Can Monk Stunning Fist work with Str?

[Vagrantwind]

I have a str/con level 9 dark ninja spy monk that I was thinking of converting to light, shintao. Since stunning Fist is a requirement, I was wondering if it can work off of a str modifier too. I currently have stunning blow on my dark build and it works great. I was just wondering if I can swap them out.

Btw, I'm a 32 point Helf with fighter Dille for the added str and the fighter stun DC's, wis is a dump stat, and I do most of my fighting in earth/fire stances.

[-Zyxas-]

Wis should not be a dump stat for a dark monk either - landing ToD (the strike not raid) more for full damage is better.

To actually answer your question, no you cannot make stunning FIST work off of strength. But you can have strength and wisdom at a reasonable amount that you can stun well and have good str-based dps.

A good stat layout for having existent wisdom but being strength based would be 16 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 14 Wis, 8 Cha. You won't be a stunning machine but you'll be able to stun decently, especially on casters and easy mobs. I'm guessing your stats are these same stats but with 8 Wis and 18 Str - that's too min-max for a balanced monk. At level 9, it's not too late to reroll. If you have spare TP laying around or tons of spare plat, you could LR, but at level 9 I recommend rerolling.

[Vagrantwind]

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to rethink things then and yeah your almost right about my stats except the extra points went into con instead of str so I could get con 18. Con at 14 is too low because I don't foresee stumbling into a +4 tome I'd need for con 18 and earth stance 4. I'd have to jigger my starting stats to try and squeeze some more wis in. Hmm.

[Zildoran]

Earth III is good enough as you get the critical boost now, but as a Str build you would want to mostly be in GM fire stance. It's really hard to get 18 base con (even with a +2 tome) without sacrificing other stats. If you can work out starting at 15 con maybe and plan for a +3 con tome if this toon is not going to TR at all. If you don't care about GM wind stance then you can start with this and plan on +2 tome in dex so you can get ITWF at level 9 (or change out the feat later when you acquire one). If you want to be able to stun stuff more you can put level up points into wisdom instead of strength to achieve a fairly respectable stunning fist dc with +6 wis item and +10 stunning wraps. You will still hit 30+ str with relatively easy to find equipment and GM fire stance. You can also do this on a Half-Orc monk for bigger strength numbers, but they get less skill points with a lower starting int.

Str: 16
Dex: 15
Con: 15
Int: 8
Wis: 14
Cha: 8

[giftie]

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to rethink things then and yeah your almost right about my stats except the extra points went into con instead of str so I could get con 18. Con at 14 is too low because I don't foresee stumbling into a +4 tome I'd need for con 18 and earth stance 4. I'd have to jigger my starting stats to try and squeeze some more wis in. Hmm.

This probably doesn't help you now since you're already level 9, but did you ever consider going Dwarf instead of Helf? Dwarven tactics give up to +3 DC's, and they get the +2 CON (while the negative stat is in CHA, arguably the only stat you can safely dump).

[goodspeed]

This probably doesn't help you now since you're already level 9, but did you ever consider going Dwarf instead of Helf? Dwarven tactics give up to +3 DC's, and they get the +2 CON (while the negative stat is in CHA, arguably the only stat you can safely dump).

Ya if you were going for an easy earth dwarf is it. You can start with 16 str, so your still hittn good, 16 dex so you qualify for greater 2 weapon with a +1 dex tome (They run maybe 20 to 25k?) and 16 con for some meat (can't dodge forever) and then 14 wis. If you weren't going for earth grand id say toss 2 points from con to wis.

[Therigar]

wis is a dump stat

Since almost all monk special attacks use WIS as their stat modifier it probably wasn't wise to dump WIS. You probably do not want Stunning Fist for your build because it does not use the STR modifier -- it uses the WIS modifier.

Instead, take Stunning Blow.