One thing you have to be careful about when you allow all weapons: There are some ki-abilities from the archetypes I think that rely heavily on crits. Allowing those 18-20 crit weapons might make those insanely unbalanced.
I think this is an interesting thought process you're on to, but I probably wouldn't go for a monk archetype just because that means you're making an alternate class, not an archetype. I will entertain both ideas, but let's start with something else...
How about instead of getting a full flurry, a fencer could get a free attack on a full attack at a certain level, and every so many levels after he got more? If it is a bard archetype, then instead of bardic performance he could have a blade dance (realize that I am not looking at any of my books, just brain dumping) and get a bonus to each attack he makes after a successful hit to a max bonus, but he could choose to transfer that bonus to either an extra attack, or to add it to an existing iterative attack.
This gives the fencer utility and the ability to control the flow of combat in an abstract way. Say a this bard archetype is 20th, has 15/10/5 BAB and succeeds at hitting each time, granting (by this level) a +5 bonus on the first hit (saved), a +5 on the second hit (saved) and a +5 from the third hit. At this point, he has not allotted any of the the three bonuses, so he can choose to make three more attacks at 5/5/5, or two attacks at 10/5, or one at 15. Alternatively, he could have attacked at 20/20/15/5.
Back to the monk alternate class.
Say you go the route of using flurry of blows with rapiers. Whatever math rule it is (probably probability [/smirk]) says that the more attacks you make with a high crit threat weapon like a rapier, the more chances you have to score a crit. Keen rapiers are all too common. Personally, flurrying with a rapier I would allow, but the damage I am leery of. There would have to be some dead levels in this alt. class or some levels with really boring add-ons to make up for that threat range AND insane damage.
Other features to consider would be trading Wis to AC for Int to AC, fast movement for bonus 5ft steps (slowing down the progression, of course), initiative bonuses, changing bonus feats, removing ki would be a good idea to maintain flavor.
That's all I got. Take it with a grain of salt. :D Good looking out, interesting idea - GREAT lateral thinking.
Flurry of Blows stacks with multiclassing.
Also, you're able to flurry with any weapon that you have the weapon focus feat in so long as that weapon has the ki weapon property.
This means that a Monk 1/ Fighter X is able to have a flurry with a rapier if they so chose to spend the feats and money.
Further, adding levels in Duelist allows you to add Int, Wis, Dex to your AC so long as your not wearing armor.
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change weapon profs to all simple weapons, all light and 1 handed martial piercing weapons, (and scimitar?)
use Weapon adept monk archetype, require off hand to be empty or only wielding a light weapon
let them flurry with any light or 1 handed weapon you can use weapon finesse with.
use "unarmed damage" column for bonus damage on full round attacks with light or 1 handed piercing weapons. consider it precision damage.
add weapon finesse,(Dervish dance at 2nd?), Power attack, combat expertise, and piranha strike to available bonus feats at 6th level add Improved Dirty Trick, Improved Steal, and Improvised Weapon Mastery. At 10th add greater weapon focus and greater weapon specialization to the list of available bonus feats.
remove Improved grapple, Gorgon’s Fist, Scorpion Style, Medusa’s Wrath, Snatch Arrows from feats available.
change some ki abilities and call it "insight". use int instead of wis for abilities let it stack with dex for ac, but be limited by max dex bonus of armor.
use the abilities of the Qinggong Monk archetype and allow them to swap out wholeness of body (7th), diamond body (11th), abundant step (12th), diamond soul (13th), quivering palm (15th), and tongue of the sun and moon (17th) for some of the abilities (maybe true strike, quick draw, lunge, step up and strike). dont allow all the abilities, but the "virtual feats" and a few spell ones fit the concept perfectly while allowing flexibility
Can you quote the rules that let you use any Ki Focus weapon that you have weapon focus for. I find this very interesting.
Can you quote the rules that let you use any Ki Focus weapon that you have weapon focus for. I find this very interesting.
Actually, I now have massive foot in mouth. Turns out that What I read wasn't RAW, but a housrule. I for whatever reason thought it was part of FoB's description.
@Foghammer: A bard without any performance? I'd never even thought of it, the two being so tied together.
Well a dance is a "performance." It could also be translated into a fencing 'form' or 'drill' if you like. Still what I would loosely consider a "performance" if only for game terms.
It may not add any flavor to the class for them to have spells... But I don't know that it detracts from them. I imagine a fencer to be someone wealthy, with access to higher learning, so they could be learning swordplay, magic, music, various trade skills, and reading books between those things. Almost like an aristocrat PC class.
As for your comments on my side, I totally agree about Int instead of wis, I forgot to mention that earlier, and yeah everything from ki is pretty much out. I *love* the extra 5-foot steps instead of fast movement, but yeah probably only half as often or so. I don't so much mind the extra damage being frequently doubled by crits, I figure that's part of the point of this kind of character. If the levels where the damage improves have nothing else for balance's sake, I think it works other than first of course. Or there's Name Violation's idea of it being separate dice like sneak attack, so it's unaffected by crits, not to mention things immune to crits, which makes sense.
Sounds like sneak attack dice. Under what circumstances would it apply? One has to be careful not to step on the rogue's toes here if you're just adding damage dice.
Perhaps there is a way to combine both ideas. A half-and-half gestalt of monk and bard that combines the blade dance with the unarmed damage progression... More brain dumping: say that the damage starts scaling from the first hit during the "performance." If you hit in the first round, you deal weapon damage as normal, the next round, you deal the next die size up in monk unarmed damage with the weapon if you hit and also increases there, third round it goes up again (only increasing once per round) until it maxes out.
Not balanced at all, but more fuel for the fire.