So is Monk the strongest Martial class?

[Giganx]

Open Hand Monk with Tavern Brawler seems to outperform all other melee classes early on, but is there a point where unarmed Monk falls behind because it won't be wielding beefy endgame weapons?

[causality]

Originally posted by Friends with Benedicts:

Martial classes are already better generally speaking than their magic counterparts.

Lol, don't tell him.

[LArc7thHeaven]

Monk is sh1t in almost every edition of dnd, at least in 5e they remedied some weakness by giving monk martial arts to reduce dependency on strength. The OP monk comes from larian home-brewed tavern brawler that makes monk a killing machine from lvl 4. My only hope is WoTC can add the open hand monk rules from larian to tabletop open hand monk, the manifestation stuff make monk a good martial class and not stuck with flurry of blows variety

[VoiD]

Originally posted by Diomedes:

Originally posted by Kirb:

My buddy played a Open Hand Monk and with all of his equipment he was hitting like 7 times a turn for anywhere from 26-65 damage a hit on the finale. Compared to me swinging *redacted's* greatsword at it for like 3 hits of 40-60 if I recall correctly as a Champion Fighter.

(Pure classes btw)
So quick maths based on my estimation/♥♥♥♥♥ memory
Monk O-H: 26-65 x 7 = 182 - 455 damage roughly.
Champ Fighter: 120 - 420 damage roughly.

Couple that with Monk gear gives you force damage, psychic and other stuff, rather than flat slash/pierce/bludge and monk is the clear winner, IMO.

The open hand abilities are being slept on too imo.. The fact you can choose between multiple damage types, means you can take advantage of vulnerabilities on the fly...
And I think resonant touch is incredibly powerful and slept on ability. Each turn you can get at least 3 resonant touches off, which counts as regular attacks on top of being able to do a fireball AOE detonation range of around 9d6 force damage with 1 ki point each turn. Where numerous adds become a problem with most of the martial classes due to distinct lack of AOE abilities, the open hand monk has one of the most powerful on demand ones in the game, that still has you putting out great single target damage too.

It sounds fun, but it's the same old issue in BG3, why bother if you can just 1shot enemies on any difficulty anyway?

Give them a guaranteed crit doubleslap and that's one less enemy to worry about, now move on to the next.

I probably end up spending most/all my regular bonus actions on leaping to reach the next enemy because every turn my characters kill everything around them, CC, DoT, or any skills that requires any form of setup are pointless.

[Ranpo]

Originally posted by moca loca:

Originally posted by Kernest:

No joke, Orpheus' Honor Guard or whatever they were called were probably the toughest fight I've had in the game. I didn't even bother trying with the ones outside the portal, just leaped with one character and clicked.

Have you heard the word of our lord and savior hold person? Upcast it to hold multiple people in a single concentration slot and that fight is over before it starts as your martials can autocrit on characters that fail their save.

thing is they tend to beeline for your casters and have the first move.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Originally posted by Baldurs_Gate_2:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

I'd say monks are super weak in both BG 2 and PoE.

But anyway, tavern brawler monk is strong but nowhere near as busted as other options

Like throwing thief barbarian - especially if they haven't fixed the bug that makes bonus throwing damage items trigger twice AND with the ability to do MASSIVE damage even when you miss when above a target. Because throwing does additional damage based on the object falling independently of attack rolls.

If you think Monk is weak in PoE, you definitely played them wrong.

Right? Not even barbarian get as much single target output as a monk

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Paladin has most likely the highest single dps output because of smite and Monk second. Both have high chances to hit as well, even against Raphael.

[Lavos]

Monk is a scrub for majority of the game, so it doesn't matter much if he gets great at the end. Eldrich Knight kit appears to be the most fun of them all. He is truly a versatile threat. Magic missile with it's 100% hit is a major tool for whole game. Hard to hit enemies, low on health dispatch, it's great at utility like that. And Eldrich Knight gets plenty of spell slots to use it. Add Shield and Mirror Image, and you get fighter that is also very hard to hit.

[Bishop]

Monk can just get tavern brawler and have 95%+ chance to hit against anything from lvl 4 onward. Its not that monks are super good its just tavern brawler is broken.

[Elazul]

No. My Oath of Vengeance Paladin has a delete button called Divine Smite. He also can Haste himself, has 24AC, and over 100HP.

[Giganx]

Originally posted by Elazul:

No. My Oath of Vengeance Paladin has a delete button called Divine Smite. He also can Haste himself, has 24AC, and over 100HP.

Well, for this you have to look at sustained vs burst.

Paladin can blow all of his spell slots and nuke down 1 strong enemy faster than any class in the game, then he'll be mediocre/middling damage for the rest of the fight. If you only look at the opening rounds then Paladin has more DPS, and not even by that much. Through the course of an entire fight I think Monk wins out, though.

Originally posted by Lavos:

Monk is a scrub for majority of the game, so it doesn't matter much if he gets great at the end.

It may be mostly due to Tavern Brawler, but Monk certainly isn't a scrub early on. Open hand monk level 5 is 4 attacks per round, all with STR modifier being added to damage twice, and with 90+ accuracy. No other class in the game is putting out that much damage that consistently in the early levels.

[CelestialSlayer]

whilst my monk might not be as powerful as Laezel or Karlach, my way of the elements monk can handle groups, and single targets quite well and has excellent range. and dont forget he can stun lock foes, my monk basically stun locked a certain devil whilst karlach took down his hp. without my monk it would have been a totally different fight. I always play Monk, its an old tradition now since the first pillars of eternity, and in bg3 they rock.

[super_jqp]

you know the game is easy when people say 5e monks are op

[лучший в мире]

Originally posted by JennyTheGhoul:

I respecced Lae'zel as a monk and OMG. She was pretty lethal.

im doing that rn, which subclass and feat youd recommend? Also, do you use armour on her?

[Giganx]

Originally posted by Judas:

Originally posted by JennyTheGhoul:

I respecced Lae'zel as a monk and OMG. She was pretty lethal.

im doing that rn, which subclass and feat youd recommend? Also, do you use armour on her?

I'll weigh in and say go with Open Hand Monk and Tavern Brawler feat.

Set your stats to 17Str 8Dex 14Con 8int 16Wis 10Char and get the gloves from the githyanki creche vendor that raise your dex to 18. Tavern Brawler to raise your strength to 18 and go no armor. With no armor you get +4AC from Dex and +3AC from Wisdom to get 17AC base, and you can get the ring of protection to raise that to 18AC, which is more than enough at level 5 even on Tactician.

So at level 5 you'll have 4 attacks per turn with 90+ accuracy and double your strength modifier to damage thanks to tavern brawler (insane damage). You'll also be able to push, knock prone and stun enemies at will, plus get a ton of extra movement speed for not wearing armor. It's pretty crazy.

[лучший в мире]

Originally posted by Giganx:

Originally posted by Judas:

im doing that rn, which subclass and feat youd recommend? Also, do you use armour on her?

I'll weigh in and say go with Open Hand Monk and Tavern Brawler feat.

Set your stats to 17Str 8Dex 14Con 8int 16Wis 10Char and get the gloves from the githyanki creche vendor that raise your dex to 18. Tavern Brawler to raise your strength to 18 and go no armor. With no armor you get +4AC from Dex and +3AC from Wisdom to get 17AC base, and you can get the ring of protection to raise that to 18AC, which is more than enough at level 5 even on Tactician.

So at level 5 you'll have 4 attacks per turn with 90+ accuracy and double your strength modifier thanks to tavern brawler (insane damage). You'll also be able to push, knock prone and stun enemies at will plus get a ton of extra movement speed for not wearing armor. It's pretty crazy.

Thanks! One more question, im trying to get better with building characters overall, but one thing i dont understand sometimes is how to manage stats. Imeant, dex, str, cha, wis, etc, you got the idea. Any tips on how you decide points in those stats?