Helping a player

[Quartz]

What level is the monk and what are his stats? If he's mid-high level, then you might want to ret-con 4 levels of fighter and the Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialisation, and Melee Weapon Mastery: Bludgeoning feats. And don't forget that the monk can benefit hugely from Power Attack: ordinarily you can't use it for light weapons, but you can for natural ones.

An alternative would be to apply the Vow of Poverty feat.

Just a thought, but what is the concept behind the Monk? If he's just a brawler, then he should be playing a Ranger or Monk / Ranger or Monk / Fighter with the TWF tree.

 

[0bsolete]

What's to keep the PCs from deciding they don't want one and arranging (say) an auction in the closest large city to sell it, though?

Oh, nothing is stopping them. And they would get a large profit off it. The thing is though, its a bit like selling a military grade explosive at a college, it attracts attention that sometimes the party doesn't want and results in long term difficulties in staying under the radar.

Though my players have done so, and gotten away with it and made a profit. About 8000 gold off a pair of gloves of dexterity +2 . Took two sessions to do (they could have gotten a level up and potentially even more money by then) because they had to find somebody willing to do the trade, a place to do it, advertise, wait for word to spread, prepare, hire guards and it was a hassle. Since then the party mostly keeps their old +stat items as ace in the hole bartering tools.

 

[0bsolete]

What level is the monk and what are his stats? If he's mid-high level, then you might want to ret-con 4 levels of fighter and the Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialisation, and Melee Weapon Mastery: Bludgeoning feats. And don't forget that the monk can benefit hugely from Power Attack: ordinarily you can't use it for light weapons, but you can for natural ones.

An alternative would be to apply the Vow of Poverty feat.

Just a thought, but what is the concept behind the Monk? If he's just a brawler, then he should be playing a Ranger or Monk / Ranger or Monk / Fighter with the TWF tree.

He's going with an ambitious monk who wants to eventually create his own monestary. His character's fighting prowess is due to intense meditation (at least 2 hours every day, done while the rest of the party is preparing spells or resting) etc. Basically mind over body focused character.

 

[Quartz]

OK, so Ranger is out. But do consider the 4 levels of fighter: +4 (+3 feats, +1 BAB) to hit and +4 damage is nothing to sneeze at.

A Mk 9 attacks at +6/+1 for 1d10 (av 5.5), has saves of +6 / +6 / +6 and flurries at + 6 / +6 / +1

A Mk 5 / Ftr 4 with the above feats attacks at +10 / +5 for 1d8+4 (ave 8.5), has saves of +8 / +5/ +5 and flurries at +8 / +8 / +3. You lose a load of special abilities, of course. Note that Mk 5 is a particularly bad level to split.

 

[Quartz]

As a follow-up, compare a Mk 20 and a Mk 16 / Ftr 4.

 

[karechar]

as a monk he could also play an inkio from l5r oriental adventures.

he has full bab no flurry of blows and his dmg is lower but based on monestary monks with void/focus points to spend to boost ac saves and so on

 

[Kat']

A few suggestions to increase the monk's power without tweaking the class' flair and without making it overpowered either. Those suggestions are, of course, to be taken separately, not together...

- Full BAB... bit primitive
- Give your Monks one tattoo / 4 levels from Tattoed Monk PrC (Complete Warrior)
- Bonus fighter feat every 4-5 levels
- Power Surge-like abilities (see Kensai PrC from Complete Warrior)
- Kiai Strike X/day (made this one up...), inspired by Stone Dragon strikes from Bo9S: at 3rd level, Concentration check DC 20 as a full-round action. The next delivered unarmed strike deals double damage and automatically overcomes DR. At 8th level, concentrates as a move action. At 13th level, swift action. At 18th level, swift action and applies to the next attack + 1 attack per 10 full points by which the check exceeds 20
- Paladin-like Smite
- Additional Ki strike abilities, availability varies according to level: change damage to piercing or slashing, Ghost Touch, Cold Iron, Silver, extra damage vs. Chaotic...
- Martial maneuvers/stances, say, 1 maneuver / 3 levels, 1 stance / 6 levels, from any discipline but White Raven and Devoted Spirit