Idea: Parkour rogue / monk


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

Grand Lodge

Had this idea, a local gm of mine was thinking about running an urban sprawl type game with murder mystery and conspiracies (He has ended up doing an adapted Underdark type thing using pathfinder rule though) and it got me thinking about creating a pc based around free running and using the environment to is advantage rather than directly fighting his enemies. I had the idea to create a half elf rouge/monk with both as his favored class.

Even though we decided to run something different there is a chance we might run his urban adventure some other time and i wanted have this guy ready just in case. So what feats do yo guys think would be good, or even if such a character could viable in the first place?


Depends if you want to go mundane or supernatural. For example there are some feats built about taking advantage of the monk's abundant step feature (dimensional dervish etc).

A mundane style might involve a few of the UC styles such as monkey, panther or dragon, or the disorienting maneuver feat (as well as likely prerequisites such as dodge or mobility). The feat that allows you to count adjacent squares as yours for flanking purposes can also work thematically. It should be possible, but you need to decide just how you will actually do damage - or if not, what will you be doing.

Also, because it is one of my pet peeves: the class is called Rogue, like the X-Men Character. Rouge is a sort of makeup.


Shore wrote:
and it got me thinking about creating a pc based around free running and using the environment to is advantage rather than directly fighting his enemies.

I hate to be the one pissing in your cereal, but your character concept doesn't really work (without massive handholding).

The three pitfalls of your concept:
1) Moving around, doing nothing else, being ignored.
2) Move past the enemy front to attack the soft targets; then, having done insufficient damage, being surrounded and murdered by the enemy heavies.
3) Being a non-caster that doesn't pull his own weight, because he's not full-attacking with a two-handed weapon or with two weapons and a good damage booster.

It might work at very low levels. It works better if your GM lets you improvise the environment, but that tends to be rare among D&D players.

But very soon, any form of mobility that isn't flight or teleportation starts looking silly, and even with great GM cooperation, inflicting whatever you can find in the environment on your enemies still isn't pulling your own weight compared to attacking with actual class abilities.


Could you keep the parkour style, and...

-add in some deadly hand-to-hand when needed?
-fight with a pair of sickles, tripping opponents?

----------------------------------------------------
My 2cp:

Half-elf gives you a second favored class, but so what? What does that give you, three skill points? Not worth it.

If you're in the Underdark, take a race with darkvision. You'll be sorry if you don't.

Do NOT put everything into INT and DEX. Give yourself a Con of 14, so that you live, and then prioritize STR and DEX. You have enough skill points, you really do.

Use feats to make yourself useful in combat. "The Parkour guy who died in the second adventure" isn't a good character concept.

I know because I did this, and tried to create the sneakiest character who ever lived. I went too far, and ended up with the character who could only sneak. Switching stealth for acrobatics doesn't change the fact that you'll need to be able to fight, it's a combat heavy game.

Liberty's Edge

I feel like I can weigh in on this as someone who practices parkour (albeit not very impressively yet).

Freerunning and parkour can add a neat aesthetic to your character. Watch movies like Casino Royale or the french film District B13 for some great examples of parkour and combat. It is a good idea to bring the GM in on your concept so they can give your character the opportunity to shine by providing some dynamic scenery.

The character build should be based around out maneuvering the enemy but remaining competent in combat. If you go with Monk remember that you need to stay in one place to use Flurry of Blows so Rogue may be a better option with the ability to get behind them and Sneak Attack before rolling or climbing away.

I recommend a Dex (obviously) based build with Str as your next big stat. This way you can climb and jump with ease. For skills the obvious choices are Acrobatics and Climb with Escape Artist and Perception being good choices to keep maxed as well.

For feats keep an eye on the ones that keep you mobile and not let you get hit. From the CRB some obvious (to me) choices are Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack. The skill boosting Acrobatic and Athletic are good choices as well. Nimble Moves and Acrobatic Step will help you a lot as well. Toughness isn't a bad idea to boost your HP and trust me, there is a lot of falling when you do parkour so you get pretty beat up and learn how to take a hit.

For a Rogue build I would recommend tricks that augment your Sneak Attack since that will be your primary damage dealer. If you go with a light weapon like a short sword you can still stay pretty mobile and have a decent damage output in combat. If the character is built right you can probably get away without having a tank fighter supporting you, though I don't necessarily recommend it.

Liberty's Edge

Don't forget Ninja. Their 6th level ability is great for this, and can easily be somewhat re-flavored if the aesthetic of ninja is wrong for your character.


If you want to play a high mobility character who uses that mobility to his advantage I'd recommend going Fighter or Free Hand Fighter just because you're going to need LOADS of feats.

STR - high
DEX - at least 13
CON - mid
INT - At least 13
WIS - low
CHA - low

Your build is:

Dodge
Mobility
Spring Attack
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip
Greater Trip
Improved Disarm
Greater Disarm

For extra cheese you add:

Combat Reflexes
Improved Unarmed Strike
Vicious Stomp
or start multi-classing into monk once you have your feat bases nailed down for the kung-fu and the increased move speed.

Your combat tactics are: Pick the scariest enemy in the pack who you want to lock down. You Spring Attack in (not provoking from him and using your amazing Acrobatic prowess to avoid provoking from his allies) and Trip. If he goes down you get a free attack which you use to Disarm. Then you spring attack back out and cackle madly.

So you keep the theme of high-mobility, you don't do a lot of damage but you are very combat viable especially if you have some big dumb idiots with two handed swords and heavy armor in your group to mop up after you.

And if your GM is on-board with your concept and is committed to helping you execute it enemies will waste their actions running after you and trying to grab you instead of fighting your allies or killing your squishy casters.


Shore wrote:

Had this idea, a local gm of mine was thinking about running an urban sprawl type game with murder mystery and conspiracies (He has ended up doing an adapted Underdark type thing using pathfinder rule though) and it got me thinking about creating a pc based around free running and using the environment to is advantage rather than directly fighting his enemies. I had the idea to create a half elf rouge/monk with both as his favored class.

Even though we decided to run something different there is a chance we might run his urban adventure some other time and i wanted have this guy ready just in case. So what feats do yo guys think would be good, or even if such a character could viable in the first place?

I would pick one class or the other. Rogue/monk multiclass is very hard to pull off. Both classes can parkour and sneak like a champ.

Slow fall may actually be useful for your idea, so I would go monk.

Grand Lodge

Nails wrote:

If you want to play a high mobility character who uses that mobility to his advantage I'd recommend going Fighter or Free Hand Fighter just because you're going to need LOADS of feats.

STR - high
DEX - at least 13
CON - mid
INT - At least 13
WIS - low
CHA - low

Your build is:

Dodge
Mobility
Spring Attack
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip
Greater Trip
Improved Disarm
Greater Disarm

For extra cheese you add:

Combat Reflexes
Improved Unarmed Strike
Vicious Stomp
or start multi-classing into monk once you have your feat bases nailed down for the kung-fu and the increased move speed.

Your combat tactics are: Pick the scariest enemy in the pack who you want to lock down. You Spring Attack in (not provoking from him and using your amazing Acrobatic prowess to avoid provoking from his allies) and Trip. If he goes down you get a free attack which you use to Disarm. Then you spring attack back out and cackle madly.

So you keep the theme of high-mobility, you don't do a lot of damage but you are very combat viable especially if you have some big dumb idiots with two handed swords and heavy armor in your group to mop up after you.

And if your GM is on-board with your concept and is committed to helping you execute it enemies will waste their actions running after you and trying to grab you instead of fighting your allies or killing your squishy casters.

This build actually looks quite cool, thanks :)


Just a note: Free-running is more about performing tricks, while Parkour is more about the ideal of efficient movement through a given space. It is easy to confuse the two because they share similar techniques, but a rather different philosophy :)


Cool Idea but try ninja, actually one of the things their better than a rogue or monk at!

As long as he has at least 1 point in her ki pool, he treats any Acrobatics skill check made to jump as if he had a running start. At 10th level, he also reduces the DC of Acrobatics skill checks made to jump by 1/2.
+
Light Steps (Ex): 6th. As a full-round action, can move up to twice speed, ignoring difficult terrain. While moving in this way, any surface will support, no matter how much weighs. This allows move across water, lava, or even the thinnest tree branches. When moving in this way, does not take damage from surfaces or hazards that react to being touched, such as lava or caltrops, slippery or rough surfaces and the ninja ignores any mechanical traps that use a location-based trigger.
+
Wall Climber (Su): A ninja with this ability gains a climb speed of 20 feet, but only on vertical surfaces. This ability cannot be used to scale perfectly smooth surfaces or to climb on the underside of horizontal surfaces.
+
Forgotten Trick (Ex): A ninja with this ability can recall one trick taught : selects one ninja trick to use for a number of rounds equal to level.
= +20 bonus on one Acrobatics check, a bonus combat feat, darkvision out to a range of 60 feet, full speed using the Stealth skill, slow descent as if using feather fall, change appearance as disguise self, stealth check with a bonus equal to level to sabotage unless he beats check with an opposed Perception, the ninja can disappear for 1 round per level as invisibility, throw voice as if using the spell ventriloquism and otherwise be a smartass!

All this makes for the best parkour person in any universe. Shuriken are easily hidden and free to draw so you can look weaponless.. but with some shuriken thrown while or between your stunts your damage will be respectable as well! Melee is not for the mobile, its a cripples game!!

The Exchange

Yes, ninja with a climb speed is great for this.


Full levels of Ninja with the scout + rooftop runner or acrobat archetypes would be a cool option. Scout lets you charge for sneak attack at 4th and get sneak attack whenever you move 10ft at 8th. With spring attack, that could be a decent balance of offense and defense. Item-wise, pick up some feather tokens for cheap safety nets or an immovable rod for cinematic impossibility.

Full monk could work too if you are ok with not dishing out tons of damage and being more support. Go sensei, trading flurry and speed relates abilities for bard performance and wis as your attack modifier. Be a buffer/debuffer. Concentrate on boosting your one attack with added effects through stunning fist line, scorpion style line, belier's bite, elemental fist, etc. Lots of rp fun to be had with this build (thinking Remo Williams).

Also maybe consider a Druid build that takes the abilities of animals to get the effects you are looking for (Animal Aspect, wild shape, etc.).

Sharn, in Eberron, would be an excellent setting for this type of campaign.


Actually, if you go monk and the DM allows, psionics can work great for you. There is stuff for acrobatics, full attack on a charge or crazy mobility and physical buffs even at the lower levels.

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