Results 1 to 30 of 81
-
2011-05-16, 04:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2011
What makes the best monk in your eyes?
I've been wondering. How can you make a useful monk? How can you make an awesome monk. (gonna put personal opinion next to or under questions)
What race, makes the best monk?
To fix the monk's range issue? Dragonborn with wings.
What class combination do you think MAKES the monk a serious threat?
I've seen the monk/kensai route. I'd rather not use Vow of Poverty though. even if i don't take the vow, +10fists of random enchantments? Plus the ability to cut down a crap ton of arrows that might be coming at me? Sign me up!
Monk/eternal fist seemed like an interesting alternative. At the same time, not quite useful enough. Eternal fist genuinely gives me mixed feelings. I feel more like I'm bruce lee, rather than I'm actually capable of killing demons.
Dipping into magic seems to .. well if it's buffs that might work, but if I'm a monk I should be punching something... to death. (Personal love for monk, weapons are okay with me *the more you know*)
How about magic items/weapons? What is important to a monk?
-
2011-05-16, 04:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2009
- Location
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Last edited by Gnaeus; 2011-05-16 at 04:22 PM.
-
2011-05-16, 04:23 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2009
- Location
- Minot, ND
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Last edited by gorfnab; 2011-05-16 at 04:23 PM.
-
2011-05-16, 04:23 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2006
- Location
- Sunnydale
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Never choose a race, class, or feat when you can solve the problem with gp. Don't pick a race just to get wings; buy a Feathered Wings graft instead. Don't dip into Kensai just to add magic to your unarmed strikes; buy a Necklace of Natural Attacks instead. Don't squander a feat on Superior Unarmed Strike for unarmed damage as if you were 4 Monk levels higher; buy a Monk's Belt for unarmed damage as if you were 5 Monk levels higher instead.
-
2011-05-16, 04:26 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2010
- Location
- Hell's Heart
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Unarmed Swordsage, Monk 2/ Psychic Warrior X with Tashalatora, or Cleric/ Sacred Fist. All of them are far better than pretty much any monk.
-
2011-05-16, 04:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2011
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Monk/warlock/hellfire warlock/binder with eldritch claws feat. I had one of these in the last game I ran. He could solo monsters of a CR a few higher than himself in a round with no effort. Had the option of fighting at a range if needed, and could fly. (My group plays high power, which is sort of odd since we always play eberron)
-
2011-05-16, 04:45 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2010
- Location
- Argonth
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Witty sig here nosey, aren't ya?
Avatar by Hacktor
-
2011-05-16, 04:47 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Canberra, Australia
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Monk/Cleric/Sacred Fist. Full BAB and 3/4 spellcasting progression. Monk and Cleric synergise very well since both benefit from high WIS. Throw some of the clerics magical buffs on yourself and you get a very strong combat type.
-
2011-05-16, 04:52 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
I made a really cool E6 gestalt monk. It was Warlock 6 // Crusader 1 / Monk 2 / UA Swordsage 2 / Shadow Sun Ninja 1, using Beast Strike and Eldritch Claw feats.
The point was to create a Fighting Game (e.g. Street Fighter/ Mortal Kombat) style monk. You have ranged blasts, moves to teleport you across the screen, and a very nice and flashy punch and kick.
In my eyes, the best monks contain 2 levels of the PHB Monk class, or less.
-
2011-05-16, 04:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2011
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
OA Shaman with Travel and Hero domains nails it. D&D magic does kung fu movies better than it does sword or sorcery.
-
2011-05-16, 05:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Fanged Ring is one of the best Monk (or unarmed!) magic items, granting you Improved Natural Attack, Improved Unarmed Strike (redundant on Monks but not on Tashalatora builds that don't have any Monk levels) and the ability to deal 1 Con damage on a critical hit.
Other good Monk or monk items have already been described, the lowercase monk being those thematically and functionally similar to monks but not the actual Monk class. On classes...
Ardents make strong mystical monks with Tashalatora, having far more power points than a Psychic Warrior and more diverse power selection that advances in level at the psion rate (but not on any one Ardent, who must chose at +mantle levels what his small list of selectable powers is).
Psychic Warriors are generally a bit more martial though, with better HD and tons of bonus feats. Both Psywar and Ardent are Wisdom-based casters, so it's nice to have that on AC as well.
Soulknives can take Reshape Mind Blade (unarmed strike) and the Tashalatora line to enhance their unarmed strike as a Mind Blade and advance unarmed damage as well. Even the combined abilities of Monk and Soulknife aren't spectacular, but it's easy and kind and works out nicely. The bonus feats you can replace Psychic Strike with IMO make it a little more appealing than Monk/Kensai, comes online earlier and doesn't take days and experience sacrifices to improve.
Cleric or Archivist / Monk multiclass builds are possibly the most effective, but it feels buying a pickup truck and some rope to make your wheelbarrow go faster.- Chameleon Base Class [3.5]/[PF]: A versatile, morphic class that mimics one basic party role (warrior, caster, sneak, etc) at a time. If you find yourself getting bored of any class you play too long, the Chameleon is for you!
- Warlock Power Sources [3.5]: Making Hellfire Warlock part of the base class and providing other similar options for Warlocks whose powers don't come from devils.
-
2011-05-16, 05:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2010
- Location
- The depths of my insanity
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Unearthed Arcana Fighting Styles, Exemplars of Evil Invisible Fist and a 2 level Monk dip, so sweet that it almost rots your teeth. But then you stare at the average BAB progression and you cry for the loss of that one point.
-
2011-05-16, 05:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2011
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
This. Though, I'm going to be nit-picky and point out that it's "Tashalatora". Also, a Swordsage need not actually be Unarmed to make a good Monk — Monk's don't have to use unarmed strikes, you know. A Monk's fists don't out-damage various options that a Swordsage has for a weapon until 8th level, and even at 20th it's only an average of +6.5 damage — more than offset by any enhancement(s) that is (are) adding at least +2d6 damage to your weapon attack.
But in general for 3.5, the fewer levels in the "Monk" class that you have, the better "monk" character you'll be.
-
2011-05-16, 05:19 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2006
- Location
- Sunnydale
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Who said anything about a Magic MartTM? If you want something badly enough, it's worth a quest, I think.
Originally Posted by Marnath
TANSTAAFL
-
2011-05-16, 05:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2011
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
If i may, towards the kensai
Ye can only imbue one part of your natural weapon. Like kicking? Imbue your feet. Like punching etc.
I do agree with kensai not being ABSOLUTELY worth it, however you don't have to have +5 fists to touch the other enchantments available. Make your fists keen? SURE! Make your fists ... Dancing? Uhm... Maybe? I guess? Ghost touch etc. etc.
-
2011-05-16, 05:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2010
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
A vow of poverty.
-
2011-05-16, 06:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Canberra, Australia
- Gender
-
2011-05-17, 02:03 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Oh yes, because this is a game without spells that tell the future, locate objects, or divine solutions to problems. Problems like where can I buy this item.
Seriously, can we kill this misconception now? A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He shops for precisely what he means to.Last edited by Doc Roc; 2011-05-17 at 02:06 AM.
Lagren: I took Livers Need Not Apply, only reflavoured.
DocRoc: to?
Lagren: So whenever Harry wisecracks, he regains HP.
-
2011-05-17, 02:09 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- Finland
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
If you're Bruce Lee, any kind of a Monk is the wrong class for you since Monks are 100% supernatural in D&D. They teleport, go ethereal, have ACF to go invisible and do all shorts of magical ****. If you want a pure facesmasher, you should look at Shou Disciple [Unapproachable East], or more relevantly Warblade [Tome of Battle] with the Superior Unarmed Strike-feat. That's yet another awesome thing about ToB; it produced a feat that gives anyone decent (not as good damage progression as a Monk's but it'll do) unarmed fighting capability making actual mundane asskickers doable.
Campaign Journal: Uncovering the Lost World - A Player's Diary in Low-Magic D&D (Latest Update: 8.3.2014)
Being Bane: A Guide to Barbarians Cracking Small Men - Ever Been Angry?! Then this is for you!
SRD Averages - An aggregation of all the key stats of all the monster entries on SRD arranged by CR.
-
2011-05-17, 02:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2009
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Easy with that scorn, my friend.
Originally Posted by Magic Item Compendium, pg. 231In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was Suck: A Guide to Truenamers
My compiled Iron Chef stuff!
~ Gay all day, queer all year ~
-
2011-05-17, 02:36 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2011
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Rather than go down the path of layering your fists in cheese, you could do one of those ridiculous exalted/console fighting game/Final Fantasy N where they use swords that are 2-3 foot wide and 10 foot long.
At low levels a Monk with a greaterthangreatsword, doing a flurry of blows with it... simply refluff one of the Eberron 'use X weapon as a monk weapon' feats.
For really grotesque Monk damage though, you've got to go psionic. For starters the Ectoplasmic dohickeys only work if you're psi.
Alternately, go ridiculous. A monk who transforms into a bear and then does flying kicks versus everything (and again, add the eberron feats to pump up your charge damage, for 'your charge damage' + 1d12 + 2d6. Add snap kick, circle kick and roundabout kick...
Do something whacky that appeals to your DM's sense of humour/style. Favour of the gods is better than any feat :D
Dual flurry falchions with improved crit ranges. With your sucky BAB you won't hit often, but everything will be a crit threat. Layer on some 'only happens when you get a crit' modifiers to the weapons. Give your seventeen attacks per round silly names: chopping celery (for the falchions), flying waterbuffalo (for the kickmaster) etc.
Above all, have fun.
-
2011-05-17, 02:41 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
- Location
- Switzerland
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Resident Vancian Apologist
-
2011-05-17, 02:54 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2010
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Or you, know, for the first 9 levels of the game (40% of it) where you usually don't have plane shift or teleport. Or for all those times you're in the field and don't have the time to go to town and purchase that item that provides exactly the solution to your current problem.
-
2011-05-17, 04:21 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2009
- Location
- Michigan
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
That depends on what you mean by "monk." If I want something with unarmed, eastern flavor that can do Kung-Fu, I'd probably throw Fist of the Forest onto something silly. Should something do that as a base class, though? The unarmed part, certainly. The flavor part, honestly, doesn't matter to me.
The issue here is that a straight brawler is hard to do without going into natural attacks like a Totemist does or having to suck up monk or unarmed swordsage class levels.
To be fair, those all do help a monk be a monk without having to invest a significant feature of a character on a thing like race.
Doc Roc, I don't know if I've ever told you this, but I think I love you.
That quote is wonderful.Last edited by Thrice Dead Cat; 2011-05-17 at 04:27 AM.
-
2011-05-17, 06:41 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
- Location
- Chicago Suburbs
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
The best monk is a dead one.
You don't have to kill it yourself, it can't attempt to defend itself when you tell it how useless it is, and best of all, you get a free corpse!
The value of the corpse is only limited by your creativity.Last edited by TroubleBrewing; 2011-05-17 at 06:41 AM.
Iron Chef Award!
Spoiler
-
2011-05-17, 07:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Lagren: I took Livers Need Not Apply, only reflavoured.
DocRoc: to?
Lagren: So whenever Harry wisecracks, he regains HP.
-
2011-05-17, 08:13 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
This is quite true. Look up legends of Condor Heroes or other martial novels like that(they have some in English comic form and they are quite good). Monks use swords, staffs, spears and all kinds of weapons besides their fists. Normal, weapon-wielding Swordsages are actually closer to the eastern idea of a monk than the actual monk class. Traditional Shaolin uses unarmed combat for sudden defense and increasing self discipline. If a Shaolin monk wanted to kill something, he would use one of these: http://www.chinashaolintemple.com/da...article_64.htm
Personally my favourite is the 3-pronged sword and I've been trying to get it into my game as a special monk weapon.
The whole monks mainly use their fists thing is actually pretty wierd when seen from an easterners point of view.
-
2011-05-17, 08:18 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2009
- Location
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
-
2011-05-17, 08:51 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Gender
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
Lagren: I took Livers Need Not Apply, only reflavoured.
DocRoc: to?
Lagren: So whenever Harry wisecracks, he regains HP.
-
2011-05-17, 08:58 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2011
Re: What makes the best monk in your eyes?
I'm with DocRoc there; I didn't look it up either.
I've also noticed that I've started being able to tell friends what page numbers things are on, without actually having the book. Tome of Battle's maneuver list starts on page 48; the Crusader's table is on 10, Swordsage's 16, and Warblade's 21; the feat table is on 30. Tome of Magic's Binder's class table is the bottom of page 12; the Warlock's is on the bottom of page... 10? of Complete Arcane. Oh, and the Binder feats start on page 72 of Tome of Magic. The Incarnum classes are on... I wanna say 19, 24, and 28 of Magic of Incarnum? I definitely knew that at one point.
EDIT: When I have time later, I'm going to check myself just for my own amusement/terror. I'm absolutely certain on the Tome of Battle stuff.