monk build and prestige classes *possible spoilers maybe*

galahad1313

I've never played a monk before so I thought I'd try one(pure unarmed). So far I've made it to Luskan with a few hiccoughs along the way(some enemies are easy, some are a pita for a monk). So my question is for the expansions mostly. Would I be better served just going through SoU and HotU as a pure monk? or should i add a few levels of a particular class and/or prestige class. Read a few guides and many don't even go past the OC for a build and I'm trying to plan ahead. On a separate note, are there no gloves of acid for Mephistopheles? (sorry for spoiler) or can the monk do it without. Even on my paladin I had a wicked hard time with him as my weapon(holy avenger) was not acid but electrical and after beating him finally, I went back to my last save, had my talking sword upgraded with acid and the fight was super easy. Thanks in advance, happy gaming.

NeverwinterWights

I pretty much always stick to a monk/rogue/shadowdancer build (sometimes experiment with fighter/rogue/sd or throw in some cleric sometimes) and also fight unarmed. Some might think it's a cheesy build but to each their own. Elf with 20 dex, 14 wis, 8 cha, and 10 everything else. This gives you max AB and AC to start off if you play a monk. This also makes using a long bow (elf proficiency) as a secondary weapon (acid arrows) pretty good. If you get all the way to 20th with monk you will have complete mind spell immunity in addition to your disease and poison immunity. You'll end up with a 30+ spell resistance, concealment. If you don't need the mind spell immunity because you have an item or what not you can take a few more rogue levels for the sneak damage. Something to play around with. But just make sure you save a bunch of skill points and take some (if not all) of your rogue levels after your monk levels so you can dump a bunch of points into UMD so you can use scrolls, wands and items that are class, race restricted, etc. And only 1 lvl of shadowdancer. Every chance you get dump another point into Dex and only Dex (every 2 points will give you another point of AB and AC)...unless you will end up with an odd number for Dex with gear, and you already have an odd number for Wis, then you can dump another point into Wis for another point of AC.

Anyway, after all is said and done you have a pretty good AC/AB, good spell resistance, a bunch of immunities, can pick locks and disable traps, use every magical everything, outrun everything, and can hide in plain sight. It's a "jack of all trades" with good survivability.

If you do run into trouble fighting certain things, Tenser's transformation is a good scroll to have (since you can use scrolls with UMD) to turn into a decent "fighter" for a bit.

pscythe

You might also want to add 4 levels of a class that have Full BAB so that you your final BAB at level 20 is 16 which gives you 6 attacks per round instead of the 5 of the pure level 20 monk. Champion of Torm or Blackguard works nicely.

Torgrimmer

pscythe said:

You might also want to add 4 levels of a class that have Full BAB so that you your final BAB at level 20 is 16 which gives you 6 attacks per round instead of the 5 of the pure level 20 monk. Champion of Torm or Blackguard works nicely.

Thank you Pscythe, I been trying to figure this one out for a while now, you just helped me. thank you.

galahad1313

Character building, so confusing lol. On top of these suggestions, i read someone recommending 1 level of fighter for I think weapon specialization fist(or something like that to add a bit of punch....bad pun sorry) and some thief though he doesn't say how many levels of thief to take. I'd like to be able to take some thief levels, since i like using Deekin for SoU and HotU and running into traps and being unable to open some chests(I'm too lazy to dump deekin, get tomy, dump tomy, get deekin etc.) gets painful after a time.

As for good old mephisto, will the 5 or 6 attacks compensate for the lack of acid weaponry? or do you get acid gloves at some point. Currently using hin-fist +4 atm for the OC but I know mephisto will ignore the sonic damage. Makes me want to pull what little hair out i have left!(I'm getting too old for this shait lol). I'm tempted to go monk 20/thief 4 and the rest Champion of torm if I can get that many levels.

pscythe

Getting an extra attack is just that, an extra attack. It wouldn't compensate for the lack of acid weapons. However if you got Acidic Kamas the extra attack would only make it better.

To get Weapon Specialisation (Unarmed Strike) you actually need 4 levels of Fighter.

NeverwinterWights

Personally I prefer the extra sneak damage from more rogue levels and being able to spam hide in plain sight with shadow dancer, to that of an extra attack. But that's just me. I feel like on average, unless you're playing a mod where everything is immune to crits, you'll do more damage. As far as specific acid damage goes, that's why I brought up the fact that a pure Dex build elf will also be pretty decent with a long bow as a secondary weapon, which you could pair with acid arrows. A few different options or ways to go. Have fun with it, experiment, and see what combination suits you. They're all fun in different ways and they all have their strengths and their weaknesses.

WarChiefZeke

If you want to play a pure monk with some powerful magical abilities on the side and a bit more damage here's what you do.

Save up some skill points as a monk, 4 and then + 1 per level is fine.

Level up to about 10 or so.

Multi-class 1 level into rogue, and dump those skill points into sweet, sweet Use Magic Device. This will give you quite a big selection of magical scrolls to choose from, as well as access to items that would normally be class-restricted against you.

Now you have some more aces up your sleeve when it comes to the harder fights.

In terms of acid damage, no, I don't think there are any acid gloves. In my opinion, getting Improved Ki Strike +5 is advisable for a monk going through HOTU, as that allows you to punch through his DR and makes the battle much, much easier. Requires Wisdom 21 though.

galahad1313

Ok, so I'm just starting HotU and reached level 20 as a monk. So even taking 1 level of thief, then what? So many write ups out there, so many different opinions and arguments. Some said take 4 levels of fighter, some of you here say take some thief levels, arguments about dwarven defender vs dragon disciple egads!!!!! after my previous hair puling post, I have none left to pull roflmao. So confusing. I miss my paladin now but replaying as a paladin would have been boring. So what I'm asking is what's next after monk 20/thief 1(or as some suggested, 4).

I know I'm a pest but all I've ever played are paladin or paladin-like toons from BG1 to WoW to eso online to nwn to LoTR online.

Asturonethoriusaline

You might want to try a high AC Monk/Assassin/Shadowdancer Multi Class build.

Races: Halfling/Elf

Starting stats:

Str 10
Dex 18
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 16
Cha 8.

Get Dex over 20 plus. Feats: Dodge, Weapon Finesse, Mobility, Cleave, Expertise, etc.

AC at 20 to start. Then about 27 at about 5th, 6th level, then about 57 to 63 AC at 20th Level.

Extremely powerful build except for start of game, defers power until later, seems weaker with seemingly wrong henchman, needs a good henchman at first, weak against hordes, weak against things immune to poison, like certain undead.

badstrref

some known 20+ monk builds
21 monk 3 wizard 16 pm (true strike, epic mage armor, undead-ish immunities)
20 monk 19 rogue 1 sd (sneak damage, set trap, hips, epic dodge)
25 monk 1 bard 14 rdd (dev crit, -- true strike if u switch bard for sorcerer)
29 monk 10 Champion of Torm 1 wizard (High DC stun fist)

Asturonethoriusaline

Badstrref, isn't Monk/Bard not possible according to game rule restrictions?

Otherwise I would have made either a Monk/Bard/Assassin or a Monk/Bard/Shadowdancer

badstrref

yes,
in terms of RP any build may make sense

Cerabelus

Last time I made a Monk I did pure Dex and Wis build, no Strength increases except items, Weapon Finesse, Circle Kick (I know a lot of people hate), didn't use Monk Gloves but Dex Bracers.

It was good but I get bored of Martial Classes so I did 4 Monk 16 Druid, spent most of the game as a Bear than at the end a Earth Elemental, also the Druid has a spell called Owl's Insight which doubles current base Wisdom score, in epic Lvls you can become a Dragon Shape ?.