Making a monk / swashbuckler gestalt npc

[CoI]

Need some suggestions on making it work. I have the character in my mind as a monk/swashbuckler but swashbuckler's mainly use piercing weapons not bludgeoning. I'd hate for an entire npc idea to become ineffective due to something that small. So how do I make him work?

[Azten]

Use a monk weapon that deals piercing damage.

[My Self]

Ascetic Style? Monks are proficient in Monk weapons, and there are little tricks to make them able to flurry with non-Monk weapons. The Cestus and maybe feats like Hamatulatsu let you deal piercing damage.

[Secret Wizard]

1. Be a core Monk, not an Unchained Monk.

2. Be a Master of Many Styles. While I usually don't care for DEX builds, I think that the Swash has too many DEX-reliant features. Now, by going Master of Many Styles, you get several bonuses going on.

A) You don't have Flurry anymore. This means you can safely take Slashing Grace.

B) You get a ton of Style feats! These are super neat. Among these Style Feats is Boar Style, which makes your fists deal slashing damage, and enables you to go for Slashing Grace for unarmed strikes. (Also the later feats add a good amount of damage).

C) Another Style feat you can look forwards to on (around level 11) is Pummeling Style + Pummeling Charge to full-attack on charges, which is neat too.

D) Earlier, consider stuff like Snake Style, which is a pretty good mix of offense and defense. Mantis Style is also good to pump up your Stunning Fists quickly.

3. Add another archetype to Monk: Monk of the Iron Mountain. You know how the Swashbuckler and the Monk overlap in Evasion/Imp. Evasion and there's no archetype to remove those from a Swashbuckler? Well, here is a Monk archetype that will give you a ton of defenses (Toughness, natural armor, immunity to teleportation/displacement, shield AC, DR!), which the Swashbuckler direly needs.

4. For the Swashbuckler, go for the Noble Fencer archetype. This is for twofold reasons:

A) You lose the Subtle Blade archetype. Since we are using unarmed strikes, why do we care about being disarmed or sundered?

B) You lose Charmed Life. It's a terrible feature and thanks to Core Monk, now you have full good saves. You probably even want to have 10 CHA so you can focus on WIS/CON/DEX.

Anyway, enjoy!

[Ciaran Barnes]

Just curious, are you looking to do this for a me chick combo or strictly for thematic reasons? The two can use similar physical ability scores, but use a different mental ability score. You'd be stretched kind of thin.

[CoI]

It's a thematic thing. He'll be lvl 7, and I was going for a dex build with him unless I can be convinced otherwise

[Atarlost]

CoI wrote:

It's a thematic thing. He'll be lvl 7, and I was going for a dex build with him unless I can be convinced otherwise

What do you want from each class? You'd probably be better off if you could do get one of the themes from a class with better stat synergy.

[CoI]

Honestly his personality just screams swashbuckler. And the full BAB is nice. As well the panache abilities, specifically riposte, fits him VERY well.

[My Self]

You'll probably want a way to key the Panache off of a useful stat, not Charisma. As a martial, you'll definitely need CON. As a Monk, you'll need DEX, too. And unless you can snag DEX to damage, you'll need STR. You'll also want WIS for your Monk abilities and CHA for your Swashbuckler ones. That's 5 important stats, which is far too many to focus on.

Oh yeah, and Daring Champion Cavalier gets a lot of what Swashbucklers get, besides Opportune Riposte and Parry.

[CoI]

are there any ways to get panache off of wis, or my monk abilities off cha? as for strength I'll be getting the swashbuckler's +7 using my deed and snake style to make my unarmed piercing. So far his stats are: Str 12, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 16. he rolled well.
I like the monk of many styles idea so I'll be going with that. I don't have access to ultimate intrigue so the noble fencer option is out. Much of that class option requires stuff from that book from what I can tell, and I can't afford to pick it up any time soon.

[My Self]

I'd say to have DEX be your primary and WIS be secondary if possible. Perhaps also consider replacing CHA with CON, since you might not be able to use your Swashbuckler deeds. With your stats, you won't actually be dumping anything, which is nice.

Both Monk and Swashbuckler have a fairly active swift action economy, so it might not be worth investing in CHA, since CHA basically only fuels the Swashbuckler's swift action deeds. Also, keep considering Daring Champion Cavalier, since it has Challenge, which can stack with Precise Strike for up to 2x level to damage. And you get an Order, which is pretty nifty and usually a passive ability. Order of the Eastern Star gives you AC and a bonus to saves when you challenge, as well as DR and another bonus to saves when you fight defensively. Stacked with, say, Crane Style, you can get a pretty amazing defense going without sacrificing offense.

[CoI]

Well so far I've given him snake and boar style, with my 3rd feat left open as a wildcard, along with a few others. But re-reading the master of many styles I'm wondering if I can take pummelling style at 2nd and pummelling charge for my 6the as I only need to meet the prerequisites if I leave it open. Am I reading that right?