To take it one step further: you can increase you wisdom to 22 with the Mirror of Loss in the House of Grief, increasing your damage output and armor class even further. Don't worry about the -2 debuff on another stat, you can get rid of that with remove curse.
You should add that you can do the vendor trick to buy cloud giant elixirs. Every time a party member levels up, the vendors stock resets. So hire a random companion from withers at level 1, go to the vendor in the carnival, or helsik in devils fee, buy from them, then level the companion one time and look at vendor stock again. Repeat until level 12, then go back to withers and pay 100 gold to reset that companion back to 1. You can infinitely buy reagents from any vendor.
My man, you are a legend. That vampire twist at the end is what these videos are all about. I knew of all of it but that end... I should thank you for sending me on another full tactical play through. 🤜💥🤛
Half-orc in the thumbnail triggered me.. I've tried so many times to play a half-orc and a dwarf, and I always quit shortly after leaving the ship crash.. There are just no good half-orc and dwarf voices. BG1 and BG2 had half orc/gruff/burly voices.. every time my half-orc barbarian moves a muscle and I hear one of the 4 posh voices coming out, It just ruins it.. I can't. I really hope for a voice update soon.
When pally was playing as Grub the half orc it was a really funny contrast how his in game voice sounded sophisticated compared to pally just saying “grub” as his voice 😂
Agreed. This was a major miss by Larian. The beards, voices and hairstyles for Dwarves is definitely going in the book! I'm play a duregar dark urge and I greatly wish for a true long beard.
It’s literally my only problem with the game. A 10 out of 10, except all of my orcs, dragonborn and dwarves sound like they’re fresh graduates from the Academy. Female deep voice (6 or 8, i forget which one) is pretty good though for orcs.
halforcs look like shit in bg3, in nwn2 they were perfect, in bgee inventory sprites were good too, wide and strong, but here they look weaker than any other race with body4, its literally ridiculous that hlafnaked elf with body looks bulkier than halforc...
Honestly i only recently found your channel and you make the best most detailed guides for bg3! Even for new players like me it's simple and easy to understand. Looking forward to your future guides.
For anyone who doesn't like the idea of taking Raphael's deal from an RP perspective, you don't need to. You can still go to the House of Hope in the same way and do all the same things the only difference is that instead of stealing your contract and tearing it up, you are stealing the Orphic Hammer you would have made the deal for instead. It's in the same place protected by the same shield that your turn off the same way. So if you want to tell Raphael to shove his deal up his ass feel free to do so. Also, think the Dead Shot bow that lowers the crit threshold by 1 is a better choice since you should absolutly be getting haste from someone else in your party. But Darkfire is next best and then someone else in the party can have better crits if you prefer. But if you are stacking as much power as you can on this char the crit is better.
I just wanted to say thanks a million for your videos pally. i watched your DOS2 playthroughs way in the day, and skills i learned from them are still relevant today!
I already found most of this, but I have two additions. I don't use them often but I always carry the knife of the undermountian king and the dead shot bow which BOTH reduce my crit roll by 1 on ANY attack. So my unarmed attacks crit on an 18 just by having them equipped.
Awesome build man! Dude, i love that you're still making videos, I've been watching your vids since your DS2 playthrough. I made a similar build to this, carried me through Act 2
Watched the first guide about 2 weeks ago when I first started playing baldurs gate and just entered act two so this was a perfect heads up for me. Thank you!
LOL at skipping over the scene with Haarlep which is the other way to get the password in Rafael's Boudior. If you're going to get the Amulet in the archive room, you might as well get the Guantlets of Giant Strength. They set your strength to 23. There's almost certainly somebody in the party who can benefit from those. As for rings, I just use Crushers and The Risky Ring. The Ring of Protection ceases to be of that much benefit once you get the Cloak of Displacement and frankly, it's a pain to get for what it is.
These videos have been great since I’m first timing monk as an alternative to a paladin or fighter frontliner. The Hellrider’s longbow is definitely an upgrade from the darkfire short bow since the weakness of this build is definitely the initiative. You also don’t need the resistance (but this bow could be used on a supportive character like Shadowheart if you really want haste!) since you can use the hireling warding bond cheese. Hope that helps!
Any time you gain a level, the inventories of all the merchants refresh. So you can respec a character, then check all the merchants inventories before you do the next level up. That will save you a bunch of time used on the long rests. You can also get to the House of Hope without taking Raphael's deal if you want to go that route.
I'm like 90% sure you don't need to take the deal with Raphael to get into the House of Hope and do all the things you need to do there to eventually get the best monk gloves in the game. You can just tell him you'll think about his offer, head into the city straight to the Devil's Fee and tell the owner you wanna go there. She'll either make you pay an obscene amount of money or, upon passing a conversation check, will waive the fee if you promise to bring her back some gauntlets you can find there (not the monk ones). You may need to find a clue in the city that tips you off about Helisk (the shop's owner) providing this service and you can find this clue in the House of Grief. A deal with Raphael is optional. You will still get the gloves if you don't make the deal and instead choose to break in to get the Orphic Hammer. I specifically remember getting them once and being a bit disappointed, because I had no monk to give them to in that playthrough, so they just went into my shiny collection for the rest of that run.
It seems natural that vampires would make good monks. The demonstration at the end reminded me of the Dracula fight at the end of Castlevania Season 2, just an indomitable dude able to twist mortals into pretzels.
Having elixers of bloodlust probably gives more benefit by giving 2 more attacks when you kill a target... if you dump con now instead with that amulet, you could still get 20 str (22 stength if you use hag plus act 3 boost) and still have relatively same damage output but usually with more attacks.
Going natty strength (which you can max out at 24) and using elixirs of bloodlust is also a fantastic option. Means you won't get as high in wisdom and your stats in general won't be as high. Especially early and mid game until you finally get the amulet of greater health and can respec. So there are pros and cons, but both builds are very powerful.
bloodlust elixir isnt that good in honor mode though especially for monks, also you'd be losing wisdom damage on top of losing AC also depends on what role your monk is doing, but generally your monk is going to be on the boss/biggest threat only, for me I need the AC as my monk is my only melee, sword bard + sorcerer cleric + wizard I use bloodlust on because they're killing weak mobs and just generally get more value out of actions than monks do
Enlarge increase you unarmed damage die by another 1d4 and also increase your size enough that you could throw medium sized (almost every humanoid enemy) guys at each other making further use of the Tavern Brawler feat for "improvised weapons" if you so desired.
Karlach is also a very good open hand monk as well because of her soul coins they activate with unarmed attacks u don't need to rage like the description says and for some reason the 1d4 fire damage gets add twice so while astarian is the best open monk end game karlach is a close secound
if you're on pc just use the infinite elixirs mod tbh I typically don't download cheesy stuff but it was either that or farm the vendors which is too tedious for me to bother with
Damn...I played a build pretty similar to this and it already felt OP, but this made me realize how hard ascendant Astarion would go with the same build @.@
I just got Astarion to ascend. Wanna make a monk out of him now. But even though i am someone that loots everything i see, i missed a lot of items haha
Do a fighter build! lvl 12 Battlemaster... oh that was easy. Could never really get into monk play, but watching K'laark bop his opponents to death was a blast.
The ki blast is free damage. You get two actions used for your primary unarmed attack. One should always be used as the ki blast version bc it is the same damage and after you use it get to activate it for free
In honor mode all devices that give you the effect of a rest of reduced to only working once, not over and over like on other modes. Just an important note.
you could in theory either respec your Con into Strength or Just use the Strength gloves from the house of hope. you'd just be missing out on the hope gloves and any other damaging gloves
I don't think you actually have to take the deal. Just go upstairs where you create the portal to hell and do the ritual without the info(all the stuff is there), the gate opens, and you just go loot Raphy's house.
You can get 27 str elixirs from bonecloaks every day. At least you can if you give the noblestalk to the woman in the underdark. Its shown up for me 100% in my current playthrough
Yea astarian is the best end game monk but karlach is gd as well because if you use her soul coins as a monk she gets extra fire damage and you don't have to rage to get the extra fire damage so she is a close secound
Has anyone else had issues with the Tavern Brawler bonus not kicking in after Patch 6? My TB Monk is in Act 2, steady 21 STR from hill giant elixirs, and doing like, 5 dmg per unarmed hit. T.T. It's weird b/c I also have a thrower Barbarian, and TB is definitely kicking in when they chuck weapons.
@@marjase9172 This is true. There is a loss and gain in doing that choice. The gain will be insane boost to plain dmg output. But ou loose what Soul Catching gave you.
Do not make the deal with Halsik just go upstairs and loot the chests and it has all the materials except the skull. If you make the deal with her you lose an amazing pair of gloves or amulet can’t remember which one. But if you open the portal yourself you don’t have to give anything to her
You don't have to give her the gloves. You can a) just leave and never talk to her again b) talk to her and tell her "I have altered the deal, pray I do not alter it further" or c) give them to her, then pickpocket them back. But easier than all that is just pickpocket the pouch from her to open the portal.
I missed the boots of uninhibited kushigo:,( is there any good replacemenr? Will the build be good without that wisdom modifier? Thanks in advance to anyone who helps me out
Gith have a large number of racial perks granting movement that make them some of the best melee characters. Half-orcs carry some of rhe most punishing critical hits. Dwarves have high durability. It all depends on what you want out of your monk. Really, if you unlock all your tadpole goodies as you start act 3, you get flight, so you're pretty much golden whichever choice you make.
It's really preference. There is one that gives you shield as a reaction, one that gives misty step, there is the crazy monk amulet from act 1 that upgrades in act 3 (but it can be used out of combat), the guidance amulet for skill checks. It honestly doesn't matter much... unless you didn't use the hag hair, in which case you should get Khalid's Gift from Jaheira's home and be done with it.
if anyone else was having this problem just use the bow from the final boss of the steel watch factory. It also casts haste and has guiding bolt arrows as well.
I Really hate the gaminess of having to farm Cloud Giant elixirs its not enjoyable and feels like cheating. I wish there was more builds that just focused on levelling and Gear options.
Bro it is ridiculous how easy honor mode is with a tavern brawler monk Lool combine him with a throwing barbarian build and honor mode is like exploer lol
To take it one step further: you can increase you wisdom to 22 with the Mirror of Loss in the House of Grief, increasing your damage output and armor class even further. Don't worry about the -2 debuff on another stat, you can get rid of that with remove curse.
You should add that you can do the vendor trick to buy cloud giant elixirs. Every time a party member levels up, the vendors stock resets. So hire a random companion from withers at level 1, go to the vendor in the carnival, or helsik in devils fee, buy from them, then level the companion one time and look at vendor stock again. Repeat until level 12, then go back to withers and pay 100 gold to reset that companion back to 1. You can infinitely buy reagents from any vendor.
DAFUQ, damn ima try this.
this dont work right now
My man, you are a legend. That vampire twist at the end is what these videos are all about. I knew of all of it but that end... I should thank you for sending me on another full tactical play through. 🤜💥🤛
Half-orc in the thumbnail triggered me.. I've tried so many times to play a half-orc and a dwarf, and I always quit shortly after leaving the ship crash.. There are just no good half-orc and dwarf voices. BG1 and BG2 had half orc/gruff/burly voices.. every time my half-orc barbarian moves a muscle and I hear one of the 4 posh voices coming out, It just ruins it.. I can't. I really hope for a voice update soon.
When pally was playing as Grub the half orc it was a really funny contrast how his in game voice sounded sophisticated compared to pally just saying “grub” as his voice 😂
It's like the only true fail in the game is lack of voice diversity
Agreed. This was a major miss by Larian. The beards, voices and hairstyles for Dwarves is definitely going in the book! I'm play a duregar dark urge and I greatly wish for a true long beard.
It’s literally my only problem with the game. A 10 out of 10, except all of my orcs, dragonborn and dwarves sound like they’re fresh graduates from the Academy.
Female deep voice (6 or 8, i forget which one) is pretty good though for orcs.
halforcs look like shit in bg3, in nwn2 they were perfect, in bgee inventory sprites were good too, wide and strong, but here they look weaker than any other race with body4, its literally ridiculous that hlafnaked elf with body looks bulkier than halforc...
Honestly i only recently found your channel and you make the best most detailed guides for bg3! Even for new players like me it's simple and easy to understand. Looking forward to your future guides.
For anyone who doesn't like the idea of taking Raphael's deal from an RP perspective, you don't need to. You can still go to the House of Hope in the same way and do all the same things the only difference is that instead of stealing your contract and tearing it up, you are stealing the Orphic Hammer you would have made the deal for instead. It's in the same place protected by the same shield that your turn off the same way. So if you want to tell Raphael to shove his deal up his ass feel free to do so. Also, think the Dead Shot bow that lowers the crit threshold by 1 is a better choice since you should absolutly be getting haste from someone else in your party. But Darkfire is next best and then someone else in the party can have better crits if you prefer. But if you are stacking as much power as you can on this char the crit is better.
You don't have to take the deal, you can still break into House of Hope without it
Or you can be the Chad who f with the devil and win
I just wanted to say thanks a million for your videos pally. i watched your DOS2 playthroughs way in the day, and skills i learned from them are still relevant today!
I already found most of this, but I have two additions. I don't use them often but I always carry the knife of the undermountian king and the dead shot bow which BOTH reduce my crit roll by 1 on ANY attack. So my unarmed attacks crit on an 18 just by having them equipped.
Awesome build man! Dude, i love that you're still making videos, I've been watching your vids since your DS2 playthrough. I made a similar build to this, carried me through Act 2
Watched the first guide about 2 weeks ago when I first started playing baldurs gate and just entered act two so this was a perfect heads up for me. Thank you!
A fantastic guide! Great work!
I want to finish watching your play through first! I'll come back after for this
Quite the beat down character you have created, great work.
LOL at skipping over the scene with Haarlep which is the other way to get the password in Rafael's Boudior. If you're going to get the Amulet in the archive room, you might as well get the Guantlets of Giant Strength. They set your strength to 23. There's almost certainly somebody in the party who can benefit from those. As for rings, I just use Crushers and The Risky Ring. The Ring of Protection ceases to be of that much benefit once you get the Cloak of Displacement and frankly, it's a pain to get for what it is.
Level 4 Rogue gives you another feat/ASI, more worth it than a 9th level of Monk in my opinion.
These videos have been great since I’m first timing monk as an alternative to a paladin or fighter frontliner.
The Hellrider’s longbow is definitely an upgrade from the darkfire short bow since the weakness of this build is definitely the initiative. You also don’t need the resistance (but this bow could be used on a supportive character like Shadowheart if you really want haste!) since you can use the hireling warding bond cheese.
Hope that helps!
Not everyone is going to use the warding bond cheese tho
Thanks for the guide! Gonna be a lot of fun putting it to use :)
Used to watch your vids back in the day in HotS and it was super cool to stumble across you again here! Cheers Pally!
Any time you gain a level, the inventories of all the merchants refresh. So you can respec a character, then check all the merchants inventories before you do the next level up. That will save you a bunch of time used on the long rests.
You can also get to the House of Hope without taking Raphael's deal if you want to go that route.
Loved these video! Hope to see something else like this!
I did not understand on what difficulty this was played tbh
Thank you so much for the videos! I'm playing a monk in one of my games and didn't really know how to approach it, but this is really helpful.
Your builds are amazing sir thank you for all the work you put in to these
Thanks for the guide. Such a fun build . I can’t get any sleep
I'm like 90% sure you don't need to take the deal with Raphael to get into the House of Hope and do all the things you need to do there to eventually get the best monk gloves in the game. You can just tell him you'll think about his offer, head into the city straight to the Devil's Fee and tell the owner you wanna go there. She'll either make you pay an obscene amount of money or, upon passing a conversation check, will waive the fee if you promise to bring her back some gauntlets you can find there (not the monk ones). You may need to find a clue in the city that tips you off about Helisk (the shop's owner) providing this service and you can find this clue in the House of Grief.
A deal with Raphael is optional. You will still get the gloves if you don't make the deal and instead choose to break in to get the Orphic Hammer. I specifically remember getting them once and being a bit disappointed, because I had no monk to give them to in that playthrough, so they just went into my shiny collection for the rest of that run.
You don’t need to sign the contract with Raphael. You can just go to the house of hope and steal everything.
It seems natural that vampires would make good monks. The demonstration at the end reminded me of the Dracula fight at the end of Castlevania Season 2, just an indomitable dude able to twist mortals into pretzels.
Having elixers of bloodlust probably gives more benefit by giving 2 more attacks when you kill a target... if you dump con now instead with that amulet, you could still get 20 str (22 stength if you use hag plus act 3 boost) and still have relatively same damage output but usually with more attacks.
Going natty strength (which you can max out at 24) and using elixirs of bloodlust is also a fantastic option. Means you won't get as high in wisdom and your stats in general won't be as high. Especially early and mid game until you finally get the amulet of greater health and can respec. So there are pros and cons, but both builds are very powerful.
bloodlust elixir isnt that good in honor mode though especially for monks, also you'd be losing wisdom damage on top of losing AC
also depends on what role your monk is doing, but generally your monk is going to be on the boss/biggest threat only, for me I need the AC as my monk is my only melee, sword bard + sorcerer cleric + wizard I use bloodlust on because they're killing weak mobs and just generally get more value out of actions than monks do
Enlarge increase you unarmed damage die by another 1d4 and also increase your size enough that you could throw medium sized (almost every humanoid enemy) guys at each other making further use of the Tavern Brawler feat for "improvised weapons" if you so desired.
Karlach is also a very good open hand monk as well because of her soul coins they activate with unarmed attacks u don't need to rage like the description says and for some reason the 1d4 fire damage gets add twice so while astarian is the best open monk end game karlach is a close secound
Personally I went with the spark gloves since you build lightning charges so fast with all your attacks in early game
I knew this was coming when I saw how good the first video was 😁
May I suggest jumping off a high place to take 1hp damage? It's efficient and repeatable. Just for that helmet ability
if you're on pc just use the infinite elixirs mod tbh I typically don't download cheesy stuff but it was either that or farm the vendors which is too tedious for me to bother with
Damn...I played a build pretty similar to this and it already felt OP, but this made me realize how hard ascendant Astarion would go with the same build @.@
Karlach makes a good monk as well because of the soul coins she can use which gives extra fire damage and you don't have to rage to get it
I actually prefer the Gloves of Crushing in Act 2 the switch to Soul Catching later on the game.
You dont need to make a deal with rapheal to get the gloves
Finally. Had blue balls for days. Seriously tho, amazing guide, keep it up!
Surely stronger to go 8 Monk first to get Wisdom 20, higher AC, higher DC for stun/push/prone?
I'm definitely playing monk next
I just got Astarion to ascend. Wanna make a monk out of him now. But even though i am someone that loots everything i see, i missed a lot of items haha
Do a fighter build! lvl 12 Battlemaster... oh that was easy.
Could never really get into monk play, but watching K'laark bop his opponents to death was a blast.
The ki blast is free damage. You get two actions used for your primary unarmed attack. One should always be used as the ki blast version bc it is the same damage and after you use it get to activate it for free
I think I understand. U are saying that resonation detonation does not require an action but costs ki points.
Sadly i found this late game guide and missed the boots any good alternatives? I know nothing will be as great
In honor mode all devices that give you the effect of a rest of reduced to only working once, not over and over like on other modes. Just an important note.
I can confirm that the bath in Raphael's quarters can be used as many times as you want in honor mode.
@@SuperBrannflakes hmm, didn't for me
@garyco766 make sure you stand inside the water when you activate the faucet, otherwise it won't work.
Where are the comments my dudes, show Pally some love!
Hi there, smashed the like and subscribe buttons 😂
Rally like your presentation, very relaxed and interesting 😊
How is the rest of the party built ?
You can do house of hope and save hope without taking Raphael’s deal, it’s not required at all lol
Are there any monk builds that aren't using giant strength? I'm tired of using elixirs
you could in theory either respec your Con into Strength or Just use the Strength gloves from the house of hope. you'd just be missing out on the hope gloves and any other damaging gloves
I don't think you actually have to take the deal. Just go upstairs where you create the portal to hell and do the ritual without the info(all the stuff is there), the gate opens, and you just go loot Raphy's house.
LOVE YOU PALLY
Good stuff.
You are not wrong, Monk evil Dark Urge feels soooo good
You can get 27 str elixirs from bonecloaks every day. At least you can if you give the noblestalk to the woman in the underdark. Its shown up for me 100% in my current playthrough
ThankS!
Vendors can also sell cloud giant finger and three makes one potion
Or 2 potions if you have a transmutation wizard in camp.
Yea astarian is the best end game monk but karlach is gd as well because if you use her soul coins as a monk she gets extra fire damage and you don't have to rage to get the extra fire damage so she is a close secound
Has anyone else had issues with the Tavern Brawler bonus not kicking in after Patch 6? My TB Monk is in Act 2, steady 21 STR from hill giant elixirs, and doing like, 5 dmg per unarmed hit. T.T. It's weird b/c I also have a thrower Barbarian, and TB is definitely kicking in when they chuck weapons.
ooooo this is good stuff
You dont need to make the deal with raphael... you can just go to steal the orphic hammer
Anyone have illithid power combinations that synergize with this build?
Get the gauntlets of hill giant strength and you do not need to make potions anymore. 27 str at all times....
But then you won't be able to use the gloves of soul catching which is extremely powerful
@@marjase9172 This is true. There is a loss and gain in doing that choice. The gain will be insane boost to plain dmg output. But ou loose what Soul Catching gave you.
How did he get his INT from 8 to 17?
note: you don't have to tack Raphael deal to get the gloves you just need to go to his home in hell, save hope and take down Raphael.
Githra monk so lore friendly
Just so you know, the "That man had a family!" line made me loose it.
What did he do to get his dex to 18?
Do not make the deal with Halsik just go upstairs and loot the chests and it has all the materials except the skull. If you make the deal with her you lose an amazing pair of gloves or amulet can’t remember which one. But if you open the portal yourself you don’t have to give anything to her
You don't have to give her the gloves. You can a) just leave and never talk to her again b) talk to her and tell her "I have altered the deal, pray I do not alter it further" or c) give them to her, then pickpocket them back. But easier than all that is just pickpocket the pouch from her to open the portal.
@@garyco766 or just open the chests upstairs which one has a good helmet anyways 🙄
So I am missing the boots and I’m struggling finding where they went, are they make or break? Any other suggestion
Why do i need to accept Raphael’s deal, though? You can get to the house of hope just fine without it.
Wouldt affint Spore druid make the build stronger like lv 3 Druid add necrotic dmg to punches?
I missed the boots of uninhibited kushigo:,( is there any good replacemenr? Will the build be good without that wisdom modifier?
Thanks in advance to anyone who helps me out
Do the gith even HAVE taverns? If the best tavern brawling monk isnt a dwarf then the game is broken.
Gith have a large number of racial perks granting movement that make them some of the best melee characters.
Half-orcs carry some of rhe most punishing critical hits.
Dwarves have high durability.
It all depends on what you want out of your monk. Really, if you unlock all your tadpole goodies as you start act 3, you get flight, so you're pretty much golden whichever choice you make.
Lol. But in all seriousness duergar are one of the strongest races in the game. So, yeah dwarf tavern brawler for the win.
What happened to the vendor list?
And monks dont have to worry about dropping weapons. Think about that.
what amulet would you suggest if you didn't want the health amulet?
It's really preference. There is one that gives you shield as a reaction, one that gives misty step, there is the crazy monk amulet from act 1 that upgrades in act 3 (but it can be used out of combat), the guidance amulet for skill checks. It honestly doesn't matter much... unless you didn't use the hag hair, in which case you should get Khalid's Gift from Jaheira's home and be done with it.
for some reason dammon doesn’t have that bow for me :(
if anyone else was having this problem just use the bow from the final boss of the steel watch factory. It also casts haste and has guiding bolt arrows as well.
I am a Legend !
I Really hate the gaminess of having to farm Cloud Giant elixirs its not enjoyable and feels like cheating.
I wish there was more builds that just focused on levelling and Gear options.
im confused as to how you have the orphic hammer already
He made the deal with Raphael to get the hammer. That's why the contract in in the archive, not the hammer.
once you beat Raphael the game is over
I'm so sorry. but what is the BEST Monk Weapon???
Your fists, lmao
No build guide?
How did you get str to 21? Your str was only 8 in the beginning.
Elixir of Hill Giant strength
Strength elixirs allow you to dump strength for wisdom and dex
If you arent gonna use ki blast, go 8 monk 4 thief to get another feat. I dont use the blast either. Completely destroyed honor mode with this 😂
Bro it is ridiculous how easy honor mode is with a tavern brawler monk Lool combine him with a throwing barbarian build and honor mode is like exploer lol
Wait, are you serious? you get demonetized for showing how to avoid a fight?
It's not a very pg route lol
Ai thumbnail what?
Should I dump stats if I get the constitution amulet? And what should I wear if I decide not to wear the amulet
Is this honor mode?