Making a Monk for first time

[no good scallywag]

I just created a monk I will be using in PFS and wanted everyone to see how my process worked and how, I think, there were plenty of tough choices to make in building even a level 1 character, something I was concerned about going into the Playtest. I have to say I'm happy so far and look forward to playing him at Gen Con.

I've always wanted to play a Shoanti in the likeness of a Native American Indian, and since I've never played a Monk character and wanted to go the martial route (I favor spellcasters) I thought Monk would be an excellent choice.

The Playtest's CRB opening chapters on creation were dismal. However, 2e is wonderful. The wording is very clear and concise (but see below for some issues with matching words). Being a long-time RPGer I am already familiar with the opening points of the CRB and dove straight into character creation.

#1:

Creation is done simply by going down the “ABCs,” or following the numbers 1,2,3, and so on. I’ve already covered #1: Create a concept. However, the CRB also has points for religion, allies, etc., which I have not yet fully developed. I’m leaning toward an alignment of Lawful for certain and either Good or Neutral. Being a tribal person, I think my Monk would have an affinity for anything nature, have a strong tribal tie (especially societal morales and tendencies), and have a sense of honor.

#2/A:

]#2 sets out how to start building ability scores, which all start out at 10. I think I’d like my highest scores to be in Strength, Dexterity, and/or Wisdom (coming from PF1, I know Wisdom is a big deal for Monks). I’m leaning more towards a quicker Monk than brute strength. Let’s go into the ABC’s.

A=Ancestry. I already know I want to be a human. What does this entail? I just look up the Human Ancestry and it gives me everything I need to know.The sidebar is very clear: I get 8 HP, I’m Medium sized, Speed of 25’, two free ability boosts, and the Common Language. I wonder if picking a location to be from garners me the language of that area...for instance, if I’m from Osirion, do I know Osiriani? Makes sense that I would, but I’m not seeing anything of that nature in the opening chapters. Thinking about this brings me to Heritages, which maybe these local languages might be a part of in the future. I see a list of 4 to choose from: Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Skilled Heritage, and Versatile Heritage. I already know I don’t want the first two, so I look at the Skilled and Versatile. They are fairly clear. Skilled gives me one skill to be trained in of my choice whereas Versatile gives a General Feat of my choice. These are both very interesting, in part due to not knowing how many skill points or selections I get as a Monk.

I turn to the Monk and see my skills are 4+INT, not too bad when I compare that to other classes. But looking at the skills listed on the character sheet that I can do, there are a lot, more than 4 I’d like to do! So maybe I should take the Skilled Heritage. But wait! I might want that Versatile Heritage, so I head over to the General Feats and write down a few I might want to have. I like Diehard, only because I’ve seen how deadly encounters can be in live plays of 2e, online with Oblivion Oath, and my playtest experience. I also like Feather Step, as I expect to move around far more than any character I’ve ever had before. Toughness looks good, but with the Toughness Feat from PF1 being sub-par, I’m hesitant. As a player who likes to use skills as much as possible, the Untrained Improvisation sounds nice.

I go ahead and decide to take the Versatile Heritage and choose the Diehard Feat since I will be a melee character. I’d like to point out a key difference I think is superb and will make the game better. They’ve decided to split feats into General and Skill feats, something I think will make the game play better, make players play better, and help get rid of stat-dumping and allow people like fighters to contribute out of combat. I now need to choose an Ancestry Feat. There are two options I glom onto: Natural Ambition or Natural Skill (because I’ve already stated my propensity to like skilled characters). However, Natural Ambition allows the selection of a Monk Feat, and knowing Monks, their class abilities are usually very powerful. It’s a no-brainer and I pick this and then select Ki Strike as my Class Feat.

B:

Having completed my “A” of ABC, I move onto “B,” Background. There is a wide variety of these. Some of them, such as Acrobat, are very interesting except Circus Lore. I am not a fan of circuses at all, and being a member of a circus is not something my Shoanti Monk would ever do. So I’m unsure if I can select this. Could I change the Circus Lore to something that aligns more with my character’s concept, as long as it makes sense and does the same thing as Circus Lore? I think so, especially since I’m a GM. I could, for instance, take a lore in Shoanti Rituals (wherein an acrobatic dance is to be performed for religious or societal purposes). I then see Martial Disciple and Warrior, both of which would fit my Monk. However, Warrior has an ability called Glare which uses Intimidate, which isn’t something I found too useful in PF1 for myself and not how I envision my Monk anyway. I go with Martial Disciple, which gives me an ability boost to Strength or Dexterity, Trained in Acrobatic or Athletics (chose Athletics), and the Catfall Feat, and Lore Warfare.

I can already see I’ve made several choices that got me thinking. I hope other classes have these kinds of decisions. Then I realize I haven’t even completely finished my ability scores to where I’m at in the ABCs. I assign my Ancestry 2 Ancestry boosts to Strength and Dexterity. My Background gives me a boost to Strength or Dexterity plus one free boost. I choose to go with Strength and Dexterity again. Current: ST 14, DX 14, CN 10, IN 10, WD 10, CH 10.

C:

Now onto “C,” Class. Monk gives me 10 HP + CN modifier so I think my next ability boosts should at least be to Constitution. However, the Monk Class gives me a boost to Strength or Dexterity only, so I put it into Dexterity. Current: ST 14, DX 16, CN 10, IN 10, WD 10, CH 10. I get training in Perception, simple weapons, unarmed attacks, and Monk Class DC. I get Expert training in all saving throws and unarmored defense. I realize I also have 4 more free ability boosts to use! So I put them into Strength, Con, Wisdom, and Dex, bringing my final scores to:

ST 16, DX 18, CN 12, IN 10, WD 12, CH 10.

I then get to pick 4 skills to train in. I did have a question about this and had trouble finding an answer. I wondered if I could put a “rank” into Lore-Warfare, since this was not granted by my class, and make it Expert. I did not do this, however, just wondered if such a thing was possible. I went with training in Acrobatics, Deception, Medicine, and Stealth.

I then filled out my character sheet with my decisions and wrote in Flurry of Blows and Powerful Fist. Moving on, I looked through the Monk Feats, which contained enough choices to make me think and try to plan ahead. Dragons being my favorite fantasy creature in real life, I went with Dragon Stance automatically.

This done, I move on to step 6, which I realize I’ve already done- putting in the final four boosts. Step 7 I’ve already begun, which is writing on the sheet, and Step 8 is Buy Equipment. As a Monk, I’ve no use for weapons and armor, but I can’t hit something with my fist at range, so buy some javelins. I purchase some more equipment and fill out my skill scores, with Acrobatics and Stealth being 7, Athletics being 6, and Medicine and Thievery being 4.

I did have some questions as I looked through the various options. The Warrior background lists “Glare” and a Feat, yet there is not feat called “Glare.” There is an “Intimidating Glare,” so I’m assuming this is referring to that. I did also notice some grammatical errors, more than I would have liked for a new shiny book that’s been worked on for so long. Not sure how these things get by so easily (don’t have the writers and company people edit their own stuff).

If anyone sees any errors on my part, feel free to let me know!

[lordcirth]

I don't have my book yet, but doesn't Martial Disciple grant Cat Fall if you pick Acrobatics, and something else (Combat Climber?) for Athletics?

Also, no, you can't get your lore to expert. The class skills day that you become trained, not that you increase a skill by one step.

[Kyrone]

It looks fine, in text form is kinda hard to spot any error.

[RicoTheBold]

lordcirth wrote:

I don't have my book yet, but doesn't Martial Disciple grant Cat Fall if you pick Acrobatics, and something else (Combat Climber?) for Athletics?

Also, no, you can't get your lore to expert. The class skills day that you become trained, not that you increase a skill by one step.

The background note here is correct; Cat Fall is tied to Acrobatics, although Quick Jump is the feat you get if you choose Athletics. However, because ultimately both skills became trained (Acrobatics was chosen during the Class step), you don't actually need to change anything because you still ended up with the right skills.

And as mentioned, the level 1 skill selections are what skills start as trained as part of your "Initial Proficiencies"; they're not technically skill increases. Skill increases (though you can still opt to take a new skill to trained) start for most classes at level 3, and for Rogues at level 2.

[Thebazilly]

lordcirth wrote:

Also, no, you can't get your lore to expert. The class skills day that you become trained, not that you increase a skill by one step.

This is correct. You can only raise the rank of a skill with a Skill Increase. The ranks you can raise skills to are also capped by level. In your class progression text, it should go into this in the Skill Increases section.

There are a few feats that grant automatic rank increases, I think. (Additional Lore was one in the Playtest.)

[no good scallywag]

lordcirth wrote:

I don't have my book yet, but doesn't Martial Disciple grant Cat Fall if you pick Acrobatics, and something else (Combat Climber?) for Athletics?

Also, no, you can't get your lore to expert. The class skills day that you become trained, not that you increase a skill by one step.

You're correct; I picked Acro and then put a skill point into athletics!

[Malk_Content]

Just to show the variety inherent in the system, here is my human Monk setup to take bard dedication at level 2 that will play very differently. He is built for mountain stance, rocking a shield to double down on the defensive playstyle and nabbed Ki Rush in case he needs to get somewhere in a hurry.

Olaf Olafskald

[Deadmanwalking]

For languages, Mark Seifter has noted that Humans should get one language of their choice (from those available to them) as a bonus, so it's intended for you to be able to get both Common and Shoanti with no further investment.

The book sadly lacks this text, however.