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I play Pathfinder Society at my local gaming store. A bunch of people play there and there are a ton of different characters around. Now I’m getting close to retiring my first character and my second character is about to level out of the low-tier games. To still be able to play low-tiers I am considering what to play next.
Since I really don’t want to duplicate something that is getting played regularly I am strongly considering setting down a monk. (Or an oracle, but there are a couple of multi-class oracles already.)
Now I’ve never played a Monk before, and am not sure how to go about making a good one with the point-buy system. I was looking at the class variants, most particularly the Monk variant that gets Elemental Fist and the Martial Artist, but I since I haven’t played a monk I’m not sure the trade-offs are worth it. (A friend of mine raves about the ki-draining monk. I’ve also seen a lot of feats that look like they are for a grapple monk, how does that work?)
So in short what I am really interested in is early build help for a Pathfinder Society legal Monk advice, mostly for the first couple of levels. What should my stats be, what gear should I get first, what my starting feats should be, and what, if any, variant classes are fun/capable?
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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The biggest issue I see with monks is their squishy-ness. Since you're not supposed to wear armor, you really have to prioritize DEX and WIS to keep your AC high enough to survive melee combat. CON will therefore be similarly important. (Locally, there was someone who played a monk with 8 CON. One crit and he died.)
My brother made a dwarf monk who managed a 16 each in DEX and WIS, and took some dwarf-only feat that gave him +1 natural armor and used his monk bonus feat for Dodge. Seemed to work out alright.
Alternatively, you could multiclass into an armor-wearing class and just be willing to sacrifice some of your monk abilities. Relatedly, some monk archetypes are missing some of the armor restrictions. For instance, the Maneuver Master replaces Flurry of Blows with Flurry of Maneuvers, and unlike FoB, FoM doesn't "turn off" when you're wearing armor.
Or you could play a fighter, using the Unarmed Fighter archetype, and just pretend to be a monk, but with armor proficiency, full BAB, and proficiency with more monk weapons than an actual monk. ;)
Go with master of many styles or sensei and just wear the armor. Go on... you know you want to.
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If you play a Zen Archer, you can emphasize WIS instead of trying to balance WIS and DEX. Starting at 3rd level, ZA can use WIS bonus to hit with a bow in place of DEX. Since the ZA spends relatively little time in hand-to-hand combat, surviving hits is less important. Just be sure to take Precise Shot as a first-level bonus feat.
Dwarves make good ZA monks.
If you go Zen archer you'll want strength emphasized over dexterity, as strength will bump up your damage and dex... well just kind of hangs out.
The biggest issue I see with monks is their squishy-ness. Since you're not supposed to wear armor, you really have to prioritize DEX and WIS to keep your AC high enough to survive melee combat. CON will therefore be similarly important. (Locally, there was someone who played a monk with 8 CON. One crit and he died.)
My brother made a dwarf monk who managed a 16 each in DEX and WIS, and took some dwarf-only feat that gave him +1 natural armor and used his monk bonus feat for Dodge. Seemed to work out alright.
Alternatively, you could multiclass into an armor-wearing class and just be willing to sacrifice some of your monk abilities. Relatedly, some monk archetypes are missing some of the armor restrictions. For instance, the Maneuver Master replaces Flurry of Blows with Flurry of Maneuvers, and unlike FoB, FoM doesn't "turn off" when you're wearing armor.
Or you could play a fighter, using the Unarmed Fighter archetype, and just pretend to be a monk, but with armor proficiency, full BAB, and proficiency with more monk weapons than an actual monk. ;)
Don't forget bracers of armor. You do not lose your WIS bonus to AC or other monk abilities because of it but still gain armor bonus.
One of the standard items for a monk to gain high AC :-)
Don't forget bracers of armor. You do not lose your WIS bonus to AC or other monk abilities because of it but still gain armor bonus.
One of the standard items for a monk to gain high AC :-)
Well, at lower levels the pearl of power is usually considered a better option if there is an arcanist in the group - mage armor is a staple buff for a monk :) .
Well, at lower levels the pearl of power is usually considered a better option if there is an arcanist in the group - mage armor is a staple buff for a monk :) .Don't forget bracers of armor. You do not lose your WIS bonus to AC or other monk abilities because of it but still gain armor bonus.
One of the standard items for a monk to gain high AC :-)
Or BE the arcanist... I once had a monk 8 / empyreal sorcerer 2. He had shield, mage armor and jump I believe (expand arcana for one of those). He was very hard to hit and could jump like nobody else ;-)
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The biggest issue I see with monks is their squishy-ness. Since you're not supposed to wear armor, you really have to prioritize DEX and WIS to keep your AC high enough to survive melee combat. CON will therefore be similarly important. (Locally, there was someone who played a monk with 8 CON. One crit and he died.)
My brother made a dwarf monk who managed a 16 each in DEX and WIS, and took some dwarf-only feat that gave him +1 natural armor and used his monk bonus feat for Dodge. Seemed to work out alright.
Alternatively, you could multiclass into an armor-wearing class and just be willing to sacrifice some of your monk abilities. Relatedly, some monk archetypes are missing some of the armor restrictions. For instance, the Maneuver Master replaces Flurry of Blows with Flurry of Maneuvers, and unlike FoB, FoM doesn't "turn off" when you're wearing armor.
Or you could play a fighter, using the Unarmed Fighter archetype, and just pretend to be a monk, but with armor proficiency, full BAB, and proficiency with more monk weapons than an actual monk. ;)
Don't forget bracers of armor. You do not lose your WIS bonus to AC or other monk abilities because of it but still gain armor bonus.
One of the standard items for a monk to gain high AC :-)
Also keep in mind you can enchant those bracers the same as you would a piece of armor. Nothing says "monk" like bracers of armor with heavy fortification!
Or BE the arcanist... I once had a monk 8 / empyreal sorcerer 2. He had shield, mage armor and jump I believe (expand arcana for one of those). He was very hard to hit and could jump like nobody else ;-)
Yeah, that works quite well. I personally would prefer using psionics if the game allows - there was a pretty decent monk/psionicist PrC as well.