basic questions

1) SR, is that only for level 20 and beyond? if not when does it begin? and how much per level?

2)If you take 4 levels of fighter before level 20 you get an extra attack per round ( I think). Does this apply to using Karma's as well or do you get more?

3)Dex or strength based builds, which would give the best AB?

4) what feats / skills would you reccomend and what would you stay clear of?

4 first...I'd stay away from Circle Kick. It seems like a good deal, until you're fighting a boss, and his minions, in melee. You'll be constantly changing opponents, and if you aren't immune to sneak attacks, and the boss uses them, you'll be opening yourself up to them.

3. Dex builds, with finesse, will give you the best overall char. Stay away from non monk style weapons, such as the katana. These weapons will hurt you more than help. Kamas allow you to keep your ab set up, which for monks goes down in threes instead of by five. 36, 33, 30 etc, as opposed to all other classes going 36, 31, 26.

2. While you may slightly improve your ab, and weapon damage by taking fighter levels, and weapon specialization, you will ultimately lose out on SR for those four levels.

1. I'm not sure, but I think it starts at level 12. By level 13 you have SR 24 though, I looked at a stripped char for that.

“first...I'd stay away from Circle Kick. It seems like a good deal, until you're fighting a boss, and his minions, in melee. You'll be constantly changing opponents”

Thanks! That was going to be another question for later, I thought the AI was different or something, it is bloody annoying having a enemy you want dead ASAP like a mage only for your monk to change focus to a summand dire boar.

“Kamas allow you to keep your ab set up, which for monks goes down in threes instead of by five. 36, 33, 30 etc, as opposed to all other classes going 36, 31, 26.”

Not sure I follow you RTB, please clarify for me

If you were to use daggers instead of kamas, your ab would drop by fives, which is how everybody else's does. For example:

http://robertbard67206.com/images/Beling.jpg

Notice the way the ab drops, from 76 to 71 etc. For a monk, armed with kamas, or unarmed, it would go 76, 73, 70. Monks are the only class with this type of "bonus". I quote that because the attacks either have to be with kamas, or unarmed. Any other weapon type changes that to the standard 76, 71, etc. Hope that clears that up...

I would always use bare hand and never use kamas for my builds. When you get high enough paired with a belt of strength and boots of haste, you are pretty tough.
I would dump as many points into tumble and parry. The AC bonus from tumble is great. I would stay away from stealth etc. ( never used them much)

Thanks Rob, I understand now!
Toot, I have always thought that tumble is a great skill and use it all the time. What other skills and feats would you good people of Ironworks reccomend?

Hide, move silently, search and spot, to name a few off the top of my head, and depending on how many actual skill points you have, perhaps spell craft...forewarned is fore armed, or something like that... [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img]

i like taking 1 level of rogue and 1 level of shadowdancer towards the end; (level 39 & 40 if the particular game allows you to get that far).
Save up extra skill points in previous levels so that you can spend them on rogue skills.
The other build with a monk i like is to make a shapeshifter up to the level where you can change into undead. That gets you regeneration and immunity to critical hits etc naturally if your in a game that doesnt have items you can buy with those.

I like the monk - shapeshifter idea Gabrielles, SR and immunity to crits :)

Does anyone have access to a SR table for monks? they seem to get more SR at epic rather than lower levels.

SR for monks works along these lines - (this is off memory, so my numbers may be off, but the concept is correct) - at level 12 (or possibly 14) you get SR of your level + 10 (I think it's 10). Additional SR feats are available in epic levels, which can make your monk nearly untouchable by enemy spellcasters. I highly recommend those.

I highly recommend taking a full 40 levels of monk, but if you have to multiclass, you might want to consider taking three levels of rogue in order to get defensive roll (and opening up epic dodge).