Question about monks, weapons and Khelgar.

Good folks,

our Khelgar decided to be a monk. Recently he pulled out the Hammer of Ironfist, which seems to be a very nifty weapon which he can even equip. Now, if monks use weapons they can't use all their abilities, right?

Can someone with more understanding of the rules share some details on this topic? More specifically, would you let Khelgar fight barehanded or with the hammer? Can he use two weapons? Should he, if he could?

Insights appreciated.

Well, I would take the cheap and dirty way out and look at the info screen to see which way he does more damage.

I think if you dual class him early enough in the game though, he can do quite a bit of damage unarmed or with monk weapons.

I unfortuantely left his quests til way too late, so left him as a fighter and took all the warhammer feats.

I'm getting close to finishing his quest and I would appreciate more insight as well, come on D&Ders .

Originally Posted by magerette
Well, I would take the cheap and dirty way out and look at the info screen to see which way he does more damage.

I'd like to think that damage is not everything.

Still, we've settled on letting Khelgar fight with the hammer. I think he can't use Ki attacks any more or stun enemies because he doesn't fight barehanded, but the Hammer of Ironfist is just too good to be ignored. He has the other two Ironfist items equipped too, which makes him, like, a machine.

Danicek, if you're close to finishing his quest and opt to make him a monk, don't worry too much about it because the hammer is still far away from you. Of course the question about weapons vs. barehanded still stands…

My guess is this:
Barehanded - good anti-caster, can lock them down with stuns
With weapon - probably a bit more damage but less damage prevention

I couldn't ignore my RP side and let him be a monk as he wanted. The rules are basically that you can wield weapons, dual wield, etc. But if you look at the damage table in the manual, you'll see that his bare-hands damage grows with his level. At high level they do insane damage. Add to that the improved flurry-of blows (usable barehanded or with kukris, but hands will do more damage than kukris) and you'll be like an Osterizer. It may not be as damaging as Khelgar the fighter with super-hammer, but it's certainly not a 'gimped' character. It's not an ideal monk (low wisdom, dexterity), but hey, if he really wants to be a monk, let him