Is it possible to create a livable bare handed Monk that does damage?

[Oh My God! It's Jason Bourne!]

I'm not hardcore Pathfinder fan and I don't know all mechanincs. I want to play a monk class, unarmed/barehanded and to actually deal some damage, cuz in my mind it so bad-ass to do bare knuckle fights with demons. Is it possible? How will it look like?

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

It is absolutely doable, yep! You can happily just go 20 levels straight into Monk and it'll work fine. Scaled Fist, Traditional, or Student of Stone are all great choices. The Damage Reduction of demons isn't really a huge deal since, as long as you complete all the areas in Kenabras, you will get an item called the Covenant of the Inheritor. It is a permanently active trinket that grants the Cold Iron and Good property to all attacks in your party, including your Monk. This combined with Monk attacks also counting as Magic for bypassing DR means that no Demon will be able to resist your mighty onslaught of punches and kicks! The extra bonus attack you get from Flurry of Blows is also amazing in the super early game where every other class is restricted to just one attack per round.

This combines with Monks' excellent resistances and huge Base Attack Bonuses mean you'll happily be rocking your way through the game, and since one of the companions is a Zen Archer you'll also find plenty of Monk robes at vendors.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

One issue you may run into is that Monks are one of the classes that is restricted in its alignment. You must be Lawful, and if your alignment drifts out of Lawful then you will no longer be able to progress that class when you level up. This is absolutely devastating for Paladins and Monks, and means that the Chaotic aligned mythic paths are problematic since they mandate you to shift your alignment in order to progress. This is a tremendous shame, as an Azata Monk with giant butterfly wings and superpowers punching demons in the face sounds amazing. For your Monk your options are; Angel, Lich, Demon, and Aeon.

[MattStriker]

Originally posted by Super Cosmic Space Magnet:

For your Monk your options are; Angel, Lich, Demon, and Aeon.

Also Legend and Devil from the advanced path set.

Incidentally, cleric vendors sell scrolls that allow you to reset your alignment back to what you started with. They're not even all that expensive, and they let you recover the ability to advance as a monk if you slipped out of the Lawful end of the grid.

[Dothal]

Originally posted by MattStriker:

Originally posted by Super Cosmic Space Magnet:

For your Monk your options are; Angel, Lich, Demon, and Aeon.

Also Legend and Devil from the advanced path set.

Incidentally, cleric vendors sell scrolls that allow you to reset your alignment back to what you started with. They're not even all that expensive, and they let you recover the ability to advance as a monk if you slipped out of the Lawful end of the grid.

I believe once you lock in your mythic path's alignment, those scrolls reset you to the default alignment for that path instead. Because of this, a Demon monk can't work. Since Demons are chaotic evil and therefore you can't retain the lawful alignment required for Monk.

[SmallGespenst]

Originally posted by Dothal:

Originally posted by MattStriker:

Also Legend and Devil from the advanced path set.

Incidentally, cleric vendors sell scrolls that allow you to reset your alignment back to what you started with. They're not even all that expensive, and they let you recover the ability to advance as a monk if you slipped out of the Lawful end of the grid.

I believe once you lock in your mythic path's alignment, those scrolls reset you to the default alignment for that path instead. Because of this, a Demon monk can't work. Since Demons are chaotic evil and therefore you can't retain the lawful alignment required for Monk.

Demon is CE and Lich is NE so both of those will push you out of alignment. Angel and Aeon are the only two in the first set of paths that will allow you to keep levelling as Monk.

[Alehkra]

Originally posted by SmallGespenst:

Originally posted by Dothal:

I believe once you lock in your mythic path's alignment, those scrolls reset you to the default alignment for that path instead. Because of this, a Demon monk can't work. Since Demons are chaotic evil and therefore you can't retain the lawful alignment required for Monk.

Demon is CE and Lich is NE so both of those will push you out of alignment. Angel and Aeon are the only two in the first set of paths that will allow you to keep levelling as Monk.

I believe you're allowed to be adjacent to the "core" morality for paths. Demon can also be Neutral Evil or Chaotic Neutral (so they're out for a Monk pretty sure), Lich can be any kind of Evil, including Lawful Evil.

[forkofspite]

Originally posted by Alehkra:

Lich can be any kind of Evil, including Lawful Evil.

The issue would be if the monk strays from lawful. A monk lich using the scroll of Atonement will go to NE rather than LE.

If the character can remain LE throughout the game without relying on Scrolls of Atonement, it should work.

[Raikon]

You can be monk in any mythic path. Everyone is correct in saying the mythic paths will lock you out of leveling monk.

Everyone is not correct if they tell you that you cant be a monk in every mythic path.

You are only prevented from leveling further once you lose alignment. So what am I talking about? Reach level 20 before you choose the mythic path alignment lockout. Or mod I guess.

Ive made a monk/ instinctual warrior before just fine. Ive played a monk demon before, as well as a monk trickster.


Monks work best with trickster I think, due to increased multipliers, and a spell book, but the demon was pretty fun to.

[forkofspite]

Originally posted by Raikon:

Everyone is correct in saying the mythic paths will lock you out of leveling monk.

Everyone is not correct if they tell you that you cant be a monk in every mythic path.

True, but doesn't the mythic path give quests to fix your alignment if more than one-step from nominal? Can you just ignore these quests, or do they happen so late that you're already level 20?

[Raikon]

its possible to put off the alignment quest. Its easiest to solo as a zen archer, but other monks could get away with having a tiny party. You pretty much need to be level 20 by the time you reach the abyss.

There are other ways to boost the exp as well. Such as the duality item giving you exp for bad summons, or making your monk excel at mobilty/ athetetics and turning on/off only skill users recieve exp for those checks.

[Raikon]

Its been a while since I ran into deliberatly playing a restricted class with a mythic path. I know I have put the quest off until level 20 though.

[Raikon]

Once the game calms down from its major patch, and becomes bug free, and I have free time, ill look into the specifics on this.

[forkofspite]

Level 20 before abyss isn't really achievable - don't think OP mentioned solo run.

As to OP for livable, unarmored, barehanded monk, Aeon should work well. Angel should as well.

[Raikon]

I agree it might be unacheivable, im testing it out now.

[Nepnep]

Yes. Monk is great. Monk is life. Monk is AC!