Up to date build

[TheWired]

Hey im looking for an up to date monk build, im kind of lost with all the changes MOTU brought.

Could anyone build a Dex based finesse dark monk for me? I was thinking of taking precision and focusing on sneak attack with some rogue levels maybe. I only have f2p races and 28 point build but i have some +2 tomes lying around.

[TPICKRELL]

I'm not much for posting builds, but IMO the changes to the combat system have obsoleted dex based monks.

My main (WF light) and first alt (Halfling Dark) have always been Dex first Wis second monks and until U14 the damage mitigation has always made that a viable, if not quite optimal option. In U14 the difference between 75 ish AC and a 80ish AC is a miniscule amount of damage mitigation, so agian IMO it's no longer a competitive choice.

As soon as LRing is safe (not willing to chance losing 15 Million Destiny XP at the moment) I'll be TRing both to WIS first, STR second with just enough base dex to qualify for Grandmaster of Wind.

I don't have a specific buld to point to at the moment, but at end game, the destiny's are far more important than the base build so start with any proven build for the role/race you want to be and adjust it to your tastes.


EDIT: If you get desparate, I can provide my main (WF Light)'s build as a starting point, but its currently only posted on the private area of my guild web site. And its a Dex/Wis build, which I would not recommend with the current state of the game.

[Clayness]

I agree with TPIC, dex-based monks are really a thing of the past. You basically burn a feat to be able to add just your dexterity modifier to hit, you still use your strength as your damage modifier. You might think that you gain more AC and Reflex saves from doing this, but you will struggle to keep your AC competitive and as a pure monk you shouldn't have any issues with your Reflex saves.

I would only really recommend going dex-based if you can use some of the weapons in this game that allows you to add your dexterity modifier to damage. Unfortunately none of those really mesh well with pure monk, they are primarily used by rogues. Even with weapons that use their dexterity modifier for damage you are limiting yourself to a very few weapons, thus loosing a lot of the versatility of a melee, versatility that comes from being able to carry a wide selection of weapons that bypass various forms of DR, various greater banes, weapons that boost tactical feats or weapons that have debuff effects on them.

Naturally it doesn't mean you should entirely dump dexterity. If you have a +2 dex tome you want at least 15 starting dexterity so you can get all three TWF feats and the wind stances. If you are taking 18 levels of monk or more you need either a +3 dex tome or 16 starting dexterity so you can end up with 18 dexterity which is required for grandmaster of storms stance. You should still have sufficient ability points to get decent strength, wisdom and constitution on a 28 point build. Naturally monk suffers a bit from MAD (Multiple Attribute Dependency) which means they can be trickier to properly build with 28 points, but not impossible.

[unbongwah]

My advice would be WIS-based halfling dark monk, fairly similar to Rockan Robin but with a few tweaks:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 03.14.02
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Level 20 Lawful Neutral Halfling Female
(20 Monk) 
Hit Points: 292
Spell Points: 0 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 16
Reflex: 17
Will: 22

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(28 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             12                    14
Dexterity            16                    18
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence          8                    10
Wisdom               16                    28
Charisma              8                    10

Tomes Used
+1 Tome of Strength used at level 3
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7

Level 1 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Stunning Fist
Feat: (Selected) Two Weapon Fighting


Level 2 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Precision


Level 3 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Path) Path of Inevitable Dominion: Fists of Darkness
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 4 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS


Level 5 (Monk)


Level 6 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Dodge
Feat: (Selected) 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) Greater Two Weapon Fighting


Level 16 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS


Level 17 (Monk)


Level 18 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Sunder


Level 19 (Monk)


Level 20 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Enhancement: Monk Serenity
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning I
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning II
Enhancement: Halfling Guile I
Enhancement: Halfling Guile II
Enhancement: Static Charge
Enhancement: Way of the Patient Tortoise I
Enhancement: Way of the Patient Tortoise II
Enhancement: Touch of Death
Enhancement: Porous Soul
Enhancement: All-Consuming Flame
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery III
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy I
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy II
Enhancement: Unbalancing Strike
Enhancement: Winter's Touch
Enhancement: Adept of Wind
Enhancement: Grandmaster of Storms
Enhancement: Master of Thunder
Enhancement: Adept of Rain
Enhancement: Grandmaster of Oceans
Enhancement: Master of the Sea
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Improved Jump I
Enhancement: Improved Jump II
Enhancement: Improved Tumble I
Enhancement: Improved Tumble II
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom I
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom II
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom III

Epic feats: Improved Martial Arts & Vorpal Strikes

If you're interested in a rogue / monk, have a look at my Shadow Ninja variant for how I did it with an elf.

[TheWired]

What does halfling bring to the build? I would rather not be one because they look kind of odd :P
Why are you taking PA and Precision?

[HastyPudding]

What does halfling bring to the build? I would rather not be one because they look kind of odd :P
Why are you taking PA and Precision?

Halflings add useful things for monks:
- +1 to attack and AC and +4 to hide due to the halfling's small size.
- They gain +2 to DEX at the expense of -2 STR, but for wis/dex monks this isn't an issue. This makes it easier to achieve Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, so you can put more points into WIS, and also useful if you wanted the wind stance.
- They also have have enhancements for increasing your sneak attack damage up to 8 (dark monks use sneak attacks).
- Halflings also gain +1 to all saves and can increase their saves by an additional +3 through enhancements, adding in to the already high saves a monk possesses.
- Having +1 to attack when throwing weapons (like a shuriken) is icing on the cake.
- If you wanted, you could take dragonmarks. Halflings have exclusive access to the healing dragonmarks, giving you a few uses of cure light wounds, cure serious wounds, and heal. Dark monks have no innate way of self-healing.

Halflings were the be-all-end-all for dex and AC monks. They still make useful monks, clearly.

[unbongwah]

What does halfling bring to the build?

What HastyPudding said, though it's possible to adapt to any race - did you have a preference?

Why are you taking PA and Precision?

Versatility, basically: Power Atk when you want the raw DPS boost, Precision when you want the extra to-hit & fort debuff; plus PA is pre-req for Imp Sunder. I suppose you could replace Precision w/Finesse, since this build's DEX will always be a few pts higher than STR, but I don't consider it enough of a bonus to be worthwhile.

In general I prefer WIS-based for dark monks because more of their DPS depends on their DCs (in particular ToD); for light monks can go either WIS or STR.

[whereispowderedsilve]

unbongwah's build is a great f2p build looks like! That's what you asked for, for the most part in the OP so...

Only other one I have bookmarked(NOT MY BUILD!!) is Hydro's: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=387993

Make sure you have like 10 minutes to read through the post, it's very extensive & informative!

[TheWired]

I see, what about something like this? If stacking dodge is less beneficial than PA and Sunder ill swap Mobility and Spring out for those. Is sunder worth it with such a low strength though? And will i have to-hit problems with PA on and 12 starting strength?

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 03.14.02
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Level 20 Lawful Neutral Human Female
(20 Monk) 
Hit Points: 314
Spell Points: 0 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 15
Reflex: 16
Will: 21

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(28 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             12                    14
Dexterity            16                    18
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence          8                     8
Wisdom               15                    28
Charisma              8                     8

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills         Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)            (Level 20)
Balance               3                     8
Bluff                -1                    -1
Concentration         2                    15
Diplomacy            -1                    -1
Disable Device       n/a                   n/a
Haggle               -1                    -1
Heal                  2                     9
Hide                  3                     8
Intimidate           -1                    -1
Jump                  1                     4
Listen                2                     9
Move Silently         3                     8
Open Lock             n/a                   n/a
Perform              n/a                   n/a
Repair               -1                    -1
Search               -1                    -1
Spot                  2                     9
Swim                  1                     2
Tumble                n/a                   n/a
Use Magic Device     n/a                   n/a

Level 1 (Monk)
Feat: (Human Bonus) Dodge
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Stunning Fist
Feat: (Selected) Two Weapon Fighting


Level 2 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Precision


Level 3 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Path) Path of Inevitable Dominion: Fists of Darkness
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 4 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS


Level 5 (Monk)


Level 6 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Mobility
Feat: (Selected) Spring 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) Greater Two Weapon Fighting


Level 16 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS


Level 17 (Monk)


Level 18 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 19 (Monk)


Level 20 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Enhancement: Monk Serenity
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Wisdom I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery III
Enhancement: Human Versatility I
Enhancement: Human Versatility II
Enhancement: Static Charge
Enhancement: Way of the Patient Tortoise I
Enhancement: Way of the Patient Tortoise II
Enhancement: Touch of Death
Enhancement: Porous Soul
Enhancement: All-Consuming Flame
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery III
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy I
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy II
Enhancement: Winter's Touch
Enhancement: Adept of Wind
Enhancement: Grandmaster of Storms
Enhancement: Master of Thunder
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Improved Jump I
Enhancement: Improved Jump II
Enhancement: Improved Tumble I
Enhancement: Improved Tumble II
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom I
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom II
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom III

[SensaiRyu]

I played around with one that would end up with both 23 base wis and str for the OC and Vorp. Don't know how it would turn out, but I may LR to try it.

I needed a +4 str tome to get there and I think I'd have to give up Imp Sunder. Staying HElf of course.

Dex would be just enuf to make Air III since I never have successfully stuck with Air IV when I added it to my enhancements.

I agree with the other wis comments - wis/str and enuf dex to get the TWF line.