Human Monk in Living Greyhawk

[Tetsubo]

I have a chance to join a Living Greyhawk campaign. I've never played in one. I've also never played a Monk in 3.5. I'm looking for advice on Feat and Skill choices. I'm considering a stat array like this (28 point buy): ST 10, DX 14, CN 14, IN 10, WS 16, CH 10. This would be an 18 level build. Any suggestions?

 

[pbd]

Personally, I wouls swith the dex and wisdom; with the low strength you should go the weapon finesse route, and dex will play double duty on defense and offense. Use your inherent increases for dex to further increase this.

maybe go the stunning fist route, rather than grappling, pick up ability focus stunning fist (MM feat) to raise the stun DC to 23 (with any wisom additional wisdom bonus also adding in). Not to shabby, considering you can use it 18 times/day.

Get your Dexteriy up as high as possible then go for wisdom and other AC raising items. You also may want ti increase strength for additional damage.

 

[Scion]

Cant you only pick feats from the phb for living greyhawk? or am I misremembering?


If you are starting at level 18 then I guess a monks belt wouldnt really help you.. unless they use some sort of epic rules there or at least let things slide into levels greater than 20 even when you are below that threshold.

I would suggest a ring of spell turning however. At that point it just wont be worthwhile for people to do magic against you in most cases

 

[Elephant]

Cant you only pick feats from the phb for living greyhawk? or am I misremembering?


If you are starting at level 18 then I guess a monks belt wouldnt really help you.. unless they use some sort of epic rules there or at least let things slide into levels greater than 20 even when you are below that threshold.

I would suggest a ring of spell turning however. At that point it just wont be worthwhile for people to do magic against you in most cases

Um, in Living Greyhawk you start at level 1. When he talks about an 18-level build, he means that the character will retire at level 18.

 

[MichaelH]

There are many ways to go with your monk. With your ability scores, I might drop either Int or Cha to 8 and boost Str to 12 or 14 if you drop both.

I would choose Balance, Escape Artist, Jump, and Tumble as my skills. These are not usually used by many other characters, at least not at maximum ranks. You should make these skills "your bag, baby." If you choose to keep your Int at 10 then take one more skill of your choice. You get two feats at first level plus your bonus feat. I would take Stunning Fist for my bonus feat. You could take either Acrobatic or Agile to boost two of your class skills. Weapon Focus (unarmed strike) is not a bad choice either, as is Combat Reflexes and Improved Grapple. It depends on what you want your monk to do very well. I would avoid the Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack feat chain. Your tumble skill should help you against AoO for moving past or through your enemies, plus you will want to take advantage of your flurry/greater flurry with full attacks and Spring Attack will not allow for this. YMMV.

Most of all have fun with the monk. It is not the best damage dealing class, but it is alot of fun to play. After you get past level 3, check for which feats you can choose from Complete Warrior. There are some good choices in that book for monks.

 

[Caliban]

Um, in Living Greyhawk you start at level 1. When he talks about an 18-level build, he means that the character will retire at level 18.

After this year, LG characters retire at 16. I'm going to have to retire my 16th level tank at the end of the year.

They do say that there will be "retirement" modules that allow you to play your old characters, about 4 a year, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Caliban]

I have a chance to join a Living Greyhawk campaign. I've never played in one. I've also never played a Monk in 3.5. I'm looking for advice on Feat and Skill choices. I'm considering a stat array like this (28 point buy): ST 10, DX 14, CN 14, IN 10, WS 16, CH 10. This would be an 18 level build. Any suggestions?

I think it's a mistake to have less than 14 strength with a monk, you need the attack and damage bonus or you won't feel very useful.

You can expect 2-4 combats in almost every LG mod, so being able to contribute in combat makes the game more fun for you.

It's hard for monks to be the big damage dealers, or get a high AC, until about level 8-10, and then only if they have the right equipment.

Improved Grapple monks can be fun, but you need strength to make it work.

Taking Exotic Weapon Chain, Lightning Reflexes and Prone Fighting can let you use the Improved Trip bonus feat and still be effective when you get tripped back.

There are other builds, but I can't recall the exact feats right now, I'll post later if I remember them.

 

[Endur]

Starting Stats: ST 14, DX 14, CN 14, IN 12, WS 14, CH 8.

Dex, Con, Wis are necessary stats for a Monk. (Definitely get 14+ in all three of these).

Str is useful for damage, and for hitting if you don't have weapon finesse. Str is also very useful for grappling.

Int is useful for skills.

Chr is not useful for a monk, and although it might make sense for Role Playing uses, really won't help you as a monk character.

Because this is point buy, and you need many good stats, don't buy a 16 in anything.

Feats: Improved Grapple ... very good against spell casters. Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack is also very good. Weapon Focus and Improved Critical with unarmed strike.

 

[isoChron]

Or try using a reach weapon (needs martial weapon proficiency) and combat reflexes.