Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Thoughts on monk stats?

Hey! In all honesty, I might just stuck with the classical 5e rules to spice up my playthrough. I like challenge and restrictions, they make the pay off so much more satisfying. Yet I am happy to have started this build discussion in the first place, because FrostyFardragon, Warlocke and others convinced me to at least think about my survivability. It is no fun when you die every 30 minutes! I think my second run will be with optional rules enabled though, just to get a taste.

If you'd care for my 5 cents, I think their concerns are largely overblown and too latched onto 5E tabletop. BG3 is anything but 5E and if you play on normal, which is probably what EA is based on, the game difficulty is going to be a cakewalk because the way power curves work in too open-ended games means they get easier not harder and EA was already hella easy.

There are also a ridiculous number of ways to abuse BG3 mechanics, even by accident just playing normally, that aren't in 5E and itemization is also very different, plus Larian is homebrewing monks on top of all that. Unless you enjoy combat becoming a tedious chore instead of being challenging, a non-optimal party might actually be the best option. Obviously, we'll have to see how hardcore more is if you're planning on that, but I mean there are some lazy builds that could probably solo EA.

Having even one of those in a group of 4 will probably trivialize the game. I do agree str really doesn't work on monks even when trying to build for fun the way it might on say a ranger, but I would trust in Larian making monk a funner and better-supported experience than WoTC ever did, especially since it's the final class and thus spent the most time in development. And unless they go back and patch in more class reactivity on release, the ones that came later have increasingly more options when it comes to dialogue, so there should be quite a few of them for monk.

Quibble time! I'm not disagreeing with *anything* you wrote, but I think this one piece of logic is off - just because other classes were in EA doesn't mean at all that development on them stopped. I expect we'll see modifications from EA on literally every class

Oh, I agree (i.e. we know wildheart barbs are getting more forms for example), but we've already seen that the classes weren't done at the same time. We've seen stuff slowly come online like spells, mechanics (reactions), etc to replace placeholders, and they mostly fit with the classes they needed them. A lot of the stuff they saved for last no doubt required either homebrew (possibly--no hopefully--assassin) or unique work (spore druids), and since monk seems to be homebrewed far more heavily than ranger, it makes complete sense that they were the final class.

For the existing classes and subclasses, I honestly wouldn't expect much to change from the way it is now.

So ...
I guess we have good news for neprostoman.

Since characters in final build have option to make floating stats ... so githyanki is perfectly viable to make a good monk ...
Also ... maybe i dont see that well lately, but this seems like an armor!



So ... i would dare to say that armoured Monk will be a thing in BG-3 ...

Now this makes me wonder ... i see two ways to explain it:
- Either Larian decided to make it same as with Wizards ... if you are profficient, you can wear amor and there is no consequences ...
- Or, they decided to sacrifice some Monk features in order to get better AC with less dependence on Ability Scores ...

What is your thoughts?
What monk even loose, if they wear Medium armour?

The good thing is, there are some armor pieces on the nautiloid, so the first thing I'll do is check out how it works with armor and without!

I cant speak for 5.0 rules but in 3.0 if a monk is armored light/med/heavy they lose their Martial arts die, as well as unarmed bonus to attack and their movement speed. And their martial art stance. House rules who knows lol

Im stealing this from the Net.

"You can still use Flurry of Blows, because it is under Ki, not Martial Arts, and does not stipulate that you can't be wearing armor. This is great for a Way of Mercy or Way of the Open Hand monk that can add extra effect to Flurry of Blows." "Should I wear armor as a monk?
Monks normally don't wear armour, because it stops them using their martial arts ability. This enables them to make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, use the monk damage die for their level, and use dexterity for their unarmed strikes and non finesse monk weapon attacks."

So the way I read this is , the way of elements (caster type of monk) sure use armor if your going way of the fist dont?

Yep, monks shouldn't wear armor - they lose their unarmored defense bonus as well as fast speed and 1/2 other things (see 5e rules below - assuming Larian respects them). So high dex+ wis are good for AC (but of course, would be nice to have high str and con too....sigh)

Unarmored Defense

Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier.

Unarmored Movement

Starting at 2nd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.

At 9th level, you gain the ability to move along vertical surfaces and across liquids on your turn without falling during the move.

No matter what, nothing will stop me from playing a Githyanki monk!! Nothing!!!!! Unless someone blows my mind with a cool build for a Githyanki infiltrator which is not just 'pick rogue'

No reason not to so long as you can put your +2 in DEX and +1 in WIS.

There are a couple of other races that are marginally better (e.g. +3m base movement or +1 hp per level) but it's only really the ASIs that make a significant difference. But try and get proficiency in Perception if you can.

Githyanki actually get one free skill proficiency from the whole pool.

You know you are more than likely to be able to move the stat points around, the way you can in normal DnD. You put the 2 points on the 14, the 1 point on the 15 and take the 2 from the 12 and add it to the 13 and this will give you 16 16 14 10 10 8 (with stat boosts), which for the vast majority of classes is a much better stat allocation. You just put your first 2 points into the main stat at level 4 instead of rounding up the two odd ones. For most classes this is much handier.

Best thing about them. Perception is ever so useful with a high wisdom, especially on a scout, which monks should be good at, as they tend to be stealthy and have better survivability than rogues if spotted. But Perception is not on their class skill list, and there aren't many backgrounds that grant it either. I don't think any do in BG3.

My guess is they simply made clothes that looks cool (and like armor) for monks that doesn't actually count as armor.

Sorry if this double posts having trouble with the forum so dunno if this has gone threw already

Would taking 1 level in barb work with the monk, do the unarmoured perks stack?

Is barbarian rage useful for them?

Do you lose anything by not getting to level 12?

I dont know enough about the monk to theory craft this in my head easily lol

I just got trough whole tutorial ...
And except some daggers, battleaxe, few shortswords and handaxes ... and i think single shield.
I didnt find any equipment.

Specificaly not even single piece of Armor, wich kinda pissed me off, since i was Githyanki Wizard and purposefully avoided Mage Armor spell, since i wanted to save my spellslots for more usefull things and get my AC from regular armor.
That plan didnt went well.

I can answer these in accordance with PnP rules. Implementation in the game may differ.


No, these are explicitly called out as not stacking. You use whichever is better.

No and yes. The extra rage damage only applies to strength based attacks, and monks attack with dexterity. However, they can benefit from the damage resistance. And possibly subclass abilities with more levels.

A feat or ASI, 1 point of ki.

In general?
One ASI, or Feat choice ...
Impact of such consequence varies, depending on your class.

BUT!!!

We have seen Larian is implementing some stuff (mainly spells) that seems suspiciously simmilar to things that were meaned for even higher levels.
So there is certain risk (or possibility, depending on your opinion) that there will be some special bonus feature for people who will get all 12 levels in single class.

Kinda funny we never find out until it will be too late, since there is no class prewiev implemented. xD

All of the armors are in the helm, except for the heavy ones, you can loot a light armor tunic from one of the dead thralls and a medium scale armor from my man Zhalk.

I had to sit and think things through after all the likely changes to abilities. I think I got so excited with my trash build that I'll stick with it regardless, but the one involving medium armor rather than heavy one. So, 17/14/10/9/15/8 we go, then ASI, then Tough, then ASI again, ending with 20/14/10(14)/16/8. I'll rely on my unparalleled and brilliant skill in this game to survive with 10 CON till level 8, but if I feel extra shitty, then I'll opt for Tough at level 4 instead. I bet that'll be a wild ride. At least it comforts me that shove is not receiving a nerf, so when push comes to shove, I'll show them!!