Ki Mystic Ki Pool Stacking Question

[Discomancer]

Hey, all!

Sorry to bother the thread with this questions (since it has been asked many times), but I was wondering if the issue regarding the stacking of a Core Monk's Ki Pool and Ki Mystic's Ki Mystic ability ever got answered. According to this thread, it should appear in the FAQ. However, I can't seem to find it.

Anyone able to point me in the direction of an answer or a post where this is explained?

Many thanks!

[R2D2TS]

I just did a search myself and could not find the answer in any FAQ, either. That is a bit weird that that thread is marked like that. So, just like Discomancer, I would like to know where the answer is located. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ximen Bao]

To my knowledge it was never actually answered. Whether it means they're saving the answer for a future FAQ update, or are using the tag as a faq-based variant on 'no reply required' is not determinable.

[Kazumetsa Raijin]

I never noticed this. It replaces Still Mind... not Ki Pool. Based off of that I can only assume they would stack. You would receive a Ki Pool at 3 and 4? At level 4 your total Ki would be 14. At level 20 your Ki would be at 40 with a few typical enhancements to Wisdom. They deserve to have all that Ki... but who am I to judge. There has to be a FAQ update with this later. FAQd anyways!

[Ximen Bao]

Kazumetsa Raijin wrote:

I never noticed this. It replaces Still Mind... not Ki Pool. Based off of that I can only assume they would stack. You would receive a Ki Pool at 3 and 4? At level 4 your total Ki would be 14. At level 20 your Ki would be at 40 with a few typical enhancements to Wisdom. They deserve to have all that Ki... but who am I to judge. There has to be a FAQ update with this later. FAQd anyways!

I think it's pretty clear they stack RAW.

There are generally two questions involved.

1. Is that RAI or did they flub the replacement ability just cause still mind gets replaced so much elsewhere.

2. Does the Ki Mystic ability stack for all normal ki purposes or do you track a second ki pool for that ability solely for activating the powers it specifies (knowledge, ability, and skill checks). How about other archetype-specific abilities.

My take is

1. It's RAI. It's not that much better a Ki source than a Drunken Master with a bag of drinks or a Hungry Ghost monk with a bag of rats. It's a bigger pool versus ability to regenerate ki.

2. It stacks for all normal ki purposes. It says it grants you a pool of ki points. It seems specifically worded to mesh with all other abilities that want points spent from a ki pool, and any restrictions have to be read in through RAI inference rather than any actual restrictive language. Which says to me there aren't any actual restrictions.

I'm hoping this eventually does get officially answered though. You can do some fun thinks with monks, but the rule interpretations tend to vary. I'm just glad they officially sorted out qinggong.

[Pink Dragon]

It seems obvious to me that Ki Mystic gives a Ki Pool at 3rd level (one level earlier than a normal monk) but that at 3rd level the ki points can only be used for the Ki Mystic abilities. At 4th level, the monk can now use ki points for the normal monk ki pool abilities as well as the Ki Mystic abilities and he gets an additional 2 points to the ki pool on top of half monk level + wisdom modifier. Essentially the Ki Mystic ki pool merges (not stacks) with the normal 4th level ki pool.

[Pink Dragon]

To follow up on my analysis, the Ki Mystic ki pool replaces Still Mind. Still Mind gives a +2 bonus on saving throws against enchantment spells and effects. If the Ki Mystic ki pool were to stack with the normal 4th level ki pool rather than merge with it, the trade-off would be decidedly unbalanced toward Ki Mystic. None of the other archetypes create such an imbalance.

Ki Mystic's ki pool adds +2 to the total number of ki points and allows expenditure of ki points to buff knowledge skills. This seems a reasonable trade-off for losing a +2 bonus on saving throws against enchantment spells and effects. Anything more would be abuse IMO.