Playing a Monk

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I think this is how it is implemented, if barbarian is considered a subclass of fighters.

 

Is a monk a 2e class then?

 

I do plan on hitting 20 Con eventually in BG2 for the regeneration, but the reason i took 18 in BG:EE is for the Ring/Claw of Kazgaroth.
The bonuses on the item are awesome, but you take a penalty of -2 con while wearing it. starting with 18 constitution offsets that penalty.

You do also get a -4 penalty vs. Death saving throws, which means you will get poisoned and diseased a bit more often, but a monk becomes immune to disease at lvl 5 anyway. You also become immune to poison at 11, though i won't hit that in the first game, so i will just carry around plenty of antidote potions.

For my troubles of offsetting those 2 negative effects, i gain :
+3 bonus vs. Wands, Polymorph, Breath and Spell saving throws, which is allways nice to have.
+1 to Armor Class, +4 to AC vs missile weapons. - This will stack with AC bonuses from other items that give +AC, like rings/amulets of protection. this is a big deal since monks cannot wear any armor, and it takes a while before the AC bonus you get as you level becomes effective enough to make you tanky.

 

In NWN monks gain 1d8 of hp on level up, the same as clerics and druids, so from that perspective I suppose it makes sense.

 

Yeah, initially they did not add in the monk in 2nd ed, but the Scarlet Brotherhood sourcebook basically takes the monk class from 1st edition and adds it back in.

 

wow what an amazing roll. But I'd up my dex instead of cha but then again if you are role-playing more having a monk that can speak elegantly would be nice especially if he has to raise funds to build your own temple.

On a more how to play a monk suggestion: As you might have noticed low level monks are a bit squishy; so have a team of NPCs that can assist you with battling the monsters with sword and spells and most definitely get a cleric as soon as possible. As a monk you move faster then others so hit and run tactics work and you probably want to flank attack during any melee situation. Do no rush in and attack first. Darts are great to have as a missile weapon - not only does it have a high apr but there is such a variety of them that they all can be useful for something - stun darts and poison darts are quiet good to have. And last but not least use a club not many things are immune to crushing damage and there are a few magical ones to be had through out the Sword Coast.

Monks are great in that you don't have to worry about equipment so make sure to arm and armor your NPCs so that they can fight and tank for you.

Micro-management is key to taking a low level monk adventuring and painstakingly leveling until they become a monk with fists that can smash anything.

 

I assume you're talking about the rol from the original post, which is just a 90 roll total, so it's not that high, you can roll >90 easily if you spend say 10 minutes re-rolling.

I agree with starting with a higher dex, since beginning with 18 in it will get you that +1 to ac which is useful to have at the low levels, it's why i put 18 in dex on the monk i posted a few posts back in this thread.
However, you can get by without it, as you get a +1 bonus to AC every 2 levels anyway.

Prior to hitting level three you might also want to not use the monks fists, but actually equip a weapon, since the fists start out as doing only 1d6 damage at lvl 1. they get upgraded to 1d8 at lvl 3 and then again to 1d10 at lvl 6.
This means that for those fist five levels you'd be better off equipping something like a scimitar or long sword, which does 1d8 damage right out of the gate. You might as well put a point in single-weapon style as well so you get that +1 bonus to ac and double the crit chance with it, it's not like you're going to use your proficiency points for anything else.
As soon as you hit lvl 6, you should do 1d10 per hit with your fists and also have 2 attacks per round, courtesy of the 1/2 APR bonus you get each level.

there's plenty of easy encounters to grab even as a lowlevel squishy monk to get to lvl 6 almost instantly - grabing the diamond hidden in the tree on the lion's way area and the ring of the princes +1 hidden in a rock on the coast way allows you to easily gather the money to buy a wand of sleep off thalantyr in the high hedge.
The wand can be used by all classes and works wonders against some high xp reward enemies - using it you can easily mop up all the ankhegs that roam the fishing village/ankheg pit.

They give you 950 XP per pop, which should be enough to get you to level 6 as long as you are clearing them out solo.

Edit : i also did a quick writeup of weapons you might want to collect as a monk in BG2. all of them give you the ability to cast a spell a certain amount of times per day, which is what you'll want to use them for. other then that you'll probably want to stick to your fists.

short sword
Ilbratha +1 - mirror image 1x/day
long sword
Namarra +2 - silence 15' radius 3x/day
Dragon Slayer - detect invisibility 1x/day
Daystar - sunray 1x/day
katana
hindo's doom +3 - lesser restoration 1x/day
Hindo's Doom +4 - greater restoration 1x/day
scimitar/wakizashi/ninja-to
Spectral Brand +4 - spectral blade 1x/day
Spectral Brand +5 - spectral blade 1x/day, Armor Piercing Strike 1x/day (lowers THAC0 by 10 points for 3 rounds)
Sling
Sling of Arvoreen +4 - Sonic Boom 1x/day