I just realized if you multi-class monk with warlock (maybe with the feat that lets you channel eldritch blast through a meleee attack) you could make a sweet martial artist who shoots fireballs like Ryu in street fighter.
That is all.
There's a couple of feats in the PH II that let a single class monk do this, too (with the expenditure of a Stunning Fist attempt).
I found that you can make an excellent and scary villain by using monk/warlock/enlightened fist. If you use the PHB2 variant Decisive Blow for monks, the damage dealt can be really scary.
Good. In my opinion, Monks need all the help they can get. In our first campaign with 3.5 rules, we had a Monk who had a Monk's belt, was 3 levels ahead of the rest of the party and ruled a small nation to the south who was still ineffective in combat.
Granted the player was a bit timid and conservative and our grasp of the rules was less than perfect at the time, but I was still amazed at how weak the class seemed at the time. Since then some of the players have come up with some more convincing Monk builds (especially with some of the new PrC's and feats offered in new books), but that experience has still prejudiced my group. As a DM, however, I find that some of the "underpowered" classes (or classes that are perceived as underpowered, more accurately) such as Bard, Ranger, Monk, make for great villains and NPC's. The players are forced to accede that Rangers, for instance are not pushovers when a party of 4 low level rangers can nearly incapacitate them. Or Kobolds with Bard and Rogue levels, or a single Monk with pumped up grapple, trip and disarm...I will have to try out some of the delicious builds above on the PC's and see how they feel about Monks then *evil grin*...
Uhm, yeah, monks are actually one of the most powerful classes there are. If the player was timid and the grasp of the rules left room to be desired, than that was the cause of your "flawed" monk. Some of the most powerful, frightening, and resilient characters I've ever seen were monks, with nothing from a book outside the PHB other than Improved Toughness in the Complete Warrior.
Oh, and back to the original topic, the warlock's hideous blow already allows the eldritch blast to pass through a melee attack, so you're golden!
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Uhm, yeah, monks are actually one of the most powerful classes there are.
Absolutely! Back in the days before the warmage, duskblade, and other uber-classes, my group (myself included) used to ban monks from our game because they were overpowered (and also because we didn't appreciate the martial artist theme bleeding over into our European fantasy settings).