Help me make a good monk set up

[Exarch_Alpha]

I don´t understand what to do

The game suggests that wisdom is your best stats for PUNCH PUNCH! GO! shenanigans, and special attacks that rely on WIS

At the same time he has access to good weapons like halberds

Should I focus on max WIS mid DEX and CON?If I´m going to use weapons then better use fighter or paladin...

[RhodosGuard]

Go STR. Because Tavern Brawler is a thing and you get +2 Strength just for making Astarion feel bad for a second.
there are a massive amount of items for Unarmed Attacks, I can think of 2 on the spot that simply add dice to Unarmed attacks.

You still want Dex>Wis as your secondaries, so dump int (and/or CHR if you dont care about dialogue)

That way you can crank out a pretty high AC just through Unarmored, you get all the benefit of Monk Equipment.

[Cosmo 🐲]

D4 Deep Dive have some nice builds : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WQ3omiC9gE&t=560s

[Exarch_Alpha]

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

Go STR. Because Tavern Brawler is a thing and you get +2 Strength just for making Astarion feel bad for a second.
there are a massive amount of items for Unarmed Attacks, I can think of 2 on the spot that simply add dice to Unarmed attacks.

You see, there is what I don´t understand.

Character creation implies that WIS will be important for abilities AND standard attacks. So do I use weapons or not?

[Nordos/atord]

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

Go STR. Because Tavern Brawler is a thing and you get +2 Strength just for making Astarion feel bad for a second.
there are a massive amount of items for Unarmed Attacks, I can think of 2 on the spot that simply add dice to Unarmed attacks.

You see, there is what I don´t understand.

Character creation implies that WIS will be important for abilities AND standard attacks. So do I use weapons or not?

its kinda weird, but the wisdom ... is for talents as far as I see. Also the spell casting ability (for example when you use the Elemental subclass).
Generally, you will use dexterity for unarmed (due to the class feature) when its higher than str and for specific weapons - it also helps getting AC, when you don't wear armor (which can be quite powerful when you have like 30m movement speed in the end :D)

But yeah, I suppose skilling strenght is, ironically, the best way. Tavern Brawler, and unarmed attacks will still use str when its higher (as far as I understood it)

[Draknalor]

Put all points in strength. Pick tavern brawler.

Put 9 points monk and 3 points thief.

Now you got 2 bonus actions.

[Exarch_Alpha]

Originally posted by Nordos/atord:

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

You see, there is what I don´t understand.

Character creation implies that WIS will be important for abilities AND standard attacks. So do I use weapons or not?

its kinda weird, but the wisdom ... is for talents as far as I see. Also the spell casting ability (for example when you use the Elemental subclass).
Generally, you will use dexterity for unarmed (due to the class feature) when its higher than str and for specific weapons - it also helps getting AC, when you don't wear armor (which can be quite powerful when you have like 30m movement speed in the end :D)

But yeah, I suppose skilling strenght is, ironically, the best way. Tavern Brawler, and unarmed attacks will still use str when its higher (as far as I understood it)

Nice, thank you. So which mao of STR DEX COM WIS INT CHR?

[Nordos/atord]

ima be honest, I haven't played monk that far yet. I did tank everything else, maxed str (+2), dex (+1) and rest into wis, though.
Means that I will have bad saving throws, though, which needs to be taken into account. That said, my build is a weird one, where I choose Assassin instead of thief, due to having a free stealth at the start of the combat with my race (Durgar)

[Zaris]

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

Character creation implies that WIS will be important for abilities AND standard attacks. So do I use weapons or not?

From memory: Dex+Wis increase armor for monk and at least one subclass gets a passive dmg bonus from your wisdom modifier for unarmed attacks (d4+wis). On top of that later on you can find items with bonus to unarmed attacks (around D8 or D10).

So in short if you start with something like 16 dex 16 wis, 14 con, increase them to 20 dex (cap), 20 wis, 14 con on lvl12 you will have around:
- 6 attacks (hasted, 2 extra attacks from bonus action)
- each attack: d8 base unarmed + 5 dex + d4 elemental + 5 wis elemental + d8 unarmed item bonus + 2 acid ring = 23,5 dmg
- total: 6*23,5 = 141 dmg each round (fighter can get up to ~175 dmg with great weapon master)

You can maybe think about including multi classing like monk 8, thief 4 for the 2nd bonus action to increase hits to 8 each round but i don't know atm if you will miss out something important from monk (less ki pts for extra attacks, base dmg only d6 instead d8).
-> total: 8 attacks * 22,5 dmg = 180 dmg each round

[Recjawjind]

Start as a dex / wis monk (i.e have a +3 in both), then once you find items to bump your dex (late act 1), respec into taven brawler strength / wis monk. Way way more damage and way more accurate. From that point on, don't bother with weapons, your fists are better.

[Ele]

I have a dex/wisdom monk who is still going strong at level 9. I haven't changed her over to strength because there seem to be enough hill giant and colossus potions around for her to use those in boss fights. Even without the boosted strength she's pretty tough.

[wendigo211]

I did an Open Fist 6/Fighter 2/Thief 4 for my monk, mostly STR+WIS because of Tavern Brawler and the bonus +WIS to damage from the Open Hand Manifestation abilities and the Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo. I stuck him heavy armor with a shield and let him go Captain America on the enemies. He loses the 3m of extra movement from being a Monk (although he's a wood elf so, he still gets some extra movement there), but gets a higher AC by wearing armor and using a shield.

[parent child bowl]

Maxing STR via elixir and WIS via ASI/Hair + Tavern Brawler is the strongest Monk build at the moment. Depending on if you need the AOE, you either go Monk 9/Rogue 3 or Monk 6/Rogue 4/Druid or Fighter 2.

[Chillearth]

Highest stat dex. Fairly high con and wis. 4 levels of rogue (thief sub-class) so that when you DO switch to monk, you can do Flurry of Blows twice plus your main attack. So Thief 4, then Monk 8.

You can make a strength based monk (although it won't start out that way) by finding the chair leg from the stool of Hill Giant strength on the top floor of the Arcane Tower (sets str to 19). Couple that with the Knife of the Undermountain KIng in the main hand from Gith trader in creche Y'llek (Rosymourn monastery). Take the Tavern Brawler Feat, add the Kushigo gloves. Get the clothing from the trader in last light inn that gives a permanent Cats Grace (+2 Dex). That should get you going strong, especially when it all comes online in Act 2.

[Dragon Master]

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

I don´t understand what to do

The game suggests that wisdom is your best stats for PUNCH PUNCH! GO! shenanigans, and special attacks that rely on WIS

At the same time he has access to good weapons like halberds

Should I focus on max WIS mid DEX and CON?If I´m going to use weapons then better use fighter or paladin...

Wisdom isn't best for punching. Monks can use either Strength or Dexterity for attack and damage. Wisdom is used in conjunction with dexterity for your armor class (AC), so you can be wearing no armor and have as much armor as someone in heavy armor.

I'd go either strength for the tavern brawler feat, or go dexterity max with 14-16 wisdom and get the mobile feat.

[parent child bowl]

Originally posted by Dragon Master:

Wisdom is used in conjunction with dexterity for your armor class (AC), so you can be wearing no armor and have as much armor as someone in heavy armor.

Open Hand damage scales twice from WIS...