Monk past life build

[Sarzor]

For completionist I only have 3 classes left, so was thinking of doing monk next.

Having never done monk, the sheer number of clicking seems daunting, but having seen monks in the hands of good players, I'm hopeful I won't suck at it. Also, the few ideas I had got thrown out the window with the game update changes, so who knows.

Melee isn't really my thing, so I am looking for a build which is easy to do, not too difficult to gear, and I won't dread playing. I have plenty of GS, torc, SoS, whatever. Not much in the way of wraps, Qstaves, etc but those can be faily easily acquired.

Restrictions:
1) Relatively easy self-heals. I like spell heals, which may not be completely applicable to here.
2) No horc or helf as I don't own them.
3) No druid or artificers, as I do not own them.

Beyond that I am open to ideas. The idea my friend gave is provided below who suggested 12/6/2 monk/pally/fighter but that was an pre-U19 build which I am unsure if carried over or not. I don't care if it's multiclass, single-class, whatever. I don't need it to be good in epics, though I would not object, as I will likely be in epics long enough to get some tokens and TR.

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Build suggested by friend:

STR: 16 + lvl ups
DEX: 15
CON: 14
INT: 8
WIS: 14
CHA: 14

1)mnk: PA, (b)2wf, (b)stunning fist
2)pal
3)pal: cleave
4)mnk: (b) toughness
5)mnk: (path-darkness)
6)mnk: great cleave
7)mnk
8) mnk: (b) toughness
9)mnk: i2wf
10)mnk
11)mnk
12)mnk: IC:blunt
13)mnk
14)mnk
15)ftr: toughness, (b) g2wf
16)ftr: (b) stunning blow
17)pal
18)pal: grandmaster of form
19)pal
20)pal

Enchancements:
tod, sa, no mercy, shadow double, rest from knight tree, pick hamp

note: I might change out some toughnesses for rog PL or umd focus or dodge, depending on how it goes. More looking for if this was a good start, or if there were suggestions for other newbie-friendly monk builds.

skills:
max concentration and umd, have about 10 base jump, and 1 tumble, rest go to balance. I don't know if heal is any use, but it going dark, probably not.

[Sarzor]

Updated with friend's recommended build.

[kuro_zero]

If you don't have decent handwraps, maybe think of 12 Monk/8 Fighter and use kensai weapon focus to be centered with weapon of choice.

[Sarzor]

If you don't have decent handwraps, maybe think of 12 Monk/8 Fighter and use kensai weapon focus to be centered with weapon of choice.

I'm sure I could dig up handwraps, but I do have a trove of items from previous lives which could help as well.

Also, would 12/8 be light or dark path?

Edit: Just realized to get the level 4 kensai prereq you NEED to have a level 8 fighter for greater weapon focus. So, question of why Fighter 8 is answered.

[kuro_zero]

I'm sure I could dig up handwraps, but I do have a trove of items from previous lives which could help as well.

Also, would 12/8 be light or dark path?

Edit: Just realized to get the level 4 kensai prereq you NEED to have a level 8 fighter for greater weapon focus. So, question of why Fighter 8 is answered.

Probably light path for healing curse. Since you're looking for self-healing possibly a DM halfling. I'll try to post a build up later.

[elg582]

Probably light path for healing curse. Since you're looking for self-healing possibly a DM halfling. I'll try to post a build up later.

That would make getting Shadow Double tricky (since he wouldn't have the ToD line), significantly reducing DPS.

The first thing that I would do is to reduce or eliminate the Paladin levels; you only need 2 for CHA bonus to saves, and even then, monks get greats saves, so it's not even necessary and spreads out your stat points. Pure monk, 12/8 so you can use any weapon and still be centered, or splash rogue for UMD so you can scroll heal. Also, I find the Paladin enhacement trees to be of extremely limited utility; I'm only take the 2nd tier on my 12 paladin/6 monk/2 rogue (staff build), because the monk and rogue lines are so much better.

Next, ditch the 2nd toughness and stunning blow; toughness isn't necessary at all, anymore, and you just won't use stunning blow. Stunning fist is 2.5x faster on cooldown and has a higher DC, plus you will have too many buttons to press, anyway, so you really don't need another. I would take Dodge and either Mobility or a good past life feat. Honestly, I don't usually even take cleave or great cleave on my monks, since OC doesn't work unarmed; I pump WIS and take Improved Martial Arts and Vorpal Strikes.

Remember that your dodge cap without armor is 25%, and you can raise that some. Shadow Veil from the Ninja line gives 25% incorporeal. Whip up a couple of displacement clickies (50% concealment), and you will be pretty much untouchable (~72% miss chance before AC check). Given a reasonable AC, you should expect to be hit approximately 1/7 of the time, except against bosses (who have higher to-hit and true seeing, usually).

Since you don't have helf, I would say human; extra feat (spring attack, if you took mobility), extra skill points (UMD?), and damage boosts. Halfing with healing DM is going to eat a lot of AP; Dwarf is not a bad choice, 12/8 centered monk with dwarven axes would be a lot of fun. I have done elf with DMs for the free displacement, but again, lots of AP.