But what about Dragons!?

Role: Nuker/Tank/Damage Dealer

Race: Human
Alignment: any Lawful

Stats:
Str: 16
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 7
Wis: 7
Cha: 19 > 24

Final Build: Sorcerer 15/Dragon Disciple 4/Monk(Scaled Fist) 1
Bloodline: Draconic(Gold or Red)

Main skills: Knowledge: Arcana 5, Mobility 3, Persuasion*
Suggested secondary skills: Whatever you like. You have 13 spare points. Use Magic Device is a good fit.

*Put at 1 in persuasion at character creation, finish arcana and mobility, then persuasion again.

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Sorcerer - Spell Focus: Evocation, Greater Spell Focus: Evocation, Spell Specialization
Lvl 2: Sorcerer
Lvl 3: Sorcerer - Weapon focus: Touch/bite/claw***
Lvl 4: Sorcerer
Lvl 5: Sorcerer - Dazzling Display
Lvl 6: Sorcerer
Lvl 7: Dragon Disciple - Dodge
Lvl 8: Dragon Disciple - Toughness
Lvl 9: Dragon Disciple - Outflank
Lvl 10: Dragon Disciple
Lvl 11: Sorcerer - Shatter Defenses // Blind Fight*
Lvl 12: Monk** - Crane Style
Lvl 13: Sorcerer - Elemental Focus: Fire
Lvl 14: Sorcerer
Lvl 15: Sorcerer - Greater Elemental Focus: Fire
Lvl 16: Sorcerer
Lvl 17: Sorcerer - Arcane Strike
Lvl 18: Sorcerer - Quicken Spell****
Lvl 19: Sorcerer - Heighten Spell
Lvl 20: Sorcerer

*Optional. Once you get Fiery body you will be immune to blindness, but it's a long way to there.
**you can shift monk however you like even lvl 1 is not bad. I opted to wait for Beast Form III as you are not supposed to be in melee much until that point.
***Whatever you fancy. Doesn't matter, really.
****Optional. Quickened true strikes and vanishes are good, but rods can fill the role just as fine. Improved initiative is an option.

Spell Specialization:
Lvl 1-3: Burning Hands
Lvl 4-5: Burning Arc
Lvl 6-9: Fireball
Lvl 10-12: Dragon’s Breath
Lvl 13-16: Fire Snake
Lvl 17-20 Sirocco

Spells by level in order of importance:
Lvl 1: Burning Hands, Shield, Mage Armor*, Vanish, Enlarge Person, True Strike
Lvl 2: Burning Arc, Mirror Image, Glitterdust, Sense Vitals, Web**
Lvl 3: Fireball, Displacement. Haste, Resist Energy(Communal), Dispel Magic*
Lvl 4: Dragon’s Breath, Dimension Door, Animate Dead, Protection from Energy(Communal)
Lvl 5: Beast Shape III***, Fire Snake, Geniekind, Angelic Aspect
Lvl 6: Dragonkind I*, Transformation, Sirocco, Heroism(Greater)
Lvl 7: Dragonkind II*, Wave of Exhaustion, Firebrand, Legendary Proportions
Lvl 8: Dragonkind III*, Seamantle, Frightful Aspect
Lvl 9: Fiery Body

*You will get this as a Bloodline spell, don’t have to pick it.
**Optional. Some CC won't hurt, but it's whatever.
***Taken to give you a melee option. You can skip it if you feel like you don’t need it. You can’t cast spells in beast shape. With bard buffs, haste, and your high Str you should hit decently well

Metamagic:
Vanish(Quicken), Burning Arc(Quicken), Mirror Image(Quicken), Sense Vitals(Quicken) Fireball(Quicken), Haste(Quicken), Displacement(Quicken), Dragon’s Breath(Quicken), Dimension Door(Quicken), Fire Snake(Quicken)
Sirocco(Heightened) - lvl7.8.9. Dragonkind III(Heightened) lvl 9

Gear: +Cha helmet, Fire Robes, +Str+Dex+Con items. AC Bracers, AC items, elemental damage to attacks/natural attacks: alkali gloves and winter wolfs cloak for example. Metamagic Rods

Your standard nuker sorcerer with a good late-game plan. Dragon Forms allow you to cast. General plan when you get there is as such: decide if you want to murder them in melee or with spells/breath weapon. Buff. if you decided to go melee you will need to add geniekind, firebrand and sense vitals to your regular buff routine.

Pick dragon type according to enemy resistances. When(an if) you get to Fiery Body it won't matter as you would be immune to everything in any ice dragon form. Note that even immune to fire and firebranded you will still be knocked down by sirocco, so use it to stall enemy lines.

Quicken spells serve dual purpose. They are either your get-out-of-jail-free cards, or additional damage per round.

Use metamagic rods extensively. They will boost your damage by a lot.

Now bad news are it takes time to get to dragon forms. I opted for beast shape to get you going sooner. While you can’t cast spells in it, breath weapon works perfectly fine. Fire-breathing bears. Ha! With the assistance of buffs and outflank you will hit reasonably well. Turn off fighting defensively while in beast form. Every bit of AB counts there.

Fighting defensively doesn’t affect DC spells that we use. Click it from level 1 and never turn it off pretty much, except for beast form. With dragon form it won’t hinder you, as you can cast Transformation to ramp up your AB by that time. Note that Transformation prohibits spell-casting - buff before use.

Will have about 70+AC and 40+ AB late-game in case you are interested. Damage is not too shabby either.

There is no reason to go anything, but human.

Elven Arcane Warrior

Role: Damage Dealer/Off-tank

Race: Elf
Alignment: Lawful-Good

Stats:
Str: 7
Dex: 19 > 24
Con: 12
Int: 16
Wis: 7
Cha: 16

Final Build: Paladin(Divine Hunter) 2/Rogue(Eldritch Scoundrel) 7/Monk(Scaled Fist) 1/Eldritch Knight 10

Main skills: Mobility 3, Trickery Max, Persuasion(max)
Suggested secondary skills: Perception (max), Stealth 1, Use Magic Device(spare)

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Paladin - Dodge
Lvl 2: Rogue
Lvl 3: Rogue - Weapon Focus: Elven Curve Blade
Lvl 4: Rogue - Finesse Training: Elven Curve Blade
Lvl 5: Monk - Outflank // Crane Style
Lvl 6: Rogue - Combat Trick: Crane Wing
Lvl 7: Rogue - Accomplished Sneak Attacker
Lvl 8: Rogue
Lvl 9: Rogue - Dazzling Display
Lvl 10: Eldritch Knight - Shatter Defenses
Lvl 11: Eldritch Knight - Improved Critical: Elven Curve Blade
Lvl 12: Eldritch Knight
Lvl 13: Eldritch Knight - Crane Riposte
Lvl 14: Eldritch Knight - Arcane Strike
Lvl 15: Eldritch Knight - Persuasive
Lvl 16: Eldritch Knight
Lvl 17: Eldritch Knight - Greater Weapon Focus: Elven Curve Blade
Lvl 18: Eldritch Knight - Weapon Specialization: Elven Curve Blade
Lvl 19: Eldritch Knight - Decietful
Lvl 20: Paladin

Spells by level in order of importance:
Lvl 1: Color Spray*, Mage Armor*, Shield**, Enlarge Person**, Reduce Person**, True Strike, Vanish**, Shocking Grasp
Lvl 2: Mirror Image, Web*, Glitterdust, Sense Vitals, Scorching Ray**, +Stat Spells
Lvl 3: Displacement, Haste**, Heroism, Vampiric Touch, Resist energy(Communal)**, Dispel Magic
Lvl 4: Animate Dead, Greater Invisibility, Dimension Door, Protection from Energy(Communal)
Lvl 5: Geniekind, Angelic Aspect, Echolocation
Lvl 6: Transformation, Heroism(Greater), Dispel Magic(Greater), Elemental Assessor

*Your tools for solving early-game
**Easy to find/buy scrolls. You will have enough spells from leveling to grab everything you really need, but it’s nice to accelerate the process.

Gear: Monk Robes, best Elven Curve Blade you can find, +Stat Items, +AC items

A few words about spells. Scorching ray is only any good from lvl8 for you. Sneak attacks works on ray spells no problem.

Vampiric touch is taken to be used with reach metamagic rod to give you something with damage at lvl3. Is not mandatory, but is nice to have.

When EK10 crits he can use 1 spell as a swift action. So your tactics is hit em till you crit and then nuke wit whatever. Will be easy with Shatter. Or you can toss some defensive spells if you need those.

Turn on Fighting Defensively at lvl 4 and never turn it off again.

Rods are your friends. Use them.

Transformation you don't 'need' for AB, but it's still more AC.

Use crossbow till lvl 5. It'll be fine. Don't remember if you get one in the starting kit. You can borrow one from tartuccio and force him to use cantrips instead.

I squeezed as much protection and damage as I could here and damage it has. In tough fights don’t hesitate and chug Enlarge Person potion or toss a spell on him. You will lose a tiny bit of AB, but will safely chop away with reach. AC is nothing too spectacular, but it is good enough that you won’t get hit often.

Could you add either a separate post about AC or add to the builds how decisions affect the characters AC?

I have seen you make comments several times like "proper duelist with buffs is in the 70's on AC". I am still on my first run through and at lvl9 the max AC I have on my companions is just over 30 (Valerie) with most just breaking 20. Am I missing something?

Valerie's numbers at lvl 9 for me
Total value 32
Base value: 10
Dexterity bonus: +2
Deflection: +1 [Ring of Protection +1]
Armor: +10 [Full Plate]
Focus: +1 [Heavy Armor Focus]
Shield: +4 [Tower Shield]
Natural armor enhancement: +2 [Amulet of Natural Armor +2]
Dodge: +1 [Dodge]
Dodge: +1 [AC Bonus]

Armor in case of STR builds is a lot harder to stack. that's pretty much why. my duelist guide has detailed AC stacking breakdown. what we do there is get AC from multiple sources such as aldori, monk, wings, duelist. in bulk.

As for STR armor stacking you are missing: Crane style and 3 mobility for extra 4AC with fighting defensively. shield focus is missing there, depending if you followed my valerie build or not you might have higher available AC from dex than you have. Will need dex item or cat's grace to compensate in that case.

medium encumbrance is -3AC. check if you have that. it is really painful debuff for a tank. will need str item or buff to compensate

you also lack 1 from haste in your calculation. there is also enchanted tower shield sold in town. it will be a long time till you find anything better than that.

I will make detailed post about #nicebuild basics in this game soon-ish. that is a good idea.

oh and about companion AC there are only three companions that can tank reasonably enough and none of them break any records.

Reggie can reach decent armor levels with buffs due to his draconic bloodline with buffs if you cook him correctly.
Valerie is ok if you stack a bit of everything on her.
Ekuns dog can tank somewhat

you can also build Amiri into a reasonable off-tank. but that's not lore-freindly.

this is why I focus on melee-capable builds for MC. building an archer or something might be fun but people don't like using mercs and you don't have main tank that way.

Character Building DIY

Introduction

This guide is written with pure mechanics in mind. "Fun". "RP", etc are not taken into equation at all. Reason for that is all of the above are subjective. You can do whatever you want and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. My goal is to give you information so if you are making sub-optimal choices you'd do so knowingly.

Basics.

Bonus stacking.
Bonuses of the same name usually do not stack, unless specified(example: flurry of blows that specifically stacks with haste). With the exception of Dodge bonus which stacks indefinitely and Natural armor gained through Character development. Bonuses with unspecified source do stack. The highest available bonus applies.
Example: +4 dexterity belt gives enchantment bonus to dexterity. You cast Cat’s grace that gives enchantment bonus to dexterity on yourself. You will still have +4 to Dex.

Reach.
Very important mechanic of the game. Available to reach weapons or enlarged two-handers. This is what makes enlarge person so good. Two-handed fighters usually don’t sport a lot of AC, so it’s best to keep them in back row.

Pets.
Pets are OP. it is pretty much an extra body on the field. As capable as story companions if not better. Clear winners are Smilodon and Leopard. Leopard gets trip, Smilodon has more attacks. Pets contribute to carry capacity as per their STR.

AC.
Pretty much all or nothing in this game. “Medium AC” just doesn’t cut it - even regular enemies AB is just too high for that. If you get hit at all - you die(enemy damage modifiers are really high too). There are people that will say ”control battlefield better”, etc… if you have everything controlled - you don’t need AC at all. If things hit you - you need as much of it as you can get, period. Hence classes(or class combos) that don’t get huge boosts to AC should not be even considered as front-liners.

DR.
DW barbarians can get away with flanking, due to DR, but even that will not save you on higher difficulties. The higher damage modifier on enemies is - the worse DR works to the point of being negligible on unfair.

BaB.
You get an extra attack at 6/11/16. Can be really important or not depending on what you do. Pretty much anything that goes into physical fighting does want high BAB. even though last attack will have laughable bonus compared to the 1st one and will likely miss it is still an extra chance to roll 20 and crit at the very least. On the other hand if you do not use rays or weapons an rely on DC spells - you can safely ignore BAB. there is also Transformation spell that sets your BAB to 20 and disables spellcasting that can be used to great effect. That spell is what allows pure vivisectionists to be so insane. For spell-casters that focus on rays there is True-strike. Those do ten to run out but touch AC is not that hight to begin with - they should hit reasonably well with buffs an maxed dex.
Enemy AC/Saves
Those are set pretty high. It has two main effects. First: Crit builds rule the world of physical attacks. Second: you do not even try to cast DC spells on anything that doesn’t have max casting stat and all feats/items that boost DC of that spell group.

Flanking
Targets are considered flanked when two or more melee fighters are engaged with them. you do not have to position yourself in any fashion for that.

Multi-Classing.
This game punishes anyone that does an average job at everything. What multi-classing should achieve is further sharpening your main focus. only reasonable exception is getting tankier on something that does damage and vice versa. Preferably if that thing you are multi-classing in gives you desired outcome in one or two levels, unless it does the job of boosting your main focus as well. example: there is no point in taking class with slow AC progression like Fighter for the sole purpose of boosting AC - it is too slow; monk on the other hand can give you more AC in just 1 level dip if you have the right stats.

Character Progression
Keep in mind the tempo of your character and when he will get online. It will be very hard to play something that will become good in late teens or even at lvl 20. you should know exactly how you will tackle every part of your progression and keep your priorities. jam-pack as much into every level as possible - leveling takes a long time and you need to be on the power curve(or better) of the best single-class archetypes all game long. Or, at the very least, be better than best subclass of your archetype would be.


Good multi-classing dips.

Vivisectionist 1. Gives mutagen that stacks with anything. Pretty much +4 to your main stat and +2AC for 1-2 fights. And an extra d6 sneak dice for good measure.
Vivisectionist 3. Actually long enough mutagen and feral for an extra bite.
Monk 1: crane style and AC from cha or wis for 1 level dip? At full BAB? Yes, please.
Monk 2: another free feat and evasion. Good enough deal if you have nothing better to take.
Mad Dog 2/5: Ok dip for a martial build that wants pets.
Archaeologist 2/DD4: 2 feats. 4STR, 3AC and swift access to uncanny dodge, makes all skills class skills. A must on most any martial build that doesn't already have mirror.
Scion1/DD4: Same as above for 1 level less. Gets slightly fewer bonuses. Useful if your build is too tight for the above.
Sacred Huntsmaster 3: Same as above, but for pet classes
Divine Hunter 2: Free Precise Shot, Cha bonus to saves, Smite Evil for boss killing.
Divine Guardian 3: Proficiencies, Cha to saves, Smite, 3AC buff you can cast on yourself. Pretty good ramp investment for armored builds.
Freebooter 4: Style Feat and amazing Freebooter’s Bond.
Freebooter 6: Two style feats and +2 Freebooter's bane
Thug 4: Fear, uncanny, feats, finesse... Pretty good deal overall if you use dazzling and don't mind chasing enemies.
Stalwart Defender 1: +1AC, full BAB, Defensive Stance. Pretty nice.

Top Feats.

Crane Style: cuts fighting defensively penalty in half and +1AC. Pure gold.
Outflank: +2AB in one feat. every melee should have it by lvl7 tops.
Combat Reflexes+Seize the Moment: It's ok. Usually there is some better stuff to take, though.
AC Feats. not the most efficient, but for armored front-liners are totally unavoidable.
Slashing/Piercing Grace. Decent way to skip Rogue dips. Dex aldori, magus, monk
Crane Wing*: +4AC. Awesome
Crane Riposte*: 1 less penalty and extra attack once a blue moon. Pretty much a weapon focus with a bit extra.
Spell Specialization: Allows you to stay above the curve on a spell-caster, or negate some multi-classing drawbacks to stay on the curve. The best spell-caster feat in the game.
Heighten Spell: it's the only thing rods can't do for us.
Shatter Defenses. Essential to most any character using attack rolls at all.
*Yes, crane wing/riposte work with all melee weapons in the game.

How to stack AC to unreasonable levels:
For unarmored:
-have a bit dex and wis/cha
-bracers
-have AC enhancements from class
-have wings through Aasimar or draconic bloodline. Halflings cautious fighter works too. can have both even.
-have at least a level of monk
-Have Crane Style and 3 Mobility for fighting defensively.
-buff up. alchemists can give out personal spells to others. namely, we are interested in shield spell, so if your class has no access to it you can use them. as an alternative, you can take UMD and use shield spell wands, but those will run out sooner or later.
-???????
-Profit!

For armored:
-have Oak(varn DLC)
-have AC enhancements from class
-bracers
-buff up
-???????
-Profit!

How to stack damage to unreasonable levels.
Physical:
Option 1:Have sneak attacks high and scale from the number of attacks. Easy to execute, but won't be exactly insane anytime soon.
Option 2: Stack flat damage from str, power attack, etc. Scale from crit(saint with falcata is a prime example). Highest damage possible in the game overall, but is quite demanding for the build.
Option 3: Stack dice. Similar to the above, but instead of crits you scale dice(not that you don't take crit feats, you just won't have insane multipliers). Take oversized bastard, have lead blades, and legendary. Maybe take greater vital strikes.
Option 4: A combination of the above.

Magic:

DC spells: only decent if they hit a lot of targets. Exception is Arcane Trickster10 that can sneak with AOE. Will need to toggle Impromptu Sneak Attack for it to work properly and comes into play very late in the game. Can do a lot of damage if there are 5+ targets in the AoE. AT is a lot lot better in theory, than in practice, though.

Ray spells. scorching ray and hellfire ray. The latter requires CL19 to function properly. the rest is about the same as melee. have a bunch of sneak dice and pew-pew. Targets must be flanked or you should have Arcane trickster levels for Impromptu Sneak Attack

How to stack saves to unreasonable levels:
Have charisma as primary stat. Add 2 Paladin levels. Done. Is not usually worth it even for Cha classes. 2 Levels in a game where most people end at lvl16-18 are an incredibly high investment. Also, we can just be LG and use bestow grace from a local cleric when the saves are needed. Reason for that is actually pretty simple: it is only so often you have to resist something and even then you usually have buffs that would do the job of negating damage/effects just as fine.


will add more if something comes to mind or is brought up to me.

Are you Nerd Commando (youtube)?

no. I think his builds are poorly optimized tbh.
better than most, but I find them lacking.

Yours are very similar, that's why I asked.

which ones specifically? if you mean Valerie this is the only thing that can be done with her, apart from turning her into a pretty bad sorc or thundercaller bard, watched a few of his vids. most his companion solutions were abandoning core class and making something else. that was not the approach I took.

upd. tbh I'm not even sure he played the game, I remember he took proficiency in fauchards on someone at like level 3.

There was nothing specific. I watched a few of his videos and I've just been skimming through your guide and I saw some similarities, that's all.

Melee Sorc

Race: Human

Alignment: LG(for the robes)

Stats:
Str: 18 > 22
Dex: 15 > 16 @4
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 7
Cha: 16

Final Build: Monk(Scaled Fist) 1/Sorcerer(Copper Dragon) 5/Dragon Disciple 4/Eldritch Knight 10

Main skills: Mobility 3, Knowledge: Arcana 5, Persuasion (Max)
Suggested secondary skills: Stealth 1+, UMD(Max)

Lvl 1: Monk - Martial Weapons // Dodge // Crane Style
Lvl 2: Sorcerer - Extend Spell
Lvl 3: Sorcerer - Weapon Focus: Greataxe
Lvl 4: Sorcerer
Lvl 5: Sorcerer - Dazzling Display
Lvl 6: Dragon Disciple
Lvl 7: Dragon Disciple - Outflank // Power Attack
Lvl 8: Dragon Disciple
Lvl 9: Dragon Disciple - Crane Wing
Lvl 10: Eldritch Knight - Shatter Defenses
Lvl 11: Eldritch Knight - Improved Critical: Greataxe
Lvl 12: Eldritch Knight
Lvl 13: Eldritch Knight - Crane Riposte
Lvl 14: Eldritch Knight - Dreadful Carnage*
Lvl 15: Eldritch Knight - Intimidating Prowess*
Lvl 16: Eldritch Knight
Lvl 17: Eldritch Knight - Greater Weapon Focus: Greataxe
Lvl 18: Eldritch Knight - Cleave
Lvl 19: Eldritch Knight - Cleaving Finish
Lvl 20: Sorcerer
*Optional. Technically frightful will do it for free once you get to level8 spells. If you want to wait for level 8 spells is a question. I'd take it for solo or if I didn't have a bard with dirge.

Important Spells:
Lvl 1: Shield, True Strike, Enlarge Person, Corrosive Touch, Magic Missile
Lvl 2: Mirror Image, Sense Vitals, Glitterdust
Lvl 3: Haste, Rage, Resist Energy(Communal), Vampiric Touch
Lvl 4: Greater Invisibility, Animate Dead, Dimension Door, Protection From Energy(Communal)
Lvl 5: Angelic Aspect, Echolocation, Cloudkill
Lvl 6: Transformation, Heroism(Greater)
Lvl 7: Legendary Proportions, Waves of Exhaustion, Firebrand
Lvl 8: Frightful Aspect, Seamantle

Gear: Greataxe(Vanquisher), Monk Robes, +Stat gear, Absolver cloak, Ring of Circumstances, Dreamer ring, Opportunist’s boots, Armor Bracers, Quicken Rod, Wind Breath or Riversong Amulet.

Bard version is https://www.gog.com/forum/pathfinder_kingmaker/ineffect_builds_for_you/post355

Pretty straightforward. Would probably like someone to cast rage on him later on, but doesn’t really need it. Has rage of his own to compensate for AB loss a bit.

Most of his gear is found and not from artisans, which is a bonus. Doesn’t need gyronna to reach 70 AC, so there’s that as well.

Don’t jump on greataxes just because you’ve got a feat. Wait till you get a decent one. Meanwhile you will probably want to use monk weapons. There are flaming nunchucks in A1 and then you can buy a +2staff from the old witch in A2. Extra attack per round goes a long way.

Power attack is taken as a prerequisite for 2 feats we want and it is unlikely you(or anyone) will ever use it.

Automatic dazzle from level 14 and he’s good at it too. Has shatter defenses. Crane feats you technically could live without altogether, but early/mid-game AC ramp is important too.

Dueling Monk

Role: Damage Dealer/Tank

Race: Aasimar(Plumekith)
Alignment: Lawful-Good*

*Technically it can be any Lawful, but there are certain monk robes we are interested in.

Stats:
Str: 7
Dex: 19 > 24
Con: 14
Int: 16*
Wis: 16*
Cha: 7

*Can be 14 Int 18 Wis for and extra point of AC for the most part of the game. will cost you skill points.

Final Build: Monk(Traditional) 11/Bard(Archaeologist) 2/Duelist 7

Main skills: Mobility 3, Perception, Trickery
Suggested secondary skills: Persuasion. The rest doesn’t matter. UMD is nice for shield wands, if you don’t have Alchemist in the party.

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Monk - Weapon Finesse // Crane Style
Lvl 2: Bard
Lvl 3: Bard - Combat trick > Weapon Focus: Kama* // Slashing Grace*
Lvl 4: Monk - Dodge
Lvl 5: Monk - Combat Mobility
Lvl 6: Monk - Defensive Spin
Lvl 7: Monk - Outflank
Lvl 8: Duelist
Lvl 9: Duelist - Crane Wing
Lvl 10: Duelist
Lvl 11: Duelist - Wings
Lvl 12: Duelist
Lvl 13: Monk - Crane Riposte // Improved Initiative
Lvl 14: Monk
Lvl 15: Monk - Seize the Moment
Lvl 16: Monk - Leg Sweep
Lvl 17: Monk - Hammer the Gap // Improved Critical: Kama*
Lvl 18: Monk
Lvl 19: Duelist - Toughness**
Lvl 20: Duelist

*can be Sai Focus/Crit and Fencing Grace. I chose Kama because only decent Sai I found was agile. Kamas tend to have other special effects on them.
**Can be Swapped for whatever you like better.

Gear: Monk Robes, Best Kama you can find, +AC Gear, +5 Bracers, +Dex/Con/Str items/buffs, +Wis Helmet(Crown when you get it)

Important Bard spell: Remove Fear, you won;t be able to cast for a long time. Don’t bother much.

Archaeologist is taken for access to Slashing/Fencing Grace by lvl3. It also gives fast access to Uncanny Dodge

Only really important ki-power is extra attack.

Has quite a lot of attacks. That’s nice, I suppose. Stacks AC high. Damage is nowhere near what some other classes can pull off. There is just no real way to stack both AC and Damage on monk. You will either end up having mediocre AC and average damage(Str staff monk) or top notch AC and ok-ish damage. Now why I settled on this one is because real way you stack damage in this game is sneak attack and elemental dice(See: Elven Arcane Warrior or What about Dragons!?). There is no way for monk to contend with that. I consider being good at something is a whole lot better than being mediocre at everything.

In all honesty Monks are not a good class. They are MAD and don’t offer any meaningful paybacks for it. Monk weapons being rare doesn't help.

Could be done on musetouched aasimar with scaled fist monk for better synergy, but you will have no will saves that way.

why would you need finesse training for Str-based dual-wielder? the whole point is to NOT get dex while having full access to TWF and heavy armor.

um sorry that went into the wron block I was reading you monk stuff. I was referring to a finesse monk...lol..Doh...sorry