First time playing a Monk on classic - any advice?

[Jimjam]

Go to guk and get a set of mesh armour. It's basically a set of leather but with much lower weight and it is magic, which lets you punch creatures otherwise immune to your attacks.

For feet you might want to try getting soft leather from Befallen - like mesh they are low weight and magic. Note mesh, woven and netted armour sets don't have anything for the foot slot. I guess frogloks don't like clothes on their flippers!

The fine silk turban is a great item for a young monk, dropping off a weak sand giant in Oasis. Magic weapon wise the treant staff is handy. You'll need to buy it at this stage. Glowing crook is a nice low level option from Lockjaw in oasis.

A lot of people are recommending combine weapons to characters, which is usually good advice but note as a monk not to invest in a combine great staff as unlike other combine weapons it has a rather poor sell back value.