D&D 3E/3.5 Monk/Rogue leveling & battle advice for 3.5

[Zemarah]

Okay, so I have a Monk 8/Rogue 2 that I was thinking of adding a prestige class to. I'm looking at Shadowdancer.

This character wears no armor and has only 47 hps. I still don't know how the hell that happened to a 10th level character. I spent the last battle knocked out for almost 2 hours. So I kind of want to improve that if possible.

I'm really excited about the Shadowdancer because at first level I could hide in plain site. And at fourth I could leap from shadow to shadow with distance improving each level up.

I'm playing heavy on the dark side, struggling between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil.

Are there other classes that I should look at to improve this character? My DM approved Assassin for me, even though she's not purely evil.

AND is there any tactical advice for monk/rogue battling? I have a speed of 50ft, so doesn't that mean when I run I can run full at 100ft a round? Any special weapons or gear I should pick up? Any fighting advice at all?

I only carry a composite longbow.

Ability:
STR 13
Dex 20 <--modified with +4 Gloves
Con 14 <---modified with + 4 Amulet
Int 16
Wis 15
Cha 12

Saving
Fort 8
Ref 14
Will 8

BAB 7/2
RAB 12/7


Thanks!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Shadowdancer should be pretty nice with that. Some other things to consider:

As a high Dex monk with few HP, you should be using missile and grenade weapons to help control the battlespace instead of diving into melee. Get a Bag of holding and a Quiver of Ehlonna, load up on tanglefoot bags, molotov cocktails, arrows, javelins, spears and so forth, and be a mobile howitzer for your team.

The Monk Database in my sig has a lot of info you might find useful.

In particular:

1) Ring the Golden Bell from DCv1 lets you use your unarmed strike as a ranged weapon

2) At first level, Shiba Protector lets you add your Wis bonus to your Att & Dmg rolls, letting you do more damage more regularly.

3) There are several feats out there that let you add weapons to your "Monk Weapon" list. My personal favorite for a high-Dex monk is Pole Fighter (a different book has the similar Pole Master), which adds a polearm to the list. Combined with the Combat Reflexes feat tree, you'd have a PC that gets the most out of his AoOs while staying mostly out of melee attack range. Also in the Combat Reflexes tree is Deft Opportunist, which adds +4 to attack rolls for AoOs.

4) After 5 levels, the Shou Disciple can FoB with ANY weapon. The PrCl also lets you use certain abilities in armor.

 

[moritheil]

AND is there any tactical advice for monk/rogue battling? I have a speed of 50ft, so doesn't that mean when I run I can run full at 100ft a round? Any special weapons or gear I should pick up? Any fighting advice at all?

- Use tumble a lot. Tumble in, flank, get your stunning fist sneak attack, strike once more, and tumble away before they can full attack you.

- You're a rogue; you steal stuff. This meshes well with the fact that enemies drop whatever they are carrying when you stun them. You might not be able to dish out damage like a power-attacking barbarian, but you can stun someone and make them drop whatever plot-critical object they are carrying, then grab it and tumble away.

- Just nitpicking: run is 4x character speed, so you'd run at 200'/round. Charge (up to 2 moves) is 100'.


I trust that you have the Ascetic Rogue feat - if not, grab it! It stacks your rogue and monk levels for determining your unarmed damage, and improves your stunning fist DC if you make a stunning sneak attack.

Dannyalcatraz's monk compilation is a definite must-see.

One thing that I would add is, because Shiba Protector features in so many "cheesy" builds, some DMs are wary of letting people use it. However, you have two things you can argue in your favor: one, your character is in need of a bit more power, and two, the class comes from Rokugan source material, and you are already a monk, meaning it isn't thematically clashing in the way that, say, adding Shiba Protector to a druid is.

 

[Starbuck_II]

Okay, so I have a Monk 8/Rogue 2 that I was thinking of adding a prestige class to. I'm looking at Shadowdancer.

This character wears no armor and has only 47 hps. I still don't know how the hell that happened to a 10th level character. I spent the last battle knocked out for almost 2 hours. So I kind of want to improve that if possible.

I'm really excited about the Shadowdancer because at first level I could hide in plain site. And at fourth I could leap from shadow to shadow with distance improving each level up.

I'd never get more than 1 level of Shadowdancer personally. The benefits after 1st are on a downward spiral to not good.

But 1st level is great.
So maybe 1 level Shadowdancer + rest Assasin can be good (Assassin have good spells at least), but you could do better than Assasin I think.

If Tome of Battle is allowed Shadow Sun Ninja fits your character really well.
However, you'll need to multiclassing to a martial adept level or take martial study and martial stance.

What feats do you have? Improved Toughness would be a great help (+1 hp/level).
Monk's belt would upgrade unarmed damage by 1 step/AC by 1

 

[Animal]

if your DM is okay with retraining, i'd go monk/ninja with ascetic stalker instead. this build could really bring you more sneakiness/mobility.

 

[pawsplay]

I'd take one level of Shadowdancer, then go back to Rogue. With Ascetic Rogue, you will continue to advance in key abilities, and eventually, you will have access to rogue special abilities. Opportunist is nice; if you can flank with someone and they hit, you get to make a free AoO and add in your sneak attack damage. Later you can add Improved Evasion, then use the Feat option to grab high level feats.

 

[Darklone]

If you head for Ascetic Rogue, don't forget Ability Focus (stunning fist). Have you thought about swordsage levels?

 

[Zemarah]

Thanks guys, just checking into all the cool stuff you told me about. I just expanded my vision to prestige classes so this guidance is really appreciated. Def going for 1st level Shadowdancer but maybe I'll super-multi-class and branch off into some of the other suggested classes. Because my character is a rogue, and she takes other classes to make her the best at that. Strangely enough the other classes are probably helping her be more rogue-like than the rogue class. I compared char sheets with the same ability scores with monk/rogue vs pure rogue and monk/rogue won for better overall stats. This may have been because I did HUMAN monk/rogue vs. HALFLING rogue.

The Reflex save was a little higher as a halfling but everything else was better as a human.

Anyhow, thanks again for your advice as I really want to be as hardcore as possible