'Gish' advice, variant Monk Base

[Theroc]

Alrighty, so I've been in this campaign for awhile and am trying to decide how I want to do his mechanics, already knowing the general flavor in mind.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4853967-post8.html

That is my current character, a level 2 monk with some houseruled changes to reflect his rural background. The most significant change is that the monk abilities that care about Wisdom, in Aidan's case care about Charisma.

My concept in mind for the flavor is after awhile in his adventures in the campaign, which is located http://www.enworld.org/forum/talking-talk/257877-off-war-recriutment-discussion.html there(the link leads to the OOC thread, the first post having links to all other offshoots), Aidan start to unlock the magic potential in him, learning to harness it and becoming more dragon-like in the process. Originally I considered simply multiclassing into sorcerer for a bit and then taking the Dragon Disciple PrC, the more I realize that would not give him much useful magical ability at all.

So, any advice one could give on giving this character some useful arcane flair while remaining a draconic flavor would be appreciated.

Source rules and the like:
DM doesn't have any sources outside the DMG/PHB and so anything outside requires a writeup for review, he seems flexible. Additionally, he is not against houseruling core classes(or PrC's) to better match a flavor for a character. The current compromise he'd given me was in exchange for cutting the ability score increases in half, dropping 1 NAC from each increase, and dropping the 1/day breath weapon's damage die from d8 to d6, I could change the bonus spell slots to "+1 level existing Arcane caster" markers. I was unsure how well that'd go.

 

[Dandu]

Abjurant Champion, then Enlightened Fist. See if there are any good Draconic Heritage feats and take them. (Warning: none may exist. WotC lets people down like that.)

Alternatively, see if the Pathfinder version of Dragon Disciple works for you. I think it is available in the Pathfinder SRD for free.

There may be PrCs that fit your criteria in the Draconomicon, Races of the Dragon, and Dragon Magic. I will have to get back to you on that.

 

[Theroc]

Abjurant Champion, then Enlightened Fist. See if there are any good Draconic Heritage feats and take them. (Warning: none may exist. WotC lets people down like that.)

Alternatively, see if the Pathfinder version of Dragon Disciple works for you. I think it is available in the Pathfinder SRD for free.

There may be PrCs that fit your criteria in the Draconomicon, Races of the Dragon, and Dragon Magic. I will have to get back to you on that.

Abjurant Champion seemed pretty cool, but I've found I'm not fond of the majority of the abjuration spells... (and half don't seemed to mesh with the PrC anyway). Perhaps I'm simply misunderstanding how the PrC works, or how Abjuration spells work.

 

[Dandu]

Both.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Interesting variant monk with the Chaotic alignment. Any other changes, like relaxation of the multiclassing rules?

I'd take another look at multiclassing into Sorcerer. For one thing, WotC's Draconic Heritage feats- which I do love- require being a Sorcerer, just like all of their other Heritage feats (PHB2).

Among them are Draconic Breath, Draconic Presence and a few others...

Only a few actually change your appearance though, like Draconic Skin.

http://realmshelps.dandello.net/datafind/feats.shtml
(just mark the "Draconic" button on the left and hit "Find" at the bottom, and you'll have a complete list of the Draconic feats at your fingertips.)

Make sure you take the Ascetic Mage feat if you can, since that lets you freely multiclass between Monk and Sorcerer.

If you don't go Enlightened Fist, take Arcane Strike so you can still channel your magical energy into melee attacks.
(Also, check my sig for more Monk goodies.)

 

[Theroc]

Interesting variant monk with the Chaotic alignment. Any other changes, like relaxation of the multiclassing rules?

I believe he has relaxed them since... the only reason the class is still called Monk is because I could not think of a good name for it... and he has not mentioned the restriction as I've repeatedly considered the multiclassing possibilities for this build.

I'd take another look at multiclassing into Sorcerer. For one thing, WotC's Draconic Heritage feats- which I do love- require being a Sorcerer, just like all of their other Heritage feats (PHB2).

Among them are Draconic Breath, Draconic Presence and a few others...

Only a few actually change your appearance though, like Draconic Skin.

http://realmshelps.dandello.net/datafind/feats.shtml
(just mark the "Draconic" button on the left and hit "Find" at the bottom, and you'll have a complete list of the Draconic feats at your fingertips.)

I fully intended on sorcerer at this point, however the PrC options and the like are my concern.

Make sure you take the Ascetic Mage feat if you can, since that lets you freely multiclass between Monk and Sorcerer.

I'm not exactly sure I'll need that feat, but I'll definitely look into it.

If you don't go Enlightened Fist, take Arcane Strike so you can still channel your magical energy into melee attacks.
(Also, check my sig for more Monk goodies.)

I checked your martial arcanist thread, but a simple list as such doesn't exactly help me, particularly when the sources aren't links. I'm relatively familiar with what is in my sources, but anything outside I'd be clueless about.... for the most part.

 

[Theroc]

Both.

Could you perhaps elaborate for me? At each level I saw one or perhaps two spells that would mesh with Abjurant Champion well at each level of casting... the others seeming like dispelling type abilities(which do not add to a Champion's protective abilities). The protections and circles are good, but mage Armor is a conjuration.

I'd appreciate any explanation you could give to enlighten me on abjuration/Abjurant Champions.

 

[Dandu]

Could you perhaps elaborate for me? At each level I saw one or perhaps two spells that would mesh with Abjurant Champion well at each level of casting... the others seeming like dispelling type abilities(which do not add to a Champion's protective abilities). The protections and circles are good, but mage Armor is a conjuration.

Ah, but if you look closely, all the example Abjurant Champions have Mage Armor listed as a spell known, and it receives and armor boost from Abjurant Champion. Now, I'm normally a Rules as Written man, but in this case it is transparently obvious that the person who wrote the prestige class thought that Mage Armor was an Abjuration spell and intended for the class to work with it.

If your DM says no, there's always the Luminous Armor line from the Book of Exhalted Deeds which is Abjuration. +5 to AC (+8 in the greater version), and -4 to being hit in melee if I recall correctly.

I'd appreciate any explanation you could give to enlighten me on abjuration/Abjurant Champions.

Simply put, Abjurant Champion is one of the more powerful prestige classes for a gish because it gives full BAB and full casting for 5 levels, with free quicken and extend for your abjuration spells among other things.

Here is a list of good abjuration spells.

Keep in mind you aren't limited to just Abjuration spells know, and you get a good CL boost from Abjurant Champion. This enables you to learn 2nd level spells such as Wings of Cover (Evocation 2, RotD) which grants total cover against a single attack, weapon, spell, etc.

 

[Herobizkit]

I would forget all about Sorcerer and multi- into Warlock. I suggested this build for a player who wanted to do a Ryu-style character, ie kick, punch, and throw hadoukens. Just say your power comes from your Inner Dragon instead of Demonic influence and you're gold. It also gives you access to the Use Magic Device skill which might actually be cool from a Monk perspective, ie using "magic relics" to duplicate spellcasting (the cartoon Xiaolin Showdown immediately comes to mind).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm not exactly sure I'll need that feat, but I'll definitely look into it.

Besides the multiclassing, it lets you stack your Monk and Sorc levels for certain class features.

I checked your martial arcanist thread, but a simple list as such doesn't exactly help me, particularly when the sources aren't links. I'm relatively familiar with what is in my sources, but anything outside I'd be clueless about.... for the most part.

Unfortunately, most of the stuff in the Monk and Martial Arcanist threads is simply not online...at least not in any real depth.

However, this site may be of help to you in that regard.

Feats