Psionic Monk build questions...

[Ruslanchik]

The problem with one level of Monk is that it renders the Superior Unarmed Strike feat worthless.

How's that? "If you are a monk, you instead deal unarmed damage as a monk 4 levels higher." Assuming a medium character and one level of monk, this would increase your damage from 1d6 to 1d8. And you would not have to spend a feat on Improved Unarmed Strike in addition to getting Stunning Fist as a bonus feat.

You would not continue to advance in damage as a straight Swordsage would, but taking Improved Natural Attack would improve your damage to 2d6, which is the maximum available from Superior Unarmed Strike. The 1st-level PsyWar power Expansion would then increase your damage to 3d6.

 

[Nifft]

How's that? "If you are a monk, you instead deal unarmed damage as a monk 4 levels higher." Assuming a medium character and one level of monk, this would increase your damage from 1d6 to 1d8. And you would not have to spend a feat on Improved Unarmed Strike in addition to getting Stunning Fist as a bonus feat.

You would not continue to advance in damage as a straight Swordsage would, but taking Improved Natural Attack would improve your damage to 2d6, which is the maximum available from Superior Unarmed Strike. The 1st-level PsyWar power Expansion would then increase your damage to 3d6.

Sure, but you're still using 2 feats, losing Initiator Levels, and picking up useless abilities like Flurry and heavy armor.

Two feats spent on Improved Unarmed Strike + Superior Unarmed Strike get you the same benefit with no dilution of Swordsage abilities. (... and that's only if your DM won't allow the unarmed Swordsage variant found in ToB:Bo9S. If he will allow that variant, skipping Monk gets you the same benefit for one feat.)

Cheers, -- N