Hello, all!
I'm theorycrafting today. I've been keen on the Storm Kindler/Master of Storms for a while, but I've always been dissatisfied with the results when I try something like monk 3 (for Monastic Legacy)/sorcerer (empyreal, for Wisdom as a casting stat) 4.
Now, with the release of Unchained, I see that variant multiclassing will allow me to gain several quite good monk abilities, including nearly-full unarmed strike progression, without detriment to my casting, if that's desired.
What would be an interesting entry now? My thoughts are that
- nature oracle fits in flavor and can give me Charisma to AC, homologating a somewhat SAD build with moderate Dexterity;
- scarred witch doctor is, as always, a strong choice and would let me focus almost exclusively on my physical statistics;
- druid remains a strong choice, since (I think) the Strength bonuses from Wild Shape would persist in whirlwind form, augmenting the DC;
- cleric or wizard, the quotidian "full caster" classes, both have interesting archetypes and lots of spells that don't require a high casting stat; and
- I could just treat my casting as secondary, skip the monk VMC, and go bloody-knuckled rowdy for seven levels to meet the casting requirements and have an angry tornado build.
I'm trying not to forget that this prestige class also gets cool ancillary abilities (Seasight reminds me of that "Mist Assassin" that made the rounds a while ago), so ways to take advantage of those are appreciated. Mostly, I'm looking for cool and synergistic ideas to make turning into a tornado as cool as it ought to be.
A tiny bump to see whether anyone's interested.
I'm interested in the concept but it's a little beyond my slim theorycrafting skills. It does make me wonder how VMC rules progress when Prestige Classes are thrown into the mix.
Does the Unarmed Strike continue to progress at character level no matter if you take levels in other classes?
Now, I don't see anything that says otherwise. If it works, it works!
As far as I can tell, VMC is totally distinct from class levels; it just replaces feats gained from advancement. Seems like a 20th-level character that took the monk VMC, indifferently to classes (prestige or otherwise) taken, would end up with the unarmed strike damage of a level 18 monk. Good observation, though; there might be GMs who disagree. Thanks for your interest!
(lots of good stuff)
Thanks! Looks like an extremely fun and solid build :). Ability Focus is a really good call. One can never go wrong with Empyreal sorcerer, I think :).
You bring up an interesting point about size bonuses. Retaining STR bonuses from polymorph effects makes a weird kind of sense (as much as anything regarding polymorph effects does, since we have to suspend our disbelief a bit when a 7-STR wizard turns into a bear and still can't win at arm wrestling against a fighter ...), but size-based increases to unarmed strike ... huh. Hard to imagine an in-universe justification for it, but, rules-wise, it looks completely legitimate :).
Eventually, then, it seems that we could become Huge and gain +10 to STR (via Form of the Dragon III) and add lead blades, yielding +5 to the DC of our whirlwind and granting us 6d8 damage (2d8 -> 3d8 -> 4d8 -> 6d8). That's tasty.
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I have a build I used in PFS that used whirlwind consistently.
Rather than going Str based I went 1 level Monk and the rest Druid. This will work with a 3 or 4 level Monk dip as well. If possible I suggest Sohei monk so you can always go on the Surprise round.
The build focuses on Wisdom as its primary stat. Although you can not reach the same DCs for your Whirlwind as with the Storm Kindler (SK) you are not restricted on uses per day and have a number of other abilities in addition.
Start with a 20 Wis, ok str/dex/con are fine. This allows your primary stat to apply to Will Save, AC, CMD and Spellcasting. The two important feats are Shaping Focus at level 5 or 7 and Powerful Shape at level 9.
Turn into an Air Elemental, starting at level 6 or 7. You can now WW but only pick up small creatures. Keep in mind you have to be level 8 to do this as a straight SK. This is limited but awesome against swarms. Until this point you are a druid or druid/monk with a good AC and casting and possibly an Animal Companion.
At level 9 you can grab Powerful Shape. Now your Medium Whirlwind can pick up Medium Creatures. You DC is Wis based so you are looking at DC in the 22 range and unlike the SK, the WW requires 2 saves each time, one to damage and one to pick up.
At level 10, when you are getting Medium targets with the SK, you are getting Large with the Large Air Elemental shape, and WW at will. Since you have 40 hours of wild shape a day, you pretty much can be in this form all you want. At level 12 you can turn into a Huge Elemental and pick up Huge creatures.
You won't ever do as much damage of have as high a DC as an SK, but the defensive benefits will often allow you to survive being attack with a bunch of creatures in your Whirlwind. So far in PFS I have juggled (trapped in WW) 3 Hill giants at once, 2 Stone Golems, 2 advanced Girallons all of whom were unable to hit me on anything less than a 20 between the high AC benefit of the Air Elemental Shape and Wis to AC plus a few buffs (mage armor, barkskin) and the WW penalty. This was all done on a chasis that could cast Druid spells with only one level lost (3 if you want more whirlwind damage)
One advantage that both builds have is the ability to alter roles when the WW ability won't work. In the case of the SK you are Str build with shapechanging options, so go kill stuff. In my build is more about being a spellcasting tank, I have for example used summoning spells to tank by drawing a bunch of attacks from people trying to disrupt the spell.
Couple of other things, the character was a blight druid so he had a sickening aura to debilitate the targets. Vine strike and Sickening Strikes are great spells to further penalize your targets. Also AoE spells that entangle are a great opener as they can slow targets down and reduce their reflex save prior to whirlwind activation.
In our group I played a druid/storm kindler, and when I used Wild Shape to turn into something with a slam attack, I used that damage rather than my unarmed strike, as per the Whirlwind Universal Monster Ability. Don't know if it's legal, but it makes sense?