So I've been playing a lot with different builds recently, and took a quick look at monastic legacy as an option. Since it requires the still mind feat, it should only be available to monks and monk archetypes that keep it... right?
Well, maybe not. I have a theory I'd like to try out, but it relies on monk dice stacking on top of one another. This idea involves trying to get monastic legacy onto a brawler. Here's how the feats I'd need to take would progress:
1st - Weapon Focus (or Weapon Proficiency for martial/exotic)
2nd - Ascetic Style (or Weapon Focus for martial/exotic)
3rd - Ascetic Style for martial/exotic
5th - Ascetic Form
7th - Ascetic Strike
8th - Monastic Legacy
While ascetic strike may well be redundant with some of the weapons you choose, it can apply to most martial or exotic ones, as well as hanbo if you've chosen that. However, the real reason to use it is the second boon it grants: it treats you as if you had still mind for the purpose of qualifying for feats. What makes this important is that monastic legacy requires still mind, so you'd usually need at least.
Now, if my theory is right, this means his unarmed damage should emulate a monk 1 and 1/2 times his actual brawler class level. As per the martial training class feature, he counts as both a monk and a fighter for the purpose of feats' effects, so he should be able to add half his level in non-monk classes (such as, say, fighter) to his monk class levels to determine his unarmed damage. I think it's safe to assume, based on the chart provided in the entry for the enlarge person spell, that the next die jump is to 4d6 (since that's what 2d10 advances to), then to 4d8, then finally to 6d6. So there we go, we're dealing 6d6 with our unarmed strikes and 4d8 with strikes from our chosen monk weapon as well as all close weapons. There's also the possibility I could count both fighter AND brawler levels, in which case his unarmed strikes are effectively hitting like a 40th level monk, and his chosen and close weapons as a 36th monk once he hits 20 (for reference, that means his damage die goes up every other level instead of every level). This would mean a 20th level brawler might instead be doing 8d8 with unarmed strikes and 8d6 with his weapons...
You could also consider a monk variant multiclass for this. In these cases, the damage is going to be pretty similar to above, except unarmed strikes wouldn't reach 6d6 until 20th. With VMC Monk though, you'll more than likely want to use a class that gets bonus feats such as a fighter; otherwise you'll eat through all your feats in order to get this added damage.
Another way to do this is to apply it to any class that gets a monk's damage dice through an archetype. The bloody-knuckled rowdy bloodrager is one example I found, and is in fact an incredible example since he can gain style feats as bonus feats at the cost of his unarmed strike damage lagging behind two levels like VMC monk's would. Other options would be esoteric magus, sacred fist warpriest, Iroran paladin, any cavalier under the order of the hammer, or any ninja with unarmed combat mastery as a ninja trick. Sacred fist, esoteric, and OotH cavalier both get the same dice as a monk 1.5 times their level this way, but that effective level is reduced by 4 for the ninja and the Iroran paladin only gets half its levels in monk dice naturally, meaning doing this series of feats will just bring him in line with other monks. Also, since magus and ninja use average BAB progression, they'll need to take the feats later on.
As far as prestige classes, brother of the seal follows average BAB progression and requires at least monk 1, while champion of Irori has full BAB but requires monk 4 and paladin 1. Honestly not the best options IMO.
So beyond this, it is possible we could use both of the above options - an archetype that grants monk dice AND the monk VMC. However, something I'm unsure of is if the damage dice granted by a class will stack with the monk VMC's dice, or if we just use whichever is higher? Assuming they stack, using something such as a sacred fist warpriest would grant us an additional effective 18 levels of monk dice on top of the 30 we have, capping us out at 8d6 with our unarmed strikes. I'm also unsure if we can VMC monk with a brawler, but if this is allowed, our 20th level unarmed strike damage is up to 16d8.
So, here's the big questions that'll help determine what happens here:
1.) When monastic legacy is used for a brawler, will his levels in brawler count seperately from his levels of fighter granted from martial training?
2.) Can a brawler take the monk class as a secondary variant multiclass?
3.) If any class with a monk's damage dice in any capacity uses the monk class as a secondary variant multiclass, will the dice granted by the main class stack with the secondary monk class, or will one just overlap the other?
No—unless an ability specifically says it stacks with similar abilities (such as an assassin's sneak attack), or adds in some way based on the character's total class levels (such as improved uncanny dodge), the abilities don't stack and you have to use them separately. Therefore, cleric channeling doesn't stack with paladin channeling, necromancer channeling, oracle of life channeling, and so on.
Nice, that answers all three questions at once. While it makes VMC Monk only work for a full BAB class that doesn't already get monk dice (such as a fighter or barbarian), it means that monastic legacy should indeed count both fighter and brawler for the purposes of adding levels. Brawler still should count as having double his character level worth of monk dice if he's pure brawler.'
The Monk damage dice chart doesn't advance beyond 2d10 (M) or 4d8 (L). Additionally, the damage dice chart does not follow the normal size increase amounts. Any increases beyond 20th level are merely speculative.
Well, as I mentioned, I'm basing this off of the chart listed under the enlarge person spell. Since there's no chart that I know of that explains how the dice advance after 20, I just have to go by the chart and build it up a step every four levels until 40th level (which is the effective monk level for a 20th level brawler with monastic legacy). We already know the damage die increases for every 4 levels from 4th on, so we know which levels it'll increase if we simply follow that pattern (specifically it'd be on 24th, 28th, 32nd, 36th, and 40th). Following the pattern established for what it increases to doesn't make sense though; if we went right for 3d6 from 2d10, that'd be less damage. So until or unless we have an official die growth chart for monks levels 21-40, we don't really have much choice but to fall back on the regular damage dice progression chart, do we?
Okay, addendum to what I was planning: I'm actually not entirely sure monastic legacy and ascetic strike work together. On one hand, considering ascetic strike literally opens monastic legacy up to non-monks, I'd think it did. On the other, ascetic strike functions off of character level, not actual monk level. However, since ascetic strike considers your character level to be monk levels (minus 4 but still), monastic legacy might affect those levels after all...?
Bluh. I'll need to ask in the rules forum thread about this, methinks.