Do unarmed attacks count as Finesse`?

[mayrc]

Talking about Monk here. And if so does the duelist feat aplly`?

[ShandoKhan]

Wouldnt it be better in general to have higher strenght, when you want a fist fighting monk, because of the tavern brawler trait?
I havent tried that yet, but with tavern brawler the monk migh be extremly strong, with all the additional unarmed attacks gettion double strength modifiers.

[sevensided]

Originally posted by ShandoKhan:

Wouldnt it be better in general to have higher strenght, when you want a fist fighting monk, because of the tavern brawler trait?
I havent tried that yet, but with tavern brawler the monk migh be extremly strong, with all the additional unarmed attacks gettion double strength modifiers.

Yes. The ,er, 'meta' for monks is strength based, starting with 17 strength and taking tavern brawler at your first ASI.

I run my Karlach as a barbarian/monk, and she is ridiculous.

[Morgian]

DEX is attractive, as it means AC as well as attack and damage. Going STR means less AC, but more damage, if tavern brawler checks out.

[Morgian]

Barbarian 4/monk 8?

[sevensided]

Originally posted by Morgian:

DEX is attractive, as it means AC as well as attack and damage. Going STR means less AC, but more damage, if tavern brawler checks out.

Oh, Tavern brawler definitely works on strength monks.
I start with a level of barbarian to help offset the low (starting - you can get items that increase the dex later) dexterity. It lets you have physical resistance in particularly gnarly fights and lets you use constitution instead of wisdom to boost AC unarmored, while also increasing your HP.

The progression I use is Barbarian 1 -> Monk 5 -> Barbarian 3 -> Monk 3. Start with 17 strength, 14 dex, 16 con (and then whatever else in the other stats).

[mayrc]

Originally posted by sevensided:

Originally posted by ShandoKhan:

Wouldnt it be better in general to have higher strenght, when you want a fist fighting monk, because of the tavern brawler trait?
I havent tried that yet, but with tavern brawler the monk migh be extremly strong, with all the additional unarmed attacks gettion double strength modifiers.

Yes. The ,er, 'meta' for monks is strength based, starting with 17 strength and taking tavern brawler at your first ASI.

I run my Karlach as a barbarian/monk, and she is ridiculous.

yep but you loose out alot of AC. Making you unviable as a Tanky one. Yet i agree its more damaging. However it its only all about damage there are better suited classes i think.

[mayrc]

With Taver brawler...... it reads nowhere that it would not work with dex-monk.

A dex monk uses dex for damage if it is higher than strengt. But taver brawler adds Twice the strength to damage. It doesnt read that it wont work if you are dex based.

[sevensided]

Originally posted by mayrc:

Originally posted by sevensided:

Yes. The ,er, 'meta' for monks is strength based, starting with 17 strength and taking tavern brawler at your first ASI.

I run my Karlach as a barbarian/monk, and she is ridiculous.

yep but you loose out alot of AC. Making you unviable as a Tanky one. Yet i agree its more damaging. However it its only all about damage there are better suited classes i think.

This hasn't really played out for me. Its been a survivable, mobile, damage dealer, that manages to crowd control reliably while dealing good damage.

[Morgian]

A fast-moving damage dealer is better than a tank - that is what i took away from my first run. Since I picked monk for my second run, I should probably try this.

[Zogtar]

Originally posted by mayrc:

With Taver brawler...... it reads nowhere that it would not work with dex-monk.

A dex monk uses dex for damage if it is higher than strengt. But taver brawler adds Twice the strength to damage. It doesnt read that it wont work if you are dex based.

Yeah, you could* focus entirely on str w/ tavern brawler.

If you go the dex route, I recommend dipping into 3 thief rogue. That bonus unarmed strike is insane.

If you build correctly, you can get up to 6-8 attacks in a turn.

[$CRWD]

Originally posted by Robots Are Neat:

Originally posted by mayrc:

With Taver brawler...... it reads nowhere that it would not work with dex-monk.

A dex monk uses dex for damage if it is higher than strengt. But taver brawler adds Twice the strength to damage. It doesnt read that it wont work if you are dex based.

Yeah, you'd focus entirely on str w/ tavern brawler.

If you go the dex route, I recommend dipping into 3 thief rogue. That bonus unarmed strike is insane.

If you build correctly, you can get up to 6-8 attacks in a turn.

With Tavern Brawler you'll still want DEX and WIS.
The "Martial Arts: Dextrous Attacks" passive feature allows Monk attacks to scale with DEX, which compounds with the STR bonus. With 20 STR and 18 DEX, you're guaranteed to hit a minimum of 14 AC, whereas purely with STR, you're at 10.

Furthermore, combining "Tavern Brawler" with "Experienced and Deadly" you can use d20 + STR + STR + DEX for attack rolls, and d20 + STR + STR + WIS for your damage rolls.

[Jinkaru]

Originally posted by a Dad:

Originally posted by Jinkaru:

Just google it. You clearly don't know anything about monks. Or how to read abilities.

Jinkaru you are wrong. Monks in BG3 can use any weapon they are proficient in that is not tagged as Two-handed or Heavy as a Monk weapon. A Monk weapon will use the higher of the Monks STR or DEX for attack and damage calculations.

A Monk fighting unarmed also uses the highest of STR and DEX for calculating hits and damage. However, this does not necessarily mean that your hands get tagged as finesse weapons internally and so without testing there is no way to be sure whether or not Duellist will work with an unarmed DEX Monk.

Okay but, please don't reply to deleted content. It was deleted for a reason.

[Zogtar]

Originally posted by Pietro:

Originally posted by Robots Are Neat:

Yeah, you'd focus entirely on str w/ tavern brawler.

If you go the dex route, I recommend dipping into 3 thief rogue. That bonus unarmed strike is insane.

If you build correctly, you can get up to 6-8 attacks in a turn.

With Tavern Brawler you'll still want DEX and WIS.
The "Martial Arts: Dextrous Attacks" passive feature allows Monk attacks to scale with DEX, which compounds with the STR bonus. With 20 STR and 18 DEX, you're guaranteed to hit a minimum of 14 AC, whereas purely with STR, you're at 10.

Furthermore, combining "Tavern Brawler" with "Experienced and Deadly" you can use d20 + STR + STR + DEX for attack rolls, and d20 + STR + STR + WIS for your damage rolls.

Wait, how do you get both 20 str and 18 dexterity with those two feats? If you add on the ability score improvement and auntie ethels hair, you only get a +3.

Would the stat priority be STR -> DEX -> CON/WIS -> Dump?

[$CRWD]

Originally posted by Robots Are Neat:

Originally posted by Pietro:

With Tavern Brawler you'll still want DEX and WIS.
The "Martial Arts: Dextrous Attacks" passive feature allows Monk attacks to scale with DEX, which compounds with the STR bonus. With 20 STR and 18 DEX, you're guaranteed to hit a minimum of 14 AC, whereas purely with STR, you're at 10.

Furthermore, combining "Tavern Brawler" with "Experienced and Deadly" you can use d20 + STR + STR + DEX for attack rolls, and d20 + STR + STR + WIS for your damage rolls.

Wait, how do you get both 20 str and 18 dexterity with those two feats? If you add on the ability score improvement and auntie ethels hair, you only get a +3.

Would the stat priority be STR -> DEX -> CON/WIS -> Dump?

Only one feat was mentioned: Tavern Brawler. The rest are equipment and class passives you pick up as you level. There's also an additional WIS-related passive for Monks that adds WIS to AC.

But achieving 20 STR + 18 DEX isn't difficult at all, really. Giant's elixir brings you to 21, so you could theoretically go DEX > WIS > CON on character creation. There's also Monk's passive that gives +1 to attributes like WIS and DEX and, of course, the Attribute Feat. 20 STR + 18 DEX isn't difficult to achieve by Act 2, and by Act 3, itemization (elixirs + gear) makes you unstoppable.