Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
As the title says, would you allow an unchained monk to take the sohei archetype? I know it doesnt RAW work. I'm just wondering if it would be OP or a reasonable thing to do.
If I were the GM, I would allow it but it would require more than a little house ruling. The old monk’s class features are set in stone at set levels, whereas the new monk’s features are variable and available at different levels. It might not be a clean transition.
Sohei is a strong archetype as it is due to how well it meshes with mounted builds. Free Mounted Skirmisher for a 1st level dip is very strong, and is almost identical to how broken the Crane Wing Master of Many Styles cheese was in PFS, and we all knew how that went down.
Tack onto that no loss of BAB, an infinitely better Flurry of Blows that can be used with light armor based on a FAQ, unarmed competence, and a saves boost, and you're looking at a very strong 1 level dip for a Cavalier. Heck, they could take even more levels in Sohei if they wanted, pick up the Boon Companion feat, and even get a Ki Pool/Style Strike for added shenanigans.
There are a lot of abilities of the same name. Is it possible to make a "standard monk" by picking the right things at the right levels?
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Sohei is a strong archetype as it is due to how well it meshes with mounted builds. Free Mounted Skirmisher for a 1st level dip is very strong, and is almost identical to how broken the Crane Wing Master of Many Styles cheese was in PFS, and we all knew how that went down.
Tack onto that no loss of BAB, an infinitely better Flurry of Blows that can be used with light armor based on a FAQ, unarmed competence, and a saves boost, and you're looking at a very strong 1 level dip for a Cavalier. Heck, they could take even more levels in Sohei if they wanted, pick up the Boon Companion feat, and even get a Ki Pool/Style Strike for added shenanigans.
Even if you don't take mounted feats, it is fairly strong. It is my primary argument of 'why did we need the unchained monk?'(there are other archetypes with great stuff, but this is my main one for 'the beatstick' side of things)
It gets weapon training, and with the right items, it hits just as well as unchained monk, even when it isn't flurrying. But it can flurry with reach weapons, which means that it isn't that hard to get a flurry off once you grab things like lunge.
Once you add in a reliable flurry, then it hits better than the unchained monk by about +3 (after subtracting flurry and adding gloves of dueling). And while it doesn't get x1.5 str damage, it gets bonuses to damage from weapon training which at least somewhat make up for that.
It also- yes- gets to use light armor. For a pure monk, you would eventually want to trade out of that... eventually. Adding the scaling AC bonus with enhancements from dex, wis, and bracers of armor... it can overtake light armor... but that takes time and money to set up. Light armor at level 1? That is great, since you do not need to be a dex/wis turtle to survive. You can go with a str build. So sohei is far simpler to play early on (which also meshes well with regular items used by other classes, as you mention).
Besides reach builds, you can also grab pummeling style or outslug style to make reliable unarmed builds. The advantage of sohei there is that it can grab brawling armor on top of weapon training stuff. I remember a time when +1 brawling armor was cheaper than buying a +1 amulet of might fists... Anyway, that is a sweet untypes +2 attack/damage for unarmed attacks.