Hello everyone, I'm looking to optimize a martial artist archetype monk. He'll be starting at second level, human, 24 point buy. Any paizo stuff on d20pfsrd.com should be kosher.
I'm looking for optimized damage output over everything else. Is two-handing a temple sword and flurrying still my best bet, or is that somehow illegal now? Any advice on feats etc would be welcome. I haven't kept up on all the various monk archetypes and style feats. I'd like to stick with martial artist, but would switch to another archetype if the damage output were significantly higher. Thanks in advance!
Temple sword is a good option. Another is unarmed with Dragon Style feat-tree and high strength. However the monk is not the optimal class for DPR, no matter what you fight with.
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Optimizing a Martial Artist Monk:
Step 1: Take 5 levels of Martial Artist and become immune to fatigue
Step 2: Take the rest of your levels as a Barbarian who can freely cycle once per rage powers.
Step 3: Profit.
Mmm, as was said, if your looking for damage output, there would be better options...
That being said, what is it exactly your wanting, conceptually? If there are specific mechanics you want, that would be good to know, but a little more information to go on would go a long way to being able to provide better advice.
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Side note; Dragon Style could get really wonky in a very rules-strict environment. It's also relevant to two-handing the temple sword, though.
A monk applies his full Strength bonus to his damage rolls for all successful attacks made with flurry of blows, whether the attacks are made with an off-hand or with a weapon wielded in both hands. A monk may substitute disarm, sunder, and trip combat maneuvers for unarmed attacks as part of a flurry of blows. A monk cannot use any weapon other than an unarmed strike or a special monk weapon as part of a flurry of blows. A monk with natural weapons cannot use such weapons as part of a flurry of blows, nor can he make natural attacks in addition to his flurry of blows attacks.
2handing a temple sword might not provide 1.5 STR bonus, but it does provide 1.5 Power Attack Bonus. though i think martial artist, master of many styles and ironskin monk might be possibly compatible together somehow.
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If you're doing this for a PFS game you may be more likely to encounter a GM who won't let you flurry with 1 Temple Sword used in 2 hands.
However, you will be able to 2 hand your Temple Sword and use your Unarmed Strikes in a Flurry. So if you have 4 attacks in your FoB they'd be like this;
1. Temple Sword 1xSTR + 3:1 Power Attack
2. Unarmed Strike 1xSTR + 2:1 Power Attack
3. Temple Sword again
4. Unarmed Strike again.
You're going to want to have STR and then WIS as your highest stats. If you can afford to part with the bonus feat and extra skill point there is a Human racial trait that will give you +2 to two stats.
The Martial Artist loses Ki Pool but still gets some cool WIS based abilities - the fact that you get +1 to DC of Stunning Fist is nice too. I wouldn't build specifically for Stunning Fist, but if your GM allows it and it's not a PFS game you can take Ability Focus from the Beastiary for a further +2 bonus to the DC.
At low levels don't even bother trying to use Stunning Fist, at the mid-levels when you get multiple free attempts to apply the Stunned condition (or other effect) it actually starts to pay off.
I'm actually playing around with a build like this at the moment and I flop back & forth between the Martial Artist and Weapon Adept arcetypes. The Weapon Adept retains Ki Pool and stacks nicely with Qinggong which is nice. Weapon Adept also gets 2 more feats (Weapon Focus & Specialization). While the Martial Artist can select these feats he has to use feat slots to acquire them.
It's for a PBP game, not for PFS. I am thinking at this point Master of Many Styles/Martial Artist. They each replace the capstone ability so technically can't be combined, but the DM said it was okay.
Stats are:
Strength 16
Dexterity 16
Constitution 14
Intelligence 8
Wisdom 14
Charisma 7
Thinking of doing feats like this...
1st:Dragon Style (Bonus), Weapon Focus (Unarmed), Human Feat?
2nd:Dragon Ferocity (Bonus)
3rd:Janni Style
5th:Janni Tempest
6th:
Haven't had time to think past that. Would like to sneak Power Attack in at level one but no +1 BAB. Perhaps one level of unarmed fighter, then switch to monk?
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Exploit Weakness (Ex)
At 4th level, as a swift action, a martial artist can observe a creature or object to find its weak point by making a Wisdom check and adding his monk level against a DC of 10 + the object’s hardness or the target’s CR. If the check succeeds, the martial artist gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls until the end of his turn, and any attacks he makes until the end of his turn ignore the creature or object’s DR or hardness. A martial artist may instead use this ability as a swift action to analyze the movements and expressions of one creature within 30 feet, granting a bonus on Sense Motive checks and Reflex saves and a dodge bonus to AC against that opponent equal to 1/2 his monk level until the start of his next turn.
This ability replaces ki pool.
This is why, at he very least, you should put the 16 in Wis rather then Dex. In fact, +1 in Initiative is not as important as having this high. Ignoring DR is killer, especially combined w/Dragon Style. Defensively, it also works.
Dragon Style, Power Attack, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization I agree with.
I'd go:
15 Str
14 Dex
14 Con
10 int
17 Wis
10 Cha
or
16 Str
14 Dex
14 Con
8 Int
18 Wis
7 Cha
I hope I don't need to tell you where to put the +1's at 4st and 8th level on the 1st build.
You did say 24 point build, and this is what it's coming out as for me. Are you possibly using a 3.5 rather than a PF point build?
You have to be a fighter to take Weapon Specialization.
The unarmed fighter archetype though rocks.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo---fig hter-archetypes/unarmed-fighter
Proficient with *all* monk weapons, including exotic monk weapons. That's more than even normal monks.
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You have to be a fighter to take Weapon Specialization.
The unarmed fighter archetype though rocks.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo---fig hter-archetypes/unarmed-fighter
Proficient with *all* monk weapons, including exotic monk weapons. That's more than even normal monks.
Martial artist allows you to take fighter only feats.
Martial artist allows you to take fighter only feats.You have to be a fighter to take Weapon Specialization.
The unarmed fighter archetype though rocks.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo---fig hter-archetypes/unarmed-fighter
Proficient with *all* monk weapons, including exotic monk weapons. That's more than even normal monks.
Martial Arts Master (Ex)
At 4th level, a martial artist may use his monk level to qualify for feats with a fighter level prerequisite when those feats are applied to unarmed strikes or weapons with the monk special quality.
This ability replaces slow fall.
Totally awesome.
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This is DM Jelani, the OP.
Here's the build I ended up going with. We haven't started playing yet, so I'd be happy for advice on it. All the stats are in the profile.