Feel like playing as Aang from The Last Airbender and not relying on teammates for elemental buffs? Well, that Monk class in Baldur’s Gate 3 is perfect for you in that case. With a host of elemental abilities covering fire, water/ice, thunder, and wind, monks in BG3 can be considered the ideal melee class with a nice balance of damage and mobility. However, a lot of that relies on your Baldur’s Gate 3 Way of the Four Elements Monk build, which is what we are here to perfect.
While there are other viable monk builds in BG3, the one we are focusing on is the elemental monk in the form of the Way of the Four Elements subclass.
Starting abilities and skills for Way of the Four Elements Monk
A lot of things in your build are changeable and not written in stone. After all, what’s the point if you aren’t roleplaying your character how you want? Below are my recommendations and picks for how I rolled my Monk character for 91 hours of BG3.
| Class | Monk | – |
| Sub-Class | Way of the Four Elements | – |
| Race | Wood-Elf | Picking this race provides a bonus to speed, and Monk is all about that. Alternatively, you can also pick Drow for stealth. |
| Ability Points Distribution | 14 STR, 17 DEX, 15 CON, 11 WIS. | Leave the rest at default. |
| Skills | Acrobatics, Athletics, Sleight of Hand, Perception, Stealth/Survival | – |
Best Background
While your intended roleplaying plays a part in what background you choose, Urchin or Outlander are good picks for our Monk build during character creation. Both backgrounds come with skills that benefit from your Dexterity stat. If you are interested in some stealthy gameplay, pick Urchin. Otherwise, Outlander will also work fine as they both provide you Sleight of Hand, which is handy when lockpicking.
If you plan on having Astarion in your party, you can ignore the above suggestions and go with Entertainer to gain Acrobatics. That is another DEX skill that will improve your saving throws against being knocked down or slipping.
Best Feats for Monk Way of the Four Elements build
Your character can select one feat for every four levels. Below is our recommendation for the best Monk feats and when to select them as you level up your monk in BG3.
| Level | Feat | Description |
| 4 | Ability Improvement | Invest both ability points into your main ability Dexterity to increase it to 19, |
| 8 | Martial Adept | Pick Riposte and Disarming Attack. Riposte allows you to counter free of cost if an enemy misses their attack, while the Disarming Attack will cause them to drop their weapon, thus reducing incoming damage. |
| 12 | Resilient | Increase strength by +1 |
Best Spells for Way of the Four Elements Monk build
Since we are going with an elemental monk, we aim to collect as many elemental attacks as quickly as possible. You can start selecting these spells from level 3 onwards. We are going to aim for attack spells instead of crowd control to maximize the damage with our build
Level 3: At Character Level 3, you can select the following spells.
- Water Whip: It is a dual attack that can pull enemies from ranged positions or knock them prone.
- Fang of the Fire Snake: This spell will allow you to set your weapon ablaze and deal extra fire damage with each Main-hand attack.
- Blade of Rime: It works best on surfaces where you can create a sheet of ice to trip enemies.
Level 6: Select the following spell at character level 6
- Embrace of the Inferno: It will allow you to shoot 3 fireballs at your enemies
Level 9: For character level 9.
- Gong of the Summit: An AoE thunder attack most effective against inorganic enemies.
Level 11: The final spell at character level 11.
- Flames of the Phoenix: A fireball that deals 8~48 fire damage to the enemies.
A late-game skill and only useful if you are unlocking a lot of Illithid Powers, Cull the Weak is also a good addition to your build. If an enemy drops to health less than the points you have spent on your Illithid Powers, they instantly die and deal AoE psionic damage to nearby enemies.
Best armor and weapons
Helm: Horns of the Berserker – Gain +2 attack roll when dealing damage to enemies, not at full health.
Back: Cloak of Protection – Increases your Armor Class and Saving Throws by 1.
Armor: Elven Chain – You don’t need any proficiency for this and will gain a +2 bonus to Initiative and Advantage DEX Saving Throws.
Hands: Gloves of Soul Catching – unarmed attacks like Flurry of Blows deal extra Force damage. It also allows you to regain health per turn or gain an advantage on attack rolls.
Amulet: Amulet of Greater Health – Increases Con to 23, and this extra health is useful when you are a melee attacker with weak AC.
Melee weapon: Blood of Lathander – Nearby fiends and undead are blinded. Considering how frequently you will fight such enemies in Acts 2 and 3, the legendary Blood of Lathander is a useful weapon.
Rings: Ring of Protection and Ring of Fire.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Way of the Four Elements Monk build level progression
For the most part, your progression as you level up your Way of the Four Elements Monk remains fixed. Players aren’t given too much choice when unlocking things whenever they level up. The unlocking options only happen at levels 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 12.
However, we will still give you an insight into what Monk class features are unlocked at each level and how the Way of the Four Elements Monk build changes the things that are unlocked.
| Level | Unlocks | Description |
| 1 | Flurry of Blows class action. Ki Point class feature. | The Flurry of Blows will remain your major attack throughout the game. Martial Arts and Unarmored Defense also unlock, which scales with Wisdom to give bonus AC when wearing clothes. |
| 2 | Additional Ki point. Step of the Wind: Dash, Disengage, and Patient Defense unlock. | You can jump without a bonus action, and your movement speed doubles. Disengage allows you to retreat to a safe location from a melee distance during combat. Patient Defense provides an advantage on DEX Saving Throws, and enemy attack rolls have a disadvantage. |
| 3 | Harmony of Fire and Water class action. The first array of spells unlocks. | Regain half of your Ki points outside combat. For spells, choose Water Whip, Fang of the Fire Snake, and Blade of Rime. |
| 4 | The first feat unlocks. Slow Fall feature. | Choose Ability Improvement to increase your DEX ability. Slow Fall allows you to use a reaction upon falling to gain resistance to fall damage. |
| 5 | Extra Attack class feature. | You can make an additional attack within the same turn. |
| 6 | The Level 2 spell slot unlocks. | Choose and prepare Embrace of the Inferno. |
| 7 | Stillness of Mind class feature. | Once Charmed or Frightened, this class feature activates automatically to remove them. |
| 8 | The second Feat unlocks. | Select Martial Adept to get Riposte and Disarming Attack features. |
| 9 | Level 3 spell slot unlocks. | Choose and prepare Gong of the Summit. |
| 10 | Purity of Body class feature. | You become immune to all kinds of poison attacks. |
| 11 | Level 4 spell slot unlocks. | Choose and prepare Flame of the Phoenix. |
| 12 | The final Feat unlocks. | Choose Resilient to increase your Strength ability by 1. |
How good is Way of the Four Elements Monk in Baldur’s Gate 3?
Way of the Four Elements Monk build allows you to use ranged attacks. The Monk class is famous for melee attacks. Adding the ranged attacks to the mix gives you access to a whole new array of attacks. This sub-class of Monks can also cast spells, which allow you to deal high single-target damage.
However, the Way of Four Elements sub-class lacks crowd control. They also lack additional actions compared to the rest of the sub-classes, making them ineffective in the Melee range.
