Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Would you prefer to have more monk levels or more cleric levels and why?

M20/SF7/C3 it's awesome. You'll love it.

Do you like that better than having 30 or nearly 30 cleric caster level? If so, why? Isn't the casting in that version too limited and of low cl to matter?

(I'm just trying to understand the reasons)

Cl doesn't matter. You will use spells that do not matter if they are dispelled. You can't just pop them again. It's like washing your hands. A 30+cl cleric is great. That is a different build concept though. Don't recommend putting monk levels on a cleric build. Putting cleric levels on a monk build is a way different story.

With the wisdom based Monk 20/Sacred Fist 7/Cleric 3 builds, you pick a deity based on whether it grants the Strength domain for level 3 Divine Power. Thus, you pretty much just fill out your level 3, 4, and 5 spell slots with Divine Power. Your level 1 and 2 spell slots will most likely be spent on Divine Favor.

Both of these spells last relatively short durations, and just pretty much give you more AB and Damage. You do not need them, but casting them does let you kill things a lot faster. Thus it does not matter if you get dispelled. Your high wisdom will give enough casts to rebuff if needed.


As for a Monk 3/Cleric 7/Sacred Fist 10/Hierophant 10, you are more or less just a regular DC based cleric. The only difference is that you make no use of weapons and armour. You can buff up to deal damage in melee and base 14 strength is actually more than enough for that, but your actual focus lies on high wisdom based AC combined with Evocation or Necromancy spell focuses for high save DCs. Those 150 or 300 damage harms or heals can be quite nasty, or sitting inside Storm of Vengeance, or rushing in to spam Implosion.


Both have their perks, it is just a matter of preference.

What feats would you guys recommend for each version? And what if I don't want to play as an orc?

Monk 6/Cleric 8/Sacred fist 10/ Hierophant 6. CL29 with enough damage to matter when fully buffed.

chad878262 wrote:Monk 6/Cleric 8/Sacred fist 10/ Hierophant 6. CL29 with enough damage to matter when fully buffed.

That's what I have at the moment, except she's cleric 6 and hierophant 8, or would be if she were level 30.

The character is also a half-elf and not an orc, for RP reasons.

Are you unhappy with the performance and looking to go a different route? I know Tsidkenu played this split and really seemed to enjoy it.

No, not necessarily. I just wanted to be aware of what other options there are, in case I should like to make changes.

My preference is: Cleric (7), Sacred Fist (10), Hierophant (10), Monk (3)

With Cleric spells giving as good of BAB as a Fighter and high dmg fists—not to forget to mention great Monk gear available on the Server—and a pretty solid defense against high dmg and spells (don't forget really good AC), I prefer to ALSO have high DCs, in order to do some pretty wicked damage or disabling, when punching your way through mobs gets boring.

If you go Necro Hierophant, you get to do some stupid high dmg per spell. If you go any other School Hierophant, you still get high DCs for other Spells/Epic Spells.

The only issue is whether you want to be "always on" with a high level Monk, or cast 2 minutes of buffs, before becoming nigh-indestructible. A terrible decision to make, right!?!?

cosmic ray wrote:What feats would you guys recommend for each version? And what if I don't want to play as an orc?

all my advice comes with the stipulation that it will be an orc.

If it helps, the version Steve recommends gets 2d6 (~7) fist damage, assuming you're not a shorty race. The version you currently have gets 2d8 (~9) and the M20/C3/SF7 gets 3d8 (~13.5) fist damage. Just in case that factors in at all, but you should consider that the high monk variant has adamantine fists and can use intuitive attack to use Wisdom for AB instead of STR while also grabbing Blazing Aura for nice additional damage.

The reason I like the version you are currently playing is that it can make full use of the Cleric Spellbook to have strong AC with less gear reliance. While it loses the natural Monk benefits gained by taking Monk 20 the cleric spell list offers a LOT of ability to use variable tactics.

Is Blazing Aura a custom BGtSCC feat? I can't find it in the list of custom feats and neither do I remember it from playing the single-player campaigns.

Regarding the options to invest in wisdom and less in strength, doesn't that make the damage rather insignificant later on? The character as I currently play her is planned to have 17 wisdom and 24 strength, but perhaps that is not ideal?

There is a pair of gloves in the Gold Sink that count as adamantine, but I don't know if they actually work as intended. Has anyone tried them?

Speaking of which, shouldn't the Sacred Fist class also give your unarmed damage the same anti-damage resistance capabilities (magic, lawful, etc) that you would get as a monk, since it says in the description that SF stacks with monk for the purpose of unarmed damage? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding that part.

http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Blazing_Aura

Blazing aura is actually a vanilla feat, only the requirements were lowered to 23 WIS