I have made a number of variant monk builds that replace Stunning Fists with other feats like Perfect Strike. If I decide to take the Stunning Fists later on:
A) am I able to use it a number of times per day equal to my level?
B) am I able to perform the other effects of Stunning Fists links in the monk section retroactively?
I have made a number of variant monk builds that replace Stunning Fists with other feats like Perfect Strike. If I decide to take the Stunning Fists later on:
A) am I able to use it a number of times per day equal to my level?
B) am I able to perform the other effects of Stunning Fists links in the monk section retroactively?
A) monks get one stun attempt per level a day, regardless of how they get stunning fist
B) I would say no, as you don't have the monk feature, just the feat. However I think the mantis style feat chain would give you some if not all additional effects
Carbon is correct. You have to declare a stunning fist in advance of the roll to hit, and if you miss it is wasted, gone. This is one reason stunning fist is so weak: you have to hit with it (not the monk's strong point to begin with), then you have to score damage (and the monk is weak at penetrating DR, although the recent changes did address this somewhat), and then the target gets a save (and most things you are fighting will have good Fort saves).
Overall, an average 10th level monk will get around a 10% total chance of making a stunning fist work against a CR appropriate melee foe. Given his 10 uses per day, that means maybe one success a day (usually four encounters).
My last monk I took from 1st to 14th level (Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path) and employed successful stunning fists on a total of five occasions.
Let me clarify. I have a Weapon Adept monk build which replaces Stunning Fist with Perfect Strike. At 11th level, I plan on taking the Stunning Fist feat (that's when I would meet all the prerequisites). As an 11th level monk, am I automatically capable of using the feat 11 times per day as indicated in the "special" section of the feat? Since Stunning Fists was replaced at 1st level, am I capable of using the "conditions" as described in the monk class section of the Core Rulebook?
Sorry, for some reason I didn't see "retroactively" in part B. you have to declare an attempt before the attack yes. I don't know about having to declare which effect first (I would probably let it slide). However, I don't believe that an archetype that gives up the monk class feature "Stun" get the additional benefits. Usually you give them up for some other feat (such as perfect strike in your case) and gains an additional effect that "feat" wouldn't give to another class (such as the ability to roll three times when attacking). But I may not be the one to ask about RAW (not that you asked me specifically).
Still very helpful. Thank you.