Easy monk Life

[Raiztlin75]

Looking for an easy life. I would prefer a melee. I was toying with the idea of a vkf but was unsure if it would be strong enough else it looks like a carry build is in my future

[ValariusK]

Looking for an easy life. I would prefer a melee. I was toying with the idea of a vkf but was unsure if it would be strong enough else it looks like a carry build is in my future

For a monk, one easy path is shintao where you max out dexterity and make wisdom reasonably high. For feats, level 1 dodge/mobility level 2 combat expertise, level 3 twf, level 6 spring attack, Whirlwind attack
For enhancements, at level 3 get the Ninja-3 core. That'll get you dex to hit/damage and from there you're golden. At level 9 you can get improved TWF, level 12 imp crit bludgeon and level 15 greater TWF. At level 18 you can fill in stunning fist. Feats are tight.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Have you tried adding 3 levels of Cleric for Soundburst?

[Selvera]

IMO monk is a pretty easy life for a melee. They have evasion; good saves, good AC, their PRR comes early and in heroic levels; both Ninja Spy and Henshin have great named items for their primary weapon. (Although to be fair, Tieflings and Elemental Bloom are pretty rare drops). Meanwhile Shintao/handwraps are just strait up powerful at all stages of the game.

Any of the 3 trees has easy paths from 1 to 20:

Henshin -> Pick up a level of rogue early for trapping and quarterstaff attackspeed; pick up a level of favored soul a little later for divine might or divine will. Use power attack and cleaves.

Ninja Spy -> Pick up 6 or 8 levels of fighter and become centered with better weapons for levels 12-20; from levels 1-11 use either shortswords or quarterstaff. For 12-20 use khopeshes or Greatsword or Greataxe. Probably best to use power attack and cleaves.

Shintao -> Stay pure monk, dexterity to damage; wisdom to DC's. Get whirlwind attack. Handwraps obviously.

[Vish]

Go pure monk
Take stunning fist at 2

Or splash 2 rogue if you want to trap

[capitainetaverne]

Go pure monk


Or splash 2 rogue if you want to trap

Or splash 2 ARTI if you want to trap and get empower healing

[troublegurl]

IMO monk is a pretty easy life for a melee. They have evasion; good saves, good AC, their PRR comes early and in heroic levels; both Ninja Spy and Henshin have great named items for their primary weapon. (Although to be fair, Tieflings and Elemental Bloom are pretty rare drops). Meanwhile Shintao/handwraps are just strait up powerful at all stages of the game.

Any of the 3 trees has easy paths from 1 to 20:

Henshin -> Pick up a level of rogue early for trapping and quarterstaff attackspeed; pick up a level of favored soul a little later for divine might or divine will. Use power attack and cleaves.

Ninja Spy -> Pick up 6 or 8 levels of fighter and become centered with better weapons for levels 12-20; from levels 1-11 use either shortswords or quarterstaff. For 12-20 use khopeshes or Greatsword or Greataxe. Probably best to use power attack and cleaves.

Shintao -> Stay pure monk, dexterity to damage; wisdom to DC's. Get whirlwind attack. Handwraps obviously.

Shintao build seems to be something Id like to try what race and stats for 32 point build first life looking at human or halfling
Want to stay pure also using handwraps
Thank you for any feedback

[Selvera]

Shintao build seems to be something Id like to try what race and stats for 32 point build first life looking at human or halfling
Want to stay pure also using handwraps
Thank you for any feedback

Staying pure is currently THE way to run a shintao; I wouldn't recommend multiclassing. But; if the monk-die-nerf goes through (despite community backlash against it), then multiclass might end up being better for shintao.

Regardless; there's currently two builds for shintao handwrap monks flying around; one that uses dex-to-damage through the ninja-spy enhancement tree; and one that uses wis-to-damage through the falconry tree. People are saying wis version is better; at current I don't believe them; I'm doing very well on my dex version and currently outperforming the wis monks on my server. (That I've seen so far anyways, and this could easily just be due to who has more gear currently).

In terms of races; I'm currently running a halfling, but I've seen mentions of half-orc and aasimar monks doing very well; human also has a good advantage of being able to pick up an extra feat; which gets them into stride faster then other races.

For dexterity based; I'd go for a stat line similar to 8 str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 14 Int, 16 Wis, 8 Cha (on a human, modify as according for other races).
For wisdom based a stat line like 8 str, 16 Dex, 16 Con, 8 Int, 18 Wis, 8 Cha might be more appropriate.

(The extra int for dex based builds is so they can get use out of Know the Angles from the harper tree. It also makes it easier for them to find secret doors; which is nice).

For feats; you can essentially look at Symbiont's reaper optimized monk and take those feats, although you'll want to get whirlwind attack earlier then he does. (Skip stunning fist and take that at a higher level).

[Vish]

Regardless; there's currently two builds for shintao handwrap monks flying around; one that uses dex-to-damage through the ninja-spy enhancement tree; and one that uses wis-to-damage through the falconry tree. People are saying wis version is better; at current I don't believe them; I'm doing very well on my dex version and currently outperforming the wis monks on my server. (That I've seen so far anyways, and this could easily just be due to who has more gear currently).
.

Slave! I ran with you yesterday,
I was impressed at your half pintedness
We seem to be doing about same damage,
But I think my stunning fist had you beat
Wisdom aasimar ftw!

[Hamagawi]

For wisdom based a stat line like 8 str, 16 Dex, 16 Con, 8 Int, 18 Wis, 8 Cha might be more appropriate.

I agree generally but even on a wis based build you still need int because whirlwind attack requires combat expertise and that requires 13 int. Also the listed builds are 36 point builds not 32 point builds, and that also leads to the question of what tomes are available? A 32 point build with no tomes available will look very different from a 32 point build with at least +3 tomes available.