Not in the current game. There is a subclass of monk called the way of the astral self that allows for the use of wisdom within its subclass features.
you could pick up the Tasha’s feat Skill Expert to pick up 1 point in dexterity or wisdom while choosing a new skill and then also expertise in athletics to help out with the grappling. Even with a lower strength score it would be somewhat reliable. Wisdom could be used with the athletics skill with the subclass I mentioned.
Not in the current game. There is a subclass of monk called the way of the astral self that allows for the use of wisdom within its subclass features.
you could pick up the Tasha’s feat Skill Expert to pick up 1 point in dexterity or wisdom while choosing a new skill and then also expertise in athletics to help out with the grappling. Even with a lower strength score it would be somewhat reliable. Wisdom could be used with the athletics skill with the subclass I mentioned.
As Bobby said, Astral Self monk is the best option for a grappling monk. Be aware RAW the Astral arms themselves cannot grapple so you would grapple with your real hand/arm and can then attack your grappled target with the arms.
Another option for grappling with monk is a strength build. Multiclass on level of Fighter for unarmed fighting style and Heavy Armor, then monk all the way. Or just go Tortle monk using strength.
Another option for grappling with monk is a strength build. Multiclass on level of Fighter for unarmed fighting style and Heavy Armor, then monk all the way. Or just go Tortle monk using strength.
Tortle can definitely work (I love Tortles for Strength builds on classes that don't normally favour them) but otherwise the difficulty of a Strength build is the lack of basic defence; even if you can squeeze in a decent Dexterity score early on, you probably won't have room to improve it much, and that means you'll be running a Monk with fairly low AC.
I'm really hoping OneD&D will allow Strength or Dexterity for unarmored defence in future; so your AC would be 10 + WIS + (STR or DEX). It'd be such a tiny change but it opens up a bunch of new builds.
Astral Self and/or Skill Expert are the easier paths for non-Tortles; expertise in Athletics will give you a solid score for grappling even with low Strength, meanwhile Astral Self doesn't really care, but if you combine the two you can easily have +9 to Wisdom grappling by 5th-level, or higher since you can prioritise Wisdom on Astral Self.
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Another option for grappling with monk is a strength build. Multiclass on level of Fighter for unarmed fighting style and Heavy Armor, then monk all the way. Or just go Tortle monk using strength.
What about barbarian? Could multi with barbarian do same ?
Another option for grappling with monk is a strength build. Multiclass on level of Fighter for unarmed fighting style and Heavy Armor, then monk all the way. Or just go Tortle monk using strength.
Tortle can definitely work (I love Tortles for Strength builds on classes that don't normally favour them) but otherwise the difficulty of a Strength build is the lack of basic defence; even if you can squeeze in a decent Dexterity score early on, you probably won't have room to improve it much, and that means you'll be running a Monk with fairly low AC.
I'm really hoping OneD&D will allow Strength or Dexterity for unarmored defence in future; so your AC would be 10 + WIS + (STR or DEX). It'd be such a tiny change but it opens up a bunch of new builds.
Astral Self and/or Skill Expert are the easier paths for non-Tortles; expertise in Athletics will give you a solid score for grappling even with low Strength, meanwhile Astral Self doesn't really care, but if you combine the two you can easily have +9 to Wisdom grappling by 5th-level, or higher since you can prioritise Wisdom on Astral Self.
What if I use a race that adds 2 for stregnth or dex? This would allow me to put max in dex and 14 in stregnth to at least get bonus and grapple feat. Goliath adds two, with unique advantage in size.
This may give 16 str 15/16 in dex and 13 wisdom to start. Unless I buy points a certain way.
Barbarians could be an interesting route. You'd kind of be accepting that you'll never have amazing AC because you'll lack heavy armor and still have a hard time getting the most out of unarmored defense.
But the starting HP, danger sense, and rage would all help a strength based monk survive.
Barbarians could be an interesting route. You'd kind of be accepting that you'll never have amazing AC because you'll lack heavy armor and still have a hard time getting the most out of unarmored defense.
But the starting HP, danger sense, and rage would all help a strength based monk survive.
I heard barbarians are not proficient with heavy armor, and there are disadvantages to heavy armor. Would be good for barb&monk to not use any armor I would think.
Personally I see a few levels as barb and then monk to be able to use shields.
Barbarians could be an interesting route. You'd kind of be accepting that you'll never have amazing AC because you'll lack heavy armor and still have a hard time getting the most out of unarmored defense.
But the starting HP, danger sense, and rage would all help a strength based monk survive.
I heard barbarians are not proficient with heavy armor, and there are disadvantages to heavy armor. Would be good for barb&monk to not use any armor I would think.
Personally I see a few levels as barb and then monk to be able to use shields.
Some monk features do not work with shields so you would have to be careful about those. Martial arts does not, flurry of blows does, etc
What if I use a race that adds 2 for stregnth or dex? This would allow me to put max in dex and 14 in stregnth to at least get bonus and grapple feat. Goliath adds two, with unique advantage in size.
This may give 16 str 15/16 in dex and 13 wisdom to start. Unless I buy points a certain way.
This would gives you an AC of only 13 or 14 to start; not unworkable but with a focus on Dexterity and Wisdom you would have +3 and +2 in each for a starting AC of 15, and you'd have fewer scores to worry about improving as you level up. Also with a low Wisdom, any Monk abilities that have a save DC will be less likely to succeed, like Stunning Strike.
The problem really is that while increasing Strength helps with attacks and grappling, it won't improve your AC; this differs from a Dexterity monk where you only really care about Dexterity and Wisdom, and no matter which one you improve your AC goes up on top of the other benefits. You only get five ability score increases at most (and only if you reach 19th-level, which most campaigns never will) so that only gives you at most 10 more points to allocate over time, but with three key scores you're going to be spreading those thinner.
It's not necessarily problematic, it'd be hard to say without knowing more about your campaign, DM and party, but it is a potential difficulty/weakness you want to stay aware of. This is why the Tortle race makes such builds so much easier, because 17 is a great starting AC for a monk so you don't really need to worry about Dexterity if you'd prefer to focus on Strength, and depending on the length of the campaign 17 AC will never be too little.
That's not to say you can't make a monk like that work; I've played plenty of campaigns where I've finished with "only" a +3 in my main score, and never felt my character was in any way impeded by it, because at the end of the an extra +1 to hit or +1 AC is "only" a 5% improvement, but you need to be getting something else for that 5% sacrifice if you want to stay competitive. Again, not knowing anything about your campaign or group it's hard to say if you need to optimise, if it's quite a casual group with characters built for story/fun over power then it's not going to be a big deal, but if your DM wants to challenge you then you don't want to lag behind.
Just something to think about; Monk as a class is somewhat sensitive to having a low Dexterity or Wisdom. Going Tortle solves the AC issue, but it locks you into a specific race you might not want to play, this is why picking up the Skill Expert feat is a good alternative, because it makes your actual Strength score less important for grappling (a +1 or +2 would be plenty for an entire campaign, as expertise in athletics will quickly eclipse it), it's also a handy feat for topping up any odd numbered scores you end up with.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
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Can stregnth check for grapple use dex instead ?
Because martial arts feat.
Not in the current game. There is a subclass of monk called the way of the astral self that allows for the use of wisdom within its subclass features.
you could pick up the Tasha’s feat Skill Expert to pick up 1 point in dexterity or wisdom while choosing a new skill and then also expertise in athletics to help out with the grappling. Even with a lower strength score it would be somewhat reliable. Wisdom could be used with the athletics skill with the subclass I mentioned.
As Bobby said, Astral Self monk is the best option for a grappling monk. Be aware RAW the Astral arms themselves cannot grapple so you would grapple with your real hand/arm and can then attack your grappled target with the arms.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Another option for grappling with monk is a strength build. Multiclass on level of Fighter for unarmed fighting style and Heavy Armor, then monk all the way. Or just go Tortle monk using strength.
Tortle can definitely work (I love Tortles for Strength builds on classes that don't normally favour them) but otherwise the difficulty of a Strength build is the lack of basic defence; even if you can squeeze in a decent Dexterity score early on, you probably won't have room to improve it much, and that means you'll be running a Monk with fairly low AC.
I'm really hoping OneD&D will allow Strength or Dexterity for unarmored defence in future; so your AC would be 10 + WIS + (STR or DEX). It'd be such a tiny change but it opens up a bunch of new builds.
Astral Self and/or Skill Expert are the easier paths for non-Tortles; expertise in Athletics will give you a solid score for grappling even with low Strength, meanwhile Astral Self doesn't really care, but if you combine the two you can easily have +9 to Wisdom grappling by 5th-level, or higher since you can prioritise Wisdom on Astral Self.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
What about barbarian? Could multi with barbarian do same ?
What if I use a race that adds 2 for stregnth or dex? This would allow me to put max in dex and 14 in stregnth to at least get bonus and grapple feat. Goliath adds two, with unique advantage in size.
This may give 16 str 15/16 in dex and 13 wisdom to start. Unless I buy points a certain way.
Barbarians could be an interesting route. You'd kind of be accepting that you'll never have amazing AC because you'll lack heavy armor and still have a hard time getting the most out of unarmored defense.
But the starting HP, danger sense, and rage would all help a strength based monk survive.
If you multiclass barbarian/monk be aware that whatever class you take first determines which Unarmored Defense you use.
Barbarian could be a good route since rage gives advantage on STR checks, I believe. If you wanted to go the STR route.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
I heard barbarians are not proficient with heavy armor, and there are disadvantages to heavy armor. Would be good for barb&monk to not use any armor I would think.
Personally I see a few levels as barb and then monk to be able to use shields.
Some monk features do not work with shields so you would have to be careful about those. Martial arts does not, flurry of blows does, etc
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
This would gives you an AC of only 13 or 14 to start; not unworkable but with a focus on Dexterity and Wisdom you would have +3 and +2 in each for a starting AC of 15, and you'd have fewer scores to worry about improving as you level up. Also with a low Wisdom, any Monk abilities that have a save DC will be less likely to succeed, like Stunning Strike.
The problem really is that while increasing Strength helps with attacks and grappling, it won't improve your AC; this differs from a Dexterity monk where you only really care about Dexterity and Wisdom, and no matter which one you improve your AC goes up on top of the other benefits. You only get five ability score increases at most (and only if you reach 19th-level, which most campaigns never will) so that only gives you at most 10 more points to allocate over time, but with three key scores you're going to be spreading those thinner.
It's not necessarily problematic, it'd be hard to say without knowing more about your campaign, DM and party, but it is a potential difficulty/weakness you want to stay aware of. This is why the Tortle race makes such builds so much easier, because 17 is a great starting AC for a monk so you don't really need to worry about Dexterity if you'd prefer to focus on Strength, and depending on the length of the campaign 17 AC will never be too little.
That's not to say you can't make a monk like that work; I've played plenty of campaigns where I've finished with "only" a +3 in my main score, and never felt my character was in any way impeded by it, because at the end of the an extra +1 to hit or +1 AC is "only" a 5% improvement, but you need to be getting something else for that 5% sacrifice if you want to stay competitive. Again, not knowing anything about your campaign or group it's hard to say if you need to optimise, if it's quite a casual group with characters built for story/fun over power then it's not going to be a big deal, but if your DM wants to challenge you then you don't want to lag behind.
Just something to think about; Monk as a class is somewhat sensitive to having a low Dexterity or Wisdom. Going Tortle solves the AC issue, but it locks you into a specific race you might not want to play, this is why picking up the Skill Expert feat is a good alternative, because it makes your actual Strength score less important for grappling (a +1 or +2 would be plenty for an entire campaign, as expertise in athletics will quickly eclipse it), it's also a handy feat for topping up any odd numbered scores you end up with.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.