32 Point Monk build?

[Haagon]

hello i am kind of new to monk i have dabbled with the defult paths for a bit but now i recently got to make a monk with a 32 point build instead of a 28 and heres what i'm looking for in my monk: as much dps as i can without being too "squishy"

now i dont really know much about building the base stats even after reading guides about it. but i'm thinking of making my monk pretty balanced between the 4 main stats:

str: 16
dex: 16
con: 14
wis: 14

and i plan to use tomes and also i plan to put all of the points i get from leveling up into strenght. and of course i will get the "must have" feats like the TWF chain and bludgeioning crit one (i plan to use only handwraps). so any advice and feedback would be great. i just want to be the best monk i can and i wanna try not to suck too bad =) thank you for any replies just please give me the best monk advice.

[AylinIsAwesome]

Those stats look like a Human.

You might want to put CON up to 16 though, so you can GM Earth.

[Haagon]

yes its a human build and if i were to add one more point in con i would have to drop 2 points in wisdom so that doesnt really sound like a fair trade in my opinion, besides i read a well written guide saying that i should max out str, cap dex at 18 to finish the TWF chain which i can do with a simple tome. con and wis should be around the same the guide also stated and wis mainly improves your stuns from what i've read around the forums. and also i noticed my starting stats are exactly the same as the shintao monk pre-made path. so right now i think i'm pretty confident that this is a good build, i should also point out that i'm going the dark path for the dark fist and the touch of death. please put down any opinions on my build and any advice you can give would be super =)

[GraysonAC]

You're not posting a build, you're posting a few stats, some obvious feat choices, and then asking for advice on.. everything else. Read the guides. If they're not telling you what you'd like to know, you'll have much better luck asking specific questions.

[AylinIsAwesome]

yes its a human build and if i were to add one more point in con i would have to drop 2 points in wisdom so that doesnt really sound like a fair trade in my opinion, besides i read a well written guide saying that i should max out str, cap dex at 18 to finish the TWF chain which i can do with a simple tome. con and wis should be around the same the guide also stated and wis mainly improves your stuns from what i've read around the forums. and also i noticed my starting stats are exactly the same as the shintao monk pre-made path. so right now i think i'm pretty confident that this is a good build, i should also point out that i'm going the dark path for the dark fist and the touch of death. please put down any opinions on my build and any advice you can give would be super =)

Just because it has the same stats as one of the starter builds does not make it good. Most of those starter builds are absolutely atrocious, in fact. I know several of those builds start with less than 12 CON, or take useless feats like Hamstring.


The difference between 10 starting WIS and 14 starting WIS is...all of 2 on the DC of your Stunning Fist. Stunning Fist is really the only WIS-based move you'll use, as Quivering Palm will only drain your Ki (and high-end mobs have Deathward often anyway), the finishing moves for Dark side are generally not that great, and Shining Star is CHA-based.

a 35 DC on Stunning Fist (which is what you get with starting at 10 WIS) is good enough for anything non-Epic, and will even work in Epics (it just won't be reliable). But you get another chance every 6 seconds, so you can just try again. Additionally, every good group for Epics will have an arcane using Mass Hold Monster, so the DC on your Stunning Fist won't matter at all anyway.

Raising your CON up to 16 allows you to GM Earth, which gives you your highest DPS punches. Earth Strike 4 gives you 16 damage per hand (with 2d10 more Acid damage if you crit, average 11), whereas the other elemental Ki strikes give you 2d20 damage per hand (average 21 damage). Also note that Earth strikes add directly to your base damage, so they get multiplied on a crit as well. So while the other elemental strikes will give you an average of 39.9 extra damage (no matter if you crit or not), the Earth 4 strike will give you an extra 30.4 damage normally, and a whopping 81.7 damage on crits (assuming fighting in Wind Stance 4, giving 110% mainhand attacks and 80% offhand attacks). Also note that many monsters in this game have elemental resistances. Devils won't take damage from Fire or Cold strikes, and demons like Mariliths won't take damage from Lightning ones.

Also the +2 CON will give you +1 Fort save and +20 HP, which will cancel out the penalties for using Wind Stance. WIS just does not give you enough benefits to keep high, unless you really build for it, and that inevitably makes your DPS suffer.

[Haagon]

oh why thank you that was very specific and extremely helpful. good thing i only got to lvl 2 so far haha, so i'm gonna use your advice and get rid of some wis for more con. thanks a bundle =)