Both of them were dwarf paladins and I can say I would pick shield every time. That being said if I were ever to play another monk again it would most definitely be dwarf. My general opinion of the class is that it is just paladins nerfed. So for a monk everything really just boils down to hp & dam roll. With a dwarf monk there were times I would get in 8 attacks a round and when you are wearing a full set of pwent combined with a monk's ability to exploit most racial vulns, that gets pretty nasty. Down side of a monk is that they basically lag themselves, and have no way of keeping anyone in combat. Expect everyone to just flee when you intensify and then just come back and whup on you for three rounds. Sealing kills with a monk specially will require a lag buddy. Oh if you get ganged, don't expect to do anything but die. You could play a monk for the novelty of it, but new shit doesnt really smell any better.