dreamrider

Boeroer, Unrelated to my own tangential mod build we've been discussing, I have a suggestion for your build presentation format. I think it would really help folks who are thinking of trying the build (or any of your builds, for that matter) if you listed (or numbered) the abilities / talents in the order you recommend taking them. (If it is somewhat optional, you could add an asterisk or something.) This may apply to some of the other progressive build decisions, as well, as in "Go here early, so you get this item early", or "build up your lore skill first".

Thanks. Maybe I will keep you appraised from time to time. Although, since I have been away from the system for nearly 3 years, I'll start on Normal, so I won't have lots to brag on for awhile. Actually, I HAVE started. Did the campfire / biawac a couple of nights ago. Managed to save Heodan and get him into the ruins. I don't think I EVER did that back when I was fooling with v.1.0x ! Also remembered to return to camp and trade EVERYTHING disposable to Heodan for ready coin BEFORE we picked up the waterskin. I know I always used to forget to do things in that order. What armor do you like on a ranged (Long Pain oriented) Monk, in general and across the early play? I mulled on it a bit. I decided the beginning padded armor of the homeland (Living Lands) was a good early monk level of DR / Dex penalty. Without planning to go either lower OR higher until some enchanted clothing or padded is available. (Would really like to see an expansion or DLC that took us exploring The Living Lands. Very intrigued. I didn't miss the fact that monks from most lands start with just clothing; from The Living Lands they start with padded armor. Must be a nice neighborhood.) Hmm. Excellent guidance about hard CC, and the opposing necessity of fortitude defense for solo monks. How convenient that the Might and Constitution attributes favored by all monks for damage and Wounds reasons are also the prime stats for fortitude. I may have to look at maybe shuffling another point back to Might. Also, it will certainly color my choices of ready-to-eat snacks. Say, given that Intellect affects durations of effects in ways positive to the PC, do you know if higher Intellect shortens the duration of adverse CC effects? My guess is "No, that's just weird !", but thought I'd ask. Re Weapon & Shield suggestion: I don't think the early version of Pillars I played several years back had the retrain option implemented. Can I switch between Two Weapon Style (which I know I like for a monk) and Weapon & Shield with the retrain option, to try it out? Obviously you think there are some particular portions of the story / sequence where it may be the superior technique. Are there stretches of the story, other than the very late battles you mentioned, where you think it might be particularly appropriate to switch /switch back? I must admit, from an RP perspective, I rather like the idea of a monk, 'studious fighter', who can meditate/train to change his/her fighting style at need. Actually, a new monk feature … um, talent, I think … that allowed you to learn an alternate fighting style, and change either on-the-fly, or at the start of any encounter, would be a cool addition ! For some reason, in this game, I've always absolutely loved the idea of Ranged Monk. (I tend to play Rangers/Archers in other games; my Torchlight gal is almost famous.) Back in the 1.0x days, I did it with hunting bows and careful stalking, ambushing, and kiting. But vanilla Torment's Reach was the only 'sorta-ranged' special monk thing. REALLY looking forward to mastering The Long Pain !

Bosses are scaled? Like Dragons? I never noticed. But play TC a lot so so I am not always highlighting the combat log to reference defenses. I forget. I know Thaos is scaled though if you choose. Although I find scaling debatable in PoTD. The AI is already cheating, I have done it on some runs and not on others. PoE 1 scales along the critical path. So the Sky Dragon is scaled up (as it's part of a main story quest), but the Adra Dragon is not. He was making a joke, a pun on the word "scaled"... as in "dragon scales".

Try Boeroer's "Witch Doctor" Monk build (or really, any of his Monk builds.) The Witch Doctor is written up and optimized for a boreal dwarf, but a human should still work fine. You might have to also vary the culture to optimize your favored attributes and the background to round out your starting Skills, since those may change a bit with human vice boreal dwarf. Be aware, The Long Pain that the Witch Doctor is optimized for is a newer and rather radical, powerful Monk ability. But since you have not played a Monk before that disconcert you much.

As some others have indicated, I think you're probably finding it much easier because you are attempting it again, "after finishing PoE2". (That is, after all, kinda like saying "the Olympic downhill events seem easier after my World Cup tour season.")

Check your "backpack"/personal gear when you create a new character. The pet is not in the pet slot initially. You have to move it, as if you had picked up a new dog, etc.

It IS possible to do a rounded character, and "do" virtually everything (evne if you have to do separate runs for the various faction alignments). You actually have found one of the best ways to get advice on that approach, but you don't realize it. Read up on solo runs. Especially read about the actual play reports, and the full thread discussions of the pros, cons, and adaptations that were necessary to get through solo. Some solo characters have been min/maxed to OP their way through play with a narrow range of sup[erpowers. But others are more well rounded, to be able to handle any challenge that comes along...in a range from "just fine" to "good enough", depending on the situation. The most extreme min/maxed characters are actually generally INTENDED to be played "in party", as they have to be built with 1-2 glaring inadequacies in order to build their un-challengable Might, or Intellect, or whatever. The rest of the party is selected, or built, to cover for those occasional weak spots. Almost any expertly refined, but rounded solo Watcher character will also make a fine story oriented party leader, as well. For the very reason that they HAVE to have been set up to live through / handle / succeed in almost any situation. Usually this just means that the super extreme build has to be toned down slightly in the most excessive attributes (often Might and Con, sometimes Intellect), in order to provide the points to make the character more viable in the less obvious attributes. As an example, an toon that has been built to deal 100+ damage with every swing at level 10 probably doesn't really NEED to smack quite that hard to be perfectly playable, so you take a couple points away from Might, and maybe 1 from Con, 1 from Dex, and 1 from the 18 Intellect, and you add 2 to Perception and 3 to Resolve. So you Perception ends up around 10 and your Resolve makes it to 7-8, and the others have a couple at 12-13 and a couple at 16-17. Then with Skills, you pay careful attention to which Skills can be artificially aided, and which can generally be approached with slow care vs suddenly jumping up as emergencies. Resolve and work at keeping a good supply of those artificial aids among the party supplies. Example: Locks are dealt with via high Mecanics Skill, used specifically for lockpicking. But locked items can also be dealt with using more modest Mechanics, and keeping a good supply of lockpicks on hand. Slightly more niggling, and you have to collect or pay for lots of lockpicks, whenever you can (they are one-time items, for some reason), but it helps you save points for other, less enhancable Skills. A really good example of how to optimize a build can be found in Boeroer's "Witch Doctor" Monk. Look it up in this forum. Read the ENTIRE thread, especially the discussions of the originator with others looking for a more well rounded, or a solo version of the build. Taken all together, it can be a lesson in how to either modify an extremely focused published build into that all-rounder you seek, or alternatively, the kinds of things you need to be thinking about to scratch build that kind of avatar.

Boeroer, I keep writing a nice note, with my background story, asking for your critique of my (semi-) solo adaptation, then blowing it all away when I accidentally change page or something. So now, bare bones. Loved your build! (All your builds, actually, but I have a special place for Ranged Monk, due to story from early Pillars days that I ain't gonna write out again.) I've been away from Pillars a long time, since well before WM I & II. But eager to come back now. Please critique my proposed (semi-) solo Ranged Monk build. It may not look much like it, but it is based off your Witch Doctor. Modified per all the comments in the thread (mostly yours) for converting for solo. SEX: Whatever. Probably female. RACE: Elf. (+1 Dex, +1 Per) SUBRACE: Wood Elf. (+5 Acc, +5 Dfl, +5 Rfl @ 4m+) [1st Alternate was Human. 2nd Alternate was Moon.] CLASS: Monk. (+1 stealth, +1 athletics, +1 survival) ATTRIBUTES: MIG 16 +1 b/g Living Lands 17 CON 11 11 DEX 13 +1 race Elf 14 PER 12 +1 race Elf 13 INT 15 15 RES 8 8 [it is hard to squeeze those 5 extra points for Resolve out of your original build!] CULTURE: The Living Lands. (+1 MIG) BACKGROUND: Scientist. (+1 Lore, +1 Mechanics) [Could just as well be Merchant, but Living lands is the only place you can be Scientist, so what the hell.] [speaking of "What the hell", Scientist? The Living Lands? Seems real odd. Naturalist, sorta, maybe?] Initial Skills become: +1 each Skill. Will take Focus: Peasant Weapons as an early Talent, of course. Do you recommend Swift Strikes, or Torments Reach as the first Ability? [Gotta live to get to Lvl 7, after all.]

Moderator: Please remove my topic - I have reconsidered.

It was one of my first attempts to solo the AD in the early versions of the game and thus I tried to make it as easy as possible. When I recorded the fight (maybe it was patched in the next versions) It was possible to kill one of the adragans without making the dragon/adragans hostile to you - I don't know if it's still possible. If you tried to position yourself as I did and attack the same adragan as I did and it didn't work, then it was patched. However that step isn't needed, you just have to fight all the adragans first - use maelstrom scrolls if you can't kill them fast enough (use that instead the scrolls of nature's mark which are useless in my video) My experience attempting something like this with a solo L12 monk in v1.06 is that if you have warned off the dragon hunter at Black Meadow, and consequently received the Scale Breaker talent?/ability?, when you return to the depths of Od Nua the AD is immediately hostile if s/he sees you, as are the adragans. With all of them hostile, it is possible for a fast character to run or sneak past the dragon and get near the adragan positions, but with 4 of them, all hostile on sight, it is not possible to reach that alcove at the north of the cavern before they intercept (and mob, petrify, etc) you. All adragans react to an attack on any adragan, even if it is a ranged attack from the angle most distant from the other 3 addies. The adragans do not seem to react to an attack on the xaurips, if it is far enough away from them. The AD may activate, and s/he definitely will chase/enter the fray if the fight with the xaurips goes up toward the treasure room, as will the adragans. However, if you lure the xaurips to the extreme southwest corner of the cave, skirting the cliff edge to avoid coming into dragon-view, neither the AD nor the adragans seems to join in the fight with the xaurips. (However, it may just be that my running fights with the xaurips down to the southwest corner went fast enough that the dragon never got there.) Then you can assault one end of the adragan line by sliding up along the side of the statues foot on the east of the main cavern. The addies and the dragon will come after you, but if you are fast, with powerful shooting, you can string the addies out up toward the treasure room and take them out one by one as they catch up. The problem with all that is that there is no way to pre-position a paralyzing trap to later freeze the approaching dragon in the treasure room tunnel, since before you begin the attack the xaurips are in the mouth of that tunnel. There are ways around that, of course, paralyzing scrolls being the most obvious, but the monk I was testing this with was not built with enough lore to use scrolls higher than level 2. At this point, I'm not sure that THIS monk can successfully solo the AD, for lack of any feasible way to immobilize the dragon for a few seconds of heavy pounding, and lack of ability to use high damage scrolls. But I am still experimenting. I am getting pretty good at killing off all the xaurips and adragans beforehand, however. {grin}

It comes down to preparation. And that unwritten Attribute, Patience. (After you get about 3 levels ahead of the content, it gets way easier.)

Kaylon, After copping out on the murder, thereby acquiring Scale Breaker AND pissing off the AD, how did you get past the AD and the adragans to the alcove that was your start point for the attack. I agree that it is an excellent jump off point to clear out the backstabbers, but I have never been able to get over to it after the hostility of the dragon and his helpers was triggered. Further, how did you get the 2nd adragan to leave you alone while you finished the first, not to mention the AD itself? Is that just a Ranger thing where they did not react to the first attack because it was just an animal companion? Because when I try to attack just one end of the adragan line, the others all react right away, as does the dragon albeit more slowly. Finally why was the dragon apparently not reacting to you the first time or two you ran past it? Was it because you were approaching it from behind? What was your Item load-out for this? Its a little hard to read, although several items/scrolls can be inferred from the action. vr dreamrider

Well, it is July now and the game has been out for 3 months. If you look around the forums, and Google it a bit, you will find that not only is a Monk Triple Crown Solo possible, so is Ranger, Wizard, Fighter, Chanter, Cipher, Rogue. But the big favorite for soloing seems to be that Robert E. Howard classic, the Barbarian. Me, I just sort of slipped into soloing my Monk because the first couple of maps after Client Lis sort of force you to solo for awhile anyway (as opposed to the BG default party of 2 > quickly 4). She is now 12th level without really starting Act 3 yet. At this point I HAVE gathered up all the Compainions at Caed Nua, since I never really intended to do without them anyway, and each of them has a Quest of some sort, with goodies to be collected. It is clear, from recent play in my game, and from reading on the web, that my Monk should have no impossible task finishing the scripted game solo if I wish. Due to some uneducated build choices, I may have some insurmountable problems with the Master Below and Thaos with this particular build which may be impossible to work around without starting again with a modified Monk build. Interesting point about reaching L12 with your Charname this early. If you then circle back & pick up each of the Companions, at the moment of pick up or while on that same map (don't go in a building), you can immediately manually build that Companion through all 11 levels so they are L12 along with your Charname. If you travel with them before leveling, to the house at Caed Nua for instance, then it appears you will only be able to construct them to L10. When you read dated complaints on the web that taking Companions late means that the builds will be decided for you, and gimped, don't believe it. As of 1.06 at least, whenever you pick up a Companion, you get to build the earlier levels yourself, just as if the Companion had leveled along with your Charname. BTW, if you have the patience to do the first half of the game solo, this is probably THE fastest way to max out all Compainions and create a kickass party for the late and end game. BTW, it seems to help any solo character if they become a figurine collector. vr dreamrider

Cooking dishes yourself generally saves 1 or 2 copper less than buying the finished meal. Except for Cassita Casserole, which you might as well buy finished. And except for Dragon dishes, which are considerably cheaper when home prepared. dreamrider

Thanks for the guidance, both you folk. dreamrider

PS - If you come back at about Lvl 8, punching out those Shades in the Temple of E. is MUCH easier...but still not a piece of cake. It IS much easier by then to just ignore the Shadows they spawn and keep waling on the Shades, however...which is what you need to do. The spawned Shadows pop when the Shades go down. dreamrider

Hmmm - have to be careful. Seems that if I go too far in the story line (to chap 3) with my solo Watcher, I run the danger of cutting off some of the Companion Quests due to death of required NPCs, etc. I'm at lvl 11, well on the way to 12, but running out of things to do without triggering Chap 3. The only way to get enough xp may be to delve VERY deep on the Endless Paths. (I think if I had optimized every story line choice I could have made it by now, but I was RP, AND not reading ahead. BTW, like I thought, this solo Monk is awesome!.) dreamrider

Since Release I have seen scripted attribute checks as high as 19. However, those are almost always in tandem with an alternate Attribute check at around 13-to-16. dreamrider

Spoiler!!! (Use highlight to see body of text.) There is a set of Second Chance FINE PLATE available about halfway through the Endless Paths, if you are adventurer enough to take it from the (mumble) that is wearing it. dreamrider

I scout carefully (ALL the time in non-city areas - and it doesn't hurt at night in town, too). Then I have a good chow down outside the contact area right before walking (sneaking) into a fight. REALLY, really important (undocumented) game mechanic point. You can feed your character by dragging foods directly from your Inventory to the central picture on the Inventory screen. So it is NOT necessary to ever put foods in Quick Slots, unless you anticipate needing to re-buff with some food item (Ale?) during combat. You can even drag food items from your STASH to your character image to consume them in some environs, like Inns. This may work anywhere although I have not satisfactorily proven to myself that it works in wilderness and dungeons. (If it DoES work everywhere, food items are cheap enough to stock up at every opportunity, and use them virtually all the time.) If you choose your foods carefully, and keep a stock of the key dishes in Inventory, food can have some major buff effects. 300 sec foods last long enough for a nice buff across the critical portion of almost any combat confrontation. (5 minutes of playtime.) 150 sec foods are less useful, but certain items are occasionally worth it for the opening rounds if they give a higher buff than longer duration foods, or if they give a unique buff. The #1 example is taking a drink of both Ale and Beer to wash down the pre-combat snack - Ale for an opening 150 sec of +2DR, and Beer to sustain a +1 DR through 300 sec. (Note that the Ale +2 DR will suppress the Beer effect until the Ale wears off.) If you are using food dishes at all, there is no need to consider the + Endurance buff in your choice of foods. - If you have any dragon foods, you ARE going to save them/ use them for the toughest fights, because all of the Dragon dish buffs are so excellent. Dragon dishes are the only foods that buff Endurance for more than +10. - If you aren't using the Dragon dishes, then there are so many dishes that provide (mutually exclusive) + 10 Endurance that you are essentially guaranteed to be gnoshing one of them for other reasons. Don't worry about this stat. - The one food that everyone should always carry and always eat whenever you think of it is Cheese. This takes care of your +10 Endurance buff for 600 sec = 10 min, and its the cheapest food there is! For other ability buffs, I focus on keeping an Inventory supply of these foods: - Farmer's Spread - +2 Might, and +1 Move Speed 300 sec (Duc's Own Beefloaf is an alternate - +2 Might, w/o the Move buff 300 sec, and Beefloaf is more common in the early game.) - Pearlwood Chicken - +2 Constitution 300 sec - Rauatai Sweet Pie - +2 Dexterity 300 sec - Casita Casserole - +2 Intellect 300 sec - Mead or Beer - +1 DR 300 sec - Ale - +2 DR 150 sec (I forget what Spirits do, but I know I DO use them to buff occasionally. Sorry, don't have any on hand to check right now. I know I don't usually buy them, but I keep and use what I find.) Several of the 150 sec foods give a +1 buff to Perception. Its about the only area where they have any advantage at all over the appropriate 300 sec foods. Darkest Rauatai Cookies MAY be worth considering occasionally because they also give +2 Dex, and +5 Max Health; but the +2 Dex does NOT stack with the equal but longer Dex buff from R. Sweet Pie, and I haven't been able to figure out how 150 sec of extra MAX Health ever helps the character. (If someone has an insight on this, please post.) However, for most pre-combat situations, there are a couple of DRUG options that, in my opinion, beat out 150 sec foods Perception boost well enough that it is basically never worth bothering with the 150 sec food items, even after allowing for the drugs after effects: - Blascon - +2 Perception 600 sec Also +20% Focus gain (Chanters); and -2 Might, +50 Fatigue for 300 sec after effect. - Carow Colan +2 Perception, +2 Dexterity, -2 Intellect 600 sec Also +4 Focus immediately (Chanters); and +4 Fatigue, -10 Might for 300 sec after. Be SURE to lie low during the after affect period, if you can. Of the other drugs: Goldrot Chew - occasionally useful, if you've gotten in a situation when you are desperately fatigued, and still either combat-locked preventing resting, or can't afford the time to rest due to a travel deadline. But mostly not. Keep a couple around. Whiteleaf & Snowcaps - If faced with a known battle of Will effects, potentially very important; otherwise not worth the negatives. Ripple Sponge & Svef - Honestly, I don't think these are ever worth the risks and negatives. Sell them off. Have a Cheese snack instead.

I've done all of Temple of Eothas on Hard, solo, with a monk. I think I was level 3>4 the first runthrough I 'cleared' it, level 4>5 the second run. The Shades only appear on Hard and PotD. They are the toughest, and near impossible to take 4th level solo without lots of fire scrolls, and very good timing. I never did do it, even after making 5th. But remember that it is not necessary to kill critters to get your experience. Shadows are easy enough to kill; not easy, but easy enough. In my case...shoot them...repeatedly and patiently. The first 2-3 in the lower level you may have to eventually go hand-to- er -'ethereal claw' with after as much run-n-gun as you can manage in limited space. After that, if needed go to the inn and heal up, them play run-n-gun with all the other shadows, beasties, etc, in the Temple lower level...except in the sarcophagus room and in the bath valve room, the two locations where the Shades are. Now to take the Shades rooms. If you try to take on the Shades directly, they will only die slowly, and they will eventually swamp you with summoned Shadows, even if you get in a tight corner to protect your flanks. Instead, avoid them, and focus on getting to the stuff in those rooms they guard. The Bath Valve Room: You need to get in here to activate the draining of the baths next door, in order to get xxxx from under water in the baths. There're a couple ways around it but let's assume you must get into the baths (by the way, there might be another little infestation to be overcome in the baths even after you drain them.) Sneak into the Valve room antechamber and position to see the one Shadow, near the valve. Shoot the shadow, and lure him out of the room. Let him keep you just in sight as you head up the hall. Shadow should follow you in the hall for a bit. The two Shades will come to the door, maybe a little outside, but will quickly turn back into the Valve room. (Oh, they may also shoot an unerring ice spear spell at you, but you should survive.) Let the Shadow follow about halfway up the corridor, at which point it too, should turn back toward home territory. You immediately turn back and shoot the Shadow. It will usually turn back to chase again. You run again. Shadow turns back again. You shoot again. Shadow reverses toward you. You run again. Shadow turns back. You shoot. Repeat until you can collect the lingering glob of spirit essence left by the evaporating Shadow. Now the Shades. Shades will have returned to the Valve room. Their positions, however, are pretty far from the valve. Sneak as close to the valve as you can before the yellow spotting clock starts up under your character. Maybe experiment to see just where that starts. Then from that spot dash to the valve, touch it to activate it, and dash out. If you are really agile and speedy, you may be able to avoid any Shade touches (you may need a potion.) If they do manage to intercept, it will be very close to the door. Take the hit, Disengage and keep going until the Shades stop chasing. It won't take long; they won't go too far from their room. Now heal up as necessary, go clear out anything slimy in the now drained baths, and take away any goodies that were hidden by the water. The Sarcophagus Room: This one is both easier and tougher. Sneak in. I can't recall if there is a resident Shadow in there with the two shades or not. If there is, kite it out in the hallway and kill it, same process as before. Now, sneak back in. The Shades float in the bottom end of the room. They can't see a good sneak up on the door end. Sneak to the door end coffin, disarm the trap, take the goods, leave. OK, that's the easy part. For the central coffin, you need the right scrolls or abilities. Luckily, Fan of Flames & Shocking touch scrolls are fairly common in the early game, and also fairly easy to craft. I recommend two of either one. Sneak in, go toward the nearest end of the central coffin, detect the trap. Take a deep breath, send your character to disarm the trap, then run out. The disarm automatically occurs on the long side of the coffin (the door side), but the Shades will start to notice you. You should be able to finish the disarm and dash out or return to a safe distance before they are fully aware of you, however. Even if they become fully aware, you can be out and gone easily until they calm down and return to position. Any Shadows they summon will disappear once you get far enough away and the combat music stops. Now, prepare to sneak back in and snatch the goods. You have plenty of time to do it on a sneak'n'run from the doorway, just like the disarm...except...really really soon after you grab the contents, a Phantom will appear just inside the doorway, blocking it. It looks like there may be enough room between the doorframe and the Phantom on one side that if you were really speeded up, you might slip by it before you got locked up. I've never been able to do that, though. Here's what I recommend. If you have traps, set the most damaging trap you have just inside the doorway before going for the grab. Have a couple of high output scrolls in Quick slots, or inherent. Make the grab, then charge the Phantom, leading with your spell before it can get in a Stunning blow. Between the damage from the trap and the damage from the spell, the Phantom should go down. Might need a second spell if you don't have a kickass trap. Might even need a smack or two after that. By that time the Shades, or their summoned Shadow minions will be jumping on your back. Ignore them. Focus on the Phantom. When the Phantom goes down, accept the Disengagement attack, and run like hell. Looting accomplished. BTW, the loot from the center coffin is nice, possibly quite useful later in the game, especially for priest or wizard, but not earth shaking or game breaking. You could just skip it, and all of the above. But where's the fun in that? dreamrider

I've been playing a monk 'semi-solo', an I think it is a great solo, or early game solo selection. I didn't really meant to go solo; it isn't really my usual choice in BG/IE/etc games. I'm more of a completionist, story liner, roleplayer. However, after Cilant Lis you are forced to solo for about 1 & 2/3 maps. Following my completionist nature, by the time I met Aloth and Eder, I was already closing in on 3rd level. Continuing for awhile solo seemed to fit the persona of 'student of discipline monk, now saddled with Watcher', so I decided to see if I could complete everything prior to / north of Caed Nua (stronghold) with my persona character alone. Then maybe gather the early companions to the Stronghold and see if I wanted to solo some more, follow their quests, whatever. As it turns out, it is quite do-able to solo a monk through these early northern quests/story elements. Anyone should be able to reach 5th level (on Hard) if you single your way through all the Gilded Vale Quests/tasks and the initial clearing of Caed Nua. With some player experience of a previous run at the beginning of the game, and careful/ lucky play, I think I can make 6th lvl solo, before bringing any Companions on board or heading to Defiance Bay. (Note: From what I have seen so far I would NOT recommend attempting this this on PotD; it may be possible, but I estimate that it would move from 'fun challenge' to 'tedious, frustrating exercise in gaining bragging rights'.) The build I am using on my current, 2nd run at this (ToI masochism will do that to you) is a slightly modified 'dev recommendations' Monk: - Fire Godlike, from Deadfire Archipelago, with Merchant background. (That gives me minimal starting ability in every skill.) (The Fire Godlike <50% Endurance Burn Damage and Deflection bonus really help a solo character. Also, Fire Godlike really matches well with several monk abilities.) - Might 15 - Constitution 17 - Dexterity 20 - Perception 11 - Intellect 7 - Resolve 9 I do not claim that this is optimal for a solo or all-arounder Monk, but I do have reasons for the choices: M: she's alone; her hits, ranged or close, HAVE to hurt some. C: no party; she needs a decent pool of End to survive those times when she has to be close, and to provide raw basis for those Wounds. D: again, she's alone; no way is she going to pure power her way through; she mainly has to rely on hitting more often, more accurately (more crits!) and on running and dodging. P: Deflection!...and gotta give some love to those Interrupts, since she if trying to hit rapidly and repeatedly; also, notice bad stuff in enough time to react. I: probably least important, but can't be just a dump stat, because you need AoE/ depth on things like Torment's Reach, and useful durations. R: Deflection!...and avoid some return Interrupts (especially when trying to quickly gulp a P. of Minor Endurance!) My initial Monk Ability was Torment's Reach, because I thought that when the action got close up, she would need something to impact multiple opponents simultaneously. You could probably make Swift Strikes work, but the tactics would be different, and I think it would be tougher in the first few maps. If you were using this build for an all-arounder/ off-tank in an early collected party, you might not need SPEED as much, but for the solo path, speed is your friend. I took Fast Runner and Long Stride as soon as I could. Despite the Monk's close combat forte, as far as I am concerned this is a shooter build, at least in the early going. The best way to survive is to hit (er...sometimes plink) while not being hit. Sneak, shoot, run, shoot, dodge, kite, etc. Use the pause a lot. Choose your retreat paths. Plant traps on your exit route when you have them. The rapid pounding close combat, and Torment's Reach, is your insurance policy for those last couple of guys that you just can't outrun. However, sometimes you just HAVE to do a couple of initial close combats, soon after you've entered the map, in order to create some run back room for later. Scout the opposition first, then back off before the confrontation. Look for your fighting withdrawal path. Also, very important, note 1-2 places in the target room, and along your back path, where you can get into a narrow space or corner. If you have to switch to melee, when you are solo you absolutely want to do it where you can't be flanked and they have to come at you no more than 1-2 at a time. If you are using Torment's Reach, this also clusters the enemy in a nice fan where several can be smacked by the force of your focused soul power. I've tried a lot of different weapons/ armor combos on this gal. (Playing a solo character you soon have a LOT of choices of gear!) These are my current insights: Flexibility: You need to be prepared to trade gear around to suit the situation. Ranged weapon: I usually carry the fastest shooting weapon, the hunter's bow as standard. Since I am relying on all that Dex, Accuracy, Action Speed, Movement, etc, as the main tactic, I want to minimize the Recovery time and get off shots as quickly as I can. For those times when it is clear that I'm only going to get one shot before I need to switch to pummeling, however, I generally also carry in the backpack the heaviest practical ranged hitter. Also, there ARE times when you can get the chaser to turn away at the edge of its 'territory', giving you plenty of time to recover/ reload a heavier piece. At various times I have used pistol, arbalest, fine crossbow, or fine warbow for this role. Melee weapon: Hey! Why not? After all, the 'slot' for your fists is always a freebie. My choice may surprise you: usually dual hatchets. For the explanation, look at the special feature of hatchets as a type. +5 Deflection! AND it stacks! So, +10 Deflection! There are lots of times when that is more important than the extra damage that the fists do (usually at those time when I get caught in a close fight when I've been running around in minimal armor, because who is gonna catch 'Speedy', after all.) Now, if I could just find some Fine Hatchets to further enchant. Fine Quarterstaff, or the Fast Unique (Draining) weapon that it is possible to find early on are also good choices. Armor: In the open, or even indoors when I'm confident there is enough run room to break contact 90+% of the time, I often just wear some very stylish Dyrwoodan outdoor attire. Minimizes Recovery time, remember? But following the 'flexible packing' policy outlined above, I also pack the heaviest armor found so far. In some 'may come to blow' situations that can be anticipated, Deflection wins out over Recovery (like when you are trying to take down an armored paladin in a smallish room - time for the arbalest one-shot from the doorway, the suit of plate, and 'Chopsticks' played with hatchet and spinkick.) So, those are the parameters of my monk adventure so far. I expect that she will eventually want to find some friends to share her house and struggles. However, it occurs to me that my Watcher is leveling up much faster while she is solo. Then, when she does pick up some friends, the first thing she will get to do is level them up to something closer to her level. Sounds almost like free experience points for the Companions to me. I suppose the devs may have done some things to mute this a bit, but I already know from my previous aborted game that if I pick up a party pal after I've got a few levels, I immediately get the 'gold cross of elevation' on the new party member, so clearly I do get to customize those party members at least somewhat. Still learning, dreamrider