Now that monks have been out for a little while and people have had a chance to try them out with different races, I'm curious about how important each of the stats actually are. Obviously, the ideal monk race has high str/dex/con - other stats don't really matter a ton for us. I have only actually played as a human, though, so I'm not sure just how important each of those stats are.

I suddenly care because I am thinking of reincarnating. Right now I am a human (13str/14dex/13con), which isn't amazing. I'm looking at all of the other races, but I don't know which will actually work the best. These are the options:

1. Kephera - basically a no-brainer. The resistances are amazing, and I have splendor robes to add to them. The strength is low, though (enhancement could bring it to 13), and the con really isn't great either (11str/16dex/13con).

2. Krokani - pretty good in all three of the important stats (16str/15dex/15con), and good blunt and magic resistance. Krokani seem like a safe, balanced race for monks.

3. Orclach - pretty good strength and con, but low dexterity (15/11/15). Enhancement could be used to bring the dex up to 13, and the resistances/regen look very nice. Slower eq wouldn't really hurt monks much either. This looks like a very good race if the low dex won't be crippling.

Lobos are pretty similar to Krokani, and Taurians might be considered similar to Orclach. In order to actually decide which race is better, though, I need to know a little more about the stats. So, on to my actual questions!

A. How big of a difference does strength seem to make for monks?
B. How big of a difference does dexterity make? Is it really more or less important than str overall?
C. Do monk regeneration skills (harmony/psymet) stack with racial regeneration?
D. Is the strength bonus from taurian enrage weighted, or is it a base +2 bonus?
E. If you've tried out a few different monk races, which ones work well? Are there any things that should be considered besides these three stats and resistances?

A, B, E - I don't have experience, and I don't want to give out opinions based only on hearsay. Hearsay believes STR is much less important than DEX for monks.

C - depends. If they give "flat" bonuses like Knighthood's regeneration or Kingdom, or a "flat" percent base like Mercy, they won't stack. Otherwise they will stack.

D - it's weighted.

I think Aslaran might be a good race too.

Yeah, I've found Aslaran good. You can get 17 Dex if you get a dex platter (snerk) or somewhere around 18 with an Antlers sphere. You can get 14 Str if you use enhancement. Harmony's Regeneration (use Lumphet) definitely makes you forget about the sip penalty.

Oh, one other question I also forgot...

Do racial resistances stack with things like proofs? They do for armor, so I assume they would for proofs as well, but I'm not sure how it works. If so, I would think orclach with splendor would be at least as tanky as (or more than) a kephera, with higher strength. Again it comes back to whether the low dex is a huge issue.

Shiribot, you need to go try out every race for me so I know what to pick! You're the only monk changeling I know so far.

I thought Aesyra had splurged on one.

Anyways, you need a non-Demigod to test for you. That will skew the results of various race-testings (+3 to a smaller number is a larger percentage increase).

Hmm...Well, I guess the only solution is for everyone to give me credits to buy my own cameo.

That, or maybe the dwarf guy can give me one in one of those nice presents!

How do you work out that enhancement gets you to 13? It's only +1. (Pretty depressing.) One of our loboshigaru almost-newbies claims harmony stacks with loboshigaru regen.

For bashing, faeling is absolutely disgusting for me. MUCH faster than human. L3 balance and about as tanky as most races I'm used to as well.

I'm tempted to test loboshigaru later, but I'm gonna have to come up with a desc I like (I hate envisioning myself as one of the uglier races. Trying to figure out if a black-furred loboshigaru with Nejii's other traits would look stupid. )

I was tanking all the orcs of Shallach at 30, with just psiarmour/3x regeneration. Male kephera ftw.

you're a titan faeling though, +2 in the con department plus 3 if you use yellow. and you get level 3 regens off prime.

Yeah, but I get all that as human and male keph too.

I get +2 dex from enhancement.

Wtf??

Did they ninja change that yesterday or something? It was -definitely- +1 before.

but the point is that others don't get it as a faeling so they get the regular like 9 con or whatever.

I like the thought of Aslaran's being a good monk race.

But hands down Kephera are the best, simply because they have all these nice advantages, with no disadvantages. Top that off with splendor robes, psymet damage resistances, and right now some Harmony resistances and they become beasts.


And so far I don't think anyone has mentioned Illithoid as even a consideration for a monk.

I think illithoids may make good monks predicated entirely upon what secondary Emofist and Magnagoran monks get.

it's Emofist and Narutards, thank you very much

Nah don't think a secondary skillset is going to make people want to have low cha and level 2 Susceptibility to magic damage. When they can get practically the same advantages (plus blunt/cutting), and no disadvantages by being kephera.

Think Aslaran will win out though, being the most well rounded race with a balance bonus.

I'm not too sure about aslarans. The balance bonus may be nice, but they just don't seem tanky enough to be very good as monks. Once we get our forms going, we are already pretty fast; I'm not sure the balance bonus would be worth much. I would go with krokani for a well-rounded race before aslaran I think.

As for no disadvantages for kephera...I think the low strength might be a pretty big disadvantage. They are tanky, but they don't seem like they can hit very hard. Monks right now seem to build up wounds pretty slowly, regardless of their dexterity, so I'm not sure if dexterity is (in practice) really that much more important than strength. If strength works well, I think orclach would be even better than kephera; if the high dex is vital, then kephera would be best.

Would a Taurian or Loboshigaru Shofangi with Acrobatics be better than Krokani? I like the thought of a Taurian the most, and enrage + limber is 17 str/14 dex. Currently, I have a krokani (16str/17dex), and I'm not sure whether I should reincarnate into Taurian or Loboshigaru (or at all). Krokani are nice bashing offense, but Taurians just seem cooler and Loboshigaru would have ridiculously high regen (something like 30%, I think), and both have 2 more int and 1 more con than Krokani. But Krokani have level 3 magic resistance...

I'm so indecisive... ._.

You can also go Psymet for Enhancement. It's a bit higher up, but it still gives +2 bonus to either STR or DEX. INT isn't really gonna help you much, admittedly, and I'm not sure how Enrage/Str Enhance would stack.