Flimbo's Monk Guide

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Foreword (By Flimbo)

Welcome to the Duh-finitive Monk Guide by Flimbo. In this guide you will learn lots of things. Here are some of those things:

  • Monks. Why are they.
  • Monks. How are they.
  • Monks. What are they.
  • How many professions Monk is better than.
  • How much Flimbos does it take to write a guide.

This guide is for novice and experienced Monk enthusiasts alike. It is a work in progress, and will cover creation up through cap in as much detail as the Flimbo sees fit to and has caffeine to impart.

If you are not here for the full creation experience, and instead just have a Monk question, there's a chance it's answered in the Frequently Asked Questions portion of this guide.

Overview (Written by Flimbo)

Strengths

  • Monks excel at dealing with swarms of things.
    • You will more than likely have a whole heap of Multi Opponent Combat, for reasons that will become more apparent in the training section of this guide.
  • Monks have excellent maneuver, physical and bolt defenses.
    • Your ability to easily 2x or 3x dodge and physical fitness makes it very difficult to hit you with maneuvers.
    • Only having to wear robes is another huge boon to your maneuver defense, and UAC offenses.
    • Many of your spells offer excellent DS and maneuver bonuses for both you and your group.
    • Once you hit a certain breakpoint for spells, you will rarely, if ever, have to leave stance offensive.
  • Monks are very self sufficient.
    • With proper spell and skill training, it is incredibly easy to be well defended without the need for outside spells.
  • Unique Stances and Maneuvers
    • Perfect self is quite possibly the best maneuver in Gemstone. No other maneuver can come close to the benefit to every single thing that you do like a passive +100 stats can.
    • Your focus spells, Mind over Body and Focus Barrier, have infinite duration, affect you and your group, and only fall if you get stunned for a long period of time.
    • Monks have access to a solid list of unique martial stances and maneuvers which I will go into detail about in the appropriate section.


Weaknesses

  • Target Defense
    • As you will primarily be wearing robes, which have a +15 CvA (Compared to -21 on full plate), your target defense will start out lower than normal. You can however offset this detriment in a number of ways, which will be detailed in another section.
  • Armor
    • Again, with robes, your armor will generally be lighter than a warrior's. The 1202 spell allows your robes to protect as heavier armor without the detriments to maneuvers of wearing or training for said armor, but generally the best armor you will realistically hope to be protected by is augmented chain. You can go higher with enhancives and lore training, but by the time that becomes a factor in your training, you won't need my guide to figure it out.

Why play a Monk?

This is a question that's impossible to answer for everyone, so I'm just going to answer it for me, and hopefully that may give you some insight or idea as to why you may want to choose Monk.

I was happily playing a two handed warrior. I enjoyed mstriking with a maul. I enjoyed being able to take hits and dish out damage without watching my mana bar. I had a pocket wizard to keep him spelled up, and a pocket empath to heal all his many little wounds. And then something cast Earthen Fury at me. And it didn't matter that I had a billion hitpoints. It didn't matter that I was spelled up. It didn't matter that I had all manner of redux. I just died. That was strike one.

Strike two was that I just don't like active skills, maneuver or otherwise. I don't like upkeeping enhancives. I don't like typing cman whatever critter. I didn't like losing control of my character with berserk. Most of what warrior offered and what made it special, I wasn't using.

Strike three was taking a look at the wiki.

  • +100 stats and I don't have to push a button? Sign me up.
  • About 120 DS worth of self spelled defenses? Yes please.
  • Still get all that juicy redux and don't even have to throw 140+ ranks into armor training? Buhbye Warrior.


In short, I like all the passive bonuses granted by Monk. I love that I was able to sell my pocket wizard and empath and still stand around in stance offensive and never get hit. I like how many ranks of multi opponent combat I can get without having to 3x armor training. If any of this sounds appealing to you, you might ought to want to give Monk a go.

Frequently Asked Questions (Answered by Flimbo)

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Flimbo's Monk Guide
Small 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
Base Monk Growth Intervals
STR CON DEX AGI DIS AUR LOG INT WIS INF
Monk 25 25 20 30 25 15 20 20 15 10


Monk Growth Intervals by Race
Race STR CON DEX AGI DIS AUR LOG INT WIS INF
Aelotoi 25 23 23 33 27 15 20 22 15 8
Burghal Gnome 20 25 23 33 22 13 25 25 15 10
Dark Elf 25 23 25 35 23 15 20 20 15 10
Dwarf 30 30 17 25 28 15 20 20 18 8
Elf 25 20 25 33 20 20 20 20 15 13
Erithian 23 25 20 30 28 15 22 20 15 13
Forest Gnome 22 27 22 33 27 15 20 20 15 10
Giantman 30 28 18 28 25 15 20 22 15 10
Half Elf 27 25 22 32 23 15 20 20 15 12
Half Krolvin 28 30 22 32 25 13 18 20 15 8
Halfling 20 30 25 35 23 15 18 20 15 10
Human 27 27 20 30 25 15 20 22 15 10
Sylvankind 22 23 25 35 20 18 20 20 15 13


A link to the foreword