Monk Variant: Dawnflower Dervish

[Akumamajin]

Hello everyone,

as the subjects already tells, we portrayed the dervish as a monk with the weapon adept variant and a few unique quirks.

So basically he is a monk of sarenrae who trades the use of the other monk weapons for proficiency with the scimitar (sarenraes fav. weapon) and the small monks weaponless damage progression (he is a half-elf).

As a weapon adept he gets weapon focus (and later specialization) with the scimitar and can use the flurry of blows and perfect strike with the scimitar.

As the free feat at lvl 2 I allowed to take the dervish dance feat because that was mandatory for the dervish feeling.

Because sarenraes followers can be a bit more martial we added the light armor proficiency.

So far he has been a very effective character on the table, a blast in the fights and a perfect vessel for the spirit of Vardishal.

So any thoughts?

[KaeYoss]

Akumamajin wrote:

Because sarenraes followers can be a bit more martial we added the light armor proficiency.

I wouldn't do that.

The character already gets to use dex for most things he should have to use str for, which means his stats are already working for him better than for other monks.

Combine that higher dex with the power to use armour, and you should accept that enemies are unlikely to ever hit that character. This is an easy +4, later +6 (with celestial armour) over other monks in addition to what they get for their better dex score.

And don't forget that he'll have an easier time getting better attack bonuses, too: Instead of paying for an amulet of mighty fists, he'll just get a magic scimitar, costing a lot less. The money he saves he'll put into an amulet of natural armour - which makes the AC even higher.

[Erik Freund]

Light armor becomes a vehicle to stack armor enhancements on. The monk already gets a replacements for for armor enhancements. Giving him both would make it so he is un-hittable once you get to mid-levels. You need to take away a lot in order to give him this.

[Akumamajin]

Hmm ... you are probably right, I honestly didn't consider this and thought that it would just be an interesting quirk. Its actually quite hard to balance all thinks against each other because you have to take so many things into account.

I will talk to the player about this and I think he will understand. He already has a very characterful, interesting and effective character.

Thanks for the warning and advice, folks :)