Tavern Brawler - must for a Monk?

The feedback on this has been great. Now at level 9 with my Mercy Monk, I am glad I took Alert over Tavern Brawler. Grappler at level 4 has given me exactly what I want. I'm sure I could get cute with the push effect, but punch-grapple attack feels plenty rewarding. So I'd rather be able to do that and get the jump on combat with the initiative boost from Alert. 

And yeah, Mercy Monk's ability to auto-poison any enemy not immune makes its grapple much less risky to itself. The poison effect also makes it hard for enemy to get out of the grapple. The combo allows me a good shot at semi-locking a tough enemy close to the jump, without/in-addition to Stunning Strike. The main barrier is often just landing the grapple in the first place, since the enemy can choose STR or DEX save, which makes total sense. Sometimes it's worth it when I fail the once-per-turn punch-grapple, to just use my next attack to try grappling again since the benefits to me and the team are that great.

So yeah, I would say Tavern Brawler in my experience is not missed on a Monk that wants to do other things, though I've never tried it, so it's probably fun too. Again, since Monk already gets 2 of the 4 TB features, I'd want to explore with my DM getting some other minor benefit from TB: re-rolling 2s in addition to 1s or +1 to Grapple DC or something.

Grappler is a good feat

Quote from DrakojaPax >>

The feedback on this has been great. Now at level 9 with my Mercy Monk, I am glad I took Alert over Tavern Brawler. Grappler at level 4 has given me exactly what I want. I'm sure I could get cute with the push effect, but punch-grapple attack feels plenty rewarding. So I'd rather be able to do that and get the jump on combat with the initiative boost from Alert. 

And yeah, Mercy Monk's ability to auto-poison any enemy not immune makes its grapple much less risky to itself. The poison effect also makes it hard for enemy to get out of the grapple. The combo allows me a good shot at semi-locking a tough enemy close to the jump, without/in-addition to Stunning Strike. The main barrier is often just landing the grapple in the first place, since the enemy can choose STR or DEX save, which makes total sense. Sometimes it's worth it when I fail the once-per-turn punch-grapple, to just use my next attack to try grappling again since the benefits to me and the team are that great.

So yeah, I would say Tavern Brawler in my experience is not missed on a Monk that wants to do other things, though I've never tried it, so it's probably fun too. Again, since Monk already gets 2 of the 4 TB features, I'd want to explore with my DM getting some other minor benefit from TB: re-rolling 2s in addition to 1s or +1 to Grapple DC or something.

Alert doesn't give you any significant jump on enemy, early on. At least not in 2024. You only get to add your proficiency bonus, so you have to wait until 13th level just to gain +5 to your initiative, which is given immediately in 2014's edition. 

Tavern Brawler was a missed opportunity.  Having played the Monk with TB I can firmly state it is a must have for damage. 

Quote from MPA >>

Alert doesn't give you any significant jump on enemy, early on. At least not in 2024. You only get to add your proficiency bonus, so you have to wait until 13th level just to gain +5 to your initiative, which is given immediately in 2014's edition. 

The more useful part about the 5.5e Alert feat is the ability to swap Initiative rolls with an ally, so you have more control over where you (or they) go in the order. Between that and adding your Proficiency Bonus there's usually a pretty good chance you'll get to go approximately when you want.

My favorite feat for Monks is Polearm Master. Reactive Strike can be used with a quarterstaff, which is a Monk weapon, so when an enemy comes in close range, you can bonk them before they can do anything, then use Stunning Strike, and completely deny their turn.