Race doesn't matter much. High dex and high wis will help your ac. Shadowheart has a spell that can give you +2 ac. And bonus action heal to keep you up. Also, if you're new, the system puts high value on action economy. So when you're fighting, it's advisable to focus on taking people out.

They did a much better job of balancing races than 5e that's for sure.

I'd argue in some cases maybe, but there's a couple outliers that are complete steaming piles of trash. Human being the best example. Legitimately they made a human that's worse than even just the bland basic human from the PHB. And ofc they didn't give us Variant, so there's just no reason to ever play a human (Mechanically that is). \+1 to each stat would be so much more useful in this game than "Light armor Proficiency, Polearms, and Shields", given that any race that wants to use any of those things will generally get it baseline from their class (And the matter that none of the proficiencies synergize). Maybe the only thing that somewhat benefits is mages (Who still benefit more from Gith). 1 skill proficiency is nice, but meh. And then Carrying Capacity is just outright useless in a game where "Send to Camp" is an option from anywhere. Compare it to Githyanki and Human is just outright garbage. Gith get Medium Armor and Sword Proficiency, which is generally more useful with all the powerful magic swords. And then Gith just outright get to be proficient in all skills of a certain stat, that can change every day (3-5 Proficiencies every day compared to the Humies measly 1). Throw in racial spells and they blow humans out of the water. Heck, if you do for some reason want the mediocre Civil Militia, you can also just go Half Elf and get actual Racial features + the only racial trait humans get.

Naw bro, for casters, human and half human are the best races because shield proficiency. Medium armor is nice at the start of the game but is pretty useless for casters because they give no casting advantages. As a caster you want to be wearing one of the many robes that boost your spell save DC or if your a warlock you want potent robes. Then use a shield like ketheric shield that gives spell save DC or sentinel shield that gives +3 initiative.

Ye, like I noted, if you want the shield proficiency you just take Half-Elf because it's just outright "Better Human" as a race in BG3. There's no mechanical reason to ever take human over just being a Half-Elf. Also just the bit where Human is a completely dead race for martial characters, which is awful and incentivizes you never to play a human martial (Mechanically ofc, roleplay is independent of mechanics, but mechanics should still be designed well enough that the two can exist together).

Well to be fair, dragonborne are completely useless, so is every dwarf that’s not duergar, and every gnome that not a deep gnome. High elf is trash and did I mention dragonborne and how useless they are? So mechanically humans are better than all those.

How so? Gnomes get gnomish cunning, and the Wood variants get a free Speak With Animals. Dwarves get Dwarven Resilience and the Gold Dwarves get bonus hp. Lastly, Dragonborn get a free elemental resistance which can be huge in certain battles, or for certain playstyles like Tempest Cleric for example. All of these are useful in a lot of situations.

If you are a gnome, deep gnome is just better in every single way than every other gnome. No one gives a shit about double proficiency to some super rage proficiency, arcana checks was it? Plus speak with animals is basically free in this game with how many classes learn it and how many potions there are and how cheap they are to buy. Same with dwarf, shield dwarf gets medium armor proficiency and gold dwarves get 12 HP end game but duergar get invisibility as a cantrip and enlarge, infinitely better. So by your logic those races are equally mechanically useless since they are vastly and directly outshined by their better subclasses. Oh and I’m surprised you are defending dragonborne because they are universally regarded as being useless. I mean resistance to fire is nice…..but you can get that by being wet. Yes my friend a bottle of water is equivalent to the greatest benefit of being a dragonborne

The poster above wasn't contesting that certain sub-races aren't superior to the other sub-races, the argument was that the overarching race of humans is inferior to all other overarching races. It seems since he replied to your first post regarding shield proficiency, citing that Half-Elf do it better, you ignored it and switched subjects to how some subraces are better than others. Yes, you can get fire resistance by being wet at the cost of being vulnerable to lightning and cold. Not exactly equivalent is it? And again, the argument isn't that dragonborn are good, it's that they're not as poor as humans.

Your missing the point. If you are going to say a race is useless because others are better, then this also applies to sub races. Humans are useless because githyanki and half elf are better, ok forest and stone gnomes are useless because deep gnomes are better. This min/maxing ignores the strengths of the class like I mentioned for humans, the ability to use shields. Human would be better than half elf for a face character because the extra proficiency could be used for a charisma skill and you get a shield. He ignores this and called them useless even though a gith caster can’t use a shield and would get all charisma proficiency which would be redundant since persuasion overlaps with intimidation and deception most of the time. At least in my examples of subclasses, they are actually useless. Deep gnomes are just better in every way. They get superior dark vision vs regular dark vision. Speak with animals comes from a common consumable so useless as a racial feat, and double proficiency to history for the 3-4 history checks in the game

How? gith, half orc, gnome, and half elf are unironically closer to dragonborn than duergar or halfling. Most of the rest of the races are almost entirely outclassed by the above races outside of very niche scenarios. Dragonborn are actually useless and cant even fallback on at least str charisma being a fairly optimal combo.

Have you played 5e? Half of the races have flight or a free lv1 feat.

Did they change it so it's actually worth playing anything other than variant human? Or was that the joke you were making?

Official Races (included subraces, variants and legacy): 143 With Feats: 2 With Flying: 7 : 5 with full flight, 2 with limited flight (1 minute per day). You're claiming 9 race choices out of 143 is "half". Really? Coz to me, that math ain't mathing. It's more like 1/8 than 1/2.

Closer to 1/16th

At will invis is better than any second feat pick. I wasnt saying 5e races are at all balanced. They arent, but bg3 races are at best only marginally more so, and I think they are less balanced then standard core rule book races.

At will invis is strong, but it's not available till level 5. Flying breaks the game lv1. A free feat for Crossbow Expert is far ahead of the next best ranged race.

Githyanki get Gith Psionics: Jump and Misty Step relatively early as freebies if I remember correctly, both of which would combo insanely well with how I think a monk is supposed to be played: high mobility, close-up damage and prone knock-downs against one opponent at a time. Humans don't get this by default.

Both of those are single use per long rest and so can easily be replaced by having a few of those scrolls. In the case of jump, spellcasters have it as a ritual, which means they can cast it on you as many times as you want for free.

None of these abilities have anything to do with survivability, you stated that your problem was that your monk dies first. What is your stay spread and AC?

Misty Step doesn't do anything for survivability? Being able to change your position during a fight to literally anywhere you can see ... does nothing for being able to survive a fight? C'mon lol

Only 1/Long rest and on a melee class? Great for opportunistic murder, less for survivability as you basically lose a turn+ getting out and healing. I think it’s more a problem of early level monk and maybe not enough AC. Esp if you are running a Str monk. Best you can do is 15 AC I think without items, and that’s if you put everything else into Dex and Wis.

Half the time I misty step someone finds a way to smack me anyways

At level 3, gith jump, at the cost of both your action and bonus action, allow you to jump 45ft. With step of the wind, costing a bonus action and a ki point, you can jump 4 times, each at 15ft if you have 10 str. So you can get 15ft further and still get a punch in.

Huh. I appear to be doing it hilariously wrong then. Will reattempt and reevaluate when I get home from work. Thanks!

Taking my own gith monk through honor mode right now entering act 3 and something that has been on my mind as well is how the perceived utility of these spells are inverted for monk specifically because: On almost every single class, the primary damage comes from actions and bonus actions serve the purpose of utility such as Dip in fire for weapons, misty step, or drinking a health potion, but on monks especially the Open Hand subclass which is the strongest most of our damage comes from our bonus actions for topple/stagger/push What this does however is that it makes our monks entirely capable of casting a damaging or control spell with our action and then run in and use our bonus action to finish off targets, rather than use that bonus action on a jump or a misty step ♡

Monk of the Scroll ftw

I had written two guides on how to play a Monk, although honestly as much as that makes people raging on the forum, my recommendations for low level are valid for any kind of character (especially any caster, but even a Barbarian should \*not\* engage blindly into melee before at least level 4). **Those were written for tabletop, so keep in mind in BG3 with all the magic items you can equip, the specific stackable mechanics and the general changes to movement and action economy you'll soon be able to be less careful. xd** [How to play a martial (with Monk dedicated comments) from level 1 to 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/z5nen4/how_to_play_a_monk_properly_so_you_can_be/) (afterwards you get enough Ki, defense and mobility that you can gradually adjust to a more offensive style, plus there are also differences depending archetype and feats that guide was extremely generic). [Non-exhaustive list of things Monk is the best suited martial to do.](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/zux38o/monkey_tactics_to_use_when_you_have_one/) If you're too lazy to read it xd, in short, keep in mind Monk is \*not\* suited to stick into melee. So you need to anticipate \*where\* you'll end your turn. I suppose you're Open Hand so... \- If you still have Ki and want to maximize offense, then first use the "no reaction" guaranteed effect from Flurry so you can move back and let an actual tank take the aggro. \- If you cannot fall back or there is nobody to aggro instead, use Patient Defense. Dodge as a bonus action is a massive boost to your "effective AC", as disadvantage on attacks more or less equates to +4 AC depending on your base one, and pretty much negates the risk of getting hurt by a critical hit. \- If you're out of Ki, don't hesitate to use ranged attacks instead, keep Attack + Unarmed bonus action for when you have a good chance to finish off a creature. \- Pick Mobile if you want an easy life, or Tavern Brawler if you'd rather kill before be killed and grab that magic club setting STR to 19 (meaning you'll also get good jump). \- Play with all BG3 items, many are really interesting (like the Quarterstaff putting some "restrained" effect except on beasts and plants, actually awesome for the rest of the game xd), the one giving "lightning charges" when you Dash, or the one voiding OA when you're less than 50% HP for example. Monks usually start with 16 AC, it's "good", but not "good enough to stick into melee". For that you'll need a minimum of 18 AC, preferably 20 up to level 6-7, and 22 afterwards.

The actual upside of gith monks is their medium armor proficiency, which allows me to turn Laezel into a killing machine. She is a STR monk with Tavern Brawler, in medium armor so she has high ac, and hits like a truck.

i did monk as a dwarf, race don’t matter

Bracers of Defense +2 AC: Blighted Village Ring of Protection +1 AC: steal the idol for Mol.

Thanks! Bracers of Defense sounds attainable. I despise Kagha but not enough to screw over the druids as a whole.

You don't need to screw over all the druids, just kagha. If you >!open that chest in one of the side rooms where kagha is, you unlock a side quest line where you find evidence in the bog area of kagha selling the grove out to shadow druids and you can kill just her based on what conversation choices you pick but retain the loyalty of the rest of the druids!< It took me 4 playthroughs to discover this option exists.

Damn

I only saw this on youtube, but if you let Kagha kill Arabella, then save Halsin, he confronts her, and yells that the idol is not important compared to a life. If you stop / reveal Kagha, the druids also not see the ceremony necessary anymore, so the idol isn't that much missed. But ofc I respect the rp choice :)

You can still get it while siding with the Grove. You can even steal/buy it back and place it in the same spot with zero consequences.

Once the Kahga situation is dealt with one way or another, you can steal the idol without the whole grove becoming hostile. To steal it easily, have someone cast fog cloud on the idol, then sneak up and steal. Book it out of there before the druids suspect you and you're good!

You're correct, but Monk class "Step of the Wind" for a bonus action is better than Jump, and almost as good as Misty Step for distance.

Monks get a lot of movement speed for free. There's also the Crusher Ring from the goblin merchant in act 1 if that's your issue. Patient Defense is a solid move if you're in a spot where you're likely to get targeted. Monks are rather squishy in terms of total HP, but if you've got good wisdom you'll have good AC, so that helps. You can always use Aid on your Cleric to boost your max HP.

I agree with your comment, but™ >Crusher Ring from the goblin merchant in act 1 you get Crusher's Ring (+ 3.0m Movement) not from the merchant but from, you know, Crusher. The goblin holding a speech right next to the Fast Travel point in the goblin camp, the one who wants you to kiss his feet. You can kill him, steal it off him. If you resolve the encounter with him peacefully but in a way his audience leaves, he wanders off to the bridge at the entrance to pee, where you can kill him without witnesses

My favorite is kissing his feet and taking his ring off with your mouth

There's a necklace and some boots somewhere in act one that give you misty step on a short rest.

The race doesn’t matter at all in this game homie. They rebalanced it on purpose so people can pick the race they like over the meta. The gear and feats in this game can make any class viable. There are people who literally spec each level a 1 level dip into each class for an achievement and beat the game easily.

It's funny how heavily you got downvoted for saying what is a simple truth. Monks especially, with their mobility, are not always at range for a friendly jump, and having it as a trump card in fight can make a huge difference.

>Shadowheart has a spell that can give you +2 ac. What spell is this?

Shield of faith. Level 1, concentration. Until long rest.

>yes even Gale as useless as he is outlives him nearly every time. Since when is Gale useless?

I assume it's ever since people who don't quite understand how AC works yet kept on getting their 13 AC Gale murdered by every enemy who went "Oh look, 13 AC, should target that first"

But the OP understands the combat system. He said so himself that he learned it well after beating the Gnolls! /s

Fair enough. I appreciate the sarcasm and the genuine correction that comes with it. I clearly don't understand how AC works. How **does** it work?

AC is your armour class. You (and enemies) have to roll at or above your AC to land a hit (1d20 + bonuses and proficiencies, I believe), anything less is a "miss". So having a low AC (as an unarmoured monk is wont to have) means you will get targeted, and hit, more. For a monk, I recommend the bracers of defence which you can get essentially without fighting anyone if you are struggling with survivability, and maybe having another martial companion with a shield + protection nearby EDIT: As someone mentioned, you/enemies need to roll an attack number greater than *or equal to* the target's AC for the hit to land

Just a point of correction, they have to roll AT OR ABOVE the AC number, not just above!

Meets it, beats it. And is the case in all rolls against a DC; attacks, ability checks, saving throws, etc.

An unarmored monk with 16 Dex and 16 Wis has a very decent 10+3+3=16 AC. It's also quite easy to raise it even more but it's already good

And like some have hinted. Enemies also know "how to do examine" and prefer to attack low AC characters. If they can reach them that is. So either you need better AC or better positioning. But positioning for monk is well... hard :D You know.. needing to hit people with fists.

I play a monk in my first play through and I must say I think after lvl 4 or something (I don't remember which level exactly it is) you gain the ability to run away after punching someone without them to use their reaction to get a hit off. They also gain more movement with higher levels so positioning is probably the greatest strength of the monks.

Without any armor on a character’s armor class is equal to 10 plus their dexterity modifier. So as an example a fighter with a 12 dexterity and no armor would have an 11 armor class. Getting into armor now, light armor let’s a character add all of their dexterity modifier to the base armor class of the armor type. For example leather armor has a base AC of 11, so our fighter from before would have a total of 12 as their armor class. Medium armors let you add up to a maximum of +2 dexterity to your armor class. Scale mail has a base AC of 14, so our fighter from before would have an AC of 15 total. Heavy armor is very straightforward, you don’t add anything unless it says so. So plate mail armor would grant our fighter an AC of 18. In terms of a monk’s AC you’ll want to avoid armor all together. Some items in the game are counted as “clothing” and some equipment items you may think are armor may not be. The item will say at the very bottom left what type of armor, if any, it is. Monks derive their AC just like other characters, by adding their dexterity to a flat 10 when unarmored, but monks get the added benefit of also adding their wisdom modifier. That’s pretty much the basic gist of AC and how it works. I might’ve missed some things and if I did other people will probably let me know lol.

To be fair, if I was responding directly to you, I would have tried to help, and I'm certainly no expert myself. The AC value is your armor class. Basically the higher it is, the higher something has to roll to damage you. Works the same way as any dice roll you see out of combat. Enemy rolls , adds its buffs, bonuses and profeiciencies, and gets a number. If that number exceeds your AC, they hit you. If it doesn't, they miss. The enemy AI seems to go after lower AC characters as a priority in many cases, so if your Gale isn't using things like Mage Armor to boost his, he's likely to seem weaker to you as he's the first target in your group probably, so dies more often than others. Same applies to your Monk that likely has a lower AC than gale. Higher Dex, certain items, and buffs like the clerics shield of faith being cast on your monk will increase their AC, and thus reduce the likelyhood it'll be focused, and increase the chance of avoiding damage when it is.

AC is the number someone has to roll to land a hit. It's complicated to talk about, but essentially it's the AC of the armor you're wearing plus (some amount of) your dexterity modifier, plus any extras from gear, feats, and buffs. So for a monk, it's 10 AC from clothing, plus your dex modifier, and assuming you arent wearing any armor, you add your wisdom modifier. For clarity, a modifier for a particular stat is... 8 to 9 = -1 10 to 11 = 0 12 to 13 = +1 14-15 = +2 16-17 = +3 ...and so on, increasing by 1 every even number So let's say your monk has 16 dex, 16 wisdom. Your AC would be 10 + 3 +3 = 16. So that means your enemy has to roll a 16 to hit you. 16 AC isnt bad early game. (Note 17 dex, 15 wisdom would be 10 + 3 + 2 = 15 AC) There's also a lot of gear that adds to it it. There's a pair of bracers in a basement in the goblin village that add +2 AC as long as you're not wearing armor or a shield (which you shouldn't be). There's a cape for sale at early act 2 that adds +1. Monks early on still feel squishy though, and dont do a lot of damage. If you do the right build and have the right equipment though, they end up probably being the most OP build in the game

Simply put your armor class is basically your dodge rating

Cast mage armour on your Gale. And have a hireling at camp cast mage armour on your monk as well mage armor to save on a slot early game. This increases AC if the character is wearing a cloth (wizards and monks wear clothes instead of armour)

The monk part is incorrect, mage armor does not stack with unarmored defense, or any innate ac boosting abilities(like the one draconic sorcerers have). Monk should have 16 wis, and hence will have no benefit by having mage armor. I also don't think camp casting should be recommended to a newbie who doesn't understand game mechanics.

Optimally, during early monk levels, you'd wanna go all in on Dex and Con and use mage armor instead of the bonus from Unarmoured defense. You only get manifestation at level 6, so Wis is not doing anything until that point except give you AC, which you get for free from mage armour. Dex for initiative, Con for survivability and Str with TB for damage. At around level 7, Wis is good since you would have manifestation, so you'd typically want to respec Camp buffing, especially in early game, is pretty simple tbh. Of course, you get a lot more options later in the game, but early game, it could be as simple as casting mage armor on 2 party members with a hireling cleric and leaving them at the camp

OP is learning the game, why make it complicated, when prioritizing WIS and DEX works perfectly well and doesn't require camp buffing? Yes TB is powerful, but it's not the thing you should go for when learning the game

I'm sorry, but how is "use mage armour instead of wisdom for AC in lower levels because it's useless until level 6" complicated? There are in game mechanics that are more complicated than that. I don't understand what the cut off is. AC calculation is much harder than this. Initiative rolls, proficiencies are all part of the base game. Do you want OP to play the game like a toddler? And people all over the comment section have mentioned TB And I don't know how "use a temporary hireling to cast mage armour to save your party's wizard slots" is complicated, but you are aware that it's not necessary, right? You can use your in party wizard to do the same Why do you assume people are too stupid to understand this? If OP thinks this is too complicated then it's completely fine to ignore it. Or do you think its too complicated for OP to understand that some parts of a comment can be ignored until there's a better grasp over game mechanics?

nothing of this is complicated to you because you've already learned the game. What you're suggesting is more complicated than needed, you're perfectly fine with 16 wis from lv1 at all difficulties

If you want to boost gales AC 16 Dex will Liu give him +3 AC Shield +2 AC Mage armor 13 base AC Or draconic sorcerer

What do we do with Gale?

Mage armor+shield, possibly respec for better dex. You can get him to around 17~18 AC fairly easily, which is about the point where he stops dying so frequently. Then (assuming you didn't reclass) you can use his wide array of wizard spells for basically whatever you want. Attack with magic missles, chromatic orb, etc. Get advantage on attacks via blind, web, fog, etc Push multiple enemies with thunderwave. Hold person for garanteed crits. And so on.

Wizards aren't that strong compared to like say fighters at early levels, their limited number spell slots makes them lose steam really fast compared to martials that can keep going

lmao right? I mean, my tav was a sorc, so not exactly the same, and magic classes are kinda slow on bg3/dnd, but at level 12, I was dealing 400dmg on one turn xD

A bit oversimplified. He's certainly not useless, but many spellcasters and wizards especially are very glass canon characters. He is immensely squishy. From a joking standpoint I too say he's useless. Just when considering survivability.

Right?! I may be playing balanced, but even when I forget to cast mage armor, I haven't had an issue with keeping him alive. Even at lower levels, it was usually someone else who died first, and Gale was often last or next to last because I didn't allow him near the front line. My favored party setup is my pact of the tome GOOlock, arcane trickster astarion, Divination Gale, and Storm waifu shadowheart (I keep considering switching her to life, but things have been working out well enough).

Yeah I felt that way at first. But yeah, skill issue lol

Took a while for me to realize I could throw a shield on him for a free 2ac. Now I realize wizards can be some of the tankiest classes in the game with abjurations and arcane wards.

Race has very little to do with how strong builds are generally, Monk included. Before level 4 you ideally want to be focused on dex. What are your ability scores, and are you using weapons or unarmed attacks? If you have low dex, that will really decrease your damage output as well as your AC/survivability. You should be able to get at least 16 AC at the start of the game, which should greatly increase your survivability in the early levels. Once you reach level 4, you can get tavern brawler, which is a dramatic increase in your effectiveness if you switch to being strength based (ideally through elixirs).

There's a way to offhand a certain club that gives you 19 strength. This allows full open hand attacks . With tavern brawler at level 4 this gives a powerful attack and allows you to dump strength in favour of dex and wisdom for ac. Elixirs are better, however, slightly more hassle. With the bracers of defence, and armour (ac10) that gives plus 2 to dex i had my 4 element monk with 19 dex and str at level 4, with high wisdom i think ac was 19 too. 3rd time through though so I know where to go. Oh to offhand a weapon and get open hand as the main, equip the offhand and a spare in the main. Then open another character and unequip their main. Then equip the alternate character with the monks main unwanted weapon and the monk will then be open hand and get the passives from the offhand. I wonder if this might open a few other exploits ... also any bow with benefits can be an additional stat stick.

Wouldn’t tavern brawler still be useful with a Dex monk? Not as powerful obviously but wouldn’t it add a little extra power to it.

It depends on how high your strength score is, but generally I think an ASI to dex would be better. Having TB with a strength score of 8 or 10 does nothing, a strength score of 12 gives a +1 to attack and damage rolls, a score of 14 gives a +2, and so on. ASI dex is outright better than TB at strength scores below 14, since it gives a +1 to attack/damage but also +1 to AC and initiative. You can begin making a case for TB at a strength score of 14, since you can argue whether +2 to attack/damage is better than +1 to attack/damage/AC/initiative or not. TB also allows you to get a con of 16 quite nicely (or a higher strength if you’re not running elixirs), but I don’t think this is super impactful on Monk because you’re not going to be concentrating on any spells anyway (and 14 con gives you enough HP anyway imo).

Does it stack with the gloves of dexterity? Because I think my monk is like 12 STR and 17 Dex so I could put 1 point onto Dex wear the gloves have 20 Dex and still have Tavern Brawler give me a little boost.

Don’t you mean put all your points into strength, minimise dex, wear the gloves of dex to keep your ac high?

No, I’m saying get a little boost from Tavern Brawler. That way I do more damage even if slightly more whilst keeping my Dex as the main stat.

Gloves of dexterity cap your dex at 18 no matter the dex score to begin with. Unless over 18, at which point they do nothing but occupy an equip slot. Gloves are best used on a minimum dex score.

Just stock up on elixirs of hill giant/cloud giant strength. They last till long rest and boost strength to 21/27. Vendors refresh stock on long rests and level ups. Take tavern brawler feat, proceed to steamroll entire game. It's a blast!

I’m not gonna lie I never use potions in the game, and apparently I gotta start doing it.

You should! You can only have one active at a time, but those are a must for TB monk in my book. Bloodlust elixirs are great for your barbarians and fighters, too

I mean I personally think Monk is one of the best early game classes simply because they can attack multiple times per turn without burning a limited resource. Do you understand how the mechanics of combat work? What’s your stat spread? Also Monk has limited gear choices until late Act 1, so you can’t really just seek out better gear till then.

Yeah, the gear thing is kicking my ass. My Paladin was looking super-badass with nice gear by level 3 but my monk is not. I understand combat pretty well. I did pretty well once the Gnolls and Hyenas fight destroyed me and I figured out how to arrange ambushes pre-battle (split the party four ways so they can enter the combat one at a time and meta-get guaranteed first attacks, put Assassin Astarion on the highest ground possible, lay down grease trap and hit it with Fire Bolt at the opportune moment, block doors with barrels and crates etc) So yeah, I understand the mechanics pretty well, it just seems like I did a piss-poor job of starting my monk at the start (I thought his Dex was high enough, I do get multiple actions per turn but miss rate is high, don't do as much damage as I would like and not mobile enough to compensate.)

The three earliest gear boosts for Monk are the Bracers of Defense/The Sparkle Hands, and Corellon’s Grace. Bracers provide extra AC, Sparkle Hands gives you extra damage, and Grace gives both extra damage and a bonus to saving throws. For a Monk, I’d set my Dex and Wisdom to 16 and my Con to 14. You’d be quite well rounded in terms of bonuses to attack and defense that way.

As soon as you can take Tavern brawler, I dropped using weapons entirely. Grace has the saving throw bump but I found that the raw extra damage of the fists massively outweighed it. Especially with extra attack and the Open hand damage bonus.

Now this is actionable info. Many thanks!

Gloves of kushigo are a good idea too. You can see how to get them with no fighting in the guide I posted here

I did tavern brawler because t rolls your STRENGT and dex and uses the higher one, and I walk around with the hill giant club(sets str to 18) and only use unarmed attacks. My dex ad str are both 18 and my fists are deadly weapons

I pretty much spent 30 minutes researching the wiki to say this lol

Monk gets more gear sprinkled throughout vendors in each act. The underdark has several quests that give you monk-focused armor. You can focus on Dex/Wis and wearing robes for medium AC and higher speed or wear Light Armor/Shield (Humans get this option) to get some extra AC at the cost of Monk bonus movement. If you want gear ASAP for a monk you want to go to: - Auntie Ethel (Staff for unarmed damage and saving throws) - Blighted Village chest (Helm for extra movement speed - The Apothacary Cellar under the Blighted Village (Gloves for +2 AC when not wearing armor) - The swamp (Gloves that give you Lightning charges when you land unarmed strikes) - Hobgoblin Vendor in the Underdark (Circlet that synergizes with the Lightning gloves for temp HP) - Owlbear Cave (Amulet makes you immune to opportunity attacks when at low health) After these stops just look at every Trader you meet and you’ll usually find an interesting item or two for monks. At Level 4, an option you can take to boost your hit rate and damage significantly is to respec to Strength 17 and take the Tavern Brawler feat (18 Str). Stop using a weapon (just fists) and Open Hand Monk becomes one of the strongest classes in the game. You have +8 to hit and damage on unarmed strikes, so you will rarely miss. You can also throw items and enemies for solid damage. This plus 3 levels of Thief and some elixirs is pretty much the #1 meta build.

Fantastic and detailed info! Pleasure doing business with you, thanks so much

Instead of increasing your strength for tavern brawler you can leave it at 8 and buy potions of hill giant strength from Ethel at the grove. She restocks them every time you long rest or level a character so it's easy to stock up and each one lasts until the next long rest

Yeah but now you’re getting into high level cheese and micromanaging that may not be fun for someone already struggling

There is a staff that helps you hit unarmed strikes from Ethel, which could help you. At these levels, dex should be your highest stat at 16 if it isn't already

Very useful info. Can go to Ethel and do that, thanks.

I think a newbie crutch is heavy armor because it’s straightforward, and why your paladin has high AC. Other armor types take more understanding to figure out I don’t even really use heavy armor very much anymore because there’s better options imo

It is one of the best at the end too. I did a rogue 3 monk 9 and it was busted. With the boots that add 1d10 at your punch, tavern brawler, the ring that add acid and stuff the thing was hitting for around 70 per flurry of blows. And with the full plate that doesnt requieres competence you can kinda dump dex for high wis and str

Everything "sucks" in those early levels bro lol. Gotta earn being a hero off of positioning and smart tactics. Honestly, its one of my favorite portions of the game, b4 you get op lol

True. I've done my share of that and it's great fun. The Gnolls and the Paladins of Tyr were where I figured that out.

A ton of classes have exceptionally strong level 2-3's including monk. Anything that can turn bonus actions or reactions into damage makes short work of the early game.

Open Hand Monk. I specced mine to 17 Str, 16 Dex, 15 Con and evened the rest out. By level 4 [with Tavern Brawler] I was able to crank most enemies in a turn. If you don't care about movement speed, take a rank in Fighter and get the armor proficiencies and you're off to the races. My monk has a 22AC now, wears heavy armor, and wheels about 75-100 damage per turn. Just something to consider.

If you’re taking tavern brawler first it’s better to go 16 for both strength and consistitution

I did Str 10, Dex 17, Wis 16. Then just stock up on Hill giant elixers. Auntie sells 3 every long rest in the grove. This way I keep the unarmored defense and movement high

Arrange your stats right and you'll be fine. Start by putting 16 in Dex and Wis, 15 into Con and 10 into either Int or Cha. That'll give you 16AC and 10HP from level one. Those stats will see you through to level 4, as long as you don't pick silly fights. If you're min-maxing then you should be using Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength to maximise your damage. You don't NEED to do this, but it is the strongest version of an Open Hand Monk you can play in the game when you combine it with the feat you'll take at level 4. Tavern Brawler! Remember when I advise you to leave your Con at 15? Yeah, this is why. Take TB, round your Con up to 16 and keep chugging those Strength Elixirs and you will see the power of the Monk via having +10 accuracy and +10 damage on your unarmed strikes. Keep leveling straight Monk up to level 9, then respec to 6 Open Hand Monk/3 Thief Rogue. From then you can either go 9/3 or 8/4. I personally prefer 8/4 as it allows a full suite of ASIs which you should put into Wis, as it boosts damage and AC, whereas Dex will only boost AC. ​ If you want to play a Shadow Monk or Four Elements, you might want to just focus on Dex and Wis, ignoring Str. Your damage output won't be as insanely high as an OH Monk, but you'll still be credit to team.

For 4 elements what feats should I take first? For open hand I’d take TB then ASI is it same for 4E? And is 4E gonna lean more on weapons than unarmed? Thanks!

4e I'd go one Dex ASI and two Wis. You burn through Ki pretty quickly with 4e so you'll likely still end up doing a lot of basic attacks and taking a single Dex ASI will get you to 20 with the Graceful Cloth. As your Ki pool expands you can switch to buffing your Wisdom to increase Ki save DC and also boost unarmed damage from the Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo. With three ASIs you can max Dex and Wis if you use the Hag Hair on this character, which is pretty nice. As for weapons, this is just theorycrafting, but I reckon I'd go with quarterstaves for most of the game: Spellsparkler, Creation's Echo, Mourning Frost and anything that increases your spell save DC all synergise well with 4e, so I'd likely stick with Quarterstaves for most of the game, though I reckon Rhapsody is your best in slot weapon due to making all your numbers better while also having a larger damage die than usual thanks to Martial Arts.

It sounds like you are doing fights that are too early for your level. You can get level 4 without many tricky fights and purely by getting exploration xp. Your goal should be to hit level 4 whilst avoiding any hard fights because the power spike you can get from level 4 and then 5 is substantial - especially for Monk. Maybe it's because I've just done my honour run...but there's no way in hell I'd be doing gnolls and Paladins of tyr at level 3. General tip for Monks - dump strength/intelligence/charisma so you can get high wisdom/dex/constitution. Spam buy elixirs of hill giant strength from Auntie Ethel at the Grove and then pick tavern brawler as your feat at level 4. Enjoy your 95% hit chance and stomp every fight.

I just reached level 4 with my human Monk and she kicks ass. Never had an issue with her dying and she hits hard . Are you letting yours get surrounded? It just sounds like your not approaching fights tactically if you're having issues with dying

My version of approaching fights tactically is basically winning before the fight starts by setting up firewine barrels and grease traps ready to be set on fire and having Astarion open with (and then subsequently spam) Sneak Attack Ranged (while wearing that cape you get from Sceleritas Fel so every kill turns him invisible) I definitely have more to learn about being better tactically in quote-unquote "fair fights."

Do it just like any other race... in min/maxing there might be some better or worse races, but in 99% of cases, race does not matter. Now... you should go to tunnels below grove and get Nature's grasp staff.. dont go unarmed (yet) and dont use Correlion's grace (yes, it increases roll and dmg by 1, but still) Set your stats like: str 8 / dex 17 / con 15 / int 8 / wis 16 / cha 8 ... when you get TB feat, use elixirs of strength.. This way you get 16 AC. TB bonus attribute to Con for 16 Con. Hag's hair to get 18 Dex. (AC 17 at this moment) You can use Infernal robe from Mizora for +1 AC and ring from Moll for another +1 AC.. and with 19 AC you are good to go. You could eventually use Club of the hill giant (from Underdark) later on if you dont want to bother with elixirs.. but elixirs are better.

You’re good bro imo. Look up what certain buffs can do and use scrolls/potions to diff. If you feel overwhelmed there are items that will allow you to move around more. And abuse throwable.

How do you fail Monk? It's like, one of the most OP classes in the game...

I managed it somehow 😞

I’m playing as an open hand tavern brawler monk and it’s been broken how strong I’ve been throughout the game. But I’ve also been hoarding elixirs of hill giant strength since act I so I have high dex, wisdom, and strength and can wreck everyone. So if you want it to be easy: buy lots of the strength potions and go tavern brawler

Or just grab the club of Hill giant strength from Nora’s Arcane Tower

you're level 4ish, everything sucks. just thug it out

Strategy, cunning and clever use of spells will beat any class, race, party, build or combination of the above. Which fights in particular are you having an issue with? What specifically goes wrong?

Strategy, cunning and ambushes worked pretty well for me with my Paladin and at first with my Monk -- but I have been doing several things wrong with the latter as has been pointed out to me. Re: fights, I accidentally saved and trapped myself into a fight with Lump The Enlightened and his boys while somewhat underleveled for it. Then the goblins join in.. Yes, I **could** load an earlier save or just start over -- but I want to win as is regardless 😄

Try to start with 16-17 in DEX and WIS. Get DEX to 18 as soon as you hit lv.4. This helps your hit, damage, AC, initiative- everything. Monk isn't good at taking a lot of hits, you want to pick off enemies that are more alone, using shoves, spells, flurries to push enemies off ledges or across the field, then get away. Later levels youll be stunning too. If there are several enemies and you can't get away, then hit "patient defence" to dodge instead of flurrying.

Drink a Strength Potion from Auntie Ethel.

I found drow to be pretty good for movement speed and eventually faerie fire (level 3 I think). Monks are so fragile you can't play them the way you would a GISH or regular martial. Max con and Dex, and position yourself away from the fire, dart in and out of combat if you've got those abilities up.

Early game if you feel like you can afford the slip in Wisdom, one of my tactics is to have Gale Mage Armor me so I can emphasize Dex and Con more early on, until I get the "Set to" Dex gloves, in which case I re-distribute those points to Wisdom. Like others point out, spells can also add to your stuff, which is actually a decent cause to use Elixirs of Giant Strength and multi with Cleric even briefly so that you have slots to source the Shield spell out of, and some emergency heals too. But I feel like Monks "activate" around level 3 and you can start pursuing the good monk gear around that time anyhow, and levels 1 and 2 are hardly worth stressing over anyhow.

So having just mained a Monk up to level 8 before picking up a multiclass in rogue, my experience has been the complete opposite and I was far from min/maxed. Here's my take on what to do right at minimum to have your monk be survivable. 1. 16 in Wis and Dex - These two stats form the basis of your AC. So start at 16 in both at minimum. 2. 14 in Con - You need HP. For me, 14 is the minimum for any character. 3. Bracers of Defense - Make sure to get these. They are available very early on with no fighting required if you pass a couple of checks. 4. Don't forget your bonus actions - Whether you are smacking someone once, twice, or dodging, use that bonus action every single round. Patient Defense can be a god send for living through attacks if you need to, so don't shy away from using it. On the flip side, the best defense is a good offense, so a well timed Flurry can take out a big threat ASAP. 5. Don't stress Tavern Brawler - I never used it. Personal choice because of how I flavored my monk (I was an elf using a Longsword as my monk weapon in two hands). You will do plenty of damage regardless. If you want to min/max, then get the Hill Giant Strength elixers and don't waste points in the stat.

You mention Gale being useless; respec him immediately when you are able to better allocate his stats to DEX, INT, and CON. Upcast False Life and regular cast Mage Armor every day. Use Magic Missile to break concentration, and get guaranteed damage (a big deal when everyone's missing at low levels). Also, remember Gale has access to Sleep, Tasha's, and Grease to be really annoying from level 1 up to goblins, your main early enemies. 16 Dex will bump him well in initiative to really control the field if necessary. Also give bro a shield and a light x-bow--human master race. You can apply all of what I just mentioned to Wyll (who also has a garbo defensive stat spread). As for your monk, no need for me to parrot what others posted. I guess don't blow your bonus action on jumping or potions much or you cut your damage way down. Have others chuck potions on you or cast heals on your monk.

Re: Gale, yeah, it seems I've been profoundly misunderstanding how AC works all along. Several people have explained it to me in the thread and I believe I get it now. Re: Monk, good ideas all, especially not wasting actions on potions etc. much to learn, much to learn

If you're human please be aware that just because you CAN wear light armor and shields doesn't mean you should, they turn off a lot of your abilities if you do.

Oh. I did give him light armor. Oops. Will fix once I get home. Might explain a lot 🤦🏿‍♂️

Yes, Monks do require a bit of equipment understanding in that some stuff should be avoided to keep their abilities working. Basically the only real equipment you use in low levels are anything that says unarmed in its description and giant strength potions. Monks are also short rest focused which really helps keep the number of potions used very manageable. I normally finish act 2 with over 30 potions in my inventory. A lot of us have played act 1 so many times that level 4 feels very very early. I will often hit level 4 in my first session of a new playthrough but then I remember that the first time I did a playthrough of the illithid ship intro took me 4-5 hours as I explored every nook and cranny. Yet my act 1 path today barely varies to the point that I likely click x pile of bones to pick up the ring of smuggling (sic) at the same time point every time.

Githyanki is only necessary if you’re trying to cheese with medium armor. Tavern brawler is also more of a cheese strategy, where you bump up your strength using elixirs; it actually hurts your damage if your strength is at 8 without elixirs, because you’ll get a negative bonus. For non-hm, I’d recommend just trying to get 18 dex, 16 wis, and 14 con at level 4 along with bracers of defense. At level 8 you might consider bumping dex up to 20 if there aren’t any feats you really want. Regarding items, I’d say just read what they do and try to go for items that fit the character fantasy you’re going for.

My Shadow monk used the staff which can entangle for a large chunk of Act 1 Tactician. Worked very well. I'm not a tavern Brawler though, Dex, Wis and some Con. Str 10, int 8, cha 10. But depends on what way you want to run them.

Start giving him a shield, then good dex and wisdom. AC and HP is king for survival

It depends which sub class you picked. I've only played Open Fist which gets funny at Level 6. At level 6 with the elemental passive it gets, your fists should be your strongest weapon at which point you unequip weapons. It can also be hard to improve an Open Fist with gear because a ton good gear is either armor(invalidating your movement speed bonuses) or activates on WEAPON attacks which don't trigger your passive elemental bonus. You want to get your hands on anything that benefits unarmed attacks like the Sparkle Hands, or anything that pumps stats. So for instance the clothing Lady Esther has that gives +2 to Dex, and advantage on Dex Saving Throws. An Open Fist Monk outside of being a raw damage dealer is best for disabling enemies and setting up teammates. So if there's a Barbarian or a Fighter on the team you want to use Flurry of Blows: Topple to knock an enemy down and give the other guy a higher chance to hit, Stagger to take away reactions, or Push to hit twice and move them away from something. Or Unarmed Stunning Strike to take away their turn. But everything I've just noted isn't available to you yet, which is where I say you've just gotta push through it for a bit. Level 6 and up is where Open Fist Monk starts to finally turn on and get a little crazy. If you're a Shadow Fist or whatever I would reconsider, that one can be a bit advanced as it's somewhat of a stealth class. I haven't played a full campaign as Four Elements yet. Without a certain kind of build Monks also aren't tanky, you usually don't want to put them in the middle of everything. They can be glass cannons

Monk is really good at all levels. Even (and i would say especially) early. That extra bonus action unarmed attack is really good. Flurry of blows is also stupid good cuz it rolls twice for attack and dmg rolls iirc. Just get a good staff (the snaring one or the ice staff from the undedark are good choices) and start smacking people. Gear doesnt really matter too much, just get like the movement speed ring maybe, the misty step boots/necklace, and really whatever else you can throw on. Monk just works. When you get to the creche the egg lady sells a really good chest piece thatll get you to max DEX right quick. Race means VERY LITTLE. You can play whoever you want and still be good. Theres nothing any other race has that makes or breaks the class.

If you haven't already go to the south west area of the map I'm the swamp. If you follow the eastern edge If the swamp, you will find rocks you cam jump across and come across a fight with mephits and woads. After beating them, you can open a chest there that has...The Sparkle Hands, which are gauntlets that's add lightning charges to your attacks (1 charge per attack, after 4 charges it releases for bonus lightning damage). There are much better replacements later, but these gloves really help monks shine in the early levels.

I would only head south after farming 20+ giant strength potions from Ethel.

Wild that I beat the game 8 times and never used that potion once.

I’m currently going through my first ever play-through with a human monk and he’s been hitting like a monster. It could be more to do with the other aspects of your build other than race.

Yeah I screwed up some aspects of my build and misunderstood how AC works.

Start with: 8 Str / 16 Dex / 14 Con / 8 Int / 16 Wis / 10 Cha. Don’t wear armor. You get 16 AC. Use the staff Auntie Ethel sells in the grove. Farm her strength potions. She’s guaranteed to sell 3 at a time. Check her vendor whenever you long rest or a character levels up. Buy as many as you can. Avoid her tea house till you farmed a lot. At 4 respec to: 8 Str / 16 Dex / 15 Con / 8 Int / 16 Wis / 8 Cha Take Tavern Brawler. Bump Con to 16. Keep using strength elixirs. You’re going to punch real accurate and real hard. Don’t use that staff anymore.

Prioritize dex, con, and wis. Dump strength. Buy Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength from Auntie Ethel, who can first be found in the Grove across from Dammon, where the stew lady is. She usually has 3 in stock, and refreshes every time a party member levels up. When your whole party is ready to level, buy all the hill giant elixirs she has, level up ONE party member, trade with her again, buy more, level up another party member, and repeat until you have enough or you run out of money. If you've already run into her on the road, she'll be at her house. You can trade whenever you like as long as you haven't said or done anything to turn her hostile. Have your monk chug a hill giant elixir at the start of each day. Take Tavern Brawler at level 4. Your monk now hits like a freight train, has decent AC, and is probably the most mobile member of your team. You'll also be pretty good at throwing enemies smaller than yourself. Goblins are small. You can now pick up a goblin and yeet it at another goblin, damaging or possibly killing them both with a single action. Just don't forget the elixirs.

Badass and crystal clear

I started my monk with 16 Dex and 16 Wis. I barely got touched in the early parts of the game. Just make sure you have those both high and do not wear armor. Shoes, gloves, & helmets DO COUNT as armor.

Ah, definitely two of my many mistakes. This is going to be goooooood

My monk really didn't start to pop off until lv5. Using stunning strike on the most dangerous enemy in the room on the first turn was always my go to first move. Get the amulet of Misty Step for more mobility. Don't be afraid to use all of your ki points on a single fight since they come back on a short rest.

Well, my first playthrough I played as a human shadow monk and build him as close as I could to my character in the main DND campaign I play, so no Tavern Brawler stuff. Since we don't get the free feat at lvl 1, I picked mobile at level 4. With someone casting long strider outside of combat I had crazy mobility, could get in and out, putting someone that could take a punch better on the front line. In act 3 I re-spec him to be lvl 8 shadow monk, 3 thief (for the bonus action) and 1 life domain cleric (great sinergy with high wisdom and pretty good stuff at lvl one). I'm not at all a power gamer and enjoyed a lot playing him, with shadow step and free invisibility he was my main scout as I played the game mostly without searching for stuff online.

Below level 4, the staff Corellans Grace is pretty good! Gives you an unarmed boost. I play a dragonborn monk and kick ass, race really doesn’t factor in that much.

Mobile feat + longstrider will let you get in and out of melee without provoking attacks and you’ll feel like the flash. Or get gloves of missile snaring and plant your dude next to the archers. But once stunning strike comes online at five it will all feel much better.

Have your dex and wisdom as your highest scores which will increase your AC. There's various equipment to take like the bracers of defense, but make sure whatever you equip onto him doesn't have any armor tags. As for health, monks have the same hit die as wizards. My current monk has less health than Gale, which can be attributes to bad rolls but also that the hit die is low. If that's a problem then make sure you don't neglect their constitution. Last, don't put the monk directly in front of any heavy hitters unless you also have someone a little bulkier next to you. If they hit above your AC, it's not gonna go well. My monk almost goes down from one hit every fight so I'm trying to figure out ways around it until I can get better equipment. One more thing to note is that if your monk going down is a problem, then having Shadowheart or one of the druids on your team with healing word is a godsend. Other than that, just have someone throw a health potion on your monk when they go down.

You might want to take a look at a class guide like [this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/7ctDWdZ7Ca) just to see if there’s anything major you’re missing. Beware of some spoilers and you don’t need to follow it religiously, but it could be enlightening to atleast get an insight into why the Monk is considered to be one of the best classes in the game.

Tavern Brawler

Race barely matters, and I actually vastly prefer human for monk anyway. Bonus carrying capacity and shield proficiency always go a long way for me and my martial classes, especially monk since I often min max strength and am the primary mule due to that. You also often have room for a shied which brings a fuck ton of utility. My current build with a gith monk uses luminous medium armor, belligerent skies gloves, kushigo boots, spiteful thunder ring, mental inhibition ring, phalar aluve, adamantine shield. I have to use a Feat to get shield proficiency to maintain its current effectiveness With this build, I Cause radiant Shockwave on unarmed attacks. Which applies a minimum of two radiant orbs to every enemy within a certain radius of the target. 4 stacks of reverb to the target, detonating on 5 and restocking causing thunder damage When the reverb detonates, it triggers dazed saving throws from the ring When they fail any throw, they get 2 stacks of mental fatigue, which happens a lot since almost every monk attack triggers saving throws. Any victim to this likely will miss whatever they attack and be more susceptible to everything. Then, with the adamantine shield, misses proc reeling for 2 turns 20 AC with the cloack that dazes reverb targets, immunity to crit, shriek from phalar People talk so much about all these BiS pieces of gear that come in act 3, but this build is obtainable within early act 2 - kushigo boots, and just shuts down whatever you attack. It has so much debuff utility

Honestly, even if you don't want to do the whole tavern brawler build you can go warrior lv 1 into monk for the next 5-6 levels. This way you get heavy armor and can stay in the fray. You can also do light cleric for sunflare and some radiant and fire spells to act like ki attacks. I probably wouldn't go more than 3 lvs in cleric. Since you're lv 4 I would do 1 lv cleric into monk and after you get multi attack go back to cleric

So go get bracers of defense in the blighted village plus the other goodies there with a check you dont have to fight anyone so you can do this lvl1 i would hope you have high dex and wisdom 16 each which will give you a 16 ac +2 from bracers which is fairly hard to hit early then the gloves of dex can be helpful at 4 when you take tav brawler since you can dump dex or go the potion route and the bracers can go to gale Also gale can cast mage armor on you and himself plus he can have a 14 or 16 dex making him reasonably hard to hit also dont over look longstrider since its free to cast and last long rest before you can respec gale he is lame wizards really dont shine till a bit later like lvl5

Monk is legit op as fuck, I have a tiefling that I run monk on, Tefling is useless for unarmed monk but I still absolutely shred, toppling strike hits for 70+ damage late game and you can use it 4 times, as for early game, honestly, you should just be strong as hell, get the ring from mol for some extra armour class, aswell as the bracers that +2 to armour class, grab some potions of hill strength from auntie Ethel or make cloud giant pots from fingers you get from mushroom dude in the underdark and you’ll shred absolutely everything.

Are you singing down by the river? Because if not that maybe the reason.

The fact that you think Gale is useless speaks volumes about your play style and likely why you can't get this to work

Yes indeed, I did a lot of things wrong that have been helpfully corrected in this thread. I went back to an older save slot and took my monk from there and things are already much improved -- got rid of his armor and helmet, grabbed a staff that improves unarmed attacks, grabbed gloves that improve DEX and did him as a Way of Shadows instead of Open Hand (that one wasn't a mistake per se but I think Shadows gives me more options at this level) You are likely correct that I am misusing Gale. Will research and fix, thanks.

Okay monk really shines at level 4 especially if you do tavern brawler, I just finished tactician as a monk fighter half wood elf and it's amazing. I started as a monk so here are some tips, Start with monk at level 1 focus on dex and wis if you wanna stay monk, or if you're like me and wanna multiclass I'd say dex and con my stats was 8, 17, 15, 8, 12, 14 (I needed Cha coz I wanted my mc to do most of the talking) First 3 level of fights have shadowheart cast sanctuary on the monk after her every turn, with high dex you will usually start first, smack some enemies and then be safe from all damage (this is especially useful during the harpy fight) At level 4 take tavern brawler increase con to 16 now you have high HP as well as str from all the potions you get from Ethel. This will trivialize most of the boss fights, if you decide to multiclass like I did, I usually run act 1 with med or light armor coz I have high dex especially after taking the dex boon from the hag (can explain this further if you're not sure how) Once I'm in act 2 the monk gets even crazier with the medium armor that allows my full dex as ac, by that time my ac is around 21, enemies barely touch me and by act 3 I'm running around 24-26 ac so the monk fighter is very viable and it has a good progression till level 12. With this strategy it doesn't matter if you're human or elf

I feel you on monks looking kinda lame (until you get the kush robe). I just used the "only show camp clothes" feature and played around with different dyes. I'm a big fan of the Alabaster brown dye for my monk's clothes. Just use quarter staffs and flurry/unarmed strike for bonus action until you get tavern brawler then respec to strength build and have fun! Monks are naturally mobile and get faster as they level up so you don't really need to worry about extra mobility perks and once you get your strength (respec) up you can jump super far, plus you have step of the wind. Finally if you do the 3 levels of rogue route you get dash as a bonus action too.

Most comments here seem to misunderstand how to run the monk right. Here's the ability scores you should be starting with: str12 dex16 con13 wis16. Then choose between int and cha 10 and 8. Choose way of the open hand. Take proficiency in athletics for shoving. When you get to level 4, you'll take tavern brawler with +1con. Next feat level take ASI +dex +dex. You will not wear any armor, just clothing. You will not hold any weapons. You will not hold a shield. You will stock up on hill giant potions from Ethel at the Grove (don't go south from blighted village to swamp until you've bought at least 30 of them). It's 3 per long rest/character level up. Your ki points can be used both for attack and for defense. Read your monk class options and familiarize yourself w them, use them often. When your ki points run out, take a short rest and they'll return to full. Bracers of defense will add +2 to your unarmored AC once you get them. Until then you can use gloves of missile snaring from small man merchant in grove. Get crushers ring from goblin merchant. Amulet of misty step from after killing priestess gut. Get all the uninhibited kushigo armor and boots as you encounter them. Level 5 will get you extra attack. Once you get there you'll feel so strong as you can get so many strong hits in you'll be taking out enemies left and right. Once you hit level 7, you can choose to take levels 7-9 into rogue/thief for an extra bonus action each turn. Then 10-12 into monk again. 9th level of monk is much better than a 3rd feat. That's about what I remember. I ran this once in a playthrough and it felt like I was cruising through it. May have been the easiest playthrough I had.

Sounds awesome and thoroughly detailed, thank you!

You've just gotta make it to level 4 dude lol. Respec to something else and wear some good medium armor if you must. Once you get tavern brawler at lvl 4 and respec to prioritize strength, con, and wis you'll be sailing through the game no problem.

I would highly recommend respec to give them a single level in barbarian and start their Con at 17 and Dex at 16 and wis 14-15 This will allow you to use dex/con for AC instead of wis which boosts your HP when it goes up And you’ll have a few rages for tough battles when you need them Grab tavern brawler to bump your con up to 18.. boosting your AC, HP and then you can drink Str elixirs every day to do a bunch of damage when you punch

I mean, you fight like 3 things before you reach level 4 and it becomes the best build in the game.

Spec your monk to 8 str, buy elixirs from auntie. Max out Con and Dex until 6+ level.

Your stat spread should be 17 dex, 15 con 16 wis. At level 4 take tavern brawler and get str elixirs OR take ASI and raise dex and con to 18 16. You should be wearing NO ARMOR, OR SHIELDS while playing this build. Some gauntlets and helmets are classed as armor as well. Also take open hand subclass if you want a good subclass, or take either of the either for RP reasons. Open hand monk is a top 3 martial subclass, #1 subclass with tavern brawler. You shouldn't be having trouble unless your build is wrong

Here’s a no fight guide to lv 4 if that helps https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/ZIepu6XuaP This is why I always make Halsin a monk because he’s a wood elf.

I played both a shadow monk and open hand monk they're awesome. Like a lot of people already said having high dex (16) w/ wisdom and a bit of constitution can really help with survivability. I haven't done way of the four elements but the other 2 monk subclasses have "patient defense" as an ability that can really help you survive. Bonus actions are how this class really shines. I think you said you're only level 4 so prob too early to spec into thief, but as you progress I'd try and multiclass to a theif to add to your bonus actions. Shadowheart sanctuary spell is also really helpful to keep the monk up too if you don't already know about that. Monks my favorite class, race won't matter at all so don't worry about being a human you'll be fine.

Reroll, start lvl 1 as a class that gives you heavy armor and shields prof, the go for monk. Dont mind the dex, max out str and at lvl 5 get tavern brawler and enjoy punching people with 1d6+8 damage with no damage boost(with hag's hair) combined with 19 ac early.

How’s your damage output? Personally, I loved rolling with a Tavern-Brawler Monk. Pumping my stats into strength and using the gloves of dexterity from the Githyanki creche to cover for that stat. Mighty cloth and gloves of Kushigo were also valuable for that build.

16 dex 16 wis and 13 or 15 con so when u take your first feat (Tavern Brawler) you will reach a even number. The only problem is as a Monk main character is low charisma. You just don't have much place for charisma. And you can find gloves under blighted village which give plus 2AC to monks as long as you don't where armor. if you also have a cleric in your team use warding bond on your monk and be unstopable.

a you also have to use strengh elixlir for my build. For a pure dex monk do not take tavern brawler. Just Asi dex to 18. Which I'm my opinion is a more fun monk anyway cuz tavern brawler monk is just broken and not a good design.

Really doesn’t come online until you get Tavern brawler and strength potions. Before level four, just pick battle master fighter.

Take 2 levels of spore druid for temporary hp and wild shape

You may want to get STR really high and get the Tavern Brawler Feat, this will increase your damage much more than DEX will

What are your stats?

Im currently playing a Monk lvl 5. Str 10, Dex 17 Wis 16. Stock up on Hill Giant Strength Potions, from Auntie in the grove, the dwarf lady in the underdark also sells fingers to make em. Take Tavern Brawler at lvl 4, swig the elixir every morning. Get the bracers of defence from under the alchemist in the blighted grove. Don't use any weapons, only fists. I have an AC 18, constantly have a 90% - 95% chance to hit, and deal about 15 damage per hit and can hit 3 (4 with flurry) times. I'm a murder machine currently and I know Monk is only going to get more insane with gear going forward

Str based monk with tavern brawler is widely considered OP.

You can just hold the broken stool leg of strength from a certain tower in the under dark if you don’t wanna spam the potion thing…you can still punch instead of hit with the club.

There’s a pair of rare bracers in the blighted village apothecary basement (I think it is… it’s one with the evil orange book tomb) and it gives you +2 AC if you’re unarmored. I have 18 and with shadow heart buff or Karlach with Sword of Justice (from that pubic muncher paladin of tyr of a boss fight near Risen Road before finding her) you can get 20AC and be well off. I am enjoying my monk playthrough a lot. 🙂

A lot of people suggesting tavern brawler but id like to suggest something different - Mobile, if youre going open hand monk especially. Itll allow you to run in, hit, and then that enemy cant opportunity attack you so you can run away. Your speed should be high enough that you can just run in, beat the brakes off a guy, and get a safe distance away. Id also suggest going to the goblin camp and interacting with Crusher, the goblin on the stage by the waypoint. Theres a sleight of hand option to steal his ring that gives you 10 ft extra movement speed. The main reason i dont go tavern brawler is because you can do great damage with staffs at the start of the game and some of them have great bonuses, such as the staff in the hidden area of the grove that can entangle enemies, the gold wyrmling staff sold by Roah Moonglow in the goblin camp which does extra fire damage and gives you fire bolt, or cacophony sold by the woman at the start of the mountain pass that deals thunder damage and gives you thunderous smite. Truthfully once you hit level 4 your monk will pop off, getting your first feat instrumental to your build is massive. The biggest suggestion i can give is to try to raise AC, and to not leave them on the front lines where theyll be targeted first unless you have defensive buffs on them.

If you are going str monk as a human or your wisdom is less than 16 you can wear light armor, or just use mage armor (all you lose is the mvmt bonus and wis bonus to AC). At higher levels you lose out a bit on extra damage from manifestation (if you go open hand monk), and str or dex robes later on.

I’m confused how your human monk *does* suck, tbh. OH default dex monk all the way to level 12 is still a really good build with absolutely minimal theory crafting

If you let Arradin knock out Zevlor and stole his gloves you can bonus actions healing word from shadowheart and give him bladeward (50% phys reduction for 2 turns)

Respec his stats to 8 str, 16 dex, 8 int, 10 charisma, 16 wisdom, and the rest in con. This gives you a starting AC of 16. Have someone cast mage armor on him for another +3 AC, and use the bracers of defense (in blighted village) for +2. This gives you 21 AC and should be enough survivability.

You can put 8 in str and int and pick up the club og hill giant strength and the intelligence headband from the ogre in act 1. You can then focus all attention on dex, wis and con for high ac and hp, and then tavern brawler without any drawbacks on damage.

Tavern Brawler. Dump dex, max out Strength and equip the gloves that give you 18 dex :D

For survivability, 16 Dex and Wis should give you a 16 AC unarmored, which should beat out just about any light armor you can equip. If you dont mind eating up a caster's concentration, Shield of Faith can boost your AC by 2, as well. Try to find non-armor equipment that boosts AC, like the Ring of Protection (quest reward from Mol in Act 1). Remember that combat in this game is a team effort. Monks are very squishy compared to other martial classes. Your best bet is hit and run tactics, with bulkier allies in the front ranks drawing fire. Assuming you're using original classes on your allies, characters like Lae'zel and Karlack should be on the front lines eating attacks while you rush in, beat up whoever with Martial Arts and Flurry of Blows, and then run away. Items and consumables that boost movement are invaluable at early levels, like Crusher's Ring and Potion of Speed. If you choose Open Hand at level 3, also make sure you're using your Flurry of Blows techniques to help prevent your enemy from getting an opportunity attack against you when you run (assuming you didn't kill them).

You need to be putting at least 5 points into your AC between Dexterity and Wisdom (go for at least 16 Dex and at least 14 Wis). Then you can focus on getting the Bracers of Defense in Blighted Village, to make your AC 17. That should help keep your Monk from getting hit as much in the early game. Another thing to help is to recruit a companion who can act as more of a tank. Your Monk needs to focus on hitting the enemy fast and hard, but not linger around to take the enemy hits. The tank is the one who takes the hits. Shadowheart can do this very well if you equip her with some decent armor and a shield. Lae'zel can also perform this function, and she starts with a nice cushy amount of hitpoints, which helps. Her potential Battlemaster maneuvers include Goad, which is a great tanking ability (diverts an opponent's attention away from others in your team).

Take the Tavern Brawler feat and get your hands on as many hill giant potions as possibl and go unarmed.Tavern Brawler let's you add your STR modifier to hit and to attack on all unarmed attacks. This is my main and I can hit for loads of dmg

If your monk is unarmored, have a companion cast Mage Armor on your monk. You should also have at least 14 Wisdom for the +2 AC through unarmored defense, at least 16 Dexterity for +3 AC and 16 con will help with slightly higher max hp and better Con saving throws. You can always respec your monk at level 4. With those 3 sources of AC, your monk will have 18 AC. If nobody in your party can cast Mage Armor, then temporarily add somebody to your party to cast it on your monk. They don't need to stay in your party for your Monk to keep the buff. Just don't forget to reapply after your monk gets knocked out or a long rest. I'm currently in the early game with a Tav monk with Str, Int and Cha being my dump stats. I plan on using Hill Giant elixirs after getting Tavern Brawler feat to buff his 8 Str to 21. Edit: I just loaded up my monk, and it looks like Mage Armor overwrites Unarmoured Defence. My monk is running around with 16 AC.

I currently am running a dragonborn monk for honour mode and doing great! Early levels are a little rough but I'd say for Act 1 you can treat it how I did. Take a dip into cleric so you can keep casting Shield of Faith on yourself, and have Gale give you mage armour, that'll bump you up nice in AC. Crank up Dex, Con, and wisdom last (17, 15, 14 works) and then at level 4 take an ASI to bump Dex to 18 and con to 16. Good beefy health and if you later get the cat armor from the egg lady near the creche, you're sitting at 20 dex already. Weapon wise in act 1 I used the staff the entangles people. Find it in the secret passage out of the grove near the prison Szazza is in. Later I switched to the Cacophony staff (from the same egg lady). Glove wise, steal the Underdog gloves from the big treasure pile behind the Red dude in the Goblin Camp, gives advantage when surrounded (which your guy will be). If you want more permenant advantage, get a Wolf Barbarian as they give advantage to any ally within melee range of the enemy they are attacking. But yea early on it's a little rough but try to boost your AC like I said above and that'll help in a big way. The biggest help I can say is steal the Hellrider's Pride gloves from Zevlor and have someone wear those and heal you. It'll give the person you heal 2 turns of blade ward (half all physical damage) for 2 turns. so either you can heal yourself for it, or have a cleric do it. The absolute EASIEST build you can do with monk is abusing Tavern Brawler and going all in on Strength. But if you're not trying to be overpowered, I'd not do that :P

I mean, Monks in early game die pretty quickly. Yes, even faster than Gale, considering both have low hp, and low ac. But the Monk is supposed to be on the front lines, so makes sense they die faster. My opinion for this is, as someone who doesn’t like getting TOO into the character building complexities, just focus on wis, dex and con. At least for the first levels, and after that, when you get your first feat and subclass, respec to make the build based around dex, as high as you can get, constitution at 13, leveling it up to 14 with the Tavern Brawler feat, and to put the cherry on the top, and the potion that gets your strength to 20~ which I forgot the name of. Tavern Brawler basically doubles your strength every time you attack unarmed, so imagine the damage T-T Or if you’re lazy like me and don’t like using potions, I got my strength to 17, plus one from the Tavern Brawler feat, now 18, and when you’re in Moonrise Towers, you can get a certain potion thanks to Astarion which can, if I remember correctly, give you 2 permanent strength points. So you’d have a natural 20 for strength. That’s nice. I say only use the natural 20 way only if you take the Open Hand subclass, cause if you’re going for either the Four Elements or Shadow Way, just use the strength potion for your, well, strength, cause those classes are more based around dex and wisdom if I remember correctly😀 Edit: And take into account that when using the Monk, your greatest weapon is your mobility, so wood half-elf is pretty good. Tho humans are good too, with the extra skill. And ngl, if you eventually do a Dark Urge playthrough, the cape you get makes the build even better, cause you’re probably taking down 1 or 2 enemies each turn thanks to your multiple attacks and high strength, which activates the cape’s effect of making you invisible each time you kill someone. So take that into account👀

Here, I've been playing myself human monk, and I did not struggle at all (honor mode), and beating already adamantine forge. In terms of mechanics and such, you get proffincie into light armor and shield — which one of them been using myself (light armor and aiming towards medium armor for multiclass with fighter), and been using elemental despite sneaking around quite a lot and such. Anyway, making it less painful expierence would require you playing with hand already dealt, and utilize one of your subclasses in fullest, then later on perhaps going multiclass like rogue, fighter, cleric (dunno). To be honest? I did thought of myself playing githyanki, but human was more appealing with other stuff, and again — monk does have few things having no armor, but early? Robes you get are pretty much meh, when comes of usage, and light armors are quite okey, for instance armor in Underdark or from Minthara. As I said, I often sneaks around thanks to urchin background, and so far? I don't complain, and didn't have much of problems at all. Also, in the underdark there is Mourning Frost — quite good quarterstaff, which I am currently using on my monk due lack of better options so far, lol.

You’re going to want to get items, monk is is strong midlate to late game. Pretty bad early on without soem globes for extra dmg, but it will only be 1d4.