Strength potions for monks/rogues

[harken23]

Waste of a potion? I guess giving a strength potion to a rogue might make their strength higher than their dex, so that might raise their damage, but that seems pointless (unless you're going on a solo run or something). Lets you jump farther and carry more, I guess.
Same for monks. Do they get a strength bonus to attack? (And why doesn't the inventory screen allow you to compare a weapon with unarmed attacks?) Is it one or the other for STR/DEX bonus?

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by harken23:

Is it one or the other for STR/DEX bonus?

Yes, if it says "uses the higher of strength or dex" then that's exactly what it means, and raising the other stat is mostly useless unless you raise it to be the highest.

You'll still be able to do things like carry more weight, and perhaps jump farther. Stuff like that.

[Mike Garrison]

Also, if you have 20 dex but you raise your strength to 27 with a cloud giant elixir, then you will start using strength rather than dex.

[KRON]

Originally posted by harken23:

Waste of a potion? I guess giving a strength potion to a rogue might make their strength higher than their dex, so that might raise their damage, but that seems pointless (unless you're going on a solo run or something). Lets you jump farther and carry more, I guess.
Same for monks. Do they get a strength bonus to attack? (And why doesn't the inventory screen allow you to compare a weapon with unarmed attacks?) Is it one or the other for STR/DEX bonus?

It's either STR or DEX depending on which is higher. STR elixirs absolutely make sense for monks, especially combined with tavern brawler feat.

[SolidSora]

The reason, why you do it on Monk is unarmed strikes with the Tavern Brawler Feat. The DMG you can do with that and the right equipment is quite insane

And yeah, regarding bonuses in terms of combat dmg and attack rolls, its either/or. With a high Strength and High Dex you still will get the armour class bonus from dex, even with Strength higher

[KRON]

Originally posted by SolidSora:

The DMG you can do with that and the right equipment is quite insane

Easily over 100 per turn and that's with straight open hand monk with no multi-class shenanigans.

[tet5uo]

Punch real hard in face. I love my STR monk

[TaKo]

monk unarmed attacks count as finesse, so they use best for strength or dex for attack and dmg

STR monk = better dmg with tavern brawler(adds str bonus to atk roll and dmg on top of any existing atk/dmg bonus, but only str) and better jumps

DEX monk = better AC and better initiative

pick your poison, people tend to prefer STR monk cause you can get heavy armor prof from a dip and then go all in on monk for the rest, ignore dex(the reduced initiative sucks but is manageable) and lets you reduce investment on WIS, get all your AC from your heavy full plate or use medium armor that allows for full dex bonus(theres like 2 in the game that do this) and focus on STR for way better dmg and the ability to jump accross the battlefield, insane mobility

should be noted that a monk in armor loses the WIS to AC bonus and their improved movevent allownace but again, being able to jump 20m for 3m of movement covers the mobility issues

[Mystified]

I have a Level 7 monk (Karlach respec). When I respec'd her, I gave her minimum str (8) with the plan of using hill giant potions so I could start with other stats much higher. When she takes the potion, her damage goes WAY UP.

[KRON]

Originally posted by TaKo:

being able to jump 20m for 3m of movement covers the mobility issues

It doesn't really, because you lose a bonus action doing that and that bonus action could be otherwise spent dealing damage instead, when you do have high mobility. Playing monk I preferred running towards the target instead of jumping for exactly that reason.

Also using jumping to the full distance you have a risk of catching on some branches or rocks and falling directly to the ground in mid-air, or into the chasm that you tried to jump over.

[[TG] zac]

Sadly unlike pathfinder 2 there is no real way to make a strength monk without losing out on a number of things (Really wish 5e monk had their stance system).

That being said the damage output you get from monk with tavern brawler is worth it if you can get a steady supply of potions especially when combined with tiger heart barbarian and thief rogue.
(Ends up being D4 physical, D4 of fire + 3x your strength mod damage per attack with 2 bonus actions and 2 main hand attacks along with 3d6 sneak attack and all incoming damage halved twice)

[AokiYakumo]

Originally posted by harken23:

Waste of a potion? I guess giving a strength potion to a rogue might make their strength higher than their dex, so that might raise their damage, but that seems pointless (unless you're going on a solo run or something). Lets you jump farther and carry more, I guess.
Same for monks. Do they get a strength bonus to attack? (And why doesn't the inventory screen allow you to compare a weapon with unarmed attacks?) Is it one or the other for STR/DEX bonus?

Only if you don't plan on taking STR builds with those classes.

MNK/ROG with Thief and either Open Hand for more damage or Four Elements for more utility (Chromatic Orb and Ice Knife are good to have in your back pocket; besides, both get a Ki Restore that makes those subclasses WAAAY better than Shadows MNK) pops off hard with STR but only specifically in the case of Tavern Brawler (which doubles the STR bonus for attack & damage for unarmed attacks).

If you don't plan on going Tavern Brawler for your MNK, there's not really a big reason to invest in STR; your jump distances are still gonna be insane even at 8 STR, you aren't shoving anyone the way a BRB does, your weapons can opt out of keying STR in place of DEX, and you're not really carrying everything and the kitchen sink the way Karlach would.

-----

As for MNK attack & damage itself and how it works, it's the same as using a Finessable weapon (but also not, since you can't Sneak Attack with unarmed strikes because they don't qualify as having the Finesse property). It will key off of whichever of the two abilities is higher: STR or DEX. If you have a 21 STR but an 18 DEX, it keys STR. If you have an 8 STR but a 20 DEX, it keys DEX.

[harken23]

If I was DMing, and a player wanted to play a monk with high stats in both, and pointed out that DEX helps punching in the right place, and STR means you punch that place harder, so therefore they should both add to damage, I'd think about it. I only DMed (or cared to) very casual games, with a ton of house rules, tho.

[AokiYakumo]

Originally posted by KRON:

Originally posted by TaKo:

being able to jump 20m for 3m of movement covers the mobility issues

It doesn't really, because you lose a bonus action doing that and that bonus action could be otherwise spent dealing damage instead, when you do have high mobility. Playing monk I preferred running towards the target instead of jumping for exactly that reason.

Also using jumping to the full distance you have a risk of catching on some branches or rocks and falling directly to the ground in mid-air, or into the chasm that you tried to jump over.

Depends on the context, like all things in BG3.

Me personally, because I played a Githyanki MNK, that Jump when empowered was enough to make it to the arcanists on the brain in a single turn AND take one out before it got the chance to move. Similarly, it let me get her to the back of the room in House of Grief while holding a Light cantrip, which was enough to divert the attention of half the ads in the room towards the high AC DEX-dodging motherf*cker who could delete 3 of them in one go.

Under normal circumstances, if you can get to the add in 1 turn anyways and using a BA would eat 2 of your attacks for the turn, then yeah it's way better to just run up to them.

If using that BA cuts out a whole ahh turn of movement out that you would have normally needed to take just to get to the f*cker, then it's WAAAY worth it even if it does eat 2 attacks. (Bhaal Ritual before Orin, got to the chanter in a single turn and ate up half his Unstoppable stacks before anyone could react).

[guard65]

If you want, do it.

I feel all potions are way to cheap and easy to get.

[TaKo]

Originally posted by KRON:

Originally posted by TaKo:

being able to jump 20m for 3m of movement covers the mobility issues

It doesn't really

it does tho? at level 11 monks get 6m increase in movement when not in armor, a high str monk can jump considerably farther than 15m specially if taking tha athlete feat(remember that even with the 3m cost to jump, you can still use whatever else you have to move normally before or after the jump, plus better jump distance also improves vertical limits of said jump), losing flurry of blows/bonus unarmed strike for the turn to ensure you can hit an enemy at all is better than not hitting them

you're free to do unarmored str monk too of course

Originally posted by KRON:

Also using jumping to the full distance you have a risk of catching on some branches or rocks and falling directly to the ground in mid-air, or into the chasm that you tried to jump over.

?