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If you're only using wands, you may be better off with Use Magic Device. A half-elf with Skill Focus: UMD (or a human with the Focused Study alternate racial trait for the same), along with one of the traits that attach the skill to Intelligence instead of Charisma, would allow you to still do the typical monk dump charisma thing while having a great chance to activate a wand each round.
At level 1 with a 14 intelligence, you're looking at +9, and that means by the time you get to the level where you have access to a wand of fireball (let's say level 7), you have +15. At level 10 (+21), you will be able to activate any wand without difficulty (as well as some scrolls sporadically) all without having to worry about messy multi-classing.
Alternatively, stick with a medium Charisma (let's say 12) and the Dangerously Curious trait for the same bonuses, and access to a circlet of persuasion; that would give you a +19 (auto-succeed with wands) by level 8.
Wands are pretty expensive if your thinking about using them for blasting, so I don't think its worth doing that. If you just want a few low level buffs I'd say just put points in UMD. Cure moderate wounds isn't that hot for in combat, you might consider just carrying a cure light wounds wand or infernal healing wand for after combat instead. Monks also happen to be pretty MAD and the two stats you can add to UMD are 2 of their dump stats, but you can always hand a wand to a friend...
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I'm running a Staff Magus/Flowing Monk which is turning out pretty well. Because staff is a monk weapon, you can Flurry with it (although you *can't* Flurry while using Spell Combat). For a one or two level Staff Magus dip you could gain: Quarterstaff Mastery (lets you use a Staff one handed *and* qualifies you for Weapon Focus(Staff)), an Arcane Pool, and a couple of nice combat buff spells like Enlarge Person, Shield, or Expeditious Retreat.
If you really want to do something wand focused, there are some Magus Arcana which let you do things like use a wand as part of Spell Combat. I think at that point you are becoming a Magus with a few levels of Monk (which is my ultimate goal) than a Monk with a Magus dip.
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The best UMD for a monk is "Hey, can anyone here use this thing" ?
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If you're only using wands, you may be better off with Use Magic Device. A half-elf with Skill Focus: UMD (or a human with the Focused Study alternate racial trait for the same), along with one of the traits that attach the skill to Intelligence instead of Charisma, would allow you to still do the typical monk dump charisma thing while having a great chance to activate a wand each round.
At level 1 with a 14 intelligence, you're looking at +9, and that means by the time you get to the level where you have access to a wand of fireball (let's say level 7), you have +15. At level 10 (+21), you will be able to activate any wand without difficulty (as well as some scrolls sporadically) all without having to worry about messy multi-classing.
Alternatively, stick with a medium Charisma (let's say 12) and the Dangerously Curious trait for the same bonuses, and access to a circlet of persuasion; that would give you a +19 (auto-succeed with wands) by level 8.
Ah..there is no such thing as 'auto-succeed' with a UMD.. you still can't use the item (for a day) if you roll a '1'.
Try Again: Yes, but if you ever roll a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and you fail, then you can't try to activate that item again for 24 hours.
Just saying. :( I have had players find that out the hard way. Most do it out of combat though.
Ah..there is no such thing as 'auto-succeed' with a UMD.. you still can't use the item (for a day) if you roll a '1'.
Try Again: Yes, but if you ever roll a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and you fail, then you can't try to activate that item again for 24 hours.
I believe that there is an auto succeed because there is no auto fail on a 1. So having a bonus of the DC-1 or higher results in a roll you can't fail. If you roll a 1 but don't fail, the item still functions normally.
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Ah..there is no such thing as 'auto-succeed' with a UMD.. you still can't use the item (for a day) if you roll a '1'.If you're only using wands, you may be better off with Use Magic Device. A half-elf with Skill Focus: UMD (or a human with the Focused Study alternate racial trait for the same), along with one of the traits that attach the skill to Intelligence instead of Charisma, would allow you to still do the typical monk dump charisma thing while having a great chance to activate a wand each round.
At level 1 with a 14 intelligence, you're looking at +9, and that means by the time you get to the level where you have access to a wand of fireball (let's say level 7), you have +15. At level 10 (+21), you will be able to activate any wand without difficulty (as well as some scrolls sporadically) all without having to worry about messy multi-classing.
Alternatively, stick with a medium Charisma (let's say 12) and the Dangerously Curious trait for the same bonuses, and access to a circlet of persuasion; that would give you a +19 (auto-succeed with wands) by level 8.
Close! It's an easy mistake to make.
Looking again at your quote:
Try Again: Yes, but if you ever roll a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and you fail, then you can't try to activate that item again for 24 hours.
Attack rolls and saving throws always fail on a natural 1 and always succeed on a natural 20. Skill checks do not have either of those characteristics. Therefore if your bonus is +19 and you roll a 1, you have rolled a 1 and succeeded. That means you have not fulfilled the 'wand doesn't work for 24 hours' condition.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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If you have the Advanced Race Guide, you could be a half-elf monk and take an alternate racial trait where you pick an arcane casting class as your favored class, and even if you have no levels in it, you're treated as a 1st-level caster (of that class) for purposes of activating wands and scrolls. And since wands don't have minimum ability score requirements, you could do your wand idea without multiclassing, investing in UMD/mental stats, or any such thing. It will, however, cost you all of your FCBs, ever.