Gear upgrade advice for monks

[AussieGrimm]

Hi All,

My friend started playing DFRPG recently (two games in) playing "Glint", a pre-gen monk who favours stealth and stabbing with heavy katars.

At this stage, he's earned a little experience, which I advised him to spend on short sword skill (to get Dex +2 for improved weapon master damage) and parry missile weapons. Longer term, I'd expect he'll probably focus on stealth, weapon skills, and strength upgrades, but is open to suggestions.

I'm kind of at a loss on advice for item upgrades though, so hoping for suggestions/feedback. He's earned about $4K so far, so I was wondering what he should spend money on. Improved weapons seems good (at the cost of weapon bond points), but for DR, what would be good things to aim for without sending his weight limit too high? Our party Mage can keep him magically shielded to improve defence, but the mage isn't as focused on armour spell so that is lacking at times. Are there any items/potions that are obviously good for monks with a weapon focus?

He is fighting with a mage and knight usually, with the odd cheap henchman for shield bearing/loot carrying or light wound healing.

[Black Leviathan]

If he's the martial Artist template he doesn't get great weapon skills starting out. He might benefit from upgrading his Katar's to balanced weapons for the +1 to hit. Fine Quality is probably within reach for both weapons as well. He would probably get some use out of Climbing Weapons as well but I haven't looked at them in a long while and can't recall if the CF on that is reasonable.

[evileeyore]

If he's got the ST to carry it, armor is never a bad idea.

[Anthony]

Ah, Glint is conveniently available.

It's going to be hard to upgrade very much without increasing to Light encumbrance, though you can manage No encumbrance in combat with some effort. If having No Encumbrance in combat is important:

+Quick-Release Backpack ($300, +0/+3 lb)
-Move Canteen to Backpack (-3/+0 lb)
-Move Clothes to Backpack (-2/+0 lb) (replaced by armor)
-Toss Pouches (-0.4/-0.4)
-Move Personal Basics to Backpack (-1/+0 lb)
-Move Rations to Backpack (-6/+0 lb)
-Replace Heavy Leather boots (-4.2/-4.2)
+Full Suit Light Cloth ($150) with Lighten -25% ($2,000), Fortify 1 ($1,000). Weight 13.5.

Net -3.1 lb combat load, +11.9 lb non-combat load, total cost $3,450.

If it's okay to have Light encumbrance in combat, it's a lot easier, because you have an additional 27.3 lb to play with, enough to have heavy leather with no need for lighten. Alternately, if limited coverage is okay, you can reduce armor coverage and again not need Lighten (have to hold total weight under 16.8).

[Yssa]

I think getting some enchanted armor is the way to go for now: putting deflect or fortify on light cloth armor may not be a great long term investment, but can get you to DR 3 or help you avoid hits without adding weight.

[Black Leviathan]

Could that money get him into Spidersilk armor instead of cloth? Maybe just for his torso?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

Could that money get him into Spidersilk armor instead of cloth? Maybe just for his torso?

No. Spider Silk is +99CF, or $5,300 for just the torso, $15,000 for a full suit. The price delta is $1,000 for fortify 0-1, $3,000 for 1-2, $12,000 for 2-3, $14,850 for normal->spider silk, $44,000 for 3-4. Also, Lighten (-50%) on heavy leather is still cheaper than spider silk. An advantage of spider silk is that it works in a no mana zone so I might get it before choosing either the Lighten option or the Fortify 3 option.

[AussieGrimm]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback. I've used the model for light armour/lighten/fortify (Thanks Anthony!), and made a few more tweaks along with the quick release backpack. We'll build up his stealth and defences a bit more then layer on more strength/armour as he gains money and experience.