Monk (Final Fantasy)

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A martial artist refined both in body and mind, the Monk specializes in barehanded fighting techniques.
Dawn of Souls instructions

Template:See Also The Monk (モンク, Monku?), also known as Black Belt, is a skilled martial artist who prefers his fists over weapons and magic in the original Final Fantasy. This is the only class that never gets to use magic; this, coupled with his general lack of equipment, make him the least expensive class in the game (though his defense is thus relatively low as a result). He is a member of the Warriors of Light and helps to restore the power of the Crystals. He had a blue headband and clothing but the head band changed from white to red and then back to blue, and the hair has changed from long hair to shorter hair. Other than that, he has barely changed looks.

Statistics

Available equipment
Weapons	Iron Nunchaku \| Masamune \| Nunchaku \| Power Staff \| Staff
Armor	Bard's Tunic \| Clothes \| Kenpogi \| Leather Armor \| Power Vest
Equipment	Diamond Armlet \| Protect Ring \| Ruby Armlet \| Silver Armlet
Helmets	Leather Cap \| Ribbon \| Twist Headband \| Tiger Mask \|
Gloves	Leather Gloves

*All names from Dawn of Souls release

The Monk gets damage bonuses for fighting barehanded. He also gets a defense bonus based on Stamina. Barehanded damage easily gets better than claws, and with enough stamina, equipment (except for status/elemental protection) is also unneeded. Like the Thief, the Monk is another "investment" character, though his investment comes from grinding rather than class change; he starts weak, but his potential shows in that he can eventually catch up to the Warrior in a fight. At high enough levels, the Monk (and the Master) will even have the highest damage output.

Master

After completing the Citadel of Trials, Bahamut the Dragon King upgrades him to the rank of Master (スーパーモンク, Sūpāmonku?). Originally, the Master was decidedly the only downgrade as his Magic Defense went from 4 to 1 per level up, but was otherwise similar (equipping a Ribbon does ignore this, though bothering to max a Black Belt to Level 50 almost makes this moot). In Dawn of Souls and up, the stat growth formula for promoted classes was altered, so the Master instead gains higher multiplier for his bonuses and gets more Magic Defense (2 instead of 1) at level up than the Monk.

Statistics

Available equipment
Weapons	Ultima Weapon*
Armor	All Monk Armor
Equipment	All Monk Equipment
Helmets	All Monk Helmets
Gloves	All Monk Gloves

*All names from Dawn of Souls release
All equipment marked with a * is from Dawn of Souls releases and on.

Name origins

In the Dawn of Souls version and subsequent versions, there are ten optional auto-names for the different character classes. Each name is a reference to another character or location's name in the Final Fantasy series.

The ten names for the Monk class are: