Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mad_Math 07-13-07, 08:56 AM	Hi! I'm fairly new to D&D 3.5 and even newer to Eberron. I would like to make a shifter monk that can deal massive damage with its unarmed/natural weapon. What would be the best way to achieve that? What I don't quite understand is that a monk of a high enough level (and with flurry of blows) can make more than 2 attacks per round as a full action while unarmed, but a shifter with the razorclaw trait can only make 2 attacks per round as a full action with it's claws (as written in ECS). And the monk's base damage is 1d6 while it's 1d4 with razorclaw. There's no real advantage to choose this trait then, or is there a way to make it worthwhile? And in RoE, there is the shifter savagery feat that looks very good for monks (as they show with the drawing and the little text). Are the unarmed attacks of a monk also considered as natural weapon? If so this feat is good with the gorebrute or longtooth trait, but again with the razorclaw trait I will be limited to only two claw attacks. And what is the easiest way for a monk to get the rage ability, which is a prerequisite for the savagery feat? Monk/barbarian multiclassing have an alignement problem that will make him loose the rage ability... The shifter savagery feat improves the damage dealt by natural weapons, but doesn't stack with other effects that increase the base damage of natural weapons, such as improved natural attack. Does that also include the weretouched I ability, which increase the damage by one die size if you already have the appropriate shifter trait? Thank you for taking your time to read this and answer me, and sorry for my english or if I'm not clear enough...
posternutbag 07-13-07, 10:37 AM	I have played a Shifter Monk twice now and both have been very efficient characters. I think that, in general, a Shifter's natural attack is suboptimal when compared to a Monks unarmed strikes in every meaningful way. I have always gone Longstride Shifter for the bump to Dex and Speed. I could potentially see the use in a Longtooth grappler as well. I have been thinking about a Monk 10/Ranger6/WTM4 (Tiger) with Ascetic Hunter for a BAB of 16, 16 level unarmed attack progression, 16 level Favorite Enemy and all of the Shifting goodness of a Tiger WTM. I think that, in general, the 5th level of WTM is suboptimal with the new errata.
Belabras 07-13-07, 01:31 PM	You will definitely want to check out the Dragonmarks article in Dragon #356 - it focuses on Shifter monks, and one feat in particular lets you stack your Natural Weapon damage onto your Unarmed Strike damage.
Moldiver 07-13-07, 01:37 PM	You will definitely want to check out the Dragonmarks article in Dragon #356 - it focuses on Shifter monks, and one feat in particular lets you stack your Natural Weapon damage onto your Unarmed Strike damage. I think you've got the wrong issue there. #356's Dragonmarks article is "The Gathering Stone"
Belabras 07-13-07, 09:38 PM	I think you've got the wrong issue there. #356's Dragonmarks article is "The Gathering Stone" Right you are. It's #355 that has "The Way of the Shackled Beast"