Advice on a new character: Monk/Runepriest

[tobiasosir]

So our campaign has reached a branching point where our DM has given us a choice--stay with your current character (I'm a human/Damphyr fighter) or let them go on their way and create a new character at level. I've chosen the latter.
I wanted to play a Dwarf--never have, I'm very new to D&D. The Runepriest was my first choice, but I liked the Monk too; eventually I decided to go Monk, multiclassed into Runepriest. But I'd like some advice, mostly on the magic items.

He's a level 6, and we've been granted 900 gold, one level 7 or lower magic item, and two at level 6 or lower. I went with Iron Soul as a class feature, encouraging me to go with weapons rather than the monk unarmed strike, and chose the unarmoured feat that gives a +2 to AC, bringing me to 21. This not only gives me a bonus to AC, it lets me wield two weapons (though I can only attack with one at a time).

My items are:
-Level 7: Dwarven thrower waraxe +2 (so I have a ranged alternative, but mostly because it's a +2 and I like the flavor)
-Level 3 Ki Staff (purchased; adds 2 to my flurry of blows damage, bringing it to 7 per attack)
-Level 5: Blurred Step Ki Focus (grants a second use of flurry of blows when I make more than one attack per turn, i.e if I do a ranged burst and hit more than once)
-Level 6: Iron Armbands of Power (a monk must have, I think; grants +2 to attack and damage with melee attacks).

The idea, as I see it, is that I could make an attack with the waraxe, then add the extra damage from the Ki Staff to my FoB, because I'm wielding both if only using one. When I do a close burst attack, I 'turn on' the Ki Focus on my axe to get both the extra FoB damage and extra FoB attack.

My questions:
-As I understand Ki focus, it's not an item per se, but more of a way to describe my psionic power being filtered through the weapon. Is this right? Also, can I 'turn it off?' That is, can I choose to hit with the axe without the Ki focus (which uses its own properties, not the axes,' and so has one less point to hit and damage)?
-As I understand magic weapon properties, I only need to wield them to gain their benifit, not actually hit with them. My idea is to attack mostly with the waraxe, and keep the staff in my off hand (for flavor, I'm thinking of making it more of a Norse Runestave). I could attack with it, but mostly want to get the benefit to my FoB.
-The attack plan described above seems really cool--but rather overpowered. Is this a case of a good combo for a striker, or am I breaking some rules?
-This leaves me with a +7-8 to attack and +7-9 for damage with any attack, which seems like a lot, especially when you add an extra flurry of blows attack. Is this unbalanced? Actually, the character as it stands seems powerful--but then, I've never played a striker before. Maybe it's supposed to be like this.
-I understand that using a weapon is nearly irrelevant because the monk's powers don't use the weapon die; but the Runepriest ones do, as do the melee basic attacks.

Finally, my original concept for the character was for a blind Monk who has practiced his psionic abilities enough that he can rely on his other senses to make up for loss of eyesight--I was even able to get his perception legally up to around 14. Then someone pointed out that being blinded is a -5 to hit, which I hadn't thought of.
So instead, my monk has performed a ritual sacrifice of one eye, which has been replaced by an iron orb. (This reflects Odin sacrificing an eye to gain wisdom in the Norse tradition, hitting on the runic theme). His Ki focus is a set of glowing runic tattoos--when he enters a runestate with a RP power, the associated rune appears on the orb. So, does losing only one eye confer any penalty? Or can I play this simply for flavor?

Finally, I also played with a Runepriest multiclassed into a Monk, but found I couldn't use Ki Focus--despite the mc rules saying I can use monk implements. What's up with that?

I think that's it...any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Kingreaper]

Okay, first things first: you've misunderstood one of your item properties.

Blurred strike ki focus only works for multiple attacks. An area or close attack has several attack rolls, but is still only one attack.
So the blurred strike ki focus isn't as useful as you seem to have thought.

Now, onto your questions:

-As I understand Ki focus, it's not an item per se, but more of a way to describe my psionic power being filtered through the weapon. Is this right? Also, can I 'turn it off?' That is, can I choose to hit with the axe without the Ki focus (which uses its own properties, not the axes,' and so has one less point to hit and damage)?

Yes, you can.

You can be attuned to only one focus at a time, but you can always choose to use your weapon instead of the attuned focus.

-As I understand magic weapon properties, I only need to wield them to gain their benifit, not actually hit with them. My idea is to attack mostly with the waraxe, and keep the staff in my off hand (for flavor, I'm thinking of making it more of a Norse Runestave). I could attack with it, but mostly want to get the benefit to my FoB.

Weapon properties that don't require you to hit with the weapon are fine for just holding it.

So, keeping the staff in your offhand works fine.

-The attack plan described above seems really cool--but rather overpowered. Is this a case of a good combo for a striker, or am I breaking some rules?

As mentioned above, a close attack is just a single attack, so you won't get two FoBs. Just one.

-This leaves me with a +7-8 to attack and +7-9 for damage with any attack, which seems like a lot, especially when you add an extra flurry of blows attack. Is this unbalanced? Actually, the character as it stands seems powerful--but then, I've never played a striker before. Maybe it's supposed to be like this.

+7-8 to attack at level 6.
Well, a +2 weapon, 18 dex (+4), +3 half level=9. So I'm guessing you only have 17 dex? And haven't taken an expertise feat yet?

Your to-hit is low for your level. But then, you are a dwarf monk. You are, if anything, underpowered.

So, does losing only one eye confer any penalty? Or can I play this simply for flavor?

There's no rules on it. I see no reason to give a penalty for it, as there's no associated benefit. Hopefully your GM will agree.

Finally, I also played with a Runepriest multiclassed into a Monk, but found I couldn't use Ki Focus--despite the mc rules saying I can use monk implements. What's up with that?

Sounds like a character builder bug to me.

I think that's it...any advice would be appreciated!

I really don't recommend iron soul if you're planning on using runepriest powers. You need strength to make use of any runepriest powers, so stone fist is likely to serve you better.

Also, you need strength to use your dwarven thrower successfully.

 

[tobiasosir]

Blurred strike ki focus only works for multiple attacks. An area or close attack has several attack rolls, but is still only one attack.
So the blurred strike ki focus isn't as useful as you seem to have thought.

Ah...this makes sense, and seems a lot less broken. So this Ki Focus would only be useful when using an action point, for example, or an attack that has a rider saying I can make a secondary attack? Or (not that I plan on this, just thinking out loud) if I were to multiclass into Ranger instead and get an attack power that let me do two attacks per round?
At any rate, sounds like it's not useful to me at all. I'm looking instead at the Abduction Ki Focus +1 or Iron Body Ki Focus +1.

Your to-hit is low for your level. But then, you are a dwarf monk. You are, if anything, underpowered.

I do have a 17 Dex; I was trying to spread my ability scores out so I could optimize all the stats related to the character. So I took a second look at everything, and noted that I had only one attack that used Wisdom, a utility that gave temp hit points. I instead picked up Supreme Flurry, a daily that grants a second use of Flurry of Blows. All my other powers use Dex, except for one RP power and the Dwarven thrower, so I pumped those up to 18, giving me a +4. Now my to hit is between 8-11, with a plus 7-10 for damage. Sweet...

I really don't recommend iron soul if you're planning on using runepriest powers. You need strength to make use of any runepriest powers, so stone fist is likely to serve you better.

Also, you need strength to use your dwarven thrower successfully.

As above, I rethought the ability scores, so switching to Stone Fist makes a lot of sense...and actually gives me more to my FoB anyway, between 9 and 11 as opposed to about 7 originally.

So thanks for the input! The character is already looking stronger; and actually, switching to more Dex and Str as opposed to spreading it out convinced me to switch a couple powers, so it seems more balanced.
Now the question is: without the Iron Soul feature, there's less of an incentive for weilding two weapons, as I don't get the AC bonus. I could switch the Dwarven thrower for some nice +2 cloth armor (thinking Robe of Eyes) and stick with the staff and the unarmed strike. This would bring my damage down by two (because of the feat that allows proficiency and damage to hammers), but I could offset that a bit with a feat in weapon focus, or increasing my monk unarmed strike (which would come into play a lot more) to D10s.

Which makes me think about another option...the hybrid class. I thought at first that the stats wouldn't go well together, but this MC build shows I could get away with using Dex Monk powers and Strength RP powers without delving too much into wisdom and con, the other two relevant stats.
Monk's stats are Dex, Strength, Wisdom; RP is Strength, con and wisdom. The Multiclassed character I've drawn up right now has a +4 in Strength and Dex, and a +1 in the other two; would this work with a hybrid? I'm thinking it wouldn't be too different from what I've got going now, except I'd be splitting powers between the two classes, and give up some of the class features. Not close to a character builder right now, I'll have to play with it...

 

[tobiasosir]

So I've been tweaking the above build over the past week or so, after talking with the rest of the party and what they're doing for characters. It turns out two of our party are going to be hanging back and using ranged attacks, while our defender and I get up close and personal, which suits me just fine.

So I've been trying to optimize my character for damage. I've changed my ability scores so I get a +4 to both strength and dex, and got the Iron Armbands for a +2 for melee attacks.
I'm stuck now between two choices in terms of equipment:
-An Urgrosh build: +2 bloodclaw urgrosh, Iron Armbands of Power, basic cloth armour +2. I also took a feat fro Dwarven Weapon Training for +2 damage and proficiency with axes. I chose the urgrosh because of the defensive property, putting my AC at 22--which will be helpful if I'm up close. This one has a to hit of +10 (+12 for the Runepriest power I have) and a +10 to damage. I also freed up a magic item and was able to get Ioun's revelation for extra skill bonuses.

-Unarmed build: Instead of DWT, I took proficiency in the Cutting Wheel to take advantage of the defensive property, again putting my AC at 22--but keeping a hand free. I took a Ki Cutting Wheel +1, Magic Ki Focus +2, Robe of Eyes +2 armor, and the Armbands again. I favor this build because I get the +2 to my FoB from the Ki Weapon, and I can use the Ki Focus with my unarmed strike, the wheel, and any improvised weapon I come across. I also took versatile proficiency in unarmed and Ki focus, which leaves me with a +10 to hit, and a +8 for damage on most attacks.

I like the second configuration better for flavor reasons--I like the idea of my fists being powerful weapons. The only disadvantage against the first build is that I have less of a bonus to damage.

So, what can I do to improve the damage just a bit more? Or is a +8 to damage pretty general at level 6?
I get a level 7 magic item, two level 6 magic items, and 902 gold to buy more magic items. I'd like to keep the Ki weapon for the FoB extra damage, and the +2 of that item isn't until level 8, so that's out. I would also prefer to keep my AC at 22 if possible. I've tried all sorts of iterations, and the only thing that seems to work is going back to DWT--but that leaves me with either a two handed weapon, or less AC. Any suggestions, maybe different weapon combinations, background benefits, etc?