Interesting thing about the Scarlet Ninja-to - it's actually a weapon from the Greyhawk campaign, from the Scarlet Brotherhood. Really cool bam.

yeah your right ironfist, the shaolin monks can use all sorts of weapons.
i actually saw them perform, and i'll tell ya that they do the most amazing stuff. not only can they jump real high and move real fast, they're able to break wooden staffs over there heads and throw pins through glass. they use their Qi energy or something... do the monks in BG 2 have Qi/Chi energy?

Yes, it makes them immune to charm, disease, several other effects, as well as allowing them to move at three times the rate of most other classes and be able to use the stunning blow technique. Oh, and their natural AC and power in their fists are owed to their Qi as well, apparently. They can heal, too. : P

i ve seen a shaolin monk to make a hole in a wall made from stone with his finger!! also one poutted a wide spear in his belly and he didnt bleed!,they re amazing.

The one annoying thing about monks is that they can detect traps but not disarm them. It makes sense logically but it's irritating, isn't it!

Other than that the monk is probably one of the strongest classes, especially as you don't have to babysit them up to level 8+ when they really start to come into their own.

Heh, Memnoch, it's like the spell to detect traps, it's nice to find out if they are there, but if you don't have a thief to disarm them, especially the ones that you can't cross without taking damage, it leaves you in a jam.

Interesting that you say that. I've always played with a thief but I've heard people say you can get by without them by using find traps and something else. How do you disarm these traps then without one?

Has anyone noticed that a monk can use some mage spells and wands?
i havn't actually used any but i noticed when i pick up some scrolls and wands that they are not red shaded and they can be put into the quick use slots. i only really thought about it when i read the message about stalkers getting mage abilities. it happened with not many of the scrolls say 15% of the ones i have picked up so far. will try it tonight.

I'm playing without a thief. I use find traps and set waypoints. Doing fine so far, 'cept I can't disarm traps on chests and such. I just get Viconia to open trapped containers; she usually manages to resist any magic traps. She's also a great Irish minesweeper.

The final patch removes takes some of the monks' advantages away by the way. Here'a a list:
Monks now suffer from non-proficiency penalties.
Monks can no longer attack the same number of times per round armed as unarmed.

Oh well...