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KHELGAR, M NG SHIELD DWARF FIGHTER, LATER A M LG SHIELD DWARF MONK
There is definitely merit to leaving Khelgar as a Fighter. His armor class will be rock solid after wearing a suitable Tower Shield as well as the Greater Storm Armor of the Earth's Children. My problem, as is usual with straight Fighters, is that his Reflex and Will saving throws will be pitiful even after getting some items with saving throw bonuses.
That fact prompted me to explore whether it is worthwhile to go ahead and turn Khelgar into a Monk. There are definite benefits to going that route. The obvious first one is that the Knight-Captain will get 750xp for it that becomes transferable to Mask of the Betrayer. They don't end there though. Khelgar will gain far better saving throw bonuses, and spell resistance that increases with each level. He also has the potential to do even more damage than he was capable of as a Fighter, especially when he activates his Flurry of Blows ability. The ability can be used either with bare-fist fighting or with Monk-specific weapons. Khelgar is also able to equip certain items such as to make himself all but invulnerable during close quarter combat. Having said that, there are a number of ways to go about developing a Monk as your own Knight-Captain, which I'll offer here.
Defensive Monk - The idea is that the Monk is not so much a damage dealer, but somebody who's impervious to pretty much everything. Such a Monk can stick his neck out and hold up the enemy horde while the rest of the party can swoop in from the flanks for the kill. High saving throws and spell resistance will pretty much immunize him from magical attacks, although that's pretty much true for every Monk. The other side is to maximize the Monk's armor class, plus add in a bit of regeneration and damage resistance. The linchpin would be the Thornshield (+4 deflection bonus to armor class, 5/- damage reduction). Add in a Periapt of Wisdom +8, Boots of the Sun Soul +5, Robe of the Shining Hand +5, and a Ring of Regeneration as well, and the Monk's ability to survive a physical onslaught is through the roof. Quarterstaff based damage is decidedly inferior to other ways of developing a Monk, and it doesn't really seem like playing in the spirit of a Monk, so I didn't go this way for Khelgar.
Kama Dual-Wielding - Possibly the greatest potential for damage at epic levels. The linchpin of this set-up is the Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting feat, which has as prerequisites every other two-weapon fighting feat, character level 21, and Dexterity 25. A 20th level Monk with Flurry of Blows active has 5 attacks per round, while a 30th level Monk has 7 attacks per round. What the Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting feat does is allows a character to use the off-hand weapon for the same number of attacks and at the same attack bonus as for the main-hand weapon. And so, a 20th level Monk dual-wielding Kamas with Flurry of Blows active can attack 10 times per round at 20th level, and then 14 times per round at 30th level. A Kama's base damage is only 1d6, which on the surface is clearly inferior to the base damage of a Monk's unarmed damage. Keep in mind, though, that the Mask of the Betrayer expansion allows you to add some really funky enchantments to the weapons. Imagine that an epic level Monk dual wields two custom made Kamas as follows: main hand +8 Kama (+5d6 fire damage, +5d6 cold damage, +8 vampiric regeneration), off-hand +8 Kama (+5d6 acid damage, +5d6 electrical damage, +8 vampiric regeneration). A 30th level Monk would attack 7 times with each Kama, and the damage would easily outstrip the damage available to an unarmed Monk who attacks less times per round and would have to use gauntlets that can only provide inferior elemental damage. There's also a point to the vampiric regeneration. Vampiric regeneration is only worthwhile in my opinion when the character can connect a lot of attacks, allowing the hit point replenishment to kick in more times. A dual Kama-wielding Monk is one of the few (if not the only) instances in which I view vampiric regeneration as worthwhile. Conceivably, such a Monk could not only crank out a lot of damage to his enemies, but also recoup much if not all of the damage the Monk himself sustains. Keep in mind this set up only really takes off during an epic-level campaign. If you want to play this way, you will be committing yourself to a subpar Monk during the OC.
Unarmed Monk - The dual-wielding setup is not good for Khelgar, who won't be in any epic-level campaign that I participate in. So the way to maximize his offensive potential is to equip him with the Great Wyrm Gauntlets, as well as other standard Monk items. The set up will stack +2d6 fire damage on top of the Monk's unarmed damage.
Stats
Skills
Khelgar starts off emphasizing Craft Weapons and Taunt. I start to have him spend his points on Craft Armor during Fighter level ups so that he can craft certain armors for Valeria and Elanee.
When he changes over to Monk, he then emphasizes Hide, Move Silently, Parry and Taunt.
Feats
Starting Feats as a Fighter:
Once Khelgar changes over, he'll have all the Monk class abilities and Dwarven racial abilities together. He'll also get to level up all over again from level 1 and on as a Monk, but with the same amount of xp he had at the time that he made the change. I therefore get to select his feats again. My choices were as follows:
3rd level: Power Attack - A prerequisite for ...
6th level: Cleave - Extra Attacks are always welcome.
9th level: Circle Kick - When Khelgar hits his target with an unarmed attack, he'll get an extra attack against a nearby enemy. There's a concern that afterwards the Monk will change targets from the enemy that was initially targeted to the target that was hit by the Circle Attack. If you're willing, it's a simple enough matter to manually change the Monk's target back to the initial target.
12th level: Great Cleave - Justified in that Khelgar will often inflict insane damage with his unarmed attacks.
15th level: Blind-Fight - Helpful against enemies with Greater Invisibility and incorporeal undead and such.
18th level: Weapon Focus (Unarmed) - Increasing his chances of landing a successful blow never hurts.
Inventory
