I'm not much of a monk person but I thought I might as well give it a shot as its one of the few uncharted grounds for me as a player when it comes to playing different class/race combinations. So far I got a pretty solid idea of where I want to take this but still would like advice.
Neutral Asura-Spawn Tiefling Monk 12 (Master of Many Styles and Qinggong)
STR:18 , DEX:16 , CON:12 , INT:5 , WIS:18 , CHA:7
AC: 22, Flat-Footed: 12, Touch: 20, Fortitude: 8, Reflex: 11, Will: 12
Traits: Heavy Hitter, Adopted (by Aasimars), Enlightened Warrior
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Monkey Style, Armor of the Pit, Dragon Style, Endurance, Diehard, Crane Style, Deflect Arrows, Improved Critical, Crane Wing, Snatch Arrows
Skills: Acrobatics +22, Climb +20
Resistances: Electricity 5, Cold 5, Fire 5
Spell-like Ability: Hideous Laughter 1/Day
Monk Stuff: Total Movement Speed (30+40 Feet), Still Mind, Evasion, Unarmed Strike Damage (2d6), Manuever Training, Abundant Step, Purity of Body, Diamond Soul, Evasion, Improved Evasion
Qinggong Monk Stuff (CL 12): Barkskin (1 Ki, +5 AC), Scorching Ray (2 Ki, 3 Rays), Cloak of Winds (2 Ki)
"I care little for morality squabbles as all it does is waste time and act often times as traps that simply trick and deceive through philosophical means."
"Fighting is my moral code and violence is my life's blood."
"Go take that ego inflated head of yours elsewhere before it gets popped like balloon."
"You think I jest, yet I do believe death is an insignificant part of everyday life when I myself focus on the here and now."
"You got me wrong buddy. I don't think pain and suffering is a good or even an enjoyable thing, its just a natural part of our lives that exists for us to grow as people."
Dragon Ferocity
You may even want dragon roar and elemental fist.
Each style has 3 feats in it. You want atleast the first 2 of dragon.
Snatch Arrows may not be worth it unless you have something to do with the arrow after you snag it.
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I wonder if I am the only one getting an Asura's Wrath vibe here.
Dragon Ferocity like Marthkus said is a good one. Since you don't have Ki Arrow for Qinggong side, I would consider just dropping the Snatch Arrows feat as well.
Boar Style and Boar Shred, Snapping Turtle (all) are also some pretty good styles to consider.
Three issues with your monk build:
Statistics: 5 intelligence isn't fun to RP, your basically barely able to learn to write your own name - your quotes should consist of "Ug smash!" and nothing else, this guy cannot even pronounce words of more than one syllable. 7 Charisma combined with that, and you have no ability to interact socially whatsoever - you fart in public, pick your nose, and have no table manners. That means in any game with RP, you are on the sidelines. Further, it's going to cripple one of the monk's assets, skills. You can afford to drop Wisdom a little and still have a good AC.
Archetypes: The Master of Many Styles absolutely sucks unless it's a dip class. You lose your best offensive feature, flurry of blows, and that drops you to 3/4 BAB with no means of self-buffing, on a class that already has trouble hitting. Your high strength will make up for that somewhat, but in all honesty, I strongly recommend you drop the MoMS and stick to one style, probably Dragon given your strength.
Lack of Maneuvers: One thing monks can do reasonably well are maneuvers, it's always good to have one or two for foes you can't hit well. Spend some feats here instead of on those styles, is my advice.
Snatch Arrows may not be worth it unless you have something to do with the arrow after you snag it.
snatch arrow allows you to not only catch an arrow but any thrown projectile, you can also throw it back (pretty sure counts as AoO not sure though)
5 int just makes her simple. 18 wis prevents her from being stupid.
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At this level 22 AC is pretty much in the tank anyway, you get hit. If I were you I'd rearrange the stat buy. Wisdom is great, and in all honesty better than dexterity for this build. If it were me, I'd drop that Dex down to a 14, this gives you 5 stat buy points to work with, increase Int to an 8 get some of those skills back.
Let me point out however that I will not be playing this character. I nor anyone else in this thread has to be satisfied with the build, that is the OP's job.
I do think that I'd drop MoMS. With the feats chosen for this build it is not adding a whole lot, Mixing the basic style feats is not as good as advancing multiple styles. I'd drop monkey style and Improved Critical for Dragon Ferocity and Crane Riposte IF you keep Master of Many Styles.
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AC 22? You will want bracers of armor and rings of deflection on that monk. If you choose a different archetype, might I suggest either A.)Zen Archer, pretty much the best monks in the game IMHO if you like ranged combat or B.)Monk of the Empty hand. Unless you plan on focusing on using Monk weapons this archetype just means that you can have fun with the flavor of picking up a chair and bashing someone over the head with it. There is also Monk of the Sacred Mountain which could make for a fun spring attack build. Last thing, if you really like maneuvers, I recommend going Tetori because you get good at grappling, and by good, I mean really good. And if you take 4 levels of Druid (Not reccomended) you could start giving people BEAR HUGS and grappling them with your BEAR ARMS!*ba-dum crash*
5 int just makes her simple. 18 wis prevents her from being stupid.
Wrong. 18 Wisdom makes her connected to her environment, perceptive, and insightful. Clever or stupid is controlled by Intelligence, and that makes her dumber than a box of hammers.
For example, a parrot has the attributes Str 2, Dex 15, Con 8, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 7. It's wise (15) but it's not intelligent (2). It's dumb. Stupid. Thick. It cannot learn to read, and you cannot hold a conversation with one. Given that you have a normal minimum intelligence of 7 for a human, think of the slowest, dumbest person you have ever met. This character is slower, dumber, and less intelligent than they are. Forrest Gump is a mental giant compared to this character.
I agree, role-playing mental stats you do not possess yourself is hard, but that's a reason not to try and do it, not to allocate scores and then ignore their implications.
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Honest concern here, so bear with me.
If Intelligence represents our capacity to learn and to understand, how would someone with a 5 INT become a Monk? The idea of it just strikes me as odd because I tend to think of a Monk as fairly intelligent.
Monks should be one of those classes that are highly adaptable, but Intelligence and adaptability are tied together. The more intelligent you are, the better off you are trying to adapt to various situations.
Well monk is a partial skill monkey. So 5 int guts half of your usefulness.
Good luck jumping and being a party scout with 1 skill point per level.
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With a low Charisma(5) for my Vanara Monk, I prefer to be potentially less than attractive physically, and socially retarded :) Also easily distracted. He tends to throw very bad Puns into situations as well.
Like a Planet of the Apes version of Austin Powers.
Aren't you worried about time travel and mojo theft?
Like I said, monk is not my usual playstyle. Plus it doesn't help that I been playing too much Asura's Wrath when I was thinking of a Monk who was more of someone who was just a rage filled puncher.
Guess I gotta go back to the old drawing board and come up with a better monk, though I still like the Qinggong archetype as it has some cool stuff behind it.
Take a look at the zen archer with the qingong archetype.
Every monk is a Qinggong monk. It gives really nice options to you. :)
Like I said, monk is not my usual playstyle. Plus it doesn't help that I been playing too much Asura's Wrath when I was thinking of a Monk who was more of someone who was just a rage filled puncher.
Guess I gotta go back to the old drawing board and come up with a better monk, though I still like the Qinggong archetype as it has some cool stuff behind it.
No-one who's played a core monk once plays anything but an archetype second time around, and the qinggong is the most versatile - you get abilities that you can actually use and do not nerf you.
If you want to cut down on the MAD and not dump-stat, it's doable. Drop Strength to 10, and focus everything on Dex and Wis. Take Weapon Finesse and Agile Maneuvers at 1st level, and for your bonus feat Improved Grapple. Now you play levels 1-6 as a grappler, pinning down foes until others come in and finish them off, or using you multiple attacks on weak foes while the big boys go after the cheese.
At the earliest point you can afford it, get an agile amulet of of mighty fists. You won't be hitting as accurately as anyone else, but when you do connect it will hurt, unless they have DR.
Qinggon abilities: Barkskin and Truestrike. Truestrike means you can rush in with your one attack in the surprise round, deliver that stunning fist, and it will actually connect.
Carry oils and the like to get past DRs that you can't beat naturally and you have half a hope in hell of being a contributing party member.
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Like I said, monk is not my usual playstyle. Plus it doesn't help that I been playing too much Asura's Wrath when I was thinking of a Monk who was more of someone who was just a rage filled puncher.
Guess I gotta go back to the old drawing board and come up with a better monk, though I still like the Qinggong archetype as it has some cool stuff behind it.
No-one who's played a core monk once plays anything but an archetype second time around, and the qinggong is the most versatile - you get abilities that you can actually use and do not nerf you.
If you want to cut down on the MAD and not dump-stat, it's doable. Drop Strength to 10, and focus everything on Dex and Wis. Take Weapon Finesse and Agile Maneuvers at 1st level, and for your bonus feat Improved Grapple. Now you play levels 1-6 as a grappler, pinning down foes until others come in and finish them off, or using you multiple attacks on weak foes while the big boys go after the cheese.
At the earliest point you can afford it, get an agile amulet of of mighty fists. You won't be hitting as accurately as anyone else, but when you do connect it will hurt, unless they have DR.
Qinggon abilities: Barkskin and Truestrike. Truestrike means you can rush in with your one attack in the surprise round, deliver that stunning fist, and it will actually connect.
Carry oils and the like to get past DRs that you can't beat naturally and you have half a hope in hell of being a contributing party member.
This is how I play/setup my Qinggong Monk and I wouldn't trade it for any other archetype or class. I don't have an AoMF with Agile yet, so my damage is crap compared to the Magus that rolls with us, but we just hit level 5 and the wizard has begun his crafting of it ;)
Seriously great advice. Also Truestrike is good for making ANY and all attacks or CBMs connect. Bullrush, it'll knock em a good extra 4 squares ;)