Fundamentals

Unlike spell points, Ki is a renewable resource. In your early training, you generate ki through attacks or by being attacked (depending on training to be explained in your Discipleship). As you progress, you may be able to passively regenerate some ki through no activity or through the feat of Meditation.

A Monk is all about balance. Their Strength (STR) and Dexterity (DEX) ability statistic should match closely as you start your training. Later, you may find slight favor in one statistic over another, based on your selected attack style.

STR determines all damage rolls for unarmed damage (unless you have chosen the Weapon Finesse feat). DEX determines your to-hit roll success for unarmed and armed fighting (and damage rolls for unarmed if Weapon Finesse is used). STR also provides a bonus to your damage, based on its modifier.

Thus, while choosing Weapon Finesse may seem a way to avoid building up STR and DEX, you'll generate less bonus damage without points into STR. To save a feat slot for something else, unarmed and quarterstaff fighters should not use Weapon Finesse and generally favor more STR over DEX as they grow.

So, if DEX is too high and STR is too low, you will land attacks more often yet with little attack damage. Likewise, having too much STR and too little DEX will mean more damage but a greater chance of missing the target.

Ninja Spies are special when using their favored weapons: shortswords, kamas and shuriken. Their first two core abilities give true DEX to-damage and to-hit when fighting with weapons. However, ninjas will still use STR for attack rolls and DEX for to-hit only should they fight unarmed.

Two other important stats, Constitution (CON) and Wisdom (WIS) must be watched. Monks get 25% fewer hit points (HP) than other melee classes, so a stronger CON number is needed.

WIS often determines the difficulty class (DC) modifier for many Monk abilities, particularly finishing moves and Monk specialty attacks such as Stunning Fist and Quivering Palm. WIS also determines the total ki you can store.

Monks do not use Intelligence (INT) except for more skill points or feats such as Combat Expertise. Monks do not use Charisma (CHA) except in a couple of abilities found only as you achieve Master and Grandmaster abilities. It is ill-advised to train either of these statistics unless one has been given such advanced instruction, else, survival and effective fighting will be...diminished.

The challenge of the Monk is the complexity of fighting skills involved to form a cohesive attacker.

You are not a mere Fighter with their stupid swords and shields that just hack-hack-hack.

You do not wave your fingers or wands in the air to manipulate arcane or divine energy while hordes of your foes have time to decide which parts of you will taste better fried, roasted or stewed.

You are here to master the art of unarmed combat. You will be able to survive where few others can. You can stun a giant. You can transform ki so as to remove a foe from this plane immediately. You can block the foe's chakras, causing them to slow, be unable to call on their magic, or freeze in their tracks. You can summon fire and launch it to incinerate anything.

After you have shown mastery at fighting with nothing but your hands or the simplest of weapons, you can consider becoming colorful, learning more specialized, uncivilized weaponry such as longswords or bows.

For now, listen to your Teacher and don't think you know what you think you know about this ability or that. Your Teacher has survived, alone, in the plane of Shavarath for days on end, completely alone, with no resources other than her mastery of ki. You are nothing until you can do what your Teacher can do, at the least.

I will dare you to do better, later.

Isn't there a carriage you're supposed to be waxing?

What Can Monks Do?

For a melee class, the Monk is arguably the most versatile:

• “Garbage man.” A Monk excels in quick removal of small to medium mobs for a party.
• “Mage killer.” A Monk’s natural spell resistances, movement speed and ability to stun or debuff make them the ultimate choice to immediately eliminate enemy spell casters before they degrade a party’s effectiveness.
• “Light tank.” A Monk can be the front line attacker in some quests, particularly when the majority of the party are support classes or spell casters that need time to deliver their payloads and need someone to distract the enemy without getting killed.
• “Scout.” Monks have superior stealth potential. If discovered, they can often out-run what little they cannot out-gun.
• “Kiter.” In higher levels, a Monk with good self-healing and strong defenses through gear and/or stances can successfully keep enough aggro against a boss to keep them busy while others strike at a primary target.
• “Anti-stunner.” In some quests, enemies will use an area-of-effect stun that could disable and threaten the success of an entire party. A Monk’s Grasp the Earth Dragon finisher will keep the party stun-immune for 1 minute at a time.
• “Beholder slayer.” A Shintao Monk can quickly stun or even freeze single targets such as beholders in a tomb of jade stone, saving a party from coping with negative levels or debuffing.
• “Crowd control.” A Monk armed with paralyzing or Stunning handwraps, combined with Cleave, Great Cleave or even Whirlwind Attack can keep many mobs very confused, disabled or stopped while the remaining party whittles the enemy down.
• “Assassin.” Ninja Spies are particularly suited for stealth, quickly tracking and then paralyzing, blinding, or spell/attack muting enemies before quickly killing them. Their Dark finishing moves are especially dangerous against humanoid and similar enemies. Unlike Rogue Assassins, the ninja (a type of assassin in itself) is more self-sufficient and has greater escape options in combat.
• “Party rescue.” In quests where a party’s healers are out of spell points and the party is dying or dead, a Monk’s ki and self-sufficiency could turn the tide by keeping himself alive long enough against overwhelming forces or environments to grab soulstones, generate emergency mass heals for incapacitated players, raise dead players, using Aligning the Heavens finishers to conserve what spell points are left, remove frequent curses or diseases when potions or spells are exhausted, or to simply lure the enemy away while the rest of the party recovers.

Let us begin by defining who you are, literally, through the process of Character Creation.