Evil Gestalt Monk

[Moridae]

Ok, so, I have a character I am building that is an evil gestalt monk. I have managed to talk the DM into allowing me the Vow of Poverty from the Book of Exalted Deeds, due to my character concept and back-story.

He is a human, whose family and entire town was destroyed by the lord of the land's forces. So, he goes around defending the people's rights by destroying the nobility and politicians of the world. In very evil and vengeful ways. He donates all of his findings and treasures to the people and good churches that have solid reputations of giving their proceeds back to the people. Hence the Vow of Poverty while evil.

The problem I am having, however, is determining his other class. As a gestalt, two classes are mixed into one. Monk is a definite. Currently I have him built as a monk/ranger (Which I call Brother of the Road), but I don't know if ranger is really the best option.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[emoplato]

Ok, so, I have a character I am building that is an evil gestalt monk. I have managed to talk the DM into allowing me the Vow of Poverty from the Book of Exalted Deeds, due to my character concept and back-story.

He is a human, whose family and entire town was destroyed by the lord of the land's forces. So, he goes around defending the people's rights by destroying the nobility and politicians of the world. In very evil and vengeful ways. He donates all of his findings and treasures to the people and good churches that have solid reputations of giving their proceeds back to the people. Hence the Vow of Poverty while evil.

The problem I am having, however, is determining his other class. As a gestalt, two classes are mixed into one. Monk is a definite. Currently I have him built as a monk/ranger (Which I call Brother of the Road), but I don't know if ranger is really the best option.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Well there are many variants to choose from with either class. What specifically do you want this character to do? It sounds like you might you want this character to be sort of stealthy to achieve his vengeful ends. Instead of the typical weapon styles and favored enemy you could make a wild shaping ranger which gives you fast movement and wild shape as druid. You then could go into master of many forms/warshaper to turn into all kinds of things. This would allow you to infiltrate a noble's manor as a field mouse then creep into the bedroom and maul him as a gray render.
As for the monk there is the Dark Moon disciple which gives darkvision, total concealment in less the full daylight, and shadow dimension door.

 

[Drowbane]

Monk | Ranger seems cool to match your background. If you can, take a level into Shiba Protector (OA), this will grant you Wis mod to hit and dmg (on top of str).

Monk X / SP 1 | Cleric Y (where Y = X+1) could be fun. Sure you don't have full BAB, but with Wis to hit (and dmg) you won't notice... and when you get Divine Power its a moot poin.

However, I fully endorse the Druid | Monk gestalt idea above. Nobody does assassination as well as a Druid, except for perhaps a Wizard.

edit: If you want to stick closer to your original idea... there is a variant Ranger in UA that gets Wild Shape. Monk 5 / SP 1 | Ranger 5 / Master of Many Forms 1 would be a terror...

 

[Moridae]

Well there are many variants to choose from with either class. What specifically do you want this character to do? It sounds like you might you want this character to be sort of stealthy to achieve his vengeful ends. Instead of the typical weapon styles and favored enemy you could make a wild shaping ranger which gives you fast movement and wild shape as druid. You then could go into master of many forms/warshaper to turn into all kinds of things. This would allow you to infiltrate a noble's manor as a field mouse then creep into the bedroom and maul him as a gray render.
As for the monk there is the Dark Moon disciple which gives darkvision, total concealment in less the full daylight, and shadow dimension door.

Well, I'm certainly dead-set on monk, and I did already consider in the wild shaping ranger. I'm just not positive that ranger is the best option for this guy. I think my end goal is to unwittingly raise an army. DM has approved any thing in any book, to include the books written under the D20 Open Gamer's License.

EDIT: Also, which book is the Dark Moon Disciple in?

 

[Moridae]

Monk | Ranger seems cool to match your background. If you can, take a level into Shiba Protector (OA), this will grant you Wis mod to hit and dmg (on top of str).

Didn't even consider OA prestige options. That also not only nullifies my need for Intuitive Strike (Use Wis instead of Str for all light and natural attacks), but makes it better. Thanks for that input, indeed.

 

[Sekhmet]

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting has details on monk/assassin types in that universe, which could help in giving ideas.
Shiba Protector isn't that bad for a Monk, but I'm just going to reiterate Drowbane - Monk/Druid is fierce.

As soon as you get Wild Shape at level 5, you're going to be blowing other fighters out of the water with your Crocodile or Fleshraker Dinosaur flurries and grapples. Imagine charging, pouncing, tripping, pinning, and poisoning all in one turn, with great AC. Just awesome.

At level 8, you're a grappling fiend with Polar Bear form.

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868802/Druid_Handbook_revived

Monk and Druid mesh so well it is almost scary, and Druid will help you overcome some of the VoP downsides by bolstering your defenses without items.

 

[Moridae]

Monk and Druid mesh so well it is almost scary, and Druid will help you overcome some of the VoP downsides by bolstering your defenses without items.

Not to mention, some divine spellcasting would certainly be a wonderful boon to the game, as the other PC is an Enchanter/Beguiler.

 

[Moridae]

Granted, now that I think of it, I would HAVE to be LN, which kind of defeats the whole evil idea.

 

[Empath Negative]

Fighter... and consider getting Knowledge Devotion if it fits your character at all.

If not Fighter then Psychic Warrior.

But seriously, consider some of the more interesting feats in PHBII for example. Slashing Fury. if you can find a way to make your monk do slashing damage... you get a bonus attack in a standard action and a bonus attack for a full round action.


And if not psychic warrior or fighter...


Warlock. That's right. Warlock. Because you're Lawful Evil you can be a Warlock/Monk. Your DC will be pitiful but you don't really require a high DC for a lot of invocations.

Devour Magic, for example, is a targeted Greater Dispel Magic, used at will in melee. And doesn't require anything like a DC to be effective.

This may even fit into your theme because your character swore some dark oath...

 

[Drowbane]

Druid | Monk = L/N. That is true. You can always ask your DM to drop the Lawful component of being a Monk. Class alignment restrictions are pretty silly anyways. Just because one iconic "monk concept" is the hyper-disciplined martial artist doesn't mean they all have to be. N/E Druid | Monk who learned martial arts by mimicing the animals or whatever and gets all tweaked out about defending nature (doing unwholesome things to poachers, lumberjacks, and people littering in the forest).

As much as I enjoy Druid Monk... Monk | Psion is an awesome combo as well. Especially with VoP. This pretty much requires you to take Kung Fu Genius or another of those "use Int instead of Wis for monk-stuff" and trying to convince your DM that this should apply to your Shiba Protector dip (which takes longer to get into without a good BAB). This guy would be all about using his "ki" to augment his martial abilities. At later levels could do such legendary martial arts feats such as Running up Bamboo stalks and leaping off into the air for crazy long jumps (ahem, Fly) and firing blasts of focused ki in a wide variety of ways (Energy line)... or perhaps learning to take a hit so well that a swung great-axe does not so much as mar his skin (Vigor + Share Pain with psi-crystal affinity)... etc.