Hello everyone, I have a small dilemma. In my current pathfinder campaign I have been playing an unchained monk built around Dragon Style and have been doing very well. I have been one of the highest damage dealers in the party, if not the highest for a few reasons. One, we rolled for stats and I rolled a good array, making me not have any negative stats. 2, we are playing with a faster form of automatic bonus progression (we are currently at level 5 and have all of the features of the level 8 automatic progression). Because of this, my DM has told me he was banning Dragon style and all Style feats because they were too strong. He has given me the opportunity to retrain my feats, but I have no idea what to take as I am a relative novice to PF1e. Any suggestions?
Here are my stats
STR: 18 (20 with automatic bonus progression)
DEX: 14
CON: 15 (put my +1 into this)
WIS: 16 (18 with automatic bonus progression)
INT: 11
CHA: 15
Race: Nagaji
So, are you trying to comply with and appeace your GM, or do you want to show them the folly of their way?
The thing is, your GM is completely wrong that style feats are "too strong". Depending on what you third feat is, if you take non-style feats that boost damage like Possessed Hand, Power Attack, and Weapon Focus per my unMonk DPR calculator, you would do about the same damage as before, or even more.
If, as I presume, you don't want to show your GM that you can do just as much damage without style feats, you should look into strengthening defenses, and/or broadening out your character. Iron Will and Toughness increase will save and HP, respectively, Cunning grants an extra skill point per level, and Improved Initiative lets you go before the enemies more often, which can help you outdamage opponents without actually doing more damage. Extra Ki enlargens your ki pool, which can by very valuable depending on your ki power selection, and Additional Traits is a toolbox that can grant a lot of different things, e.g. additional class skills.
So, are you trying to comply with and appeace your GM, or do you want to show them the folly of their way?
The thing is, your GM is completely wrong that style feats are "too strong". Depending on what you third feat is, if you take non-style feats that boost damage like Possessed Hand, Power Attack, and Weapon Focus per my unMonk DPR calculator, you would do about the same damage as before, or even more.
If, as I presume, you don't want to show your GM that you can do just as much damage without style feats, you should look into strengthening defenses, and/or broadening out your character. Iron Will and Toughness increase will save and HP, respectively, Cunning grants an extra skill point per level, and Improved Initiative lets you go before the enemies more often, which can help you outdamage opponents without actually doing more damage. Extra Ki enlargens your ki pool, which can by very valuable depending on your ki power selection, and Additional Traits is a toolbox that...
Thanks for the recommendations. I like the idea of power attack weapon focus, but I am curious about ki powers. As of right now at lvl5 I have barkskin, but with the natural bonus progression providing an enhancement bonus to my natural AC I feel like it wouldn’t be too useful. I’m planning on taking the elemental fury ki power next level and was wondering if you had any suggestions for alternative ki powers that would justify taking extra ki?
Even with the sped up progression, Barkskin's bonus is +2 to +3 above ABP's natural armor bonus until 15th level, so it's still a good enough ki power.
If your GM is already unpleased with your damage output, I would recommend against Elemental Fury. It's not one of the ki powers I'd rate highest, anyway, because a swift action is actually a notable cost provided you have taken Flying Kick as your style strike.
Let my copy paste the ki power section from many unMonk mini-guide:
There are too many ki powers to list all the good ones, and a lot of it depends on your build. Notable standouts:
Empty Body (4th) grants amazing versatility, especially outfight, to a class very much lacking just that. Rather ki hungry early on, but flight, invisibility, and intangibility is awesome.
Barkskin (4th, Quinggong) grants some very welcomed AC boost, and is all but mandatory when using an AoMF (which prevents you from using an Amulet of Natural Armor).
Ki Metabolism (4th) allows you to hold your breath for >10 hours, which can be very helpful for underwater exploration/fighting.
Placebo Effect (6th, Quinggong) can surpress most conditions from yourself or allies.
Action Before Thought (6th) starts weak, but becomes very interesting in combination with Ki Leech (see below).
Restoration (8th) removes all ability damage or drain and even negative levels. Self-only, but you get to ignore the material component cost.
Freedom of Movement (8th) is a swift action to use, and it's a supernatural ability, meaning you can have it active exactly when you need it to.
Insightful Wisdom (8th) doesn't help yourself, but can easily save party members.
Ki Leech (10th, Quinggong) costs no ki to activate, meaning it can be sustained indefinitely, and should remove all ki problems.
Dust Form (12th, Quinggong) is amazing for defense, as it makes you immune against non-magical damage, only take half magical damage, and be affected only half the time by non-damage spells.
Diamond Soul (12th) is better than the cMonk's permanent version, as you can activate it after getting buffed by your party.
Cold Ice Strike (14th, Qinggong) is a swift action AoE damage spell doing around 50 average damage.
Unshakable Zeal (16th, Qinggong) lasts all day long and can grant free attack roll and maybe even other bonuses.
Ki Volley (16th) requires Diamond Soul, but can bounce back hostile spells.
Akashic Form (20th, Qinggong) is crazy powerful, outright negating death even multiple times per day.
Divide Mind lets you re-roll will saves, and allows you to activate spell-like and supernatural abilities as swift actions, potentially very nice with something like Abundant Step+Dimensional Agility.
The Thought Shield line (I at 4th, II at 8th, III at 10th, IV at 12th don't take this one!, V at 14th; Quinggong) can do a lot to shore up the will save, although you might want to ask the GM about retraining ki powers.
|
In what way is dragonstyle dealing to much damage ?
At most it is your unarmed strike +2x str on your first attack and your unarmed strike +1,5x str damage on hits after the first.
I imagine that Stunning Fist and Dragons Roar is a bigger issue than the damage if your wisdom also are high and the DC equally high.
What level are you and what is your str and dm dice?
Is the problem that you outshine the other players?
In what way is dragonstyle dealing to much damage ?
At most it is your unarmed strike +2x str on your first attack and your unarmed strike +1,5x str damage on hits after the first.
I imagine that Stunning Fist and Dragons Roar is a bigger issue than the damage if your wisdom also are high and the DC equally high.
What level are you and what is your str and dm dice?Is the problem that you outshine the other players?
We are level 5, so DMG dice is 1d8. We get enhancement bonuses on weapons making by attacks +11 to hit, 1d8+11 for first attack, 1d8+8 for consecutive attacks. STR of 18 with permanent enhancement bonus of 2.
From my discussion the problem is mostly the fact that I am just pumping out big damage numbers. We have a bard in the party who frequently buffs me or our archer and in most cases I am out damaging the dedicated archer fighter by a decent amount. Our encounter days tend to be +2 according to him, as we are a party of 6 lvl 5 PCs fighting CR 8/9 encounters.
Our encounter days tend to be +2 according to him, as we are a party of 6 lvl 5 PCs fighting CR 8/9 encounters.
lol, if you a party of 6, playing above 15 point buy, with good players and somewhat optimized builds, you should be at at least +4 or +5 above APL just to be "normal" challenges. since you are using this faster automatic progression, I imagine you should actually be going against APL + 5 or 6 to be normal challenges.
Sounds like you have some house rules in play, and this is exactly why I don't like them. way too many GM's toss out house rules, without understanding all the ramifications of them.
Lol, a vanilla greatsword barbarian with your stats, no rage powers, and no feats but power attack would have your same chance to hit and do 2d6+17 dmg. Your GM has and odd scale for OP.