Good Monk Builds?

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I have planned a similar build and am also currently playing it. My character will eventually be Monk 20/Dwarven Defender 14/Fighter 6. The evolution goes something like this:

Code:

Lawful Dwarf
STR 14  DEX 15  CON 16  INT 10  WIS 15  CHA 6

Monk 1                  Toughness
Monk 2
Monk 3                  Weapon Focus (Unarmed)
Monk 4              WIS
Monk 5
Monk 6                  Circle Kick
Monk 7
Monk 8              WIS
Monk 9                  Dodge
Monk 10
Dwarven Defender 1
Monk 11             WIS Improved Critical (Unarmed)
Monk 12
Monk 13
Monk 14                 Blind Fight
Monk 15             WIS
Monk 16
Dwarven Defender 2      Extra Stunning Attacks
Dwarven Defender 3
Dwarven Defender 4  WIS
Fighter 1               Epic Weapon Focus, Great Constitution I
Fighter 2               Epic Prowess
Fighter 3
Fighter 4           WIS Weapon Specialization (Unarmed), Epic Weapon Specialization (Unarmed)
Dwarven Defender 5
Dwarven Defender 6
Monk 17                 Improved Ki Strike +4
Monk 18             CON
Monk 19
Monk 20                 Improved Ki Strike +5
Dwarven Defender 7
Dwarven Defender 8  CON
Dwarven Defender 9      Great Constitution II
Dwarven Defender 10
Dwarven Defender 11
Dwarven Defender 12 CON Damage Reduction I
Dwarven Defender 13
Dwarven Defender 14     Damage Reduction II
Fighter 5               Damage Reduction III
Fighter 6           CON Armor Skin

I first try to get my Monk as fast as possible to level 16 so as to maximise his fist damage. On the way I do take one level of DD to be able to preserve my dodge AC bonus in case of AoO. After that I fill out until level 20 with DD levels to get the six attacks per round. Afterwards I take my first 4 Fighter levels, followed by 4 Monk levels to get all monk feats and then finish of the build by taking the remaining Dwarven Defender levels, finishing on two remaining Fighter levels.

I only take my fighter levels starting from level 21 since then I can take epic feats for my fighter feats. The pre-epic feats have nothing interesting, I even took Extra Stunning Attacks because I had to choose a feat.

The reason for this level distribution is that I wanted at least 4 levels of Fighter and 20 levels of Monk. This left me with 14 "usefull" levels of Dwarven Defender and 2 other levels. I put them in fighter to at least get an extra feat.

This build trades in some Damage Reduction (3/-) to get the imunity to mind affecting spells. If you think you don't need that, you can as easily reduce the Monk levels by 2 (the 2 during epic where you don't select a feat) and the Fighter levels by 2 (the last 2) and replace them with Dwarven Defender levels. Concerning feats and abilities this doesn't change anything. But remember that to take the Improved Ki Strike feats you need to imperatively level up as a Monk during those levels. If you level as any other class, you can't select those feats.

 

Meatdog good build; however, I would do the following...

Level 1-3: Fighter
Level 4-10: Monk
Level 11-20: Dwarven Defender
Level 21-23: Monk
Level 24: Fighter
Level 25-30: Monk
Level 31-32warven Defender
Level 33: Monk
Level 34-35: Dwarven Defender
Level 36: Monk
Level 37-40: Dwarven Defender

As for starting stats I would have the following..

STR 16 DEX 15 CON 12 INT 10 WIS 16 CHA 6

Add STAT increase into WIS until WIS is 22. From there the rest of the STAT increase are added to STR. After selecting EPIC Weapon Focus at Level 21 and EPIC Weapon Specialization at Level 24 the remaining feats would be added into GREAT STRENGTH....The two bonus feats from being an EPIC DWARVEN DEFENDER would be Armor Skin and anything else to improve AC or HP.

The ending stats would be....
STR 22 DEX 16 CON 12 INT 10 WIS 22 CHA 6

This build provides a balance of defense and offense. After all the best defense is a good offense. +12 to total damage (including weapon specializations) is not a bad thing. This character also has 12 point damage reduction and still obtains the +5 ki strike.

Yeah it is good to have a great amount of damage reduction but it wouldn't matter if you can't deal out the damage; you have to find a balance that will make the easier to use overall.

As selecting damage reduction I thought it required a CON of 25 and does not stack with the damage reduction from the Dwarven Defender class. I may be wrong but that is what I thought the manual stated...

 

No, you only need 21 CON to take the feat. I have never tested it, but it would be odd that it didn't stack with the damage reduction of the DD since it is one of the bonus feats that class gets after going epic.

If you favor offense, one of the epic feats for the DD should be Epic Prowess, which adds to your ab.

Like I suspected, your build is more aimed at the level 40 status while mine is more geared toward the lower levels. That's why I try to get to level 16 Monk as fast as possible, to get the 1d20 damage roll. However if you don't have to do allot of combat with the lower levels, you can better optimize the build like you did.

 

I've done several DD builds, including a Monk 20/ DD 20, and I can say for certain that Epic Damage Reduction does stack with the DD damage reduction.

 

Hmmm...

What is the highest Damage Reduction you can have and does it prevent damage from all types?

 

30 is the max damage reduction for dd builds
21 from level 30 dd + 9 from edr1,2,3

yes it protects from all types as it is dr 30/-

 

Yes and no. It protects from everything physical. Magical damage and elemental damage is not reduced. However, physical damage from magically enhanced weapons is also fully reduced, unlike stuff like stoneskin.