DCSS - how to play a monk? The intrinsic abilities of this class excape me.
Peter Huebner
purely by chance. Tootled along a bit and then died, usually to ork
priests.
Now I just made a Kenku Monk, and he's doing well so far. Found a
trident of protection on D3 or D4, and the temple on D4.
And now I am wondering about two things:
weapons related damage & resistances:
I've used that trident for a bit, and his polearm skill went up to 4 in
no time. But the description of the class says they don't need weapons
--- so here's my question: can a monk actually do without? What about
brands? Does unarmed combat get any brand-like bonus at some stage? What
about resistances that might be conferred by weapons -- can the monk
afford, later on, to do without all these?
Or, in other words, should I keep using the trident or ditch it and stay
with unarmed entirely?
religion:
what would be a good choice here? The magical gods seem inappropriate.
Do monks learn spellcasting, b.t.w.? I found a ring of magical power
early -- again, the class description says you do without spellbooks.
But I don't know how serious I should take that ... from what I've read
here, most people seem to hybridize at least to some extent.
Trog (and also Okawaru)
slaughter and burn spellbooks? No, wait, they gives out weapons so we're
back to question 1.
TSO ? Well his aura and protection might be handy.
Nemelex? I've not a clue how decks can work out ... going on crawl wiki
which I have since found they seem menacing more than beneficial.
.......
-Peter
serg271
> When I started playing DCSS my first characters were merfolk monks,
> purely by chance. Tootled along a bit and then died, usually to ork
> priests.
Never played monk, but playing unarmed merfolk transmuter-berserker-
enchanter now, so i hope i have some understanding of unarmed chars.
Monk intended to be unarmed character, in light armor. With kenku monk
you are wasting your xp on the trident. Drop it before too later.
>Does unarmed combat get any brand-like bonus at some stage?
No. That's why i prefer hybrid fighter - fighter with magic support,
like transmuters or crusaders.
> What about resistances that might be conferred by weapons -- can
the monk
> afford, later on, to do without all these?
To do without all those. Count on bonuses/resistances from jewelry
and light armor.
> religion:
> what would be a good choice here? The magical gods seem inappropriate.
> Do monks learn spellcasting, b.t.w.?
No
> I found a ring of magical power
Keep it, you may need some magic for god-given abilities
> early -- again, the class description says you do without spellbooks.
> But I don't know how serious I should take that ... from what I've read
> here, most people seem to hybridize at least to some extent.
For hybrid fighter better start as hybrid - transmuter, crusader,
paladin etc.
>
> Trog (and also Okawaru)
> slaughter and burn spellbooks? No, wait, they gives out weapons so we're
> back to question 1.
Macleb is good, well balanced god. Give you some small healing,
decent ranged attack and most useful - summoning demons. Demons could
be hostile, so try summon demons which you can dispatch if hostile, or
have magic/piety reserve to summon some more.
> Nemelex? I've not a clue how decks can work out ... going on crawl wiki
> which I have since found they seem menacing more than beneficial.
Read Crawl wiki.
Nemelex is tricky but fun god. Can give access to beneficial(mostly)
mutations and bazaars. Especially good for evocation-friendly cars.
b0rsuk
>DCSS - how to play a monk? The intrinsic abilities of this class excape me.
1. There are no classes in traditional sense in DCSS.
2. (Follows from 1): there are no intrisic class abilities. Only
character race can never be changed.
> When I started playing DCSS my first characters were merfolk monks,
> purely by chance. Tootled along a bit and then died, usually to ork
> priests.
Orc priests, and even more wizards, kill lots of early characters.
Flee from them, even if it means descending into unexplored lower
level.
> Now I just made a Kenku Monk, and he's doing well so far. Found a
> trident of protection on D3 or D4, and the temple on D4.
Crawl 'classes' only really serve to give you starting equipment and
skills, sometimes a religion. That, and confuse new players for no
good reason. But developers can't be convinced to replace the
confusing term with something else.
Monks start the game with dodging and unarmed combat skills. Both
skills are most effective when wearing light armour and fighting
*without* a weapon. This doesn't mean you can't learn a weapon skill,
but it's missing the point of starting choice, and shouldn't be done
unless you find something extraordinary.
To determine which type of armour you've found, examine it. Body
armour can be light or heavy. Light are mostly animal skins, robes,
leather armour, and some lighter dragon armours. Heavy armour limits
unarmed attack speed.
> no time. But the description of the class says they don't need weapons
> --- so here's my question: can a monk actually do without? What about
> brands? Does unarmed combat get any brand-like bonus at some stage?
That is true. Unarmed combat is most effective in light armour,
without a shield, and without wielding a weapon. You can start a monk
and learn to use weapons, and you'll get some extra off-hand attacks
as long as you don't use a shield. Works best with weapons which are
not 2-handed. Unarmed Combat doesn't get any brand-like effect, but it
makes up for that in sheer damage, which gets ridiculous at higher
levels (15 or so should give you an idea). Besides, most
transformation spells (Transmutation school) have good unarmed
attacks.
There are mutations which increase your unarmed combat potential
(claws, horns, etc). And there's Confusing Touch spell.
What
> about resistances that might be conferred by weapons -- can the monk
> afford, later on, to do without all these?
Admittedly, monk gets less resistances because he doesn't get
resistances from weapons. But you can still wield a weapon with
resistances when approaching an enemy or retreating, for instance. But
choosing light armour enables you to train Stealth and makes you
better at spellcasting, which reduce the need for resitances somewhat.
> Do monks learn spellcasting, b.t.w.? I found a ring of magical power
> early -- again, the class description says you do without spellbooks.
> But I don't know how serious I should take that ... from what I've read
> here, most people seem to hybridize at least to some extent.
Actually, learning some spells is a good idea because there's no heavy
armour to impair your spellcasting. Unless you choose Trog as your
god, learning even a minor spell like Summon Butterflies or Blink can
be very helpful. And some people are raving about Confusing Touch.
> TSO ? Well his aura and protection might be handy.
TSO's shiny halo would cripple your stealth.
>
> Nemelex? I've not a clue how decks can work out ... going on crawl wiki
> which I have since found they seem menacing more than beneficial.
You can play it safe by only using decks of Summonings (after you get
a couple of Evocations levels; draw more if you produce something
hostile), and occasionally Destruction. Destruction may hurt you
(poison, fireball, torment etc), but can also save you in a tight spot.
JPEG
> Crawl 'classes' only really serve to give you starting equipment and
> skills, sometimes a religion. That, and confuse new players for no
> good reason. But developers can't be convinced to replace the
> confusing term with something else.
We did! It's called "job" now (which will be replaced with a better
term once we can find one), and it's surely not our fault that a) no-
one noticed, and b) players keep thinking in the traditional terms of
race and class, anyway.
Just saying,
jpeg
Magnate
> Nemelex? I've not a clue how decks can work out ... going on crawl wiki
> which I have since found they seem menacing more than beneficial.
I started a thread here asking about how to play with decks only a couple of
months ago - got a bunch of really helpful replies. Let me know if you can't
find it and I'll look it up.
CC
Peter Huebner
n...@receiving.here says...
Wonder of wonders, while google groups advanced search could not find
any posts with "deck*" in the subject, it did at least cough up on you
as author ;-)
Excellent informative thread, thanks.
If Google Groups search hadn't been butchered so comprehensively, I'd be
asking a lot fewer stupid questions here :-P
ciao, -P.