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I'm working on building a character for the Council of Thieves Adventure Path based on the following concept:
A young tiefling fled north from his birthplace in Westcrown and discovered the Children of the Upper Reach, who saw the potential for goodness in him, inducted him into the faith of Iomedae, and taught him melekatha. Now he seeks to return to Westcrown, both to teach his style to others and to bring justice to his home.
For those unfamiliar with the lore, melekatha is a soft martial art style consisting of dodges, holds and strikes designed to turn the energy of the attackers back against themselves, specifically created to combat the hamatulatsu style popularized by Isger's Sisters of the Golden Erinyes.
For this character, I was initially looking at the Flowing Monk archetype from Ultimate Combat, as its abilities reflect melekatha's basic principles very well, but with the release of the Advanced Class Guide's Warpriest, more specifically its Sacred Fist archetype, those waters have been muddied quite a bit.
Each offers different pros and cons:
Redirection and other abilities provide a good depiction of what melekatha's supposed to look like.
Monks have more skill points than warpriests, meaning that I'm more capable of navigating some of the more skill-focused portions of Council of Thieves.
Monks can gain the full benefits of the monk's robe magic item.
Cons:
Monks don't get Diplomacy, which is the end-all-be-all skill of roleplaying in my opinion (Perception's important too, yes, but it's conversations that advance the story, which you need Diplomacy for...or maybe I've been playing too many BioWare games).
When fighting with weapons, you can only use monk-specific ones, unless you decide to multiclass into Cleric or another class to qualify for the Crusader's Flurry feat. I'd like to use the longsword, as it's Iomedae's sacred weapon, but at the same time that'd mean I wouldn't get my monk capstone abilities.
Monks are MAD. MAD is generally tough to finagle.
Spellcasting. Spellcasting is always good.
You get Diplomacy AND Perception as class skills!
Having both Flurry of Blows and Channel Energy in one class means you don't have to multiclass to take Crusader's Flurry.
It allows me to better represent the religious aspect of the character, as the Children of the Upper Reach are dedicated to Iomedae.
Cons:
Perform is not a class skill. While this can be mitigated by traits, not as many traits offer Perform as a class skill as opposed to Diplomacy.
You lose access to a lot of the Warpriest's more unique features, like Focus Weapon and Sacred Weapon.
I'll have to depend a lot more on feats to replicate melekatha, most notably the Crane Style feat tree. While I do get those for free, it'll likely rely on other feats to be effective.
Still MAD, almost exactly in the same way as the monk.
Given the consensus of the answers I've received when asking if Sacred Fists gain the same benefits from a monk's robe as actual monks seems to be no, I'm left only with my ability scores and class features to increase my AC, so I'll lag behind a similarly built monk with said magic item.
So I'm torn between these two ways of creating what's essentially the same character, and I can't decide. What would be the easier path to take, and how would I best build such a character either way? Any advice you could give I'd greatly appreciate. Thank you! :)
Given how underpowered the monk class is (even though the flowing monk is an OK archetype), Sacred Fist is the way to go. Yes you depend on ability scores and other factors - but you can dip monk (master of many styles) for wisdom AC bonus, and a couple of free style feats. Plus, you have spells. You can buff your stats to the sky, add in some armour and deflection bonuses, add a magic weapon on yourself, and kick bottom.
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If you ever make it to 20th level, that's a concern. In 25 years of playing various versions of D&D/Pathfinder, I can count the number of times I've had a character hit 20 on one hand. In my experience the capstone doesn't exist.
If it's different for your group, cool, but I would not make a sacrifice in power now for a power that you will not see until 20th level. Even if you do hit 20th level, a small increase in power from multiclassing that is in effect for 80% - 90% of your adventuring career is more valuable than a large increase in power that is only available for less than 5% of your adventuring career.
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Assuming 20 point-buy?
Str 16 Dex 14 Con 14 (+2 Race) Int 12 Wis 16 (+2 from Race) Cha 5 (-2 from Race)
For Traits, take Clever Wordplay to make Diplomacy Int based, so you can actually be good at that.
And...taking Crusader's Flurry is gonna be a bit tricky. You can't take it until you get Weapon Focus, which you can't get until level 3. So...level 5 at the earliest. And no Power Attack until level 7. That's painful.
Personally, I'd scrap the whole idea of Crusader's Flurrying (which isn't even a canonical part of melekatha) and grab some more appropriate/useful Feats. Improved Grapple leaps immediately to mind, for example. And Power Attack at level 3, of course.