Hey,

I currently play the campaign as a dwarf barbarian, because somehow I feel the closest to the class.
But I'm having thoughts about trying a monk.

So I made a dwarf monk.

Any experienced monks out there that could point me in the right direction, taking into account the following:
- I play campaign
- I want to play dwarf
- I want a fists spec (mostly), not weapon
- I want to play rather offensive than defensive.

Any advice on skills, feats - how should I put those, or examples, or maybe you got a saved game file with a high level monk as an example. Anything would do, really.

Thanks in advance!

Do you talk about NWN1 or2?

In NWN1 I would take a pure monk.

In NWN2 OC/MotB I like to make a monk20, cleric1, sacred fist9
Sacred fists keep monk bonusses with light armor, but get-8AB when using any weapon
Must be human or gray orc to avoid exp penalty.

If you insist on dwarf, i find 8 lv assasin interesting, but staying lawful evil will be hard.

In NWN1+2 you can take 1 lv shadowdancer, but to me this feels like cheating.

Monks can focus on strengh, dex or wisdom, decide for yourself.

Do not take small races (halfling, gnome), they make less damage with their fists.

Regarding feats, taking circle kick would be the only difference to a normal fighter, I guess.

Dwarf Monk will work. It's not the best choice (humans and orcs work best for monks, due to the bonus feat and strength bonus respectively) but there's nothing wrong with it.

Monks are the poster-boy for MAD classes. That means they're Multple Attribute Dependent. While a wizard only needs a good intelligence, and a fighter is fine so long as his strength is high and his constitution is decent, a Monk needs good scores in Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom. This spreads your stat points very thinly, and is the biggest challenge for monks.

Aside from his inability to use armor and his need for high wisdom and dexterity scores, a Monk isn't that different from a melee fighter. You want to boost that strength score as much as possible. The biggest problem a fist-monk has in NWN1 is that he'll need to use his gloves item slot for damage-boosting items, which will mean he can't equip gauntlets of ogre strength. This isn't as much of a problem in NWN2 since multiple strength-boosting items don't stack.

Mad3's suggestions on prestige class options are good. I wouldn't multi-class as monk except for prestige classes.

Hey,

Thank you for your replies. Yes, I'm talking about NWN 1 campaign, I forgot to mention that.
Hm, I see where the problem is with the class stats allocation. I just hope it compensates with some interesting feats at least. It's really appealing to me, don't know why.

Any special feats I should pick maybe instead of default ones?

At the moment, I'm progressing through game in chapter 3, and my little barbarian is slowly turning into a killing machine, from what I can figure so far.

Thanks again!

Yup; stacking every conceivable strength bonus behind a 2-handed weapon is quite possibly the simplest and most effective way to succeed in NWN.

The Monk will be somewhat different thanks to his special abilities and different preferences in equipment, but he'll still be familiar as a melee brawler.

I'm personally a sucker for spellcasters. The Sorcerer in particular is a barrel of fun if you pick your spells well.

No specific suggestions but just a few notes.

Monk has a pretty rough start, maybe the hardest of all classes.
Not doing good damage with fists on early levels, not yet having even a decent AC.
A bit like a wizard without spells, relying on dagger skills.

Loads of fun at a bit later levels.

And yea, way hard to figure out the stats.

STR is obvious, you'll want to do damage and be able to hit. But you can sacrifice this a bit anyway.
DEX is also obvious, you want to avoid being hit. But you can sacrifice a bit of this as well, by putting points in WIS.
CON is obvious, for all melee characters, but monk has the lowest HP of melee characters, so...
INT might not be obvious, but you'll be wanting this a bit high anyway. At least on early levels you'll rely on melee henchmen to keep you alive, so it'll be practical if you can disarm traps and open locks a bit. Tumble is also worth maxing up. And Speach skills and lore and...
WIZ is the main monk skill, you'll want this high but you'll never have enough points....
CHA is pretty much the only dump stat. But dropping it way down doesn't fit my view of a monk, so heck it all.

Have you considered doing the SoU/HotU campaing with the monk, or redoing the OC you're going through with the barbarian?

I wouldn't multiclass or prestige class a monk, though grabbing 4 fighter levels early on would give better attack bonus, more HP and allow taking weapon specialization unarmed attack. But gains for pure monk levels are very appealing.

One more question about monks.

I am not sure about NWN1, so I talk about NWN2.

A lv 16 monk will have fists that are magic, lawful, adamantite weapons.
Does this stack with the glove?
So if you wear a glove+5, will it be only a weapon+5 or an adamantite weapon+5?

Is it the same in NWN1?

I was also confused about "lawful weapon".
I thought things like "protection from evil" or "DR 10/good" refer to attacs of creatures with such alignment.
How can a weapon have an alignment?

Well, I intend on finishing campaigns with my barbarian, but if I will start another playthrough with my monk, I will finish those as well.
Also, the thought of multi-classing with a fighter to get some interesting feats early on, that may prove useful later seems like an appealing idea.
Thank you for the thought.

Just the thread I'm looking for with some great advise so far
I am on my first play through at the moment as a Monk (level 3 ) in NWN 1.
I am keen to find out if having a second class as a druid or cleric is a good idea ?
Thanks in advance

Just thought you might not be aware OC is for new character and goes from about lvl 1 to 15 or so.
SoU+HotU is a completely different campaing also for new lvl 1 characters and goes to about 12 or so in SoU and up to 30+ in HotU.

Beacause it's not obviously stated anywhere and I screwed up my first playthrough not knowing. I wouldn't see it worthwhile taking in a bit of druid or cleric or going 50-50.
But there's definite benefits in taking a few monk levels and then continuing on completely different class.

Cleric or Druid need high wisdom, which a good monk should also have.
Then you'd have monk AC bonus and neat defenses, and the ability to use very nice monk items.
But you'd lose on caster levels which does hurt quite a bit.

Is it true, that in NWN1+2 when you are a druid with 1 level of monk your wisdom modifier is added to AC
and your attacs are better when in wildshape?

Yes, although I'm not sure about the AB modifier in NWN2.

Thank you, sir.
All looks crystal clear to me after your elaborate answer.

Mind if I ask you if you still have your saved games with your monk? I'd love to have a look at it!

Unfortunately no [I've played these campaigns about two years ago] but You can use "Pretty Good Character Creator / Customizer (PGC3)" mod from NWN vault to test Your build.
1. This builder module doesn't include all the items that you will find -> usually monk will use Robes of the shining hand + Boots of speed or Robes of the dark moon + Boots of the sun soul; some kind of gloves with elemental damage [Gloves of the Hin Fist with sonic damage are arguably the best]; Girdle of Giants Strength; rings raising AC and elemental resistance or saving throws; cloak of protection or fortification - remember that AC bonuses from different items sometimes do not stack; amulet of natural armour/amulet of health - to avoid level drain when fighting undead [these are all higher level items so you should start with Robes of the shining hand + Boots of the sun soul and any magical gloves that You can find -> elemental damage can help You brake chests/doors].
2. Monks usually have a lot of problems on lower levels so before every tough enemy fight: potions of bull's strength+potion cat's grace+potion owl's wisdom+potion of barkskin [sometimes potion of clarity -> which makes you immune to mind affecting spells including fear when fighting mages/undead -> mummies/dragons/intellect devourer].
3. Always raise tumble [every 5 points will give You +1 to AC].
4. Dwarf should also use potions of eagle splendor or persuade/charisma enhancing items when trying to persuade [6 points in charisma doesn't make you a charmer].
5. In the beginning of OC I would choose henchman that can melee -> Daelan/Linu or maybe Tomi for his sneak attack and rogue abilities [I would avoid casters and Grimgnaw who is also a low level monk]. At level 9 or 10 I would start solo [or use Sharwyn -> bard song].
6. At level 6 monks acquire knockdown, improved knockdown feats for free -> use it against arcane casters when you run out of stunning fists.
7. Feats: weapon focus unarmed; impr critical unarmed; power attack -> allows You to take great cleave which is quite good for cleaning the mobs; extra stunning attacks; blind fight.
8. This is not a powerbuild :-)