I hardly ever use the Monk class. Would it be better to drop the 3 save boosting feats and pick up the 3 dual wield feats and switch to kamas? Or, maybe the disarm feats and called shot? Would it be better to start STR at 14 and WIS at 10? Sorry for all the questions, just not used to the monk class.
All suggestions are welcomed.
Well, I would drop Knockdown and IKD, since you get it for free at monk 6. I might rearrange the levelling a bit to get it earlier as well. Your reflex save is already high, you could just drop that one and take the 3 TWF feats. Rogue 17 doesn't get you much, I would probably take Fighter 6 instead for another bonus feat. That would let you take EWS as a bonus feat, taking another Great Dex feat early, which will let you take ED at level 28 (3 earlier). Then take Armor Skin in place of the last Great Dex.
Well, I would drop Knockdown and IKD, since you get it for free at monk 6.
Ack! You see my inexperience with the monk class. Thanks for pointing that out. I dont like to build with xp penalties, thats why I ended up like I did.
You could, in theory, also do monk 20/rogue 16/fighter 4. You'd lose an attack to get EWS, or lose EWS, but you'd gain immunity to mind-effecting spells and powers and 20/+1 damage reduction.
Not necessarily the best tradeoff, but something to consider at least in some environments (say, if mindspells are common). _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
Quote: Posted 03/13/07 02:44 (GMT) -- Xylophone
You could, in theory, also do monk 20/rogue 16/fighter 4. You'd lose an attack to get EWS, or lose EWS, but you'd gain immunity to mind-effecting spells and powers and 20/+1 damage reduction.
Not necessarily the best tradeoff, but something to consider at least in some environments (say, if mindspells are common).
Yeah, that would be an option as well. I dont know why I let xp penalties bug me as much as they do. As I stated before, I always try to build without them. Is dual wielding kamas the better way to go? I know I would get more attacks that way, but it would lower my AB (which isnt that great in the first place) by 2 more. Thanks.
I was never a huge fan of dual kamas in a "real monk" build ("fake monk" builds are ones that only take a handful of monk levels for cheese purposes).
Dualwielding costs 3 extra feats (and you already have to spend a feat on finesse to be a decent dex build at all), monks are relatively AB-starved, and you can already trade -2 to AB for an extra attack via Flurry.
That said... single-wielding a kama isn't necessarily a bad idea in some cases. Even though it's slightly less damage to wield a kama +5 compared to 1d20 punches, it frees up your glove equipment slot to wear bracers of armor, or bracers of dexterity, or haste bracers, etc, instead of monk gloves. Being a fists monk carries with it that "hidden drawback" of tying your glove spot in to one item that almost never has a stat boost or AC boost attached. _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
An AB of 40 isn't too bad. The main bonus to dual-wielding is you get the 4th attack in the first flurry. If he is going to focus on sneak attacking from stealth, it may be worth it. Also, if he is using IKD a lot, extra attacks really pile on the sneak damage (10 attacks each with 8d6 sneak damage adds up fast). For straight up combat (ignoring sneak damage) I agree that single-wielding may be the better option, especially against medium-high AC opponents. Note that once their AC gets so high that you need a 20, the -2 becomes a non-issue, and more attacks are definitely worthwhile (more chances to hit that 20).
TM
Thanks for the replies Xylo and TM. I've got some thinking to do. Will re-post the build once I get a chance to make the changes.
Well... if you can only ever hit on a 20, reducing the dual wield penalties via feats is pointless too - you can dual wield without them, take the large penalties (you need to roll a 20 either way), and then in effect if you took the feats, you'd be spending 3 feats and only benefit from the ITWF attack.
Might be worth it, might not, but IMO for a monk/rogue type it's probably not. Still, everyone's got their own comfort zones and play styles and this is more a question of style than substance in the end. _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
Quote: Posted 03/13/07 23:31 (GMT) -- Xylophone
Well... if you can only ever hit on a 20, reducing the dual wield penalties via feats is pointless too - you can dual wield without them, take the large penalties (you need to roll a 20 either way), and then in effect if you took the feats, you'd be spending 3 feats and only benefit from the ITWF attack.
Might be worth it, might not, but IMO for a monk/rogue type it's probably not. Still, everyone's got their own comfort zones and play styles and this is more a question of style than substance in the end.
I tend to agree - dual kama monks aren't so useful unless they are ranger, WM, or cleric heavy, imo. Save the feats, and gain the AB.