Best Monk Races?

[Andras]

I had a very effective Changeling monk before we restarted our characters. Monk6/Warshaper4/xxx.

 

[Darklone]

skirmishing halfling monk from races of the wild

 

[JeffJ2112]

Try a Kalishtar in Eberron. I multiclassed it with a Psychic Warrior and used the Monastic Training feat. The best thing about this character was its armor class. Inertial armor and shield from the P. W. , the monk AC bonuses and a couple of magic Items and by 13th level my AC was 40.

Another useful trait, being able to implant Quori Shards in your body. they are psionic(not effected by anti-magic fields) and they dont use up body slots for magic items.

With combat reflexs, a high DX and the Stomp power this set up the monk for lots of Att of Op Ops.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I won't reiterate my love of Githzerai monks and oversized monks, but there are good ways to be a small monk too.

If you're a small monk- say, a Halfling- go with a Dex/Wis build. Use ranged weapons as much as possible- the Quiver of Ehlonna should be among your first magical acquisitions. The Halfling will get a bonus with almost every Monk ranged weapon. Your job will be to help control the battlespace via ranged pokery, disrupting the spellcasters and softening the meleers before they get to your front line.

Instead of going for grappling, max out your Stunning Fist.

And go for trips. A prone foe is an easier target for everyone in your party.

In addition, the more supplements you have access to, the more fun you have. In DCv1, for instance, you find Ring the Golden Bell, which lets you burn Stunning Fist attempts to deliver your unarmed strikes- and anything stacked on them- at range. This is especially cool if you're playing a multiclassed Monk/Sorc (via Ascetic Mage feat).

 

[Vykarius]

I'm just curious, what races (LA and non-LA) are best for a monk. And what type of monk (combat, wise man, etc)

1/2 Ogre Monk

For a strength based monk, I would go with 1/2 Ogre. ECL is only +1 and you get +6 to strength, +4 Natural Armor bonus, 10' reach, you do large unarmed strike damage. You can take the feat [FONT=&quot]Improved Natural Attack [/FONT]which improves natural weapon damage to make a large unarmed damage even another size category better. Take the Large and in charge feat from Draconomicon and combat reflexes bonus feat and make it hard for your foe to even get to you to attack you! Later Improved Trip and you are a melee nightmare swinging fists that are like beer kegs from 10 feet away! I would multiclass it with Kensai to enhance your unarmed strikes to your custom way (Holy and bane mods come to mind), and maybe a few Tattooed Monk levels for a tattoo or 2. Tattooed Monk stacks with monk levels for AC, better movement rate and unarmed damage so no worries there, and both kensai & tattooed monk allow free return to advance monk levels w/o restriction.
My Half-Ogre Monk is a nasty attitude 500 lb pugilist patterned after former UFC fighter Tank Abbot. Always talking trash and bragging with no respect for opponents. Thoughts?

 

[Shin Okada]

Even though Monk class has some nifty class features and better than descent skills, it is still a melee combatant class. So, strength is still the most important ability. If you can't hit and damage opponents well, opponents do not need to worry about you.

And even if you have maxed out your strength, you may still have hard time hitting opponents, due to crappy LA. So I don't recommend LA races without enough Str bonus, such as Aasimar.

So, I say either LA +0 race with high strength (Half-Orc or even Orc) or, some nice Large high strength race with acceptable LA, such as Centaur or Minotaur.

 

[Jaysyn]

Githzerai

Agreed!

 

[Vykarius]

Even though Monk class has some nifty class features and better than descent skills, it is still a melee combatant class. So, strength is still the most important ability. If you can't hit and damage opponents well, opponents do not need to worry about you.

And even if you have maxed out your strength, you may still have hard time hitting opponents, due to crappy LA. So I don't recommend LA races without enough Str bonus, such as Aasimar.

So, I say either LA +0 race with high strength (Half-Orc or even Orc) or, some nice Large high strength race with acceptable LA, such as Centaur or Minotaur.

Hence my suggestion of half-ogre. LA+1 +6 to strength 10' reach +4 Natural Armor Better LA than Minotaur or Centaur, higher strength, reach too. At 1st level a 24 strength would be quite effective with 10' reach.

 

[Herobizkit]

Half-Fiend Ogre Mage Monks are terrifying.

I am also playing a Gestalted Duergar Monk//PsyWar which is dam nasty when you use the Expanded Knowledge feat to learn Energy Ray. You could build a whole schtick around the Energy Ray power and metapsionic feats...

Ha-DOOOOO-ken!

 

[Cephid]

W A R F O R G E D ! ! !

If you want to do good damage as a monk you need size increases!

I had a build that went something like this:

Worforged
Monk
Wizard
Enlightened Fist
Warshaper

Important notes:
Monk 11 (from monk and enlightended fist)
Superior unarmed strike (damage as monk +4 levels. Tome of battle)
Monks belt (+5 levels. Definately increases beyond HD.)
=2d10 base damage.

Improved natural attack +1 size
Battle fists +1 size
Greater mighty wallop spell (1hr/level. +1 size/4 caster levels)
Warshaper +1 size
Enlarge person +1 size

By around level 12 you have 7 size increases.
Base damage:2d10>4d8>6d8>9d8>12d8>16d8>24d8>28d8 base damage. (126 average)

And you can use touch spells when you full attack. and basic spells like Mage armour, shield & mirror image so you can actually survive.

Imagine a little old man walking along, getting angry and putting his fist through a castle wall!