The Monk FAQ: How to Play Them, What to Wish For, What to Eat, and Other Considerations

By Kate Nepveu, knepveu@steelypips.org
Version 1.2; last change *** (updated for 3.4.1).

One common question on rec.games.roguelike.nethack is "I'm playing a Monk, what do I wish for?" Other Monk questions, such as "How do I get Monks to survive?" and "What can I eat?" are also asked fairly often.

This document is an attempt at answering these questions. By its nature, it therefore includes SPOILERS (though mostly in the last two sections). It is also quite long. Read at your own risk.

Please note that this spoiler only covers vanilla NetHack 3.3.1, 3.4.0, and 3.4.1; monks are apparently quite different in SLASH'EM.

Corrections, clarifications, and comments are always welcome.

Contents:

• General Notes: Roleplaying, Conducts, and Special Restrictions
• • Weaponless conduct
  • Vegetarian and vegan conduct
• What Should I Wish For?
• • General Comments
  • Armor
  • Artifacts, Spells, Miscellaneous
• Playing Tips
• • The Quest and Master Kaen
• Addendum on Artifact Weapons, courtesy of Jason Short and nyra

General Notes: Roleplaying, Conducts, and Special Restrictions

When it comes to playing Monks, there are some optional restrictions, for varying degrees of "optional."

The least-optional restriction is quite simple: a monk wearing body armor receives a -20 penalty to the chance to hit in direct combat ("Your armor is rather cumbersome..."). It's possible to wear body armor, particularly at high experience levels, and still hit things [1]; see the weapons spoiler for information. It is not recommended for low-level characters. For purposes of this FAQ, it will be assumed that the character does not wear body armor (because if you're far enough in the game that it's possible for you to wear it, you probably don't need this FAQ).

Body armor is, well, stuff you wear on your body, but does not include T-shirts, Hawaiian shirts, or any kind of cloak or robe. Anything under "suits" or "dragon suits" in the armor spoiler is body armor.

[1] In fact, someone on rec.games.roguelike.nethack ascended a Monk wearing body armor; see Seth Scott's ascension post for more details.

Note that there are two other ways that armor affects Monks' combat.

1. Weaponless Monks without body armor (or a shield, in 3.4.1) receive a to-hit bonus: 2 + (experience level / 3).
2. Monks have a chance of dealing their opponent a staggering blow ("The [monster] staggers from your powerful strike!"), in which the monster is stunned for a turn and also staggers back one space, if it can. The following conditions must be met: Monks must not be wearing body armor or shields; they must directly attacking in melee combat; they must not be wielding a weapon; the hit must be doing more than 1 HP of damage; and the character must be in natural (non-polymorphed) form. The chance is 1% for each level of skill beyond unskilled. (This ability is not unique to Monks, as it applies any character with Basic skill in unarmed combat; Monks are simply in the best position to make use of it.)

   Big monsters (LARGE, HUGE, or GIGANTIC) and thick-skinned monsters are immune to staggering blows. Consult the Monster Manual to see what size an individual monster is; I am unaware of a spoiler that lists monsters by size. According to the weapons spoiler, "Thick- skinned creatures include: gargoyle, winged gargoyle, all mimics, mumak, titanothere, baluchitherium, mastodon, all baby and adult dragons (D), earth elemental, all baby and adult nagas (N), xorn, skeleton, gold golem, wood golem, clay golem, stone golem, glass golem, iron golem, horned devil, barbed devil, crocodile, salamander, Chromatic Dragon, and Ixoth."

Optional restrictions are largely a matter of roleplaying. On one end of the spectrum are players who never break weaponless and vegan #conducts; on the other are players who wield whatever weapons come their way and eat corpses whenever they choose. Where you fall on this spectrum is a matter of personal preference. (Some players even choose to fast. This challenge is beyond the author's present knowledge. Note that in 3.4.1, Monks exercise wisdom by fasting.)

However, do note that eating non-vegetarian food gives a penalty of -1 to alignment. Early characters in particular should be wary of harming their alignment too greatly, as it may affect their ability to pray to get out of tight spots. To make mostly-vegetarian conduct easier, Monks start out with a lot of food and gain intrinsics like clockwork as they gain levels; see Playing Tips.

Monks also start out restricted in all wielded weapons but quarterstaff (they are also unrestricted in spear, javelin, crossbow, and shuriken).

If you choose to adhere to weaponless ("You never hit with a wielded weapon"), vegan, or vegetarian conduct, here's what's required.

Weaponless conduct

• Never wield and hit with any of the following: 1) anything in the "weapons" category in your inventory; 2) a pickaxe; 3) a unicorn horn; 4) a grappling hook (applying it is okay).
• In 3.4.0 or later, do not apply polearms or lances.
• Hitting with anything else (a lamp you just #rubbed and forgot to unwield, for instance, or a cockatrice corpse) does not break weaponless conduct.

Vegetarian and vegan conduct

Being a vegetarian or a vegan is theoretically simple: Don't eat anything that's not vegetarian or vegan. However, the devil is in the details . . .

To maintain conduct, you must eat both the proper monsters and the proper items. Monsters are treated first.

Monsters

• Vegans may eat ONLY the following monsters:
  • all b; all j; all F; and
  • all v, all y, all E except stalkers, all ' except flesh golems and leather golems, and all ghosts including shades (via digest attack; see below).
• Vegetarians may eat any vegan monster, and may also eat all P except black puddings.
• Eating any other kind of monster breaks conduct.
• The following counts as "eating" a monster:
  • Eating its corpse or its tinned corpse.
  • Digesting it when polymorphed into a monster with a digest attack (lurker above, trapper, purple worm).
  • Eating its brains when polymorphed into a mind flayer or master mind flayer. If you want to keep vegetarian/vegan conduct and you accidentally polymorph into a (master) mind flayer, the safest thing to do is not attack anything directly, as you automatically will try to suck out the monster's brains in direct combat (unless you happen to kill it with the first blow). For the sake of completeness, it is safe—even for vegans—to attack any vegetarian monster or any headless monster as a (master) mind flayer; headless monsters are Juiblex, air/earth/fire/water elementals, and all b, e, j, m, t, v, y, F, and P. (Yes, the categories overlap. Precision counts.)

Items

• Vegetarians may NOT eat:
  • Tripe, meatballs, meat sticks, meat rings, and huge chunks of meat (except for tripe, these only occur if you cast stone-to-flesh).
  • Anything made of leather, bone, or dragon hide (scales or scale mail). Gelatinous cubes eat leather; at present, nothing in the game eats bone or dragon hide.
• Vegans may NOT eat the following, in addition to the prior list:
  • Candles when polymorphed into a gelatinous cube (yes, there are tallow candles in the game, which aren't vegetarian let alone vegan, but the code currently assumes all candles are wax for conduct purposes).
  • Eggs, pancakes, fortune cookies, candy bars, cream pies, or royal jelly.
• Items other than those listed (metal items eaten while polymorphed into a metallivore, for instance) do not break conduct.

Food Items Safe for Vegans

• Food rations, lembas wafers, C-rations, K-rations, cram rations.
• Fruits and vegetables: kelp fronds, eucalyptus leaves, cloves of garlic, sprigs of wolfsbane, apples, carrots, pears, bananas, oranges, melons, slime molds [or whatever the user calls this fruit, even "meat"], tin of spinach.

There was a bug in 3.3.1 that did not update your conduct when you ate non-food objects or rotten food; however, this was fixed in 3.4.0.

What Should I Wish For?

Many players' usual first wish is dragon scale mail or an artifact weapon. Body armor is not an option for monks, and many players chose not to wish for an artifact weapon (either to preserve weaponless conduct or because they do not like wishing for artifacts). Thus, "What should my Monk wish for?" is an oft-heard question.

Many of the traditional recommendations for wishes apply, and their particular advantages and disadvantages for Monks are discussed below. In addition, items particularly useful to Monks are mentioned. This is not meant to be a comprehensive wishing spoiler, because one already exists. In particular, if you're wondering what quantity or enchantment to wish for, consult this file.

Some players chose not to wish for artifacts or to polymorph piles of objects ("polypiling"). Read the following advice with the implicit disclaimer of "If you are not opposed to..."

Finally, there may be some overlap between this section and "Playing Tips." The author has simply exercised her best judgment; organizational suggestions are always welcome.

General Comments

• First and foremost, if your wish is from a wand, and you have not identified a charging scroll, wish for 2 (or 3) blessed charging scrolls. If you have identified the scroll but don't have one at present, wish for a magic marker instead.
• Speaking of magic markers, these are popular wishes, though you should consider what useful scrolls you have identified (if it is early in the game, you may not have identified many) and whether other items would more directly contribute to your survival at that point in the game.
• If you have not yet done Sokoban, you may want to defer wishing for reflection or a bag of holding. Note that an amulet of reflection is the best way for a Monk to gain reflection, as a shield of reflection greatly inhibits spellcasting and silver dragon scale mail is not an option.

Armor

• Blessed fireproof +2 (or +3) speed boots are particularly useful for Monks, since they tend to have poorer AC and fewer hitpoints than many other fighter classes. The ability to run away is always a good idea and make this, in my opinion, an excellent early wish.
• Blessed rustproof +2 gauntlets of power -or- dexterity: Gauntlets of power give combat bonuses but interfere with spellcasting; gauntlets of dexterity enhance spellcasting. Personally, I prefer gauntlets of power, as in my experience the spellcasting interference is not significant; vegetarian monks also have a difficult time gaining strength.
• Blessed greased rustproof +2 helm of brilliance. Improves spellcasting. I usually don't bother with this, preferring to go for the greater AC of an elven leather helm, but you might consider it if you have higher-level spells you need to cast reliably.
• Blessed greased fireproof +2 cloak of magic resistance. While the Monk Quest Artifact, the Eyes of the Overworld, provides magic resistance when carried, some people recommend a cloak of magic resistance for two reasons. First, the Quest Nemesis, Master Kaen, can cast clerical spells (he can confuse you, blind you, etc.), which a cloak of magic resistance will protect against. Second, the Wizard of Yendor will try to steal your Quest Artifact; without a backup source of magic resistance, you will be vulnerable to touch of death and other such magical effects. This decision depends largely on your tolerance for risks, together with the fact that removing your robe will decrease your spellcasting ability. (Note: in versions prior to 3.3.1, Master Kaen could use touch of death, making this a much easier question.)

All the armor above can be also obtained via polypiling; note that your chances of getting magical armor from polypiling non-magical armor is extremely small (0.6%, to be specific). There is a magical items spoiler that may help you polypile. Of course, if you really need a specific item, or you haven't collected enough polypile fodder, just wish for the item itself.

Artifacts, Spells, Miscellaneous

• People often recommend that a player wish for [insert popular spellbook of your choice]. This is not necessarily a bad idea, but note two things: First, spellbooks can be gained by prayer (preferably at an altar), and second, spare spellbooks can also be polypiled (be sure only to polypile spellbooks you won't need to re-read). Thus, consider praying and/or wishing for a blessed wand of polymorph before wishing for a spellbook.

  In particular, a spellbook of magic mapping is commonly recommended for mapping Gehennom; however, the Eyes of the Overworld provide "astral vision," which is effectively X-ray vision for a range of spaces around you. The effect is of a lamp and clairvoyance put together (you can also see objects and monsters through walls); this, in my experience, reduces the need for magic mapping considerably, making it a low-priority wish at most.

  Note that in 3.4.0 or later, Monks will receive a spellbook of restore ability upon crowning, as long as they are neither wielding an artifact nor already carrying a spellbook of restore ability.

• Half-damage artifacts. Because Monks cannot wear body armor, they tend to have a poorer AC than other classes; thus, an artifact that provides half physical damage is a good idea. Neutral Monks should wish for the blessed Orb of Fate; chaotic monks should wish for the blessed Master Key of Thievery. (Lawful monks are out of luck on this count.)

  NOTE: Your chance of receiving a wished-for artifact depends on the number of artifacts already existing in the game. (The invocation artifacts do not count for this purpose.) Take this into consideration before attempting to wish for an artifact.

       ARTIFACTS   0     1     2     3    4    5    6    n
       CHANCE     100%  100%  2/3   2/4  2/5  2/6  2/7 2/n+1
  

• The blessed fireproof +2 Staff of Aesculapius. Neutral Monks who are not adhering to weaponless conduct might consider this artifact weapon. Monks can reach Basic skill in staff without divine intervention. When wielded, it provides double damage and drains levels from monsters; it also conveys hungerless regeneration. Invoked, it heals half of your hitpoint loss, cures sickness, unblinds and unslimes.
• The blessed Eye of the Aethiopica. The Eye confers magic resistance and is a handy escape mechanism, but is particularly useful for spellcasters because it confers faster energy regeneration.
• Monks who are adhering to vegetarian/vegan conduct will likely find a ring of slow digestion useful—particularly if they are also spellcasting frequently. Again, this can be obtained by polypiling.
• If you really have wishes to burn, are keeping vegetarian conduct, and don't have any pets that eat corpses, a tinning kit is useful for getting rid of trolls. It's also handy for getting rid of cockatrice corpses that you don't plan to use and don't want to pick up yourself, since some monsters will pick them up and wield them against you (an increased problem from 3.4.0 on). (You might also tin some j, F, or P in hopes of regaining intrinsics that gremlins might steal.)
• Miscellaneous equipment. See the wishing spoiler for more ideas suited to all character classes. Scrolls of genocide, amulets of life saving, and wands of death are always popular. See "Playing Tips" for monsters that Monks in particular might want to genocide.

Playing Tips

— Now with an extended section on The Quest and Master Kaen! —

• Please see the Absolute Beginner's Guide to Nethack for general tips on surviving early in the game. The Guide is also posted regularly to rec.games.roguelike.nethack.
• Work with your strengths. Monks start out with the following intrinsics: speed, sleep resistance, and see invisible. They also have equal probabilities of starting with spellbooks of sleep, healing, or protection. Thus, because they are likely to be faster than most early monsters, they can run away and heal themselves or temporarily lower their AC, and they can zap sleep spells with abandon and not worry about putting themselves to sleep. (Sleep is extremely useful. Consider it an offensive spell and use it accordingly.)
• Monks also gain one intrinsic per each odd level, up to level 17. Take these into consideration in your playing style.

  XL 3 : Poison resistance
  XL 5 : Stealth
  XL 7 : Warning
  XL 9 : Searching
  XL 11: Fire resistance
  XL 13: Cold resistance
  XL 15: Shock resistance
  XL 17: Teleport control

  The only significant resistance Monks do not automatically receive is disintegration resistance. Vegetarians can counter disintegration blasts with reflection. Alternatively, genocide black dragons.

  [Note: reflection does not protect against wide-angle disintegration beams, which a god will throw when really, really angry. Only disintegration resistance protects against these; the solution for vegetarians is not to annoy the gods that badly!]

• If you chose to wield a weapon, Basic skill is perfectly adequate for the better artifact weapons, particularly if you have high luck. See the Addendum on Artifact Weapons for more information, rather technical, on choosing between artifacts and martial arts based on damage.
• Donate to lower your AC: give all the money you can find to a priest (in chunks of 400 * your experience level). Be sure to see if the portal to Fort Ludios exists in your game. You may also receive protection from your god from praying; this is useful since you'll probably be praying for spellbooks too.
• If you're willing to give up the staggering blows, a small shield is a good way to decrease your AC without seriously interfering with your spellcasting.

• The Quest and Master Kaen

  • Master Kaen, the Monk Quest Nemesis, has a well-deserved reputation for being very tough. Here's the basic information on him: his status line from mon1-341.html:

    SPECIES                LEV SPD  AC  MR  RESISTS   ATTACKS
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~  ~~  ~~  ~~~~~~~~  ~~~~~~~
    @          Master Kaen  25  12 -10  10  P*        16d2 16d2 M0d0+ 1d4-
    

    The M indicates that he is a spellcaster. Master Kaen casts the clerical spells: open wounds (his most frequent spell); cure self; confusion; paralyze; blind; create insects/sticks to snakes; curse items; lightning; fire pillar; and geyser. Only create insects and cure self will be cast from a distance. As the rest shows, he just plain hits hard. He also has the lowest natural AC in the game (tied with disenchanters). His only resistance is poison, however, so sleep and other ranged attacks are often used against him. (Note that in 3.4.1, all Quest Nemeses are stoning-resistant (the *).)

  • When you enter Master Kaen's level, he will be meditating and asleep, the Eyes at his feet. Note that since he's not wearing the Eyes, he's not necessarily magic-protected when you enter the level. In 3.3.1, he's definitely not; in 3.4.0 or later, there's a 1/11 chance he's generated wearing a cloak of magic resistance (the other 10/11 of the time, he will have a robe). The meditation will wear off as soon as he gets a turn and you're in his line-of-sight.

    In 3.3.1 and 3.4.0, Master Kaen was on a direct line with the stairs. Hence, you could get a jump on him if you understood how the speed system works, using a free move to zap him with something when you came down the stairs. **** You may want to take advantage of this for a couple of reasons: first, wands of death/finger of death will only work if he's not magic-protected; second, making sure he's still meditating will give you an opportunity to zap him with a sleep spell, or to engrave Elbereth against the X's and E's, or whatever your preferred strategy is.

    To take advantage of Master Kaen's meditation, you should be very fast and understand how the speed system works. A quick summary for people familiar with the system already: When you are very fast, you get what are effectively free moves, where monsters cannot act. If you time it properly, you can use your free move to zap Master Kaen immediately after coming down the stairs, when he's still meditating and helpless.

    A more exhaustive explanation: A turn is a tick of the time counter ("T:number" on the status line), and a move is the ability to do something—search once, for instance. When you are very fast, you will often be able to move twice in one turn. There isn't a set pattern for when you get free moves, but a free move will occur after two turns in which you only got one move. Try it in wizard mode: wish for speed boots, put them on, and type "s" slowly enough that you can see the time counter move. If you hit "s" twice and increment the time counter each time, the next time you will be able to hit "s" twice and only increment the counter once: you have a free move. Moreover, monsters cannot act during that free move; they have to wait until the next turn.

    Accordingly, when you are standing on the stairs down to (what might be) Master Kaen's level, watch the time counter as you press "s". When the time counter has moved two times for two keypresses, go down on your next move: you should have one more free move in that turn, in which Master Kaen is still meditating and helpless, and you can do as you like.

  • If you are planning to zap Master Kaen, a spell is more likely to hit than a wand, if you are at Basic or higher in the skill and your dexterity is better than 14. In addition, if your experience level is greater than 14 (which it should be, before you go on the Monk Quest), Master Kaen is less likely to resist the effects of a spell than a wand.
  • Note also that it is very easy to get surrounded on the Quest, both because of the phasing ability of Earth Elementals and Xorns (your Quest monsters), and particularly because the last level is a large open room. Don't forget that you can teleport things out of your way on any level; you can also teleport yourself on all of the Quest levels but the first. Better yet, engrave Elbereth (see the Elbereth FAQ); Master Kaen doesn't respect it, but the Xorns & Earth Elementals will, giving you a break from other things while you deal with Master Kaen. Some people will stand on the up stairs and teleport things out of the way until Master Kaen wakes up, and then go upstairs with him following, so that they can polish him off uninterrupted; however, since Master Kaen really does hit hard, caution is advised.
  • A neat way to avoid getting surrounded is to use the lava on Master Kaen's level. If you can levitate over the lava (or if you are fire resistant and have fireproof water walking boots), go over the lava until you are surrounded by it on all sides. The Earth Elementals and Xorns will leave you alone, and Master Kaen won't be able to hit you or cast damaging spells, since he only casts cure self and create insect at a distance. You can then employ your choice of ranged attack (such as a sleep spell).

    (If you're planning to use a ring of levitation, be aware that Master Kaen can cast lightning spells, and thus you run the risk of having your ring exploded.)

  • As a general matter, because the Quest is so tough, Monks should usually do the Castle, fill out their ascension kit, and use whatever mean they allow themselves to increase their hit points and spell points, all before attempting the Quest.
  • In 3.3.1, the staircases on the Quest locate level could have been generated in two small, inaccessible rooms; this was fixed in 3.4.0. (For maps of the Quest levels, see Dylan O'Donnell's Gazetteer.)
• Players wielding weapons often chose a silver weapon for Gehennom, because of the silver damage to demons, vampires, and were-creatures. Weaponless Monks can achieve the same effect by wearing a silver ring and no gloves, if they are lucky enough to have silver rings be something useful in that game. (Note that two rings do not increase the silver bonus. Also, you must wear the ring, not wield it.) If you are going weaponless but are not willing to sacrifice gloves, wear blessed gloves: they provide a smaller damage bonus against undead or demons.

  N.B.: If you chose to play barehanded for silver damage, watch out for chickatrices and cockatrices!

• If you need to use a blindfold to avoid a gaze attack, go ahead; the Eyes still provide magic resistance when carried. (The author forgot this once, and went into fits trying to deal with an Archon in 3.3.1; the Eyes prevent the stunning attack of Archons' radiant gaze in 3.4.0 and subsequent versions.)
• When you attack a monster with martial arts, you receive certain bonuses to your chance to hit the monster and the damage you do to the monster. These bonuses also apply to kicking a monster; thus, if you are playing barehanded and are wearing footwear, you could kick the cockatrice to death, if necessary. Kicking also exercises your skill in martial arts.
• Weaponless Monks might also consider looking for rings of increase damage, since martial arts does less damage than the better artifact weapons. If of the proper material, rings of increase damage may also be eaten; see the ring spoiler for more information.
• Monks can become Expert in healing spells, Skilled in clerical spells, and Basic in every other category. Do not neglect your spellcasting: even lower-level spells can be very useful. For instance, a Monk can use magic missile to quite good effect, and charm/confuse monster are excellent first defenses if you find yourself surrounded. Monks can also cast higher-level spells with low failure rates, with sufficiently high experience levels and spell-friendly armor (robe, helm of brilliance, no metal armor).
• As a corollary, spellcasting Monks should note that charging scrolls can be used on themselves as well as on items. This can be particularly handy if you are saving those potions of gain energy to create full healing potions via alchemy (which I also recommend).

Good luck and have fun!

CREDITS:

I plundered liberally from the following:

• Dion Nicolaas's voluntary challenges FAQ;
• Jason Short's work on vegetarian/vegan challenges;
• nyra's explanation of the speed system;
• Roar Lauritzsen's experiments with lava;
• Dylan O'Donnell's answers to many questions and his spoiler page; and
• The comments of the good denizens of rec.games.roguelike.nethack, in particular Brent Ross, Darshan Shaligram, Seth Scott, Shaman, and Matthew K. Lahut.

Addendum on Artifact Weapons

The following section is quoted from a post to rec.games.roguelike.nethack by Jason Short, <jshort@devon.dhs.org>, discussing the question of which artifact weapons are "good enough" that a Monk with Basic skill would prefer them over martial arts (if not trying to keep weaponless conduct).

Additions and corrections were made by nyra <nyra@gmx.net>.

An interesting question. The following is intended to apply only to monks. I can make no assurances of it's correctness.

Martial arts base damage: 2.5
bonus for "Grand Master": +9
------------------------------
average damage          : 11.5 (excluding strength bonus or increase
                                damage)

nyra corrects:

. . . characters who reach Grand Master skill in martial arts (granting a +9 damage bonus) will on roughly every fourth hit only do one hitpoint damage plus any applicable strength or ring bonus.

. . . The base damage roll for martial arts is 1d4, and the +9 damage bonus is only applied when the base roll is higher than one. . . . The result is that Martial Arts at Grand Master skill doesn't do 1d4+9 hitpoints damage [1] (averaging at 11.5) but rather 1;11;12;13 with equal probabilities, averaging 9.25 hitpoints of damage.

[1] before taking damage boni from strength or rings [or blessed gloves against undead, or silver rings against silver-hating creatures] into account

average damage with selected artifacts at "basic skill":
(again exluding strength bonus or increase damage)
(average damage to small/large monsters)

+7 Grayswandir:   23/23     (plus 10.5 of silver damage)
+7 * Brand:       23/27     (less against * resistant monsters)
+7 Staff of Aes.: 21/21     (PLUS level drain)
+7 Mjollnir:      23/22     (much less against shock-resistant monsters)
+7 Excalibur:     17/19
+7 Snickersnee:   17/18
+7 Stormbringer:  13.5/13   (PLUS level drain)
+7 Vorpal Blade:  12.5/14.5 (plus beheading chance)

+7 Magicbane:     13.4/12.9 (less against MR monsters)
+2 Magicbane:     ~9.5      (less against MR monsters)
+0 Magicbane:     ~7.8      (less against MR monsters)

+0 Mjollnir:      16/15     (MUCH less against shock-resistant monster)
+0 Grayswandir:   9/9       (plus silver damage)
+0 * Brand:       9/13      (less against * resistant monsters)
+0 Cleaver:       10.5/12
+0 Stormbringer:  6.5/6     (plus level drain)
+0 Vorpal blade:  5.5/7.5   (plus beheading chance)

Conclusion: at +7, even Stormbringer is significantly better than martial arts. At +0, though, the only worthwhile weapon is Mjollnir. Note that many of these weapons will give you intrinsics or other bonuses in addition to what is listed above.

nyra adds:

[Based on the correct calcuation of Grand Master damage,] Monks going weaponless afflict less damage than they'd do wielding a +5 long sword or the +0 Excalibur at basic skill.

[Note that Excalibur can be obtained fairly easily by lawful monks.]

Two-weaponing a +7 silver saber with the one-handed artifact of your choice above will give you an extra 11.5 points of damage from the weapon, but will cost you 6 points of damage since you get a -3 with each weapon (monks are restricted in two-weapon). Thus, you'll do an extra 5.5 points of damage per attack - plus silver damage. (Example: two-weaponing grayswandir and a silver saber you'll do an average of 28.5 damage, plus 21 points of extra silver damage.) A long sword, katana, or crysknife will do minimally more damage but without the silver bonus. IIRC, the effects of any rings of increase damage are applied to both weapons, but your strength bonus only applies to the first weapon.

[Editor's note: from 3.4.0 on, Monks (like other classes restricted in #twoweapon) are unable to two-weapon at all.]

Note that I have ignored the strength bonus to damage. This can be as much as +6 (strength 18/** or above), but I believe it is applied equally in all situations. It should therefore not be a factor in choosing a weapon. Also note that I have ignored the chance to hit; this will be a problem at low levels for +0 weapons, whereas a martial arts grand master gets a large bonus.

Information above taken from Dylan O'Donnell's artifact and weapons spoilers, and from the source.

Up to the NetHack Page