I started new game with a monk and im planing on soloing it all the way. From Irenicuses dungeon (brrr....) till his execusion. Few things im wondering how to deal with. Disarming traps: CANT! Opening locks: CANT! Identifying items: CANT (Ok its possible with help of merchant) Quite low on health etc.
Its possible to use Keeper to bump exp and health etc of course but then its not that fair.
What do I do to get items in chests and disarming traps?????
Also just general tips for monk soloers out there.
Help would be helpfull.

Thanx

maybe have enough strenght to force locks?... and what about 'knock' ?...
else , i dunno...

from experience:

IDing stuff aint a problem, go to gaelan bales house, second floor and buy the glasses of identification, act as a scroll of id 3 times a day, usable by anybody.

locks are a problem sometimes, although any critical lock will automaticaly be forced so you definatley be able to complete the game. other than that, get the components for crom faeyr ASAP, it gives you a STR of 25 while your holding it.

traps - you can detect them and can usualy avoid them if your careful. some trasps you can negate using protective items or having good saves. failing that, just max out you hp and run away after triggering the trap. it helps that monks are immune to poisions and charms quite early on.

general tips.

grab flame tongue +1 ASAP, you need something that deals fire damge to kill trolls with.

grab a decent sling ASAP, and decent bullets to. in solo play, money is not a problem so get the best, although try to save the very best for tough foes and use normal or +1 bullets most of the time,

to be truly prepared, you also need to carry a plain weapon, since in ToB youll run into multiple creatures immune to magical weapons, although you can always find a plain weapon easily enough so it dosent really matter.

boost your ac as much as possible. grab the ring of prot +1 in Irenicuses dungeon (i believe so anyway) and the ring of earth control available early on for another ac point. grab the boots of avoidance for +5 ac versus missiles. theres a short sword somewhere that casts Mirror Image - get it. later on you want ring of prot +3, ring of gaxx, boots/girdles of your choice. gauntlets of crushing, natch. cloak of the sewers is reputed to be good, but i think theres a tough door on that quest.

combat - early on you a fragile, so use your sling. do many easy quests before trying to go anywhere dangerous - and always take the good path for xtra Xp. if your truly soloing you wont need to worry about keeping quests to get imeon some xp, so do em all.

How can i force open the lock?
now that i think about it, I bet you gotta click on the weapon icon and point on chest like fighting right?
Also, i thought that monk is damn good in hand to hand combat and is supposed to be with nothing. When you get him Ninja-To and stuff like that he's not better since you can only spend 1 slot on each weapon class. Traps wont be a big problem i think since i know all places in BG2 SoA and been there a lot of times.

By the way you mentioned that monk is immune to poison?
I get poisoned from the traps quite often.

a few more general tips:

summoned things are your only friends... spider figurine, horn of valhalla, efreeti bottle and ras can be very very helpful as a distraction.

kill keldorn... depending on your stats you might be able to wear it, which is a considerable help in the beginning.

divide and conquer works wonders for a monk because of your speed advantage... try to trick some members of a group into following you, pick them off, then return for the rest.

don´t underestimate darts, darts of stunning are wonderful against anything, a single asps nest dart can spell the difference between victory and defeat against mages.

personally i´d prefer the scarlet ninja-to over flame tongue but that´s a matter of preference

you are correct on how to force a lock.

monk _is_ damn good at hand-to-hand combat once hes leveled up enough to lower his ac and get decent damage, until then hes quite weak in comparison to a fighter or even a theif, alhtough not as bad as a mage.

the monk needs weapons to overcome specific obstacles. certain creatures are immune to +4 weapons (which your fists will be by the time you meet them), so you need to carry a plain weapon when fighting them. troll require fire to finish them off, so grab flame tongue(its available faster than the ninja-to IIRC). and a party with no ranged attacks has no way of winning certain battles later on.

1 slot in each weapon class is more than adequate - you not going to be using them outisde of special situations anyway, except the sling and you can live with that. if necesary, use a weapon in which you have zero stars, if you have no other way of killing the enemy.

memorizing all trap locations would be nigh-on impossible, dont get cocky and detect traps anyway.

prot from poison happens at lvl 12.


f.gottwalds tips are also good, although being able to wear keldorns armour is a bug, although i dont think it got fixed at any point. its up to you if you want to cheat and wear it.

I am going through with a monk and a kensai and neither one of them can open any chests. The kensai with 19 str and the biggest, baddest two-handed sword I have so far won't dent em, so the monks fists and 18 str have little chance.

I have been forced so far to leave most of the chests and just hope there is nothing critical in them.

As far as quest specific locks opening up, I had to go get Yosh to get around Nalia's keep. There were doors I could not beat down, that I needed to get through. I normally wouldn't have went and got a NPC, but I needed the keep.

No by Critical doors he means doors that if not opened the MAIN story cannot go on.

Few points:

1. The scarlet Ninja-To is available as soon as you start the game from Joluv in the Copper Cornet, and is very much more damaging and much faster than a long sword of flame +1
2. A monk cannot advance past "proficient" anyway, that's pretty much why the scarlet weapon is the best choice for a monk in the early stages of the game because of the extra attack per round.
3. Crom Faeyr won't be available until chapter 6 no matter how quickly you get the other components.
4. Poisons Immunity happens at level 11 IIRC
5. In order to bash open chests and doors, use your PC to draw upon holy might and bash them open that way. The vast majority can be done through this method.