Monks as Duellists?

[jcfiala]

So, I've got this Monk/Wizard. He's rocking pretty good, generally, but I came up with an odd idea today and wondered how well the Duellist prestigue class would work for him. The question I have has to do with the first level ability, which says:

When not wearing armor or using a shield, a duelist adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus (if any) per duelist class level to her Dexterity bonus to modify Armor Class while wielding a melee weapon.

For a monk, or anyone else with Improved Unarmed Strike, is attacking unarmed equivalent to wielding a melee weapon for this case? Improved Unarmed Strike says:

You are considered to be armed even when unarmed —that is, you do not provoke attacks or opportunity from armed opponents when you attack them while unarmed.

Is that sufficient to gain the bonus INT defence when attacking unarmed?

 

[Caliban]

Regardless of how it works for anyone else with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, it would definitely work for a monk. They have a class ability that lets their unarmed strikes count as either natural or manufactured weapons for any spell or effect. So they would count as a weapon for this effect.

Just having the Improved Unarmed Strike feat is a little less certain, but I would probably allow it if it came up in a home game.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Should be. IMO the key thing is that a) you have no armor, b) no shield, and c) are not unarmed. The monk meets all the requirements.

 

[Mad Mac]

Ah, the Monk/Duelist...don't forget that the amazing pokey stick (siaghim) is your best friend.

 

[PIA]

for some reason the blind kung fu master from Mad TV pop into my head.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I was just thinking about this earlier. A level or two of monk would be a WONDERFUL start-off for a duelist/swashbuckler type, especially if you take Kung-Fu Genius or Carmandine Monk.

 

[Corsair]

I was just thinking about this earlier. A level or two of monk would be a WONDERFUL start-off for a duelist/swashbuckler type, especially if you take Kung-Fu Genius or Carmandine Monk.

I know of Kung-Fu Genius, but where is Carmandine from? I've seen it mentioned a couple times recently.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I believe it's from Heroes of Battle. It's basically the same, except that it also represents membership in a particular monkish order, and lets you treat your monk level as one higher for the purpose of one of your monk class abilities (IIRC).