Playable from level 1 - 40 PvM

One needed a good monk build - here is one.

Race: Human

Stats:
Str: 12(12)
Dex: 16(30)
Con: 12(12)
Wis: 14(14)
Int: 14(14)
Cha: 8(8)

When lvling up, always take Dex on stat increase.

Classes:
30 monk / 5 ftr / 5 SD.

Here is a more detailed level up scheme:
1.Monk – Feats: Expertise, Improved Expertise
2. Monk
3. Monk – Feats: Weapon Finesse
4. Monk (raise Dex[17])
5. Monk
6. Monk – Feats: Toughness
7. Monk
8. Monk (raise Dex[18])
9. Monk – Feats: Stealthy
10. Monk
11. Monk
12. Monk – Feats: Skill Focus: Hide (raise Dex[19])
13.Fighter – Bonus Feats: Weapon Focus: Unarmed strike
14. Fighter – Bonus Feats: Dodge
15. Fighter – Feats: Skill Focus: Move Silently
16. Fighter – Bonus Feats: Weapon Spec(raise Dex[20])
17. Monk
18. Monk – Feats: Mobility
19. Monk
20. Monk (raise Dex[21])
21. ShadowDancer – Feats: Great Dex
22. Monk
23. Monk
24. Monk - Feats Great Dex (raise Dex[23])
25. Monk
26. ShadowDancer
27. ShadowDancer – Feats: Great Dex
28. ShadowDancer (raise Dex[26])
29. ShadowDancer
30. Monk – Feats: Epic Dodge
31. Monk
32. Monk (raise Dex[27])
33. Monk – Feats: Epic Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike
34. Monk – Bonus Feats: Armor Skin
35. Monk
36. Fighter – Feats: Epic Weapon Spec: Unarmed Strike (raise Dex[28])
37. Monk
38. Monk
39. Monk – Feats: Great Dex
40. Monk – Bonus Feats: Your Choice! (raise Dex[30])

AC: 38(39 versus target)48 with Improved Expertise.
AB: +39/36/33/30/27/24
Dmg: 1-20+7
Max HPs: 410 HPs
Skills: Discipline: 43(44),Heal: 43(45),Hide: 43(58),Move Silently: 43(58),Open Lock: 8(18),Spellcraft: 15(17),Tumble: 40(50).

Feel free to come with input and possible changes.
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Be realistic...

Edited By griphook on 08/26/05 19:19

Okay, not bad. A few minor things need some correction and tweaking:

1. Hit Points: he actually has 450, not 410.

2. Pre-Epic Feats: I don't want to change your selection, but I do advise changing their order. At Lvl 1 I would probably take Dodge and Stealthy, and then at Lvl2 take my first level of Fighter if only to get Weapon Finesse working faster. In fact, I would try to get all 4 fighter levels in earlier so you can get the AB up higher. I would save things like Improved Expertise for much later, as it is pretty much pointless to have it at Level 1.

3. Shadowdancer: it might be suggested to take 4 levels pre-epic in order to get HiPS much earlier, and without affecting your BAB. This would be a mistake, IMO. Leave it where he is at. The biggest challenge facing this character pre-epic is going to be damage, and you want to hit that Level16 Pre-epic so you can actually hurt some things.

4. 30Monk vs 25Monk. It seems that you could take 25 Monk and 10Fighter vs 30Monk/5Fighter and gain the following: taking Ftr6, 8, 10 in Epic will allow you to spend bonus feats on EWF, EWS, and Epic Prowess. You can still take Armor Skin(last feat you should take) on Monk 25. This will allow you to take 2 more Great Dex Feats which will raise your AB and AC by one(your AC will end up being the same since you lost the Monk AC at 30th). But nevertheless, you really want to get the highest possible AB with this fellow since he really doesn't have a way to raise it. He's got plenty of defense, and plenty of get-out-of-jail cards. But methinks you can squeeze 2 more AB points out of him, so that when you Flurry, your AB will be at 39 and not 37.

Okay, I'm done. Just some thoughts, some ideas, some things to kick around on a rainy saturday.
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Ariel, Ookla, RIDE! I was actually on my in to change the HPs, when I wrote this hehe.

Good points Grizz and i especially like the last one. The reason why I took 30 monk was that I wanted more speed. I don't know if Monk Speed continues to increase after lvl 20. Although I can't see him getting 41 AB. the change with great dex is very viable, but how would you get another point of AB out of him? I think this calls for a second version of the build with these minor tweaks
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Be realistic...
Quote: Posted 08/20/05 16:15:54 (GMT) -- Kalmar_Oxin

I was actually on my in to change the HPs, when I wrote this hehe.

Good points Grizz and i especially like the last one. The reason why I took 30 monk was that I wanted more speed. I don't know if Monk Speed continues to increase after lvl 20. Although I can't see him getting 41 AB. the change with great dex is very viable, but how would you get another point of AB out of him? I think this calls for a second version of the build with these minor tweaks
Epic Prowess will get you your second point of AB. As for speed, it'sa difference between 160% vs 180% speed. With Haste, this is an insignificant difference. The only other person who could possibly catch him would be another 27+level monk.
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Ariel, Ookla, RIDE! I'm trying to find a good monk build and came across this one. This build looks good on paper with all the extra skill points and stuff, but does *this* dexterity-based monk build hold up in melee combat against heavily armored fighter/tanks dodging attacks or only strong against magic-based casters/attacks with spell resistance and saves? I've just made/started playing my first monk and was wondering if this build is effective as a sneaky monk using the hide and move silently skills, and the hide-in-plain-sight feat and improved knockdown attacks? In general, this (or any other dex-based ED build) will do well against a str-based fighter - your damage will be low, but your high AC plus ED means you will rarely be hit, so you will whittle down your enemy.

Against another dex-based ED build, the one with the higher dex will generally win. Also, builds with high sneak damage who get in that first sneak attack will win. So watch out for high dex Assassin builds....

Against any build with high DR (DwD, Barbarian, or mobs with DR), high dex builds simply can't generate enough damage to hurt them. This is going to be your biggest weakness. If you see a high level DwD, just run away. He can have up to 30/- DR, and probably has at least 24/- DR, so your best shot will do maybe 3 points of damage to him. Same problem with monsters who may have 20/- or more DR.

TM You want more AB? get more fighter pre-epic, it will raise your BAB.

You could also change some feats, first, unrelated, take Epic Weapon Specialization as soon as you can, with at least fighter up to level 6, a non-epic fighter in epic levels can take Epic Weapon Specialization, Epic Prowess, Epic Weapon Focus and Armor Skin (I think Epic Toughness too), that can be better than a monk epic bonus, so you release an epic feat with all options.

If speed is so important then you should use a bow, long range and nobody catches you.
Quote: Posted 03/08/06 02:57:34 (GMT) -- Thaxll'ssyllia

You want more AB? get more fighter pre-epic, it will raise your BAB.

You need to exchange 4 levels of Monk for 4 levels of FTR in order to gain 1 BAB. If you want lots of Monk in your build, it's probably not worth it.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 6051: had trouble sleeping last night... my hiatal hernia is acting up. The ship is... drafty and damp; I complain but... nobody listens. LOL, the worse part is that I knew that, I was just stating, and couldn't thought of another way for the time being. New version type Monk/FTR/SD build

Race: Human

Stats:
Str: 12(12)
Dex: 16(30)
Con: 12(12)
Wis: 14(14)
Int: 14(14)
Cha: 8(8)

When lvling up, always take Dex on stat increase.

Classes:
25 monk / 10 ftr / 5 SD.

Here is a more detailed level up scheme:
1.Monk – Feats: Expertise, Improved Expertise
2. Monk
3. Monk – Feats: Weapon Finesse
4. Monk (raise Dex[17])
5. Monk
6. Monk – Feats: Toughness
7. Monk
8. Monk (raise Dex[18])
9. Monk – Feats: Stealthy
10. Monk
11. Monk
12. Monk – Feats: Skill Focus: Hide (raise Dex[19])
13.Fighter – Bonus Feats: Weapon Focus: Unarmed strike
14. Fighter – Bonus Feats: Dodge
15. Fighter – Feats: Skill Focus: Move Silently
16. Fighter – Bonus Feats: Weapon Spec(raise Dex[20])
17. Monk
18. Monk – Feats: Mobility
19. Monk
20. Monk (raise Dex[21])
21. ShadowDancer – Feats: Great Dex
22. Fighter
23. Fighter - Epic Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strik
24. Fighter - Feats Great Dex (raise Dex[23])
25. Fighter – Bonus Feats: Epic Weapon Spcieliziation
26. ShadowDancer
27. ShadowDancer – Feats: Great Dex
28. ShadowDancer (raise Dex[26])
29. ShadowDancer
30. Monk – Feats: Epic Dodge
31. Fighter
32. Monk (raise Dex[27])
33. Monk – Feats: Great Dex
34. Monk –
35. Monk
36. Fighter – Feats: Great Dex; Bonus Feats: Epic Prowess (raise Dex[28])
37. Monk
38. Monk
39. Monk – Feats: Great Dex
40. Monk – Bonus Feats: Armor Skin (raise Dex[30])

AC: 38(39 versus target)48 with Improved Expertise.
AB: +41/38/35/32/29/26
Dmg: 1-20+7
Max HPs: 450 HPs

Skills: Discipline: 43(44),Heal: 43(45),Hide: 43(59),Move Silently: 43(59),Open Lock: 8(19),Spellcraft: 15(17),Tumble: 40(51).
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Be realistic... i'm not sure improved expertise is worth it, since you can't have it on at the same time as flurry, you won't hit anything with it on, and if monsters are hitting you through regular expertise you can HiPS or just sprint away.

drop it, and take dwarf as your race instead, for the Con bonus. i wouldn't worry about losing skill points, either; you can drop spellcraft quite easily.

also, i don't think 14 Wis is really necessary - by the time you get into epic levels your AC will be massive anyway, so drop it to 12 and put the other 2 points into Con.

it could also be wise to put Str and Wis down to 10, so you can get Con to 18. that's an extra three hit points per level over your current build, which is loads. IE gives this build a higher chance of surviving in the start of the game. I only hit if I roll a 20 dice, but that is also the problem for my hostiles.

I wouldn't change my race or stats really. It's this way I like the build. It still has alot of roleplay in it and that's what I need for this build.

Oh and I forgo to mention that I use this build for a server. There the plot only thickens...
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Be realistic...

Edited By Kalmar_Oxin on 03/21/06 08:25

Quote: Posted 03/21/06 01:19:19 (GMT) -- Herbie Shimmer

i'm not sure improved expertise is worth it, since you can't have it on at the same time as flurry, you won't hit anything with it on, and if monsters are hitting you through regular expertise you can HiPS or just sprint away.

Actually having a +10 to your AC and -10 AB can pretty much force you into both parties requiring 20 to hit. Since you have epic dodge you actually force your opponent into having to roll 20 twice in a round. Trust me that is exponentially less likely than rolling 20 once.

Syrath
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It's SHADOWDANCER, dammit, shadowdancer!!! Plus you are only using fists then IN THEORY you have an 40% chance of rolling a 20 each round!!! 6 base attacks from 16 BAB pre-epic, 7th hasted, 8th flurried, each EFFECTIVELY has a 1/20 chance to hit! Actually, with 8 attacks needing a 20 to hit, you have a 33.7% chance of getting at least 1 hit (1-(0.95^8)). The reason it is less than 40% is because there is also a chance that you will hit more than once (if you total up the odds of hitting 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, etc. in a single round, they add up to 40%). Your odds of hitting twice in a single round are around 1 in 10 (i.e. getting a hit against an opponent with ED).

TM