Help building a Necro-Monk

[Reynard]

I want to create a villainous group of necromantic monks, and a PrC to go along with them. I'd like to here some thoughts on what to include, ability wise.

I am think a 10 level class, with continued increases in monk AC bonus, speed and unarmed damage. In addition, I'm considering allowing the class to use stunning fist for ghould touch, vampiric touch and the like. What rate should they get these at? What other abilities should they have? What analogues for 'normal' monk abilities could I use to make them more necromantic?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bryon_Soulweaver]

Permanency, you can use it at ninth level. So that'd be a gasalt necro/monk 10, or necro 9/monk 1. Either way, that spell added onto certian other spells makes a deadly combination.

 

[Reynard]

Permanency, you can use it at ninth level. So that'd be a gasalt necro/monk 10, or necro 9/monk 1. Either way, that spell added onto certian other spells makes a deadly combination.

I think maybe I confused you with the term "NecroMonk" -- I didn't mean a necromancer-monk multiclass, but a monk PrC that has some necromantic special abilities.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

The Necromancy touch spells, per level, are:
0: Touch of Fatigue
1: Chill touch
2: Ghoul touch
3: Vampiric Touch
4: Contagion

Basically, you would want to give your monk the ability to substitute stunning attacks for necromantic touch attacks.

IMO, Touch of Fatigue < Stunning fist, so I would have no problem in substituting stunning attack for Touch of Fatigue.

Chill touch, still IMO, is better than stunning fist. I'd let the monk use a stunning fist attempt to make a Chill Touch strike instead, but with the restriction that only one Chill Touch strike can be made with each Stunning attack use, only one Chill touch strike can be made per round, and if the attack misses, the use is lost (as per Stunning Fist). This ability could become available at 4th level.

Ghoul Touch paralyzes an opponent for 1d6+2 rounds and makes the victim stink up the joint. Play it as a Stunning Fist attack, and make it available at 8th level. Make it use up 2 stunning fist attempts.

Vampiric Touch is quite powerful. I'd make it available at 10th level, caster level half the monk's level, uses up 3 stunning fist attempts.

To add this to the monk's class abilities list, I'd remove every Bonus feat, as well as the Wholeness of Body ability.

AR

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Swap wholness of body for some undead immunities. Or make them immune to necromancy spells.

 

[Herobizkit]

IIRC, there was a Cleric of Nerull monk/cleric prestige class in an old Dragon magazine. I'll try and track it down for you.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Hmm...
I think there a few ways to accomplish this with in the existing rules:
Magic Items (which isn't as interesting)
and Multiclassing (which you don't want)

Making a PRC could be feasable. Just to offer an alternative, I recommend just giving it it's own spell list rather than changing stunning fist into touch spells.
Give it up to 4th level spells mostly focusing on necro touch (by level 10 maybe 3-4 spells per day of each level plus bonus ones from wisdom) make caster level equal to total monk level plus PRC level or SR will be impossible to over come.
Good saves, Medium BAB, d8 HD, 4+int skills and the monk abilities like you said.
Also I think giving some undead immunities (as has been suggested) spread out over 10 levels would be interesting and balanced if done right..

 

[Storyteller01]

GR had a book with a monk PrC that sought perfection through the dicipline of the devils (it's in Arcana, Sociaties of Magic, I think). Sounds like it may be a good base to start. High level monk abilities were replaced with devil-ish abilities (natural armor, enery resistance, etc). You still became an outsider, just of a different sort. They even gained some moderate spellcasting abilities, such as ghoul touch, vampiric drain, death knell, fireball, etc (not requires as a prereq).

They came with a special abilitiy though. Once per round, if you hit a target with an unarmed strike you could cast a spell on the target as a free action (spell only effected the target, regardless of the original spells perameters).

It's OGC, if you're interested.

 

[aceofgames]

The Player's Guide to Arcanis (out of Paradigm Concepts) has a PrC like that. Its called the "Order of the Bronze Sepulcher" or somethin' like that.

 

[Satori]

Storyteller- I think you're my new hero. I'm not the OP, but I'm actually working on a Monk/Cleric (Necromantic) type build that makes extensive use of animated undead and touch spells. He'll also focus heavily on Divine feats like Life Drain, since his Rebuking is much less powerful.

That PrClass you mentioned sounds absolutely perfect. If you can either provide stats or point me in the direction of the source, I'll name my first kitten after you.

Thanks!