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Confused Dual Weapon Warrior 60
1: Stumbling Stance (must make unarmed attacks)
2: Juggler Dedication ("wield" 2 weapons + unarmed)
4: Focused Juggler (need 1 other dedication feat, and saves actions)
6: Stumbling Feint
8: Dual Weapon Warrior Dedication (not useful)
12: Twin Parry (+2 AC)
14: Twin Riposte (can punch with this)
16: Improved Twin Riposte
18: Twinned Defense
20: Fuse Stance
So run up to someone with 2 weapons, toss one in the air to distract them, and punch them. Catch the weapon and parry their attack. If they miss, punch again.
Monks high AC +2 should make it pretty easy to trigger the riposte twice. And a reasonable chance that you have flat-footed for the ripostes as well.
Also works with any other "must strike with" options.
Re-Re-Reposte 61
Duelist Riposte is easer to get than dual weapon.
1: Crane Stance
2: Duelist Dedication
4: Duelist Parry
6: Crane Flutter (riposte 1)
8: Dueling Riposte
10: Improved Dueling Riposte (riposte 2)
12: Swashbuckler Dedmocatopm
14: Swashbuckler Riposte
16: Basic Flare (Tumble Behind, you've got extra speed to make this easy)
18:
20: Reflexive Riposte (riposte 3)
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Human monk/blessed one
1 Monastic Archer Stance, Natural Ambition (Ki Strike)
2 Blessed One Dedication
3
4 Guarded Movement
5 Cooperative Nature
6 One-Inch Punch
7
8 Pinning Fire
9 Cooperative Soul
10 Winding Flow
11
12 Stance Savant
13 Group Aid
14 Blessed Denial
15
16 Meditative Focus
17 Heroic Presence
18 Focused Shot
19
20 Meditative Wellspring
One-Inch Punch and Focused Shot give a couple different ways to simulate Kagome's single arrow shots, she's got a lot of group assistance and some reasonable healing as well as lots of focus points and full recovery thereof. And she can actually lay out some significant hurt when she wants to lean into firing off a few shots. Basically just a nice blend of team player with basic healing and archery that you can further customize with skill feats, including leaning into Medicine if you want to bring in more healing for the group.
attempt to make a MoMS monk.
1: Tiger or Dragon or Wolf stance (base 3 that dont require specific melee attacks be made)
2: Ki Strike
4: Wholeness of Body
6: Tiger slash or Wolf Dragon or Dragon Roar or Align Ki (depends on your first choice really)
8: Clinging Shadows Initiate
10: Prevailing Position
12: Stance Savant
14: Shadows Web or Meditative focus
16: master of many styles
18: Meditative wellspring (if shadows web), or Ki Center
20: fuse stance
Ability to have reach grapple stance with negative damage or a physical damage with higher die is nice, im still uncertain if you get a lot of benefit for fuse stance even with this setup though.
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Orc Monk
1 Beast Trainer, Bonded Animal, Wolf Stance
2 Stunning Fist
3
4 Stand Still
5 Orc Ferocity
6 Wolf Drag
7
8 Tangled Forest Stance
9 Undying Ferocity
10 Winding Flow
11
12 Stance Savant
13 Ferocious Beasts
14 Tangled Forest Rake
15
16 Master of Many Styles (Retrain for Enlightened Presence at 20)
17 Rampaging Ferocity
18 Diamond Fists
19
20 Fuse Stance
This is mostly a theme build, but it actually comes together better than you might expect thanks to monks having such a vastly better ability to manipulate their own action economy (and with tricks like Stunning Fist, Stand Still, Wolf Drag, and Tangled Forest Stance, that of their opponents). You can get more efficient use out of your bonded animal along with the durability increases from the ferocity feats for a surprisingly fearsome twist on the ranger/hunter concept using the monk chassis. Tangled Forest Rake and Enlightened Presence let you set up flanking with your companion more easily and shore it up against effects that can take it out of the fight, and you'll be really sturdy so you can withstand any punish you bring on yourself by locking enemies down next to you.
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Inspired by the PF1 monk archetype that let you play a mounted archer who can flurry from horseback.
Human Monk/Cavalier
1 Monastic Archer Stance, General Training (Express Rider)
2 Cavalier Dedication
3
4 Cavalier's Charge, Quick Mount
5 Cooperative Nature
6 Impressive Mount
7
8 Deflect Arrow
9 Cooperative Soul
10 Defend Mount
11
12 Incredible Mount (Nimble)
13 Stubborn Persistence
14 Return Fire
15
16 Focused Shot
17 Heroic Presence
18 Specialized Mount (Ambusher)
19
20 Legendary Rider
Pretty standard mounted archery build on the monk chassis. You have a few different ways to combine your abilities depending on the situation, though you'll want to be aware that flurry and cavalier's charge don't work together, but there will be situations that are appropriate for both; Cavalier's Charge combines well with Focused Shot, and flurry is a good choice when you want to attack and also buff your mount with Heroic Presence or perform other actions not compatible with Cavalier's Charge. You should always be able to take full advantage of your action economy with a mount that should hold up well across the life of the character.
This is a different take on the Shooting stars build I posted before, mostly after I realized Barbs, even with Raging Thrower, wouldn't work since Shuriken agile.
Shuriken Masta
Human
1. Monastic Weps, Ki Strike
2. Shooting Stars Stance
4. Dual-Weapon Warrior Dedication
6. Dual Thrower
8. Flensing Slice
*9. Fighter Dedication
10. Stunning Fist/Pinning Fire
12. Dueling Parry/Exacting Strike
14. Pinning Fire/Stunning Fist
16. Flinging Blow
18. Diamond Fists
20. Advanced Maneuver (Agile Grace)
Nunchucks + Shuriken or go full Shuriken. Dual Slice->Flurry at (0/0/-6/-6) with Shurikens is pretty cool.
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What do you need to be the star of your own fantasy RPG? A sword, some vaguely magical sword powers, and a tiny but perky best friend!
Human monk/familiar master
1 Monastic Weaponry, Natural Ambition (Ki Strike)
2 Familiar Master Dedication
3
4 Stand Still
5 Sense Allies
6 Improved Familiar
7
8 Mutable Familiar
9 Clever Improviser
10 Incredible Familiar
11
12 Duelist Dedication
13 Bounce Back
14 Whirling Blade Stance
15
16 Duelist's Challenge
17 Heroic Presence
18 Dueling Parry
19
20 Student of the Dueling Arts
Really, you can go wherever you want from 12th level; I kinda chuckled thinking about how it was like picking your high level subpath in a JRPG. I went with Duelist as a nice pick-up since the assumption of the build is that you're using a temple sword to meet the requirements of quirky companion creature and unique sword + sword techniques. Also because Student of the Dueling Arts lets you play around with the archetype a bit more if you get to spend some time at 20th, and that helps it feel more like a proper capstone.
Build 67: The Anime/JRPG Protagonist
Shouldn't this build include Ki Form? How else are you supposed to have the inexplicable transformation for the final battle?
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Build 67: The Anime/JRPG ProtagonistShouldn't this build include Ki Form? How else are you supposed to have the inexplicable transformation for the final battle?
You could also spread the familiar feats out a bit more and dip into duelist earlier to play up the sword angle more prominently. Honestly, I think you could squeeze a couple variants out of the idea before you even start looking at different archetypes.
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Following the Yuffie build, this is going to use Talisman Dabbler to represent having materia, and I take a few liberties with the build, making Cloud a half-elf (represents his Jenova cells?) and using an elven curve blade has his buster sword.
Half-elf monk / mauler / talisman dabbler
1 Elven Weapon Familiarity, Monastic Weaponry
2 Ancestral Weaponry
3
4 Mauler Dedication
5 Natural Ambition (Ki Strike)
6 Clear the Way
7
8 Shoving Sweep
9 Pinch Time
10 Talisman Dabbler Dedication
11
12 Deeper Dabbler
13 Avenge Ally
14 Talismanic Sage
15
16 Avalanche Strike
17 Heroic Presence
18 Flinging Blow
19
20 Impossible Technique
So, you can flurry with an elven curve blade (which has forceful, actually pretty nice for this build) and use it to execute a whole bunch of sweeping two-handed attacks. You've got a tight band of magical abilities and effects to compliment that with Ki Strike, Pinch Time, your talismans, and Heroic Presence. You've got a surprising facility for manipulating the enemy's position on the battlefield as well, allowing you to combine those big, sweeping attacks with lots of dynamic movement.
Hi guys good morning!
(Here in Rio de Janeiro it's still morning ...)
Well in just under 5 hours we will have our so-called "zero session", where the group will discuss the characters and the campaign, so, I am inclined to the monk, I was even considering Eldritch Archer, but you put so many legal options here that doubt is something right!
What I'm looking for is a damage machine monk!
Is it possible? Tell me how!
In time, (I haven't read all the builds yet, but I will!), Do things like Assassin or Shadow Dancer look cool on the monk?
Hello fellow Brazilian.
For a damage Monk you will want a stance with high damage die like the Dragon Stance and then Ki Strike for the increased hit chance + extra damage.
Assassin have a cool flavor with Monk, but you likely will not use Mark of Death often or Assassinate because of how they work (3 actions and enemy unaware of you presence).
ShadowDancer can work well, pick Occult in the Ki focus spells and you will get automatic scaling on Occult that the dancer use.
Oh thank you all!
Hi guys good morning!
(Here in Rio de Janeiro it's still morning ...)
Well in just under 5 hours we will have our so-called "zero session", where the group will discuss the characters and the campaign, so, I am inclined to the monk, I was even considering Eldritch Archer, but you put so many legal options here that doubt is something right!
What I'm looking for is a damage machine monk!
Is it possible? Tell me how!
In time, (I haven't read all the builds yet, but I will!), Do things like Assassin or Shadow Dancer look cool on the monk?
Monk and assassin can work pretty well together.
lvl1 - Stumbling Stance
lvl2 - Assassin Dedication
lvl4 - Expert Backstabber
lvl6 - Stumbling Feint
lvl8 - Sneak Attacker
lvl10 - Prevailing Position
Then from there you can move into shadow dancer if you want or something else.
Stumbling feint gives you a chance to make your target flat footed every flurry which will let you apply improved backstabber damage and sneak attack dmg more often.
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1. Tiger Stance (Any stance/feat works here except Ki Strike)
2. Student of Perfection Dedication
4. Perfect Strike
6. Perfect Ki Adept (unbreaking wave advance)
8. Shadow Dancer Dedication
10. Shadow Magic (Shadow Jump)
12. Meditative Focus
14. Disrupt Ki
16. Shattering Strike
18. Meditative Wellspring
20. Shadow Master
A promising pupil falls from grace and embraces the shadow arts after leaving his school/monastery. It's heavy on the Ki abilities which makes the Meditative feats pretty much must haves. And leaving out Shadow Sneak Attack lowers the potential damage but looks like a pretty fun build.
Catfolk Rebel
14/18/12/10/10/14 -> 16/22/16/10/18/20
1. Stumbling Stance
2. Dandy Dedication
4. Distracting Flattery, Stunning Fist
6. Stumbling Feint
8. Party Crasher, Acrobat Dedication
10. Graceful Leaper, Tumbling Opportunist
12. Dodging Roll
14. Tongue of the Sun and Moon
16. Flinging Blow
18. Swift River
20. Enduring Quickness
This build started as me playing around mostly but this could be pretty fun to play. Essentially they're a high class thief, able to talk their way in anywhere and then get out as fast as possible.
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Get ready for this one boys, gals, and nonbinary pals, we're going full Castlevania!
Human dhampir monk / shadow dancer
1 Fangs, Ki Rush
2 Crushing Grab
3
4 Wholeness of Body
5 Undead Slayer
6 Align Ki
7
8 Clinging Shadows Initiate
9 Bloodletting Fangs
10 Shadowdancer Dedication
11
12 Shadow Magic (Shadow Jump); retrain Ki Rush for Ki Strike
13 Form of the Bat
14 Shadow's Web
15
16 Meditative Focus
17 Symphony of Blood
18 Ki Form
19
20 Shadow Master
Athletics needs to be our primary skill for this, because we want to grapple as often as possible to take advantage of our abilities and feast on our victims. Our priority stats in order are STR, DEX, and WIS; there's no reason to ignore CON, but we've also got a lot of regenerative power built into this so we can be a proper undying lord of blood and shadow.
I was really close to grabbing Ki Center instead of Ki Form at 18th to improve action economy and use ki spells more frequently, but the opportunity to shroud yourself in glowing purple ki that deals negative damage was too hard to resist. Ki Center might actually be the more optimal way to go here, assuming you're willing to give up Ki Form.
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I realized we'd gone this entire thread without actually having a monk/cleric build, and I didn't want to do the obvious disciple of Irori, sooo...
Human monk / cleric of Sturovenen
1 Ki Rush, Natural Ambition (Dragon Style)
2 Cleric Dedication
3
4 Basic Cleric Spellcasting
5 Arcane Tattoos (abjuration)
6 Basic Dogma (Domain Initiate [Passion] charming touch)
7
8 Divine Breadth
9 Ornate Tattoo (mage armor)
10 Dragon Roar
11
12 Expert Cleric Spellcasting
13 Virtue-Forged Tattoos (resist energy)
14 Advanced Dogma (Sap Life)
15
16 Meditative Focus
17 Heroic Presence
18 Master Cleric
19
20 Deadly Strikes
I'm going to be honest, one of the biggest reasons I went with Sturovenen is that he gets dragon form as a divine spell, and I like being a dragon who can flurry. But , despite front-loading theme instead of building mechanics first, this is actually a pretty slick build. You've got a surprising number of 1-action abilities beyond just flurry, so there's a lot of things you can do on a given turn. I believe Deadly Strikes should apply to your attacks in dragon form at high level as well, so that should be fun. Charming touch is kind of fun as something you can open up with as a single action and then change your tactics on accordingly based on its success, and you're going to want to be in melee range anyways. The tattoos can be flavored as being shaped like scales and feathers as a nod to your Dragoneagle deity, and help flesh out your defenses and buffing a bit. You're obviously not replacing a cleric for actual casting, but you're better in a fight, probably a fair bit tougher overall, and your casting isn't negligible.
Human
1. Monastic Weps, Versatile Heritage (Fleet), Ki Strike
2. Shooting Stars Stance, Alchemical Crafting
3.
4. Assassin Dedication
5.
6. Expert Backstabber, Shadow Mark
7.
8. Sneak Attacker, Swift Sneak
9.
10. Shadow Dancer Dedication, Acrobatic Performer
11.
12. Shadow Magic (Dance of Darkness)
13.
14. Meditative Focus
15.
16. Shadow Magic (Shadow Jump)
17.
18. Shadow Illusion
19.
20. Meditative Wellspring
This is an attempt to create Zed from League of Legends. Using Katar's and Shuriken's this build is made to dash in and strike unsuspecting targets or those Marked for Death. Dance of Darkness and Shadow Jump replicate the dodging and mobility of Zed and Shadow Illusion replicates his shadow clone ability pretty well.
Downside is that Katar's aren't Free-Hand so you can't dual-wield them and be able to use Shuriken's in a Flurry at the same time. And it's pretty thirsty for focus points so you're kinda forced into meditative feats.
Running Free Archetype variant this would be even cooler.
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This takes a few cues from earlier builds like the Disciple of the Dragoneagle and Basic Bo Becomes Iron Forest, but recombines some of the elements and uses a few new options to change the basic form and function.
Human Monk / Fighter
1 Monastic Weaponry (bo staff is the big winner here), Arcane Tattoos (abjuration)
2 Fighter Dedication
3
4 Opportunist
5 Ornate Tattoo (mage armor)
6 Lunge
7
8 Staff Acrobat Dedication
9 Virtue-Forged Tattoos (safe passage)
10 Whirlwind Stance
11
12 Stance Savant
13 Bounce Back
14 Pivot Strike
15
16 Enlightened Presence
17 Heroic Presence
18 Swift River
19
20 Advanced Maneuver (Combat Reflexes)
Pivot Strike combines nicely with Flourish of Blows as a way to enter the fray, knock an opponent down, and then use your higher MAP attacks against a prone opponent. Attack of Opportunity and Combat Reflexes make it harder for them to disengage with you and reach an ally in shape to cause a lot of damage. Mage armor and Whirlwind Stance provide stacking bonuses to AC that are nice, though the mage armor tattoo is as much for flavor as anything else. Safe passage makes for a fun option that builds on the tanky theme of the character. It's really a pretty simple build overall though, with a healthy selection of single action options to give you versatility round to round and a nice basic chassis of reach and durability with some good options for team defense.
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I intentionally did Cloud and Yuffie first since I thought Tifa as kind of the archetypical monk might not actually be that interesting, but I've done what I can to match themes and keep her build fun. It occurs to me that if I ever run an FF7-themed campaign, I'll probably just give everyone talisman dabbler as a free archetype (used again here to represent materia).
Human monk / student of perfection / talisman dabbler
1 General Training (Fleet), Ki Rush
2 Student of Perfection Dedication
3 Prescient Planner
4 Perfect Strike
5 Clever Improviser
6 Perfect Ki Adept (Unbreaking Wave Advance)
7
8 Talisman Dabbler Dedication
9 Group Aid
10 Deeper Dabbler
11
12 Meditative Focus
13 Advanced General Training (Prescient Consumable)
14 Flying Kick
15
16 Talismanic Sage
17 Stubborn Persistence
18 Meditative Wellspring
19
20 Impossible Technique
Unbreaking Wave is the closest nod I could get to Tifa's Dolphin Kick, Clever Improviser seemed appropriate for her various "eco-terrorist / bar owner/ escape artist" scenes, Prescient Planner/Prescient Consumable felt like a fun way of simulating a Final Fantasy style consumable inventory, and Meditative Focus/Wellspring are in there so you can keep spamming ki abilities pretty regularly and maintain that high fantasy feel. Fleet and Stubborn Persistence were a direct nod to the famous stairwell scene. I'd probably supplement this with lots of Acrobatics and Athletics related skill feats.
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A leshy monk leaning into forest and nature themes who can also provide some extra healing.
Leaf leshy monk / herbalist
1 Ki Strike, Seedpod
2 Elemental Fist, Natural Medicine (you could also grab this from a background)
3
4 Herbalist Dedication
5 Leshy Glide
6 Fresh Ingredients
7
8 Tangled Forest Stance
9 Bark and Tendril
10 Poultice Preparation
11
12 Wholeness of Body
13 Solar Rejuvenation
14 Endemic Herbs
15
16 Expert Herbalism
17 Ritual Reversion
18 Meditative Focus
19
20 Endurance of the Rooted Tree
Pretty self explanatory, a nature theme build that can punch and help carry the healing and condition removal/resistance loads.
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Just a fun halfling build focused around using a filcher's fork in a way that's reasonably effective.
Halfling monk / poisoner / duelist
1 Halfling Weapon Familiarity, Monastic Weaponry
2 Ancestral Weaponry
3 Armor Proficiency (light)
4 Poisoner Dedication
5 Step Lively
6 Poisoner's Twist
7
8 Expert Poisoner
9 Dance Underfoot
10 Duelist Dedication
11
12 Poison Coat
13 Toppling Dance
14 Dueling Parry
15
16 Dueling Riposte
17 Shadow Self
18 Student of the Dueling Arts
19
20 Improved Dueling Riposte
It's a build about poking and poisoning your enemies! Having three reactions to choose from might seem like a bit much, but I expect that really it's going to help maximize action economy under a variety of circumstances, and it's a fun stick and move build. You'll basically always spend one reaction riposting and one on either of the other two as the circumstances come up (or maybe a second riposte). It's also kind of handy that your primary weapon also has a reasonable ranged option built in, so you don't lose as much if melee isn't working out, especially with the monk chassis helping you close ground and get into position.
Also, poisoning a filcher's fork, which is explicitly also used for eating, makes me think of this, and that's great.
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For when you want to play an orc who's ready to challenge their way up the Belkzen hierarchy.
Orc monk / duelist
1 Monastic Weaponry, Orc Weapon Familiarity
2 Ancestral Weaponry (looking at the orc knuckle dagger as our go-to here)
3 Armor Proficiency (light)
4 Duelist Dedication
5 Orc Ferocity
6 Duelist's Challenge
7
8 Dueling Parry
9 Bloody Blows
10 Brawling Focus
11
12 Disarming Twist
13 Death's Drums
14 Improved Dueling Riposte
15
16 Student of the Dueling Arts
17 Rampaging Ferocity
18 Diamond Fists
19
20 Enduring Quickness
Just a fun build that uses the orc knuckle dagger as your one-handed piercing weapon for duelist abilities. Light armor proficiency is a throw-away feat, unfortunately (just like with the filcher build above), but you do have some cool versatility in being able to swap around duelist feats at the start of the day if you know a particular challenge is coming up or you just want to shake things up. Diamond Fists should apply to both your knuckle dagger and your unarmed strikes, and Bloody Blows means that you can switch seamlessly between bludgeoning and piercing attacks as the situation demands without a huge loss in functionality. Combining duelist with monk mobility means that you're really good at getting to distant enemies and then wrecking them one on one. I'd probably go STR primary and DEX secondary and focus my remaining skill and general feats on Athletics and Acrobatics skill feats to continue capitalizing on the class mobility, and to keep disarming as a viable part of your tactical arsenal.
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Now that people have started getting their copies of Sixty Feet Under, I can reference this little archetype....
Human Monk / Jalmeri Heavenseeker
1 Dragon Spit (electric arc), Ki Strike
2 Elemental Fist
3
4 Guarded Movement
5 Sense Allies
6 Jalmeri Heavenseeker Dedication (Ki Rush)
7
8 Heaven's Thunder
9 Dragon Prince (Bronze Dragon)
10 Sky and Heaven Stance
11
12 Steal the Sky
13 Bounce Back
14 Stance Savant
15
16 Skyseeker
17 Heroic Presence
18 Meditative Focus
19
20 Cross the Final Horizon
And that's our lightning dragonslayer, mostly just pairing up the Jalmeri heavenseeker archetype with some thematic ancestry feats and some ki pool recovery options so you can really lean into the magical aspects of your build in every combat at higher levels. I really wanted to work in Dragon Style and Fuse Stance so I could capstone this with a "Lightning Dragon Stance", but I didn't want to give up Cross the Final Horizon and once I knew I wouldn't be grabbing Fuse Stance, trying to work in Dragon Style didn't make a ton of sense to me anymore.
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Little bit trickier than the others since Wendy does less magical punching and more healing and buffing, but stealing some of the tricks we learned in earlier builds, I think I can get us there.
Human Monk / Blessed One
1 Dragon Spit (ray of frost), Ki Rush
2 Blessed One Dedication
3 Prescient Planner
4 Mercy
5 Sense Allies
6 Flying Kick
7
8 Wild Winds Initiate
9 Dragon Prince (silver dragon)
10 Greater Mercy
11
12 Resilient Touch
13 Advanced General Training (Prescient Consumable)
14 Wild Winds Gust
15
16 Affliction Mercy
17 Heroic Presence
18 Meditative Focus
19
20 Rejuvenating Touch
Wendy's wind powers don't map super well to PF2 right now, so I gave her a combination of cold and wind powers to fill that niche. Blessed One gives her a nice array of healing and Prescient Consumable gives her something for those unexpected moments. I'd fill up a bunch of those skill feat slots with Medicine skill feats to round out her healing abilities.
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Figure we've got 4 dragonslayers, may as well see how far we can take this!
Half-orc monk
1 Dragon Stance, Natural Ambition (Ki Strike)
2 Elemental Fist
3
4 Wholeness of Body
5 Orc Ferocity
6 Dragon Roar
7
8 Ironblood Stance
9 Undying Ferocity
10 Knockback Strike
11
12 Stance Savant
13 Incredible Ferocity
14 Ironblood Surge
15
16 Master of Many Styles (retrain for Shattering Strike at 19/20)
17 Rampaging Ferocity
18 Diamond Fists
19
20 Fuse Stance (Iron Dragon Stance)
Really just leaning into toughness and tenacity here, and finally getting to use Fuse Stance in one of these builds for a proper dragonslayer stance!
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For folks who want to play the embodiment of stone and earth.
Dwarf/Living Monolith/Golem Grafter
1 Mountain Stance, Stonecunning
2 Living Monolith Dedication
3
4 Ka Stone Ritual
5 Sheltering Slab
6 Stone Blood
7
8 Golem Grafter Dedication
9 Stone Bones
10 Accursed Clay Fist
11
12 Quicken Heartbeat
13 Stonewalker
14 Stone Communion
15
16 Iron Lung
17 Stonegate
18 Attunement to Stone
19
20 Deadly Strikes
Accursed Clay Fist is something you can swap out if you don't have an ally who can actively capitalize on it, otherwise this is just about doubleing down on toughness and earth themes for a super durable. I believe I avoided anything that's going to have an egregious overlap between the living monolith and the golem grafter.
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Build 83: Student of Perfected Elemental Archery
This build is all about combining monk Ki powers with eldritch archery so that we can deal a wide array of energy damage at will.
Starting Stat Array
Str 14 Dex 18 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha 10
Boost Dex, Con, Wis every time
Boost Str if you want to do more damage (assuming you end up with a composite bow, don't stop at 16 though)
Boost Int if you want more skills/languages/to be better at Int-based recall knowledge checks
Boost Cha if you want to be more of a face or go down the Intimidation route. Note: nothing about the build requires investing in Cha (no Cha-based attacks/DCs on our spells, half-elf means we don’t need to meet a multiclass’s ability score requirement)
* = Student of Perfection feat
** = Eldritch Archer feat
1 Otherwordly Magic (Shield), Monastic Archer Stance
2 Student of Perfection Dedication* (gets us Ki Strike)
3
4 Perfect Strike*
5 Elf Ancestry - Elemental Wrath (Electricity)
6 Perfect Ki Adept* (I like Unfolding Wind Rush or Untwisting Iron here)
7
8 Eldritch Archer Dedication** (take Produce Flame as your cantrip)
9 Human Ancestry – Multitalented (bloodline needs to give access to Arcane or Primal spell list; take Acid Splash and Ray of Frost)
10 Ki Blast
11
12 Enchanted Arrow**
13 Elf Ancestry – Otherwordly Acumen (I suggest Blur or Resist Energy)
14 Disrupt Ki
15
16 Seeker Arrow**
17
18 Quivering Palm or Medusa’s Wrath
19
20 Impossible Technique
@9 we can deal Acid, Cold, Electricity, or Fire damage with our bow strikes at will and our arrows count as cold iron or silver too. @12 we add Mental damage and @14 Negative energy damage to the damage types we can deal, at will, with our bow strikes.
By spending Ki, we can expand the energy types we can deal to include Force, Positive, or Lawful (if we’re lawful)…and I love imagining that Ki Blast looking like a cone of force arrows.
Perfect Strike and Seeker Arrow are other ways we can get that “that’s not a normal archer” vibe we’re after.
@17 our bow strikes are treated as adamantine and @18 we can delivery death (if we go with Quivering Palm) or petrification with our bow strikes (if we go with Medusa's Wrath) by spending Ki. IMHO the monk feats, because they are focus spells, are better than the once a day Arrow of Death from Eldritch Archer
Build 83: Student of Perfected Elemental Archery
This build is all about combining monk Ki powers with eldritch archery so that we can deal a wide array of energy damage at will.
** spoiler omitted **...
If you're going for elemental archery, wouldn't you want to just get Ki Strike at 2nd and Elemental Fist at 4th? Let's you deal elemental damage whenever you ki strike with your bow. It would also allow you to get Eldritch Archer dedication two levels earlier.
If you're going for elemental archery, wouldn't you want to just get Ki Strike at 2nd and Elemental Fist at 4th? Let's you deal elemental damage whenever you ki strike with your bow. It would also allow you to get Eldritch Archer dedication two levels earlier.Build 83: Student of Perfected Elemental Archery
This build is all about combining monk Ki powers with eldritch archery so that we can deal a wide array of energy damage at will.
** spoiler omitted **...
You could certainly go that route but I didn't want the elemental damage the build could dish out to be limited by the number of ki points it happened to have access to in any given encounter.
Granted, this build could be achieved without going the SoP route, by doing as you suggest and then training out of Elemental Fist at 9 when Multitalented comes on line. But I like the way one could reflavor Perfect Strike to seem more magical (e.g. whizzing past the target then reversing course to to seek it out anew).
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** spoiler omitted **
This is basically the Ruby Phoenix character I had sketched out!
Gnome Warrior
12/18/14/10/10/14
1. Wellspring Gnome(Occult) - Shield, Animal Accomplice, Monastic Archer Stance
2. Ki Strike (Occult)
3.
4. Stunning Fist
5. Energized Font
6. Abundant Step
7.
8. Champion Dedication Redeemer Cause, Tenets of Good
9. Casutios Curiosity (Occult)
10. Basic Devotion - Desperate Prayer
11.
12. Meditative Focus
13. Instinctive Obfuscation
14. Overwhelming Breath
15.
16. Disrupt Ki
17. Life Leap
18. Triangle Shot
19.
20. Ki Form
This idea started as just trying to see how much I could make use of Ki Strike and how many focus points I could get in an encounter. Turned into a pretty nice build, having abilities to restore focus points before meditative focus is available is fun. Gives you more options during the day if you spread them out or lets you nova during a fight with repeated ki strikes.
Later on Overwhelming Breath is a good against foes with resistance and the idea is to ki strike as much as you can anyway so buffing it is good. Disrupt Ki is just a nice debuff + Persistent damage ability, the debuff increases Stunning Fist chance which is part of Ki Strike.
Triangle Shot is really good, applies stunning fist, possible bleed, gives us something to use other than Ki Strike, no focus point cost.
Ki Form - Gives us the 3rd ki point for our pool and adds 1d6 to each strike, that's an extra 2d6 for Ki Strike and 3d6 for Triangle Shot.
lvl 2 - 2 focus points (yours and 1 from draining familiar)
Lvl 5 - 3 (yours, familiar, energized font)
lvl 6 - 4 (2 from pool, familiar, energized font)
lvl 10 - 5 (2 from pool, familiar, energized font, desperate prayer)
lvl 20 - 6 (3 from pool, familiar, energized font, desperate prayer)
Not a full build but...
Any monk who can find an Arrow Attracting cursed item...
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Build 83: Student of Perfected Elemental Archery
This build is all about combining monk Ki powers with eldritch archery so that we can deal a wide array of energy damage at will.
** spoiler omitted **...
Wouldn't the Student of Perfection feats be sadly ineffective given that they're not actually Monk feats and as such don't work on bows? Which is unfortunate, because it's a cool idea and otherwise works well.
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Wouldn't the Student of Perfection feats be sadly ineffective given that they're not actually Monk feats and as such don't work on bows? Which is unfortunate, because it's a cool idea and otherwise works well.
Ki strike from Student of Perfection is still a monk feat ("You gain the Ki Strike monk class feat[...]") and unfolding wind rush is mobility based and doesn't need to interact with anything, so it looks like the main issue is that you have to take Perfect Strike to get out of the dedication since it's one of the only two feats beyond the dedication, but it won't actually work with your bow Strikes since Monastic Archer can't "convert" its unarmed attack requirement to work with bows, due to it not being a monk feat. So you could still put the whole build together and it'll be largely functional, perfect strike just becomes a very niche thing that you're only using when you're not fighting at range and not in monastic archer stance.
So it's not a complete waste and it does have some usefulness that it's grabbing from Student of Perfection, but it does have a key component that doesn't work as well as you'd want it to.
I really do wish Student of Perfection had more than 3 feats in it, or that subsequent "Jalmeri Martial Arts" archetypes had a similar relationship to Student of Perfection as Hellknight/Signifer do to Armiger.
I think the Heavenseeker archetype is not like this, but I only read it once.
Pathfinder Society Developer
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I really do wish Student of Perfection had more than 3 feats in it, or that subsequent "Jalmeri Martial Arts" archetypes had a similar relationship to Student of Perfection as Hellknight/Signifer do to Armiger.
I think the Heavenseeker archetype is not like this, but I only read it once.
It's not, and in hindsight, it totally should have been. I wrote the original turnover draft for the archetype well over a year ago when Lost Omens World Guide was still being packaged, so I didn't have the frame of reference that would come later in Lost Omens Character Guide and didn't even know that we had a Student of Perfection archetype inbound, or I'd certainly have tried to handle it a bit differently, though like any other freelance work, it's been through multiple developer and design passes since then, so who knows what might have happened?
I suspect but do not know that at some point, someone around here will do some expansions to the Student of Perfection archetype, but it'll likely be waiting for whenever we do an Impossible Lands book or the like. Unless they've got something in the Ruby Phoenix AP backmatter, but you'd need to ask Ron or Patrick about that, and I suspect they won't be very forthcoming until we're closer to release ;)
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The goal here is just to create a hyper-mobile character who has real style and... panache. Buildwise we're actually not worrying about Wisdom much, since we won't be taking any offensive ki powers. Instead, we're going to divert points to Charisma to shore up the swashbuckler side of the build.
Elf Monk/Swashbuckler
1 Ancient Elf (Swashbuckler Dedication), Elven Verve, Crane Stance
2 Dancing Leaf
3 Fleet
4 Finishing Precision
5 Nimble Elf
6 Crane Flutter
7
8 Swashbuckler's Speed
9 Elf Step
10 Advanced Flair (Flamboyant Athlete; thanks to our hilarious base speed, this gives us spectacular Climb and Swim speeds while also boosting our Leaping and Jumping mobility even further).
11
12 Evasiveness (We'll be using Path to Perfection and Second Path to Perfection to boost Fort and Will so we have all master saves and Legendary in either Fort or Will)
13 Ancestral Longevity
14 Advanced Flair (Attack of Opportunity)
15
16 Advanced Flair (Vivacious Bravado)
17 Magic Rider
18 Swift River
19
20 Impossible Technique
I came very close to selecting Enduring Quickness for that 20th level feat, but honestly I think this character is so mobile that it wouldn't actually be that useful. This build is fast as hell, can pick from two reactions that apply in different circumstances depending on the flow of the fight, has amazing defenses all around, and is very hard to take out of the fight with mobility disabling effects.
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A rebuild of Meleeka Sanvara from the Unforgiving Fire quest as a high-level monk PC.
Human Monk
1 Rain of Embers, Haughty Obstinacy
2 Student of Perfection Dedication
3
4 Perfect Strike
5 Clever Improvizer
6 Blazing Talon Surge
7
8 Perfect Ki Adept (Unblinking Flame Revelation)
9 Incredible Improvisation
10 Prevailing Position
11
12 Meditative Focus
13 Bounce Back
14 Explosive Death Drop
15
16 Quivering Palm
17 Heroic Presence
18 Meditative Wellspring
19
20 Enduring Quickness
So, Meleeka is resilient, trained by her family, the Unblinking Flame School of Perfection, and at least one Pathfinder, so I just leaned into all of those themes. Her transition from troubled rebel to more mature martial artist was something that I thought the Meditative Focuse/Wellspring feats helped model, as well as just being generally good with her various ki powers taken into account.
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Build 14 Redo: “Mantis Style” Monk/Medic
My first stab at this accidentally treated Medic’s Treat Condition and Holistic Care as class feats instead of skill feats. This build corrects for that earlier mistake.
Suggested Starting Stat Array
Str 12 Dex 18 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha 10
Background Field Medic
Boost Dex, Con, Wis every time
1 Ki Strike (Class), Tiger Stance (Natural Ambition), Battle Medicine (Background)
2 Medic Dedication; Assurance: Medicine (Skill)
3 Continual Recovery
4 Cobra Stance; Treat Condition (Skill)
5
6 Wholeness of Body
7
8 Brawling Focus
9
10 Cobra Envenom
11
12 Disrupt Ki
13
14 Meditative Focus
15 Legendary Medic (General)
16 Medusa’s Wrath
17
18 Ki Form
19
20 Impossible Technique
The idea is to simulate a "mantis style" manipulation of pressure/acupuncture points so this monk can heal himself and allies in and out of combat as well as remove conditions such as clumsy, enfeebled, sickened (Treat Condition) and frightened, stupefied, and stunned (Holistic Care). With more time, our monk can remove a disease or the blinded, deafened, doomed, or drained condition (Legendary Medic). He can also use this manipulation of acupuncture points offensively to potentially slow on a crit, cause persistent bleeding on a crit, poison, enfeeble w/persistent negative damage, and eventually petrify.
I can imagine a version of this build that decides to go with Grasping Shadow Initiate at level 12 instead of Disrupt Ki. Going this route, I'd definitely boost Strength at every level and might even start with a Dex 16 so I could start with Str 14. The main reason I didn't do this was because our Ki Strike gives us access to Negative energy from level 1 and I'm a fan of persistent damage in 2e.
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Speedster Build because blank quotes aren't helpful.Status bonuses to speed don't stack.
Monk Speed boosts don't seem to apply to all your Speeds the way Swashbuckler panache bonuses do, so Swashbuckler's Speed modifies the Climb and Swim speeds from Advanced Flair (Flamboyant Athlete) and any other Speeds you pick up from items or skill feats.
You can also swap Swashbuckler's Speed for Wall Run.
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Build 87: I’m Rubber You’re Glue
This build focuses on monk feats that give out-of-turn retaliatory attacks (i.e. Crane Flutter and Arrow Snatching)
Str 14 Dex 18 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 10
Boost Dex, Str, Con, every time
Boost Int if you want more skills/languages/better at Int-based recall knowledge checks
Boost Cha if you want to be more of a face or go down the Intimidation route (I like the Intimidation route here which gives our monk another option for what to do with her 3rd action)
Boost Wis for better perception and Will save
1 Crane Stance
2 Stunning Fist or Brawling Focus (I have a very slight preference for BF on this build)
3
4 Deflect Arrow
5
6 Crane Flutter
7
8 Arrow Snatching
9
10 Open
11
12 Open
13
14 Open
15
16 Open
17
18 Open
19
20 Open (but not Impossible Technique because that’s a reaction so competes with Crane Flutter and Arrow Snatching)
You only get one reaction per round so you’ll need to decide if you’re going to Crane Flutter or Deflect Arrow + Arrow Snatching. Truth be told, it’s likely going to be Crane Flutter more often than not since we're a melee martial. Arrow Snatching is there to cover those instances when we aren't in melee range (yet) and are getting peppered by enemy fire.
The build comes together at level 8 so it can be taken in a number of directions after that. If I wanted to stay with a non-mystical fighter, I’d make sure I was increasing Athletics as quickly as possible and probably go Whirling Throw @10, Crushing Grab @12, Flurry of Maneuver @14, Shattering Strike @16, Sleeper Hold @18, and Deadly Strikes @20. And If I wanted to explore ki spells, I'd take Ki Strike @10, Wholeness of Body @12, and Meditative Focus @14, I'd probably fit in Ki Jump or Ki Form too.
Build 87: I’m Rubber You’re Glue
This build focuses on monk feats that give out-of-turn retaliatory attacks (i.e. Crane Flutter and Arrow Snatching)
Wouldn't Stand Still also be a good feat for this build to have? You know, in case enemies try running away instead of trying to fight you, you can still get that reaction attack off.
Experience with a Crane Monk and a rude GM suggests Stand Still is a good get >w>
With all of those open feats, you could theoretically also pick up an archetype for Attack of Opportunity (and even Combat Reflexes) or a Champion's Reaction, Champion's probably being a better pickup since it encourages being attacked.
By the way, would this count? I have a fairly involved 5E Kensei Monk/Protection Cleric I've been wondering about how I could port for a while. My previously-made plan was for free archetype rules, and picking up Glimpse of Redemption over Blessed Denial would honestly be pretty good in those rules, but with one track for class feats I wouldn't want to waste one on Champion Dedication. The goal would be to maintain a melee weapon with the shifting rune and a bow (maybe see if whoever the theoretical GM would be is okay with shifting between melee and ranged), pick one at the start of a battle or switch if something calls for it, and prowl the battlefield as a Mobile Support Platform™ that can do a bit of everything.
1 Monastic Weaponry
2 Monastic Archer Stance
4 Stunning Fist
6 Stand Still (would be so cool if this worked with Monastic Archer Stance :o )
8 Blessed One Dedication
10 Blessed Protector
12 Meditative Focus
14 Blessed Denial
16 Enlightened Presence
18 Disrupt Ki
20 Impossible Technique
...honestly, though, Monastic Weaponry is mostly just there for specific 5E character flavor, Monastic Archer eclipses it a little — though having both means you have an option to not need an action for a stance to use Flurry of Blows. An alternate build that leans into being a support archer with more renewable, less focus-dependent components might look like this.
1 Monastic Archer Stance
2 Stunning Fist
4 Champion Dedication
6 Champion's Reaction
8 Pinning Fire (why doesn't this work with Triangle Shot)
10 Reaction Upgrade (or Oath or LoH or Domain or Aura)
12 Disrupt Ki or Stance Savant
14 flexible (Monk or Champion feat not taken)
16 Enlightened Presence
18 Triangle Shot
20 Impossible Technique
Medicine and Diplomacy skill feats are a great addition, of course!