Best Support Sensei?


Advice


I'm looking to get a build for a Sensei/Qinggong Monk. Traits so far are "Adopted (Halfling) - Helpful" and "Fools for Friends". Got one more trait slot open if I pick up a drawback. Combat Reflexes and Bodyguard are a must. Was thinking about being a drunken master: a gallon jug of booze in one hand, and a whip in the other (longer distance, but feat heavy and not a monk weapon...not optimal, I don't think). I could use a double-chained kama for reach, but that uses two hands, making drunken monk not the best option anymore. Really, I wanted the near infinite ki a drunken master gives, but I'm not sure it's worth the cost of losing a reach weapon for my attacks of opportunity.

Maybe Ki Mystic?

I was thinking about a 2 level dip into ninja for more ki abilities that I could share.

I dunno. Does anyone have a really beast Sensei build I can get ideas from?


Have you considered gnome for zen koan? With an infinite supply of ki, you can basically lockdown a particular enemy as a swift action.

prototype00


Hm. If I were to go the drunken master route, with a jug of alcohol constantly in hand, the best I could do is Move Action (take a swig, using Accelerated Drinker), swift action, Lock em up a round.

Which would mean I have no drunken ki to aid my team.

I'm looking at Barkskin, Restoration, possibly True Strike, Abundant Step, maybe Vanishing Trick from being a ninja. I'd have a lot of abilities I would want to use ki for constantly, so I would want a large stockpile of ki.

Oh, and I'd probably want to pick up Lingering Performance.

I dunno. I'm starting to think reach isn't as good as a jug of booze. Maybe slowly work on whip feats, but the entire time, aid with abilities, and just get Bodyguard later.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

There's Deep Drinker which would help quite a bit. And Fast Drinker, but it also costs a swift, so it will interrupt your koans. Can't go wrong with Drunken Brawler, too, if you have the room, but it doesn't sound like you do.

Don't worry about what is or isn't a "monk weapon", since the sensei loses flurry anyway. Whip it good.

Consider keeping Wholeness of Body; it sucks for pretty much any other monk, but a drunken sensei can heal his whole party to full health between fights with it.

I almost played a drunken sensei once, but decided in the end to ditch the sensei part because my team wasn't big enough to warrant someone who mostly just stands around buffing. Instead I kept my flurry and mostly spent my ki on bonus attacks and belching scorching rays. It worked out, but there were certainly times when it would have been awesome to dispense some drunken advice. The roleplaying aspect alone of slurring out mind-blowing wisdom between belches is well worth losing flurry. lol


Monk of four winds/sensei can give 3 extra standard actions to the entire party.

Best support imo.

Shadow Lodge

Four Winds is a great way to buff since, assuming you have melee, three standard action attacks is a great thing. Especially if the Party has Greater Vital Strike [Your Choice. Either go with A)Four Attacks with the last one being at an equivalent -15 attack, relevant to the first, or B)Three Attacks rolling Triple Dice and adding normal strength, all at your highest BaB]

Mantis Style chain is a decent way to do something in melee without just standing around chanting "Go Team", since you get Wis+[up to]5 attack, because then you can add a debuff that can end the fight, and make it work more often.


I think the Four Winds is too circumstantial. It hurts casters, rather than helps, and only really helps martial if they have Vital Strike, which, normally, isn't an optimal chain to go.

And in the process, I lose Abundant Step, which isn't cool.

Also, while I lose Flurry either way, I can only gain my Wisdom bonus to attack with a monk weapon.

I'm thinking about doing a massively complicated combo using feat retraining, but I won't post on that until I've worked on it more.

Wholeness of Body is an amazing ability that I could use, though, thanks for pointing that out. Hadn't thought of it really.

Liberty's Edge

If dipping Ninja, I'd say Shadow Clones are a better trick than Vanish. You can get Invisibility (especially for only two rounds) a lot of ways while Mirror Image is much harder for a non-caster to get. A 3rd level of Ninja might even be worth it to get it to 1d4+1 images (and if you take 3, a 4th and another Ki Power nets you Forgotten Trick, which, while expensive, might save the party's life some time).

Depending on your GM, you might even be able to grab more Ninja stuff with the Extra Rogue Talent Feat.


Shadow Clones are indeed better, didn't even think of that. Good call. Also, a ninja can spend 1 ki as a swift action, and gain an extra attack when full attacking. Monks can do the same, but only when flurrying, which doesn't help the rest of the party when using Mystic Wisdom.

Forgotten Trick...what action does it take to activate? I thought about picking it up, but I didn't think it all the way through. Using this, I could give my party all a combat feat for a few rounds, or give them all darkvision for an hour, hm. Several good options there, I think that is worth getting.

And I believe most DM's would allow Extra Rogue Talent to give me ninja tricks. It seems RAI, as Ninja is a Rogue archetype, afterall. And even if they didn't, I could always use the Ninja Trick (Rogue Talent), and use the feats Extra Rogue Talent (Ninja Trick) to add more...that way, it'd be RAW.

And honestly, I may get rid of the whole Whip, add another idea. It's quite the resource drain. I was going to pick up a single level of Crusader Cleric (Calistria) after 8 levels of monk, being an Aasimar with the Enlightened Warrior trait to be a True Neutral monk....just so I can gain Whip Proficiency and Whip Focus for free, and have access to the Enhance Water spell, giving me alcohol even when I'm stranded, THEN retrain the last several feats to instantly have Improved Whip Mastery, Bodyguard, and Weapon Finesse...but that's a whole lot of crappy paperwork and theme blending that I don't want to have to fool with. Especially since the end result is: Normally, I have to be adjacent to an ally and an enemy to aid his AC as an AoO, now I have to be adjacent to an ally, and within 10 feet of an enemy. It's just not worth it, at all.

And, thinking more about the Forgotten Trick....maybe Four Winds is more viable now. I can give all my allies Vital Strike, then give them 3 standard actions to use it. But I really don't feel like losing Abundant Step. Being able to DD my entire team into whatever positions I want seems pretty beast.

Liberty's Edge

Mechanical Pear wrote:
Shadow Clones are indeed better, didn't even think of that. Good call. Also, a ninja can spend 1 ki as a swift action, and gain an extra attack when full attacking. Monks can do the same, but only when flurrying, which doesn't help the rest of the party when using Mystic Wisdom.

Yep, it's a solid choice.

Mechanical Pear wrote:
Forgotten Trick...what action does it take to activate? I thought about picking it up, but I didn't think it all the way through. Using this, I could give my party all a combat feat for a few rounds, or give them all darkvision for an hour, hm. Several good options there, I think that is worth getting.

I...honestly have no idea. I'd say no action or a free action, since it doesn't specify...but other GMs might make it a Standard for the same reason. But yeah, it's a great utility trick.

Mechanical Pear wrote:
And I believe most DM's would allow Extra Rogue Talent to give me ninja tricks. It seems RAI, as Ninja is a Rogue archetype, afterall. And even if they didn't, I could always use the Ninja Trick (Rogue Talent), and use the feats Extra Rogue Talent (Ninja Trick) to add more...that way, it'd be RAW.

I agree, but it's worth noting that some might not, since it's debatable within the RAW.

Mechanical Pear wrote:
And, thinking more about the Forgotten Trick....maybe Four Winds is more viable now. I can give all my allies Vital Strike, then give them 3 standard actions to use it. But I really don't feel like losing Abundant Step. Being able to DD my entire team into whatever positions I want seems pretty beast.

Hmmm...that's possible and interesting. I'd probably go standard Sensei, but that's me.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / Best Support Sensei? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Advice