Monk suggestions

[stolen]

I just got a monk character approved and I was wondering if I could get some suggestions on what is always the hardest part of a build for me. Choosing feats. Some of the "Must choose at first level" feats seem pretty useful, but I'm not sure if they are needed for a monk because of all the specials he gets at later levels. If someone running a monk could give a couple of feat progression suggestions, and mabey even which skills have been most useful, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Masterjack]

Check out this link to help you out  Monk - NWNWiki - a Wikia wiki

I find a monk needs to increase his Attack bonus as much as possible, since it does not increase as quickly as a fighter. So weapon focus unarmed or kama is a must. I prefer unarmed over kama due to the 1d20 damage at higher levels. Weapon Finesse for a dex based monk is also good.

One bit of advice. Stay away from adventuring by yourself as a low level monk. My monk lost most of his soul strands doing that. Now I have a level 19 monk who can be permed at any time.

Any more question feel free to PM me

Masterjack

[ycleption]

mm, honestly my advice is don't worry about it mechanically, just choose the feats that fit your character concept.

Having said that, it really really depends on your build. Some people like expertise and dodge and improved parry, I think I chose toughness...
If you want to build on your strengths and take any feat that increases saves, it couldn't hurt either.
The one thing that almost every monk should have is weapon finesse, but you can't take that at first level.
At level 12, you can take improved critical, which is really really nice.

Um as far as skills, tumble is invaluable. Heal is useful. A few monks make heavy use of parry, (I haven't because it never occurred to me to try it when I built the character), and the rest are really RP determined. Discipline and concentration kinda fit the monk image, although mechanically concentraion is less useful. Hide and move silently can are very useful...
Hope that helps.

[Honora]

What ycleption said, re: choose by fit.  There are several styles, dex/wis being common (see: Jennara Creekskipper).  I play a balanced monk:  currently (with equipment) 20 str, 20 dex, 18 con, 20 wis.  Most folks don't go this way but she's a questing monk - it's a weak combat build.

If you are offensive in nature, a str/con monk with dex/wis lower can be interesting, definitely take weapon focus unarmed for this build.  In fact, I do recommend WF: unarmed and Improved Critical: unarmed.  Those are the only two feats I'd actually not be without.  But that's me.

Always nice to have another monk on the server .  Any questions you have I'm happy to answer.

[Gulnyr]

Make sure you know what kind of Monk you want, or to say it another way, know who your character is.  Knowing what to aim for and what to avoid gives you fewer choices, but makes feat selection easier.  Sounds weird but it's true.

Jennara is about defense.  Except for Weapon Finesse at level 3 (so that she could hit things occasionally), I didn't choose another offensive feat for her until level 18, when I picked Weapon Focus: Unarmed, and that's probably the last one she'll get.  All of her other feats were defensive - Dodge, Expertise, Great Fortitude, Toughness, Armor Skin.  Because she isn't meant to be a killer, she won't ever have any serious offensive feats, like Improved Critical.  

I guess that's pretty much what was already said - build to the character, not to the mechanics.  That means you have to know the character, of course, and that's always a good thing.

Edit: For skills, I don't know if I can add much except my personal experience.  When Jennara was first starting out, she was very shy and didn't want to be noticed, and she came from a background of learning to stay hidden, so she got a lot of ranks in Hide and Move Silently.  Now that she's a Knight of the Wyrm and less shy and afraid, and because of her efforts to help people, I haven't added any more skill points to the stealth skills, but have put them into Persuade instead.  

So have a direction to start, but don't be afraid to let in-game events affect how you use your skill points.

[Polak76]

I also just made a new monk.  I've made plenty in the past, mostly on other servers and leveled some to 40 including multi-classing.
I agree with ycleption about building to your theme, however it's still nice to end up with a pretty tough char.

In my opinon they can be one of the strongest characters in the game.  They really start coming into their own from about lvl 12, but as for skills/feats, etc here is my worthy guide:

Basically all abilities are approx 14 with wisdom at 15.
Every ability increase at every fourth level will most likely go into wisdom.  I'm keen on wisdom for the bonus to Spell Resistance (SR) and stunning fist DC plus saving throws.  Later if you ever make epic you'll need high wisdom for epic feats such as EPic SR, Ki strike +4 & +5..etc.

I usually focus on every item in the game to add to dexterity as weapon finess is a must for the AB.  You also get the indirect benefit of AC as well.  Secondly since I like having skill points and an intelligence of 14, I usually take expertise and Parry (lets face it, a good kung fu expert is fantastic at parrying).

Other feats are Dodge, weapon focus (unarmed), blind fighting, improved critical, Power attack, toughness, to name a few.  I used to take circle kick but have learnt to hate it as it takes your focus of the main enemy to an adjacent one.  Whilst you might get an extra attack in I find it more a nuissance.

This is one of my guides.  You can make some nice dual kama wielding monks that kick butt.  I only wish that you could make a monk/weaponsmaster with unarmed.  Unfortunately the unarmed attack isn't accepted in the PrC.

Cheers,
polak76

[stragen]

I read your submission and I liked it.  Based on the submission it appears that your monk would fit the tradition of a 'pure' Shaolin monk.   Like Honora, he would be a balanced monk with (from the submission) 'strength, wisdom and balance' are his characteristics.  Given his tall but wirey frame it is unlikely that strength is a primary attribute.

Balance can be interpreted as dexterity in NWN, being in perfect balance would mean he never looses his footing.  Therefore I suggest a traditional monk build with DEX as his primary ability, aim for DEX 15+ at first level.  Then strength and wisdom as secondary abilities STR 12-14, and WIS 14.     Your monk doesn't appear to have any glaring physical, mental or social deficients so I would suggest that no attribute be lower then 8.

Then the feats that I would select, are
(level1) Mobility, Dodge, to reflect balance
(level3) Weapon Finesse, as mentioned previously
(level6) Weapon focus (unarmed), to reflect training in unarmed combat,

Then pick feats that suit his tradition as Polak suggested eg blind fight, improved critical (unarmed)  

Feats NOT to pick include
Extra Stunning Attacks, Monks get more then they can use.
Spin Kick, looks cool but may cause problems for you in fights

Skills:
Tumble (again for balance),
Discipline, (the essence of meticulous training)
Concentration (not many uses, but reflects years of mediation)
Heal.

Also keep in mind to gain access to some of the epic level feats you may need specific requirements, so you need to plan from level 1.

I hope that helped.

http://forums.layonara.com/recent-approvals/131842-new-character-submission-ash.html

[ColtCommando]

I have been playing a monk for a good while, and I will mostly echo what has already been posted...
 
 
 As far skill split goes, if you want to hit things youre going to need dexterity, it up to you what youre dex/wis desparity will be, I personally am at 21 dex/ 18 wisdom (base, no items, unbuffed, sub-race skin bonus excluded).  I often argue with myself over this, is the 2 points either way realy going to improve my hitting ability that much, and at the detriment to my much loved DC's, or is the balance the optimum.  
 
 
 The other abilities you can sort of mess around with depending on youre charector individualy, but haveing a balanced, and decent (how high depending obviously on the arangement of the other four abilities) dexterity and wisdom.  
 
 
 As far as feats go, monks get the high progression rate for all three saves, and with dexterity and wisdom being key skills, with a decent con, youre saves will be healthy, a +1 to each will be hardly noticable.  
 
 Weapon finess is absolutly essential. Weapon focus (unarmed strike preferable to Kama, unless obviously it was a heavy kama type monk) also highly desirable. Improved critical unarmed strike has proves its worthieness for me. I liked cleave, and Toughness, as most the other feats on the list didnt fit my charectors RP...
 
 
 Another feat I highly recomend is Blind Fighting.
 
 
 Avoid Circle Kick like it was the black plague.  Unless of course if you like youre charector to go flat-footed and stop fighting at complete random in the middle if most every encounter with multiple enimies.  Its realy cool when you are completely surrounded and you cant even see you charector to notice, hey, he just stopped fighting and started stading there, you will hover notice you hp plumet as all of that wonderfull bonus AC you have goes out the window.
 
 About skills...
 
 Tumble, Heal, Lore (only if applicable to the charector of course, but it is very handy to have nonetheless) Hide/MS Are very nice if it is withing the charectors concept.  Dicipline is very nice, becuase getting knocked down is not cool. Did I say Tumble already?
 
 I have witnessed pary being used to great effect in another monk build time and time again, and I wonder if maybe I should have gone that way...
 
 
 Another thing I wonder about, is with my reduced attack bonus I usualy end up as a sort quasi-tank (cant call him a tank as his hp is attrocious) becuase of the naturaly high AC of monk builds, with him rarely hitting hitting anything.  I have often wondered about investing in a 13 inteligence for expertice, and then improved expertive, as I still wouldnt hit anything, but ANOTHER 10 AC on what ive already got would be very, very, very cool.
 
 
 Anyhow.. my random thoughts late at night, hope it helps.

[Baneberry]

If you melee then Improved Expterise is (in my opinion) one of the best feats in the game and I'd suggest a "social" monk (one who plans to be in a lot of groups) should have it if he can afford the feats.

It's basically a +10 AC shield you can raise or lower while in combat.  Great for when HP is running low to buy some time for a heal, and like ColtCommando said it would make you an ideal "tank."  You couldn't hit much, but it makes it much much harder to be hit yourself.

Of course it's also one of the few ways to actually use strategy in a fight instead of going on NWN combat autopilot, which may also be why I like it so.  It's funny how many people take this feat to get to Weapons Master then never bother to learn to use it.

[Honora]

Improved Expertise...ah yes, forgot about that one.  It's what allows my balanced monk to live many times . +10 to AC, -10 to hit.  You'll need to take Expertise first (+5, -5).

As far as skills, they may be cross-class but IF you are in a favorable time zone for questing and intend to spend a lot of time doing them both persuasion and gather info can be fun and useful.  Honora is now working on gather info to reflect her aging and like Jennara, is putting no more points in hide/move silent.  That said, these are cross-class and think hard before taking them, they're very RP-oriented and won't help you one iota when out adventuring.