Arcane fist, or more so Necrotic Monk

[Ezeikeiel]

The goal being 12 lvls of wizard in order to gain shroud of the lich & shroud of the wraith, and following up with 8 lvls of monk. The toon i created, i started with 2 lvls of monk and then continued with taking lvls of wizard. currently my character is lvl 9 and has been doin quite well. has a fairly decent AC for being in cloth, HP is nothing to complain about, SP is barely to 600, is fairly easy to gather KI, but attack bonus is not exactly ideal, but i can only assume that spells obtained in a few more lvls will change that.




the name for my character is Emjei, on Argo server. Please share your thoughts, and if you know of somethin to add to the mix that wont drastically change my outlook on this build, let me know. Oh yea, character is a Halfling as well.

If you dont already know, Shroud of the lich adds inflict minor wounds effect to your unarmed attack, and Shroud of the wraith deals con dmg on critical unarmed attacks. that is the main drive for the build.

My thoughts for a few buffs after obtaining 1 or both forms: greater heroism, haste (of course), tenser's transformation, displacement, fire/ice sheild (circumstantial), and using the relentless storm stance. Stone skin is helpful. a good suggestion for any mage is the spell 'Sheild'. +4 sheild bonus to ac as if you are weilding a shield.

I may be leaving something out, will update

[sinedist]

I know a few people who tried to crack this open when the PrE was released. With the mess that became the "Wraith" and "Lich," the issues with healing, it serves as more of a flavor multiclass than anything power-gamey. It seems like it would have more synergy with the dark path than it does. One result of the pointlessly low elemental dark side strikes (porous soul, all consuming flame) is less synergy with the caster class than would be expected or hoped.

Maybe once the Monk PrEs come out there will be a better combination... something like negative energy attacks with the Ninja Spy PrE or additional fire damage with the Henshin Mystic. I could see some great damage being done with firewalls... But that's speculative.

The last thing that monks need is a PrE based on the most resisted type of elemental damage; what seperates them from a lot of other classes with PrEs is the lack of nonresistant base damage that gets accounted for with other classes: FE+tempest speed, DM+smites, Barbarian vicious attacks, Fighter and Kensai weapon specialties... etc.

Low to Mid game I've heard this sort of combo is fun, but end-game it makes sense that you wind up a weak caster and a weak monk. From what I've heard, you can put out some acceptable damage and toss up some alright buffs -- you gain some survivability so long as you stay out of the forms -- but your DCs on all accounts -- monk and wiz -- leave a lot to be desired.

This is to say nothing of how wizards typically have awful HP, and you won't have the best BAB for connecting hits -- which is something of an issue if you are intending to melee in more difficult quests.

The monk PrEs could change a lot, though... so I'm waiting on those... but I've become quite cynical as to what the Devs will do with the monks.

[FuzzyDuck81]

Survivability would definitely be a problem - going Warforged could help solve it partly, as you will be able to repair yourself (does repair still work fully for warforged necromancers? since its not divine based i'm assuming it will), make sure to keep blur running at all times & displacement, stoneskin, maybe fireshield situationally too when heading into melee, you'll be needing as much damage avoidance as possible.

[rimble]

I previously was running a Warforged 2 Monk/11 Wizard (going for 18 Wizard) that I respec'd into something like this. It's not necessarily that I want him to be a melee powerhouse, I just want him to be able to do something when spell points are low, or I need to conserve them.

So I ended up wanting to give him a 16 starting Dex, and take Weapon Finesse, and then at least I could run around Vorpaling things. But to do that well I wanted TWF, and ITWF too...and well, there are things that might not be able to be Vorpal'd, so it'd be nice to be able to do a little actual damage...and so I ended up at Pale Master.

So this guy right now is planned to end up at 17 Wizard / 2 Monk / 1 Fighter.

He'll have:
Extend / Maximize / Empower / Heighten / Quicken
Spell Pen / Imp Spell Pen
SF: Necromancy / GSF: Necromancy
Weapon Finesse / TWF / ITWF
Toughness
Insightful Reflexes

I did the LR to spec him to 10 Wizard / 2 Monk / 1 Fighter, but haven't had the time to play him yet, though I'm looking forward to it. I could take another Fighter level for GTWF, but not sure if I want to lose Level 9 spells (which is -1 DC from Heighten, and of course another -1 Spell Pen). Could have taken a 3rd Monk level instead of Fighter for Fists of Light and self-buffed -25% spell point costs, but then I'd have to drop a Feat.

In groups I will very likely fall back into a more traditional caster role (though step up to Vorpal when appropriate), but solo (which I do ALOT) he should be much more capable, I think. I will keep a LR +3 wood in reserve in the case that it's a bust.

[Ezeikeiel]

Survivabilty isnt to much of a problem, you can use cure serious wands, but when you are in your lich or wraith form you cannot be healed or repaired. And i agree with the buffs and dmg avoidance. trolls and ogres are sometimes a problem. Also, one of the main drives for my build was that i wanted another option for when i run out of sp.


Oh, and end game might also be tough for the build, i did think about that. but best way, i think, to figure out how it'll work in end game is get there. and that may be a while for me