So my regular Monday night online group is playing a custom campaign using the 2024 edition. Just for context, the DM, myself and another player have been playing together online for over a decade and the two newer players have been with us for about 5 years. We get up to some shenanigans for sure, but we almost always keep it within the rules. I am playing a Warrior of the Elements Monk. The DM said this campaign is going to lvl 15 at least. This got me thinking about Elemental Monk at higher levels and some various tactics. I had a couple ideas that seemed kinda crazy and was just wondering what people thought about them. The following ideas hinge on being lvl 11 Elemental Monk.
1) Flying Melee Monk - so at lvl 3 the Elemental Monk get the extra reach from Elemental Strikes. At lvl 11 the Elemental Monk gets flying speed while elementally attuned. So you fly 15 feet above enemies and pummel them with unarmed strikes. You are in "melee" combat but virtually untouchable from the enemies' melee attacks unless you're facing a bugbear with a polearm or something like that.
Now we get a bit weirder
2) Turning an enemy into a living yo-yo. I can see this being questionable in regards to the rule and pretty dependent on how a particular Dm would rule on it. At lvl 3 the Elemental strikes can do the 10ft push/pull thing when you hit an enemy and they fail the Str saving throw. The specific wording of this says "you can move the target up to 10 feet toward or away from you" (I'm already annoying the heck out of the DM who is a good friend with this particular feature as a lvl 5 Elemental Monk). If you are flying 15 above the enemy and you hit them you could pull them 10 feet up in the air towards you. Then you hit them again with your second attack and if they fail the Str save you push them 10 feet away from you back to the ground. Now if you add in Flury of Blows with this and the target actually fails all the saving throws then you have yourself a living yo-yo.
I'm still waiting to hear what my DM thinks of these ideas hehe.
You won't need to push the foe away when flying above them; If you don't have them Grappled, and the foe can't fly or stay there for some other reason, the foe will fall. If they take Falling Damage, they'll go Prone. And when you're 15' from a Prone foe, your next attack is at Disadvantage.
That said, based on the preview article, Warrior of the Elements Monk: Bend the Elements to Your Will , grappling and holding enemies out of their melee reach with Elemental Strikes seems to be an intended playstyle for the Subclass. This enables:
Level 3: Use one of your Elemental Strikes to Grapple and hold the Foe out of Melee Range.
Level 4: Obtain the Grappler feat for the Punch-and-Grab feature that allows one free Grapple attempt when you hit with the Attack Action, and its Attack Advantage feature.
Level 5: Stunning Strike, if successful, Stuns the Foe, which includes the effects of Incapacitated, which makes the foe fail all Strength and Dexterity Saving throws....like the one to avoid being Grappled.
For a Single Foe, with no assistance, no ranged capability, no Bonus Action or Reaction options, and no ability to move themselves without using their move, at level 5, if successfully pulled off, that's at least two turns where retaliation is difficult (One turn Stunned, one turn spending their Action to attempt to break out of the Grapple)
Though if the Foe does have help, it's basically trivial to get them out of that Grapple (Foe 2 attempts to Grapple Foe 1, Foe 1 fails save [automatically if still Stunned, voluntarily if not], Foe 2 moves Foe 1 out of Monk's reach), so the Monk should probably use Elemental Strikes or Fast Grappler to maneuver them away from their compatriots.
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🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
I'm not sure what you're achieving with your yo-yo plan.
It also likely doesn't work, as they ought to fall after each pull. (I am not worried about the damage available, as a strength save vs an extra 1d6 damage just ain't that big a deal by the time you can do it, and, as mentioned above, after the first one, they're prone and you're getting disadvantage on your attacks.)
This Play style works. I think the creature falls prone right after you pull them toward you since the creature has nothing to support itself and you are not grappling the opponent. The enemy would take 1d6 falling damage each time and land prone, so you would have advantage on attack rolls. The monk has enough movement you could fly up a small amount each time to increase falling damage. Its legit and sounds like fun.
Grappling the enemy, dashing high in the air and dropping the opponent for lots of falling damage is fun too.
So my regular Monday night online group is playing a custom campaign using the 2024 edition. Just for context, the DM, myself and another player have been playing together online for over a decade and the two newer players have been with us for about 5 years. We get up to some shenanigans for sure, but we almost always keep it within the rules. I am playing a Warrior of the Elements Monk. The DM said this campaign is going to lvl 15 at least. This got me thinking about Elemental Monk at higher levels and some various tactics. I had a couple ideas that seemed kinda crazy and was just wondering what people thought about them. The following ideas hinge on being lvl 11 Elemental Monk.
1) Flying Melee Monk - so at lvl 3 the Elemental Monk get the extra reach from Elemental Strikes. At lvl 11 the Elemental Monk gets flying speed while elementally attuned. So you fly 15 feet above enemies and pummel them with unarmed strikes. You are in "melee" combat but virtually untouchable from the enemies' melee attacks unless you're facing a bugbear with a polearm or something like that.
Now we get a bit weirder
2) Turning an enemy into a living yo-yo. I can see this being questionable in regards to the rule and pretty dependent on how a particular Dm would rule on it. At lvl 3 the Elemental strikes can do the 10ft push/pull thing when you hit an enemy and they fail the Str saving throw. The specific wording of this says "you can move the target up to 10 feet toward or away from you" (I'm already annoying the heck out of the DM who is a good friend with this particular feature as a lvl 5 Elemental Monk). If you are flying 15 above the enemy and you hit them you could pull them 10 feet up in the air towards you. Then you hit them again with your second attack and if they fail the Str save you push them 10 feet away from you back to the ground. Now if you add in Flury of Blows with this and the target actually fails all the saving throws then you have yourself a living yo-yo.
I'm still waiting to hear what my DM thinks of these ideas hehe.
You won't need to push the foe away when flying above them; If you don't have them Grappled, and the foe can't fly or stay there for some other reason, the foe will fall. If they take Falling Damage, they'll go Prone. And when you're 15' from a Prone foe, your next attack is at Disadvantage.
That said, based on the preview article, Warrior of the Elements Monk: Bend the Elements to Your Will , grappling and holding enemies out of their melee reach with Elemental Strikes seems to be an intended playstyle for the Subclass. This enables:
For a Single Foe, with no assistance, no ranged capability, no Bonus Action or Reaction options, and no ability to move themselves without using their move, at level 5, if successfully pulled off, that's at least two turns where retaliation is difficult (One turn Stunned, one turn spending their Action to attempt to break out of the Grapple)
Though if the Foe does have help, it's basically trivial to get them out of that Grapple (Foe 2 attempts to Grapple Foe 1, Foe 1 fails save [automatically if still Stunned, voluntarily if not], Foe 2 moves Foe 1 out of Monk's reach), so the Monk should probably use Elemental Strikes or Fast Grappler to maneuver them away from their compatriots.
🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
Charisma Saving Throw: DC 18, Failure: 20d6 Psychic Damage, Success: Half damage
I'm not sure what you're achieving with your yo-yo plan.
It also likely doesn't work, as they ought to fall after each pull. (I am not worried about the damage available, as a strength save vs an extra 1d6 damage just ain't that big a deal by the time you can do it, and, as mentioned above, after the first one, they're prone and you're getting disadvantage on your attacks.)
You might as well hit and grapple, step of the wind fly upwards and then drop them to the ground, from upwards of 100 feet.
This Play style works. I think the creature falls prone right after you pull them toward you since the creature has nothing to support itself and you are not grappling the opponent. The enemy would take 1d6 falling damage each time and land prone, so you would have advantage on attack rolls. The monk has enough movement you could fly up a small amount each time to increase falling damage. Its legit and sounds like fun.
Grappling the enemy, dashing high in the air and dropping the opponent for lots of falling damage is fun too.