I played through Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition knowing little about the new recruitable characters, and I picked up Neera and Rasaad when I ran into them. Dorn I didn't pick up because I was in a generally good-aligned party, and it didn't make IC sense for me to recruit him. Anyway, I play through most of the game, and I've found that our monk dressed in my favorite color is a bit... underwhelming.
First, there's the fact that he doesn't get magical fists until level 9, which means I have to have him carry around a subpar weapon to be able to hurt creatures immune to normal weapons. Then there's his terrible constitution for a frontline fighter. And finally, his increased movement speed makes him annoying when I'm moving the party; he tends to walk ahead of the group, and gets aggro'd by just about everything unless I constantly micromanage him to the back of the party. Low constitution + no armor + walking in front of the party = lots of deaths and annoying reloads. So far, Rasaad has died the most times out of my party.
When I got to the Cloakwood and ran into Coran, I decided enough was enough and ditched Rasaad. In exchange for a lousy frontline fighter, I get a backup thief to pick locks and disarm traps (Imoen is currently dualled to mage and doesn't have access to her thief abilities). And here I thought the BG:EE version of the monk class would be better than its abysmal D&D 3e and D&D 3.5 versions...
First, there's the fact that he doesn't get magical fists until level 9, which means I have to have him carry around a subpar weapon to be able to hurt creatures immune to normal weapons. Then there's his terrible constitution for a frontline fighter. And finally, his increased movement speed makes him annoying when I'm moving the party; he tends to walk ahead of the group, and gets aggro'd by just about everything unless I constantly micromanage him to the back of the party. Low constitution + no armor + walking in front of the party = lots of deaths and annoying reloads. So far, Rasaad has died the most times out of my party.
When I got to the Cloakwood and ran into Coran, I decided enough was enough and ditched Rasaad. In exchange for a lousy frontline fighter, I get a backup thief to pick locks and disarm traps (Imoen is currently dualled to mage and doesn't have access to her thief abilities). And here I thought the BG:EE version of the monk class would be better than its abysmal D&D 3e and D&D 3.5 versions...