Been playing IWD2 for a while now, tried many parties and multiclass strats, the only class i haven't played around with yet is a monk.
First off, is there any way to make a monk dual wield fists? And if there isn't, can i mainhand fist, offhand some other weapon and incur no other penalties outside of normal dual wield minus's? Going to make a new 4 person party with monk as scout/2nd tank and just skip thief skills entirely and i'd rather not waste a lot of time on the party if monk doesn't work out.
Thanks for any advice, Melestav

Monks are ok. Although nowhere near as good as in NWN.
You must treat your monk as a normal fighter (wear armor and use weapons - axe comes with the kit) until he reaches a fairly high level (Level 10 I'd say), otherwise he'll be crushed in seconds. If not, he'll have to use ranged weapons till he's strong enough. I'd pick a human for the extra feats.

The frustration even at later levels, is that there are no enhancing gloves for the monk, so he's stuck with his +1 or +2 fists when you need +3 or +4 weapons to touch monsters. And his damage is always of the bludgeoning type.

Regarding dual wield, I'd say it shouldn't work on a monk fists (i.e. wouldn't give him an extra attack with fists), although I never tried it.

I tried a monk/cleric of Ilmater and he's cool cuz at 26 Wis, the AC bonus is great.I used a returnable throwing axe (the Battle Room one) and it ain't bad at all as it give me a mid-range fighter with an AC of 30.

From what I have read in other posts, you cannot dual wield fists.

I have only used a monk once, and he made a good scout/decoy character. But until he gets up in levels, he shouldn't be used as a tanking character - I tried and died.
His high AC is good for having enemies concentrate on him, since he is the most difficult to hit. Hence - scout/decoy.

Just my $0.02 :D

I have almost always had a monk in every party. Can't live without them for the role you say. They are way better decoys than rogues due to mega AC and evasion.

I have to say that my monks would do better if they were stronger, I never give them more STR since I max out DEX and WIS for the AC. Never forget that they can't tank or fight as well as a true fighter. That does not mean they can't, but they are never number 1 fighter.

I would advise that if you can get the useful monk items in the game and there are a few, you need them, and a STR more than 10 would surely help. Thinking about it, they don't need as much INT so next time I make a monk I will crush the INT and/ or CHA for STR.

Cheers.