Help with greatsword monk...


Advice


i really don't care about being super man just passable is good enough for me.

Grand Lodge

A drop in cleric with a deity that has the greatsword as a favored weapon, then take the crusader's flurry feat.
Later get the the greatsword the ki focus enchantment.


blackbloodtroll wrote:

A drop in cleric with a deity that has the greatsword as a favored weapon, then take the crusader's flurry feat.

Later get the the greatsword the ki focus enchantment.

cool, thanks

Grand Lodge

Until you take your cleric dip, Heirloom Weapon will allow you to use a greatsword without spending a feat.


Monk of the empty hand could be fun, since you won't need to burn extra feats to just improvise with it. Or a monk/ranger, free booter is nice for the favored swift action, and at ranger 4, lead blade is nice.

Sczarni

If you start as a Crusader Cleric you can have Weapon Focus in your diety's favoured weapon for free at 1st level. This will help offset the additional loss of BAB. You suffer dimished spell casting - but I assume any spells you do get will just be gravy for what your character idea is all about.

I'm not sure which diety actually uses a greatsword if you're playing in Golarion but I think it was Kord in 3.5.

I've played around with this idea (albeit with different weapons) and I found that the Hungry Ghost Monk arcetype had some decent synergy with Sarenrae (increased threat range with Scimitar). A Crusader of Shelyn gets to use a Glaive (reach) which is awesome with Combat Reflexes.

Maybe Martial Artist is an option if the greatsword diety you choose is of chaotic alignment (because cleric's have to be 1 step away from their god on either the law/chaos or good/evil axis).

Post your build when you get it roughed out - I'd love to see the results for inspiration.

Grand Lodge

Gorum, Zursvaater, and Szuriel are greatsword gods.

Sczarni

So Martial Artist arcetype will be necessary for a Crusader Monk of Gorum. Strength Domain would grant enlarge person as a 1st level spell. Could be useful. 5th level Martial artist class feature (fatigue immunity) is a nice incentive for a Barbarian dip...

Not usually a fan of multiclassing but a Cleric/Monk/Barbarian is intriguing...

Grand Lodge

Zursvaater is LE, so need for the martial artist archetype is not needed.


Yeah but Enlarge Self is pretty handy for a monk. It is probably worth it for that single aspect.

Grand Lodge

War and Deception domains are good choices too.

Grand Lodge

I don't know if a monk of Gorum is even possible. He's kind of big on the armor thing.


This idea intrigues me. Does Sohei stack with Martial Artist? If so you could do an awesome Greatsword, Full-Plate, Flurrying Monk that would be a hell of a character.

Gonna go check that.

EDIT: Unfortunately it seems they do not stack. Shame. That was a pretty awesome thought.

Scarab Sages

If you didn't want to multi-class you could make your monk a Tengu... they are proficient in all sword like weapons.

Grand Lodge

My vote for the simplest solution is to worship Zursvaater.
A greatsword wielding monk who worships a god of fire giants sounds cool to me.

Sczarni

Cele wrote:
If you didn't want to multi-class you could make your monk a Tengu... they are proficient in all sword like weapons.

Proficiency is not the issue. Using a great sword as part of a Flurry of Blows is. Not to say that playing a Tengu isn't a cool idea...

The feat Crusader's Flurry grants the ability to use your dieties favoured weapon as part of a FoB. The prerequisites of Crusader's flurry basically insure that you have to multiclass (Monk/Cleric or Monk/Paladin) I believe...

I agree with BBT that the path of least resistance would be to worship a Lawful (or neutral) diety that has the great sword as their favoured weapon.

With the recent 'clarifications' that FoB is supposed to function like TWF the only 'down side' is that not every attack can be made with the Great Sword (you need to alternate sword with unarmed strike). On the plus side you would get the 3:1 returns from Power Attack with the GS and 2:1 with the unarmed strikes... It takes the edge off not being able to add 1.5 x STR to damage on the GS...

Grand Lodge

The recent "clarifications" of FoB was retracted.


I'd think Sohei would be the simplest solution. Instead of messing around with feats/traits/multiclassing, just take the monk archetype that already includes proficiency with the greatsword (and other martial weapons) and the ability to flurry with them. Not to mention Sohei's one of the best monk archetypes anyway.

Grand Lodge

Sohei cannot flurry with a greatsword.


blackbloodtroll wrote:
Sohei cannot flurry with a greatsword.

Just double-checked the Sohei entry, and you're right; I derped, and thought they could could get weapon training/flurry with any martial weapon.

Well, the Sohei can flurry with a nodachi (since it's classed as a polearm and a heavy blade), which is pretty close to a greatsword.

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