epic monk

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i read in some threads that a few among you have completed the saga with a monk in solo

right now im in the nashkell mines (bg1+totsc with tutu) and im having a hard time slaying kobolds without getting hit (shadow striking made it possible )

and it made me wonder how some of you managed to take on extremely tough opponents you re bound to meet like say draconis, just with the monk?

i recall last time i encountered him with a powerful 6 member team it was still quite a tough battle, but with a monk alone, thats insane!

 

By the time you get to Draconis and his old man, you have something called high level abilities. A monk's HLA's is what him so powerfull. Lunar Stance, Solar Stance, Tiger Strike, Quivering Palm, and Shadowless Kick all make hard solo battles with the monk managable. IIRC, you need to have the EoU mod installed for the "real" monk abilities to be unleashed.

If you're only at the nashkell mines, I'm guessing that you're still under lvl 5...so yeah, kobolds would seem pretty hard. Keep at it, and you'll do just fine.

 

nope lvl 1

by "real" you mean they were implemented in the engine but unavailable to the character?

 

I prefer the HLA's added by the Refinements mod for the Monk.

 

A friedn of mine completed BG 2 SoA and ToB with monk, going solo. Believe me, it's a piece of cake when you start gaining levels. If you read description of the class, you see that your fists deal more weapon when you gain levels. By the level 15 you be doing 1 - 20 points of dmg, and beside of that, your fists are considered +3 weapons. Equip your monk with gauntlets of crushing(+4 to damage), and give him a belt of giant strengt that sets your STR to 21(+4 to damage), and you'll be doing 12 to 31 damage per hit. When you reach level 25 your fists become +4 weapon, and by that time you have four attacks per round, and superb thac0. Nothing can stand against that much power for long. Add to that quivering palm attack, that can kill any enemy in one hit(if save is failed) and you get an idea just how powerfull a monk is Besides, you've seen Balthazar, you know he can be a pain in the ass.

 

wow sounds great

well actually of the few memorable encounters i recall for being a real hardship are draconis, abazigal and worst of all demogorgon (i had to reload countless times because he used to always petrify one of my npcs before i could slay him )

i just got a question regarding the monk implementation by tutu: when he levels up are the special abilities granted in respect of the core rules?

 

Ease of Use? Why the heck would new HLAs be in a simple tweak mod like that? No, I think it's Oversight that has those (Silverstar could probably tell you for sure).

No, by "real" he means his personal vision of the monk, which doesn't match anyone else's. Only half of that stuff is even implemented as Balthazar-only powers, which could be viewed as unique Bhaalspawn abilities like your turning into the Slayer or Sarevok's Deathbringer Attack.

Anyway, a monk at BG1 levels will be quite the liability, even if fighting alone. It's only when getting into the high levels like Mordokai is talking about (welcome to the Boards, BTW) that a monk becomes a force to be reckoned with. Same thing happens with a solo wizard: slow start, exponential growth.

 

And off course, let us not forget superb magical resistance of the monk. You start gaining MR at level 14, where you have 42% of it. Each new level nests you aditional 3% of MR. By level 14, you are able to walk in stinking cloud and web with no problems. On higher levels, even abi dhalzim won't be able to hurt you. I think that monk's NATURAL MR stops at 78%, but to that you can add ring of Gaxx(+10% MR), +10% MR from thear of Bhaal, and have him wear amulet of Seldarine, and you have 100% MR. The only spells you have to fear now are those nasty no save spells, aka imprisonment, maze, time stop, harm and alike.

My stats with the monk on the end of ToB were, 100% MR, -13 AC, four attacks, resistant to poison, and all of saving throws were negative. You can take a hint at how powerful he was. If you add Balthazar abilities to that, he would be cheesy. Well, more cheesy at least

Draconis is kinda hard, but only because he keeps geting invisble. Hit him with the time stop on the right time, breach, and he's as good as dead Sarevok himself can kick his ass, even without deathbringer assault. Abazigal never hit me as that hard, he was much easier that Draconis, which I find ironic. And the key to defeating Demogorgon are spell triggers.

Why thank you very much, you're being too nice

 

Yes, cool and 'real' and unique monk HLAs come with Oversight Mod. I seriously reccomend any monk player to get them, as they make monks versatile, cool, and most importantly, unique. If you don't have this mod, you will get same boring HLAs with fighters, which is wrong and does not give you the oriental feel IMHO.

ATTENTION:Oversight has a component called Improved Sendai. Do not install it if you are not a very, very (and I mean very!) experienced player who appreciates really hard battles. Otherwise you stand no chance to beat Improved Sendai, she becomes more strong than you can imagine and have seen in a normal game. (trust me! ) You can install all other components without a worry.

 

well its not that ironic since green dragons are thougher than ice (white) dragons, and accordingly draconis gives more exp when slain

anyway if i said i had trouble beating them is that although you eventually found out the right way to do it, you sometimes cant prevent one of your npcs to screw big time (like getting pertified, or killed for good..) and so even if you manage to beat the foe, you still have to reload because the damage to your party is irreversible

 

Could you by any chance provide some screenshots of that battle? Sendai never was anything but easy to me And since I already beated the game with all the other of improved bosses, I would very much like to try Sendai too.

You can send me ss to pm, if that would be to much of off topic.

 

Sorry, I do not have any SSs with me right now as I am far away from my personal computer which has BG2 installed. I can give you some spesifics about the Improved Sendai battle, however:

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You need to beat all normal statues of her, once you do so, real herself will come, she will summon Two Fallen Planetars, and a few Invisible Stalkers, and she will release THREE Project Images via a Chain Contingency, and all of them, including real Sendai will be protected by every protection spell you can imagine plus Spell Immunity:Abjuration, Divination, Evocation, Conjuration etc. Then each 3 PIs, (they have permanent Improved Alacrity on insane) will release Isnect Palgues, Creeping Dooms, and other nasty spells while at the same time, Sendai's elite soldiers start spawning:lvl 20+ fighters with GWW attacks, lvl 20+ mages with Spell triggers, sequencers, (with Lower Resistance, breach etc.) and a lot of Comet spells. They spawn according to difficulty level:On insane two soldiers spawn for 10 seconds, IIRC. Which means they quickly form an army, I had my whole party killed permanently by the raining Comet shower.

If, by any chance, you can beat 3 PIs, real Sendai will come, auto-Time stop, and will start auto-'Harm'ing your party. She has a nasty version of Harm spell:Ranged, which ignores Magic Resistance, offers no saving throw. Once she reduces the nearest member to 1 HP, she kills him/her with her melee attack, usually chunkfying it. (no ressurection is allwoed) If you play on insane, she has permanent Imp. Alacrity as well, and will cast a lot more Time Stops and cheesy Harms to furhter chunkify your members. Remember all those drows spawning? They will continue to spawn too and soon, your screen will be covered with lots of ABDHWs, Comets, Storms of Vengeance while an army of elite drow fighters who use Hardiness and GWW on your party, if you survive that far. (I counted more than 40 elite drows) Sendai also has the abilty to Dimension Door any spot at will, and she 'force-casts' her spells:you can never interrupt her. She also has a permanent Chain ContingencyfMW whenever she is hit, each time you manage to hit her you need to re-Breach her. She also continues casting Time Stops, more ABDHWs, and a few more Harms if you are on insane. SHe can re-cast her prtections whenever she sees fit. She also has healing spells as she is a C/M, and a good supply of healing potions as well.

Hope this gives you a 'rough' idea on how difficult and hardcore that fight is:definitely not for newbies, and impossible to beat if you do not have the right tactics. (I found the right tactics and managed to beat the b#$h queen after countless reloads and many hours spent in frustration.)

 

Yeah, ummmm WON'T be doing that mod anytime soon

 

^I know what you mean. I managed to beat her twice (first on core, second on insane, and it was a wholy different fight!) in my previous games, but even now, I feel really scared and unconfident that I will challenge her again in my current game. I do so love Improved Sendai battle!

If you need even more spoilers and tactics for the battle, read my old Improved Sendai topic. It offers good tactics!

 

Yeah, right...

I think I'll pass this for the time being I had enought trouble with improved Illasera, and from what I see, she is nowhere close to improved Sendai.

Thank you for the time you took to write those spoilers anyway. It was enyoavble to read them, even if they gave me a chill down my spien

 

I'll take this opportunity to agree with Silvershield- the monk abilities from Oversight are better than he standard ones in the game (though they also make you more powerful).

I'd advise against Improved Sendai too. Yes, she is far more powerful than Improved Illasera. Sendai still gives me problems and I'm hardly a novice. Invisilbility is useful btw- neither she nor her PIs ever cast True Sight (though I seem to recall Sendai herself seeing through Invisibility), so you can out-wait their durations if you have the patience. An additional warning: so many magic-resistant drow spawn while you are waitiing her out that your computer will slow down and possibly even crash because of so much happening at once.

 

btw this may seem superficial but i was wondering if there was a way to change the monk s looks? i dont much care for his puffy shirt, personally i d rather have him wear a cloak with the hood pulled down, much like this

 

Oops! I must have been thinking of something differen't...

You use ShadowKeeper to change the aperence. Easy as cake.

 

As in, like the monks from BGI?

 

hmm yeah, more like a sith lord in fact