For Starters there just is no best race for Monk, or any class for that matter. No matter how much people try to claim there is. There are always valuable trade offs to be had with most races. Even ones that don't necessarily synergize as well with the core of the class by doing something like boosting your int for a wizard or Dex for a rogue or monk for example.
That said... A few races just in general
For the officially released version of the War Forged that we now have. the +1 AC is separate from wearing armor. It is an ability that is given by the integrated protection racial feature that functions regardless of armor the way that it is written. Armor is actually addressed in the following separate bullet point which means that the +1 AC is in no way contingent on actually wearing armor. It's just part of your body. So War Forged in their own way are good for Monks because while only being able to boost one of the two Primary abilities the monk requires it's other stat boost at least bumps up an important secondary ability in Con and it helps through some of it's racial abilities. You don't really have to get Tasha's involved to make a really good monk from this because you don't need perfect stat alignment to do so despite the way people tend to act over it.
And one of my Favorites is actually the Kobold. I know a lot of people dump on the kobold and when people have done ranking lists they tend to list the Kobold dead last. But that's because their weighting systems to be objective do not really take the full value of some things about the kobold into play. Pack Tactics is a very powerful ability and Kobold is the only race I can think of to have this ability (there might be like one more i'm not remembering). And while it doesn't give a secondary stat boost. Dexterity is a really nice stat boost for anybody but particular for the monk since it's one of their core abilities and for a monk focusing entirely on hitting things it's even better because it does the stat that helps them hit better and they tend to want to boost up more than anything. At a glance it has a powerful disadvantage in sunlight sensitivity but this disadvantage does not always come into play and there are a lot of ways and times for adventurers that it does not apply. Also when combined with Pack Tactics by standing next to an ally it's actually a hidden advantage even in sunlight. You can only really have advantage or disadvantage once (a couple of exceptions not withstanding). So At worst when in this configuration your going to be at normal to hit and there are plenty of times you going to be at advantage to hit just about everything, so it doesn't matter if enemies inflict disadvantage on your attacks in such situations because at worst your hitting at normal anyway. It's only truely a disadvantage when you are alone and in direct sunlight which is usually a niche scenario and all classes and builds have at least niche scenario's where they do very poorly. On top of that the Kobold has an interesting group synergy going on that can work with anybody. It might be a sacrifice of your action to use their Grovel, Cower, and Beg racial. But there is potential payback for using it. Inflicting at will Advantage on attacks against enemies within a certain range at a time of your choosing is really strong. you might not do as much damage but you can significantly help others in your party such as those GWM Paladins and Barbarians or those Sharp Shooting ranged characters which can really boost things against something like a BBEG or to lower the strength of a mob of weaker enemies that start to swarm the group to break the threat of them piled up on the party. So there is a lot of potentially powerful tools in the Kobolds Arsenal and adding Monk on as a Class just adds a bunch more because you can do things like the Cower Racial Ability and then your own Patient Defense to make yourself harder to hit to keep those threats close to you and let your party have a field day on them.
Mountain Dwarf. +2, +2 for DEX and WIS is nice. But Half Elf with +2, +1, +1 can give you a CON boost to help with taking hits. Yuan-ti or Satyr for magic resistance is always nice.
But really any race can make a good monk after Tasha’s.
Mountain Dwarf. +2, +2 for DEX and WIS is nice. But Half Elf with +2, +1, +1 can give you a CON boost to help with taking hits. Yuan-ti or Satyr for magic resistance is always nice.
But really any race can make a good monk after Tasha’s.
You can also go hill dwarf if you want more health as well
Mine is a Wood Elf, which gives you +2 dex but some nice racial goodies like darkvision and proficiency on perception checks. Other advantages there as well, but the one that is surprisingly handy is the 4 hours of meditation = same as 8 hours of sleep for others. I was able to allow my party members get more sleep for the long rest when I could do a watch for half the night.
For anyone who still needs help here, this helped me out a lot in building my monk for the first time. Basically any race that can offer a buff when it comes to WIS, DEX, and/or CON is going to be a solid pick.
For anyone who still needs help here, this helped me out a lot in building my monk for the first time. Basically any race that can offer a buff when it comes to WIS, DEX, and/or CON is going to be a solid pick.
That's all of them now (OP was explicitly asking for post-Tasha's advice last year when this ancient thread was posted). MPMM has changed everything yet again, so frankly a new thread is warranted if you want to get into a discussion.
* Halfling - being able to move through the space of another creature is great. Plus, you can arguably do Stunning strike against their crotch for funnzies.
* Goblin - If you're not going to multi with Rogue, that bonus action disengage and hide is great for a lot of Monks.
* Tabaxi - Esp if early level Monk, that climb speed can be invaluable. And Feline Agility, OfC.
* Dhamphir - Even better climb speed than Tabaxi and you can do it without using your hands. Their bite can also setup a good "nova" round for the Monk as well.
* Grung - Poison, climb, leap. Fantastic for Monk.
* Earth Genasi - For that stealthy Monk. Also, ignores difficult earthen terrain issues.
* Halfling - being able to move through the space of another creature is great. Plus, you can arguably do Stunning strike against their crotch for funnzies.
* Goblin - If you're not going to multi with Rogue, that bonus action disengage and hide is great for a lot of Monks.
* Tabaxi - Esp if early level Monk, that climb speed can be invaluable. And Feline Agility, OfC.
* Dhamphir - Even better climb speed than Tabaxi and you can do it without using your hands. Their bite can also setup a good "nova" round for the Monk as well.
* Grung - Poison, climb, leap. Fantastic for Monk.
* Earth Genasi - For that stealthy Monk. Also, ignores difficult earthen terrain issues.
Good points. It's so sad that the grung has an ability that can hurt him however.
I would add bugbear to the list. Stealth is good, with high dex you should gain from surprise attack a lot (been improved with MMM) but the big thing is reach, unless they also have reach you can run up to 10ft from the enemy make your attacks and run away without drawing an op attack
Human variant to immediately take the "mobile" or "crusher" feat.
Armor is not so important if every turn you are too far away to be hit. The monk doesn't have as many hit points, so it's important that it keeps its distance from the melee, kind of like the rogue does. I am of the opinion that the monk excels greatly in his movement speed and it would be a shame not to use it. But any race that can disengage in a practical way is good advice.
I have a half orc monk that is turning into good fun. Since monks don't require INT so much in 5E I was able to strike a balance between DEX and STR. Throw in the role playing possibilites of some sensei versus Gruumsh self talk and ...
I would argue that aarakocra (I always have to check the spelling for this one) is actually a lesser option to the other flying races like fairy, owlin and winged tiefling. This is because while they get the highest flying speed there's a limit to how high you need your shoes and as a monk 30ft starting will still do just fine. Then the other flight races get additional features that stack nicely whereas aarakocra gets Talons - which is mostly redundant due to your level one martial arts feature. I personally favour fairy because of the creature type. Being a fey character leaves you immune to a large number of highly irritating low level appeals like hold person, which often takes you entirely out of the fight
Now that Tasha's has arrived and we can move stats around. What race do you think would work best for the monk?
I'm still a fan of the turtle monk because of the higher AC for early levels and it only becomes redundant at later levels.
Also warforged is good as well. If you count the +1 AC as separate from wearing armor that is.
For Starters there just is no best race for Monk, or any class for that matter. No matter how much people try to claim there is. There are always valuable trade offs to be had with most races. Even ones that don't necessarily synergize as well with the core of the class by doing something like boosting your int for a wizard or Dex for a rogue or monk for example.
That said... A few races just in general
For the officially released version of the War Forged that we now have. the +1 AC is separate from wearing armor. It is an ability that is given by the integrated protection racial feature that functions regardless of armor the way that it is written. Armor is actually addressed in the following separate bullet point which means that the +1 AC is in no way contingent on actually wearing armor. It's just part of your body. So War Forged in their own way are good for Monks because while only being able to boost one of the two Primary abilities the monk requires it's other stat boost at least bumps up an important secondary ability in Con and it helps through some of it's racial abilities. You don't really have to get Tasha's involved to make a really good monk from this because you don't need perfect stat alignment to do so despite the way people tend to act over it.
And one of my Favorites is actually the Kobold. I know a lot of people dump on the kobold and when people have done ranking lists they tend to list the Kobold dead last. But that's because their weighting systems to be objective do not really take the full value of some things about the kobold into play. Pack Tactics is a very powerful ability and Kobold is the only race I can think of to have this ability (there might be like one more i'm not remembering). And while it doesn't give a secondary stat boost. Dexterity is a really nice stat boost for anybody but particular for the monk since it's one of their core abilities and for a monk focusing entirely on hitting things it's even better because it does the stat that helps them hit better and they tend to want to boost up more than anything. At a glance it has a powerful disadvantage in sunlight sensitivity but this disadvantage does not always come into play and there are a lot of ways and times for adventurers that it does not apply. Also when combined with Pack Tactics by standing next to an ally it's actually a hidden advantage even in sunlight. You can only really have advantage or disadvantage once (a couple of exceptions not withstanding). So At worst when in this configuration your going to be at normal to hit and there are plenty of times you going to be at advantage to hit just about everything, so it doesn't matter if enemies inflict disadvantage on your attacks in such situations because at worst your hitting at normal anyway. It's only truely a disadvantage when you are alone and in direct sunlight which is usually a niche scenario and all classes and builds have at least niche scenario's where they do very poorly. On top of that the Kobold has an interesting group synergy going on that can work with anybody. It might be a sacrifice of your action to use their Grovel, Cower, and Beg racial. But there is potential payback for using it. Inflicting at will Advantage on attacks against enemies within a certain range at a time of your choosing is really strong. you might not do as much damage but you can significantly help others in your party such as those GWM Paladins and Barbarians or those Sharp Shooting ranged characters which can really boost things against something like a BBEG or to lower the strength of a mob of weaker enemies that start to swarm the group to break the threat of them piled up on the party. So there is a lot of potentially powerful tools in the Kobolds Arsenal and adding Monk on as a Class just adds a bunch more because you can do things like the Cower Racial Ability and then your own Patient Defense to make yourself harder to hit to keep those threats close to you and let your party have a field day on them.
I think my next character is going to be a Dwarven Monk. Now I need to figure out which subclass to go with.
9-There
8-is
7-no
6-best
5-race
4-for
3-the
2-monk
1-Aarakocra
Mountain Dwarf. +2, +2 for DEX and WIS is nice. But Half Elf with +2, +1, +1 can give you a CON boost to help with taking hits. Yuan-ti or Satyr for magic resistance is always nice.
But really any race can make a good monk after Tasha’s.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
You can also go hill dwarf if you want more health as well
Mine is a Wood Elf, which gives you +2 dex but some nice racial goodies like darkvision and proficiency on perception checks. Other advantages there as well, but the one that is surprisingly handy is the 4 hours of meditation = same as 8 hours of sleep for others. I was able to allow my party members get more sleep for the long rest when I could do a watch for half the night.
Some really good races for monk is:
Tabaxi (SPEEDY!)
Wood Elf
Tortle (Oogway from Kung Fu Panda)
Aarakrocra (Honestly, aarakrocra is really good for any class)
I used a lighfoot halfling for my monk, just for a bit of fun. The +2 dex and +1 cha were a bit of a help with my initial build.
Sure may not have been best choice, but it was fun which is the point.
Odo Proudfoot - Lvl 10 Halfling Monk - Princes of the Apocalypse (Campaign Finished)
Orryn Pebblefoot - Lvl 5 Rock Gnome Wizard (Deceased) - Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (Deceased)
Anerin Ap Tewdr - Lvl 5 Human (Variant) Bard (College of Valor) - Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
For anyone who still needs help here, this helped me out a lot in building my monk for the first time. Basically any race that can offer a buff when it comes to WIS, DEX, and/or CON is going to be a solid pick.
Bugbear. Then get a way to go first.
That's all of them now (OP was explicitly asking for post-Tasha's advice last year when this ancient thread was posted). MPMM has changed everything yet again, so frankly a new thread is warranted if you want to get into a discussion.
Some candidates:
* Halfling - being able to move through the space of another creature is great. Plus, you can arguably do Stunning strike against their crotch for funnzies.
* Goblin - If you're not going to multi with Rogue, that bonus action disengage and hide is great for a lot of Monks.
* Tabaxi - Esp if early level Monk, that climb speed can be invaluable. And Feline Agility, OfC.
* Dhamphir - Even better climb speed than Tabaxi and you can do it without using your hands. Their bite can also setup a good "nova" round for the Monk as well.
* Grung - Poison, climb, leap. Fantastic for Monk.
* Earth Genasi - For that stealthy Monk. Also, ignores difficult earthen terrain issues.
Good points. It's so sad that the grung has an ability that can hurt him however.
I would add bugbear to the list. Stealth is good, with high dex you should gain from surprise attack a lot (been improved with MMM) but the big thing is reach, unless they also have reach you can run up to 10ft from the enemy make your attacks and run away without drawing an op attack
Human variant to immediately take the "mobile" or "crusher" feat.
Armor is not so important if every turn you are too far away to be hit. The monk doesn't have as many hit points, so it's important that it keeps its distance from the melee, kind of like the rogue does. I am of the opinion that the monk excels greatly in his movement speed and it would be a shame not to use it. But any race that can disengage in a practical way is good advice.
I have a half orc monk that is turning into good fun. Since monks don't require INT so much in 5E I was able to strike a balance between DEX and STR. Throw in the role playing possibilites of some sensei versus Gruumsh self talk and ...
Goblin, Variant Human or Custom Lineage are the best mechanically
I would argue that aarakocra (I always have to check the spelling for this one) is actually a lesser option to the other flying races like fairy, owlin and winged tiefling. This is because while they get the highest flying speed there's a limit to how high you need your shoes and as a monk 30ft starting will still do just fine. Then the other flight races get additional features that stack nicely whereas aarakocra gets Talons - which is mostly redundant due to your level one martial arts feature. I personally favour fairy because of the creature type. Being a fey character leaves you immune to a large number of highly irritating low level appeals like hold person, which often takes you entirely out of the fight
Chilling kinda vibe.
aarakocra get dex and wis increases, plus 20th level you have an 80 foot flying speed
grung: whenever you punch someone (which monks do more than anyone) they have to make a save or be poisoned.
i am a human being.