Monks in BG3 who train in the way of martial arts can learn different skills that suit their requirements. One of the ways you can specialize your character is by picking the Baldur’s Gate 3 Monk Way of Shadow subclass. Monks who follow our Way of Shadow build in BG3 are stealthy and gain Obscurity bonuses while serving as true assassins and spies.
All monk builds can differ from each other and offer many variations, but we will look at the best build setup for the Way of Shadow subclass build for Monks in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Starting Abilities and Skills for Monk Way of Shadow
All builds are supposed to be tailored to every player’s individual needs and the build we recommend here is the best option players can opt for during character creation for an ideal result with their Way of Shadow Monk in BG3.
Race: Wood Elf – The Wood Elf race has the highest mobility of all races and benefits Monks perfectly. You get 1.5m extra movement speed allowing players to move around the battlefield faster, and reposition themselves better.
Ability Point distribution: 10 STR, 17 DEX, 14 CON, 8 INT, 16 WIS, 8 CHA
Skills: Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth, Religion, Insight, Perception
Best Background
Unlike all monk builds, the best possible background for Monk Way of Shadow is Urchin. Urchin background allows players to invest in Sleight of Hands and Stealth, the mainstay of the Way of Shadow build. However, if that is not what you desire, you can also pick Outlander.
The Outlander background offers much-needed survivability to your character who depends on low-weight armor, and athletics allowing players to move through the fight more easily and take punishment openly.
Best Feats for Monk Way of Shadow build
Since you can choose a feat for your character even 4 levels, players need to carefully choose their feats. You can pick only 3 feats for yourselves, here are the best-recommended feats for Monk Way of Shadow build in BG3.
Level 4: Athlete – Athlete allows players to use less movement when changing their pose and increase strength or dexterity by 1.
Level 8: Mobile – Mobile increases player’s movement speed and allows players to move through any difficult terrain without suffering from debuffs.
Level 12: Tavern Brawler – This feat allows players their strength modifier to be added twice whenever using unarmed attacks or with an improvised weapon.
Best Shadow Arts for Monk Way of Shadow build
Way of Shadows offers different Shadow Arts that players can choose to further strengthen their build. These are unlocked every few levels instead of every level like Ki Points. Let us look at the best Shadow Arts you can pick for Way of Shadow build in BG3.
Level 3: Shadow Arts: Hide, Shadow Art: Pass Without Trace. Shadow Art: Silence – All these arts allow players to cover their presence from their enemies. You can use Hide as a bonus action rather than a complete action, and gain a +10 bonus to Stealth. These will allow your character to go around the enemies without fearing detection.
Level 5: Cloak of Shadows – Use invisibility on yourself that lasts for 10 turns.
Level 6: Shadow Step – Teleport from one shadow to another shadow. These shadows need to be 18m from each other, and this is a bonus action.
Level 11: Shadow Strike – From a hidden position, teleport to any enemy and deal 3d8 additional Psychic damage along with your attacks.
Best Armor and Weapons
Helm: Haste Helm – Gain 3 momentum at the start of the turn.
Back: Cloak of Protection – +1 to class armor and saving throws
Armor: Vest of Soul Rejuvenation – regen 1-4 HP when you succeed in a saving throw against any spell attack.
Hands: Brace of Defense – Gain +2 Bonus to your armor class if you are neither wearing armor or using a shield.
Amulet: Amulet of Misty Step – Ability to use Misty Step spell.
Weapon: Shortbow – Pierce and Radiant damage along with resistance to Fire and Cold damage.
Rings: Ring of Protection – +1 to armor class and Saving Throw
Baldur’s Gate 3 Monk Way of Shadow Build level progression
As you level up your Way of Shadow Monk in BG3, you will automatically unlock new features and actions for your main Monk class as well as those exclusive to the Way of Shadow subclass. The Monk class level progression in BG3 remains the same regardless of your subclass choice.
That is why, below we will be focusing on all the features and class actions that are unlocked and useful for Way of Shadow Monk builds in BG3.
Level 3: Shadow Arts – A number of Shadow Arts such as Hide, Pass Without Trace, Darkness, Darkvision and Silence are unlocked as soon as you pick Way of Shadow. All these arts hide you from enemy sight, offering a bonus to stealth, creating darkness, vision in darkness, silence on movement, and turning the Hide move into a bonus action. On top of that, you also gain the Minor Illusion cantrip that can distract nearby enemies.
Level 5: Cloak of Shadows – Use invisibility on yourself that lasts for 10 turns.
Level 6: Shadow Step – Teleport from one shadow to another shadow. These shadows need to be 18m from each other, and this is a bonus action.
Level 11: Shadow Strike – From a hidden position, teleport to any enemy and deal 3d8 additional Psychic damage along with your attacks.
