I'm starting a new game up and wonder if anyone has any opinion
of choosing a monk over a fighter and a ninja over a bard or
any of the others.

My party would be
Fighter (or Monk)
Samurai
Ninja (or Bard)
Rogue
Bishop
Priest (or Mage)

I think your choices would depend on what you played the first time.

I know when I replay I will be playing mostly basic classes as I am playing almost all elite classes now.

As for Priest or Mage, since you have a bishop who could concentrate on Priest spells, I would take the Mage.

Ninja or Bard depends on your preference for critical hits or music. Personally I might ditch the Rogue and take the Ninja and the Bard. If I remember right the Bard can pick locks and pockets so you really would not need a Rogue except maybe for his backstab ability.

The Fighter or Monk questions is simple. Just ask yourself the following queustion, Do I want raw damage or the occaisional instant kill? If you answer raw damage, go with the Fighter. If you answer instant kills, go with the monk.

Good Luck.

In my opinion, a fighter definitely over a monk because of the sheer amount of damage they can deal out. Just leave thier attack on berserk and get your sword skill as high as possible (as well as strength).

I replaced my ninja with a bard in my second created party and am SO happy I did so. The spells you get from the instuments as a bard are all of the most useful ones, plus she's a great thief and archer as well. She does more damage than my ninja did, and acts as a psionist with insanity attacks, a priest with heal all songs, and as a mage with freeze all. Much more versatile character

Thanks for the comments.

I have a fighter in another party that I'm furthest along with and I love the damage she deals out. No kidding about the berserk always. I never take it off of berserk. I take it monks will never compete with
that level of damage, eh?

The leaving out the Rogue is an interesting idea. i could split the
rogue's thief skills between the ninja and bard and still have those
characters' special skills. Hmm...

The Mage over Priest suggestion is cool too.

In my experience, Monks WILL compete, just not until later. When you go with the Monk, yer betting on the future. Monks will get more attacks faster, and their martial arts damage is level/skill based.

I was bored and started carting RFS-81 around with me. At level 17, he swings 6x-9x's per round. He only slightly...very slightly...exceeds my fighters in damage potential, but his larger number of attacks means you don't miss out as much when he finishes off a wounded monster in the beginning of the round... he's still got plenty of attacks available to whop the next unlucky bug that comes along.

Monks are cheaper to equip than a fighter, relying on their Stealth skill for armor class instead of wearing heavy equipment that's expensive to get early on. Also, since he wears so little, he's able to carry more of a burden from the party items and helps keep the others from becoming encumbered. (I keep all my spare ammo on him)

When I try another party, I'm thinking of going polearm with a monk instead of martial arts. The Mindblast Rod you get from the T'Rang complex can be used by monks, and I'd love to see someone swinging that thing 2-4x's up front where it can do the most good.
Right now my Bishop is using it, and he's pathetic with it.

One of the drawbacks I've had with the Monk is that he's kind of boring. Switching and swapping out equipment is one of the flavors of the game and with the monk being so simple to equip and not using any magical weapons since he's using martial arts.... well... he's just sort of boring. Effective tho.

Monks get weapon skills too? Cool. Sounds like I'll give them
a try. Stealth is cool though. He might not need armor that much
if the enemies can't target him in the first place [img]smile.gif[/img]
.
6 to 9x (!)...really? Wow, that's a lot of attacks. Seems like
he'd get a lot of chances to work that instant kill attack.
.
That's it, I'm going with a monk. Thanks for your take on them.

Hey, here's another idea for a party:

Ninja
Monk
Bard
Gadgeteer
Ranger
Mage

Yeah, I know, it has no cleric, but can't any of the other classes cast enough healing to make up for that?

I've had a great time with this party:

Drac Fighter
Felp Monk
Mook Ranger
Hobb Bard
RaWo Priest
Faer Mage

This party has great balance and uses the NPCs well (Vi can slide right in to the melee group). With the Dracon fighter, all players have strong ranged capabilities and the fighter and monk can lay the lumber up front.

I have found the monk to be extremely valuable and has as many kills as my fighter. Because of the multiple hits, he always does atleast some damage. Plus, if he's blinded, nauseated or irritated, he does better than the valkyrie or fighter. With the fighter, you have one or two shots. If you miss, you are screwed until the next round. Therefore, I think the fighter and Monk are good compliments for each other. You can always throw your fighter on berserk because you know you have the "reliable" monk there in case he falters. Plus, the critical hits are a nice bonus as well [img]smile.gif[/img]

Arlie

I'm also playing with a fighter and a monk (plus a rogue) on my front line. I think the fighter + monk is probably one of the best front line combinations. My monk still doesn't have all that many attacks, 4-6 usually, but she does find damage with her bare hands/feet, in the 12-20 range.

With the fighter, you get someone who can wield all of the cool armors and weapons, with the monk, you get someone who is effective with little to no equipment.

Here's my 2nd party party, my 'dream team'. Any comments please?!

1) Fighter
Name : S'Kragenskul the Destroyer
Race : Dracon
Gender : Male
Personality : Loner who doesn't like talking much to people
Attribute maximising per turn : Strength (+3), Speed / Dexterity (+3)
Skills maximising per turn : Close Combat (+3), Sword (+3), Modern Weapons (+3)
Current melee weapons : Sword and shield (plan to equip with a hammer as secondary weapon as soon as I find it, and then practise dual wielding with sword and hammer)
Current range weapons : Musket (from monastary)

2) Samurai
Name : Katrina Heydrich
Race : Human
Gender : Female
Personality : Intellectual who talks with a Russian accent (how's that, a Russian Samurai, LOL)
Attribute maximising per turn : Strength (+3), Speed / Dexterity (+3)
Skills maximising per turn : Sword(+3), Dual Wielding (+3), Critical Strike (+3)
Current melee weapons : Dual swords
Current range weapons : Bow

3) Bard
Name : Jan Bowman
Race : Hobbit
Gender : Male
Personality : Laidback, singing guy
Attribute maximising per turn : Strength (+3), Speed / Dexterity (+3)
Skills maximising per turn : Sword(+3), Music(+3), Pickpocket(+3)
Current melee weapons : Dualwielding sword and dagger
Current range weapons : Sling

4) Ninja
Name : Chani the Black Lotus
Race : Faerie
Gender : Female
Personality : Cunning gal, who can get you through anything
Attribute maximising per turn : Senses (+3), Speed (+1), Dexterity (+1), Strength (+1)
Skills maximising per turn : Throwing (+3), Critical Strike (+3), Stealth (+3)
Current melee weapons : Dualwielding wands
Current range weapons : Dualthrowing shuriken

5) Gadgeteer
Name : Akuma
Race : Felpurr
Gender : Male
Personality : Eccentric guy, who refers to himself in the third person ("Our hero has recovered") and describes his adventures as stories from a book ("There was nothing to be found"). LOL, I love this guy!
Attribute maximising per turn : Senses (+3), Speed / Dexterity (+3)
Skills maximising per turn : Modern Weapons (+3), Engineering (+3), Locks and traps (+3)
Current melee weapons : Nil
Current range weapons : Omnigun

6) Bishop
Name : Selune Goldmoon
Race : Elf
Gender : Female
Personality : Laidback, philosophical gal
Attribute maximising per turn : Intellect (+3), Peity (+3)
Skills maximising per turn : Wizardry / Alchemy / Psionics / Divination (+9). Yes, I'm doing the insane 4 school path!
Current melee weapons : Quarter Staff
Current range weapons : Sling

Planned NPCs : Vi, who will specialise in polearms and bow
Sparkle, who will specialise in bows and axe


This is my 2nd party actually, and I'm just in early stages of the game. As you might expect, the ninja, gadgeteer and bishop are pretty sad at this stage, LOL. The samurai is average. The fighter and bard are the ones who keep the party going. However, I expect the other guys to pick up later!

This is really the best powergaming *coughmunchkincough* party I can think off as I want to have every weapon, instrument, gadget and spell in the game! Greedy wolf.. [img]graemlins/grabblue.gif[/img]