Monk's Handbook

[carnivore]

NO

 

[Shigure]

Alright I gotta ask...where the hell do you find Broken Fist Mastery? I've looked all over and not found it anywhere. Is it third party or something?

[Shadowhunter]

Alright I gotta ask...where the hell do you find Broken Fist Mastery? I've looked all over and not found it anywhere. Is it third party or something?

http://www.realmshelps.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Broken_Fist_Mastery_I

Dragon Magazine 309.

[Shigure]

Much appreciated Hunter.

[bananaphone]

One of my favorite builds is the Monk/Warmind using Tashalatora (love this feat!)

Monk-6/Shintao Monk-1/Warmind-10/ Whatever you want-3

Notes:
Monk-6 to meet the requirements for Shintao Monk(OA). (requires Lawful Good, +4 BAB, Knowledge(religion) 8 ranks, and Still Mind.)
Shintao Monk gets all Knowledges as class skills, thereby allowing you to reach the needed 8 Knowledge(psionics) ranks for Warmind. Shintao Monk-1 also grants a bonus feat!
Warmind gets you all the nifty goodies like Sweeping Strike and free-action buffs, as well as powers (small list, but you really only need a few key powers)

Unless you have 18 Int, you would need 2 levels of Shintao if you don't want cross-class skills...

True.   But the point was not to avoid spending points on cross-class skills, but allow you to even reach the required 8 ranks in Knowledge(psionics) for Warmind, without sacrificing your monk ability progression, or spending a feat. 
Without a class that has all knowledges as a class skills or at least knowlege(psionics), the soonest you would be able to reach 8 ranks in that skill would be level 13, thereby entering Warmind at 14.

[Drakonite]

I'm having issues with your interpretation of Fist of the Forest. I was excited about the Dice Size increase, but the more I read into it the more I'm convinced it doesn't work like that.

It states:

Unarmed Damage (Ex): Your unarmed attacks deal more damage than usual. At 1st level, you deal ld8 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.

A quick look at the monk damage tables will clearly show 1d8 -> 1d10 as natural progression for a medium character advancing in monk levels (as noted by the FotF table), not across dice sizes.

Cru proposed this explanation

My reading:
A Monk 8 with 1d10 unarmed strike damage enters FotF.
At FotF1, her unarmed damage already deals more than 1d8, therefore, the damage increases to next step: 2d6.
At FotF3, again, her damage increases to the next step indicated on the monk class table: 2d8.

But, here is the sample build for a FotF:

SORAG, WARDEN OF THE GREEN CR 9
Female human monk 6/fist of the forest 3
...
Feats: Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes8, Dodge, Great
Fortitude, Improved Disarm8, Improved Unarmed Strike8,
Mobility, Power Attack, Stunning Fist8
...
Melee unarmed strike +12/+7 (2d6+5) or Melee unarmed strike +11/+11/+6 (2d6+5) with flurry of
blows

Her base Monk6 unarmed damage is 1d8. She has all 3 levels of FotF, so she has moved two steps in the table, going 1d8 -> 1d10 -> 2d6. If her dice size had increased, she would have moved 1d8 -> 2d6 ->3d6. This could only be possible if the ability where to increase your size at level 1 and grant you no other benefit at level 3.

To me, it seems that FotF is a way to advance 2 full steps on the Monk unarmed progression in just 3 levels; more in line with the Monk's Belt or SUS, and not like INA.

I really hope I'm wrong u.u

[Bozwevial]

I can't check the text right now, but don't put too much stock in WotC's sample character builds. Some of them are famously illegal or wrong, such as the sample abjurant champion.

[Drakonite]

The thing is, a size-like increase is never mentioned or even hinted at. And since the increase is divided in two (FotF1 and FotF3), a size increase either ignores the last level bonus (Makes no sense), or gives two dice size increases (Too good to not be the main class focus).

I quoted the exact text up there, there is nothing more to it.

[JaronK]

I have to admit, "the next step indicated on the monk class table" certainly seems to be saying that you increase a step of damage as though you'd gone up 4 levels of Monk.  That's what the Monk class table shows... damage stepping up via Monk levels.

JaronK

[zook1shoe]

Anyone mention the Sparring Dummy in Arms and Equipment?

[Saxony]

Anyone mention the Sparring Dummy in Arms and Equipment?

It combines with Skirmish well. Take 10 foot step and full attack.

[nijineko]

what about the spell mighty wallop and greater mighty wallop from races of the dragon.

the lesser grants a size category increase to damage, the greater grants +CL/5 size category increases. and lasts for hour/level, iirc.

[Sinfire Titan]

what about the spell mighty wallop and greater mighty wallop from races of the dragon.

the lesser grants a size category increase to damage, the greater grants +CL/5 size category increases. and lasts for hour/level, iirc.

That's Dman's Modus Operandi in this handbook...

[nijineko]

i was too lazy to find out. thanks.

[Amechra]

Halfling Monk 5/Ranger 15 Swifthunter FTW!

[heroicraptor]

Halfling Monk 5/Ranger 15 Swifthunter FTW!

Yep.

[Talore]

Am I the only one who likes dipping monk for a two-weapon fighter? Instead of a primary-hand weapon that does STRx1 to damage and an off-hand weapon that does STRx0.5 to damage, you can use a two-handed weapon as your primary for larger dice and STRx1.5 to damage and an unarmed strike as the off-hand weapon for STRx1 to damage. Not to mention opening up snap kick and crew, raising your saves, etc. You could even still flurry with a Ki weapon.

In effect, you get your strength again to the damage you'd normally be doing. (You can use a necklace of natural attacks to enchant your unarmed strike. Also the imagery of smacking someone with a greatsword then giving him a flaming kneecap to the groin is worth it)

A monk's unarmed strike can also be used to free up a hand for using a natural weapon, or just to tack onto your full-attack routine if you can take multiweapon fighting. In this capacity, I like using weapon graft (see the Graft handbook) to turn a manufactured weapon into a natural weapon. More attacks! At that point, you could be a bit of a freak and graft weapons onto both arms, and fight with unarmed strikes as your primary attack, throwing in natural weapon attacks with your sword-arms. (Be monstrous, grab rapidstike feats from Draconomicon)

[Littha]

Am I the only one who likes dipping monk for a two-weapon fighter? Instead of a primary-hand weapon that does STRx1 to damage and an off-hand weapon that does STRx0.5 to damage, you can use a two-handed weapon as your primary for larger dice and STRx1.5 to damage and an unarmed strike as the off-hand weapon for STRx1 to damage. Not to mention opening up snap kick and crew, raising your saves, etc. You could even still flurry with a Ki weapon.

In effect, you get your strength again to the damage you'd normally be doing. (You can use a necklace of natural attacks to enchant your unarmed strike. Also the imagery of smacking someone with a greatsword then giving him a flaming kneecap to the groin is worth it)

The problem being is that if you are going to use a 2 handed weapon anyway you might as well be power attacking... which makes 2 weapon fighting pointless.

[Talore]

Am I the only one who likes dipping monk for a two-weapon fighter? Instead of a primary-hand weapon that does STRx1 to damage and an off-hand weapon that does STRx0.5 to damage, you can use a two-handed weapon as your primary for larger dice and STRx1.5 to damage and an unarmed strike as the off-hand weapon for STRx1 to damage. Not to mention opening up snap kick and crew, raising your saves, etc. You could even still flurry with a Ki weapon.

In effect, you get your strength again to the damage you'd normally be doing. (You can use a necklace of natural attacks to enchant your unarmed strike. Also the imagery of smacking someone with a greatsword then giving him a flaming kneecap to the groin is worth it)

The problem being is that if you are going to use a 2 handed weapon anyway you might as well be power attacking... which makes 2 weapon fighting pointless.

Why is that a problem? You get +str again to your damage for free with almost no drawbacks. It's not like power attacking is superior 100% of the time, or you wouldn't be TWFing in the first place.

Flurrying drops the str advantage from two-handed weapons. But it still gives some misc bonuses, a larger damage die, and you don't have to flurry in the first place.

[Amechra]

Halfling Monk 5/Ranger 15 Swifthunter FTW!