If a character with a single level of Monk wears a Necklace of Ki Serenity does he gain the Ki abilities of a 5th level Monk, or do you need to have the Ki Pool class feature before you can benefit from the item? I'd guess you need the feature before you can enhance it, but it seems a little unclear
Also, when using a menacing weapon do you get the additional +2 bonus for flanking if you are also flanking the creature? I'd think so in this case, but I'm curious what others (especially folks from Paizo) think.
If a character with a single level of Monk wears a Necklace of Ki Serenity does he gain the Ki abilities of a 5th level Monk, or do you need to have the Ki Pool class feature before you can benefit from the item? I'd guess you need the feature before you can enhance it, but it seems a little unclear
Also, when using a menacing weapon do you get the additional +2 bonus for flanking if you are also flanking the creature? I'd think so in this case, but I'm curious what others (especially folks from Paizo) think.
1) Your character, the Monk1, doesn't get the Ki abilities of a Monk5. It only amplifies the abilities of an existing ki pool, the necklace doesn't give you one if you don't have one already.
2) Actually, the menacing property helps your allies. This raises the question "Are you your own ally?" which has yet to be conclusively answered unfortunately.
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1) Your character, the Monk1, doesn't get the Ki abilities of a Monk5. It only amplifies the abilities of an existing ki pool, the necklace doesn't give you one if you don't have one already.
This is actually not true. A monks ability to spend Ki is not tied to his level, for an example of this see the drunken master archetype that gives access to some Ki a level earlier and makes no mention gaining the other abilities tied to Ki a level earlier.
Looking around the best "answer" I could find for the allies question was something somebody posted in another thread:
Ally: A creature friendly to you. In most cases, references to "allies" include yourself.
Of course that's 3.5, not Pathfinder. Apparently the term "ally" isn't defined in Pathfinder. Even the 3.5 reference says "most cases" without any guidance about which cases are excluded.
This is actually not true. A monks ability to spend Ki is not tied to his level, for an example of this see the drunken master archetype that gives access to some Ki a level earlier and makes no mention gaining the other abilities tied to Ki a level earlier.1) Your character, the Monk1, doesn't get the Ki abilities of a Monk5. It only amplifies the abilities of an existing ki pool, the necklace doesn't give you one if you don't have one already.
If you have a ki pool when you don the necklace, then you're in good shape. A 1st level monk doesn't typically have a ki pool; that's gained at 4th level. I'd interpret the necklace as trying to amplify an existing ki pool. It grants "a +4 bonus to his effective level when determing the size of his ki pool". So how can you increase the size of something that doesn't exist yet? Now, you're right, if you get one, such as by drinking a tankard of ale as a level 3 monk of the drunken master style, it should make a difference.