Monk build concepts

[sigtrent]

I just wanted to jot down some initial ideas for monk builds mostly featuring monk.... These are just rough outlines for now but feel free to comment and disect as I'd like thoughs or clarifications since I don't know the rules specifics on some thigns yet...

Brute Monks
Dwarven Tactics Monk: Str16/Wis16/Con16/Dex14 mostly. Stun Fist and Stunnig Blow? Room for CE if you can handle the stat spread (lowers wis slightly to get 12 int w +1 tome for CE). Power Attack/IC etc.. as elective feats. Level ups in Str. Toughness and lots of HP to stay alive with. AC is middle to good with CE, amazing saves, stun and trip and do monk save effects like crazy.

Warforged Killer Monk: Str18/Con16/Dex12/Wiz12 Here you crank up str, and power attack and take WF power attack, probably air stance for fast strikes. Use healing enhancements together to compensate. Basicaly maximizing monk raw damage potential. Might as well take stunning fist or stunning blow (depends on how they work)

Dexy Monks
Halfling rogue monk: UMD&diplomacy with some sneak attack on a mostly finesse monk with good wisdom. Probably air. Works for drow as well.

Halfling monk splash paladin: Ungodly saves and high AC, probably going for sneak attack and perhaps rogue or 1 fighter to get intimidate as class skill. Not so great damage potential.


Splashing monk stuff...
Clerics: going for water monk for more Wis and Evasion+AC potential
Rangers & Rogues: Milking monk for 2 free feats and possible AC bonus
Paladin: Evasion support paladins doing the dexy monk paladin tank in reverse
Wizard, Sorcerer, Fighter: Kind of hard to imagine but anything is possible

[coolphoenix]

Hi,

i would like a monk build like a monk/rogue i would like my monk to most damage as possible but also be able to pick locks and disarm traps

Thanks,

Armik

[WeiQuinn]

Ranger 6 (7)/Monk 10 (13) Finesse Tempest Kama user. Maybe Elf or Halfling, haven't deceided. I may go Halfling, since I already have a few Elves, a Drow and a couple of Humans... plus I'm going to roll up a Human pure Monk.

[Dungnmaster001]

I've come up with quite a few builds I'll probably end up rolling, deleting, and rerolling

Halfling Monk with Dragonmarks will probably be my 1st experiment. Splashing cleric or bard for access to empower healing and other metamagics (rumored to work with the monk healing ki finishing move too) Focused on stealth and unarmed attacks (personally don't like the way Kamas look in combat so no 2wf for this build). Should be a decent soloer

Dwarf str based monk focusing on quarterstaves and tactics. Likely focused on fire stance.

WF Monk with a splash of wizard. Probably won't work as well as I'm hoping due to wands dropping stances.

Human Monk - Nothing special really; balanced stats, unarmed, basic monk build. It's the build I'm running on Risia right now and works fairly well.

I've also considered splashing monk into my current ranger and paladin but I'm not sure about those yet.

[sigtrent]

Ranger 6 (7)/Monk 10 (13) Finesse Tempest Kama user. Maybe Elf or Halfling, haven't deceided. I may go Halfling, since I already have a few Elves, a Drow and a couple of Humans... plus I'm going to roll up a Human pure Monk.

So the idea here is that you get the monk centered bonuses but also extra weapon damage and speed from TWF feats? Has anyone confirmed that it works?

[CSFurious]

i think any multi-classing right now is premature

if you look at the monk class, the best comes at level 16, i.e., 4th-tier stance & unarmed strikes that also gain adamantine

also, quivering palm at level 15 has the possibility to be a great attack

anyway, i do not like the twf feat chain for just fighting with kamas which people used to laugh at pre-monk

right now, i like a pure-monk dex-based build that will fight empty-handed & use the air stance for greater attack speed with the path of dominance for greater damage in combat

later

[sigtrent]

right now, i like a pure-monk dex-based build that will fight empty-handed & use the air stance for greater attack speed with the path of dominance for greater damage in combat
later

Again, I've not really gotten a chance to play with them much, but it doesn't seem like they would be doing all that much damage as a purely finesse build, even with a lot of attaccks. You say you don't much like the kama option but that takes away the idea of using your attack speed for effect weapons (and reguardless you cant use the generaly good con damage weapons) so that puts you into straight damage and while the unarmed damage goes up... its not all that much compared to what you get from lots of strength.

[Gol]

My only complaint is that the Elemental Enhancements have standalone stat requirements. Feat requirements? Ok, fine. Enhancement requirements? Also fine. As far as I know, these are the first enhancements to have a standard stat requirement (not to be confused with a feat that happens to have a stat requirement), and that really irritates me.

[EinarMal]

Again, I've not really gotten a chance to play with them much, but it doesn't seem like they would be doing all that much damage as a purely finesse build, even with a lot of attaccks. You say you don't much like the kama option but that takes away the idea of using your attack speed for effect weapons (and reguardless you cant use the generaly good con damage weapons) so that puts you into straight damage and while the unarmed damage goes up... its not all that much compared to what you get from lots of strength.

Well, if you go Halfling with 13 Str and 17 Dex you can get power attack, and really you are not that far behind a strength based monk in damage (it is not night and day). You are talking 13 versus 20 (16 +4 Level ups) as most Monks will not start with a lot or any 18's. So, to say it is not all that much damage (when really it is something like +4 per swing) is a little bit of an overstatement. Further a halfling next Mod can get +6 sneak damage for 12 AP, which pretty much eliminates any DPS advantage from a strength build (non-halfling).

Also, several monk abilities give sneak attacks (blinding) and you also should find handwraps that do dex damage to foes for automatic critcs/sneak attacks.

Really good stats for a Halfling Dex build IMO
Str 13 (8)
Dex 17 (8)
Con 14 (6)
Int 8
Wis 16 (10)
Cha 8

For 28 pt. builds just go with 14 Wis.

[Lazarus]

i'm planning a monk 3/pally 17 (not final levels yet) intimivasionsaves tank for the free feats, evasion, saves and stances. couple of things i'm not sure of yet though, if you wear light armor do you loose the benefits of your stance, do you loose the benefits of the improved recovery enhancment, or any of the feats that you take for free at level 1 and 2?

[CSFurious]

but, i think that the more levels of monk that you have the more damage that you will cause

i would suggest that any finesse monk still take power attack for the extra 5 damage per strike

basic path of dominance is 2d6 damage per strike, that right there adds up to 7 to 17 extra damage per hit

i also think that air stance is going to stack with regular haste which basically means that a dex-based air stance monk is going to be attacking a lot faster than the rest of the party

also, you need some dex to make the evasion feats work

anyway, to fight with kamas, you need to use feats on twf (at least 1, prob 2) & imp crit: slash which starts to hurt a little bit

but, you make a good point, i.e., if you are a dex-based monk, you might want to fight with some kamas situationally

this class looks like a lot of fun

later

Again, I've not really gotten a chance to play with them much, but it doesn't seem like they would be doing all that much damage as a purely finesse build, even with a lot of attaccks. You say you don't much like the kama option but that takes away the idea of using your attack speed for effect weapons (and reguardless you cant use the generaly good con damage weapons) so that puts you into straight damage and while the unarmed damage goes up... its not all that much compared to what you get from lots of strength.

[Dexxaan]

Lazarus

Any Armor will (should) put you in an Unbalanced state and therefore stances are not available.

Someone will for sure cut and paste the exact info regarding this though...just be patient.

[EinarMal]

For Halfling Monk something I am seriously considering is taking 1 level of Wizard to pick up Extend (2 Min Shield Spell) and Maximize for Dragonmarks. So ending up Monk 15/Wizard 1 with the stats given above and the following feats.

Str 13 (8)
Dex 17 (8)
Con 14 (6)
Int 8
Wis 16 (10)
Cha 8

Feats:
Least Mark of Healing
(MB)Power Attack
(MB)Weapon Finesse
(WB)Extend
Maximize
Lesser Mark of Healing
(MB)Toughness
Greater Mark of Healing
IC Bludgeon
??

Enhancements:
Tortoise
Air
Inevetiable Domain
Halfling Dex
Monk Wis
Halfling Sneak Stuff

[Dark-Star]

Any armor that is not robe, outfit or docent will uncenter you.

[Delzon]

Any armor that is not robe, outfit or docent will uncenter you.

What about bracers?

[RazorrX]

What about bracers?

bracers, rings, etc. are fine. Hence the reason I ran WW on Risia 5 times for the black widow bracers.

[valczir]

I want Half-Orcs.

However, failing that, there are several options that I've come across. From a role-play perspective, I'm choosing to go with Warforged, because they're the best race for my character other than Half-Orcs. In messing around with that, I've found that it's not too bad of a choice. The -2 to wisdom sucks quite a bit, but the +2 to AC means that you can sacrifice 4 points of dex without really losing anything (not counting the fact that you have -2 to wis). Or, if you're going dex-based, you'll have just as much AC as is possible with an elf or halfling, plus all the warforged bonuses (although you'll have -1 to hit and -1 to wis bonus). The fact that monks get self-heal skills should help reduce the hatred that clerics seem to have for warforged, too.

Despite everyone's misgivings about the -2 to con, I like str-based elves, too. The +2 dex gives you a +1 to AC, and if you weren't planning to have high con, in the first place, the elf can make a pretty decent monk, from what I've seen.

If you want to go dex-based, though, the halfling is probably better than the elf, as str is not very useful for a dex-based build. It's still kinda nice, but you can get your str high enough just fine without spending tons of points in it, and you won't have to suffer the bigger loss to health and your concentration skill.

Dwarves are good in most of the same areas that Warforged are - they get -1 to AC (because the Warforged gets +2 AC but -1 wis bonus) but a +1 to the DC for all monk skills. Much as I love a high wisdom, I still have to prefer Warforged, though - the other abilities (such as near-immunity to drowning) that Warforged get are just too cool for me to pass up for +1 wis bonus, not to mention the role-play difficulties.

Humans, as always, are average at everything. If you're not sure which race to go with, a Human is always a good choice, because they basically allow you to choose exactly what you want to be. They won't be as specialized as the other races, but they won't have as many weaknesses, either, most likely.

As to Drow, I am somewhat peeved at their inclusion in the races of Stormreach as they are, because it seems that a good 70% of the population is a Drow, which is against their nature. I kinda wish they would have been added at their full strength with their full level adjustment. Having a max level of 14 with a drow would certainly discourage their excessive use.

Even looking at things from a power-gamer's perspective, an Elf is very close to being as good as a Drow, as the monk barely uses int or cha at all (the only two abilities they don't take a good deal of use from) and get their own spell resistance that trumps the Drow's.

[mjayg]

As to Drow, I am somewhat peeved at their inclusion in the races of Stormreach as they are, because it seems that a good 70% of the population is a Drow, which is against their nature.

And 90% of the population will be Monks after the patch.

[Lazarus]

i know that armor will make me uncentered i'm just not sure what abilities you loose while uncentered

[Strykersz]

Dwarf
16 str 16 dex 16 con 14 wis

Gtwf, PA, IC, whatever

Fire at low level, Greater Air and kamas for an absolutely silly number of attacks/minute at 16.