Newbie monk experience....

[TheSilverHammer]

I just started playing your Mod, and maybe have put in 6 hours into it. I think it is really well done, so far it looks *much* better then the official NWN2 campaign mod. In that time I have gotten my monk just half way into level 2, which I kind of feel is quite a bit slow. The main point of this post is simple to make the developers of this mod aware some issues facing the player as a monk. I would encourage some of you to start one and play it a few levels to get a feel of the difficulty compared to any other class.

I think the ‘slowness’ comes from the combat centric nature of a lot of the activities combined with the fact itemization for Monks in NWN2 is very very poor. There are only a few items for monks, all of them magical (since monks get nothing from base, non magical items). I noticed on all the vendors I could find, none of them had any monk gear at all, except the first smith guy you give the writ too. He only has a few ‘gloves’ and that is the end of that. It seems that even if I had 1 million gold pieces, I would have nothing to spend it on.

I would like the developers here to look at their vendors and make sure there is some decent monk itemization on them, maybe you could even add a monastery (in one of the many unused churches in town) that has special monk vendors.

As a starting monk my AC is 14, maybe even 15 if I really optimize my stats. This isn’t going to change for quite a few levels since most players get gear or spells to push their AC to 20 or so. This works out to be a considerable difference in fighting a level 1 wolf. My experience was that a fight with a single wolf was completely based on a lot of luck as to weather or not I would live or die. One death would undo the XP gain from any single wolf kill. We need a little bit of gear help at the low levels.

As a general suggestion, for all classes, it would be nice to have a few quests that resulted in material rewards, instead of just gold and xp. For example, you could have a series of quest where I could get a monks robe, boots, bracers, and amulet. All classes could get their starting gear this way. You should flag these items as zero value so people can’t farm them for lots of money. In a way, you can use it to put everyone on an equal footing.

Another way, could be a series of crafting quests where each player could fabricate their starting gear under the guidance of a tutorial NPC. I like this best, although there is the issue that not all classes have crafting of armor and weapons as class skills. I do not know if you can change what are class skills in a mod, or maybe you could script it so it uses the players highest crafting skill regardless of what you are actually crafting. Or you could simply not have any ‘skill’ and crafting is all about getting the recipes and ingredients.

I did see a higher level monk guy (he was a purple con, I have no idea what his actual level was). It was sad to see that he was still wearing the same exact robe I was at level 2. Please consider this.

Anyway, your mod looks great and I look forward to playing it.

[ChikenKannon]

Here are a few things to make it easier.

1) Lets not forget the Monk flurry of blows bug. It allows you to have 3 attacks at level 1-whenever you actually are supposed to have 3 attacks.

2) Kamas can be used to deal damage; If you find a +1 kama instead of a +1 set of gloves.

As for Monk "items" this is a low-medium magic item world. The items that Ealden sells that are magical are all sold to him by other players. And remember 3 attacks at 1D6 are better than 1 attack at 1D12 (at least in my opinion).

[Greensleeves]

The wolves are meant to be a challenge to lvl 1 characters.

Try talking to every NPC you encounter. A non-ECL race character can get from level 1 to level 2 in a matter of minutes by simply doing all of the basic, non-combat quests.

If you can spare it, spend a half-hour or so exploring the buildings in the Trades & Commons area.

[TheSilverHammer]

I try to do those quests, but the server goes down all the time and I have to start over. Not knowing where people and places are tends to make it hard to get them done in a reasonable time frame.

[Tinuvhiell]

Talk to all the people in the inn and directly outside of the inn. Then check out your journal if you don't think you have enough information to finish it. I can't count how many quests there are for under level 5's to do that involve no fighting.

Yes, the game crashes when you zone randomly. Not the server, usually. Just you. If you crash, you can pop back in and continue the quest. IF the server actually goes all the way down, then you will have to start over.

TIP: RESTIING SAVES YOUR CHARACTER! Do it often.

[UltimaBoB]

True monks are among the weakest builds these days.

Probably no way around that.

[Kazak]

True monks are among the weakest builds these days.

Probably no way around that.

Why do you say that?

[Vahene]

I wouldn't say monks are weak at all.

To my knowledge, they didn't change from the original campaign, did they? I haven't played one in the new OC, but they've never been weak. In fact, I don't think any particular profession is weak or 'broken', more, its just how you play the profession.

-K

[Eowade]

Monks do start out hard but become incredibly powerfull in the later levels. Also I think you can get to level 3 without fighting anything just doing the quests level 4 can be reached with just killing a bit. I made the mistake of trying to kill the wolves and stuff at level one on my first bard I died a whole heck of allot and had next to no money at first I thought it was just bards having a hard time but I made another and made it to level 4 rather quickly without dieing. Once you know where all the fedex quests are you can get to 3 pretty darn fast.

[Kazak]

Monks really are quite weak up to about level 11. In all D&D and NWN manuals it states that a monk is an end game character.

[UltimaBoB]

Monks need to boost Dex, Strength, wisdom, and con. They also need enough Int for skills.

stat crunch with relatively low magic and 20 levels really hurts them given they also get one less piece of gear of they use fists.

The fact that their speed does not stack with haste really hurts them relative to others.

Stunning fist abuse is maybe their only angle at uberness. I really fail to see how anyone could think a level 20 Monk is among the big boys.

It is clerics cand durids overall with Sorcerers and Wizards joining them in PvP duels (probably even exceding them in some forms of PvP, but falling behind overall). Bards are up next. Monks are nowehre near there IMO.

Of the non casting builds, I think Dwarven Defender builds are probably toughest with RDD builds after that. But I don't like to count IKD abuse builds as that feat is kinda broken in PvP. Thatbeing said, so is Bigby.

[Kazak]

*shrugs* silly me and here I am thinking I am playing the funnest class.

[StormRunner]

Fun has nothing to do with it Kaz! This is a game! Games are supposed to be... ehm...

Wait, nevermind.

[jawsofhana]

Of all my characters, my monk has been the one with least problems in the beginning.

You can get to level 2 and a half by doing all the starting quests in one go. Basically just by talking to the patrons at the inn and the merchants in the southern parts of town.

That is one hour of play if you know where they are.. and/or talk to people along the way.

You will also have gotten enough money to buy a few healing potions, and potions of bulls strength, cat's grace, owl's wisdom and maybe a barkskin potion.

This will give you an attack bonus high enough to kill wolves/boars, and an AC of 20+ almost regardless of your stat allocation.

This means wolves will only hit you if they crit. And you can collect wolf and boar pelts easily. This will get you to level 3.

Still not two hours played time.

At level 3 you can go into the crypts, and loot a few untrapped coffins to get the money to buy more potions.

Rinse and repeat as you like.
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At level 5 my monk/sorcerer has 20 str. and 27 ac. (buffed)

[Eowade]

I love monks also they spoil you with perma haste once you play one for awhile when you switch to another character it feels like everything is in slow motion. They do have lots of stats to split between but but so do bards. Also a druid can be a monks best friend with their wisdom buff spell that boosts wisdom by half their level add in mage armor, shield, and barkskin and they can be pretty hard to hit with evasion for aoe blasts and immunity to many spells.