In
Nethack, the most difficult class to play - even worse than
Tourists. Monks cannot wear any sort of body
armour without a severe to-hit penalty, so they find it much harder to obtain a good armour class than characters who can wish for
dragon scale mail. They are also not very good with
weapons, but if they are granted an
artifact they may find it better to wield it rather than relying on their
martial arts. Finally, they suffer a small penalty every time they eat
meat, but this can be safely ignored after the early stages.
In Slash'Em, the easiest class to play and suitable for newbies. Provided that they do not wield a weapon, wear a shield or wear body armour other than robes, they have a big bonus to their intrinsic armour class, which increases with their experience level. Also, the first artifact they get from their deity is the Gauntlets of Defence, which gives half physical damage. Their martial arts seem to do considerably more damage than in Nethack, and they can do even more damage using their techniques.