What about a monk?

Remove all ads!

Never mind. I forgot to look at the "kit" tab.

 

All of the questions I have been asking have been about BG2 SoA not ToB. But I'll post there if you say so

 

Hmm. As the instructions said, I checked out the BG2 Online Walkthrough, and it didn't say anything about what forum we should be posting in. So I guess anything goes!

 

Most of us have a very limited time to read n post, so you can't really expect us to follow the actual rules...who's go time to read'em?!

 

I tried that excuse back in '89 in school.

My 5th grade teacher told me "Ignorance of the law is no excuse".

 

So does anyone have any advice, good or bad, about a monk and what equipment to use if any?

 

Get AC enhancing items ASAP. You can't put anything in the body slot unless you mod it without severe penalties, but you can use the ring or cloak of protection (+2 preferably, but start with +1), ring of earth control (stacks with ring/cloak of prot), cloak of the sewers, etc. I can't recall if you can use bracers or not, but if you can give them to the front-line monk before the rear-echelon mage (I.E. You have bracers AC8 and bracers AC7. Give the Ac7 to the monk and AC8 to the mage).
Beyond that, monks don't need weapons, but they can be useful in the beginning when you need a +X to hit an enemy or for disrupting mages. Particularly that long sword of flame that burn through a stoneskin. If you don't need a weapon's special abilities or enhancement, use your fists.

Also make sure you have some kind of ranged weapon. EVERYONE should have a ranged attack. If a character isn't doing anything else in battle they should be hurling a bullet, throwing a dart, shooting an arrow/quirrel, etc. Even mages, bullets are cheap, so if they are conserving their spells they should be using slings or darts.

 

Thanks for the advice. What about stats? Are there any that should be maxed besides Str + Con? I know in 3.5 the monk gets wisdom bonus to AC. Does the monk benefit from high Int, Wis, Cha?

 

No wisdom bonus to AC but a monk can read priest scrolls ... so collect them. For weapons ... you want something that will strike with acid or flame (the club Blackblood is good), a weapon that will give extra attacks (short sword Kundane works well), a one-handed weapon with the highest bonus you can find, and the incredibly awesome monk gauntlets that make the fists +4 weapons (side with the King in the underwater city). Dagger will give you access to the throwing dagger. I always recommend long sword because of the good special abilities many long swords give.

Max out strength and dexterity. Constitution at 16.

 

Monks are very fun in SOA and TOB, especially when their super high magic resist kicks in later on. I suggest you install the mod that gives them actual monk HLA's, since that will make the game very entertaining, and it will make it feel as if you are actually using a monk, and not a fighter who just uses his fists and feet instead of weapons. As T2 says above me, you should also side with the Sahuagin King in the underwater city, so that you can get the gauntlets. There is also a Monk only Ninja To in the Copper Coronet, you can purchase it from Joluv.

When I play a Monk, I normally max out Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. You do not need to max Charisma, since you can get the Charisma boosting ring in the circus, and Wisdom is practically useless as a Monk. The AC Wisdom bonuses are for the later editions I believe, I know that they apply in IWD2 and in NWN2.

 

I picked up a few modded items for monks in BG1 already. Some of them have ridiculous bonuses (perhaps I should have installed those item balancer options), liek boots w/+4unarmed attack bonus, +4dmg. Gauntlets with +10uab, +10dmg. That flavour of cheese makes a monk worthwhile, no?

Anyway, they should have tied monk's abilities better to wisdom in BG2. It sounds like you can make WIS a dump stat. Then Monk is just a glorified, highly restricted fighter subclass. Icewind Dale 2 does a better job of making the monk's abilities properly tied to wisdom.

 

How could I forget the Scarlett Ninja-To?!?! That and Blackblood (along with one prof point in single handed weapon) are great for most creatures you can't hit (or kill) early on in the game. I also like the Sling of Seeking (for its strength bonus) but usually give that to Jaheira. The Sling of Everard is also a great item -- especially if the mods you use don't correct it.