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Looking to make the Avatar (monk build)

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The Exchange
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I was kind of wanting to make a character similar to the Avatar.

I've decided to go with a dwarf for the boost to Wisdom and Constitution.

I was looking over some of the different Monk Archetypes and was thinking of making the character as a:

Qinggong Ki Mystic Monk of the Four Winds

Planning on choosing some of the Elemental type spells from the Qinggong to swap out some of the abilities for the elemental flavor. Then of course having the Elemental fist from 4 winds, and the extra (and sooner) Ki from the mystic and liked some of the other abilities too.

So what do you think?

any thoughts, opinions, advice is welcome

If what you want is a monk of the four winds, it will work fine. You will probably want to dip 3 lvls of weapon master fighter at some point for weapon training (unarmed strike) and gloves of dueling for +3/+3 attack and damage bonus. The best time is probably at the 13th lvl, after you take Slow Time.

You can also combine with teh above archetypes the monk of the sacred mountain that will give you some great defensive bonuses.

Slow time has great synergy with the vital strike strike feat tree. Greater vital strike requires 16 BAB, which menas that of you want to take it at 20th lvl, you will need to dip for a total of 4 lvls in fighter. Anyway, with 3 standard action per round it is so much worth it.

Take the traits quain martial artist and Dangerously Curious. Buy wands of Lead Blades, Animal Aspect - Gorilla Aspect, Enlarge Person and Strong Jaw. These combined with Monk robes will make your damage dice 16d8.

Drunken master is a better solution to your ki problem, but if the flavor does not suit you, ki mystic is fine. Make sure you take ki leech from the qinggong abilities. Also check the vow of truth and maybe the vow of silence.

Take Marid style and marid spirit to compliment your elemntal fist.

I have read that clockwork prosthetics are a better alterantive to AoMF. I do not know about them though.

Bane baldric will give you bane as a 5th lvl inquisitor.

What lvl will you start? Is it for PFS?
AquabatX wrote:
So what do you think?

I think anime has a lot to answer for...

More seriously, gestalt monk/wizard (elementalist) or monk/sorcerer (elemental bloodlines) would work best.

Get all four genie styles for more elemental stuff.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

Important to decide which Avatar you want to be modeled after. I'd say picking up Hydraulic Push as a Qing power, and Hydraulic Maneuver as a feat (if you're an Undine) is a good start.

Considering they mentioned monk avatar, I'm assuming Aang not Korra. Rightly so.
Shadow Lodge

Not sure I approve of this.
Avatar-1 wrote:
Not sure I approve of this.

What is this supposed to mean?

The Exchange
XMorsX said wrote:
What lvl will you start? Is it for PFS?

starting at level 1

not for PFS, just a casual gaming group

And right, was leaning more towards Aang rather than Korra

Well, if you start at lvl 1, going dex based is out of the window. You could dip one lvl in cleric of irori for guided hand and going wis-based.

For a Str-based monk, dragon style and dragon ferocity are the best choices, so I suggest these instead of the Marid style.

Unfortunately I am not familiar with the avatar in order to help you with giving flavor.

A sample build could go like this:

Oread Qinggong Ki Mystic Monk of the Four Winds Monk of the Sacred Mountain 15 / Weapon master (unarmed strike) fighter 5

STR 17 (raise every 4 lvls)
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 16
CHA 5

Alt. racial traits: Stone in the Blood, Treacherous Earth

Traits: Quain Martial artist, dangerously curious

Take the alterantive favored class bonus every lvl.

1 Monk Elemental Fist (bonus), Step Up, Dodge (bonus)
2 Monk Toughness (bonus), Defelct Arrows (bonus)
3 Monk Dragon Style
4 Monk
5 Monk Dragon Ferocity
6 Monk Combat Reflexes (bonus)
7 Monk Following Step, Power: Barkskin
8 Monk
9 Monk Step Up and Strike
10 Monk Improved Critical (unarmed strike) (bonus)
11 Monk Vital Strike
12 Monk
13 Fighter Power Attack
14 Fighter Improved Vital Strike
15 Fighter Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike)
16 Fighter Weapon Specialization (Unarmed Strike)
17 Monk Stunning Fist
18 Monk Medusa's Wrath (bonus)
19 Monk Ability Focus (Stunning Fist), Power: Ki Leech
20 Fighter Greater Vital Strike

5 lvls of fighter for faster aquitition of improved vital strike and for weapon spec and greater vital strike. Otherwise it is a standard Str monk with the addition of the vital strike feat tree for maximum damage when you use slow time.
The Exchange

Nice monk, I like it
however
flavor wise doesn't really work.

The Avatar is master of the 4 elements and uses them to augment his combat. so that was kinda of more what I was looking for.

good martial arts training, with elemental extensions of that training to gain advantages

the Avatar is also a bridge between our world and the spirit world as well, thats kind of why I was liking a few things from the Ki mystic, like the Mystic visions.

but definitely will keep this build in mind for the future
Scarab Sages

Qinggong Monk of the Four Winds 4 (Barkskin 2nd level spell)/ Emperyal Sorc 1 OR Storm Druid 1/Storm Kindler 10 / monk to finish.

Storm Kindler is great for the Avatar form. Qinggong monk to get entry into the class with barkskin, but you need to keep still mind for monastic legacy to keep unarmed damage up. The Sorc or Druid level is there to not waste the spellcasting growth of Storm Kindler.
Grand Lodge

I thought you were trying to build the furry smurf Avatar.
Sczarni
AquabatX wrote:

Nice monk, I like it

however
flavor wise doesn't really work.

The Avatar is master of the 4 elements and uses them to augment his combat. so that was kinda of more what I was looking for.

good martial arts training, with elemental extensions of that training to gain advantages

the Avatar is also a bridge between our world and the spirit world as well, thats kind of why I was liking a few things from the Ki mystic, like the Mystic visions.

but definitely will keep this build in mind for the future

Why not give Qinggong Ki Mystic Monk of the Four Winds/Something Druid a try? You could go full on Elemental at some point, which is rather fitting for the avatar, much like when he encases himself in Earth or Air. That and each Elemental form comes with extra abilities. With the Qinggong Choices you'll have more elemental options for sure. That and a plethora of Druid spells that will very well suite your needs and wants. I think that might be the perfect combo for you.

The Exchange

oooo...interesting...for some reason I totally didn't think about druid DUH lol

will look that over...it would mesh nice with it using Wisdom it looks like

going to have to decide just how deep I'd want to take it since I will pretty much be the main/only melee character in our group...don't want to stray too far from Monk.

and since I chose a dwarf, it would be fitting to be an Earth bender, so would lean more of a focus towards earth stuff that I can find.

Well, it is unfortunate that the styles that augment elemental fist does not stack, so there is no point in taking more than one elemental style.

The best way to do it is to use dnd 3.5 material. In particular, the Enlightend Fist PrC. The conversion is straight-forward and should not worry you. You should also ask your Gm to give you a feat like this but working for Charisma instead of Intelligence. There was a similar feat in 3.5 that was called Ascetic mage and did something like this but with kind of stupis prereqs.

With the PrC and the specific feat you can build a very flavorful and effective monk that delivers touch and ray spells through his unarmed strikes.

A possible build could go like this: Monk of the Sacred Mountain 2 / Dragonic Sorcerer 3 / Enlightend Fist 10 / Dragon Disciple 4 / Sorcerer 1

If you do reach higher lvls, you may also be interested in converting the Master of the West Wing, because it is a PrC that improves your monk abilities and gives arcane caster progression. Actually, the only thing that needs converting is changing turn undead to channel energy.

Also, did you checked the Oread race I used for the monk build above? As the pfsrd writes about them:

Oreads are humans whose ancestry includes the touch of an elemental being of earth somewhere along the line, often that of a shaitan genie.

They certainly fit with the description of an earth-bender and they even have a flavorful racial archetype, The Student of Stone

Imbicatus also has an interesting proposal, although it is a bit of shame that it stops at 4th lvl casting. Continuing the Storm Kindler with Enlightend Fist or Master of the West Wing would do great good to the build at higher lvls.
Grand Lodge

Is Monk really the best?

What about Magus?
The Exchange
blackbloodtroll said wrote:

Is Monk really the best?

What about Magus?

I would like to stick with monk, flavor and ability wise is kind of what I was looking for.

Sczarni
AquabatX wrote:

oooo...interesting...for some reason I totally didn't think about druid DUH lol

will look that over...it would mesh nice with it using Wisdom it looks like

going to have to decide just how deep I'd want to take it since I will pretty much be the main/only melee character in our group...don't want to stray too far from Monk.

and since I chose a dwarf, it would be fitting to be an Earth bender, so would lean more of a focus towards earth stuff that I can find.

These two classes are HIGHLY synergetic. That's the second reason I suggested it.

Combining these two, as a 10/10, or 12/8, Monk/Druid or Druid/Monk, will provide:
Very High AC
Great CMB
Very High CMD
Very High Unarmed Strike damage
Average Static Damage
Very fast movement
Elemental Abilities based on which Elemental you Wildshape into
Domain Abilities depending on what Domain you choose
Size bonuses from Wildshape
The choice to Flurry or stick with Natural Attacks(Slams mostly with Elementals)

It really is an amazing combination, almost like they're meant to be together. This is just skimming the waters with the combo : P

For this kind of build, you might want to focus on Wisdom... and get a guided AoMF. If you do it right, your Wisdom mod will be the best for any form you take at any time.
AquabatX wrote:
blackbloodtroll said wrote:

Is Monk really the best?

What about Magus?

I would like to stick with monk, flavor and ability wise is kind of what I was looking for.

You really need to convert 3.5 material then, pf does not have any arcane monk version right out of the box, like magus or warpriest. Storm Kindler is close though.

I've been having similar thoughts, but none of the existing classes and archetypes really match up right out the box. The closest I found (and was recommended to me) is the new Kineticist, although its lacking in options for the 4 main elements of the Avatar and their sub-types. I'm working on a Kineticist (Elemental Ascetic) build for an Earthbending Pahmet Dwarf DEX, CON and WIS based. Its not perfect nor what I was looking for, but this build looks really fun to play.

/casts Raise Thread.

I find Elemental Ascetic very underwhelming.
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