I want to poll the community about which fixes are most popular. Due to forum character limits, questions and choices are not as long as I would like. This is the first time I've created a poll on dndbeyond, so hopefully I won't mess it up.
Here is a reference list of the issues.
Monks are the most Multi-Ability Score Dependent (MAD) class requiring high DEXTERITY and WISDOM.
Monks are not built to be in melee 100% of the time. Without a reliable Disengage, they have trouble getting out of melee range.
Monk's Action Economy is clumped around the Bonus Action (Martial Arts bonus Attack, Patient Defense, Step of the Wind, Flurry of Blows). The reactions Slow Fall and Deflect Missile are circumstantial.
When a Monk is out of Ki, they are substantially hampered. This is more likely to occur when a party/DM/situation is not conducive to short rests.
For Levels 11 and higher, the monk's damage output does not increase.
The only choice during building a Monk is which subclass to use and whether to apply ASI to DEX or WIS.
D&D is a group game. The Monk currently does not have many abilities that work with teammates.
Stillness of Mind has wording ambiguity that leads to questions of whether it applies when the character is unaware of the charm or cannot control his or her actions.
Diamond Soul is an extremely powerful ability. But it appears at level 14 while most campaigns end around level 8-12.
Stunning Strike is an extremely powerful ability that is hard to balance encounters around. Yet it is possible for a Level 5 Monk to spend all 5 Ki points attempting a Stun with bad luck due to monsters having high CON saves.
One thing to keep in mind is that when you address one issue, you need to see how it affects other issues, so you don't end up overpowering the Monk. With that out of the way, let's see...
MAD Monks is certainly a problem. Adding an ASI might solve that, as well as solve the customisation problem as that extra feat could instead be used for a feat. However, I think people underestimate how powerful an ASI is, especially on a class like the monk. I don't think this is the correct fix. I think a better option would be to make the Monk more evasive, allowing them to function with a lower Constitution modifier.
Take the Rogue, for example. Their AC is capped at 17, not 20, will most likely have a lower AC than the Monk at every level and have the same d8 hit die. Despite that, nobody complains about their survivability. Okay, so the Rogue can disengage and hide for free as a bonus action. We don't want to be Rogues though, we'll do it the Monk way.
Subclasses provoding ways to avoid melee is one option, which several subclasses already do well. Be it by slipping out of range or just never entering it in the first place. However, not all Monks should run out of range. Having a subclass that allows a Monk to stay in melee and still do well will make it more interesting, different from the other Monks.
A reaction that adds to the AC sounds like a good option. Might be hard to balance though. An added feat at level 1 (where the OneD&D takes us) can give you the same if you choose a certain feat, though. As for action economy, I think nothing more is needed. The Monk can do a lot already. Their reactions are limited, but they always have a use for a Bonus Action.
Increasing Ki amount to level+Wis is enough. Anything beyond that would be too much. If you run out of your reaources, you didn't manage them right. Convince your party to take a short rest.
The damage problem should not be fixed by buffing the Monk but by nerfing Sharpshooter/GWM, Crossbow Expert and the Eldritch Blast spell. This will solve a problem not only for the Monk, but for >½ the classes, allowing some actual customisation without giving up on being useful.
A fighting style can lead to some truly broken stuff, and a manoeuvre will be either underwhelming or stepping over the Battle Master's toes. Allowing an alternative to Stunning Strike would be the best fix I believe, if enough options that are truly equal in power and versatile enough will be found.
Allowing an alternative to the Stunning Strike might solve the team problem, depending on the options given. Applying Deflect Missiles to others might be enough, but it's still situational. I don't think that's a problem that needs to be fixed in the class itself. A Fighter has nothing to support the team either. Maybe just a subclass or two that are more helpful to your team as well. Like the Way of Mercy.
Stillness of Mind should just give advantage on resisting or ending the effects. Anything else might just not work or already be included in most of the sources of these effects. Immunity is redundant, as with Diamond Soul and advantage, you should just pass the save.
Speaking of, breaking up Diamond Soul to several levels is a good fix, but it might lead to strange power spikes. Every class has these high-level abilities they'll never use, though. I think it can be left as is. A better fix would be to make the game simpler at higher levels to allow people to play these levels without a headache.
Stunning Strike is fine. High risk, high reward. If you really want it to work, convince someone to debuff the enemy with Bane/Mind Sliver/anything else that will make them likely to fail. Otherwise, treat it like using a high-level spell slot you have only a few of for a save-or-suck spell.
One thing to keep in mind is that when you address one issue, you need to see how it affects other issues, so you don't end up overpowering the Monk. With that out of the way, let's see...
MAD Monks is certainly a problem. Adding an ASI might solve that, as well as solve the customisation problem as that extra feat could instead be used for a feat. However, I think people underestimate how powerful an ASI is, especially on a class like the monk. I don't think this is the correct fix. I think a better option would be to make the Monk more evasive, allowing them to function with a lower Constitution modifier.
The problem that they are not many useful feats for the monk, and the extremely strong ones do not make synergy with the monk.
Take the Rogue, for example. Their AC is capped at 17, not 20, will most likely have a lower AC than the Monk at every level and have the same d8 hit die. Despite that, nobody complains about their survivability. Okay, so the Rogue can disengage and hide for free as a bonus action. We don't want to be Rogues though, we'll do it the Monk way.
The problem is that the rogue can also make ranged attacks and still use his stealth attack from a distance, and using his bonus action hardly compromises his damage value at all, whereas for the monk it is quite the opposite.
The AC value is very useful in low levels, but the higher you level up the easier it is to exceed this value and the AC, I am not saying it loses significance, but I think it is wiser not to be in the attack zone than to have a strong defense (Cobra Kai reference).
Another thing is the monk's speed, which would be a pity if it were not used as much as possible.
One last thing, the monk's AC is not that outstanding and at low levels is probably lower than that with full armor or those who access special defenses such as Wizard Bladesinging. Clearly there are advantages to not wearing armor, but these are details.
Subclasses provoding ways to avoid melee is one option, which several subclasses already do well. Be it by slipping out of range or just never entering it in the first place. However, not all Monks should run out of range. Having a subclass that allows a Monk to stay in melee and still do well will make it more interesting, different from the other Monks.
The only one I can think of is the "Long Death" sub-class, which is not even that exceptional, since its survival is tied to the number of weak opponents around it. Nothing compared to the barbarian Zealot.
A reaction that adds to the AC sounds like a good option. Might be hard to balance though. An added feat at level 1 (where the OneD&D takes us) can give you the same if you choose a certain feat, though. As for action economy, I think nothing more is needed. The Monk can do a lot already. Their reactions are limited, but they always have a use for a Bonus Action.
Increasing Ki amount to level+Wis is enough. Anything beyond that would be too much. If you run out of your reaources, you didn't manage them right. Convince your party to take a short rest.
I am more for gradual growth, level + Proficiency Bonus. But it is still a good solution.
The damage problem should not be fixed by buffing the Monk but by nerfing Sharpshooter/GWM, Crossbow Expert and the Eldritch Blast spell. This will solve a problem not only for the Monk, but for >½ the classes, allowing some actual customisation without giving up on being useful.
I absolutely agree. Some feat are too strong and also too optimizable. I couldn't tell which is easier, weakening others or making the rest stronger to balance the game. It would be interesting to have the opinion of players who prefer these classes that are too strong because of these feats.
A fighting style can lead to some truly broken stuff, and a manoeuvre will be either underwhelming or stepping over the Battle Master's toes. Allowing an alternative to Stunning Strike would be the best fix I believe, if enough options that are truly equal in power and versatile enough will be found.
I am for a new version of maneuvers created uniquely for the monk, where in the whole you can put different techniques that already exist in the monk and other new ones, so as to make it more customizable. The battle master system seems to be created specifically for the monk and then remodeled for a subclass of the fighter. So from my point of view you just need to remodel it for the monk without making it too strong.
Allowing an alternative to the Stunning Strike might solve the team problem, depending on the options given. Applying Deflect Missiles to others might be enough, but it's still situational. I don't think that's a problem that needs to be fixed in the class itself. A Fighter has nothing to support the team either. Maybe just a subclass or two that are more helpful to your team as well. Like the Way of Mercy.
Stunning Strike. When you hit another creature with a melee attack with advantage or with a critical hit, you can interfere with the flow of ki in an opponent's body. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.
Requiring the advantage is a good solution to reduce the monk's abusive and ultra wasteful ki attacks, and at the same time improve teamwork. It could also be a good synergy with the monk's "Empty Body" feature. If this is also combined with some of the monk's maneuvers that allow him to have advantage it would be outstanding.
Stillness of Mind should just give advantage on resisting or ending the effects. Anything else might just not work or already be included in most of the sources of these effects. Immunity is redundant, as with Diamond Soul and advantage, you should just pass the save.
Stillness of Mind
Starting at 7th level, you can use your action to end one effect that is causing you or one willing creature that you touch to be charmed or frightened. This feature is activated at the subconscious level by blocking any action imposed by effect itself.
Immunity is too strong, let the monk waste one of his actions to get rid of the spell.
Speaking of, breaking up Diamond Soul to several levels is a good fix, but it might lead to strange power spikes. Every class has these high-level abilities they'll never use, though. I think it can be left as is. A better fix would be to make the game simpler at higher levels to allow people to play these levels without a headache.
Purity of Body
At 10th level, your mastery of the ki flowing through you makes you proficiency in Constitution saving throw and immune to disease and poison.
I would start with that: I think it makes sense that with "purity of body" the monk become immune to poisons and with that take proficiency with saving throws to constitution.
Perhaps another idea is to give wisdom and dexterity as the monk's base proficiency and add proficiency to saving throws on strength at 6th level along with "Ki-Empowered Strikes." But I'm a bit troubled because the saving throw on Wisdom is one of the most useful in the game and giving it to the 1st level monk is maybe a bit too much.
Stunning Strike is fine. High risk, high reward. If you really want it to work, convince someone to debuff the enemy with Bane/Mind Sliver/anything else that will make them likely to fail. Otherwise, treat it like using a high-level spell slot you have only a few of for a save-or-suck spell.
The problem with the monk is that it has little variation in play, a lot of constraints, and too much dependence on ki. At least the warlock has cantrips and some of them are much more powerful than some high-level spells. If the monk has no more ki what he can do is very little.
The problem that they are not many useful feats for the monk, and the extremely strong ones do not make synergy with the monk.
Yes, but that's a problem with the game, not the class. There are many good feats, but they're overshadowed by a few feats that became a must-have. Any martial build without GWM/Sharpshooter will be weak since the -5/+10 tradeoff is so valuable. The right solution would be to delete/change these feats, to make them less outstanding and this allowing anyone to choose other feats. Suddenly, you can take Chef and not feel bad about it. It's not a bad feat, it's just not as good as GWM.
The problem is that the rogue can also make ranged attacks and still use his stealth attack from a distance, and using his bonus action hardly compromises his damage value at all, whereas for the monk it is quite the opposite. The AC value is very useful in low levels, but the higher you level up the easier it is to exceed this value and the AC, I am not saying it loses significance, but I think it is wiser not to be in the attack zone than to have a strong defense (Cobra Kai reference). Another thing is the monk's speed, which would be a pity if it were not used as much as possible. One last thing, the monk's AC is not that outstanding and at low levels is probably lower than that with full armor or those who access special defenses such as Wizard Bladesinging. Clearly there are advantages to not wearing armor, but these are details.
Monks can build for ranged options with either the Kensei, Sun Soul or to an extent, Four Elements. With Dedicated Weapon, any Monk can effectively use a shortbow/light or hand crossbows/darts, if they have the proficiency, which you can get from a race/multiclass/feat. Here, a feat that could be useful for Monks if they had more room to take them (at level one from OneD&D, for example) and not feel bad about it because they're not a broken feat. You might lose your bonus action, depending on the build, but that can be made up for as well. You're sacrificing a little bit of damage for more defence, though, which is what the Rogue does.
You also forget that the difference between AC 15 and 16 is less significant than the difference between 19 and 20. Besides, it's not true AC matters less at higher levels. AC 20 at level 1 will be more useful than AC 20 at level 20, but AC 20 at level 10 is still much better than AC 17 at level 10, and that is the comparison you should make. Similarly, you could claim a high-level monster is more likely to have spells that have a range, AoE attacks or other kinds of effects that make being away from them meaningless. It's better to have Evasion to reduce the damage than to try avoiding it because avoiding it might simply be impossible. The dragon will always fly faster than the Monk can run.
Speaking of, a Monk's speed is only useful if the DM makes it useful. Your speed doesn't matter if you're fighting a ball of muscles that doesn't move. If 20' of movement is enough to get in and out, 65' of movement is merely redundant. And if your DM does put elements that make speed useful, then perhaps just disengaging is the right way to go. Or taking that AoO. You'll allow everyone else to disengage safely too, and if you have a good AC, it's just a gamble.
You cannot compare a Wizard's AC at level one to that of a Fighter at level one. It's not fair. They shouldn't be the same. You can compare that of a Wizard and a Sorcerer, or that of a Fighter and a Paladin. A Monk should be compared to classes with similar roles, which is basically the Rogue for most Monks, and they will either be equal or superior to them when properly built. Actually, a Monk will have a better or equal AC than a Barbarian's, a Ranger only beats Monks using a shield, and all casters lose. Bladesinging is as MAD a class as the Monk, with even more need for Constitution, so they have their own challenges.
The only one I can think of is the "Long Death" sub-class, which is not even that exceptional, since its survival is tied to the number of weak opponents around it. Nothing compared to the barbarian Zealot.
At the moment, yes. I hope for new subclasses. Long Death is great by the way. TPH last all day, so as long as your adventuring day doesn't have just one single extremely powerful enemy, it'll see use. The main problem is that you have to deliver the final blow, and that's certainly a problem. It's not all perfect. At higher levels, Mastery of Death is phenomenal, since there's no mechanical difference between 1 HP and 100 except for a handful of spells.
By the way, if you mentioned the Zealot already, Warrior of the Gods is situational, and Rage Beyond Death is amazing but more taxing to your teammates. If you compare the two, a Long Death is more independent, but the Zealot is more potent. Each fills a similar yet different niche.
I am more for gradual growth, level + Proficiency Bonus. But it is still a good solution.
I'm worried about multiclassing dips, but it might be good too.
Stunning Strike. When you hit another creature with a melee attack with advantage or with a critical hit, you can interfere with the flow of ki in an opponent's body. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.
Requiring the advantage is a good solution to reduce the monk's abusive and ultra wasteful ki attacks, and at the same time improve teamwork. It could also be a good synergy with the monk's "Empty Body" feature. If this is also combined with some of the monk's maneuvers that allow him to have advantage it would be outstanding.
This is interesting in a way, making it not completely save-or-suck but at the same time less freely usable. However, since the [condition]Stunned[/stunned] condition creates an advantage on attacks, this means this version will only make encounters more snowballable, so in a way, it makes it even more a 50-50 ability of either win or waste.
Stillness of Mind
Starting at 7th level, you can use your action to end one effect that is causing you or one willing creature that you touch to be charmed or frightened. This feature is activated at the subconscious level by blocking any action imposed by effect itself.
Immunity is too strong, let the monk waste one of his actions to get rid of the spell.
This still doesn't address spells that make you have no actions such as Hypnotic Pattern. This spell is exactly the kind of thing that creates said wording ambiguity.
Purity of Body
At 10th level, your mastery of the ki flowing through you makes you proficiency in Constitution saving throw and immune to disease and poison.
I would start with that: I think it makes sense that with "purity of body" the monk become immune to poisons and with that take proficiency with saving throws to constitution.
Perhaps another idea is to give wisdom and dexterity as the monk's base proficiency and add proficiency to saving throws on strength at 6th level along with "Ki-Empowered Strikes." But I'm a bit troubled because the saving throw on Wisdom is one of the most useful in the game and giving it to the 1st level monk is maybe a bit too much.
That would be a good place for Constitution saves, but the starting saves should remain as they are. Wisdom could be given along with Stillness of Mind. Then Charisma and Intelligence at level 14. That might lead to problematic power spikes, though, so maybe not at all.
The problem with the monk is that it has little variation in play, a lot of constraints, and too much dependence on ki. At least the warlock has cantrips and some of them are much more powerful than some high-level spells. If the monk has no more ki what he can do is very little.
Variation in play is an unrelated problem. Besides, I'm not quite sure that's true, since they have more options than some other martial classes. Warlocks, on the other hand, are also an unrelated problem. Personally, I think Eldritch Blast should be deleted from the game, to allow Warlocks to be truly versatile. To compensate, they should get invocations that can make the warlock truly versatile.
With Dedicated Weapon, any Monk can effectively use a shortbow/light or hand crossbows/darts, if they have the proficiency, which you can get from a race/multiclass/feat.
Dedicated Weapon won't work properly on darts, as once you throw the dart you Dedicated, your remaining darts aren't monk weapons. This can be easily fixed by modifying Dedicated Weapon to work on a kind of weapon rather than an individual weapon.
Actually, a Monk will have a better or equal AC than a Barbarian's, a Ranger only beats Monks using a shield, and all casters lose. Bladesinging is as MAD a class as the Monk, with even more need for Constitution, so they have their own challenges.
A stock Monk (no subclass stuff modifying it) without feats will ordinarily have AC 16 at level 1, then 17..20 (at level 16). That's easy to beat for multiple "casters", even using what I think is your working definition of pure casters, for most of the level range - heavy armor casters (multiple cleric subclasses) are 20 base as soon as they have the money (a pure caster isn't nerfed by a shield in any way since there aren't any benefits for casting with 2 free hands rather than 1) just like normal medium armor ones (all other clerics, druids, hexblade warlocks, valor bards) will be 19 (swords bards don't get shields, so they're only base 17), although I'll grant Hexblades may ardently desire a two-handed weapon (which is offset by the fact that Warlocks can protect themselves with spells like Darkness and Shadow of Moil) and many DMs ignore WOTC's statement that Druids are intended to be allowed access to non-metal medium armor.
It's also easy to beat for a Barbarian, as a one-handed Barbarian is also AC 19 out the gate and a two-handed one is 17 (but Barbarians are built for tanking, not DPR). All of this is before we consider magic items, as monks have crippled access to AC-boosing magic items relative to anyone rocking armor and/or a shield.
You don't have to address this by boosting Monk AC in any way. There are other ways to achieve durability, like damage resistance, damage reduction, damage threshold, additional hit points (see e.g. Abjuration Wizards, Moon Druids), and more. In fact, Monks already have some, like Deflect Missiles and Patient Defense. It's just that by and large what they have access to is inferior to what others have access to.
Right, I forgot to take Clerics into account. Let's put them aside for a moment as their case is special, okay? They're an intendedly powerful class that's strong in nearly all aspects, to make the healer role more fun to play. That's how I think WotC built them, anyway. But, just for the record, a Plate armour costing 1,500 GP is nothing to joke about. That's a lot of money, and if you're playing a published module, most of them don't even give you enough to get that. In addition, don't forget you need to have sufficient Strength or walk slower than a Dwarf (unless you are a Dwarf, in which case you don't care about that).
Except for Clerics (and Paladins, but ah...), nobody can use a shield if you're also using a free hand to hold a spellcasting focus. I mean, you can, but the moment you need to cast a spell that has S components without M components, you need a free hand and your focus doesn't count. Yeah, I guess you could use the actual materials when needed, and that solves the problem. Only rarely do I see that happen, though. (And yes, Warcaster is an option, but then you need a feat already.)
Hexblades at level 1 don't even get the medium armour they have proficiency. But, let's say you use the OneD&D new rules for equipment, you can buy a chain shirt or a scale mail, and have no shield (so max AC 16, with disadvantage on stealth), or a studded leather+shield to get (for Dex 14) 16 AC. Like the monk. Now sure, they can buy the rest soon, but they still need the money for that.
Druids (ignoring the metal thing), no-heavy-Clerics and Bards all have the same as the hexblade, except they (except the bard) can get the equipment earlier. For all of these, getting to their max potential at AC 19 will require the 750 GP half-plate, which is a very hefty sum, and imposes a disadvantage on stealth checks.
A Barbarian without a shield will have AC 16 at level 1, but usually lower, not 17. If they really wish it they can build for Dex, increasing their AC to 19 at level 1 as you mentioned, at the cost of a lot of damage (not all Barbarians are built to tank. Some are built to DPR). A Monk can increase both their AC and their damage output simultaneously.
Magic items are a DM problem. The game isn't even balanced for them, as stated in the DMG. If the DM awards them, they should think about how to award them evenly, and I mean by efficiency, not number.
By the way, through multiclassing, a Monk can gain access to any defensive measure. Rage and Wildshape are the obvious options. You can get the Abjuration/War Wizards' level 2 abilities without needing more than 13 Int. The Abjuration one might seem useless without more investment, but the War Wizard's Arcane Deflection is great since you don't need to cast any spells anyhow.
But what nobody considers, usually, is the option of multiclassing into Fighter/Cleric and just using heavy armour and martial weapons. All you're losing is your Martial Arts, but you're using a 2-handed weapon so you lose little damage, your Unarmored Defense, but you have heavy armour anyway, and your Unarmored Movement, which most Monks find difficult to use effectively anyhow. You can now dump Dex (what about saves? Diamond Soul and Evasion will be enough). "Okay, but why not just play a normal Fighter/Cleric?" You still get your subclass abilities (most of them are still valid, if not made better), all Ki features (which you'll be able to use for things other than FoB), Deflect Missiles, Slow Fall, Stunning Strike and Extra Attack, Evasion, Stillness of Mind... the list goes on. Even Unarmored Movement Improvement at level 9 says nothing about armour, which is clearly specified in any other improvement. The only features you miss are the three I mentioned first. Oh, and your capstone, but please.
I think an ASI at 10th and a slight scaling on martial arts die (to max out at d12 and increase every four levels) are the best core improvements.
I'm tempted by adding a fighting style choice, but the main problem is that it requires a lot of other changes to really work well; for example, it'd be nice if two-weapon fighting were viable on a Monk, but it'd require changes to how Martial Arts, Flurry of Blows etc. work. I'm more interested by the possibility of adding Open Hand Technique to the core monk, and giving open hand something else.
Diamond Soul definitely needs to come in partially earlier, with an upgrade at the current level.
Stillness of Mind as re-taking saving throw at start or end of turn is my preferred change; full immunity is boring as charmed/frightened are fun things to contend with, and being able to guarantee repeat saving throws even against effects that don't normally have them, such as geas is very powerful.
I really like the idea of bestowing certain features to allies; deflect missiles especially as it's just endlessly frustrating to have that ability and then ranged enemies hardly ever target you.
Stunning Strike is the trickiest; personally I'd like to see something like the following:
Superior Strikes
6th-level Monk feature
When you hit a target with a monk weapon attack or unarmed strike, you may spend 1 Ki point to use one of the following options:
Disorientating Strike. Your target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your Ki save DC or suffer disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws until the end of your next turn.
Distracting Strike. Your target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your Ki save DC or all attacks against it will have advantage until the end of your next turn.
Stunning Strike
9th-level Monk feature
Whenever you successfully perform a superior strike against a creature that is already suffering the effects of a different superior strike, instead of suffering from superior strike effects the creature is stunned until the end of your next turn, unless it is immune.
Wording and levels could be tweaked, but the idea is that a second strike is required to impose stunned and I've intentionally tried to word it such that the first stun doesn't require only single strikes to keep a creature locked (you always need two successful strikes to stun). The effects are still good in their own right, but the feature becomes more suited to a secondary feature, which is why I put it in at 9th-level alongside unarmored movement improvement (which on its own is fun but potentially underwhelming).
Could possibly have a third superior strike, maybe targeting Strength?
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If the goal is to replace Stunning Strike, I wonder if it would be a good opportunity to make use of the "Slowed" condition introduced as part of the playtest material. Reduced move speed, disadvantage on Dex saves, and having attacks against the target made with advantage are all still super impactful, but not quite as potent as the full Stunned condition.
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Monks can build for ranged options with either the Kensei, Sun Soul or to an extent, Four Elements. With Dedicated Weapon, any Monk can effectively use a shortbow/light or hand crossbows/darts, if they have the proficiency, which you can get from a race/multiclass/feat. Here, a feat that could be useful for Monks if they had more room to take them (at level one from OneD&D, for example) and not feel bad about it because they're not a broken feat. You might lose your bonus action, depending on the build, but that can be made up for as well. You're sacrificing a little bit of damage for more defence, though, which is what the Rogue does.
This is one of many corrections they have made recently just to cover up their mistakes. And as explained, this feature a its problems with darts. This feature does not make the monk a specialist in ranged attack and attacks, such as bonus unarmed attack and Stunning Strike (practically main features that distinguish the monk) are only viable in close combat. So the monk is driven to melee combat by his basic features.
The rogue's damage as a bonus attack is really paltry being only that of the weapon and since a weapon in the second hand should be 1d4 (+Mod Dex if he has the feat or two-weapon fighting style). The monk, however, has full damage that can go up to 1d10+mod Dex without having to take talents or multiclasses. So, it doesn't seem like a fair situation.
You also forget that the difference between AC 15 and 16 is less significant than the difference between 19 and 20. Besides, it's not true AC matters less at higher levels. AC 20 at level 1 will be more useful than AC 20 at level 20, but AC 20 at level 10 is still much better than AC 17 at level 10, and that is the comparison you should make. Similarly, you could claim a high-level monster is more likely to have spells that have a range, AoE attacks or other kinds of effects that make being away from them meaningless. It's better to have Evasion to reduce the damage than to try avoiding it because avoiding it might simply be impossible. The dragon will always fly faster than the Monk can run.
A monk reaches an AC of (10+3+3= 16) if his characteristics are well placed. At 4th level he might choose to upgrade his dexterity to 17 AC. At 8th level he might increase to 18 AC. To get to 20 in AC at level 10 he still has to take "Bracers Of Defense," which is priced at 6000 GP.
The barbarian/fighter/paladin/ can get to (10+2+4 Breastplate) 16 AC without any disadvantage and to 17 (Half plate) and that is without calculating the shield.
It is also true that these values then cannot evolve as in the case of the monk. But this does not prevent magical armor. So the AC value of melee fighters the monk will not have such an absurd gap. Another thing, the monk in order to enhance his defense will have to sacrifice his ability to take features.
Speaking of, a Monk's speed is only useful if the DM makes it useful. Your speed doesn't matter if you're fighting a ball of muscles that doesn't move. If 20' of movement is enough to get in and out, 65' of movement is merely redundant. And if your DM does put elements that make speed useful, then perhaps just disengaging is the right way to go. Or taking that AoO. You'll allow everyone else to disengage safely too, and if you have a good AC, it's just a gamble.
You can say the same thing for all classes, what you are saying is simple abuse. Speed is a really advantageous asset of the monk, strategically, defensively, and attack-wise. It allows you to look for covers where you shelter from spells and arrows. If these are not there you can get behind your group and far enough away not to get caught in an AoE spell. What I mean is that AC is the last defense.
I can say that it is my favorite thing about the monk. Without his speed, he is no longer a monk. I have always found it silly to stay in melee if there is no reason. The tank must stay in melee because he can afford to take damage and can take it instead of those in his group who do not have the same durability as it. The monk does not have the makings of a tank and if he does it is only because it is in a bad situation.
You cannot compare a Wizard's AC at level one to that of a Fighter at level one. It's not fair. They shouldn't be the same. You can compare that of a Wizard and a Sorcerer, or that of a Fighter and a Paladin. A Monk should be compared to classes with similar roles, which is basically the Rogue for most Monks, and they will either be equal or superior to them when properly built. Actually, a Monk will have a better or equal AC than a Barbarian's, a Ranger only beats Monks using a shield, and all casters lose. Bladesinging is as MAD a class as the Monk, with even more need for Constitution, so they have their own challenges.
The baldesigner survives not because of his constitution, but because of his speed and the ability to disengage thanks to his extra attack power where he can use one of his attacks to cast Shocking Grasp and thus cancel his reaction. In this aspect he is very similar to a rogue or monk.
Yes, adding "darts" to the list was a mistake. Well, they still do work, just not as effectively. However, that does not mean it's terrible. Whether through the Dedicated Weapon, Kensei Weapon or even the Sun Soul's ranged attacks, you're losing some damage for staying out of combat. It is a fair trade. In the Kensei's case, swapping a d6+Dex for 2d4 (at level 5, assuming both attacks hit, but your BA attack could miss as well), you're losing ~2.5 points of damage, but stay out of range of enemy attacks, and if they have ranged attacks/AoE, you have features to help you with that. 2.5 DPR loss for the amount of damage you prevent and the resources you save from your healers is a great trade, IMO.
The Rogue's second attack isn't meant to deal more damage, it's intended to give you more chances to land your sneak attack, if you miss your first attack. Also, if you take the Soulknife, you get 1d4+Dex without any further investment.
I was talking more generally, but you can also roll for stats and get it earlier, or maybe the DM will give you that item. They might also not, but if you're going to give an item to a Monk, it's usually that anyhow. Especially if you give everyone else magical armour. But even if not, remember that Breastplate is 400 GP, and Half-Plate is 750 GP. Maybe less than the price you mentioned for the magic item, but still a lot at low levels. And although they might use a shield, most won't, since it eats into their damage output. There are hardly any feats that benefit a sword and board build (shield master, and that's about it).
It's true, but that's how it is. Speed is like an illusionist Wizard. They can have crazy ideas, but it ends up being reliant on the DM. If you're in a dungeon, or anywhere underground, your speed will likely be wasted, as even getting behind cover could be done with 30' as well. Besides, you think it is integral to the Monk, I find disengaging makes no sense. Have you ever seen a martial arts movie? The character doesn't just run 60' away while everyone stares at them. "Magic" or "Very fast" doesn't make it better. It's just weird. Imagine watching a movie and the protagonist just runs in and out of their enemies' range the entire time. It's weird and it's boring. At least for Open Hand/Drunken Master, I can imagine it being like a kick that pushes the enemy/yourself back, thus creating the distance you need to back away. If you want to use the speed that much, play one of these subclasses.
10' is hardly enough to make a difference. If the Bladesinger keeps close enough to be able to return the next round, the monster can just walk over and attack them. Most "tanks" have this problem, that only a few subclasses/feats fix. Besides, if you miss your Shocking Grasp, you're stuck. Against enemies with high AC, it's not very reliable. Against multiple enemies, it's useless. If you're surrounded and need to retreat, go for the normal disengage action, or make it a war of attrition to see who manages to remain standing when the fighting ends.
To boost the monk's damage just create a feat, especially for those who use non-heavy and ranged weapons.
Slaughterer
You learn to exploit the carrateristics of your non-heavy weapon to your advantage, surprising your opponent and hitting him in unexpected places.. You gain the following benefits:
When you score a critical hit or reduce a creature to 0 hit points, you gain advantage on your next attack roll.
Before you make a melee attack with a not heavy weapon, you can choose to take a -3 penalties to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +6 to the attack’s damage.
For ki point reserve just create wonderful items that allow the monk to store some ki points, or create a feature that works like a Second Wind but with ki points.
Ki Stone
You can store up to a number equal to your wisdom modifier of ki points inside the stone and regain them as an action.
From a stone could become a ki necklace. Kind of like those monk necklaces.
But I remain convinced that the monk needs a practical system to disengage from the enemy without having to waste ki points or even a bonus action. Another solution could be, boost his HP to d10 and find a way to reduce damage in melee. I am just afraid that the monk will really become a mere subclass of the fighter by going in this direction.
Martial Arts
At 1st level, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are any Simple and Martial Weapons, that lack the heavy and special properties. You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren't wearing armor or wielding a shield:
You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons.
You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike or monk weapon. This die changes as you gain monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.
Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack that deals bludgeoning damage, you can move it 5 feet to an unoccupied space.
You can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.
But what is most lacking in the monk is especially the ability to choose combat techniques such as in the case of the warlock's invocations or the battle master's special attacks. I thought of a feat to solve this problem but I don't think it is the solution.
Ki Mixed Martial Arts
Prerequisite: Ki points
You learned different styles of martial arts and thus were able to expand the number of your fighting techniques. You gain the following benefits.
You learn two maneuvers of your choice from the Battle Master archetype. If the maneuver requires a saving throw, the DC is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier.
Ki points are used to fuel your maneuvers. Two ki points will be expended for each maneuver used.
The superiority die in the maneuvers are equal to your Martial Art die.
This is the solution inserted directly into the monk's class.
Ki Martial Arts
Starting at 3rd level, you learn the KMA techniques that are fueled by your Ki. You learn two KMA technique of your choice. You can use only one KMA technique per attack. You learn two additional technique of your choice at 5th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level. Each time you learn new techniques, you can also replace one technique you know with a different one. You can use one technique for any attacks you successfully perform, each technique consumes 2 ki. A level prerequisite refers to your level in this class. A dippendence of the subclasses, there are alternative KMA techniques (Monastic Ki Martial Arts, p. 21).
3nd level:
Ki Emanation. When you make a Charisma (Intimidation), a Charisma (Performance), or a Charisma (Persuasion) check, you can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the ability check.
Ninja. When you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check or an initiative roll, you can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the ability check, provided you aren't incapacitated.
Pushing Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to drive the target back. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you push the target up to 15 feet away from you.
Tactical Assessment. When you make an Intelligence (Investigation), an Intelligence (History), or a Wisdom (Insight) check, you can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the ability check.
5th level:
Bait and Switch When you're within 5 feet of a creature on your turn, you can switch places with that creature, provided you spend at least 5 feet of movement and the creature is willing and isn't incapacitated. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. Roll one Martial Arts die. Until the start of your next turn, you or the other creature (your choice) gains a bonus to AC equal to the number rolled.
Blinded. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can hit the target eyes with your fingers. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Dexterity. saving throw or be blind until the end of your next turn.
Brutal Attack. When you hit a creature with a critical melee attack, you can enhance your attack to make it even more devastating. Roll one Martial Arts die damage dice three times, instead of twice, and add it to the damage roll.
Distracting Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can distract the creature, giving your allies an opening. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll. The next attack roll against the target by an attacker other than you has advantage if the attack is made before the start of your next turn.
Evasive Footwork. When you move, roll one martial arts die and add the number rolled to your AC until you stop moving.
Life Force. As a bonus action, you can roll one Martial Arts die and you or one willing creature that you touch regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled plus your proficiency bonus.
Lunging Strike. When you make a melee attack on your turn, you can increase your reach for that attack by 5 feet. If you hit, roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll.
Precision Strike. When you make a melee attack roll against a creature, you can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the roll. You can use this technique before or after making the attack roll, but before any effects of the attack are applied.
Pressure Point. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can hit the nerves of your target. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or not be able to move, swimming or fly until the end of your next turn. An airborne creature affected by this attack safely descends at 60 feet per round until it reaches the ground.
Unbalancing Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to knock the target down. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, it must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, you knock the target prone.
8th level:
Absorb Force. When another creature damages you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and roll one Martial Arts die to reduce the damage by the number you roll on your Martial Arts die + your Dexterity modifier.
Disarming Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to disarm the target, forcing it to drop one item of your choice that it's holding. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and the target must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, it drops the object you choose. The object lands at its feet.
Focus Breaker. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can attempt to shatter their concentration. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and if the creature makes a Constitution save to maintain concentration on a spell, subtract the number rolled on the Martial Arts die from the creature's roll.
Focused Striker. As a bonus action on your turn, you can take a focused combat stance. Until the the start of your next turn or until you are incapacitated, you ignore the disadvantage on all weapon attack rolls.
Goading Attack. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to goad the target into attacking you. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls against targets other than you until the end of your next turn.
Murderer Intent. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to frighten the target. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it is frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
Shoulder to Shoulder. On your turn you can allow one of your companions to move with you if they use their reaction. Your companion must start and end this movement within 5 feet of you. During this movement, all opportunity attacks that would target them, target yourself instead.
12th level:
Dazing Attack. When you hit another creature with a melee attack, you can blow to the enemy temple. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must make an Intelligence saving throw. If it fails, it can’t take a reaction until the end of its next turn. Moreover, on its next turn, it must choose whether it gets a move, an action, or a bonus action; it gets only one of the three.
Devious Strike. Whenever a creature within your reach attacks an ally, you can use your reaction to make one opportunity attack. If you hit, roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll.
Puppet. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to control its mind with your ki. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or immediately use its reaction to make one weapon attack against a creature other than itself that you mentally choose. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll. The controlled creature can move half its movement in this reaction.
Quick Toss. As a bonus action, you can make a ranged attack with a weapon that has the thrown property. You can draw the weapon as part of making this attack. If you hit, roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll.
Sweeping-Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to damage another creature with the same attack. Choose another creature within 5 feet of the original target and within your reach. If the original attack roll would hit the second creature, it takes damage equal to one Martial Arts die roll. The damage is of the same type dealt by the original attack.
16th level:
Brace. When a creature you can see moves within your melee range, you can make an attack against them using your reaction. If the attack hits, you can can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage rolled.
Counter-Strike. When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to make an unarmed attack against that creature. If you hit, roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll.
Mental Shock. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to damage its mind with your ki. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw or subtract 1d8 from the next saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn.
Voiceless. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can blow the enemy throat. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or not being able to speak until the end of your next turn.
Absolutely true, most of the monk subclasses are a bit disappointing and impractical, although lately they seem to be trying to improve this aspect.
The poll has been going long enough for results to stabilize. I'll analyze responses starting with the most common.
Adding 1 more ASI is the most popular way to address MAD and customization. With Unarmored Defense, each ASI effectively increases AC by 1. More ASI opens the possibility of gaining a character defining feat without feeling like one is lagging behind. I really hope the developers implement this.
Splitting Diamond Soul among multiple levels is extremely popular for good reason. Proficiency in a single saving throw is all some classes/subclasses get at certain level ups. The Resilient feat is popular versus a straight +2 ASI. In addition to the first 2 saving throw proficiencies, Monks acquire 5 more (don't forget death saving throws). These can be placed at levels where no other feature fits. My preference is the player chooses the proficiency due to focus area (CON saves for partial-casters) or starting in a different class (eg Rogue). But I also see the value of simply at Level # you gain WIS saving proficiency, at Level # you gain CON saving proficiency, etc.
Increasing Martial Arts Dice scaling would be nice to finish at a D12. That can either happen by starting at a D6 or increasing at earlier levels. Every 4th level lines up with ASI, which makes those larger power spikes. Therefore my preference is starting at a D6. Of course it is not comparable to Sharpshooter/GWM. I expect those feats to be toned down or all martials to get a power attack like "Forgo Advantage to get 2*Proficiency Bonus added to the damage." In Tier 3 and Tier 4 is also when the spellcasters are extremely powerful due to most groups having fewer than the recommended 6 encounters per day. The developers will need to rebalance the martials and spellcasters with non-standard adventuring days in mind.
I am not confident about "Increase the maximum ki to (Monk levels) + (WIS modifier)." That can be quite a power spike at level 2. Being able to do an extra unarmed strike for a 5 round combat is significantly more damage than almost any other level 2 class. There is also the possibility of multiclassing shenanigans such as a level 10 Moon Druid / Monk 2 that can cast a spell, then shapeshift into an 20AC air element with resistance to physical attacks and a bonus action dodge for 5 rounds.
The poll results for a counter attack confuse me. It appears as a choice for multiple questions (mostly because I think it can solve multiple issues). The responses range from 18% to 38% depending on the question. That is quite a wide range. Is it just because a counter attack solves some of the monk's issues but is not a good fit for others?
Anyway, here is an idea for how it could work.
Deflect Attack
When you or an ally are hit by an attack, you may spend your reaction to roll a Martial Arts die and reduce the damage by the amount rolled. You may spend 1 Ki to redirect that damage to a creature (such as the original attacker) within range of the original attack. [Legalese may be needed for projectiles fitting in your hand for ranged attacks.]
It would replace Deflect Missiles, but not necessarily be at Level 3. It scales with the Martial Arts dice. It improves survivability, reaction action economy, and teamwork. I chose a single roll of the Martial Arts die for streamlining gameplay, but I could imagine an Unarmed Strike working just as well.
Does having a specific definition of a counter attack affect how anyone feels about their poll responses?
I really hope they make darts a monk weapon. It would be simple melee weapons, shortswords, and darts. What self-respecting ninja doesn't have shuriken (darts reflavored). I don't think it would be broken and it's part of their starting equipment anyway.
GWM/SS should probably be:
Reduced to -2/+4 (or +5) damage.
Or, the +5/+10 removed completely and leave the other bullet points and make them 1st level feats (maybe add something to GWM so it has another benefit besides the extra attack on crit or reducing target to 0). Then make the -2/+4 (or +5) an ability that any character can do, or as a feat that anyone can take that works with ranged or melee attacks (which would include monk's unarmed strikes
They are redesigning feats anyway to include levels, so even if they don't change GWM/SS, I hope they are of significantly high enough level to take.
I like the direction they are going with the changes to unarmed strikes in the UA. I hope the monk has some modifications to that like using DEX or WIS instead of STR for determining the save to escape a grapple or you can choose two of those options On a Hit.
I was thinking that one of the monk's problems is its heavy dependence on ki. The issue isn't the quantity of ki but its lack of features that don't require ki. Just as the spellcasters have the cantrip, or the Rogue has the sneak attack, or the Paladin has the Improved Divine Smite, the monk should have something similar that allows it to economize its ki points.
At least some monks should get access to armour, shields and heavy weapons because the martial arts practitioners that monks are based on did use these historically in the real world. I would also double their Ki (or remove Ki costs from some abilities) and start the martial arts die as a D6.
The problem is that everyone sees the monk differently. Some say the monk should stand in the melee and fight like a fighter, others say the monk should move around and fight like a rogue.... The monk's biggest problem is that his position in the group has never been clear, and this creates differences of opinion. So many treat him as a wild card, who can do a little bit of everything, but does not excel at anything.
From my point of view, the monk from his features characteristics is more likely to behave like a rogue and create chaos in enemy lines by moving and stunning enemies. In my opinion, we should not lose this concept. Just that the only thing it can do (only as a base class) is stun and it doesn't do much martial arts master. A master in martial arts has many different techniques that it can use depending on the situation.
In a previous thread (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/class-forums/monk/128560-the-new-evolution-of-the-monk-core-class) we determined the issues with monk that make it tricky to build and play. Multiple solutions were discussed for each issue. People had a personal preference for different solutions and a bias toward solutions they had authored.
I want to poll the community about which fixes are most popular. Due to forum character limits, questions and choices are not as long as I would like. This is the first time I've created a poll on dndbeyond, so hopefully I won't mess it up.
Here is a reference list of the issues.
One thing to keep in mind is that when you address one issue, you need to see how it affects other issues, so you don't end up overpowering the Monk. With that out of the way, let's see...
MAD Monks is certainly a problem. Adding an ASI might solve that, as well as solve the customisation problem as that extra feat could instead be used for a feat. However, I think people underestimate how powerful an ASI is, especially on a class like the monk. I don't think this is the correct fix. I think a better option would be to make the Monk more evasive, allowing them to function with a lower Constitution modifier.
Take the Rogue, for example. Their AC is capped at 17, not 20, will most likely have a lower AC than the Monk at every level and have the same d8 hit die. Despite that, nobody complains about their survivability. Okay, so the Rogue can disengage and hide for free as a bonus action. We don't want to be Rogues though, we'll do it the Monk way.
Subclasses provoding ways to avoid melee is one option, which several subclasses already do well. Be it by slipping out of range or just never entering it in the first place. However, not all Monks should run out of range. Having a subclass that allows a Monk to stay in melee and still do well will make it more interesting, different from the other Monks.
A reaction that adds to the AC sounds like a good option. Might be hard to balance though. An added feat at level 1 (where the OneD&D takes us) can give you the same if you choose a certain feat, though. As for action economy, I think nothing more is needed. The Monk can do a lot already. Their reactions are limited, but they always have a use for a Bonus Action.
Increasing Ki amount to level+Wis is enough. Anything beyond that would be too much. If you run out of your reaources, you didn't manage them right. Convince your party to take a short rest.
The damage problem should not be fixed by buffing the Monk but by nerfing Sharpshooter/GWM, Crossbow Expert and the Eldritch Blast spell. This will solve a problem not only for the Monk, but for >½ the classes, allowing some actual customisation without giving up on being useful.
A fighting style can lead to some truly broken stuff, and a manoeuvre will be either underwhelming or stepping over the Battle Master's toes. Allowing an alternative to Stunning Strike would be the best fix I believe, if enough options that are truly equal in power and versatile enough will be found.
Allowing an alternative to the Stunning Strike might solve the team problem, depending on the options given. Applying Deflect Missiles to others might be enough, but it's still situational. I don't think that's a problem that needs to be fixed in the class itself. A Fighter has nothing to support the team either. Maybe just a subclass or two that are more helpful to your team as well. Like the Way of Mercy.
Stillness of Mind should just give advantage on resisting or ending the effects. Anything else might just not work or already be included in most of the sources of these effects. Immunity is redundant, as with Diamond Soul and advantage, you should just pass the save.
Speaking of, breaking up Diamond Soul to several levels is a good fix, but it might lead to strange power spikes. Every class has these high-level abilities they'll never use, though. I think it can be left as is. A better fix would be to make the game simpler at higher levels to allow people to play these levels without a headache.
Stunning Strike is fine. High risk, high reward. If you really want it to work, convince someone to debuff the enemy with Bane/Mind Sliver/anything else that will make them likely to fail. Otherwise, treat it like using a high-level spell slot you have only a few of for a save-or-suck spell.
Varielky
The problem that they are not many useful feats for the monk, and the extremely strong ones do not make synergy with the monk.
The problem is that the rogue can also make ranged attacks and still use his stealth attack from a distance, and using his bonus action hardly compromises his damage value at all, whereas for the monk it is quite the opposite.
The AC value is very useful in low levels, but the higher you level up the easier it is to exceed this value and the AC, I am not saying it loses significance, but I think it is wiser not to be in the attack zone than to have a strong defense (Cobra Kai reference).
Another thing is the monk's speed, which would be a pity if it were not used as much as possible.
One last thing, the monk's AC is not that outstanding and at low levels is probably lower than that with full armor or those who access special defenses such as Wizard Bladesinging. Clearly there are advantages to not wearing armor, but these are details.
The only one I can think of is the "Long Death" sub-class, which is not even that exceptional, since its survival is tied to the number of weak opponents around it. Nothing compared to the barbarian Zealot.
I am more for gradual growth, level + Proficiency Bonus. But it is still a good solution.
I absolutely agree. Some feat are too strong and also too optimizable. I couldn't tell which is easier, weakening others or making the rest stronger to balance the game. It would be interesting to have the opinion of players who prefer these classes that are too strong because of these feats.
I am for a new version of maneuvers created uniquely for the monk, where in the whole you can put different techniques that already exist in the monk and other new ones, so as to make it more customizable. The battle master system seems to be created specifically for the monk and then remodeled for a subclass of the fighter. So from my point of view you just need to remodel it for the monk without making it too strong.
Stunning Strike. When you hit another creature with a melee attack with advantage or with a critical hit, you can interfere with the flow of ki in an opponent's body. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.
Requiring the advantage is a good solution to reduce the monk's abusive and ultra wasteful ki attacks, and at the same time improve teamwork. It could also be a good synergy with the monk's "Empty Body" feature. If this is also combined with some of the monk's maneuvers that allow him to have advantage it would be outstanding.
Stillness of Mind
Starting at 7th level, you can use your action to end one effect that is causing you or one willing creature that you touch to be charmed or frightened. This feature is activated at the subconscious level by blocking any action imposed by effect itself.
Immunity is too strong, let the monk waste one of his actions to get rid of the spell.
Purity of Body
At 10th level, your mastery of the ki flowing through you makes you proficiency in Constitution saving throw and immune to disease and poison.
I would start with that: I think it makes sense that with "purity of body" the monk become immune to poisons and with that take proficiency with saving throws to constitution.
Perhaps another idea is to give wisdom and dexterity as the monk's base proficiency and add proficiency to saving throws on strength at 6th level along with "Ki-Empowered Strikes." But I'm a bit troubled because the saving throw on Wisdom is one of the most useful in the game and giving it to the 1st level monk is maybe a bit too much.
The problem with the monk is that it has little variation in play, a lot of constraints, and too much dependence on ki. At least the warlock has cantrips and some of them are much more powerful than some high-level spells. If the monk has no more ki what he can do is very little.
If anyone is interested this is my view of the monk. Probably still too strong, I am more in a phase of eliminating unnecessary elements.
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/P_cVG3IK-7cM
Yes, but that's a problem with the game, not the class. There are many good feats, but they're overshadowed by a few feats that became a must-have. Any martial build without GWM/Sharpshooter will be weak since the -5/+10 tradeoff is so valuable. The right solution would be to delete/change these feats, to make them less outstanding and this allowing anyone to choose other feats. Suddenly, you can take Chef and not feel bad about it. It's not a bad feat, it's just not as good as GWM.
Monks can build for ranged options with either the Kensei, Sun Soul or to an extent, Four Elements. With Dedicated Weapon, any Monk can effectively use a shortbow/light or hand crossbows/darts, if they have the proficiency, which you can get from a race/multiclass/feat. Here, a feat that could be useful for Monks if they had more room to take them (at level one from OneD&D, for example) and not feel bad about it because they're not a broken feat. You might lose your bonus action, depending on the build, but that can be made up for as well. You're sacrificing a little bit of damage for more defence, though, which is what the Rogue does.
You also forget that the difference between AC 15 and 16 is less significant than the difference between 19 and 20. Besides, it's not true AC matters less at higher levels. AC 20 at level 1 will be more useful than AC 20 at level 20, but AC 20 at level 10 is still much better than AC 17 at level 10, and that is the comparison you should make. Similarly, you could claim a high-level monster is more likely to have spells that have a range, AoE attacks or other kinds of effects that make being away from them meaningless. It's better to have Evasion to reduce the damage than to try avoiding it because avoiding it might simply be impossible. The dragon will always fly faster than the Monk can run.
Speaking of, a Monk's speed is only useful if the DM makes it useful. Your speed doesn't matter if you're fighting a ball of muscles that doesn't move. If 20' of movement is enough to get in and out, 65' of movement is merely redundant. And if your DM does put elements that make speed useful, then perhaps just disengaging is the right way to go. Or taking that AoO. You'll allow everyone else to disengage safely too, and if you have a good AC, it's just a gamble.
You cannot compare a Wizard's AC at level one to that of a Fighter at level one. It's not fair. They shouldn't be the same. You can compare that of a Wizard and a Sorcerer, or that of a Fighter and a Paladin. A Monk should be compared to classes with similar roles, which is basically the Rogue for most Monks, and they will either be equal or superior to them when properly built. Actually, a Monk will have a better or equal AC than a Barbarian's, a Ranger only beats Monks using a shield, and all casters lose. Bladesinging is as MAD a class as the Monk, with even more need for Constitution, so they have their own challenges.
At the moment, yes. I hope for new subclasses. Long Death is great by the way. TPH last all day, so as long as your adventuring day doesn't have just one single extremely powerful enemy, it'll see use. The main problem is that you have to deliver the final blow, and that's certainly a problem. It's not all perfect. At higher levels, Mastery of Death is phenomenal, since there's no mechanical difference between 1 HP and 100 except for a handful of spells.
By the way, if you mentioned the Zealot already, Warrior of the Gods is situational, and Rage Beyond Death is amazing but more taxing to your teammates. If you compare the two, a Long Death is more independent, but the Zealot is more potent. Each fills a similar yet different niche.
I'm worried about multiclassing dips, but it might be good too.
This is interesting in a way, making it not completely save-or-suck but at the same time less freely usable. However, since the [condition]Stunned[/stunned] condition creates an advantage on attacks, this means this version will only make encounters more snowballable, so in a way, it makes it even more a 50-50 ability of either win or waste.
This still doesn't address spells that make you have no actions such as Hypnotic Pattern. This spell is exactly the kind of thing that creates said wording ambiguity.
That would be a good place for Constitution saves, but the starting saves should remain as they are. Wisdom could be given along with Stillness of Mind. Then Charisma and Intelligence at level 14. That might lead to problematic power spikes, though, so maybe not at all.
Variation in play is an unrelated problem. Besides, I'm not quite sure that's true, since they have more options than some other martial classes. Warlocks, on the other hand, are also an unrelated problem. Personally, I think Eldritch Blast should be deleted from the game, to allow Warlocks to be truly versatile. To compensate, they should get invocations that can make the warlock truly versatile.
Varielky
Dedicated Weapon won't work properly on darts, as once you throw the dart you Dedicated, your remaining darts aren't monk weapons. This can be easily fixed by modifying Dedicated Weapon to work on a kind of weapon rather than an individual weapon.
A stock Monk (no subclass stuff modifying it) without feats will ordinarily have AC 16 at level 1, then 17..20 (at level 16). That's easy to beat for multiple "casters", even using what I think is your working definition of pure casters, for most of the level range - heavy armor casters (multiple cleric subclasses) are 20 base as soon as they have the money (a pure caster isn't nerfed by a shield in any way since there aren't any benefits for casting with 2 free hands rather than 1) just like normal medium armor ones (all other clerics, druids, hexblade warlocks, valor bards) will be 19 (swords bards don't get shields, so they're only base 17), although I'll grant Hexblades may ardently desire a two-handed weapon (which is offset by the fact that Warlocks can protect themselves with spells like Darkness and Shadow of Moil) and many DMs ignore WOTC's statement that Druids are intended to be allowed access to non-metal medium armor.
It's also easy to beat for a Barbarian, as a one-handed Barbarian is also AC 19 out the gate and a two-handed one is 17 (but Barbarians are built for tanking, not DPR). All of this is before we consider magic items, as monks have crippled access to AC-boosing magic items relative to anyone rocking armor and/or a shield.
You don't have to address this by boosting Monk AC in any way. There are other ways to achieve durability, like damage resistance, damage reduction, damage threshold, additional hit points (see e.g. Abjuration Wizards, Moon Druids), and more. In fact, Monks already have some, like Deflect Missiles and Patient Defense. It's just that by and large what they have access to is inferior to what others have access to.
Right, I forgot to take Clerics into account. Let's put them aside for a moment as their case is special, okay? They're an intendedly powerful class that's strong in nearly all aspects, to make the healer role more fun to play. That's how I think WotC built them, anyway. But, just for the record, a Plate armour costing 1,500 GP is nothing to joke about. That's a lot of money, and if you're playing a published module, most of them don't even give you enough to get that. In addition, don't forget you need to have sufficient Strength or walk slower than a Dwarf (unless you are a Dwarf, in which case you don't care about that).
Except for Clerics (and Paladins, but ah...), nobody can use a shield if you're also using a free hand to hold a spellcasting focus. I mean, you can, but the moment you need to cast a spell that has S components without M components, you need a free hand and your focus doesn't count. Yeah, I guess you could use the actual materials when needed, and that solves the problem. Only rarely do I see that happen, though. (And yes, Warcaster is an option, but then you need a feat already.)
Hexblades at level 1 don't even get the medium armour they have proficiency. But, let's say you use the OneD&D new rules for equipment, you can buy a chain shirt or a scale mail, and have no shield (so max AC 16, with disadvantage on stealth), or a studded leather+shield to get (for Dex 14) 16 AC. Like the monk. Now sure, they can buy the rest soon, but they still need the money for that.
Druids (ignoring the metal thing), no-heavy-Clerics and Bards all have the same as the hexblade, except they (except the bard) can get the equipment earlier. For all of these, getting to their max potential at AC 19 will require the 750 GP half-plate, which is a very hefty sum, and imposes a disadvantage on stealth checks.
A Barbarian without a shield will have AC 16 at level 1, but usually lower, not 17. If they really wish it they can build for Dex, increasing their AC to 19 at level 1 as you mentioned, at the cost of a lot of damage (not all Barbarians are built to tank. Some are built to DPR). A Monk can increase both their AC and their damage output simultaneously.
Magic items are a DM problem. The game isn't even balanced for them, as stated in the DMG. If the DM awards them, they should think about how to award them evenly, and I mean by efficiency, not number.
By the way, through multiclassing, a Monk can gain access to any defensive measure. Rage and Wildshape are the obvious options. You can get the Abjuration/War Wizards' level 2 abilities without needing more than 13 Int. The Abjuration one might seem useless without more investment, but the War Wizard's Arcane Deflection is great since you don't need to cast any spells anyhow.
But what nobody considers, usually, is the option of multiclassing into Fighter/Cleric and just using heavy armour and martial weapons. All you're losing is your Martial Arts, but you're using a 2-handed weapon so you lose little damage, your Unarmored Defense, but you have heavy armour anyway, and your Unarmored Movement, which most Monks find difficult to use effectively anyhow. You can now dump Dex (what about saves? Diamond Soul and Evasion will be enough). "Okay, but why not just play a normal Fighter/Cleric?" You still get your subclass abilities (most of them are still valid, if not made better), all Ki features (which you'll be able to use for things other than FoB), Deflect Missiles, Slow Fall, Stunning Strike and Extra Attack, Evasion, Stillness of Mind... the list goes on. Even Unarmored Movement Improvement at level 9 says nothing about armour, which is clearly specified in any other improvement. The only features you miss are the three I mentioned first. Oh, and your capstone, but please.
Varielky
This is a nice set of polls!
I think an ASI at 10th and a slight scaling on martial arts die (to max out at d12 and increase every four levels) are the best core improvements.
I'm tempted by adding a fighting style choice, but the main problem is that it requires a lot of other changes to really work well; for example, it'd be nice if two-weapon fighting were viable on a Monk, but it'd require changes to how Martial Arts, Flurry of Blows etc. work. I'm more interested by the possibility of adding Open Hand Technique to the core monk, and giving open hand something else.
Diamond Soul definitely needs to come in partially earlier, with an upgrade at the current level.
Stillness of Mind as re-taking saving throw at start or end of turn is my preferred change; full immunity is boring as charmed/frightened are fun things to contend with, and being able to guarantee repeat saving throws even against effects that don't normally have them, such as geas is very powerful.
I really like the idea of bestowing certain features to allies; deflect missiles especially as it's just endlessly frustrating to have that ability and then ranged enemies hardly ever target you.
Stunning Strike is the trickiest; personally I'd like to see something like the following:
Wording and levels could be tweaked, but the idea is that a second strike is required to impose stunned and I've intentionally tried to word it such that the first stun doesn't require only single strikes to keep a creature locked (you always need two successful strikes to stun). The effects are still good in their own right, but the feature becomes more suited to a secondary feature, which is why I put it in at 9th-level alongside unarmored movement improvement (which on its own is fun but potentially underwhelming).
Could possibly have a third superior strike, maybe targeting Strength?
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If the goal is to replace Stunning Strike, I wonder if it would be a good opportunity to make use of the "Slowed" condition introduced as part of the playtest material. Reduced move speed, disadvantage on Dex saves, and having attacks against the target made with advantage are all still super impactful, but not quite as potent as the full Stunned condition.
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This is one of many corrections they have made recently just to cover up their mistakes. And as explained, this feature a its problems with darts. This feature does not make the monk a specialist in ranged attack and attacks, such as bonus unarmed attack and Stunning Strike (practically main features that distinguish the monk) are only viable in close combat. So the monk is driven to melee combat by his basic features.
The rogue's damage as a bonus attack is really paltry being only that of the weapon and since a weapon in the second hand should be 1d4 (+Mod Dex if he has the feat or two-weapon fighting style). The monk, however, has full damage that can go up to 1d10+mod Dex without having to take talents or multiclasses. So, it doesn't seem like a fair situation.
A monk reaches an AC of (10+3+3= 16) if his characteristics are well placed. At 4th level he might choose to upgrade his dexterity to 17 AC. At 8th level he might increase to 18 AC. To get to 20 in AC at level 10 he still has to take "Bracers Of Defense," which is priced at 6000 GP.
The barbarian/fighter/paladin/ can get to (10+2+4 Breastplate) 16 AC without any disadvantage and to 17 (Half plate) and that is without calculating the shield.
It is also true that these values then cannot evolve as in the case of the monk. But this does not prevent magical armor. So the AC value of melee fighters the monk will not have such an absurd gap. Another thing, the monk in order to enhance his defense will have to sacrifice his ability to take features.
You can say the same thing for all classes, what you are saying is simple abuse. Speed is a really advantageous asset of the monk, strategically, defensively, and attack-wise.
It allows you to look for covers where you shelter from spells and arrows. If these are not there you can get behind your group and far enough away not to get caught in an AoE spell. What I mean is that AC is the last defense.
I can say that it is my favorite thing about the monk. Without his speed, he is no longer a monk. I have always found it silly to stay in melee if there is no reason. The tank must stay in melee because he can afford to take damage and can take it instead of those in his group who do not have the same durability as it. The monk does not have the makings of a tank and if he does it is only because it is in a bad situation.
The baldesigner survives not because of his constitution, but because of his speed and the ability to disengage thanks to his extra attack power where he can use one of his attacks to cast Shocking Grasp and thus cancel his reaction. In this aspect he is very similar to a rogue or monk.
Yes, adding "darts" to the list was a mistake. Well, they still do work, just not as effectively. However, that does not mean it's terrible. Whether through the Dedicated Weapon, Kensei Weapon or even the Sun Soul's ranged attacks, you're losing some damage for staying out of combat. It is a fair trade. In the Kensei's case, swapping a d6+Dex for 2d4 (at level 5, assuming both attacks hit, but your BA attack could miss as well), you're losing ~2.5 points of damage, but stay out of range of enemy attacks, and if they have ranged attacks/AoE, you have features to help you with that. 2.5 DPR loss for the amount of damage you prevent and the resources you save from your healers is a great trade, IMO.
The Rogue's second attack isn't meant to deal more damage, it's intended to give you more chances to land your sneak attack, if you miss your first attack. Also, if you take the Soulknife, you get 1d4+Dex without any further investment.
I was talking more generally, but you can also roll for stats and get it earlier, or maybe the DM will give you that item. They might also not, but if you're going to give an item to a Monk, it's usually that anyhow. Especially if you give everyone else magical armour. But even if not, remember that Breastplate is 400 GP, and Half-Plate is 750 GP. Maybe less than the price you mentioned for the magic item, but still a lot at low levels. And although they might use a shield, most won't, since it eats into their damage output. There are hardly any feats that benefit a sword and board build (shield master, and that's about it).
It's true, but that's how it is. Speed is like an illusionist Wizard. They can have crazy ideas, but it ends up being reliant on the DM. If you're in a dungeon, or anywhere underground, your speed will likely be wasted, as even getting behind cover could be done with 30' as well. Besides, you think it is integral to the Monk, I find disengaging makes no sense. Have you ever seen a martial arts movie? The character doesn't just run 60' away while everyone stares at them. "Magic" or "Very fast" doesn't make it better. It's just weird. Imagine watching a movie and the protagonist just runs in and out of their enemies' range the entire time. It's weird and it's boring. At least for Open Hand/Drunken Master, I can imagine it being like a kick that pushes the enemy/yourself back, thus creating the distance you need to back away. If you want to use the speed that much, play one of these subclasses.
10' is hardly enough to make a difference. If the Bladesinger keeps close enough to be able to return the next round, the monster can just walk over and attack them. Most "tanks" have this problem, that only a few subclasses/feats fix. Besides, if you miss your Shocking Grasp, you're stuck. Against enemies with high AC, it's not very reliable. Against multiple enemies, it's useless. If you're surrounded and need to retreat, go for the normal disengage action, or make it a war of attrition to see who manages to remain standing when the fighting ends.
Varielky
To boost the monk's damage just create a feat, especially for those who use non-heavy and ranged weapons.
For ki point reserve just create wonderful items that allow the monk to store some ki points, or create a feature that works like a Second Wind but with ki points.
But I remain convinced that the monk needs a practical system to disengage from the enemy without having to waste ki points or even a bonus action. Another solution could be, boost his HP to d10 and find a way to reduce damage in melee. I am just afraid that the monk will really become a mere subclass of the fighter by going in this direction.
But what is most lacking in the monk is especially the ability to choose combat techniques such as in the case of the warlock's invocations or the battle master's special attacks. I thought of a feat to solve this problem but I don't think it is the solution.
This is the solution inserted directly into the monk's class.
Ki Martial Arts
Starting at 3rd level, you learn the KMA techniques that are fueled by your Ki. You learn two KMA technique of your choice. You can use only one KMA technique per attack. You learn two additional technique of your choice at 5th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level. Each time you learn new techniques, you can also replace one technique you know with a different one. You can use one technique for any attacks you successfully perform, each technique consumes 2 ki. A level prerequisite refers to your level in this class. A dippendence of the subclasses, there are alternative KMA techniques (Monastic Ki Martial Arts, p. 21).
3nd level:
Ki Emanation. When you make a Charisma (Intimidation), a Charisma (Performance), or a Charisma (Persuasion) check, you can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the ability check.
Ninja. When you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check or an initiative roll, you can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the ability check, provided you aren't incapacitated.
Pushing Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to drive the target back. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you push the target up to 15 feet away from you.
Tactical Assessment. When you make an Intelligence (Investigation), an Intelligence (History), or a Wisdom (Insight) check, you can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the ability check.
5th level:
Bait and Switch When you're within 5 feet of a creature on your turn, you can switch places with that creature, provided you spend at least 5 feet of movement and the creature is willing and isn't incapacitated. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. Roll one Martial Arts die. Until the start of your next turn, you or the other creature (your choice) gains a bonus to AC equal to the number rolled.
Blinded. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can hit the target eyes with your fingers. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Dexterity. saving throw or be blind until the end of your next turn.
Brutal Attack. When you hit a creature with a critical melee attack, you can enhance your attack to make it even more devastating. Roll one Martial Arts die damage dice three times, instead of twice, and add it to the damage roll.
Distracting Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can distract the creature, giving your allies an opening. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll. The next attack roll against the target by an attacker other than you has advantage if the attack is made before the start of your next turn.
Evasive Footwork. When you move, roll one martial arts die and add the number rolled to your AC until you stop moving.
Life Force. As a bonus action, you can roll one Martial Arts die and you or one willing creature that you touch regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled plus your proficiency bonus.
Lunging Strike. When you make a melee attack on your turn, you can increase your reach for that attack by 5 feet. If you hit, roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll.
Precision Strike. When you make a melee attack roll against a creature, you can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the roll. You can use this technique before or after making the attack roll, but before any effects of the attack are applied.
Pressure Point. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can hit the nerves of your target. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or not be able to move, swimming or fly until the end of your next turn. An airborne creature affected by this attack safely descends at 60 feet per round until it reaches the ground.
Unbalancing Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to knock the target down. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, it must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, you knock the target prone.
8th level:
Absorb Force. When another creature damages you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and roll one Martial Arts die to reduce the damage by the number you roll on your Martial Arts die + your Dexterity modifier.
Disarming Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to disarm the target, forcing it to drop one item of your choice that it's holding. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and the target must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, it drops the object you choose. The object lands at its feet.
Focus Breaker. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can attempt to shatter their concentration. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and if the creature makes a Constitution save to maintain concentration on a spell, subtract the number rolled on the Martial Arts die from the creature's roll.
Focused Striker. As a bonus action on your turn, you can take a focused combat stance. Until the the start of your next turn or until you are incapacitated, you ignore the disadvantage on all weapon attack rolls.
Goading Attack. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to goad the target into attacking you. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls against targets other than you until the end of your next turn.
Murderer Intent. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to frighten the target. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it is frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
Shoulder to Shoulder. On your turn you can allow one of your companions to move with you if they use their reaction. Your companion must start and end this movement within 5 feet of you. During this movement, all opportunity attacks that would target them, target yourself instead.
12th level:
Dazing Attack. When you hit another creature with a melee attack, you can blow to the enemy temple. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must make an Intelligence saving throw. If it fails, it can’t take a reaction until the end of its next turn. Moreover, on its next turn, it must choose whether it gets a move, an action, or a bonus action; it gets only one of the three.
Devious Strike. Whenever a creature within your reach attacks an ally, you can use your reaction to make one opportunity attack. If you hit, roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll.
Puppet. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to control its mind with your ki. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or immediately use its reaction to make one weapon attack against a creature other than itself that you mentally choose. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll. The controlled creature can move half its movement in this reaction.
Quick Toss. As a bonus action, you can make a ranged attack with a weapon that has the thrown property. You can draw the weapon as part of making this attack. If you hit, roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll.
Sweeping-Strike. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to damage another creature with the same attack. Choose another creature within 5 feet of the original target and within your reach. If the original attack roll would hit the second creature, it takes damage equal to one Martial Arts die roll. The damage is of the same type dealt by the original attack.
16th level:
Brace. When a creature you can see moves within your melee range, you can make an attack against them using your reaction. If the attack hits, you can can roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage rolled.
Counter-Strike. When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to make an unarmed attack against that creature. If you hit, roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll.
Mental Shock. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can attempt to damage its mind with your ki. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw or subtract 1d8 from the next saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn.
Voiceless. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can blow the enemy throat. Roll one Martial Arts die and add it to the damage roll, and it must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or not being able to speak until the end of your next turn.
Absolutely true, most of the monk subclasses are a bit disappointing and impractical, although lately they seem to be trying to improve this aspect.
The poll has been going long enough for results to stabilize. I'll analyze responses starting with the most common.
Adding 1 more ASI is the most popular way to address MAD and customization. With Unarmored Defense, each ASI effectively increases AC by 1. More ASI opens the possibility of gaining a character defining feat without feeling like one is lagging behind. I really hope the developers implement this.
Splitting Diamond Soul among multiple levels is extremely popular for good reason. Proficiency in a single saving throw is all some classes/subclasses get at certain level ups. The Resilient feat is popular versus a straight +2 ASI. In addition to the first 2 saving throw proficiencies, Monks acquire 5 more (don't forget death saving throws). These can be placed at levels where no other feature fits. My preference is the player chooses the proficiency due to focus area (CON saves for partial-casters) or starting in a different class (eg Rogue). But I also see the value of simply at Level # you gain WIS saving proficiency, at Level # you gain CON saving proficiency, etc.
Increasing Martial Arts Dice scaling would be nice to finish at a D12. That can either happen by starting at a D6 or increasing at earlier levels. Every 4th level lines up with ASI, which makes those larger power spikes. Therefore my preference is starting at a D6. Of course it is not comparable to Sharpshooter/GWM. I expect those feats to be toned down or all martials to get a power attack like "Forgo Advantage to get 2*Proficiency Bonus added to the damage." In Tier 3 and Tier 4 is also when the spellcasters are extremely powerful due to most groups having fewer than the recommended 6 encounters per day. The developers will need to rebalance the martials and spellcasters with non-standard adventuring days in mind.
I am not confident about "Increase the maximum ki to (Monk levels) + (WIS modifier)." That can be quite a power spike at level 2. Being able to do an extra unarmed strike for a 5 round combat is significantly more damage than almost any other level 2 class. There is also the possibility of multiclassing shenanigans such as a level 10 Moon Druid / Monk 2 that can cast a spell, then shapeshift into an 20AC air element with resistance to physical attacks and a bonus action dodge for 5 rounds.
The poll results for a counter attack confuse me. It appears as a choice for multiple questions (mostly because I think it can solve multiple issues). The responses range from 18% to 38% depending on the question. That is quite a wide range. Is it just because a counter attack solves some of the monk's issues but is not a good fit for others?
Anyway, here is an idea for how it could work.
Deflect Attack
When you or an ally are hit by an attack, you may spend your reaction to roll a Martial Arts die and reduce the damage by the amount rolled. You may spend 1 Ki to redirect that damage to a creature (such as the original attacker) within range of the original attack. [Legalese may be needed for projectiles fitting in your hand for ranged attacks.]
It would replace Deflect Missiles, but not necessarily be at Level 3. It scales with the Martial Arts dice. It improves survivability, reaction action economy, and teamwork. I chose a single roll of the Martial Arts die for streamlining gameplay, but I could imagine an Unarmed Strike working just as well.
Does having a specific definition of a counter attack affect how anyone feels about their poll responses?
I really hope they make darts a monk weapon. It would be simple melee weapons, shortswords, and darts. What self-respecting ninja doesn't have shuriken (darts reflavored). I don't think it would be broken and it's part of their starting equipment anyway.
GWM/SS should probably be:
They are redesigning feats anyway to include levels, so even if they don't change GWM/SS, I hope they are of significantly high enough level to take.
I like the direction they are going with the changes to unarmed strikes in the UA. I hope the monk has some modifications to that like using DEX or WIS instead of STR for determining the save to escape a grapple or you can choose two of those options On a Hit.
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Love the name! I love Thri-Kreens!
"Anyone can smith at the cosmic anvil, yet only I can forge a weapon as good as thee."
My Homebrew Please click it, they have my family.
I was thinking that one of the monk's problems is its heavy dependence on ki. The issue isn't the quantity of ki but its lack of features that don't require ki. Just as the spellcasters have the cantrip, or the Rogue has the sneak attack, or the Paladin has the Improved Divine Smite, the monk should have something similar that allows it to economize its ki points.
At least some monks should get access to armour, shields and heavy weapons because the martial arts practitioners that monks are based on did use these historically in the real world. I would also double their Ki (or remove Ki costs from some abilities) and start the martial arts die as a D6.
The problem is that everyone sees the monk differently. Some say the monk should stand in the melee and fight like a fighter, others say the monk should move around and fight like a rogue.... The monk's biggest problem is that his position in the group has never been clear, and this creates differences of opinion. So many treat him as a wild card, who can do a little bit of everything, but does not excel at anything.
From my point of view, the monk from his features characteristics is more likely to behave like a rogue and create chaos in enemy lines by moving and stunning enemies. In my opinion, we should not lose this concept. Just that the only thing it can do (only as a base class) is stun and it doesn't do much martial arts master. A master in martial arts has many different techniques that it can use depending on the situation.