In this build the monk uses kama istead of traditional
unarmed strike, here is why: when using unarmed strike
slot for gloves will always be occupied by hins fist or
yellow rose, but when using kama this slot remains free
items like bracers of armor +10. Another good thing
about kama is that with improved two weapon fighting and
flurry of blows u can get as much as 8 attacks per round
and thats without mentioning great cleave great cleave !
Even though the average damage of a mundane kama is 8
this build can make it do at least 70 damage a round and
with an enchanced kama the average damage is around 20
which lets this build do 160 damage a round ! it has a
naked AC of 40 and with good items can be as high as 80!
casters will have hard time trying to beat a spell
resistence of 54 while 50% concealment and 40 Ac makes
sure that fighters will also have hard time.plus with
blinding speed this build becomes a hurricane of
destruction. Here is the how to build it:
begin with: end with:
14 strength 14 16 dexterity 30 14 constitution 14 14 wisdom 14 10 inteligence 10 8 charisma 8 increase dexterity all the time
all the skill points should be distributed among
concentration, discipline, hide, move silently and tumble
Feats guide:
level feat 1 Dodge, mobility 3 2 weapon fighting 6 weapon finesse 9 ambidexterity 12 improved 2 weapon fighting 15 power attack 18 great cleave 21 weapon focus kama 24 epic weapon focus kama 25 armor skin 27 improved critical kama 30 great dexterity, improved spell resist. 33 great dexterity 35 blinding speed 36 great dexterity 39 great dexterity 40 improved spell resistence
Final AB with 2 mundane kama:
main weapon: 36/33/30/27/24 offhand weapon: 36/33
but with dexterity boosting items and ebchanced kama it can be as high as
main weapon: 52/49/46/43/40 offhand weapon: 52/49
items 2 to seek out: 1enchanced kama 2robe of dark moon 3bracers of armor 4parapliet of wisdom 5ring of protection 6ring of elemental protection 7boots of sun soul 8belt of agility
It is worth trying to make a similar build with devastataing critical but AC will never be as high.
Please write your comments and suggestions.
What is the ac?
Quote from the poster: naked AC of 40 and with good items can be as high as 80!
Quote from the poster: naked AC of 40 and with good items can be as high as 80!
-DaMouse
Ahh.. there it is. Sorry, it's a little jumbled around; I was expecting it to be by the stats, my mistake!
One minor problem with pure dex monks is that there is no way to preserve all that lovely dex and dodge based AC. Which means that although ideal for 1 on 1 pvp fights, once surrounded by even mildly chllenging critters, that AC of 40 drops quite a lot. To improve this I would mix in at least 2 (I think, cant find the SoU handbook at the mo) shadowdancer levels or 2 rogue levels which would give uncanny dodge and hence preserve the dodge and dex based AC on the char.
2 shadowdancer, 3 rogue, 2 assassin _________________ Click Here
hmm the 2 lvls of shadow seem very appealing. What would this do to the character, with respect to loosing 2 monk lvls? I have no experience with epic monks, so any ideas??
Quote: Posted 03/05/05 04:50:42 (GMT) -- avado
hmm the 2 lvls of shadow seem very appealing. What would this do to the character, with respect to loosing 2 monk lvls? I have no experience with epic monks, so any ideas??
You wont get the last bonus feat at level 40 at which great dexterity is to be taken, so maximum dexterity modifier will be 9, and spell resistence will decrease by 2 but thats not really important. I think it is best to go all monk and use deflection and AC modifing items.
Edited By dvxz on 03/05/05 15:57
If you were going 2 shadowdancer , you might as well go for 5 levels of SD for defensive roll to qualify for epic dodge.
Syrath
Forget epic dodge or self concealment, they aren't really that important for a pure monk build (and impossible anyway in the case of epic dodge). Empty Body is insanely useful to give 50% concealment for a fight or three, and you get two uses per day. Since SC doesn't stack with Empty Body, it's only useful for a monk on a world with severe rest restrictions. Strictly my opinion.
Who mentioned SC 5. I did say it was a good idea for epic dodge , I also said that if someone was taking 38 monk /2 SD they may as well get 35 monk/5 SD and take Epic Dodge.
As for epic dodge not being useful to a monk...... since when.
If you are fighting the big boss mob at the end of a module (or fighting someone pvp) ie someone who is similar in quality. Epic dodge is the breaker.
Take the level 40 monk with +36 AB hitting for +36/33/30/27/24 fighting the level 35 monk/5 SD (im using another pc for equality purposes here).
The first hit hits, epic dodge kicks in and stops the attack. Now the monk is left with one less attack and is fighting at -3 against the monk/SD who is still fighting with 5 attacks and full AB. The extra attack alone is enough for the monk/SD to win the fight, the -3 AB is the icing on the cake. So IMO if someone is taking 2 levels of SD they are as well taking 5 for epic dodge.
Syrath
EDIT I should point out also that epic dodge affects the first attack to hit. So if the level 40 monk missed his first attack then he would have to hit with his second to be at -6 AB and only have 3 attacks (concealment is figured first btw so a fight with a monk with ED and empty body up is very likely to last longer in a fight than his empty body would, depending on his AC and his opponents number of attacks)
Edited By syrath1001 on 03/06/05 09:15
Well, I did specify "pure" monk above. Pure monks can't get Epic Dodge--that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I personally have just found that Empty Body alone does well by my monks in the modules I play, so ED is not the "must have" that it would be for my rogue/SD builds. Obviously it will be more desirable in a rest-restricted environment, or in environments where the high AC of a monk is irrelevant against the prevalent ABs, or in PvP environments.
Who mentioned SC 5. I did say it was a good idea for epic dodge , I also said that if someone was taking 38 monk /2 SD they may as well get 35 monk/5 SD and take Epic Dodge.
As for epic dodge not being useful to a monk...... since when.
If you are fighting the big boss mob at the end of a module (or fighting someone pvp) ie someone who is similar in quality. Epic dodge is the breaker.
Take the level 40 monk with +36 AB hitting for +36/33/30/27/24 fighting the level 35 monk/5 SD (im using another pc for equality purposes here).
The first hit hits, epic dodge kicks in and stops the attack. Now the monk is left with one less attack and is fighting at -3 against the monk/SD who is still fighting with 5 attacks and full AB. The extra attack alone is enough for the monk/SD to win the fight, the -3 AB is the icing on the cake. So IMO if someone is taking 2 levels of SD they are as well taking 5 for epic dodge.
Syrath
EDIT I should point out also that epic dodge affects the first attack to hit. So if the level 40 monk missed his first attack then he would have to hit with his second to be at -6 AB and only have 3 attacks (concealment is figured first btw so a fight with a monk with ED and empty body up is very likely to last longer in a fight than his empty body would, depending on his AC and his opponents number of attacks)
Even with high AC this charecter get hit sometimes and ED is an excelent solution for this, besides the build itself only suffers -2 to AC and -5 to SR.This isnt a huge sacrifice for ED, so thanks a lot Syrath for your suggestion.Also many special goodies for being SD like uncanny dodges and hide in plain sight. I really liked this idea and decided to write this improvement for lightning monk:
new items: 1instead of pendant of wisdom use natural armor 2cloak of great stealth.
skill points: if you play PvP and use regenerating items it is wise to concentrate on parry coz in middle of battle you can turn it on and regenerate in relative peace and sometimes strike back, I would suggest taking of some points from discipline and concentration for parry.
Thanks for all your suggestions.
Edited By dvxz on 03/07/05 00:03
Beware of parry.
1/ hits of 20 hit regardless of parry (but not of epic dodge) 2/ Parry only affects the first 3 attacks from an opponent (epic dodge only affects your target) so if a fighter (not your target) is attacking you, his last attack will always get through , more if hes dual wielding 3/ You can only riposte a maximum of 3 attacks only while parrying, if you had 11 attacks per round before if you hit parry, you just lost at least 8 of them.
Parry is not a skill you can go away and make a cup of tea. Only 2 things Ive seen do this - high DR and high AC /ED coupled with concealment(ive left the computer running for an hour with a fight between a 1000 hp goblin with 4 attacks per round and one of my builds with 70 AC , Epic dodge and Self Concealment 5. I think I saw about 3/4 hits land. I gave the goblin DR so my build couldnt damage him.
Syrath
If you want to make the char a truly ludricrous dex based combat monk then I would add in some fighter levels as well as the SD levels, hence gaining an extra attack/round and weapon spec. At lv 20 it would be something like: Monk 12 Ftr 4 SD 4 and at lv 40: Monk 30 Ftr 5 (epic wpn spec) SD 5 (defensive roll and epic dodge). Of course this would hamper the builds innate SR a bit, but you would get an extra attack and +6 damage/hit and a slightly better AB.
All that dex and not even taking epic dodge? That's a shame as it would offer a ton to a dex build. Also how do you perform vs. any type of DR? _________________ Come visit the Epic Builders Guild for all the character info you could ever want or need: Click Here
I've found Great Cleave pointless for a monk. I'd drop Great Cleave and Power Attack and take Toughness and one other feat (perhaps Luck of Heros).
sorry, I guess i'm messing your pure monk up pretty bad now, but i'd go 20pally then 18monk and 2 shadow dancer for uncanny If you take the 20 pally lvls pre epic you'll get a decent base ab, plus all the nice pally buffs.. Anyway I really like this monk build, and every once in a while it actually resists a spell or two O_O
Sorry havent checked bioware in ages.
1st reply: DR is a problem that can only be solved by elemental damage kamas or by taking few lvls paladin, but then this build wont be monk at all.
2nd reply: If you dont want great cleave then do this: at the beggining take to points from strength and put into intelligence. Then in feat guide replace power attack, cleave and great cleave with toughness, expertise and improved expertise, this is just to be activated when paladins and other warriors use AB and damage increasing short-term buffs,so that u can wait till they wear of.
3rd reply: Main idea of this topic was monk and your paladin build will loose such bonuses as immunity to mind spells(perfect self) and 2 lvls of SD wont let you have epic dodge, which is the main reason to have high dextertity
