Easily done, max out dex and wisdom, take a Qingong monk with the barkskin ki-power at 4th level, and focus on Crane Style to deflect one attack a round automatically.
Only problem with this guy is, why would the enemy concentrate on hitting him? Without high strength or an agile amulet of mighty fists (which he will not get until at least 5th or 6th level) he won't be dealing significant damage at any level. Odds are his accuracy won't be good enough to hurt high-AC targets at higher levels very often at all.
Building a monk that's an AC beast is easy. Building one that can hit accurately and hard enough to get the enemy's attention...that's the tricky bit. Even the best builds I have seen are also-rans compared to the kind of damage and accuracy a full BAB class can turn out when using it's mojo.
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Be a tetori with Turtle style and agile manuevers. One enemy cannot ignore him; and even when grappling, he maintains his AC. Tengu or Aasmir both do this well, since they are +Wis +Dex. Get the Ki Throw/Binding Throw line and focus on both tripping AND grappling; combine the two and you get a downed opponent that cannot stand back up, let your friends kill the baddy.
I played a monk of the sacred mountain with a level in sorcerer. Choose a bloodline that uses wisdom. I was casting mage armor on myself at level 1. You can also get shocking grasp which will give you a +3 to hit anything wearing metal. Any of the touch spells will work for you. You cast then you hit them next round. The spells discharge when you hit them. You can also get arcane strike for an additional +1. Then take crane feat and park yourself in front of the party. You get a number of bonuses to ac, can do decent damage, and can hit fairly well.
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So, I wish to build a tank to take the blows for my party. I once saw a lvl. 6 monk with sick amounts of AC but I don't know how to build a monk. Any advice would be good, please help.
Thinking a human with +2 WIS or an Aasimar with +2 WIS +2 DEX.
Also, there is Tengu and Vanaras as races for the Monk that add to straight WIs/Dex. I've got my CHA dumped. My stats are 12/18/10/12/18/5.
If you go Qinggong, you can swap one of your extra abilities at either levels 4 or 5 for Bark Skin. At level 4 my AC is a base of 21 with a Ring of Protection +1. Not too shabby!
Also if you go all Dex/Wis build, you're going to have pretty oustanding AC and if you combine Weapon Finesse a pretty baller attack rating. However you'll hit for crap and bypassing DR will suck for you.
The great thing about being this build, is that other abilities from other classes stack PERFECT with your monk's touch, and normal AC. We recently just killed the high priestess deep down in the sacrificial chambers of Thistletop, and she literally couldn't touch me without a 19 or 20 on that diceroll(but could easily maim everyone else). My AC was at 31 and you best believe I was disarming and tripping like mad. Though I can't bring damage - yet - once I go Druid and go Huge form and get Strong Jaw my damage will be pretty insane(especially if I ever get Agile enchant). Anyways, yeah, 31 AC with Mage Armor on me, Bark Skin, and using my Ki Pool. If I went full defense, I would have been at 37 - but that's excessive.
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I'm playing a Monk (Master of Many Styles) 2 / Magus (Kensai, Bladebound) X in my current campaign, and he's incredibly hard to take down.
He gets +Dex, + Wis, and +Int to AC, casts shield, can cast mage armor through Spell Blending, fights defensively, uses Combat Expertise, and so on. His AC (and his Touch AC) are through the roof.
He has Crane Style and Crane Wing from Monk, so he can ignore one melee hit per round.
He's a very durable tank. I recommend Threatening Defender and Magical Knack (Magus) for traits.
He uses a Scimitar (Black Blade) with Dervish Dance and Power Attack (we play in a 25 point buy game, which helps with the 13 Strength).
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I'm playing a Monk (Master of Many Styles) 2 / Magus (Kensai, Bladebound) X in my current campaign, and he's incredibly hard to take down.
He gets +Dex, + Wis, and +Int to AC, casts shield, can cast mage armor through Spell Blending, fights defensively, uses Combat Expertise, and so on. His AC (and his Touch AC) are through the roof.
He has Crane Style and Crane Wing from Monk, so he can ignore one melee hit per round.
He's a very durable tank. I recommend Threatening Defender and Magical Knack (Magus) for traits.
He uses a Scimitar (Black Blade) with Dervish Dance and Power Attack (we play in a 25 point buy game, which helps with the 13 Strength).
Post that build! I'd like to see it. I've always wondered about a Magus/Monk combo.
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All this is semi-enlightening but it doesn't help me.
I know nothing about Monks. I'd like to play a capable monk but I won't play a min/max PC. I'm thinking the following:
Str. 10
Dex. 16
Con. 12
Int. 14
Wis. 16
Cha. 13
The 16s being the Blood of Angels Aasimar bonuses.
Now, what Feat do I want to go with? Something that will make me useful to my party and still allow me to hit the enemy. Any good feats at lvl. 1 that make the Monk semi good?
Armor class in an important defense, but so are hit points, hit negation, saving throws, immunities, evasion, uncanny dodge, damage reduction, and even mobility. If your goal is to maximize armor class, that's something you can do. If your goal is to be very durable in combat, your better off spreading your resources out a bit than putting all of your eggs in the AC basket.
I suggest using Crane Style, which will improve your ability to fight defensively (raising your AC) and negating one hit per round.
I also suggest using a weapon, one-handed so that Crane Style works. This will make you more of a threat in combat than unarmed fighting does, and free up your neck/amulet slot for an Amulet of Natural Armor rather than Amulet of Mighty Fists.
With a decent CON and +1 HP per level for favored class, Crane Style, fighting Defensively, decent DEX, decent WIS, great saves, and monk class abilities, this will all combine to make you very durable. On top of all that, you'll want to update your Ring of Protection, Bracers of Armor, Amulet of Natural Armor, and Monk's Robes slowly as you level.
One last suggestion, don't choose an archetype that takes away too many class features. If you gimp your innate monk defenses you'll undermine your plan, and if you gimp your offense, you'll get real sick of playing a fireplug after a few levels.
If you want to max out AC, here's my suggestion:
Halfling, main stats Wis and Dex
L1: Fighter (Lore warden): Dodge, Cautious Fighter (+2 dodge bonus to AC when fighting defensively)
L2: Fighter (Lore Warden): Combat Expertise for free, Blundering Defense (adjacent allies get 1/2 your dodge bonus as luck bonus to AC)
L3: Monk (Master of Many Styles): Crane Style, Snapping Turtle Style (put 3 ranks in Acrobatics here)
L4: Monk (Master of Many Styles): Crane Wing
From this point on, you can do pretty much whatever you want. Your AC is now Wis Mod + Dex mod, then add in:
+ 1 (Size)
+ 1 (Dodge)
+ 1 (Combat expertise, goes to +2 next BAB point)
+ 1 (Snapping turtle style, shield bonus)
+ 6 (Fighting defensively with Crane Style/Cautious Fighter/Acrobatics)
---
+10 AC above your Wis mod and Dex Mod AND you get to deflect 1 attack per round
Bonus: all adjacent allies get +3 luck bonus to their AC also.
Downsides:
1) You can't hit anything. Solution: Pick up Weapon Finesse, which applies to unarmed strikes, as well. OR go with ranged attacks and don't worry about provoking AoO in melee. You're an AC monster: sucking up AoOs is part of the charm.
2) You are small size, which means small damage weapons and 20 ft movement. Solution: continue your monk levels for fast movement and increasing damage to unarmed strikes. Alternatively, look into Dervish Dancer to apply Dex bonus to damage with a scimitar; since you have to leave one hand free for Crane Wing and Snapping Turtle, Dervish Dancer dovetails nicely. Later on, look into Butterfly's Sting, which lets you confirm a critical hit with your tiny kukri and invite your massive barbarian friend to do the damage for you.
3) Most of these don't work flat footed. Solution: get Uncanny Dodge if possible (2 levels Barbarian? 4 levels of rogue? Might be tricky). Alternatively, look into magic items that keep you from being flatfooted or pump your initiative and Perception (Dex and Wis, again, so that will help out).
4) Why would bad guys target you? Solution: pick up the Antagonize feat, see Butterfly's Sting in #2, wait to see how long it takes the GM and/or BBEG to figure out that taking you out drops everyone else's AC by 3.
If you want min/max AC beast, that's the best I can come up with. Minimize your size, and max your AC. :-)
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Ok, building a PFS monk. So, need to be good. 20 point buy. All the PFS restrictions on race and classes. Don't have any race boons, so I can only play what is normally available in PFS.
I want to hit and do dmg but I wish to tank for my party, since most people I play with, don't have a party tank and then people get hosed.
Can you make friends with a caster who will cast Mage Armor for you? (I'd suggest buying them a Pearl of Power I ASAP to cover daily castings).
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For a 20 pt buy monk you have a choice: Hit and do damage (Str based, either dex or wis will suffer), Hit and Tank (Dex based, Str will suffer), or Hit, do damage, have a good ac, but don't tank(Zen archer). As a monk you need 4 good stats, and 20 pt buy just doesn't give you enough to do them all.
If you want to tank, then go the finesse route, and use maneuvers to force enemies to pay attention to you. Your damage will be low, but you will hit, and your AC will be sky high. If you can get an agile weapon/amof, then your damage will be ok, but don't expect that for a long time.
If you want to do damage, go STR based, but your AC will not be enough to keep you alive if you are the only melee drawing attacks.
Halfling, main stats Wis and Dex
Hate to burst your bubble, but halflings are dex and cha.
I am also going to throw in a request to see that magus/monk build mentioned earlier. It would be fascinating.
Sorry if I wasn't clear. "Start with a Halfling. Put points into Wis and Dex as your main stats."
Even though Haflings don't get Wis as a boost stat, the Halfling-specific AC feats more than make up for it.
If you're looking for "race that has Wis and Dex boosted", the answer is Tengu. I've messed with those builds, too. And for "maximum AC potential," the Halfling build has won every single time.
Can you make friends with a caster who will cast Mage Armor for you? (I'd suggest buying them a Pearl of Power I ASAP to cover daily castings).If there's a caster in the group, then maybe. This is PFS so you don't buy stuff for other people.
You can, however, buy stuff and loan it to other people. The classic example is everyone carrying around Cure Light Wounds wands, and figuring out who to hand it to right after the mission briefing.
I know several monks who buy wands of Mage Armor for 2 prestige and hand it to the arcane caster at the beginning of the scenario. That only becomes a problem if there's no arcane caster in your party.
Potions are always available, so that's another option. Carry a potion of mage armor (50 gp), shield of faith (50 gp), and barkskin (150 gp) for a total of +8 AC for the first minute, +6 AC for the next eight minutes, and +4 for the remainder of the hour.
Ok, building a PFS monk. So, need to be good. 20 point buy. All the PFS restrictions on race and classes. Don't have any race boons, so I can only play what is normally available in PFS.
I want to hit and do dmg but I wish to tank for my party, since most people I play with, don't have a party tank and then people get hosed.
When you say "tank", do you mean a) "stand in the way and block the bad guys", b) "shut down the bad guys so they can't do anything" or c) "roll unstoppably across the battlefield blowing things up"?
Some Monk suggestions:
For a), consider Flowing Monk, possibly combined with Monk of the Sacred Mountain. You'll want to be a medium character so you can trip and reposition enemies. Pick up Improved Trip and Ki Throw at first level, then stand in the front and ruin the GM's evening. Nothing makes a fight go faster than picking up bad guys one at a time and dropping them prone between the rogue and the fighter. Get a reach/trip weapon and completely control the battlefield.
For b), I've seen two different Tetori builds, and both were unstoppable, even at low levels. The Tetori eliminates one combatant at a time; even if the guy manages to break the grapple, it still costs him his action, and the Tetori grabs him again the next round anyway. Now, without good backup, the Tetori can be a sitting duck for the rest of the bad guys, and he'll still take damage when grappling. So like any other front line fighter, he'll need someone keeping him healthy.
For c)...hm...I don't know. Maybe the Monk/Magus combo would work here. Or possibly Monk (no archetype) with a level dip into Cleric, to pick up Crusaders Flurry. Find the biggest, baddest favored weapon you can, and flurry with it. Glaive is a good choice, as is greataxe, greatsword, warhammer...
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When I said tank, I meant the guy who others would try to hit and fail and possibly get them to attempt it anyways. Not sure if there's a feat to provoke attacks against yourself but it would be useful. You don't want the DM targeting the low AC guys if you are the AC beast and you want them to fail against you.
When I said tank, I meant the guy who others would try to hit and fail and possibly get them to attempt it anyways. Not sure if there's a feat to provoke attacks against yourself but it would be useful. You don't want the DM targeting the low AC guys if you are the AC beast and you want them to fail against you.
Right. There are some feats and spells that provoke people to attack you:
Antagonize (feat): Benefit: You can make Diplomacy and Intimidate checks to make creatures respond to you with hostility.
Compel Hostility (spell): Whenever a creature you can see that threatens you makes an attack against one of your allies, as an immediate action, you can compel that creature to attack you instead.
Less directly, there's also
Bodyguard (feat): When an adjacent ally is attacked, you may use an attack of opportunity to attempt the aid another action to improve your ally’s AC. (Requires Combat Reflexes. You can combine this with the Helpful trait for +3 AC to your ally.)
In Harm's Way (feat): While using the aid another action to improve an adjacent ally's AC [from Bodyguard], you can intercept a successful attack against that ally as an immediate action, taking full damage from that attack and any associated effects (bleed, poison, etc.).
Covering Defense(feat; requires a shield): When you use the total defense action while using a light, heavy, or tower shield, you can provide a cover bonus to AC against all attacks to an adjacent ally your size or smaller. This cover bonus is equal to your shield's shield bonus and lasts until the beginning of your next turn.
There's also the Archon Style in the Blood of Angels book, which includes Archon Style, Archon Diversion, and Archon Justice. They're not in the PRD, but they might fit the character concept. (They're similar to Crane Style, Crane Wing, and Crane Riposte except you deflect attacks against allies instead.)
Hope this gives you some interesting things to look into.
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Only problem with this guy is, why would the enemy concentrate on hitting him? Without high strength or an agile amulet of mighty fists (which he will not get until at least 5th or 6th level) he won't be dealing significant damage at any level. Odds are his accuracy won't be good enough to hurt high-AC targets at higher levels very often at all.
*THIS*...right here.
Every intelligent opponent (any maybe even dumb ones run by smart, evil GMs) is going to flat-out ignore a halfling superball with the cottony soft fists of velvety touch if there's a rampaging barbarian with a fauchard, or a Manyshot archer, to worry about.
There are ways to build incredibly awesome monks...and about 95% of the builds I see are nowhere near that description.
Building a monk that's an AC beast is easy.Yup. Ki for +4, and you're gold in any situation where you expect to get hit more than once per round (because then +4 AC is hella better than spending the point for one extra attack)
Even the best builds I have seen are also-rans compared to the kind of damage and accuracy a full BAB class can turn out when using it's mojo.
Try a dwarf Four Winds with a style chain which permits special weirdness when landing Elemental Fist attacks. (Having the highest Perception in the party will soon make you invaluable, even if your damage initially lags.)
STR:14
DEX:14
CON+16
INT:12
WIS+17 (bumps)
CHA-05
Tier 1/2 ....you kick ass with two attacks.
Tier 3/4 ....more difficult, because you're still saving money
Tier 5/6 ....probably most dangerous for monks
Tier (higher) ....things get easier as item purchases and abilities accumulate
Note that at 7th, a monk's unarmed strikes are now (6th printing) treated as silver and cold-iron for purposes of bypassing DR.
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Post that build! I'd like to see it. I've always wondered about a Magus/Monk combo.
LN Male Human Monk (Master of Many Styles) 2 / Magus (Kensai, Bladebound) X
13 Str 3
19 Dex 13 [+2 racial][+1 at 4th,12th]
13 Con 3 [+1 at 8th]
14 Int 5
14 Wis 5
7 Cha -4
Traits: Magical Knack (Magus), Threatening Defender
01 Monk 1 Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise, Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Crane Style, Wis to AC
02 Magus 1 Weapon Proficiency (Scimitar), Weapon Focus (Scimitar), Canny Defense (Int to AC) (+1)
03 Monk 2 Dervish Dance, Crane Wing, Evasion
04 Magus 2 Canny Defense (Int to AC) (+2), +1 Dex
05 Magus 3 Power Attack, Black Blade (+1), Alertness, Black Blade Strike (+1), Telepathy, Unbreakable
06 Magus 4 Perfect Strike
07 Magus 5 Deflect Arrows, Dodge, Black Blade (+2), Black Blade Strike (+2), Energy Attunement
08 Magus 6 +1 Con, Magus Arcana (Arcane Accuracy or Spell Blending[Mage Armor and Anticipate Peril?])
09 Magus 7 Weapon Specialization (Scimitar), Fighter Training, Iaijutsu
10 Magus 8
11 Magus 9 Arcane Strike, Black Blade (+3), Black Blade Strike (+3), Teleport Blade, Critical Perfection
12 Magus 10 +1 Dex
13 Magus 11 Toughness, Crane Riposte, Superior Reflexes
14 Magus 12 Magus Arcana (Ghost Blade)
15 Magus 13 <Feat>, Black Blade (+4), Black Blade Strike (+4), Transfer Arcana, Iaijutsu Focus
Later levels are kind of fuzzy, and build is only to 15th level, since we never play much above that.
One thing of note: since you don't wear armor, and since you don't need a magic weapon because of Black Blade, you can focus more of your money on stat-boosting items and a decent Cloak of Resistance, to boost your AC (Int+Dex+Wis to AC) and saves even more.
This build does struggle a bit until 3rd level, but from that level on it works out really well.
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I'm going to agree with others that a character that focuses only on AC will be swiftly ignored. That's one of the reasons I find Crane Style not nearly as overpowered as it looks.
Someone else mentioned the Tetori archetype, and I think that's a good pick. Along with a nigh-inescapable grapple check, you can still pull off a great AC. With Rapid Grappler, you can grapple, pin and tie up an opponent in a single round, all while keeping your full AC.
An AC breakdown for a level 6 Tetori with mage armour and Snapping Turtle Style:
AC 23, touch 19, flat-footed 21 (+4 armour, +1 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 monk, +2 Snapping Turtle Style, +3 Wis)
Not unhittable, but consider that your grappled opponent is going to be making his attacks at -2. At level 7 you can pick up barkskin instead of Wholeness of Body with the Qinggong archetype, and that will move you up to 25.