Monks and their weapons

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In the long run, what is better? To use only the fists, or weapons like Katana, Scimitar, Short Sword, etc?

EDIT: Also, how good is really the fists in the lower levels? Can it match the Katana's 1d10?

[ December 10, 2002, 15:17: Message edited by: Carathrax ]

 

Well if you like your character swinging swords, you wouldn't choose a monk, would ya?
When I played a monk I always let him use his fists. You can use swords, katanas or whatever, but a monk will always have more attacks per round using his fists. And remember that a monk can only be proficient (one +) in weapons. You can (and should btw) always put swords in the monks' extra weapon slot for their special abilities (i.e. Sunray for Daystar, Free Action for Arbane's Sword, etc...)

 

My monk (Adrian if anyone gets the reference) had 4 attacks a turn, at -4 THAC0, unarmed. With the Daystar he had 1 attack at 1 THAC0. Monks are made to be unarmed fighters. While they sort of suck at the start, 2 attacks at d6 is better than 1 at d8, with less THAC0 and speed. Plus, eventually you get d20+3 fists at speed factor 0, with up to 5 attacks (in SoA) a turn. They are truly a sight at later levels. Add the AC bonus (and Keldorn's armor), and thewy rock. Mine had a -4 AC from C2-6, then went to -6.

 

My monk struggled a little bit early on, but the Baahl abilities help make up for it. Being able to use vampiric touch, larloch's minor drain and horror allow the monk to be used less as a front liner, filling in up front when necessary or engaging enemies trying to get at your spell casters. At higher levels though, they become one man unarmed wrecking machines. Going into the final battle, My lvl 19 monk had an AC of -8, approx. 80% magic resistance, negative saving throws in all categories and would typically deal out 30-40 pts of damage per hit unarmed. I would also recommend equipping weapons purely for their special abilities and doing most of your fighting bare handed.

 

You can stick with the fists in later levels...if you want massive damage in your earlier levels, I recommend Gauntlets of Crushing.

 

You can't get the gauntlets of crushing until the Sahaugin City, which is not particularly early in the game. Once you get them your Monk will be deadly.

 

If you have the Bonus merchants, Joluv at the Copper Coronet sells a Scarlet Ninji-to +3 for about 22000 gold. I suggest you buy that (before heading out of chapter 2) while you're still leveling up the fists.

It's a scimitar +3 that poisons when they don't save vs death. And it grants an extra attack per round. So it can take out Iron Golems, and the poison damage can kill trolls (so you can clear the De'Arnisse Keep out real early and work on your stronghold quest).

Once you do switch to fists, you'll still need some troll killing weapon, and this scimitar does the trick. Fists become +3, so you don't have to use the scimitar to kill Iron golems later on.