Comprehensive Monk Guide

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Comprehensive Monk Guide
File:Monk.jpg
Type Square
Spell Circles Minor Mental, Minor Spiritual
Prime Requisites Agility, Strength
Mana Statistics Wisdom, Logic
Physical Skills
Skill Cost Ranks
Two Weapon Combat 2/2 2
Armor Use 10/0 2
Shield Use 8/0 2
Combat Maneuvers 5/3 2
Edged Weapons 2/1 2
Blunt Weapons 3/1 2
Two-Handed Weapons 5/2 2
Ranged Weapons 4/1 2
Thrown Weapons 2/1 2
Polearm Weapons 6/2 2
Brawling 2/1 2
Ambush 3/2 2
Multi Opponent Combat 5/2 2
Physical Fitness 2/0 3
Dodging 1/1 3
Magical Skills
Skill Cost Ranks
Arcane Symbols 0/6 1
Magic Item Use 0/7 1
Spell Aiming 5/20 1
Harness Power 0/6 1
Elemental Mana Control 0/15 1
Mental Mana Control 0/8 1
Spirit Mana Control 0/8 1
Spell Research 0/38 1
Elemental Lore 0/40 1
Spiritual Lore 0/12 1
Sorcerous Lore 0/35 1
Mental Lore 0/12 1
General Skills
Skill Cost Ranks
Survival 2/2 2
Disarming Traps 3/4 2
Picking Locks 3/3 2
Stalking and Hiding 3/2 2
Perception 0/2 2
Climbing 1/0 2
Swimming 2/0 2
First Aid 1/2 2
Trading 0/3 2
Pickpocketing 2/2 2

About the Guide

This guide is brought to you by members of the GS community from discussions via various forums, Discord chats and direct player input on gswiki. It is ALWAYS open for contributions from the community.
Last Upate: 2/10/2018

Race and Stat Considerations

Racial Bonus To Starting Statistics (Sortable Table)
Race Strength Constitution Dexterity Agility Discipline Aura Logic Intuition Wisdom Influence Total
Aelotoi -5 0 5 10 5 0 5 5 0 -5 +20
Burghal gnome -15 10 10 10 -5 5 10 5 0 -5 +25
Dark elf 0 -5 10 5 -10 10 0 5 5 -5 +15
Dwarf 10 15 0 -5 10 -10 5 0 0 -10 +15
Elf 0 0 5 15 -15 5 0 0 0 10 +20
Erithian -5 10 0 0 5 0 5 0 0 10 +25
Forest gnome -10 10 5 10 5 0 5 0 5 -5 +25
Giantman 15 10 -5 -5 0 -5 -5 0 0 5 +10
Half elf 0 0 5 10 -5 0 0 0 0 5 +15
Half krolvin 10 10 0 5 0 0 -10 0 -5 -5 +5
Halfling -15 10 15 10 -5 -5 5 10 0 -5 +20
Human 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 0 0 +15
Sylvankind 0 0 10 5 -5 5 0 0 0 0 +15


What the UAF

Most monks are going to make use of Unarmed Combat (UAC). There are two factors that determine success with a UAC attack, Unarmed Factor (UAF) and Multiplier Modifier (MM). A monk's stats, specifically Strength and Agility, only have an impact on UAF. The UAF formula makes use of truncated STR bonus / 2 and truncated AGI bonus / 2. With that in mind the races provide the following total UAF increase, in descending order:

Race STR Mod AGI Mod UAF Mod
Half-Krolvin +10 +5 +7
Elf 0 +15 +7
Giantman +15 -5 +5
Half-Elf 0 +10 +5
Dwarf +10 -5 +3
Aelotoi -5 +10 +3
Human +5 0 +2
Dark Elf 0 +5 +2
Sylvan 0 +5 +2
Forest Gnome -10 +10 0
Erithian -5 0 -2
Halfling -15 +10 -2
Burghal Gnome -14 +10 -2

AgiDex

While a majority of monks make use of UAC, others have found a build utilizing Two-Handed Weapons or Polearms quite viable. For those builds one important factor is AgiDex, or the sum of the bonuses of a character's Dexterity and Agility. This combined total helps reduce the Roundtime of a physical attack by a specified amount:

Agility +
Dexterity
Roundtime
reduction

8 - 22 1
23 - 37 2
38 - 52 3
53 - 67 4
68 - 82 5
83 - 97 6
98 - 112 7
113+ 8
Roundtime reductions above 5 are not
achievable without enhancive items.

Pairing that table with the stat table above we can break it down to see each races theoretical maximum AgiDex, before enhancives:

5 RT Reduction 4 RT Reduction 3 RT Reduction
Halfling Aelotoi Erithian
Burghal gnome Dark elf Human
Elf Forest gnome Dwarf
Half-elf Giantman
Sylvankind
Half-Krolvin

This is important because weapons have a minimum RT, and a base RT. By taking the base RT and subtracting the AgiDex bonus we can find the unencumbered swing RT.

Strength

Strength bonus adds directly to melee AS. Any weapon using monk is going to want a decent Strength stat and will want to pair that with a decent AgiDex possibility. The table below shows the Strength stats of races compared to their AgiDex capability:

5 RT Reduction STR Mod 4 RT Reduction STR Mod 3 RT Reduction STR Mod
Halfling -15 Aelotoi -5 Erithian -5
Burghal gnome -15 Dark elf 0 Human 5
Elf 0 Forest gnome -10 Dwarf 10
Half-elf 0 Giantman 15
Sylvankind 0
Half-krolvin 10

Other Racial Factors

Bear in mind that there are many other mechanical factors to consider when selecting a race. Not to mention all the role playing decisions. The weaker races, such as halflings and gnomes, tend to have much better maneuver defense than bigger, stronger races. As a trade off they also tend to have terrible encumbrance, while bigger races are able to carry quite a bit more. Elven races have bonuses to resisting disease and a small one to poison, but are slightly weaker against warding spells. Dwarves are less resistant to disease but also resistant to poison and have a bonus to warding off elemental magic, a major monk weakness. Halflings are slightly more resistant to poison, disease, and elemental magic than dwarves. Half-krolvin have natural heavy crit padding against cold attacks and suffer less from cold weather effects.

The races of Elanthia all have their pros and cons. They are well balanced and any one could make an excellent monk. Take into account the full picture, including mechanics and their cultural backgrounds, before you decide on a race for yours. Then you can likely pick a Half-Krolvin for that sweet UAF boost!


Skills

Physical Skills

Magical Skills

  • Arcane Symbols Allows the use of and improves durations from scrolls.
  • Magic Item Use Allows the use of and improves the durations from magic items.
  • Harness Power 3 mana per training up to your level, 1 per after that.
  • Spell Aiming Weapon training for bolts, which monks also do not use.
  • Mana Control Allows the sharing of mana and improves your own mana regen. As the mental/spirit square monks have somewhat cheaper access to those two.
  • Spell Research Learn spells and make those you already know better.
  • Lores Incremental improvements to specific spells related to that lore.

General Overview of Minor Mental Spells

Monks are the most magical square. That means they do not really have their own spell list but are expected to train in spells. Fortunately no one else is really using the Minor Mental list right now.

Buffing Spells

Group Focus Spells

Focus spells provide a bonus with no set duration to the monk's group but each monk many only run one focus spell at a time.

  • [[Mind Over Body (1213) Reduces stamina costs of abilities.
  • [[Focus Barrier (1216) Large group DS boost.

Attack Spells

The minor mental list has several attack spells but only a few of them apply to a monk.

Miscellaneous Spells


Lores

Even though monks are a square they do get some benefits from lores. The primary benefits to a monk are found in Mental lores, specifically Mental Lore, Transformation or Mental Lore, Telepathy. While other spiritual and mental lores provide some benefit they are not generally worth spending points on.

Transformation lore provides the following benefits:

  • Iron Skin (1202) Increases the AsG of Iron Skin by 1 every 5 * Seed 1 summation ranks.
  • Dragonclaw (1209) Increases the UAF bonus by a Seed 1 summation.
  • Brace (1214) Increases the chance to disarm an attacker by 2% per Seed 3 summation.

Telepathy lore provides the following benefits:

  • Soothing Word (1205) 25 ranks grants the ability to remove sheer fear from a target and provide immunity to it for 30 seconds.
  • Confusion (1211) Improves the chances for the target to perform a more favorable action every 20 skill.
  • Mind Over Body (1213) Increase the stamina cost reduction by 5% per skill/10 on a Seed 3 summation.
  • Provoke (1235) Increases the generation rate for sentient creatures in the area by 1 per 15 ranks.

Training

This is broken down into Core Training, and Discrete Training.

  • Core training includes skills you train in a certain amount each level for that build.
  • Discrete Training includes skills that you want to hit a breakpoint on.

Common Core Training

Core training for ANY bard:

Total: (10/30)

Common Discrete Training

Unarmed Monk

For the most part, when it comes to monks, everybody is kung-fu fighting. All the cool kids are, in fact, as fast as lightning, due to Burst of Swiftness. In all seriousness the release a monks prompted a whole new combat system to be created and they are designed to take advantage of it. While it could be argued that rogues are the best UAC users, monks make a pretty strong case.


Unarmed Monk Core Training

# Cost Skill
2x 3/3 Dodging
2x 6/0 Physical Fitness
2x 15/9 Combat Maneuvers
2x 6/3 Brawling
1x 0/2 Perception
.5x 1/1 Two Weapon Combat
.5x 0/19 Spell Research
.33x 0/2 Harness Power
31/39 Total