Everything You'd Want To Know
Advantages of the Monk
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-Unarmed attack and non-reliance on armour mean lots of cash to spend on other magic items.

-Equally adept at melee or ranged combat as high dex is a must. -Bonus monk feats. -Good saves across the board. -Reasonably good hit die type (D8).

Disadvantages of the Monk
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-Rigid alignment requirements.

-Relatively weak selection of class skills.

-Wide range of stats need to be high.

Statistics
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My starting stats were:

Str 12
Dex 16
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 16
Cha 8

For me, these reached 14, 16, 14, 12, 18, 8 by only level 8!!

Obviously, Wisdom and Dexterity are my main two stats, with Strength third. Constitution is nice, but certainly not necessary, as both of my additional stat points have been in strength so far, as I had become utterly envious of Daelan Red Tiger's wonderful power attack and wanted one too. Con is boosted by my Boots of Striding +2, Int by the Thayvian Circlet looted early in Ch2, and Wis by a Periapt of Wisdom +2. Although both the boots and the periapt were expensive, I have managed always to have a lot of money.

Skills
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Don't bother with the stealth skills. Honestly don't. 9 times out of 10, your henchman will just attack your foes anyway, and as you don't get Sneak Attack, there's no point unless you're considering Dual Classing to Rogue (more on that later). Max out Search, Lore and Parry (although you'll probably use the latter fairly infrequently). Lore is particularly good, as it saves you having to shell out 100gp each time you have a new item in your pack.

Although it's cross class, take some points in Disable Device. I found one every two levels is about sufficient, but you can take more if you want. Because of the Search, you'll never be taken unaware, and because of your trap handling skills, you'll never end up on the wrong end of a spike or acid splash. Don't bother with Open Locks, as either your henchman, or you when you get one of the special Monk-only gauntlets, can bash anything you need to pass.

Feats
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There is no hard and fast rule. Dodge and mobility are good, as is power attack. If your Dex is significantly higher than your strength, then Weapon Finesse could be worth while. I'm rather looking forward to improved critical, as there is only one monk weapon, whatever the Kama salesmen tell you. The only feats really to avoid are proficiencies - weapons or armour - and the ones that boost your saves (Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will, Great Fortitude). Where most classes have one or two good saves and the others rather poorer, the Monk has equally good saves across the board. Combined with a high Dex and Wis, this means you'll constantly be stepping out of the way of accidents and resisting mind control without any help. If there were any, it would be overkill.

The monk also has a wide range of bonus feats. Some are more useful than others, but none is completely without merit.

-Improved AC: you will love this when it saves your hide again and again. -Stunning Fist: a little bit of a letdown, until your attack bonus gets high enough. Then it starts to pay off.

-Flurry of Blows: what goblins are made for.

-Evasion: again, this is a life saver. Your reflex save will be so high that you will dodge fireballs without even thinking about it.

-Monk Speed: nice, but not vital.

-Purity of Body: Disease does not scare me.

-Improved Evasion: Spells do not scare me.

-Diamond Body: Poison does not scare me.

-Diamond Soul: Spells really do not scare me.

-With these four and a magic item protecting you from level drain, you are very, very, very safe.

-Wholeness of Body: useful, but like a potion, permits an attack of opportunity. Still, if you have mobility, these should not scare you either.

Items
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-Weapons
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Unarmed attack. Unarmed attack. Unarmed attack. No go away and write it out one hundred times. This is the *only* permissible weapon for a monk to use in melee combat. When you start to get damage increases and the rather cool Ki strike, you will understand the true nature of the monk's power. However, there are some handy-dandy gauntlets, such as the Gauntlets of the Yellow Rose, Gloves of the Hin Fist, and Gauntlets of the Slow Death, which add electrical, sonic, and cold damage, respectively, as well as a bonus to hit.

For ranged combat, which is something that never lasts long, in my experience, a sling and some shurikens work wonders. The sling's blunt damage and wide variety of payloads make it ideal for picking on the Undead or anything with a few resistances, whereas shurikens are both very cool, and very in character. Bear in mind that this is a role-playing game, as well as an opportunity to power-game.

-Armour
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Although this isn't very important for a monk, as armour actually detracts from the monk's wisdom-boosted armour class, a few items do stand out. The Robes of the Old Order soak five damage, which increases your life expentancy by orders of magnitude. The Robes of the Dark Night haste you, which means ludicrous numbers of attacks per round. Rings *or* Cloaks of Protection are a nice thing, but do make sure that your deflection bonuses aren't stacking or you'll be wasting a good item. I personally like the Lesser Ring of Power as its regenative effects combine well with the damage reduction of the Robes. Until you get Diamond Soul, consider the Sash of Shimmering as an additional magical defense.

Henchmen
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So far I've only used Daelan Red Tiger. He is a beast. You might consider that such a party lacks a decent rogue, but with a bit of care, you can be almost as useful as a fully fledged thief at trap-disarming. And who needs to pick a lock? I have seen Daelan destroy an iron door with a single power attack. As for magic, I find that just hitting things until they stop moving works well enough that I don't need the power of a mage. Healing is always available through the absolutely enormous number of potions that abound.

Dual-Classing
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I haven't. I can't see why this would be necessary. I've heard suggestions along the lines of taking a few levels of fighter to improve your attacks, or a few levels of mage. As far as I can see, this latter is the more worthwhile option. The unarmoured combat styles of the monk and the mage overlap so significantly that to ignore the potential of a spellcaster with natural armour bonuses would be folly. However, the attributes required do not overlap, and the point-buy stat system prevents the sort of straight-18 statline that BG2 players were so fond of. This makes Mage-Monks rather impractical.

Fighter-Monks cannot use their armour (a failing that also cripples the possibilities of the Paladin and the Cleric), nor effectively bring to bear their versatility of weapon options. Rogue-Monks overlap so much that there must be some natural ground for their existence: not least the skill points in Disable Device and the Sneak Attack. However, the Sneak Attack requires playing a different sort of Monk to the rather unsubtle martial artist detailed above. Although it is possible to play Rogue-Monks, these will not be the combat-oriented fighting machine which I feel optimises the potential given by the feats and skills offered.

Submitted By: Alex Trenchard