BG3 Honor Build: The Way of the Open Hand Monk

Introduction

Author: Majin Evelyn

<160 char blurb: Punch your enemies relentlessly with this powerful Monk build for Honor Mode in Baldur’s Gate 3!

Baldur’s Gate 3’s many changes make martial classes function very differently from 5e, the most relevant one for Monks being the changed Tavern Brawler feat. Since it makes your unarmed attack and damage rolls use twice your Strength modifier, in combination with the various Giant Strength elixirs you will deal considerable damage in melee. The feat even bolsters your damage with thrown weapons, giving you a strong backup ranged option. Elixir of Bloodlust also works for this build, but the Giant Strength elixirs provide better overall stats, are much more plentiful, and don’t rely on getting the final hits on enemies.

While the Monk does not solve combat challenges the game throws at you in the same way that our caster builds do, the Monk is still a very valuable and simple addition to any party.

Races/Origins

There are various choices for your race/origin that fit in nicely for this build. Drow, wood Elf, and duergar races can optionally be combined with The Dark Urge Origin, or you can choose Astarion as your Origin character for the below unique benefits.

Astarion – Early in Act 1 (or from the start of the game if he is your Avatar character), Astarion can bite enemies for the Happy buff, which increases your chance to hit. Later in act 3, there is a story choice available that further increases his damage output. Drow – Gaining hand crossbow proficiency (early on), Superior Darkvision, Perception proficiency and one free cast of darkness per day are all valuable. Drow isn’t as valuable as it is for the caster builds in this series, but it’s still good. Wood Elf – Extra movement speed is always nice, and having both Stealth and Perception proficiency is valuable for any build. Duergar – The invisibility available from level 5 is quite valuable. It’s usable every combat and out of combat, so you’ll almost always enter combat invisible, giving you unimpeded opportunities to attack at advantage.

Ability Scores

10 Str, 14+2 Dex, 15 Con, 8 Int, 15+1 Wis, 8 Cha These are the ability scores you’ll want start with at level 1, prioritizing 16 Dexterity and Wisdom for your attacks and AC. Your Constitution will be rounded up to 16 at level 4 with your build-defining feat, Tavern Brawler. Once you have this feat, you will be drinking easily obtainable Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength daily to set your Strength to 21, and later in Act 3 Elixirs of Cloud Giant Strength to set your Strength to 27. Your Dexterity and Strength scores will be much less important as you get later into progression, especially if you’re wearing Heavy Armor. Even if you’re wearing Medium Armor, the maximum score you need for the AC bonus is 14. To account for the Resilient: Wisdom feat you’ll get at level 12, you can swap your Ability Scores to the following: 8 Str, 14 Dex, 14+1 Con, 10 Int, 15+2 Wis, 10 Cha With these Ability Scores, Tavern Brawler will round your Constitution score to 16, and Resilient: Wisdom will round your Wisdom score to 18. Allocating 10 to Intelligence and Charisma aren’t terribly impactful but there isn’t anywhere else to put the leftover points.

Skills

Skill proficiencies come from your Background, Class, and Race choices. It’s ultimately unimportant to plan for skill proficiencies in Honor Mode, especially if the character in question isn’t your Avatar (the one directly controlled and made by the player, who will usually be active in conversations and making ability checks). Since the Monk won’t be investing in any Charisma, this build doesn’t have high priority for being your Avatar character, and therefore your skill choices are even less important. Origin characters will have their Background choices locked, but if you’re making a custom character, you have some freedom. By starting with Monk you can choose Stealth and Acrobatics proficiency, in combination with either the Folk Hero or Outlander backgrounds, which both grant Survival proficiency. Survival sometimes comes up outside of dialogue in the open world. If you select any (non-Half) Elf race, you’ll also get Perception proficiency, which is a very common skill check outside of dialogue.

Level Progression

Down below you can find a level progression that can be followed in your Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough. You may opt to respec less often or even more often to maximize your combat prowess, though that is not necessary for this build to be very strong.

Monk has a bit of an awkward start for its first 3 levels, as it won’t have its defining feat, Tavern Brawler until level 4. You can certainly play Monk for the short time it takes to get to level 4 before then, or you can simply respec a completely different build into this one once you get there. Way of the Open Hand provides some useful increases to our damage, in addition to some good control options with Flurry of Blows.

For the first 5 levels we’ll be fighting unarmored, and for the first 3 we won’t be punching yet. Light Cleric 1 gets us Medium Armor and shield proficiency, as well as Warding Flare and shield of faith, totaling in a large survivability increase. Fighter 1 furthers this survivability with the Defense fighting style and heavy armor proficiency. Rogue levels pay off at level 3 when Thief grants another bonus action, which for Monk is essentially another attack.

If you want to multiclass less, you can aim for a class spread of Monk 8/Rogue 4 by level 12, getting Monk 6 first, then Rogue 4 for Thief’s Fast Hands and another feat, finishing with Monk 8 for a third feat.

Level 1: Monk
Level 2: Monk (Monk 2)
Level 3: Monk (Monk 3)
Subclass – Way of the Open Hand Level 4: Monk (Monk 4)
Feat – Tavern Brawler (Constitution) Level 5: Monk (Monk 5)
Level 6: Cleric (Monk 5/Cleric 1)
Subclass – Light Domain Level 7: Monk (Monk 6/Cleric 1)
Level 8: Fighter (Respec) (Fighter 1/Monk 6/Cleric 1)
Fighting Style – Defense Make sure to make Fighter your first level for Constitution saving throw and heavy armor proficiency. Level 9: Rogue (Fighter 1/Monk 6/Cleric 1/Rogue 1)
Level 10: Rogue (Respec) (Fighter 1/Monk 6/Rogue 3) Subclass – Thief Level 11: Rogue (Fighter 1/Monk 6/Cleric 1/Rogue 3) Level 12: Rogue (Fighter 1/Monk 6/Cleric 1/Rogue 4) Feat – Resilient (Wisdom) You can respec here just to get the stat line outlined at the end of the end of the Ability Scores section, or you can just take Alert.

Key Spells

Cantrips: blade ward
1. bless, sanctuary, shield of faith

You only have 2 spell slots for half of your level progression, but you can still get some value here. Often, you can simply give yourself shield of faith, which lasts until long rest and grants +2 AC, protecting your concentration on the spell. Situationally, bless and sanctuary can also be very impactful.

Items

After level 6 and 7, you’ll always want to wear the best available medium (or heavy) armor and shield you can get your hands on. Early on, you won’t have armor proficiency and will have to settle for robes and odd AC increasing items like Bracers of Defense. With this item, 16 Dexterity and Wisdom, you’ll have 18 Armor Class, on par with your party members wearing Scale Mail and a Shield.

Helmets

Haste Helm (Act 1) Flawed Helldusk Helmet (Act 2) Mask of Soul Perception (Act 3)

Amulets

Amulet of Misty Step (Act 1)
Amulet of the Harpers (Act 2) Fey Semblance Amulet (Act 3)

Armor

Luminous Armor (Act 1) – As with the Luminous Gloves, this will perform even better on a Cleric with spirit guardians, but this is still a powerful item for you if you do not have a Cleric in the party. Adamantine Splint Armor (Act 1) Reaper’s Embrace (Act 2) Helldusk Armor (Act 3) Armor of Persistence (Act 3)

Handwear

Bracers of Defense (Act 1) – Obtainable very early with very little combat, this will increase your AC to 18, on par with your other party members wearing scale mail and a shield. The Sparkle Hands (Act 1) Gloves of Belligerent Skies (Act 1) Luminous Gloves (Act 2) – Only if your party doesn’t have a Cleric, who would make better use of the Radiating Orb trigger with spirit guardians. Gloves of Soul Catching (Act 3) – The Soul Catching healing option works with The Whispering Promise ring to give yourself functionally permanent bless.

Footwear

Boots of Stormy Clamour (Act 1) – You will inflict Reverberation, hopefully leading to prone, when inflicting other conditions. This might be useful if you’re using Luminous Gloves, but otherwise might not trigger very often. Disintegrating Night Walkers (Act 1) – Very useful for mobility. There are a lot of other options for footwear that similarly have useful utility but do not increase damage. Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo (Act 3)

Rings

Crusher’s Ring (Act 1) Ring of Protection (Act 1) The Whispering Promise (Act 1) – Functions with Gloves of Soul Catching and Ring of Regeneration, but you probably shouldn’t equip this ring without one of those other items. Callous Glow Ring (Act 2) – The target needs to be illuminated for the damage, so having an ally or yourself casting the light cantrip on yourself should guarantee this to trigger. Ring of Regeneration (Act 3)

Cloak

The Deathstalker Mantle (Act 1) Cloak of Elemental Absorption (Act 2) Cloak of Protection (Act 2) Cloak of Displacement (Act 3)

Ranged Weapons

Bow of Awareness (Act 1) – Just here for the +1 bonus to Initiative, not to attack with.
Darkfire Shortbow (Act 2) The Dead Shot (Act 3) Hellrider Longbow (Act 3) – Upgrades the Bow of Awareness’ +1 bonus to Initiative to a +3.

Melee Weapons

Returning Pike (Act 1) – You normally will not want to wear any weapon in your main hand so that you can punch enemies, but sometimes you won’t be able to enter melee. This item is useful because you can throw it directly from your inventory and will return to your hand, which because of the Tavern Brawler feat will do much more than normal ranged weapons. You can even remove the weapon from your hands for free so you can go right back to punching when the enemies are in range again. Nyrulna (Act 3) – Useful for the same reason as the Returning Pike, but better.

Shields

Any Mundane Shield (Act 1) Adamantine Shield (Act 1) Shield +1 (Act 2)

Consumables

Elixir of Hill Giant Strength (Act 1) – Available early and cheaply, and a core part of the build until Act 3 when the following item replaces it. Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength (Act 3) – Just an upgrade to 27 strength over the previous elixir, can be obtained from vendors as soon as you enter Act 3.

Strategy

Early on, you won’t have access to your defining feat, Tavern Brawler. So from level 1 to 3, attacking enemies from range instead of punching them will likely be more helpful. Once you do get this feat at level 4 and start drinking Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength, getting into melee and punching priority targets will be your primary game plan. It may often be correct to let enemies get into range before you start punching them, but with a party member casting enhance leap on you prior to combat, your mobility will be so encounter warping that you can reasonably get to wherever you need to. Still, this spell is an incredibly powerful kiting tool when cast on the whole party. In a party where the three other characters are ranged, the Monk can spend its actions attacking whoever does happen to get into range of the party.

You can use Stunning Strike or Flurry of Blows (for prone or push) to deal with enemies that you want to kill fast, lock down, or keep away from the rest of your party. Most of your Ki Points will likely be best spent on these options, but sometimes Patient Defense and Step of the Wind have their uses to keep you alive or keep you mobile.

At level 6 you obtain armor proficiency, which won’t decrease your damage output or inhibit your gameplan, it’ll just increase your AC. Especially with how long you can jump with enhance leap supplied from a party member, Unarmored Movement is unnecessary.

Light 1 gives you access to two powerful defensive abilities: Warding Flare and the Shield of Faith spell, which you can concentrate on for the entire day even with your limited spell slots.

Overall your gameplan is simple, and your level progression just doubles down on the things you’re good at, giving you more survivability and more attacks.

https://imgur.com/a/oyXzaDh