It's a trap! Builds that seem good, but...

[Kaodi]

I no longer play video games of any sort, but this thread reminds me of a DDO character concept which I started but only levelled up to 3 before I quit: a Cleric 6/Wizard 7/Sorcerer 7, hehehe...

 

[Ebony Dragon]

Monks as a whole are a trap, even worse than they were in 3E. Everyone who's played 3E or PF before should know this, but I'll say it definitively for anyone new: the entire monk class is a trap!

Its funny you say this because in the Pathfinder/3.5 game that I am playing we have a Monk PC who has a couple levels in Psychic Warrior to get the Lion's Pounce power, gets buffed with Strong Jaw from the Druid most fights, and does so much damage per hit he makes the rest of the party look useless. We are level 18 now and he puts out damage in the range of 200-300 per round very easily. With some good rolls he does over 400. This includes the first round of combat and when switching targets or chasing (due to Lion's Pounce).

It is really astonishing to me and actually kills some of the fun for the rest of the party I think (at least it does a little bit for me) since our main tactic is just "let the monk kill it." If the monk gets disabled or killed somehow our main tactic becomes "get the monk back into the fight somehow or we're boned" because the GM had to balance challenging encounters taking into account his massive dps.

Look at how many hitpoints monsters in the CR 18-20 range have. Unless they have some kind of special defense against a Monk hitting them in the face they routinely go from full life down to about 20% life after one attack round from him. The rest of the party can usually manage that other 20%.

Granted, Lion's Pounce (which is non-pathfinder) is a big part of the reason this character is so busted, but it just solves the same problem any melee character has with having to get into range first. Once in range the Monk seems pretty effective from my POV.