Monk unarmed strikes questions

[Highdark]

1. Is flurry of blows a passive? If so is there a way for me to see its effectiveness?
2. I found i needed to get finesse weapons to allow my unarmed strikes to use my dex bonus for +attack. Is there a feat to get the dex for the damage bonus as well?
3.I am new to pathfinder so is there any other feats/abilities that will enhance my unarmed strike effective damage?
4. I got a skill called pummeling blows and I am unsure of what it actually does if anyone can expain. It added my normal attack and Flurry of blows together? idk

[wulfster42]

pummeling blows adds all your attacks together and then subtracts any damage reduction from the total (instead of from each attack), it doesn't do that much early on, but later you'll get more attacks, flurry auto gives you 1 (unless you went with traditional monk) extra attack, so you get 2 attacks at first instead of the normal one.

As your BAB goes up, you'll get more attacks.

So once you get 3 for instance......you might hit for 6, 8, and 5 damage normally....against an enemy with 4 damage reduction. The 4 DR would reduce your damage to 2, 4 and 1...for 7 total damage.

With pummeling blows you add all your hits together for 19 total damage, then subtract the Dr of 4...and still do 15 total damage...over double.

It's not worth it till later though really as when you only have 2 attacks most enemies will not have high DR yet (if any) so at most it'll add 1 extra damage (sometimes).

No way to get dex to damage, and i thought that weapon finess was not working with unarmed, so glad to hear it is. That does help a bit with monks crazy need for every stat. Would probably be better to start a monk with 14 str, 16 dex 16 con 16 wis then (instead of 16 str/14 dex).

You only lose 1 damage that way, but gain 1 ac and 1 refex save (that is starting as a dwarf of course).

And if I didn't state it above cleary, normal monks (no sub class) automatically use flurry of blows, so you get 2 base attacks per round instead of 1, you don't have to use an ability or anything. If you go with the traditional subclass of monk though, it's different.

Still not over the moon on monks early on right now, but later on they will probably shine more. I certainly wouldn't build a monk with only 20 starting stat points....as even with 25 it's quite hard.

[Highdark]

Hey thanks for the fast reply. Sad to hear about the no damage bonus thats quite alot of damage left off attacks. One more question that I didnt think of till now but its more monk as a whole related then unarmed strikes,. When you start you get a choice of monk, 2 others and traditional monk. Is the only difference between traditional monk and monk the 2 willpower and unable to select your ki skills? It also looked that traditional monks didnt get 2 ki powers.

[MegaDeth]

Played the game as a base monk, intro dungeon and a bit outside, and the flurry didn't activate once.

Searched here but most of the question are the same "Why isn't Flurry working? Is it an active ability?" and the answers, if there are any are the same "It works automatically"

Except it does nothing, just one attack is rolled and there's no way to troubleshoot the problem.

[bootsy81]

Originally posted by MegaDeth:

Played the game as a base monk, intro dungeon and a bit outside, and the flurry didn't activate once.

Searched here but most of the question are the same "Why isn't Flurry working? Is it an active ability?" and the answers, if there are any are the same "It works automatically"

Except it does nothing, just one attack is rolled and there's no way to troubleshoot the problem.

Hey dude, just to let you know flurry is working for my monk. Its really not obvious at all but if you watch the character animations as the 6 second timer runs down you should see that they attack once as the timer starts and again about half way through the timer.

It would be nice if there was like a glowing effect on your characters fists or something to signify it's an attack being made because of flurry. Or even a different attack animation like your PC going all fist of the north star but it does trigger and you do get the extra attack, you just need to watch closely for it. Attack a single enemy with just your monk and watch the timer and number of attacks you get each 6 second round. Should be at least 2, or your number of attacks +1.

[egeslean05]

I also went monk, but what I did was 1st level - Monk, 2nd level - Rogue (Weapon Finesse), 3rd level - Rogue, 4th level - Rogue (Finesse Training: Unarmed), Monk after that. I gained Sneak Attack and Dex to both Attack and Damage. It pushed getting other thing later and some I'll never get, but It was worth it to be able to drop ignore strength (for the most part).

[[TGC] MadGod]

2. I found i needed to get finesse weapons to allow my unarmed strikes to use my dex bonus for +attack. Is there a feat to get the dex for the damage bonus as well?

Basically a magical weapon (monk weapon, amulet whatever) with the "agile" enchantment is the only way apart from the rogue 3 level rogue "dip" egslean05 mentioned.

3.I am new to pathfinder so is there any other feats/abilities that will enhance my unarmed strike effective damage?

Feats? There is a number of feats that affect unarmed strikes and natural weapons. But I have no idea if all/any of those feats are/will be implemented in game. Have not rolled up a monk in this game yet.

Dragon style: add 1.5x str. to your first unarmed strike/round (static damage, multiplied when critting)

Jabbing style : add 1d6 dmg if 2 strikes hit an opponent (not multiplied when critting)


Itemwise, Amulet of Mighty fists....best with an "agile" enchantment, that would be the jackpot for a dex monk.

[egeslean05]

Originally posted by TGC MadGod:

2. I found i needed to get finesse weapons to allow my unarmed strikes to use my dex bonus for +attack. Is there a feat to get the dex for the damage bonus as well?

Basically a magical weapon (monk weapon, amulet whatever) with the "agile" enchantment is the only way apart from the rogue 3 level rogue "dip" egslean05 mentioned.

3.I am new to pathfinder so is there any other feats/abilities that will enhance my unarmed strike effective damage?

Feats? There is a number of feats that affect unarmed strikes and natural weapons. But I have no idea if all/any of those feats are/will be implemented in game. Have not rolled up a monk in this game yet.

Dragon style: add 1.5x str. to your first unarmed strike/round (static damage, multiplied when critting)

Jabbing style : add 1d6 dmg if 2 strikes hit an opponent (not multiplied when critting)


Itemwise, Amulet of Mighty fists....best with an "agile" enchantment, that would be the jackpot for a dex monk.

Amulet of Mighty fist is a trap, it always has been and it always will be. It's problem is that it's limited to +5, meaning you can either get +5 Enhancement bonus (which will bypass all DR and give +5 bonus to Attack and Damage) or you can get Enchantments (like Agile). Or you can get a mix, but either way you'll ALWAYS be behind weapon users who's weapons can get +5 Enhantment bonus and +5 worth of Echantments. The other part is that if you get Agile and other Echantments on the Amulet of Mighty Fists and you think 'I'll just use Greater Magic Fang to get the +5 Enhancement bonus', that bonus from GMF DOES NOT count in regards to bypassing Damage Reduction.

Unfortunately, it's also the ONLY option Unarmed Monks have.

Jabbing Style (as far as I've seen) is not in the game, only Dragon and Pummeling styles.

[[TGC] MadGod]

Amulet of Mighty fist is a trap, it always has been and it always will be. It's problem is that it's limited to +5, meaning you can either get +5 Enhancement bonus (which will bypass all DR and give +5 bonus to Attack and Damage) or you can get Enchantments (like Agile). Or you can get a mix, but either way you'll ALWAYS be behind weapon users who's weapons can get +5 Enhantment bonus and +5 worth of Echantments.

Indeed it is, but the question was how to achieve his goal...and either it is monk weapons or AomF. :)

The other part is that if you get Agile and other Echantments on the Amulet of Mighty Fists and you think 'I'll just use Greater Magic Fang to get the +5 Enhancement bonus', that bonus from GMF DOES NOT count in regards to bypassing Damage Reduction.

To be honest, considering that you want the +5 for the sole reason to have ALL damage reductions, that is a "small" price to pay. At the point where you can afford such an item, the monk will be close to be able to hit adamantine stuff anyway.

Unfortunately, it's also the ONLY option Unarmed Monks have.

Jabbing Style (as far as I've seen) is not in the game, only Dragon and Pummeling styles.

Monks somehow always got shafted...:) Paper or Computer.

[OrgasMike]

You can add DEX to damage by taking 3 levels of rogue and "finesse training Unarmed"

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by OrgasMike:

You can add DEX to damage by taking 3 levels of rogue and "finesse training Unarmed"

This is true, you can also do this by using a certain amulet.