2 Poison Resistance, but I don't think that is as important.

Monk's Robes: - I'm... never going to be able to buy this... But if I am able to, this will be AWESOME!

Ring of Protection: - One of my AC Items which I need to buy as a Monk not to go squish.

Bracers of Armor - One of my AC Items which I need to buy as a Monk not to go squish. Also has the added benefit of allowing me to use Armor Mods without wearing Armor.

Headband of Inspired Wisdom: - I really don't need INT or CHA for this character. He is going to smash face. That's about it.

Cloak of Resistance: - If you don't know why, then you're not an adventurer.

Belt of Physical Might: - Already have an Enhancement mod to my Dex, so I only need Physical Might to buff up Strength and Constitution, in that order.

Other than that, any advice is wonderful for this too.

Classes:
* Fighter - Unarmed Fighter
* Monk - Scarred Monk + Weapon Adept

Attributes, Feats, and Traits:

Str: 15 (+2 Human), (+1 Level 4), (+1 Level 8), (+1 Level 12)
Dex: 14
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 16
Cha: 7

Trait 1: Blind Zeal
Trait 2: Monk Weapon Skill (Monk Spade)

Level 1: Blind Fight (Trait Bonus Feat)
Level 1: Improved Unarmed Fighting (Unarmed Fighter Bonus Feat)
Level 1: Blinded Blade Style (Unarmed Fighter Bonus Feat)
Level 1: Improved Blind-Fight (Human Bonus Feat)
Level 1: Blinded Competence
Level 2: Greater Blind-Fight (Fighter Bonus Feat)
Level 3: Blinded Master
Level 3: Meditation Master (Monk Bonus Feat)
Level 4: Sensory Mastery (Monk Bonus Feat)
Level 4: Weapon Focus - Monk Spade (Weapon Adept Bonus Feat)
Level 5: Power Attack
Level 7: Combat Meditation
Level 8: Slow Time
Level 8: Weapon Specialization - Monk Spade (Weapon Adept Bonus Feat)

[avr]

Your damage is good but not so amazing you can count on taking down enemies before they get to attack. Your AC is fairly poor for a long time; 11 at level 2 (maybe 14 with a suit of masterwork studded leather), 14 at level 3 and mainly rising with magic items after that. With 12 Con and mostly d8 HD/no toughness feat your HP aren't amazing either. PFS means you can't necessarily open a stagnant fog sack if it might affect another player as I understand it, and you're not a spellcaster who can get more flexible ways of blinding the enemy. What's your defence against being stabbed?

Given all that (if I haven't missed something big) you might consider levels in cleric with an appropriate domain to get fog cloud right on level 11, or to use a wand earlier. The weather domain for obscuring mist & fog cloud, plant/growth subdomain to enlarge yourself as a swift action could work - be LN and worship Gozreh for those two.

[avr]

That might not be that helpful, thinking about it. It doesn't say much about how to survive 8 levels with low AC, moderate HP, good offense, no spellcasting.

Here's how I might do the same sort of thing which might help?

Master of Many Styles Monk 2 / Phantom Blade Spiritualist 9

Same traits.
Trait 1: Blind-fighting
MoMS Monk 1: Blinded blade style, improved unarmed strike, stunning fist
Human 1: Improved blind-fight
L1: Blinded competence
MoMS Monk 2: Panther style
PB Spiritualist 1 (L3): Weapon focus (unarmed strike) (while phantom weapon harbored)
L3: Greater blind-fight
PB Spiritualist 3 (L5): Combat reflexes
L5: Blinded master
L7: Panther claw
L9: Panther parry
PB Spiritualist 8 (L10): Weapon spec. (unarmed strike) (while phantom weapon harbored)
L11: Combat style master

Basically spellcasting + spell combat will help your survivability. The panther style feats give you an extra attack when you get AoO'd from movement and eventually come before those AoOs, and impose a penalty on said AoOs. You will usually keep your phantom blade harbored to aid unarmed attacks & carry a physical spade. For most levels the spade will be better than unarmed strikes, but about level 10 that changes (earlier if you don't spend money on improving the spade). BTW don't bother with spellstrike, just use buffs or spells like twilight haze with spell combat/unarmed strike, or just cast those spells as a standard action. You will probably use light armor at all levels rather than rely on Wis to AC. Spell storing armor could be useful.

That's made up quickly so it might be possible to improve it further

[TheMonkeyFish]

Hey Avr, thank you for your advice regarding this topic and pointing this out, I will probably be changing my starting stats because of this. One thing which I forgot to point out during my original post was another reason that prompted me to select the Unarmed Fighter over Monk for Level 1 and Level 2: Proficiency with Light Armor.

Honestly, I'm also not too keen on the idea of using magic. I understand the appeal of magic, but I'd prefer to stick away from spellcasting for this character - already have enough spell slingers for the time being. I will also be altering the Meditation feats to take Meditate level 4, Combat Meditate level 7 and Slow Time level 8, and be taking Dodge at level 3 as a bonus instead.

New Starting Stats::

Str: 15
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 14
Cha: 7

Level 1, will be "Skipped" by playing a Level 1 Character that evolves into this character later on. Unfortunately, at level 2, it seems that I am stuck at 17AC until I make more gold. (Estimated GP: 1650). After my first 2nd level adventure, I'll be able to nab a Ring of Protection or Amulet of Natural Armor for 18 AC, and nab Dodge as a bonus feat at level 3, this should put me up to 19 AC for the time being.

Unfortunately, I'm capped out on Gold investment, but I would I would like to remove my armor as soon as possible in order to gain my Flurry of Blows Class Feature. Once I have enough to purchase the Headband of Wisdom, I'll be able to remove the Armor without penalty to my AC and pick up Bracers of Armor for a 20 to my AC.

I'll talk with my group to see if there is anything I can do to buffer this AC until I've received enough cash to patch it - but thanks for the advice in the meantime!

[Meirril]

So this uses the base monk, 2 level dip into fighter to gain feats and bypass prerequisit to set you up to pay for the 6 blindness feats? Then you are going to spend 2 more feats to make sure invisibility and mirror images are never a problem for you?

That is 8 feats into overcoming occasional obstacles. This also means selecting a 3/4 BAB class as your base class without the feat investment that old monk builds use to overcome that deficit.

While I like the idea, aren't you investing a lot of your choices into making this character subpar vs a normal encounter?

Different take for the character: 1st level Unarmed Fighter, 2+ unchained Monk.

Alternative build:
Traits: Blind Zeal, Dangerously Currious (for UMD)
1: Blind Fighting (free), Blinded Blade Style (bonus), Improved Blind Fighting (human)
2: Dodge (bonus)
3: scorpion style(bonus), Blinded Competence
4: -
5: Barkskin(ki power), Blind Fight Greater
6: style strike: flying kick
7: Blinded Master, Gorgon's fist (bonus) Elemental Fury(ki).

So this takes significantly longer to get to Blinded Master. But at the same time, you start doing Flurry at 2nd level and you are full BAB the entire time. Also ucMonk gets proficiency with Monks Spade (and all monk weapons). By the time you hit 7th level you should stop using weapons. Your fists will do 1d8+1d6 energy damage and count as magic. Cold iron comes 2 levels later.

AC wise dodge helps a little, Barkskin improves slightly faster than the monks class AC bonus. Or it just means you don't need an Amulet of Natural Armor. Also this build has UMD so grab a wand of Mage Armor. If you have a set group and someone can do that for you, switch to a Shield spell instead. Early level that is an AC of 20 from 2nd to 4th. 24 if you add a second wand for shield. 5th you get barkskin and class bonus to 27. +1 barkskin improvement at 8th, +1 class bonus to AC at 9th. Biggest bumps are going to come from pumping wis and dex. But since this is a strength build the belt is going to go strength. You could add another wand to pump dex 2 temporarily but this is getting expensive in consumable items. If this was a regular game you might invest in pearls of power for a regular caster to buff you instead.

I don't see my build being a huge improvement, but I think its a bit more balanced.

[TheMonkeyFish]

Hm... The build that you have provided appears to be missing a level 1 feat. Additionally, the damage you've proposed is lesser than it might seem. Until level 7, you are effectively blind to anything outside your reach and can only pinpoint to a range of 10 ft. due to scent. 6 feats (4 of which are "free" technically) are worth trading when you can completely eliminate the threat of stealth in my opinion. Meditation was really only because I needed to wait until 7th level for "Slow Time" to give myself Haste 1/day as a full round action.

That being said, I believe your Alternative Build would look something along the lines of this?:

Alternate Build = Meirril:

Traits: Blind Zeal, Dangerously Currious (for UMD)
1: Blind Fighting (free), Blinded Blade Style (bonus), Improved Blind Fighting (human) Blinded Competence
2: Dodge (bonus)
3: scorpion style(bonus), Blind Fight Greater
4: -
5: Barkskin(ki power), Blinded Master
6: style strike: flying kick
7: Power Attack, Gorgon's fist (bonus) Elemental Fury(ki).

There are some things that I would like to critique about this build. The first weakness is blindness (unless Meta-Gaming), which is a real problem for level 2. Greater Blind-Fight covers this weakness well enough, but you'll need some way to increase your range of vision - otherwise it will be just as bad as being blind in the first place. And if you met Power Attack at level 1, that is a whole 7 levels you won't be able to see anything on the map unless its already in your face.

Regarding UMD, I'm cautious to take it on the build I am using. Considering that you hadn't taken Scarred Monk, I could see you taking Dragon Fist instead for Cha instead of Wis to your Monk abilities - but the stats I'm currently running would only have a +3 to its stats. I might look into its worth, but might just ask the party wizard for some kindness.

Lastly, I feel that Scorpion Style is a trap. Its not worthless, bur it won't otherwise be used unless we are running and attacking. I'd probably prefer taking Meditation Master into Combat Meditation into Slow Time for the self-haste 1/day.

Damage wise, at level 7, our DPS is comparable without outside influences. Your build (1d8+1d6+4+4) has an average damage of 16 points, while mine (1d6+6+6+1) has an average damage of 16.5, but it would drop to 15.5 if I chose another trait over my Monk Weapon trait. Doing the damage calculations, I believe you'll be ~3 points ahead of me at level 12, but anytime before that, we will be within 0.5-1 point of damage between each other.

This is mainly because - as a strength build with Power Attack - a 2-Handed Weapon is ideal for damage. That with the fact that it can be flurried as a 2-handed weapon. Unless you choose to take MoMS (which requires Base and the loss of Flurry). The only time we should be attacking at difference values would be when we aren't using Flurry of Blows - which leaves a differences of +2 until higher levels past 12 which PFS would retire our characters.

I am not saying that the build is bad, but it is missing a lot of what I am looking for in the earlier levels with a similar outcome until very late into the game.

I will definitely look into Use Magic Device as an option for my character - as it seems Magic will be the only way to increase my DC without flopping on Strength.