So I was tossing about some ideas and the concept of a Half Orc Gladiator Monk came up. On a 20 point buy how would you do an Monk master of performance combat in AND out of the ring?
How monky do you want to get? I'd honestly go with a fighter for the job, especially if you want to get some more exotic weapons and performance combat shenanigans - they tend to work better with decent charisma, and the monk is already stretched thin for stats.
Well, the cestus seems like the most obvious choice in equipment here. It is a decent monk weapon (same stats as a dagger) that comes from gladiatorial combat.
In different direction, I am unsure on this (the argument sounded reasonable, but left room for debate), but you could possibly use a gladius. This mostly stems from how you interpret weapon proficiencies when it comes to the phrase "Feats and abilities that affect shortswords apply to the gladius." And people often over look the fact that monks have short sword proficiencies.
Another interesting fact is that, once you take out flurry of blows, you can actually make a monk with no bonus in wisdom and wearing a breastplate without multiclassing (mithril to reduce it by 3, plus maybe the armor expert trait to get an Armor Check Penalty of 0; the penalties for wearing armor you aren't proficient in is based on the ACP). So play something that trades out flurry of blows such as the master of many styles, and you could easily make a very non "monk" style monk without any problems with items or MAD.
All you have to lose is some extra speed and bonuses to AC which probably are not worth it once flurry of blows is gone. Even before mithril, you could get studded leather at level 1 and later a masterwork chainshirt if you have the armor expert trait.
I'm thinking Perform(Dance) and Janni Style coupled with Mocking Dance. Throw in Enforcer and Shatter Defenses to drop their Dex to AC, and pick up Medusa's Wrath at lvl 10 Monk and bypass the two prereq feats (which suck) to get an extra couple of Unarmed Strikes against the now flat-footed opponent. It will require at least 10 levels in Monk without an archetype that replaces the default Monk bonus feats, meaning Flowing Monk, MoMS, Tetori, Sohei, and Zen Archer are out. Vanilla Monk is probably your best bet, as you'll want to keep Still Mind to qualify for Monastic Legacy with all the Fighter levels.
Gladiator's Performance Weapon Mastery makes all weapons you're proficient count as performance weapons so it doesn't really matter what you use, so long as you're proficient. You can also combine Brawler with Gladiator and focus on Close weapons (ie. Cestus, Unarmed Strike).
Traits:
Omen (Faith); +1 Intimidate, swift Demoralize 1/day
Reactionary (Combat); +2 Init
Level Build:
Spoiler:
1) Gladiator Brawler Fighter 1; Bab +1, Weapon Focus (Whatever) (fighter), Dazzling Display (lvl 1)
2) Monk 1; Bab +1, IUS (monk), Stunning Fist (monk), Dodge (monk)
3) Monk 2; Bab +2, Improved Grapple (monk), Toughness (lvl 3), Evasion (Ex)
4) Fighter 2; Bab +3, Janni Style (fighter), Close Control (Ex), Fame +1 (Ex), +1 Str
5) Monk 3; Bab +4, Janni Tempest (lvl 5), Maneuver Training (Ex), Still Mind (Ex)
6) Fighter 3; Bab +5, Mocking Dance (fighter), Close Combatant 1(Ex)
7) Monk 4; Bab +5, Skill Focus (Perform (dance)) (lvl 7), Ki Pool, Slow Fall (Ex)
8) Monk 5; Bab +5, High Jump (Ex), Purity of Body (Ex), +1 Str
9) Monk 6; Bab +6, Shatter Defenses (lvl 9), Improved Bullrush (monk)
10) Monk 7; Bab +7, Wholeness of Body (Su)
11) Monk 8; Bab +8, Janni Rush (lvl 11)
12) Monk 9; Bab +8 Improved Evasion (Ex), +1 Con
13) Monk 10; Bab +9, Medusa's Wrath (monk), Enforcer (lvl 13)
14) Fighter 4; Bab +10, Dramatic Display (fighter)
15) Fighter 5; Bab +11, Skill Focus (Intimidate) (lvl 15)
16) Fighter 6; Bab +12, Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike) (fighter), +1 Con
17) Fighter 7; Bab +13, Monastic Legacy (lvl 17), Close Combatant 2(Ex), Menacing Stance 1(Ex)
18) Fighter 8; Bab +14, Masterful Display (fighter)
19) Fighter 9; Bab +15, Enforcer (lvl 19), No Escape(Ex)
20) Fighter 10; Bab +16, <Combat feat> (fighter), Fame +2 (Ex), +1 Stat (whatever)
Strategy and Tactics
Spoiler:
Pretty straightforward; Dazzling Display to shake them up, and let them come to you. If they don't, they'll be shaken which will counteract the Charge penalty to AC when you run them down. Take weapon focus in whatever weapon weapon you're going to start with. It'll have to be a martial one so Fighter can start with it as well as Close to take advantage of Brawler bonuses, but not Unarmed Strike yet; that will come later. Cestus would be ideal. Toughness and Dodge will help round out your defenses, Janni Style will help further counteract the Charge penalty to AC and Janni Tempest will let you take bonus Bullrush or Trip maneuvers without provoking so you don't need to take the improved maneuver feats for those. Grapple for flair. Pick up Weapon Focus Unarmed Strike at lvl 16 as your Unarmed Strike will be a bit more beefy by then and you need to use unarmed strikes for the bonus attacks from Medusa. Enforcer at lvl 19 will let you bypass the Dazzling Display and go right for an initial hit with a non-lethal unarmed strike to shake the target. All in all, you'll be a prize fighter violently breakdancing your way to victory.
PS: Always refer to yourself in third-person when playing this character.
I also realized: You can do the mithral trick with shields as well. So your monk could walk around with medium armor and just about any shield short of a tower shield without penalty with mithral.
This works out pretty well if you use the the defense/counter attack combination of crane style and snake style feats. Snake style is even better than ever with all these large boosts to AC. The best part is this: If you use unarmed strikes and leave the other hand free, I cannot think of many style feats that would be negatively affected.
The only downside I can imagine is that your GM would have to do less metagaming in order to have the enemies avoid you for "easier targets." You lack the typical weakness in DPR of a sword and board build though, since you could easily double the number of attacks you make through the AoO's of crane riposte and snake fang.
Well, if you attack with the shield as an Empty Hand improvised weapon, you're not using it to make shield bashes, hence Imp Shield Bash wouldn't apply. You're not wearing the shield properly and thrusting it at the enemy, you're wielding it by the edge and slapping people silly with it.
