Previously i have read the common themes in these discussions and while i had not played a Monk i agreed with what had been said on paper.

In our game that just endd My character died and i got to start a Monk at lvl 8 and it continued til the end of the Campaign at lvl 10. for the most part My views have changed.

I will preface saying this is all Pathfinder Stuff with no 3.5

I Built the character with he intent of having my bases covered. I split my 20 pt buy among str dex con wis. and after Gear and Racial (human) i was 18 18 14 16. i went with the Weapon Maser Archtype focused on the temple sword . when the game ended i had a
60 ft move saves of 12 13 12, evasion. And a CMB of +22 to Trip. on a flurry of Blows against a slowed or staggered or stunned or whatever target i could get /8/ attacks. with no Dr 6 of these at my highest Bab (which for the sword was +16, a bit lower for the Punches)

Ac of 27 (28 with mage armor) and 32 using Ki of which i had 9.

Was the character perfect? No it had holes in it, I could do 80 foot jumps but needed to be hasted to clear 20 feet high. couldnt See invis or Fly etc.

but really characters don't exist in a vacuum .

However, i will adMit. in a group where everyone was Uber optimized id have been far less effective Especially if bad guys were improved to compensate for that.

As it is minions needed 20's to hit me and many of the bbeg in the high teens.