Monk going into Dragon Disciple

[ReD_Exorcist]

Man I feel like everyday I post a question on this forum, but that's what it's for. Plus you guys always give great tips and helpful advice.

One of our party members is playing a monk. We both agreed that sticking with the monk all the way would not be worth. Since late game it falls off the ban wagon. So I was searching through PrC's and Multi Classes to see if any of them would be suitable for him. We first came across the Fist of the Forest. Although it was really tempting and sounded very juicy (I mean come on con to ac? who wouldn't want some of that goodness) he discarded that class since the requirements weren't intriguing to him.

We then looked at Sacred fist. That seemed a little better since he would just have to Multi into a cleric and then prestige to the sacred fist. He seemed interested into the idea, but our conversation led us to the talk of dragons and I mentioned the Dragon Disciple. He immediately became in love with that.

So overall he has decided to prestige into a dragon disciple. So the question i'm asking is how to make it viable for him to play drag dis without losing to much effectiveness. I know he well have to have the ability to cast arcane spells. I was reading through feats and in the CA there were a few that granted spell like abilities. Would that count towards the prerequisite of being able to cast arcane spells?

I am open to any idea to get to dragon disciple in the easiest manner, he has though decided to start as a monk no matter what though.

Another question how should I set up his abilities. We are going by the point buy system and we have 32 points. He chose Human as his race. So far this is what I came up for his abilities Str 10 Dex 16 Con 16 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 12. I seriously need help on his character.

Just a reminder he is set on starting with Monk (I can possibly persuade him otherwise if you really think there's better) He no matter what want's to reach level 10 on Dragon Disc. He want's to stick with human but I can convince him otherwise fairly easy on his race.

One last thing his feats are Combat Reflexes, Superior Unarmed Damage, Dark Stalker. His fighting style is the Sleeping Tiger. He was very interested in being a sneaky monk character so that explains his Fighting style and the feat Dark Stalker.

If you anyone has any questions that can help them help us don't hesitate to ask.

[Troacctid]

Sneaking is going to be a problem as neither Hide nor Move Silently are class skills for a Dragon Disciple. Also, with only 12 Wis, he's not getting much out of those Monk abilities, and Dragon Disciple is aimed pretty squarely towards beefy Strength-based fighers, not Dexterous ones. So the build seems pretty bad.

If your friend is interested in a draconic-flavored monk, maybe point him toward Dragon Descendant instead (from Dragon Magic). It's much, much better for what he's trying to do.

Edit: And make sure you show him the Invisible Fist alternate class feature from Exemplars of Evil.

[emeraldstreak]

take a look at this post and then the entire thread as a starting point

[fishyfishyfishy]

Since Dragon Disciple needs spontaneous arcane casting I suggest using Sorcerer to get in. Take the feat ascetic mage at level 6. At level nine have him take Arcane Strike. Start off with Monk 2 / Sorcerer 4 and go into Dragon Disciple from there. Personally I homebrew the Dragon Disciple to advance arcane casting at every level that it would normally grant a bonus spell known. It's hardly OP and there are better options out there for Gish characters. If you do this finish up the build with Abjurant Champion for the nifty bonuses it grants and to catch up on the BAB (which will be seriously lacking at this point). Be sure he has all the prerequisites met for this.