Natural armor bonuses stack with all other bonuses to Armor Class (even with armor bonuses) except other natural armor bonuses. Some magical effects (such as the barkskin spell) grant an enhancement bonus to the creature's existing natural armor bonus, which has the effect of increasing the natural armor's overall bonus to Armor Class.
=/
Still, I doubt you'll find a race more tailor made for Monk (stats-wise anyway) than Oread, and -2 Int always hurts. Plus you can always just not take the alternate trait with the +1 NA and keep the regular old Acid Resistance 5. Also it'd definitely be in your best interest to swap out Earth Affinity with either Crystalline Form or Stone in the Blood.
And Sacred Mountain has some nice boosts even if you don't specifically benefit from the Natural Armor bonus. I'm playing a level 8 Master of Many Styles/Sacred Mountain Monk (with a 3 level dip into Brawler for a little extra OOMPH after a rebuild because I dun goofed on some Feat choices early on) and it's pretty nice.
@Ha No: It's either or. You either need a BaB of +3, or 3 Monk levels.
If you want to tank, consider the Maneuver Master archetype (along with Monk of the Sacred Mountain) and taking a level of Fighter or Paladin so you can wear heavy armor. You'll lose wis to AC and fast movement, but can wear full plate and a heavy shield.
Flurry of Maneuvers is also awesome for five reasons:
1) You do not need to use a monk weapon for your flurry.
2) Any non-maneuver attacks you make while flurrying don't take the -2 flurrying penalty.
3) You can make a standard action maneuver (such as grapple) as part of a full attack.
4) You can take Improved [Combat Maneuver] feats (without pre-reqs) as 1st and 2nd level bonus feats, which eliminates Combat Expertise as a feat tax and means you can spend stat points elsewhere besides a 13 int.
5) You are awesome at combat maneuvers.
Monks are excellent tanks, even without multiclassing.
Go full on Monk with the Qiggong Archetype+your choice of other archetype. Maximize your AC with Barkskin, Mage Armor from a buddy or wand, and go down the Crane Style feat chain. Your AC is now in the 30's, have fun.
You can also go Monk/Paladin and go into the Champion of Irori PrC to get super saves and some really neat abilities, but that's really for Saves and Smite. If you want to go down that route I suggest Sohei and be a Japanese Style Warrior Monk, but STILL I would suggest going all Crane Style.
As the above poster said Manuevers are great, and for your purposes I'd suggest Trip. You don't really need an archetype for that, but it certainly helps.
No screw multiclassing and Manuever master.
Go full on Monk with the Qiggong Archetype+your choice of other archetype. Maximize your AC with Barkskin, Mage Armor from a buddy or wand, and go down the Crane Style feat chain. Your AC is now in the 30's, have fun.
Yeah but you are burning resources and feats to do all this, not to mention you are vulnerable to dispel. Wearing full plate takes no resources, and you can still use Barkskin and Crane Style if you wish.
Granted, your touch AC will be bad for a monk, but your regular AC will be great. And you don't need to pump Wis as much as a normal monk so you reduce the MAD-ness.
If you want to tank, consider the Maneuver Master archetype (along with Monk of the Sacred Mountain)Can't be done. They both replace Slow Fall.
Hmm, good catch. Not sure why I thought that was a valid combination.
Well also you forgot that Monks lose Flurry in armor too, which kinda ruins the whole build really.
Well also you forgot that Monks lose Flurry in armor too, which kinda ruins the whole build really.
Monks lose Flurry of Blows when they wear armor, but a Maneuver Master can still make a Flurry of Maneuvers in a shield and heavy armor (and with a greatsword or whatever other weapon you would like.)
Where does it say that?
So far as I can tell, Flurry of Maneuvers works exactly the same as FoB except you can do maneuvers with it. There's no text that says otherwise, and I don't see a FAQ/Errata anywhere that says that.
Coupled with the fact that they ruled (unofficially) Sohei couldn't Flurry in armor, and he actually gets Light Armor proficiency, I think you may be wrong there.
Where does it say that?
So far as I can tell, Flurry of Maneuvers works exactly the same as FoB except you can do maneuvers with it. There's no text that says otherwise, and I don't see a FAQ/Errata anywhere that says that.
Coupled with the fact that they ruled (unofficially) Sohei couldn't Flurry in armor, and he actually gets Light Armor proficiency, I think you may be wrong there.
Flurry of Maneuvers doesn't reference Flurry of Blows at all except to say that it replaces it. As Atarlost mentioned, monks can't use Flurry of Blows in armor, but nothing prevents them from using Flurry of Maneuvers.
It's also not correct to say it "works exactly the same as FoB except you can do maneuvers." Firstly, when you use FoM only your maneuvers take a -2 whereas with FoB all your attacks take a -2. However, when you use FoM you get to use monk level instead of BAB only on maneuvers instead of on all your attacks.
I consider it likely that the armor thing was an oversight, but by RAW at least you can use FoM in armor (and I haven't seen any dev comments regarding this.)
Wait why doesnt the sacred mountain and the racial natural armor bonus stack? The racial trait specifically says its a racial bonus to natural armor. Sacred mount is a natural armor bonus. They definately stack.
Granite Skin: Rocky growths cover the skin of oreads with this racial trait. They gain a +1 racial bonus to natural armor. This racial trait replaces energy resistance.
Iron Monk (Ex): At 2nd level, a monk of the sacred mountain gains Toughness as a bonus feat. In addition, the monk gains a +1 natural armor bonus. This ability replaces evasion.
Because Natural Armor bonuses don't stack, only enhancement bonuses to Natural Armor stack.
Also, Rufus: YOU BETRAYED THE RAW.