| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
|---|---|
| Tal'eth03-13-04, 11:44 PM | I plan to play a monk soon and have been considering multiclassing into the Sacred Fist class. However, I'm not sure that would be the best route to take. I do like the wisdom to hit and damage of the class though, along with the Blindsight ability and the Righteous Might spell. Any thoughts or comments? Thanks in advance!! |
| Caelic03-14-04, 12:39 AM | Paladin 4. Or Paladin4/Fighter2. Or Paladin4/Monk2. There are a lot of ways, really, depending on how much feat latitude you want. |
| Iry03-14-04, 02:27 AM | There's always my old Ranger5/Sacred8/Verdant7 build, or a Monk2/Ranger4/Sacred8/Verdant6. |
| mean_liar03-14-04, 03:20 AM | Decided to give up on the Draconic Monk? ... SACRED FIST builds Paladin 4/Sacred Fist 8 Pal1 Alertness Pal1 Combat Reflexes Pal3 Improved Unarmed Pal4 - Pal4/SF2 Power Attack Pal4/SF5 Divine Might Pal4/SF8 Flying Kick OPTION : Choose the level 6+ Feats based on qualifying for a different Prestige Class, swapping out Power Attack, Divine Might, and Flying Kick as necessary. A bread-and-butter build. This is an attempt to acquire Sacred Fist 8 as quickly as possible. Presumably, you would take Feats that allow you access to a Prestige Class ... Paladin 4/Monk 1/Sacred Fist 8 (OA feat swap) Pal1 Alertness Pal1 Power Attack Pal3 Weapon Focus (unarmed) Pal4 - Pal4/Mnk1 Improved Unarmed! Pal4/Mnk1 Combat Reflexes* Pal4/Mnk1/SF1 Divine Might Pal4/Mnk1/SF4 Flying Kick Pal4/Mnk1/SF7 Hold the Line OPTION : Qualifying for a later Prestige Class at level 14+ by swapping out the level 6+ feats. More combat power due to the Monk level allows this build to take Power Attack (and therefore Flying Kick and Divine Might) at an earlier stage. Without the OA feat swap you have to take 2 Monk levels for Combat Reflexes, which is a crying shame. ... Cleric 10/Sacred Fist 8/Contemplative 2 Cle1 Alertness Cle1 Combat Reflexes Cle3 Expert Tactician Cle6 Improved Unarmed Cle6/SF3 Hold the Line Cle6/SF6 Stun Attack Cle6/SF8 - Cle6/SF8/Con1 Unbalancing Strike Cle6/SF8/Con2 - Cle8/SF8/Con2 ??? (Extend Spell?) Cle10/SF8/Con2 - +16 BAB, 4 domains, level 6 divine spells, and Sacred Fist level 8. Not too shabby... not too shabby at all. ... Fighter 2/Cleric 1/Monk 2/Paladin 1/Sacred Fist 8 (OA feat swap) Fgt1 Alertness Fgt1 Combat Reflexes Fgt1 Power Attack* Fgt2 Weapon Focus (unarmed)* Fgt2/Cle1 Divine Might Fgt2/Cle1/Mnk1 Improved Unarmed! Fgt2/Cle1/Mnk1 Stun Attack* Fgt2/Cle1/Mnk2 Unbalancing Strike* Fgt2/Cle1/Mnk2/Pal1 Expert Tactician Fgt2/Cle1/Mnk2/Pal1/SF3 Hold the Line Fgt2/Cle1/Mnk2/Pal1/SF6 ??? Fgt2/Cle1/Mnk2/Pal1/SF8 - Unbalancing Strike, Expert Tactician, Divine Might, and Weapon Focus (unarmed) all by level 1 of Sacred Fist, level 7 overall. There are problems with this, in that you're not getting No Shadow Blows until level 14, but in exchange for waiting those 2 extra levels over Pal4, you've got a whole load of Feats and combat options not available to your more impatient brethern, not to mention vastly better saves. ------ The question of whether or not to take SF levels 9 and 10 have to do with how you want to finish your non-Epic career. Where I think the Sacred Fist builds can REALLY shine is in the last 5-6 levels. What to do, what to do... Templar is an easy call for worshippers of a god that favors unarmed combat. Heck, just a level is all you really need, and you'd have Mettle and Evasion and saves through the roof. Not a bad idea to incorporate into any particular SF build in a campaign with lax GM enforcement of the Templar's restrictions. Taking a level of Rogue after SF8 allows you a lot of interesting, non-standard PrC options for the character: Devoted Defender, Consecrated Harrier, and Knight of the Middle Circle. These are some really cool options not normally seen in minmax builds. With particular Feat choices, you could consider Singh Rager 4/Bear Warrior 1. This is munchy enough to make even me blanche. Can you imagine? Fighter 2/Cleric 1/Paladin 1/Monk 1/Sacred Fist 10/Singh Rager 4/Bear Warrior 1? Its insane. You could take 2 more levels of Monk and finish as a Shintao Monk. Your saves would be phenomenal and you'd have a last-ditch opportunity to acquire unarmed combat Feats. In this case I'd recommend not taking the last 2 levels of Sacred Fist and instead taking 5 levels of Shintao Monk. Plus, its a really neat idea to me, RP-wise. It appeals to me on the same level as the Knight of the Middle Circle. |
| rilemathome03-14-04, 09:09 AM | If you're playing 3.5, make sure to check out the Living Greyhawk update to the PrC, which includes changes to Puissant Fists to make it compatible with new Damage-Reduction rules. I don't think WotC has put out any official changes yet, so LG is probably as kosher as it gets for now. Conversion Guidelines (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/articles/cd20030923v3-5conversion) However, Sacred Fists don't get Righteous Might, barring the Cleric10/SFX/PrCX option. It's a fifth level spell, and they only get up to fourth (DotF mistakenly listed fifth-level spells too, but only gave it progression to fourth level). This is official: check the 3.0 FAQ. |
| Balthanon03-14-04, 09:34 AM | My favorite Sacred Fist build is probably my Hellfire Fist, which was a Ranger 4/Sacred Fist 8/Disciple of Mephistopheles 6/Templar 2 (Talona). The nice thing about this build is that it helps to make up for some of the range disability a normal sacred fist suffers. Hellfire Blast gives you a ranged touch attack at will for 4d6 points of fire damage and later levels give you a few spell like abilities with longer range than that a few times a day. |
| rilemathome03-14-04, 05:40 PM | Would levels of CW Kensai work with a Pal4/SFX build? The capability to add Ghost Touch or other abilities to unarmed strikes would seem to mitigate one of the Sacred Fist's big drawbacks -- i.e., facing opponents who aren't harmed by standard bludgeoning attacks. |
| mean_liar03-14-04, 06:12 PM | Amulet of Natural Attacks from Savage Species. |
| TsuDhoNimh03-17-04, 09:13 AM | I like this combo for the Sacred Fist: Fighter 4/Monk 3/Holy Liberator 3/Sacred Fist 10 This build gives you all sorts of goodies: -Sacred Fist starts at 8th level after Monk 3/Fighter 3/Holy Lib 1 -Imp. Unarmed Strike, Combat Casting, Stunning Fist and a Monk feat -3 Bonus fighter feats -19 BAB -Immunity to Charm and Compulsions -Divine Grace -Great saves, especially Fort and Will -Turn Undead, useful for epic feats and Divine Might -Smite Evil -Chaotic Good alignment instead of LG with the Pally builds. Its main problem is the alignment shift necessary to go from Monk to Holy Liberator, but this shift is not much different than going from Paladin to Ex-paladin/Holy Liberator. You'd still have to be Lawful for a while though, unless you can start at level 7+. You could probably sacrifice 2 levels of Sacred Fist for levels in another class since the lvl 10 SF ability is not that great. You could add 2 more levels in HL to get the celestial companion, grab some more fighter levels for the extra feat, or even add some barbarian levels for raging. |
| the shaderaven03-17-04, 11:00 AM | Just to improove the TsuDhoNimh build with very little: Fighter 2/Monk 4/Templar 1/Holy Liberator 3/Sacred Fist 10 This way you get weapon specialization (unarmed) anyway and the 4th monk level plus templar level are clearly better that two more fighter levels. Pick Ilmater as your diety and with the bonus Sacred Fist domain take suffering (I think the templar already gives you access to the enlarge person) - the pain touch domain power is noting spectacular, but it is no save against it and enervation at 4th level is not too bad. No I don't have Book of Exalted Deeds, if vow of povetry does not require lawful alignment... with wisdom to AC, attack and damage and DC of spells and sunning fists plus charisma to saving throws i think this might even make it worthy at any nonepic level. Btw, I think that in 3.5 monk levels stack with sacred fist levels for determining flurry and the puissant fist should make you able to bypass (if your alignment is CG) magic, chaos, adamantine and good DR, plus with no shadow blows and good wisdom you should even bypass DR/epic. |
| TsuDhoNimh03-17-04, 12:24 PM | Another option going with the Templar idea is to go: Fighter 4/Monk 4/HL 3/Templar 1/SF 8 (Because I like all the feats I can get) I like to pick the Travel domain as my bonus domain to get dimension door on my spell list. Celerity works well too in order to get haste at 4th level. The +10 Spd bonus and +2 Dex are nice too, although I don't think they stack with magic item enhancement bonuses. |
| Timespike03-17-04, 03:17 PM | Well, if you want to do a vow of poverty one (and why not?) Try this: Race: Human Deity: Rao Alignment: LG 1 Paladin 1 Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty, Touch of Golden ice 2 Paladin 2 Gift of Grace 3 Paladin 3 Serenity 4 Paladin 4 Intuitive Attack 5 Monk 1 Improved Unarmed Strike 6 Fighter 1 Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Nimbus of Light 7 Sacred Fist 1 8 Sacred Fist 2 Holy Radiance 9 Sacred Fist 3 Power Attack 10 Sacred Fist 4 Stigmata 11 Sacred Fist 5 12 Sacred Fist 6 Cleave, Words of Creation 13 Sacred Fist 7 14 Sacred Fist 8 Servant of the Heavens 15 Sacred Fist 9 Clever Wrestling 16 Sacred Fist 10 Servant of the Heavens 17 Reaping Mauler 1 18 Reaping Mauler 2 Resounding Blow, Quell the Profane 19 Reaping Mauler 3 20 Reaping Mauler 4 Vow of Abstinence |