ADOM Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Monks are skilled fighters that specialise in hand to hand combat, kicking, and agility. While their unarmed melee and kicking skills can grow tremendously powerful over time, the PC must not be burdened or worse or else they will revert to their default damage values (i.e., 1d3 base damage for unarmed melee and 1d4 base damage for kicking). Note that unlike Beastfighters, Monks do not receive any penalties if they choose to fight with weapons.

Monks generally have difficulty surviving the early game due to poor starting equipment; however, they can become very powerful as the game progresses. They have excellent class powers and skill sets, including Find weakness, Alertness, Healing and Dodge. They can also train Literacy and Concentration quickly, giving them some promise as semi-casters; in practice, however, it is often tricky for Monks to learn spells without the appropriate starsign.

As for race-class combinations, generally no race is a poor choice for a Monk. Gnomes and Elves make particularly good Monks, as due to their stat distributions they usually have decent archery and casting prospects as well as melee potential. Gnomes are particularly notable for their fast levelling. Orcs, Drakelings and Dwarves make good Monks as well, for their fighting abilities. Hurthlings can make use of find weakness and the agility of Monks to greatly enhance their missile combat styles. While Trolls' unarmed fighting skills develop a lot more slowly than those of other classes (due to slow levelling), their starting Strength usually makes up for this in the early game. Even in the later game, Trollish Monks armed with weapons can still make excellent fighters.

Basic Information[]

Base/Typical Stats[]

The base stats for adult male Monks are tabulated below; female characters will have approximately -1 Strength and +1 Dexterity, and young characters have slightly less Strength, Learning and Willpower. These stats were generated using the method described on the Talk:Archer page, except with star sign factored in. Variations of +/- 5 to each stat will usually exist, or even more if the question system is skipped.

Monks generally receive good bonuses to their physical stats while 'suffering' a penalty to Charisma. Their Mana and Appearance stats are generally mediocre.

Race St Le Wi Dx To Ch Ap Ma Pe
Human 15 15 14 14 14 8 10 11 13
Troll 27 6 11 11 25 5 5 6 9
High Elf 15 16 13 21 11 8 14 14 18
Gray Elf 15 16 14 20 10 6 18 16 18
Dark Elf 14 13 17 21 12 6 12 17 17
Dwarf 18 14 13 12 18 7 9 10 14
Gnome 14 14 13 17 15 10 10 15 14
Hurthling 9 13 14 21 17 10 10 8 13
Orc 21 10 14 14 18 6 7 6 10
Drakeling 20 13 17 12 18 8 8 10 12
Mist elf 12 19 14 20 10 6 22 21 21
Ratling 15 13 14 18 18 6 5 11 17

Starting Skills[]

Skill Typical Value Typical Modifier Available Ingame?
Alertness 35 4d5 No
Athletics 39 (depends on Toughness) 4d5 No
Concentration 37 (depends on Willpower) 4d5 No
Dodge 28 (depends on Dexterity) 4d4 No
Find weakness 30 3d4 No
Healing 35 4d5 Yes
Literacy 47 (depends on Learning) 3d4 Yes
Stealth 38 (depends on Dexterity) 3d5 Yes

Crowning Gifts[]

As perhaps expected, Monks do not get crowned with weapons. Aside from Shezestriakis, each of these artifacts has considerable universal benefits (though the robes would usually be preferable over the shirt).

HP, PP, To-hit Growth by Level[]

HP: Medium
PP: Medium
Melee to-hit: High
Ranged to-hit: Low

Special Abilities[]

Class Abilities[]

  • Unarmed fighting: Monks start out with a base damage of 1d9 on unarmed combat, and get increases on this for every level they gain.
    • However, if a Monk is burdened or worse or has a shield equipped, unarmed fighting damage resets to 1d3.
  • Kicking: Monks start off with a base damage of 1d10 to kicking, which increases as they gain levels.
    • The bonus is lost if they become burdened OR wield any weapon/shield(s).
    • Monks also can't injure themselves by kicking walls or the air. The messages for kicking walls are replaced with "You practice your kata." for destructible walls and "The wall does not seem impressed." for undiggable or secret walls.
  • Martial arts bonuses: Monks get increases in speed and DV upon raising certain numbers of levels.
    • The DV bonus is negated if the PC is wearing body armor weighing more than 60s, is burdened or worse, or has a shield equipped.
    • In ADOM versions prior to 1.2.0, some other types of armor weighing 60s or less can also nullify the bonus[1].
  • Smashing kicks: Starting at level 13 Monks can sometimes smash through a wall by kicking it, essentially giving them access to infinite digging abilities. The chance to smash a wall is roughly Strength/100. Digging in this way never wakes up Stone giants.
  • Slow digestion: Monks' satiation levels deplete at about half the rate of other classes (except for level 12+ farmers). The special message that orcs and trolls get after eating rat corpses—"What a tiny...erm, wonderful snack!"— may imply that they may also get some extra satiation from food; this has not yet been tested.
  • Inner calm: Monks cannot true berserk under any circumstances.
  • Vow of poverty: Monks never start with any gold. Though starting money usually isn't that important, it does mean that less food is available to Monks at the start (from Munxip). Picking the 'Wealthy' talent gives a Monk 100 gold, not (0*3=) 0.
  • Heir gift: padded clean robe of defense with typical stats of [+8, +3] {Ap + 2}.

Unarmed Fighting and Martial Arts Bonuses[]

Level To-hit Damage Kick DV Speed
1 +1 1d9 1d10 +0 +0
2 +2 1d10 1d10 +1 +1
3 +3 1d11 1d12 +2 +1
4 +4 1d12+1 1d12+1 +2 +2
5 +5 1d13+1 1d12+1 +3 +2
6 +6 1d14+1 1d14+1 +4 +3
7 +7 1d15+1 1d14+1 +4 +3
8 +8 1d16+2 1d14+2 +5 +4
9 +9 1d17+2 1d16+2 +6 +4
10 +10 1d18+2 1d16+2 +6 +5
11 +11 1d19+2 1d16+2 +7 +5
12 +12 1d20+3 1d18+3 +8 +6
13 +13 1d21+3 1d18+3 +8 +6
14 +14 1d22+3 1d18+3 +9 +7
15 +15 1d23+3 1d20+3 +10 +7
16 +16 1d24+4 1d20+4 +10 +8
17 +17 1d25+4 1d20+4 +11 +8
18 +18 1d26+4 1d22+4 +12 +9
19 +19 1d27+4 1d22+4 +12 +9
20 +20 1d28+5 1d22+5 +13 +10
21 +21 1d29+5 1d24+5 +14 +10
22 +22 1d30+5 1d24+5 +14 +11
23 +23 1d31+5 1d24+5 +15 +11
24 +24 1d32+6 1d26+6 +16 +12
25 +25 1d33+6 1d26+6 +16 +12
26 +26 1d34+6 1d26+6 +17 +13
27 +27 1d35+6 1d28+6 +18 +13
28 +28 1d36+7 1d28+7 +18 +14
29 +29 1d37+7 1d28+7 +19 +14
30 +30 1d38+7 1d30+7 +20 +15
31 +31 1d39+7 1d30+7 +20 +15
32 +32 1d40+8 1d30+8 +21 +16
33 +33 1d41+8 1d32+8 +22 +16
34 +34 1d42+8 1d32+8 +22 +17
35 +35 1d43+8 1d32+8 +23 +17
36 +36 1d44+9 1d34+9 +24 +18
37 +37 1d45+9 1d34+9 +24 +18
38 +38 1d46+9 1d34+9 +25 +19
39 +39 1d47+9 1d36+9 +26 +19
40 +40 1d48+10 1d36+10 +26 +20
41 +41 1d49+10 1d36+10 +27 +20
42 +42 1d50+10 1d38+10 +28 +21
43 +43 1d51+10 1d38+10 +28 +21
44 +44 1d52+11 1d38+11 +29 +22
45 +45 1d53+11 1d40+11 +30 +22
46 +46 1d54+11 1d40+11 +30 +23
47 +47 1d55+11 1d40+11 +31 +23
48 +48 1d56+12 1d42+12 +32 +24
49 +49 1d57+12 1d42+12 +32 +24
50 +50 1d58+12 1d42+12 +33 +25

Class Powers[]

  • Level 6: Can invoke an ability that allows them to kick every monster adjacent to them. The energy cost for doing so is 2500 (unmodified by Unarmed fighting skill level)
  • Level 12: Base movement energy cost is reduced to 800. This stacks with the effects of seven league boots, although stacking is not linear. The in-game manual provides exact stacking formula under section "O".
  • Level 18: Base movement energy cost is reduced to 600. This, again, stacks with the effects of seven league boots - 600 due to class and 750 due to boots in game results in an energy cost of 502, not 600*0.75=450. The effect of this class power alone is better than permanently wearing seven league boots, allowing the PC to easily keep their distance from anything except quicklings. Perhaps one of the best class powers in the game.
  • Level 25: Gains the ability to change position (using the command ':s') even with hostile monsters. The combination of this and their level 18 power could make the difference between life or death when cornered by an extremely strong monster.
  • Level 32: Melee hits against humanoid monsters of up to medium size have a small chance to instantly kill them. Constructs, undead, and unique monsters are immune to this. See below for details on what is too large to be affected.
  • Level 40: Instant killing hits now work on humanoid monsters of any size.
  • Level 50: Corruption is reduced by 10%.

Large Monsters[]

All types of angels "of order", giants, gnolls, hags, ogres, minotaurs, molochs, and trolls are too big to be affected by the level 32 power, as are greater daemons, air demons, bugbears, djinnis, fire demons, jackal demons, lesser daemons, shambling mounds, solars, water demons, and yetis.

Starting Gear[]

Human Troll High Elf Grey Elf Dark Elf
Dwarf Gnome Hurthling Orc Drakeling
Mist elf Ratling
Advertisement