Is there a way to reduce the penalties for fighting defensively with the unchained monk other than crane style?
The wise ass answer is "Crane Riposte".
To my knowledge, the mentioned things and Order of the Eastern Star's 8th level ability are the only means of directly reducing the penatly. Of course, everything that gives a bonus on attack rolls, e.g. Weapon Focus, de facto reduces the penalty, too.That said, you could take Crane Wing + Combat Style Master. Two feats for +2 to attack rolls and +1 dodge AC.
Yeah, that feat is pretty bad. If the start was just dealing half damage and then the upgrade was something cool then it would still be not great, but at least it'd not be actively hurting you.
The diversity in power level of those feats is a tribute to all the long hours of play testing Paizo put into their product.
they aren't making them as equals but following their standard spread for options. X% need to not be worth printing, Y% are bad, Z% are situational, and the remaining small % house the generally good and the 1% of awesomely good.
Excellent guide. Not sure I 100% agree with everything but it's very well done. The Fist of the Northstar title is a nice touch as are a few of the jokes. Poor Paladins! ;)Do state what you disagree on! The more opinions the better.
Going from memory it wasn't anything all that important. Minor things like I think certain feats/abilities might be better or worse than what the guide rated them. Next time I read the guide I'll try and find something specific. :)
No real game-changers here, just some neat stuff and some meh stuff.
Care to mention the pages that have Blood of the Beast content?
Care to mention the pages that have Blood of the Beast content?
28-31, though there's alt FCB's for Catfolk/Kitsune elsewhere.
sorry, I was meaning the pages of your guide. XP
I'm posting >this< for no particular reason. maybe as reference material or something.
sorry, I was meaning the pages of your guide. XP
Oh, in Feature Selection mostly!
I'm posting >this< for no particular reason. maybe as reference material or something.
Get the hell out of my thread, you dubhag.
So, I liked monks for like the longest time, but then I started playing them in non organised games (ie stuff like online PFS where you get a spread of people you don't know), and found that I would really struggle. IK its a martial thing, and a relatively smart wizard might have flight prepared for his friendly martial, but are there any slightly more self sufficient monk options that can handle those frustrating invis/flying enemies and not be so heavily reliant on your PFS caster?
potions of fly for flight. could also maybe try jumping or flying kick to it or ranged weapon of some kind.
Invis is harder to counter, I think you only option is UMD an expensive wand or UMD a scroll of see invis or guess it's square and use the dust of appearance or something like that.
It is just a martial problem though, nothing monk specific.
This is why paladins and barbs that get in class flight are toted as good martials since they potentially could bring their own solutions to problems. And why fighters and rogues are dissed, because they require others to solve their problems.
Well, Flight Mastery can be taken at 9th level and allows the character to cast Fly 1/day (2/day at lvl14).
Likewise, Vision Mastery can be taken at 5th level and allows the character to cast See Invisibility 1/day (plus one more per day each at levels 8, 12, 16, and 20).
^Second link doesn't work -- try this.
Thanks. That's what I get for writing links by hand and not pasting copied ones.
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Please?Any chance you might update this to include Monk Archetypes by way of Everyman Gaming's conversion of them?
This being that which allows all Monk Archetypes to be used with the Unchained Monk, and can allow for additional choices for players.
Yes please.
Though of note there are a couple that were not converted because it would be redundant. Such as the Qinggong Monk, as that was absorbed by the Unchained Monk.
I don't own the book, and I don't know a website that accepts American Express for PDFs.
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I don't own the book, and I don't know a website that accepts American Express for PDFs.
Do you have a DriveThruRPG account? I could gift you the PDFs, as they are fairly inexpensive. Though it would have to wait until I got paid Friday.
I would also suggest looking into PayPal, which you can connect to your bank and debit card, maybe credit card. I admittedly don't know for certain the last part, as I have yet to actually acquire credit card.
Maybe you'd be willing to PM me?
When are they going to make an official Unchained Zen Archer?
^Actually, it's a good question whether/when they are going to make official Unchained Monk conversions of any of the Classic Monk archetypes that came out before Pathfinder Unchained.
When are they going to make an official Unchained Zen Archer?
I'm afraid you wouldn't be too happy with the outcome :) Unchaining the Zen archer is prolly kind of like unchaining the Summoner!
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When are they going to make an official Unchained Zen Archer?
While Paizo is dragging their feet, if they ever get to it at all, I actually just PMed you the Unchained Monk version of Zen Archer from Everyman Gaming. Tell me what you think of their take on the archetype.
Yes it may not be "official", but as long as the campaign is not for Pathfinder Society I recommend discussing with your DM if he might be willing to allow it.. given the situation with the Unchained Monk and it not having access to any of the previous archetypes.
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Also, Secret Wizard, if you are willing perhaps you can PM me? I may have other ideas for allowing you to check out the Unchained Monk Archetypes.
I think it may actually be slightly worse than the original. No mention of whether its intended to use Flurry of Blows like Vanilla or Unchained Monk.
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RE: Snake Style and your request for comments.
It takes some dedication for it, but I've found it to be stunningly useful on my brawler. Currently level 14, he has a +38 to Sense Motive. Opening round charge attacks mean I can disarm/trip/sunder/punch an opponent and avoid the attack, THEN get a full round attack. It's also great against nasty ray attacks (Enveneration!) or poison stingers or anything else that could be potentially dangerous. I find that I usually have a decent chance to avoid even the super nasty one-hit/round monsters with absurd attack rolls.
More importantly, I find the fact that I can use it to confirm crits to basically auto-confirm whenever I roll a 20 on the dice. Even if I roll a 2, that's still a 40 to hit, and there are few things, even at that level, that I wouldn't confirm on. The rest of the abilities are secondary, but I should also add that a high sense motive has proven to be a great out of combat ability on a class that doesn't get many. For a monk, you've already got a great WIS, much better than my brawler, so topping 38 shouldn't be hard, or at least shouldn't cost as much money as I had to put into it (you can at least save the skill focus feat I spent on it)!
I think for a monk, however, the value is diminished a little bit as your touch AC (and regular AC) is already going to be pretty good. Still, I would recommend it a bit as I still use it to massively great effect even at my current level.
I'm thinking of either taking Elbow Smash to compliment my Jabbing Style or Footstomp. I welcome advice/criticism.
Advice: there is a magic item that you can be for 5000gp called a lucky horse shoe that gives you a +1 luck bonus for saves, best thing is it's slotless. Just if you ever want to play a non-orc in the future but get all the fates favored goodness.
Your 10th level power should almost always be Ki Leech, it's invaluable.
Either style strike is fine, without context I would recommend elbow smash, it's straight damage increase. Flying kick will bring the pain when they are at a distance, elbow smash brings even more pain when you start next to them. You would know better than anyone whether footstomp is better, do you often have enemies that you get to hit and they run.
It really depends on my DM, I feel like footstomp will allow me to keep bringing the hurt throughout a drawn-out combat, but then again the elbow smash can help reach one-hit KO levels, especially with jabbing style.
It very much depends on what you're fighting. The main benefit of Footstomp is that casters and archers can't 5-foot-step away to cast/attack without provoking.
Meanwhile, Elbow Smash scales double with your accuracy, so if you're fighting high AC enemies, or enemies under concealment, it's rather bad. Plus, it doesn't work against constructs and undead.If you want high damage (with UAS), Jabbing Master is definitely the way to go.
I believe this one to be one of the most well written guide out there for pathfinder in general, and for that I say hats off to you sir!
I suggest A mention to VMC and normal multiclassing Dips
Good VMC that might be worth 5 feats are:
-Barbarian, cause if you focus on str it gives you +2 to hit and damage (or even +3 to damage) uncanny dodge that could prove useful a rage power (reckless abandon for more accuracy perhaps or any of the good ones) and allowing you to take extra rage power. DR 3/— isn't bad and greater rage is good but late. Overall if your build doesn't require many feats it can be beneficial especially as monk lacks ways to improve his attack bonus. Scaled fist with dragon style comes in mind
-Wizard, void elemental school seems pretty good as it boosts saves and to hit at level 19, Air elemental school allows for flight, Divination boost initiative, teleportation if you want early small movement help. It even has some schools that offer enchantment bonus as you lvl (not for your main stats but monks are MAD so you can always find a stat to aply it)
-Magus, You gain an arcane pool that can help you enchant your attacks a magus arcana (I like Ki Arcana but there are many good) and only spellstrike is wasted
Dips that might be worth 1 or 2 lvls
-Cleric (crusader) 1 lvl dip, it opens up some feat option like crusader's flurry or domain strike and gives you weapon focus. Domain strike repose is brutal (if taken as a VMC fist or wood domain are good as well). Another feat to consider is guided hand although sadly it doesn't do a lot for damage it does help with being wisdom focused and having higher wisdom stunning DC's
-Urban barbarian 1 or 2 lvl dip or Bloodrager 1 for rage and goodies
I am sure there are more and some what i suggested might not be worth it but I still thing there should be a section for those. I am sure its more of a case "I will get around to that at a later time" than anything else
So, is it better to do the whole weapon finesse thing over strength for jabbing style?
Depends on whether you want more offense or defense (+Init). Note that Jabbing Style already requires 4 feats (plus two bonus feats), if you go Weapon Finesse route, all your regular feats prior to level 11 are basically locked.
I am starting lvl 3, and can pick 1 magic item like a +1. I was thinking cloak of resistance or magic armor ring or something, ideas?
Does an Amulet of Mighty Fist +1 qualify? If not, getting a 2k ring for free is obviously more efficient than getting a 1k cloak for free.
Also, do you get another dmg bonus at your 3rd landed attack from Jabbing style?
Jabbing Style checks for two conditions: The current attack must hit, and you must have previously hit that target that round. If both are true, you do bonus damage - no matter if it's the first or the fifth time that round that those conditions are met.
Let's say you have four attacks and all hit, the bonus damage on each individual hit is this:Jabbing Style: 0/1d6/1d6/1d6
Jabbing Master: 0/2d6/4d6/4d6
@ArchangelAzrael: VMC Barbarian is indeed quite good, i's pretty close to Dragon Style DPR wise. With Reckless Abandon, it even comes close to Ascetic Style. I'll post a DPR comparison for different styles later.
Urban Barbarian still needs to be non-lawful, so that doesn't work (but Bloodrager is nice anyway for Wand usage). Why urban, anyway?
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Much appreciated!
Awesome! A guide about how to beat up countless, overgrown, muscled thugs wielding axes and crossbows with just my bare fists while surviving a post apocalyptic wasteland.(For that one, I'd recommend using the Deathstrike Mantis sample build with a nunchaku, a bit adapted for the job)
I see a problem...
Is an oracle dip for sidestep secret something the scaled fist can benefit from?
They AC bonuses don't stack...
Can i suggest you a trick that seems missed from the "Scaled Fist" Archetype?
With high CHA you can qualify for the eldritch heritage feats chain!
And some bloodline, like Orcs are very nice! (+6 to STR and enlarge self for free... to take another +6 to STR!)
Tons of options!
I think it will be good to write something about.
On a run-of-the-mill Monk, only Stunning Fist.
Other possible methods are: Shatter Defenses+Cornugon Smash/Enforcer, Domain Strike+Repose Domain, Staggering Critical/Destroy Identity, and
Dazing Assault.
Best method: Make friends with a caster who likes dazing spells, Slow, Wandering Star Motes, Waves of Ecstasy etc.
PS: Why is illusive gnome style so bad :<
Probably because the writer thinks that tax feat prereqs are a good thing that prevents powercreep and emulates training progression.