Balancing a monk who also uses a sword

[SteveC]

Here's my situation:
I am in the process of creating a character for a new 3.5 campaign, and am looking to play a classic wuxia knight: a character who fights with a sword, but is also able to use martial arts. Now I am fairly adept at coming up with crazy combinations of character classes to do what I want, but I am trying to make things simple for my poor GM.

What I want to do is design a monk who also has the long sword as one of his favored weapons. What I'm looking for is some advice on how to balance this idea and make it a reasonable character.

My initial idea was to take a level of fighter (to gain martial weapons proficiency) and then see if I could convince the GM to let me use a custom feat to add a weapon to my list of monk weapons. I have seen this feat in several places, but not in any that I feel confident enough in the balance behind to actually recommend.

My other idea (one which I think is a lot more balanced, and something that the GM will agree to) is to assign my bonus feats from a monk in this fashion:

Level 1: bonus weapon proficiency (long sword)
Level 2: use long sword as a monk weapon
Level 6: Weapon Focus (long sword)

My question: what do you think of this setup? It seems to me that it is, if anything, a little on the weak side: I am taking two feats that are sub-par (the weapon proficiency and weapon focus) for a reward of one good ability. I am open to other suggestions for how to do this, especially if there is an official method that is in one of the WotC books that I may not have seen.

 

[Ace]

Here's my situation:
I am in the process of creating a character for a new 3.5 campaign, and am looking to play a classic wuxia knight: a character who fights with a sword, but is also able to use martial arts. Now I am fairly adept at coming up with crazy combinations of character classes to do what I want, but I am trying to make things simple for my poor GM.

What I want to do is design a monk who also has the long sword as one of his favored weapons. What I'm looking for is some advice on how to balance this idea and make it a reasonable character.

My initial idea was to take a level of fighter (to gain martial weapons proficiency) and then see if I could convince the GM to let me use a custom feat to add a weapon to my list of monk weapons. I have seen this feat in several places, but not in any that I feel confident enough in the balance behind to actually recommend.

My other idea (one which I think is a lot more balanced, and something that the GM will agree to) is to assign my bonus feats from a monk in this fashion:

Level 1: bonus weapon proficiency (long sword)
Level 2: use long sword as a monk weapon
Level 6: Weapon Focus (long sword)

My question: what do you think of this setup? It seems to me that it is, if anything, a little on the weak side: I am taking two feats that are sub-par (the weapon proficiency and weapon focus) for a reward of one good ability. I am open to other suggestions for how to do this, especially if there is an official method that is in one of the WotC books that I may not have seen.

I think the easiest way to resolve your dilema is to charge a feat -- just 1 feat

The charcter can than use his monk attacks with the sword (at D8 damage) or his normal attacks --

IMC I allow monks to do normal damage armed or unarmed with any "monk weapon" that is not a missile

I figure the fact that its a fist or a blade is really just FX anyway -- a 20th level monk can do 2d10 +x unarmed or 2d10 + x armed it maters not

Even if the weapon gives a bunch of plusses that doesn't matter to me I figure diarm/sunder/shatter etc can take care of it --

 

[Impeesa]

The feat to let you flurry with a non-monk weapon of choice has appeared in Dragon, which is good enough for many DMs. I've thought about this one before - fighter 4/monk 16 seems like the best split for a core-only build, ending up with BAB +16 and most of the monk goodies. As for dealing unarmed base damage instead of normal weapon damage, I'd probably allow that as another feat... it's really not hugely powerful.

--Impeesa--

 

[BSF]

Beyond Monks: The art of the fight will provide a very nice build for you. Barring that, I would agree that a feat would be sufficient to allow you to flurry. However, I would probably insist that it be a General Feat, in other words, you couldn't use a fighter bonus feat to acquire it.

 

[Sejs]

Monk / Exotic Weapon Master. Using the bastard sword. You even get tricks.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

One of my players, who wanted to play a The Bride-like character, made a monk that uses a katana. The katana is the only monk weapon he has, and I let him take EWP (katana) at 1st level.

He can do a little more damage than a normal monk could at his level, but I don't think it's unbalancing.

AR

 

[SteveC]

I think the easiest way to resolve your dilema is to charge a feat -- just 1 feat

The charcter can than use his monk attacks with the sword (at D8 damage) or his normal attacks --

IMC I allow monks to do normal damage armed or unarmed with any "monk weapon" that is not a missile

I figure the fact that its a fist or a blade is really just FX anyway -- a 20th level monk can do 2d10 +x unarmed or 2d10 + x armed it maters not

Even if the weapon gives a bunch of plusses that doesn't matter to me I figure diarm/sunder/shatter etc can take care of it --

Hmmn, I think I like this idea. I tell you, all this time playing D&D has gotten me away from my Hero system roots: it's just a special effect. I think my GM might go for this, especially since we are starting the game at only second level, and I would actually do less damage this way.

I must think on this a little bit more...thanks for your help!

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Oathsworn, the mystical unarmed combatant class from AU, get an ability at 6th level called Objects as Weapons. They can use any object they can lift over their head as a weapon they are proficient with, dealing their normal unarmed damage.