Seventh Level Monk

[Banosby]

I have been lurking for a while and thought that this would be a good time for my first post. I'm about to join a new game that is starting up and I'll be playing a dwarven monk because I've played neither a dwarf nor a monk in the past. I know that a while back there was a thread about monks and optimizing them, but it appears it got bogged down in a discussion about whether dexterity or strength is more important for a monk. I apologize in advance if this thread overlaps too much; I'm sure someone will inform me if that is the case.

So I'm looking to make him effective without going overboard on the cheese (there will be no spiked chain). I've decided I'm going to go the grapple/trip route, so that narrows it down somewhat. Specificially I'm looking for advice on equipment, although any other advise would be welcome as well (ability scores, feat selection). As a side note, the party will consist of a Sorcerer, a Cleric, and a Ranger and I shouldn't be expecting routine buffs from the sorcerer in terms of shield and mage armor. Point buy is 30 and hit points are calculated by taking maximum at first and 60% every level thereafter. Here's what I have so far:

Requirments: Seven levels of monk. Must be dwarven. All skills, feets, and equipment must come from either the Player's Handbook or the Monster Manual. This means no Player's Handbook II and no Magic Item Compendium.

{Name}
HP: 58
17
14
16
10
14
6
Maxed Skills: Excape Artist, Listen, Spot, Tumble
Monk Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Combat Reflexes, and Improved
Trip.
Other Feats: Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, and Weapon Focus [Unarmed]

Equipment: As of right now I'm thinking Gauntlets on Ogre Power, Pariapt of Wisdom +2 or
Amulet of Health +2, a permanencied Magic Fang on either fist, a Ring of
Protection +1, a Cloak of Resistance +1 and some potions of barkskin/mage's
armor/shield. However, I'd prefer to make use of some more interesting items
should anyone know of any that would be of use to a monk.

On a completely unrelated note, I seem to have capitalized too many letters in my handle. Does anyone know if this is a fixable oversight and to whom I might go for assistance?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Arkhandus]

{Name}
HP: 58
17
14
16
10
14
6
Maxed Skills: Escape Artist, Listen, Spot, Tumble
Monk Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Combat Reflexes, and Improved Trip.
Other Feats: Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, and Weapon Focus [Unarmed]

Equipment: As of right now I'm thinking Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Pariapt of Wisdom +2 or Amulet of Health +2, a permanencied Magic Fang on either fist, a Ring of Protection +1, a Cloak of Resistance +1 and some potions of barkskin/mage's armor/shield. However, I'd prefer to make use of some more interesting items should anyone know of any that would be of use to a monk.

On a completely unrelated note, I seem to have capitalized too many letters in my handle. Does anyone know if this is a fixable oversight and to whom I might go for assistance?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Dunno about the name change.

The basic stats look fine. I'd recommend lowering the Escape Artist ranks since you should be fine as-is with grappling and escaping with a grapple check; buy 5 ranks of Balance and Jump at least. You can just forego the Escape Artist ranks until next level or something. 5 ranks of Jump will give you +2 synergy on Tumble, while Tumble gives you +2 synergy on Balance and Jump (well, you don't really need any ranks of Balance, but it may be good to have). Some ranks in Swim would be handy, but it all depends on the campaign, anyway.

As for the feats... Replace Improved Bull Rush with Improved Initiative. Replace Power Attack with Improved Natural Attack (Monster Manual; it'll increase your unarmed damage from 1d8 to 2d6).

A monk’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

You can take PA and IBR later if you find yourself encountering situations where they would be effective. Your attack bonus won't be good enough just yet to use them. PA can be your 9th-level feat, after you've improved Strength another point and gained some more Base Attack Bonus.

As for the items and such... Most of it seems fine.
The Amulet of Health will probably do you more good than the Periapt of Wisdom with this character build. Your AC isn't going to be very good so getting the Periapt or an Amulet of Natural Armor wouldn't really make a difference, so you may as well pump up the HP, Fort save, and Con score for marching/holding breath/running/surviving ability drain and such.

Don't bother with the Ring of Protection +1, it won't be significant enough for you right now. A Ring of Sustenance may be kinda handy so you could be on-watch most of the time with minimal rest, and wouldn't need food or drink while going out scouting or somesuch. A Bottle of Air or Necklace of Adaptation may be handy (just don't wear the Necklace all the time, keep it around just in case you need to avoid certain hazards or go underwater).

You never know when you might have a good use for a Bead of Force, but it can be handy. A Hat of Disguise can also be useful sometimes, depending on the campaign. A type 1 Necklace of Fireballs may be good, since you're unlikely to fail saves against fire effects and thus endanger it (and you could use some ranged attack capacity beyond a crossbow).

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Regarding the name change thingie:

Go to the meta forum (Scroll down to the bottom of the list of forums). On the first page is a thread about someone else who wants to change their name. Piratecat did it for him. Just do the mods a favor, ask nicely. They are a great group of people and don't get near the credit they deserve. I've found them to do many things that they "don't" have to do as mods ... but are willing to do it if it is appreciated. If you ask in that attitude and are patient, I'll bet they help you. So go to meta and look for the thread of which I spoke. If you can't find the thread, post here and I'll see if I can get the link for you. Shouldn't be hard to find - for me or you.

{EDIT: Since you're new here, I went ahead and found the link for you already. Here you go. Link to Name changing thread }

About the monk:

I don't have much advice, but on a mathematics standpoint try and convince the DM to use 75% (or 50%) rather than 60% for hitpoints above 1st level. The math on 50% never needs rounding and the math on 75% only needs rounding for d6 and d10. The math for 60% always needs rounding - except for the d10. If you are looking for a suggestion, here's what I do:

Full HP at 1st level. At each even class level (not character level) round down if necessary. At each odd class level (not character level) round up if rounding is necessary.

 

[Banosby]

Thanks for the advice. One follow-up question. I had looked at INA but thought that I was too low level to take it. It has a Bab of 4 as a pre-req, which I don't get until sixth level. Doesn't that mean that I cannot take it as my sixth level feat?

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Note that I edited my earlier post to include the link to the other thread if you need it.

As for the INA part, you should speak to the DM. Some DMs don't care about the "level-up" order. Some DMs do and have their own order. The question is, when you level, do you take your feat or increase the BAB first? If you increase BAB before choosing a feat under that DM, then you should be eligible at 6th level. {This is how I would do it if I were your DM} However, if the DM is a stickler and says you have to have the BAB for the entire level before selecting that feat, then you might have to wait until 9th.

By the way, isn't INA one of those feats where there is debate about if it applies to a monk? You might want to check that out with your DM, first.

I should add, however, that since BAB and feat selection are gained after the level I personally am much more loose about my allowances for "order." With PrC prerequisites (which are necessary in order to level-up) I am not so loose. For PrC prerequisites I make sure the players have the prerequisites filled the level before they want to advance.

 

[Arkhandus]

The only debate is some stupid semantics about whether a feat counts as an effect or not. It's lame really.

Especially since Tome of Battle introduced the feat Superior Unarmed Attack or whatever, which is similar in function but explicitly for boosting unarmed damage die.

Technically, by the core rules you improve BAB first when leveling up (after selecting which class to put the level in). Choosing feats is near the end of the process of leveling up. It's in the PHB.

You qualify for INA at 6th-level as a monk; BAB +4 at that point, so definitely.

And generally, you have to assign your feats appropriately to your stats at each level (can't make a 10th-level Fighter who's 1st-level bonus feat is Weapon Specialization, for example).

 

[Banosby]

Thank you very much for the link Nonlethal Force. I've emailed Piratecat in the most obsequious manner I know how.

As for INA, I've checked with the DM and he's fine with it, although I haven't checked with him about whether or not I can take it at sixth. I'm not sure why I was so convinced that I couldn't; I must have had a DM rule that way when I started playing or somesuch.

Another question about the build: I'm thinking of swapping out Improved Grapple for Stunning Fist and then taking Improved Grapple as one of my chosen feats. If I do this, would this change the calculations concerning whether or not a pariapt of wisdom was better than an amulet of health? That is, would a +1 AC, +1 Will save, and +1 DC for SF be better than +1 hp per level and +1 con save? Or is this just the sort of thing that doesn't make much of a difference either way?

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Another question about the build: I'm thinking of swapping out Improved Grapple for Stunning Fist and then taking Improved Grapple as one of my chosen feats. If I do this, would this change the calculations concerning whether or not a pariapt of wisdom was better than an amulet of health? That is, would a +1 AC, +1 Will save, and +1 DC for SF be better than +1 hp per level and +1 con save? Or is this just the sort of thing that doesn't make much of a difference either way?

Regarding the choice, it is really yours to make. All things being equal, though, I see many more periapts of wisdom in my games than I do amulets of health. Boosting an ability score is seldom a bad thing to do, either way!

Besides, your monk's saves should pretty much always be the least of your worries. +1 to the FORT or +1 to the WILL, six of one, half a dozen of the other. All things being equal, I'll take the +1 to WILL, personally.

 

[Arkhandus]

Well, if you're going to swap stuff out for Stunning Fist, then you may as well go with the Periapt of Wisdom and take Ability Focus as another one of your feats (replacing my suggestion of Improved Initiative; and replacing the Weapon Focus feat with Improved Grapple).

Ability Focus is also in the Monster Manual. It adds +2 to the DC of a single special ability. If you're going to bother with Stunning Fist (my monks, though maxed out on Wisdom, never seemed to have much luck stunning foes :\ ) then you may as well try to make the save DC high enough for a fair chance of success. While it probably won't help you terribly much, it will help with teamwork (though grappling already helps out the team), and it'll be a bit more useful if you acquire a Monk's Belt later on (it's 13,000 GP normally, so it's above the DMG-recommended guideline of 'no single item should be worth more than half the character's wealth' for your character's 7th-level wealth, though it's only a suggestion in the DMG, not a rule).

 

[Particle_Man]

Requirments: All skills, feets, and equipment must come from either the Player's Handbook or the Monster Manual.

Equipment: As of right now I'm thinking Gauntlets on Ogre Power, Pariapt of Wisdom +2 or
Amulet of Health +2, a permanencied Magic Fang on either fist, a Ring of
Protection +1, a Cloak of Resistance +1 and some potions of barkskin/mage's
armor/shield. However, I'd prefer to make use of some more interesting items
should anyone know of any that would be of use to a monk.

Almost none of the above equipment is in either the Player's Handbook or the Monster Manual.