[+%damage] (Glass or Crystalline in best cases) of [Spell]
Not useful for a monk, because doesn't have a speed bonus and he has to attack quickly to survive. Also, not very interesting for a mage, even with the spell suffix, generally books can be found more easily. Of course those "bonus" spells don't cost mana but it's stressful using it, plus it requires coming back in town to repair it. It can only has a minor utility in rare situations when an important spell is needed for a level when the spellbook isn't available but definitely, not worth using it. It spoils Monk's weapons in rarefying pure combat staves. Moreover, a Sorceror benefits more from wearing a knife + buckler with nice bonuses.
Concerning the Monk, I would say he's the only class who relies on unique weapons to be sure to progress in the game. He doesn't have alternative.
By the way, does Monk have an inherent attack bonus against Demons like in TD ?

you're right saying they are hard to find with a suffix other than that of +some spell

in diablo 1.09 I ckearly remember that Adria was selling some staff with a suffix of battle type. it was quickness or something. Perhaps, Illusion will teach me how to do this here, too, if we can find that code there. Item generator should be modified anyway Screenshot below:



But it's not that bad actually, Monk's situation can be corrected by giving him higher base damage when wielding staff.

I'm also planning to give him (and Assassins) a critical damage of 4x (instead of standard 2x). This will give them +33% damage on average at Clvl50. Maybe make +100% damage vsDemons into +200% when used by Monk (Monks are supposed to be true Exorcists).

Damage formulas, edited this way could provide better balance for Monks. Just you wait. In the future we will make changes that others never thought possible. Along with a lot better difficulty balance. We really need time (and some help with easy but tedious work).

I continue thinking (and I'm not the only one) that item morphing doesn't have to be a obstacle for the enhancement of the mod.

It's just that I don't want to cause morphing now by just adding 2 base items. And then again by adding 65000 items more. I prefer doing this once.

I totally agree

I've played standard hellfire long time ago (yes yes... since i've met the hell nothing else counts...) and there was possiblity to buy "fighter" staves from griswold, and also sell those in griswold's shop (staves with spells were sold / bought in adria, "fighter's" staves - even with "archangel" options - on griswold shop).

str mag dex vit
Pal 250 60 160 180 ==> 200-60-140-250, Paladin is more HPer-tank and less Dex toon.
Scout 120 80 250 130 ==> 140-50-250-140 "Paladin" sounds more magical, this is archeress
Mage 100 250 60 90 ==> 60-250-60-130, mage and 100 str? lol
Monk 160 90 220 170 ==> 190-80-180-190 'n change their +str and lvl damage on staffs and Unarmed formulas.
As 140 150 210 150 ==> Good, but 4x crit dmg is needed
Glad 250 20 120 250 ==> 250-20-160-200 will be better. Gladiator must be more dextrous than Paladin.

I don't know why the emphasis on str for mages matters. Mag is the only stat that does anything and the others are only for meeting equipment requirements. Allocating points into other stats for that very reason is quite painful, however, I'd imagine being able to just pile all points into the same stat might be too much of an advantage.

By the way, why don't quotes work? I get some error box in Russian that I obviously can't read whenever I click the quote button.

You have to select the text with mouse, and then hit Quote button. It will quote what you selected