I'd like a bit of advice on what archetypes, feats, and class features I should take as an Oread Monk. The DM is allowing anything on the SRD, although she prefers that we use items from the Core, Ultimate, and Advanced book series.
The first two feat slots are being taken up by feats my DM recommended to me, Sacred Vow and Vow of Poverty from the Book of Exalted Deeds (as well as the bonus Exalted feats from that book). She's fully aware the book is from 3.5 and is making it the one exception to her rule.
After the Vows, though, I'm not entirely sure where to go with the character build, how many levels I should take of Monk, if there are any good Prestige classes to go with it, ect... I'm used to 3.5's options, but I haven't really gotten time to read through all of the books for Pathfinder. Any and all help is appreciated.
Well, master of many styles or zen archer are both awesome archetypes of monk, so consider them. As for monk multiclass/prestige... don't. I can only think of one ok build that multi classes monk, and its a dip.
Well, you now have as many feats as a fighter, so you probably want to take advantage of that. Zen Archer is definitely a good option in that regard, especially since you don't need Dex after level 2. However, trying to get through high-level DRs with a masterwork bow probably won't end too well. In fact, you'll probably need to spend most of the feats on stuff like Eldritch Claws (ask your GM if it works with unarmed strikes) or other things to overcome your lack of items. Straight monk would probably do you fine, maybe with Improved/Greater of your favorite combat maneuver.
I, too, would advocate staying away from multiclassing - I spent an afternoon yesterday trying to make either an Unarmed Fighter/Monk of Many Styles/Urban Barbarian build or a Monk of Many Styles/Crossblooded Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple build, and found neither to my liking. (Remember, you can still have one style feat chain AND gain the benefits of Flurry of Blows, which is pretty much the only thing that makes the monk competitive in melee.)
PS: If you're looking for cool feats, Oreads have access to a chain that culminates with you getting Earth Glide, which is an awesome form of movement in some campaigns.
I rolled up my witnessed stats a while back, and they are really freaking good, so I pretty much have only one dump stat and 3 18s pre-racial.
I tried looking at the Student of Stone archetype, but I found myself questioning whether it's worth it or not because of the lack of Evasion. I'm pretty sure I'm also going to stick with a straight Monk for most of the campaign, as well, since I didn't see any PrCs that screamed "this is awesome for Monks". I really need to read all of the archetypes in my Ultimate Combat, though.
On another note, I also tried rolling up ideas for my character's backstory using Central Casting: Heroes of Legend (probably one of the wackiest books for backstory generation) and some of the parts of it really fit, like him being orphaned at a monastery at birth. However, I did get two crazy events: he was born with a blessing of having one beautiful body part: his chest, at the cost of being freakishly tall for an Oread.
Oh my lord. You're starting with 20 Str AND 20 Wis? And potentially 18 Con? This isn't going to be a monk, it's going to be a TANK. You might consider putting more focus on Stunning Fist - with such a high Wis score, you've got a pretty good shot at landing debuffs.
Hmm, since you're an oread, maybe your chest is literally chiseled. Hey, here's an idea - maybe, due to your Oread ancestry and/or some freak incident, your chest is actually made of diamond! And that's why you adopted the vow of poverty and started adventuring - you saw how everyone in your childhood went mad with greed after seeing you.
Plus, you can trick people into breaking their fist on your chest.
I really like those backstory ideas, and my monk barely has any material possessions as is (My GM says I should give my non-ascetic equipment to charity, funnily enough, one of the players is named Charity). We've already made the "chiseled, rock-hard abs" joke, as well.
Also, my character is named Garruk (no relation to the Planeswalker from the popular card game), so I was thinking about putting emphasis on his relation to nature, earth, and the wilderness.
Stunning Fist might be a good emphasis to take, debuffing is always good, and I have experience in that category (I ran a Natural Lythari/Monk 4/Warshaper 4/Fist of the Forest 1 in a previous campaign of 3.5, who used it to great effect).
This is the miniature I'm probably going to use:
http://www.reapermini.com/graphics/gallery/4/02926_G.jpg
EDIT: DM says "I'd say looks like diamond, but not actual diamond."
I'll get a copy of my current character on the board soon, when I get to my sheet. We have until the end of the section we're on to decide the final character to play the campaign with.
Hmm... perhaps he was brought up by some kind of earth-aligned outsider or magical beast, that taught him the ways of the monk? I'm getting flashbacks to Avatar, the Last Airbender, and how Toph was taught earthbending by giant badger moles...
Ranked skills:
Acrobatics: 9
Perception: 10
Sense Motive: 10
Stealth: 9 (This has become somewhat of a running joke, since I usually roll high stealth checks)
Survival: 11
Swim: 10 (Because this only makes sense!)
Are there any feats in particular you guys would recommend for his class bonuses and level-up feats? I'm pretty sure his Exalted feats need to be from BoED...
Sorry for the double post, but my next meeting is in an hour, and I'd really like to know which archetype you think would benefit my character the most before my character build is set in stone. (Okay, I wasn't even TRYING to make a rock pun there. XD)
Drunken Master is a decent archetype and the flavor matches with a VoP.
Empty-handed monk works as well flavor wise and can help make up for your inability to use magic items, plus it syncs very well with Weapon Adept, as taking both gets you get a combination of feats that allows you to improve your crit range twice with your selected weapon, though I'm not sure that's RAI.
