Ranger/Fighter/Monk, some variations

[Trucidius]

Looking at 3 builds here, 12/6/2 Ranger/Fighter/Monk, 14/4/2 Ranger/Fighter/Monk and finally the Monster build 12/6/2 Fighter/Ranger/Monk.

I am currently at lvl 12 and 6/4/2 Ranger/Fighter/Monk and can go any of these paths. I at 32 point elf dex monkey using my racial bonus rapiers. My first character went the strength tempest paladin route and his AC was pretty low and I am very wary of having low AC now on my melee characters. Basically, I want high AC, but I don't want to sacrifice too much in the dps department and hope you guys mights steer me in the right direction.

If I am to go the monster route, I need some convincing on the dps part. As I understand it, the power boosts are great, but I am not to impressed with kensai other than that, am I missing something here? The monster build also gives me the greater weapon specialization at level 12 which is nice and some more feats which will probably let me put my normal feats into +saves feats at this point.

The level 12 ranger build offers me 5 ac barkskin over the monster and tempest 2, along with maxed resist spells. The 14 ranger drops the kensai 1 (which doesn't seem to offer too much, just rapier mastery) and 1 fighter strength and gets me level 4 ranger spells to include free action.

I am currently sitting at 40 ac at level 12, I can easily make 50+ ac self buffed with either of the ranger builds, but will struggle to do this with the monster build until I get way better gear. I see the ranger builds as having alot of survivability and versatility at the exchange of some dps. Is the monster build significantly more dps than the proposed ranger builds? If you were to pick one of the ranger routes, which one would you go for? Any advice is welcome.

[Visty]

one thing to consider:
fighter12/rang6 >> rang12/fighter6

tempest 2 isnt worth it to not get kensai 2
resists are usually buffed in a party anyway and so is barkskin most of the time. and if the later is not, just get some +3 potions or the +4enhancement on dragontouched

though if you would do ranger18 for tempest 3 things would look differant

[Yargore]

If I am to go the monster route, I need some convincing on the dps part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha-xe746E6k

Go for the monster splash, it's certainly higher DPS than 12 ranger levels.
Keep your haste boosts maxed, it's the key to high DPS.

[Thanimal]

It has been repeatedly shown that the Monster is higher DPS than the other two options you mentioned. (You may be either missing the STR Surge or not realizing how awesome a pile of +30% haste boosts is.) As noted, however, Ranger 18 can be better for sustained DPS. The optimal Fighter/Ranger DPS mixes are:

Fighter 12/Ranger 6 (plus 2 levels -- Monk is probably best overall)
Ranger 18 (plus 2 levels -- 1 Rogue / 1 Monk is probably best overall)
Fighter 20