Monk FAQ Monk FAQ created by CaptainKO Date: 12/27/07 Version 1.01 -------------------------------- Table of Contents A. Attributes & Skills B. Feats C. Gameplay D. Races E. Multi-Classing F. FAQs G. Copyright -------------------------------------------- A. Attributes & Skills Strength - (15)+5 Strength is need for carrying items, raises you're Attack Bonus (aka AB) for melee weapons and doing more damage. The amount of weight you can carry goes up with every point of strength you receive and the damage you do with a weapon does up every 2 points for +1 to damage and attack bonus. If you have a Strength score of 10, you'll gain no benefits to damage, attack bonus and the weight you can pick is standard. If you're Strength goes below 10, you'll start to suffer -1 penalties towards AB, damage and the amount of weight you can carry with every -2 you lose. (Penalties apply to weight every point taken from strength) Monks are a melee class so they should devote every single point to their Strength attribute. A score of 15 Strength is a good start and you should put +1 every four levels for a total score 20. This will not only help with damage, but with your knockdown ability as well. Dexterity - (16) Dexterity is need to raise your Reflex saves against damaging spells, raise your Attack Bonus (aka AB) for range weapons, Dexterity-based skills and traps as well as raising your Armor Class (aka AC) for a better defense. Your Reflex saves, Dexterity-based skills, Range AB and AC are raised by +1 points every 2 points of Dexterity you get. If you have Dexterity score of 10, you'll gain no benefits to your Reflex saves, Dexterity-based skills, Range AB or AC. If you're Dexterity goes below 10, you'll start to suffer -1 penalty towards any Dexterity based-skill, AB with range weapons, reflex saves and AC. You only need a score of 16 to get Whirlwind Kick to become a tornado monk. Parry (Dexterity-based skill): This is a defensive mode skill that works only in battle. The calculations for this is Parry DC + Dexterity vs. Enemy AB. If the roll is 10 or higher, you'll perform a counter attack. You can only block and counter attack as many attacks you can perform in one round, which means you can only perform 3 successful blocks and 3 successful counter attacks. (Unless you have two-weapon fighting) A monk fights better on the offense, not on the defense so parry is useless. Tumble (Dexterity-based skill): You are able to roll and save against attacks while moving. The calculation for this is Tumble DC + Dexterity + Dice Roll vs. DC of 15. Tumble adds +1 AC Every 10 points of tumble. Your doesn’t wear armor so it would be a good idea to put points towards this skill. Hide & Move Silently (Dexterity-based skill): These skills are mentioned together because both skills work with stealth mode. These skills are debatable as its usefulness depends on your style of play and how often you end up in cramped areas. Like the Rogue's version of Stealth, the Monk’s version of stealth is inferior to other stealth-based classes like the Ranger or Shadowdancer. This is because other classes get HIPS (Hide in Plain Sight), doesn't meaning you can go in stealth any time you like. Not to mention, you don’t get sneak attack. Constitution - (14) Constitution is need to raise one's Health Points (HP), Constitution-based skills, and Fortitude saves against poison, disease, negative energy affects & death spells, attacks and traps. Your Fortitude saves, Constitution-based skills, and HP are raised by +1 every 2 points of Constitution you get. If you have Constitution score of 10, you'll gain no benefits to your Fortitude saves, Constitution-based skills, or Health points. If you're Constitution goes below 10, you'll start to suffer -1 penalty towards Fortitude saves, any Constitution-based skill, and HP. A Constitution of 14 is good if you want to gain 10 HD every level instead of the standard 8. Remember, monks don’t wear armor so the higher the better. Intelligence - (10) Intelligence is needed to gain another skill points and raise your score for Intelligent-based skills. Your Intelligence-based skills and Intelligent-based skills are raised by +1 every 2 points of Intelligence you get. If you have Intelligence score of 10, you'll gain no benefits to your Skill points or Intelligence-based skills. If you're Intelligence goes below 10, you'll start to suffer -1 penalty towards Skill points and any Intelligence-based skill. For humans and other races except the Sun Elf and the Half-Orc, an intelligence of 10 is all you need. The Half-Orc and the Sun elf can a score have 6. Lore (Intelligence-based skill): You can identify items that appear to be unknown when taking them out of the chest. If you want to save money, then you'll put points towards this skill. Wisdom - (14) Wisdom is need to raise one's Willpower save against mind spells, attacks & traps and Wisdom-based skills. Your Willpower saves and Wisdom-based skills are raised by +1 every 2 points of Wisdom you get. If you have Wisdom score of 10, you'll gain no benefits to your Willpower saves and Wisdom-based skills. If you're Wisdom goes below 10, you'll start to suffer -1 penalties towards Willpower saves and Wisdom-based skills. For Monks, Wisdom serves as an extra source of AC. A monk should always have score of 14 and nothing below. Don’t break your neck trying to raise this attribute to empower your monk feats because they’ll become useless at higher levels. Spot & Listen (Wisdom-based skill): This gives the Monk the ability to see or hear anyone in stealth sneaking up on them. These skills will allow you to see sneaking characters, but not invisible characters. This isn't needed for Original Campaign, but is greatly need in PvP and PvE servers. Charisma- (8) Charisma is needed to raise points toward Charisma based-skills. Your Charisma based-skills are raised by +1 every 2 points of Charisma you get. If you have Charisma score of 10, you'll gain no benefits to your Charisma based-skills. If you're Charisma goes below 10, you'll start to suffer -1 penalty towards any Charisma based-skills. This ability is really important for a monk as a Monk will talk with their fist more so than their words. Diplomacy (Charisma-based skill): Monk, this mainly convincing the person to end a conflict or give you additional depending on your sore. When the option comes up, you'll be asked to either come to an agreement. -------------------------------------------- B. Feats - Class Feats Stunning Fist: When you attack an opponent using this feat, you are able to daze the opponent for a few rounds if they can save against a DC consist of half your class levels + Wisdom Modifier. Stunning Fists is useful in the beginning, but after level 8, the feat becomes useless. Fast Movement: You gain the ability to increase your speed with every level. *Cleave: You were suppose to get this feat; unfortunately, due to bad programming, you were denied this feat. You can still get this feat through power attack and cleave, but you’ll be wasting two feats to do it. Furry of Blows: If the bread and butter of your monk combat. It adds an additional attack as your levels scale. In the beginning, you’ll miss a lot due to the penalties, but as you get high in your levels, you’ll miss less because of you gain Greater Flurry of Blows. Greater Flurry of Blows takes away all of the penalties and you gain a 7th attack by level 20. Unarmed Strike & Improve Unarmed Strike: You automatically get this feat to ensure you don’t get AOO’ed when using your first. Unarmed Strike damage: Unarmed Strike damage goes up every four levels after level 3. Level 1-3: 1d6/1d4 (Medium size/Small Size) Level 4-7: 1d8/1d6 Level 8-11: 1d10/1d8 Level 12-15: 2d6/1d10 Level 16-19: 2d8/2d6 Level 20: 2d10/2d8 Wisdom AC: You gain +1 extra AC for every +2 additional points you into Wisdom. As long your Wisdom is above a score 10, you’ll gain AC benefits. *Monk AC: You gain an additional +1 AC for every 5th level after level 1. Level 5 AC +1 Level 10: AC +2 Level 15: AC +3 Level 20: AC +4 Deflect Arrows: You can deflect projectiles from range weapons so long as you aren’t caught flat-footed. Good to have when running down a range-attacker. Ki Strike: Your fists now count as enchant weapons and you are able to bypass certain damage reduction abilities or spells. You gain an additional Ki Strike for every six levels after level 4. Level 4: Ki Strike +1 Level 10: Ki Strike +2 Level 16: Ki Strike +3 Purity of body and Diamond Body: At level 5, the monk gain Purity of Body which makes them immune to all diseases and immunity to poison at level 11 with Diamond Body. Basically, now you don’t have to worry about suffer attribute penalties that would hinder your ability to function. Still-Mind: Seeing Perfect Self down below as to why this is useless. Diamond Soul: You gain 10 + Your class level to your spell resistance. Normally, a person’s spell resistance is just based on their highest class level. (If you pure class then your spell resistance will be 20) For a monk still is like having a free spell-resistance item. Plus, this stacks with a Drow’s Spell resistance or spell resistance items. Evasion & Improve Evasion: This feat allows the Monk to avoid damage Reflex save spells or traps if they successfully save. You get evasion on your first level. At level 9, you get improve invasion evasion, which is a better version of evasion. Improve evasion allows you to avoid just evasion, but if you fail your save you only 50% damage. Knockdown/Improve Knockdown: Knockdown gives one the ability to knockdown their opponent based on strength modifier between PC’s strength bonus vs. NPC’s strength bonus. Knockdown only works against those the same size and smaller, leaving the opponent prone and unable to defend oneself, losing a certain amount of AC for one round. Improve Knockdown is the same Knockdown, but a better version as you are able to knockdown opponent a size large than yourself. Quivering Palm: As useful as Stunning Fist, except you get this at level 15 and it kills your opponent rather than stunning them. Whirlwind Kick: Requires a Dexterity score of 16 to get, which is no problem if you put 16 points towards Dexterity from the get go. It’ll give a monk one or two free attacks attempts depending on whether or not you are using Flurry Fist. Combined with the Cleave feat, you’ll become storm of havoc. Perfect Self: Your eyes glove, you’re immune to mind-inflicting spells and you gain 10/- damage reduction. This is the reason why you twenty level of monk without cross-classing. - General Feats Weapon Focus, Power Critical and Improve Critical: Weapon Focus increases your chance to hit an enemy and increasing the monk’s damage. Power Attack and Cleave: Power attack is useless to a monk, but cleave isn’t. Power attack is a prerequisite for Cleave, which is the only reason why you are getting this feat. Cleave gives you a free attack against a nearby enemy in any direction. These feats are a must for a monk who is trying to make the Cyclone build. Combined with Whirlwind kick, your character will become a tornado of damage. Dodge: For human characters who want to have a lot of AC. Toughness: For Monks who want to increase their survivability. -------------------------------------------- C. Gameplay The Class The monk is the most dangerous “pure” melee class of the original core group. He doesn’t need a one-shot feat to double his damage like the paladin or buffs to increase his ability to fight. His weapons continue to scale as he continues to level up. One of this, the monk gets numerous defense abilities that allow immunity or resistance to spells so you have a monster of a class. Anyhow, the monk can do all of the melee positions: Point Guard and Dreadnaught. Not can monk cover both positions, but they can perform both at the same time once you get whirlwind attack, power, and cleave so can keep aggro while pursuing the boss. Pre-Battle Unless you have potions or an NPC wizard to buff you, the only thing you can do is run head on into your enemy or enemies. Melee If you played a Fighter class then this should be no different. In the beginning, you’ll be tanking, but later on you be tanking and making a B-Line for the boss. Range Like any other Warrior class, you shouldn’t be in the back. Strengths - Monks have high saves. - Monks can do high damage. - Monks get immunities to poison, disease and mind-inflicting abilities. - Monks are never weighed down by heavy equipment. Weakness - Monks only get 8 Hit Dice so a 14 Constitution is a must. - Monks are still vulnerable to Sneak Attacks and will lose their Dexterity score if flanked. - Monks start off as a weak class until they get to level 6. - Monks, like Paladins, are played straight-forward in terms of roleplaying making them pretty boring. -------------------------------------------- E. Races All races except for Halfling and Gnomes are good to be Monk so long as you give the Monk a Constitution score of 14, a Dexterity score of 16, and a Strength score of 15. The reason the Halfling and Gnomes are poor choice is because of their size, which cause them to get knockdown a lot. So long your character is medium size and meets the three attribute requirements no race is truly bad to play the monk. Gold Dwarves are also bad candidates due to their attribute penalties towards Dexterity you so might want to reconsider choosing this race as well. -------------------------------------------- F. Good Classes to take in consideration when multi-classing. Fighter, Paladin or Blackguard: The 4 levels of a Warrior will grant the Monk a 4th attack. Combine with Two-Weapon Fighting feats, you can make an awesome for Kama Monk. Shadow Dancer: One level of Shadow dance will give you HIPs, if you’re a stealth monk. Cleric: One level of cleric with Air and War will give the Monk Uncanny Dodge and a feat Weapon Focus feat towards your first if you pick the right God. -------------------------------------------- G. FAQ 1. Is this build for the original Campaign? Nope, just a general build for the general player. 2. Why didn't you include the Assassin, Black Guard or Wizard/Sorcerer multi-class suggestions based builds? You would need to devote 10 levels of Assassin to be affective because there's no reason to go halfway or partial like some builds since the Assassin gets great feats such as Death Attack and HIPs. Black Guard is also was excluded for similar reasons. 3. Why do you believe the Halfling and Gnomes always suck in your FAQs? Knockdown, nuff said. -------------------------------------------- H. Copyright and Permission All the material written here is copy of myself and will not be used without permission from me. (c) Tony Mark, March 2007