Warforged and the Monk - doable?

[Enkhidu]

OK, with our 4 year campaign getting ready for wrap up over the next few months, I'm looking at all sorts of characters, some more run of the mill than others. But this latest idea isn't (for me) old hat, and I'd like to get some opinions about how some of the abilites jive.

First off, some questions about rules clarifications:

1. Warforged have an automatic armor bonus - does this affect the monk abilites of flurry/AC/movement? What about the feats Mithral or Adamantine Body?

2. How do the Tracery feats stack up with the monk's unarmed attacks?

3. Is it safe to assume that the Monk's self healing works at full power (as opposed to half power like curing spells)?

4. Is there anything else I am missing (synergies between the two)?


Thanks in advance!

 

[ForceUser]

Warforged and monks are terribly non-synergystic. Just as the warforged's armored skin impedes spellcasting, so does it impedes any monk ability reliant upon being unarmored. That's not to say that warforged would be terrible monks, just that they would be different. As a warforged monk, I might take the UA variant that trades away movement for DR, and I would certainly focus on getting that "one good hit" as opposed to multiple attacks. Two ways to take the warforged monk that would work: the "Stunning Fist Guy" and the "Grappler."

The Stunning Fist Guy has a high Str and Wis and takes feats such as Ability Focus (stunning fist), Extra Stunning, Pain Touch, and Falling Star Strike. He's all about disabling opponents rather than hurting them. He's a fine partner in a group that already has damage output from other classes such as the fighter and the wizard, and he makes a fantastic duo with a rogue.

The Grappler is all about choking people into unconsciousness. I won't go into this one because everyone's well familiar with this monk feat path. I think that a warforged monk would be quite good at this. He might also consider taking this archetype as a fighter with an eye on the reaping mauler PrC.

With either of those monk archtypes, a warforged monk would benefit greatly from taking one level in fighter and simply wearing armor (or taking Adamantine Body as a feat). You're already severely penalized for your armored skin, so why not make it the best armor it can be?

I've given this race/class combo a lot of thought.

 

[Laman Stahros]

Races of Eberron has a warforged feat called Unarmored Body that might solve the problems with going monk. Takes away the armor bonus and fortification and armor check penalty.

 

[Scion]

If I remember correctly some part of the warforged description specifically calls out that his normal body does not interfere with monks abilities..although I could be mistaken

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

1.

Warforged and monks are terribly non-synergystic. Just as the warforged's armored skin impedes spellcasting, so does it impedes any monk ability reliant upon being unarmored.

No, it doesn't.

The monk abilities go away when you are wearing armor. Warforged composite plating is not armor. It provides an Armor Bonus to AC and has an ASF, it even takes up the armor / robe slot, but it is not armor for purposes of class abilities.

Warforged who take the Adamantine or Mithril Body feats, however, *do* count as wearing armor for purposes of class abilities.

2. I'd need the rules text on the Tracery abilities before I could answer questions about them.

3. Yes. Warforged only heal from Conjuration (Healing) effects that heal hit point damage. The monk's wholeness of body ability is not a Conjuration (Healing) effect.

4. You can freely mix natural attacks with unarmed strikes while making a full attack action, so long as you aren't using Flurry of Blows. Your slam attack may provide you with an additional attack from time to time. Other than that, provide more info on what you want to do, and we'll see.

 

[Enkhidu]

Hmmm. So Adamantine/Mithral Body is the wrench in the works.

I vaguely recall the 3.0 Sacred Fist getting many of the monkish abilities while in light armor - did that carry over to 3.5?

 

[Christian]

If you want good monk synergies in Eberron, go with a shifter. Lots of crunchy goodness there ...

 

[reveal]

3. Yes. Warforged only heal from Conjuration (Healing) effects that heal hit point damage. The monk's wholeness of body ability is not a Conjuration (Healing) effect.

This is the only point I don't agree with. The monk would only gain half HP from the ability.

However, spells from the healing subschool and supernatural abilities that cure hit point damage or ability damage provide only half their normal effects to a warforged.

Wholeness of Body is a supernatural effect that cures hit point damage.

 

[Anti-Sean]

3. Yes. Warforged only heal from Conjuration (Healing) effects that heal hit point damage. The monk's wholeness of body ability is not a Conjuration (Healing) effect.

However, spells from the healing subschool and supernatural abilities that cure hit point damage or ability damage provide only half their normal effects to a warforged.

Wholeness of Body is a supernatural effect that cures hit point damage.

According to page 38 of the ECS, a warforged monk can use Wholeness of Body "to repair damage he has taken." The warforged racial description on page 23 of the ECS is identical to what reveal quoted above. Now, the nitpicking lies between the usage of 'cure' in the racial description and 'repair' in the class description. I'll leave that one up to folks who are more well versed in parsing rules than myself.

Also, warforged monks are awesome, especially when combined with druid levels, as per one of the main characters in the story in my .sig. *cough cough ahem*

 

[Klaus]

Warforged monks are very nice.

1 - The character benefits normally from his composite plating (+2 AC, no check penalty, light fortification). If he has Adamantine/Mithral Body, they are considered to be wearig armor (as per feat desctiptions) and thus lose most of their monk abilities.

2 - Just as you'd expect: your unarmed strikes bypass silver/cold iron DR.

3 - Yes, it works at full power, as noted in the Monk description in the Eberron Campaign Setting.

4 - Flurry of blows + secondary natural attack = awesome! Flurry of Blows while unarmed at the regular FoB penalty (-2/-1/-0, as the levels progress) and an extra slam at -5.

4 - Warforged monk + Battlefist = damage as one size larger, which is also slashing damage (Battlefist description in the ECS).

4 - Warforged monk can have his composite plating enchanted, so you can have a WF monk with a +1 shadow silent moves invulnerability plating or whatever.

4 - Purity of Body and Diamond Body (immunity to disease and poison) are redundant for WF monks. I'd take a page from the WF Paladin substitution level that exchanges Immunity to Disease for Immunity to Stunning.