I have a female monk, level 16. Because I had Vi for most of the game, I was training my monk in Psionic skills as well as using her to take damage for my mage and alchemist. Now that I don't have Vi, I am now relying on my monk to be on the front lines duking it out. However, she certainly doesn't do much damage. My questions are: 1) in the long run will she be able to dole out greater damage with hands and fists than she would with a weapon? 2) should I not bother to develop her close combat skills and mainly rely on her psionic abilities? Any help/advice would be much appreciated. (I am in the Mt. Gigas caves).

once again, its a matter of taste. everyone has different definitions of what a fighter is or should be.

i adore monks. from the start, i develop her as a weaponless, killing machine who can also mess with the minds of her opponents. [img]smile.gif[/img]

i allow her to use shuriken and poison darts, to develop her throwing ability. but only one handed. i don't want to haveta add "dual wield" to the list of skills that need advancing. other than that, she uses her hands and feet.

this is how i develop her:

~martial arts: 3 points every time, no excuses
~stealth: since there's not a lot of armor and she won't be using a shield, this will give her the a/c she needs. don't need to worry about VIT this way either.
~critical strikes: needs no explaining [img]smile.gif[/img]

since my monk is armorless and stealthy, i don't focus on strength and vit. i go for speed instead

~dex: 3 points
~speed: 2 points
~senses: 1 point

a stealthy, light weight monk can use the dex to unlock expert skill "reflexion" which punches up her a/c.

speed opens up "snakespeed" which lets her go first in combat. my monk will usually pop the baddie with her hands and feet and get her insta-kill in right at the first! i LOVE that! :D and if she doesn't crit in the first round, then she usually drops the baddie to half its orig hps, making it easy for everyone else to clean up during their attacks.

i also make use of any amulets or rings i find that enhance speed, senses or strength. i found a nice amulet that gives her a +20 to STR, and wow! :eek: its a really sweet thing. LOL! she won't let anyone take it away, either. she threatens to do terrible bodily harm to anyone who even thinks of taking it away from her. LOL!

there are many times in battle, when my monk will be just out of range to hit, and its those times that, instead of running up closer, i let her cast spells. in fact, in every battle, i try to find an excuse to allow her to cast a couple of spells.

i LOVE letting my girls jump into "cheap" battles. those are with like, mites and walking flowers, higardi bandits, etc. when we have those, i let most of my party go into "defend" mode and let my monk just cast spells. she really learns a lot during those battles. and its a lot more fun than sitting around the campfire practicing a light spell. :D you know what i mean!

anyway, that's what i do.

V***V

AtlusSeven did a Spotlight on the Monk: http://www.geocities.com/jandrall/Wi...lightMonk1.htm

Ah, the monk. Monks are great. I've developed a few. I may be the king of party combiniations. Have yet to *finish* the game, though I dare say I've logged more hours than most...

1. Throwing weapons. A must. Both hands, too. It'll help you with
your dual-weild score, which you won't be putting many points into
for the early part of the game.

Otherwise, go hand-to-hand (martial arts).

2. Ability scores: SPD, STR, DEX. You'll be improving your AC.
Improving your damage (can't rely on criticals, sometimes they
just don't happen). You'll be improving your "to hit" and # of
attacks.

Later, add points to VITALITY.

3. Skill development: I don't put many points into HTH. My
monk is a front row fighter. She/he will move up just fine.

3 points into Psionics at every level. Buy books, when available.
Don't worry about realms.

3 points until maxed: STEALTH!!!

3 points to spread: Critical strike, weapons (polearm, S/W,
whatever you choose).

It works for me. Criticals strikes are nice. But even with high critical strike scores, it's not frequent enough to rely upon. I go with damage development.

Thanks to everyone for the help!

My monk will now get more training and skill development to improve her hands-on combat skills. I was a little discouraged with the character, but thanks to all the good suggestions, I think I'll be able to turn her into a lean, mean, melee machine.

I dont find the Monk any special good i have trained RFS-81 to level 25 and only in "Matrial arts and trowing, close combat, ranget combat, dex, str, speed, sense and vit but hi is good, but not what i would have as an choise if i would build a new party!

He did 120 damage pr round against a "Death Ray" in one round and my Lizzardman fighter 345 in one round so maby it is better to have 2 figthers... and because the magic in this game is NOT that good or efective against monster in the late game so forget the magic for the Monk!!

[ 02-19-2002: Message edited by: Megabot ]</p>

Yeah, but Fighters don't critical. They've got to have special weapons for it. And how did you develop your monk?

I'm running a two monk party right now, just so I can report differences in dev. methods.

Brutus goes for SPD/STR/DEX
Slash goes for DEX/SPD/SNS

So far Slash has more kills through level 4. But he gets sloppy seconds. Brutus will knock a bunch of hit points off something and Slash gets the kill with 4hp damage. It's funnier than hell.

But my fight logs say Brutus is the more effecive monk. He does more damage, on average, and hits as often.

Oh yeah Figter can do critical because of the "Power blow" and if they have the"Excaliber" sword then they do it more ofen but not so ofen that my Ninja but they do, and Rfs-81 cant say hi do it so ofen either also train him in "critical" and it is maxed out, but are not so good at all!
But some time rfs-81 strike the enemy 4x 3 times in one round and that is good!:)
For the training of the Monk look at my previus post above DraconisRex!

And i have played trough the game now for 5 times with diffrent partyes and the best one i have come up with must be:

Lizzardman figther
Faerie Ninja
Hobbit Bard
Rawulf Priest (Female)
Faerie Mage (Female)
Mook Alcemist

And RFS-81 Monk
and ViDomina Valkyrie

[ 02-19-2002: Message edited by: Megabot ]</p>

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Megabot:
Oh yeah Figter can do critical because of the "Power blow" and if they have the"Excaliber" sword then they do it more ofen but not so ofen that my Ninja but they do,<hr></blockquote>

Power Strike doesn't allow criticals, it just increases your penetration % and keeps you in the upper levels of your damage potential. However, power strike with a weapon that has %kill can technically help it out because it will hit more.

Okey i killed an Rapax patrole with 1 blow with the axe "Bi-Penniss" and in the windows below it say ED (the name of my figther) do Innstant kill i dont remeber if this axe have KO% and hi did it couple of time in R. Rift with that axe hmm maby it is a little bug here..i dont knove :D