What role does Monk play in BG3/5e?

[Rex is back, baby!]

I saw a few youtube shorts of naked monks being absolute units, and recall the Githranki Honor Guard (monks) being devastating in combat against me.

I was thinking of doing a Lae'Zel focused run as a Monk. What role does the monk do?
are they just dps/bruisers? Do they tank? Do they offer any utility? OR is it all about minmaxing furry of blows to dish out the most damage?

Thank you in advance.

[Lily]

Publicado originalmente por Rex:

I saw a few youtube shorts of naked monks being absolute units, and recall the Githranki Honor Guard (monks) being devastating in combat against me.

I was thinking of doing a Lae'Zel focused run as a Monk. What role does the monk do?
are they just dps/bruisers? Do they tank? Do they offer any utility? OR is it all about minmaxing furry of blows to dish out the most damage?

Thank you in advance.

Monk is what we call a melee striker. High single target damage per round. They can pick off weaker foes here and there, but their main focus is being able to get in quickly and hit extremely hard. There are a few strikers in the game but some classes aren't dedicated to being strikers. Mostly the martials are.

Monk is fragile so be cautious about building them. They have one of the worst starts in the game as far as damage goes and their mobility is easily matched or surpassed by other classes, ranger especially. However once you get to level 6 and beyond Monk starts to pop off as a reliable damage dealer but they're still quite difficult to build due to their reliance on on feats and needing far more attribute points than what's given to you.

IF you want to build a monk my suggestion is to choose one of 4 different racial options. Human, Half-elf(any will do but Wood elf is recommended), Githyanki and shield dwarf. During the early parts of the game their movement speed isn't better than just getting longstrider which is a ritual so you can get that movement speed you want. Human and Half elf both get light armor and shields so you can dump Wisdom to get your Strength, Dex and con up. Leather armor + a shield is the same AC as 16 in wisdom and 16 in Dex. So if you have a +1 padded armor or leather you can sit at 17 which is average for a melee martial at this point. Githyanki and Shield dwarf both get medium armor which means you can lower your dex to 14 and get a solid 16 AC with some scale mail and a +1 variant will get you to 17 or if you manage to get githyanki half plate you'll be at 17.

While leveling you can also use Scrolls of mage armor if you want to that extra movement speed and to use bracers of defense which can be found in the blighted village in the alchemist's shack.

Once you get to level 4 you want to take the Tavern brawler feat, but you don't have to if you want to use a weapon. Although Monks aren't better strikers with weapons than other melee classes they'll function just as well so its your choice here. But Tavern brawler will give you the feel you're looking for as a martial artist. It adds your strength to your unarmed attacks which is why we want a high strength.

One thing you'll want to do is get to the Underdark as soon as possible and ascend the wizard's tower. Up there will be a Magic stool which if you break will give you a club which sets your strength to 19. Once you get this weapon you can respec your monk dumping strength and buffing your Dex and Wisdom allowing you to fight unarmoed. The Weapon is a D4 but will be boosted to a d6 since it'll count as a monk weapon. Put it in your off hand and pick up a hammer right outside the tower which deals 1d4 and an extra 1d4 radiant damage. it'll be a d6 weapon with extra damage allowing you to have a decent weapon to pair with the club which you'll never actually strike with. Now with these weapons you can hit with the hammer then strike with flurry of blows or a offhand punch were most your damage will come from.

At level 5 you'll get stunning strike which can be useful for an early burst while wielding these weapons meaning you don't have to hit with the hammer you got, but be warned it will burn through your ki faster.

During this time you can drink potions of hill giant's strength to set your strength to 21 and just keep the weapons in your inventory for when you don't have these potions or its a day you don't want to use them.

Go up to level 6 and you can get your monk's subclass feature. My recommendation for subclass is way of the open hand since this gives bonus necrotic, radiant or psychic damage, your choice.

After level 6 you'll want to take levels in Rogue. Go up 3 levels for thief. This will save ki and allow you to make an attack with your hammer and attack twice with your unarmed attack using bonus actions without spending ki. Note that you must attack first with the weapon then immediately attack with your bonus action otherwise you wont be able to use your bonus action twice if you decide to attack with your main attack action twice first.

With 3 levels in Thief you can also flurry of blows twice during your turn. But more importantly the Way of the open hand monk allows you a special action that recovers Ki once per day and gives you 3 turns of an extra bonus action. With this you can flurry of blows 3 times during tougher fights.

At this point in the build You can get one more level of rogue for a ability score improvement or feat and level the rest of the way in Monk for greater movement. You can also dip into Fighter for action surge and a fighting style.

A few key items you should be looking for are mostly sold to you through merchants. Be sure to check any for equipment you might want. A lot of gloves in the game boost your damage with additional 1d4 of a damage type. Pick your favorite. There is also clothing which boosts your Dex score that will be helpful to boost your overall defenses.

The Hag's Hair is something you'll want, boost Dex, Wisdom or strength, whichever you think will be most useful to your build. Their's a potion you can get from a strange drow girl obsessed with blood. If you give her what she wants she will give you a potion which gives you a permanent +2 to strength. This will be helpful for when you respec once again. The end of Shadow heart's quest has a mirror which can give you a +2 to another stat, dex isn't a bad choice I'm not sure if it offers other boosts. So in total you can get 5 addition stat boosts from different game events.

At the tail end of the game there's an Amulet of vigor which will boost your constitution to 23 so you can again respec yourself and completely dump Con to put your points elsewere. By this point in the game you wont need the Club of hill giant's strength so you can sell it or store it, whichever you prefer.

And that's a short explanation of how to build a very specific type of monk from levels 1-12...

[Ranpo]

Same role as rogues but less about doing big openers and range, more on being able to trip/stun multiple targets in melee. If there's a mission that requires you to keep certain NPC alive, monks excel at those.

[Hyena]

Stun lock damage beast.

[Hex]

Publicado originalmente por Rex:

Publicado originalmente por Hex:

Since the AC bonus from Wis no longer works in forms for Druids in 5e like it did in 3.5, there's honestly no reason to dip into monk for anyone. You should never multiclass monk, either go full monk or none at all.

Truth be told, I never wanted to play monk before because of the constant "Dip a level into monk :B" threads in Owlcat's Pathfinder games xD. It was enough to dissuade me!

Monk is ridiculously strong in Pathfinder tho, cause it goes up to high enough levels. Especially in WoTR the Dragon Monk + gold dragon mythic path is hilarious. You can get your physical stats so high. Roundhouse kicks giant demons into the moon is just the best.