D&D 3E/3.5 (3.5) Monks and Wisdom

[Dandu]

I guess the fact that "how to make a good monk" began with "take 3 levels of ranger" put me off.

If you want to make a good monk, you put skill points into Concentration, Speak Language, Decipher Script, Knowledge Religion, and Craft: Manuscript.

If you want to make a good unarmed combatant, you select the skillsets which make you good at beating people up with your bare hands, which in this case involves three levels worth training in Ranger school, two at a druidic monastery, and three protecting the Glade of Gahad from orcs.

One thing about doing nothing the barb isn't doing already, the barb doesn't get to move 50ft and have free trip/grapple talents.

The monk build I posted earlier has the exact same move speed (base+10ft) as a barbarian (also base+10 ft). If we're comparing what the base classes get, the barbarian's speed increase is untyped, while the monk's is an enhancement bonus... which means it does not stack with items such as Boots of Haste, which grant a +30 ft enhancement bonus to speed among other things.

Also, the monk only gets Improved Trip as a bonus feat, which is available if you use the Wolf Totem alternate class for the barbarian from UA, the standard barbarian class being the Jaguar totem.

I'm not saying the two classes get the same things, but overall they're performing the same role, except the barbarian does combat much better.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

And with massive strength and (for grapple) full BAB, Barbarians are actually the best grapplers and trippers of all the core martial classes anyway.

 

[agrelic]

Hey guys, I am going to be making a monk in 3.5 soon, and with a point buy of 16, 16, 14, 10, 8, 8.

I'm thinking of going
STR 16
DEX 16
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 8

Check your point buy costs.

Dex 16 + Wis 10 costs 12 for a total AC bonus of +3
Dex 14 + Wis 14 costs 12 for a total AC bonus of +4

Not only does your normal AC go up by one with this, but your flat-footed AC goes up by two.

Or you could just get weapon finesse, and have Str 14, Dex 16, Wis 14 and be much better off.

 

[MadLuke]

I would exchange Wis with Str.

Bye, MadLuke.

 

[Dandu]

Then you have trouble dealing damage and bypassing DR. Quite problematic, which is why I decided to try and focus stuff on Con. Of course, if you wanted to focus on stunning, then Wis instead of Str becomes less painful.

For that kind of build, you'd take Ability Focus: Stunning Fist, and a few of the Stunning Fist oriented feats like Freeze the Lifeblood, Pain Touch, and Pharaoh's Fist.

Mind you, fort is often the highest save on monsters and there's many who are flat out immune, so whether this is a good idea is debatable. The idea of depending on 1d10 damage when facing down a Morg is not a comfortable one.