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DontEatRawHagis
2011-02-26, 06:33 PM
I am currently in two campaigns, one was the D&D encounters program, but I can't make the meetings any more.

Anyway I have two characters that are around the same. A lvl 2 Monk in 3.5 and in 4e(Both based off of a character I made up a year ago). It came to my attention afterward that the monk is the worst class ever. I keep seeing people post about how poor the monk plays, how true is this?

I didn't notice it in my 4e game that much, I kept control of the rooms pretty well with Dragon's Tail and Cobra's Strike, also I got my AC pretty high with Unarmored agility. In 3.5 though how screwed am I? And are there any way's to be less screwed?

WitchSlayer
2011-02-26, 06:45 PM
4e monks are fine, in fact they're mid to high range strikers, and pretty good controllers on top of that. 3.5 monks CAN be fine if your party isn't optimized. Best of luck to you.

Ertwin
2011-02-26, 06:47 PM
4e monks are fine.
3.5e monks are only a problem in high optimization games.

edit: and I got ninjad almost word for word.

Fox Box Socks
2011-02-26, 06:48 PM
4e Monks are great strikers, as they're very mobile and are adept at spreading their damage around without needing attack rolls (minions HATE monks).

3.5 is a bit more complicated. Monks are built with completely divergent class features. Flurry of Blows (which many people will be quick to tell you is mathematically horrible) only works with full attacks, and yet they get increased movement speed (for some reason). Then there's the MAD problem; Monks need to balance Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and Wisdom, rather than being able to focus on a single stat like casters or other melee-oriented classes. The class itself is widely viewed as the weakest of the PHB classes. Although Monk2 or even Monk6 can make fantastic dip levels for certain builds, a straight-up Monk20 is one of the worst builds in the game unless properly built. And building them properly is generally very difficult, with very little room for error or customization.