Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Monk/Ninja Build

Hello good people of Divinity land!

I recently picked up my LE copy of Divinity 2 dragon knight saga and I love it... HOW EVER!!!!! I was wondering if anyone had some thoughts on how to make a monk/ninja type character?. I am not sure how many points you get or lvl cap to be honest as I have never played this before :P but there are some cool abilities that just seem to fit together for a hand to hand type of fighter and I wanted to see if anyone else might have tried or might have some ideas of how they might go about it, like stats, abilities, armor and that type of stuff. Any help would be greatly appreciated .

Mistle

A 'ninja' type?

To be honest I would not reccomend using unarmed as an offensive tool... It just doesn't work.

However, if you were going to create a character and call it a ninja, there are a few skills i would associate with them:

Poison arrows (does what it says on the tin)
Blind (again, does what it says on the tin)
Hide in shadows (allows you to become invisible for a short period of time)
Rush attack ( allows you to close great distances in the blink of an eye, and do great damage)
Fatality (instant kills)
Thousand strikes (very powerful and quick melee attack)
Ranger stealth (alows you to get closer before being spotted)
Evade (a chance to evade attacks)

I would also give him/her a two handed sword or dual wield weapons...ninjas don't use shields, maces or hammers in my mind!

These are skills i would associate with ninjas, but as far as building a character around them... well i'm just not sure.

Anyway good luck, and i hope you enjoy the game as much as i have

Tinman21

By the end of the D2:ED section of the game you should be in the mid thirties for level; I assume you can probably get to the early or mid forties by the end of FoV.

Near the end of D2:ED (original release), at level 36 I re-skilled and had 76 free skill points, and there were half a dozen available after that point. In the FoV portion of the game there are apparently lots of skill points to be had.
Without equipment I had 172 stat points total; equipment bonuses added 26 more stat points, and I had various charms I could have used if I wished. In general, the equipment available in DKS is better and available sooner than it was in D2:ED.

The character I just started in DKS is a ranger, using unarmed combat as a backup, rather than having to dodge and roll around. Whirlwind is suppose to be quite effective combined with unarmed combat, at least according to someone who used that build in D2:ED. Unarmed is still the most challenging build for melee combat, though.

You can use a shield with unarmed combat (or at least could in D2:ED); it would remain on your back, but you would get the benefit of the armour and bonuses.

Some of the axes kind of fit a ninja style, but I don't recall much armour that is very close.

For stats you would need to get your strength as high as possible, to help with combat damage. I think in DKS you can get damage bonuses and enchantments on jewelry, as well.


Welcome to the forum.

An unarmed monk probably isn't as viable as it could be, thanks to the cap of 100 on Strength which will limit your damage. I have never played one myself, so here is how I would build a Monk:

Stats: Lots into Strength, A lot into Dexterity. Some points into Spirit and Vitality if you need them.

Unarmed = 13
Whirlwind = ? (maxed this adds like 500 damage, and with a short cooldown it could help)
Rush Attack = 1
Fatality = 13+ (Max this so you can instantly kill enemies when their health drops to 50%)
Battle Rage = 13+
Thousand Strikes = 13+
Mana Leech = 1
Evade = ? (For a monk you probably want to try and max this)
Reflect = ? (not a high priority)
Death Blow = 13

You probably won't be able to afford many points into other skills, but perhaps Blind, Fear, Curse would be worth a look to help with crowd control.

For someone in unarmed combat, I would focus on stacking up damage enchantments on jewelry, as many as you can get without using up Malachite Gems recklessly, and Life Line and Spirit boosts on armor.

thanks all very much for the reply to my question and giving me some useful information in the process, I just can't see why unarmed would be in the game unless you could use it in character creation of some sort. with abilities like life leech/mana leech, thousand strikes, evade etc etc.
i'll just have to fiddle around with it and and see what I come up with but the information given here has been very useful and I shall put it to good use.

Thank you all

Mistle

The biggest problem with Unarmed is that all attributes are hard-capped at 100. Hand-to-Hand's damage is based only on Strength, equipment doesn't count for that. So as soon as your strength hits 100, that is all the damage you will ever do.


You can still deck yourself out with the rare charms that add to Melee Damage, but those add only 10 at the most per charm.

You will also want to increase Dexterity for the increase to Critical Damage that comes from that attribute, and wear items with +Critical Chance, but that's all that can be done really to tweak an Unarmed build.

well with that in mind is it even worth sinking time into a character like this? or would it just be a waste of time?.

Playing on casual or normal difficulty, at least for the first couple levels unarmed combat is very effective, and is still viable on hard. I'm playing on nightmare (last combat at level 2), and melee fights with 2 opponents the same level is not too bad, but more than that gets quite challenging (I have my stat points spread out more than I would do for a straight unarmed warrior, though).

In D2:ED playing a strength based duel wielding warrior on normal difficulty, groups were also an issue when I was on level 2, and I used a bow to draw opponents to me and get a little damage in before switching to my melee weapons.


The following is a D2:ED topic, but as far as I can tell it should still apply to DKS.

Unarmed Combat, A Report

I've got a warrior character at the start of FoV, and I could respec him into a Hand-to-Hand guy. So I did that.

It turns out that Hand-to-Hand actually IS perfectly viable, even in the final dungeon of Flames of Vengeance. It might not have the overwhelming killing power of Dual Wield, but it's perfectly suited for plowing through even the toughest normal enemies in the game.

Add Bleed to the list of skills you should get for a Hand-to-Hand build, it adds additional damage with each attack.

Still at level 2, after mindreading pretty much everyone in the village, I got a bracelet with a +3 melee bonus (from the beholder on the north side of the river), and +2 to Mindread. On nightmare difficulty, the melee bonus makes a noticeable difference in unarmed combat.

awesome, I was hoping so much for some feed back as I really wanted this to work I was thinking something like this:

stats:
like 2 str every other lvl to offset 2 dex the same and 1 into spir and vit every lvl

skills:
I wanted to try and fit these all in some how but can be worked out
unarmed
whirlwind
rush attack
fatality
battle rage
thousand strikes
mana leech
life leech
evade
death blow

obviously all can't be maxed or might not need to be maxed to be useful but I wanted to try to use as many if not all of those skills with the class in question. Thoughts on the stats and skills would be great as always but I am glad to hear h2h is able to do the job.

Mistle

I've been watching this and It's peeked my interest, I must say.

I'm probably not the same caliber as the these other guys, but I have been through the earlier version
a few times. It looks like you have a solid offence going, but don't neglect the D. I personally try to stay away from skills like battle rage that, give this and take that, in such a large margin. At least until you get to the tower, where you can reallocate your points to shorten the gap. Maybe go with hide in shadows for an easy exit when it gets too hot in the kitchen.

Your stat placement should be favoring str obviously, even more so in the early levels. As you progress and more armor becomes available, watch your resistance. Diff strokes for diff folks, but I try to keep all my res at the same lvl as I progress. Spending 1-2 hrs about every 3-4 lvls just playing with the diff sets, mix and match, visit all the shops, and play with the numbers using charms and enchants pending on the equipment. I even bank a few stat pts to tweek the res numbers at the end.

It all comes down your playstyle. And this strad has worked for me very well with any character at any dif lvl.

Hope this helps with your build and best of luck with this great game...

Be prepared to adjust your stat plan as you upgrade equipment and get various bonuses, or find a particular attribute either lacking or not.

Like Senior Cinco, I would focus a lot more on strength than dexterity at first. Getting the occasional critical hit that doubles damage probably isn't going to help as much as consistently doing a bit more damage. I have not checked what the damage or critical hit chance effect is per stat point in DKS, though.

Equipment bonuses and enchantments can provide a lot of hit points later in the game, so eventually you will be able to stop boosting vitality.

You shouldn't need very much mana, at least at the start of the game. In D2:ED, with a melee warrior I got my spirit up to 5 and mid game learned Mana Efficiency, and had no trouble with running out of mana. Currently, playing an archer on nightmare, level 2, I only have spirit at 1, but frequently casting Poison Arrow for tough fights (ie a couple level 4 opponents, or a large group of level 2-4 opponents) I have not had any mana problems yet.

In D2:ED I tried Thousand Strikes late in the game, but didn't really need it. In DKS it may work great with unarmed combat, but don't invest a bunch of skill points early in the game for something you may or may not use late in the game. After the beginning of the game, keep a few stat points in reserve, so you can boost spirit (etc) if you need to.

I never tried Fatality or Death Blow. Some people like Fatality, but I don't see much point to it, other than certain special circumstances. Death Blow seems like a good idea, if you have skill points left over after maxing Bleed, etc.

In D2:ED I put one point in Evade, which helped, but didn't like the return on investment for higher levels (10% chance for level 1, +5% for subsequent levels). Even if the effects are the same in DKS, if you start taking a lot of damage and can not boost your own damage, a better defense should help.

I saved and tried Battle Rage in D2:ED, and thought it should be useful to cast before heading into difficult fights or larger groups. I kept going, rather than reload, and never cast the spell again (didn't relearn it after reskilling once I got the battle tower). If you don't mind the constant upkeep, or would remember to use it for tough fights, then it would help.

You want to focus on Strength a lot more than Dexterity, keeping them at the same level will result in a lower strength, which is very bad for an Unarmed build. I tend to ignore Spirit and Vitality, the +7 Health/Mana bonuses you get per level help a lot.

- For Unarmed, I would definitely try and get Battle Rage at its maximum level all the time, because it boosts damage by a lot, which is what you really will need for an Unarmed build.
- Don't put more than 1 point into Rush Attack or Mana Leech.
- Evade is very monk-like, but it can be left until later.
- Death Blow would be helpful, but it too can be left for later.
- You might want points into Bleed instead of too many in Whirlwind because that can double your damage.
- Thousand Strikes can also wait until later, because you won't even have the mana for it until later.
- I thought Fatality would be vital for a monk build, but in the test I did, I was doing damage at a satisfactory rate and it wasn't really needed, so you can skip it if you want

again thank you for the replies, seeing as str is more important then dex or the others I would venture to think then a mix of 70/80% str to a 30/20% dex each level? and as Stabbey made mention the +7 you get each level for vit and spir should be enough. For the skills yeah I don't see more then 1 point into rush or mana leech. Evade, Deathblow and 1k strikes I probably wouldn't bother with until they became open. In place of fatality I would try to slot life leech although I am not sure is scales with 1k strikes to leech life off every hit though that would be funny as hell. Battle rage seems like a character killer but I think if you can get some gear with good def you might be able to balance it out to where you can self buff your dmg while taking a slight def hit this is where hide in the shadows might also be handy as well. another thought I had was maybe not taking life leech per say in the skills but instead trying to slot it in armor or something going for dmg i've seen a lot of interesting enchantments and what not for armor/weapons that I thought would be cool for this build but that's something else entirely. as always feed back is greatly appreciate it .

Mistle

You can't put Life Leech enchantments onto anything except weapons.

bah, I had a feeling that was the case... oh well. Besides it dawned on me life leech is more then likely not even needed when str is being pumped so high, hp regen must be fairly good with it getting up there.

@ Mistle : Just out of curiosity, how far you along in the game? Asked due to your responses to other post regarding the talis/lever things.

farthest I have gotten is the battle tower under my control.... that's about it I am just OCD and try to do EVERY thing before leaving an area.

gotcha.