With the noble Uoswiir family of Drows slaughtered by their rivals in the Underdark, the Drow Monk Vhaidra Uoswiir of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 serves as the game’s nimble-footed melee DPS powerhouse. Equally skilled with her fists as with conventional weapons, Vhaidra employs a wide variety of techniques to eliminate multiple opponents or get herself out of sticky situations. Her thirst for vengeance against her family’s murderers leads her to Baldur’s Gate, which she eventually protects with other companions.
And for players who want to maximize their usage of Vhaidra’s skillsets might be surprised to learn there’s more to the Monk than meets the eye. And similar to other RPGs, Vhaidra in Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 needs special attention to maximize her potential to be one of the best damage dealers in the game.
Gameplay Style: Diversify Through Mobility
It's Vhaidra's nature as a martial artist that gives her a unique edge in melee. Unlike the usual melee juggernaut, Vhaidra as a Dark Elf Monk gives her more room for exploration in melee without sacrificing her opportunities to build damage in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 gameplay. Players looking for more options up close can enjoy Vhaidra's various repertoire of Monk skills, as well as weapon choices to spice up overall gameplay. What Vhaidra lacks in Armor specialization, she does make up in terms of mobility, giving players a lot of room to dance around and wreak havoc as they get to know the game's systems.
Attributes: Hitting Takes Priority
Considering the place of Vhaidra as a melee specialist, the Dark Elf Monk needs to prioritize being able to hurt enemies in as many ways as possible. This is especially since she doesn’t have as much defensive options to begin with, meaning one wrong hit can become quite lethal for a Vhaidra player. In these situations, it’s best Vhaidra prioritizes Strength to secure powerful hits, and decent Dexterity to ensure there’s additional armor to boost her protections.
- Strength: 20 (+5 Hit, +5 Damage)
- Dexterity: 19 (+4 Armor)
- Constitution: 10 (+0 Hit Points)
- Intelligence: 14 (+10 Max Energy)
- WisDorn: 10 (+0-percent EXP)
- Charisma: 13 (+5-percent buy/sell)
Skills: Multiple Targets Work
Due to her nature as a Monk, Vhaidra has perhaps some of the most flexible options when approaching melee combat in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 gameplay. Thanks to her speed and specialization in unarmed combat, Vhaidra also has various attacks that could dispatch and incapacitate numerous foes depending on the player's preference. Of course, while this means Vhaidra is more flexible compared to the Barbarian, this does make leveling her up rather difficult for most players.
Build Focus
Given Vhaidra’s nature as a mobile melee attacker, it makes sense for players to consider building her into a DPS role in complex Dark Alliance 2 runs. However, this does mean Vhaidra has to focus less on defenses and more on securing hits more frequently. To those who want to pursue a Monk who can zig-zag around the battlefield while eliminating various foes before they come close to the player's allies, here are some Skills they can prioritize:
- 5 Accuracy: This greatly improves the damage and accuracy of ranged attacks.
- 5 Combat Reflexes: This boosts Vhaidra’s attack speed.
- 5 Deflect Missiles: This gives Vhaidra a chance to automatically block missile attacks like projectiles.
- 5 Great Fortitude: Boosts the player’s Hit Point regeneration rate.
- 5 Toughness: This gives players extra Hit Points.
- 5 Unarmed Combat: This improves Vhaidra’s combat performance when fighting without weapons.
General Focus
As a melee combatant, it is extremely advantageous on Vhaidra’s part to be able to be able to specialize in various areas of Dark Alliance 2 gameplay that allow her to boost her survivability, be it through boosting her resistances or outright being able to withstand specific kinds of damage. These allow Vhaidra to last much longer in combat without players having to worry about her performance. Here are things to consider:
- 5 Death Blow: This vastly improves the damage caused by Critical Hits.
- 5 Dodge: This ensures enemies are likelier to miss in combat.
- 5 Diamond Body: This gives Vhaidra better resistance against Poison and Acid Attacks.
- 5 Endurance: This improves the player’s carrying capacity.
- 5 Evasion: This helps the players dodge Magical Attacks more effectively.
- 5 Improved Critical: This increases the chance of players to land Critical Hits using melee attacks.
- 5 Iron Will: This vastly improves the player’s Magic Energy regeneration.
- 5 Willpower: This gives additional Magic Energy to players.
- 3 Armor Proficiency: This allows Vhaidra to wear Heavy Armor for better protection.
- 3 Long Weapon Focus: This enables Vhaidra to fight with longer weapons such as Halberds, Spears, and Staves.
Equipment: Prepare For All Melee Combat
Unlike other characters in Dark Alliance 2, Vhaidra is capable of having three (3) kinds of weapons on her, courtesy of her potency as an Unarmed combatant. In that regard, it’s important for fans to remember that using the Monk entails having to ensure that they’re not just their usual set of weapons but even the right kind of armor to secure as much Unarmed damage as possible. This aspect of Dark Alliance 2 gameplay can easily overwhelm players. In this combination, it’s recommended to have a Fey Staff to facilitate staff-based AOE attacks, an Imperial Hissing Throwing Knife for a ranged attack, and Imperial Silvery Full Plate Gloves for emergency hand-to-hand combat.
- Weapon 1: +4 Imperial Silvery Full Plate Gloves (Unarmed)
- Weapon 2: +4 Imperial Hissing Throwing Knife
- Weapon 3: +5 Flawless Fey Staff
- Chest Armor: +2 Superior Full PLate Mail
- Shield: N/A
- Helmet: Superior Chain Helmet (AC 7)
- Gloves: +4 Imperial Silvery Full Plate Gloves (AC 16)
- Boots: Flawless Full Plate Boots (AC 13)
- Ring 1: +2 Superior Ring of Coldfire
- Ring 2: +2 Superior Ring of Coldfire
- Amulet: +3 Superior Amulet of Thunder
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 was re-released in 2022 for the PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S