Monk

Description: Monks are versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. Good-aligned monks serve as protectors of the people, while evil monks make ideal spies and assassins. Though they don't cast spells, monks channel a subtle energy, called ki. This energy allows them to perform amazing feats, such as healing themselves, catching arrows in flight, and dodging blows with lightning speed. Their mundane and ki-based abilities grow with experience, granting them more power over themselves and their environment. Monks suffer unique penalties to their abilities if they wear armor, as doing so violates their rigid oaths. Monks wearing armor lose their Wisdom and level based armor class bonuses, their movement speed, and their additional unarmed attacks per round.

Alignment Restrictions: Any lawful

Hit Die: d8

Proficiencies: Armor (Robes), Weapons (Monk)

Skill Points: 4 + Int modifier ( (4 + Int modifer) * 4 at 1st level)

Skills: Concentration, Craft armor, Craft trap, Craft weapon, Discipline, Heal, Hide, Listen, Lore, Move silently, Parry, Persuade, Tumble

Selectable Class Feats: Ambidexterity, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Proficiency (Exotic), Weapon Proficiency (Martial), Weapon Proficiency (Simple)

Primary Saving Throw(s): Fortitude, Reflex, Will

Base Attack Bonus: +3/4 levels

Specialty Weapon: The monk retains his unarmed attack bonus when fighting with a kama.

Special Abilities & Feats

• Level 1 Cleave, Evasion, Flurry of Blows, Improved Unarmed Strike, Monk AC Bonus, Stunning Fist
• Level 2 Deflect Arrows
• Level 3 Monk Endurance, Still Mind
• Level 5 Purity of Body
• Level 6 Knockdown, Improved Knockdown
• Level 7 Wholeness of Body
• Level 9 Improved evasion
• Level 10 Ki Strike +1
• Level 11 Diamond Body
• Level 12 Diamond Soul
• Level 13 Ki Strike +2
• Level 15 Quivering Palm
• Level 16 Ki Strike +3
• Level 18 Empty Body
• Level 20 Perfect Self

Unarmed Damage, Flurry of Blows Attack Bonuses, AC Bonuses and Monk Speed

Level	Unarmed Base Attack Bonus	Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus	Unarmed Damage	AC Bonus	Unarmored Speed Bonus
1	+0	-2/-2	1d6/1d4	0	100%
2	+1	-1/-1	1d6/1d4	0	100%
3	+2	+0/+0	1d6/1d4	0	110%
4	+3	+1/+1	1d8/1d6	0	110%
5	+3	+1/+1	1d8/1d6	+ 1	110%
6	+4/+1	+2/-1/+2	1d8/1d6	+ 1	120%
7	+5/+2	+3/+0/+3	1d8/1d6	+ 1	120%
8	+6/+3	+4/+1/+4	1d10/1d8	+ 1	120%
9	+6/+3	+4/+1/+4	1d10/1d8	+ 1	130%
10	+7/+4/+1	+5/+2/-1/+5	1d10/1d8	+ 2	130%
11	+8/+5/+2	+6/+3/+0/+6	1d10/1d8	+ 2	130%
12	+9/+6/+3	+7/+4/+1/+7	1d12/1d10	+ 2	140%
13	+9/+6/+3	+7/+4/+1/+7	1d12/1d10	+ 2	140%
14	+10/+7/+4/+1	+8/+5/+2/-1/+8	1d12/1d10	+ 2	140%
15	+11/+8/+5/+2	+9/+6/+3/+0/+9	1d12/1d10	+ 3	150%
16	+12/+9/+6/+3	+10/+7/+4/+1/+10	1d20/2d6	+ 3	150%
17	+12/+9/+6/+3	+10/+7/+4/+1/+10	1d20/2d6	+ 3	150%
18	+13/+10/+7/+4/+1	+11/+8/+5/+2/-1/+11	1d20/2d6	+ 3	160%
19	+14/+11/+8/+5/+2	+12/+9/+6/+3/+0/+12	1d20/2d6	+ 3	160%
20	+15/+12/+9/+6/+3	+13/+10/+7/+4/+1/+13	1d20/2d6	+ 4	160%

• A monk's Unarmed Base Attack Bonus (UBAB) is still affected by multiclassing. Characters may gain additional attacks by taking a higher BAB progression class (e.g. Fighter levels), or reduced attacks from taking a lower BAB progression class (e.g. Wizard levels).

• First Unarmed Damage stat is from Large/Medium size, and the second stats is from Small size.

• A monk's UBAB, armor class bonuses (from wisdom and every 5 levels), and speed are all negated when the monk wears armor other than clothing or uses a shield.

• While the official feat name for a monk's increased movement speed rate is Monk Endurance, it's more commonly referred to as Monk speed.

• Monk speed continues to increase after level 20. It increases by 10% at monk level 21,24,27,30,33,36 and 39.

Epic Monk

An epic monk's speed, power, grace, and force of will are unmatched by mortal beings. Her powers continue to multiply as she steps away from the mortal shell and accepts an inner tranquility that lesser characters cannot even dream of.

Hit Die:d8

Skill Points: 4 + Int modifier

Bonus Feats: The epic monk gains a bonus feat every five levels after 20th. In other words, at levels 25, 30, 35, and 40.

Special: Every 3 levels, the monk’s movement speed will increase by an additional 10%.

Special AC Bonus: Every 5 levels from 20, the monk's AC will increase by an additional + 1.

Epic Monk Bonus Feats: Armor Skin, Blinding Speed, Epic Damage Reduction, Epic Energy Resistance, Epic Toughness, Improved Ki Strike 4, Improved Ki Strike 5, Improved Spell Resistance, Improved Stunning Fist, Self Concealment

Prestige Class Tips

• Shadowdancer is a good choice for a stealthy monk.
• Pious monks may want to consider the Champion of Torm.
• Red Dragon Disciple provides useful ability score boosts. In addition, the base class (Sorcerer or Bard) used to qualify for this prestige class opens the use of arcane scrolls. Using Bard would additionally give access to UMD, but this requires an alignment change.

Notes

• At level 20, monks receive glowing eyes. The color of the glow depends on the character's alignment: good glows blue, evil glows red, and neutral glows purple. This occurs because in PnP 20th-level monks become outsiders; however, in NWN, their race does not change.

• Only multiclass monks with at least 4 pre-epic levels in a class with maximum BAB can max out the number of attacks per round. To do this, your multiclass monk will need Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, haste, Flurry of Blows, wield a kama in each hand, and be level 20. This will give 10 attacks per round, the most anyone can achieve:
  • 16 BAB at level 20 gives 4 main hand attacks per round (at least 4 levels of a full BAB progression class are required before level 20).
  • Monk's Unarmed Attack Bonus with lower requirement for extra attacks adds 2 main hand attacks per round
  • An off-hand kama adds 1 off-hand attack per round
  • Improved Two-Weapon Fighting adds 1 off-hand attack per round
  • Flurry of Blows adds 1 attack per round
  • Haste adds 1 attack per round

• Unarmed monks can reach 8+1 for a total of 9 attacks/round: While missing out 2 off-hand attacks compared to above build monks can take Circle Kick feat for an extra unarmed attack. However, as circle kick in NwN works somewhat illogically this isn't as useful approach as it sounds.

• Due to the inclusion of monk-only equipment like Robes of the Shining Hand and Boots of the Sun Soul, +1 AC per 5 points of tumble and the Monk AC Bonus feat which adds wisdom bonus to AC and +1 AC per 5 levels, monks without armor have a much higher AC than normal, making them on par with warriors.

• Since NWN has various gloves with attack bonuses, monks can do their fist damage with the attack bonus of wielding a weapon. The only disadvantage they have from not using a weapon is the decrease in attacks per round (no Two-Weapon Fighting).
  • The attack bonus of the gloves also defines the enchantment level of the unarmed attack in terms of bypassing damage reduction. So, for example, while wearing +10 AB gloves, a monk's unarmed attack will ignore X/+10 damage reduction.

• Monks are designed primarily as anti-casters. They can dodge spells, resist spells, and kill people who have low Fortitude saves with one hit. They move quickly, reducing the distance between themselves and their target. Their stunning fist stops casters from being able to cast spells for three rounds. However, properly tweaked, kama or unarmed, straight melee monks are a fearsome adversary capable of toe-to-toe combat against most opponents.

• Monks who also have stealth can move much faster than rogues when in stealth mode. Elven monks, with their automatic active search checks, make for excellent forward scouts.

• Monks cannot use the following feats while fighting with kama(s): Stunning Fist, Quivering Palm, and Ki Strike.

• A monk with Improved Two-Weapon Fighting gets the UBAB progression on the off-hand weapon, even if it is not a kama, so long as the weapon in the primary hand is a kama. They may also activate Flurry of Blows as long as the primary hand is using a kama.

• Both Dexterity and Wisdom based monks have there advantages. Wisdom based tends to work well for unarmed monks, as it increases the DC of attacks such as Quivering Palm and Stunning Fist. Though suffer from lower attack bonus'. The dexterity based monk tends to work well with the Kama as they do not use the Wisdom based special attacks. In combination with Weapon Finesse it allows them to achieve very high attack bonus'. The down-side is the fact that straight class monks are not granted any Uncanny Dodge feats. This leaves them very vulnerable when caught flat footed.