Drunken Master Monk of the Sacred Mountain of Four Winds

[Sinistar]

A friend of mine is starting a high level campaign soon (starting at level 19), and I decided to use a character concept I've had for a while, which was a Dwarven Drunken Master monk who drank himself blind after he drunkenly engaged in a drinking contest against Cayden Cailean in a bar. Cailean left the monk with a refilling mug of Dwarven ale for his courage, even though he lost. He has a GM approved drunken blindsight ability and a bonus feat as recompense.

Then I realized we needed a tank/meatshield, and while a Drunken Master monk wouldn't be my first choice, I already had the concept planned out, so I added Monk of the Sacred Mountain archetype for defense type stuff. Finally, for mobility's sake (we will be in Hell after all), I took aspect of the Ki Rin with Monk of the Four Winds archetype and an immovable rod for flying 80ft per round. (It's all approved)

I'm not looking to totally optimize, but the campaign is focused around a second edition adventure that he keeps saying is going to be, "balls hard". I was following treantmonk's guide to Monks, but the archetypes make a few of his feat suggestions slightly unusable (Need to get stunning fist as a regular feat to make proper use of Medusa's Wrath), so I was hoping someone might be able to give me some good feats to compensate.

(I don't want to give up any of the archetypes, because I like the way they work for me, and a few feats are tied up with bull rush focus, but I'm interested to see what the boards can come up with.)

[Crosswind]

Interesting. Freaking amazing to me that those archetypes don't overlap!

Broad Archetype Strokes:
Monk of the 4 winds doesn't really add anything useful
Sacred Mountain trades away your evasion for marginal benefits to physical attack defense.
Drunken Master gives you a ton of Ki to spend.

If you're starting at 19th level, you can afford to build a character that would have totally sucked for a lot of levels. So, I'd go:

Stats (20 point buy): 10/16/14+2/10/15+2/8

1.) (Dodge), Crane Style
2.) (Weapon Finesse)
3.) Piranha Strike
5.) Crane Wing
6.) (Combat Reflexes)
7.) Crane Riposte
9.) Lunge
10.) (Medusa's Wrath)
11.) Agile Maneuvers
13.) Critical Focus
14.) (Improved Bull Rush) <--said you wanted this, right?
15.) Staggering Critical
17.) Bull Rush Strike
18.) (Improved Critical: Unarmed)
19.) Greater Bull Rush

I think that hits all the high points. You should have 685,000 gp of stuff. That's a lot of stuff. It should include:

Ring of Evasion (25k)
Headband of Wisdom +6 (36k)
Belt of Dexterity +6 (36k)
Monk's Robe (13k)
Cloak of Resistance+5 (25k)
Amulet of Mighty Fists, Agile, +4 (100k)
Ring of Protection +5 (50k)
Boots of Speed (12k)
Bracers of Armor +8 (64k)
Giant Fist Gauntlets (10k)
+5 tomes of Wisdom and Dex (274k)

Try to get a friendly druid to keep you persistently barkskinned.

The above items leave you about 100k to spend on whatever. =)

-Cross

[Sinistar]

That looks great. Do you think I would have a similar survival rate if I dropped either or both of the non-alcohol based archetypes?

[Son of the Veterinarian]

4 Winds trades out your Stunning Fist for Elemental Fist. Since I've rarely heard anything good about stunning fist at high levels it might be best to stick with the elemental damage.

[Crosswind]

Son of the Veterinarian wrote:

4 Winds trades out your Stunning Fist for Elemental Fist. Since I've rarely heard anything good about stunning fist at high levels it might be best to stick with the elemental damage.

I think you'd be more survivable if you dropped Mountain.

Then you'd get evasion/improved evasion back (at the cost of a tiny amount of DR and negligible AC). You could then wear a Ring of Freedom of Movement, which is a transcendent, amazing item.

You could also do Quinggong monk and trade Slow Fall for Bark Skin, which would allow you to give yourself a +5 enhancement bonus to natural armor every day.

Four Winds monk is largely inoffensive - you don't trade away anything useful, but also don't get anything super useful. Elemental Fist for Stunning Fist is probably okay.

Shield bonuses (what you get from sacred mountain) are easy to come by at high levels. Buy a ton of potions of shield (you are rich), or a dancing shield. =)

-Cross

[Chris P. Bacon]

I had the pleasure of playing a Dwarven Drunken Master/Quinggong Monk; by gorsh it was fun. Not stupendously effective, mind you, but reasonable and just so damn fun.

I don't have my sheet handy, but here's what I can recall:

- I took the Fortified Drinker trait
- swapped Slow Fall for Barkskin at 4th, and High Jump for Scorching Ray (Scorching Belch, more like) at 5th; kept Wholeness of Body, as it basically allows infinite self-healing out of combat (take that, Paladins!).
- also got myself a bottomless tankard; GM ruled it was basically a bag of holding shaped like a stein; took the Rough and Ready trait to be able to hit people with it without penalty - and with a +1 trait bonus no less! I actually intended to enchant the thing, but never got around to it.

In terms of feats, I think I took:

1: Endurance, (Dodge/IUS/Stunning Fist as bonuses)
2: (Deflect Arrows)
3: Fast Drinker
4: -
5: Drunken Brawler

- Can't recall what I chose as a bonus at 6th, and I think at 7th I started Dragon Style.
- At 11th, which I never got to, Deep Drinker is a must. Quicken SLA is also great for your Scorching Ray.

The idea here is kind of obvious: taking a drink is a swift action, which gives you:
* +1 drunken ki (+2 at 11th level)
* temporary HP equal to your level
* +2 to fort and will saves
* +2 vs mind-affecting effects
* -2 reflex saves

Barkskin up at the first sign of danger. You can belch Scorching Rays as desired, which is nice for a little range; just don't let your beard catch fire.

You may want to check with your GM about whether the -2 to reflex saves from the Drunken Brawler feat stacks with itself infinitely; my GM ruled that penalties from the same source don't stack, but there is wiggle room for the harsh interpretation that you'll eventually be walking around with like a -100 to reflex saves. Not actually a huge deal, since you'll have tons of free temp HP and can drink yourself back to full health between fights, but still. If your GM takes the harsh interpretation, you may want to take another look at an archetype that ditches Evasion.

I took Craft: Brewer and made my own spirits. A bag of holding I can carry up to 250 pounds of weight, and a dose of Dwarven stout weighs only 1/2 a pound; that means my tankard held up to 500 drinks at max capacity; easily enough for a whole adventure. One dose costs 4cp, and my GM ruled it was a DC 15 (high quality item); with 1 rank, the class skill bonus, and masterwork tools, I could easily succeed when taking 10, which was good enough to make 80 doses in a day's work. Easily enough to keep me going between adventures!

Note: I kind of regretted not taking the Sensei archetype, too, as the idea of a drunken dwarf slurring bafflingly wise, yet horrifyingly profanity-laced proverbs tickles me. Losing flurry hurts, but you can bestow barkskin on your allies virtually for free, and the fluff is just great.

Speaking of fluff: my character's background was that he came from a dwarven clan renowned for it's specialization in brewing the finest spirits in the realm, the best of which were reserved for sacrifice to the gods and forbidden for anyone else to drink. Well, my dwarf couldn't resist a sip, and while as a result he gained tremendous divine and spiritual insight (leading to his career as a drunken master), he was also disowned from his clan and exiled from his homeland.

[Rynjin]

Drop Sacred Mountain, pick up Qinggong.

Slow Fall/High Jump are useless. Drop 'em for something like Barkskin and Scorching Ray. Wholeness of Body and some others can be traded out too.

Don't even bother rationing your Ki as a Drunken master, you've got an infinite mug of booze which gives you effectively infinite Ki.

[Sinistar]

I never read about the Qinggong Monk. It does seem like a good alternative. Do you think Scorching Ray would be useful against demons and devils (moreso than the firewater breath of the drunken master class)? Also, is quivering palm worth holding on to?

[Rynjin]

Scorching Ray has half the cost, so it's still decent.

As I've never played a game up to 15th as a Monk, I can't speak to thr usefulness, but Quivering Palm just seems too COOL to trade out.

[Daniel Turner Zen Archer]

Quivering Palm would be useful against demons and devils and most enemies in general, but it IS a fortitude save against Quivering Palm's effect so be careful with it.

[Skull]

Slow Fall I trade out in a heartbeat, but I really like High Jump.
Ive had monks jump clear across vast chasms or rivers without any issue without a starting jump :P

But it depends what you are going for.

[Sinistar]

That's why I have aspect of the Ki Rin from Monk of the Four Winds. Flying speed equal to land speed (80ft). If my interpretation of the text from that aspect is correct, an immovable rod will let me fly indefinitely, as long as I activate it after flying.

[Imbicatus]

Slow fall is nice if you take the feat that lets you air walk half your slow fall speed. But you can get flight with items easily enough to not miss it too much if you trade it.