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Well, it was nice to see that someone thought my original build was viable.
The bard has been called the least effective class in the game, but that has not been my experience. When you add up all the extra hits and damage from the bard's singing, you realize that the bard makes the whole party better in combat. Then there is the bard's knowledge. I can't tell you how many times we have needed a knowledge check and the bard came through for us. The bard isn't a tank standing toe-to-toe with the enemy. That doesn't mean the same thing as "useless", "weak" or "ineffective".
im not finding the monk so desperate in need for uber stats. mine is lvl 9 and i went with 14 14 14 14 10 10 (not int hat order) for my base stats and im doing fine. i have 24 ac, 28 with mage armor and 32 with ki wth strong battlefield control. The damage isnt so hot vs DR creatures but i can live with that.
A monk is a melee class like a rogue is a melee class.
It is a melee class. And one where most of its damage comes from a class ability.
You don't get this. They do many things, they have many abilities. You have to figure out what to do in each situation using the various abilities you have.
90% of its abilities are combat oriented.
Evasion, Stunning Fist series, AC bonuses, healing, attack alignment, immunities.
Sorry to put it so bluntly, but this build cannot contribute anything meaningful to any encounter. Your Strength is too low to hit things reliably or for noticeable damage, or even for grappling foes reliably (which, by the way, why are you so focused on if you want to be a Weapon Adept?).As a monk, your survivability will always be low. Your best class feature is the ability to dish out many attacks with additional effects, but you need to capitalize on it properly. A skirmisher monk is little more than a minor nuisance on a battlefield, hoping for an enemy caster to pop up so he can rush in to stun/grapple him. Meanwhile, a DPR monk can dish out significant damage (not the best around, but good enough to matter), and still can rush in to stun/grapple the enemy caster should need arise.
"Sorry to put it so bluntly..." I could not disagree with this post more.
How you build your monk depends on what kind of monk you want to play. I always favored the kind of monk that had Strength as his THIRD highest stat. I prefer Dex and Wis to both be higher than Strength. With high AC (even at night when the other characters have taken off their armor), never being unarmed, great saves, and access to Evasion and Improved Evasion, your survivability should be just fine.
If you are trying to build a monk that can handle himself comparibly to a fighter in melee, stop. The fighter is king of melee and no other class can do what he (or she) does. If grappling and unarmed melee damage are your priority, build a fighter, max out your strength, and choose "close", "monk", or "natural" when you get weapon training 1. On the surface it may seem that monks are better at dishing out unarmed damage, but the fighter-only feats, weapon training, and higher BAB mean that the fighter will hit more often, and his average damage per round will be higher. He (or she) can also wear armor.
However, if you are playing a monk for the flavor of the class, that's a different story. Also, unlike the above post from amorangias, I believe there are MANY ways to contribute to combat. For example: Go crazy with attacks of opportunity, utilize ranged attacks (extra cool points if you can snatch an arrow and shoot it back at the guy who targeted you), be maneuverable enough to always provide flanking for the party rogue, max out your movement so that you can run down enemies that try to flee or gather reinforcements (I had a DM that ALWAYS did that), utilize stunning fist to capture the last enemy for questioning, become the party infiltrator, etc. In my opinion, "contributing" to combat doesn't only mean hack and slash.
That said, your choice of Improved Grapple seems to indicate that you wanted to play a monk who grappled well. In that case, if you wanted to min-max that ability, then I would max out strength and have Dex as my 2nd highest, and wis as my 3rd highest stat.
However, the monk you presented above is fine. There is nothing wrong with it. Don't let anyone tell you that your preferred style of monk is badwrongfun, and that unless you do X, you "cannot contribute anything meaningful to ANY encounter." (emphasis mine).
"stuff" too long to quote in fullThank you! Our PFS group usually includes a few tanks. I prefer the versatility that the monk offers. My intent was never to min/max any one ability, but rather to be able to do several things reasonably well. The DPR Olympics is not my basis for character design.
No problem. The ONLY person that has to like your character design is yourself.
...well, maybe the GM as well, since he or she is the one running the game.