Talk:Yet Another Monk Build (3.5e Optimized Character Build)

Fist of the Forest Unarmed Damage

It doesn't work quite how you seem to think it works. It's not going to increase your unarmed damage as much.

“	... At 1st level, you deal 1d8 points of damage with each unarmed strike. When you attain 3rd level, this damage increases to 1d10 points. See the monk class feature (PH 41). If your unarmed attack already deals this amount of damage, increase the base damage to the next step indicated on the monk class table.	”
—Complete Champion, Class Features, page 81

At level nine, your base medium damage is 2d6. FotF sends this to 2d8, but it won't send it any higher. It's not adding monk levels to your unarmed damage; it's bumping the unarmed damage up to 1d8 (or 1d10 at level 3) or one step higher, whichever is best. 173.24.181.0 18:17, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Illegal Build

I am compelled to point out a fatal flaw in your build... From the Monk class: "A monk who gains a new class or (if already multiclass) raises another class by a level may never again raise her monk level, though she retains all her monk abilities." Unfortunately, that means what you do at level 6 (that is, raise your monk level after raising another class level) is impossible, unless you have some ability that changes that. --Rakankou 15:30, 13 March 2008 (MDT)

Read the Highlights section. —Sledged (talk) 15:41, 13 March 2008 (MDT)

Ah, didn't see that when I read through it, sorry. --Rakankou 19:53, 13 March 2008 (MDT)

Comment

Nice job! -- OptimizationFanatic 09:27, 19 March 2008 (MDT)

Sledged, this is wonderful. I wish you had mol'ed me. This is a fantastic optimization and is going to force me (yet again) to revise all the Ultimate Monk progression tables. This draconic prestige class . . . I had no idea it existed. Great stuff.S1Q3T3 17:48, 21 January 2009 (MST)

At the time I didn't think you were still active on the site. Take a look at the Champion of the Forest build, and tell me what you think. I took some ideas from your ultimate monk build to put it together. I've focused less on increasing the base unarmed damage and more on increasing the attack bonus and number of attacks. —Sledged (talk) 12:51, 11 February 2009 (MST)

Improving a Masterpiece

Having only discovered Fist of the Forest 3 days ago (I was walking through a Barnes & Noble) I thought that it was a good prestige class and there was probably a good way to optimize it. But over the past few days, I couldn't come up with much. You did come up with something. You got everything in a FotF build I could have thought of, except one thing. Wouldn't Shifter be a better choice than Changeling? In addition to being Shapeshifters (which I'm guessing is the main perk of being a Changeling) they also have Ranger as a favored class, Dexterity bonuses, and their Shifting might work well with the build.

Just a thought.

The Eberron Races make good monks, don't they? --Sir Milo Teabag 06:37, 27 March 2008 (MDT)

Shifter would work. But I don't think it'd be better or worse. With shifter you could get away with monk 2/ranger 6 instead of monk 4/ranger 4, which would give Improved Two-Weapon Fighting. The limitation is that with this build the character would only be able to shift once per day, and the warshaper class features would only function while shifting. I chose changeling because minor change shape has no limitations on the number of uses or its duration. So a changeling can stay in "battle mode" indefinitely. In fact, I think minor change shape functions even while the character is unconscious. And if you use the modification of the build under "Miscellaneous," that's quite useful if you find yourself in negative hit points. —Sledged (talk) 11:58, 27 March 2008 (MDT)

I do not understand why the War Shapers class abilities would only work while shaping, it says nothing about needing to be wild-shaped, polymorphed, etc under any of them(exception:flash morph/multi morph)

“	The class features function only when the warshaper is in a form other than her own (which for doppelganger and phasm warshapers is most of the time).	”
—Complete Warrior, Class Features, page 90

Also, i don't think the monks Unarmed Strike qualifies as a Natural weapon.

“	A monk’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.	”
—Monk's Unarmed Strike

Also, at level 20, you have 3 size increases to your damage naturally, war shaper, and 2 from Initiate, so wouldn't it be treated as Gargantuan, not huge as listed on the table? -Ganre

No, the damage increases from initiate are not as though the character were of a larger size. They're just damage increases similar to the monk class's damage increases. So it's just morphic weapons (Large) and Improved Natural Attack (Huge). Lastly, use four tildas (~~~~) or the button to sign your posts. It automatically inserts your name and date to the message. —Sledged (talk) 02:27, 24 April 2008 (MDT)