And he's wearing... what, TWO shields??

[Tarax the Terrible]

If you take away monks armours...
Have their strikes break equipment same as plexus.

So they could destroy armours all over the place.

But with a toggle option they can control it.

[Zar]

If you take away monks armours...
Have their strikes break equipment same as plexus.

So they could destroy armours all over the place.

But with a toggle option they can control it.

But this toggle also stops monk from getting karma.

[Targun]

You seem to not read very carefully Bromen. Answering to your questions:
Not only in the library, but there are hard coded forms that use two shields, emotes and even if you wander carefully around monastery, you will see at least a few references to fighting styles requiring shields.

Maybe a more realistic way for monks to "appear" realistic

I am seriously going to consider a troll anyone who again comes with the 'realistic' phrase. Please read my and not only post how things are realistic on Genesis.

Then again, if it does take 1.5 hours to stock up on karma, then isn't it like a MM that spends hours
to grind by herbing?

Again, you do not read carefully. Either you are just skimming the text and then compose an answer, or read what you want to. Anyway, DO has to gain karma every time he logs in. It's completely wiped out after you log off. And karma doesn't stack, but gets the level from the best weapon you managed to break. Which means you need to find a really good magical weapon every time you log in.

MM spending hours? To be completely ready to go for the whole arma as a Gardener you need 1-2 hours per 7 days. By that time you'll have several hundred herbs. Every time I log in, I've got to spend minimum half an hour before I may become decent fighter, as without karma monk is useless. What if you're ulucky and you just spent 15 minutes on getting to npc, that was just killed? All the way back and look for another- especially late in the Arma.

If you take away monks armours...
Have their strikes break equipment same as plexus.

So they could destroy armours all over the place.

But with a toggle option they can control it.

Hardly a way. First of all, many npcs have their armor incorporated into their stats- sort of. So they might actually not wear any armours, and still have very considerable dmg reduction from it. Furthermore- it's just insane in the world of high str and massively dmging specials. A champion monk would die under an ogre/su/calian or even BDA with BM in a matter of seconds- literally.

[Targun]

Apologies to post one under another, but as we are at the monks topic, I wanted to share the way I envision them.

I have given some thought to how the guild could be changed to reflect a little more the way most people see monks.
1)Unarmed Combat- there are two issues with it.
* It's not that the dmg of a strike that hits is low. They are decent or reasonable at least IMHO. It's the chance-to-hit, being the problem. With increasing def/parry skills and armours; suddenly that dmg becomes almost negligible- as you just don't hit with you attacks, until you rich v. high dex around myth. The difference is much more distinct than with weapon based attacks. Overal result is that the dmg is hugely inconsistent.
* Haste- monks pretty much can't use any haste items, because the mechanics of combat makes one exhausted in a matter of minutes, with so many attacks, even without encoumberance.

The way I envisioned monks was more about choosing e.g. 3 different paths. Right now if there is already a tank in a party, or just a huge char, that can wear a shield (pretty much any guild) monk is just XP stealer. So the way I thought of them would be for instance, being able to follow the Savage Red Dragon Path, Blue Dragon Guardian Path, Yellow Dragon Balanced Path. I would love to see monks way more heavily dependant on karma, but the karma that wears off as you play, not wiped out every time you log in. Also the ways that you gain karma could be more versatile, and you'd have to combine them all- one through donating money and gems, as monks are to lead humble lives. Second could be sacrificing magical items as it is now, 3rd guildstat, 4th- path mastery- experience/time you spent following your current path without changing it.

And for example;
1) Savage path- would forbid armours, but allow weapons to 'melt' into your arms, so your attacks depend sort of on the weapons stats, or just bonuses to hit and dmg and with their tehcnique and savagery weaken the opponents e.g. reducing their armour and making them more vulnerable for the party.
2) Guardian path- could give some ac or incorporate armours into your body- technically they could be just concealed by the robe and like now be able to use plexus with highly reduced dmg output.
3) Balanced path- e.g. a path that doesn't have plexus and the dragonskin from the Guardian Path, nor Armor Reduction or some dmg bonuses from the Savage Path, but allows to incorporate weapons and armours into the statistics.

I wouldn't like it however, if guild became just another version of Mercenaries. This is why I'd be for rather serious penalties for changing the path monk follows. For example wiping all karma and the stat you gained from following the path. So a monk that follows a path of Savagery for lets say 2 months, would be way more efficient than a Guardian who just swapped to it. As you gain experience and progress in the path, one would become gradually stronger. The main idea behind is; being a member of DO is more a philosophy of playing/roleplaying/acting. But nowdays any 2 myths can wipe any XP ground and Neidars are anyway vastly superior tanks to anyone. So if there's at tank among your friends already, you are just a drawback. So you could pick a Savagery path. You find yourself playing alone most of the time- go for the Balanced one. You found a few players you get along well, but you are all dmg focused- you may start to train yourself in the Guardian Path. It's not as instantenous as with mercs and there are less choices and preferences availble, but you're just not stuck with one- very specialized set of skills and still can roleplay and follow the philosophy and lore of the guild.

EDIT: A few typos.

[Amberlee]

I like what Targun said very much.
Would definitively go along with what i envision a martial arts monk would be.

[Zar]

I like what Targun said very much.
Would definitively go along with what i envision a martial arts monk would be.

+1 or in other words. Monks shouldn't wear much. But specialization will be very nice.
By the way I think many guilds should have specialized branches with price of swapping.

[Arcon]

Take away the ability to wear shields and give them some extra "natural" armour (like a shield) 100% based on their wisdom. I've always felt that wisdom don't have enough importance in that guild.

[Laurel]

editing all my posts - I'm done

[Arcon]

because goblins don't have problems with wis, or why exactly wis?

You know the wise and enlightened monk. They train martial arts more as a way to train their mind. Old Kaheda used to have their titles based on wis. That is the reason.

[Creed]

And it would be nice to see the gobbos supreme power reign diminished a bit