Order of the Dark Moon Suggestions

[Seven Sons of Sin]

Shar's secretive monastic order. A literal translation would be sorcerer/monk. Unfortunately, that's awful. Fun in PnP, because things aren't the same. Terrible on Arelith.

The essence of the class is combining the "shadow weave" and "monasticism." I've my own interpretation of how that fits narratively, but I was wondering if there were creative ways to translate it mechanically.

I suppose the only requirement is Monk, which restricts alignment. And if the class is evil, that knocks off the Healer path and Druid.

Maybe a battlecleric?
Maybe a shadowdancer?
Maybe a spellsword?
Is sorcerer/monk reconcilable? Could you go True Flame CON-heavy/monk?

[Hunter548]

Healer isn't evil only anymore.

I'd honestly do it as a monk-dipped spellsword. They still should be pretty good.

[DarkDreamer]

I actually really like this idea, perhaps a custom class can be made for it?

[One Two Three Five]

Monk-dipped Q-staff spellsword'd do it. A battle?cleric with some monk, too. I've got a thread over yonder that I just remembered on the topic of That, actually.

[Astral]

monk rogue 20/10
wiz monk 27/3

[Sab1]

Honestly shadow dancer to me seems like a great rp path for this. Maybe 20/5/5 The issue is when to take what class at which lvl. Problem with SD is those extra feats needed so you pretty much need fighter. You would need mobility, dodge, 3 two handed feats, expertise, IE, blind fighting. That's a lot of feats.

But the most realistic would be sorcerer, but as you said in NWN that would be horrible.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

Monk-dipped Q-staff spellsword'd do it. A battle?cleric with some monk, too. I've got a thread over yonder that I just remembered on the topic of That, actually.

I saw that!

I've been trying to brew a bit further, and battlecleric monk and spellsword monk seem to be the easiest to think of conceptually.

I suppose the two main requirements are - should be able to self-cast some kind of invisibility or Darkness or Shadowshield, AND employ some traditional monk combat. I think it's fairly universal to say that Quarterstaff is probably the way to go.

It's ideally some kind of gish build, but I guess the biggest threat to all half-casters and hybrids is being so quickly dispelled.

I guess it's difficult to play anything beyond these two options. I was thinking about some kind of janky bard/monk, but it seems too difficult. Ideally you would like monk/SD/caster, but that also seems eh.

You could probably do that if you neglected any and all hope of being combat proficient and instead relied upon the most elusive character ever. But something about that appears wholly unsatisfying.

Edit: you could make a 26 sorcerer / 4 monk. But I don't know how Order of the Dark Moon that would really be.

[Baron Saturday]

This seems like an excellent thread for one of my awful build ideas.

Monk 6/Fighter 10/Bard 14 (4/8/8 pre-epic? Makes for nice even saves, 12/12/12, 17 BAB). Dumpster charisma, don't be doing any native spellcasting. RP the bard songs as chants/mantras ("Mantra of Lamentation" or what-have-you) and then go to town with that qstaff. Could conceivably pump UMD high enough to get Penumbral Vestment for Shadow Shield-y goodness.

EDIT: No Uncanny Dodge, though. Monks not getting Uncanny Dodge irks me to no end.

[Sockss]

Uncanny Dodge isn't very useful if you're not afk often. You can certainly live without it.

[Astral]

Uncanny Dodge isn't very useful if you're not afk often. You can certainly live without it.

Uncanny dodge is must-have for all dex-based characters. Otherwise anything like spell, kd, lag, or even you switching targets and your avatar deciding to run around the battle field for no reasons, all these and many more things can and will get you flat footed sooner than later. You do not want to lose additional 12-13 ac on top of what you're already losing in this state, with Uncanny dodge.

Monk 6/Fighter 10/Bard 14

But why not 16 bard and 8 fighter, at least to have the 16th song? Also, it doesnt sound too aweful, just a bit MAD.

[Baron Saturday]

But why not 16 bard and 8 fighter, at least to have the 16th song? Also, it doesnt sound too aweful, just a bit MAD.

Not much more MAD than most monk builds, since like I mentioned, it doesn't care about charisma. I preferred 14/10 to 16/8 for the higher BAB, extra feat, and just the overall tidiness of the build. Something like Monk 4/Fighter 6/Bard 10 pre-epic would certainly work - actually, now that I look at the numbers, you'd pick up 1 will and reflex without losing any fort, and you'd still get enough fighter bonus feats (barely) to snag WS/EWS and the dual-wield feats. So yeah, sure, do that.

[Sockss]

Uncanny Dodge isn't very useful if you're not afk often. You can certainly live without it.

Uncanny dodge is must-have for all dex-based characters. Otherwise anything like spell, kd, lag, or even you switching targets and your avatar deciding to run around the battle field for no reasons, all these and many more things can and will get you flat footed sooner than later. You do not want to lose additional 12-13 ac on top of what you're already losing in this state, with Uncanny dodge.

If you're getting KD'd, you should be dead with or without dex.

If you're getting held (Or other spell effects), you're dead too.

If you're switching targets and running around you're not considered flatfooted.

If you're experiencing latency, you shouldn't be flatfooted provided you're not standing idle in a fight to begin with (Which you shouldn't be)

It's definitely not required. It helps a little to mitigate damage against things you can't see (Stealth/invis), but since you're only flatfooted for the first flurry it doesn't equate to much mitigation.

[Baron Saturday]

Personally I find uncanny dodge to be a QoL thing more than an absolute necessity. I certainly appreciate it when fighting stuff that has wingspam. Or those bloody ice spiders.

[Sab1]

Maybe some sort of Monk assassin specializing in killing Mystra and Selune followers.