Monk

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Monks are versatile warriors that utilize speed and their huge number of attacks each round to do damage.

Contents

HG Customization

  • Legendary BAB: +15
  • Forum Class Ability Board
  • Bonus Damage: When unarmed, Legendary Monks inflict 1 point of bonus damage per 6 Monk levels (including LL), to a maximum of 10 points at Monk 60. This is implemented as a temporary bonus on any gloves they wear. The damage type will be changed to reflect the nature of the gloves (spiked, bladed or regular impact).
    • Legendary Monks gain an Enchantment bonus to hit and damage of 1 point per point of Wis Modifier to a maximum of +16. This damage type also changes to reflect the nature of gloves (spiked, bladed or regular impact).
    • At Monk 40 (excluding LL), characters will automatically receive the Keen property on any gloves they wear.
    • Legendary Monks get 1% physical immunity per 2 points of STR modifier.
  • Monk weapons: Goad and nunchaku are considered monk weapons (like kama) for purposes of receiving unarmed attack progression and Flurry of Blows. At Monk 21, this expands to include quarterstaff and shuriken as well. Flurry of Blows does not currently work for these weapons.
  • Stunning Fist: A character with monk as control class who uses the Stunning Fist ability will force the target to make a Will save or be knocked down for 1d3 + 1 rounds. The DC of the Will save is equal to 10 + (monk level including LLs / 2) + Wisdom modifier + (Improved Stunning Fist feats * 3), capped at DC 70. It will appear you only have one use of Stunning Fist, but the ability will recharge after it is used.
    • Quivering Palm is now a fast action and can effect creatures of any Hit Dice (excepting Undead, Constructs and a small number of others). It is only used if it lands to effect. If the target saves their critical immunity will be stripped. DC is 10 + (Monk Lvl / 2) + Wis modifier + 3 per Improved Stunning Fist feat (Max of 70).
    • Legendary Monks with Whirlwind or Improved Whirlwind feats receive an enhanced version of the ability. When using either one, the monk will perform a second set of attacks in which the Monk will automatically attempt a standard stunning fist attack on every enemy in range. Every enemy hit must save against a DC of (10 + (Monk level + Legendary level)/2 + Wisdom Ability Modifier). Only one use of the stunning fist feat is used up, no matter how many enemies are hit.
  • Diamond Soul: For legendary Monks, spell resistance increases at an accelerated rate. The increased progression is (10 + 7/6 x Monk level). Improved Spell Resistance feats still add two to this total per feat.
  • Perfect Self: Whilst this has not changed from the vanilla NWN implementation it DOES give immunity to mind effects Fear, Stun, Daze & Confusion that normally require a specific named immunity, e.g. Monks with this feat do not require Mind Blank in Illithid runs. It does NOT protect against domination (stat or skill based checks), berserk (HG specific effect blocked by Charm immunity) or turning (icon for 'feared' but a different effect entirely).
  • Ki Points: Empty Body and Wholeness of Body can now be toggled on and off, draining ki points while in use. Monks receive a pool of ki points equal to (Monk level including LLs + base Wisdom score) * 3 each rest.
    • Empty Body [Ki point cost: 1 per round]: Grants +1% concealment per Monk level above 20, to a maximum of 70% at level 40. For legendary Monks, Empty Body gives an additional +1% concealment per 2 legendary levels (to a maximum of 80% at 60 Monk), and duration increases by one round per legendary level.
    • Wholeness of Body [Ki point cost: 2 per round]: Wholeness of Body now has a number of uses equal to Monk level (including LL). Each use heals 2 hp + 1 hp per two Monk class levels over 12, to a maximum of 16 hp per use at Monk level 40. When used, sufficient uses will be expended to heal the character fully, but unneeded uses will be conserved.
      • When used by a legendary Monk with at least 40 base Strength, Wholeness of Body will provide critical hit immunity for 1 round per use. The Monk can use Wholeness of Body again at any time to disable the critical hit immunity and cease the expenditure of uses.
  • Innate survival ability
    • For each 20 monk levels (not including LL) a Monk can acquire permanent Levitation, Water Breathing, Firewalking or Passwall from the spells pedestal in the docks, to check which you have taken click on the Spell Pedestal again and you will receive a message to this effect.
  • Note - Make sure you do not take a survival ability you already have through your subrace or it will be wasted.

Monk Types

Dex Monks trade damage output for defence by focusing on high AC. Dex monks lose added Str Mod to damage, but can still obtain medium damage output through sheer number of attacks. Due to higher AC Dex monks are often more stable than their Str counterparts and will be much easier for new players to keep alive and find gear for.

Str Monks add higher Str Modifier to each attack, boosting damage output considerably. They do this at the cost of AC and can sometimes be quite fragile without the correct gear or when using UR races pre-demi, the strength based physical damage immunity increase (usually in the region of 13-15%) can significantly help though.

Whilst primarily a Str build this incorporates enough Dex to be able to pass most of the checks you will come across, especially when combined with bonuses from gear and Demi levels. Damage output against critical hit vulnerable creatures is impressive and with the boost from 2H weapon use and can also take down creatures immune to critical hits faster than usual. The AC is about as high as possible for a 2H build and the monk bonus to physical immunity from Str mod also helps. This type of build ideally requires use of a subrace that gives a bonus to both Str & Dex (the more the better) leaving it mostly limited to BUR and above unless you are willing to make significant sacrifices in any (or all) of AB, AC, immunity, etc.

  • Splash Classes

Fighter is often taken in Monk builds to allow access to the Weapon Specialization line of feats. Weapon Master can also significantly increase damage from critical hits although not for Unarmed characters. Paladin and/or Blackguard levels can significantly increase your saves depending on the amount of Charisma you have. Taking four levels of any tier 1 class before level 21 will get you the base 16 AB you need to get four attacks per round, although you may need to take more if you splash another none tier one class. So for offensive purposes 5-7 Weapon Master and 4 Fighter are optimal and for defensive purposes 2 Blackguard or 1 Paladin work well.

Play Guide

Defences

Staying alive with a monk is very dependent on the build you use and the defences it relies on. Dex Monks with high AC (140+) can survive in the Hells quite reliably without need for intricate gear setups or extra concealment, although Empty Body or Self Concealment feats can make Dex builds very good at dodging attacks. Str Monks often have lower AC and hence are much more reliant on Concealment and Crit Immunity (via Wholeness of Body) to stay alive. Unfortunately Str Monks can rarely fit the Self Concealment feats and, as a result, are more reliant on Empty Body for concealment. Str Monks receive Crit Immunity through Wholeness of Body, though extended use will rapidly deplete available Ki points. They also recieve 1% physical immunity per point of strength modifier making them innately more resistant to physical damage than dex monks. For these reasons building and playing a Str Monk can be challenging, as it requires prudent management of Ki and wise selection of gear.

It is hard to make a true uni-tank Monk, so there will nearly always be some risk of failing stat checks in the end game parts of the mod, such as Malebranche KD for Str Monks and Pit Fiend KD for Dexers. KD and check failures can be minimized by either sticking close to the Bard UUU epic or trying to avoid enemies you know are dangerous and focusing on those you can make checks against. One excellent part of being a monk is that at level 20 you receive the Perfect Self feat which complete immunity to mind effects which means that you do not need to wear items with specific immunities to Fear, Confusion, Stun, Daze & Sleep making gear selection somewhat easier.

Damage Output

To increase damage output Monks can use flurry to give themselves an extra attack each round, although this can possibly be counterproductive if your AB is low since each attack is made at -2 AB. You can also use a Torch of the Unwary which add +6d6 improved sneak attack damage against flatfooted enemies, although it adds nothing against sneak immune enemies.

Unarmed monks also need to remember that on HG Monk gloves come in three different physical types; spiked (piercing), bladed (slashing) and normal (bludgeoning). Having a range of these gloves enables you to switch physical damage types in runs to maximize damage output against certain enemies that are vulnerable to a specific damage type. They can also use the Sign of Orcus to gain OC/DC unarmed.

Other Warnings

Something to be careful of when playing monks is that they are fast. You need to be extremely careful not to accidentally run too far ahead or lose control of your character, as doing so can quickly spawn more enemies than your party can handle. Like your feet, your fists are also very fast and monks can easily achieve up to 10 attacks per round. This means when hitting kickback enemies you will produce ungodly kickback. You can hit personal kickback monsters at your own risk when equipped with the right rings, but you must never hit area-wide kickback creatures as you will subject your party to untold amounts of kickback and can send party members to their deaths within a matter of rounds. For this reason (and the fact it makes you change targets without choosing) it is not currently advisable to take the Circle Kick feat.

See Also

Retrieved from "http://wiki.hgweb.org/wiki/Monk"
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