Baldur's Gate 3: Monk Class Overview

[Music] foreign what's going on everybody mortum here this time bringing you the final video in our class overview series for Baldur's Gate 3 with of course the monk this one had to be last though because in the Early Access period of the game the monk was not present and when they announced the monk was coming they mentioned that it had seen some changes to help make up for the fact that it is considered pretty weak in the tabletop version and I'm glad I didn't just cover the tabletop version because they did in fact make some significant changes to the subclasses in particular most of the bass class remained the same however with that in mind before we dive into this these overviews are focused more on the class Fantasy on top of the general mechanics and things to expect so if you're looking for a number crunching build video this isn't that this is simply talking about things like the role-playing potential on top of some of the things they can do mechanically that said I do want to mention here at the beginning that I really do enjoy some of the changes that larion has made here because a decent amount of them have simply moved up and altered abilities that the monk would get later on in their level progression past level 12. I like to kick these particular videos off with talking about the class fantasy of in this case the monk so with that in mind what even is a monk in the context of Dungeons and Dragons which is a normally very fantasy focused setting where a monk might seem like a slightly strange addition because while monks in this particular franchise do in fact live secluded lives often in the form of communal living with other members of their monastic order as they pursue some goal more specifically monks do two things that make them very unique they strive for physical Perfection trying to hone their skills and it is through this practice that they learn to manipulate Key Energy which here in D and D is simply the life energy that flows through all living beings monks manage to attune to this and then manipulate it to push themselves far beyond what a typical person would be capable will love that by itself means that while monks tend to be a very physical class in the sense that they are either throwing literal punches or using very simple weapons like a Quarter Staff or potentially a club even they also have some almost magical ability that runs off their class resource of key this takes the form of points that we'll get as we level up and we can spend that on our more supernatural abilities which are typically just slightly reskinned versions of other types of spells and I do want to emphasize that I just said spell because what key energy is in the context of this universe is one of the fundamental forms of magic that flow through the fantasy world here it is very difficult for most people to tap into which is what makes monks unique their ability to tap into a magic source that most people simply can't and this is why much of what they can do with their abilities replicates what other magic does because essentially that's just what it is they've simply learned to harness it in a different way than others have which I personally find a very interesting Prospect though when it comes to the role play side of things more particularly when it comes to playing as a monk these are generally people that in fact grew up in a Cloister of other monks an order or a sect dedicated to a particular philosophy so to speak and because of this monks as a result of that background have in previous editions of D and D been required to be of a lawful alignment and while we can still see some of that reflected in fifth edition today most of the alignment system stuff has largely been done away with so you don't have to play it that way by any means however while a monk has almost certainly grown up in one of these Cloisters what that entailed can vary wildly because what monks get up to in D and D varies quite wildly some of them are simply Protectors of the surrounding landscape with them actually regularly interacting with towns and Villages nearby in order to both protect them as well as to facilitate trade to support their own living while still other Cloisters of monks have a more Sinister tone to them some of them can in fact work for say a local wealthy Baron or some other wealthy Patron as paid assassins even and because of this for a monk to be seen as an adventurer they typically are on some sort of personal Quest are they looking for some amount of personal or spiritual growth that The Cloister simply can't provide and they must go elsewhere for it and combined with what I've said previously this means that when it comes to creating a monk from a role play perspective some things to keep in mind are what that Monk's early life looked like they almost certainly joined a Cloister of other monks as a child though maybe you'd like to spin a different tail and say maybe they apprenticed to some other already wandering monk which is where they picked up their trade but what that life looked like and then what led them to seek a life of adventuring or at least a temporary stint in doing so are questions you would want to think about though in a much more direct manner monks are simply highly trained martial artists that can use their fist to destroy enemies as well as any other weapon and that finally brings us to our general information section before we start talking about class mechanics starting with ability scores monks typically want to focus on dexterity and wisdom this is primarily because they are going to be unarmored and through dexterity and a class feature wisdom they will stack a c despite not wearing armor otherwise which means they still become quite tanky and difficult to hit in many situations despite not actually wearing armor and while it's possible to build a monk with strength the only real time you would do that is more than likely if you were multi-classing something because a monk by themselves is going to want dexterity for their fist attacks which for a monk can use dexterity but also because it gives them that extra AC and extra initiative to move faster in combat and the reason we want wisdom is because our modifier for that ability score gets added onto our AC as well now in in terms of weapons and armor monks keep it very simple they do not wear any armor typically which means they don't have proficiency for any of it and when it comes to weapons they get simple weapons on top of short swords though do keep in mind unarmed is very much so a possible build here and can be very strong as well but you do have the option of a Quarter Staff or something if you would prefer in the context of Baldur's Gate 3 this is a good time to mention that it's important to understand that armor is a type of item which includes things like helmets gloves and boots so this does not mean just the chest slot of your armor moreover there will be a lot of items that are specific to the monk that are not coded as armor instead they are coded as clothing which will still allow you to wear a unique piece of gear that might have extra effects for you while not interfering with your bonuses to your AC from being unarmored from there though let's talk about some of the class Mechanics for the bass monk of which there are quite a few first though right at level 1 they get a variety of abilities through the class feature martial arts this technically does a few things for us for starters it allows us to use our dexterity instead of strength for our unarmed strikes and monk weapons specifically we can also roll a D4 in place of normal damage for our unarmed strikes if it's not already higher than that and we can also make unarmed strikes as a bonus action provided we've attacked first also right at level 1 we pick up unarmored defense this is our wisdom modifier to our AC which remember this actually Stacks with dexterity and does not replace it also here at level 1 we have a small change from the table top to the actual game and the tabletop version you don't start getting key points and your Flurry of Blows ability until Level 2 but in Baldur's Gate 3 we get that right at level one Flurry of Blows simply allows us to make multiple attacks with our fists dealing extra damage and when combined with a regular attack can give us several hits with our unarmed strikes dealing quite a bit of damage even though the individual hits can be a little low moreover you can do this as a bonus action so typically you would make a normal attack and then follow up with a Flurry of Blows but it does cost key points now some people familiar with the tabletop version might be aware that at the same time you would get Flurry of Blows you would normally also pick up patient defense and step of the wind key abilities however those have been retained at level 2. patient defense has been altered slightly to force the enemy to take disadvantage on their attack rolls for a turn this is because the Dodge action does not exist in Baldur's Gate 3 and then we also pick up step of the wind which is an incredibly strong movement ability that for our bonus action allows us to double our movement speed and also make a jump for just one turn this gives us a nonsense amount of movement more so than pretty much anyone else in a single turn all of these do cost key points though which you have a limited supply of also at level 2 we pick up unarmored movement this gives us extra movement speed if we are not not wearing armor of any sort so again if we're unarmored we get to move farther than normal giving us even more movement this actually increases again at Ninth level to give a not insubstantial boost to how far you can move in a turn at third level we pick our subclass but also deflect missiles this allows us to use our reaction to lessen the damage from an incoming Say Arrow or crossbow bolt at fourth level they pick up slow fall which allows them to use their reaction to reduce any falling damage they might take which in Baldur's Gate 3 is resistance to it which means half at fifth level we pick up extra attack like basically every martial class allowing us to make even more attacks per turn and combined with the Monk's Flurry of Blows that can be substantial they also pick up stunning strike which allows you to spin key points on trying to stun an enemy with one of your attacks and then at sixth level they pick up key empowered strikes which makes our unarmed attacks count as magical for the purposes of damage reduction so when it comes to overcoming resistances our hands are considered magic at seventh level we pick up evasion and Stillness of Mind evasion reduces the damage you would take from area of effect things like say a fireball spell normally you take half damage if you make the save against that however with evasion if we make the save we take zero damage and just half normally Stillness of Mind allows you to remove a charm or fear effect once per turn at the cost of Your Action and then finally for the base class we would come to purity of body at level 10 which makes you immune to poison and disease so monks have a lot going on and most of that has been retained for their Base Class mechanics in Baldur's Gate 3 where things get particularly interesting however is the subclasses because that is where they made significant changes though technically speaking they did keep the three subclasses from the player's handbook which are the way of the open Palm Way of the Shadow and way of the four elements we're going to start with elements because that one's the most straightforward basically with that subclass we can pick up a variety of spell cells that cost key points to use these are effectively just slightly renamed and imagined versions of Elemental wizard spells so if you want to add some magic to your highly mobile unarmed build then you might want to consider this one the only real change they made here is that at level 9 we pick up an ability that is going to increase the damage on some of these abilities to keep them relevant once the damage starts to fall off the other two Shadow and open Palm have seen more substantial changes way of the Open Hand of course goes all in on your unarmed strikes right at level 3 allowing us to use our Flurry of Blows to also do things like push enemies away stagger them or potentially even knock them over then at level 6 they pick up manifestations this is not a thing in the table top but manifestations are passive toggles that you can change out to add either necrotic psychic or radiant damage to your unarmed strikes making them deal a bit more damage with each hit and then lastly we have another addition though technically this is a rework of an ability that comes later in their level ups with key resonation key resonation allows them to hit an enemy and then activate an ability that deals a big AOE explosion to everyone around giving them some AOE damage that can be quite strong against groups of enemies again this is normally something you would get later as a monk at like I think it's level 17 off the top of my head or at least a similar concept and it looks like they added this reworked version because without it the rest of the open hand subclass would have been really boring that would have gotten basically nothing and lastly that brings us to way of the Shadow now if you throughout this video have been thinking to yourself you could probably put all that dexterity we're using to use and become a thief or an assassin potentially well that's what this subclass is for because dexterity is in fact great at making us good for stealth and lock picking and this subclass leans into that pretty heavily right as you pick this up at level 3 they can again pick up a few different Spells at the cost of key key points but these are more focused on things revolving around stealth like Darkness blind Etc as opposed to the elemental damage from the four elements subclass and then from there they make a pretty significant change right at level five where they give us cloak of Shadows instead of giving it to us when we would have hit Level 11. cloak of Shadows is a pretty simple ability it simply allows you to become invisible which is naturally pretty useful for this play style but again you're gonna get that at level five instead of level 11. and then at level 6 we have Shadow step this allows us to teleport while hidden to an area within 60 feet while also granting us advantage on our next attack at level 11 we get a similar ability called Shadow strike but this allows us to teleport while hidden and also hit an enemy at the same time for our unarmed damage plus some sidekick damage which makes the shadow monk a pretty solid choice for a thief or assassin style of character now that's pretty much everything to know about the monk from a class mechanic standpoint and with all that covered now is a good time to start talking about playing a monk which as you might have gathered over the course of this video is somewhat straightforward given all of their classes focus on making unarmed strikes or attacking multiple times in melee with only a couple of their subclasses giving us access to more ranged oriented options a monk will typically be up close and personal with enemies making a variety of attacks making them a pretty quick and agile fighter and while you can build them to be relatively survivable they tend to have less Health than say a fighter or a paladin or something which means while they can avoid getting hit pretty well when they do get hit they are a bit squishier than other more tankier classes however with their key Powers giving them access to a variety of helpful spells potentially or just other class abilities they can mix up combat especially melee oriented combat in fun ways that require you to think about how best to apply those to each individual situation and that combined with their extensive movement can can make them incredibly deadly when they start hitting you first so when it comes to playing that sort of light and quick on their feet roll that's where monks really Excel so when it comes to multi-classing one the no-brainer option there is Monk and Rogue monk has a lot of the same abilities that a rogue does thanks to their shared Reliance on dexterity and rogue's sneak attack option goes especially well with the shadow monk provided of course you're actually using a weapon there it's important to note that won't work with unarmed strikes as sneak attack requires a weapon but there's a lot of overlap between Monk and Rogue that can make playing a stealthy character a lot of fun another similar option here is Ranger Ranger also uses dexterity and wisdom and will give the monk access to things like a fighting style and depending on how far in you go potentially an animal companion to boot though other fun options are a monk and a cleric as clerics also make use of a high wisdom score and many of the spells that a cleric would get access to make a good amount of sense for a monk to have especially actually combined with some of the cleric domains that we have access to such as Tempest which is a somewhat similar situation to Monk and Druid all in all though monks are a really interesting class with a pretty unique class fantasy that can make role-playing one pretty unique in and of itself while at the same time thanks to some of the very I would say prudent changes that larion has made to the monk to make them more interesting in this game provides them with an opportunity to shine that can make them an interesting choice for people who might not have considered playing them otherwise because the time I spent with it was pretty enjoyable and I'm truth be told here at the end of this video not a huge fan of the class but even I have to admit they did some really cool things in tweaking this to make it viable with that in mind though that's pretty much everything I've got for this overview video I hope you enjoyed it I hope you found it informative if you did like comment subscribe all that YouTube jazz but regardless of any of that truly just thank you so much for watching I really do appreciate it may you wander and wisdom and have an amazing day [Music]

Channel: Mortismal Gaming

Views: 209,183

Keywords: Mortym, Mortismal Gaming, Baldurs Gate, BG3, BG2, BG1, Baldur's Gate, Connections, baldur's gate 3 story, baldurs gate 3, bg3 story, baldurs gate 1 & 2 before 3, bg3 multiplayer, bg3 gameplay, bg3 panel from hell, bg3 panel from hell recap, bg3 final panel from hell, bg3 release showcase, baldurs gate 3 release showcase, baldurs gate 3 panel from hell, bg3 multiclassing, baldurs gate 3 multiclassing, bg3 classes, bg3 monk, bg3 monk guide, bg3 monk overview, bg3 class overview

Id: ePTP4ZuZBpg

Length: 17min 18sec (1038 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2023