I messed up and need advice. Tryin for monk 12/ranger 6/pally 2

[Millikill]

So my character is currently on his 3rd life and is a boss, but I just hit a snag. Im level 8 with 6 ranger and 2 monk and I planned my build to use handwraps and I was gonna take tempest enhancement from ranger 6. The problem is, I didn't realize tempest didn't work with handwraps until today.. so I kinda gimped myself haha, classic mistake. So I was planning to switch up my build. I really like the 12 monk idea but I am lenient. Maybe I was thinking to switch to ditching the tempest enhancement and just say I took ranger for the manyshot, but I feel like that wouldn't help myself out too much. What I currently have in mind is to use shortswords and capitalize on the dark monk aspect to things, but I was wondering wat the downsides are to that and what are the best shortswords out there haha.

Thanks!

[Soulfurnace]

Downsides of shorts words - they suck. They just do. :\
Wraps are awesome. Abuse them often, and loot shall fall into thy lap.

Manyshot is awesome enough to justify 6 ranger, but I don't know if you built (nor what to) for ranged combat. Requires a bunch of feats, though you still could with a LR. Then stay with 12 monk, and... That completely changes your build, so I don't see that happening.

Continuing with the shorts word (ew) aspect, I'd have to say Celestias are the only decent short swords - and they're **** awesome short swords.

Failing that, you could (and, as a monk lover, I do not condone this) stay with just 2 monk, use the excuse of feats, and build for tempest II, grab cure serious, 2 monk and 2 pally. And then not be centered. Again, I don't like that, but it's an option.

[Millikill]

Downsides of shorts words - they suck. They just do. :\
Wraps are awesome. Abuse them often, and loot shall fall into thy lap.

Manyshot is awesome enough to justify 6 ranger, but I don't know if you built (nor what to) for ranged combat. Requires a bunch of feats, though you still could with a LR. Then stay with 12 monk, and... That completely changes your build, so I don't see that happening.

Continuing with the shorts word (ew) aspect, I'd have to say Celestias are the only decent short swords - and they're **** awesome short swords.

Failing that, you could (and, as a monk lover, I do not condone this) stay with just 2 monk, use the excuse of feats, and build for tempest II, grab cure serious, 2 monk and 2 pally. And then not be centered. Again, I don't like that, but it's an option.

I didn't spec for ranged combat, and it may be worth it just to reincarnate real fast. I got all the pre reqs for tempest, but is it possible for me to just swap some feats at fred (the feat exchange guy)? I really feel like I could keep building for wraps and then keep the ranged aspect as a dps backup, but its gonna be interesting knowing that's the only reason for it. If I go for 12 ranger I could do duel khops and get by, but it wouldn't be the most fun for me as a monklover. any way anyone can think of that will make wraps viable? or is lr/gr the only real way

[Soulfurnace]

Pulling out a bow for manyshot is higher dps than wraps (most of the time), unless you have things like Master's Blitz running. (Lack of CC, ToD, etc., is annoying, but still good dps. And it's ranged, because softening stuff up helps)

Hell, with the free feats from ranger, the main feat you'd need to have a decent manyshot is Zen Archery - purely to stay centered. While being uncentered would work, not having access to dark monk stuff (namely shadow fade) would be annoying. And the lost ki, AC, etc.

As for dropping Tempest pre-reqs, that's up to you. I took most of them (left out Spring Attack) for the dodge%. After all, it helps with not dying, which has to be a good thing!