I'd grab Crystalline Form and Granite Skin for more defense, then maybe Ferrous Growth so you could make a metal weapon whenever you need one. If it's a weapon you have Weapon Focus with, it'll even get your Sacred Weapon Damage.
Just mentioning that Monk has easily the best FCB for an Oread.
sacred fist is a little lackluster now that it's just free one handed 2wf instead of getting the better BAB to go with it.
They just came out with a new archetype for WP that trades channel for weapon training.
Weapon Master's Handbook.
I'd honestly just go full UnMonk, it's quite a fun class.
Just mentioning that Monk has easily the best FCB for an Oread.That is really good. Do you have to build a crit focused monk to get the most out of it?
Mh, I'd avoid going full crit-based due to how bad the unarmed crit stats are (20/2x), but you do get a lot of attacks.
I think the general gist would be something like this:
S18 (16+2) D14 C12 I10 W17 (15+2) CH5 (7-2)
Get Granite Skin and Crystalline Form for extra AC
LV1. Weapon Focus, Dodge
LV2. Deflect Missiles
LV3. Dragon Style
KI4: Barkskin Qingqong Power
+1 WIS
LV5. Dragon's Ferocity
LV6. Improved Grapple
KI6: Elemental Fury
LV7. Power Attack
KI8: Abudant Step
+1 STR
LV9. Improved Critical
LV10. Medusa's Wrath
KI10: Ki Leech
LV11. Dimensional Agility
KI12. One Touch
+1 STR
Get Foot Stomp or Flying Kick as your first Style Strike, then get Spinning Kick.
By level 10, you'll have 2 Flurry attacks, Spinning Kick that triggers Medusa's Wrath for 2 more unarmed attacks, 3 regular attacks, all with Critical Focus, Improved Critical, and dealing 1.5x STR on each hit, except the first that goes for 2x STR.
Plus, if you crit, you leave an enemy shaken!
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I'd definitely suggest at least getting Improved Critical, which you can do with one of your monk bonus feats at least :)
For AC, you'll have to do a few tricks; a wand of mage armor will help, and keep a couple potions of mage armor just in case there isn't an arcane caster. Likewise, still keep some Dex and keep your Wisdom up. Finally, make sure to use the Ki Power - Qinggong Power and get the Barkskin SLA to boost your natural armor on your own; this also covers the fact that you'll want an amulet of mighty fists instead of an amulet of natural armor. Finally, if you go Crane Style, you can get a +3 to +4 AC boost for only a -2 penalty to attack rolls, but with an Unchained Monk, the accuracy penalty doesn't hurt as much. An alternative would be Snapping Turtle Style which only grants a +1 shield bonus, but no attack penalty. Taking the subsequent feats increases the shield bonus to +2 and makes you harder to crit on top of being able to try and grapple a foe that attacked you.
Shrug, my build above has a before-items 15 AC at 1st level, 24 AC at level 12.
Getting +3 bracers of armor, +1 ring of protection, dusty rose prism, monk's robe and jingasa of the fortunate soldier puts you at a nice 31 AC, without any mage armor shenanigans.
It may not sound like much but about 28 of it is dodge based, so you are going to be laughing at touch attacks.
32 AC if you use Boots of Speed to grant you haste too.
Monks aren't glass cannon. They have 20 + level AC with average Wealth, which puts them firmly in the 50% chance to be hit territory, they have monstrously high CMD, and stupid touch AC, plus Evasion + Improved Evasion.
They aren't Paladins or Fighters with their fancy 24 + level AC, but each class has its own advantages and those guys take Reflex saves in the butt.
The build I posted above caps at 31-32 AC after magic items at level 12. I doubt you can find something that deals THAT much damage and has higher AC than that. Sure, perhaps a defensive Magus could, but they spend resources to do it -- all this guy needs is Barkskin.
An in-built solution to DR is Elemental Fury, which we grab at level 6, adding elemental damage to each hit!
But yeah, an adamantine weapon helps. Cestus is probably the best as you don't need to draw it and you can wield it without ruining your grappling abilities.
Not surprising, the vanilla Monk was a death trap :P
It had low HP, low accuracy and no mobility.
1d10 hit dice, full BAB and Flying Kick fixed all those fronts. Full BAB + Spinning Kick + Medusa's Wrath to me is the most important change, because it allows you to kill things faster.
PS: ADOY! Your build should have 17 AC at 1st level, because you also get +1 natural armor bonus and the +1 AC bonus from Dodge, I totally forgot :P
This means you get 34 AC at level 12, which is above 22 + level, meaning pretty damn safe.
Watch out for Charisma damage! :P
By level 10, you'll have 2 Flurry attacks, Spinning Kick that triggers Medusa's Wrath for 2 more unarmed attacks, 3 regular attacks, all with Critical Focus, Improved Critical, and dealing 1.5x STR on each hit, except the first that goes for 2x STR.
@ Secret Wizard, is this combination involving a sympathetic GM with a specific houserule?
Spinning Kick makes the attack against flat footed AC. It does NOT actually make enemies flat footed. Therefore Medusa's Wrath fails to trigger.
If course, if there is an official ruling saying I have it wrong, I'd really love to see it, because if its actually confirmed to work as you say, its definitely a solid build I'd consider trying out.
If there's any rule weirdness, it's new to me:
Creatures with the uncanny dodge class feature or a similar effect cannot be caught flat-footed by this style strike.
Seems to say that enemies hit by Spinning Kick are effectively flat-footed.
Yeah but there still isn't really anything saying that it inflicts the flat footed condition. Its possible that above line means your Spinning Kick will target an enemies flat footed AC unless they have uncanny dodge, in which case the attack does not trigger.
Furthermore, at least from my opinion, even if you argue that attack does make the enemy flat footed (thus implanting the condition), I still don't see how you can apply Medusa's Wrath. Medusa's Wrath specifically calls out that you MUST make your two bonus attacks against a dazed, flat-footed, paralyzed, staggered, stunned, or unconscious foe. You might make your spinning kick attack against an enemy, and yes, you might have a GM ruling things your way, but even then, you would only be "flat footed" against that single attack, there is absolutely nothing that says the condition (if it can be inflicted), lasts for the entire round / applies for every other attack you make that round. So it remains back where you started, where I just don't see how you can actually pull the combination off without a ruling saying you can, or a sympathetic GM.
IDK, the entire thing is probably FAQ worthy purely because it affects most monks what with Medusa's Wrath being a fairly common bonus feat to pick up.
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Yeah but there still isn't really anything saying that it inflicts the flat footed condition. Its possible that above line means your Spinning Kick will target an enemies flat footed AC unl.....
Is there a way to reliably impart these conditions, so Medusa's wrath is use able more regularly. ______ fist feats are only a couple uses a day. None of the combat maneuvers impart these conditions. I can't find a enchantment for the AoMF that will help.
Any ideas?
You can use the Head-Butt style strike, Stunning Fist, or going Flowing Monk (probably not compatible with Unchained Monk) for better ease of access triggering Medusa's Wrath. I'm sure there is a build floating around somewhere that uses the Cornugon Smash, Shatter Defenses fea combo to trigger flat footed ---> Medusa's Wrath, and hypothetically something like Improved Critical ---> Staggering Critical could also work. Alternatively, just tap your friendly caster on the shoulder and ask them if they feel like throwing a Dazing Spell at the enemy, and then flurry away!
Here's a question: would you be able to use Ascetic Style to use the Oread FCB on a Sansetsukon?
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You can use the Head-Butt style strike, Stunning Fist, or going Flowing Monk (probably not compatible with Unchained Monk) for better ease of access triggering Medusa's Wrath. I'm sure there is a build floating around somewhere that uses the Cornugon Smash, Shatter Defenses fea combo to trigger flat footed ---> Medusa's Wrath, and hypothetically something like Improved Critical ---> Staggering Critical could also work. Alternatively, just tap your friendly caster on the shoulder and ask them if they feel like throwing a Dazing Spell at the enemy, and then flurry away!
I was looking at that but to make it viable this build would need Intimidating Prowess on top of everything else.
Headbutt is a good solution with the caveat of limited application.