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Sultan....
In my mind to be a fighter (for this game) you'll need to be able to perform melee and meatshield duty UNLESS your character reliably and frequently performs criticals. A monk isn't going to be able to take many hits or reliably and frequently perform criticals until much latter in the game (if at all for the criticals) - in my book that makes them a pretty poor fighter. For most of the game you'll simply be wasting time healing that character or having the monk spend its bashing time quaffing potions - not exactly optimal in any situation. As far as meatshield duty, the game is incredibly demanding - typically if your weaker hitpoint character is within range of physical attack then that character will be attacked b4 your higher hitpoint counterpart. Even if they are not directly in range some opponents will manuever themselves to hit that weaker character. Now it could be that this isn't the case with high stealth on your Monk and none on your fighter/samurai etc., if it isn't (and I haven't played the game this way) then I'll retract the majority of what I've just stated here and would have no problem developing the Monk for melee damage duty (+ extras for psionics) - but you'll still run into the VERY significant attribute problem I mentioned earlier (though less so because you won't be spending many points on Vitality).
The optimal solution is having your buffer meatshield bashing and taking hits while your mages are puting up defenses and/or utilizing offensive spells. Yes the extra of ranged attack on these meatshields is a nice added bonus - but thats all it is: a bonus unless the attack is critical in nature and/or is multiplied among 4 or more characters. Moreover this bonus attack may not be a bonus. Typically those opponents will run right up to your meatshield melee'er within the first round (particularly if utilizing Chameleon), all then this character needs is a poor initiative to pop them melee style that very first round - multiple times. And of course the melee attack is far more damaging than the ranged attack. Furthermore to develop this skill in most melee'ers is rather easy. Conversly to develop magical ability in these characters is not at all easy. For instance you like ego whip (my 2nd fav. damage spell), but when do you first have the oppurtunity to cast this spell with a Monk? I believe its level 14 (and remember this is a hybrid so it actually is taking longer to get to level 14). Even then your only powering the spell minimally for several levels. And its worse than that. Additionally, unless you have developed you Monk CT style (and even then you might not have unlocked powercast yet), then you don't have powercast and you might not do ANY damage to your opponents. Though mind stab doesn't have nearly the detriment (level-wise) it has similar problems with penetration and its only good for one opponent AND is only good once that round (as opposed to a ranged attack which can easily have two or more attacks even minimally developed and will almost never be "resisted").
As for the very nature of improving magical skills in Hybrids - it really isn't that you have multiple sub-disciplines to develop. Its that you have a 5 level floor before spells can be cast and because you typically won't be performing magic that often. If you utilized magic more often with this character then you would find placing points in in these sub-disciplines "pointless" because they would improve on their own VERY quickly. (Actually Bishops are really the only difficult casters to fully develop in the game.) Still, you can get around this problem for the most part with creative training, but you can't get around the "5 level floor" problem.
And yup, ego whip is WAY more effective than ranged physical unless you have good ranged critical X4. Just think about what ego whip is like full power x4 at 11th level and x4 at 14th level with 25 points in powercast - now THATS damage!
As for Monk vs. other hybrids.... Either a Lord or a Valkyrie can do more damage throughout most of the game melee style with better weapons that have better effects - effects that typically better a monks ability to critical (for at least 50% of the game). They can also wear armor that provides for higher AC's later (+ magical resistances and extra goodies). Make Wounds works MUCH better against more types of opponents than Mind stab. Whirlwind however isn't nearly as good a substitute for Ego Whip. Rangers can come very close to the melee damage potential of Lords or Valkyries with a doubleshot crossbow and usually have better potential to critical than Monks with melee. Rangers also have the spell Sleep which works EXTREMELY well in conjunction with their ranged ability. Whipping Rocks isn't as effective as ego whip (maximally speaking), but its fairly close and more importantly it can be acquired earlier (as it is a level 3 spell instead of level 4), thus allowing for more damage earlier. All 3 of these characters are considerably easier to develop because fewer attributes are required. The serious downside to all of them is the danger of running out of stamina (as opposed to a Monk).
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