First of all, I want to say how much I enjoy this archetype. Smooth to play, interesting at every level up, fundamentally different in playstyle from a basic monk - good design all round.
Second, I have some queries. To wit:
(1) Ki Focus Bow: "At 17th level, as long as he has at least 1 point of ki in his ki pool, a zen archer may treat arrows fired from his bow as if they were ki focus weapons, allowing him to use his special ki attacks as if his arrows were unarmed attacks. This ability replaces tongue of the sun and moon."
What constitutes a special ki attack?
Only in the description of the ki focus weapon ability is there anything like a definition. Here it says that these special attacks 'include' the Stunning Fist feat, the stunning attack class ability, Quivering Palm and the ki pool DR negators.
My question here is, what about the monastic-flavoured feats in the new Pathfinder material - in particular, Elemental Fist and Touch of Serenity? These look as if they might well be 'special ki attacks', because they're substituted for the stunning attack class ability by several of the new monastic archetypes. In addition, the ki focus weapon ability list 'includes', which appears to leave room for these kinds of additions. But at this point I'm inferring, and I'd love to have a clear definition.
(2) Point Blank Master/Reflexive Shot and Prone Foes:
So here's this archer monk who spends all his days studying the art of close-quarters bowmanship. An enemy wizard runs past him; the monk trips him with an attack of opportunity. What happens next?
By the book, the zen archer gains no bonus to attack the adjacent, prone foe with his bow. Furthermore, he takes an effective -4 attack penalty. Despite being an expert at this kind of thing, he's taking a stonking penalty to attack.
This is RAW, but is it RAI? Personally I'd like to add riders to the Point Blank Master feat and the Reflexive Shot class ability to offset this quirk (the first to negate the penalty, the second to get the normal melee bonus), but would like to get some feedback first.
(3) Distintegrate and Attended Objects:
This isn't zen archer specific, but the bow matters to him and he likely has a lot invested in it. I'd just like folks' opinions on how this would work. For example: a 10th level zen archer is midfight with an 11th level wizard, who casts distintegrate at the archer's attended bow. By the book, I *think* the wizard probably needs a 3 to make the ranged touch attack (probable +7 against AC10); the bow then uses its attendant's (better) save, which probably has about a 40% chance of stopping the bow turning to dust. It's a +3 bow at this point, and costs 30% of the monk's normal wealth by level, so its loss is obviously a rather big deal (almost exactly the loss of a level's worth of wealth, actually - the kind of semi-permanent drain Pathfinder has largely done away with).
There's all kinds of mess here, though, largely because attacking objects is a slightly cobwebby corner of the rules. Does the bow gain its wielder's Dex bonus? What about other touch AC bonusses? Does Distingrate ignore hardness? Does the bow gain its attendants resistances and immunities? What about Spell Resistance? And what about the rule that a weapon can only be sundered by a weapon with an equal or greater enhancement - does that have any impact on Distintegrate? And why doesn't that rule apply to other magic items?
Anyway, big messy rules query there. Any answers or opinions on any of these much appreciated, and do Faq this if you think there are points worth it. Cheers,
The Porp.
1) I would think that those feats qualify as Ki attacks, but that they do not do so explicitly, so I'm coming at it from a purely RAI view--by RAW, only what is listed is a Ki attack.
2) -4 isn't really all that bad. I would not recommend adding extra riders to feats and features that would increase their power, and well, this clearly does that.
I think a good question might be, "why would the monk trip the wizard knowing he'll take a -4 to hit him with his bow?" If you really want the wizard on the ground, surely there are ways to do so with an arrow--maybe you can use the RAI answer to #1 with Punishing Kick on your arrows at level 17?
3) I believe attacking a weapon you wield is a Sunder attempt, which I don't think can be done with ranged weapons like Rays without some special feature, but it would definitely involve CMD regardless.
So, I don't think a wizard can disintegrate your bow.
Thanks, MPL.
I agree on special ki attacks - what exactly they are is a rather misty raw/rai area at the moment. Clarification would be great.
On attacking prone adjacent foes...well, -4 is actually pretty major; and it's actually -8 compared to someone attacking with a melee weapon (-4 instead of +4), which is huge.
If the scenario of the monk tripping the wizard seems dubious, scrap that and consider this instead: the wizard runs up to the zen archer and falls prone at his feet, thus gaining +4 AC against him. The wizard can still cast while prone. So long as he has Combat Casting, this is a sensible move against a zen archer, whose unarmed attacks are going to be decidedly lacklustre (getting him to not use his bow is a success in itself). Given that the zen archer is a close-quarters archer specialist, does this make sense?
On Distintegrate: I'm glad you think it should be a sunder attempt - I do too, but I don't think the rules come and out and say that. For one thing, the smash objects rules don't say they're only meant for unattented objects: for another, Disintegrate is explicitly an object-destroying spell, and actually I think the option to target attended objects probably should be in the spell's remit - it nerfs the wizard to rule this out entirely.
So just stomp on him?
The prone/ranged issue has been around for a while. Just ask your GM :-)