Monk's vs flying opponents

[Melvin the Mediocre]

My buddy is playing a ninth level core monk. He has a lot of fun when he can get up in the opposition's face, but when the enemies are flying or otherwise not easily accessable he struggles for what to do.
As I am playing a cleric, I thought I would start preparing Bestow Weapon Proficiency and handing him a compound longbow, but are there other/better options for a monk in ranged combat? It looks to me like shurikens are the ultimate suck of the weapons chart. (10 foot range for 1d2 points????)

[blue_the_wolf]

at 9th level there are a ton of magic items to give the monk flight.

nuff said.

[TarkXT]

Or you could just cast Air Walk on him or Communal Air Wallk if you have it available. Or have whatever arcane caster you have around cast fly.

At this level it's not a difficult problem to solve.

[Rycaut]

Airwalk or communal airwalk are fantastic options for a party cleric to prepare and cast on melee party members - charging a flying creature in the air never gets old.

[blue_the_wolf]

yea... i should say at 9th level there are a ton of WAYS to give a monk flying. you can give him flight or he can get some kind of magic item that gives him flight independently.

[Overcast]

Winged Boots are one of many low-cost methods of flying. As has already been stated Air Walk should be available to you by now. Since he's not a Sohei or Zen Archer, he's really not going to be good with ranged weapons, so he's better off finding ways to close to melee range, instead of finding a ranged weapon.

Also, you're at 9th level. He can always take the Leadership feat and grab a flying cohort to act as a mount.

[Melvin the Mediocre]

Getting a monk airborn is certainly useful, but not always practical or possible. One common issue is that the movement speed is to slow for a fast flying opponent.
The nice points of bwp is that it is a low level spell and gives him a really nice range, but it still fills a spell slot and chews up an action for my character. Are there any magic items or feats the monk could take to give him a decent ranged combat? Bracers of archery from 3.5 come to mind, but I'll have to look them up to see if they will help him out in pathfinder.

[princeimrahil]

Don't forget - he can always flurry with shuriken, and since it's ammunition, he doesn't even need to worry about drawing it.

[Overcast]

At 9th level, getting a monk airborne is always possible and practical. I don't understand how you feel wasting an action on giving a PC mediocre ranged fighting abilities is worthwhile, instead of wasting an action on allowing a melee combatant to fight to the fullest extent of his abilities. A flying mount with a fast movement speed would easily fix both of those issues however. But as a sidenote, if your monk with his increased movement and (presumably) 30' speed increase via haste (please tell me by 9th level your melee PC's are hasted), is unable to close with a flying opponent, then the issue is his ability to play and not necessarily a mechanical issue.

As a sidenote, even that can be corrected, via a well-timed wall of force to seriously inhibit a flying creature's ability to use Flyby Attack. Not that you can do anything about it as a cleric, but your arcane caster certainly could ready an action to cast Wall of Force at a creature using Flyby Attack. The results are generally spectacularly hilarious. For that matter, tactics can do wonders. Once airborne, the monk can delay his action, allow the caster to dimension door him to the target, whereupon he can grapple them after the dimension door. Sure it doesn't work on dragons, but there are a number of flying opponents with which this can wreak havoc.

[blue_the_wolf]

if you simply MUST use a ranged weapon pathfinder does have bracers of archery... but the player will probably still complain about not doing optimal damage.

[Rycaut]

A monk firing at range will be avoiding most of what makes him a monk.

Give him airwalk then his monk movement rate means he can likely close with many airborn opponents with one charge (assuming they fly an attack and have a move speed of less than 100' - a ninth level monk charging should have a very good range (don't forget they can burn a ki for additional movement)

The monk can then grapple or flurry.

A big advantage of airwalk etc is if the monk becomes airborn they have many options (ie if a flying opponent grapples and picks up the monk he isn't at risk of falling. Plus it is a great long lasting spell (overland flight is the other)