Way of shadow holds a special place in my heart. The teleport between shadows ability is soooo fun. For a couple years I've been playing a gnome shadow monk(10)/rouge(1). He has the cloak of the bat and super high stealth. I play it like a nocturnal assassin. At night you'll be so much stronger. My dm allowed me to ask a smith to make me a couple custom magic items They are small black marbles make a 5 ft radius of dim light and my other party members have them so i can teleport to them if i need to. I also can throw one and teleport to it.
Very fun stealth subclass overall. Probably not as powerful as open hand or some of the others but in my opinion, because of the mobility, the most fun.
Currently I would probably say Way of the Open hand. I am playing a Mercy Monk right now and that might take its place. I have also briefly played a Shadow Monk as well as played a Four Elements monk for a campaign and a one shot. As flavorful as the Four Elements monk was, in the campaign I had to work with my DM to write up new elemental options because there simply weren't enough for the element I wanted to focus on at early level (earth). He was also nice enough to basically let me have a "rock attack" that didnt cost ki that was kind of like attacking with a dart, but it scaled with my marital arts, so I could really feel like an Avatar-esque bender. And in the one shot I played the four elements monk, it was a level 20 one shot and I just felt completely overshadowed by the druids' wildshape and wizard's ability to trap a dragon in a prismatic wall. Still had a pretty fun time, though.
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Way of the Long Death has allowed me to create some very interesting characters I normally could not create with other classes.
I created a Halfling Long Death monk who was functionally a barbarian...their ability to cause the "frightened" effect at-will was essentially just their depraved battle-roar they'd shout while charging into enemies with hatchets.
I played them similar to Krieg from the "Borderlands" videogame series. A very fun "turn your brain off" character for simple sessions.
For a more nuanced character, I had created a vengeful monk...their monastery was betrayed & destroyed by other murderous monks, and the Long Death Monk was left for dead...but intervention by a deity of death spared them (The Raven Queen).
Their ability to shrug off killing blows is personified by their otherworldly need for vengeance...fun to flavor, too: they may suffer from cuts, broken bones, or weapons embedded in their body...but they won't stop fighting.
The "Way of Mercy" has my curiosity; but I haven't really narrowed down a character concept for it...but when the "Way of the Ascendant Dragon" is officially released, that will probably become my favorite subclass.
It doesn't strictly have to be based off dragons, either...you can forego the "draconic" flavoring and instead substitute a variety of elemental sources to base your martial arts off of...maybe the monk travelled the various Elemental Planes, studying the elements to integrate into their fighting styles.
Or maybe they were taught by various Genie...or maybe their masters were the apex of the elements themselves: a Leviathan, or a Phoenix, perhaps.
Way of the Long Death has allowed me to create some very interesting characters I normally could not create with other classes.
I created a Halfling Long Death monk who was functionally a barbarian...their ability to cause the "frightened" effect at-will was essentially just their depraved battle-roar they'd shout while charging into enemies with hatchets.
I played them similar to Krieg from the "Borderlands" videogame series. A very fun "turn your brain off" character for simple sessions.
For a more nuanced character, I had created a vengeful monk...their monastery was betrayed & destroyed by other murderous monks, and the Long Death Monk was left for dead...but intervention by a deity of death spared them (The Raven Queen).
Their ability to shrug off killing blows is personified by their otherworldly need for vengeance...fun to flavor, too: they may suffer from cuts, broken bones, or weapons embedded in their body...but they won't stop fighting.
The "Way of Mercy" has my curiosity; but I haven't really narrowed down a character concept for it...but when the "Way of the Ascendant Dragon" is officially released, that will probably become my favorite subclass.
It doesn't strictly have to be based off dragons, either...you can forego the "draconic" flavoring and instead substitute a variety of elemental sources to base your martial arts off of...maybe the monk travelled the various Elemental Planes, studying the elements to integrate into their fighting styles.
Or maybe they were taught by various Genie...or maybe their masters were the apex of the elements themselves: a Leviathan, or a Phoenix, perhaps.
For the Mercy Monk I am playing right now, I am leaning heavily into their "plague doctor" appearance. I have flavored mine as a Dwarf who has studied an "ancient dwarven" healing method that relies on muscle care and bone setting. So basically all of my extra healing and harm comes from popping a joint back into/out of place and my dwarve's sense of "ki" is closer to his feeling of exerting his willpower over those he is influencing with his "medicine"
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I love Open Hand, it's a true classic, but drunken master has a special place in my heart because of the great movie it was based upon, I have never read SCAG so I don't know about long death, sounds cool though.
I personally really like shadow, kensei, and mercy. it was very close between them, but I went with kensei because it was the first monk I ever played.
I personally really like shadow, kensei, and mercy. it was very close between them, but I went with kensei because it was the first monk I ever played.
Hard to forget your first PC in a class....
I will always remember my Shadow monk for the same reason.
The Kensei is my first (and only) Monk I have played. I really like all the features it gives you at different levels. I took Sharpshooter too, so my regular combo was to Sharpshoot and deft strike. They are very easy to play (in my opinion) too.
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Erean Cabenrith a Variant Human Cleric (Light Domain)
It's hard to pick a favorite. With all of the playing I've done of various kinds of monks to test things in actual game play. Most of them have things that make them interesting and things that I wish were a little bit different.
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Way of shadow holds a special place in my heart. The teleport between shadows ability is soooo fun. For a couple years I've been playing a gnome shadow monk(10)/rouge(1). He has the cloak of the bat and super high stealth. I play it like a nocturnal assassin. At night you'll be so much stronger. My dm allowed me to ask a smith to make me a couple custom magic items They are small black marbles make a 5 ft radius of dim light and my other party members have them so i can teleport to them if i need to. I also can throw one and teleport to it.
Very fun stealth subclass overall. Probably not as powerful as open hand or some of the others but in my opinion, because of the mobility, the most fun.
Currently I would probably say Way of the Open hand. I am playing a Mercy Monk right now and that might take its place. I have also briefly played a Shadow Monk as well as played a Four Elements monk for a campaign and a one shot. As flavorful as the Four Elements monk was, in the campaign I had to work with my DM to write up new elemental options because there simply weren't enough for the element I wanted to focus on at early level (earth). He was also nice enough to basically let me have a "rock attack" that didnt cost ki that was kind of like attacking with a dart, but it scaled with my marital arts, so I could really feel like an Avatar-esque bender. And in the one shot I played the four elements monk, it was a level 20 one shot and I just felt completely overshadowed by the druids' wildshape and wizard's ability to trap a dragon in a prismatic wall. Still had a pretty fun time, though.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Way of the Long Death has allowed me to create some very interesting characters I normally could not create with other classes.
I created a Halfling Long Death monk who was functionally a barbarian...their ability to cause the "frightened" effect at-will was essentially just their depraved battle-roar they'd shout while charging into enemies with hatchets.
I played them similar to Krieg from the "Borderlands" videogame series. A very fun "turn your brain off" character for simple sessions.
For a more nuanced character, I had created a vengeful monk...their monastery was betrayed & destroyed by other murderous monks, and the Long Death Monk was left for dead...but intervention by a deity of death spared them (The Raven Queen).
Their ability to shrug off killing blows is personified by their otherworldly need for vengeance...fun to flavor, too: they may suffer from cuts, broken bones, or weapons embedded in their body...but they won't stop fighting.
The "Way of Mercy" has my curiosity; but I haven't really narrowed down a character concept for it...but when the "Way of the Ascendant Dragon" is officially released, that will probably become my favorite subclass.
It doesn't strictly have to be based off dragons, either...you can forego the "draconic" flavoring and instead substitute a variety of elemental sources to base your martial arts off of...maybe the monk travelled the various Elemental Planes, studying the elements to integrate into their fighting styles.
Or maybe they were taught by various Genie...or maybe their masters were the apex of the elements themselves: a Leviathan, or a Phoenix, perhaps.
For the Mercy Monk I am playing right now, I am leaning heavily into their "plague doctor" appearance. I have flavored mine as a Dwarf who has studied an "ancient dwarven" healing method that relies on muscle care and bone setting. So basically all of my extra healing and harm comes from popping a joint back into/out of place and my dwarve's sense of "ki" is closer to his feeling of exerting his willpower over those he is influencing with his "medicine"
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I love Open Hand, it's a true classic, but drunken master has a special place in my heart because of the great movie it was based upon, I have never read SCAG so I don't know about long death, sounds cool though.
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.
I personally really like shadow, kensei, and mercy. it was very close between them, but I went with kensei because it was the first monk I ever played.
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
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Hard to forget your first PC in a class....
I will always remember my Shadow monk for the same reason.
The Kensei is my first (and only) Monk I have played. I really like all the features it gives you at different levels. I took Sharpshooter too, so my regular combo was to Sharpshoot and deft strike. They are very easy to play (in my opinion) too.
Erean Cabenrith a Variant Human Cleric (Light Domain)
Eliem Lightblossom a High Elf Blood Hunter
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It's hard to pick a favorite. With all of the playing I've done of various kinds of monks to test things in actual game play. Most of them have things that make them interesting and things that I wish were a little bit different.