Attempt at building a good monk

[jellyman]

Elf Monk. Current stats:

Level 7
str 8
int 5
wis 14
dex 7
con 7
chr 6

Skills:
Spellcraft 2
Agility 2
Martial arts 7

Abilities:
Unarmored combat 5
Widom 1

This monk currently does more damage with an elemental missile spell than melee. Seems to be doing much better than my first character with no problems so far. Of course I haven't got to the sewers yet where I couldn't even get close to beating the boss monster with my previous monk.

The concept is to get lots of wisdom for lots of skill points, good magic and melee to be flexible, with a focus on survivability rather than offence - I might need to increase Con more than I have so far, but otherwise plan to continue a similar skill/stat/ability progression.

Any comments or advice?

[nork]

Raise your martial arts skill to at least 15, you will get an additional attack then. Focus more on Dex than Str because if you don't hit the monster you can't hurt it. Other than that you sound like you are on a good path.

Nork

[Variaz]

With only Martial Arts 7, you do 1d3 base damages, which is less than a dagger. Definitly raise it to 15 as soon as possible, where you'll get 2d4 base damages, and gain an extra attack with each hands, resulting in 4 attacks.

With a Wisdom of 14, it's not surprising that your elemental spells do more damages at this point. With melee characters, however, be extremely careful about spending your early points in Wisdom/Intelligence. I know you don't want to lose a few skill points in the long run, but I've personally had nothing but bad experiences from focusing on Wisdom/Intelligence at the beginning with my melee characters. Your first two points should be Dex, and then some Con and Str. Items will help you get the Intelligence/Wisdom needed. Amulets of Brillance(+2) will give +2 to both Intelligence and Wisdom, greatly helping getting an average of 12 between both(which you need to get extra skill points). All you need then is some items. If you still want to raise Wisdom to 20 early in the game, then you'll have to rely on your magic missile a little more than you probably want to(unless you actually want that, of course! ).

And remember to get some AC!! Unarmed Combat 5 is great, but put some points in Agility to make it even better. The Priest's Holy Might will help you too! And try that new Magic Defense skill! It works GREAT, I can assure you!

[adelie]

A couple of the priest abilities (namely, a point in holy might, and a few in divine blood) are a great help to making a survivable monk. So much so, that I usually find a monk works out better by taking the first few levels as a priest while building up the martial arts and agility skills to useful levels.

The wisdom is pretty far ahead of the rest of your stats, so you'll be best off leaning on the casting instead of melee, unless you even out strength. No matter which way you go, putting the next couple of level ups into con won't hurt.

Consider taking elemental over spellcraft, if you're intending to use direct damage spells as a backup to melee, instead of using magic based class abilities, the damage boost to your spellcasting will add up much more quickly.

[smithy]

I have had a real FUN time with a kobold thief lv 10, dumped all 10 points into poison weapon, then switched to monk ! Then got luck found a silly ol' iron knuckle +25 wind, poisoned it and it became +1000 poison! Lots o' fun!

[jellyman]

Thanks for the comments. After reading I downloaded the new update and added the 3 points from my next level to magic defence. My character is now

Level 14
Str 9
Int 5
Wis 24
Dex 10
Con 13
Chr 5
AC 185 naked (just died)
HP 413

Skills
Spellcraft 7
Agility 13
Martial Arts 13
Elemental 1
Magic Defense 4

Abilities
Unarmored Combat 10
Wisdom 2
Monk Speed 2

My character seems to be quite hard to hit and relies more on magic than melee. However his biggest limiting factor seems to be hit points. I go down to about level 10-12 of the ruins and find that stuff hits me only occasionally, but when it does I lose 100-200 hitpoints or even more. I can heal around 150 hitpoints with my current heal spell, so its usually fine. But if a monster gets a good run and I'm ganged up on, I can die very quickly as well. So I think I need to keep pushing con more.

I guess that point in holy might may really help with the 20% damage reduction. I haven't been as keen on the divine blood ability as I can heal for a lot by using an action, so I figure regen of 20 or so a round won't make a huge difference. If I change to priest briefly and then back to monk do I keep my monk level?

[Variaz]

You will keep your Monk levels even if you switch class!

[zekk]

I have a completely untested Idea to put lots of points into combat feat for a monk. Because of the ability power punch (gained at 15 or so martial arts), you can double your damage on every strike and then jump away, as a good monk should have agility. Completely untested though.

[Variaz]

The "hit & run" combat feat-Agility approach has always worked fine for me with melee characters, though they used weapons and not Martial Arts. Guess you'll have to try it. If it works out fine, create a post "Combat Feats Monk", and post all details of your build!

You might want to consider some "combat feat" abilities, like Ki Punch, Energy Punch, Fist of Elements, Spin Kick, Throw, etc... They could be useful abilities to use with Combat Feats!

[nork]

That kind of build works wonders. That is what I made my monk do in the last Newangband release.

[Variaz]

When you think about it, it makes sense to use combat feats with a Monk. After all, this is Martial "ARTS" we are speaking about! If you're just hitting with your fists, then it's brawling. But if you do combos of throwing, punching, kicking and leaping away all in the same round, then it's definitly Martial Arts!