Ultimate loot grinder

[chad878262]

note that Hewing greats 2/3 attacks rounded down. You'd need 9 APR to get 6 while NH is active so with 20 monk levels you'll be capped at 5. M16/DC10/F4 would get to bab26 and have 6.

[AlfarinIcebreaker]

NH, from a mechanical perspective might be worth it for couple of niche builds, but overall it is hard to justify taking such a huge penalty. 2 AB, 2 AC and one feat.

[aaron22]

i cannot see a monk build really getting more out of NH than not. seems a journey down a road not traveled. for good reason.

[Egg Shen]

I seem to travel those roads a fair bit. For the goofy build I'm working on, getting an extra 11-18 damage per hit seems worth exploring to me. I've got several lame-ish feat choices already for lack of better options, so this can't really be much worse than fiery ki defense or dodge. I plan to flip it on after a successful knockdown to help mitigate the drawbacks.

6 attacks per round, when hasted, as I noted in my post.

[Nyeleni]

NH is very good with high strength. As the synergy with damage output is considerable. With finesse and insight I don't see it to be very useful. But I might be wrong.

[Sun Wukong]

I seem to travel those roads a fair bit. For the goofy build I'm working on, getting an extra 11-18 damage per hit seems worth exploring to me. I've got several lame-ish feat choices already for lack of better options, so this can't really be much worse than fiery ki defense or dodge. I plan to flip it on after a successful knockdown to help mitigate the drawbacks.

6 attacks per round, when hasted, as I noted in my post.

I think you should go for a strength based Monk 20/Divine Champion 10 build.

A little know fact is that you can use those Divine Champion bonus feats to get Great Wisdom feats if the PRC levels are taken during epic levels. So if you go Monk 17/Divine Champion 3 pre-epic, you can get 4 Great Wisdom feats, and if you also started with 19 base wisdom, you can use Divine Champion to qualify for for Blazing Aura here on BGTSCC.

An Aasimar could start with:

Code: Select all

STR: 16 + 7 (Ability Increase) + 4 (Great Strength) = 27
DEX: 13
CON: 10
INT: 10
WIS: 19 + 4 (Divine Champion Great Wisdom) = 23
CHA: 10

edit:
Northlander Hewing Quarterstaff damage would be:
8 (2d4 maximised)
+ 15 (Strenth modifier)
+ 4 (Enchantment Bonus)
+ 10 (Northlander Hewing)
+ 1d10 (Fire, Blazing Aura)
= 42.5~ damage per hit. (37 without Blazing Aura active)

Edit: slight mistake with epic feats.

[Egg Shen]

Sounds pretty good, actually! Too bad 100% rcr is over and my character is already level 8 and has all the wrong stats. He's a gigantic half-orc. Plowing ahead with 18 monk/ 12 fighter.

So far he's working out surprisingly well, fighting mobs that give him 50 xp a pop and not having too much trouble with them. Of course, it will start to get worse as he strays into higher level areas and then gets a nice 20% xp penalty.

[Calodan]

Sounds pretty good, actually! Too bad 100% rcr is over and my character is already level 8 and has all the wrong stats. He's a gigantic half-orc. Plowing ahead with 18 monk/ 12 fighter.

So far he's working out surprisingly well, fighting mobs that give him 50 xp a pop and not having too much trouble with them. Of course, it will start to get worse as he strays into higher level areas and then gets a nice 20% xp penalty.

100% of XP is still refunded for characters level 10 or lower. Enjoy.

[Egg Shen]

Oh that's right! I may have to think about it. I forgot all about Divine Champs getting great wisdom as a bonus feat. I've been out of the game, too long!

[Sun Wukong]

I just noticed a slight mistake on my previous post above. You cannot get 28 base strength, you just do not have enough epic feats to get 5 Great Strengths and Blazing Aura. You can only have 4 Great Strengths and Blazing Aura, so you need to make use of +3 Strength, +3 Dex, and +3 Wisdom items. It is doable since those items have been popping up in the in game consingment store fairly often.

Also, the Blushing Mermaid basement store might have some amulet with +3 Natural Armor and +3 Wisdom on it. (Not sure, but I think it might be the case.)

[Sun Wukong]

Sounds pretty good, actually! Too bad 100% rcr is over and my character is already level 8 and has all the wrong stats. He's a gigantic half-orc. Plowing ahead with 18 monk/ 12 fighter.

So far he's working out surprisingly well, fighting mobs that give him 50 xp a pop and not having too much trouble with them. Of course, it will start to get worse as he strays into higher level areas and then gets a nice 20% xp penalty.

Oh, and if you go for Monk 16/Fighter 14, you can actually avoid the multiclassing experience penalty. (You'll be hit with it at level 30, after which it no longer matters, and you can actually reach 26 BAB this way too.)

[Sun Wukong]

Northlander Hewing Quarterstaff damage would be:
8 (2d4 maximised)
+ 15 (Strength modifier)
+ 4 (Enchantment Bonus)
+ 10 (Northlander Hewing)
+ 1d10 (Fire, Blazing Aura)
+ 5 (Divine Wrath for max 10 rounds, (½ Divine Champion levels + charisma modifier), every 5 minutes.
= 47.5~ damage per hit. (37 without Blazing Aura and Divine Wrath active)

Regular damage with the Monk 20/Divine CHampion 10 build would be:
5~ (2d4)
+ 15 (Strength modifier)
+ 4 (Enchantment Bonus)
+ 1d10 (Fire, Blazing Aura)
+ 5 (Divine Wrath for max 10 rounds, (½ Divine Champion levels + charisma modifier), every 5 minutes.
= 34.5~ damage per hit. (24~ without Blazing Aura and Divine Wrath active)

The damage for a '30 Strength' Monk 16/Fighter 14 would be:

With Northlander Hewing:
8 (2d4 maximised)
+ 15 (Strength modifier)
+ 4 (Enchantment Bonus)
+ 10 (Northlander Hewing)
+ 8 (Feats)
= 45

Without Northlander Hewing:
5~ (2d4)
+ 15 (Strength modifier)
+ 4 (Enchantment Bonus)
+ 8 (Feats)
= 32~


Thus if you are just looking at the pure damage a build can do, a quarterstaff Monk/Fighter actually does more damage more reliably than a quarterstaff Monk/Divine Champion. But on the other hand, Monk/Divine Champion in the long run is the more defensive option with higher saves, some immunities, high base spell resistance, and eventually they actually have the ability to kill Trolls without having to switch over for a +fire or +acid damage quarterstaff. (Eventually you can freely use either Alchemical Silver, or Cold Iron Quarterstaff.)


Edit:
If you want to play an Orcish character, Grey Orcs would also make great Monk/Divine Champions, they have the lower charisma, but potions of Eagle's Splendor will take care of that.

[Egg Shen]

actually liking the 16 monk/14 fighter a lot. I was going 18 monk to get max speed, but it looks like I only lose 5' (as opposed to 10' for earlier increments on the monk speed scale) by dropping down to monk 16. Getting that extra attack per round from 26 BAB seems clutch, especially if using northlander hewing (6 apr, instead of 5).

I totally forgot grey orc was a thing. . .

time to rcr!

[Sun Wukong]

If you want the full 50% movement speed increase, you could always spent a feat on Dash. (Technically that extra fighter bonus feat could free some other feat to pick it up.)

And have fun!

[Egg Shen]

Wait, grey orc is an Underdark race, right?