For one thing, it's illegal (assuming you want the Drunken Master archetype.) Barbarians must be non-lawful, monks must be lawful unless they take the Martial Artist archetype, which isn't compatible with Drunken Master.
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The thought just came to me.. How broken is it? Seems really fun.
Barbarian/Paladin is also broken, but that combo doesn't need to be balanced since the rules on the alignments of each class stop that combo from happening. Drunken barbarian/monk is pretty broken, but only because nobody bothered with making it NOT broken, since it normally wouldn't happen.
Hmmm, forgot the alignment restriction.. I could see a monk becoming a chronic alcoholic and becoming chaotic (from the alcohol addiction)...
Which monk abilities would disappear?
I like it. Monks don't lose any abilities if they change alignment, they just can't gain monk levels, so make sure you gain any monk levels you want before your fall from grace.
And you don't necessarily need to go all the way to chaotic, neutral would also work.
"A monk who becomes nonlawful cannot gain new levels as a monk but retains all monk abilities."
So start as a monk, do something crazy and off the cuff but significant enough for an alignment change, and then go all in on barbarian.
Just goes to prove that if you wait long enough, a supplemental rules book (Blood of Angels in this case), will give you the ability to do what ever you want.
Let the monk/barb builds commence!
I love cheese though, mmmm cheese Gromit :)
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Well, aside from the alignment problem, it doesn't seem too broken.
Advantages:
Barbarian/monk means you're going to be very fast, what with fast movement and fast movement. Add that +8 to jump from the monk's high jump ability, and you'll have some great maneuverability. Good skill synergy too. Uncanny dodge and evasion, so you're as good as a rogue when it comes to sneak attacks and fireballs. Around mid-levels, out of combat, you'll be one of the most mobile and capable characters in the party.
Disadvantages:
Rage and unarmed strike sounds great, doesn't it? Well, multiclassing means that you'll be behind in rounds of rage per day and unarmed damage dice. The monk is designed to hit many times in a round with small amounts of damage (and possibly other abilities, like combat maneuvers or stunning fist), all while avoiding hits and moving in and out of combat. The barbarian is designed rage and run up to an opponent, then SMASH, all while soaking a ton of damage. Both excel at these goals separately, but underperform while mixed.
Flurry of blows works with your total BAB these days, which is great, except one thing - you're built for mobility. Which means that flurry of blows is going to be something you can only do if you get right up close to a foe and stay there. Your AC will likely be lacking, by the way, as you'll need good ability score points in Str, Dex, Con, and Wis. And since you'll be using unarmed strike, there's no 1.5 damage from Str or Power Attack for you.
The Drunken Combo (drunken master and drunken brute):
You'd think double-teaming your drunken antics would be great, but it's more of a hangover. Drinking to increase your rage is nigh-pointless, as it takes a move and only increases the duration of your rage by one 1 round - meaning you've only bought yourself 1 non-flurry attack (the Fast Drinker feat takes this down to a swift, but requires a Con of 18 - if you can pull that off, it improves the combat viability of these combined archetypes by A LOT). The bonus ki points from drinking are much more useful (useful for shoreing up that AC), as they stick around for an hour, but you only get a limited amount per day (1 at 5th level of monk, plus 1 for every 2 levels afterwards), so you won't see many of those.
What I Did Instead
'Cause yeah, monk/barbarian is a super-cool idea that I've always wanted to play too, so I made one for PFS. I couldn't get the drunken combo to work (for reasons stated above), so I made a monk (martial artist) and barbarian (brutal-pugilist). Martial artist syncs up with barbarian is two of the best ways possible: it lets you ignore the alignment restriction for monk, and at 5th level, you give up the ki pool to for complete immunity to fatigue. Which is AMAZING, especially since he's got so few rounds of rage. Martial artist also lets you make Wis checks to ignore DR and Hardness as an at-will swift action, and brutal pugilist for the barbarian can give you some nice bonuses to grappling.
I'm still not sure if my monk/barbarian is all that tricked out - he's 8th level, and I think he's lose in a fight to a powered-up fighter, but he brings a lot of fun tricks to the table.
TL:DR No, especially not with those archetypes.
@brreitz, I don't see a problem with the temporary drunken ki points lasting an hour. In your next combat, you just start drinking again, especially since you're a swift drinker.
I am reading that wrong? at level 3 a drunken master can have 1 temporary ki point. he gets 2 at 5th, 3 at 7th, etc.
The only limiting factor would be actually becoming drunk/intoxicated by drinking too much rapid succession.
it almost seems like they have unlimited ki points as long as they have alcohol available and the swift drinker ability.
so how many drinks would a monk with an 18 con have to consume before they are "drunk" and begin suffering impairments?
Yeah, getting monk-barbarian to work isn't that much of a problem if you know what you're doing from the beginning, and if you end up going with a non-Lawful alignment (preventing additional monk progression) all abilities you have continue to work... the only the thing to consider is that SOME of them have restrictions to use them, e.g. no armor usage.
Many monk/barbarian builds will probably be better off giving up those abilities to use armor, although I'm sure there's some that can make going armorless work as well... It seems like that one would work well with the Savage Barbarian Archetype that gains NatArmor bonuses when not wearing Armor. In fact, you CAN continue to use a Shield while benefitting from Evasion and Fast Movement... The only Monk Ability tied to using neither Armor or Shield is the AC Bonus (WHICH IS LITERALLY THE ABILITY'S NAME, I JUST REALISED), Flurry works just fine with Shield AND Armor.
I've always liked starting a character with even just 1 level of Monk, and not even EVER playing the character as lawful, they start neutral/chaotic and the 'shift' from lawful already occured in the past, i.e. they fled from a lawful evil monastery or whatever.
When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses his AC bonus, as well as his fast movement and flurry of blows abilities.
Which is odd, since fast movement says: "A monk in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed", which would imply that a monk with a shield wouldn't lose fast movement.
yup, odd, but I'll take it :-)
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@brreitz, I don't see a problem with the temporary drunken ki points lasting an hour. In your next combat, you just start drinking again, especially since you're a swift drinker.
I am reading that wrong? at level 3 a drunken master can have 1 temporary ki point. he gets 2 at 5th, 3 at 7th, etc.
The only limiting factor would be actually becoming drunk/intoxicated by drinking too much rapid succession.
it almost seems like they have unlimited ki points as long as they have alcohol available and the swift drinker ability.
so how many drinks would a monk with an 18 con have to consume before they are "drunk" and begin suffering impairments?
if i remember its 2x con number in drinks per hour... so you could give yourself 36 ki points by filling a bag of holdong with beer
*edit* its actually 2x con modifier +1 per hour. so 9 drinks per hour.
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I am reading that wrong? at level 3 a drunken master can have 1 temporary ki point. he gets 2 at 5th, 3 at 7th, etc.
Nope! That's right. For some reason, I was reading it as you get your first bonus point at 5th, but you'd actually get it at 3rd, despite the average monk getting ki pool at 4th. That's not too shabby. That's actually quite good! The drunken ki as never the problem though, as it's the drunken rage that's less effective. One extra round of rage, adding nauseated after raging for one more round is rough.
The only limiting factor would be actually becoming drunk/intoxicated by drinking too much rapid succession.so how many drinks would a monk with an 18 con have to consume before they are "drunk" and begin suffering impairments?
Honestly, I would handwave the drunkeness in any game where the player even put a modicum of roleplaying like a drunk (and were not annoying the other players by doing so). The Gamemaster's Guide has a section on drugs and alcohol with the following:
"In general, a character can consume a number of alcoholic beverages equal to 1 plus double his Constitution modifier before being sickened for 1 hour equal to the number of drinks above this maximum."
So, 9 drinks? There's no time given though - is this during an hour? An evening?
I'm actually feeling like drunken master is pretty solid with barbarian, just maybe not drunken brute. Like Quandary said, savage barbarian stacks nicely with that AC bonus, and I'm looking at urban barbarian and thinking that might be an even better fit.
curious ive been thinking of making a drunken master alchemist, wouldnt that be even better?
erf
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curious ive been thinking of making a drunken master alchemist, wouldnt that be even better?
Barbarian alchemists in general are pretty sick. In the best way possible. I've never played a monk alchemist, but Internal Alchemist archetype seems to be designed for just such a class (even lets you take Extra Ki as a bonus feat).
Note the fix for Monk/Barbarian alignment issue above.Won't work for PFS because you can't get the trait Enlightened Warrior due to the Aasimar (or adopted) must be Agathion-Blooded (Idyllkin). PFS Aasimars are all human decedents. You see, Enlightened Warrior is actually a Idyllkin Racial trait.
I don't quite see how you came to the conclusion that that trait isn't PFS legal. It's clearly a Race trait, not an alternate Racial trait, since it doesn't call out anything that it replaces (not to mention that both d20pfsrd and Archives of Nethys classify it as a race trait). Agathion-Blooded / Idyllkin only relates to the celestial side of the aasimar's heritage, so I don't see what 'all PFS aasimar must be human-born' has to do with the trait.
Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of Angels
Bloodlines: martyred bloodline is legal for Pathfinder Society but the bonus feat Leadership remains unavailable; Heritages: all heritages, and associated traits, on pages 21–23 are legal; Feats: all feats on pages 24–25 are legal except Supernal Feast; Magic: bard masterpieces are legal; Other: variant assimar abilities are not legal for Pathfinder Society; Oracle Curses on page 26 are legal; Inquisitons on pages 26–27 are legal; Subdomains: all subdomains on page 27 are legal; Traits: all traits on pages 30–31 are legal except ethical leader. Clergy member is useable once per scenario instead of once per week. Faith healer may be used for Day Job checks.
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You know what would be cool? If a Drunken Master and Drunken Brute were both on the same boozy team. Can an Alchemist make booze? Someone should make a Bard that sings awful bar songs. And they all adventure throughout Golarion because they're English Football Hooligans.
If you want to go a different direction, look at Serene Barbarian and Monk (especially Zen Archer Monk).
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Disadvantages:
Rage and unarmed strike sounds great, doesn't it? Well, multiclassing means that you'll be behind in rounds of rage per day and unarmed damage dice. The monk is designed to hit many times in a round with small amounts of damage (and possibly other abilities, like combat maneuvers or stunning fist), all while avoiding hits and moving in and out of combat. The barbarian is designed rage and run up to an opponent, then SMASH, all while soaking a ton of damage. Both excel at these goals separately, but underperform while mixed.
Spring Attack and Combat Reflexes. Do a rage-fueled Power Attack drive-by with a polearm, then dare 'em to eat AoOs.
01 barb1 Combat Reflexes, Power Attack
02 monk1 [Dodge]
03 monk2 [Mobility], Extra Rage
04 barb2 (reckless abandon)
05 monk3 Spring Attack (BAB4)
With a base speed of 50', this is hella good attrition tactics for babying your beached-whale armor class.
Sacrifice some speed and to-hit, make your guy a dwarf and trade Extra Rage for Steel Soul, and you'll have saves better than most paladins.