As I was allowed to rebuild my Monk (he's out training in the woods), I decided to both beef him up considerably and take him through to the natural end of a character development arc he's been going through (he loses his drunkenness and swaps from Lawful Evil to Lawful Neutral).
He'll be a Master of Many Styles/Monk of the Sacred Mountain for 5 levels and Brawler for 3.
So he'd have Feats like this:
Level 2 (Monk 1): Dragon Style
Level 3 (Monk 2): Snake Style, Snake Fang
Level 4 (Brawler 2): Dragon Ferocity
Level 5 (Monk 3): Combat Reflexes
Level 6 (Brawler 3): Unsure
Level 7 (Monk 4): Unsure
Level 8 (Monk 5): N/A
The idea is: I keep much the same playstyle, but I can actually HIT things (+11 to-hit on a Power Attack, about 3 more than I did have), and do solid damage to things (+17 on a Power Attack), and have more HP and AC (Sacred Mountain Monk gets +1 Natural Armor and Toughness for free. Also, +2 AC when I stand still.).
Problem is, I don't know what to pick for those level 6 and 7 Feats (before someone says that's one too many, we've houseruled Fighters for simplicity to just get a Feat every level instead of every 2 Fighter levels). I was thinking either Combat Style Master (somewhat obsoleted after I hit Monk 8, but still decent), the Cleave/Great Cleave Feats (not sure how good they'd be, never used them), or something else.
Anybody know good Feats for a very close range fighter that I may have overlooked? Also, worth it to grab a 4th level of Fighter later on so I can grab Weapon Specialization?
I think this way I keep much of the same fighting skills (but better) without losing out on the character himself, which is nice. Thanks to everyone who directed me towards the Brawler archetype in the first place (and to all who help me here with this).
Ah, before I forget, you probably need the stats:
Str: 22
Dex: 14
Con: 15
Int: 14
Wis: 18
Cha: 12
Aw, come on, not even one Feat?
Furious Focus? It will help with hitting with power attack which never hurts right? It's only the first one but that can help if you had to move first.
Improved Unarmed Strike and Panther Style? They go well with your combat reflexes.
My monk took Enforcer and Intimidating Prowess, but I don't know if you're into intimidating your opponents.
I agree that Furious Focus can't hurt. Improved Grapple could come in handy sometimes (against humanoid opponents, e.g.), but I don't know what sort of enemies you'll be facing.
Furious Focus? It will help with hitting with power attack which never hurts right? It's only the first one but that can help if you had to move first.
That would be great, but I'm pretty sure my fists don't qualify as two-handed weapons or one-handed weapons held in two hands.
Improved Unarmed Strike and Panther Style? They go well with your combat reflexes.
Ehm, Monks get IUS for free at 1st level, but I was planning on getting Panther Style (or Tiger or Crane, not quite sure yet) later on at about level 9 (Monk 7) or so. Reason being, I don't get to Fuse 3 Styles until Monk 8.
My monk took Enforcer and Intimidating Prowess, but I don't know if you're into intimidating your opponents.
Not big on intimidation really. I had a few points in that before the rebuild but the Barbarian has invested heavily into it and we have a Hexcrafter with the Dazzling Display Feats and ungodly amounts of Intimidate so it was very redundant.
I agree that Furious Focus can't hurt. Improved Grapple could come in handy sometimes (against humanoid opponents, e.g.), but I don't know what sort of enemies you'll be facing.
Improved Grapple MIGHT be good. We're in book 3 of Serpent's Skull right now though, and our last 3 encounters were 2 Gargantuan creatures and a group of Shadows so I don't know if that's going to be the trend or not.
I may go ahead and take Furious Focus if I decide not to take Tiger Style since I'll need a Slashing weapon at some point I'm sure.
Furious Focus only applies to two-handed weapons. It will not work on Unarmed Strike.
He gets Improved Unarmed Strike for free, being a Monk and all, does he not?
You might want to look into Crane style to be able to negate a hit 1/round, as well as get a chance to utilize that Power Attack damage even more when it's not your turn; it'll also help you with use of your Combat Reflexes. You can also Fight Defensively with little to no penalty, and get an insane AC increase.
Deflect Arrows is also a decent feat to look into, to protect yourself from those nasty archer/ranged builds.
If you have a friendly combatant, Bodyguard isn't a bad feat if you want to give them that extra edge in AC (and it stacks with all other sources), and can save them a hit or two.
If you aren't really in the mood for AC and want some DR, the Stalwart line of feats will work very well with Crane Style, granting you DR against all melee attacks (though if you get that with Sacred Mountain, it might not stack).
Panther Style is also a very good suggestion, especially if you become one of the characters who has to "suck up" attacks of opportunity.
Snapping Turtle Style is also helpful, since it provides an additional amount of AC (that would stack with all others), as well as applies to Touch AC as well as that CMD.
Just a few that could help you out. There are probably more I didn't mention.
Hrm. Stalwart does say it stacks with DR gained from class features, so that's good, I'll definitely keep those in mind if I go for Crane.
And I am the guy who triggers a lot of AoOs, which makes me lean towards Panther over the others (at least for the order I pick them up).
Snapping Turtle always seemed kind of lackluster unless you were pretty Grapple focused after the first Feat.
So lessee, in the running we've got Panther Style (which I may go ahead and pick up, I thought they required Dodge/Mobility for some reason but they don't), Crane Style (likely my next Style if I take Panther now), Stalwart if I go Crane (possibly), and Furious Focus for a "just in case".
Thanks Darksol!
Wait I think I may have done my math wrong up top. My attack bonus should be +14 base and +12 with Power Attack I believe.
+6 BaB (4 Monk/3 Brawler), +6 Str, +1 Brawler (class feature), +1 Weapon Focus. Hellz yes.
My bad, I've never played a monk before just seen my group members do so. I didn't realize that you got the IUS for free, I thought it was just the normal unarmed strike.
Anyhow I suggested Panther Style because I saw one of my group members always using it with his monk in conjunction with Mobility, he always WANTED (+4 AC vs AOOs) to have opponents try their AOOs on him and then use his fists to devastating effect.
I'll second panther style, I've seen a member of my group just provoke like crazy and take down targets using only panther style, should you continue the chain enemies will do more harm to themselves than good by taking their AOOs at you.
Crane style can do well also, the same player who used panther style has taken crane style every time he has played a monk except once when he decided he would be more offensive. Crane style has never failed him.
Yeah, I think that's what I'll go with. Panther Style and then Panther Claw so I don't have to waste my precious Swifts for retaliatory strikes, I already use WAAAAAAY too many of those.
Take Panther Parry at 9 (maybe) and start Crane at 10 with the bonus Feat.
I'm excited about this again now. I'd been getting pretty frustrated with good ol' Sun Xiao as of late, and was desperately trying to tack on multiclasses to see if any would help but none ever really did. So this rebuild is very nice, since I hit harder (about 6 extra damage) and hit a lot more often (about 6 extra to-hit).
Also, would Ki Mystic or Hungry Ghost Monk be worth taking as well? They both sound pretty nice, but Punishing Kick seems a lot worse than Stunning Fist (though no save is good I suppose), and losing immunity to Disease/Poison seems painful.
D'oH! As it turns out, I had THREE Feats left to pick. Forgot Human Fighters get 3 at first level, not two.
So I'm just moving everything up and thinking of taking either Dodge, Crane Style, or something else at 7.
Edit: Nevermind, Crane needs Dodge anyways. Whoops. Might as well get that then.