Inexperienced player looking at Sacred Fist for next life. Advice sought.

[Contessor]

personally i like the idea of dagger SF cuz u can use VKF, but sacred fist is one of the best things to level on low lifers/new players, massive saves, evasion, great bonuses to hit/damage. makes a great first class, last class, or hardcore build

Agree. I had so much fun on my last sacred fist life with a goldcurse and drifting lotus.

 

[misterski]

Why is Sacred Fist a sub of Paladin and not Monk? Has this been explained somewhere? You have to be Lawful for Monk, and LG for Paladin -- who would build a Paladin to use fists? Makes no sense to me.

Sacred Fist was a divine prestige class in 3E. They were already working on the cleric archetype so I guess they figured they would make it a paladin archetype instead. Based on its divine pedigree it wouldn't make sense as a monk archetype.

 

[Mand O'Lin]

I don't understand or see how this build could be that great. is it the whirlwinds? There's almost no inherent melee power built in, which obviously just becomes a huge problem at cap. I was REALLY wanting to make the old rogue/monk/fighter q staff split work, as it was a dodge machine, but it just never performed at cap due to a massive lack of melee power..

It is a build which works particularly well in heroics, where MP is on the low level. I used this basic build (with some adjustment here and there) to run most of my racial lives. And yes, it is the whirlwinds which make it so effective.
- Run through collecting mobs around you.
- Quickstrike
- Whirlwind 1 (everything takes 2+ hits)
- Whirlwind 2 (everything takes 2+ hits).
Oh, look... everything is dead. Repeat.

Changes were just made to nerf lower level melees, and I have no idea how the changes impacted this build... However, it was (likely still is) a tremendously powerful build. I could solo R4, and usually outkilled the rest of the party combined (frequently hitting 80% of the total kills). The most common exception was when a really good caster was in the group, because they could kill the mobs before I could get into melee.

 

[Mand O'Lin]

If you’re doing qstaff then you have to choose 5 rogue for t5 acrobat, 5 monk for t5 henshin or 14 pally for holy sword, all of which would give you +1 to crit threat and multiplier. Personally I think t5 rogue gives the most bang for the buck. Plus vault is one of the most fun abilities in the game imo.

So that be a min 5Ro/8P/7x (monk likely the best fit for imbue dice. Even for heroics, doing a qstaff build is miserable dmg wise, at least S2P and having expanded threat makes is a big less of a slog, and not getting that until late levels really blows.

In post #10 I did indicate my preference for Rogue T5.

Keep in mind the OP was not looking for a build, just some general advice. So that is what I attempted to do. I would probably suggest something along the lines of Rogue 6 / Sacred Fist 6 / Monk 2. The extra 6 would go into either Rogue or Sacred Fist for 12/6/2 or 6/12/2. You can also go 6 monk (with the last 2 going wherever) for one extra imbue dice over the 6/12/2 build. Extra Rogue levels = more sneak attack dice and improved Evasion. Extra SF levels = more imbue dice, more spells, and better all around melee abilities (BAB, Saves, AC). Extra Monk levels provides the weakest return on investment, but is still nice. There is a fair bit of wiggle room in the build allowing you to try out different things. You definitely want to be in Wind Stance and wear Perfect Pinnacle at level 10+ for some extra *****!

I think the (minimum) enhancement point distribution was something like 34 Thief Acrobat, 22 Sacred Fist, 7/9 Henshin Mystic, 8/9 Assassin.

 

[dur]

I think it's "funny" a sacred fist/monk build is still desired. Dark ranger is now my go-to, as opposed to the ranger/rogue build I always used.

 

[Soulcial]

IMO 15/3/2 SF/Monk/FVS. handwraps.
Haste boost and divine might from war soul tree
master of forms or grandmaster of forms for extra crit multi or dodge/saves
2 imbue dice from henshin cores
shintao tree for some goodies
ninja spy tree for dodge, subtlety and some extra sneak dice.
Run in t5 divine crusader, supplement with LD and shadowdancer.
depending on your racial ap, good options are drow, aasimar, tabaxi.. half elf.. human.

Right now i am playing a 14/6 sacred fist / dark apostate, just to meme, and it's actually decent, and fun.. mostly enhancements are self explanatory, haste boost from vistani, divine might from war priest. its no top end raid dps toon but it definitely does fine in questing. at level 29 with all level 15 gear I was doing decent damage in r3 IOD. it got a lot better with t5 divine crusader.