[Pathfinder] Quarterstaff Master version 2
Since discovering this little FAQ section about weapons with the trip quality, I’ve revised my quarterstaff master build. Tripping Staff is no longer really required, so I decided to swap out lore warden for weapon master:
Human Monk (Maneuver Master, Weapon Adept) / Fighter (Weapon Master)
S 18 D 14 C 14 I 10 W 12 C 8
M01 – Combat Reflexes
M01 – Improved Unarmed Strike
M01 – Improved Trip
M01 – Perfect Strike
M01 – Toughness
M02 – Improved Dirty Trick
M02 – Weapon Focus (Quarterstaff)
F03 – Power Attack
F03 – Vicious Stomp
F04 – Fury’s Fall
F05 – Monkey Style
M06 –
M07 – Greater Dirty Trick
M08 –
M09 – Greater Trip
M09 – Monkey Moves
M09 – Weapon Specialisation (Quarterstaff)
M10 –
M11 – Stunning Fist
M12 –
It’s quite possible to go straight monk, and either route has its benefits and drawbacks (more feats and weapon training versus faster access to qinggong powers and early feat access). I just have a preference for the fighter route. This build is slightly less feat intensive than the last, so there’s less need to select a vanilla human as the race. The level 1 Toughness, though helpful, can be dropped for any of the following:
- Human Dual Talent alternate racial trait (+2 Constitution is better than Toughness, in my opinion)
- Human Focused Study alternate racial trait
- Dwarf, for slightly less offensive power and mobility, but a lot of added defenses
- Half-Elf, which grants low-light vision, some nice resistances and allows multiple favoured classes… we could even grab bo staff proficiency with this one
- Half-Orc, which grants darkvision amongst a lot of nice alternate racial traits
- Oni-Spawn Tiefling, for a once-per-day alter self, bonus damage when wielding a large quarterstaff and a tail (alternate racial trait) for some more monkey king antics
- Jerall
Jerall,
So I truly dig all the monk builds you’ve posted up over these many months. First one I saw was the judoka. And wow. It’s gotten me interested enough in monks that I’m actually playing one for, like, the first time ever…
Mine is actually a half-elf with three-section-staff. More 36th Chamber than Monkey King. Reasonably lenient DM, so I think Perfect Strike will be possible. And stats were rolled: Str 19, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 11 after racial mod. I could even bump Int to 13 if I felt really ambitious maneuver-wise.
I must say, I still like the Lore Warden more for the fighter dip, at the moment. And it’s really eye-opening how easy it is to push Wis down to 12 when Stunning Fist (or Ki Pool for that matter) is not so central to the multi-classing monk. Both revelations I got from browsing your builds. Yay!
Two questions, though:
- Does Power Attack work out OK with non-full BAB? My monk is the melee character of my party (ninja, witch and bardish cleric… I announced I was playing a monk and then everyone else picked those classes. sigh.) so I fret about not hitting things.
- “M07 – Greater Dirty Trick” doesn’t seem possible in the build you have above. BAB is there, but no Combat Exp or Int 13, and the bonus 6th level monk feat for MM comes around 2 levels later.
Good catch with the Greater Dirty Trick. Switching back to the Lore Warden would help meet the requirements for the feat. Alternatively, I’ll try to think up some other good options. I like Step Up or Furious Focus (see below), as examples.
As for Power Attack with non-full BAB, I’ve seen it work quite often in builds that can either self-buff attack rolls or debuff enemy AC (blinding, knocking prone etc.). With this build, I imagine you would need to continually adjust the use of Power Attack within and between encounters.
I’m glad you like the builds. I’ve got several more ideas brewing.
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