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The Monk Class inOblivion Remasteredspecializes in Hand-to-Hand combat, archery, and stealth, making it a fun but unusual playstyle. Since the Hand-to-Hand skill didn’t make the jump from Oblivion to Skyrim, much like Athletics and Acrobatics, this class offers players of Skyrim a playstyle they’ll be less familiar with.
This guide forOblivion Remasteredwill explain how to make the most of the default Monk Class, while also offering advice on how to construct a custom class with a similar theme but more of a focus on Hand-to-Hand combat over archery.
Best Monk Class Build in Oblivion Remastered
The Monk Class is a Stealth Specialization Class with the Favored Attributes: Agility and Willpower.Its Major Skills are Acrobatics, Alteration, Athletics, Hand-to-Hand, Marksman, Security, and Sneak. This makes it well-suited to stealth, striking from range with the bow and using fists once enemies get too close. A high Acrobatics skill offers incredible mobility by increasing your maximum jump height and the damage taken from falling, and it also allows the Monk to dodge while blocking by moving in any direction and tapping jump.
The Security Skill is always useful, allowing you to pick locks more efficiently and effectively. Alteration Magic offers spell effects that boost armor rating, resistance to fire, frost, or shock, raise or lower carry weight, allow breathing underwater, allow walking on water, and open locks. This means that, with enough skill in Alteration and a suitable spell, the Monk can easily reduce incoming damage just as effectively as someone wearing heavy armor.
Best Races for the Monk Class
When creating a Monk, a few Races are especially effective. Khajiit and Orcs are excellent choices for players wishing to focus on Hand-to-Hand combat, though Khajiit have low initial Willpower and Orcs have low initial Agility.
Khajiit receive a +10 bonus to Hand to Hand and Acrobatics, and +5 to Athletics, Blade, Light Armor, Security, and Sneak. This synergizes well with the Major Skills of the Monk Class, which also benefits from their increased initial Agility. Make sure to select the Anequina Origin so you start with 40 Strength instead of 30, since Strength is used to determine Hand-to-Hand damage. The low initial Endurance can be troublesome, resulting in low health early on, but after boosting it up a little with early level-ups, it should be fine.
Orcs receive a +5 bonus to Hand-to-Hand, but do not receive bonuses for any other Major Skills for the Monk Class. They do have exceptionally good initial Attributes for hand-to-hand combat, though, with 45 Strength, 50 Willpower, and 50 Endurance when selecting the Stronghold Origin. They also have a natural 25% Resistance to Magic, improving their survivability. If you want to focus on the Hand-to-Hand aspects of the Monk Class, Orc is definitely the best choice.
One of the best all-around choices of Race for a Monk would be Argonian, as they have no penalties to any of the Attributes associated with the Monk Class and its Major Skills (as long as you pick the Thornmarsh Origin). Their high resistance to disease and complete immunity to poison is also very useful for improving their survivability.
Best Birthsign for the Monk Class
If you chose Khajiit as your Race,the best Birthsign to pick here would be The Lady for the boost to Willpower and Endurance.This helps to shore up the initial weaknesses of picking Khajiit. For the same reason, Orcs should choose the Thief, bolstering their Agility, Speed, and Luck. If you’re picking Argonian, the best Birthsign to choose would be either the Warrior for increased Strength and Endurance, or the Lord for improved armor rating and magic resistance.
Questline and Gear Recommendations for the Monk Class
The Monk’s affinity for stealth and ranged combatmakes it an excellent fit for the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines.They’ll also perform well in the Fighters Guild and the Arena, and it’s worth visiting the Mages Guild in Cheydinhal to learn some powerful Alteration spells.
You can steal the Bands of Kwang Lao (Light Armor Gauntlets) from Branwen and Saliith’s Chest in the Arena District of the Imperial City, which will fortify your Hand-to-Hand skill by 20 points while equipped. These will give you a decent boost to your Hand-to-Hand damage in the early game, though the damage doesn’t scale past skill level 100, so they’ll eventually become obsolete. Starting the Dark Brotherhood Questline will get you the Shrouded Armor and Shrouded Hood, which fortify many of the Monk Class' Major Skills, and, with some time and effort, you can enchant custom clothing to suit your needs.
As always,the Skeleton Key is a fantastic Daedric Artifact to collect as soon as it’s available, and youcould also get plenty of use out of Azura’s Starif you’re planning to do some enchanting.
Playstyle
The Monk is a stealth-focused class that performs best when initiating combat from a distance with a bow, while sneaking. When the enemy starts getting close, swap from the bow to your fists and use Alteration magic to buff your defenses before you start swinging. With a high enough Hand-to-Hand skill, you can disarm foes with your unarmed strikes to weaken them, knock them over to stun them momentarily, or even paralyze them as you rush in.
Best Custom Monk Class in Oblivion Remastered
Now that we’ve talked about the default Monk Class, it’s time to discuss ways you could tweak or modify it to better suit the “Martial Arts” theming.Taking inspiration from Khajiit Claw Dances, also known as Rain-of-Sand, this custom class mixes Hand-to-Hand combat with Destruction, Alteration, and Restoration magic to create a flexible melee fighter.
To make this “Claw Dancer” Monk Class, take the Magic Specialization with Strength and Willpower as your Favored Attributes. The Major Skills you’ll need are:Hand-to-Hand, Destruction, Alteration, Restoration, Acrobatics, Athletics, and Sneak.This will start you out with decent melee prowess, several Destruction Spells for quick burst damage and overcoming resistance to your fists early on, Alteration for Shielding yourself, and the ability to fortify attributes and skills or heal yourself using Restoration. Sneak, Acrobatics, and Athletics will ensure you can navigate the world easily, including places you don’t want to be caught in.
While this class doesn’t have the Security skill, you’ll level it up quite quickly just by playing the game normallyand using it to open chests as needed, and Alteration offers spells for opening locks that serve as an excellent alternative to the Security skill when necessary. Make sure to get Strength and Willpower to 100 as soon as you can for maximum damage and a healthy boost to Fatigue and Magicka regeneration, putting points into Agility and Intelligence as your next priority, and then Speed. Agility will help with Maximum Fatigue and reducing stagger from enemy attacks, while Intelligence will raise your max Magicka, making both very important for this setup. Speed allows you to outrun troublesome foes as necessary, helps you jump further, and is useful for rushing in to attack a foe while they recover.
Most of the gear and questing advice given for the standard build also applies here,but you’ll want to progress through the Mages Guild Questline soonersince you’re getting a lot of damage out of mixing touch-range Destruction Spells with Hand-to-Hand in this version. The Mages Guild in Skingrad specializes in Destruction magic, so head there first to find some powerful new spells. You should also stop by the Anvil Mages Guild to stock up on Restoration spells for healing and buffing.
The Khajiit, Orc, and Argonian races all perform well with this build, as does the Breton due to the increased focus on spellcasting. The same Birthsign recommendations as before apply here too, and Bretons should choose the Thief Birthsign to raise their Agility, Speed, and Luck.
