Monk with Quarter Staff

[Cedric]

Been thinking about making a Monk. The campaign we are playing in currently has 12th level characters and some recent events are making it unfeasible to keep playing my Paladin as a PC.

So...been thinking of playing a monk. Was going to take 1 level of Sorcerer and then 11 levels of Monk, going to be a human.

Since a Quarterstaff is a double weapon and double weapons can have two heads, could I have one end of it be shod with a Cold Iron cap and the other end be shod with a Silver cap?

Then I would have (between the one staff and fists) Magic, Lawful, Cold Iron and Silver weapons for damage reduction purposes...gaining Adamantine when I hit 16th level.

Please let me know if I am on crack here or if this works the way I think it does?

Thanks...

Cedric

 

[Cedric]

Follow up question...

So, I take my sorcerer 1/monk 11 and for standard equipment deck him out with a wand of Enlarge Person, along with a couple of nice spells like Enlarge Person and something else.

If I took the Feat: Jotunbrud (treated as one size larger for grapple attempts and the like), would I then be treated as Huge for the purpose of grappling while I had enlarge person running?

Cedric

 

[Stalker0]

Follow up question...

So, I take my sorcerer 1/monk 11 and for standard equipment deck him out with a wand of Enlarge Person, along with a couple of nice spells like Enlarge Person and something else.

If I took the Feat: Jotunbrud (treated as one size larger for grapple attempts and the like), would I then be treated as Huge for the purpose of grappling while I had enlarge person running?

Cedric

I don't see why not, then take improved grapple and your set

Also, to your quarterstaff question, quarterstaffs are normally wood... so while coating a side with silver would be fine in my opinion, I don't know about cold iron on the other... would make the stick very unbalanced.

As far as can you have different effects on a double weapon, that's allowed as long as you pay for each enhancement... so if your dm doesn't have a problem with allowing cold iron on a staff and as long as you pay for both the cold iron and silver then your set.

 

[Malicene]

I agree with stalker .
and normally you could "stack" cold iron/silver and lawful ... as quaterstaff is part of your monk unarmed combat.

but this can be tricky .. so better check with your DM

 

[Zaruthustran]

First, to answer the original question: no, you can't add "cold iron" or "silver" to your quarterstaff.

SRD:
"Items without metal parts cannot be made from cold iron. An arrow could be made of cold iron, but a quarterstaff could not."
"The alchemical silvering process can’t be applied to nonmetal items, and it doesn’t work on rare metals such as adamantine, cold iron, and mithral."

That's pretty clear.

I bet you could get your DM to houserule this. Maybe your monk is really strong, and uses a cold iron staff. You could use alchemical silver on one end of an iron staff.

But "cold iron staff" isn't in the rules, and neither is a wood staff with "silver" and "cold iron". If you're playing strict by-the-book D&D you're better off with two kamas (you can flurry with kamas, so your attack penalties would be the same as if you used both ends of the quarterstaff). Bonus: you can sheathe kamas, enabling you to climb ropes and do other things with your hands.

Speaking of monks, I have to correct this rules gaff:

normally you could "stack" cold iron/silver and lawful ... as quaterstaff is part of your monk unarmed combat.

No, Quarterstaff is not part of monk unarmed combat. A Quarterstaff does not = Unarmed Strike. They're seperate weapons.

A monk can mix a staff (or monk weapons) and Unarmed Strike when doing a flurry. That's not the same thing as staff = unarmed strike.

Put simply: Ki strike doesn't apply to manufactured weapons.

Here's the SRD text:
"Ki Strike (Su): At 4th level, a monk’s unarmed attacks are empowered with ki. Her unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. Ki strike improves with the character’s monk level. At 10th level, her unarmed attacks are also treated as lawful weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. At 16th level, her unarmed attacks are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction and bypassing hardness."
(emphasis added by me)

Nowhere in there does it say that manufactured weapons can be used, or that "a monk's unarmed attacks" = attacks with monk weapons as well.

-z

 

[Malicene]

to be clear :
he can strike w/quarterstaff using flurry of blow in this case CIron or ASilver (if you admit that each head is covered but staff is still made of wood)
OR
he strike w/unarmed with flurry and applies Lawful and or Adamantium

that's what I meant
(that's why I said : "stacks")

sorry! not enough explicit

 

[Cedric]

My quarterstaff would still be made of wood...but there are numerous historical references for a quarterstaff with metal butt caps on the ends.

Those buttcaps should be able to be made out of different metals...but yes, it would be up to my GM.

Cedric

 

[Plane Sailing]

Put simply: Ki strike doesn't apply to manufactured weapons.

Unless, of course, the staff has the funky new magic ability included in 3.5e

(from the SRD)

Ki Focus: The magic weapon serves as a channel for the wielder’s ki, allowing her to use her special ki attacks through the weapon as if they were unarmed attacks. These attacks include the monk’s stunning attack, ki strike, and quivering palm, as well as the Stunning Fist feat. Only melee weapons can have the ki focus ability.

Cheers!

 

[Zaruthustran]

Unless, of course, the staff has the funky new magic ability included in 3.5e

(from the SRD)
Cheers!

Good point! But is that worth the cost of the ability? Any time you can attack wth a weapon, you could also just attack with an unarmed strike...

-z

 

[paulewaug]

nothing wrong with using a quarter staff now that they can finally be used properly, but...

how about using a set of Nunchaku instead?
You can have one end of each pair end in silver and one end of each pair end in cold iron.
That way you can switch them around when you need to and use the appropriate end!
And you can flurry of blows the propper end-
You also get a disarm bonus!

just my .02