Shintao Monk

All Monks will gain unarmed Adamantine bypassing at Level 16.

By that time, you become effectively a living metalline weapon, unarmed.

For advanced unarmed training, seek out the builders in Cannith, who are rumored to build Crystal DR-bypassing handwraps and other ki weaponry.

Tier 1 Enhancements

• Elemental Curatives: Select one of four toggled abilities that affect your Healing Ki finisher.
  • More on these abilities in the later section, "Elemental Curatives."
• Reed in the Wind: (Cooldown: 20 seconds) Deals +1[W] damage. If you successfully damage your target you gain a +[3/6/9]% Insight bonus to Dodge for 6 seconds.
• Deft Strikes: +[3/6/10]% Chance to make offhand attacks while centered and wielding two weapons or fighting unarmed.
• Ki Shout: (Cost: 15 ki, Cooldown: 15 seconds) Intimidates nearby enemies, encouraging them to attack you. This ability uses your Concentration skill, and shares a cooldown with the Intimidate skill.
  • An excellent alternative for tanker Monks to keep an enemy centered on them without adding any points into the cross-class skill of Intimidate.
• Exemplar: +[1/2/3] Heal and Intimidate, and +[0/0/10]% threat generation.

Tier 2 Enhancements

• Elemental Curatives: Select one of four toggled abilities that affect your Healing Ki finisher.
• Smite Tainted Creature: (Cost: 15 Ki, Cooldown: 15 seconds)
• You have the ability to expend ki to deal devastating blows in melee against tainted creatures. You gain twice your Wisdom modifier to your attack roll and a damage bonus based on your Monk level. A tainted target will be locked in a tomb of jade on Vorpal attacks (attack roll of 20 followed by critical confirmation) on a failed Will save (DC 10 + Wisdom modifier + Monk level). Extraplanar, aberrations or undead must succeed at two consecutive Will saves to avoid their fate.
  • This is the first of three of the famous Jade strike attack opportunities as seen in the original Shintao Monk enhancements.
• Iron Skin: While Earth Stance is active, you gain an additional [5/10/15] Physical Resistance.
  • It's not clear if this is an enhancement bonus as this ability does not seem to be stacking with PRR augment gems.
• Elemental Ki Strikes: Every class tree can add one special ki attack to their repertoire. See the "Elemental Ki Strikes" section later in this chapter.
• Conditioning: +[1/2/3] Concentration and Fortitude Saves, +[5/10/15] HP.

Tier 3 Enhancements

• Elemental Curatives: Select one of four toggled abilities that affect your Healing Ki finisher.
• Jade Strike: (Cost: 10 ki, Cooldown: 15 seconds) You perform a melee attack that is anathema to tainted creatures, that increases their physical damage vulnerability by 10% and reduces their fortification by 25%. A successful Will save negates this effect (DC 10 + Wisdom modifier + Monk level). This ability only functions on aberrations, extraplanar creatures that are not classified as Lawful Outsiders, and undead. Creatures that are both extraplanar and either aberrations or undead receive double this effect. On critical hits, a tainted target will be locked in a tomb of jade on a failed Will save (DC 10 + Wisdom modifier + Monk level). Extraplanar, aberrations or undead must succeed at two consecutive Will saves to avoid their fate.
• Dismissing Strike: (Cost: 25 ki, Cooldown: 15 seconds) You perform a melee attack that attempts to force an extraplanar enemy back to its proper plane. A successful Will save negates this effect (DC 10 + Wisdom modifier + Monk level).
  • The Dismissing Strike attack doesn't really substitute for a banishing weapon, specifically, banishing handwraps. Banishing handwraps are great weapons when you haven't a full damage-reduction bypassing weapon solution against Tainted, adding damaging attacks as well to the chance to banish.
• Wisdom or Constitution: Add +1 Wisdom or Constitution.

Tier 4 Enhancements

• Elemental Curatives: Select one of four toggled abilities that affect your Healing Ki finisher.
• Tomb of Jade: Cost: (25 Ki, Cooldown: 1 minute) You perform an attack that encases a tainted target in a tomb of jade on a failed Will save (DC 10 + Wisdom modifier + Monk level). Extraplanar, aberrations or undead must succeed at two consecutive Will saves to avoid this fate.
  • The brilliantly green signature attack of a Shintao Monk against Tainted enemies that entombs an enemy in jade stone. Great against any weak-willed enemy that isn't Red Named.
• Instinctive Defense: You take [5/10/15]% less extra damage when struck while helpless. (Additional damage while helpless varies by difficulty setting from 5% to 25%.)
• Wisdom or Constitution: Add +1 Wisdom or Constitution.

Tier 5 Enhancements

• Rise of the Phoenix: Usable by a Monk when dead. On activation, perform a Resurrection spell-like ability on yourself.
  • This ability's change to self-only-on-death resurrection removes the Monk's party-friendly ability to save others when your main healer has fallen. The best that a Monk can do is to gather soulstones and escape if they don't have an ability to Raise Dead using a clicky or scrolls.
• Kukan-Do: (Cost: 25 ki, Cooldown: 15 seconds) You lock gazes with an enemy, stunning them for a short period of time on a failed Will save (DC 10 + Charisma modifier + Monk level). Any effects that modify your Stunning Blow or Stunning Fist DC's also affect this ability. Sightless creatures are unaffected by this ability.
• Violence Begets Violence: While Earth Stance is active, when an opponent attacks you, you gain +1 critical threat range for 6 seconds. This stacks up to 20 times and is reset if you critically hit.
  • A welcome tanking advantage when beating up mobs, as the stacking critical multipliers will end enemies quickly.
• Meditation of War: (Cooldown: 3 seconds) Toggle: You gain additional benefits in different stances.
  • See the section, "Meditation of War" later in this chapter.
• Empty Hand Mastery: Your unarmed weapon die size is increased from 1d6 to 1d8.

All Shintao Monk attacks normally count as Light moves, allowing you to substitute any of these strikes for the Fists of Light attack in a finishing move chain.

Unlike Fists of Light, however, Shintao attacks have longer cooldowns, from 15 to 60 seconds, depending on the attack.

As of Update 19.0, these effects are bugged, so the special attacks won't count properly as Light moves in a finisher.

Elemental Curatives

The Cleric spell-like abilities of the original Shintao Monk enhancements are still present in the new class tree system under the name of Elemental Curatives.

Each curative is an ability that you can toggle on or off. To release a curative, you'll need to perform a Healing Ki finishing move, which will release the Healing Ki as well as a mass-effect of the curative.

Only one curative can be active at a time.

The downside to the mass-effect is that more ki is required to activate it.

The upside to the new format is that you may select any curative you wish that's more useful early in your training, such as removing curses or getting a Lesser Restoration, rather than waiting to meet a level prerequisite in the older enhancement format.

Of course, as curatives are released to all nearby allies, you needn't spend time to target it, making it ideal to use while in battle.

• Lifting the Veil : Removes blindness.
• The Receptive Earth: Removes disease.
• Restoring the Balance: Removes curses.
• Difficulty at the Beginning: A Lesser Restoration effect.

Elemental Ki Strikes

Every Monk class enhancement tree offers you the option to add one of four ki attacks with secondary effects. Each attack uses 5 ki and take 3 seconds to cooldown (same as Form-based ki strikes).

• Eagle Claw Attack: Fire Ki Melee Attack: Your attacks can shatter objects. You strike at weak points in your opponents armor or hide, dealing +2[W] damage and apply two stacks of the Armor Destruction effect. (Each stack reduces Armor Class by 1 and Fortification by 1% for 20 seconds. This effect can stack up to 4 times.)
• Fists of Iron: Earth Ki Melee Attack: You have imbued your attacks with extra force. Performs a melee attack with +3[W] damage, +1 critical threat range, and +1 Critical Damage Multiplier.
• Knock on the Sky: Air Ki Melee Attack: You strike your opponent, deflecting their momentum. Performs a melee attack with +1[W] damage, and your enemy deals 2% less physical damage for 30 seconds. This effect can stack up to 5 times.
• Unbalancing Strike: Water Ki Melee Attack: You have learned several joint strikes. You can attack these weak points of your opponent, throwing them off balance for a short period of time. This reduces their armor class by 2, applies a -10 penalty to their Balance skill, and renders them vulnerable to sneak attacks. A successful Reflex save negates this effect (DC 10 + Half Monk Level + Wisdom modifier + Trip modifiers). The target receives periodic saves to attempt to break free of this effect.

Meditation of War

This ability, on activation, gives additional effects to you based on your Monk stance.

Air Stance: +2 Insight bonus to hit, +5% Insight bonus to off-hand attack chance. You take 10% more physical and elemental damage.

Additional damage, but at the compromise of more vulnerability. As Air Stancers must be dervishes to avoid too much damage, this option makes Meditation of War a no-sell unless you fully complete your core enhancement training (see the Lotus below).

Fire Stance: +2 Insight bonus to damage and to the DC's of your Stun, Sunder, and Trip abilities. -5 Armor Class.

This one is hard to consider since Fire stance reduces your WIS, which also aids some saving throws. It's a bit like robbing Teacher Pete to pay Teacher Paul.

Earth Stance: +10 Insight bonus to Physical Resistance and +3% Insight bonus to Maximum Hit Points. -5% Dodge Cap.

This is a good mode to use if you have some Concealment, Ghostly and good Reflex saves. Most tanking Monks aren't going to be running in Water Stance, where you get the most Dodge bonuses.

Water Stance: +5 Insight bonus to Maximum Dodge Bonus. You deal 10% less damage with attacks.

A weird one to consider. While some special abilities might give you more Dodge bonuses to fill in the cap you receive here, the reduction in damage means you're not likely placing yourself in a situation that requires that increase in your cap--that is, being attacked. You'd likely toggle this ability off in this stance.

You'll no longer experience any penalties from using Meditation of War if you fully complete your Shintao training.

Just train the final core enhancement, "To Seek Perfection", which also reinforces your Tainted protections and gives you +2 to Wisdom.