Best monk weapon (for dealing damage)?

[Lamoni]

We are starting a new campaign at 9th level. There will be a monk in our party, but it is difficult to find a weapon that might be useful. The monk will have a monk's belt, and possibly take the Fists of Iron feat. That means that she will do between 2D6+3 and 3D6+3 damage while unarmed. Are there any weapons that can match that? Or should she only carry a weapon for overcoming different types of damage reduction (and take a slashing cold iron weapon for example)?

If she was specializing in tripping or disarming, would there be a good choice of weapon for that?

Right now, it is very tempting to just ignore the weapon and dump all the starting wealth into other items. I'd like to know if I should convince her to not give up on the weapon.

Feel free to quote weapons from any printed source, but please mention where it is from if it isn't in the DMG/PHB.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

You'll be hard pressed to find ANY weapon as good as the monk's fists at 9th level. Unless you house-rule monk weapons to include things like flaming greatswords, you won't find any monk weapons as good at damaging as the monk's fists. (I believe the Order of the Blade--Living Arcanis Rules Compendium allows certain monks to treat the longsword as a monk weapon). Single classed monks should primarily use unarmed strikes for damage--occasionally using weapons to overcome DR.

If she were specialized in disarming, the Sai would be a good choice and I believe the kama would be a good choice for tripping (though multiclassing just enough to get proficiency with a flail or halberd or spending a feat on a spiked chain would also be good for tripping).

 

[Kalendraf]

Nothing compares with a monk's open hand attacks. However, that doesn't mean they should give up on finding ways to augment their attack and damage potential.

Though not technically weapons, gauntlets that can be crafted to further augment the monk's primary open hand attacks.

In my campaign, I designed a set of gauntlets for monks known as Sparkgloves. They allow the user to cast Shocking Grasp some number of times per day. The 2 variables on these gauntlets is the uses per day (typically 1 to 5) and the caster level of the spell (again, 1 to 5). The set I handed out were caster level 2, 3 uses per day. Activating them requires a standard action, but the charge (like the spell) can be kept for a long time, and it doesn't discharge until a successful melee attack is made. Usually the monk charges it up at prior to the next fight, then gets in 1 big hit on his first successful punch. Usually, he doesn't spend another charge during a fight, preferring to continue attacking instead. We rule that he can't keep the charge overnight, and touching anything else (climbing, etc) discharges it as well.

The cost for such gloves works out to be:

1 (spell level) x CL x 2000gp / (5 / charges per day)

which reduces to: CL x charges per day x 400 gp.

So the example pair from above came out to be 2400 gp. A set with max CL of 5 and 5 uses per day would cost 10000 gp.

FYI, we dropped the whole +3 to hit opponents in metal armor aspect of shocking grasp, since it became more complicated than I intended it to be leading to cases where the punch/kick missed, but the shock was still delivered. Yuck... Just call the loss of that ability a limitation of the gauntlets.

Also, the items could be crafted using another item besides gauntlets, but that seemed the most likely item slot for this. The standard 50% cost increase for non-standard slot or 100% increase for non-slotted item should be used for other kinds of items.

You can take other low-level combat spells and use them to make similar monk-enhancing items as well.

 

[Tetsubo]

Nothing compares with a monk's open hand attacks. However, that doesn't mean they should give up on finding ways to augment their attack and damage potential.

Though not technically weapons, gauntlets that can be crafted to further augment the monk's primary open hand attacks.

In my campaign, I designed a set of gauntlets for monks known as Sparkgloves. They allow the user to cast Shocking Grasp some number of times per day. The 2 variables on these gauntlets is the uses per day (typically 1 to 5) and the caster level of the spell (again, 1 to 5). The set I handed out were caster level 2, 3 uses per day. Activating them requires a standard action, but the charge (like the spell) can be kept for a long time, and it doesn't discharge until a successful melee attack is made. Usually the monk charges it up at prior to the next fight, then gets in 1 big hit on his first successful punch. Usually, he doesn't spend another charge during a fight, preferring to continue attacking instead. We rule that he can't keep the charge overnight, and touching anything else (climbing, etc) discharges it as well.

The cost for such gloves works out to be:

1 (spell level) x CL x 2000gp / (5 / charges per day)

which reduces to: CL x charges per day x 400 gp.

So the example pair from above came out to be 2400 gp. A set with max CL of 5 and 5 uses per day would cost 10000 gp.

FYI, we dropped the whole +3 to hit opponents in metal armor aspect of shocking grasp, since it became more complicated than I intended it to be leading to cases where the punch/kick missed, but the shock was still delivered. Yuck... Just call the loss of that ability a limitation of the gauntlets.

Also, the items could be crafted using another item besides gauntlets, but that seemed the most likely item slot for this. The standard 50% cost increase for non-standard slot or 100% increase for non-slotted item should be used for other kinds of items.

You can take other low-level combat spells and use them to make similar monk-enhancing items as well.

This is a good idea. And one that I have been playing with. But wouldn't it be easier to just have gauntlets with a weapons enhancement added to them rather than a specific spell? So you could have Shocking or Flaming gaunlets rather than Shocking Grasp or a fire spell. The gauntlets would need to be masterwork and have a +1 magical bonus but is that a bad thing?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

This is a good idea. And one that I have been playing with. But wouldn't it be easier to just have gauntlets with a weapons enhancement added to them rather than a specific spell? So you could have Shocking or Flaming gaunlets rather than Shocking Grasp or a fire spell. The gauntlets would need to be masterwork and have a +1 magical bonus but is that a bad thing?

Or take Bracers of Striking from Magic of Faerun, and assume they apply to the monk's unarmed attack.

If the monk has Power Attack, a +1 Ki Focus/+1 Ki Focus quarterstaff is a nice investment, so that he might get more oomph out in a hit. Mine calls his the Rod of Discipline.

Brad

 

[Kalendraf]

This is a good idea. And one that I have been playing with. But wouldn't it be easier to just have gauntlets with a weapons enhancement added to them rather than a specific spell? So you could have Shocking or Flaming gaunlets rather than Shocking Grasp or a fire spell. The gauntlets would need to be masterwork and have a +1 magical bonus but is that a bad thing?

You can take that route as well, I guess, though since there aren't any enchanted gloves in the base DMG, not all DM's may allow it. I actually like having the characters get or craft custom Wondrous Items, but I'm not quite as lenient on weapons and armor. So if someone were to come up to me and suggest +1 Monk Gauntlets, I'd probably say no. But that's just me.

While I'm on the topic, I should mention that I made a minor artifact for the monk in this campaign (same guy with the sparkgloves) which is story-related. It's called the Staff of Harmony and it scales in power with the monk who wields it. Some of the nifty abilities it gains and improve with the level of the monk include Sonic damage, Sonic resistance for the wielder, Improved Sunder ability and at very high levels it can create a short term zone of anti-magic. If anyone is interested, I can dig out the item and post it (likely in a non-rules forum).

 

[DanMcS]

Sai are good for disarming (monk, and they're finessable, they're small but the +4 bonus to disarm with them cancels that penalty out). You can throw them, even as part of a flurry.

Kama give a bonus to trip.

My favorite monk weapon is the sling. +1 with maybe some elemental enchantment for 8000 gp, and you've got a not-too-shabby ranged weapon. Oil of Magic Stone is 50 gp per.

Siangham are useless unless you're making a monk/duelist.

Take the feat and describe it as a multi-section staff and a spiked chain becomes fairly entertaining.

 

[Kalendraf]

My favorite monk weapon is the sling. +1 with maybe some elemental enchantment for 8000 gp, and you've got a not-too-shabby ranged weapon. Oil of Magic Stone is 50 gp per.

This brings up a good point. Many of the monk's abilities revolve around their ability to decimate foes in melee, but they have very little to help when forced into ranged combat (flying enemies, etc). Rather than just stand around, possibly deflecting a few arrows coming your way, why not take pot shots at the enemy instead. Chances are the monk has a decent BAB and dex bonus, making them fairly accurate at ranged combat as well. Either the sling or crossbow works, although at higher levels, the 1-shot-per-round limitation of the crossbow or sling (loading is move equivalent) will be a problem, and it's probably not worth burning feats for rapid reload unless you really really want to. If you're going to burn a feat, it's probably better to go for composite long bow so you can get a Mighty bow that takes advantage of your strength instead. I've never been very impressed by the damage from the sling, but maybe the Magic Stone trick is enough to make it respectable as well.

 

[Hypersmurf]

If you're going to burn a feat, it's probably better to go for composite long bow so you can get a Mighty bow that takes advantage of your strength instead.

Don't forget you can use Flurry of Blows with thrown sai or shuriken. Base damage isn't great, but you can apply your Str bonus without spending hundreds of gp on a specially-designed composite bow...

-Hyp.

 

[UltimaGabe]

If you're looking for plain damage dealing with a Monk weapon, I'd suggest the War Fan from the Arms & Equipment Guide. It has 1d6 base damage (just like the Nunchaku, Kama, and Siangham), but it has a x3 crit. Plus, there's some sort of bluff thing you can do with it as well.