New to Monk - Halfling Monk Build Advice

**Irinis** · 12-09-2009, 12:27 PM

Need to edit again, for AP and feats. Sleeps nao. TY all for advice!

EDITED BUILD:

Light side GM Wind

Code:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.10
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Level 20 Lawful Neutral Halfling Female
(20 Monk) 
Hit Points: 242
Spell Points: 0 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 16
Reflex: 18
Will: 18

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Stats         Base Stats         Modified Stats
Abilities        (Level 1)          (Level 20)           (Level 20)
Strength             14                 14                   14
Dexterity            17                 18                   20
Constitution         12                 12                   12
Intelligence          8                  8                    8
Wisdom               14                 18                   20
Charisma              8                  8                    8

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills        Base Skills        Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)          (Level 20)          (Level 20)
Balance               7                 25                   25
Bluff                -1                 -1                    2
Concentration         3                 24                   36
Diplomacy            -1                 -1                   -1
Disable Device       n/a               n/a                   n/a
Haggle               -1                 -1                    1
Heal                  2                  5                    7
Hide                  3                  5                    7
Intimidate           -1                 -1                   -1
Jump                  6                 22                   24
Listen                2                  5                    7
Move Silently         3                  5                    7
Open Lock             n/a               n/a                   n/a
Perform              n/a               n/a                   n/a
Repair               -1                 -1                   -1
Search               -1                 -1                   -1
Spot                  2                  5                    5
Swim                  2                  2                    2
Tumble                5                 11                   12
Use Magic Device     n/a               n/a                   n/a

Level 1 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Dodge
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 2 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Stunning Fist


Level 3 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Path) Philosophy - Path of Harmonious Balance
Feat: (Selected) Two Weapon Fighting


Level 4 (Monk)
Ability Raise: DEX


Level 5 (Monk)


Level 6 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Least Dragonmark of Healing
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Power Attack


Level 7 (Monk)


Level 8 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS


Level 9 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting


Level 10 (Monk)


Level 11 (Monk)


Level 12 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons


Level 13 (Monk)


Level 14 (Monk)


Level 15 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Lesser Dragonmark of Healing


Level 16 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS


Level 17 (Monk)


Level 18 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Weapon Fighting


Level 19 (Monk)


Level 20 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Enhancement: Monk Serenity
Enhancement: Extra Dragonmark Use I
Enhancement: Halfling Dexterity I
Enhancement: Halfling Dexterity II
Enhancement: Halfling Fear Resistance I
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning I
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning II
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning III
Enhancement: Halfling Guile I
Enhancement: Halfling Guile II
Enhancement: Halfling Guile III
Enhancement: Halfling Hero's Companion I
Enhancement: Halfling Luck (Fortitude) I
Enhancement: Halfling Luck (Fortitude) II
Enhancement: Lifting the Veil
Enhancement: Ten Thousand Stars
Enhancement: Way of the Clever Monkey I
Enhancement: Way of the Clever Monkey II
Enhancement: The Receptive Earth
Enhancement: Restoring the Balance
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Eagle Claw Attack
Enhancement: Fists of Light
Enhancement: Rise of the Phoenix
Enhancement: Difficulty at the Beginning
Enhancement: Unbalancing Strike
Enhancement: Adept of Wind
Enhancement: Disciple of Breezes
Enhancement: Master of Thunder
Enhancement: Disciple of Pebbles
Enhancement: Adept of Flame
Enhancement: Disciple of Candles
Enhancement: Adept of Rain
Enhancement: Disciple of Puddles
Enhancement: Master of Sea
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Monk Concentration I
Enhancement: Monk Concentration II
Enhancement: Monk Tumble I
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom I
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom II

Edited build -TWF, ITWF, GTWF
kept my dragonmarks for helping out the party
monkey instead of crane
swapped in power attack and imp crit bludgeon instead of second toughness and great fort
1 levelup to DEX for GM Wind @ 18 DEX + 2 enhances = 20 DEX
4 levelups to WIS 18 before enhances +2 = 20 WIS

**Cedwin** · 12-09-2009, 12:41 PM

Looks good for a 28 point build. I would get that +1 dex tome before 18, they're not too expensive on the AH if one doesn't drop, so you can pick up GM wind.

As for feats. I noticed you do not have weapon finesse. If you plan on staying in wind stance, you'll want to pick that up. Also you do not have Power Attack, which IMO every front-line melee character should have. Another feat you are missing is improved critical: bludgeon. It doubles the handwrap crit range, which is only 20, so you get 19-20.

**Irinis** · 12-09-2009, 02:00 PM

Good point, it wouldn't be too hard to pick up a +1 DEX tome even as a poor newbie. Will edit to reflect that.

I also decided to start at 17 DEX and 8 INT, that way I can put all levelups into WIS and not spend action points on DEX unless I want to go for 20.

Balance, Concentration, and Jump will be main skills, although I will put a couple of points into Diplo and Tumble at the expense of Jump.

**dontcare123** · 12-09-2009, 05:59 PM

Looks okay but I would change 14 str to 12 and 14 wis to 16. Ill trade 1 damage for 1 DC/AC/will save any day of the week.

If stunning fist lands, damage doesnt matter because you will crit anything to death. If QP lands, they are dead anyway. If Unbalancing strike lands, you get sneak attack damage and thats 2 damage per hit, even at level 1. Weighted handwraps also contribute to str being a weaker stat. Then of course you pick up another point of will save, arguably the best to have vs spells, and another AC... and who is going to argue about AC?

its not going to break your toon by not doing it, but carefully consider what you are giving up for 1 point of damage per hit.

**NXPlasmid** · 12-09-2009, 06:06 PM

Drop int to 8 use those points in con. You can't have everything on a 28pt monk and you really don't need those skills much anyway. Max out concentration and jump or balance and put exactly one point into tumble. Otherwise the starting stats look ok.

*edit toughness twice? great fortitude? two dragonmark feats? no Improved critical bludgeon? no Power attack? I would at the very least switch IC critical and PA for great fortitude and one of the toughness feats...

*edit2 rise of the phoenix is a total waste of enhancement points as is halfling hero's companion and you absolutely want GM of wind so you'll need a +1 dex tome even with the level up in dx for that. GM of sea isn't all that great, saves are nice but saves don't kill mobs...

**Irinis** · 12-09-2009, 09:25 PM

ORIGINAL POST:

Feel free to ignore this one now.

Please, suggestions on this build:

Code:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.10
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Level 20 Lawful Neutral Halfling Female
(20 Monk) 
Hit Points: 264
Spell Points: 0 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 18
Reflex: 17
Will: 18

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Stats         Base Stats         Modified Stats
Abilities        (Level 1)          (Level 20)           (Level 20)
Strength             14                 14                   14
Dexterity            16                 17                   18
Constitution         12                 12                   12
Intelligence         10                 10                   10
Wisdom               14                 18                   20
Charisma              8                  8                    8

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills        Base Skills        Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)          (Level 20)          (Level 20)
Balance               7                 26                   26
Bluff                -1                 -1                    1
Concentration         5                 20                   30
Diplomacy            -1                 12                   15
Disable Device        n/a               n/a                   n/a
Haggle               -1                 -1                   -1
Heal                  2                  5                    7
Hide                  3                  4                    6
Intimidate           -1                 -1                   -1
Jump                  4                 12                   14
Listen                2                  5                    7
Move Silently         3                  4                    6
Open Lock             n/a               n/a                   n/a
Perform              n/a               n/a                   n/a
Repair                0                  0                    0
Search                0                  0                    0
Spot                  6                 26                   26
Swim                  2                  2                    2
Tumble                5                 11                   11
Use Magic Device     n/a               n/a                   n/a

Level 1 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Dodge
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 2 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Stunning Fist


Level 3 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Path) Philosophy - Path of Harmonious Balance
Feat: (Selected) Two Weapon Fighting


Level 4 (Monk)
Ability Raise: DEX


Level 5 (Monk)


Level 6 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Great Fortitude
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Toughness


Level 7 (Monk)


Level 8 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS


Level 9 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting


Level 10 (Monk)


Level 11 (Monk)


Level 12 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Feat: (Selected) Least Dragonmark of Healing


Level 13 (Monk)


Level 14 (Monk)


Level 15 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Weapon Fighting


Level 16 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS


Level 17 (Monk)


Level 18 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Lesser Dragonmark of Healing


Level 19 (Monk)


Level 20 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Enhancement: Monk Serenity
Enhancement: Extra Dragonmark Use I
Enhancement: Halfling Dexterity I
Enhancement: Halfling Fear Resistance I
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning I
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning II
Enhancement: Halfling Guile I
Enhancement: Halfling Guile II
Enhancement: Halfling Hero's Companion I
Enhancement: Halfling Hero's Companion II
Enhancement: Halfling Luck (Fortitude) I
Enhancement: Halfling Luck (Fortitude) II
Enhancement: Halfling Thrown Weapon Attack I
Enhancement: Halfling Thrown Weapon Damage I
Enhancement: Lifting the Veil
Enhancement: Ten Thousand Stars
Enhancement: Way of the Elegant Crane I
Enhancement: Way of the Elegant Crane II
Enhancement: Way of the Elegant Crane III
Enhancement: The Receptive Earth
Enhancement: Restoring the Balance
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Eagle Claw Attack
Enhancement: Fists of Light
Enhancement: Rise of the Phoenix
Enhancement: Void Strike
Enhancement: Difficulty at the Beginning
Enhancement: Unbalancing Strike
Enhancement: Adept of Wind
Enhancement: Disciple of Breezes
Enhancement: Master of Thunder
Enhancement: Disciple of Pebbles
Enhancement: Adept of Flame
Enhancement: Disciple of Candles
Enhancement: Adept of Rain
Enhancement: Disciple of Puddles
Enhancement: Grandmaster of Oceans
Enhancement: Master of Sea
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom I
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom II

28pt, I'm new and the only servers I can start a new toon on are ones where I don't have a "big sister" toon to give this one stuff.
DEX-based, TWF, ITWF, GTWF
Dragonmarks for helping out my party
Water (only Grandmaster available with these stats unless tomes drop)

QUESTIONS:
Great Fortitude and Halfling fortitude to make up for Elegant Crane - is this useful or do Monk immunities make Fort save useless?
If it's useless, what would you suggest for the feat slot?

Thanks!

**Arvess** · 12-10-2009, 01:02 PM

remove void strike and eagle claw. You give yourself too many choices (stunning fist, quivering palm, elemental strikes, unbalancing, eagle claw, void) you'll only use 3 or so. why stun something when you can kill it outright? why lower its ac when you can generate sneak damage, why do miniscule amounts of force damage when you can do large lightning damage? I'm not saying stunning fist is bad or anything...just that you'll probably find yourself not using some things you spend AP's on.

If you are going halfling companion, you should go the full line. Nobody needs +x to hit. You build toons to hit stuff...so does every other melee. What becomes highly usefull later is the AC bonuses that you throw on your main tank.

**Arvess** · 12-10-2009, 01:11 PM

I would highly recommend monkey over crane. Fortitude does come into play when sound bursts are spammed by mobs.

**NXPlasmid** · 12-10-2009, 02:04 PM

Looks good, and monkey also gives you some baseline resists that stack with the spells. I would probably drop dex to 16 and bring con up to 14 but that's not a deal breaker, that means you'll need a +1 dex tome but you should be able to find or trade for one, +1 tomes aren't all that difficult to get or you can buy one from the store. the other thing is you'll probably need to get weapons finesse, which may be more important to you than PA, or perhaps the dragonmarks, but you can decide these things later after you've been playing your build for a while, since you get one free feat exchange from doing the dragonmark locania quest thing. 28pt monks builds are tough, but you'll have a lot of fun with this one regardless. If you are having trouble hitting then consider swapping out something for weapons finesse, by that time you'll know if you like the dragonmark probably, one thought maybe without WF, PA will drop your to hit too much to be useful, so you could consider simply going WF and forget about PA...

**Irinis** · 12-10-2009, 06:54 PM

Thanks Arvess.

Built her as is right now. May consider a +2 CON tome later when I have more plat.

Stunning Fist is really fun right now, with automatic sneak attack damage once they're stunned.

I will redo the enhancements for more halfling companion and less "spells" hehe. Still a lot of reading to do!

NXPlasmid - Finesse does look needed. Hmm.

**Arvess** · 12-10-2009, 07:18 PM

stunning fist, elemental strikes, unbalancing strike and quiver palm is all i ever use. My main monk doesn;t have stunning but instead uses 5% stunning and spams unbalancing strike if i want some stun to happen like in the ausicarexx valley in the reaver refuge.

**Aranticus** · 12-10-2009, 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by Arvess

why stun something when you can kill it outright? why lower its ac when you can generate sneak damage, why do miniscule amounts of force damage when you can do large lightning damage? I'm not saying stunning fist is bad or anything...just that you'll probably find yourself not using some things you spend AP's on

because stunned mobs generate ki, dead mobs do not generate ki

because stunning fist only uses 15 ki, quivering palm uses 30

when you rotate stunning fist and quivering palm, you can clear a group of mobs very fast instead of just attempting to use palm only

**Aranticus** · 12-10-2009, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by Irinis

Thanks Arvess.

Built her as is right now. May consider a +2 CON tome later when I have more plat.

Stunning Fist is really fun right now, with automatic sneak attack damage once they're stunned.

I will redo the enhancements for more halfling companion and less "spells" hehe. Still a lot of reading to do!

NXPlasmid - Finesse does look needed. Hmm.

on my monk (12str, 18dex, 14con, 8int, 16wis, 8cha), i did not even bother with halfling companion. instead i dump my APs in halfling guile/cunning for more SA. at L15 she could solo vale quests

oh OP, put all level up points in the same stat, spreading them out is inefficient

**Arvess** · 12-10-2009, 07:42 PM

Your feats have too much defense and not enough offense.

Go with Power attack and Weapon finesse over toughness and greater fortitude. WF/PA is one of the best things a halfling monk can do to do damage

If you do dragonmarks, you should go all the way to greater.

You are going to fight mostly in Water stance?

**Arvess** · 12-10-2009, 07:55 PM

Originally Posted by Aranticus

because stunned mobs generate ki, dead mobs do not generate ki

because stunning fist only uses 15 ki, quivering palm uses 30

when you rotate stunning fist and quivering palm, you can clear a group of mobs very fast instead of just attempting to use palm only

yeah. My post said to remove eagle claw and void strike. my point is if you have too many things to use, you waste AP's on the things you took and don't use. QP and SF are at tthe top of the list but Eagle claw and void? Are you going to use those if you can cycle through the top two and maybe unbalancing?

**Aranticus** · 12-10-2009, 08:13 PM

Originally Posted by Arvess

Your feats have too much defense and not enough offense.

Go with Power attack and Weapon finesse over toughness and greater fortitude. WF/PA is one of the best things a halfling monk can do to do damage

If you do dragonmarks, you should go all the way to greater.

You are going to fight mostly in Water stance?

why would anyone need dragonmarks on a light monk? between high AC, high attack speed, FoL and FoL finisher, healing is covered

**NXPlasmid** · 12-11-2009, 02:25 AM

Originally Posted by Aranticus

why would anyone need dragonmarks on a light monk? between high AC, high attack speed, FoL and FoL finisher, healing is covered

I think Irini is thinking of the marks as a secondary support role for his group, not so much for personal healing as the ability to heal the group. I agree with you on your points, but I think given the ability to swap out a feat for feat for free using locania, Irini can do a little experimentation, play that build for up through lvl 8 or so and then decide if it's working without too much downside.

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