Unarmed monk?

[drangotti]

Hello everyone,

I'm seeking advice from experienced players on building an unarmed monk in BSK.
Are the items balanced with the kama alternative, in your opinion?

Thanks!

(In game: Helmed Horror, Losco, Cagna the Spellsword)

[wheelercub]

My friend and I started experimenting with Monks over the weekend and there are some cool combinations from Monk/Assassin/Shadowdancer, to Monk/Druid/Shifters. Some players make builds that include 1 level of Monk for the faster strikes, WIS AC bonus, Evasion, and Cleave such as Druid Archers with Zen Archery who Shapeshift for melee. Here's some highlights that we've figured out.

ABILITY SCORES: I'd probably go with WIS, STR, CON, DEX in order of importance for melee monks, but there are other ways to approach your build as long as all those abilities are considered.

- STR: Adds damage to melee attacks.
- DEX: Adds to your AC, Stealth, and Reflex Saves. Also adds to your attack bonus if you use Weapon Finesse.
- CON: More HP and higher Fortitude Saves are always handy.
- INT: Extra skill pts and increased Death Strike chance if you play an Assassin.
- WIS: Adds to your AC, Wis Saves, Stunning Fist chance, and a few other things I believe.
- CHA: Not really needed.

COMBAT: Most players go with Two Weapon Fighting (2x Kama) or Unarmed Strikes. Not sure if anything else is viable.

- Two weapon Kama Fighting will give you an incredible number of attacks per round, but for less base damage (1d6 + other bonuses) vs Unarmed Strikes (1d20 + other bonuses).
- With Improved Two Weapon Fighting, you'll get two additional attacks per round maxing out to 10 attacks per round normally. That's right 10!!!!
- Unarmed Strikes will give you up to 9 attacks per round with Circle Kick, but some players don't like how it functions -- when it targets the 2nd enemy, you keep fighting that enemy. I personally like it because it weakens enemies so your Rogues and Nukers can take them all out faster.
- Another Benefit of Unarmed Strikes over TWF is that you only need Circle Kick feat to get 9 attacks per round. Where TWF will need Ambidextrous, TWF, and Improved TWF to get their 10 attacks. Personally I can live without that 10th attack and can use the extra feats toward more HP or other things.
- You max base attack bonus with 20 levels of Monk is +13/+10/+7/+4/+1/+13, plus 1 for Haste, 2 for TWF, and 1 more for Cleave if you get a kill (so 10 to 11 max). But if I'm not mistaken, you could take 4 levels of Fighter before level 20 locks in your max attacks, to get your base attack bonus to +16/+13/+10/+7/+4/+1/+13. Which should update that to 11-12 attacks with Cleave. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think it works.
- Using the same logical setup, you could have 10-11 attacks using Circle Kick and Unarmed Strikes dealing 1d20 + STR and other bonuses each.

FEATS: Handy combat feats we really like, in order of availability/importance. Humans get 1 more feat, so you may have to move everything some options around.

- Dodge (1st level, +1 AC)
- Mobility (3rd level, +4 AC bonus vs All Opportunity Attacks)
- Circle Kick (6th level, one free attack on second nearby enemy per round)
- Spring Attack (9th level, you no longer provoke Opportunity Attacks from movement)
- Improved Critical - Unarmed (12th level, you now have a chance to crit on 19-20 rolls).
- If you take 4 fighter levels for Weapon Specialization in Unarmed Strikes / Kama, you want to ensure you have Weapon Focus Unarmed/or Kama/ early on and then take Weapon Specialization Unarmed /or Kama / at 4th level Fighter.

SKILLS: Bear in mind that the higher your INT is, the more skill pts you get per level. The problem of course, is that it's not a primary ability score for Monks.

- Move Silently & Hide: Both class skills, both handy if you want to play the Assassin/Shadowdancer Monk.
- Listen: Helps you hear nearby enemies sneaking up on you.
- Tumble: is really important, even if you have Spring Attack, because it adds +1 to your AC per 5 pts.
- Lore: will save you $$ identifying things.
- Use Magic Device: You can only take 1/2 your level in pts for this one because it's not a class skill, but it will let you use wands, scrolls, and armor you wouldn't normally have access to.
- Spellcraft: Similar to UMD, you can only take 1/2 levels in it. But you will get +1 to spell saves for every 5pts.

RACES: Everyone has a preference to their race for either flavor purposes or for specific skills and benefits. Here's some common notes handy for monks.

- Elf: My personal favorite for many classes only because the search skill is ALWAYS on and running. So you never have to click the search button or slow your movement. The +2 Dex, bonus weapon proficiencies, and other stuff is just icing on the cake.
- Halflings & Gnomes: These guys are both cool, but the penalties can be problematic. Especially the 75% carrying capacity and all weapon damage is 1 size smaller. So for example, if you have all the necessary feats and use 2 Kamas, you will still have an attack penalty because they are considered Medium weapons for tiny races, and TWF rules require the offhand weapon be small for no penalty.
- Human: An obvious choice for many players. Especially those who don't care about searching for traps and such. A bonus feat and 1 extra skill pt goes a long way.
- Dwarves: Get great resistances and some interesting bonuses.
- Half Orc: Pretty good bonuses for the Monk actually.
- Half Elves: Really a mediocre race in 3.5 edition. No majore benefits other than being able to multiclass without XP penalties - yawn!

[drangotti]

Thanks a lot, it's impressive! You should upload this guide somewhere!

And do you know if, in this server, the gear for unarmed characters makes it worthwile to fistfight?

[Roland Deschain]

You can make a good unarmed monk on this server.

You will need to have a crafter make you gloves at end game.

[drangotti]

Alright, thanks! I'll reach out to Maximus then

[gniht]

Gloves available and/or base unarmed stats need a lot of work before going unarmed is advisable... unless you're building some kind of unusual specialized build I would strongly advise against unarmed as it currently stands.