Stunning Fist Man

[Eltern]

This may be the wrong board for this, I hope not:

Has anyone tried to make a stunning fist focused PC? With the new feats in Complete Warrior (new for me, anyway, I never looked at Sword and Fist) there seems to be a good setup for the a disabling focused PC who just makes all the opponents stunned/paralyzed/sickened all at once, allowing the other PCs to rip on them.

Looks to me the build would be one level of monk and then fighter all the way to get at the feats quickly. However there's something to be said with taking levels in Monk for additional stuns per day, but if you've got enough levels of fighter not only are you going to have a much nicer attack bonus, but you're going to have lots of feats to drop on the additional stuns/day feat.

Eltern

 

[James McMurray]

And don't forget to be good and look into the Book of Exalted Deeds. It has several feats that are good for using stunning fists.

 

[Eltern]

And don't forget to be good and look into the Book of Exalted Deeds. It has several feats that are good for using stunning fists.

Yes indeed. For this guy Vow of Poverty would own, followed with the Golden Ice touch feat and Intuitive Strike.

Eltern

 

[Bauglir]

Stunning Fist is a truly awful ability IMHO. I once made a comparison of a fairly reasonable 5th level monk (16 dex, wis, weapon finesse) against each CR 5 monster in the monster manual and came out with an average chance of successfully stunning the target with a stunning fist of about 13%.

Granted this was under 3.0 ruleset but I'm not aware of any significant change in 3.5 that would affect this?

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Looks to me the build would be one level of monk and then fighter all the way to get at the feats quickly. However there's something to be said with taking levels in Monk for additional stuns per day, but if you've got enough levels of fighter not only are you going to have a much nicer attack bonus, but you're going to have lots of feats to drop on the additional stuns/day feat.

Eltern

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that the stunning fist DC increases only with the character's monk levels (+ Wis bonus). Using a mnk1/ftrX build might end up with a lot of stuns/day, but at such a low DC that they're effectively useless.

 

[Eltern]

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that the stunning fist DC increases only with the character's monk levels (+ Wis bonus). Using a mnk1/ftrX build might end up with a lot of stuns/day, but at such a low DC that they're effectively useless.

Nopers. Based on character levels. It's the number of times per day that is based on monk levels and/or every four other levels.

Eltern

 

[Deset Gled]

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that the stunning fist DC increases only with the character's monk levels (+ Wis bonus). Using a mnk1/ftrX build might end up with a lot of stuns/day, but at such a low DC that they're effectively useless.

SRD:

STUNNING FIST [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Wis 13, Improved Unarmed Strike, base attack bonus +8.
Benefit: You must declare that you are using this feat before you make your attack roll (thus, a failed attack roll ruins the attempt). Stunning Fist forces a foe damaged by your unarmed attack to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Wis modifier), in addition to dealing damage normally. A defender who fails this saving throw is stunned for 1 round (until just before your next action). A stunned character can’t act, loses any Dexterity bonus to AC, and takes a –2 penalty to AC. You may attempt a stunning attack once per day for every four levels you have attained (but see Special), and no more than once per round. Constructs, oozes, plants, undead, incorporeal creatures, and creatures immune to critical hits cannot be stunned.
Special: A monk may select Stunning Fist as a bonus feat at 1st level, even if she does not meet the prerequisites. A monk who selects this feat may attempt a stunning attack a number of times per day equal to her monk level, plus one more time per day for every four levels she has in classes other than monk.

Noting the number of uses per day, though, you would have to take Extra Stunning five times to get the same number of stuns per day. Considering that counts for about half of the bonus feats you would get for going the fighter route, though, I don't think it's worth it. Either way, Ability Focus (stunning fist) would be a necesity.

There are some good feats (including a tactical one) for this kind of a build, but I don't know if it would be that great. As mentioned before, you're odds of stunning any melee monster isn't very good, and there are also a lot of things that are immune to it. If you're interested in trying to make it better, I would also reccoment looking into Beyond Monks, as it features a number of stun-specific feats, as well as a good number of feats that give alternate uses for stun attempts (similar to Freezing the Lifeblood).

 

[James McMurray]

You may also be able to get your DM to agree to let you get the ability focus feat (from the Monster Manual?) to increase the save DC of your fists by 2.

Sir Whiskers: If a character is built to abuse stunning fist, it can be very nice. At level 5 you can have a DC of 30. Against non-evil foe it will drop by 4, but even then you're still pretty well off. And most foes characters in a heroic cmpaign will fight are evil.

10 + 5 (wisdom 20) + 2 (ability focus) + 4 (vow of nonviolence) + 2 (fist of the heavens) + 5 (Ki Straps) + 2 (level)

Compare that to a few randomly sampled CR 5 critter fort saves:

constrictor snake: +8, non-evil
acharei: +7
basilisk: +9, non-evil
cloaker: +8, non-evil
bearded devil: +8
phase spider: +7, non-evil

Even the best of those foes (the basilisk) will still be stunned on a 16 or less. When you couple it with other feats like Nauseating Blow (or whatever its called) that cn start to be pretty darned nice.

 

[Deset Gled]

That works out nicely at level 5, but I believe you're chances will actually get worse as you level.

As you level, the only raises you'll get to the DC are a +1 every other level, and whatever you manage to get from your wisdom. Monster saves tend to go up a bit faster than that.

 

[Caliban]

Getting Ki Straps (Sword and Fist) gives you a +4 on the DC, and if you go the Vow of Nonviolence route from BoED, you can get another +4 when using non-lethal attacks.