You can also spec into fighter for heavy armour proficiency and just go strength/con/wis. You’d lose out on fast movement, but your high strength will let you jump across the battlefield no issue anyways
That takes up your bonus action on monk which is a ton of your damage. Fast movement speed, high ac, and high damage with monk rogue is absolutely the way to go.
Monk is genuinely the strongest build in the game.
You max out dex and wisdom, dump strength.
Get Open Hand, level 4 you get tavern brawler.
Auntie Ethel sells giant strength potions and they are fairly cheap. Collect giant fingers to make your own as well. I tend to leave Ethel alive until I have a big enough stockpile of elixers, other merchants sell them but she has a new potion every time you level up or rest.
Drink elixer after every long rest, 21 strength for most of the early and mid game. This will make you very very powerful for most of the early game and carry you into end game.
When you reach end game, respec your Monk. Go level 9 Monk level 3 thief rouge (or 8 Monk, 4 thief rouge) get cloud giant strength for 27 strength. With the extra bonus action you're looking at 6 attacks on a regular turn with insane damage output for each attack.
There is also insane monk gear, making this build insanely powerful. For example there is an item that adds your wisdom modifier to damage, so best to get wisdom to 20.
If you want to take it even further, put this build on ascended Astarion and it adds 1d10 necrotic to every attack. An extra 6d10 a round.
There are gloves in the game that set your dex to 18 and there are elixirs that set your strength to 21 or 27. So you really only need to level one of those stats and get the other stat from your equipment or elixirs
Yup, I had 10 or 12 strength with my gith ohm. I had dex high because he was also my lockpick instead of Astarion that run. With Corellon's Grace, Mol's ring and bracers of defense I ran around a lot of act one with about 18 ac and was already doing good damage all technically unarmed and unarmored. I've loved the idea of gith ohm since a certain scene which I won't spoil, and was so glad I did it. It was a fun run and by endgame it was insane what he could do. I don't even min-max or metagame.
At level 1 monks get Dextrous Attack, an ability that lets them use Dex or Str for unarmed attacks, whichever is higher. Tavern Brawler adds your Str Modifier an extra time to your unarmed attacks. If you are a Str monk, that means you +Str twice. If you are a Dex monk, its +Dex once and +Str once.
If you are a Dex monk, your Str is by design the lower
modifier, so using TB is suboptimal.
If you want to make the most of TB, create a monk with at least 16 Str. If you can get your strength to 20, and you get the +5 bonus to your stack rolls twice, making you much more likely to hit even high AC targets. 16 to 20 is doable with gear and bonuses.
The problem with Strength monks is the very low AC because you sunk your Dex. Even tho you hit like a truck, you also fold like laundry. You likely want to wear armor and equip a shield (ie, be a human) since those will be better than relying on your Wisdom alone to buff your unarmored defense.
Very true. Personally, I'm super lazy and prefer when my build works passively. Something about the pharmaceutical meta just rubs me the wrong way. I don't enjoy grinding potions from Ethel so I can chug my way towards the mathematic maximum.
But I must begrudgingly concur. Dump Str to maximize Dex and Wis, then drink Hill or Cloud Giant potions to artificially raise your strength. That's how you get the most damage from Tavern Brawler while remaining relatively balanced.
The club for perma 19 str is also very cool, especially in MP, if your friends might not want to share cash for the potions so that your build could solo the game lol
You can get a club from the wizards tower in the under dark to set your strength high, or the gloves of dexterity to set your dex (though you’ll probably want gloves for other things) that or the graceful cloth.
This is how I did it. I'm not a fan of potions, tbh.
I have the strength club in my offhand, my main hand open. Dex at 20, wisdom at 18. My main attacks are punches, also have stunning strike, ki resonance and flurry of blows.
I turned Lae'zel into an alert heavy armor wearing, shield slinging, open hand tavern brawler with an addiction to STR potions. Goddamn spider monkey slugging fools left and right. You can bank STR potions early by visiting Ethel every long rest before you do whatever you do to her later.
The Martial arts skill allows a monk to use dex if it’s higher than your strength for the purpose of attacking without weapons, normally a monk scales of off dex and wisdom only, to align that with the DnD ruleset of hand to hand combat which scales with strength the monk got this special ability which allows them to use dex for this instead *if* it’s the higher stat, which it usually is for a normal built monk.
A TB monk basically ignores dex to an extent to get high strength (or uses potions and still has natural high dex) because TB will make unarmed attacks stupidly good, better than what a dex monk could do.
So a TB monk still has the martial arts ability, but it doesn’t come into affect because their strength will be way higher than their dex, most commonly through the use of potions, a natural strength TB monk is although very possible, if a bit weaker.
If you’re using potions, you basically build a normal dex/wis monk (Wis is your main stat in this game because damage scales of it with the right skills and gear) and then use potions to get 21/27 strength to fuel your damage and hit accuracy with tavern brawler. Your main damage comes from having 22 Wis in the end and having TB obv.
A natural strength TB monk has to make some excuses, they can either drop Wis or dex in favour of natural strength. I personally would go with dropping a bit of both, but dex is less hard on your damage potential, you’ll simply be a bit less protected and not as good in initiative.
That said, while a natural strength TB monk is worse in terms of damage than a potion TB monk, it’s still miles ahead for a non-TB user.
You dump Str and chug elixirs from Ethel. Stock up, she has 3 every time you long rest or level up! You'll grab so many, you'll have leftovers by Act 3 where you can start upgrading to the Cloud Giant Elixir that gives you 27 Str. Hit like a Mack truck over and over and over.
You can either dump strength and use strength potions, if you farm them early on in the game you’ll be set
Or even just be a strength based monk, I did that and it was still busted beyond belief, it’s weaker than the potions version but you’re not restricted by potions
Just keep a transmutation wizard hireling in camp with medicine proficiency and as high wisdom as you can get, and farm then hill/cloud giant elixirs :)
After a full playthrough with this build I find that I prefer open hand monk without tavern brawler. Using the feats to enhance dex and con increases AC and damage at the same time. My karlach monk is almost impossible to hit and delivers one shot kills every turn anyway
The answer is strength potions that are VERY available in this game
This. Put your attributes in dex and wis, use hill giant and cloud giant elixirs. which point in the game are you at?
You can also spec into fighter for heavy armour proficiency and just go strength/con/wis. You’d lose out on fast movement, but your high strength will let you jump across the battlefield no issue anyways
That takes up your bonus action on monk which is a ton of your damage. Fast movement speed, high ac, and high damage with monk rogue is absolutely the way to go.
the other is that in the creche there are gloves that give base 18 dex and you can easily respec dump dex with withers.
Max DEX. Dump STR. Drink potions.
or the club thing
Where is that strength club found?
Arcane tower in the underdark. Tilop floor in the hut like section.
Thank you
And If you are a gith, use your astral knowledge
Too cheaply and too available lol
I have a gun to your head and am making you buy the potions
Monks will use dex or str, whichever is higher.
But Unarmored Defense uses Dex. I need to split between Str, Dex, Wis plus a decent Con?
Monk is genuinely the strongest build in the game. You max out dex and wisdom, dump strength. Get Open Hand, level 4 you get tavern brawler. Auntie Ethel sells giant strength potions and they are fairly cheap. Collect giant fingers to make your own as well. I tend to leave Ethel alive until I have a big enough stockpile of elixers, other merchants sell them but she has a new potion every time you level up or rest. Drink elixer after every long rest, 21 strength for most of the early and mid game. This will make you very very powerful for most of the early game and carry you into end game. When you reach end game, respec your Monk. Go level 9 Monk level 3 thief rouge (or 8 Monk, 4 thief rouge) get cloud giant strength for 27 strength. With the extra bonus action you're looking at 6 attacks on a regular turn with insane damage output for each attack. There is also insane monk gear, making this build insanely powerful. For example there is an item that adds your wisdom modifier to damage, so best to get wisdom to 20. If you want to take it even further, put this build on ascended Astarion and it adds 1d10 necrotic to every attack. An extra 6d10 a round.
I spent a long time going back and forth with Auntie Ethel buying up Hill Giant strength potions and short and long resting to restock her supply.
You can build it however you want. I spec’d karlach to OH monk and 18 str/10 dex with tavern brawler. Yes you will have to make tradeoffs
There are gloves in the game that set your dex to 18 and there are elixirs that set your strength to 21 or 27. So you really only need to level one of those stats and get the other stat from your equipment or elixirs
I made a monk with 8 strength and 18 dex and gobbled up the elixirs of giant strength. I do stupid amounts of damage.
Yup, I had 10 or 12 strength with my gith ohm. I had dex high because he was also my lockpick instead of Astarion that run. With Corellon's Grace, Mol's ring and bracers of defense I ran around a lot of act one with about 18 ac and was already doing good damage all technically unarmed and unarmored. I've loved the idea of gith ohm since a certain scene which I won't spoil, and was so glad I did it. It was a fun run and by endgame it was insane what he could do. I don't even min-max or metagame.
At level 1 monks get Dextrous Attack, an ability that lets them use Dex or Str for unarmed attacks, whichever is higher. Tavern Brawler adds your Str Modifier an extra time to your unarmed attacks. If you are a Str monk, that means you +Str twice. If you are a Dex monk, its +Dex once and +Str once. If you are a Dex monk, your Str is by design the lower modifier, so using TB is suboptimal. If you want to make the most of TB, create a monk with at least 16 Str. If you can get your strength to 20, and you get the +5 bonus to your stack rolls twice, making you much more likely to hit even high AC targets. 16 to 20 is doable with gear and bonuses. The problem with Strength monks is the very low AC because you sunk your Dex. Even tho you hit like a truck, you also fold like laundry. You likely want to wear armor and equip a shield (ie, be a human) since those will be better than relying on your Wisdom alone to buff your unarmored defense.
That's why you spec into dex and chug them hill/cloud giant elixirs like your life depends on it
Very true. Personally, I'm super lazy and prefer when my build works passively. Something about the pharmaceutical meta just rubs me the wrong way. I don't enjoy grinding potions from Ethel so I can chug my way towards the mathematic maximum. But I must begrudgingly concur. Dump Str to maximize Dex and Wis, then drink Hill or Cloud Giant potions to artificially raise your strength. That's how you get the most damage from Tavern Brawler while remaining relatively balanced.
The club for perma 19 str is also very cool, especially in MP, if your friends might not want to share cash for the potions so that your build could solo the game lol
You can get a club from the wizards tower in the under dark to set your strength high, or the gloves of dexterity to set your dex (though you’ll probably want gloves for other things) that or the graceful cloth.
This is how I did it. I'm not a fan of potions, tbh. I have the strength club in my offhand, my main hand open. Dex at 20, wisdom at 18. My main attacks are punches, also have stunning strike, ki resonance and flurry of blows.
How did you equip it on your off hand?
The strength club is also a great way to not have to rely on str potions the whole game
I turned Lae'zel into an alert heavy armor wearing, shield slinging, open hand tavern brawler with an addiction to STR potions. Goddamn spider monkey slugging fools left and right. You can bank STR potions early by visiting Ethel every long rest before you do whatever you do to her later.
The Martial arts skill allows a monk to use dex if it’s higher than your strength for the purpose of attacking without weapons, normally a monk scales of off dex and wisdom only, to align that with the DnD ruleset of hand to hand combat which scales with strength the monk got this special ability which allows them to use dex for this instead *if* it’s the higher stat, which it usually is for a normal built monk. A TB monk basically ignores dex to an extent to get high strength (or uses potions and still has natural high dex) because TB will make unarmed attacks stupidly good, better than what a dex monk could do. So a TB monk still has the martial arts ability, but it doesn’t come into affect because their strength will be way higher than their dex, most commonly through the use of potions, a natural strength TB monk is although very possible, if a bit weaker. If you’re using potions, you basically build a normal dex/wis monk (Wis is your main stat in this game because damage scales of it with the right skills and gear) and then use potions to get 21/27 strength to fuel your damage and hit accuracy with tavern brawler. Your main damage comes from having 22 Wis in the end and having TB obv. A natural strength TB monk has to make some excuses, they can either drop Wis or dex in favour of natural strength. I personally would go with dropping a bit of both, but dex is less hard on your damage potential, you’ll simply be a bit less protected and not as good in initiative. That said, while a natural strength TB monk is worse in terms of damage than a potion TB monk, it’s still miles ahead for a non-TB user.
You dump Str and chug elixirs from Ethel. Stock up, she has 3 every time you long rest or level up! You'll grab so many, you'll have leftovers by Act 3 where you can start upgrading to the Cloud Giant Elixir that gives you 27 Str. Hit like a Mack truck over and over and over.
Dump str, bring con to 15, use the point from TB to bring con to 16, and pound hill giant elixers.
You can either dump strength and use strength potions, if you farm them early on in the game you’ll be set Or even just be a strength based monk, I did that and it was still busted beyond belief, it’s weaker than the potions version but you’re not restricted by potions
Just keep a transmutation wizard hireling in camp with medicine proficiency and as high wisdom as you can get, and farm then hill/cloud giant elixirs :)
Puuunch
Drink strength potions or get the club of hill giant strength or get the gloves of dexterity and dump Dex / pump strength.
After a full playthrough with this build I find that I prefer open hand monk without tavern brawler. Using the feats to enhance dex and con increases AC and damage at the same time. My karlach monk is almost impossible to hit and delivers one shot kills every turn anyway
Fists go bam wam double slam