Bard + inspire courage is a good add on for the monk. +1 to hit and damage for your shots, and helps allies as well.
If some else is giving a status bonus, you can do inspire defense instead. Or hymn of healing. And monk gets boosted occult if you want to cast anything else, and access to focus spell recharges.
Witch also has some good single action focus spells.
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You might check out some of the builds from the 101 Monk Builds thread, as there's quite a few that use the Monastic Archer options.
This one uses Eldritch Archer, as does the one right beneath it.
This one is for a mobile archery build.
This one's for a switch hitter.
This one dips into the marshal archetype.
This one is for playing an archer/healer who emulates Kagome from the Inuyasha anime.
This one combines with cavalier for a mounted archer.
And this one combines with Student of Perfection to create an archer elementalist.
Bastion with the lvl 6 feat that let you count the shield hand as free looks fun on an Archer, makes you really tanky.
Poisoner might work, the DC of the poisons are not really high, but quantity over quality in this case, shot poisoned arrows enough and they will fail/crit fail sooner or later.
Beastmaster for a support benefit like Bird, Bear or Scorpion. Cavalier the same but for the horse one.
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#1: Bows count as an unarmed strike, but do not change groups, and that Feat only effects weapons in the brawling group. As bows are not in the brawling group Brawling Focus has no effect on them.
#2: Yes, this works.
#3: Yep, this also works.
#4: And again, yes this works.
#5: You're correct that you can't suddenly use maneuvers with bows, as they are mechanically distinct from unarmed attacks. They are not, however, Strikes, so you can in fact use them without leaving your stance.
#6: Yeah, this too works.
#7: As shroudb notes, this ability does not actually remove a penalty to deal nonlethal damage, but a penalty to deal lethal damage, so it has no effect on most bows, which already do lethal damage.
#8: And this also works, yes.
I think using Maneuvers would break the Stance with the given limitation. Maybe someone else has a more detailed insight though.
Currently looking to build an Archer Monk, and Eldritch Archer has synergy with Human, Elf and Gnome Ancestries that have easy access to multiple Cantrips. Ranger seems really good to Archetype into.
Ranger Dedication - Hunt Prey for 2nd range increment w/o penalty
Gravity Weapon - Good consistent damage and insane synergy with One-Inch-Punch
Far Shot - Can shoot farther and use Monk Abilities at initial range; i.e. OIP from 60-100 feet away rather than 30-50 feet away
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Jalmeri Heavenseeker dedication (from the new AP) gives a great use for a spare action. For 1 action, you can add half your level each in electricity and sonic damage to unarmed strikes and monk weapons. Since monastic archer lets you add unarmed stuff to your bow, it should work.
Or not. Monastic Archer specifies Monk feats and abilities. So you would need a bow with the monk trait. Which...don't exist yet.
Unfortunately, bows with the monk trait don't exist... yet. I think. Once one DOES come out, then we'll be cooking with gas. Or lightning, as it were.
In the meantime, ask your GM to let you use a normal bow for this!
I think using Maneuvers would break the Stance with the given limitation. Maybe someone else has a more detailed insight though.
Currently looking to build an Archer Monk, and Eldritch Archer has synergy with Human, Elf and Gnome Ancestries that have easy access to multiple Cantrips. Ranger seems really good to Archetype into.
Ranger Dedication - Hunt Prey for 2nd range increment w/o penalty
Gravity Weapon - Good consistent damage and insane synergy with One-Inch-Punch
Far Shot - Can shoot farther and use Monk Abilities at initial range; i.e. OIP from 60-100 feet away rather than 30-50 feet away
Maneuvers aren't Strikes.
The limitation of the stances (in general) are strictly for Strikes. Or else you couldn't even Stride without breaking them.
Yeah, noticed DMW’s reply after i posted :P
Glad to be proven wrong
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Regarding the Jalmeri heavenseaker, having the person who can cast "Steal the Sky" be the person with the bow and arrow seems super useful if everybody in the party isn't well suited to fighting things that fly.
So hurry up monk bows, please.
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Does it strike anyone else that the Daikyu may have been intended to be a Monk weapon? It doesn't seem to be much better than a regular bow (worse than composite) and came out in the same book as Monastic Archery, indeed being the only bow-shaped "bow" that doesn't work with the feat at time of publishing. Obviously, it very definitively is not a Monk weapon, and I don't like assuming a mistake on behalf of the publisher (or AoN, potentially), but it seems very odd not to be given its sparse range benefit, Advanced status, and seemingly being a classic bow-jutsu bow.
That's obviously completely off-topic, sorry. My answer to the overall question would be basically the same as what's gone above, though I was hoping that Brawling Focus might grant the Unarmed crit effect on bow Strikes. Alas, 'twas not to be.
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The Daikyu in the APG might be incomplete. It's weird to have an advanced weapon with no traits except rarity.
Still, even if it does have the Monk trait it doesn't actually help the monastic archer at a:ll because it's an advanced weapon and Monastic Archer Stance reads:
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.
So you wouldn't be trained in an advanced monk bow by way of monastic archery. I'm not even 100% sure about whether Unconventional Weaponry would help you out here (I'd really love clarification on that feat.)
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The Daikyu in the APG might be incomplete. It's weird to have an advanced weapon with no traits except rarity.
Still, even if it does have the Monk trait it doesn't actually help the monastic archer at a:ll because it's an advanced weapon and Monastic Archer Stance reads:
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.So you wouldn't be trained in an advanced monk bow by way of monastic archery. I'm not even 100% sure about whether Unconventional Weaponry would help you out here (I'd really love clarification on that feat.)
I was more referring to the function of the feat, though you're completely correct that the proficiency benefit doesn't apply, which I hadn't noticed. If you can gain proficiency otherwise (ditto on that clarification) then the rest of the feat should allow you to use your hypothetical Monk-Daikyu with any unarmed strike abilities regardless of it being Advanced.
While in this stance, the only Strikes you can make are those using longbows, shortbows, or bows with the monk trait. You can use Flurry of Blows with these bows. You can use your other monk feats or monk abilities that normally require unarmed attacks with these bows when attacking within half the first range increment (normally 50 feet for a longbow and 30 feet for a shortbow), so long as the feat or ability doesn't require a single, specific Strike.
Plus, to be fair to it, the range, damage and not having Volley sort of count as a trait altogether. Not a lot compared to Propulsive, but something.
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The daikyu is a mistake, one way or another. It is flatly inferior to martial weapon options as an advanced weapon. Your proficiency will be behind your martial weapon prof, wiping out the advantage from lacking volley. Hopefully errata will clear it up, but currently it is useless.
Does monastic archer qualify you for eldritch archer? Or would you need to dip the archer archetype first?
That being said Monk has gotta be the worst fit for EA of all the classes that qualify for it naturally. It doesn't even use Enchanting Arrow well, let alone Eldritch Shot. If you want to do a magical monk you're much better off just taking a spellcaster multiclass to cast a spell and still make two strikes in a turn.
Please elaborate, how is doing a flurry then doing a cantrip attached to an arrow bad?
Please elaborate, how is doing a flurry then doing a cantrip attached to an arrow bad?
Eldritch Shot is 3 actions, so it's "a cantrip attached to an arrow" for the entire round.
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That being said Monk has gotta be the worst fit for EA of all the classes that qualify for it naturally. It doesn't even use Enchanting Arrow well, let alone Eldritch Shot. If you want to do a magical monk you're much better off just taking a spellcaster multiclass to cast a spell and still make two strikes in a turn.
What the Eldritch Archer monk needs is an improved version of "Magic Arrow" since "one interact action to activate a magic arrow" works fine with the monk's action economy, it's just that the "level 4 or lower" restriction is really harsh.
Eldritch Shot is bad for you, but Magic Arrow, Seeker Arrow, and Phase arrow are fine.
Please elaborate, how is doing a flurry then doing a cantrip attached to an arrow bad?Eldritch Shot is 3 actions, so it's "a cantrip attached to an arrow" for the entire round.
This; Eldritch Shot works very poorly with classes that already have a predetermined routine. Classes required to use one action for their routine (ie Investigator or Ranger) can use Enchanting Arrow instead, but since Flurry is a pair of attacks you're taking severe MAP on something by trying to pair them up.
That being said Monk has gotta be the worst fit for EA of all the classes that qualify for it naturally. It doesn't even use Enchanting Arrow well, let alone Eldritch Shot. If you want to do a magical monk you're much better off just taking a spellcaster multiclass to cast a spell and still make two strikes in a turn.What the Eldritch Archer monk needs is an improved version of "Magic Arrow" since "one interact action to activate a magic arrow" works fine with the monk's action economy, it's just that the "level 4 or lower" restriction is really harsh.
Eldritch Shot is bad for you, but Magic Arrow, Seeker Arrow, and Phase arrow are fine.
These feats are... fine? Seeker Arrow is good when it comes up, for sure. But they really aren't "two class feats" good.
so long as the feat or ability doesn’t require a single, specific Strike.#1: Bows count as an unarmed strike, but do not change groups, and that Feat only effects weapons in the brawling group. As bows are not in the brawling group Brawling Focus has no effect on them.
#2: Yes, this works.
#3: Yep, this also works.
#4: And again, yes this works.
#5: You're correct that you can't suddenly use maneuvers with bows, as they are mechanically distinct from unarmed attacks. They are not, however, Strikes, so you can in fact use them without leaving your stance.
#6: Yeah, this too works.
#7: As shroudb notes, this ability does not actually remove a penalty to deal nonlethal damage, but a penalty to deal lethal damage, so it has no effect on most bows, which already do lethal damage.
#8: And this also works, yes.
I like your answers, but how does the last line impact some of these monk abilities, like one-inch punch?
Thanks