Unlike many martial classes that get Critical Specialization through their Class Features, Monks get it through a feat:
"Brawling Focus Feat 2
Monk
Source Core Rulebook pg. 160 1.1
You know how to make the most of your attacks when fighting hand-to-hand. You gain access to the critical specialization effects of unarmed strikes in the brawling group and weapons in the brawling group. If you have Monastic Weaponry, you also gain the critical specialization effects of all monk weapons in which you are trained."
Now, this feat not only covers unarmed strikes, but shows how it handles weapons with Monastic Weaponry, which is great...but Monastic Archer Stance doesn't require Monastic Weaponry.
Is the only way to get your Critical Specialization with a Bow to take Monastic Weaponry, a feat you may not even want to take otherwise? If so, I think Brawling Focus could use a bit of Errata to make an exception for Monastic Archer Stance, that's a pretty heavy cost otherwise to obtain it.
Monastic Weaponry wouldn't even cover bows (except monk tag bows) raw
But considerin the feats the monastic archery style gets I can imagine that this was done on purpose
Monastic Weaponry wouldn't even cover bows (except monk tag bows) raw
But considerin the feats the monastic archery style gets I can imagine that this was done on purpose
I more refer to Monastic Weapons due to this line in Brawling Focus:
"If you have Monastic Weaponry, you also gain the critical specialization effects of all monk weapons in which you are trained."
And the Monastic Archer Stance:
"Special When you select this feat, you become trained in the longbow, shortbow, and any simple and martial bows with the monk trait. If you gain the expert strikes class feature, your proficiency rank for these weapons increases to expert, and if you gain the master strikes class feature, your proficiency rank for these weapons increases to master."
Monastic Weaponry wouldn't even cover bows (except monk tag bows) raw
But considerin the feats the monastic archery style gets I can imagine that this was done on purpose
I more refer to Monastic Weapons due to this line in Brawling Focus:
"If you have Monastic Weaponry, you also gain the critical specialization effects of all monk weapons in which you are trained."
And the Monastic Archer Stance:
"Special When you select this feat, you become trained in the longbow, shortbow, and any simple and martial bows with the monk trait. If you gain the expert strikes class feature, your proficiency rank for these weapons increases to expert, and if you gain the master strikes class feature, your proficiency rank for these weapons increases to master."
I think they avoided giving it crit specialization because they turned the effect under an entirely different trigger. Here is the feat Pinning Fire:
Trigger You use Flurry of Blows to make two ranged piercing weapon Strikes against the same target.
You target your opponent's clothing, equipment, or loose flesh with piercing projectiles to pin them to the ground or a nearby surface. If both your attacks hit, the target must succeed at a Reflex save against your class DC or become immobilized until it or an adjacent creature succeeds at a DC 10 Athletics check to remove the pinning projectiles. The creature doesn't become stuck if it is incorporeal, is liquid (like a water elemental or some oozes), or could otherwise escape without effort.
It is the exact same language as bow crits. It just makes it so that it triggers on two hits rather than a crit (I don't know about your rolls, but this seems like the more common trigger).
Is the only way to get your Critical Specialization with a Bow to take Monastic Weaponry, a feat you may not even want to take otherwise?
That would not work.
Longbows and shortbows are not "monk weapons". So Monastic would not help.
Maybe there will be a monk bow in the future. Or a ancestral bow that can get a monk tag with ancestral weapons.
Found one.
Archer Dedication
"If you are at least an expert in the bow you are using, you gain access to the critical specialization effect with that bow."