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How to deal with a Monk's AC?

Dandu

First Post
well the villain is Rouge 12/Master thrower 5/ Shadow Dancer 3
Throwing Axes 29/17 1d6+6 19-20
Thin blade +2 26/16, 1D8+5, 15-20x2 Wounding, Shocking Burst

AC 40

Feats:
Sneaky Shot
Palm Throw
Double Toss
Quick Draw
Evasion
Snatch Arrows
Hide in plain sight
Dark vision
Uncanny Dogde
Improved Uncanny Dodge
Shadow Illusion
Summon Shadow
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Combat Reflexes
Dodge
Mobility
Improved Crit
One item will solve all your problems; a ring of Blinking.

Behold the benefits of the Blink spell:
*Physical attacks against you have a 50% miss chance, and the Blind-Fight feat doesn’t help opponents, since you’re ethereal and not merely invisible. If the attack is capable of striking ethereal creatures, the miss chance is only 20% (for concealment).If the attacker can see invisible creatures, the miss chance is also only 20%. (For an attacker who can both see and strike ethereal creatures, there is no miss chance.) Likewise, your own attacks have a 20% miss chance, since you sometimes go ethereal just as you are about to strike.
*Any individually targeted spell has a 50% chance to fail against you while you’re blinking unless your attacker can target invisible, ethereal creatures. Your own spells have a 20% chance to activate just as you go ethereal, in which case they typically do not affect the Material Plane.
*While blinking, you take only half damage from area attacks (but full damage from those that extend onto the Ethereal Plane). You strike as an invisible creature (with a +2 bonus on attack rolls), denying your target any Dexterity bonus to AC.
*You take only half damage from falling, since you fall only while you are material.
While blinking, you can step through (but not see through) solid objects. For each 5 feet of solid material you walk through, there is a 50% chance that you become material. If this occurs, you are shunted off to the nearest open space and take 1d6 points of damage per 5 feet so traveled. You can move at only three-quarters speed (because movement on the Ethereal Plane is at half speed, and you spend about half your time there and half your time material.)
*Since you spend about half your time on the Ethereal Plane, you can see and even attack ethereal creatures. You interact with ethereal creatures roughly the same way you interact with material ones.
An ethereal creature is invisible, incorporeal, and capable of moving in any direction, even up or down. As an incorporeal creature, you can move through solid objects, including living creatures.
*An ethereal creature can see and hear the Material Plane, but everything looks gray and insubstantial. Sight and hearing on the Material Plane are limited to 60 feet.
Force effects and abjurations affect you normally. Their effects extend onto the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane, but not vice versa. An ethereal creature can’t attack material creatures, and spells you cast while ethereal affect only other ethereal things. Certain material creatures or objects have attacks or effects that work on the Ethereal Plane. Treat other ethereal creatures and objects as material.

But wouldn't that mean a good portion of your attacks miss the target? Well, keep in mind that an object that you cease to touch is no longer affected by the spell, and that such an object would then return to the material plane.

So there. You attack his flatfooted AC and deal full sneak attack damage on each hit.
 

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Empirate

First Post
Or just modify the ring (with a commensurately higher price tag) to work as the Greater Blink spell. Because I'm not too sure that daggers fired off into the depths of the Ethereal would have a way of returning to the material as you say...
 

Dandu

First Post
The dagger is blinking because it is being affected by the blink spell.

The dagger is not blinking if it is not affected by the blink spell.

If you say that dropped items have a chance to stay on the material plane, you've just given PCs a great way of disposing of inconvenient items. Rule at your own peril.

If this really bothers you, slap the Seeking property on your weapons.

Seeking

Only ranged weapons can have the seeking ability. The weapon veers toward its target, negating any miss chances that would otherwise apply, such as from concealment. (The wielder still has to aim the weapon at the right square. Arrows mistakenly shot into an empty space, for example, do not veer and hit invisible enemies, even if they are nearby.)

Strong divination; CL 12th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, true seeing; Price +1 bonus.
 
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without items his base stats are:
str 12
Dex 24 (not gonna lie, clearly i fudged this stat just to make him more formidable. everything else was rolled though)
con 13
Int 17
Wis 11
Cha 19

well the villain is Rouge 12/Master thrower 5/ Shadow Dancer 3
Throwing Axes 29/17 1d6+6 19-20
Thin blade +2 26/16, 1D8+5, 15-20x2 Wounding, Shocking Burst

AC 40

Feats:
Sneaky Shot
Palm Throw
Double Toss
Quick Draw
Evasion
Snatch Arrows
Hide in plain sight
Dark vision
Uncanny Dogde
Improved Uncanny Dodge
Shadow Illusion
Summon Shadow
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Combat Reflexes
Dodge
Mobility
Improved Crit

This guy isn't impressive, for several reasons.

First, he's "the" villain, and 3rd Edition can't handle solos. He's going to need backup and lots of it. So what kind of backup does he have?

Second, why doesn't he have Weapon Finesse? (And why does he have Combat Reflexes? Yes, it works well with his high Dex, but he's not a fighter.)

Third, why does he have no Will of his own? (Why such low Wisdom?) The monk won't ever face him, since he'll be paralyzed with Hold Monster the whole fight. (Unless he's got a really good cleric buddy.) Same with his low Con. What sort of items does this guy have, beyond weapons?

Fourth, how does he do damage? It's harder to do sneak attack damage with ranged than with melee attacks, and many of his class levels don't grant sneak attack dice. Also, his ranged attack is only doing +6 damage. I don't know anything about the Master Thrower class, but this isn't looking impressive just based on the info given here.

My suggestion is to find a good Conjuration spell that targets Fort, using whatever sources the PCs are using. Have a wizard use that. A lot. Conjuration spells ignore spell resistance. On the plus side for the PCs, monks are made to kill wizards, so while the monk is throwing themself at the wizard, the NPC rogue is free to gank another PC.

But another suggestion is to use a "plain rogue" and make sure he has Weapon Finesse. Then give him buddies to flank with.

As for the monk... well, they tend to be pretty bad on the attack. Couldn't the NPCs just ignore him and concentrate on the real threats?
 
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ElMogwai

First Post
Wow, thanks for all the help guys! ill definitely have to use a blink ring.

to answer serveredhead's question, i cant remember if he got combat reflexes autmaticlly from one of his classes or if he needed it to take one of the classes. either way i cant get rid of it. i didnt even think about weapon finesse, i can totally give him that.

originally i didnt intend for him to have any back up but i suppose ill have to now. ill have to think about his back up.

the was the score i rolled the lowest on and i figured he needed it the least.

i dont have my papers with me, but off the top of my head, amulet of natural armor, Ring of the Ram, Ring of Elemental Water, Glvoes of Dex, Boots of Speed, and a ton of poison tipped throwing Axes.

well the throwing axes are dipped in poision and do 3d6 con and 3d6 str, so i figured that his low damage wouldnt matter as much. especilly cause he can throw 12 axes a round. thanks to boots of speed. his sneak attack is 6d6 and when he runs out of throwing axes he has a thinblade +5 with Wounding and Shocking Burst.

Nice! ill definately have to start making some Wizards to keep him busy then.

I wanted the Master Thrower and shadow dancer classes for role playing reasons and i really dont want to change them.

Im not as worried about the other PCs cause they role play their characters build as much as their character. when i told one of the players he immediately announced "Gnome Bard whos a coward". they rarely if ever min-max thier characters like my Monk player does.
 


roundviper

First Post
a great way to limit his AC is an anti magic field. If your villain can manage to fight within an anti magic field the monk is almost unarmored.
 

Quartz

Hero
Disjunction is your friend. Make sure your players are cool with this and remember that it cuts both ways. Note that the Monk will likely make his saves.

But really, we had this conversation a while back. The Monk has put all his effort into having a high AC. Let him benefit. But how's he going to do any significant damage?

And your villain is very poorly equipped: he should be using +5 throwing axes of returning with some other power (+10 total). And he should have a +6 Dex and Str item. Add in a +5 Inherent Bonus to both, and his Dex becomes 35 and Str 23.
 


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