Ascetic feats

[Seeten]

Multiclassed characters are weak, when it comes to spell casting, smiting, etc. This is an attempt to balance them.

 

[DonAdam]

To be fair, when 3.0 first came out, feats were explained as things that let you break the rules.

 

[Gez]

Question, would it be reasonnable to let the Monk/Rogue feat works with the Assassin class instead of Rogue?

 

[Crothian]

Question, would it be reasonnable to let the Monk/Rogue feat works with the Assassin class instead of Rogue?

By the rules that works. All you need is Improved Unarmed Strike feat and sneak attack. It does not say where the sneak attack comes from.

 

[smootrk]

If you did not want weakened characters by multiclassing, why multiclass in the first place? I do not think that multi-classed characters are unbalanced in the first place. They have added versatility that a single class character can not do.

The feats in the core books were well thought out for balance, the additional books tilt that balance in new ways.

 

[Crothian]

If you did not want weakened characters by multiclassing, why multiclass in the first place?

Because many people care more about the character and less about the power. It is nice to be rwarded though for taking a weak class combination. Even with these feats the character is still weak though.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Also although the "plan" was for a multiclassed character to be equal fun to play as a single classed character, 4-5 years playing experience has demonstrated that multiclass characters are somewhat less than the sum of their parts - hence prestige classes like arcane trickster and mystic theurge, and feats like practiced spell caster to handle spell casting multiclassers.

This is now doing something for another class which relies upon its continuing class abilities to hold its own distinctiveness (the monk) and making certain multiclass combinations viable.

I think it is a great move and one to be applauded.

(incidentally, while I wouldn't allow a paladin/barbarian hybrid without one of them being and ex-class, I certainly would allow a feat to provide a paladin/bard hybrid)

Cheers

 

[Gez]

By the rules that works. All you need is Improved Unarmed Strike feat and sneak attack. It does not say where the sneak attack comes from.

I beg to differ. The rules as written let you take the feat, not fully benefit from it.

ASCETIC ROGUE
You have gone beyond the bounds of your monastic training to incorporate new modes of stealthy combat. Although your fellow monks may frown on your methods, none can doubt that your diverse training has improved your ability to strike precisely and bring down your foes quickly.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, sneak attack.
Benefit: When you use an unarmed strike with a sneak attack to deliver a stunning attack, you add 2 to the DC of your stunning attempt.​

It's OK thus far. Could be an Ascetic Rogue, or an Ascetic Assassin, an Ascetic Blackguard, an Ascetic Spellthief, even an Ascetic Ninja, since Surprise Strike works like Sneak Attack for the purpose of requirements.

If you have levels in rogue and monk, those levels stack for the purpose of determining your unarmed strike damage. For example, a human 5th-level rogue/1st-level monk would deal 1d8 points of damage with her unarmed strike.
In addition, you can multiclass freely between the monk and rogue classes. You must still remain lawful in order to retain your monk abilities and take monk levels. You still face the normal XP penalties for having multiple classes more than one level apart.
​

There, on the other hand, there are two benefits (stacking levels for unarmed damage, and the lift on the multiclass restriction) that are only for rogues.

I was wondering if it would hurt anything to have an Ascetic Assassin feat instead. Well, anything else than other characters. Would you give a Human Monk 5/Assassin 7 with that feat 2d6 unarmed damage? And a Monk 5/Assassin 10 with that feat resume Monk progression?

 

[Crothian]

I beg to differ. The rules as written let you take the feat, not fully benefit from it.

the question was can it work, and it can. It might not work fully, but it works.

 

[Staffan]

Are there any other Ascetic feats besides those in The Complete Adventurer? I could really use an Ascetic Warrior feat to make a good combination of fighter and monk without saccrificing a good portion of my monk abilities.

While they aren't ascetic feats as such, Eberron has a number of feats that are clearly aimed at fighter/monks. These feats let you use different weapons with your flurry of blows ability (there's one for longsword, one for double-bladed sword, and one for longspear), and have weapon focus with the relevant weapon as a prerequisite. It wouldn't be out of line to expand these to other weapons, I think.