longsword monk advice please

[Robi3.0]

Why do you say that? My whole build was built around dual-wielding longswords with Whirling Steel; did I miss something?

As for why longswords... well because its cool. And I guess its unfair of me to make an arbitrary decision on style and then ask you guys for help making it efficient, but there ya go. (Though to be fair 2d6 + what I mostly see on handwraps isn't going to be much more than 1d8 + what you can easily get on a longsword, and longswords with improved crit slashing are critting 20%...)

What i meant was one weapon such as you will exclusively use longsword that is meant to include a long sword in each hand. not something like a longsword and a short sword in your off hand or switch between long swords and another weapons. If you want weapon options then for one you probably shouldn't be a monk in the first place and two wasting two feats on a weapon that you will only use part of the time is inefficient.

Flavor is great and is the main reason that my long sword monk exists, but having your character built in such away and switching between 3 different weapons kind of kills the flavor does it not? It would for me, but I guess that is a matter of personal taste

When I said double dipping I was specifically referencing his thoughts on taking Whirling Steel and Ninja
"I don't have this planned out to 20 or have shintao/ninja/kensei plans - thats part of what I'm asking about. It doesn't seem like it would work well with ninja though - aren't their abilities all about short swords? ".
Possible I missinterpreted what he was saying, but that's what I geared the comment towards.

If you are going to go non pure monk going light monk imo offers better rewards with less draw back. iirc Touch of death arguably the best thing about being a dark monk has a save based on monk level there for going non pure will make you a less effective dark monk. On the other hand fist of light and light monk buffs are roughly the same regardless of level. Shintao is a better Pre drip if one must drip into a monk PrE at all at least until we see what the 3rd PrE brings.



Yep, good bonuses. However, If he's switching between Shortswords, Longswords and Fist (which isn't a horrible idea...gives a good weapon choise for all occasions) I didn't think Kensai matched because I think of them as geared towards one weapon type, not three. (The feats requires are all for one weapon type, and the Kensai enhancements (other than power surge) give bonuses to that same weapon. Doesn't mean it wouldn't work out though.

IMO someone that rolls a monk is not concerned with a weapon for every occasion a person like that should roll a fighter or what not. Monks have the most limited weapon selection in game and building a character around squeezing out two more choice in the name on flexibility seems odd to me since to my knowledge there isn't a situation in game that any weapon in game couldn't do the job done



Shroud weapons and Critical Threat Range (Base 19-20, 17-20 w/Imp Crit) off the top of my head. Add in Ninja Spy 2 for Shortswords with a free Imp Crit Piercing and he can cover and DR with decent to good damage. Also has access to all 5 top five w/Imp Crit range.

Whirling Steel isn't really about using Vorpals. A pair of Kamas would be much more effective if that's all you want the slashing weapons for.

Not really sure what U5 did to Temepest...Missed the initial update and am still trying to catch up on all the changes.

well you kind of missed the sarcasm in that last statement.

[Orrowan]

What i meant was one weapon such as you will exclusively use longsword that is meant to include a long sword in each hand. not something like a longsword and a short sword in your off hand

Oh right; gotcha. Thought you meant single-handed only. Totally agree; if you're going longsword monk, go longsword all the time. But a closer look at ninja makes me think its not really that short sword oriented after all; almost all of it works with longswords too (from the description anyways.)

Flavor is great and is the main reason that my long sword monk exists, but having your character built in such away and switching between 3 different weapons kind of kills the flavor does it not? It would for me, but I guess that is a matter of personal taste

Also agreed.