tobiasosir
First Post
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!
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!