Advice needed on tactics

[Shellman]

Your really never going to stand up toe to toe with a fighter type PC. Personally, I don't play monks because Ive never seen anyone play a Monk that did much for the party.

Taking Rogue levels to gain Sneak Attack damage along with spring attack feat may add some interesting flavor.

Spring attack should be a must feat for your Monk.
Slip in and trip the bad guy on his a$$, or disarm him and the let the rest of the party pick him apart.

Keep working on that stun DC. Thats a great way to take care of the enemy spellcasters, then work in tandom with the Rogue so he can do wads of sneak attack damage.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I would also note that your Str is very, very poor for a 10th level melee combatant. You need to save your pennies and get a +4 or +6 Str item ASAP.

You are getting the triple whammy of reduced BAB, mediocre Str, and no magic weapons. Even the Rogue is laughing at AC 20 opponents at this point, but they are causing you trouble enough.

Keep pushing up your Str and Wis. And do anything you can to increase your to hit bonus.

 

[Henry]

Just remember that your Monk can stand in places that the Fighter would never dream of - like, say, right in the middle of the Sorcerer's area-effect spells. but I agree with the others, you need to find ways that a sniping character like a high-dex monk can contribute, and I'm still willing to bet that you'd be a better scout than the Ranger/OOBow initiate, because you get hide, movie silently, listen, and spot as class skills all the way.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Seems weird to me this hasn't been mentioned yet... but do you have a monk's belt?

 

[Lasher Dragon]

I've always wanted to play a monk that specializes in shuriken - you can flurry the shuriken, and of course get them all magicked-up. Say you have 4 attacks in a flurry: get 4 +1 returning shuriken, have them all with different properties like a silver one, an adamantine one, cold iron, etc., AND have them all different as far as things like flaming/shocking etc..

Of course, you'd want the ranged-type feat selection - point blank, precise, far shot, quick draw.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'm playing a very successful strength-based monk at the moment. I don't know how I'd make a dex based monk work well, but strength based is fine. At the moment my feats include power attack, cleave and martial weapon(glaive) - any bonuses I get from charge or flanking etc I just turn into power attack normally.

Not a twinked out monk by any means, but building him with melee in mind has made him a fine melee fighter alongside the party tank.

On the positive side, with your huge wisdom your PC probably has the best spot chance in the whole party, right? If your DM calls for spot checks as often as my DM does, the rest of the party will love you for that alone!

I think the weapon focus and weapon finesse were probably bad choices for your monk; they offset the avg BAB a little but don't really give you new capabilities you can take advantage of.

If it is allowed, and considering you are a tiefling, I think a better choice than rogue would be to start taking levels in assassin. It would give you the sneak attack, a death attack, useful spell(s) (starting with truestrike... it would give you an unbeatable disarm!)

Cheers

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Weapon Focus is fine. But I really hate Weapon Finesse for a Monk. The feat is too precious for that.

Besides the stat selection this Monk is spending about half his feats on defense. Deflect Arrows may have looked okay at 2nd level, but Combat Reflexes is vastly better at higher levels.

 

[rowport]

...You can contribute usefully if you focus, focus, focus on teamwork.

The Rogue will absolutely love to see you give him a target that is stunned, easily flanked, or grappled...

Delay your action to go right before your selected teammate. That maximizes your chance of results. You would not want to grapple someone only to have them escape your clutches.

Stun is your best bet if you get a single attack. If you get a full attack against a high AC opponent, do not bother to flurry; do a Stun/Trip or Stun/Grapple or Trip/Trip. Even an opposes check at a -10 disadvantage gives you a ~11% chance of getting lucky.

Keep in mind that the Rogue can do almost as much damage with a single Sneak Attack as you are likely to do if all three of your flurries land. You do what it takes to give him the opportunities. If you can help him get a full iterative SA, the damage you personally dish out will be irrelevant.

RC is correct. With your movement and mobility skills, you and the rogue should be tag-team buddies. Whatever target he wants to sneak attack, you flank and either grapple or stun- the sneak attack goes off for any of those conditions, plus the flank bonus. If you can use this strategy against spellcasters, so much the better. Of the party you descibe, it is likely that you and the rogue are the only characters mobile enough to easily reach a caster behind 'the front lines'.

 

[two]

good advice

Everyone seems to agree: it's too late for your monk.

I'd have a long talk with your GM and, if you really really want to play a combat-effective monk, start him over at level1 with a new build, including stat distribution.

Else, tell your GM that your monk wants to be involved with lots of other things -- scouting more, whatever. And then, as a player, stop thinking of your monk as a melee combatant, and do everything you can BESIDES wade blindly into battle.

There is still hope. Just not for melee, but still -- for some fun.

I've always wanted to play a monk that specializes in shuriken - you can flurry the shuriken, and of course get them all magicked-up. Say you have 4 attacks in a flurry: get 4 +1 returning shuriken, have them all with different properties like a silver one, an adamantine one, cold iron, etc., AND have them all different as far as things like flaming/shocking etc..

Of course, you'd want the ranged-type feat selection - point blank, precise, far shot, quick draw.

Sadly, like many cool and interesting builds, this shuriken idea ain't gonna fly.

Price of 4 +1 Returning [one more enchantment] shurikens is: 4*18 = 72K. Yup. You read it right.

And, with your Str=18 monk with point blank shot, if you hit 4 times, you do:

1.5 + 4 + 3.5 + 1 (PBShot) = 9 points of damage, per shuriken. *4 = 36 points of damage total.

That's AFTER you hit 4 times, and the enemy has no immunities of any sort (fire, cold, DR, etc.).

That's using 72K of weaponry.

It's beyond horrible.

The best possible instance would be 4 +1 returning bane shurikens going against their bane target, doing:

1.5 + 4 + 3 + 1 + 2d6 = 9.5 + 7 = 16.5 per shuriken. *4 = 66 points of damage per round.

That's barely adequate, and (naturally) requires a bane enemy with no DR or anything like that. And 4 hits.

This is where D&D really drops the ball, big time. You have to do incredible hoop-hopping to attempt to match up with the most obvious low-grade fighting style, i.e. barbarian/fighter with a greatsword. Raaah. Charge and attack, throw in some into power attack. GRRRRRaaaaaah!

With 72K to spend on a weapon, your fighter picks up a +4 Holy Greatsword and really puts the hurt on most enemies, i.e. evil things. Or, far more cleverly, simply buys a +1 Holy Greatsword, pockets the rest of the change, and splurges on really nice armor/defensive stuff.

I hate it, but that's how D&D is set up. Do the obvious thing, your life is easy.

Do a non-obvious thing that sounds really cool, requires a lot of feats, and much money, and the result is: worse than if you had just done the obvious thing.

Talk about kicking somebody when they are down. Sheesh.

 

[RigaMortus]

...Use flurry of blows in increase grapple chances, etc....

Minor nit pick... You can't use Flurry in conjunction with grapple. You can only use iterative attacks as is described in the description of grapple.