I made a low level monk. After struggling with slow levelling experience and having 1 STR forever (can't use much armor or implants), I decided that I would just bite the bullet and punch spiders until I got to 3 STR. I was not actually sure if PUNCHING or MELEE WEAPONS added to STR for monks, but I figured I would go test that out.

I wrote down how much EXP I had in all five skills. Keep in mind, I'm super-lowbie at the moment -- 4/9 rank.

423 xp in INT
426 xp in STR
260 xp in CON
567 xp in DEX
5296 xp in PSI

I spent about 3-4 minutes killing 20 bugs, spiders, roaches, sewer flies, sewer rat, etc, using only the ALT+H fists. Remember, I am only 4/9 rank. Super lowbie.

I checked my EXP gain for all five skills.

423 xp in INT
426 xp in STR
263 xp in CON
567 xp in DEX
5296 xp in PSI

After that 5 minutes of killing 20 bugs I gained 3 CON exp. That was it.

So I figure maybe fists just don't work or something. I equip the TL1 'Knuckles' (looks like brass knuckles). I killed 15 or 20 more bugs.

Same thing. No EXP gain at all, except for a few points in CON from getting hit once or twice.

I understand monks are supposed to gain their XP primarily thru PSI and using psi skills, but this must be a bug, right? I have a hard time believing this is working as intended.

I understand doing missions will give equal points across the board -- yes -- I understand that, and it's true for all characters. But, killing 20 enemies and getting zero, ZERO, ZERO!!!! xp seems like a glitch to me. With any other class, I would've got EXP for spending that time punching dozens of bugs, I am fairly certain.