If so, what for?

I have a Deep Gnome Monk with a 13 INT I'm using as a decoy. The only skills I give her is Hide and Move Silently (maxed out), and the extra point I spend on Search (just because).

Do I need Concentration for anything in this game? What about any other skills (for this character, I've got a Diplomat and a Loremaster)?

IIRC, Concentration was how often a spell is disrupted through being hurt in any way shape or form. The higher your conentration, the lower chance of a spell by your character getting disrupted.

Ergo, your monk doesn't need it, as far as I can tell...

Nope. Even the "spell-like" perks of a monk (stunning blow, quivering palm, the self-heal) do not need Concentration (never seen them disrupted). I get the feeling that monks get class access to Concentration because it fits, not because it's necessary.

I love taking monks and have never ever taken or needed concentration.

Well, they get it in the pnp version of the game.

What are good feats for a single classed monk? After the save-boosters, dodge, expertise, and improved critical, I'm leaning towards toughness (!!!!).

Power Attack and Cleave if the character has 13+ Str. Dirty Fighting, Weapon Finesse, Rapid Shot, and weapon proficiencies for when you use weapons (e.g. throwing axes).

No way.

I'm really curious about Dirty Fighting. I can't determine if it's really worth it or not.

My impression is that it's really good on the lower levels, but that's when I need to get my essential feats, and when I do have "time" to get dirty fighting, most baddies are easily going to make a fortitude save.

That would probably make an interesting conversation though! [img]smile.gif[/img]

EDIT: Rapid shot does have some merit, since I'll use throwing axes occasionally.

No. It's not worth it. Here's why:

In order for it to happen it must overcome 3 ifs:
1.First you must score a critical hit. That's less than 1 in 20 attacks (remeber not every 20 roll is a critical hit).
2.If that happens you must roll a percentile dice. There is a 50% chance of an effect (slow or blind).
3.And if that happens, the creature must fail its save. Quite rare later on.

And if all the three ifs pass, there is one bigger if. Whether the effect is at all useful:
If you just critical hit a creature, it is dying anyway, and having it blinded or slowed isn't going to tip the scales in your favor. You won't even notice it. Especially since if it failed its save it's quite weak anyway. (wow! Thank God my dirty fighting slowed that goblin. I wouldn't have beaten it otherwise :rolleyes: )

Also did I mention that undead, golems, elementals and anything immune to critical hits is immune to those effects?

[ 07-02-2007, 02:03 PM: Message edited by: ZFR ]

I agree that it's a marginal feat, and useless in some situations (e.g. with a melee monster using greataxes and much of HoF). However, it's not so bad as you posted above.

1) Improved Critical moves the critical threat roll from 20 to 19-20. If the character uses a dagger (which I do quite frequently, at least in the normal game when the monk's Ki Strike hasn't caught up to the damage resistance of certain enemies), the natural threat range of a dagger is 19-20, which becomes 18-20 with Improved Critical. That's 15% chance per attack of a critical threat, and say for the sake of argument that 66% of critical threats become critical hits. Therefore, you could critical hit on 10% of all strikes with a dagger, and maybe 7% of all hits with fists.

2) It was my understanding that you have a 100% chance to cause Slow or Blind, with an even probability to cause either one. Even if your understanding of the 50%/50% is correct, that's still a 75% chance that one or the other occurs.

3) This is the killer, if you are doing HoF. However, you can help it along by attacking certain physically weaker enemies - like spellcasters. I also tend to use a lot of bonus/malus spells in HoF. Malison and Recitation together take 4 off of a save, which is significant.

DF can be quite helpful for characters that do not cause a lot of damage with each hit - such as an archer or a low-Str decoy.

Look at it this way; a lvl 30 character that is primarily a monk will attain 11 or more feats (more if it is human or takes levels in wizard or fighter). What feats should it have?

It's my understanding that Klorox's monk is optimized as a decoy (with 13 Int and Expertise). Therefore, it is unlikely to have 13 Str and access to Power Attack and Cleave.

In no particular order, here's my list of "must-have" feats for a monk/decoy.

Expertise, Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will, Dodge, and Improved Critical. I'd add Weapon Finesse if the player has the mod that treats monk fists as daggers for the purposes of Weapon Finesse. That's 6 feats, so there's 5 more to go.

Great Fortitude is the last save-booster feat I'd take (it's tested less often, IMO), but I'd likely take it. That leaves 4 optional feats. Rapid Shot can be useful, but probably won't be used much. Precise shot is useless (monk would shift to fists). There's a whole host of feats that are useless or unavailable to a dedicated monk (casting feats, rogue feats, Heretic's Bane, Heroic Inspiration), and quite a few that boost skill checks. Monks get Deflect Arrows automatically as a level-dependent class feat, and Dash is entirely unnecessary. So what's left? Blind Fight? I say Dirty Fighting is ok as one of the options. It's certainly got as least as much utility as Toughness, which was the original question.

[ 07-02-2007, 03:34 PM: Message edited by: Aerich ]