Monk/Paladin

[Zothen]

Hi All!

Has anyone tried this build? If so,what lvls of monk/paladin? How did it fair early lvls & end lvls?

Thanks for replies!

Zothen

[twoton]

lvling it up right now. So far I have him at lvl 3 and he does just fine by himself. I took 2 lvls of monk right off and he will be rest of the way pally. With mage armor pots till I get my bracers from ww he has a good ac only ever "party" I have put him in his with another guildie as we ran info, lighthouse, butchers, durks, ww all on normal. We just really mowed through them and he was just healing me.

starting stats:

str 13 (+1 tome if you got one)

dex 18

con 10

int 8

wis 14

cha 8

race halfing of course :P

I really like the build so its why I gave him a tome already... He will have greater twf and have exhalted smite 3 which should be pretty nasty. I would say to look into for yourself but a duel wielding kama monk pally has been working out for me really well.

Without any raid loot he will have a base 47 ac at lvl 16 with the stars inline and every piece of raid loot amd defense fighting on I think he could hit a 64 ac.. And he should have all his saves buffed in the low 30's...

But what I know as of now for sure is he is a great low lvl toon.

hope this helped a little

[Rickpa]

Just how exalted will that smite be with a starting charisma of 8?

[fefnir3284]

Just how exalted will that smite be with a starting charisma of 8?

not to mention your non-existance +cha to all saves ability

I am not a min.max (I just cant justify the lose of attribute points), so here is what my halfling monk13/pally3 looks like :

str 11
dex 15
con 13
int 14
wis 13
cha 14

(got a full set of +1 tomes and a +2 int tome @ level 1 so)

str 12
dex16
con14
int16
wis14
cha15

and at level 16 (with only a +3 str <if I want fire stance 3> and a +3 wisdom tome) Ill have

str18 (20 with +3 tome, or 22 if lv12/16 boost doesnt go to wis <gives base 16 for fire 3>)
dex24 (with +2 halfling talent)
con20
int18 (lv4/8 level boost)
wis22 (24 with +3 tome, or 26 if level 12/16 level boost doesnt go to str) (w/ monk +2 wis)
cha22 (with +1 cha pally talent)

this gives me about a 37 to 40 in all saves

[Zothen]

Hi All!

Thanks for the replies! Both builds look interesting and will look forward to playing around with similar build.

Zothen

[twoton]

well I never post ending stats with my builds because I dont know what kind of gear people have and I hate using tomes for ending stats on my builds as well. I believe starting stats are what matter and if you have the leet gear and tomes to dump onto a build all the more better. but granted no matter how you slice it a monk pally build will be a good build to have. What you need most for the build to be uber is awesome kamas though...

[wolfy42]

I don't want to make a huge post but a paladin/monk is better then a monk/paladin in pretty much every way.


The perfect build in my opinion is either 12 pally/3 monk/1 fighter, 11 pally/3 monk/2 fighter or 12 pally/2 monk/2 fighter


3rd monk level is for fists of light so you can heal the group and heal a bit from pounding on things. It's not mandatory but is nice.

12 pally level gives you exalted strikes II for nice extra dmg along with +4 to ac and saves (lvl 11 actually) and the second tier of smite upgrades (+1 to crit range and +1 to crit multiplier). You can't get teh highest tier without 14 pally levels which is impossible if you want evasion AND intimidate.


The reason you take a fighter lvl is so you can max intimidate (Can reach almost 50 with this build I believe). The bonus feat of course is just icing on the cake (or feats if you take 2).

The monk levels add 2 bonus feats and evasion (and the bonus feats can be taken as toughnesss allowing for a lower con at character creation without serious penalty long term).

I suggest drow so you can get CE easily, a high charisma and dex. You loose out on halfling size advantage but still get natural SR.

Suggested stats:

Drow pally 12/monk 3/fighter 1

Str 10 (boosted to 18 with equipment tome) cost 2
Dex 18 (boosted to 32 with equipment/tome/enhancements) cost 10
Con 10 (boosted to 18....but toughness feats make it equivalent to starting with a 16 con for most pallys) cost 4
Int 12 (boosted to 13 or 14 with a tome....13 required for CE which you should take fairly early) cost 2
Wis 14 (boosted to 24 with enhancement, tome and equipment) cost 6
Cha 14 (boosted to 28 with tome/equipment/enhancements) cost 4

Net resulting character has the highest solo AC in the game....higher then a monks by a significant amount (although a halfling pure ac specialized monk can reduce that to 3-4 AC points).

Runs with S&B (fineeses) getting 8 AC from a medium shield +5 with alchemical bonus.
Suggested to take 2 shield mastery feats as well for extreme turtle DR power.
Dps is low but rapiers/kurkri's etc can be used for crit based attacks witha wide range (higher crit range then 2 kamas actually).
AC is insane
Hp hit over 400
Saving throws are high enough to not matter anymore.
You get evasion so only fail saves on a 1 (no improved evasion sadly...but it's a small difference)
Intimidate is possible to max out high enough to always work pretty much even without GH going.
You have the potential to self heal in a pinch or raise dead with your LoH if need be (no UMD is needed but with a +2 int tome take it anyway).
DR is significant through various robes/spells etc. You get a decent pool of SP and lvl 3 paladin spells (no holy weapons though)
9 feats to play with but in order to really make this work you probably need at least 2 used for toughness.
Monks bonus to healing enhancement helps make healing you more efficient for clerics (and yourself).
Full ability to wand whip yourself and others at will.
Ability to cast full strength resists on yourself and others (lvl 11 only needed)


The monk/pally just does not compare...mainly because you lose your centered bonus if using a shield...and are restricted to using only monk weapons with the monk/pally. Taking 3 monk levels stops you from getting your monk SR anyway and unless you invest charisma in your monk/pally you don't gain much at all from his auras.

A monk 13/pally 3 build gets +2 from aura vs +4 from the pally/monk build. The monk/pally build gets +3 centered AC bonus but the pally monk build gets +8 from shield AC (not to mention all that shield DR in a pinch). The monk/pally build does gain improved evasion but that is only a 5% chance to reduce damage by 50% (IE a 1 only does 50% instead of 100%).

Monk/pally already does not get top tier unarmed dmg. The pally combo can use much better weapons as he levels up anyway.
All the combos are available to both builds....althought he pally is forced to be centered in order to build up ki and use feats. This is not as bad as it sounds though.

Still since the pally is probably not going to be centered hardly even long term...the pally 12/fighter 2/monk 2 build may be preferable for most. FOL is bugged right now but when it is fixed it will probably not be worth taking a 3rd monk lvl for.

A second fighter level could let you reach a 20 base strength with a +3 tome some year if you really wanted too....and of course most significantly it gives you 10 feats to play arouns with instead of 9.