Armor & Shield Kensei

[elg582]

I admit it, I only want this (or something that lets you stay centered in armor & shield from vanguard/defender trees) so I can armor up a monk, and yes, I know everyone thinks monks are overpowered as it is, but I'm not sure how big of a deal this would be:

-It would, obviously, require 8 levels of fighter (or paladin if you allowed it from vanguard/defender?), eating into monk levels

-It would be effectively limited to light armor and shields, or do without evasion, which seems like a balanced trade-off

-It would limit the usefulness of Wisdom, since you can't add it to AC, further reducing the effectiveness of monk abilities

-It would exclude using kensei to remain centered with non-monk weapons, so unarmed, kama, staff or shortsword


Mostly, I'm still looking for a good excuse to make a finesse monk.

[droid327]

Honestly I don't see the point, really, with the game as-is. There is no armor that's geared towards monks; all monk-flavored items are robes/docents, so you'd be nerfing yourself by giving up all the monk-specific bonuses you get from certain named pajamas. Like you said, there's no real AC advantage, as if that really matters that much. And the PRR bonus from Light armor and shields aren't that great.

Conversely, the weapon-type limitation isn't really that great since TF basically provides an awesome endgame-level weapon option for every weapon type.

So basically...would it be overpowered? Probably not. But would it be worthwhile and not just accommodating a very specific, purely flavor build? Also probably not.