| Name | Making Your Monk: Strength vs. Dexterity |
| Category | Class |
It's Monk season in Stormreach! While you may have an idea of how to make your Monks, it's always difficult to start. It involves a little bit of trial and error to get to the build you want. Sometimes what you have in concept form may not meet your expectations when you are actually playing with the initial stats that you have designed for your Monk. The purpose of this article is to guide you and give you the available options before you actually create your Monk.
You can only really begin to create a Monk if you know full well what a Monk is all about. If the class has not piqued your interest, it's still important to know the things that set them apart from other melee types. The most important thing to remember is that a Monk excels at unarmed and unarmored combat. He has an extremely active combat style that makes use of high speed, control and discipline. To perform amazing feats, a Monk channels a subtle energy known as Ki (pronounced as Kee). The Monk has the ability to build up the Ki to power his abilities in combat.
While a monk excels in unarmed combat, he is also proficient with Clubs, Crossbows, Dagger, Handaxe, Kama, and Shuriken. But to maximize the use of his special Monk abilities, the Kama, Shuriken, and Quarterstaff are the best choices. Unfortunately, Monks cannot use wands and scrolls, unless of course you decide to multi-class your monk.
DDO summarizes the Monk as someone who "functions best as an opportunistic combatant, using her speed to get into and out of combat quickly rather than engaging in prolonged melees. She makes an excellent scout, and through her choices of enhancements, can help fill a variety of party roles".
The recommended attributes or abilities of a Monk are: STRENGTH, DEXTERITY, CONSTITUTION, and WISDOM.
Before you jump into the Monk bandwagon, let us first discuss what each attribute does to monk abilities.
Wisdom
Monks have special attacks to choose from and Wisdom helps improve these special attacks. It is also the key attribute in increasing your maximum Ki. When you have more Ki, you have the power to do your special attacks more often. Since Monks can't wear armors or use shields, it is important to work on increasing your Armor Class (AC) and Will Saves for that much needed extra protection. It is linked to the Path of the Sea.
Strength
To increase damage and the chance to hit in melee, Monks should invest on their Strength. This particular attribute is linked to the Path of Flame.
Path of Flame leads to Lesser Sun Stance and Fires of Purity I.
Lesser Sun Stance, when activated, focuses on an aggressive offense, granting increased Strength (+2) at the cost of decreased Wisdom (-2).
Fires of Purity I, when used, causes you to strike an opponent, using the power of the flame. Your attack will deal 1d6 additional fire damage.
Constitution
This attribute affects Hit Points and Fortitude Saves. The more you put into it, the higher your health will be. It is linked to the Path of Stone.
Path of Stone leads to Lesser Mountain Stance and Strike of the Enduring I.
Lesser Mountain Stance, when activated, focuses on endurance and defense, granting increased Constitution (+2), damage reduction, and improved blocking ability at the cost of decreased Dexterity (-2).
Strike of the Enduring I, when used, causes you to strike an opponent, using the strength of the Earth. Your attack will deal 4 additional damage.
Dexterity
This attribute affects Armor Class, Reflex Saves, and Ranged Attacks. This is linked to the Path of Air.
Path of Air leads to Lesser Wind Stance and Fire and Storm Strike I.
Lesser Wind Stance, when activated, focuses on movement, granting increased Dexterity (+2) and melee and thrown attack speed at the cost of reducing your Constitution (-2).
Storm Strike I, when used, causes you to strike an opponent, using the power of lightning. Your attack will deal 1d6 additional lightning damage.
It's important to have a balanced selection of the above-mentioned abilities. But in reality, there are just about two abilities that one can focus on so that other abilities won't suffer too much.
STARTING ABILITY POINTS
Now that you somehow have an idea of what Monks are all about, the next step is to determine what your monk will be. Will it be Strength-based or Dex-based. Depending on your choice, you will also need to decide which race to choose in order to maximize the powers of your Monk, statistics-wise.
Strength-Based Monk
There has been a lot of discussion on which race to choose in making a strength-based monk. The answer really is based on preference. Sometimes a race that will help maximize the power of your monk may not be chosen simply because of appearance and other similar less than relevant criteria. And of course, you have to take into account whether you will be having a 32-point build or a 28-point build.
It looks like halflings are the early favorites not only because they are cute and lovable, but because they have +1 to hit, +1 AC, and +1 to saves. With Humans, on the other hand, you can take advantage of Human Versatility to boost your dps. Dwarves are pretty good choice as well because they can take hits as well as dish them out.
Whether you choose a Halfling, a Human, or a Dwarf, you can start with these ability stats, assuming you have a 32-point build and you want a pure Monk build (not multi-classed).
Halfling
STRENGTH..........16
DEXTERITY.........16
CONSTITUTION......10
INTELLIGENCE......8
WISDOM............12
CHARISMA..........8
Now, why put Dexterity the same as Strength, you might ask. The reason is that if you use the Lesser Sun Stance, you will gain additional +2 Strength even at level 1, so that gives you 18 Strength. Add Bull Strength and you will have 22. The high Dexterity will also help you increase your AC. You will also have a decent Wisdom to get your Ki up, hence enabling you to use your special attacks more. Getting the feat Power Attack will also help you deal more damage.
A strength-based monk can also focus on Two-Weapon Fighting (or Greater Two Weapon Fighting at higher level). But it's also important to remember that using Quarterstaff is a good idea since it is one of the three Monk weapons. If you are set on using Quarterstaff, it will be a good move to get the feat two-handed weapon. Will make you deal more damage.
If you are worried about having too low concentration, keep in mind that you can get Toughness as a feat and when you reach level 11, you can use the Minos Legens helmet which gives additional toughness that stack with the feat.
You can make a little bit of adjustment if you want to put more points on constitution since it is the ability that will help increase your Concentration, which in turn boosts the effectiveness of your Ki. The following
STRENGTH..........16
DEXTERITY.........14
CONSTITUTION......12
INTELLIGENCE......8
WISDOM............12
CHARISMA..........8
A little more adjustment is needed if you only have a 28-point build. You might want to create a Drow if you don't have a 32-point build yet. You can start with these stats with a Drow:
Strength..........16
Dexterity........ 16
Constitution......12
Intelligence......10
Wisdom............14
Charisma..........10
This is quite good stats because you don't have negative skills. If you wish to max out strength, that's all good, just make sure you don't make Dexterity too low.
Also, Handwraps are good thing to use if you prefer fighting unarmed. There are nice Handwraps dropping from chests and as end rewards. An example would be a +1 Acid Handwraps of Backstabbing.
Dexterity-Based Monk
A dexterity-based Monk is also another option for you. Some players prefer this build because of higher AC and maximizing the use of Kama (a light weapon) through the feat Weapon Finesse.
With a 32-point build, you can start with the following stats:
Strength..........15
Dexterity.........16
Constitution......14
Intelligence......10
Wisdom............16
Charisma.........: 8
The Wisdom is quite high, but it's really good for your Ki. Now, Dexterity is at 16 and you can get to 20 by using Cat's Grace. A high dexterity monk with weapon finesse feat can take advantage of the size bonus to attack. With Weapon Finesse, Kama can be used and to further improve on this, you might want to grab Two weapon fighting feat.
Sometimes you will wonder if it's worth investing on Dexterity so you can get a high Armor Class. The answer is yes, because it makes you a little bit more "durable" when faced with mobs. Plus, you gain more on your Reflex Saves. At level 2, you get Evasion, so you can imagine how sturdy you are with Traps.
Even with dex-based monk, Power Attack is good for additional damage. Also, with high Dexterity, you can make greater use of the Shurikens. Not a lot of players use this weapon, but there are returning Shurikens droppng in the chest. The best one I pulled so far is a +1 Returning Transmuting Shuriken. They deal good damage if you feel that you are not quite ready to go in an unarmed combat at a certain situation.
Conclusion
You are given options when creating your Monk. He can be Strength-based or Dexterity-based. It all boils down to preference, but if you look at how certain stats, you will see that if your fighting style is more aggressive and you want to survive encounters, you might want to go the way of Dexterity-based built because you can get insanely high AC and Reflex Saves. The extra AC you get can make you more sturdy in fights even if you are a halfling.
A strength-based Monk, on the other hand may take advantage of feats associated with it. But as you can see, the Dexterity and Strength numbers aren't really far apart because they go hand in hand when creating a more than decent Monk. It will only make a difference depending on what you want your Monk to be as he progresses to level 16.
This guide will help you start your Monk build, but you have to also remember that it is assumed that you are going for a pure Monk build. Multi-classing is a different story.
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