Building a halfling monk

[MarauderX]

So, I just got my last character killed and want to switch to a non-magic PC with my new character and decided to play a monk, which I have never done before.
I think I have a fair idea of tweaking a 4th level halfling monk to get him to be the best he can be, but thought I would throw it out to the EN world to spot any weaknesses or better approaches. Here are the vitals with a standard point buy of 32 using 3.0, after applying the halfling bonuses:

Str = 10
Dex = 18
Con = 14
Int = 10
Wis = 16
Cha = 8

Weapon Finesse; Dodge.
AC = 18 (+4 Dex, +3 Wis, +1 Size), then Dodge vs chosen enemy
HP = 19-40
Fort = +7 (+4 base, +2 Con, +1 Halfling)
Reflex = +9 (+4 base, +4 Dex, +1 Halfling)
Will = +8 (+4 base, +3 Wis, +1 Halfling)
Unarmed Damage = 1d6

I am not aiming for any Oriental Adventures classes yet (I am expecting the book in the mail any day now) but any that come up would be great.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

From an ancient book of gaming wisdom:

Building an effective halfling monk in 5 Easy steps. . . Step 1: pick a race other than halfling. . . .

Now, that is probably a little bit overstated but not much. You'd have an easier time creating an effective halfling paladin than an effective halfling monk. As Monks, halflings have pretty much everything against them. One of a monk's great advantages is high movement. Halfling qualities nerf this advantage. One of the monk's main weaknesses is low base damage. Halflings' qualities exacerbate this disadvantage. Between their strength penalty and their size damage adjustment, halflings do an average of two points less damage per blow than a human monk with the same base stats. (And considering that monks tend to rely on multiple attacks to deal damage (flurry of blows, etc) and that they have relatively few non-stat/level ways of increasing damage, this is very significant).

My experience with halfling monks in play confirms this suspicion (granted, it's quite limited--one was a necromancer/monk (3rd-5th level) and the other was a rogue/monk (14th level)). The necromancer/monk was pretty consistently weak and had trouble doing much of anything (although he could have avoided being hit if played competently--that is, he could have avoided being hit until he started running into CR 6-8 opponents and Mage Armor+Shield wasn't so impressive anymore). The Rogue/monk was more impressive (and he should be at 14th level) but was only able to do any damage in combat when he managed to get off a stunning blow and follow it up with a full flurry of sneak attacks. In all other situations, it was "So, the sorceror casts an empowered cone of cold for 70 points of damage and follows it up with chain lightning for 50 points of damage, the barbarian power attacks and hits for 60 points of damage, the cleric banishes the demons with holy word and the halfing deals 10 points of damage to the other foe. . . is he ready to be beat down today?"

So, that said, what can you do to make the monk effective?

For a start, don't pretend to be a human or half-orc monk. As a halfling monk, you'll need to take advantage of a lot of synergies to be viable. Multi-classing with rogue would be a good start (either one level or three). It's your favored class and would give you a bunch of skill points which you could use to max out your sneaking skills and learn how to find and disable traps. (You'd want to consider keeping your search and disable device scores up by spending monk skill points cross-class; it's not efficient but since you can't multiclass out of monk and go back to it, it's the only way to retain that ability--alternately, you could rely on potions of vision and taking 20 for searching (there's no way to get around the necessity for ranks in disable device if you want to be competent). A few ranks of Open Lock will be sufficient for most locks if you have time to take 20--and when you don't, you will usually be able to just have the barbarian bust the door down). The rogue levels would also give you sneak attack which would work well with both Stunning Blow, the monk's movement (it's easier to flank that way), and the monk's stealth skills.

For stats, you might very well want to drop your dex to 17 and up your strength to 12. Since you're starting at 4th level, you can use the stat increase to pump your dex back to 18 and the extra point of damage will come in handy.

For feats: With your dex, you'll definitely want Weapon Finesse: Unarmed. You should also consider starting on the dodge, mobility, spring attack line of feats--that would enable you to eventually take advantage of your monkish movement (by 9th level, it will still be decent, even for a halfling) and (possibly) sneak attacks. Alternately, you might do well to take feats like Blindfight, Combat Reflexes (not too useful in itself but good in combination), Hold the Line (get AoOs when charged), expert tactician (hit your foes again every time you stun them), Hamstring, etc.

If you're using 3.5 monk rules, you will want Stunning Fist instead of Improved Grapple (halflings tend to lose grapples), and Combat Reflexes instead of Improved Trip (low strength halflings tend to lose trip rolls too).

Weapons: Since 3.5 makes weapon finesse apply to all finessable weapons and your unarmed damage will be low anyway, you should consider at least starting out wielding halfling versions of monk weapons. (If your DM doesn't let you do stunning blows while wielding 2 monk weapons, just wield one). They'd deal the same damage as your unarmed strikes and you could get another +1 to hit from masterwork--and possibly even +1 damage as well if you bought a +1 weapon.

So, my recommendation would be to start off as either:

Rog 1/Mnk 3
Str 12, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 8
Blindfight or Dodge and Weapon Finesse

or

Rog 3/Monk 1
Stats and feats as above

or even

Rog 4 (will advance in Monk from here on out)
Stats and feats as above.

 

[Camarath]

If your group is changing to 3.5 this will help your chatacter. My suggestion use disarm as much as you can. For many opponents being disarmed is almost the same as being killed. Of the OA prestige classes I recomend the Shintao Monk. You might also consider the feat Grappling Block from OA which allows you a disarm attempt one per round when you would other wise be hit with a weapon. If you wish to multiclass Psychic Warrior is a fun class that synergies reather nicely with the Monk. I recomend you go for a untouchable reactive type monk. Many of the OA feats go well with this type of character. Spring attack can be useful if combined with disarm. If you play a 3.5 monk your speed will only be 10ft less than a human monk reather than 2/3 the speed of a human monk.

 

[MarauderX]

I recomend you go for a untouchable reactive type monk.

That's the type I am going for, and was tempted to drive up the Dex a point or so higher to get the extra bonuses to hit, AC and reflex to deflect arrows. We are staying with 3.0 until further notice, although I wish we were going to 3.5.

Even at 30' per round, he will be one of the fastest in the party. I was thinking of using that speed & AC along with a maxed out tumble to be a wizard-killer as well as flank easily. Presently there is a rogue in the party, so I want to avoid going that route.

With the low magic campaign I am in a monk would work out wonderfully. But as everyone still has had decent BAB I want to make his AC higher to match the lower HP per level. Granted, it will go up, but it takes some levels...and right now he doesn't have them.

So essentially what I am understanding is peeling off the halfling part would give an AC=16, BAB drops from +8 to +6, Reflex drops 2 and the others drop 1, and the trade off is better speed and a raised damage die. This monk isn't going to be the best at melee with our group, but should be able to rip apart any caster or archer once he gets to them.

 

[Camarath]

If you wanted a more direct type monk I would suggest you go with the Half-Oger and grappling. As it is you should really take advantage of the feats in OA they can be nearly indispensable to the type of character you are building. My recomendations are Defensive Throw, Grppling Block, Freezing The Lifeblood and Karmic Strike. I also suggest you take advantage of defensive fight and the bonus from a high Tumble rank as well as Expertise. It might be hard to get enough feats as a monk. Shintao Monk can help with this a great deal is you plan right.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

That's the type I am going for, and was tempted to drive up the Dex a point or so higher to get the extra bonuses to hit, AC and reflex to deflect arrows. We are staying with 3.0 until further notice, although I wish we were going to 3.5.

Even at 30' per round, he will be one of the fastest in the party. I was thinking of using that speed & AC along with a maxed out tumble to be a wizard-killer as well as flank easily. Presently there is a rogue in the party, so I want to avoid going that route.

Here's the difficulty with this route. Your AC is NOT good. Until someone casts mage armor on you, it's "don't power attack me" not "you won't hit me." And even after you get mage armor cast, your enemies will still hit you on halfway decent rolls.

Your monk is AC 18/19 (dodge) or 22/23 with mage armor. A fighter with fullplate, a large shield, a 12 dex, and the dodge feat is AC 21/22 (dodge). If he has +1 fullplate and a +1 shield (not hard to come by at 4th level), that's AC 22/23 or 23/24. And he's hardly unhittable.

At 4th level, standard opponents are things like:
-Human fighter Str 16, weapon focus, mwk weapon: +9 to hit. (he needs a 9 to hit you if you're not dodging him, a 10 if you are and a 14 if you've got mage armor and are dodging him)
-Orc barbarian 4 Str 18, weapon focus, mwk weapon, rage: +12 to hit--he needs a 6 to hit you (worst case for you) or an 11 to hit you (best case for you).
-Troll (CR 5) +9/+9/+4. You probably won't be rended, but he'll hit you nearly every round--mage armored or not.
-Ogre (CR 2) +9 to hit IIRC. Without mage armor, he will hit you quite regularly. And, even with Mage Armor, he doesn't need to roll particularly well to hit you.

Maybe you're in a campaign where you're facing nothing but mooks with +4 attack bonusses, but it won't last. In two levels, you will almost certainly be facing creatures like those I outlined. And your monk's AC will not impress any of them. And, contrary to your assertion, your AC isn't likely to go much of anywhere. You can get a ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, and that's about it. Bracers of armor won't be better than Mage Armor for quite a while and rings of Force Shield are rather expensive too. By the time you can afford to get an AC above 26, your opponents will typically have attack bonusses in the neighborhood of +14-+20 so you won't really have improved your situation much.

[b

With the low magic campaign I am in a monk would work out wonderfully. But as everyone still has had decent BAB I want to make his AC higher to match the lower HP per level. Granted, it will go up, but it takes some levels...and right now he doesn't have them.

So essentially what I am understanding is peeling off the halfling part would give an AC=16, BAB drops from +8 to +6, Reflex drops 2 and the others drop 1, and the trade off is better speed and a raised damage die. This monk isn't going to be the best at melee with our group, but should be able to rip apart any caster or archer once he gets to them. [/B]

I'm not so sure he'll be ripping apart anyone in melee--even wizards and archers. Your attacks will deal 1d6 damage unmodified. Now, your standard 3.0e wizard has an AC of 16-23 (mage armor, and dex plus possibly shield). So, if you attack once, you have a 65-30% chance of dealing 1d6 damage to him and if you flurry, it'll be a two 55-20% chances of dealing 1d6 damage. At best, that's an average of 2.275 damage/round with one attack and 3.8 damage/round with a flurry. At that rate, a third level wizard (hp 16-19) will last 5 rounds, 5' stepping away from you and casting his spells. About the only thing he has to worry about is your stunning fist. And if he has shield up, he doesn't really even need to worry about that (because it will probably miss).

The archer is in a better situation. (War 3; hp 21, AC 18 (Chain mail+buckler+dex), Point blank shot, rapid shot, precise shot; Atk +7 (1d8+2 mwk mty longbow with mwk arrows) or +6 (1d8+2 mwk longsword). Let's say you tumble up to him and start flurrying away. He'll last 7 round. Now, if he draws his longsword and starts attacking you, he'll deal 20.475 points of damage before he goes down (assuming no mage armor and that he's your dodge target; if you have mage armor, you'll take an average of 11.375 damage). You win the fight of course, but it's hardly decisive. (And that's against a CR 2 NPC class archer with elite array stats--if you are put up against a 4th level (or higher) PC class archer with PC-level stats, your halfling monk is probably going down). Alternately, the archer could choose to ignore you and keep shooting your friends. 5' stepping away from the halfling and killing your friends so his friends can kill you for him is probably his best strategy.

If you want to be the terror of the enemy's rear lines, you should run a half-orc monk with an 18 strength (str 18, dex 14, con 14, int 8, wis 16, cha 6 is doable under 32 point buy) or a 16 strength human monk. Your attack bonus will be slightly lower and your AC will be significantly lower (but you weren't going to be close to unhittable anyway) but you'll deal a LOT more damage and will actually be able to take down the wizard before he runs out of spells or take out the archer before the combat is over.

Without sneak attacks, the halfling monk doesn't deal enough damage for the bad guys to worry much about whether or not he hits them.

 

[Camarath]

If your DM allows 3rd party feats I would suggest the Unarmored Defense Proficiency feats from AEG's Swashbuckling Adventured. There are three feats each wiith an increasing AC bonus based on level.

 

[Camarath]

Inertial Armor is a good way to boost your AC if you multiclass into Psychic Warrior. It is important to remember that when you disarm someone unarmed you end up holding the weapon if you succeed and many enemies can only do 1d3 subdual damage with an attack that provokes an AoO when unarmed. Defensive Fighting and Expertise can boost your AC +6 at lv 4 but you suffer a -7 to attack, sometimes it is worth it.

 

[spunky_mutters]

I play a halfling monk with better stats than that, and I usually end up unconscious. I've been asked a few times by other party members just what the point of my character is. I would probably be switching focus to rogue just to be useful at something, but I'm moving into the DM chair in a month or so, and will just retire gracefully if I don't die before then.

 

[Hawkeye]

I played a Halfling Fighter/Monk at 8th or 9th level. He was a Stoutheart Halfling, so he got the extra feat at 1st level. I had weapon finesse, focus and specialization. My AC was decent. In the final encounter in Nightfang spire, the NPC NEVER did any damage to me by melee or spell. We started out the fight with our Paladin and Wizard dying from a spell. It was up to me and the other monk to take the fight to our opponent. It was a close fight, but he went down. If you are going to play a halfling monk, you may want to multi-class with a fighter. It worked for me.