First Monk Sorta-Built...

[Philibusta]

OK so I’ve been playing DDO almost a year and a half now. Been sticking mostly to melees, and I’m trying to get the hang of wizards in DDO. I’ve avoided monks because they seemed rather..well…complicated. All the Paths and Animal things and Ways and…wow.

Anyway, now I wanna try a monk. I’m working with 32-pt build and Veteran status.

This is the beginning of my first monk build..am I on the right track? Is there anything I should or could change to make it better?

Human Male Lawful Good Monk

Starting Stats:
STR 16 INT 12
DEX 15 WIS 12
CON 14 CHA 10

Stat point into STR at level 4.

Feats:
Level 1 – Toughness; Power Attack; Stunning Fist
Level 2 – Two-Weapon Fighting
Level 3 – Discipline (as prereq for PrE); Path of Harmonious Balance: Fists of Light
Level 6 – Brutal Throw; Dodge

Enhancements:
Level 1- Improved Concentration I; Improved Hide I; Improved Move Silently I; Improved Spot I
Level 2- Way of the Clever Monkey I; Void Strike I, Monk Wisdom I
Level 3 – Monk Improved Recovery I; Racial Toughness I; Improved Balance I
Level 4 – Lifting the Veil; The Receptive Earth (nothing else seemed really attractive at level 4)
Level 5 - None (saving AP for Shintao PrE at level 6)
Level 6 – Shintao Monk I; Human Adaptability: Strength; Adept of Flame

As far as stats go, I didn’t know whether to emphasize STR or WIS more I figured there’s plenty of WIS items in the game, plus the Monk WIS enhancement line, so I could start with a lower WIS. Still a little confused on that, as the higher-level Adept enhancements seem to require ever-increasing stat scores in WIS, STR, DEX, and CON. Is a monk supposed to focus on achieving one or two of these Adept lines, or…well…how do you increase all your stats to be able to get all 4?...or do Monk players do that?

Thanks in advance to anyone that takes their time to look this over and gimme advice or anything.

[maha0201]

Human Male Lawful Monk

Starting Stats:
STR 15 INT 8
DEX 15 WIS 14
CON 16 CHA 8

Stat point into STR at level 4.

Feats:
Level 1 – Toughness; stunning blow; Stunning Fist
Level 2 – Two-Weapon Fighting
Level 3 – Luck of heroes (as prereq for PrE); Path of Harmonious Balance: Fists of Light
Level 6 – Toughness; power attack

i started this way i amied at void4, gm fire and gm earth (for tanking)

well it mostly depend on youre build prefferance as much as i can tell you want to do shintao 3, i guess pure monk wich is fun to play and if you are good on shortcuts youll be fine to solo most of the quests without hire or problems.
I would sugest to use +2 tomes at 7 (int + dex minimum). Raise UMD to 11 it comes in handy, max concentration and balance
I liked extra stunning at low lvls if you dont fancy it you can always go for the another toughness

Now question is are you afeter void4, and do you chase AC...

[thx.janus]

Hi there. I dont have much time, so ill just throw in my first-glance impressions:

1. Go for Lawful Neutral. You can still use Pure Good Handwraps as a monk and dont take evil damage.

2. I'd drop Int to 10 and put those points into Wis. With the upcoming changes to epic saves, monks will have to work quite hard to achive decent stunning fist DCs. Every bit of Wis helps.

3. For whatever Stance you shoot for, remember that you will need a base 18 in that stat. I took wind and earth, so i needed a base 18 dex and base 18 con. Thats why +2 tomes are quite important to monks.

4. Power attack and stunning fist tend to be not very helpful in the low levels. Your to-hit might be to low for constant power attack use and stunning fist is quite ki expensive (15ki). Often mobs will die with only a few hits, so you dont get your 15 ki back.

5. I dont like disciple as a Prereq for Shintao. Luck of Heroes seems to have the best benefits.

6. Brutal Throw is a waste of a feat, imo. Shurikens will never be able to keep up in terms of dps.

7. Dodge is a simple +1 bonus to ac. Its ok, but not necessary in low levels, and useless at end game

8. I dont like the Rise of the Phoenix enhancement line as a Prereq for Shintao. Rise is the only useful one of those, the rest is a waste of AP. I like the improved recovery route much more. And since AP are tight on a monk, i recommend to go one way or the other, not both.

9. The skill improvement enhancement are also not that good, except improved concentration. Maybe throw in the first stage of the human action boost thing.