Monks and DR

Wraithdrit

First Post
Are there any items out there that allow a monk that is pre Ki Strike to damage creatures with a DR? If so what are they? I can't find em. Any spells that would do it?

Or is the monk suppose to rely on getting a magic Kama and doing less damage with it, and then use his fists for non DR creatures?

- Wraith
 

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The spells Magic Fang and Greater Magic Fang would do it. Also, in Sword & Fist, there is an Amulet of Mighty Fists that grants an enhancement bonus to unarmed strikes from +1 to +5.
 

It's worthy of mentionning that the spells that Dr. Zoom mentioned (and probably the amulet too, but i don't remember) actually give you enhancement bonuses, and don't just give you the power to bypass DR. If your Druid casts Greater Magic Fang on you, and gives you a bonus of +3, you get that bonus for attacks and damage.

I don't think that there are spells or magical items (if that's what you were asking) that give to the monk the equivalent of his ki strike power...

Maitre D
 

One of not broken items in Savage Species is the Neclace of Natural Weapons, giving weapon special abilities to your natural weapons, including the enchancement bonuses. You pay by weapon, so it has a more realistic cost than the Amulet of Mighty Fists, which is hidiously overpriced.
 

Bracers of Striking form Magic of Faerun allow the enchanting of your arms (well the bracers on your arms) as double weapons.
 

- Enhancement bonuses *are* what allow you to bypass DR in 3.0, so Magic Fang and Greater Magic Fang work exceedingly well.

- In 3.5, the changes to DR will stifle the monk somewhat, but he still gets to treat his unarmed attacks as "adamantium" and "lawful" and something else (I forget the third category) eventually. It has been specifically mentioned that there won't be any spells to affect the "type" of an attack, so monks will once more be relegated to carrying a backup weapon, something I find distasteful for certain archetypes of monks, like the "unarmed master who refuses to carry weapons."

- In my opinion, it's a myth that monks do more damage unarmed than with weapons. Unless one travels with a Druid or a Ranger (or a Rogue with good UMD and the right wand/scroll(s)), getting the Fang spells can be a hassle, but an enchanted kama is almost as easy to acquire as an enchanted longsword, just far more rare on a random chart. This means that a +1 Kama will hit more often than an unarmed monk and do the same average damage as 1d8. Likewise, a +2 will do as much average damage as 1d10; a +3 as much as 1d12. Plus, hitting more often further increases the average damage.

For campaigns that allow enchantment of unarmed attacks, this isn't quite as true. (I use the Amulet of Mighty Fists as a template and the weapon bonus charts, so the formula for price is n^2*6,000 gp, where n=the total enhancement. Thus a +1 Flaming Amulet is 24,000 gp.)

Adding elemental damages and other special affects onto a monk's weapon further makes them far more reliable and powerful than attacking unarmed.

Greg
 

For your favorite Monk/Psion or Monk/Psychic Warrior, there's also the Metaphysical Body power chain. Of course, in 3.5, it won't help you in the slightest against DR, except improving your chances of doing more damage than the DR covers.
 

Zhure said:
- Enhancement bonuses *are* what allow you to bypass DR in 3.0, so Magic Fang and Greater Magic Fang work exceedingly well.

- In 3.5, the changes to DR will stifle the monk somewhat, but he still gets to treat his unarmed attacks as "adamantium" and "lawful" and something else (I forget the third category) eventually. It has been specifically mentioned that there won't be any spells to affect the "type" of an attack, so monks will once more be relegated to carrying a backup weapon, something I find distasteful for certain archetypes of monks, like the "unarmed master who refuses to carry weapons."

There was a published cantrip that allowed a weapon to become "silver" for the purposes of DR. Probably on the WotC site.

Zhure said:
For campaigns that allow enchantment of unarmed attacks, this isn't quite as true. (I use the Amulet of Mighty Fists as a template and the weapon bonus charts, so the formula for price is n^2*6,000 gp, where n=the total enhancement. Thus a +1 Flaming Amulet is 24,000 gp.)

Greg

The amulet is a waste unless you have something 6 different weapons. A monk normally only takes 1 set of iterative attacks with an off-hand for the flurry. With the neclace of natural weapons that would be (n^2 *2000) *X +600. N is the enhancement for all the weapons, X is the number of natural weapons. So +1 flamming should be 16,600.

I also believe there will be an enchantment similar to Surestrikeing to get through all DR. Someone will publish it, anyway.
 



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