Monk.. to arm or not?

monker · Post by **monker** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:40 pm

Hi, I am very new at this game and at this type of game in general.

I am playing single player with a Monk.
Should I give this Monk any weapons? Currently he wields a katana, but will his fists become stronger if I fight barehanded?

How come Monks cannot wield any archery? The class is not listed in the bow's 'cannot be used by..' list.

Where can I find the inherent abilities of the monk? I cannot find the menu where I can see descriptions and/or possible customizations of abilities like LayOnHands that are available to the monk when he's rested.

Thanks,

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:19 pm

The Monk will be better if you use fists, though you should have weapons in your slots for spell effects.

If you check the class description, you will see that Monks cannot use ANY two-handed weapons.

The Monk's abilities appear under the "star" icon, which is the rightmost button on the lower bar.

You can find out what the abilities do by checking the class description.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:39 am

As Crenshinibon stated, don't use weapons except for utilising their enchantments, if any, you hands and feet are far more powerful.

Unfortunately for some bizarre reason monks have been prevented from using two handed weapons in BG2, why I haven't a clue, the developers obviously never watched Monkey or Kung Fu!!

Sadly they actually 'hard wired' this idiotic feature into the game engine so no mod has come out that fixes this bug that I'm aware of, you'll just have to get by with darts, trowwing dfaggers or slings.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 5:07 am

It doesn't affect character development at all if you use a weapon or fight barehanded. Your barehanded skill improves with levels, and for this only the XP do matter. A level 40 monk who never used his fists fights as good barehanded as a level 40 monk who used his fists all the time.