ok im planning on going monk as soon as mag gets it so im wondering along with a switch of race which i think for now im set with aslaran

im thinking herbalism to fix herb balance aslarans lose
or tailoring for splendors.

any ideas?

I like bookbinding. Damage reduction, free scrolls.

but as a monk i need both hands

Oh. Pity.

Yeah...

That seems a pity because thematically, Monks and Bookbinding should be like peanut butter and jelly.

Okay, okay, I know that they're not those monks exactly, but even so.

ok now for some useful replies pwease

Robes will help you with tanking damage

Herblore isnt really all that grand

If you can take poisons though you could always get a poison immunity

I personally went with tailoring for splendor robes. They're much less useful now, though, after the DMP changes (monk defs + kephera + proofed splendors means my resistances to everything got nerfed - probably rightfully so). I've been thinking of switching back to herbs, but I'm also one of the only (I think there might be 2-3 of us) trans highmagic users in Seren. Poisons is a possibility, there is more demand with monks but it's still not an amazing moneymaker, and the immunity to one poison doesn't seem incredible. Cooking could be a good option (and one I thought about). +CON and +DEX platters, along with fetes would be very nice, if expensive.

cooking is...meh

The usefulness of the poisons bonus is entirely dependent on what you deal with on a regular basis. Have too many monks trying to lock you with constant stun and paralysis? Mantakaya immunity. Problems with throat locks? Senso immunity. Want to bash parasites? Escozul immunity. And while you aren't a wiccan, I imagine hadrudin immunity would be quite nice for them.

Switching around immunities every IG month can be nice for mixing it up, but it's generally easier and more efficient just to keep one.

If you have really good curing, though, splendors or the like are probably better. Poisons is more useful for being your own source than having immunity.

Splendors are STILL huge as armor is outside DMP and the magic proofings are higher than Greatrobe/cloak/coat combo. If you go poisons, mantakaya all the way, as paralysis is a huuuuge kata stopper.

Supposedly racial stats (kephera), armor (splendors), and skills (trans magic/resilience) are all outside of it, but I still take a lot more damage on average than I used to. Surely monk abilities didn't make up all that difference by themselves? Maybe there are just still bugs with it, I assumed they just left splendors as part of it and took out knight armor.

Noticed that too, but barkskin can't have made all the difference, can it? O.o

It probably did. Barkskin is teh leet, it needed the nerf stick.