[Build Advice] Blind, Drunken Master

[Mythweaver Choomie]

Hello, everyone. I'm currently building a character for a high-level, gestalt game in a high-flying, hard-hitting world of Wuxia. The setting is homebrew.

We're starting at level 10-gestalt, with one of the major restrictions being that one side of the gestalt must be Akashic, Path of War, or a class archetype from Dreamscarred Press (such as Myrmidon for Fighter).

My character is a former samurai who's arrogance led to his downfall. After losing his vision in battle, he became a wanderer who gambles to earn coin and spends it all on drink. He's an accomplished martial artist who blurs many styles and strikes into something atrociously gorgeous.

So far, my character is a Stalker (Bushi, Brutal Slayer) 10 || Unchained Monk (Drunken Master, Master of Many Styles, Qinggong Monk) 10. I require assistance with feats.

I'd like to use Blind-Fight and enter the Blinded Blade Style chain. The GM has ruled that, since my character is permanently blind, these style feats won't count against the number of stances currently open. I'd also like to run Dodge and Mobility alongside Snake Style and Panther Style. This is the core power of the character. He can rush into mobs of enemies and deflect/retaliate all out of turn, dealing solid damage.

I'd like to incorporate Blinded Blade Style feats, Dodge/Mobility/Combat Reflexes, Snake Style/Snake Fang, Panther Style/Panther Claw/Panther Parry, Trip/Grapple/Reposition maneuvers, and maybe some other style feats (such as Monkey/Dragon/Pummeling/Ascetic, etc.).

Point-Buy is 48 and I'm playing a human character. All of Paizo and Dreamscarred Press is allowed. Think you guys can help me out with some build ideas? I'm mainly looking for help in picking feats and maybe discipline maneuvers and stances.

[Scott Wilhelm]

The last character I made to be functional while Blind was a Half Orc with the Keen Scent Feat and the Blindfighting Feat. She would carry an Eversmoking Bottle, which made everybody in a 20' Radius Blind.

The Blinded Blade Scent Ability only has a range of 10'. Regular Scent has a range of 30', and if you want to be a highly mobile fighter, 10' might not be enough. Catfolk can get Scent as an alternative Racial Trait. Another thing that does that is Tremorsense, which Dwarves can get at the cost of 3 Feats.

You can take Racial Heritage as a Human and qualify for those Feats, but that might be expensive to your build, as might taking Greater Blind Fighting, also 3 Feats, and also not the complete solution to your problems since you are actually Blind, I'm not sure that Greater Blindfighting will let you pinpoint the square that your opponent is occupying. Check with your GM.

You can dip into Alchemist, an interesting choice for a Drunken Master.

Drunken Ki wrote:

The act of drinking is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

The Crypt Breaker Alchemist Archetype gets Scent in their Mutagens. Plus the Alchemal Extracts all add myriad new options for self-buffing, including Alter Self, which also grants Scent, and Echolocation, which grants Blindsight 30'.

If you do go the route with something like the Eversmoking Bottle, make sure you tell your party members so they can all make sure they have good countermeasures against going Blind. When all your allies can operate while Blinded, and most of your opponents can't, you have a devastating tactic.

[Mythweaver Choomie]

Without dipping classes, I can take the Blind-Fight and Blinded Blade style trees, which in the end will grant me a Blindsense-like ability to 30 ft. and I can ignore miss chance for anything other than total concealment. I also get a +5 bonus to Feint checks in combat which is awesome.

[Wonderstell]

Go Drunken Master/MoMS/Qinggong monk.

Switch out Slow Fall for Barkskin Su and High Jump for maybe Scorching Way/True Strike/Feather Step.

As a drunken master you'll be able to keep up a +4 enhancement bonus to natural armor, saving you the 32,000 gp which the Amulet of Natural armor would have cost you.

****

And this feat might come in handy.

Fast Drinker wrote:

You swiftly guzzle spirits to draw forth ki.

Prerequisites: Con 18, drunken ki class feature.

Benefit: Drinking strong alcohol to gain temporary ki, takes a swift action rather than a standard action.

[Ectar]

Is your GM houseruling master of many styles to work with unchained? As written, they are not compatible.

[Mythweaver Choomie]

My GM has houseruled that style strikes work with any full-round action, not exclusively Flurry of Blows. This allows the archetype to be compatible.

Fast Drinker is an excellent feat and I'm trying to figure out where exactly in my build I can put it. You touched on keeping up Barkskin constantly, which is another big reason I'm going for the counter-attack/retaliate build. I can make attacks outside of my turn and while it is my turn I can continue drinking, thus regaining drunken ki and maintaining barkskin.

I'm keeping High Jump as a ki power because it goes into Wind Jump, a power that is very much a Wuxia type of power. Qinggong monk, in my opinion, never hurts to take and will definitely come into use later on in the game as it progresses.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Mythweaver Choomie wrote:

Without dipping classes, I can take the Blind-Fight and Blinded Blade style trees, which in the end will grant me a Blindsense-like ability to 30 ft.

Not until level 15, though. The Prerequisites for Blinded Master includes 15 Ranks in Perception. At your starting level 10, you can get Blinded Competence, which effectively gives you Blindsight within Range of your weapon. And Blinded Blade Style gives you Scent with a Range of 10'. I do think that might be a problem for a Panther-Snake Style Master, even a Blinded Blade-Panther-Snake-Style Master. You really might need to be able to detect your opponnents at ranges greater than 10' before you reach level 15.

That's why I am recommending gaining access to the regular, 30' Range Scent Ability at least in the beginning, say via a 1 level dip in Alchemist, Crypt Breaker, or any or no archetype and just use a Wand of Alter Self sometimes to Polymorph into a Bugbear and gain Scent that way. It also lets you do things like cast Enlarge Person and gain Reach.

Mythweaver Choomie wrote:

I can ignore miss chance for anything other than total concealment. I also get a +5 bonus to Feint checks in combat which is awesome.

Yes, that is pretty awesome. And since Blinded Competence counts as the Perception Prerequisite for Greater Blindfighting, you can take it right at the start, which means that your Miss Chance for Total Concealment is dropped down to 20%, and Blind Fighting lets you reroll that Miss Chance, if you ever even have to roll that since BC eliminates all Miss Chance within your Weapon Range!

I recommend you take Lunge and carry a Reach Weapon. For starters, Blinded Competence works at a Range equal to the spaces you Threaten, so if you do what I just said, you effectively get Blindsight to a Range of 15', and that might be enough for you. This will be the case even if you never actually use the Reach Weapon. And holding the weapon will not in any way impede your ability to use your Unarmed Strikes.

The other reason is that your character works by provoking Attacks of Opportunity by moving out of Threatened Squares, and you often run into creatures with Reach. If you don't have Reach as well, you don't get your bonus attacks.

[Wonderstell]

Huh, for some reason I missed the part where you said you already were going Qinggong.

Aaaanyway..

Barkskin would be like the spell, with a duration of 10min/level.
So a major benefit is that you use it once every 100 minutes, and do not have to apply it in combat. (Got the impression you thought you had to re-apply it every round)