The monk is the backbone of any group in this game. He/she is the one constantly slamming the hotkeys on their keyboards trying to save their allies who are ALL on the verge of dying
as for levelling, i've seen level 6's in my area (Yak's bend). To be honest, i was amazed that they got that far, unless someone brought them there. Just make sure to stick around in old ascalon for a while, since there are lots of level 3/4 enemies (lousy whiptail devourers and their evasion....)