Low level Monk gear?

**zergrusheddie** · 03-01-2008, 03:28 PM

Hello everybody. I'm starting a level 4 monk and I was wondering what kind of equipment should be bought. We are started with 2500 gold and I can't seem to find anything that would make him not be totally fighting in his Birthday Suit. Could anyone offer any suggestions, and if possible, the book where it can be found? Thank you for all the help.

**Maelstrom** · 03-01-2008, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by zergrusheddie

Hello everybody. I'm starting a level 4 monk and I was wondering what kind of equipment should be bought. We are started with 2500 gold and I can't seem to find anything that would make him not be totally fighting in his Birthday Suit. Could anyone offer any suggestions, and if possible, the book where it can be found? Thank you for all the help.

Here's a few from the DMG:
Amulet of Natural armor +1 (2000)
Bracers of Armor +1 (1000)
Kama (or other monk weapon) +1 (2000 + weapon price + masterwork)
Ring of protection + 1 (2000)
Ring of Feather Falling (2200)

You could pick up utility potions such as Jump, Levitate, Spider Climb, Fly, Resist Energy.

Plenty of options

Of course monks ain't half bad in just their birthday suit, so you could load up on enough alchemist's fire to torch a town.

**Riftwalker** · 03-01-2008, 10:52 PM

The Magic Item Compendium has a ton of stuff you might like:

Boots that grant +2 on Tumble and give you an enhancement to speed a handful of times per day for 900 gp.

Gloves that--3 times per day--grant you a +2 on grapple checks and unarmed attack damage for 1 round for 1,000 gp.

**Digital Arcanist** · 03-02-2008, 06:09 PM

I take it you are not making an Aesthetic monk...

There are body enhancements in one of the Dragon Magazine issues that are pretty cool for monks. I'll have to look through my issues to find the article.

**Shadow Dweller** · 03-02-2008, 09:05 PM

It's out of reach now, but once you hit 4k GP in wealth from loot, grab Periapt of Wisdom +2 or Gloves of Dex +2. Both will up your AC, Wis will also beef up your SF saves and other monk abilities. The dex, if your building a dex-y monk built to give other flanking ability and be a stealth guy, the dex is the way to go. Still the bonus to the AC, but also helps you hide and move silently.

**Farcaster** · 03-03-2008, 02:57 PM

Your DM may or may not have allow you to spend more than 50% of your character's wealth on a single item during character creation. The wealth your character has is supposed to represent his gains from adventuring over the past four levels. If you were leveling normally, at fourth level, your character is more likely to have consumable magic items and perhaps one very minor magic item. More likely, you'd have kits and masterwork gear at this point.

Some things I might consider:

If you have the healing skill, consider picking up a healing kit. It may only give you +2, but there are some uses of healing that require the kit.
A climbers kit might also be useful.
Typically, you don't do a lot of damage in a single strike, so DR works heavily against you at this stage. If you know that your character might be facing creatures with a certain damage reduction, you might want to invest in some monk weapons. For instance, if you know you'll be hunting lycanthropes, a pair of Masterwork Silver Kama's would be very beneficial.
A masterwork crossbow might also be a good purchase, as you may need to fight something at range.
Thunderstones (30gp) and especiallyTanglefoot Bags (50gp) are still useful at your level, and if sunrods are lightweight and provide illumination for 6 hours each for the low, low price of 2gp each. You may well be the party's scout, so having a light source that can be easily concealed like a Sunrod or even an everburning torch could come in handy.
As far as potions, I'd definitely pickup a few cure light potions (50gp) and maybe a cure moderate (300gp) as well. You never know when one of those might save your life. You should also pickup a few Magic Weapon potions (50gp each), which can be applied to your unarmed strike, just in case you fight something that requires magic to be hit. And, you never know, you might need that +1 in a pinch.

**Anaesthesia** · 03-03-2008, 06:28 PM

I'd suggest:
Monk's Belt
Gauntlets of Ogre Power

**Farcaster** · 03-03-2008, 06:34 PM

The limit is 2500gp, Ana.

**cplmac** · 03-04-2008, 11:27 AM

If I understand you, you have 2500 GP to completely supply your monk to start the adventure with. In this case, I would recomend maximizing the gear that can be bought. Better to get 10 items vs. 1. Also, does the party get to decide together what they are getting or do each of the players have to guess at what the other characters will be buying. If you get to do it as a group, make sure that you are not getting duplicate items that only 1 of will be needed. Of course, there are some items that it does help to have 2 or 3 of, in which case, being able to "shop" as a group is helpful.