Splashing paly w/ Monk

[flash145]

I've been testing pure monks for past week. Basically, I made a monk in each race and ran it thru lvl 5 testing potentials. The on thing I have noticed is the weak saves (unless drow). I have not seen anyone comment on splashing 2 lvls of paly in monk for aura.

Anyone mind posting some thoughts on the positives and negatives of a 14monk/2paly?

Only thing I can forsee as an issue is no Quivering palm till lvl cap is raied to 18. But, wouldnt vorpal kamas be just as effective?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

PS was thinking hafling dex based w/ wind stance as primary. A friend calculated ( and yes this is at lvl 16 and buffed w/ EVERYTHING ) an ac of 85. I think his build was part ranger however.

[Dylos_Moon]

Monks get 3 good saves, at level 16, their base saves are +10/+10/+10

Assuming you have at least 12 base con/dex/wis with a +6 item in each of those, that gives you 18, or a +4 stat bonus.

So that puts you at +14/+14/+14, add in a resistance +4 item, you get +18/+18/+18.

Voice of the Master, +19/+19/+19.

Now, if you pick up water stance tier 3, each of those will jump an additional +4~ for +23/+23/+23.

Are you sure monks have poor saves?

Now, if you do multiclass as a paladin, you have to have Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, AND Charisma all at respectable levels, this will severally limit your stat distribution, you would be better off making a Halfling and taking the luck enhancements if you really think your saves are low.

Even with wind stance, a halfling monk can have very high saves, let's assume 18 dex, 16 wis, and 16 con starting, add level ups into dex (though wisdom might be a better choice for stunning blow and quivering palm) and +6 items to all of these and you get 28, 22, 22. Add enhancements of +3 wis, +2 dex for 30, 25, 22. Add Tier 3 wind for 33, 25, 20. And a +1 dex/wis tome to make it an even number, so Dex 34, Wis 26, Con 20.

Saves:
+10/+10/+10 Base
+05/+12/+08 Stats
+04/+04/+04 Resistance 4
+01/+01/+01 Voice of the Master
+01/+01/+01 Halfling Racial
+04/+04/+04 Halfling Enhancements
-------------
+25/+32/+28

Even if you Take the Crane enhancement line, you would still have a +21 Fort.

[wolfy42]

Saves really shouldn't be a problem for your monk.....I'm surprised you are having one at all.

Most have at least 14 dex,wisdom,con

Halfling monks (my personal fav) have especially high reflex saves and evasion at lvl 2.

The saves continue to progress at ahigh lvl keeping your base saves high across the board. Add in the fact that you gain wisdom from monk enhancements, dex in most cases from stance, + level up + race bonus and can boost your saves through quite a few of the races that are popular for a monk (human, halfling and WF) and the monks saving throws are already so high that splashing pally for a boost seems pointless.

At 16th lvl a monk has 10/10/10 base sving throws 4/4/4 at 4th and 5/5/5 at 6th.

Because of the fact you would need to boost charisma to gain saving throws from the pally levels you would need to drop wisdom, dexterity or con...which would reduce your saving throws (along with other bonuses) even more.

Paladins are fort only saving throw characters so 2 paladin lvls would give you +2 fort (+3 but -1 from monk) and -1 will and reflex saves.

to get a 12 cha with a paladin would require 4 stat points (For a non dwarf/wf) costing another 2 saving throw points for a net gain of only 1 saving throw point all together again without + cha equipment.

Long story short is you wont' gain much to your saving throws by combining a pally with a monk. There are far better combinations you could grab instead if you were going to make the sacrifice (wizard or fighter for free feats, wand usage, spells etc).

Now splashing monk levels with a primary paladin character....THAT could be useful (2 monk levels gives you evasion for a dex/finess based pally build and boosts your saving throws across the board by 3 (only a net bonus of 2 for fort though).

But splashing paladin for a monk is a total waste sorry.