Good news on the capstone ability, they're already talking of moving all those to level 18 now so you actually get time to play them before the campaign ends if you get to level 20. Level 20 will now be Epic Boon territory. So look for that when the Warrior Class PDF drops. :)
Good news on the capstone ability, they're already talking of moving all those to level 18 now so you actually get time to play them before the campaign ends if you get to level 20. Level 20 will now be Epic Boon territory. So look for that when the Warrior Class PDF drops. :)
If they replace empty body with perfect slef I will not be happy!
In more general terms I have not fileld in the polls because most of them are do A or B but if you do everything they will be massivley overpowered. There are also overlaps, bonus action disengage without using ki not only makes monks more survivable but also gives them more ki for other things.
I see having a ki pool of monk level + wis modifier is popular, given the way new features (both in 5e and the one D&D playtest) I think monk lelvel +proficiency bonus is far more likely.
I don't see stunning strike as a problem it is a save or suck but there are plenty of those in the game, using 5 ki to flurry of blows and then failing 4 times to land the stunning strike is a case of resource management.
I would also argue that a monks damage output does increase after level 11. More ki means you do not need to hold back on flurry of blows so much, and Empty body gives you advantage on all attacks is a significant boost to damage output.(It is also an even bigger help to survivability)
I think the best thing to do for a Monk would make them a half-caster with cantrips and access to the primal spell list. If they did that they could keep everything else the same and they would be equivalent to most other classes. Also maybe offer some metamagic options they could use with Ki points.
I think the best thing to do for a Monk would make them a half-caster with cantrips and access to the primal spell list. If they did that they could keep everything else the same and they would be equivalent to most other classes. Also maybe offer some metamagic options they could use with Ki points.
I disagree. I think making monks half casters would be a bad idea and a reason I wouldn't ever play one. It's fine for a subclass, like Four Elements, to have abilities that allow them to cast spells (although I prefer that all 4E monks Elemental Disciplines be unique abilities and not "you can cast X spell for Y Ki points")
I'm excited to see what they do with monks, although as has been pointed out elsewhere, since WotC seems to be standardizing when Subclass features occur, there will probably be monk abilities removed or moved to later levels. I'm just curious if all subclasses will follow the same pattern or if each group (Expert, Warrior, Mage, Priest) will have their own.
Some of the options for escaping melee are already on subclasses. I do think their move to the warrior group means a bigger hit die wouldn’t be surprising in the warrior UA. It also means fighting styles will be available, though whether that will be a feature or only come on feats is yet to be seen.
I think the best thing to do for a Monk would make them a half-caster with cantrips and access to the primal spell list. If they did that they could keep everything else the same and they would be equivalent to most other classes. Also maybe offer some metamagic options they could use with Ki points.
I disagree. I think making monks half casters would be a bad idea and a reason I wouldn't ever play one. It's fine for a subclass, like Four Elements, to have abilities that allow them to cast spells (although I prefer that all 4E monks Elemental Disciplines be unique abilities and not "you can cast X spell for Y Ki points")
I'm excited to see what they do with monks, although as has been pointed out elsewhere, since WotC seems to be standardizing when Subclass features occur, there will probably be monk abilities removed or moved to later levels. I'm just curious if all subclasses will follow the same pattern or if each group (Expert, Warrior, Mage, Priest) will have their own.
I also disagree with the spells. I would prefer a list of martial arts techniques of choice (like a middle ground between battle master maneuvers and warlock eldritch invocations).
This would allow the monk to evolve with the introduction of possible new martial arts techniques that can be added by the new subclasses as prequisites, or different prerequisites as in the case of Eldritch Invocations.
I find it sad that the basic monk's only technique is a stunning strike.
I think the best thing to do for a Monk would make them a half-caster with cantrips and access to the primal spell list. If they did that they could keep everything else the same and they would be equivalent to most other classes. Also maybe offer some metamagic options they could use with Ki points.
I disagree. I think making monks half casters would be a bad idea and a reason I wouldn't ever play one. It's fine for a subclass, like Four Elements, to have abilities that allow them to cast spells (although I prefer that all 4E monks Elemental Disciplines be unique abilities and not "you can cast X spell for Y Ki points")
I'm excited to see what they do with monks, although as has been pointed out elsewhere, since WotC seems to be standardizing when Subclass features occur, there will probably be monk abilities removed or moved to later levels. I'm just curious if all subclasses will follow the same pattern or if each group (Expert, Warrior, Mage, Priest) will have their own.
I also disagree with the spells. I would prefer a list of martial arts techniques of choice (like a middle ground between battle master maneuvers and warlock eldritch invocations).
This would allow the monk to evolve with the introduction of possible new martial arts techniques that can be added by the new subclasses as prequisites, or different prerequisites as in the case of Eldritch Invocations.
I find it sad that the basic monk's only technique is a stunning strike.
And now, with monks as part of the warrior group (for now if these groups stay), any feats (now that there are no ASI's at 4, 8, 12, 16, 19, but just feats at those levels with ASI's as a feat option) that benefit the warrior group benefits the monk. So any feats that get added in later books will hopefully give those options of the "middle ground between battle master maneuvers and warlock invocations" to the monk.
We will just have to see what happens with the warrior UA.
I mean, if you take the Mobile Feat, then you disengage with anything you attack. You could be surrounded by four enemies, attack-attack-flurry-flurry and automatically disengage with them, hit or miss!
A feat is a high price to pay for a class that already disengage as a bonus action by using a ki. This is especially true because a Monk does not really hit hard enough to be an effective striker.
Okay so here's what I believe is the nutshell issue with monk.
1: damage scaling. This simply needs to be addresses and while just scaling up the martial arts die would do the trick, I think I would prefer a more roundabout method of increasing damage options that provides more flavor and class identity. I'm honestly surprised more people didn't pick the 2nd bonus action; this would both supplement the feel of monks feeling like the rapid martial artist and provide the chance for an extra attack and therefor more damage... attack action>unarmed strike bonus>flurry bonus but in a pinch that extra bonus would also serve to address the next point I'm about to make...
2: the monk's kit is chalk-full of disconnected and unfulfilled options that alone don't really fully meet any given demand without making sacrifices to supplement those options either via taking feats instead of much needed stat boosts for a MAD class, or gimping your own attack options during your turn to take things like patient defense or step of the wind, or picking a specific sublcass to fully enable any given playstyle. A subclass should seek to compliment a class, not enable it or fix it. For example, monk's unarmored defense leads to potentially formidable early to mid game AC but caps early and unless coupled with a feat like tough still leaves the monk rather squishy. This can be augmented by choosing patient defense for the bonus dodge action but that means you are sacrificing your attacking options by not flurrying or bonus unarmed striking. Another example is monk's movement speed which lends to a very niche hit and run playstyle, which could be very fun, however in practice this NEEDS supplementation with either the mobile or crusher feat, or investment into a subclass that enables avoidance like the range from Astral self or the knockback from open hand, and even then youll find yourself soendingnone turn closing a gap and sitting voulnurable, and the next turn maybe running away just to repeat instead of doing it all in one turn unless you further bolster the movement with a race like tabaxi. As stated before these options or fixed are further hindered by the reality that taking them still involves burning valuable ki points to achieve the same thing that some other classes can do indefinitely for free and sacrificing the attack options, or pigeonholing yourself into a subclass just to get full benefit from your classes features. In some cases, like the mobile feat, it feels like you are paying to remove a penalty rather than bolster your kit, or even replace your kit like forgoing the step of the wind action for mobile... I think the obvious solution there is to just give monks a version of the mobile or crusher feat by default instead of making them spec into it. Monk's kit should encourage attacking, for a class that doesn't provide much party utility it should be able to consistently do its job and not waste multiple turns setting itself up for a mediocre turn.
You shouldn't be pigeonholed into any subclass to fix broken class features... a subclass should just serve to add flavor and depth, not act as a bandaid.
The monk is a lot of stuff but little substance. From my point of view, to bring back the monk would take drastic changes. Perhaps my ideas are a bit brutal, I don't want to offend anyone, these are just my ideas and certainly do not reflect those of others.
Regarding the use of speed that distinguishes the monk's combat tactics, for me the most practical solution is to add this option to the Martial Arts feature:
Once per turn, if you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can move it of 5 feet to an unoccupied space. You cannot push opponents two sizes larger than you, but you can use the rebound to move 5 feet away.
Dedicated Weapon is a stupid patch. They should just introduce it in the Martial Arts feature. It doesn't make any sense to renege on certain weapons and then allow them.
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. (Weapons Proficiencies: Simple weapons, improvised weapons and one martial weapon of your choice.)
Slowfall could easily be included as part of the Unarmored Movement feature. To give real value to slowfall I would make Step of the Wind capable of teleportation or aerial movement.
Step on the Wind: You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and during the move, you gain a fly speed equal to your speed.
Ki-Fueled Attack is another silly patch for review. It could be introduced in Martial Arts feature.
Focused Aim is a trap for finishing ki points faster. It should be a feature based on the number of Bonus Proficiency, or be part of a list of features to choose from (like those of warlock), or more simply be deleted.
Quickened Healing is definitely much more useful, but like Focused Aim, it should be a feature based on the number of Bonus Proficiency, or be part of a list of features to choose from (like those of warlock).
Tongue of the Sun and Moon is a feature that comes too late, and making it free is even more pointless. Instead, it should become a feature with a cost and moved to 4th level. It would not hurt to turn it in the list of Ki feature, along with Quickened Healing, Focused Aim, Flurry of Blows, etc.
Tongue of Ki: At 4th level, as an action you can spend 3 ki points and for 1 hour you can touch the ki of other minds so that you understand all spoken languages and any creature that can understand a language can understand what you say.
Stunning Strike is the monk's great weapon and at the same time its misfortune. Too powerful and at the same time too repetitive to the point of morbidity. It should be replaced with several martial arts techniques of choice that cannot be repeated on the same opponent in the same turn.
Ki-Empowered Strikes is a scam! Why should the monk be the only class that has this feature? Is this another excuse for not creating official weapons for unarmed combat? To Add useless stuff to the monk to occupy his tab and deprive it of more useful features? What I mean is that this feature is comparable to a silver-covered weapon. Another argument is that this feature is received at 6th level, basically when the group already has a +1 magic weapon.
Stillness of Mind is a poorly written feature, and in my opinion the monk already has enough defense with high wisdom and the Diamond Soul feature. It should be deleted or made into a Ki feature with a ki point cost.
Body Purity is a trait that could make the monk proficient on Constitution saving throws, instead of having to wait until 14th level.
Empty Body is another feature that comes too late and has no real meaning for the monk. Simply to be eliminated.
Perfect Self is basically trash.
Although there are still problems to be solved, this is how I personally see the monk:
The monk is a lot of stuff but little substance. From my point of view, to bring back the monk would take drastic changes. Perhaps my ideas are a bit brutal, I don't want to offend anyone, these are just my ideas and certainly do not reflect those of others.
Regarding the use of speed that distinguishes the monk's combat tactics, for me the most practical solution is to add this option to the Martial Arts feature:
Once per turn, if you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can move it of 5 feet to an unoccupied space. You cannot push opponents two sizes larger than you, but you can use the rebound to move 5 feet away.
Dedicated Weapon is a stupid patch. They should just introduce it in the Martial Arts feature. It doesn't make any sense to renege on certain weapons and then allow them.
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. (Weapons Proficiencies: Simple weapons, improvised weapons and one martial weapon of your choice.)
Slowfall could easily be included as part of the Unarmored Movement feature. To give real value to slowfall I would make Step of the Wind capable of teleportation or aerial movement.
Step on the Wind: You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and during the move, you gain a fly speed equal to your speed.
Ki-Fueled Attack is another silly patch for review. It could be introduced in Martial Arts feature.
Focused Aim is a trap for finishing ki points faster. It should be a feature based on the number of Bonus Proficiency, or be part of a list of features to choose from (like those of warlock), or more simply be deleted.
Quickened Healing is definitely much more useful, but like Focused Aim, it should be a feature based on the number of Bonus Proficiency, or be part of a list of features to choose from (like those of warlock).
Tongue of the Sun and Moon is a feature that comes too late, and making it free is even more pointless. Instead, it should become a feature with a cost and moved to 4th level. It would not hurt to turn it in the list of Ki feature, along with Quickened Healing, Focused Aim, Flurry of Blows, etc.
Tongue of Ki: At 4th level, as an action you can spend 3 ki points and for 1 hour you can touch the ki of other minds so that you understand all spoken languages and any creature that can understand a language can understand what you say.
Stunning Strike is the monk's great weapon and at the same time its misfortune. Too powerful and at the same time too repetitive to the point of morbidity. It should be replaced with several martial arts techniques of choice that cannot be repeated on the same opponent in the same turn.
Ki-Empowered Strikes is a scam! Why should the monk be the only class that has this feature? Is this another excuse for not creating official weapons for unarmed combat? To Add useless stuff to the monk to occupy his tab and deprive it of more useful features? What I mean is that this feature is comparable to a silver-covered weapon. Another argument is that this feature is received at 6th level, basically when the group already has a +1 magic weapon.
Stillness of Mind is a poorly written feature, and in my opinion the monk already has enough defense with high wisdom and the Diamond Soul feature. It should be deleted or made into a Ki feature with a ki point cost.
Body Purity is a trait that could make the monk proficient on Constitution saving throws, instead of having to wait until 14th level.
Empty Body is another feature that comes too late and has no real meaning for the monk. Simply to be eliminated.
Perfect Self is basically trash.
Although there are still problems to be solved, this is how I personally see the monk:
So basically you're saying the solution to monk being the most ****** class in the game is to nerf it further? What the actual hell? Are you trolling? Take away it's only feature that makes it worth bringing in a team.. add resouce costs to an already resource starved class. Take away the things that help it stay safe at range. Gimp it's ability to actually do damage to creatures that can't take damage from non magic weapons, or, give its identity (unarmed combat) to everyone else? Give it a needless fly when it can already move along vertical surfaces. Unarmed means unarmed, aka no weapon, why would they create weapons for a class that is supposed to excell without weapons?
Idk man... this is such a hard troll to ignore.. I guess you're winning.
Tibryn, you should edit your post; accusing others of trolling is against the rules on these forums and I'm very certain Aanx isn't trolling here, they just have a different view to you on what changes are needed for the Monk. I don't agree with all of those suggestions either, but I agree with some, and it's good to have alternative ideas as my own views on improving the Monk needs have changed based on what others have suggested.
Once per turn, if you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can move it of 5 feet to an unoccupied space. You cannot push opponents two sizes larger than you, but you can use the rebound to move 5 feet away.
Would it not be easier to just make Disengage a free bonus action for the Monk (no Ki cost)?
Dedicated Weapon is a stupid patch. They should just introduce it in the Martial Arts feature. It doesn't make any sense to renege on certain weapons and then allow them.
Agreed, it makes no sense to limit monks too much as only certain weapons are really optimal for them anyway (reach weapons for example see no benefit if you need to close the distance to use unarmed strikes in the same turn anyway), even if they had full martial weapons proficiency (and all counted as monk weapons) it'd hardly be game breaking as we can only make two weapon attacks in a turn usually anyway.
I'd maybe keep the restrictions on heavy and special weapons though, as they don't really fit the idea of the mobile/agile skirmisher. But in general I prefer more weapons to be options.
Step on the Wind: You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and during the move, you gain a fly speed equal to your speed.
I don't think we need a flying speed, there are plenty of races that can fly as it is.
I'm more interested to see if they do anything to simplify the jumping rules in OneD&D or give them more prominence, as increasing your jumping distance/height is actually a very useful ability but it's heavily encounter/DM dependent.
Step of the Wind really just needs to have its cost lowered, so it becomes free to Disengage, and you can Dash once for free, but your second Dash costs 1 Ki point (as double dashing is so much faster on a Monk than on a Rogue).
Ki-Fueled Attack is another silly patch for review. It could be introduced in Martial Arts feature.
I'd definitely like to see this rolled into martial arts; dunno if I'd call it a "silly patch", they weren't re-releasing the classes in Tasha's Cauldron (with the exception of Artificer).
Focused Aim is a trap for finishing ki points faster. It should be a feature based on the number of Bonus Proficiency, or be part of a list of features to choose from (like those of warlock), or more simply be deleted.
I wouldn't call this a trap; it only triggers if you miss so you're only spending Ki if you think it's worth the risk of still missing (don't boost it enough). If you're pretty sure it was only a near miss then one or two Ki to turn it into a hit may be worth it compared to losing the attack, especially if you have some kind of rider effect you'd like to trigger (from a magic item or other ability).
It's definitely more situational than people might think though; in general it's better to just spend one Ki on Flurry of Blows (more attacks), but there will be times when you're making an attack that really needs to hit, like when you're trying to throw a dart through the rope of a noose around someone's neck or something. I haven't used it a lot on my monks (and the last one was multiclassed as war-cleric so also had divine guidance) but when I have used it I've been glad to have it.
Quickened Healing is definitely much more useful, but like Focused Aim, it should be a feature based on the number of Bonus Proficiency, or be part of a list of features to choose from (like those of warlock).
I wonder how many people would actually take it if it were on a list though? Lists of options like eldritch invocations have the major problem that unless every option is equally good, you'll end up with half the list (or more) that barely anyone ever takes.
It's a good way to use up leftover Ki points when you're about to take a short rest, as it saves on your hit-dice. Personally I'd just roll it into a short rest feature directly, i.e- for every two Ki you spend you get one hit dice back.
Tongue of the Sun and Moon is a feature that comes too late, and making it free is even more pointless. Instead, it should become a feature with a cost and moved to 4th level. It would not hurt to turn it in the list of Ki feature, along with Quickened Healing, Focused Aim, Flurry of Blows, etc.
I could definitely see this become part of some kind of utility features list.
Stunning Strike is the monk's great weapon and at the same time its misfortune. Too powerful and at the same time too repetitive to the point of morbidity. It should be replaced with several martial arts techniques of choice that cannot be repeated on the same opponent in the same turn.
I definitely think stunning strike needs to start out differently; the ability to essentially shut down an enemy for an entire round (or more) has clearly been one of the reasons that Wizards of the Coast keeps nerfing all their monk sub-classes, but it's such a weird feature in practice as it's simultaneously too limited, too random and too powerful, which is a very weird place for it to be.
I'd like to see something less powerful but more predictable, possibly with several variations targeting different saving throws, and some kind of stacking mechanic. At later levels that stacking could lead to a full-blown stunning strike, but you'd need to land several hits before it can happen (so no chance of one lucky first hit trivialising an entire fight).
Ki-Empowered Strikes is a scam!
I don't agree on this, I think it's a really good feature of Monks. While how useful it will actually be is campaign dependent (how generous your DM is with magic items) being able to guarantee magical strikes even if you're disarmed isn't nothing. Plus you're getting it at the same time as a 6th-level sub-class feature, and those are usually good.
Stillness of Mind is a poorly written feature, and in my opinion the monk already has enough defense with high wisdom and the Diamond Soul feature. It should be deleted or made into a Ki feature with a ki point cost.
Agree, it should just be resistance to being charmed or frightened, and/or maybe rolled into diamond soul (and split that across two features so it isn't coming in so late). Having it be an action with a questionable ability to actually use it makes it such a weird feature.
Empty Body is another feature that comes too late and has no real meaning for the monk. Simply to be eliminated.
Empty Body seems really good to me? Though it is coming in late, being able to go invisible and gain full damage resistance is pretty huge.
Perfect Self is basically trash.
Guaranteed Ki points is fine, the main problem is that it's not really enough on its own which makes it a bit lacklustre as a cap-stone, though it's consistent with the likes of Bard etc. who just get some resources back.
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Once per turn, if you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can move it of 5 feet to an unoccupied space. You cannot push opponents two sizes larger than you, but you can use the rebound to move 5 feet away.
Would it not be easier to just make Disengage a free bonus action for the Monk (no Ki cost)?
I agree that, like the Rogue, a monk should have their BA disengage for free. And, I used to believe that the Way of the Open Hand monk's "Open Hand Technique" should be a base monk feature. But I think I like Aanx's version, at least the unarmed strike moving a target 5 feet part, as it isn't tied to Flurry of Blows, and it gives some battlefield control beyond just being able to disengage.
Dedicated Weapon is a stupid patch. They should just introduce it in the Martial Arts feature. It doesn't make any sense to renege on certain weapons and then allow them.
Agreed, it makes no sense to limit monks too much as only certain weapons are really optimal for them anyway (reach weapons for example see no benefit if you need to close the distance to use unarmed strikes in the same turn anyway), even if they had full martial weapons proficiency (and all counted as monk weapons) it'd hardly be game breaking as we can only make two weapon attacks in a turn usually anyway.
I'd maybe keep the restrictions on heavy and special weapons though, as they don't really fit the idea of the mobile/agile skirmisher. But in general I prefer more weapons to be options.
It very well may be that monks will get access to martial weapons, as part of the Warrior group, and I see no reason not to allow them anyway. The restriction on Heavy and special properties should remain, but allow Kensei to bypass that restriction.
Step on the Wind: You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and during the move, you gain a fly speed equal to your speed.
I don't think we need a flying speed, there are plenty of races that can fly as it is.
I'm more interested to see if they do anything to simplify the jumping rules in OneD&D or give them more prominence, as increasing your jumping distance/height is actually a very useful ability but it's heavily encounter/DM dependent.
Step of the Wind really just needs to have its cost lowered, so it becomes free to Disengage, and you can Dash once for free, but your second Dash costs 1 Ki point (as double dashing is so much faster on a Monk than on a Rogue).
I know we've disagreed on this in the past and I still have no problem with monks double dashing for free. Seems weird that you could Dash as a bonus action for free, but if you chose to Dash as an action, as well, you would have to spend a Ki point, when Dashing as an action has always been free for everyone. Seems like unnecessary bookkeeping to me. And if you are double dashing, you are doing that at the exclusion of everything else.
Focused Aim is a trap for finishing ki points faster. It should be a feature based on the number of Bonus Proficiency, or be part of a list of features to choose from (like those of warlock), or more simply be deleted.
I wouldn't call this a trap; it only triggers if you miss so you're only spending Ki if you think it's worth the risk of still missing (don't boost it enough). If you're pretty sure it was only a near miss then one or two Ki to turn it into a hit may be worth it compared to losing the attack, especially if you have some kind of rider effect you'd like to trigger (from a magic item or other ability).
It's definitely more situational than people might think though; in general it's better to just spend one Ki on Flurry of Blows (more attacks), but there will be times when you're making an attack that really needs to hit, like when you're trying to throw a dart through the rope of a noose around someone's neck or something. I haven't used it a lot on my monks (and the last one was multiclassed as war-cleric so also had divine guidance) but when I have used it I've been glad to have it.
Focused aim is fine. It's an option. Maybe the idea of having a "list" of utility features for the monk (like warlock invocations) is good in concept but doesn't seem like how WotC is approaching things in 1D&D, if the Hunter Ranger is any indication.
Stunning Strike is the monk's great weapon and at the same time its misfortune. Too powerful and at the same time too repetitive to the point of morbidity. It should be replaced with several martial arts techniques of choice that cannot be repeated on the same opponent in the same turn.
I definitely think stunning strike needs to start out differently; the ability to essentially shut down an enemy for an entire round (or more) has clearly been one of the reasons that Wizards of the Coast keeps nerfing all their monk sub-classes, but it's such a weird feature in practice as it's simultaneously too limited, too random and too powerful, which is a very weird place for it to be.
I'd like to see something less powerful but more predictable, possibly with several variations targeting different saving throws, and some kind of stacking mechanic. At later levels that stacking could lead to a full-blown stunning strike, but you'd need to land several hits before it can happen (so no chance of one lucky first hit trivialising an entire fight).
It seems like the new Dazed condition could play into how Stunning Strike will work in 1D&D. I agree it could scale instead of being so powerful right out of the gate. At the same time, I hate to nerf a defining feature of the monk. If there is a "trap" in monk abilities, this might be the biggest offender. You can burn through a lot of Ki trying to get this to stick. Maybe they will make it so that you can cause the Dazed condition on a target and if you hit a Dazed target, you can spend Ki to stun them. I don't know <shrug>
Ki-Empowered Strikes is a scam!
I don't agree on this, I think it's a really good feature of Monks. While how useful it will actually be is campaign dependent (how generous your DM is with magic items) being able to guarantee magical strikes even if you're disarmed isn't nothing. Plus you're getting it at the same time as a 6th-level sub-class feature, and those are usually good.
Agreed, this is essential on a Monk. If you want to use your BA for an unarmed strike or FoB, this is essential for getting over resistances. And maybe someone wants to play an unarmed striking monk with no weapons. Other classes don't need this, but monks do.
Stillness of Mind is a poorly written feature, and in my opinion the monk already has enough defense with high wisdom and the Diamond Soul feature. It should be deleted or made into a Ki feature with a ki point cost.
Agree, it should just be resistance to being charmed or frightened, and/or maybe rolled into diamond soul (and split that across two features so it isn't coming in so late). Having it be an action with a questionable ability to actually use it makes it such a weird feature.
Maybe it could be part of Diamond Soul, giving monk proficiency on WIS and CHA saving throws, as well as resistance to Charmed and Frightened. And Diamond Soul at 14 giving CON and INT saving throw proficiency with Immunity to Charmed and Frightened. And the Ki point to reroll.
I think someone mentioned a similar idea in another monk thread.
Empty Body is another feature that comes too late and has no real meaning for the monk. Simply to be eliminated.
Empty Body seems really good to me? Though it is coming in late, being able to go invisible and gain full damage resistance is pretty huge.
Empty Body is good. Not sure if you could move it forward, monks already have a lot of features so something would have to be moved or eliminated or combined.
Perfect Self is basically trash.
Guaranteed Ki points is fine, the main problem is that it's not really enough on its own which makes it a bit lacklustre as a cap-stone, though it's consistent with the likes of Bard etc. who just get some resources back.
Pretty much all the capstones are trash, with a notable exception of the Barbarians capstone, so I think it needs a bump, like so many others.
Just want to comment on heavy weapons - I think Glaive in particular should be a Monk weapon. If you go back to 1E Monks were proficient in polearms and a Monk fighting with a polearm is defintely thematic to the fiction surrounding eastern martial arts I think.
If I could change just one thing this would be it. The reach would conflict with martial arts, but there are more to Monks than Martial arts.
Step on the Wind: You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and during the move, you gain a fly speed equal to your speed.
I don't think we need a flying speed, there are plenty of races that can fly as it is.
I'm more interested to see if they do anything to simplify the jumping rules in OneD&D or give them more prominence, as increasing your jumping distance/height is actually a very useful ability but it's heavily encounter/DM dependent.
Step of the Wind really just needs to have its cost lowered, so it becomes free to Disengage, and you can Dash once for free, but your second Dash costs 1 Ki point (as double dashing is so much faster on a Monk than on a Rogue).
I know we've disagreed on this in the past and I still have no problem with monks double dashing for free. Seems weird that you could Dash as a bonus action for free, but if you chose to Dash as an action, as well, you would have to spend a Ki point, when Dashing as an action has always been free for everyone. Seems like unnecessary bookkeeping to me. And if you are double dashing, you are doing that at the exclusion of everything else.
Mine is just a solution to make more active use of slowfall. Instead of aerial movement it could be teleportation.
Ki-Empowered Strikes is a scam!
I don't agree on this, I think it's a really good feature of Monks. While how useful it will actually be is campaign dependent (how generous your DM is with magic items) being able to guarantee magical strikes even if you're disarmed isn't nothing. Plus you're getting it at the same time as a 6th-level sub-class feature, and those are usually good.
Agreed, this is essential on a Monk. If you want to use your BA for an unarmed strike or FoB, this is essential for getting over resistances. And maybe someone wants to play an unarmed striking monk with no weapons. Other classes don't need this, but monks do.
The monk does not necessarily need this feature. If it wants to fight with his unarmed attacks it can find headbands or a tattoo that enhances its unarmed attacks, if it wants to have its weapon + fists instead, let it find a magical weapon + magical headbands/tattoos. (As any combatant with two weapons) In any situation it should find an item to enhance its unarmed attacks being its own special attack.
Another solution would be for this feature to allow unarmed attacks to be enhanced with the same bonus as its magical weapon.
Ki-Empowered Strikes: Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. Additionally, if you have a magic weapon in your primary hand, this bonus is also used for your unarmed attacks.
Empty Body is another feature that comes too late and has no real meaning for the monk. Simply to be eliminated.
Empty Body seems really good to me? Though it is coming in late, being able to go invisible and gain full damage resistance is pretty huge.
Empty Body is good. Not sure if you could move it forward, monks already have a lot of features so something would have to be moved or eliminated or combined.
A beautiful feature, I have no quarrel with it, but it comes too late and is definitely not in keeping with the monk's fighting style. Attacks with advantage is really not very useful for the monk, and the resistance is not very in tune with the monk's fighting style. If it had been an 11th-level feature it would still be acceptable (although instead of Greater Invisibility, Haste would be better). I find it an unnecessary enhancement for an 18th-level combatant.
Perfect Self is basically trash.
Guaranteed Ki points is fine, the main problem is that it's not really enough on its own which makes it a bit lacklustre as a cap-stone, though it's consistent with the likes of Bard etc. who just get some resources back.
Pretty much all the capstones are trash, with a notable exception of the Barbarians capstone, so I think it needs a bump, like so many others.
Compare this with the list in the spoiler. From my perspective it is close to being the worst of the 20th level features.
Perfect Self
At 20th level, when you roll for initiative and have no ki points remaining, you regain 4 ki points.
Archdruid
At 20th level, you can use your Wild Shape an unlimited number of times.
Additionally, you can ignore the verbal and somatic components of your druid spells, as well as any material components that lack a cost and aren't consumed by a spell. You gain this benefit in both your normal shape and your beast shape from Wild Shape.
Divine Intervention
Beginning at 10th level, you can call on your deity to intervene on your behalf when your need is great.
Imploring your deity's aid requires you to use your action. Describe the assistance you seek, and roll percentile dice. If you roll a number equal to or lower than your cleric level, your deity intervenes. The DM chooses the nature of the intervention; the effect of any cleric spell or cleric domain spell would be appropriate. If your deity intervenes, you can't use this feature again for 7 days. Otherwise, you can use it again after you finish a long rest.
At 20th level, your call for intervention succeeds automatically, no roll required.
Superior Inspiration
At 20th level, when you roll initiative and have no uses of Bardic Inspiration left, you regain one use.
Soul of Artifice
At 20th level, you develop a mystical connection to your magic items, which you can draw on for protection:
You gain a +1 bonus to all saving throws per magic item you are currently attuned to.
If you're reduced to 0 hit points but not killed out-right, you can use your reaction to end one of your artificer infusions, causing you to drop to 1 hit point instead of 0.
Sacred Oath
When you reach 3rd level, you swear the oath that binds you as a paladin forever. Up to this time you have been in a preparatory stage, committed to the path but not yet sworn to it. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 15th, and 20th level. Those features include oath spells and the Channel Divinity feature.
Stroke of Luck
At 20th level, you have an uncanny knack for succeeding when you need to. If your attack misses a target within range, you can turn the miss into a hit. Alternatively, if you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Sorcerous Restoration
At 20th level, you regain 4 expended sorcery points whenever you finish a short rest.
Eldritch Master
At 20th level, you can draw on your inner reserve of mystical power while entreating your patron to regain expended spell slots. You can spend 1 minute entreating your patron for aid to regain all your expended spell slots from your Pact Magic feature. Once you regain spell slots with this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
Signature Spells
When you reach 20th level, you gain mastery over two powerful spells and can cast them with little effort. Choose two 3rd-level wizard spells in your spellbook as your signature spells. You always have these spells prepared, they don't count against the number of spells you have prepared, and you can cast each of them once at 3rd level without expending a spell slot. When you do so, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
If you want to cast either spell at a higher level, you must expend a spell slot as normal.
Foe Slayer
At 20th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack roll or the damage roll of an attack you make against one of your favored enemies. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
The number of attacks increases to three when you reach 11th level in this class and to four when you reach 20th level in this class.
Sanguine Mastery
Upon reaching 20th level, your mastery of blood magic reaches its height, mitigating your sacrifice and empowering your expertise. Once per turn, whenever a blood hunter feature requires you to roll a hemocraft die, you can reroll the die and use either roll.
Additionally, whenever you score a critical hit with a weapon for which you have an active crimson rite, you regain one expended use of your Blood Maledict feature.
Primal Champion
At 20th level, you embody the power of the wilds. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24.
So basically you're saying the solution to monk being the most ****** class in the game is to nerf it further? What the actual hell? Are you trolling? Take away it's only feature that makes it worth bringing in a team.. add resouce costs to an already resource starved class. Take away the things that help it stay safe at range. Gimp it's ability to actually do damage to creatures that can't take damage from non magic weapons, or, give its identity (unarmed combat) to everyone else? Give it a needless fly when it can already move along vertical surfaces. Unarmed means unarmed, aka no weapon, why would they create weapons for a class that is supposed to excell without weapons?
Idk man... this is such a hard troll to ignore.. I guess you're winning.
How do you make room for new features if you don't take away the unnecessary stuff first? I imagine that to balance the classes in dnd, they rely on the power of each feature given to the class.
One example is the fighter, why is it so powerful? This is because of its simplicity. The fighter is synthetic and offers only the necessary. The rest is offered by feat and subclass features (offering a great maneuver of customization). If the fighter's features are calculated with features worth 5 points (x4), the monk has features worth 1point (x20)... (The fighter has few but useful features and the monk has many but useless ones).
I agree that, like the Rogue, a monk should have their BA disengage for free. And, I used to believe that the Way of the Open Hand monk's "Open Hand Technique" should be a base monk feature. But I think I like Aanx's version, at least the unarmed strike moving a target 5 feet part, as it isn't tied to Flurry of Blows, and it gives some battlefield control beyond just being able to disengage.
It is interesting to have it using a slightly different mechanism; and Crusher is now one of my favourite feats for a Monk for that reason. I'm also someone who wonders about making open hand technique part of the basic Monk kit in some form, to make martial arts flexible enough to represent throwing and even grappling focused martial arts as well.
In fact, if there were to be an area with an eldritch invocation style "build your own monk" feature then I guess that could be an area that would suit it, e.g- pick two or three basic martial arts features (are you weapon focused, unarmed focused, grappling focused etc.), then later do the same for stunning strike-lite "special moves"?
But like you say it seems like they're trying to move away from those option lists because of how hard it can be to balance them (always end with a handful of "optimal" options or unexpected combos). If it were just the basic martial arts techniques only (no special moves) though it might only need to be balanced against fighting styles, i.e- we pick two or three "martial arts techniques" and one of them lets us pick a fighting style?
I know we've disagreed on this in the past and I still have no problem with monks double dashing for free. Seems weird that you could Dash as a bonus action for free, but if you chose to Dash as an action, as well, you would have to spend a Ki point, when Dashing as an action has always been free for everyone. Seems like unnecessary bookkeeping to me. And if you are double dashing, you are doing that at the exclusion of everything else.
It's not really book-keeping; if you Dash once on your turn it's free, if you Dash a second time it costs a Ki point. Where it gets tricky is defining it so it doesn't run afoul of things like haste being cast on you. The bonus action would probably need to always happen after any action(s) to avoid issues of "what if I just do the bonus action first?"
My reason for thinking it should still cost a Ki point to double dash is that Monks are already so much faster than Rogues; at 2nd-level a single dashing Monk (80 feet) is nearly as fast as the double dashing Rogue (90 feet), and double dashing is a fair bit faster (120 feet), from 6th-level they're as fast as the double dashing Rogue with just a single Dash, and getting even faster.
It's not a hill I'd be willing to die on though, as making it unconditionally free is a much simpler rule, it just feels weird to me to have a more valuable version of the same feature cost nothing.
Just want to comment on heavy weapons - I think Glaive in particular should be a Monk weapon. If you go back to 1E Monks were proficient in polearms and a Monk fighting with a polearm is defintely thematic to the fiction surrounding eastern martial arts I think.
If I could change just one thing this would be it. The reach would conflict with martial arts, but there are more to Monks than Martial arts.
I actually forgot I already agreed to let a monk player in an upcoming campaign I'll be DMing take a glaive as a monk weapon (for DDB compatibility I made a magic item and threw on the finesse property) as I didn't see the harm in it; my justification was if they use the reach they're reducing their damage output overall (can't also make unarmed strikes) and if they do close it's the same damage as two-handing a longsword which many monks can now do anyway with a bit of effort.
Once you make an exception for glaive there's probably not much point having a limitation anymore; while battleaxe or maul monks still feels a bit weird, it might fit someone's build perfectly and it's hardly overpowered, and there are some interesting old weapons like the "Monk's spade" which is a polearm but the spade end can be used as a blade in a similar way to a halberd or long axe.
It's going to be interesting to see what the OneD&D Warrior group preview does with the Monk, as there's currently no defining feature in common with Monks and other martials; martial weapon proficiency makes sense but feels a bit light, but then fighting style doesn't necessarily make sense (as Monk martial arts is their fighting style).
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I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
-Give monks mobile or crusher as a class feature somewhere between level 3 and 6 as it's almost mandatory to take full advantage of monks speed niche outside of subclass specific features which shouldn't be mandatory to take advantage of the classes base features. I would prefer crusher because it would give the monk the added niche of map manipulation, giving them options like pushing a mob away from an ally to allow that ally to escape without provoking and AoO, or pushing a mob INTO an ally for follow up flanking damage.
-Increase the scaling of the martial die
-tie stunning strike into monk attacks to encourage constant onslaught... perhaps something like, after landing 4 strikes against a single target, that target must make a saving throw or be stunned. or simply if both flurry strikes land successfully, spend a ki to have the target make the saving throw, instead of just dumping a ki point until it succeeds and burning through ki rapidly
-allow monks to spend a ki for an extra bonus action, but flurry can only be made once per turn. this opens the option of using patient defense or step of the wind if necessary without sacrificing the monks offense in the process, but still consuming resources.
After that, the monk should feel pretty good aside from still being MAD, but the hurt from MAD would be lessened by no longer NEEDING to spend a stat boost on the mobile or crusher feat and being able to easily capitalize on it's defensive options and mobility for cover or range via the options i mentioned, making a medium con stat less hurtful.
Edit: for flavor, i would PERSONALLY be interested in seeing tongue of sun and moon replaced with something more like Calm Emotions... monks arent charisma characters and so really shouldnt be the talkers of the group, but it seems very MONK like to be able to touch a creature/person's ki to calm their emotions and possibly give advantage or a lower dc on persuasion, deception, etc from a team mate or whatever.
Good news on the capstone ability, they're already talking of moving all those to level 18 now so you actually get time to play them before the campaign ends if you get to level 20. Level 20 will now be Epic Boon territory. So look for that when the Warrior Class PDF drops. :)
If they replace empty body with perfect slef I will not be happy!
In more general terms I have not fileld in the polls because most of them are do A or B but if you do everything they will be massivley overpowered. There are also overlaps, bonus action disengage without using ki not only makes monks more survivable but also gives them more ki for other things.
I see having a ki pool of monk level + wis modifier is popular, given the way new features (both in 5e and the one D&D playtest) I think monk lelvel +proficiency bonus is far more likely.
I don't see stunning strike as a problem it is a save or suck but there are plenty of those in the game, using 5 ki to flurry of blows and then failing 4 times to land the stunning strike is a case of resource management.
I would also argue that a monks damage output does increase after level 11. More ki means you do not need to hold back on flurry of blows so much, and Empty body gives you advantage on all attacks is a significant boost to damage output.(It is also an even bigger help to survivability)
I think the best thing to do for a Monk would make them a half-caster with cantrips and access to the primal spell list. If they did that they could keep everything else the same and they would be equivalent to most other classes. Also maybe offer some metamagic options they could use with Ki points.
Give them a berserker subclass like Akuma
I disagree. I think making monks half casters would be a bad idea and a reason I wouldn't ever play one. It's fine for a subclass, like Four Elements, to have abilities that allow them to cast spells (although I prefer that all 4E monks Elemental Disciplines be unique abilities and not "you can cast X spell for Y Ki points")
I'm excited to see what they do with monks, although as has been pointed out elsewhere, since WotC seems to be standardizing when Subclass features occur, there will probably be monk abilities removed or moved to later levels. I'm just curious if all subclasses will follow the same pattern or if each group (Expert, Warrior, Mage, Priest) will have their own.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Some of the options for escaping melee are already on subclasses. I do think their move to the warrior group means a bigger hit die wouldn’t be surprising in the warrior UA. It also means fighting styles will be available, though whether that will be a feature or only come on feats is yet to be seen.
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I also disagree with the spells. I would prefer a list of martial arts techniques of choice (like a middle ground between battle master maneuvers and warlock eldritch invocations).
This would allow the monk to evolve with the introduction of possible new martial arts techniques that can be added by the new subclasses as prequisites, or different prerequisites as in the case of Eldritch Invocations.
I find it sad that the basic monk's only technique is a stunning strike.
And now, with monks as part of the warrior group (for now if these groups stay), any feats (now that there are no ASI's at 4, 8, 12, 16, 19, but just feats at those levels with ASI's as a feat option) that benefit the warrior group benefits the monk. So any feats that get added in later books will hopefully give those options of the "middle ground between battle master maneuvers and warlock invocations" to the monk.
We will just have to see what happens with the warrior UA.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
A feat is a high price to pay for a class that already disengage as a bonus action by using a ki. This is especially true because a Monk does not really hit hard enough to be an effective striker.
Okay so here's what I believe is the nutshell issue with monk.
1: damage scaling. This simply needs to be addresses and while just scaling up the martial arts die would do the trick, I think I would prefer a more roundabout method of increasing damage options that provides more flavor and class identity. I'm honestly surprised more people didn't pick the 2nd bonus action; this would both supplement the feel of monks feeling like the rapid martial artist and provide the chance for an extra attack and therefor more damage... attack action>unarmed strike bonus>flurry bonus but in a pinch that extra bonus would also serve to address the next point I'm about to make...
2: the monk's kit is chalk-full of disconnected and unfulfilled options that alone don't really fully meet any given demand without making sacrifices to supplement those options either via taking feats instead of much needed stat boosts for a MAD class, or gimping your own attack options during your turn to take things like patient defense or step of the wind, or picking a specific sublcass to fully enable any given playstyle. A subclass should seek to compliment a class, not enable it or fix it. For example, monk's unarmored defense leads to potentially formidable early to mid game AC but caps early and unless coupled with a feat like tough still leaves the monk rather squishy. This can be augmented by choosing patient defense for the bonus dodge action but that means you are sacrificing your attacking options by not flurrying or bonus unarmed striking. Another example is monk's movement speed which lends to a very niche hit and run playstyle, which could be very fun, however in practice this NEEDS supplementation with either the mobile or crusher feat, or investment into a subclass that enables avoidance like the range from Astral self or the knockback from open hand, and even then youll find yourself soendingnone turn closing a gap and sitting voulnurable, and the next turn maybe running away just to repeat instead of doing it all in one turn unless you further bolster the movement with a race like tabaxi. As stated before these options or fixed are further hindered by the reality that taking them still involves burning valuable ki points to achieve the same thing that some other classes can do indefinitely for free and sacrificing the attack options, or pigeonholing yourself into a subclass just to get full benefit from your classes features. In some cases, like the mobile feat, it feels like you are paying to remove a penalty rather than bolster your kit, or even replace your kit like forgoing the step of the wind action for mobile... I think the obvious solution there is to just give monks a version of the mobile or crusher feat by default instead of making them spec into it. Monk's kit should encourage attacking, for a class that doesn't provide much party utility it should be able to consistently do its job and not waste multiple turns setting itself up for a mediocre turn.
You shouldn't be pigeonholed into any subclass to fix broken class features... a subclass should just serve to add flavor and depth, not act as a bandaid.
The monk is a lot of stuff but little substance. From my point of view, to bring back the monk would take drastic changes. Perhaps my ideas are a bit brutal, I don't want to offend anyone, these are just my ideas and certainly do not reflect those of others.
Regarding the use of speed that distinguishes the monk's combat tactics, for me the most practical solution is to add this option to the Martial Arts feature:
Once per turn, if you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can move it of 5 feet to an unoccupied space. You cannot push opponents two sizes larger than you, but you can use the rebound to move 5 feet away.
Dedicated Weapon is a stupid patch. They should just introduce it in the Martial Arts feature. It doesn't make any sense to renege on certain weapons and then allow them.
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. (Weapons Proficiencies: Simple weapons, improvised weapons and one martial weapon of your choice.)
Slowfall could easily be included as part of the Unarmored Movement feature. To give real value to slowfall I would make Step of the Wind capable of teleportation or aerial movement.
Step on the Wind: You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and during the move, you gain a fly speed equal to your speed.
Ki-Fueled Attack is another silly patch for review. It could be introduced in Martial Arts feature.
Focused Aim is a trap for finishing ki points faster. It should be a feature based on the number of Bonus Proficiency, or be part of a list of features to choose from (like those of warlock), or more simply be deleted.
Quickened Healing is definitely much more useful, but like Focused Aim, it should be a feature based on the number of Bonus Proficiency, or be part of a list of features to choose from (like those of warlock).
Tongue of the Sun and Moon is a feature that comes too late, and making it free is even more pointless. Instead, it should become a feature with a cost and moved to 4th level. It would not hurt to turn it in the list of Ki feature, along with Quickened Healing, Focused Aim, Flurry of Blows, etc.
Tongue of Ki: At 4th level, as an action you can spend 3 ki points and for 1 hour you can touch the ki of other minds so that you understand all spoken languages and any creature that can understand a language can understand what you say.
Stunning Strike is the monk's great weapon and at the same time its misfortune. Too powerful and at the same time too repetitive to the point of morbidity. It should be replaced with several martial arts techniques of choice that cannot be repeated on the same opponent in the same turn.
Ki-Empowered Strikes is a scam! Why should the monk be the only class that has this feature? Is this another excuse for not creating official weapons for unarmed combat? To Add useless stuff to the monk to occupy his tab and deprive it of more useful features? What I mean is that this feature is comparable to a silver-covered weapon. Another argument is that this feature is received at 6th level, basically when the group already has a +1 magic weapon.
Stillness of Mind is a poorly written feature, and in my opinion the monk already has enough defense with high wisdom and the Diamond Soul feature. It should be deleted or made into a Ki feature with a ki point cost.
Body Purity is a trait that could make the monk proficient on Constitution saving throws, instead of having to wait until 14th level.
Empty Body is another feature that comes too late and has no real meaning for the monk. Simply to be eliminated.
Perfect Self is basically trash.
Although there are still problems to be solved, this is how I personally see the monk:
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/w_0_hn2gYFTa
So basically you're saying the solution to monk being the most ****** class in the game is to nerf it further? What the actual hell? Are you trolling? Take away it's only feature that makes it worth bringing in a team.. add resouce costs to an already resource starved class. Take away the things that help it stay safe at range. Gimp it's ability to actually do damage to creatures that can't take damage from non magic weapons, or, give its identity (unarmed combat) to everyone else? Give it a needless fly when it can already move along vertical surfaces. Unarmed means unarmed, aka no weapon, why would they create weapons for a class that is supposed to excell without weapons?
Idk man... this is such a hard troll to ignore.. I guess you're winning.
Tibryn, you should edit your post; accusing others of trolling is against the rules on these forums and I'm very certain Aanx isn't trolling here, they just have a different view to you on what changes are needed for the Monk. I don't agree with all of those suggestions either, but I agree with some, and it's good to have alternative ideas as my own views on improving the Monk needs have changed based on what others have suggested.
Would it not be easier to just make Disengage a free bonus action for the Monk (no Ki cost)?
Agreed, it makes no sense to limit monks too much as only certain weapons are really optimal for them anyway (reach weapons for example see no benefit if you need to close the distance to use unarmed strikes in the same turn anyway), even if they had full martial weapons proficiency (and all counted as monk weapons) it'd hardly be game breaking as we can only make two weapon attacks in a turn usually anyway.
I'd maybe keep the restrictions on heavy and special weapons though, as they don't really fit the idea of the mobile/agile skirmisher. But in general I prefer more weapons to be options.
I don't think we need a flying speed, there are plenty of races that can fly as it is.
I'm more interested to see if they do anything to simplify the jumping rules in OneD&D or give them more prominence, as increasing your jumping distance/height is actually a very useful ability but it's heavily encounter/DM dependent.
Step of the Wind really just needs to have its cost lowered, so it becomes free to Disengage, and you can Dash once for free, but your second Dash costs 1 Ki point (as double dashing is so much faster on a Monk than on a Rogue).
I'd definitely like to see this rolled into martial arts; dunno if I'd call it a "silly patch", they weren't re-releasing the classes in Tasha's Cauldron (with the exception of Artificer).
I wouldn't call this a trap; it only triggers if you miss so you're only spending Ki if you think it's worth the risk of still missing (don't boost it enough). If you're pretty sure it was only a near miss then one or two Ki to turn it into a hit may be worth it compared to losing the attack, especially if you have some kind of rider effect you'd like to trigger (from a magic item or other ability).
It's definitely more situational than people might think though; in general it's better to just spend one Ki on Flurry of Blows (more attacks), but there will be times when you're making an attack that really needs to hit, like when you're trying to throw a dart through the rope of a noose around someone's neck or something. I haven't used it a lot on my monks (and the last one was multiclassed as war-cleric so also had divine guidance) but when I have used it I've been glad to have it.
I wonder how many people would actually take it if it were on a list though? Lists of options like eldritch invocations have the major problem that unless every option is equally good, you'll end up with half the list (or more) that barely anyone ever takes.
It's a good way to use up leftover Ki points when you're about to take a short rest, as it saves on your hit-dice. Personally I'd just roll it into a short rest feature directly, i.e- for every two Ki you spend you get one hit dice back.
I could definitely see this become part of some kind of utility features list.
I definitely think stunning strike needs to start out differently; the ability to essentially shut down an enemy for an entire round (or more) has clearly been one of the reasons that Wizards of the Coast keeps nerfing all their monk sub-classes, but it's such a weird feature in practice as it's simultaneously too limited, too random and too powerful, which is a very weird place for it to be.
I'd like to see something less powerful but more predictable, possibly with several variations targeting different saving throws, and some kind of stacking mechanic. At later levels that stacking could lead to a full-blown stunning strike, but you'd need to land several hits before it can happen (so no chance of one lucky first hit trivialising an entire fight).
I don't agree on this, I think it's a really good feature of Monks. While how useful it will actually be is campaign dependent (how generous your DM is with magic items) being able to guarantee magical strikes even if you're disarmed isn't nothing. Plus you're getting it at the same time as a 6th-level sub-class feature, and those are usually good.
Agree, it should just be resistance to being charmed or frightened, and/or maybe rolled into diamond soul (and split that across two features so it isn't coming in so late). Having it be an action with a questionable ability to actually use it makes it such a weird feature.
Empty Body seems really good to me? Though it is coming in late, being able to go invisible and gain full damage resistance is pretty huge.
Guaranteed Ki points is fine, the main problem is that it's not really enough on its own which makes it a bit lacklustre as a cap-stone, though it's consistent with the likes of Bard etc. who just get some resources back.
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I agree that, like the Rogue, a monk should have their BA disengage for free. And, I used to believe that the Way of the Open Hand monk's "Open Hand Technique" should be a base monk feature. But I think I like Aanx's version, at least the unarmed strike moving a target 5 feet part, as it isn't tied to Flurry of Blows, and it gives some battlefield control beyond just being able to disengage.
It very well may be that monks will get access to martial weapons, as part of the Warrior group, and I see no reason not to allow them anyway. The restriction on Heavy and special properties should remain, but allow Kensei to bypass that restriction.
I know we've disagreed on this in the past and I still have no problem with monks double dashing for free. Seems weird that you could Dash as a bonus action for free, but if you chose to Dash as an action, as well, you would have to spend a Ki point, when Dashing as an action has always been free for everyone. Seems like unnecessary bookkeeping to me. And if you are double dashing, you are doing that at the exclusion of everything else.
Focused aim is fine. It's an option. Maybe the idea of having a "list" of utility features for the monk (like warlock invocations) is good in concept but doesn't seem like how WotC is approaching things in 1D&D, if the Hunter Ranger is any indication.
It seems like the new Dazed condition could play into how Stunning Strike will work in 1D&D. I agree it could scale instead of being so powerful right out of the gate. At the same time, I hate to nerf a defining feature of the monk. If there is a "trap" in monk abilities, this might be the biggest offender. You can burn through a lot of Ki trying to get this to stick. Maybe they will make it so that you can cause the Dazed condition on a target and if you hit a Dazed target, you can spend Ki to stun them. I don't know <shrug>
Agreed, this is essential on a Monk. If you want to use your BA for an unarmed strike or FoB, this is essential for getting over resistances. And maybe someone wants to play an unarmed striking monk with no weapons. Other classes don't need this, but monks do.
Maybe it could be part of Diamond Soul, giving monk proficiency on WIS and CHA saving throws, as well as resistance to Charmed and Frightened. And Diamond Soul at 14 giving CON and INT saving throw proficiency with Immunity to Charmed and Frightened. And the Ki point to reroll.
I think someone mentioned a similar idea in another monk thread.
Empty Body is good. Not sure if you could move it forward, monks already have a lot of features so something would have to be moved or eliminated or combined.
Pretty much all the capstones are trash, with a notable exception of the Barbarians capstone, so I think it needs a bump, like so many others.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Just want to comment on heavy weapons - I think Glaive in particular should be a Monk weapon. If you go back to 1E Monks were proficient in polearms and a Monk fighting with a polearm is defintely thematic to the fiction surrounding eastern martial arts I think.
If I could change just one thing this would be it. The reach would conflict with martial arts, but there are more to Monks than Martial arts.
Mine is just a solution to make more active use of slowfall. Instead of aerial movement it could be teleportation.
The monk does not necessarily need this feature. If it wants to fight with his unarmed attacks it can find headbands or a tattoo that enhances its unarmed attacks, if it wants to have its weapon + fists instead, let it find a magical weapon + magical headbands/tattoos. (As any combatant with two weapons)
In any situation it should find an item to enhance its unarmed attacks being its own special attack.
Another solution would be for this feature to allow unarmed attacks to be enhanced with the same bonus as its magical weapon.
Ki-Empowered Strikes: Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. Additionally, if you have a magic weapon in your primary hand, this bonus is also used for your unarmed attacks.
A beautiful feature, I have no quarrel with it, but it comes too late and is definitely not in keeping with the monk's fighting style. Attacks with advantage is really not very useful for the monk, and the resistance is not very in tune with the monk's fighting style. If it had been an 11th-level feature it would still be acceptable (although instead of Greater Invisibility, Haste would be better). I find it an unnecessary enhancement for an 18th-level combatant.
Compare this with the list in the spoiler. From my perspective it is close to being the worst of the 20th level features.
Perfect Self
At 20th level, when you roll for initiative and have no ki points remaining, you regain 4 ki points.
Archdruid
At 20th level, you can use your Wild Shape an unlimited number of times.
Additionally, you can ignore the verbal and somatic components of your druid spells, as well as any material components that lack a cost and aren't consumed by a spell. You gain this benefit in both your normal shape and your beast shape from Wild Shape.
Divine Intervention
Beginning at 10th level, you can call on your deity to intervene on your behalf when your need is great.
Imploring your deity's aid requires you to use your action. Describe the assistance you seek, and roll percentile dice. If you roll a number equal to or lower than your cleric level, your deity intervenes. The DM chooses the nature of the intervention; the effect of any cleric spell or cleric domain spell would be appropriate. If your deity intervenes, you can't use this feature again for 7 days. Otherwise, you can use it again after you finish a long rest.
At 20th level, your call for intervention succeeds automatically, no roll required.
Superior Inspiration
At 20th level, when you roll initiative and have no uses of Bardic Inspiration left, you regain one use.
Soul of Artifice
At 20th level, you develop a mystical connection to your magic items, which you can draw on for protection:
Sacred Oath
When you reach 3rd level, you swear the oath that binds you as a paladin forever. Up to this time you have been in a preparatory stage, committed to the path but not yet sworn to it. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 15th, and 20th level. Those features include oath spells and the Channel Divinity feature.
Stroke of Luck
At 20th level, you have an uncanny knack for succeeding when you need to. If your attack misses a target within range, you can turn the miss into a hit. Alternatively, if you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Sorcerous Restoration
At 20th level, you regain 4 expended sorcery points whenever you finish a short rest.
Eldritch Master
At 20th level, you can draw on your inner reserve of mystical power while entreating your patron to regain expended spell slots. You can spend 1 minute entreating your patron for aid to regain all your expended spell slots from your Pact Magic feature. Once you regain spell slots with this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
Signature Spells
When you reach 20th level, you gain mastery over two powerful spells and can cast them with little effort. Choose two 3rd-level wizard spells in your spellbook as your signature spells. You always have these spells prepared, they don't count against the number of spells you have prepared, and you can cast each of them once at 3rd level without expending a spell slot. When you do so, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
If you want to cast either spell at a higher level, you must expend a spell slot as normal.
Foe Slayer
At 20th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack roll or the damage roll of an attack you make against one of your favored enemies. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
The number of attacks increases to three when you reach 11th level in this class and to four when you reach 20th level in this class.
Sanguine Mastery
Upon reaching 20th level, your mastery of blood magic reaches its height, mitigating your sacrifice and empowering your expertise. Once per turn, whenever a blood hunter feature requires you to roll a hemocraft die, you can reroll the die and use either roll.
Additionally, whenever you score a critical hit with a weapon for which you have an active crimson rite, you regain one expended use of your Blood Maledict feature.
Primal Champion
At 20th level, you embody the power of the wilds. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24.
How do you make room for new features if you don't take away the unnecessary stuff first? I imagine that to balance the classes in dnd, they rely on the power of each feature given to the class.
One example is the fighter, why is it so powerful? This is because of its simplicity. The fighter is synthetic and offers only the necessary. The rest is offered by feat and subclass features (offering a great maneuver of customization). If the fighter's features are calculated with features worth 5 points (x4), the monk has features worth 1point (x20)... (The fighter has few but useful features and the monk has many but useless ones).
It is interesting to have it using a slightly different mechanism; and Crusher is now one of my favourite feats for a Monk for that reason. I'm also someone who wonders about making open hand technique part of the basic Monk kit in some form, to make martial arts flexible enough to represent throwing and even grappling focused martial arts as well.
In fact, if there were to be an area with an eldritch invocation style "build your own monk" feature then I guess that could be an area that would suit it, e.g- pick two or three basic martial arts features (are you weapon focused, unarmed focused, grappling focused etc.), then later do the same for stunning strike-lite "special moves"?
But like you say it seems like they're trying to move away from those option lists because of how hard it can be to balance them (always end with a handful of "optimal" options or unexpected combos). If it were just the basic martial arts techniques only (no special moves) though it might only need to be balanced against fighting styles, i.e- we pick two or three "martial arts techniques" and one of them lets us pick a fighting style?
It's not really book-keeping; if you Dash once on your turn it's free, if you Dash a second time it costs a Ki point. Where it gets tricky is defining it so it doesn't run afoul of things like haste being cast on you. The bonus action would probably need to always happen after any action(s) to avoid issues of "what if I just do the bonus action first?"
My reason for thinking it should still cost a Ki point to double dash is that Monks are already so much faster than Rogues; at 2nd-level a single dashing Monk (80 feet) is nearly as fast as the double dashing Rogue (90 feet), and double dashing is a fair bit faster (120 feet), from 6th-level they're as fast as the double dashing Rogue with just a single Dash, and getting even faster.
It's not a hill I'd be willing to die on though, as making it unconditionally free is a much simpler rule, it just feels weird to me to have a more valuable version of the same feature cost nothing.
I actually forgot I already agreed to let a monk player in an upcoming campaign I'll be DMing take a glaive as a monk weapon (for DDB compatibility I made a magic item and threw on the finesse property) as I didn't see the harm in it; my justification was if they use the reach they're reducing their damage output overall (can't also make unarmed strikes) and if they do close it's the same damage as two-handing a longsword which many monks can now do anyway with a bit of effort.
Once you make an exception for glaive there's probably not much point having a limitation anymore; while battleaxe or maul monks still feels a bit weird, it might fit someone's build perfectly and it's hardly overpowered, and there are some interesting old weapons like the "Monk's spade" which is a polearm but the spade end can be used as a blade in a similar way to a halberd or long axe.
It's going to be interesting to see what the OneD&D Warrior group preview does with the Monk, as there's currently no defining feature in common with Monks and other martials; martial weapon proficiency makes sense but feels a bit light, but then fighting style doesn't necessarily make sense (as Monk martial arts is their fighting style).
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-Give monks mobile or crusher as a class feature somewhere between level 3 and 6 as it's almost mandatory to take full advantage of monks speed niche outside of subclass specific features which shouldn't be mandatory to take advantage of the classes base features. I would prefer crusher because it would give the monk the added niche of map manipulation, giving them options like pushing a mob away from an ally to allow that ally to escape without provoking and AoO, or pushing a mob INTO an ally for follow up flanking damage.
-Increase the scaling of the martial die
-tie stunning strike into monk attacks to encourage constant onslaught... perhaps something like, after landing 4 strikes against a single target, that target must make a saving throw or be stunned. or simply if both flurry strikes land successfully, spend a ki to have the target make the saving throw, instead of just dumping a ki point until it succeeds and burning through ki rapidly
-allow monks to spend a ki for an extra bonus action, but flurry can only be made once per turn. this opens the option of using patient defense or step of the wind if necessary without sacrificing the monks offense in the process, but still consuming resources.
After that, the monk should feel pretty good aside from still being MAD, but the hurt from MAD would be lessened by no longer NEEDING to spend a stat boost on the mobile or crusher feat and being able to easily capitalize on it's defensive options and mobility for cover or range via the options i mentioned, making a medium con stat less hurtful.
Edit: for flavor, i would PERSONALLY be interested in seeing tongue of sun and moon replaced with something more like Calm Emotions... monks arent charisma characters and so really shouldnt be the talkers of the group, but it seems very MONK like to be able to touch a creature/person's ki to calm their emotions and possibly give advantage or a lower dc on persuasion, deception, etc from a team mate or whatever.
I just wanted to say thank you for trying to find ways the monk can get better . monk needs help thank you for your work.