Halfling Dragonmarked Shintao Monk - advice wanted

[Izdaari]

Well, now I'm going to have to think on this... I've looked at the Quad H, and it looks like fun. Thanks for the link, not sure how I missed it before...

But, Ninja Spy also looks fun. I'm still worried about healing, but I could see us going full stealth... do most Ninja Spy builds go the SS route, or still use handwraps?

Handwraps. One of the best DPS weapons in the game, if only because a monk's hands are so insanely fast. Short swords are much weaker overall, but there are some worth using situationally. I have some kamas and staffs too, but fight with handwraps probably 90+% of the time.

My Ninja Spy is in a static group that always has 1-2 healers, so she doesn't have to worry about self-healing much. And Earth Stance IV and Shadow Fade mitigate a lot of damage, and Vampiric Stonedust Handwraps (easy enough to get if you run the Lordsmarch chain a few times) do some automatic healing as you fight. OTOH, my Quad H is a soloist who does PUGs sometimes. That's what the build seems to be optimized for. I didn't have any problem soloing the pure monk either, but had to run with pocket clerics a lot.

[Izdaari]

Hi. I happen to have a level 20, lightly epic'd (the easy ones: cove & challenges), dragonmarked halfling shintao pure monk. I am VERY MUCH looking forward to a TR to half-elf w/cleric dill ninja spy pure monk. Did I mention the VERY MUCH part? Let me make sure: VERY MUCH.

At high levels, 3 charges of heal doesn't cut it, especially for three feats. I made the character before half-elves were even a gleam in a developer's eye though, so halfling + dragonmarks was the best there was.

My rec: helf w/cleric dilly (or rogue if you get into raiding -- a single feat swap + enh reset so not that expensive) pure ninja spy monk. Shoot for earth4, void4, and ToD the rest is gravy.

I wouldn't even try a dragonmarked halfling pure monk. Couldn't spare 3 feats for them without the fighter levels, and the dragonmarks don't do enough without the metamagics pumping them up. But as you say, there wasn't anything better back then.

But that helf ninja spy idea should be real strong.

[Rhysem]

Quad H strikes me as uncompelling with the known enhancement re-do coming up. Given the field is wide open for what the changes will look like (or even if the traditional 6/12/18 splits will matter) or how much pairs of non-class prestiges + pure base class which didn't in the past qualify can be grafted together using human or half-elf racial prestige choices, it seems a much safer/future proof plan. Side bonus: if you can't do any of that because the devs change their minds you're unlikely to regret it anyway.

I'm not sure I could go so far as to say any melee is better as helf for the healing (or arcane) capabilities, but for monks who are already rocking 0 arcane spell failure and have concentration up the wazoo to combat-scroll a heal, I think its a safe bet.

[Kindoki]

Quad H strikes me as uncompelling with the known enhancement re-do coming up...

I was looking at that tonight. However I saw that 1/2ling may be getting assassin, and that seemed to favor a 1/2ling monk that went assassin ninja spy....

Basically, I think, if I went light, I'd go Helf, and if I went dark, I'd go 1/2ling.