I just made a monk, named him Adrian, thought I was mighty clever. Will I ever play him? Doubt it. For all the cool stuff about monks, they just don't seem to be worth the space in a party, do they? What do you guys think would make them worth it?

Monks don't really come into their own until the mid-teens, but when they do, they're powerhouses. Do they do anything that a decent fighter can't do? Not really. They're still fun, though.

See, that's pretty much where I'm at too. At 15ish they start being pretty good, but they never really get anything to edge out fighters. I suppose they have enough bonuses to makeup for no armor or weapons, but stealth without backstab and find traps without disarm traps are both kinda meh. If they make a monk NPC in BG2:EE I could see having him, but not as my protagonist.

Monks keep improving until the end while HLAs are the only noteworthy fighter improvements after level 13.

Monks can get better AC and higher MR than fighters which makes going ahead less dangerous and the special abilities make the game more interesting. You could sneak into a group of casters and destroy them with stunning blows and quivering palm protected by your magic resistance.

Besides, it should not be about one class being better than another class, it should be about role-playing. It seems to me each class has specific abilities that make them fun to play in some way or another.

One great thing about monks is that they tend to be cheap to maintain. So then you can spend your extra money on better gear for your other characters.

That said, I feel about the same. In a real DnD game, they can be awesome. In BG, they just don't get a chance to shine very well.

kmonster - Good points. They get a lot of resistances, AC, MR, missiles, poison, disease, charm, slow, saving throws, non-magic weapons... I need to consider them further. They may be better for killing mages than the Wizard Slayer even...

anamorphic - For each player it is different, I feel I have to justify a character's presence in my party. As a fighter I can see the worth of a monk, but they mostly serve this one role. Can't heal my party, cast mage spells or do much thief stuff. Now if it was an NPC, that'd be a different story.

Tallima - I'm never overly worried about cash in the game, I always include a very active thief in my group. I would love to seem them tweaked even just a little, to make them more worthwhile. Even something as small as allowing their Lay on Hands to heal others would be pretty cool.