I am currently playing a sylph flowing monk, 12,18,10,12,16,7 stat array. I grabbed improved trip for my monk feat, and weapon finesse for my normal feat. Currently playing with kamas for tripping, using the flowing monk abilities with it when i want to trip things. I am looking for any other advice, things i should buy/learn feat wise, or just general useful information. What should i focus on first? I know i dont need an aomf since most times i will use my kamas, allowing me to go natural armor for neck slot, and i need combat reflexes next , but any other suggestions or thoughts?
over 72 hours and no one has ANY advice :(
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There is no real reason to use a tripping weapon with a trip focused build. Any weapon can trip, the only benefit a trip property weatgives you is that you can drop the weapon if you fail spectacularly instead of being tripped yourself. The Kama is really a horrible weapon. I would consider going unchained monk instead of flowing monk. Leg Sweep style strike is just about as good as anything flowing monk offers, and you have full bab, movement speed, and ki powers.
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CON 10 is going to bite you one day. You can get a good AC, but you're going to be in melee a lot and your hp are low. Get Toughness and spend your favoured class bonus on hit ponts. Get a CON boosting item (belt or ioun stone).
Have something you can do against things that can't be tripped, like fliers. Monks are proficient with a range of thrown weapons as well as sling and crossbow (light and heavy). You need a ranged weapon.
You only really need one kama, because you can flurry with it. But you could put different enchantments on them if you really want to have two. This will get expensive, of course. Remember to have weapons that bypass different kinds of damage reduction (cold iron, silver, adamantine).
If you want an Amulet of Natural Armour, do consider the Body Wrap of Mighty Strikes to enhance potential unarmed strikes. If you take Greater Trip and Vicious Stomp a successful trip will provoke TWO AoOs, but the Stomp must be an unarmed attack. Greater Trip requires Combat Expertise and Int 13, but you can avoid these prerequisites by taking Dirty Fighting instead.
EDIT: if you haven't hit level 2 yet and can still rebuild, consider the following alternative stat array. STR 14 DEX 17 CON 12 INT 12 WIS 15 CHA 7. Boost DEX at level 4 and WIS at level 8.
CON 10 is going to bite you one day. You can get a good AC, but you're going to be in melee a lot and your hp are low. Get Toughness and spend your favoured class bonus on hit ponts. Get a CON boosting item (belt or ioun stone).
Have something you can do against things that can't be tripped, like fliers. Monks are proficient with a range of thrown weapons as well as sling and crossbow (light and heavy). You need a ranged weapon.
You only really need one kama, because you can flurry with it. But you could put different enchantments on them if you really want to have two. This will get expensive, of course. Remember to have weapons that bypass different kinds of damage reduction (cold iron, silver, adamantine).
If you want an Amulet of Natural Armour, do consider the Body Wrap of Mighty Strikes to enhance potential unarmed strikes. If you take Greater Trip and Vicious Stomp a successful trip will provoke TWO AoOs, but the Stomp must be an unarmed attack. Greater Trip requires Combat Expertise and Int 13, but you can avoid these prerequisites by taking Dirty Fighting instead.
EDIT: if you haven't hit level 2 yet and can still rebuild, consider the following alternative stat array. STR 14 DEX 17 CON 12 INT 12 WIS 15 CHA 7. Boost DEX at level 4 and WIS at level 8.
good pts and suggestions, thank u, i havent hit 2 yet so will take a look at modifications.
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I am currently playing a sylph flowing monk, 12,18,10,12,16,7 stat array. I grabbed improved trip for my monk feat, and weapon finesse for my normal feat. Currently playing with kamas for tripping, using the flowing monk abilities with it when i want to trip things. I am looking for any other advice, things i should buy/learn feat wise, or just general useful information. What should i focus on first? I know i dont need an aomf since most times i will use my kamas, allowing me to go natural armor for neck slot, and i need combat reflexes next , but any other suggestions or thoughts?
As a Flowing Monk, your damage will probably be quite poor even with Agile enchant on stuff. You should try and invest into a harder hitting weapon that still utilizes Weapon Finesse though. In general your AC is probably going to be very high, especially the more surrounded you are thanks to Flowing Dodge. You may want to consider the Snake Style/Sidewind/Fang Feats as with every AoO you make your opponents flat-footed and this would further and more often make them flat-footed. Any "Sneak Attack" ally would greatly appreciate this. You may want to invest in the Feat named Elusive Redirection too as this can come in handy and further makes your Elusive Target ability more useful. Invest into Mage Armor/Shield wands with or without a Wand Keyring(+10 to umd check for specific spell). You'll be a walking wall of AC for sure. Stand Still would be an amazing feat for you, as you can take AoOs, stop opponents completely, then end up flat-footing them at the same time. Also keep in mind that Redirection should be used frequently, as it will not only screw up an opponents Full-Attack either by tripping or they suddenly move 10+ feet away after their first swing; but it can also put them in serious flanking danger with your allies.
Flowing Monk brings a LOT of synergy to a party with even 1 other Melee combatant. I played one very successfully and he was only hit 3 times ever in his first 7 levels. The hard part was keeping attention of opponents at all or long enough - which is where Stand Still helps keep them there if they become frustrated from the misses.
Damage-wise... not a whole lot you can do other than put Agile on a weapon and maybe pick up Piranha Strike. You'll want some more static damage if you can get it. Martial Focus is an easy +1. Enchanting is always good when you can afford it. Bane Baldric would give you a +2 static and 2d6 for each attack. Belt of Incredible Dexterity is always good. Not sure what else...
Most Flowing Monks end up completely sucking on damage, but that's not their main purpose anyways.
A couple points on Monk - you don't need two weapons. All flurry hits can be made with one weapon. Major cost-saver. Also, any Monk can use the Qinggong abilities, so you can take Qinggong Barkskin at level 4, and get good natural AC while saving a ton of cash.
One trick for a high DEX Monk is to grab one level of Crusader Cleric of Sarenrae, with: Weapon Finesse, Dervish Dance, Weapon Focus: scimitar (free from Crusader), and Crusader's Flurry. This will allow a Monk to wield a scimitar with DEX for both attack and damage rolls, even when using Flurry of Blows. This grants a strong weapon that's even stronger because you can improve enhancement instead of getting Agile.
Another major benefit of using a Dervish Dance scimitar is that you can take Amateur Swashbuckler with it, and use a Swordmaster's Flair: Blue Scarf to get 10 foot reach. Reach on a Flowing Monk is awesome.
You can also take the trait Fate's Favored, so that casting the spell Divine Favor will give you a +2 to attack and damage rolls for one minute even though you only have one level of Cleric. Pearls of Power for level 1 spells are cheap if you need more castings per day.
multiple kamas ar efor metl types and not mx enchantments, amage strikes are still intended to be done with unarmed strikes, which can be done with hands full for monk. Elusive redirection is a long way away and practically retirement age for PFS but fun to keep in mind for a home run version, i will look into the crusader cleric of sarenrae
multiple kamas are for metal types and not max enchantments, damage strikes are still intended to be done with unarmed strikes, which can be done with hands full for monk. Elusive redirection is a long way away and practically retirement age for PFS but fun to keep in mind for a home run version, Not sure about the cleric level, you are saying it would be weapon finesse at L1 and improved trip, level 2 take the level of cleric, and weapon focus, level 3 dervish dance, level 5 crusaders flurry? which means before level 5 i cant flurry with the scimitar anyway. In the meantime i could use it if i only have a standard attack or an aoo? is that accurate? right order? Might be feasible, i'd have to heck some numbers. I'm also not looking for crazy strong dps wise, i want to be able to hold my own and be party support, most of my characters are show stoppers and limelight stealers, i'm actually looking to step down a bit to let some other pfs members shine, while still having fun and being somewhat unique.
Since you can use retraining in PFS, the most efficient thing would be to go:
1FM. Weapon Finesse / +Monk Bonus / (Human: Toughness)>>>RETRAINED AT 2
2CC. +Weapon Focus: Scimitar / RETRAIN: Dervish Dance
3FM. Crusader's Flurry / +Monk Bonus
Though even if you're waiting until level 5 to get Crusader's Flurry, you just take the level of Crusader Cleric at level 5. You can also possibly use a Monk Bonus Feat for Weapon Finesse.
The damage on a one-handed scimitar isn't going to be massive, but with Flurry of Blows and a strong DEX it can be nicely effective at least.
Ok but if i retrain away weapon focus scimitar, then i lose the prereq for crusaders flurry. If you lose a feats prereq you cannot use that feat anymore, or so i have been taught. So trading away weapon focus would mean i lose the benefits of the weapon focus i think. Unless you know something i dont?
Ok but if i retrain away weapon focus scimitar, then i lose the prereq for crusaders flurry. If you lose a feats prereq you cannot use that feat anymore, or so i have been taught. So trading away weapon focus would mean i lose the benefits of the weapon focus i think. Unless you know something i dont?
The retraining there was from a level 1 feat, not Weapon Focus. You wouldn't be able to retrain Weapon Focus into anything but another Crusader Cleric feat anyways, and you're correct that you need to keep prerequisites. Plus Weapon Focus is good to have anyways.
If you're focusing on only one kind of maneuver until you can do two at once, you could take Weapon Finesse with your level 1 Monk Bonus Feat easily enough.
yep, you don't get a free pass on the bab for the cleric.