monks

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How good are monks? I love them in BGII, but at such low levels do they actually stand up to a barbarian or a fighter? A weapon finesse-dexterity based elf monk seemed a nice idea, but maybe the levles aren't high enough to see this char bloom for real?

 

A L10 unarmed monk won't be as powerful as a L10 fighter or barbarian with a souped-up glaive. But they ARE fun.

I tried a party with three monks...they went really well 'til we got to Hedrack. If you give a monk Dodge and Mobility, plus a decent Strength, then by level six - when they get Improved Trip - they become tripping machines. No one can touch them as they charge up the line and tackle the spellcasters, and archers can't hurt them if you pick Deflect Arrows.

Surround targets with monks, trip them prone, and then whack them as they try to get up. Plus, since monks get Improved Evasion, you can send them into battle, let the bad guys swarm them, and then drop a fireball on top without worrying about your own character. Zap!

One big problem with monks is that the best item to upgrade them - I can't recall its exact name, something about Amulet +5 of Natural Power or somesuch, which improves their AC and attack by 5 - costs 75,000 gold and 8,000 experience. And that item requires Magic Fang, which can only be learned by druids and rangers. So a monk will drain your party dry of cash and experience if you want to power him up to his best. (And if you have three monks...ack!)

But that said, there's nothing quite so entertaining as tripping the enemy...then tripping him again...and then tripping him AGAIN...

 

This maybe a *questionable* tactic, but if you cast greater invisibilty or use dust of disappearance on your tripping monk, I believe you will get unlimited attacks of opportunity. (due to a game bug)

I have not tried this with a monk, but it works great with a fighter!

 

a monk is good for a party, it acts as a scout and cannot be hit.. in ToEE monks can use flurry of blows and the like with all monastic weapons... so a monk with a magical quarterstaff is like a warrior, only he cannot be hit and does slightly less damage (since the warrior can use some of those crazily powerful swords out there). FINDING that item for a monk is hard though, since there are no masterwork quarterstaffs to encahnt, although you can find one or two magical ones at the very end of the game...

The amulets of the fists costs alot less then what you wrote (i think)... and can be made by a druid... and it only increases a monk's attack, it basically makes a monks unarmed attack magical, note that its useless if you have a weapon, a monk is the one who has the use for the most magic items, it can use bracers of armour +5, which no armour wearing class has any use for, it can get an amulet of +6 wisdom, which increases its armoure etc. gloves of +6 strength which increases its damage and carry.. etc

monks have the ability to cure themselves up to a certain degree, and immunities or just resistances to a bunch of stuff... as a general rules monks are the best tanks out there...

 

are you kidding, well in PnP monks are incredibly powerful, this game does not do them justice, but as for magic monk weapons, why dont you just craft a magic staff and make it shocking burst or so, seemed to work fine for me.