The Gaming Den

I can't really understand this, but they've become a staple of monk builds lately.

Does it really have any power to it? It seems to me like most of the bonus feats in BoED suck for anyone who's not a druid or a wizard, and even though the equipment for monk is overpriced, I think it comes out ahead.

What do you think? Stronger or weaker than a regular monk?

While we're at it--words of creation. Combined with arcane strike, does this make bards any good?

Here's a somewhat relevant question: How does arcane strike work with a pair of gauntlets? They supposedly count as unarmed attacks, but they're also weapons, right? So, does arcane strike empower one of them or both?

It's because any time you make a character build you have to put:

"*: subject to item availability."

in it. This makes an honest assessment of the character very difficult. When the Paladin has evasion and mettle coupled with the best saves anyone's ever heard of - he's getting the Evasion from an item. A bunch of the saves are coming from an item as well. That means that without some dM cooperation, your character won't actually look like that at all.

Now, Wizards, Druids, and Clerics can honestly bring the power without any equipment at all. When you make a Cleric Archer, you don't really need the equipment. It's not really subject to DM approval and cooperation. What you see is what you get.

Vow of Poverty takes the control of the magic items out of the hands of the DM for that character. It also hopelessly cripples any character dependent upon martial weapons or armor.

So Vow of Poverty can make your Monk be WYSIWYG without completely destroying it. Which is why you see so many thought experiments about it on the web. It's the first time people have been able to make a hypothetical fighter-type build that wasn't essentially just masturbation.

The fact that it isn't actually very good is beside the point.

-Username17

Always a fan of masturbation, I play one too.

Though the main reason is that it gives me the ability to actually play a Monk the way I feel he's supposed to be: low on equipment.

Also, I'm a sucker for unusual abilities like Sustenance and Tongue of the Sun and Moon, and (eventually, I hope) getting both makes me all giddy.

I just noticed the second question: Arcane Strike adds to all of your melee attacks during a turn, not ll of your melee attacks with a single weapon. If you transform yourself into an octopus, you get to Arcane Strike 9 times (unless your DM is interpretting it with T yranosaurus Fu instead, in which case you do not).

-Username17

Just to make sure I know what you're talking about, Tyranosaurus fu = dire wolf fu, right?

Just to make sure I know what you're talking about, Tyranosaurus fu = dire wolf fu, right?

Right. In the 3rd edition rules set, it's called "Tyranosaurus Fu" because T Rexs dish out a healthy 5d8 damage base with every bite. In the 3.5 Rulesset, they only dish out 3d6 so aren't very exciting at all.

However, in 3.5, Trip has become crazy overpowered to a degree that is difficult to even understand - so creatures with a bonus trip ability are highly respectable.

So 3rd edition Tyranosaurus Fu = 3.5 Dire Wolf Fu.

Same rules interpretation, same rules argument, different creatures, different name. But the same idea.

-Username17