I am not a fan of multiclassing. Not because of optimizing and extra details to remember, but mostly because you don't get the capstone ability(ies).
That said, I think rage would fit very nice for the Monk, at least the way I would play. Rage damage can be applied to each of the Monk's attacks? Nice. Having resistance to BPS damage would be an extra layer of helpful defense at the lower levels any way against those kinds of attacks. Not so much against spells, albeit those defensive features come later.
Rage damage bonus is only applied to attacks that use Strength
Martial Arts only works when you're not wearing any armor or shield at all
The combination of those two things means you have to kinda have to invest in both Strength and Dexterity to stay effective. It's not a deal breaker, I don't think; you just have to think carefully about your ability scores.
You're also a bit limited in what weapons you can use, because Martial Arts doesn't work at all if you're holding a non-Monk weapon, and most of the weapons you'd probably want to use as a Barbarian aren't Monk weapons.
It really doesn't matter what the sheet allows you to do it only applies to attacks with strength. Sometimes the sheet lies.
"Rage Damage. When you make an attack using Strength—with either a weapon or an Unarmed Strike—and deal damage to the target, you gain a bonus to the damage that increases as you gain levels as a Barbarian, as shown in the Rage Damage column of the Barbarian Features table.
That said a Rage monk is still viable. You will have some issues with AC (Str/Dex/Con/Wis), but the damage increase on all those Str based attacks is stil quite good. Grappling boosts are excellent. To make it more viable some of the legacy species options (Tortle AC 17, Lizardfolk AC 13+Dex) can help simplify the ability point spread. Monk also has its own damage mitigation tools in deflect attacks. But if you max str you are looking at an AC of 14 to start without help from something else. That doesn't feel too good. Point buy spread is probably 16(7+2), 14(7), 13(5), 9(1), 15(7+1), 8.
Your ASI's are tough to spend here. You have a lot of mouth's to feed. Choose two.
And, to be clear, Monks can still choose to use Strength for their unarmed strikes and Monk weapon attacks. Their Martial Arts feature gives them the option to use Dexterity for these things, but it's an option, not a requirement. D&D Beyond's online character sheet doesn't support this well because it's a very unusual choice for a player to make.
But since you don't get any of the benefits of the Martial Arts feature when you're wearing any armor, you still need to have a good Dexterity score to keep your AC up.
d8 punch damage off the bat, can wear medium armour and a shield, and all the benefits of going straight Barbarian. The ability to hit enemies that require a magic weapon to hit is solved by one of two magic items. One of which I think is common.
d8 punch damage off the bat, can wear heavy armour and a shield, and all the benefits of going straight Barbarian. The ability to hit enemies that require a magic weapon to hit is solved by one of two magic items. One of which I think is common.
Well this isn't a debate about "vs" or about going straight Barbarian, after a dip in a entirely different class I am talking about. I am only talking about whether it's worth it to take 1st level dip in Barbarian for a Monk, given that I am no fan of multiclassing anyway. I'd like to keep it on topic.
I am not sure a strength based monk is viable period. Since Barbarian requires strength to take advantage of its features and a min 13 to even start it doesn't work as a well as a one level dip of fighter or ranger.
I am not sure a strength based monk is viable period.
Yeah. Part of the problem is, as I mentioned above, the Monk's entire Martial Arts class feature (which includes the ability to Unarmed Strike as a bonus action, as well as the damage die progression and Dexterity option for Unarmed Strikes and Monk Weapons) doesn't work if you are wearing any armor at all.
If you're not wearing armor, you need Dexterity for defense, so you can't just abandon it entirely, and now you have to keep boosting Dexterity and Strength to stay effective instead of just Dexterity.
Or, you put on armor anyway and lose all the Martial Arts stuff, in which case why are you taking Monk levels at all?
I am not a fan of multiclassing. Not because of optimizing and extra details to remember, but mostly because you don't get the capstone ability(ies).
That said, I think rage would fit very nice for the Monk, at least the way I would play. Rage damage can be applied to each of the Monk's attacks? Nice. Having resistance to BPS damage would be an extra layer of helpful defense at the lower levels any way against those kinds of attacks. Not so much against spells, albeit those defensive features come later.
🤔
Two things to keep in mind with this combination:
The combination of those two things means you have to kinda have to invest in both Strength and Dexterity to stay effective. It's not a deal breaker, I don't think; you just have to think carefully about your ability scores.
You're also a bit limited in what weapons you can use, because Martial Arts doesn't work at all if you're holding a non-Monk weapon, and most of the weapons you'd probably want to use as a Barbarian aren't Monk weapons.
pronouns: he/she/they
Nope. Just checked and it works jointly with Monk's Dex on damage rolls on the character sheet. Just like Tavern Brawler does.
That may be true, but the rules do very clearly say that it only applies to attacks that use Strength.
pronouns: he/she/they
It really doesn't matter what the sheet allows you to do it only applies to attacks with strength. Sometimes the sheet lies.
"Rage Damage. When you make an attack using Strength—with either a weapon or an Unarmed Strike—and deal damage to the target, you gain a bonus to the damage that increases as you gain levels as a Barbarian, as shown in the Rage Damage column of the Barbarian Features table.
That said a Rage monk is still viable. You will have some issues with AC (Str/Dex/Con/Wis), but the damage increase on all those Str based attacks is stil quite good. Grappling boosts are excellent. To make it more viable some of the legacy species options (Tortle AC 17, Lizardfolk AC 13+Dex) can help simplify the ability point spread. Monk also has its own damage mitigation tools in deflect attacks. But if you max str you are looking at an AC of 14 to start without help from something else. That doesn't feel too good. Point buy spread is probably 16(7+2), 14(7), 13(5), 9(1), 15(7+1), 8.
Your ASI's are tough to spend here. You have a lot of mouth's to feed. Choose two.
And, to be clear, Monks can still choose to use Strength for their unarmed strikes and Monk weapon attacks. Their Martial Arts feature gives them the option to use Dexterity for these things, but it's an option, not a requirement. D&D Beyond's online character sheet doesn't support this well because it's a very unusual choice for a player to make.
But since you don't get any of the benefits of the Martial Arts feature when you're wearing any armor, you still need to have a good Dexterity score to keep your AC up.
pronouns: he/she/they
A one level Fighter dip for Unarmed Fighting Style and then full Barbarian is a better Monk than a Monk is.
In what way(s)?
d8 punch damage off the bat, can wear medium armour and a shield, and all the benefits of going straight Barbarian. The ability to hit enemies that require a magic weapon to hit is solved by one of two magic items. One of which I think is common.
Well this isn't a debate about "vs" or about going straight Barbarian, after a dip in a entirely different class I am talking about. I am only talking about whether it's worth it to take 1st level dip in Barbarian for a Monk, given that I am no fan of multiclassing anyway. I'd like to keep it on topic.
1st level Fighter dip, 1st level Barbarian dip, I see no difference. Either way you're taking one level of another class.
If you're building a strength Monk then going Barbarian might be worth it for Rage. If you're going traditional dexterity Monk then probably not.
I am not sure a strength based monk is viable period. Since Barbarian requires strength to take advantage of its features and a min 13 to even start it doesn't work as a well as a one level dip of fighter or ranger.
Yeah. Part of the problem is, as I mentioned above, the Monk's entire Martial Arts class feature (which includes the ability to Unarmed Strike as a bonus action, as well as the damage die progression and Dexterity option for Unarmed Strikes and Monk Weapons) doesn't work if you are wearing any armor at all.
If you're not wearing armor, you need Dexterity for defense, so you can't just abandon it entirely, and now you have to keep boosting Dexterity and Strength to stay effective instead of just Dexterity.
Or, you put on armor anyway and lose all the Martial Arts stuff, in which case why are you taking Monk levels at all?
pronouns: he/she/they
ie: You'd have to roll those stats :P