Lightning Monk or Radiant Orb Monk

[AokiYakumo]

(TL;DR: Which build would you prefer: a Lightning Monk of Four Elements who gets near blanket-advantage from mid-game to end game thanks to the staggering amount of metal or metal-wearing enemies, and high burst thanks to vulnerability from Wet; or an Open Hand Monk with a partial Radiant Orb set doing high amounts of Radiant damage and applying a staggering amount of light and attack debuffs on a single target?)

Let's try something a little less . . . eh, shall we say "ragebaitey"?

So, I'm gonna be on record and say that BG3 Monks are crazy good when played right. Even a straight-classed Monk makes 3-4 attacks per round, +2 from Haste or Speed potions, and +2 from Bloodlust elixirs.

Add 2 levels of Fighter for Action Surge and you can get another 2 attacks once per short rest, which synergizes amazingly with Monks who like short rests in general. 3 additional full-actions per day, one for 3 encounters, front-loads so much.

Add 3 levels of Rogue for the Thief Subclass, and now it's 4-6 attacks per round, +2 from Haste or Speed potions, +2 from Bloodlust.

-----

Each of those attacks can be 1d8+8 pretty reliably in Act III (and before then it's 1d6+3 to 1d6+5 if you just go DEX, although TB Monks with Giant's Elixirs can amp that harder - I never felt I needed TB with the Monk I played and 20 DEX and 16 WIS is just so comfy AC-wise with all the Monk gear you get so that just feels better personally), thanks to a pair of boots you get when entering Act III.

That said . . . I kinda want to ask a question.

-----

The Monk I played in my run was a Monk built around Sparkle Hands (MNK 9 / ROG 3, Four Elements for Chromatic Orb - Lightning). Idea was I could trigger the Lightning Charge overflow once to twice per round, and with 6 hits of 1d8+9 with a +11 to hit thanks to Lightning Charges (and advantage against metal opponents) I could average 5 hits per turn for 6d8+45, averaging about 60-70 damage per turn just from the Monk.

In addition, since I was doing a lot of lightning damage, Water supports provided a near 20% damage increase and enabled me to play soft control by always having electrified water on the field (an extra 2d4 per turn per creature in the water thanks to Wet), and if I needed to apply lightning at range (in case I had to go clear across the map and couldn't lay into a mfer) or start a guaranteed electrified water chain I could Chromatic Orb - Lightning for some extra utility (that and CO is just such an underrated spell because of the surfaces in BG3 so the flexibility is a huge bonus, it's like 6 spells in one and it's great).

But then I got to thinking . . .

-----

Open Hand Monks do Radiant damage. There's items in BG3 that make Radiant damage insane.

Monk with Luminous Gloves and Callous Glow + Coruscation Rings, Kushigo Boots, Soul Vest and Displacer Cloak. Could this be a good tank? It's 1d8+8 Bludgeoning per hit, +1d4+5 per hit from Manifestation of Soul and Callous Glow, meaning 4-6 hits of 1d8+1d4+13 (averaging 4 due to lack of advantage) could equate to 80 damage a round on average.

Thinking the same MNK 9 / ROG 3 chassis, 17/13/15 spread for DEX CON WIS, Ethel's Hair to DEX capping it at 20 by 4th level, then Resilient - WIS at 11th level to get that to 16 and get WIS save prof. Should get AC 20 with imposed disadvantage with the Radiant Orb attack penalty effectively adding 6 to your AC. Get the Amulet of Health from HoH and you can have 129 HP to boot, Evasion to mitigate things like Fireball, etc.

Only thing bothering me with this is twofold: 1) You can't to a Radiant Orb Cleric with this since you only get a single copy of those items in the game, and 2) less utility by not having access to other Four Elements powers or Chromatic Orb, as well as less field effects.

-----

Which is where I ask the question: of these two options, which do you prefer? Do you prefer a Lightning Monk or a Radiant Orb Monk?

[Angel]

open hand all the way