Ideas for Monk / Cleric gestalt

[Desmaasynger]

Hi all

We are running a 3.5 campaing in a world that we have made up our self. All player char are gestalt, and we are using a slow xp rate, to motivate for more rpg than hack ' n slash.

I died last time we played , and are now making a monk / cleric and i need some ideas for the build. My plan so far is to make it a athletic char whit skillpoint ind the tumble, balance, jump and so on. For feats i think will take the Stunning fist, Deflect arrows & not sure about disarm or trip. Also i will tahe some craft feats, since we are living in a low magic world, and have to make the most of our items.

I wanna to hear if anybody have some other ideas for such a build - looking forward to hear from you


Since this is my first post in here, pls feel free to tell if its the wrong place, language or if theres anything else wrong with it

 

[Jack Simth]

Oh, this is probably the right place.

A couple of things... depending on sources permitted, you might want to consider a Ninja (Complete Arcane) or Swordsage (Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords) as a replacement for the Monk levels, and you might want to consider a Cloistered Cleric (Unearthed Arcana variant class) as a replacement to the Cleric levels (oh: and don't use the Cloistered Cleric with the Ninja - both have a d6 hit die).

Ninja gets you swift-action invisibility (based on Wisdom) and Sudden Strike (a weaker version of Sneak Attack). Swordsage gets you a lot of nifties through martial manuevers (such as the ability to use a Concentration check in place of a save as an immediate action). Both give you Wis to AC (although Swordsage lets you do so in light armor) and 6 skill points a level. Cloistered Cleric gives you a few more spells (and do read Identify carefully - it's an ARCANE material component, and doesn't apply to a divine caster), six skill points per level, an extra domain (Knowledge), and something akin to Bardic Lore.

 

[Dandu]

Since this is my first post in here, pls feel free to tell if its the wrong place, language or if theres anything else wrong with it

All requests must be posted in Esperanto.

 

[HoboGod]

Well, the idea would be to pick a Deity with which one can pick the war domain with favored weapon: Unarmed Strike or favored weapon: Quarterstaff. With that combination, your first level of cleric would get weapon focus (Unarmed Strike) or Weapon Focus (Quarterstaff) as a bonus feat, IIRC, and either of those can be used with flurry of blows. I'm not sure if such a Deity exists, so you might have to haggle with your DM for one.

Also, if you get eschew materials, Vow of Poverty would make this build, like most monk builds, ridiculously powerful. However, obtaining it efficiently and at first level, because of it's two feat requirement, almost always means you have to pick human (unless you wish to play with flaws, which can get messy).

edit: VoP is also something that fits well into RPing and low magic games.

 

[LuckyBoneDice]

Well, the idea would be to pick a Deity with which one can pick the war domain with favored weapon: Unarmed Strike or favored weapon: Quarterstaff. With that combination, your first level of cleric would get weapon focus (Unarmed Strike) or Weapon Focus (Quarterstaff) as a bonus feat, IIRC, and either of those can be used with flurry of blows. I'm not sure if such a Deity exists, so you might have to haggle with your DM for one.

Also, if you get eschew materials, Vow of Poverty would make this build, like most monk builds, ridiculously powerful. However, obtaining it efficiently and at first level, because of it's two feat requirement, almost always means you have to pick human (unless you wish to play with flaws, which can get messy).

edit: VoP is also something that fits well into RPing and low magic games.

I also suggest being Neutral or Evil (Inflict over Heal) so you can imbue your punches with Inflict Wounds spells. That makes Monk actually a good option

 

[HoboGod]

I also suggest being Neutral or Evil (Inflict over Heal) so you can imbue your punches with Inflict Wounds spells. That makes Monk actually a good option

How's that work? With gloves of spell storing?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

How's that work? With gloves of spell storing?

No. By attacking with your unarmed strike against full AC. If you hit them for damage, you've also touched them, hence the touch spell goes off.

Personally, I think it's a bad idea normally. Hitting full AC is often much harder than hitting touch AC, and for what benefit? Do a little extra unarmed damage on top of the spell? Sounds nice, until you realize that if the spell itself is your attack (ie, normal usage where you just deliver the touch attack), you can potentially critical hit with it and do double damage. But if it's added to your unarmed strike? Bonus dice damage are never doubled, and you've just made your unarmed strike the base weapon damage.

 

[Desmaasynger]

Hi all thax the quick answers

Oh, this is probably the right place.

A couple of things... depending on sources permitted.

Theres a thing about sources permitted, to avoid to much powergaming, we have had some serious examples of that. That why we are only allowed acces to Players handbook, Complete Psionics & Expanded Psionics Handbook and nothing more.

Furthermore im the only cleric in our party, so dont think i will decide to convrt to harm spells over cure.

About Esperanto - i really suck at that

 

[Jack Simth]

Hi all thax the quick answers



Theres a thing about sources permitted, to avoid to much powergaming, we have had some serious examples of that. That why we are only allowed acces to Players handbook, Complete Psionics & Expanded Psionics Handbook and nothing more.

Furthermore im the only cleric in our party, so dont think i will decide to convrt to harm spells over cure.

About Esperanto - i really suck at that

Hmm... yes, that does cut down somewhat on the power gaming.

But then, you've already got a pretty good grasp on what you want to be doing - Your basic Monk//Cleric has a d8 hit die, all good saves, Wis-based full casting, Wis to AC, and quite a few class features (a handful of which are actually useful, even).

A couple of things, though....
1) Watch out for MAD. By default, the Monk is MAD. Charisma is about the only stat that will work with a low score (Int is very useful, but only needs a medium score - all the others need to be pretty high). If you try to play the character as a monk, you'll run into problems with stat distribution. If you play the character as a Cleric, with the Monk being a bunch of passive defensive stuff, you'll do much better.

2) Watch out for the action economy. In general, you can't both cast a spell and Flurry on someone. Pick one attack method to focus on.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Have you considered Monk//Druid as your gestalt, OP? I always liked that combo and IMO it has better synergy than cleric. Cleric wants a charisma bonus and has all of the heavy armor proficiencies and weapons (with War Domain, at least). Druid struggles to use armor due to Wildshape anyway, can self-buff his monk unarmed strikes with (greater) magic fang, wildshape is always useful for high Str and larger size (I think it's up for debate if you can flurry and use natural weapons afterwards as secondary attacks, but I allow it) and extra options like Pounce. The BAB, HD, skill points, and poison immunity of each has some unfortunate overlap, but otherwise each class is adding a lot to each other. Also, Druid helps with the Monk's multiple ability dependency greatly, by making two of his most important attributes (Str and Dex) much less important to start out with high. Unless you're starting at level 1 and not seeing level 6 for many months or something, a Druid//Monk can easily walk into a game with maxed Con and Wis and only middling Str and Dex. Int and Cha are dump stats, though still handy if you have the scores left over for them.