Playable in PvE 1-40.PvP medium - has enough SR to resist most casters most of the time, has empty body and epic dodge to give him a chance against melee attack.
This build was something I took on as a challenge to try and make an SR monk who doesn't lose all his combat capabilities in return for higher SR.
% - Cheesey dual kama with fighter/specialization chosen to generate damage and overcome relatively low AB by giving the character as many chances per round to roll a 20. * - Optional Feat
Skills - Discipline, Tumble, Hide, Move Silently, Listen, some leftovers.
Ending Vitals 28 Dex
AC 33 450 max hp F 28 R 29 W 21 52 Spell Resistance
AB 37 with mundane kama, 35 dual-wielded, +6 specialization damage Kama AB progression, dualwield and flurry result in 8 attacks/round, +1 flurry at -2 AB to all, +1 more from haste if available.
FAQ: Q: So this guy's supposed to be an SR monk who can fight... but he's not that good of a fighter and he's 14 SR short of being totally immune to all casters! A: Yes... he doesn't do perfectly at either combat or spell resistance.
However, with 52 SR you are completely immune to casters who are only trying to punch through the 32 "toolset SR" and either save feats or multiclass, and against higher level casters you will tend to be pretty well-protected (for example, a build with 38 caster levels will fail their SR checks 70% of the time).
For its part, your AB isn't anything to brag about. That's why I took the dual kama route - if you get into a battle of 20s, you've got a lot of chances to roll those 20s.
The big thing for your melee is getting a reasonable AC and epic dodge on top of your empty body defenses. Combined with HIPS, if you do get into a situation with melee characters, you don't necessarily have to run away. Really high AB fighters with blindfight will be a problem still, but hybridized characters and people who think they don't need blindfight will not be very well able to kill you.
Q: But a pure caster with epic penetration won't fail often against 52 SR... isn't that unacceptable? A: How many pure 40 casters take epic penetration when it costs them three feats and is only useful for fighting against "SR hybrid" monk builds like this one? Considering monks are usually all or nothing on the SR issue, most casters probably won't expect to face a build like this. A caster with 35 SR punching power, for example, will only land spells on you 20% of the time.
With your monk speed and your stealth, you can get close to a caster and KD them before they can get a spell to land, unless they are lucky. It's a matter of playing the odds.
Q: I don't want to use kamas! A: Then don't. But you have the feat room to dualwield and can really use the extra attacks because with your AB you'll need to generate 20s against heavily armored opponents.
Yes, dualwielding and using flurry makes your AB worse, but if you're fighting something you can't hit except on a 20 with 1 kama and no flurry, then then -4 from dual flurry wielding is irrelevant.
Q: But it's so cheesey to be a dual kama wielder, and on top of that you have shadowdancer and HIPS! A: Shadowdancer's actually used to get defensive roll in the fewest possible number of levels, though HIPS is a very useful power for this character, who can use it to escape and evade a battle that's going sour.
Q: What kind of characters is this build well suited to fight against? A: Pure casters can get past your SR, so fighting them is a gamble but you are much better defended against them than anyone but a pure SR monk.
Battle-clerics, spellswords, shifters, and other kinds of hybrid characters will be stuck against you - can't beat you in melee, can't beat you with spells.
You have deflect arrows to help cut down on your vulnerability to archers, but overall archers and other exceptionally high AB builds are the most build types enemies that you're likely to face. _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
Edited By griphook on 12/02/05 20:28
I lay silent and hidden in the brush across the moat from a foreboding, ominously built castle constructed of huge granite blocks. It was an imposing fortress, high-walled and with iron-bound spikes prodtruding from its edifice. Watchmen patrolled its walls and grounds with a rigid discipline, manning their posts professionally. My targets were inside... at least that's what the information said, but there was no way of knowing if it were correct or not until I was inside. When hunting the kind of prey I was after, nothing could be taken for granted.
The moat stank of filth, doubtlessly doubling as the castle's cesspit. I'd have to cross it without going in, or the stink would give me away when I got out. That meant finding a way across the drawbridge. It was down, but the approach was well lit by torches and guards were stationed at either end. My stealth skills had few peers, however, and I was confident I could make it by climbing underneath the bridge. That would be one hurdle down. The wall would be the next: I couldn't go through the gate, I'd be spotted for sure. I crept towards the bridge, still hidden, and focused on examining the castle's outer wall. There was a corner between the gatehouse's left bastion and the wall where the torchlight didn't reach. That's two hurdles down - it would be easy to climb to the ramparts undetected from there.
After that... this didn't sit well with me, but I'd have to wing it. I didn't know the interior layout of the fortress, and I couldn't afford to lose the element of surprise or the cover of darkness by trying to study it further. My special talents were why I was chosen for this mission, but without total surprise even I would surely fail. I went over the information I had on my quarry one last time. The self-styled Infernal Crusader Zazindra Fellblow, priestess to an evil cult, was the primary. In her possession was an artifact of enormous magical powers, and with it she had begun massing an army of monsters, reinforced by fiends from the lower planes. With her would probably be her consort, Quenten Shattershield, known as the Fallen Templar. He was a noble and kindly knight - before Zazindra seduced him, body and soul, and turned him into a villain even more foul than she herself.
Fighting either of them was a risk even the bravest adventurer would balk at. Fighting both of them, in the presence of the artifact, would be tantamount to suicide for most... but not for me. I hoped, anyway. Time was growing short. I crept closer to the bridge, belly-crawling with the stench of the moat only feet away making me want to gag, keeping in slight depressions in the ground, in the shadows cast by brush and rocks, blending in silently. Soon I was behind the guard at the drawbridge, and using a pair of throwing blades as climbing spikes, I was making my way across the bottom of the drawbridge. The guards continuted their regular patrols - I'd timed them and should have no trouble getting past undetected. Just as the guard moved out of range I dropped from the bridge's underside to the ground beneath, between the moat and the castle's foundation. From there I slinked up against the wall and, using it for cover from the watchmen above, made it to the shadowy corner unnoticed.
Here I took a breath and waited. I had to give the guards one minute to move on their patrol routes before I started climbing so that I could reach the top when nobody could see that part of the wall. One minute, at times like these, feels like a year. I battled against paranoia - wasn't this going too smoothly, too easily? Weren't these notorious blackguards supposed to be invincible with their magic sceptre? Hadn't a number of would-be heroes already fallen to them? I had no fear of death, but failure was not an option. I could only assume that all was as it seemed and no deception was at work, and move forward. The minute was up; I found my handholds and ascended the wall, slipping over the battlements as a momentary shadow. My timing had been perfect, no one could see me as I moved across the rampart and slid down a ladder into the courtyard.
I saw a light burning in the inner keep's tower. Probably the targets, I thought, as I hid in a pile of hay and observed the inner patrols. Climbing the outer wall there would give me away for sure. I'd have to get inside through a servant's entrance or something, and hope I wasn't detected in the hallways until it was too late. Just another shadow, I moved across the courtyard, and began skirting the keep's wall looking for a door.
Pretty soon I hit paydirt. Even better than an unguarded servants' entrance, there was a secret door, probably an escape passage. Fortune was smiling on me this evening. A few minutes of silent inspection showed me how to open it, and then I was in. The passage inside was totally dark - a good sign that this wasn't a trap. My eyes were well adjusted to darkness and it didn't impede me at all as I moved into the keep, the passage sloping up and eventually opening onto a second-floor cooridor. I began sneaking along the passage, alert for the sound of an approaching guard, but it was empty. My targets were on an upper floor, from the height of the window I saw outside, probably the fourth. I went up a staircase silently, but when I emerged onto the third floor my heart sank.
The place had, quite literally, gone to hell. Demons roamed the hallways, and the sounds of more could be heard through the doors to other rooms. I kept in the shadows - although I knew the most powerful of such beasts could see through any mundane deception, if fortune continued to be my ally, any demons of that great power would be elsewhere tonight. The creatures seemed bored, and the ones I observed occasionally smashed a piece of furniture irritably. They weren't on guard for anything, they were just waiting and obviously they didn't like it. I took a breath. It would be a risk, but I was betting my life I could get past them without having to fight.
Slinking from shadow to shadow I worked my way down the hall. Something like a big, ugly red frog with slimy skin looked right at me, blinked its giant eyes... then walked on past. After the tension of the moment had passed my confidence soared: they couldn't see me after all. I quickly crossed the rest of the floor and got upstairs, hoping that the heinous couple didn't want the wretched fiends hanging about them right now.
The fourth floor. If I was right in my assumptions, my targets would be here somewhere. A large room was at the top of the stairs, it was dark and silent. My eyes picked out the details of a gruesome altar in the room, in the middle of a pentacle drawn on the floor and with all the trappings of a place to make sacrifices and summon creatures. I moved through quickly, not disturbing any of the paraphenalia. You never know what might happen when you mess with the evil sacrificial summoning altar of an artifact wielding cult priestess. Light was visible under the next door. I put my ear to it and listened.
"The Sceptre tells me that Larzash has the last girl we'll need," a woman's voice, sultry and low. It must be Zazindra, and she obviously felt a dark elation at that news. Hearing her voice I found myself starting to understand how even a paladin like Quenten used to be, could have fallen so far for her.
He answered shortly, "Good. Once she is sacrificed and the portal is complete, our revenge can begin. The Tormites will pay for what they've done to me... to us both." His voice went cold with hate when he mentioned the Tormites, the Crusaders of Torm, but otherwise he was almost emotionless. The rumors about him seemed to be true as well - except for his passion for Zazindra and his hatred of his former Order, he was dead inside.
For the first time I drew my weapons, readying them for combat, short curved blades in either hand. I would have to be quick and ruthless if I were to win... I was only halfway surprised the artifact had failed to alert them to my presence. In fact, the reason it didn't sense me was the whole reason I was chosen for this mission... stealth and combat prowess were secondary concerns. Most adventurers would be blasted to ash in an eyeblink by the Sceptre that Zazindra now carried... but I was different. Some people had a great talent for magic, I had the opposite - an incredible resistance to it that made me uniquely suited to fighting spellcasting opponents. Even an artifact might not be able to harm me.
And hoping that was true, I kicked in the door with a yell and charged the short distance across the room to Zazindra, catching both her and Quenten entirely by surprise. She was holding the Sceptre, he was wearing his sword, but neither was armored. Zazindra raised the Sceptre and it flashed with a red light, but the magic, whatever it was, just passed around me like it usually did.
Before she understood what happened I'd kicked her off her feet and was plunging my blades repeatedly into her body. Quenten leapt at me with his sword and forced me away from her, but as I weaved and bobbed, his blade couldn't find my body to connect with beyond a single, glancing blow. Not wanting to try my luck in a head-on fight with the famed warrior, I kicked over the lamp and it went out, and as the room plunged into darkness I disappeared into the shadows.
Quenten kept his sword up and en-garde, and moved to protect his injured lover. I had to finish her off before she could call on a healing spell and recover, or use the sceptre for something else. I reappeared beside and behind him and kicked the back of his knee, sending him sprawling, but instead of following up on that advantage I turned to Zazindra, and then put my blade through her eye as she tried to vocalize a spell.
She slumped over, without even a death cry. The Infernal Crusader was dead. Quenten didn't even flinch when he saw her body, but attacked with measured skill. I couldn't fight him toe to toe... even though I avoided most of his strikes, the ones that landed were infused with unholy power and even my magic-resistance couldn't protect me from them. I was losing blood fast. I had to disengage, and fast - but first I had to get the Sceptre before he did... _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
your FAQ says a lot, and fighter helps landing some damage, you can always go fists vs undeads. But you cheat yourself of 1 attack. Your BAB is 16 by lvl 20, which means 6 attacks +2 offhand +1 flurry. That is 9, plus haste for 10. That means you land 1 attack each second round, not to bad. Thorough build as always. Nice story to go. well done. As for pure mages with penetration. There are a few on my PW.
Nice one, Xy. Well-thought and considered. The tale helps to highlight the build's strengths (and weaknesses). Well done. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)