Monk To Hit- I don't get it, weak?

[Ryujin]

Perhaps consider giving the character a Foestone? (Level 12 Wondrous Item - minor action, at will, to know a target's vulnerabilities and lowest defence)

 

[CovertOps]

Perhaps consider giving the character a Foestone? (Level 12 Wondrous Item - minor action, at will, to know a target's vulnerabilities and lowest defence)

I had to go look that up. That is an awesome item.

 

[Ryujin]

I had to go look that up. That is an awesome item.

My character would have been looking for one, if he didn't need every minor action that he can get for his usual schtick.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Checking your last encounters and the monks attack bonus it seems he should be hitting most of the monsters easier than the rest of the party. Especially the assassin should hav a hard time using his vs fort attack.

the only monster which should pose some problems were the archers, but humans are especially tough vs monks due to +1 to all defenses

As suggested, melee training should allow the monk to cope with those corner case monsters. Especially when you look at the solders, they have a defense which is 6 points lower than his AC, fodder for the monks at will vs reflex.

IMHO the problem of the published monk is: single target at wills all attack vs fort, which is quite unfortunate as most big single target enemies are brutes or soldiers with high fort.

@war cleric: rightous brand is the best single target buff, so the monk should be a very happy monk as this is one of the best single target buffs.

I still believe your monk is either unlucky or someone can´t calculate or the party was use to not helping the rogue hitting and forget to help the monk
most probably the first.

It may be not a bad idea to have the fort at will push attack get a +2 bonus, but i would hesitate to give the monk a +3 against each and every attack. If the player learns which defense to attack you will have to take it back from him and that could get ugly.

 

[ValhallaGH]

For an At Will Power for the Players in game at present-
Fighter #1 +17 vs AC
Fighter #2 +17 vs AC
Cleric +16 vs AC
Assassin +15 vs Fort
Mage +15 vs Ref
Monk +14 vs Ref
...
Last fight was in the Pyramid of Shadows-

Charnel Lord 15 Elite Soldier AC/F/R/W 30/32/26/29
Over a dozen Charnel Rats 12 Minions 26/23/26/25
And throw in a Level 12 Elite Obstacle (Trap)
...
Fight before that

Gharash Vren, Dragonborn Soldier Level 15 Soldier 32/27/24/27
3x Human Archers Level 12 Artillery 24/23/24/22
3x Human Outlaws Level 13 Soldiers 29/26/25/24
And a Level 13 Elite Blaster Trap

... Weird. The monk and mage have the best chances against the big bads (12+ and 11+; 10+ and 9+) and roughly equal chances against the rest.
All I can come up with is a combination of poor tactics (forgetting to maximize situation and power bonuses) and terrible "dice" luck.

The first part can be fixed with some advice and study of the various options available. The second ... well, do you know any good witchdoctors he could go to to get uncursed?

Good luck.

 

[Garris]

The monk's player should, by now, be considering investing in (thing) Expertise. It's a ridiculously valuable feat, and rare NOT to see on a character so close to paragon.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

he should take it only if he has no better feats to spend and if everyone else in the group has them...

oh wait, if everyone has them and you are consistently fighting monsters 6 levels higher, you could as well use monsters only 5 levels higher and not use expertise feats...

 

[CovertOps]

However I've been throwing +6 level creatures at the party for the best part of 6 months, and we've had no problem so far.

For an At Will Power for the Players in game at present-
Fighter #1 +17 vs AC
Fighter #2 +17 vs AC
Cleric +16 vs AC
Assassin +15 vs Fort
Mage +15 vs Ref
Monk +14 vs Ref

Rogue +18 vs AC

Last fight was in the Pyramid of Shadows-

Charnel Lord 15 Elite Soldier AC/F/R/W 30/32/26/29
Over a dozen Charnel Rats 12 Minions 26/23/26/25

Vs the elite soldier my monk build would need
AC: 13+
Ref: 12+
Fort: 18+
Do you see the problem here?

Vs the rats:
AC: 9+
Ref: 12+
Fort: 9+

And throw in a Level 12 Elite Obstacle (Trap)

Anyway 6075 XP Level 14 Encounter

They wiped the floor with it- five rounds, lots of bloodied, a daily or two got used but they all kicked ass- save the Monk, who failed to hit, sure he was in a pit with the Otyugh but so were three of the others.
Fight before that

Gharash Vren, Dragonborn Soldier Level 15 Soldier 32/27/24/27
3x Human Archers Level 12 Artillery 24/23/24/22
3x Human Outlaws Level 13 Soldiers 29/26/25/24
And a Level 13 Elite Blaster Trap

Vs Gharash Vren
AC: 15+
Ref: 10+
Fort: 13+
Vs Archers
AC: 7+
Ref: 10+
Fort: 13+
Vs Outlaws
AC: 12+
Ref: 10+
Fort: 13+

Total 7300 XP Level 15 Encounter

Guess what, five rounds to rip apart, although Gharash surrendered when he was bloodied and the last bad guy standing.

I've thrown Level 17 encounters at the group (3 of them to be exact- I keep copious notes down to every last XP point I've dished out, every creature they've met and interacted with, or simply fought and/or vanquished- an Excel spreadsheet with lots and lots and lots of info- I'm a Higher Education (Degree/Masters) level lecturer by trade with +10 in anally retentive).

I see some definite consistency in that almost all the fort attacks above are the worst to-hit for each creature. Gharash Vren (AC) and the rats (Ref) being the exceptions.

 

[CovertOps]

IMHO the problem of the published monk is: single target at wills all attack vs fort, which is quite unfortunate as most big single target enemies are brutes or soldiers with high fort.

Perhaps you have not updated CB recently. I have 2 attacks vs. Fort and 2 attacks vs. Reflex at-will. One is even a burst-1 power.

 

[mneme]

One is even a burst-1 power.

A burst-1 enemies only Dex vs reflex power, at that, and one that provides a sweet, sweet shift 2.

Given the nature of the monk's extra damage feature, I'd expect -every- optimized monk to take Five Storms (except monks that were built primarily to do maximum damage against solos, which might take Dancing Cobra instead, as it does d10+dex+wis+wis+2 on the first hit in a turn, which is rather nice--but if you care more about average single target damage, you're still better off with Five Storms, which lets you do wis+2 flurry damage to your primary target when you miss the primary and hit your secondary).

<Looks over monk options>

Hmm. Has anyone tried a monk Polearm Momentum build? Needing the 13 Str to multiclass to fighter is annoying, but the stat requirements are trivial, monks can easily make sure every attack they make uses a spear (or take a feat to learn a polearm), and monks have a -lot- of slides and pushes in their repetoire (aside from flurry, which isn't an Implement attack, of course). One hundred leaves becomes a blast 3 enemies only damage+slide2+prone, Strike the Avalanche knocks your target prone as well as everyone you slam them into (and then you use the movement technique from StE to walk over the lot of them without drawing opportunity attacks to get to the crunchy back row), etc. You'd need Rushing Cleats (and a controlling weapon, if you go polearm), of course, to make a bunch of other Monk attacks slide 2s, and you'd be gimped on attacks until PH3 comes out as monks stop getting slide/push attacks after 7th level right now, but it looks interesting.