I don’t know if it was patched but if not then her unarmed attacks actually get 2d4 “As of Patch 2, Karlach deals two extra instances of 1d4Damage TypesFire damage (for a total of 2d4) when making an Unarmed Strike with the Infernal Fury buff active. She also deals this extra damage regardless of her class, raging status, or current hit points.”
Just a suggestion. I think when you do a build you should do it for each act. I think you cover it a bit here, which is great. But, I think you want to talk about gear to pick up in each act. What works for the build at level 4 may not be the thing to focus on at level 8. And on and on. (to be clear, I don't mean making three separate videos for each build. I just mean ... like taking stock with where the build it at roughly halfway through each act. You want these levels, you have these spells/attacks, you want this gear, focus on these coatings/elixirs ....)
The really cool thing I like about Monks with multiclass (especially into Fighter or Barbarian) is that you can turn a lot of weapons into Dex based ones. As you said, this build can go into unarmed or weapons, and with Fighter added to it, you can use Quarterstaffs, Spears, etc. as Dex weapons and can also benefit from GWM or whatever fighting style you take from Fighter.
@@ThundaFuzz in the third act there is a finesse polearm (only one in the game). Once it’s a monk weapon it doesn’t matter. But, it works for Paladin, fighter, ranger for great weapon master. Respec to drop strength and you have the initiative to go earlier plus potential AC, plus highly effective with ranged weapons while closing distance. 8 battlemaster fighter and 4 warlock with pact of the blade would let you use charisma to attack. Plus all your spells and combat maneuvers recharge on short rest. So, you can get a ton per day with help from a bard in the party.
I had this build as well in my Wandering Drow build. Theres honestly two things that I recomend people change because its more effective. If you're going full unnarmed, the you're honestly better off getting Monk to 9, for both the feat, and the extra dice on your melee attacks, because other than the Action Surge, you lose most of what makes Fighter effective when mainly playing as a Monk. Still want 3 for Thief. However if you're gonna use a weapon, then I recomend "Corellon's Grace" Quarterstaff. It gives a buff to your unnarmed strikes, You can take "Great Weapon Fighting" at Fighter lvl 2 for more consistent damage and it allows you use the full range of Battlemaster skills (I think there was one that still didnt work, but I dont remember which) in which case you can better follow the build as he showed it.
I love halfing monks. You make up for the move speed loss with monk passive and never rolling a 1 is huge. Not to mention sneak advantage with naturally high dex is nice.
Yep. It's a solid option. Especially if you're boosting it with things like elixir of bloodlust. Personally, I'd go halfling. As a main character rerolling 1 is huge. Every initaitive roll. Every saving throw. Every attack roll (and this character attacks a ton). But, it's ALSO every stealth check, lock pick attempt, persuasion, history check .... Right? Every single dialog option, and every passive skill check as you walk past a statue or have a. chance to see a hidden thing. And, with lightfoot halfling you get advantage on all your stealth rolls. The half-orc extra die on critical hits is dope! For sure! But, the reroll 1 in combat is almost just as effective (turning misses into hits AND critical hits is a big deal). It's 0.25% crit chance per critical range. So, if you only crit on 20 instead of 5% crit you have 5.25. If you have some gear (or champion fighter) you crit on 19 or 20 and now you have a 10.5% crit chance (instead of 10%). If you stack more and more it just keeps going. Because you have SO many attacks per turn you'll have a ton of crits coming in. Half-orc is a tiny bit stronger in combat, but halfling is WAY stronger out of combat. At level 5 you can have 5 attacks per turn without using resources for flurry of blows or haste. Just extra attack and a bloodlust elixir. By level 8 you'll be at 6 attacks per round from the levels in rogue to pick up thief and extra bonus action (plus bloodlust elixir). And, of course you can burn ki points and a third level spell slot to bump that up to 8 attacks per round for a single fight, and even use ki points to increase that to 10 attacks per round (for four rounds per short rest). The character doesn't really need to use ki points to function. They just melt things even without the stun or flurry of blows. So, you don't really need to rest very often. And, if you don't rest those daily elixirs last AGES. You don't really need to long rest more than about once per level.
Every character race is fun! But, the right answer is lightfoot halfling. Basically every D20 roll in the game you get to reroll on a critical failure. That's every attack, every saving throw, every initiative roll, every dialog skill check, every passive skill check as you walk around the world (to spot a hidden thing or recall lore), it's also on all your active skills as monks make for solid lock pickers with the urchin background and you'll reroll 1 on your disarm trap and pick lock attemps. Plus ... 24/7 advantage on stealth from lightfoot. The reroll on 1 for attacks will turn your misses into hits and some of those misses into critical hits. Because monks have SO many attacks per turn the monk class gets more mileage out of this. And, because monk isn't interested in heavy weapons that negative doesn't even matter. At level 8 you'll have anywhere from 4 to 10 attacks per round (attack and extra attack on an attack action, two bonus attacks which can each be a two hit flurry of blows, bloodlust elixir for another attack action for two more attacks, and potentially haste for another attack action and two more attacks). Hellish rebuke and darkness once a day ... or be more accurate and crit more often with a build that pretty much doesn't need to rest, so you may not get those recharge on long rest abilities often (you can do the game in like 5 long rests). Halfling ... it's the gift that keeps on giving!
Love the builds! Upfronting the knowledge and reminding folks to play how they want always gets a like and a sub. Also I’m partial to barbarians would love to see some multiclass builds
You can actually use a weapon in your off-hand. Best is cold snap dagger gives ac and chill on counter attacks and combos with the ice damage gloves until you get the force gloves. Or any of the crit reducing daggers. You can use the staff that buffs unarmed attacks but you and an ally need the dual wielder feat to transfer it to the off hand.
Spartacus: Monks are fun in D&D. Me: Shudders in that time I made gestalt Fighter/Monk in 3.5 D&D and severely overclocked my character. Sure, we'll go with that Sparty. XD Also, I just so happen to have a monk at level 4, so this was oddly timely. Right now, for me it would have be the multiclass Arcane Archer. I've been curious about that one.
THANK YOU for not doing yet another Tavern Brawler Monk build... I find farming STR potions to be extremely immersion breaking (re-spec in front of the vendor, and buy 3 each level!) and frankly -- boring. Sure it's powerful, but it just seems silly to me personally.
tavern brawler is just broken and unfun. Yes it would be stronger. It's over powered. Over powered is actually a bad thing. +5 to hit and +5 to damage is just about impossible to compete with.
Always good information and fun stuff to try. I still can't win the final battle on easy mode but have enjoy playing that battle over and over. Great content.
final fight is tough. Focus on getting to the portal and playing defense from there. The wizard ability that makes everyone invincible in a zone for like 3 turns is really useful for when you are channeling on the portal.
I like the idea of playing as monk pacifist only fighting in self defense or to defend those that can’t defend themselves. Just need to decide on a race. Thinking drow since everyone thinks they are evil would be nice to go against the grain. Background will be durge resisting the evil. I took your advice on having different play throughs at the same time and I have progressed further than I ever did with this game really enjoying it
for my monk I've been using the ice staff you have to find the 3 parts of it in the under dark just extra damage and a decent cantrip to throw out if you feel the need.
It's great in act 1 and it works fine for parts of act 2. It gets outpaced in act 3. Certainly by the time you find bloodthirst and can get vulnerable on piercing damage. That cantrip is rarely a good call for your monk. Even with vulnerable on cold and the extra +1 damage and a wisdom of 20 (which would be odd). If you run a storm build and have people wet all the time then having nearly 100% uptime on cold vulnerability for a party of characters doing cold damage is something. That's for sure!
Aren’t battle master maneuvers redundant in this build? Your cloak already applies disadvantage and giving up an action and bonus action that would absolutely remove an enemy from turn order to give someone else 1 weapon attack is -2 attacks overall.
Mostly. People like it for the extra D8 damage ... a couple times per short rest. I don't think 12 extra separate D8 attacks per long rest is a ton. But, it's definitely more than zero! I usually lean towards champion. 5% crit chance is a lot. Especially on a character that attacks so often. With a single piece of crit gear and champion now you crit at 15%. With halfling it's 15.75%. You'll want a bloodlust elixir each day. But, the build doesn't really use resources. So, you don't need to rest. So, each day can last a whole level. Sometimes only a day or two per act. That's a LOT of attacks (2 attacks per attack action, 2 bonus actions per turn, and very often another 2 attacks per attack action from bloodlust ... unless honor mode then one additional attack). Those 5% extra crits double ALL the dice from the attack. Manifestation of mind/body/soul for a D4, often another D4 or D6 from a weapon, and another D6 or D10 from your gloves (depending on how far into the game you are). I entered some data into copilot and let that do the math. Assuming missing 30% of the time and crit 10.5% of the time with 12 extra damage attacks per day (doing 1D10+1D4 damage per regular hit, and +1D8 damage on a special hit). The battlemaster does 843 damage in 100 attacks. The champion build with 15.75% crit does 906. If you increase the number of attacks per day the extra crit percentage at 200 attacks per day (1687 vs 1813). 200 attacks per day represents represents roughly 8 fights per day assuming 4 rounds per fight and 6 attacks per round (action x 2 , bloodlust is action x 2, two bonus attacks). I don't know about you ... but I do WAY more than 10 encounters per long rest. (both builds are a halfling with 1 piece of gear to give crit chance. both builds are 1D10+1D4 as standard damage ... if you add in more dice to account for more magic modifiers it would just make the champion better and better).
did you think of adding a barbarian level to get more armor with the constitution passive and rage for extra dmg? I dont know if that could work though.
My recommendation for a weapon monk would be either high elf or githyanki for the long sword proficiency just to expand the list of monk weapons available when it comes to gear I suggest the blade of oppressed souls with mental inhibition ring and brain drain gloves to stack mental fatigue which would work best with a controller build
That seems like an odd build. So you're going with a strength based monk. But, not tavern brawler so you're using swords that aren't finesse? Or are you 3 levels of eldritch knight and throwing those greatswords so they return with weapon bond? There are two finesse longswords in act 1 and a finesse glaive in act 3. To use these swords you're ... what, abusing the hill giant elixir for strength so you can still have initiative and constitution and some kind of wisdom? Using the psychic damage from manifestation of mind to trigger modifiers for your casters is a neat trick though! Costing you your glove slot is expensive. There are so many amazing items fighting for that slot. What are the CC focused casters you're feeding with this set up? You could go for something like arcane synergy from a helmet or ring to add your wisdom modifier to all of your weapon attacks. And, use bloodlust for an extra two attacks almost every single round. That gives you roughly 6 attacks per round without having to burn resources (spell slots or ki points). I lean towards champion fighter for the extra crit chance and sustained damage without abusing a mechanic like tavern brawler.
@@zero11010 I was thinking sword of oppressed soul ring of mental inhibition and brain drain gloves. I chose those races for long sword proficiency so you can use dex instead since it will be considered a monk weapon. I’d say have a controller in the party to maybe hold person blind or confuse enemies since mental fatigue drops all mental saves
@@zero11010 also I would agree on using the ring of arcane synergy along with the diadem. Same build could also work with reserberation or radiating orb
@@keithwin3449 oh! Totally forgot that it would become a monk weapon like that. My bad! 👍 I don’t think reverberation builds are as strong as people make them out to be. It’s what? 1D4 thunder damage after 3 applications? Applying spell modifier to damage is 3-5 damage per hit. That should be the goal. Caustic ring is 2 per hit. That’s about equal to 1D4 damage. There’s a ring that applies 1D4 psychic if you’re concentrating on a spell. This is convoluted, but between scrolls and items that will do a thing like …. Hunters mark or protection from evil … you can get concentration up that will (potentially) last a day and not require spell slots. In my experience it tends to not last much more than a fight. But, it’s available in the first act. So, plenty of time to experiment while there are few good ring options. The real hero is elixir of bloodlust. You using a camp wizard for crafting potions? Transmutation school gets a chance to craft a duplicate potion when you craft. You can have a 100% chance by level 9. And, you can have something like a 70-80% chance by level 5. This lets you craft double with your resources. It’s worth an extra 3 bloodlust by level 6 (assuming you don’t do long rest shop farming). Plus all the other great elixirs you can spit out.
I only kinda like getting to lvl 3/Fighter w/this build. Getting to lvl 7 Monk, 4 Thief and 2 Fighter almost makes more sense since you get 1 more Ki point, Evasions and Still Mind. The Battlemaster feats are basically limited tot the ones here (Commanders Strike, Riposte and one of Evasive Footwork or or Rally) if you swap to a weapon (staff or sword) BM makes a lot more sense. Since this is all fists it feels limiting, IMO. Regardless this is the direction I’m going with my Psylocke build that uses the Resonant Stone, Shadow Blade. Waiting to see if the Hierling bug gets patched out tho 9 monk, 3 Thief. Can go STR w/TBer but prefer Dex w/Graceful Cloth and some of items you listed which are the best.
you know, i dont get why monks and barbarians couldnt make use of light armor for their unarmored defence. when you look at things like the monk armors, are not defined as light armors, but with an AC of 10, that's literaly what they are.
AC 10 is the base. AC 10 is the same as saying AC 0. This is based around a D20 roll. So, with no modifiers AC 10 gets hit about half the time. That's the foundation. The only way to get worse is by having negative AC modifiers from a very bad dexterity. That's why things with "no armor" still give an "armor class" of 10, which is clearly more than zero armor class.
Love the video but I'm very new to the game and I'm wondering from your point of view what would be the best way to allocate skill pints fo a str tavern brawler monk and to get the most out of monks level ups with there cool skills and not depend on the str potions
I'd just keep the stats as is and use elixirs of hill/cloud giant strength! You can buy them at Auntie Ethel! All vendors stock replenishes every long rest and every time someone levels
Just a thought, but would using the Duelist's Prerogative rapier work with this to give you the 2 reactions needed for the counter attacks and be able to utilize the battle master maneuvers as well. Also, switching the Soul Catching Gloves to the Helldusk Gloves for extra damage on both weapon and unarmed attacks.
Yep. Punch the data into copilot and let AI figure out the math. It'll tell you which is better. It's tricky. If you're not being attacked this build is a net loss for damage.
my question is, why does this build has so much wisdom? wouldnt it be better to focus on dex instead? i understand that you get to use wis mod with the boots, but wouldnt having more dex earlier on be better? since that boots are act 3. and you would only end up with 1 less bonus damage from the boots that would be in the dex part of the damage anyway?
Since you only get one feat, more Dex doesn't give us as much damage as more wisdom because we can get that higher through items and in game decisions! There's another they'll give us +2. You can get your Dex to 20 using the graceful cloth if you want!
And rest dependent. Barbarians don't get much of anything without rage. If you aren't raging they're practically dead levels. With a monk/rogue build like this you don't really need to burn resources. This means you don't really need to rest. You melt through everything. You don't need to heal much. You don't need to spend ki points often (maybe one or two per fight) you don't need to spend spell slots on other characters. You can do roughly one long rest per level even on tactician. Or, you can do like ... 3 fights a day and rage in each fight and then take a long rest.
I'm going to take a wild guess before watching this and say that if there's any multiclassing it's either rogue thief/assassin, fighter battlemaster or both.^^
You really should have gone all out on the maneuvers by just using any monk weapon. As it stands this looks like a weaker standard monk. Almost everything you showed off was monk stuff except for an objectively wasteful ability in commander's strike (also, "I'm just so far away"? YOU'RE A MONK, YOU CAN GO TO THE MOON AND BACK IN A TURN), and a defensive ability that you already have as a monk. Rogue 3 for the extra BA and the skill-monkeying is great for sure, but as you clearly identified, fighter levels are an absolute waste here. You have no use for weapons and armor proficiencies, no use for fighting styles, and basically no use for battle maneuvers (riposte is baked-in with the robes, Evade with Monk, and Commander's strike is plain bad for its cost). The benefits you get from fighter 3 are: Action Surge (great for sure), Second Wind (when was the last time you used this past lvl 5 unironically?) and no-BA-no-Ki Patient Defense. Worth losing Evasion, near-immunity to fear/charm, a feat and extra mobility? You can mostly fix that by just using a weapon. Any weapon really. I'm partial to Devotee but you can go for the flavor with Staff of the Ram for example.
Man Larian really missed an opportunity to make attributes below 10 matter. Im not personally a fan of min maxing stats and dumping INT down to 8 on fighters or barbs for example. An complete imbecile and idiot with below average INT, would make for a terrible fighter, and a barely usable barbarian. Which is why im also confused with a lot of the companions stats. A vampire spawn with 8 STR, a beautiful half elf with 8 CHA ect.
It bothers me that everyone loves this game and I think it’s dreadfully boring. I haven’t played turn based rpgs since final fantasy 7 on ps1. Loved that game but now that I’ve played modern open world rpgs it just feels boring to me. I only played it on console maybe it’s better for PC. It’s just slow and tedious
![[Act 3] Solo Warlock - Disrespecting Raphael - Honour Mode](/img/n.gif)
For origin characters Karlach makes a great monk! Feed her soul coins and all your punches do an additional 1d4 fire damage.
I don’t know if it was patched but if not then her unarmed attacks actually get 2d4
“As of Patch 2, Karlach deals two extra instances of 1d4Damage TypesFire damage (for a total of 2d4) when making an Unarmed Strike with the Infernal Fury buff active. She also deals this extra damage regardless of her class, raging status, or current hit points.”
Also works with an ascended astarion but that happens so far down the road
12:29 "feel free to take advantage of these advantages"
mmm yes the floor is made of floor xD
Just a suggestion. I think when you do a build you should do it for each act. I think you cover it a bit here, which is great. But, I think you want to talk about gear to pick up in each act. What works for the build at level 4 may not be the thing to focus on at level 8. And on and on.
(to be clear, I don't mean making three separate videos for each build. I just mean ... like taking stock with where the build it at roughly halfway through each act. You want these levels, you have these spells/attacks, you want this gear, focus on these coatings/elixirs ....)
Dude, keep doing what you're doing. Your videos are Always top tier. Thank you.
The really cool thing I like about Monks with multiclass (especially into Fighter or Barbarian) is that you can turn a lot of weapons into Dex based ones. As you said, this build can go into unarmed or weapons, and with Fighter added to it, you can use Quarterstaffs, Spears, etc. as Dex weapons and can also benefit from GWM or whatever fighting style you take from Fighter.
@@ThundaFuzz in the third act there is a finesse polearm (only one in the game).
Once it’s a monk weapon it doesn’t matter. But, it works for Paladin, fighter, ranger for great weapon master.
Respec to drop strength and you have the initiative to go earlier plus potential AC, plus highly effective with ranged weapons while closing distance.
8 battlemaster fighter and 4 warlock with pact of the blade would let you use charisma to attack. Plus all your spells and combat maneuvers recharge on short rest. So, you can get a ton per day with help from a bard in the party.
I had this build as well in my Wandering Drow build. Theres honestly two things that I recomend people change because its more effective.
If you're going full unnarmed, the you're honestly better off getting Monk to 9, for both the feat, and the extra dice on your melee attacks, because other than the Action Surge, you lose most of what makes Fighter effective when mainly playing as a Monk. Still want 3 for Thief.
However if you're gonna use a weapon, then I recomend "Corellon's Grace" Quarterstaff. It gives a buff to your unnarmed strikes, You can take "Great Weapon Fighting" at Fighter lvl 2 for more consistent damage and it allows you use the full range of Battlemaster skills (I think there was one that still didnt work, but I dont remember which) in which case you can better follow the build as he showed it.
I love halfing monks. You make up for the move speed loss with monk passive and never rolling a 1 is huge.
Not to mention sneak advantage with naturally high dex is nice.
Just on the orc crit passive. because you have worked into fighter it means all martial weapons outside of 2h are considered Monk weapons.
Yep. It's a solid option. Especially if you're boosting it with things like elixir of bloodlust.
Personally, I'd go halfling. As a main character rerolling 1 is huge. Every initaitive roll. Every saving throw. Every attack roll (and this character attacks a ton). But, it's ALSO every stealth check, lock pick attempt, persuasion, history check .... Right? Every single dialog option, and every passive skill check as you walk past a statue or have a. chance to see a hidden thing.
And, with lightfoot halfling you get advantage on all your stealth rolls.
The half-orc extra die on critical hits is dope! For sure! But, the reroll 1 in combat is almost just as effective (turning misses into hits AND critical hits is a big deal). It's 0.25% crit chance per critical range. So, if you only crit on 20 instead of 5% crit you have 5.25. If you have some gear (or champion fighter) you crit on 19 or 20 and now you have a 10.5% crit chance (instead of 10%). If you stack more and more it just keeps going. Because you have SO many attacks per turn you'll have a ton of crits coming in. Half-orc is a tiny bit stronger in combat, but halfling is WAY stronger out of combat.
At level 5 you can have 5 attacks per turn without using resources for flurry of blows or haste. Just extra attack and a bloodlust elixir.
By level 8 you'll be at 6 attacks per round from the levels in rogue to pick up thief and extra bonus action (plus bloodlust elixir). And, of course you can burn ki points and a third level spell slot to bump that up to 8 attacks per round for a single fight, and even use ki points to increase that to 10 attacks per round (for four rounds per short rest).
The character doesn't really need to use ki points to function. They just melt things even without the stun or flurry of blows. So, you don't really need to rest very often. And, if you don't rest those daily elixirs last AGES. You don't really need to long rest more than about once per level.
Every character race is fun! But, the right answer is lightfoot halfling. Basically every D20 roll in the game you get to reroll on a critical failure. That's every attack, every saving throw, every initiative roll, every dialog skill check, every passive skill check as you walk around the world (to spot a hidden thing or recall lore), it's also on all your active skills as monks make for solid lock pickers with the urchin background and you'll reroll 1 on your disarm trap and pick lock attemps. Plus ... 24/7 advantage on stealth from lightfoot.
The reroll on 1 for attacks will turn your misses into hits and some of those misses into critical hits. Because monks have SO many attacks per turn the monk class gets more mileage out of this. And, because monk isn't interested in heavy weapons that negative doesn't even matter. At level 8 you'll have anywhere from 4 to 10 attacks per round (attack and extra attack on an attack action, two bonus attacks which can each be a two hit flurry of blows, bloodlust elixir for another attack action for two more attacks, and potentially haste for another attack action and two more attacks).
Hellish rebuke and darkness once a day ... or be more accurate and crit more often with a build that pretty much doesn't need to rest, so you may not get those recharge on long rest abilities often (you can do the game in like 5 long rests).
Halfling ... it's the gift that keeps on giving!
You have the best build guides on yt thank you for this build💪
Appreciate that!! Glad you enjoy em! :)
Love the builds! Upfronting the knowledge and reminding folks to play how they want always gets a like and a sub. Also I’m partial to barbarians would love to see some multiclass builds
You can actually use a weapon in your off-hand. Best is cold snap dagger gives ac and chill on counter attacks and combos with the ice damage gloves until you get the force gloves. Or any of the crit reducing daggers. You can use the staff that buffs unarmed attacks but you and an ally need the dual wielder feat to transfer it to the off hand.
Spartacus: Monks are fun in D&D.
Me: Shudders in that time I made gestalt Fighter/Monk in 3.5 D&D and severely overclocked my character.
Sure, we'll go with that Sparty. XD
Also, I just so happen to have a monk at level 4, so this was oddly timely.
Right now, for me it would have be the multiclass Arcane Archer. I've been curious about that one.
24:05 Karlach shaking what the Nine Hells gave her! XD
More like what her Faerûnian parents gave her
But yeah, I agree 😄
THANK YOU for not doing yet another Tavern Brawler Monk build... I find farming STR potions to be extremely immersion breaking (re-spec in front of the vendor, and buy 3 each level!) and frankly -- boring. Sure it's powerful, but it just seems silly to me personally.
Totally agree with you my dude!
I get around with the giant hill club on your off hand so you never need to use a potion and monks never need to use a weapon
Arcane synergy is spell mod to damage. Arcane acuity is adding to spell save dc and spell attack
Great video. I'm on my 3rd playthrough of BG3 and no doubt monk has been my favorite class so far!
refreshing to see no tavernbrawler, though woudnt it still be much stronger?
tavern brawler is just broken and unfun.
Yes it would be stronger. It's over powered. Over powered is actually a bad thing.
+5 to hit and +5 to damage is just about impossible to compete with.
Always good information and fun stuff to try. I still can't win the final battle on easy mode but have enjoy playing that battle over and over. Great content.
final fight is tough. Focus on getting to the portal and playing defense from there. The wizard ability that makes everyone invincible in a zone for like 3 turns is really useful for when you are channeling on the portal.
@@bbbk123 I bet I am missing a few key things to do. I will look at Gale and see what he has that will help the group. Thank you for your help.
Thank you this is excellent for the monk community
This is awesome. I love my current monk build but I will certainly give this one a try next play through.
This is a pretty badass build for sure. Definitely going to have to use it.
been wanting to try a monk build for a while. thank you for sharing all your hard work!
I like the idea of playing as monk pacifist only fighting in self defense or to defend those that can’t defend themselves. Just need to decide on a race. Thinking drow since everyone thinks they are evil would be nice to go against the grain. Background will be durge resisting the evil. I took your advice on having different play throughs at the same time and I have progressed further than I ever did with this game really enjoying it
Thanks for upfronting the knowledge in your videos ;) but I think I'll watch it all instead
Excellent information as always
for my monk I've been using the ice staff you have to find the 3 parts of it in the under dark just extra damage and a decent cantrip to throw out if you feel the need.
It's great in act 1 and it works fine for parts of act 2. It gets outpaced in act 3. Certainly by the time you find bloodthirst and can get vulnerable on piercing damage.
That cantrip is rarely a good call for your monk. Even with vulnerable on cold and the extra +1 damage and a wisdom of 20 (which would be odd).
If you run a storm build and have people wet all the time then having nearly 100% uptime on cold vulnerability for a party of characters doing cold damage is something. That's for sure!
Use the club of Hill Giant Strength in your offhand. It can help even if not using TB
Aren’t battle master maneuvers redundant in this build? Your cloak already applies disadvantage and giving up an action and bonus action that would absolutely remove an enemy from turn order to give someone else 1 weapon attack is -2 attacks overall.
Mostly. People like it for the extra D8 damage ... a couple times per short rest. I don't think 12 extra separate D8 attacks per long rest is a ton. But, it's definitely more than zero!
I usually lean towards champion. 5% crit chance is a lot. Especially on a character that attacks so often. With a single piece of crit gear and champion now you crit at 15%. With halfling it's 15.75%. You'll want a bloodlust elixir each day. But, the build doesn't really use resources. So, you don't need to rest. So, each day can last a whole level. Sometimes only a day or two per act. That's a LOT of attacks (2 attacks per attack action, 2 bonus actions per turn, and very often another 2 attacks per attack action from bloodlust ... unless honor mode then one additional attack). Those 5% extra crits double ALL the dice from the attack. Manifestation of mind/body/soul for a D4, often another D4 or D6 from a weapon, and another D6 or D10 from your gloves (depending on how far into the game you are).
I entered some data into copilot and let that do the math. Assuming missing 30% of the time and crit 10.5% of the time with 12 extra damage attacks per day (doing 1D10+1D4 damage per regular hit, and +1D8 damage on a special hit). The battlemaster does 843 damage in 100 attacks. The champion build with 15.75% crit does 906. If you increase the number of attacks per day the extra crit percentage at 200 attacks per day (1687 vs 1813).
200 attacks per day represents represents roughly 8 fights per day assuming 4 rounds per fight and 6 attacks per round (action x 2 , bloodlust is action x 2, two bonus attacks).
I don't know about you ... but I do WAY more than 10 encounters per long rest.
(both builds are a halfling with 1 piece of gear to give crit chance. both builds are 1D10+1D4 as standard damage ... if you add in more dice to account for more magic modifiers it would just make the champion better and better).
did you think of adding a barbarian level to get more armor with the constitution passive and rage for extra dmg? I dont know if that could work though.
It's a good shout but I really wanted to have fun with some party utility!
Always hit like once he reminds us he front loads knowledge
Same. Always say to myself he deserves the like every time
My recommendation for a weapon monk would be either high elf or githyanki for the long sword proficiency just to expand the list of monk weapons available when it comes to gear I suggest the blade of oppressed souls with mental inhibition ring and brain drain gloves to stack mental fatigue which would work best with a controller build
Also a gith could use voss’ silver sword for some role playing
That seems like an odd build. So you're going with a strength based monk. But, not tavern brawler so you're using swords that aren't finesse? Or are you 3 levels of eldritch knight and throwing those greatswords so they return with weapon bond?
There are two finesse longswords in act 1 and a finesse glaive in act 3.
To use these swords you're ... what, abusing the hill giant elixir for strength so you can still have initiative and constitution and some kind of wisdom?
Using the psychic damage from manifestation of mind to trigger modifiers for your casters is a neat trick though! Costing you your glove slot is expensive. There are so many amazing items fighting for that slot. What are the CC focused casters you're feeding with this set up?
You could go for something like arcane synergy from a helmet or ring to add your wisdom modifier to all of your weapon attacks. And, use bloodlust for an extra two attacks almost every single round. That gives you roughly 6 attacks per round without having to burn resources (spell slots or ki points). I lean towards champion fighter for the extra crit chance and sustained damage without abusing a mechanic like tavern brawler.
@@zero11010 I was thinking sword of oppressed soul ring of mental inhibition and brain drain gloves. I chose those races for long sword proficiency so you can use dex instead since it will be considered a monk weapon. I’d say have a controller in the party to maybe hold person blind or confuse enemies since mental fatigue drops all mental saves
@@zero11010 also I would agree on using the ring of arcane synergy along with the diadem. Same build could also work with reserberation or radiating orb
@@keithwin3449 oh! Totally forgot that it would become a monk weapon like that. My bad! 👍
I don’t think reverberation builds are as strong as people make them out to be. It’s what? 1D4 thunder damage after 3 applications?
Applying spell modifier to damage is 3-5 damage per hit. That should be the goal.
Caustic ring is 2 per hit. That’s about equal to 1D4 damage.
There’s a ring that applies 1D4 psychic if you’re concentrating on a spell. This is convoluted, but between scrolls and items that will do a thing like …. Hunters mark or protection from evil … you can get concentration up that will (potentially) last a day and not require spell slots. In my experience it tends to not last much more than a fight. But, it’s available in the first act. So, plenty of time to experiment while there are few good ring options.
The real hero is elixir of bloodlust. You using a camp wizard for crafting potions? Transmutation school gets a chance to craft a duplicate potion when you craft. You can have a 100% chance by level 9. And, you can have something like a 70-80% chance by level 5. This lets you craft double with your resources. It’s worth an extra 3 bloodlust by level 6 (assuming you don’t do long rest shop farming). Plus all the other great elixirs you can spit out.
I only kinda like getting to lvl 3/Fighter w/this build. Getting to lvl 7 Monk, 4 Thief and 2 Fighter almost makes more sense since you get 1 more Ki point, Evasions and Still Mind. The Battlemaster feats are basically limited tot the ones here (Commanders Strike, Riposte and one of Evasive Footwork or or Rally) if you swap to a weapon (staff or sword) BM makes a lot more sense. Since this is all fists it feels limiting, IMO.
Regardless this is the direction I’m going with my Psylocke build that uses the Resonant Stone, Shadow Blade. Waiting to see if the Hierling bug gets patched out tho
9 monk, 3 Thief. Can go STR w/TBer but prefer Dex w/Graceful Cloth and some of items you listed which are the best.
Should read 7 M, 3 Th, 2 F
Thanks for the video
Not having tavern brawler nor Alert on a Monk seems wierd, very original tho, I approve
Id go 9 monk 3 Battlemaster, or 3 Thief. the extra feat might be more efficient, Mobile or Alert can be huge.
My 9/3 Monk/Thief was unstoppable tbh
you know, i dont get why monks and barbarians couldnt make use of light armor for their unarmored defence. when you look at things like the monk armors, are not defined as light armors, but with an AC of 10, that's literaly what they are.
Monks receive more movement and barbarians want to take damage if you miss to maintain advantages while raging
AC 10 is the base. AC 10 is the same as saying AC 0. This is based around a D20 roll. So, with no modifiers AC 10 gets hit about half the time. That's the foundation. The only way to get worse is by having negative AC modifiers from a very bad dexterity.
That's why things with "no armor" still give an "armor class" of 10, which is clearly more than zero armor class.
For the algy
I though this was Monk Warlock not Monk Warlord 😢
same😂
Same 🫤
ty :)
Hi, have you consider make build for other barbarian subclasses? I've seen elk one, and it's so fun
Also, i would love for you to do a non-mod Artificer build. How would that work?
I love monks!!!!
I'd like to see unmodded. Thats just because I play on PS5. It's going to be so awesome when we get Mod support.
Love the video but I'm very new to the game and I'm wondering from your point of view what would be the best way to allocate skill pints fo a str tavern brawler monk and to get the most out of monks level ups with there cool skills and not depend on the str potions
I'd just keep the stats as is and use elixirs of hill/cloud giant strength! You can buy them at Auntie Ethel! All vendors stock replenishes every long rest and every time someone levels
Just a thought, but would using the Duelist's Prerogative rapier work with this to give you the 2 reactions needed for the counter attacks and be able to utilize the battle master maneuvers as well. Also, switching the Soul Catching Gloves to the Helldusk Gloves for extra damage on both weapon and unarmed attacks.
Yep. Punch the data into copilot and let AI figure out the math. It'll tell you which is better. It's tricky. If you're not being attacked this build is a net loss for damage.
Since not too many people are using mods yet, maybe it's a good idea to do a non-mod arcane stcjer build?
Boost for the algorithm
my question is, why does this build has so much wisdom? wouldnt it be better to focus on dex instead? i understand that you get to use wis mod with the boots, but wouldnt having more dex earlier on be better? since that boots are act 3. and you would only end up with 1 less bonus damage from the boots that would be in the dex part of the damage anyway?
Since you only get one feat, more Dex doesn't give us as much damage as more wisdom because we can get that higher through items and in game decisions! There's another they'll give us +2. You can get your Dex to 20 using the graceful cloth if you want!
@@italianspartacus i see.
idk random crit miss seems pretty on par for the course
Monk barbarian is my favorite even though it’s action inefficient
And rest dependent. Barbarians don't get much of anything without rage. If you aren't raging they're practically dead levels.
With a monk/rogue build like this you don't really need to burn resources. This means you don't really need to rest. You melt through everything. You don't need to heal much. You don't need to spend ki points often (maybe one or two per fight) you don't need to spend spell slots on other characters.
You can do roughly one long rest per level even on tactician.
Or, you can do like ... 3 fights a day and rage in each fight and then take a long rest.
There's an Arcane Archer mod?! Arcane Archer was my go to in NWN.
Is not Duregar good for this build for the extra damage from enlarge? :)
Yup, it's great :)
W
Vanilla, Please. :)
Still waiting on Mods for console so I can mod in transmog for the peak RP experience
Mask of Soul Perception isn't until Act 3.
I was talking about the Mask of Uninhibited Kushigo! :)
I'm going to take a wild guess before watching this and say that if there's any multiclassing it's either rogue thief/assassin, fighter battlemaster or both.^^
It might be fully divulged in the first minute and a half ;)
Its dammon from last light inn
Bruh. This is a Nacho Libre build xD
HAHAHHAHA
Gunna watch it twice but the second time will be at .25 speed so you get 4 times the watch time. Enjoy
vanilla please! thanks
How did you get your Dex to 18? Your one fest was use to add 2 to wisdom???
That 18 was. Because of something else in the game. Just ignore it and treat it as 16!
Waaaagh for the algorithm
Monke 17:24
contrary to what he said, monks are NOT fun to play in DND. I have played a monk, and it was the absolute worst thing ever
wood elf?
YES WOOD ELF :D hahah I think thats the best monk
Did you just totally disregard Wholeness of Body as a "heal" and "it's okay" ? 🧐
Hahaha I later say more about it! It's just that we're only taking 6 levels so it doesn't get as beefy
Aaaaand follow
You really should have gone all out on the maneuvers by just using any monk weapon. As it stands this looks like a weaker standard monk. Almost everything you showed off was monk stuff except for an objectively wasteful ability in commander's strike (also, "I'm just so far away"? YOU'RE A MONK, YOU CAN GO TO THE MOON AND BACK IN A TURN), and a defensive ability that you already have as a monk. Rogue 3 for the extra BA and the skill-monkeying is great for sure, but as you clearly identified, fighter levels are an absolute waste here. You have no use for weapons and armor proficiencies, no use for fighting styles, and basically no use for battle maneuvers (riposte is baked-in with the robes, Evade with Monk, and Commander's strike is plain bad for its cost). The benefits you get from fighter 3 are: Action Surge (great for sure), Second Wind (when was the last time you used this past lvl 5 unironically?) and no-BA-no-Ki Patient Defense. Worth losing Evasion, near-immunity to fear/charm, a feat and extra mobility?
You can mostly fix that by just using a weapon. Any weapon really. I'm partial to Devotee but you can go for the flavor with Staff of the Ram for example.
I strong encourage you to do that!! Sounds like an awesome build :) but this was the theme I wanted! I'll do a monk weapon build soon
Not taking the Tavern Brawler feat is kinda dumb
He's making a dex monk not a strength monk so tavern brawler is kinda useless unless you use the strength elixirs.
@@openyourmeet.2958 ahh fair.
Man Larian really missed an opportunity to make attributes below 10 matter. Im not personally a fan of min maxing stats and dumping INT down to 8 on fighters or barbs for example. An complete imbecile and idiot with below average INT, would make for a terrible fighter, and a barely usable barbarian. Which is why im also confused with a lot of the companions stats. A vampire spawn with 8 STR, a beautiful half elf with 8 CHA ect.
It bothers me that everyone loves this game and I think it’s dreadfully boring. I haven’t played turn based rpgs since final fantasy 7 on ps1. Loved that game but now that I’ve played modern open world rpgs it just feels boring to me. I only played it on console maybe it’s better for PC. It’s just slow and tedious
Y'all leave some weird comments. You find the game boring yet you watch a 30 minute video about a specific build? That makes no sense.
Then play something else, and leave everyone else to their fun? Just a suggestion.
Shorten this by 15 minutes
No