Sir-Sparhawk.: I've just reached level 7 as a shadow monk and I am thinking if it is worth it to Multi-class him or stay pure monk? There are three options I think could be useful, Firstly fighter champion for action surge and crits on a 19 and to a lesser extent second wind, secondly rogue thief for cunning actions that don't use a ki point and extra bonus action for more flurry of blows/unarmed strikes and lastly ranger gloomstalker, though i'm not really very convinced by this.
Not I will only take 3-4 levels of the second class, 3 if the traits are now tied to character level or 4 if it is still tied to class level like in the tabletop. What are the best options and route for me to go, i don't know what I'll be giving up in the long run by missing out on the last 3-4 monk levels?
I don't have experience playing as a monk but I'm multi-classing as a College of Bard 5/Divination Wizard 7 so I can make some general observations.
If you multi-class 3-4 levels in another class, you will miss out on the following and whether it matters depends purely on your playstyle:
- you lose out on a ki point per monk level not taken. If you regularly run out of ki points during encounters, this might be a big sacrifice.
- you miss out on all of the monk class features at higher levels. You can preview these at
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Monk, with the caveat that the info may or may not be strictly correct. However, I did a quick test of respecing my level 11 character and the wiki seems accurate for 8-11, except IIRC, the improved unarmoured movement at level 10 gives 6m, not 4.5m on the wiki. I would expect level 12 to only provide a ki point and a feat.
- a pure monk can take a feat at levels 4, 8 and 12. A monk 9/other 3 would only gain a feat at monk 4 and monk 8. However, a monk 8/other 4 would gain a feat via the other 4. I'm not sure if you meant feat when you stated 'traits'.
Another potential multiclass option is a battlemaster fighter 3/4. At level 3, they gain 4 superiority die and 3 manouvres to use them with. Some of these manouvres are martial arts like in my mind:
- Disarming attack: attack with an additional 1d8 damage and potentially disarm your opponent
- Riposte: if an enemy misses, you counterattack, also with an additional 1d8 damage.
- Trip attack: attack with an additional 1d8 damage and potentially makes your opponent prone.
- Pushing attack: attack with an additional 1d8 damage and potentially pushes them back. This is a bit like the Way of the Open Hand's Flurry of Blows: Push but with less damage.
So with this build, the superiority die compensate to some extent for losing ki points but with the trade off of being limited to the 3 manoeuvres you choose. Like ki points, the superiority die refresh upon short rest.
If you take battlemaster fighter 4 and hence gain a feat, the martial adept feat gives an additional superiority die and the ability to choose 2 more manoeuvres. This additional die essentially means you'll have one more per-short rest charge than if you went single class monk, subject to the aforementioned tradeoffs.
Fighter also grants proficiencies in more weapons, which are then treated as monk weapons. So you'd be able to use any single handed weapon as a monk weapon. I'm not sure if that's useful or not, though. It depends on what weapons/fists you currently use and whether you've found any single handed weapon that's better. You'd also have to compare that to a rogue's sneak attack which I think does 2d6 extra damage at level 3, assuming sneak attack conditions.
