I am making a flowing monk for a home campaign starting at level 5. I am considering taking the first level as a kensei magus to get whip proficency to improve my threatened area with the whip mastery feats. Am I over thinking things, or is this a reasonable (and suggested) idea?
If you want whip proficiency without costing you Bab, it's better to go from race. You have a few choices.
Half-Orc City-raised alternate trait trades your Weapon Familiarity (prof with Greataxe + Falchion and treating "orc" weapons as martial) for proficiency in Longswords and Whips and +2 Knowledge (local).
Half-Elf Ancestral Arms alternate trait trades your Adaptability (Skill Focus) for a single Martial or Exotic proficiency.
Humans, of course, have a bonus feat and can just spend it on EWP (Whip).
I suggest Flowing Monk of the Sacred Mountain and set up for the Whip Mastery line + Combat Patrol. You spend a full-round action to set up combat patrol so you get the Sacred Mountain bonuses from "ending your turn in the same square that you began it in", and then you do all your moving in executing AoOs. You may need a fighter dip for an additional feat, but fighter is a full BAB class so not a big loss there.
So, presuming you're focusing on defense and AoOs (heavy Dex) and starting with a 20pt buy:
Choice Traits:
Wisdom in the Flesh (Swim) (religious)
Bullied (combat)
Level Build:
Spoiler:
- Setup -
1) Flowing Monk of Sacred Mountain Monk 1; Bab +0, IUS (monk), Reposition (Ex), Weapon Finesse (lvl 1), Improved Trip (monk)
2) Monk 2; Bab +1, Toughness (monk), Unbalancing Counter (Ex)
3) Fighter 1; Bab +2, Weapon Focus (Whip) (lvl 3), Whip Mastery (fighter)
4) Monk 3; Bab +3, Maneuver Training (Ex), Still Mind (Ex), Flowing Dodge (Ex), +1 Wis
5) Monk 4; Bab +4, Bastion Stance (Ex), Ki Pool, Combat Reflexes (lvl 5), Slow Fall -> Acrobatic Steps
- Progression -
6) Fighter 2; Bab +5, Improved Whip Mastery (fighter), Bravery (Ex)
7) Monk 5; Bab +5, Deflect Arrows (lvl 7), High Jump (Ex), Elusive Target (Ex), Iron Limb Defense (Ex)
8) Monk 6; Bab +6, Mobility (monk), +1 Dex
9) Monk 7; Bab +7, Combat Patrol (lvl 9), Wholeness of Body -> Snatch Arrows
10) Monk 8; Bab +8
11) Monk 9; Bab +8, Combat Expertise (lvl 11), Adamantine Monk (Ex)
12) Monk 10; Bab +9, Improved Disarm (monk), +1 Dex
13) Monk 11; Bab +10, Greater Trip (lvl 13)
14) Monk 12; Bab +11
15) Monk 13; Bab +11, Illusive Redirection (lvl 15)
... Continue at your discretion
Strategy and playstyle:
Spoiler:
You're starting at lvl 5 so you don't have to mess with all the tactics of using a whip before getting all the feats for it. If you did have to worry about it (for those starting this build from lvl 1), focus on protecting your squishies and damaging unarmored opponents if they get into your effective radius, and tripping armored opponents. When they close with you, switch to unarmed FoBs. At lvl 5, you have Combat Reflexes, though you can only use it with unarmed strikes for the moment.
Lvl 6 is where you really shine, having both Combat Reflexes and Improved Whip Mastery you can threaten with the whip. You threaten out to 10' with the whip, but if your casters put Enlarge Person on you, you'll have a reach of 30' and a threat radius of 15'. You'll be a pretty effective defender at that point as you can put the hurt on most enemies that approach and can even disarm armed enemies at reach without worrying about lacking Improved Disarm (for now).
Lvl 9 is where the main part of the strategy comes online. You spend a full-round action to set up a "threat area" equal to your normal threat radius plus 20' and the allowance to spend your normal movement to step into reach if need be. Normally, for a person with, say, a longspear or other "normal" reach weapon, you'd have a natural 10' threat increased to 30', but you can still only attack from 10' away so if someone provokes 30' away from you, you need to move 20', eaten from your normal 30' of movement. But with Enlarge Person, Improved Whip Mastery, and Combat patrol, your normal attack reach is 30' and your threat radius is 35', meaning you only need to move 5' to bring them into attack radius. Trip them down, knock their weapons off when they stand back up. If they try to shoot you, you have deflect arrows and, if needed, can snatch arrows via Qinggong. With Acrobatic Steps, you can even disregard 15' of difficult terrain that may otherwise hamper moving into position to deliver your patrol AoOs. And, if they manage to close on you, you have your flowing monk abilities to fall back on.
After this, it's all just gravy, focusing more on your maneuvers to neuter the opposition via trips, disarms, and damage once you get your agile whip. Pumping your Dex up via items and level bonuses will make this all the better, giving you more AoOs via Reflexes, higher success rates on attacks and maneuvers, and more damage with your agile whip. Improved Trip will set up more sources of AoOs for both you and your allies. The only thing you really have to worry about are attacks based on saves so be sure to invest in gear to pump up your saves.
I should note that part of the benefit of Kensei magus is free weapon focus (whip) and a point of int to AC, along with spells like Mage armor or shield.
Consider a level of Fighter (for two feats and +1 BAB) and a trait to get UMD as a class skill. You trade off your spells, the single point of AC is so/so and you can still get Shield and Armor from wands or scrolls. You lose arcane strike as a potential feat and some of the Magus fu which you'll never really get much use out of.
The Magus does give you better action economy for buffing. However: The Kensai only gets you +1 AC if you have the Int, you lose one of your first level spells, meaning you can use exactly 1 first level spell 1/day. So, Mage Armor, for one fight, OR Shield, for one fight. This is not a great tradeoff to get weapon focus(whip).
Personally, I think it is up to you, but I would strongly advise you to pick up a level of fighter if you were going to dip.
Edit: You can also overcome some of the disadvantages by using a Scorpion Whip until you get to Improved Whip Mastery.
I should note that part of the benefit of Kensei magus is free weapon focus (whip) and a point of int to AC, along with spells like Mage armor or shield.
But the weapon focus isn't really free because it costs you +1 BAB for +1 attack with a single weapon type. Trading +1 BAB that applies to qualifying for feats, getting iterative attacks, and making attacks with all weapons for a feat that only gives you +1 to attack with a single weapon is a penalty, not a bonus. It has to be weighed against any other benefits the dip gives. Spells and Int to AC are nice and all, but that Int is made up by lvl 4 Monk with the Monk AC bonus and spells are something your casters should be providing; buy them a wand of mage armor or shield instead. Remember, there's no such thing as a free lunch; it may not cost you a feat slot to get focus through Magus, but it costs you in more useful potential gains. Much better to take that level in Fighter which gives you both the free feat and the +1 BAB.
The problem with fighter is that it gives me one feat. Magus gives me the equivalent of two, EWP and WF, both of Which I need for Whip mastery and more importantly Improved Whip mastery. I'm planning on a human, but races that get Whip proficiency trade away the human bonus feat so I consider the trade null.
I get Whip mastery at 9th level, but between 1st and 7th I have 3 feats to fill that give me more options.
I plan on using the whip solely for maneuvers, which monks are treated as having full BAB for, so missing 1 point isn't that big of deal. I'm attacking with unarmed strikes which will take a hit but not be too awful. I'm probably better off with sticking monk for all 20 levels, but I really want a way to get some reach. As far as the whip options go, Fighter kicks in earlier, but the magus gives me one free feat in the process of the 20 level build.
Take a look at my progression, it gets you Improved Whip Master by lvl 6. Fighter 2/Monk 4 gives you BAB +5 and, if you take your Fighter 2 level at lvl 6, you get the bonus fighter feat to take IWM with, even on an odd level.
I should note that part of the benefit of Kensei magus is free weapon focus (whip) and a point of int to AC, along with spells like Mage armor or shield.
The magus doesn't get mage armor, he only gets shield, and to do that you have to blow points on your intelligence that you really need elsewhere on a monk. Empyreal sorcerer works off wisdom, and you can pick up both spells with it, if the spells are what you want.
If combat ability is what you want, dip fighter. You won't get the weapon focus, but you will get +1 BAB which is better.
As for maneuvers, 1 point isn't a big deal - but maneuvers don't work against everything. What's your back-up option?
