Hello everyone and welcome to my monk
build for Baldur's Gate 3. In this guide, I'll show you how to build one of the most
destructive and mobile characters in the entire game. This build will enable you to attack
11 times dealing up to 660 single target damage PER turn and with a finger snap decimate an
entire group of enemies even on Honour mode.
In this guide, I'll provide you with all the
information you need from character creation to leveling up, feats to consider, Illithid
powers as well as gear choices from Act 1, 2, and all the way to Act 3. So without
any further delay, let's get started.
Just by choosing monk, you get arguably one of
the strongest abilities any class can get at level 1 and that is Flurry of Blows. This allows
the monk to attack twice using your bonus action and 1 Ki point. This is going to be your bread
and butter for the majority of your playthrough. Every time you have 1 Ki point and a bonus
action, you'll want to use Flurry of Blows.
Ki or Chi is a special resource unique to
Monks that expands their capabilities. For now, you can only use it on flurry
of blows but as you progress, you will unlock more abilities to spend it on. You
can replenish your Ki points after a short rest.
You'll also get other class features as a monk but
I want to focus on Unarmoured Defence and Martial Arts: Bonus Unarmed Strike. Unarmoured Defence
enables the Monks to add their wisdom modifier to their total Armour Class (AC) if they're not
wearing any armor. This is very similar to the Barbarian class with the exception that Barbarians
use their constitution modifier instead of Wisdom. If you are curious about what qualifies as
armor, any piece of gear that says light, medium, or heavy is considered armor. To see if
your character benefits from Unarmoured Defence, simply open the character sheet
and hover over your Armor Class.
Next Martial Arts: Bonus Unarmed Strike. Every
time you strike your target, even if you miss, you can use your bonus action to attack
a second time. As I mentioned earlier, you always want to use your bonus action on
Flurry of Blows as long as you have Ki points to spend but if you run out of Ki or simply the
target is too low to waste a Ki point on, you can use Unarmed Strike with your bonus action.
For this build, I recommend that you play Astarion as a Monk and I will explain why later in the
guide. But if you're determined to create your own character, I would recommend Half-elf because you
gain proficiency in shields to improve your Armour Class along with useful perks like Darkvision
and Fey Ancestry. Also, make sure to choose Wood Half-elf Subrace for the extra movement speed.
The main abilities we are going to focus on for this build are strength and wisdom. The
reason we are going to rely on strength for attack rolls and damage instead of
Dexterity is because of the Tavern Brawler feat at level 4. But more on that later.
You might be curious why our strength score is only 8 after all this is a strength-based
build. The reason is that we will rely on strength elixirs throughout the entire game
to boost our strength score. Additionally, this approach allows us to allocate more
points to other crucial abilities. Don't worry, I'll show you how to get an unlimited supply
of Strength elixirs starting from Act 1.
Dexterity will increase our total armor class
and also dictate who goes first in combat. you will also rely on dexterity to determine
your attack rolls until you reach level 4 and unlock the tavern brawler feat.
Constitution will increase your total hit points hence your survivability.
Wisdom is the second most important ability for Monks after strength. It contributes to
your total armor class if you are not using any armor. later down the road, you will obtain
a certain item that will allow you to add your wisdom modifier to your unarmed damage.
Wisdom modifier will also be added towards manifestation damage dice at level 6. Outside
of combat, wisdom directly influences useful skills like perception and survival to
uncover hidden clues around the world.
Add the +1 Bonus to Dexterity and the +2 Bonus
to Wisdom. Set Strength to 8, Dexterity to 16, Constitution to 15, and both
Charisma and Intelligence to 8.
Set wisdom to 17 if you are planning to spare
Ethel the Hag in Act 1 and accept her boon to boost your wisdom score to a total of
18. If you aren't planning to spare her or want to give the boon to a different
character in your party, that's alright, in Act III I'll show you the location of an
amulet that gives +1 to wisdom score.
For the Background I chose Outlander and for
skills, I chose acrobatics and insight.
At level 2 you gain unarmoured movement which
improves your movement speed as long as you are not wearing armor or using a shield.
You'll also expand the use of your Ki points with 3 different abilities. For one Ki point and
bonus action, the Patient defense will bolster your survivability by giving a disadvantage to
every enemy that tries to strike you for one turn. I especially enjoy the Step of the Wind:
Dash. This will double your movement speed and remove the bonus action cost on your jumps. It's
simply hilarious how far you can jump around in a single turn when using this ability.
At level 3, you get to choose your subclass. We want the way of the open hand. This will enhance
your level 1 Flurry of Blows into 3 different actions. For the most part, I was simply using
Flurry of Blows: Topple to knock enemies prone. knocking your enemies prone gives you as well as
your party advantage when striking them down.
As a reaction, you can use Deflect Missile to
reduce incoming missile damage taken and if you reduce the damage to zero, you can spend
one Ki point to send back the projectile for some really nice ranged damage. However,
sometimes the projectile hits structures between you and the enemy archer so be mindful
of that when using Deflect Missile.
At level 4 is where the magic happens; we are
going for Tavern Brawler feat which is an insanely strong feat. Tavern Brawler allows you to add your
strength modifier TWICE to both your attack rolls and damage dice. To fully grasp how powerful
this is, using Elixir of Hill Giant strength which sets your strength score to 21 means you
will be able to add +10 to both your attack rolls as well as damage dice. This means you will hit
like a truck and rarely miss your attacks. This gets even better once you gain access to Elixir of
Cloud Strength, increasing that number to +13.
Tavern Brawler also gives you an extra ability
point to spend in either Strength or Constitution. Invest that one in Constitution to
bring the ability score to 16.
At level 5 we get Extra Attack. After every
successful attack, using your action points, you get to attack a second time. This gives
us a total of 4 attacks in a single round, 2 using your action point and 2 using
your bonus action if you have at least 1 Ki point to spend on Flurry of Blows.
You will also gain access to stunning strikes to apply crowd control when needed
by stunning your target for one turn.
Level 6 is kind of a big deal for
monks. MANIFESTATION OF BODY, MIND, and SOUL will enhance your unarmed attacks with
different types of damage like Radiant, Psychic, and Necrotic. Further increasing the damage
output of every attack you land. However, you can't have more than one of those passives
active at any given time but you can freely switch the type of damage during combat for free. The
damage of these manifestations is d4 + your wisdom modifier. Go to the passives tab and make sure at
least one of those manifestations is active.
You'll also get "WHOLENESS OF BODY". This will
immediately heal you and replenish half your Ki points and for 3 turns you regain 1 Ki
point every turn but more importantly you get a temporary bonus action to use during that
time. This can be used once per long rest so you want to save this for big battles. Ideally, You
should try to cast it before entering combat.
You also gain improved unarmoured movement,
further improving your movement speed given you're not wearing armor or holding a shield.
Finally, Ki-Empowered Strikes "Your unarmed attacks count as magical for the purpose
of overcoming enemies' Resistance and Immunity to non-magical damage."
I'll be honest when I first read this ability I was like "wooh, does that
mean my attacks will deal full damage now regardless if the target has resistance or not?"
The answer is yes and no. You see, there are two types of resistance in this game, Magical and
Non-magical. You can easily find out by inspecting your target and hovering over resistance. If it
says Non-magical resistance then yes, Ki-Empowered Strikes will enable you to penetrate their
resistance and deal full damage. If the target has both magical and non-magical resistance,
then your damage will be halved regardless.
Another quick way to check is by looking at
those small arrows. the white one represents the non-magical resistance while the blue
one is for the magical resistance.
At level 7 you get Evasion. Normally when a
target succeeds in a saving throw against a spell, they only take half damage. However, as a monk,
if you succeed in a dexterity saving throw against any spell you don't take any damage at all.
You also get Stillness of Mind. This will automatically snap you out of any charm of fear
effect for the cost of one action point.
At level 8 you gain another
feat. Take ability improvement and increase your wisdom score by +2.
Look, it's no secret that Monk is one the best Single target damage dealers in BG3. But at level
9, you become one of the best aoe damage dealer as well. Ki Resonation: Punch enables you to plant a
resonating bomb on your target using your action and bonus action. While Ki Resonation: Blast will
detonate that resonating Bomb as well as any bomb in close proximity to the main target.
The idea is to group up as many targets as possible, Illithid Power: Black Hole can certainly
help with that, and plant as many resonated bombs, then use Ki Resonation: Blast in the center
of the group to create a big explosion that will decimate all nearby enemies.
If you're curious what happens if a target dies when you're setting up your
resonating bomb? The answer is, you can still deonate the bomb on their corpses.
You also gain Advanced Unarmoured Movement to make sure difficult terrain no longer slows you
down as well as improve your jump distance given you're not wearing armor or holding a shield.
From level 10 we are going to multiclass into the Rogue class and more specifically the Thief
subclass. We're doing this to unlock Fast Hands at level 3 Rogue, which provides us with an
additional bonus action to use. This will give us a total of 2 bonus actions and 1 action to use
every turn so you can strike your target up to 6 times without using Haste or Wholeness of Body.
Multiclass in the Rogue class also provides you with 1 proficiency point and 2 expertise points
that you can spend on specific skills. I chose Perception and Atheltics but feel free to pick
whatever you prefer. You could have potentially started this adventure as a Rogue because you
get more proficiency points to spend this way as well as a wider variety of skill choices like
perception and sleight of hands to choose from.
Now let's explore your gear
choices starting from Act 1
Bracers of Defence can be obtained from inside a
secret chamber below the Blighted Village in Act 1. It provides you with a +2 bonus to your Armour
Class as long as you are not wearing armor.
Haste Helm improves your movement
speed for 3 turns at the beginning of each fight. You can find it in a locked
chest in the center of Blighted Village.
Crusher's Ring will improve
your movement speed.
Boots of Genial Striding will make you
unhindered by any difficult Terrain.
You can also use Disintegrating Night
Walkers boots, which gives you one use of Misty Step per short rest.
The best chest piece you can get until Act 3 is the graceful cloth. It will increase
your Dexterity score by +2 and give you an advantage on dexterity checks. You can buy
this chest piece from Lady Esther. She also sells gloves of cinder and sizzle, making
your unarmed attacks deal an additional d4 fire damage. If you are feeling tanky enough, you
can use them instead of Bracers of Defence.
In Act 2, you should aim to
get Cloak of Protection to boost your total Armour Class by +1.
Evasive Shoes increases both your Armour Class and Acrobatics by +1.
If you decide to use shields, Sentinel Shield provides a +3 bonus to initiative
as well as an advantage on perception checks.
Ring of free action is certainly a good one to
have for any melee class including Monk.
These are the essential items that I believe
you should obtain before you reach Act III.
Now let's take a look at the end
game gear for your Monk class.
The first endgame item is the Boots of
Uninhibited Kushigo. These boots will enable you to add your Wisdom modifier
to your bludgeoning damage dice.
You can miss this item so I'll show
you exactly where you can get it, hopefully without spoiling too much of the story.
At the end of Act II, you'll be teleported to the Astral Plane where you have to fight a punch of
Gythianki monks. Surrounded by dead Gythianki and intellect devourers, your boots can be
found in the possession of prelate Lir'i'c.
Cloak of displacement gives a disadvantage
to attack rolls that target your character until you take any damage. However, the effect
will refresh at the beginning of your turn.
The best helmet for your Monk has to be Mask of
Soul Perception. It gives a +2 Bonus to attack, initiative rolls as well as perception checks.
This can be found inside a chest on the second floor at Devil's Fee in Lower City.
Vest of Soul Rejuvenation is the best chest piece for your monk. It gives d4 hit
points if you succeed in a saving throw against any spell. It also boosts your Armour
Class by +2. And as a reaction, you can make an unarmed strike against enemies that miss
you. Sometimes, I purposely provoke an attack of opportunity to trigger the Greater Kushigo
Counter. I noticed that you can get an extra attack after triggering Greater Kushigo Counter
using this method IF you aren't hasted. You can purchase Vest of Soul Rejuvenation from Sorcerous
Sundries in the Lower City of Baldur's Gate.
One of the strongest items for your monk is
Gloves of Soul Catching. You can obtain this item at the end of House of Hope. It will cause
your unarmed strikes to deal an additional d10 force damage. It also increases your constitution
score by +2. After scoring an unarmed strike, the gloves give you an option to regain 10
hit points. However, if you don't use that free healing, you'll get an advantage on both
your attack rolls as well as saving throws until the end of your next turn. So ideally
you should NOT be using that free healing.
Khalid's Gift is the only item in the game that
gives a +1 to wisdom score. You can find this amulet in Jaheira's hideout next to Baldur's
Gate portal. To access Jaheira's hideout, enter her study room in her house and use a
Harp-Shaped Pin in the pin slot on the side of the disk to reveal the secret passage. There are
3 known locations for that pin but I will show you two locations that are very close. The first one
is on top of the house itself inside an Old Pouch. The second pin is found in a child's possession
inside the house's second floor. If you bring Jaheira with you, he will give her the Pin.
Enter the hideout and pass the traps by using a spell that corresponds with each
trap like Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, Lightning Bolt, and Poison Spray. Inside the
old house, the Amulet can be found inside a display case behind an old bookcase that you can
lockpick after succeeding a perception check.
Finally, Helmet of Grit. This is a high-risk
high-reward kind of item. It will give you an additional bonus action to use, so you can
potentially land two additional attacks in the same turn if you are at 50% or less maximum
hit points. I personally don't like this helmet at least for this build because you'll lose
so much mobility advantage as well as armor class since this is a light armor. Also
maintaining that low hp threshold is simply cumbersome and fatal in Honour mode.
For the Illithid Powers, I usually take Favourable Beginnings on all my characters.
This is useful in and out of combat.
Luck of the far realm and ability drain are
also useful. However, you have to take Cull the Weak on your monk because it has
insane synergy with your Resonation: Blast. Every time you set up a big aoe, Cull
the Weak can start a chain reaction that can decimate an entire group of enemies close to
each other. That's why I also recommend Black Hole to group enemies closer together as well as
apply the slow debuff. Keep in mind that Cull the Weak becomes stronger relative to the number of
Illithid Powers invested. That's why I invest any extra Illitid Powers I have into my Monk to
boost the effectiveness of Cull the Weak.
Tavern Brawler Monk is a strength-based
build and as promised I'll show you how to farm an unlimited amount of Strength Elixir
that will last your entire playthrough.
Vendors in BG3 will refresh their stock
in at least two cases. For example, if your party took a long rest. That's why some
guides recommend that you take a long rest and go back to check the vendor for new stock. This
is simply boring and tedious at best. The other case where vendors refresh their stock is when
a party member levels up. The optimal way to do this is to either retrain your character or
hire a new party member and sit next to the vendor. Level once and then check the vendor for
stock. You can simply do this as many times as you need by retraining the character(s)
every time you reach the max level.
You can use this method in Act 1 to farm Elixir
of Hill Giant Strength from Derryth Bonecloak in the Myconid Colony in the Underdark. The best
thing about this vendor is that at level 6 she has a chance to sell Cloud Giant Finger. This
means you can craft Cloud Gaint Elixir as early as Act 1. Most vendors in Act II and III have a
chance to sell Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength.
If you really want to optimize this farm, you
can place a party member at a different vendor, level once, and check each vendor
for stock before you level again.
I mentioned at the beginning of the guide that you
should not create a new character and instead play Astarion as your Monk. The reason, is at the
end of his story, you can gain an ability that will add d10 necrotic damage to your unarmed
attacks which is huge considering that you can attack up to 11 times in a single turn.
In Act III you can use Mirror of Loss to boost your wisdom score by +2. Although I could
use it with Astarion, I had to forfeit the forbidden knowledge passive that comes from
deciphering the Necromancy of Thay. I wonder if you can keep the knowledge as well as
Mirror wisdom buff by deciphering the book after using the mirror. If someone knows,
please let us know down in the comment.
The way you play this build is by using Wholeness
of Body as well as haste buff on your monk before entering combat. If you also know there is going
to be a lot of movement, use Step of the Wind: Dash. This will give you 3 bonus actions as
well as 2 Action points to attack 10 times and if you provoked an attack of opportunity while
wearing Vest of Soul Rejuvenation, you can land an extra attack using your reaction.
This fairly simple and powerful build that doesn't require any setup like my
lightning sorcerer build. However, that lightning build is flat-out broken. Make sure
to check it out if you haven't already. I recently finished the game using this Monk build in Honour
mode and it couldn't have been an easier run.
This brings this guide to an end, thank you
so much for watching. I would like to thank everyone who supported me and my channel with
their kind comments as well as constructive feedback. If you have any ideas or tips on how
to improve this build or my content in general, please let me know. Once again thanks for
watching, and have a great day.
