Question about my monk classed character...
NeveroddoreveN
Member Posts: 173
I am currently playing a level 8 monk - in the first chapter of the Official Campaign, and I have a question regarding his inflicted damage - he is unarmed - using fists and kicks for attacks, but is not dealing much in the way of melee damage. I am about to complete the first chapter, but am not sure I will be able to handle the upcoming battle with Desther. Can anyone provide a bit of advice to make my monk a little more formidable in melee combat?
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There are Monk only gloves that increase Attack rating and some provide a small damage bonus like +1d6 cold damage or the lame +1 damage Electrical.
What is your Strength bonus?
A Strength score of 16 would give +3 attack and damage.
If your Dexterity is higher than Strength than you can get Weapon Finesse and use Dexterity to boost attack but it won't increase your damage.
Finding loot such as a Strength Belt will help you, if your lucky you can get a +2 than later a +4 Strength Belt.
There is a companion item that boosts Strength, from Daelan Red Tiger if you help with his quests, staring with an amulet that can get upgrades in chapter 2 & 3 giving +1 than +3 and +4 bonus Strength.
for starters, you want to get the gloves of the yellow rose +2 ( which can be found at aribeth's temple store; she has cleric and monk items )
plus if you have the money, you will want to get the boots of the sun soul +2, that will give you a +2 dodge AC bonus
next, for robes ( also found in aribeth's store, is the robe of the shining hand +2, for a +2 AC bonus )
also, can't go wrong with the cloak of fortification for a nice +1 ac/save bonus
amulet wise, up to you, but if you need more ac, then the amulet of nat armor +1 can be a good choice
( both amulet and cloak again can be found at aribeth's store )
for potions to use for buffing some nice ones to have are; potion of; speed, aid, bless, bulls str, cats grace, owls wiz, barkskin, those will give a nice AC bonus and some decent to hit ( if you really want to get the best bang for your buck, make sure to save before drinking the stat+ potions and make sure you get a +4 or 5 to that stat, whatever it takes to make sure you get the better modifier, because when you drink a stat+ potion it will give you a 1d4+1 bonus to that stat )
for me when it came to starting ability scores for my monk i had;
str 16
dex 14
con 14
int 10
wis 14
cha 8
although i screwed up and apparently i didn't know that you need at least 15 dex to get circle kick, so at level 12 im going to have to raise that dex by 1 to get that feat
but other than that, stat wise is meh, in theory having higher DEX and WIS is nice since that gives you some AC
when i went to helm's hold i only had 23 AC and had no problems against desther, thanks to handy dandy evasion, his flame strikes hurt with the ferocity of a new born baby's loving smile
also skill wise, there are 3 skills that you MUST have if you really want to make your monk useful and those are; discipline, spellcraft and tumble
discipline; this helps make your monk immune to all those fancy combat manuevers and makes it so you dont have to rely on STR as much to have a good score here
spellcraft; although you are only going to get cross class ranks in this, but for every 5 ranks in this skill, you will get a +1 to all saves vs spells, very VERY useful
tumble; no brainer here; for every 5 ranks you have in this skill you will get a +1 stackable AC bonus, plus if you move around in combat you only need to get a 15 to not suffer from attacks of oppurtunity ( so you dont have to waste a bunch of precious feats to do so )
now level up wise this is what i have done/will do;
*means combined class levels
level 1 - monk ( mostly for all them sexy skill points ) human, choose luck of heros and strong soul for feats
level 2 - fighter choose wep focus unarmed strike which gives a pretty nice to hit bonus at this level
level 3 - 9* continued as monk, feats; toughness ( 3 ) blindfight ( 6 ) lightning reflexes ( 9 )
level 10* took my second level of fighter to not waste the bonus feat and took imp crit unarmed strike
level 11-12 will be monk levels just to get more ranks in tumble to get more AC, plus increase dex by 1 to get circle kick
level 13* will be my 3rd level of fighter
level 14* monk
level 15* will be my final level of fighter and then i will get wep spec unarm strike for bonus feat, and for the rest of my feats; im not sure yet for level 15/18, might take the other 2 save feats, or might take pow att and great cleave for epic feats, but will have to see when the time comes and what looks useful by then
level 16+* monk for the rest of the levels
here is a screenshot of my monk just starting off in chapter 2;
Than buy some Sun Soul boots like Sarevok57 mentioned to boost Dex and AC.
you can buy Yellow Rose Gloves also but in some chest you will have a chance to find the Gloves of Long Death which are better.
A ring of Protection wouldn't hurt either.
A ring of Elemental Resistance would be nice but most people won't find that until chapter 3.
Daelan's Amulet will boost strength than combined with a Strength Belt.
As for a helm well the Golden Circlet will make you immune to Mind Effects which they love to use.
The loot system can be a little hit and miss but you will have many chances to find some good stuff...even if it's worthless to you loot is still worth something and some of these items are available from the Temple shops so you will need some gold anyway.
Haste combined with Flurry of Blows will allow for many attacks per round in higher Lvls, at LVL 16 the fist does 1d20.
You also get Knockdown & Improved Knockdown for free at LVL 6 Improved Knockdown is totally OP in NWN 1.
seriously, imp knock down, completely curb stomps mages and priests to the point of hilarity
i was lucky to find the gloves of long death +5 in the luskan brotherhood tower which are +5 and deal an extra 1d6 sonic damage, solid item
so with that, did you kill all the ritual creatures before attacking him?