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I'm playing an Unchained Monk, and I eventually plan on acquiring Monk's Robes, Stonefist Gloves/Strong Jaw item of some kind, and Enlarge Person perma-cast on myself.

So with all of those stacked together, my unarmed strikes would be hitting 3 size categories larger than my normal size of medium, and 5 levels higher than normal.

Prepping for when I get all of those buffs, I tried to find a table that has the larger size damage numbers and higher levels, and the best I could find is the Pathfinder Damage Dice Steps question from almost five years ago.

So is there a better table to refer to now, or will I have to try and extrapolate the further damage dice based on the question from before?

Cyberson
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  • The question was asked 5 years before yours in 2013, but my answer pathfinder damage dice steps was in 2015 so only 3 years before your question. – Fering Jan 15 '21 at 00:38

1 Answers1

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The table doesn't go any larger

Your maximum legal damage is either 12d8 or 16d6 depending on whether you start even or odd (i.e. d6s or d8s, respectively), which would depend on your monk level in this case, and would be highest at 10th level before dropping back down to the 12d8 level, if you changed the build so it actually hit the end of the chart.

That said, your damage does still go up after this, there's just no rules or advice on how to do that. There's no newer table than the one paraphrased in the question you link, and it frequently doesn't go high enough for martial characters. You can try to extrapolate, but the table is geometrically increasing, so it will get big fast. The next step is obviously 16d8 but what comes after that is unclear.

This specific kind of build has a workaround

Strong Jaw functions differently if you are at least Gargantuan, doubling damage instead of increasing it on the path. If you can get your custom homebrew Strong Jaw item to emulate the effects of the spell rather than just letting you cast it, you can use Use Magic Device to count as a suitable race, thus counting as 2 less sizes larger, while doubling your damage. This is actually a bad trade in terms of just damage dice if you are off the table (4 steps on the chart at higher steps than printed should more than double your damage, since the end of the table does that exactly), but it keeps it in bounds longer and also doubles all of your damage modifiers, which is awesome.

This specific build doesn't need a workaround

A 15th level monk with your kit deals 12d8 damage. If he increased the damage he dealt by another step, it'd be a problem. As it is, though, he's still on the charts. Obviously, at 16th and higher levels you need access to epic rules (which don't exist for Pathfinder) to determine your damage.

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Please stop being evil
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  • I cannot find any point on the damage chart where four steps above where you are is more than double what you have. The highest (that still ends up on the chart) is 8d6, which goes to 16d6—exactly double the dice, but actually far less than double since (as far as I can tell) strong jaw doubles the entire damage of the attack, not just the base damage dice. – KRyan Mar 16 '18 at 20:54
  • @KRyan Right, at the very end of the printed chart doubling dice is what happens. Therefore, off the damage chart more than doubling dice would be what happens. Fair point on the full damage doubling, though, that's way better. – Please stop being evil Mar 16 '18 at 21:06
  • So, if I could UMD my way to having my Strong Jaw item treat me as a different race, what race would I need to UMD as in order to get the double damage alongside my enlarge person? – Cyberson Mar 16 '18 at 21:08
  • @Cyberson anything gargantuan or colossal. Elysian Titan, for example – Please stop being evil Mar 16 '18 at 21:10
  • @thedarkwanderer Ah, I wasn't sure if it was only tied to emulating PC races or not. – Cyberson Mar 16 '18 at 21:12