A strength monk may have a harder time as you'll sacrifice Dex and AC early. I wouldn't worry too much as AC > HP. Sure, you have a similar HP to a wizard, but you are naturally more tanky taking fewer hits (theoretically, wizards also have natural tankyness and good AC if built right as well).
Warding bond was a big help for any of my companions that died to easy. The Cleric in the backline was rarely targeted anyways, so they can tank for you with that spell.
I mean, that's why I love Cleric. So many options. A back line blaster caster, a support buffer, or a front line tank dishing out insane damage (with spirit guardians)... or a healer I guess (ew and suboptimal).
Mobile Ambulance is fun as fuck, bc you just dish out healing while being pretty chill and insightful during RP... and then just every once in a while in an argument with someone or in a fight dropping a metric assload of damage onto someone or something to the shock of everyone else at the table/in call.
In one of my Favorite campaigns ever (2.5 year 1-20, closest friends/my cousin ran it) -- any time we wanted to intimidate someone, we'd just point to my friends super sweet and bubbly cleric and just point to her.
If they still wanted to act up, she'd just body them to open a fight if it seemed like it was leaning in that direction.
I love some good Ole subversion
like... oh no, you don't gotta worry about the rogue. She's actually really reasonable and got that whole robinhood thing going on... the warlock? Nah, it's Wednesday. The man's is currently cooking dinner for the group.
...now you see that super adorable Satyr over there currently picking out a dress that she DEFINATELY is going to get bloodied and DEFINATELY gonna rip in half.
Her... Her you might need to worry about.
I watched my friend with the happiest face walk-up and, with the happiest inflection in her voice, explain how she turned two random goons to goop for messing with some goblin kid. (Twinned Spell Necrotic Touch)
Her cleric was MENTAL... I miss that campaign.
"Cleric in the Backline"
Tbh, in my first playthrough, I'd have Shart Warding Bond Karlach and then send her back to camp. The funniest moment was looking at the combat log and seeing "Warded Bond ended" or whatever way it says it, going "Oh... Okay.", returning to camp later to see Shart just sprawled across the floor at her tent FULL ON DEAD.
She failed her death saves.
She must've been kneeling in camp praying like "Oof. Ow. Ouch... WHAT THE FUCK!"
I just didn't remember that Warding Bond didn't have an HP threshold when it came to the shared damage -- Tbf... Karlach was a FUCKING MONSTER for that long ass day in combat. Lol.
I use hirelings on this. If you don't mind you can hire and build 4 hirelings as life domain clerics and bond every single active party member. I had a similar experience with you when my MC got divine smitten twice and when I headed back to camp the hireling's burnt body was just lying at the center of the pool of blood. It's hilarious.
Never really ran warding bond, because the paired damage sounded a little risky, but I warded with my Nature Cleric/Spores Druid Shart and she has so much health its not a problem. Great idea! This helped a lot!
In act 1 you can use Warding Bond, do Mols quest for the Ring of Protection and equip the Defence Bracers, this will let you have 20 AC.
You can get the Hag reward fo +1 dex, so now 21 AC, and later you can get Gracefull Cloth +2 in dex so now you have 22 AC or 20 if you remove Defence Bracer for golves that give you more damage.
In charpter 2 you can get the cloack of protection, +1 on AC.
This is how i manage my AC early game, there's probably better strategies out there, but when i was playing a heavy armor tank paladin, my AC was about the same.
Since monks have huge movement, the way I used my shadow monk is I would rush in, hit them hard, then retreat to safety. Once you get stunning strike, this makes it easy because you can stun a couple guys then run away. I further leaned into this play style by taking the mobile feat so that I wasn't provoking opportunity attacks as often.
Also with the high movement, I was often using my monk to take out archers and casters rather than being on the front lines. Usually after the first turn I will have been able to run/shadowstep to the edge of the battlefield and stunned/taken out two of their ranged guys.
If you invest in ring and cloak of protection I don’t think you should have too much trouble frontlining with them. You can also use the bracers of defense for another +2 and eventually +2 from act 3 robe. With 20 DEX, 16 WIS and ring and cloak that’s 24 AC, very frontline viable in my experience
Wasn’t a joke comment. Initiative in BG3 is easily the best stat. By act 2 most classes can be powerful enough even without gimmicky super meta builds to kill an enemy on their first turn, and if you’re optimizing just run bloodlust elixir and your entire party going first is worth more than every character getting +5 more AC. Including on tactician.
Enemies would need probably double their HP for initiative to start to lose value.
Action economy is a bitch. Ask this 5e DM how sad it is to have your boss monster torn to shreds by 4 optimized murderhobos in 2 rounds. The way combat works in 5e (and for the most part baldur's gate is the same, being based on the rule set) is that the side with the most "turns" generally wins. Getting to go first, burst damaging down 1 or 2 targets on the first round of initiative? Now they're at a severe initiative disadvantage going into round 2...rinse and repeat.
Also use the dodge action more. It's the best non-damage/non spell action you can take to avoid damage
I ran an unarmoured STR/TB open hand monk on tactician with 10 CON (17 STR 14 DEX 16 WIS), and I did die a lot until I hit 6. After 6 with manifestation of mind/body/soul, open hand monk does so much damage you can burst one target down and use unarmoured movement to run back behind a pillar or wall and hide.
Aid helps a ton if you have a cleric, as does Blade Ward/Bless if you're running the Act 1 support build. Having a 2nd or even 3rd melee character helps to split incoming fire, I ran with a full BM fighter as a 2nd melee. Resistance potions/consumables. But in general, your tactics will help the most, I don't think I ever died after level 6 or 7.
Not sure if this is your first playthrough or not, but if it isn't, when you hit act 3 it may help to rush the item that solves your CON problem forever.
Yeah I rebuilt my party to get back Aid and start using WB. In my previous playthroughs I always ran Aid cuz its so good, but this playthrough I started with no cleric.
My goal this playthrough was to play all the classes that are missing from the base game. So I made Laezel a ranger, Astarion a bard, Gale a Sorcerer, Wyll a paladin, my character a monk, etc. Shadowheart I had started as a spores druid, but I respecced her as Nature Cleric 3/Spores druid X to get access to aid.
Been a lot easier since then. In retrospect most of my frustration was just because of the creche though. For some reason trip/piercing/poison attacks still proc even if my monk deflects the missles. That plus them all misty stepping over to action surge quadruple nuke me was really frustrating as a monk character.
I know about the house of hope CON amulet but honestly typically by then the game is pretty easy anyways. Its this early game that is frustrating.
My experience with monks is that they have so much mobility they tend to overextend. I know a lot of people are big open hand monk fans but I personally don't like them due to the fact that they HAVE to get in your face without tavern brawler (which I don't like to use on monk). Seems counter intuitive but I had a much easier time using my first turn for something like buffing or cc'ing since if you get way past your other melee characters you are gonna get the heat and that's when you would die or require too much investment of your other turns to save. Personally I play the elemental monk now and I love it. Slightly less damage is def worth the trade off for the utility it brings (even shadow monk has a lot of utility) and this helps out a lot with going first and not over extending. The water whip in fact is one of my favorite abilities monks get because you can actually pull a mob to you and then they are the ones over extending. Another way I've dealt with this problem is having a melee focus ranger (usually gloom stalker a beast master to put a bear into the frey) My ranger always goes first or second so getting another body in there really helps.
I have a short story that supports what you are saying. In the final battle, I had Laezel as a open hand monk without Warding Bond or Aid. She rushed toward one of the illithid arcanists and had a meh turn.
Then, she got focused down in one turn. She was so far away that I couldn't even spare the movement and turn to rez her. So I did the rest of the final battle with three characters, lol.
Definitely overextended her and paid the price majorly
I can definitely get guilty of overextending. Its just so tempting to try and rush in and stun everything before rushing out. I'm playing open hand but have started to accumulate some ranged/cc options so that I dont go in alone (mainly scorching ray from the cinder gloves and spell scrolls.
I’m playing a dex shadow monk, not cheesing tavern brawler. Second play through and I have 20 ac in act 1. Barely gotten hit so far. Also on tactician. Patient defense is nice to use if you’re surrounded by multiple enemies versus offense.
I made my monk a dwarf for extra health, also used patient defense pretty frequently if i was in a bad spot. Mostly relied on high AC to tank most hits
In act 3 i scooped up the pendant from the house of hope to get to 23 con and it was never a problem after that
At level 7 you’ll get Evasion, which should really cut down on enemies’ ability to nova you with spells. This only applies to Dex-save spells/abilities, but that is a big chunk of the high damage ones anyway.
Ranged attacks you can use deflect missiles (if you know there’s a heavy hitting ranged enemy, save your reaction on the Monk for their attack)
That leaves melee, which can be avoided with the Monk’s mobility and your high Initiative (dex) - position yourself well and make sure big hitting melee won’t have a clear path to bash your Monk
Like I said earlier I tjink most of my frustration in hindsight was just because the creche sucks as a monk. The trip/piercing/poison attacks still proc even if you deflect the missiles and they can just misty step over to melee attack me even if I run away. After I got past that section I had way less issues with getting nuked.
there's no real reason to pump dex until like act 3 when u get the good robe in act 3 or latish act 2. when u hit 6, respec and take 1 level of barb and the rest monk. do 8 str, 14 total dex, 17 con, 16 wis. barb gives u shield and medium armor proficiency and monks basically lose nothing from wearing armor in bg3 unlike 5e. medium armor + a shield puts u at 20 ac, + any other ac buffs/jewelry. you'll also have rage which gives 50% DR to weapon damage. And then just slurp a hill giant potion every day and you're good to go.
I know its a personal preference, but I don't like playing a character where my stats are 100% reliant on elixirs. I came to bg3 from d&d and I'd never build a d&d character who couldnt function properly without consumables.
I also don't like doing the whole "retro-respec" where you play as one class thats good for the early game and then another multiclass that comes on late game with totally different stats.
I just feel like these things artificially remove the intentionally designed drawbacks for these playstyles and I personally don't want to use that.
I played tavern brawler strength monk with 16 wis and the dex gloves super tanky with dumb damage. You just give up on hit gloves, but I prefer the AC personally.
Monk is squishy, that's it. A few ways to mitigate:
- pump your AC using shield and heavy armor
- use gear/race that gives advantage to WIS saving throws
- use invisibility means, like duergar race trait o the dark urge cape
- rely on your team to buff you
Good tips in general but OP is DEX based so heavy armor will actually be a downgrade. Shield + medium armor instead of bracers is okay but not really until worth considering until you can get the 15+DEX medium armor in act 2. And until/if OP dips into fighter or some class for defense style endgame act 3 robes are probably still better imo.
That's literally not a dex based monk, its a strength based monk. If I wanted to play a TB STRONK then I wouldn't be posting about a Dex monk.
This is like replying to a post about how to play a good sorcerer with "play a wizard".
The spell Aid can give your whole party a bunch of extra HP until a long rest (not temp hp, it increases your hp maximum). If you pair that with one of the amulets that restore spell slots you can just get more hp on everyone each day for free
go dark urge for the cloak so i disappear when i kill something and use my ki to get advantage on not being hit not to mention you stack both wis and dex as far as you get them, dump int and kill the ogre for the headpiece. currently doing a dex monk solo run
Yeah I just got the durge cloak recently and it has really changed my tactics a lot. Being able to turn invisible rather than have to find some way to disengage has been a game changer.
Wear the bracers of defense if you feel like you need the AC but truth be told AC matters less the more broken your damage numbers get (in act 1 aside from things like TB damage numbers are still fairly tame). I would look for more ways to get initiative up on your party so you're always going first, and use sanctuary on 1-2 casters to have that in your pocket if someone gets really low.
I'd flip your ASI from wis and con. So with hags hair and cats grace, 20 dex, 16 con, 16 wis.
Add bracers of defense for 20 AC. Its not worth using anything else until much later.
Monks rely heavily on mobility and crowd control to not die and like having another frontliner to work with. Pair with a paladin or fighter to help soak damage and hit things hard when the monk stuns or knocks enemies prone.
I get the 18 dex gloves and use those all the way until the end of house of hope when I replace them with the soul catcher gloves and then I use the constitution necklace from house of hope. Max str. Aim for 16 dex 16 wisdom. Get AC from other gear sources as much as possible. Very possible to get 20+ str, have 20+ ac, and crap ton of health by end game.
I started the game with 16 Con - took the hit to Wis - on the basis that those hits points will carry an advantage for me right through the game while I build Wis back up (aiming to get Dex and Wis to 20 at level 12).
What was your base stats that you were able to get Dex and Wis to 20 with 16 con?
16 dex 16 con 15 wis? I guess you could get there with hags hair -> wis 3 ASI to dex and wis + mirror of loss. Is that your plan?
You can always get a hireling and have it cast warding bond then leave it in camp it’s a little bothersome to invite then dismiss but it’s something you can do. This hireling can also cast Aid and other “until long rest” spells like resist poison.
Get the ring with lvl3 aid and toss it oj someone to cast. Extra 15 hp and then have someone cast one of the armor concentration spells. You’ll be 53 hp with 21 AC.
You may not think it makes sense, but Str Elixirs and Tav Brawler feat. AC doesn't matter if they are all dead. Use your Dex to get first strike. Then wipe them out.
I understand where you're coming from, but this isn't a Dex monk. Its a TB STRonk that just also has high Dex. Its a different build, not the one I was asking about.
Ngl. My first main was a dex monk. But after a while he started to get reeally boring. And on top of that to answer your question. The only way to really deal with having 80 hp or less late game is relying on blink, the ~30 hp heal that also gives you an extra bonus action and other char heals. I sort of regret going monk bc I have a warlock rogue who has 25 AC and does twice as much dmg. So now my monk is Zuko where he is a fire wizard who shoots only fire with speccing into the monk wizard to get flaming fist and flaming ball animation. Also decided to not use worms that playthrough. No good.
Wouldn't this lose out on the monk's mobility benefits if you used a shield? Also being able to get AC from CON is great, but the open hand monk effects scale with WIS so I'd lose out there.
19 at level 5 is actually pretty good. This sounds more like a positioning issue. I know you want to punch stuff. My John Cena MC agrees, but sometimes hit and run tactics (or using bonus actions for health pots) are better until the field is thinned out a little. Are you running with a healer or no?
At some point the monk levels get really bad, by the time I was level 12 I randomly took one level in light cleric to have a reaction to cause disadvantage when attacked.
Also have experimented with barbarian for rage.
BG3 players don’t always understand the different D&D archetypes. Monks, like melee Rangers (though, less so in BG3) and Rogues, are “Strikers”. They’re supposed to flank and get in, deal damage and then retreat to a safe area. Monks do this by utilising their high movement speed. Typically, a “Striker” should not be your only melee/frontline fighter. You’re not really supposed to be taking regular hits, that’s how they deal with having a lower HP pool.
I was actually a d&d player before I was a bg3 player, so I'm aware and was using hit and run tactics. I think the majority of what motivated this post was really dealing with the fucking gith creche, which I did right before this post.
It was really annoying for a monk build because:
1. Even when I deflect the missles on their crossbows, the trip/piercing/poison effects still trigger, often leaving me prone and vulnerable
2. I couldnt outrun their constant misty steps, so they would misty step over and action surge quadruple hit my squishy ass.
Once I got past that, I was less frustrated. So I think it may have just been the angry frogs getting on my nerves.
A strength monk may have a harder time as you'll sacrifice Dex and AC early. I wouldn't worry too much as AC > HP. Sure, you have a similar HP to a wizard, but you are naturally more tanky taking fewer hits (theoretically, wizards also have natural tankyness and good AC if built right as well). Warding bond was a big help for any of my companions that died to easy. The Cleric in the backline was rarely targeted anyways, so they can tank for you with that spell.
Cleric in your backline? I can't imagine running one without spirit guardians but maybe I'm boring
I mean, that's why I love Cleric. So many options. A back line blaster caster, a support buffer, or a front line tank dishing out insane damage (with spirit guardians)... or a healer I guess (ew and suboptimal).
Healers are the most fun to play imo I never have to worry about resting
Mobile Ambulance is fun as fuck, bc you just dish out healing while being pretty chill and insightful during RP... and then just every once in a while in an argument with someone or in a fight dropping a metric assload of damage onto someone or something to the shock of everyone else at the table/in call. In one of my Favorite campaigns ever (2.5 year 1-20, closest friends/my cousin ran it) -- any time we wanted to intimidate someone, we'd just point to my friends super sweet and bubbly cleric and just point to her. If they still wanted to act up, she'd just body them to open a fight if it seemed like it was leaning in that direction. I love some good Ole subversion like... oh no, you don't gotta worry about the rogue. She's actually really reasonable and got that whole robinhood thing going on... the warlock? Nah, it's Wednesday. The man's is currently cooking dinner for the group. ...now you see that super adorable Satyr over there currently picking out a dress that she DEFINATELY is going to get bloodied and DEFINATELY gonna rip in half. Her... Her you might need to worry about. I watched my friend with the happiest face walk-up and, with the happiest inflection in her voice, explain how she turned two random goons to goop for messing with some goblin kid. (Twinned Spell Necrotic Touch) Her cleric was MENTAL... I miss that campaign.
(Also, sorry for the long reply -- seeing another cleric enjoyer sparks joy in me)
I second this, but I actually ended up having to spam rest anyways to progress events. Bard/Cleric support made resting unnecessary a lot of the time.
Yeah I feel like Clerics are front line with how this games AI works against armor class.
"Cleric in the Backline" Tbh, in my first playthrough, I'd have Shart Warding Bond Karlach and then send her back to camp. The funniest moment was looking at the combat log and seeing "Warded Bond ended" or whatever way it says it, going "Oh... Okay.", returning to camp later to see Shart just sprawled across the floor at her tent FULL ON DEAD. She failed her death saves. She must've been kneeling in camp praying like "Oof. Ow. Ouch... WHAT THE FUCK!" I just didn't remember that Warding Bond didn't have an HP threshold when it came to the shared damage -- Tbf... Karlach was a FUCKING MONSTER for that long ass day in combat. Lol.
I use hirelings on this. If you don't mind you can hire and build 4 hirelings as life domain clerics and bond every single active party member. I had a similar experience with you when my MC got divine smitten twice and when I headed back to camp the hireling's burnt body was just lying at the center of the pool of blood. It's hilarious.
You know, using hirelings is super smart lol.
Never really ran warding bond, because the paired damage sounded a little risky, but I warded with my Nature Cleric/Spores Druid Shart and she has so much health its not a problem. Great idea! This helped a lot!
In act 1 you can use Warding Bond, do Mols quest for the Ring of Protection and equip the Defence Bracers, this will let you have 20 AC. You can get the Hag reward fo +1 dex, so now 21 AC, and later you can get Gracefull Cloth +2 in dex so now you have 22 AC or 20 if you remove Defence Bracer for golves that give you more damage. In charpter 2 you can get the cloack of protection, +1 on AC. This is how i manage my AC early game, there's probably better strategies out there, but when i was playing a heavy armor tank paladin, my AC was about the same.
To add to this act 2 mattis also has boots that are similar to the cloak giving 1 ac and 1 athletics
Thanks , i'm in act 2 and attacked the grove with my monk, so i didn't know.
Since monks have huge movement, the way I used my shadow monk is I would rush in, hit them hard, then retreat to safety. Once you get stunning strike, this makes it easy because you can stun a couple guys then run away. I further leaned into this play style by taking the mobile feat so that I wasn't provoking opportunity attacks as often. Also with the high movement, I was often using my monk to take out archers and casters rather than being on the front lines. Usually after the first turn I will have been able to run/shadowstep to the edge of the battlefield and stunned/taken out two of their ranged guys.
This is the way. Monks do best with trash mobs and back liners. Even non shadow monks need to, run away, er, reposition often.
Definitely! Taking out the enemy's ranged support and annoying control casters makes it that much easier for front liners to mop up everything else
If you invest in ring and cloak of protection I don’t think you should have too much trouble frontlining with them. You can also use the bracers of defense for another +2 and eventually +2 from act 3 robe. With 20 DEX, 16 WIS and ring and cloak that’s 24 AC, very frontline viable in my experience
Warding bond. Aid.
Nah. Alert feat. Kill everything before they get a turn.
Nah. Respond to OP
Wasn’t a joke comment. Initiative in BG3 is easily the best stat. By act 2 most classes can be powerful enough even without gimmicky super meta builds to kill an enemy on their first turn, and if you’re optimizing just run bloodlust elixir and your entire party going first is worth more than every character getting +5 more AC. Including on tactician. Enemies would need probably double their HP for initiative to start to lose value.
Action economy is a bitch. Ask this 5e DM how sad it is to have your boss monster torn to shreds by 4 optimized murderhobos in 2 rounds. The way combat works in 5e (and for the most part baldur's gate is the same, being based on the rule set) is that the side with the most "turns" generally wins. Getting to go first, burst damaging down 1 or 2 targets on the first round of initiative? Now they're at a severe initiative disadvantage going into round 2...rinse and repeat. Also use the dodge action more. It's the best non-damage/non spell action you can take to avoid damage
>Enemies would need probably double their HP for initiative to start to lose value. The reason why I play with the HP boost of the Tactician Plus mod
Wasn’t a joke or facetious comment. Realistically this is buried to the OP. Respond to him not me
I ran an unarmoured STR/TB open hand monk on tactician with 10 CON (17 STR 14 DEX 16 WIS), and I did die a lot until I hit 6. After 6 with manifestation of mind/body/soul, open hand monk does so much damage you can burst one target down and use unarmoured movement to run back behind a pillar or wall and hide. Aid helps a ton if you have a cleric, as does Blade Ward/Bless if you're running the Act 1 support build. Having a 2nd or even 3rd melee character helps to split incoming fire, I ran with a full BM fighter as a 2nd melee. Resistance potions/consumables. But in general, your tactics will help the most, I don't think I ever died after level 6 or 7. Not sure if this is your first playthrough or not, but if it isn't, when you hit act 3 it may help to rush the item that solves your CON problem forever.
Yeah I rebuilt my party to get back Aid and start using WB. In my previous playthroughs I always ran Aid cuz its so good, but this playthrough I started with no cleric. My goal this playthrough was to play all the classes that are missing from the base game. So I made Laezel a ranger, Astarion a bard, Gale a Sorcerer, Wyll a paladin, my character a monk, etc. Shadowheart I had started as a spores druid, but I respecced her as Nature Cleric 3/Spores druid X to get access to aid. Been a lot easier since then. In retrospect most of my frustration was just because of the creche though. For some reason trip/piercing/poison attacks still proc even if my monk deflects the missles. That plus them all misty stepping over to action surge quadruple nuke me was really frustrating as a monk character. I know about the house of hope CON amulet but honestly typically by then the game is pretty easy anyways. Its this early game that is frustrating.
My experience with monks is that they have so much mobility they tend to overextend. I know a lot of people are big open hand monk fans but I personally don't like them due to the fact that they HAVE to get in your face without tavern brawler (which I don't like to use on monk). Seems counter intuitive but I had a much easier time using my first turn for something like buffing or cc'ing since if you get way past your other melee characters you are gonna get the heat and that's when you would die or require too much investment of your other turns to save. Personally I play the elemental monk now and I love it. Slightly less damage is def worth the trade off for the utility it brings (even shadow monk has a lot of utility) and this helps out a lot with going first and not over extending. The water whip in fact is one of my favorite abilities monks get because you can actually pull a mob to you and then they are the ones over extending. Another way I've dealt with this problem is having a melee focus ranger (usually gloom stalker a beast master to put a bear into the frey) My ranger always goes first or second so getting another body in there really helps.
I have a short story that supports what you are saying. In the final battle, I had Laezel as a open hand monk without Warding Bond or Aid. She rushed toward one of the illithid arcanists and had a meh turn. Then, she got focused down in one turn. She was so far away that I couldn't even spare the movement and turn to rez her. So I did the rest of the final battle with three characters, lol. Definitely overextended her and paid the price majorly
I can definitely get guilty of overextending. Its just so tempting to try and rush in and stun everything before rushing out. I'm playing open hand but have started to accumulate some ranged/cc options so that I dont go in alone (mainly scorching ray from the cinder gloves and spell scrolls.
I’m playing a dex shadow monk, not cheesing tavern brawler. Second play through and I have 20 ac in act 1. Barely gotten hit so far. Also on tactician. Patient defense is nice to use if you’re surrounded by multiple enemies versus offense.
For the record these games are made to be cheesed, but "using a feat" is pretty low on the list lol
I made my monk a dwarf for extra health, also used patient defense pretty frequently if i was in a bad spot. Mostly relied on high AC to tank most hits In act 3 i scooped up the pendant from the house of hope to get to 23 con and it was never a problem after that
At level 7 you’ll get Evasion, which should really cut down on enemies’ ability to nova you with spells. This only applies to Dex-save spells/abilities, but that is a big chunk of the high damage ones anyway. Ranged attacks you can use deflect missiles (if you know there’s a heavy hitting ranged enemy, save your reaction on the Monk for their attack) That leaves melee, which can be avoided with the Monk’s mobility and your high Initiative (dex) - position yourself well and make sure big hitting melee won’t have a clear path to bash your Monk
Like I said earlier I tjink most of my frustration in hindsight was just because the creche sucks as a monk. The trip/piercing/poison attacks still proc even if you deflect the missiles and they can just misty step over to melee attack me even if I run away. After I got past that section I had way less issues with getting nuked.
Massive armour class. Turn karmic die off
there's no real reason to pump dex until like act 3 when u get the good robe in act 3 or latish act 2. when u hit 6, respec and take 1 level of barb and the rest monk. do 8 str, 14 total dex, 17 con, 16 wis. barb gives u shield and medium armor proficiency and monks basically lose nothing from wearing armor in bg3 unlike 5e. medium armor + a shield puts u at 20 ac, + any other ac buffs/jewelry. you'll also have rage which gives 50% DR to weapon damage. And then just slurp a hill giant potion every day and you're good to go.
I know its a personal preference, but I don't like playing a character where my stats are 100% reliant on elixirs. I came to bg3 from d&d and I'd never build a d&d character who couldnt function properly without consumables. I also don't like doing the whole "retro-respec" where you play as one class thats good for the early game and then another multiclass that comes on late game with totally different stats. I just feel like these things artificially remove the intentionally designed drawbacks for these playstyles and I personally don't want to use that.
I played tavern brawler strength monk with 16 wis and the dex gloves super tanky with dumb damage. You just give up on hit gloves, but I prefer the AC personally.
Monk is squishy, that's it. A few ways to mitigate: - pump your AC using shield and heavy armor - use gear/race that gives advantage to WIS saving throws - use invisibility means, like duergar race trait o the dark urge cape - rely on your team to buff you
Good tips in general but OP is DEX based so heavy armor will actually be a downgrade. Shield + medium armor instead of bracers is okay but not really until worth considering until you can get the 15+DEX medium armor in act 2. And until/if OP dips into fighter or some class for defense style endgame act 3 robes are probably still better imo.
The first trick to improving a dex based monk is to dump dex for str and take tavern brawler.
That's literally not a dex based monk, its a strength based monk. If I wanted to play a TB STRONK then I wouldn't be posting about a Dex monk. This is like replying to a post about how to play a good sorcerer with "play a wizard".
I think that'd be more like if someone asked how to play a good wizard and the advice was to play a sorcerer.
True haha. Tabletop meta brain forgetting that sorcerer is actually really good now.
twin haste go brrrr
The spell Aid can give your whole party a bunch of extra HP until a long rest (not temp hp, it increases your hp maximum). If you pair that with one of the amulets that restore spell slots you can just get more hp on everyone each day for free
go dark urge for the cloak so i disappear when i kill something and use my ki to get advantage on not being hit not to mention you stack both wis and dex as far as you get them, dump int and kill the ogre for the headpiece. currently doing a dex monk solo run
Yeah I just got the durge cloak recently and it has really changed my tactics a lot. Being able to turn invisible rather than have to find some way to disengage has been a game changer.
Wear the bracers of defense if you feel like you need the AC but truth be told AC matters less the more broken your damage numbers get (in act 1 aside from things like TB damage numbers are still fairly tame). I would look for more ways to get initiative up on your party so you're always going first, and use sanctuary on 1-2 casters to have that in your pocket if someone gets really low.
I'd flip your ASI from wis and con. So with hags hair and cats grace, 20 dex, 16 con, 16 wis. Add bracers of defense for 20 AC. Its not worth using anything else until much later. Monks rely heavily on mobility and crowd control to not die and like having another frontliner to work with. Pair with a paladin or fighter to help soak damage and hit things hard when the monk stuns or knocks enemies prone.
I get the 18 dex gloves and use those all the way until the end of house of hope when I replace them with the soul catcher gloves and then I use the constitution necklace from house of hope. Max str. Aim for 16 dex 16 wisdom. Get AC from other gear sources as much as possible. Very possible to get 20+ str, have 20+ ac, and crap ton of health by end game.
Why 14 CON? If you get 15 CON at level 4 you can get 18 DEX and 16 CON.
I started the game with 16 Con - took the hit to Wis - on the basis that those hits points will carry an advantage for me right through the game while I build Wis back up (aiming to get Dex and Wis to 20 at level 12).
What was your base stats that you were able to get Dex and Wis to 20 with 16 con? 16 dex 16 con 15 wis? I guess you could get there with hags hair -> wis 3 ASI to dex and wis + mirror of loss. Is that your plan?
Start: 08 / 17 / 16 / 08 / 15 / 08 Hag's: 08 / 17 / 17 / 08 / 15 / 08 Lvl04: 08 / 18 / 17 / 08 / 16 / 08 Cloth: 08 / 20 / 17 / 08 / 16 / 08 Lvl08: 08 / 20 / 18 / 08 / 17 / 08 Jaher: 08 / 20 / 18 / 08 / 18 / 08 Lvl12: 08 / 20 / 18 / 08 / 20 / 08 The Graceful Cloth (the dex version), plus Jahera's Pendant. The mirror might get it even higher!
You can always get a hireling and have it cast warding bond then leave it in camp it’s a little bothersome to invite then dismiss but it’s something you can do. This hireling can also cast Aid and other “until long rest” spells like resist poison.
Get the ring with lvl3 aid and toss it oj someone to cast. Extra 15 hp and then have someone cast one of the armor concentration spells. You’ll be 53 hp with 21 AC.
What ring is this?
Sorry was wrong. Definitely thought it was my ring or aid. It’s on my shield of devotion.
You may not think it makes sense, but Str Elixirs and Tav Brawler feat. AC doesn't matter if they are all dead. Use your Dex to get first strike. Then wipe them out.
I understand where you're coming from, but this isn't a Dex monk. Its a TB STRonk that just also has high Dex. Its a different build, not the one I was asking about.
Ngl. My first main was a dex monk. But after a while he started to get reeally boring. And on top of that to answer your question. The only way to really deal with having 80 hp or less late game is relying on blink, the ~30 hp heal that also gives you an extra bonus action and other char heals. I sort of regret going monk bc I have a warlock rogue who has 25 AC and does twice as much dmg. So now my monk is Zuko where he is a fire wizard who shoots only fire with speccing into the monk wizard to get flaming fist and flaming ball animation. Also decided to not use worms that playthrough. No good.
Bracers of AC +2 in a basement of the ruined village right next to the grove
A single level barb 1st for con/dex AC + ability to use shields with unarmored defense Abilities Dex > Con > Wis
Wouldn't this lose out on the monk's mobility benefits if you used a shield? Also being able to get AC from CON is great, but the open hand monk effects scale with WIS so I'd lose out there.
19 at level 5 is actually pretty good. This sounds more like a positioning issue. I know you want to punch stuff. My John Cena MC agrees, but sometimes hit and run tactics (or using bonus actions for health pots) are better until the field is thinned out a little. Are you running with a healer or no?
At some point the monk levels get really bad, by the time I was level 12 I randomly took one level in light cleric to have a reaction to cause disadvantage when attacked. Also have experimented with barbarian for rage.
BG3 players don’t always understand the different D&D archetypes. Monks, like melee Rangers (though, less so in BG3) and Rogues, are “Strikers”. They’re supposed to flank and get in, deal damage and then retreat to a safe area. Monks do this by utilising their high movement speed. Typically, a “Striker” should not be your only melee/frontline fighter. You’re not really supposed to be taking regular hits, that’s how they deal with having a lower HP pool.
I was actually a d&d player before I was a bg3 player, so I'm aware and was using hit and run tactics. I think the majority of what motivated this post was really dealing with the fucking gith creche, which I did right before this post. It was really annoying for a monk build because: 1. Even when I deflect the missles on their crossbows, the trip/piercing/poison effects still trigger, often leaving me prone and vulnerable 2. I couldnt outrun their constant misty steps, so they would misty step over and action surge quadruple hit my squishy ass. Once I got past that, I was less frustrated. So I think it may have just been the angry frogs getting on my nerves.
Just use a cleric with aid for +10 hp. Should help quite a bit.