36 point monk build, feedback please

[sephiroth1084]

I wouldn't call +1 AC, +1 to the DC of all monk finishers, and +1 to the DC of stunning blow a trivial benefit.

Ditto.

It is not the magnitude but the SOURCE that decides what does or does not stack. A +6 from sources A, B, C will get you +18. However, +6 from sources A, A, C will get you +12 and +6 from C, C and C will get you +6. There is one thing that will override this - epic items (specifically exceptional bonuses) from the same two sources with add.

I believe that stat (Dex in this case), Magic, Armor, Shield, Force, Tomes and Natural are the different basic item codes. So, +40 (as Tomes will add +1 to AC for every 2 points) to AC should not be that difficult and this is still true for a Monk (as Wis and Dex count for them).

If only it were so cut and dry...

+4 stat from a spell, and +4 stat from an item do not stack (both enhancement bonuses).

Dodge bonuses are all supposed to stack, but Turbine decided to make bonuses of the same value not stack in order to avoid (I suppose) people using 2 Chattering Rings, or a Chattering Ring and the +3 AC on DT armor.

The alchemical bonuses to armor and shields do stack, both with each other and with other +1 Dodge bonuses (such as from the feat), though how one would know this without hunting for the info, I can't imagine.

Dodge bonuses that will all stack (items listed horizontally will not stack with anything on the same line):
+1 alchemical armor
+1 alchemical shield
+1 Dodge feat
+2 Chaosgardes
+3 Chattering/+3 DT
+4 Icy Raiment
+4 Inspire Heroics (correct me if I'm mistaken on this)
+5 Combat Expertise feat

Kinda sucks that AC bonuses are so spread out--have to devote several slots just to increasing AC, while everyone is spending slots on unique effects primarily.

[Quijonsith]

I wouldn't call +1 AC, +1 to the DC of all monk finishers, and +1 to the DC of stunning blow a trivial benefit.

I'm not saying the benefits are trivial, but to me they are not worth the AP. It's a cost vs. benefits ratio.

We're not talking about just spending 6 AP here. To get the benefit of those +1s from monk wis 3 you'd have to also have bought monk wis 2 to make your wis odd in the first place. That's 10 AP you have to spend. My AC is already serving me very well as it is so +1 AC for a whole 10 AP is not worth it.

I have 30 wis on my monk so all of my finishers have a dc of 40. I have stunning +10 wraps so my stunning fist is also 40. My experience with these DCs so far even on epics is that they stick far more than they are saved against so again 10 AP for merely jumping my DCs to 41, not worth it to me.

Now granted my monk is a halfling so I have things like halfling cunning/guile that those 10 AP can go to. On my human half monk I chose to get human versatility wisdom instead of monk wis 3 because it was cheaper for the same benefit.

Obviously everyone has their own opinion of what they think is worth a large investment of AP. For me monk AP is very tight as it is and I like to be well rounded so a few abilities I'll knock out the last tier of so I can get middle tier of multiple other abilities.

If you think 10 AP is worth spending on a +1 to the afore mentioned go right ahead. It is of course your character. To me I have better things to spend 10 AP on.

[DrylondS]

I'm not saying the benefits are trivial, but to me they are not worth the AP. It's a cost vs. benefits ratio.

We're not talking about just spending 6 AP here. To get the benefit of those +1s from monk wis 3 you'd have to also have bought monk wis 2 to make your wis odd in the first place. That's 10 AP you have to spend. My AC is already serving me very well as it is so +1 AC for a whole 10 AP is not worth it.

I have 30 wis on my monk so all of my finishers have a dc of 40. I have stunning +10 wraps so my stunning fist is also 40. My experience with these DCs so far even on epics is that they stick far more than they are saved against so again 10 AP for merely jumping my DCs to 41, not worth it to me.

Now granted my monk is a halfling so I have things like halfling cunning/guile that those 10 AP can go to. On my human half monk I chose to get human versatility wisdom instead of monk wis 3 because it was cheaper for the same benefit.

Obviously everyone has their own opinion of what they think is worth a large investment of AP. For me monk AP is very tight as it is and I like to be well rounded so a few abilities I'll knock out the last tier of so I can get middle tier of multiple other abilities.

If you think 10 AP is worth spending on a +1 to the afore mentioned go right ahead. It is of course your character. To me I have better things to spend 10 AP on.

Cool....but...I didn't take Monk Wisdom III in my build? I'm confused.

[Quijonsith]

Cool....but...I didn't take Monk Wisdom III in my build? I'm confused.

I'm sorry DrylondS. I think that mini-debate started because I was responding to:

You could pick up Monk Wis III and adjust to that, or...I dunno.

Which I guess I got focused on and we kinda derailed your build thread. Sephiroth's quote was to point out that he felt there are better things to spend AP on than human versatility and in his options was Monk Wis III. Hense the mini-debate.

/thread_hijack_off

LOL

[Spode]

They do indeed stack; Chattering Ring provides a +3 dodge and Icy Raiment provides a +4 dodge and all dodge bonuses stack that have different magnitudes. Sources with the same dodge magnitude, however, do not stack. See ddowiki.com for more info on dodge bonuses.

This is good to know, thank you.
I figured that the same type of AC bonus was like all other bonuses in the game and did not stack.

[Hokonoso]

very close to my current 34pt human monk, lots id change but meh, once you do it you'll understand so i wont waste your time with words/theory you wont understand till you do it. and gm fire is better than wind for dps and gm water is good for when you are not dps'ing, i still wouldnt get it ever but it's good lol. and you can still get triple ToD in fire stance (get it all the time) so that isn't an issue really, especially since you dont have enough ki in wind to even do a tod every 15 seconds...

pre-u5 i used shintao set over oremis but post u5 ill probably switch to oremis for obvious reasons (wont post them cause they are obvious )

all in all a great build but i was lucky to be monk before TR so i took the monk feat as it adds a significant upgrade to unarmed dps. only time i use shortswords is when im lazy and wanna banish stuff otherwise handwraps 100% of time for dps and vorpal kamas for when i am lazy and wanna see virtual heads roll (kicks and giggles).

[DrylondS]

Still looking for a bit of feedback on this. Thanks everyone.