Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Monk build in BG3

The Monk class in Baldur’s Gate 3 utilizes few weapon and armor choices, but provides massive damage to their unarmed attacks via buffs. They can become a solid party member, providing support through damaging multiple enemies or by stunning specific targets.

However, without a proper build, these characters can feel like they are less than an ideal choice on the battlefield. If you want to utilize the Monk properly, there are some things you want to consider for your character. You want to think about your playstyle, how to use it, what abilities you can optimize, and the classes of your other party members. Here’s everything you need to know about how to build a Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3.

The best build for Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3

Monk’s aren’t the strongest class, but the best possible Monk build in Baldur’s Gate 3 utilizes the Tavern Brawler feat to turn the monk into a heat-seeking missile worthy of your time. With the Tavern Brawler feat, your character uses their Strength modifier when making an unarmed attack using improvised weapons or throwing something at a target, applying it twice to the attack and damage rolls. Strength is not a recommended stat choice for a Monk, but we can still make it work. You’ll miss out on other stats because of it, but you still get the best stat for Monks, Dexterity.

By taking the Tavern Brawler feat on a high-Strength Monk, you can gain a titanic bonus to attack and damage rolls with each punch, dealing extremely high and consistent damage to any target.

We want to set a few ground rules before continuing with the build.

• We are not multiclassing. While the Monk is typically unfriendly to the multiclassing system, it can benefit from it. This system adds additional complexity and strange labels to a build. But if I go Monk Four/Rogue Four, is it still a Monk build? We’ll just assume we want to put all 12 levels into Monk.
• We can use any companions. The Monk is best assisted by good healing and solid friends on the frontline. Companions like Karlach can help the monk stay alive by tanking damage, while Shadowheart can use her combination of Healing and Duplicity to give the monk buffs and keep them in the fray. We keep Gale around because we like him. Also, the Wizards are exactly what we want behind us. Even then, we might need to swap into talkers throughout the Baldur’s Gate 3 campaign, like Wyll or Astarion, to help out in social situations.
• We are custom characters. While you can technically force any Origin Character to become a Monk, we’ll have the extra flexibility on our side with a custom one. The Dark Urge can start as a Monk, of course, but we like the background a tiny bit less than the custom options. That being said, a Dark Urge Tavern Brawling Monk is extremely thematically appropriate.

How to play a Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3

Before we go on with the build, it’s good to identify what a Monk does in a Baldur’s Gate 3 party. The Monk is a single-target damage dealer with above-average crowd control. Like the Warlock, the Monk lives and dies on Short Rests. That’s because they refill their Ki pool when they rest, a resource that allows them to do extraordinary feats.

The Monk serves a similar role to the Rogue; because of this, many players have avoided it as a viable option. Rogue’s amazing out-of-combat damage with sneak attack might have you scratching your head. Monks are almost entirely dedicated to melee, so what can they do in a party when the Rogue exists?

The answer lies in the Monk’s ascension to level four. The Monk serves as an okay damage dealer with very low health and middling AC before that point. But, when we reach that heavenly level, we’re gonna throw some hands.

Best starting ability scores, race, and background for Tavern Brawler Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3

Even though we plan on going tavern brawler, our starting ability scores are as follows:

• Strength: 10
• Dexterity: 16
• Constitution: 15
• Intelligence: Eight
• Wisdom: 16
• Charisma: Eight

Our Race will be the Gold Dwarf because we desperately need that extra health. Our background isn’t very important, but we recommend Street Urchin since you’re likely to be the group’s lockpicker.

We start with high Dexterity and next to no Strength because we will use Withers, who can respec our current ability scores to something friendlier in the midgame, changing to a high Strength score. We aim to survive the early game and then pay our 100 gold fee to migrate to Tavern Brawler once we reach level four. Otherwise, the monk pays with health, AC, or movement speed.

Making your character a Gold Dwarf is a requirement for what we want to do. Our favorite rendition of the Tavern Brawler Monk sacrifices Constitution the most, and the Gold Dwarf receives one health point when you create them, as well as an extra one for every level you earn.

Alternatively, the Wood Elf is also a strong choice for the Monk, and is significantly more likely to reach their targets in a meaningful amount of time. Perception proficiency makes them useful and the extra movement speed guarantees that you can make it to targets without spending Ki or actions on anything else.

Best skills for a Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3

The Monk benefits from several skills that help them in and out of combat. To get several skills you don’t naturally receive when choosing the Monk class, we recommend the Street Urchin Background, which should allow you to unlock notable ones that can make your character even more useful before a battle starts in Baldur’s Gate 3.

• Athletics (from Monk) provides our unarmed friend with a gigantic jump arc and a decent chance to shove. The jump adds quite a bit to our mobility during turns that we need it and shoving can win specific boss fights by itself.
• Insight (from Monk) allows the Monk to be a bit more useful during conversations. If you get forced to be the front of the party during a conversation as this build, a good Insight can let you get away with murder.
• Sleight of Hand (from Street Urchin) lets you serve as a version of the party Rogue, opening doors for your allies.
• Stealth (from Street Urchin) improves your vision cones when you need to sneakily get towards something before a fight breaks out.

Respecced Tavern Brawler Ability Scores in Baldur’s Gate 3

For higher mobility and better crowd control at the cost of AC, the best ability scores for the Tavern Brawler monk are:

• Strength: 17
• Dexterity: 14
• Constitution: 10
• Intelligence: Eight
• Wisdom: 16
• Charisma: Eight

This set of ability scores works for if you want to stay unarmored, and therefore embrace the Monk lifestyle more. You lose one AC compared to the standard Monk build, but can re-up your AC through Gloves of Dexterity, a late-game glove. You also keep your Ki saving throw DC quite high, making yourself more consistent with Way of the Open Hand and Stunning Strike.

However, you might notice that our Constitution is a 10. That’s a massive problem since the Monk’s HP matches a Bard’s. Although the Monk is not a traditional frontline fighter who is tanking for other party members, they find themselves in close quarters against any foe, as they must close the distance to their targets. Different from Rogues, Monks don’t have reliable disengagement that allows them to run away from targets consistently. Stay close to your heavy, frontline companions, and ensure you’re not leaving your Monks too exposed to a target. Also, keep a Cleric nearby for some last-minute healing.

As a warning, when you swap to Strength, your tooltips will likely incorrectly say you are using Dexterity for unarmed attacks. You can check the Combat Log to see that the game is just getting confused. You are using Strength as long as it is higher.

For a slightly safer but less effective combat build, you can use the following:

• Strength: 17
• Dexterity: 14
• Constitution: 16
• Intelligence: Eight
• Wisdom: 10
• Charisma: Eight

This set of ability scores is for the multiclass, Githyanki, or Wood Half-Elf options. Armor only needs 14 Dexterity to be effective, after all. This build will slow your Monk down by a ton, but will keep their AC high without relying on Dexterity and Wisdom. However, your Ki abilities have a low saving throw DC due to your low Wisdom, making them unreliable in a pinch.

Best subclass for the Tavern Brawler Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3

Once you reach level three, your subclass should be Way of the Open Hand for either build. Our only goal in this class is to spam Flurry of Blows every turn, and the Way of the Open Hand lets us do that while knocking opponents prone or pushing them away. Even for our low Wisdom variant, we still spam trips all the time. Then, later on, you get even more Ki, healing, and eventually Sanctuary access.

For the high Wisdom variation of the build, all three subclasses are decent choices. Way of Shadow provides several ways to Hide and gain an advantage on Flurries and fantastic mobility. Way of the Four Elements lets us add damage and range to our unarmed attacks and some additional crowd-control options. Way of the Four Elements is seen as the weaker choice in Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s a strong Monk choice if you plan to use various magic and element-based abilities throughout an encounter.

However, our gameplay revolves so much around spamming Flurry of Blows that we just benefit more from making that flurry hit harder. The chance to knock people down for the next set of unarmed strikes is too tempting to ignore. There are other ways to spend Ki, and while helpful, they take away from our primary problem-solving technique of punching a hole through their chests.

Best feats for Tavern Brawler Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3

We need to grab Tavern Brawler as soon as possible so this build can work. That will always be your level four feat. Afterward, things get a little more interesting, and our feats open up, but our options are limited to ensure our Monk keeps their survivability throughout this grueling campaign.

Larian missed a tooltip for Tavern Brawler, mentioning that it provides a plus-one to Strength or Constitution. That rounds us out to 18 Strength.

Now, we get way too much out of Strength to leave it at 18. We want that at 20 ASAP, so the armored build should take it immediately. However, for our unarmored friends, you will likely be able to find The Mighty Cloth by level eight, a clothing item that boosts Strength by two found at the Last Light Inn‘s merchant. Alternatively, we can use Act Two’s Potion of Everlasting Vigor to get to 20 Strength.

These are commonly given to Barbarians, but we can use them greatly. Then, we can instead bail onto Tough so we can pretend that we can take a hit sometimes. Tough at level four is our equivalent of investing four points into the Constitution. This’ll lower our Constitution saving throw, but we’ll just turn anything to mush that can trigger a CON save. Sentinel is also a strong choice if you want to use your Monk’s reaction to prevent other enemies from moving away from them, and protecting crucial party members.

Then, at level 12, we have a smorgasbord of options. We can take a simple plus-two to Strength if another piece of clothing or armor, such as Viconia’s Priestess Robe, catches our eye. However, for the Armored variant, we can take Durable if we did not use Auntie Ethel‘s plus-one on ourselves. That’d round up our Constitution to 16, a big improvement. Lucky is a fine choice for characters looking to make important saving throws or ability checks—or dodge deadly crits—during endgame encounters. Alternatively, a plus-two to Constitution or Wisdom won’t go amiss.

For our unarmored build, we went Tavern Brawler, Tough, and then Plus-Two Wisdom. This setup gave our Dwarf respectable health going into Act Two, a +10 to attack and damage rolls with punches, and relatively positive save DCs on his Ki attacks. While Karlach drank the Everlasting Vigor potion, the Monk got his hands on the Mighty Cloth.

Sadly, there aren’t many options for boosting Wisdom right now, so he’s stuck at 18.

Best magic items for Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3

We’ve already talked about some magical items that you want to look out for. The Mighty Cloth provides a sustainable stat increase that lets him explore other feat options, but other clothing items like Viconia’s Priestess Robe provide better survivability. We want to keep our eyes on a few other magic items.

• Gloves like Gloves of Dexterity or Bracers of Defense do a great job giving you higher AC.
  • However, gloves like Gloves of Soul Catching or Seraphic Pugilist Gloves can help you deal significant damage. It’s important to balance AC and damage with the Tavern Brawler.
  • This build is a reasonable contender for the Gloves of Hill Giant Strength, which sets your Strength to 24. Plus-six Strength is quite a lot. This also lets you invest more in Constitution and a bit of Dexterity. However, this item is endgame and part of the House of Hope.
• Bonespike Boots provide large defensive bonuses for a character who is unarmored, meaning that your Monk will likely be the only one fighting for them.
  • Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo are the best boots for a damage-dealing Monk, since they add Wisdom to unarmed damage strikes. Your +10s are suddenly +13 or +14s.
• A Cloak of Protection is always a good option. However, the Cloak of Displacement can provide clutch moments that protect your Monk against attack rolls, but you don’t get it until you’re at Wyrm’s Crossing.
• The Amulet of Greater Health will be fought for by everyone in your party, but it is nice for you to have. The Amulet of the Windrider works fine for the purposes of your mobility if you lose the 23 Constitution conversation.
• Rings that improve Movement Speed, like the Emerald Ring, are always nice for a Monk. The Ring of Protection, which you get for stealing the Sacred Idol, is an improvement to AC and saving throws that a frontline squishy character like you are looking for.

Combat tips for Tavern Brawler Monks in Baldur’s Gate 3

There are two big parts of the Tavern Brawler to keep in mind. First of all, you do high damage very consistently. Even without weapons, your fists have +13 to attack rolls and +10 to damage by the time you get the Mighty Cloth, the Everlasting Potion of Vigor, or level eight.

An average round for you will have you walking up to your opponent and activating Flurry of Blows for upwards of 60 damage, assuming you have no consumables or Gloves of Soul Catching active. By targeting middling health enemies, you can easily take out single targets while Hasted or stun them with Stunning Strike in a position that leaves them wide open.

The second thing to remember is that your combination of low AC and low health makes you a prime target for the AI. This can be solved slightly through Deflect Arrows for lower ranged damage, or a Relentless Striking Karlach which might bait the AI away from you. In addition, you can have Shadowheart target you with Warding Bond, a spell that buffs your defenses and has her take half of your damage. Alternatively, items like True Love’s Embrace can be given to slightly healthier members of your party.

Using Invisibility to get next to a priority target leaves you with a great opportunity to quickly take them out. You’re no assassin Rogue, but you still deal fantastic damage within a single round of combat. If you get the Surprise on them, you can really ruin the first person you run into. Then, the goal will be to try and utilize that momentum to continuously crowd-control monsters that you can get to in a movement action.

You don’t want your Monk to stray too far from the party. A problem that can happen quite often is your Monk finds themselves too far from allies, and they become an easy target. Stick them close to your frontline characters, or support ones, and the Monk can make short work of several enemies in a short span of turns.