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<blockquote data-quote="StreamOfTheSky" data-source="post: 5119748" data-attributes="member: 35909"><p>"+my DM is allowing me to take any feat not just exalted ones as bonus feats (yeah I know it's crazy but hey)"</p><p></p><p>...Ignore everything I said about Vow of Poverty being bad. Aside from Nymph's Kiss, Touch of Golden Ice, and Intuitive Attack, though, do not bother taking actual exalted feats with your bonus slots, the rest generally suck (the one that makes your attacks good aligned is nice but is duplicated by Vow of Poverty at level 10 anyway). Use those bonus feat slots on everything else you want. Certainly makes Spring Attack less painful to qualify for! And yes, your DM's houserule is nuts, but hey...his game. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Feats...only other great choice (ie, no matter what you do it's probably useful) I can think of at the moment is Versatile Unarmed Strike (PH2), so you can do slashing or piercing damage if needed. Toothed Blow (Stormwrack) also allows for this, alternatively. Some other options:</p><p>Ring the Golden Bell (dragon mag #319): A few times/day (6 in your case right now), lets you deliver your unarmed strikes and stunning attack at a short range. Note any allied sorc, wiz, or cleric could just cast Blood Wind (Spell Compendium) on you for basically the same benefit. It's a level 1 spell and only a swift action to cast. If you wanted to multi with a caster, it'd be a good self-buff spell.</p><p>Pressure Point Strike (dragon mag #336): Gives a load of buff and debuff quasi-magical options to use with your Stunning Fist (instead of stunning). Not very powerful, more of a "fun" feat.</p><p>Offensive Metered Foot and/or Defensive Metered Foot (dragon mag #337): Works sort of like dodge in that you choose one opponent. With OMF, you get +1 attack bonus, up to +5, each time you hit the foe, until you miss or change targets, which resets it. With DMF, every time the opponent misses you, you get +1 AC, up to +5. Him hitting you or changing targets resets the bonus. They can make combat more interesting, if nothing else. (Pearl of Black Doubt stance, which you can get as a Swordsage, works similar to DMF, though +2 AC per miss, works against all opponents, and resets each round.)</p><p>Martial Throw (Mini Handbook): Once/round after hitting w/ unarmed strike, you can start a dex-based grapple (doesn't provoke AoO), with success causing you to switch positions with the foe. (The maneuver Clever Positioning, available via Swordsage, performs a near-duplicate function.)</p><p>Water Splitting Stone (PH2): Basically lets you ignore 4 points of damage reduction on every attack. So if a foe had DR 10 and you dealt 20 damage, you would end up dealing 14 damage. If he had DR 3 and you did 20 damage, the foe would take 20 damage (can't add to damage beyond what the DR was). Can take as monk bonus feat at level 6, otherwise has high pre-reqs to take as a general feat.</p><p></p><p>All feats I mentioned are conveniently listed <a href="http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Feats.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>, pages 39-41. Pages 79-81 have other monk-related feats, though nothing I found of much use for you.</p><p></p><p>Prestige classes: Yeah, you can do that if you want. Probably should abandon Swordsage other than a possible small dip (1-2 levels) if so. Sacred Fist is almost certainly a better choice than Enlightened. If you could re-do the character, you could make Int your high stt, take Kung Fu Genius feat (int instead of wis counts for monk class features), and make a good monk/wizard/Enlightened Fist. I suppose you could use the Sorcerer/Monk multiclass feat in C.adventurer as another route, though that only lets you use Cha for AC instead of Wis, not the rest. In any case, too late for that now! Do Cleric or Druid if you're going to multi with a caster.</p><p></p><p>Spoilers: Use the following code, without the quotation marks:</p><p>["sblock"]</p><p>(text)</p><p>["/sblock"]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="StreamOfTheSky, post: 5119748, member: 35909"] "+my DM is allowing me to take any feat not just exalted ones as bonus feats (yeah I know it's crazy but hey)" ...Ignore everything I said about Vow of Poverty being bad. Aside from Nymph's Kiss, Touch of Golden Ice, and Intuitive Attack, though, do not bother taking actual exalted feats with your bonus slots, the rest generally suck (the one that makes your attacks good aligned is nice but is duplicated by Vow of Poverty at level 10 anyway). Use those bonus feat slots on everything else you want. Certainly makes Spring Attack less painful to qualify for! And yes, your DM's houserule is nuts, but hey...his game. :) Feats...only other great choice (ie, no matter what you do it's probably useful) I can think of at the moment is Versatile Unarmed Strike (PH2), so you can do slashing or piercing damage if needed. Toothed Blow (Stormwrack) also allows for this, alternatively. Some other options: Ring the Golden Bell (dragon mag #319): A few times/day (6 in your case right now), lets you deliver your unarmed strikes and stunning attack at a short range. Note any allied sorc, wiz, or cleric could just cast Blood Wind (Spell Compendium) on you for basically the same benefit. It's a level 1 spell and only a swift action to cast. If you wanted to multi with a caster, it'd be a good self-buff spell. Pressure Point Strike (dragon mag #336): Gives a load of buff and debuff quasi-magical options to use with your Stunning Fist (instead of stunning). Not very powerful, more of a "fun" feat. Offensive Metered Foot and/or Defensive Metered Foot (dragon mag #337): Works sort of like dodge in that you choose one opponent. With OMF, you get +1 attack bonus, up to +5, each time you hit the foe, until you miss or change targets, which resets it. With DMF, every time the opponent misses you, you get +1 AC, up to +5. Him hitting you or changing targets resets the bonus. They can make combat more interesting, if nothing else. (Pearl of Black Doubt stance, which you can get as a Swordsage, works similar to DMF, though +2 AC per miss, works against all opponents, and resets each round.) Martial Throw (Mini Handbook): Once/round after hitting w/ unarmed strike, you can start a dex-based grapple (doesn't provoke AoO), with success causing you to switch positions with the foe. (The maneuver Clever Positioning, available via Swordsage, performs a near-duplicate function.) Water Splitting Stone (PH2): Basically lets you ignore 4 points of damage reduction on every attack. So if a foe had DR 10 and you dealt 20 damage, you would end up dealing 14 damage. If he had DR 3 and you did 20 damage, the foe would take 20 damage (can't add to damage beyond what the DR was). Can take as monk bonus feat at level 6, otherwise has high pre-reqs to take as a general feat. All feats I mentioned are conveniently listed [url=http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Feats.pdf]here[/url], pages 39-41. Pages 79-81 have other monk-related feats, though nothing I found of much use for you. Prestige classes: Yeah, you can do that if you want. Probably should abandon Swordsage other than a possible small dip (1-2 levels) if so. Sacred Fist is almost certainly a better choice than Enlightened. If you could re-do the character, you could make Int your high stt, take Kung Fu Genius feat (int instead of wis counts for monk class features), and make a good monk/wizard/Enlightened Fist. I suppose you could use the Sorcerer/Monk multiclass feat in C.adventurer as another route, though that only lets you use Cha for AC instead of Wis, not the rest. In any case, too late for that now! Do Cleric or Druid if you're going to multi with a caster. Spoilers: Use the following code, without the quotation marks: ["sblock"] (text) ["/sblock"] [/QUOTE]
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