Monks past level 20

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Well, after the ordeal at the Horde Fortress, my Monk is now level 20, which means he's picked up the last new feature, DR 20/+1. Since there's no new class features for him (only a few improvements, like another couple of points of AC, a little more unarmed damage, etc.), would you recommend continuing solely as a monk, or throwing in another class? Obviously, if I go with anything other than Painbearer of Ilmater, I won't be able to level him up in monk again. I was thinking of taking one level of Painbearer, if for no other reason than to have someone who can use a Raise Dead scroll in case my Morninglord of Lathander is killed. I'm not sure adding more cleric levels at this point would be really helpful. Any thoughts?

 

Depends of course on the rest of your party. In IWDII I always quite liked mixing the Monk and Rogue roles. Painbearer sounds OK, as there is a Painbearer specific quest later in the game.

 

Ah, that's right, I'd forgotten about the quest. Since I've never had a party with a Painbearer in it before, that might be fun. And it wouldn't hurt to have a spare cleric to read scrolls.

As for the rogue/monk, I've pretty much got all the rogue skills I need with my rogue 2/wizard 18. My monk's INT score isn't as high as I'd like for a rogue, anyway...

 

You know that you will loose a few number of attacks per round, dont you? While you may have 5 attacks per round right now, that will drop to 4 as soon as you have +1BAB from any other class.
Add to that your XP penalty.

How about giving him a few Illusionist levels so he can cast Sheild? No Xp penalty then.
Or you can then level squat and give him a few Cleric levels at one go.

 

Oh, is he a gnome? Then I wouldn't do anything other than Illusionist because XP penalties are just a pain.

 

Oops ... I am sorry. I just assumed your Monk is a DG since mine invariably is.
So, what is your Monk's race? Just pick some class that wont give you XP penalties for they suck.

 

He's human, so no XP penalty for adding a 2nd class.

But losing one attack per round...I wasn't expecting that - is that a 3.5E rule, or just how this game implements it?

 

Looks like I was mistaken. Monks dont get 5 attacks per round automatically. So you wont be missing any attacks. Although your 4th attack may just be weaker than it was before.
If you want to get the 5th attack per round, I guess you will have to take some fighter levels.

I will have to check just how to that works. Will repost when I am sure how this works.

As far as what I was saying goes, monks get an extra attack after every +3BAB, while every other class gets an extra attack after every +5BAB.
So if Monks were getting 5 attacks per round automatically at L18 (which the game does not seem to be allowing them, atleast in my game) getting a +1BAB from another class would drop down their number of attacks.

Theoretically
L21 Monk attacks - 15/12/9/6/3 (in IWD II a straight monk is not getting the last attack)
L20 Monk/ Fighter 1 attacks - 16/11/6/1

 

Multiclassing a monk past level 20 is hardly worth it IMHO.

 

You might concider taking lvl 21 to get +1d6 damage and make the fists count as +4 weapons but you wont get any increase in BAB or savingthrows by taking that lvl.

 

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I decided to take the 1 level of Painbearer. One thing I noticed, it doesn't look like my BAB for unarmed attacks suffered because of it (there was no change on the stat sheet after I leveled). I'll probably take the next level as a monk for the "+4" fists mainly...not sure after that...but it'll be a while before I get to that point.

 

You wont feel any difference till you get +1BAB from a class other than Monk.

Clerics get +.75BAB/level. So you obviously wont see any difference yet.

 

So then, I'm OK if I stick with just the one level in Painbearer, but the minute I take the second level, I'll see the change?

If that's true, I think'll I'll keep leveling as a monk...