Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
Email response from Skip at tsrsage@aol.com. I expect it will make its way into "Sage Advice" and the FAQ eventually.
Olgar Shiverstone said:For what its worth, here's the Sage's Answer:
CrimsonTemplar said:The way I see it, if a Monk spends a feat on TWF they should be able to flurry with a double weapon & the penalties should be cumulative, so it's be -4/-4/-4 for a flurrying monk with a quarterstaff using TWF. Even a high strength monk wouldn't be that great with it.
Well, it is as often as ITWF, but not GTWF. But to compensate, the penalties are reduced and then later negated as you go up in the monk class.Darklone said:
They fixed the monks flurry and the TWF path, but both in different incompatible ways. Monks hit better now but not as often as with ITWF and GTWF.
LokiDR said:
The abuse comes from stacking flurry, TWF, rapid shot, sneak attack, and suriken. Besides that, the flurry eventually doesn't get any penalties.
Camarath said:
The maxium sneak attack a character could get with full flurry is +5d6 at 20th level (monk level 11 and rogue level 9). This character would have a BAB of +14 so would have attacks of +12/+12/+12/+12/+7/+7/+5/+5. A normal 20th level rogue would have a sneak attack of +10d6 and BAB of +15. With GTWF he would have attacks of +12/+12/+7/+7/+5/+5. If each character hit with every attack then a monk/rogue would get +40d6 from sneak attack and a full rogue would get +60d6 from sneak attack. This is a diffeance of +20d6 in favor of the strait rogue and if we include rapid shot it increases to +25d6 in favor of the rogue (with speed +30d6). 11 monk levels seem a fine trade for 2 additional attacks (when unarmored and with monk weapons) to me.
LokiDR said:
Take that last level of rogue on your pure rogue and replace it with monk.
+9/+9/+9/+4/+4/+2/+2. That is an extra 10d6 sneak attack over the straight rogue. Shuriken are amunition, so it is pretty cheap to enchant large numbers. With a high dex, most of these could be hitting. 70d6 out to 30'. That is far more damage than anyone has a right to dish out. The question is wether the loss of attack bonus and creatures being immune to sneak attack balance this out.