Default Rules: The Constitution bonus is nice, but many of the Dwarf's abilities are either useless or redundant for the Monk. They are the most MAD class in DnD 5e, needing three high ability scores to function effectively with very little room to ignore any of them, and the Monk isn't as durable as the Fighter nor as lethal as the Rogue. Flurry of Blows will probably eat most of your Ki Points, but don't blow through it too quickly. Second you should address the issue of ranged combat. Customized Origin: +2/+1 resistances. Further to the monk race — I think you meant Aarakocra not Aasimar in STRONG OPTIONS. The Intelligence decrease has been removed, and the Primal Intuition now allows selecting two skills from a list. The behir makes two attacks: one with its bite and one to constrict. This feature gives you the power to heal using ki points. Until your rage ends, your weapon deals psychic damage instead of its bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage, and it gains the light and thrown properties with a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet. They include: At level two you become far more mobile you are without armor. This is only the case when you are not wearing armor or a shield. Customized Origin: Three +1 increases, Darkvision, damage resistance, and some innate spellcasting. By this level enemies with resistance to weapon damage from non-magical attacks are increasingly common, and since unarmed strikes aren't a weapon they can't benefit from spells like Magic Weapon. As dexterity should always be your top priority, your monk could avoid a lot of AOE damage. The Monk's best ranged options are normally crossbows and darts, and those aren't fantastic options. You get multiple attacks, essentially giving you two-weapon fighting with needing any feats (or weapons, for that matter). Your first and most obvious choice is a weapon that can exceed the damage of a spear. These subclasses typically benefit a great deal from this feature, and this buff may be enough to make those subclasses much more viable. Please check "Last Updated" date below the title of each page. Notably this also applies to Death Saving Throws. Simple, Martial, and Exotic Weapons; Melee and Ranged Weapons. Some of these disciplines allow your monk to cast spells without the components. Sound intriguing? The Dwarven Fortitude racial feat has a neat side-effect: you can use Ki to Dodge as a bonus action, which still allows you to spend a hit die to heal. For more on multiclassing, see my Practical Guide to Multiclassing. The Kalasthar's mental defenses are excellent, making them a great choice in a campaign which features foes like mind flayers. urumi: 1d8 slashing damage an impressive 18-20x2 critical. The class is well-balanced, and mixes in a useful crowd control ability and a huge damage dealing option at level 17. Alternatively, you can spend 8 ki points to cast Astral Projection. You also get a few extra proficiencies. Most subraces/variants will give you innate spellcasting, but the spellcasting is Charisma-based so it's a hard choice for the Monk. Constrict. GenasiEGtW: See above under the general Races section. Tranquility gives you the option of being a pacifist. Based on the them, it should not surprise you this archetype involves a mixture of healing and damage dealing. Almost all monks rely on Dexterity for attacks, so it sets your attacks, damage, and AC, and having good Dexterity will help avoid AOE damage which can quickly cut into your d8 hit points. Martial arts gives you an array of important benefits including: Great stuff here. Nonlethal: These weapons deal nonlethal damage (see Combat). The Aarakocra will make an excellent ranged Kensei, but once you're in melee with enemies that can't fly, the Aarakocra is little better than the Wood Elf or any other race with similar ability score increases. If you're having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions: This section does not address every published feat, as doing so would result in an ever-growing list of options which don't cater to the class. Customized Origin: +2/+1 increases (each subrace offers a +1 increase), Darkvision, and Gnome Cunning. What’s more, when you fail a saving throw you can spend a ki point to reroll. That said, we have covered some of the best and worst fits below. You already get excellent speed, and you can spend Ki to Dash as a Bonus Action. To sum it up, the monk is a fun class but it could use a little love. Timeless Body doesn't matter much, but there are a handful of effects that can kill you by magically aging you. This subclass was designed to fill some holes in the monk class by opening up some weapon options. Unlike other classes, however, you have two abilities that will be ideally maxed out, and two more that need a fair amount of attention. You reduce the damage from these attacks by 1d10 plus your dexterity modifier plus your monk level. When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk … Way of the Astral Self has a higher reliance on Wisdom due to Astral Arms, so if you're building an astral self monk reverse Dexterity and Wisdom in the recommendations below. Empty Body: Invisibility is fantastic. Quivering Palm is a save-or-die effect, plain and simple. This substantially improves your survivability. This section briefly details so obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn't fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. You can also raise the level of a spell by spending ki points. Saves: Strength saves aren't terribly common, but Dexterity saves are great for resisting damaging AOE effects. Unarmed combat in 5E is not particularly fleshed out, and you can play through without having a specific form of martial art in mind for your character. This is a basic rundown of your multiclassing options. The damage die is small, but your Martial Arts die raises it to be in line with similar weapons, so the trade is less harsh. Customized Origin: +2/+1 increases, Darkvision, two damage resistances, and some innate spellcasting. Wildemount halflings share the core traits of PHB halflings, but Wildemount adds a new subrace. Talk to your DM about what races are allowed in your game. Some live quiet lives away from society in monasteries. Customized Origin: +2/+1 increases, Lucky, and Brave. Lesser Restoration fills a crucial role in any party, and combined with hit dice and possibly the Quickened Healing Optional Class Feature you can get pretty far without having access to a cleric or a similar healer. Customized Origin: +2/+1 increases and one skill. These attacks can be any combination of unarmed strikes and attacks with a monk special weapon (he does not need to use two weapons to utilize this ability). Default Rules: Constitution and a flexible increase work great, and the bonus AC will allow you to reach an AC of 21 totally unequipped. Deflect Missiles: Monk 5e remained unarmored till level 3rd, but once you get it, you can make use of any ranged weapon attack to deflect or catch the missile. Default Rules: Monks are nearly always built on Dexterity and Wisdom, but tortles may be the only race with the ability to overlook Dexterity on a Monk. First, the dueling fighting style +2 damage when fighting with a weapon and a free hand. TabaxiEGtW: See above under the general Races section. Martial Arts gives you two attacks per turn, and with a spear in hand your damage output is very solid. The problem is that monk is poorly balanced to begin with. I recommend allowing Dedicated Weapon on all monks using a subclass which I rate green or lower. Given the nature of the class, it should come as no surprise that you own far less than any other character. Extra Attack: Three attacks with Martial Arts, or four with Flurry of Blows. Stillness of Mind: Situational, but a lot of enemies have Charm and/or Fear effects. They are the most MAD class in DnD 5e, needing three high ability scores to function effectively with very little room to ignore any of them, and the Monk isn't … At levels 6, 11, and 17 you gain additional disciplines. It removes the need for Strength, and gives you all the benefits of two-weapon fighting without the need for weapons, feats, or combat styles. In this case, your unarmed strikes are magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance or immunity to nonmagical attacks. While not always useful, Slow Fall can be a lifesaver in a pinch. In my view, the strength of the monk lies in its class features. Sneak attack class 5e: Once per turn, when a maverick with the Sneak Attack class include attacks with a hand crossbow, shortbow, or weapon from the light cutting edge or sling weapon gatherings, and hits a foe giving the battle favorable position to the rebel, the attack bargains additional harm.Characters with the Rebel Strategies class highlight who select its … I also won't cover Unearthed Arcana content because it's not finalized, and I can't guarantee that it will be available to you in your games. Valheim Dedicated Server | What is it, How Do You Use It? Flavorwise, Way of the Sun Soul is cool. GoblinEGtW: See above under the general Races section. Default Rules: Fantastic ability increases and abnormally fast for a small character (though with the Monk's increased speed that doesn't matter much). As it is, the damage comes out "Alright" compared to fighters, paladins, and barbarians. I recommend looking for feats which provide an increase to one of your ability scores so that you can get increases to both Dexterity and Wisdom. It’s not terrible. Curious when you get them? Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.Hit: 22 (3d10 + 6) piercing damage. Take a vow of silence if necessary. The ability to speak with everything is neat, but with dumped Charisma I don't know how much good it will do. Others boast hundreds of members spread across the map. Way of the Open Hand does not have the flavor of Long Death or Drunken Masters, but it is a great class. Great weapon fighting is also a good option. Your damage scales with level, you can't be disarmed, and you technically don't need your hands free to fight unarmed. Perfect Self: Dramatically improves the Monk's sustainability throughout the day. While Way of the Long Death does little to address some of the challenges with fighting at range monks deal with, it does give a valuable tank boost to a fairly squishy frontline fighter. You regain all of your ki points after a long or short rest, just as long as you spend 30 minutes of that rest meditating. This subclass focuses on healing the wounded and bringing a swift end to the suffering. Going straight to 1d10 damage at level 2 means that you're getting as much damage as the Monk's best Martial Arts damage die, which feels pretty good at level 2. Even if the target succeeds on the save, it's still an average of 55 damage, which is enough to be a serious problem for a creature that has already taken a lot of damage. Customized Origin: +2/+1 increases. High on charisma and holding some nice racial traits, learn all about them in our Satyr 5E Guide. It's not perfect, but that goes a long way to improve the Monk's capabilities in ranged combat. Customized Origin: One +2 increase and a second from your subrace, Darkvision, four weapons, and one tool. Essentially you'll be using a 1d6 weapon with versatile until level 10 (which means either a quarterstaff or a spear), then you'll use your bare hands from then on unless you've found a magic weapon. Even though they're not tied to an ability score, they're still a saving throw, and accoring to Jeremy Crawford, "If all saves are affected by a thing, death saves are affected.". Leviathan Will and the additional skills are great additions, too. Mercy monks walk a fine line between life and death. A monk may select Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat at 2nd level. Tongue of the Sun and Moon: This would be more helpful if Monks were any good at talking to things. The Draconblood and Ravenite subraces are addressed under Races of Wildemount, below. Reach Weapons; Double Weapons; ... Monk… Last Oasis Walkers | What Are They, What Do They Do? Default Rules: The Constitution bonus and Saving Face are the only things that the monk can use, and Saving Face is less useful for a class which is all about making lots of attacks. In some cases your ki feature requires a saving throw. See Our Complete Way of the Open Hand 5E Guide. Many enemies have resistance to non-magical weapon attacks. Some strong options include: Straight out of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is the Way of the Kensei. You can use a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike or monk weapon. Given you really want your monk to max out on dexterity and wisdom, feats might not be in the cards. Monks come in many forms. Starting at Level 1, your AC is 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier. The Warforged's resistances and immunities may overlap with some monk class features, but not so much that it makes the race less viable. You must take the result of the second roll, however. To summarize: the Lizardfolk doesn't solve any big problems for the Monk, but it can work if you can get past the lack of a Dexterity increase. We discuss these in-depth below. Default Rules: Good ability bonuses, and Perception helps to capitalize on the Monk' excellent Wisdom. Healing Hands offers minor healing which is helpful on any character, but won't be especally impactful beyond low levels. These rules are optional, and you should not assume that your DM will allow these features without consulting them first. Astral Projection is situational, but by this level a safe means to explore the outer planes is very welcome. Many of these subclasses make an effort to address these flaws, but few do it adequately. Unarmored Defense: 20 Dexterity and 20 Wisdom is an eventual goal for every Monk. Introduced in Tasha's Cauldron of Everyting, Optional Class Features offer way to add additional features or replace existing once. Evasion helps, but it only works if you succeed on the save. If your campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms, there are dozens of monastic orders to choose from. That… covers almost all weapons in the game. Dragonmark traits replace ALL of your normal racial traits. The ability to make hit-and-run attacks while remaining out of enemies reach is a great tactical option for the Monk, especially if you have a durable ally to discourage enemies from chasing you. When going for the best possible monk build for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, there are a … In addition to Unarmored Defense, Martial Arts is the other cornerstone of the Monk class. See above for information on other halfling subraces. Essentially, this operates as a standard monk on steroids. Customized Origin: Three ability score increases is hard to beat for the Monk, and the abundance of options to replace the standard Half-Elf's two skills means that you have several options to choose from. Improve this question. All of the following are class features of the monk.. Doing so can improve the Monk's durability, allowing them to compensate for their relatively small hit die compared to the Fighter by healing themselves beyond what their hit dice could provide. Way of Shadow is an obvious choice, but most subclasses will work. The end result is a highly-trained, physically talented warrior that can shift the flow of battle. The biggest draw is the subraces' transformations, which vary by subrace but all provide a short-duration combat buff. I recommend allowing Quickened Healing on all monks using a subclass which I rate green or lower. See our Complete Way of the Four Elements 5E Guide. Taking a dip into rogue suddenly makes that subclass pretty strong. Int: Generally dump, unless you really need to use knowledge skills. This die changes as you gain monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.-- Player's Handbook, page 78 (emphasis mine) Default Rules: Dexterity and magic resistance. So: This will be the only staple build where we employ the human. "If all saves are affected by a thing, death saves are affected. The Satyr is a better fit thank the Yuan-Ti Pureblood since they don't have redundant poison immunity and they get additional skills. unarmed strike: Tried and true. Useful in some cases, but cool in every situation. Monks are excellent Defenders and Strikers, and typically fill a role in party as a Fighter-equivalent or Rogue-equivalent depending on your subclass and proficiencies. The Palid Elf subrace is addressed under Races of Wildemount, below. You gain more points as you level up. However, you need to take at least 2 levels to be worth it. While the design intent for Dragonmarks was that they would offer some innate spellcasting for everyone, every dragonmark includes an expanded spell list which is arguably a more significant benefit than most of the provided racial traits. Given how common poison is, this useful. After a short rest, you may designate a non-monk weapon to make it a monk weapon. You'll need to find weapon proficiencies somewhere, but between racial traits, feats, and multiclassing, you have plenty of options. […], this article states Aasimar are good as monks due to their +2 dex and +1 wisdom but all other 5e references say the race gives +2 cha only. That said, most of them come with the tradeoff of losing an attribute point. It reaches 30 feet at level 18. Beyond that there are few interest options, but you can only use one at a time so three is probably more than you'll ever need. Their telepathy notable doesn't require creatures to share a language, though that doesn't somehow make you a good Face for the party. 1. This subclass was designed to fill some holes in the monk class by opening up some weapon options. Hidden Step is nice, but Invisibility is available as an innate spell on several races. Daunting Roar provides a nice crowd control effect, and the DC is Constitution-based so it should be reasonably effective for many monks. Starting at 3rd level, you can use your reaction to deflect or catch the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon attack.When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + your monk level.. Customized Origin: Even with rearranged ability scores, the Centaur's traits are too dependent on Strength. At level nine you can run up vertical surfaces or walk on liquids without falling. Note that setting-specific races like the Changeling and the Satyr are addressed in setting-specific sections, below. This build is simple, and relies on options from the SRD and the Basic Rules wherever possible. Saving Face is the Hobgoblin's distinguishing feature, and it's a great way to recover from a failed saving throw but I wouldn't waste it on an attack roll. Array of powerful spells? Extra Attack brings you to 3 attacks nearly every turn, and with 5 Ki points to spend between short rests you can afford to perform a Flurry of Blows frequently. Instead, this section will cover feats which I think work especially well for the class or which might be tempting but poor choices. Both of these options are interesting but the ki point cost is high. Goring Rush is redundant with Step of the Wind, and since Hammering Horns is Strength-based it's borderline useless for the Monk. As a front-line melee character you're going to be targeted by AOE damage effects. You can move the Constitution increase around, but increasing Constitution is still the best way to use that increase. The Orc of Exandria entry from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount omits the Powerful Build trait, but it's not clear if that was an intentional change. So many of the other classes are either a weird ability fit or have overlapping abilities that multiclassing your monk isn’t always wise. The Astral Self monk can take a translucent form, landing strikes with phantom limbs. The central point of selecting abilities for a monk is remembering that strength is not vital despite your role as a frontline fighter. GoblinERLW: See above under the general Races section. This allows you to travel the outer planes freely. To see what I still need to complete to catch up with Tasha's, see my To-Do List. Customized Origin: +2/+1 increases and resistance to charm and fear effects, but that's all that the monk can use in any meaningful way. There are some glaring holes the basic monk has, however. Dedicated Weapon. Using the unpredictable movements common with drunkards, this subclass is about using misdirection to hit and run. The Monk is the most MAD class in the game. Monks have high enough Dexterity that with the right skills they can function as Scouts, and with high Wisdom they're also good at Insight and Perception. Nimble Escape is somewhat redundant with what you can do with Ki, but if you're planning to rely on hit-and-run tactics it can save you a lot of Ki. In fact later you list Aasimar as being of LIMITED VALUE. Your unarmed strike damage also increases at Level 5, which makes this potent. Many people really sweat finding the perfect race for their Monk. This training will guide much of your character’s nature. The Open Hand Monk is a solid striker with a nice mix of melee capabilities. We will assume the point buy abilities suggested above. There are three basic uses of ki points; your Monk will gain more at higher levels. It notably sets the save DC for class features which allow targets to make saving throws, so it's especially important for subclasses which rely heavily on offensive special abilities. Wisdom bonuses are nice too, and bonuses to Constitution are very helpful. Even against a target within normal range, the attack roll has disadvantage unless the weapon is a crossbow, a net, or a weapon that is thrown like a javelin (including a spear, trident, or dart). Assessments and suggestions for specific Optional Class Features are presented here, but for more information on handling Optional Class Features in general, see my Practical Guide to Optional Class Features. I will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, even if it is my own, because I can't assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. At level two, you get another level 1 spell, a channel divinity, and a domain feature. Way of the Shadow’s biggest downfall is that it is an underpowered rogue wannabe. I recommend allowing Focused Aim on all monks. Con: With only d8 hit dice, Constitution is very important for the Monk. If you take one level, you should probably take two however. Customized Origin: +2/+1 increases (each subrace provides an additional +1), Darkvision, one skill (which you should leave as Perception). Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields. See Our Complete Way of the Long Death Guide. Default Rules: The Intelligence increase is wasted, but Gnome Cunning is helpful. You can boost these attacks further with flurry of blows. Customized Origin: +2/+1 increases (each subrace provides an additional +1), but the vast majority of the Genasi's traits come from the subraces. Subclasses can introduce additional complexity to the class, but that complexity also brings a lot of diversity and a lot of fun options. Often, they seek spiritual growth. It aims to be a Rogue-like monk, but it comes up short in matching the strength of a pure member of either class. It gives your monk the ability to blast Dragonball Z style energy attacks at range, which in theory should address some issues with the class. What are the best monk feats? Focused Aim lets you spend ki points to increase an attack roll following a miss. This another thing to consider when fleshing out your character and the monastery they call home. Purity of Body: Disease and Poison can both be debilitating, and become more common as you gain levels. Default Rules: Vanilla Tieflings aren't great as Monks simply due to their ability scores, but the Feral variant may be enough.