The BEST MONK in Baldur's Gate 3 - Honour Mode Build Guide
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- Want to play the most broken class in the game, never letting enemies get a turn, whether by stunning them or simply stomping them into the ground? Want to be fast and brutal and incredibly effective? Want to use some of the most powerful items to the fullest extent? Look no further!
This character uses Way of the Open Hand Monk and Thief Rogue to get incredible melee damage, insane mobility, and the most powerful control effect in the game!
Full detailed level guide from 1-12, including stats, feats, items, and abilities!
0:00 Intro and Build Goals
2:14 Attributes - Do We Elixir?
7:06 Monks Are Good
11:50 Subclass Selection
13:10 Feat Selection
20:03 Feat Selection
21:13 Rogue Dip
22:44 Subclass Selection
24:35 Feat Selection
25:11 Final Build, Items, and Combat Turn - เกม
![The BEST SORCERER in Baldur's Gate 3 - [Updated] Honour Build Guide](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_MJwdRd8koY/mqdefault.jpg)
Finally a Monk vid I will watch! I immediately click away from any build guide that starts by dumping stats and relying on elixirs/items.
Getting strength elixirs is incredibly easy in Act 1 though, it’s by far the most optimal way to build some classes.
You’re not wrong it definitely is, it’s just some people don’t like the idea of your character/ power dependent on an elixir which you can’t blame them for since it’s a personal role player game so everyone plays what way is best to them
@@austinwarrington4457 that’s fair, but I guess with this guide specifying that it was intended for honour mode (though of course not exclusive to it), a degree of min maxing is to be expected? The drop off for power when not using the elixirs is…very noticeable. Honour mode is hard, it’s ok to adjust your approach to get an advantage.
The Witcher uses a potion.
Popeye uses spinach.
Monks use an elixir.
@@bonjouritsreadyI’ve done honour mode and barely used any elixirs, so no, minmaxing is not needed. Caution is the most important factor
The Creche has a Gith Vendor that sells Dex Gloves that automatically set your Dex to 18. This is huge for the early game if you're dumping Dex somewhat to build up Str and Wis. On my Monk I re-rolled my Dex to 8 when I got to the Creche and then put on the Dex gloves to set it back to 18 and skyrocket my initiative, ac, saving throws, skill checks, etc.
pog
isn't it so strange, however, that in die rolls (ie for sleight of hand) that the bonuses will show -1 from dex and then +4 from gloves?
Why woukd that be strange? Less than 10 in a BASE stat gives you a negative 1 modifier.
@@Shorkshire Because the gloves are supposed to SET your dex to 18, not just give a +4 bonus. For example, if you have 18 dex naturally and the gloves, you shouldn't get the +4 bonus 2 times. With items that SET a stat to a level - in this case dex to 18 - it shouldn't matter if your stat is 1 or 17, it will become 18 for as long as you wear the item.
thank you@@KubinWielki
I'm glad I've someone that agree that using elixir all the time feels wrong
You make the best builds hands down. I saw a comment on one of your other videos about how you are long winded, but don’t stop. That’s what makes your guides so great. They cover all the bases!
I would suggest that "Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo" would be a far better option for this build in Act 3, as it deals additional damage equal to their Wisdom Modifier with unarmed strikes. Especially if you're not going down the Elixir route. Every little helps 🙂
Yes! For just dmg, they are BIS (assuming you actually have wisdom)
Even if you're going down the elixir route, that just makes it even _more_ broken. +5/8 Strength modifier and +5 Wisdom modifier makes for a TON of power output
true af, also those gloves that set dexterity to 18 basically let you put all the points to wisdom, so the boots would work perfectly
@@Artemiss_V And in constitution to have even more HP
@@aless2906clever, love those "glass-cannon" builds, ever so from the Pay Day 2 times
hello my friend just wanted to take a bit of time to say thanks for all the hard work and pushing all these build videos out. i started playing maybe 2 weeks ago and you have helped me look in the right direction and taught me alot
Thanks so much! Appreciate the kind words :D
Same, I followed random guides and ended up hardly defeating Ketheric in Act 2 on balanced difficulty. Now my gameplay is way more organized and combat is way less random!
Your builds are so detailed. This is the most helpful channel for when I need to explore a new class. Thanks for the hard work.
These builds are so cool. Just a suggestion / request. It'd be great to see a bit of a showcase with the character doing some battles at then end. Like a styling sizzle reel to get us hyped to make the build. :)
Yeah, I've followed this guys builds since launch and the detailed guides are awesome but actual combat footage across all three acts (lv 4, 8, 12 for example) would really improve all these videos. I know that would probably greatly increase the time sink of making these because then he's having to do campaign playthroughs of all builds and not just taking an endgame save file and stepping us through the build during a respec in camp.
@@prkeeneThat's true. It would be awesome. But I understand it's a big ask. Maybe just showing a battle against an endgame trash mob or something would be viable to show a single combat off or something. 🙂
Thanks! I'd like to include more gameplay, but unfortunately recording gameplay footage is very time-consuming, and the times I've tried it it really hasn't improved viewership or audience retention. I will be showing off some of these builds in various honour mode bossfights as my playthrough reaches them though!
@@Cephalopocalypse Cool. Yeah I understand how that'd definitely take some extra time. I look forward to more content in the future. :)
At the beginning please..
Great build! Always refreshing to see one that doesn't use elixirs. I did something similar but wanted to be less glass cannon so I opted instead to use gloves of dex to raise my dex perma to 18 and then dumped the rest of my points into strength and wisdom (and some constitution). With my wisdom being extremely high (whilst having + 2 from the mirror), I'm much less of a liability in fights although i do slightly less damage.
That works until you get the gloves that add 1-10 damage to unarmed attacks in act 3
If you’re doing a jumping build with equipment on the monk, you should mention that after doing step of the wind (Or similar) you can jump over… and over, and over again, until you run out of moment.
Dude im working on building my team and here you are again with another BANGER THANK YOUUUUU
Really great build guide. All your stuff is fantastic.
I'm nearly done with an Honor run using Lae'zel as a Monk . . . and I think I like the pure Way of the Hand build better than multiclassing into Rouge.
For pure DPS the bonus action from rogue is better . . . but DPS really isn't everything.
The primary use of the Monk is to get to and Stun bosses (which disables their Legendary actions). Once taken out of action you have plenty of time for your whole party to clean up.
The list of benefits from finishing out Monk are substantial:
d8 vs d6 base damage roll
Total immunity to Poison & Disease
Freedom of movement on difficult terrain
Extra Jump distance and Movement allowance
Ki Resonance: 9d6 worth of AOE damage for the cost of only 1 Ki point
Tranquility: Sanctuary at the start of every combat letting you go anywhere on the battlefield without being stopped.
Ki point increase from 34 to 48 per long rest
Monk Way of the Hand is just an awesome class, pure or multiclassed you can't go wrong. Even mixing in Fighter to get action surge for up to 4 stuns in a turn is a great build option also.
Thanks so much for the support! I really appreciate it :D
Monk 12 is also great, of course! One other reason for rogue though is that the extra bonus action isn't *just* for DPS - it's also an extra dash/hide/jump/shove etc, so it actually makes you move *faster* than the extra monk movement speed from later levels. But definitely not wrong to just take monk all the way through. (Ironically, I think the only class it's definitely "wrong" to not multiclass out of is rogue itself). Ki Resonance and the extra ki points are incredibly good as well, and extra ki matters a lot especially if you're trying not to long rest all the time.
I'd like to try the Helmet of Grit . . . extra bonus action while you are below 50% health. Paired with the Amulet of Health and/or Tough feat I could see it working really well.
But I'm not willing to try that risky experiment on my Honor playthrough! 😉@@Cephalopocalypse
I've been playing my monk all wrong. Thank you so much for a great, easy to follow, video!
Note for newer players, the strength elixir build is wildly better for TB monks.... though I get it if its not your thing. Putting those points into wisdom/dex is for AC is huge, not to mention wisdom mod can be added twice to your unarmed damage with lvl 6 ability and boots in act 3.
With Cloud giant elixir and gear at end of the game, your Fury of Blows tool tip will be a little over 100 damage on the top end. 22 armor is easily achievable as well.
Also, if you have a thief dip dont forget to equip finesse weapons as stat sticks. There are a few daggers that are really nice and your punches cna sneak attack after you topple an enemy for free extra damage.
Good tips, I just had one question for clarification:
You said to equip daggers for finesse buffs and then said after you topple you can sneak attack with your fists.
Saying "with your fists" imply unarmed? I thought in the video he said you can't do unarmed sneak attack?
New player just trying to understand better, thanks.
@@zac9933 reason do at least 3 lvls of rouge is for shadow play, if you pick thief subclass get two bonus actions and sneak attack is a passive, while hiding grants you bonus dmg or prone players
Thank you for not building around elixirs, I totally get why people do since it's the most optimal and there's lots of fun to be had with the optimization process, but I always found it tedious to collect the elixirs and it put me off a lot of builds. Great video!
I also figure every other build on the internet uses elixirs, so people who don't want to had no real useful information available. Glad you liked it!
Same
Top Build ..thx!
Started my First HM-Run and besides my Bardadin-Tav i Run Laezel as a OH-Monk based on this Build but with Elixiers later ending Up with 18 Dex,18con,23 wis and str through Elixiers
Extremely strong Striker ,Mid of Act2 and Not a Single Encounter my Team was in Danger
Thanks for the build mate, I didn't fancy remembering to chug an Elixir after every long rest.
Frigging finally. Every damn monk build so far has been using those elixers
I'm glad I found this, I like that monk has something strong like Tavern Brawler but the idea of abusing strength elixirs just strikes me as being out of character for a monk
...but being a TAVERN BRAWLER is not out of character for a MONK? That's about as contradictory as it gets for me, you do you.
Good catch about stunning strike having a maneuver DC instead of a spell save DC that scales off of Strength or Dex. This is one of the more obfuscated things about the class
Yeah I've seen other build builds say that stunning strike is based off wisdom save. But I trust this guy. So dex/str save through
I just noticed this oddity on Astarion as an Arcane Trickster. With his INT score being only 12 his Save DC and Spell Attack Bonus were FAR too high...must be DEX for him.
Finally a build that doesn’t make me use elixirs. Thank you.
Thank you for making a build without the pesky elixir!
I was new to DnD when I picked up BG3 and just thought it sounded cool to only be punching things so picked Monk, am now on my third playthrough (this one's in Tactician, first two were the middle difficulty), still using Monk as my main character, because it's just so much fun being able to run around and stun things. Don't know why, but it really clicked with me. Most fights I go straight for the boss/strongest enemy, and almost always keep them stunned until they're dead, usually 2nd or 3rd round, and I let everyone else handle the other enemies. I'm still kind of surprised bosses are even stun-able in the first place
I'm really surprised Tavern Brawler wasn't nerfed for Honour mode (at least I don't think it was? I'm still on a Tactician playthrough). It's rare for me to see anything lower than a 95% hit chance when using Tavern Brawler + the strength elixirs, and then it's also putting out a ton of damage. My first playthrough was not using Tavern Brawler and being just pure dexterity, but I heard about how good it was and used it for my second and third runs, and it's just crazy.
Yeah - I firmly believe both tavern brawler and strength elixirs should have been nerfed for honour mode.
I like to roleplay my monk as in the Asterix cartoons - drinking a str potion each day is just me drinking elixir before smashing some romans. When I get the str gloves, it's simply me falling into the couldron and no longer needing the elixir everytime i smash romans.... oh and the romans being the Absolutists
Started a monk because of this video. I had no idea Monks hit so hard.
Best monk improvements: start as a Karlach (for 2d4 from soul coins), respec at level 9 and start with rogue to recieve proficiency bonuses. Boost wisdom as much as you can - at least 20 but better to have 22. I'd say non of showed equipment is best in slot. Min-maxed TB monk should have at least 30-50 damage per single hit (for Karlach and Astarion it should be ~30-60).
with step of the wind disengage you can bunnyhop away without risk since jumping doesnt come with an extra cost and with high strength triple your movement regardless
My favorite part of monk is even when you get knocked down, if you get back up you still can attack twice that round. It is unique and makes lower hp and ac manageable
I appreciate the detailed breakdown and entirely agree with your build philosophy (though I would respec at 9 to 6OH /3 Thief), however I am less against using potions so I skew that direction. My question for you: Is and OH monk too much of a liability in Honor mode? I have been running a pretty ranged centric build (to mitigate damage) and leaning into first-round nova, but my OH-TB is pretty consistently targeted and spends a lot of time on the ground. You cant argue with the damage, but the liability is worth considering.
If you are soliciting recommendations for videos, I'd like to see your take on the Swords bard for Honor mode. SOR is almost mandatory on any Action Surge builds and starting at 6 Swords is really strong (2xbow). Given the nerf to Pact of the Blade in Honor mode, I'm even considering migrating my Fighter over to Swords for a 2h build with P2 for Smite late game.
Thanks very much! Monks can definitely be dangerous, as a melee glass cannon they carry all the risks that archetype has, but one tool they do get is their insane movement speed (including bonus action dashes and hides in the late game). Keep them very far back, enter combat and leave combat in the same turn, and you should be able to keep them safe (longstrider is also very helpful here).
Appropriately enough I like to think of it like the mohammed ali quote: float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Monks don't need to fight fair!
I'm doing something like this at the moment, but if you don't mind it I'd suggest actually when you hit lvl 9 you could consider respeccing to monk 6 rogue 3 to get that extra bonus action faster, then keep going monk. You'd get the feat slower though, but could take the rogue at 10 for the alertness then instead.
Not sure how much better it is but seems nice to get the bonus attack faster
Definitely an option! I went with earlier access to Alert because I think at that point in the game I'd rather try to address one of the main weaknesses of the build rather than double up on something it's already excellent at - your damage should be more than enough already. The extra utility of the bonus action is also very nice though, so I can definitely see it going either way.
even barring tavern brawler shinnanigans, I've actually taken some of the things i've learned in bg3 back to tabletop and am starting to think that we may have all been sleeping on the monk in tabletop.
Apparently, Larian Studios decided it thematically appropriate that the most effective monks study Drunken-Style fighting at tavern brawls.
In the first few levels when you don't have Tavern Brawler, just be dex based for the higher AC. You can then respec into strength at level 4 or any time after.
That's what I did. I started off as a standard dex monk and then once I bought the dex gloves from the githyanki creche vendor, I re-rolled my status for 17 str, 8 dex, and then took TB for 18 str, and put on the dex gloves which sets dex to 18. good times.
@@greyelf1537 The issue with taking the gloves is that, the gloves armour slot is the best for monks and occupying that is pretty annoying. I do think they are good early to mid though - you'll eventually want to swap them out though .
For the stat spread, what do you think about going 15 wisdom and 8 int and then use Khalid Gift to get the even number?
Is it right to assume that you want to switch to unarmed attacks early game at level 4?
When you get Tavern Brawler? Until then use a weapon right
I made this build for my first character, basically just because I am a contrarian and I saw how low down the stats the monk was when I got the game. It absolutely slaps. Another thing I did in addition to drink the strength elixirs is I took the dex gloves. So most of my points are into WIS and CON. So I’m almost untouchable, hit really hard, go first most of the time, and can still hold a conversation.
did you mean CHA not CON?
Yeah - with all the sources of free stats you can really get everything!
@@bobnewkirk7003 no, but now that you bring it up I could probably move some over to CHA as my monk gets hit so infrequently as it is.
i d like to see elixirs last for some 10 turns only in the game. That would be fair.
I’ve been reading the wiki and I think it might be more worthwhile to go for a 9/3 split on monk since your unarmed strikes damage dice go from d6 to d8 at level 9 monk. As far as I know it’s tied to monk level not overall level.
You’ll be sacrificing a feat but depending on your build and itemisation, it might be more beneficial.
On average a d6 rolls a 4 and a d8 rolls a 5, so a 1 damage increase on average, increasing your strength to 20 to get the +5 modifier might sound the exact same sense your just adding one to your modifier, but tavern brawler doubles it so your getting twice the damage and some more accuracy with increasing your strength rather than going 9 levels into monk
I’d hit the House of Grief before hitting level 12 (or just Withers respec if you fail the mirror) and use that instead of the feat to hit STR 20. Have your cake and eat it too.
Which bonus stats from Ethel, Mirror, and Araj(Stength) would be best to spend on when receiving them??
a lot of your builds for monk use tavern brawler-- and i get it's a very obvious choice. But it feels like even by not abusing the elixer it still ends up TOO strong.
Is a regular dex monk w/ or w/o thief fall below or above say, a wildheart barb or battlemaster?
I'm curious to see if this would be viable as a solo type monk, or if it'd be very to have at least one companion with you to help deal/soak up the damage
I have a question, would it be better for most builds to just dump strength all together and put everything into the other stats and just use the str elixir all the way? Because sometime I see some builds do 16str and 16 dex and 12-14 for their other main stats, while some just says to dump str and go elixir. So I'm extremely confused. In my current playthrough, I'm just dumping str all together and just going dex and whatever other stats I needed for that particular class.
I maxed out str, dex and wis on my monk, as I was thinking that the tavern brawler bonus was on top of my dex bonus for martial arts; will have to take another look at that. It would have been nice to see your actual damage numbers instead of the zeros from the training dummy.
Hmmm and if we decide to keep going Monk, what sort of changes would you recommend?
What I like to do is to dump strength to 8 and just play dex monk until level 4. At level 4 I pick tavern brawler and go to the githyanki creche, grab gloves of dex. Then I go to withers, respec. Dump all my dex to 8 and put strength to 18 (because you get 18 with tavern brawler) and yeah... That's pretty much it lol. Later on you can switch gloves for the hill giant gloves which will put your strength to 21? If I remember correctly and respec again dump strength to 8 because gloves put everything into Dex and yeah you have good ac good damage and it's cool. Also it's worth to grab the necklace that gives you free misty step. Very good on monk. With all the additional movement speed monks get from leveling up I can see why the class don't learn misty step. That would honestly be low key too op. I mean monk already is pretty damn strong so yeah.
The Gloves of Soul Catching (from saving hope in house of hope Act3) in my opinion are the best gloves for this builds as it adds a 1d10 force damage to unarmed attacks and also gives +2 constitution.
Absolutely busted!
Very good, thanks. I only have one note and that would be, "2 points into INT?"
Id be interested to see your take on a good 4 elements monk build
Although I believe it's not nearly as good as open-hand monk build, a fresh of new air is always welcomed
what would you pick for the auntie ethel upgrade?
Love your videos, but I do have a question. When you demonstrate the build at the end, can you start demonstrating it against an actual enemy? I think it would be much more enjoyable for the audience.
Another option (that costs a feat) is to do 9/3 to get the multitarget attack (1 ki cost) :D
Haven't done Honor mode yet but I just completed Tactician as monk, mostly solo. Here's how I built it.
If you are building as main character, then use 8-16-15-8-17-8. Use Aunty hair to round up WIS to 18. At level 4, take Tavern Brawler to round up Con to 16. You don't need any more feats for majority of the game. Always use Hill/Cloud Giant potion.
Go Monk 6 + Rogue 3 at first. That is the best way to maximize your power early. Then take 2 Warrior for Action Surge. Last level, you can take Rogue 4 to make Wisdom 20 and use Mirror to take it to 22. You don't need level 7 Monk for resistance. You high Wisdom is enough for saving throws.
There's a bow and a shield that adds to your initiative, so you don't need alert. If your race doesn't have shield proficiency from start then you can use it once you take a Warrior level. Also use the 2 medium armors that add your full Dex modifier to AC.
If you want to go unarmored then use the necklace that makes Con 23. Along with high Wisdom, your AC will be very high. Respec to dump the con points elsewhere.
You can also use the last level for Warrior 3 as Champion, if you want to crit a lot; which I did. There are many crit-build items to use. Along with Ilithid powers, I was crit-ing nonstop.
Finally, use a party member to always cast haste or use speed potions. You'll wipe out every encounter in less than 3 turns. Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo is a Must.
Just a heads up. Step of the wind is so good in bg3. Jumping costs 3M. If you bonus action dash as monk you can traverse any battle map. Like there’s no stopping you.
does the prone chance from flurry of blow scale of wisdom?
I'm a much bigger fan myself of taking barbarian for the 2 to AC from their unarmoured defense. And if you end up equipping the amulet which sets it to 23 which is reasonably likely, that's a whole lot of AC. Huge benefit even if just 2AC vs maxing str on what's already a very high dmg build. This genre favors mitigating your weaknesses over piling onto your strengths since a punished weakness can rapidly lead to a party wipe. That 2AC will prevent a lot of unfavorable risks vs a rather low added % dmg.
Edit: Forgot the legendary monk gloves add 2 con, so that's 3AC if you're not using the 23CON amulet.
You can also get the permanent strenght potion by havin astarion drink blood from the drow in Moonrise Towers
Would the Luminous Gloves be a good equip once you hit monk lvl 6? If you do radiant damage on every hit, you can stack up penalties to hit really fast on enemies. Seems like that would be almost as beneficial as AC boosting items
Yeah - luminous gloves are incredibly powerful against bosses, though the penalties are a little redundant sometimes with just spamming stunning strike on them
im using my tav as a monk - is it worth it sacrificing all my charisma? it can be quite hindering conversation wise
Whats a hood background for a tav monk?
is it better to just level monk to 11 normally then respec to rogue once you hit 11 for the extra bonus action?
Since these are honor mode builds it would be really cool if you go a bit more into detail about how to effectively play these characters at lower levels. Because prior to level 4/5, a LOT of these builds have to play very differently.
That's funny it's not a very popular class, it was the first class I chose to play. Something about beating bad guys senseless with your bare hands is very satisfying.
Made a giphyanki are there any gif specific gear that's rly good for this build
Do you have a no rest gameplay
Also: the game is utterly FLOODED with prime monk gear. Additionally, I love how you have an automatically higher armor class than most have without armor given the wisdom modifier.
btw do you think that giving up on an extra bit of damage on monk to get the gloves of dex is worth it or no?
Yeah, the dex gloves are great - you don't even lose that much damage because you get to put more points into wis, so you gain back some of what you lose from not having other gloves.
I already knew this game changed SO MUCH from 5e, but I had no idea until I watched this video how many crazy changes they made! Way of the Open Hand in 5e does NOT get that extra damage per attack. That simply doesn't exist. As you noted, Tavern Brawler isn't NEARLY as strong in 5e as it is in BG3...that ALONE is insane! But then Thief just getting a PURE extra Bonus Action at 3?! In 5e it only adds a couple extra options for the ONE bonus action you get.
Maybe I should have done a better job at looking at all of the BG3 changes vs 5e before I started making characters...
Thank you for this video!
Edit: Oh, and Stillness of Mind takes an ACTION in 5e, instead of apparently just being INSTANT (aka...a "Free Action") in BG3!?
Just feel the better build is an armoured monk and you become the best warrior in the game. Only takes 1 level in fighter or cleric (depending on preference) but having medium armour (heavy armour when available) and a shield as a monk early on is so much more efficient. Choosing a monk for flurry of blows and then using the bonus action to then move away from an enemy nullifies the fact the monk is so potent. Only puts you 1 level behind but is so much more solid
armoured monk is an oxymoron by itself. Better to take another close combat class with armor then.
@@sergeyt2947 I'd agree if playing for role play, but as far as 'best monk build' my preference is to using armour and shield
thats a cool looking armor
Thanks! It's the bonespike garb with I think the black and azure dye applied.
Has anyone else used the club of hill giant strength on monks? You get 19 strength and still use your flurry of blows for 34-62 damage. .
What items go best with this?
any setup for when you can't get ethel's hair because of multiplayer but you are allowed to buy elixirs?
How do you get your AC up? Im at 11z
Would it be worth it to combine high strength and the Tavern Brawler feat with the Gloves of Dexterity so you get the best of both worlds?
Yup! In fact, I highly recommend that as it eases the stat requirements considerably.
Is there build without TB? For more immersive
I definitely go with the strength elixirs My level 12 monk did 54 to 92 damage per flurry of blows so 40 more damage than this build I'll stay on the strength elixirs particularly on the honor run that I'm doing now.
Monk is so OP. You can disable three enemies per turn and its nearly always works. Very few enemies are immune to both stun and topple. You can also deal 100+ damage per turn without haste/potion of speed. AND you can boost your jump by a ridiculous amount to use it to cover incredible distances.
The monk is broken 🤣Just started a playthrough and at lvl 4 I'm breezing through everything. It was said the monk was one of the least played classes which is a shame. People are sleeping on an extremely fun and powerful class.
@@chaost4544 Wait until you get to the Iron Throne. You can loot the entire place in two turns haha
College of swords bards are pretty broken because of this as well can easily take out 3 or 4 enemies per turn by dual wielding hand crossbows
Monks are ridiculously OPed. By sheer coincidence, I chose Monk for my Honour-run and I couldn't believe just how powerful my Tav became after a while. It wasn't even funny, since a lot of the mid/late game bosses died so quickly that I never got to see their legendary actions. IIRC, I ended up with 18 DEX, 16 CON, 20 WIS and 10 or 12 in CHA (because face of the party). INT is a dump stat as is STR, because as you rightly said, you can spend the entire game hopped up on Hill/Cloud Giant Elixirs. Oh, and this was an Open Hand Monk - not sure how OP the other two sub-classes are.
Some crucial decisions/gear to obtain:
- DEX and WIS should be high, CON should be medium to high (I started out at 13 CON, then increased it to 14 via Tavern Brawler). STR is a dump stat.
- Auntie's Boon into WIS
- Early/Mid game: Buy Graceful Cloth for its +2 DEX and Cat's Grace - makes your Monk even deadlier and turns him into a valid Rogue-replacement.
- First feat: Tavern Brawler - cornerstone of this build, IMO. +1 into CON
- second Feat: Ability Improvement into DEX and/or WIS (I think I went +1 each).
- Don't use Gloves of DEX: You can easily get DEX to 18 "naturally" at this point (or via Graceful Cloth) and using the gloves will block one of your most important gear-slots to increase damage.
- Instead, I was using the Flawed Helldusk Gloves all the way until I rescued Hope and got her gloves. Those things will enhance both your armed *and* unarmed attacks (plus bleeding bonus for unarmed). IMO they're better than all the Monk-geared gloves you find in the early/mid game. Before those, I was using the Sparkle Hands to obtain Lightning Charges from unarmed hits or the fire-based early-game monk gloves (forgot their name, sorry).
Head-wear: Mid game I was using the Diadem of Arcane Synergy which will improve your armed damage - (very) late game I switched to that Soul-Mask you can steal at Devil's Fee, mostly for its +2 to initiative.
- Make sure to grab the Monk amulet from Grymforge - it's a bit of a no-brainer if you're a Monk. Once you deliver the cursed Monk to his destination, do *not* accept the curse but fight him. Bit of a shitty move story-wise, but if you defeat him, the amulet will not only stay functional but get an upgrade. If you accept the curse, it'll turn into a piece of jewellery.
- Late Act II/Early Act III: Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo - which make WIS even more important to your damage output.
- Act III "armor": Danthalon's Monk-robe is a bit "meh" and situational. I would suggest to push on to Sorcerous Sundries and get their Monk robe instead (the one with the Iron Man looking chest-piece).
- Leveling up: Run Monk-levels only until you get to level 9. Then visit Withers and grab 6 levels of Monk and 3 levels of Rogue and pick "Thief" as your Rogue sub-class. Getting another Bonus Action does wonders to your damage output.
I kept STR as a dump stat for the entire run - even after I had obtained the Drow's +2 STR elixir (gave that to Karlach). Even with the elixir *and* Mirror of Loss into STR, I didn't find a build that would've worked better than the "STR 8 + daily STR elixir"-one I was using. I used that BG3 character build calculator you can find on the web to play around with the numbers and no other builds worked as well as the elixir-based one. At level 12 and with Hope's gloves, my Flurry of Blows had a max damage of 96 - and you can throw two of those per turn.
As long as your armed damage is about as high as your unarmed one, I'd recommend running a weapon. I was using Cacophony, which is a great Monk weapon IMO. I didn't have Longsword-proficiency, or I would've probably also tried Phalar Aluve which seems like it could fit a Monk very well. Advantages of going armed: You can't apply oils/poisons to your fists and you can't buff them with the Dragonbreath Glaive's spell, either. Other damage enhancing mechanics also will only improve your armed damage, not unarmed. And since you can *still* use your unarmed attacks while armed, there's no real downside here, at least early to mid game. At around level 10 or 11, unarmed minimum damage will seriously out-pace your armed minimum damage, at which point it's probably a good idea to go fully unarmed.
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This video is like a full laser's theory class, without ever doing one demonstration of burning a hole through a wall with a laser..
couldnt you also equip the club of hill giant strength in your offhand and gain the benefit of 18 strength?
Not sure if its already been done, but could i request a dex based monk build too?
While this has finally gotten me to put La'zel in my party and first impressions are amazing, I'd love for her to also be my lockpicker.
You could do a Strength Monk but equip Gloves of Dexterity (bought from Githyanki in the Creche) so Lae'zel gets 18 Dex for lockpicking. Since Lae'zel is a Githyanki, you can use the Githyanki race action Astral Knowledge in Dexterity to get proficiency bonus in Sleight of Hand. When you multiclass into Rogue, you can also take Proficiency/Expertise in Sleight of Hand but Astral Knowledge basically covers it already.
Otherwise, you can go 12 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 16 Wis, 8 Int and follow the guide as usual except for feats, you take +2 Dex, +2 Wis, +2 Dex, etc as you see fit.
RE: Elixirs
I recommend anyone beat the game first before you do an elixir run. It's very possible to run out of elixirs and be stuck with a non viable build, especially in Act 2 if you're unlucky with vendor RNG.
love this build because it doesn't rely on elixirs
Thank you so much for doing this build without the elixirs. It's just a way to cheese the game and personally find it annoying having to continually buy these. It's not immersion breaking but it's close. It feels like MLB steroid era 2.0
Can I do warrior instead of rogue?
Just wondering if 9 Monk/3 Fighter wouldn't be as good or better than 9 Monk/3 Rogue-Thief?
Fighter gives Action Surge at level 2, allowing an extra Action and Bonus Action, and reduces the DC for Critical Hits by 1 at level 3, by choosing the Champion subclass.
P.S., great build video. I think I'll use it up to 9th level and try my theory.
Can someone tell me what the armor that Lae'zel has on in the video? It's awesome looking.
Looks like the bonespike armour
Always feels tragic that monk needs to spend a Ki point and bonus action to do what rogues do with just a bonus action
id recommend if your in honour mode to either respec into this when you become lvl 4 or go high dex from the start and using elixirs
Man I just got to level 5 and wow... Spectator, Owlbear died in one round, Spider Matriarch died in 2, minotaurs in 2 rounds.. Got 40 hill giant potions, 19 AC, it's just nuts.
So no one needs to explain to me how awesome the monks in BG3 are. but where does this armor come from?
I always start my monk with one level of rogue for the skills.
Ki Points are per Short rest, so level x3 per long rest :)
Am I dumb for leaving con and int at 8? Definitely, but thanks to gloves that add 1d4 thunder to unarmed, Cat's Grace armor, TB feat, and Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo, I got 18 in str, wis, and dex. All of it adds up to 19-32 damage with normal attacks, 38-64 from flurry of blows. Idrk if it's optimal in any way but I just find it funny and this is my first playthrough still.
Con at 8 is definitely brave! But hey if you're not getting hit you don't need hit points :D
a very interessting build, but for early game in honor mode it is very bad to have such a low dex. I would recommend to use the elixr till you get to get the alert feat. I really like watching all the builds for honor mode, but how about you guys make some early builds for honor mode. till lvl 5 it is really hard to survive in honor mode. mostly for melee chars.
and also using a charisma char for honormode, makes it much much easier.
I tested some combos, till now rouge/bard is really working awesome. which never worked for me is the paladin, dont know why? ;-)
idea: Drow monk that abuses darkness spell
Isn't Karlach the best pick due to soul coins giving 2d4 fire to unarmed?
maybe if i didn’t decapitate her in my honour mode playthrough
According to the wiki, that's only if she's raging or below 25% health, so you'd basically have to multiclass with Barbarian.
Soul coins give 1d4, per attack.
Astarion is likely better for the Ascended Damage and being in melee to drink blood.
@@bobnewkirk7003 ascension is reliant on a certain playstyle and is super late game, soul coins can be done in act1 which is arguably the hardest time especially during honor mode
bro!! Try Layzel as a monk 6/fighter 2/thief 4 and equip silver sword of the astral planes..
what you get is a greatsword gyth monk with advantage on wis, char and int saving throws with the option of using palms to prone followed up by greater weapon master attacks with the great sword. Dex will be so high advantage on saves wont be needed, con saves will be decent, we will be using the pots of giant strength and even though char and int are low having advantage on these saving throws makes us much less susceptible to incident
damage is very high: I was hitting for an average of 40 damage per greatsword attack and the silver sword has the weapon ability that allows you to stun an opponent every short rest
we can already do this with our fists but its nice incase we run out of ki
So for some reason when I did this I got another feat at level 6…
Couldve started barv then m onk til lvl 5 then respec back to your build, once u you have con neck respec back to 1 barb, 6 open hand, 3 thief, 2 monk