Seek advice for my monk

[Grishnakh]

I decided to play IWD II with a monk in my party. I never experienced this class before so I don't know very much about it. Can anyone tell me what weapons can he use (or he is better unarmed) whitout losing his bonuses? Should I give him an armor. At the moment he has 19 AC (+ 4 wisdom), but i have some armors that gave him 20 AC . Should I put the armor or let him whitout?

[Warhammer]

What about dual classing him to druid when he reaches level 13?

Does a druid/monk in Dire Panther or Fire Elemental form retain his monk special abilities, feats, wis bonus to ac, and so on ?

Sorry for being slightly off topic.

[ratchild]

OOOO.... that's a cool idea warhammer.. but as for your monk, he's just as good w/o any armor.

[Tigerfire]

A little info on Monks.

These guys are from the origanal First edition rules. They were meant to use no armor (Except bracers) and no weapons. They would get great abilities like being able to fall huge distances without taking damage. They also got some interesting attack skills like being able to kill with a touch.

Now I haven't messed with the 3rd edition rules that much... besides these computer games tend to warp the rules to make programing easier.

Anyway... I have a monk in my party. He wears no armor and uses no weapons... and he does just as much damage as my ranger with a +4 sword. He also takes a lot less damage. I suggest the quick reflexes and dodge feats... these make the old monk a force to be reckoned with.

Tigerfire

[Lord of Alcohol]

Sorry but my monk utterly sucked. I fired him for a hafling rogue who puts out quite a bit of damge via a sling

[Luvian]

Monks will suck if they don't have high strehgth. I would neve consider making a monk with less than 18 str. Their unarmed attack are made for strong characters.

[Tigerfire]

There is one other thing I noticed. If your monk is wearing armor he doesn't get the wisdom bonus... well that is at least what the game says.

Tigerfire

[Ishanda]

Playing as a monk in IWD2 creates a bit of a dilemma as far as choosing abilities. In BG2 it was easy...you just had to mess around with the dice when rolling abilities long enough to get good ones. There are three key areas where the monk needs good abilities; STR, DEX and WIS. Dexterity is prime (18 to start) since this is where the monks AC is derived from, which is important since armor is not going to be used (at least by me). That leaves only a small proportion of points left which i divide equally amongst WIS and STR. It is NOT so important then for a monk to have too high a STR. This I discovered whilst playing one in BG2. In IWD2 it is even less important. Basically there are 2 theories. Do you want to have a higher attack or a higher defence. By putting more points (also when they become available during the course of the game) into WIS, the AC is made even better for a monk since bonuses (unarmored) are derived from DEX AND WIS. I have heard the comment that a monk has little HP. So what? If the enemy can not touch you (VERY high AC) the HP does not matter much. Ok, so this way you do less damage, BUT with a high enough level monk you get MANY attacks which are done FASTER than with other classes, so you tend to hit more times in a turn, which means the damage adds up. Monks are pathetic in the beggining, but with high levels they become ultra powerful. A level 20 monk in BG2 had a more powerful attack than ANY OTHER character with ANY OTHER weapon in the game. If I am not mistaken, in IWD2 the monk gets up to 5 attacks. How wonderful. I can assure you that in BG2 the monk ended up being a behemoth of destruction. I am shivering to think what this baby is capable of in IWD2. Apart from getting more attacks than in BG2, the monk can now HIDE like a thief. You have to see this to believe it. Backstabbing? Forget it. Just hide, walk up to an unfortunate soul and let loose with your own brand of karate chops. Before the emeny even has a chance to ATTEMPT a hit at you, you have hit him TWICE.

Anyone have any comments?

[Magness]

About the only "armor" that I think a monk can legitimately wear are amulets and bracers, or other jewelry. WIS enhancing items wouldn't hurt either.

[Grishnakh]

Thanks Ishanda. Now I am a little more confident in my monk. He is Level 13 and indeed he doesn't do a lot of damage, but he dies rarely so that compensate it. Do you think what the level of a six-men party when you finish the game on normal?