Im playing a Kobold Unchained Drunken Master Monk in Pathfinder, and I'm considering multiclassing into Elemental Ascetic for flavor reasons, but I'd like some opinions on whether this is a godawful idea or not.
Gremmel's stats are as follows:
Str: 12 Dex: 16 Con: 12 Int: 10 Wis: 14 Cha: 13
He's getting a +4 belt of physical perfection, which will be increasing his Str, Dex and Con by 4.
He's an Unchained Drunken Master. Essentially my GM is letting me add the Drunken Master features to the Unchained Monk's ability pool, and replacing the default abilities where they come up.
His monk features are Drunken Ki (+1 Ki for taking a drink, Max is 1/2 level), Drunken Strength (Spend 1 ki to deal extra damage), Shattering Punch (Punches ignore hardness), and Scorching Ray (Qinggong ki power), and the standard unchained monk stuff.
His feats are Imp Grapple, Imp Unarmed Strike, Weapon Finesse, Dodge, and Draconic Aspect (Red)
He has a pair of enchanted beersteins that increase his STR by +1 for every point of Ki he has (including drunken ki), and can fill themselves with strong booze by clapping the bottom on a surface. (This item was homebrewed by the GM to help him account for the Kobold's awful stats)
I'm considering dipping into Elemental Ascetic, with fire as his element, to show his draconic bloodline starting to manifest in a unique way to him. If I could just get some feedback on how Elemental Ascetic might work or not work, I'd be very grateful!
The common consensus on the Kineticist, by itself, is "Don't do it, its a trap, especially with fire". You add Elemental Ascetic to the mix and, well, the groans will be deafening.
Now, as a fellow player who HAS multiclassed into an Elemental Ascetic (two levels is all), and come out the other side of it ... I say do it, as long as you are aware that you are only get as much out of it as you invest into it.
If you are just looking to get elemental damage out of it, no. Stop. Don't do it. Unless you invest a lot of levels into the Elemental Ascetic, it wont really be worth your time.
The common consensus on the Kineticist, by itself, is "Don't do it, its a trap, especially with fire". You add Elemental Ascetic to the mix and, well, the groans will be deafening.
Now, as a fellow player who HAS multiclassed into an Elemental Ascetic (two levels is all), and come out the other side of it... I say do it, as long as you are aware that you are only get as much out of it as you invest into it.
If you are just looking to get elemental damage out of it, no. Stop. Don't do it. Unless you invest a lot of levels into the Elemental Ascetic, it wont really be worth your time.
If you don't mind taking me down a deep dive, why is elemental ascetic a particularly groanworthy addition?
I actually like the archetype, though I am known to be contrary to the common consensus.
To sum it up:
Elemental Flurry: One extra unarmed attack per round on a full attack, and you trade away your entire ability to use your blasts in any kind of ranged way (or nearly so).
Elemental Wisdom: For a class that uses their hit points as fuel for their more powerful abilities (which are now nerfed due to no real ranged options), you make yourself more MAD and lower your potential HP pool, which is not so smart when you now have little choice about engaging in melee combat. Your ability to take burn still functions off your Constitution.
AC Bonus: I like this one. The reason I dipped into the class, along with Flurry.
Powerful Fist: You are already being nerfed 1/3 your kinetic blast damage through using Kinetic Fist. This ability should simply have reduced that nerf, rather than let you roll slightly more damage through upping the damage die. This nerf is why it is better to have as many levels of this class as possible, rather than mutliclassing into it.
As for why I dipped into it, it was one of the few ways to get Wisdom to AC that didn't involve a Lawful alignment and I was looking for ways to remain unarmored for in character reasons, rather than any real mechanical ones.
I actually like the archetype, though I am known to be contrary to the common consensus.
To sum it up:
Elemental Flurry: One extra unarmed attack per round on a full attack, and you trade away your entire ability to use your blasts in any kind of ranged way (or nearly so).
Elemental Wisdom: For a class that uses their hit points as fuel for their more powerful abilities (which are now nerfed due to no real ranged options), you make yourself more MAD and lower your potential HP pool, which is not so smart when you now have little choice about engaging in melee combat. Your ability to take burn still functions off your Constitution.
AC Bonus: I like this one. The reason I dipped into the class, along with Flurry.
Powerful Fist: You are already being nerfed 1/3 your kinetic blast damage through using Kinetic Fist. This ability should simply have reduced that nerf, rather than let you roll slightly more damage through upping the damage die. This nerf is why it is better to have as many levels of this class as possible, rather than mutliclassing into it.
As for why I dipped into it, it was one of the few ways to get Wisdom to AC that didn't involve a Lawful alignment and I was looking for ways to remain unarmored for in character reasons, rather than any real mechanical ones.
Ah, I see. It definitely looks like Elemental Ascetic is actually a terrible Monk multiclass, since you waste first level getting monk features a second time.