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Half-Orc Cleric of Shelyn (Defense Domain) 1 / Monk 2
I'll be building this character for PFS. Concept is a former Cleric that has now taken Monk Vows, striving to overcome his orc heritage, while also kicking Demon ass in Season 5.
I'm building on the Crusader's Flurry feat, and the earliest you can get this to work is by taking two levels of Monk, then a level of Cleric (Crusader), and the rest monk. As such, I'll build him with GM Credits 'til Level 3 so he'll have the two monk levels and the cleric level, and flavour wise I can say that he was a cleric before he was a monk.
Str 17 (15+2)
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 14
Cha 7
Or:
Str 18 (16+2)
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 15
Cha 7
Defense: AC 14 or 15, Touch 14 or 15, Flat Footed 12
Saves:
Fortitude: 10
(Base 3 Monk, 2 Cleric, Ability 2, Resistance 1 (from Domain), Luck 2)
Reflex: 8
(Base 3 Monk, 0 Cleric, Ability 2, Resistance 1 (from Domain), Luck 2)
Will: 10
(Base 3 Monk, 2 Cleric, Ability 2, Resistance 1 (from Domain), Luck 2)
Feats:
1. Cornugon Stun (Use any Monk weapon to deliver a Stunning Fist)
1. (Monk): Combat Reflexes
2. (Monk): Dodge
3. (Cleric Bonus): Weapon Focus: Glaive
3. Crusader's Flurry
Traits:
Fate's Favoured (Whenever you're under the effect of a Luck Bonus, increase that bonus by 1)
Magical Knack: Cleric (Increase CL of Cleric 2 levels, not to exceed Hit Dice).
Alternate Racial:
Sacred Tattoo (+1 Luck Bonus to Saves), replaces Orc Ferocity.
Domain Spell: Shield (+4 Shield Bonus to AC).
Awesome cleric spell: Divine Favour (+1 Luck Bonus to Attack and Damage, becomes +2 because of Fate's Favoured).
I'd put several of my Favoured Class Bonuses into increasing the number of Stunning Fist attemps by 0.5.
So I'm looking at archetypes and wondering what to go with. I am attracted to the Monk of the Sacred Mountain, which replaces Evasion with Toughness and a +1 Natural Armour bonus. It also means you can't be knocked prone under most circumstances, which means that using my Glaive to trip foes will usually keep me out of their reach (since I won't have Improved Trip yet). I can then use Stunning Fist when they try to get up.
But, Evasion is pretty awesome so I'm not sure giving it up is such a great idea.
So, example encounter:
Round one: run up to enemy, pull out Glaive, and trip them.
Enemy tries to stand up, and I smack them with my Glaive w/ stunning fist, dealing 1d10+6 damage and forcing a DC 15 Fort Save, stunning them (effectively disarming them) and keeping them prone.
Round two: flurry with the Glaive against the prone target, dealing 1d10+4/1d10+4
Enemy grabs their weapon and / or stands up, provoking one or two more AoOs from me.
Thoughts?
Sohei monk archetype from Ultimate Combat (the sohei's Weapon Training is better than Crusader's Flurry, in that it works with an entire weapon group and allows ki strike as well as flurry of blows):
Sohei (Archetype)
The sohei are masters of the horse and the hunt. A monastic soldier, the sohei is equally adept at combat afoot or on horseback. While skilled in unarmed techniques, many sohei favor weapons they can use while mounted on horseback or against others' horses.Skills: A sohei gains Handle Animal as a class skill.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A sohei is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with light armor.
Bonus Feats: A sohei may select mounted combat feats as bonus feats.
Devoted Guardian (Ex): At 1st level, a sohei can always act in a surprise round even if he does not notice his enemies, though he remains flat-footed until he acts. In addition, a sohei gains a bonus on initiative rolls equal to 1/2 his monk level. At 20th level, a sohei's initiative roll is automatically a natural 20. This ability replaces stunning fist.
Unarmed Strike: A sohei's unarmed strike damage does not increase at 4th level and above.
Monastic Mount (Su): At 4th level, a sohei may spend 1 point from his ki pool to grant his mount temporary hit points equal to twice his level for 1 hour per level. In addition, as long as the sohei and his mount are adjacent, including when mounted, the mount gains any of the following abilities the sohei possesses: AC bonus, diamond soul, evasion, high jump, improved evasion, ki strike (as long as the sohei has at least 1 point in his ki pool), perfect self, and still mind. When a sohei spends points from his ki pool, his mount gains the same benefits as the sohei. This ability replaces fast movement and increased unarmed damage.
Ki Weapon (Su): At 4th level, as a swift action, a sohei may spend 1 point from his ki pool to grant any weapon he wields (including his unarmed strike) a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls, increasing by +1 per four levels after 4th to a maximum bonus of +5 at 20th level, until the end of his next turn. This ability replaces slow fall and abundant step.
Weapon Training (Ex): At 6th level, a sohei gains weapon training in one of the following weapon groups, as the fighter class feature: bows, crossbows, monk weapons, polearms, spears, or thrown weapons. He may select an additional group of weapons for every six levels after 6th, to a maximum of three at 18th level. A sohei may use flurry of blows and ki strike with any weapon in which he has weapon training. This ability replaces purity of body, diamond body, quivering palm, timeless body, and tongue of sun and moon.
Sohei will prevent the need for a cleric dip, and lets you flurry in armor. The downside is that you become much less of a monk. Also, have you seen the guided hand feat? Wisdom to hit with deity favored weapon, needs channel smite as prerequisite. It helps with cleric/monks.
Cleric/sohei with Guided Hand? Who needs a paladin?
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Cleric/sohei with Guided Hand? Who needs a paladin?
The guy who wants to swift-heal without breaking his full-attack stride right after getting clonked for a 75pt crit?
*ahem* ;-)
Note that while Guided Hand let's you swing your WIS for attack-bonus, it doesn't also add it to damage, there aren't any WIS>(att or dmg) weapon enhancements in Pathfinder, and the feat has a very situational (read: mostly useless) prerequisite feat (Channel Smite).
The sole bright spot is higher armor class than STR builds which pull points out of a monk's (DEX+WIS). Note that Sohei, while able to flurry in LIGHT armor, don't get their WIS bonus to AC in armor (so their AC will only be typical DEX+armor).
= = = =
Here's a monk/cleric Guided Hand which I built (but never played) awhile ago; feel free to steal it.
STR:14 human
DEX:14
CON:14
INT:07 or 12
WIS+17
CHA:12 or 07
traits: birthmark
01 cler1 00 [Crusader][Shelyn:Charm][Weapon Focus:Glaive], 1st, Channel Smite, Guided Hand
02 monk1 00 [Hungry Ghost][Punishing Kick], WIS>AC
03 cler2 01 Crusader's Flurry
04 cler3 02 2nd, WIS>18
05 cler4 03 Improved Initiative
06 cler5 03 [Martial Weapon Proficiency:Longbow], 3rd
07 cler6 04 Power Attack or Empower Spell
08 cler7 05 4th
09 cler8 06 Empower Spell or Power Attack or Vital Strike
10 cler9 06 5th
11 cle10 07 [Greater Weapon Focus:Glaive], Quicken Spell or FEAT
12 cle11 08
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Good concept have a slight change to offer for consideration,...
Take weapon adept monk instead of crusader cleric. At level two monk you would gain weapon focus. This grants u a second domain of shelyn (luck is my choice), weapon specialization at level 6, perfect strike feat at monk 1, and u don't lose any of ur core material that I can c. U will automatically lose evasion but is a fair trade for a second domain and more combat feats I think.
Will keep looking
The Weapon Adept's perfect strike doesn't work with the Glaive, unfortunately, which is kind of a waste. It also replaces Stunning Fist, which is doubly unfortunate.
Sohei monk archetype from Ultimate Combat (the sohei's Weapon Training is better than Crusader's Flurry, in that it works with an entire weapon group and allows ki strike as well as flurry of blows):
I really like the Devoted Guardian aspect of the Sohei monk, but it sadly replaces Stunning Fist.
One thing I considered is taking Crusder's Flurry anyway, and Sohei, and then instead of taking Weapon Training: Polearms at level 6, take Weapon Training: Bows. That way, later in the game when we're confronted with more flying creatures, I can flurry at them with my bow, and flurry at things on the ground with my Glaive.
Sohei will prevent the need for a cleric dip, and lets you flurry in armor. The downside is that you become much less of a monk. Also, have you seen the guided hand feat? Wisdom to hit with deity favored weapon, needs channel smite as prerequisite. It helps with cleric/monks.
I actually like the Cleric dip, since it opens up Divine Favour and Shield (as a divine spell) as spells. With the Fate's Favoured trait, Divine Favour basically becomes the equivalent of Bull's Strength when flurrying, a second level spell, but is only a first level spell. It's also a luck bonus, so it stacks with the enhancement bonus provided by things like a Belt of Giant's Strength.
Getting a wand of Divine Favour and Shield would be extremely useful. I could also take Luck as my variant channeling, to give myself and everyone around me a Luck bonus (which for me would be a +2 bonus) at the start of a combat. Sure, I'm dumping Charisma, so it's only once per day, but still, not bad at all.
Cleric/sohei with Guided Hand? Who needs a paladin?
That seems a bit feat intensive, and would definitely nerf my damage pretty bad.
As far as a second domain goes, I could go with a Separatist Cleric, for the Defense and Travel Domains. I'd then need to burn a feat on Martial Weapon Proficiency: Glaive, unless I went with Sohei. Hm, maybe I will give up on the Stunning Fist idea to go with Sohei. But Sohei does give up a ton of other Monk things....
For those of you that have played monks, how useful is Stunning Fist?
Channel smite with 1 lvl only ? It's a waste of a feat...
Just for ton hit with wis ?
I was thinking more like 3-4 cleric levels (for 2nd-level spells and a little better channeling). Wis bonus on attack rolls + Weapon Training + self-buffing + Ki Weapon...
Sohei will prevent the need for a cleric dip, and lets you flurry in armor. The downside is that you become much less of a monk. Also, have you seen the guided hand feat? Wisdom to hit with deity favored weapon, needs channel smite as prerequisite. It helps with cleric/monks.Cleric/sohei with Guided Hand? Who needs a paladin?
A paladin would still beat this easily because of his smite, but it does work better with maxed wisdom rather than strength for the stat set above, giving you much stronger defence for only slightly reduced offence.
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I like the combination of Crusader Cleric 1 / Hungry Ghost x with a high threat range weapon (from reach weapons the baurdiche). Probably sohei will work better though, especially if you want to take advantage of mounted combat. In this case you should plan ahead for a scaling mount, the sure (but ugly) way is Cavalier 4 with Horse Master, the best way is the Leadership feat at 7th lvl.
Just a note that the build I submitted was HG monk 1/Crusader X.