How to make Monk work?

[ШЛАНГ РАНГЛЕР]

I see people saying that Monk can dish out insane damage, but how? All I see is that Monk can attack twice and flurry, how is that different from Fighter? How to build Monk to actually deal damage?

[solaris32]

Spec into strength, get tavern brawler. I also had fighter as first level for heavy armor proficiency because if you're going strength you don't want to be forced to split your points into dex and con and wisdom. So ditch dex and use heavy armor which gives better AC; the unarmored bonuses are fun but only worth it if you're staying a dex build. Also not a bad idea to put 3 levels into rogue thief for the cunning actions and especially the extra bonus action.

[BigJ]

Don't forget to activate your psssive for free psychic damage.

[Nehris]

Originally posted by Skobone:

Monks have some really good itemization and strength monks get to double their ability modifier to all their unarmed attack and damage rolls if they take tavern brawler.

All of this. I personally noticed items that make Monk OP start appearing at vendors and all around the main map of (and the transition map to) Act II.

[TheBlueFox]

Here's a tip.

DO NOT spec into strength!

Why? Because potions of 21 strength are so cheap and easy to make/buy, They last until your next long rest.

Get tavern brawler, chug a strength potion, and have +10 to attack and damage for the entire day, every day.

Start with 16 dex and 16 wisdom, pump wisdom for better DCs on your special stuff and just be the potion man

[victorvnv]

Monks do insane single target damage with proper items.

But the build only gets really good in act 3 in which act any class gets one insane item combos .

But yea tavern brawler perk, the perks + 2 strength potion to add up the the bonus , the gloves that gives you extra unarmed damage .

It is not the easiest class to make it really good as you need specific items .

But if you do it right it’s one of the top single damage classes .

[Lur Nen Rue]

friendly reminder that phalar aluve and paladin vengeance is good to further boosting your monk many hits output (if you somehow have 4 bonus action) . and exploding fist explode part is free action
freecast + soul is good illithid combo (at the cost of some teeth)

aaaaand HOLD PERSON/MONSTER

wanna wield a weapon? grab that salami

[Lily]

Monk suffers in a lot of aspects. Being MAD(Multi attribute dependent) being one of them. As other's have stated, Tavern brawler is the best feat a monk can take but they also need Dex and Wis for defense and Con because otherwise they'll fold like paper to a strong wind. This puts you in a tough spot since you don't have enough points for all of this.

Monk is a class I'd suggest respecing your stats a lot throughout your playthrough when you get certain equipment. Up until level 4 build them like a typical monk. Get 16 dex and 16 wis. Get a 14 con and put the rest into Strength. Alternatively you can dump Wis and put dex to 14 and multiclass into fighter or start as a Human, Gith, Dwarf or Half elf to get access to either medium armor or light armor and shields.

Try to get to the under dark early and ascend the wizards tower to get the Club of Hill Giant's strength. It when equipped will give you a 19 Strength. Now at level 4 respec and dump strength entirely and pump your Dex and Wis along with giving yourself a decent con. You can go to 15 and give yourself a +1 with Tavern Brawler to aid in your overall toughness. With the Club You don't need to use it as your main weapon. Pick your favorite to duel wield with it. THere's a hammer around the Wizard's tower which has an extra d4 radiant damage. its a d4 weapon but it'll scale up to a D6 weapon because of monk's weapon feature. You could even use a dagger if you like since that'll be a d6 weapon in the monk's hands as well. You can still flurry of blows even if both hands are full of weapons.

At level 5 you get stunning strike so you can use that as an opener if you like, but it will eat through ki. The weapon damage isn't too bad in monk's hands so you can still rely on that. You'll have extra attack at this point and you can make it work for you. When you get the chance, if you have extra, potions of hill giant's strength can be used for tougher fights or at the beginning of a day you know you'll have several tough fights ahead of you. This will allow you to use your unarmed strikes for all attacks rather than just your Stunning strikes and bonus actions.

At level 6 You get a boost to your damage if you've taken way of the open hand. Extra Damage as well as a once per day action which gives you more ki and an additional bonus action for 3 rounds. Very powerful and your movement speed should be beginning to look decent enough were you have a good reason not to use light or medium armor.

Now from here you can either go up to level 8, respec so you have 5 monk and 3 Rogue for the thief subclass or you can postpone that until level 9 so you have 6 monk and 3 rogue.

After this point you're going to be relying on a lot of magic items and you'll likely want to respec again depending on what gear you want to use. There are boots you can get at the end of act 2 which allows you to add your Wisdom modifier to your unarmed attacks so this will be on average an extra 3 to 4 damage. Well worth it.

I haven't played monk in act 3 much yet, but there are quite a few different items you might want to consider. Gauntlets which boost your strength isn't a bad choice but there is another item which gives you force damage on top of your unarmed strikes. Deciding to wear armor or not is another big decision you'll have to make since unarmored movement can be mean the difference between reaching your target or spending sever turns trying to dash to get into range of them. You're going to want strength no matter what choices you make, either from an item, potion or weapon. There are quite a few items in act three and you'll likely have to respec once again to get what you want.

Monk's advantages are that they have some of the highest DPR currently in the game and some of the most impressive movement. But Their weaknesses are their defense, the fact they're melee and they're so MAD it makes them extremely equipment dependent to compete where as other high DPR classes can function just as well with far fewer needed legendary equipment.