So, any reason in particular why shadow monks get the ability to cast darkness?

[magickmynd]

Here is the thing.

Decided to restart the game and try out a monk because I was getting owned by the monks later on in act 2 or 3, something like that.

I had spec'd into a sorlock and was playing solo, so things were already hard enough, but then the elemental monks came in and started just absolutely wrecking me with their multi attacks per turn.

Only way I could effectively fight them was at a distance and going into invisibility to do sneak attacks.

So decided to try a monk for myself to see what it was like and so far I kind of like it mixed with a rogue assassin since they can do crazy burst damage if they get the drop on the enemy first.

I've killed enemies in 1 round of attacks with an assassin monk that it would take my sorlock multiple turns to hit at range, which is awesome.

But the one thing I don't get is why shadow monks get the darkness ability?

I've gotten to level 7 and tried looking at the levels for both rogues and monks and neither one gets blindsight or the ability to see in magical darkness, and even if you start off as a drow you can't see in it, so you don't gain advantage for attacks made in the dark and also enemies can still attack you within 10ft and you will have disadvantage on your defense because you are are blinded just like they are.

Sooo.....without taking the time to spec into something like Warlock for the devil's sight invocation, why give shadow monk the ability to cast darkness with Ki when they get other abilities later that are far more effective like their cloak and shadow teleport?

And even if you spec into the rogue assassin as a drow you can't sneak attack out of the darkness with hand crossbows.

I don't really want to waste another 2 levels of my monk to get devils sight if I can help it.

Any options here? Or no because it would be too OP?

[magickmynd]

Ah, answering my own question. Found a ring that says the user can never be blinded.

Equip that to your shadow monk and you won't need to take devil's sight to be able to see in your own darkness :)

Downside though is that it takes up a ring slot, and there are better abilities you can get in your ring slots such as +2 acid damage on every weapon attack (which is fantastic for monk since the get a lot of weapon attacks in 1 turn) and also another one which is the ring that gives you +1 to AC whenever you are obscured, or the one that says whenever you are concentrating on an ability you get +1d4 in psychic damage and a lot of other really great rings.

Still, if you are REALLY REALLY against multiclassing on your shadow monk, I think it's a must have ring.

But if you want to multiclass and go into a shadow monk assassin, the ring makes the class AMAZING in the darkness spell because then you can sneak attack with every single attack since you will have advantage and enemies will have disadvantage.

[Axis of Lint]

Originally posted by magickmynd:

Ah, answering my own question. Found a ring that says the user can never be blinded.

Did you have the name of that ring? I've looked around and can't seem to find it. I was thinking about doing a monk playthrough for my evil campaign and this would have been a fun addition.

[magickmynd]

Originally posted by Hex : Furby Salad:

Originally posted by magickmynd:

Ah, answering my own question. Found a ring that says the user can never be blinded.

Did you have the name of that ring? I've looked around and can't seem to find it. I was thinking about doing a monk playthrough for my evil campaign and this would have been a fun addition.

Yeah, for some reason it's not turning up in the list of available rings in the game in the top search results on google, weird. Maybe not that many people have found it yet or the rings and accessories lists haven't been updated yet since the full game was released?

It's called the Eversight Ring. Uncommon ring with the same appearance as the basic onyx ring.

I found it somewhere in Act 2 in the shadow lands, but don't remember exactly where.

Edit:

I also found a really nice class combo to use for my shadow monk.

6 levels of monk, 2 for warlock and 4 for thief.

2 warlock levels get you the devil's sight invocation and repelling blast.

Since warlock scales with character level for your number of blasts, even though it's only a level 2 warlock technically, at level 11 total character class you still get your 3 blasts if you want to knock someone off ledges, beams, etc :P

3 levels in rogue/thief gets you an extra bonus action per turn, which is amazing for monks unarmed bonus attack fueled by ki, so you can get 4 attacks per turn, which is just nutty.

I had to give up 1 level in my monk so that I could get 2 feats for my character. Since I multiclassed into 3 classes I already had to give up 1 feat and didn't want to give up on a 2nd.

So now my shadow monk can cast darkness, then next turn can do 4 attacks at advantage inside the dark and can't be blinded by it, doesn't have to use the ring, and has sneak attack available due to the thief multiclass.

So a main hand sneak attack for my character currently does:

1d8+3 piercing
1d4 fire
1d4 psychic
2d6 piercing
2 acid

and if I am not in darkness and have advantage, and the enemy is illuminated, then I deal an extra 2 damage.

So I have the ability to do between 10-12 base damage and up to 33-35 max damage, and that's per sneak attack before any crit damage is calculated :)

It's too bad I couldn't get the assassin ability too that lets me do automatic crits against enemies that I sneak attack, unfortunately can't multiclass into 2 subclasses on the same class :(

[Lur Nen Rue]

Op you might want to sacrifice 1 feat for great weapon master, they work with Longsword finesee versatile
Been respecting and found the gracefull cloth + sparkle hand might be good for you, since flurry trigger sparkle twice to mitigate the GWM

[Shinkiro]

Originally posted by Hex : Furby Salad:

Originally posted by magickmynd:

Ah, answering my own question. Found a ring that says the user can never be blinded.

Did you have the name of that ring? I've looked around and can't seem to find it. I was thinking about doing a monk playthrough for my evil campaign and this would have been a fun addition.

Its the eversight ring and its inthe morgue behind the house of healing in act 2.

[magickmynd]

Originally posted by Lur Nen Rue:

Op you might want to sacrifice 1 feat for great weapon master, they work with Longsword finesee versatile
Been respecting and found the gracefull cloth + sparkle hand might be good for you, since flurry trigger sparkle twice to mitigate the GWM

I looked at that option, but with great weapon master you still only get 1 bonus attack and have to give up a feat to get it anyway, so the results are the same.

Plus in my playthrough I went full illithid, so by having 2 actions and 2 bonus actions and becoming a full illithid I was basically able to have any 4 actions or bonus actions I wanted per turn without any potions of speed or haste spells to give me a fifth action.

By the end of the game I was one rounding 150+ damage per turn with an illithid shadow monk/thief/warlock :)

[Lur Nen Rue]

I mean the +10 damage work with versatile weapon. And versatile finesse that could be used with sneak attack is longsword, and longsword work with monk. The bonus attack is just bonus

Haha full illithid is really bonkers, once I discovers displacer can infinite clone I went silly with it

Funny how there is still no guide about tier 4 illithid power yet

Edit
Oh right does you get 3 hidden illithid power?
Awakened, survival instint and one more
My friend told me if you get 3 and go full all of them get upgraded but my first complete I only get 2 prob missing somewhere on act 2 or 3

[magickmynd]

Originally posted by Lur Nen Rue:

I mean the +10 damage work with versatile weapon. And versatile finesse that could be used with sneak attack is longsword, and longsword work with monk. The bonus attack is just bonus

Haha full illithid is really bonkers, once I discovers displacer can infinite clone I went silly with it

Funny how there is still no guide about tier 4 illithid power yet

Edit
Oh right does you get 3 hidden illithid power?
Awakened, survival instint and one more
My friend told me if you get 3 and go full all of them get upgraded but my first complete I only get 2 prob missing somewhere on act 2 or 3

I wouldn't exactly say they are hidden.

As far as I know I have all the illithid powers unlocked since I went full illithid on my first full playthrough and I have all the powers unlocked that I can see, including the survival one that let's me have 3 turns to avoid death whenever I cast it.

But honestly the displacer shapeshift power is just as good as that if not better since it comes in with full health and has a bunch of awesome abilities.

It works really well with the shadow monk because what I would do during difficult fights is drop a darkness spell, transform into a displacer and then if someone tried to leave the darkened area I would run out and teleport them back in lol XD

Plus all the displacer clones. But the downside the clones is that they don't seem to run around the same way the AI ones in the game do, which is a bit of a disappointment.

But still, they work as good cannon fodder and distractions and sometimes even a little damage if anything gets close enough to them for them to hit every so often.