Tavern Brawler - must for a Monk?

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.

Quote from Natrel >>

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.

 Indeed, sadly you will tend to face more robust enemies that have a higher constitution and save against the effect, but it is an extra attack, which means extra damage regardless. 

Hmmm. Polearm Master on a Monk. I’m sure it’s fun. I didn’t take it because the Monk’s bonus action is already always so full, with Flurry of Blows mainly. And their Reactions are precious for Deflect Attacks. Have been enjoying both very much.

As for the 1s re-roll, I can see how it feels impactful when it happens,  even though folks point out the avg dmg boost is about 1 I think? Maybe that 5 instead of a 1 would have finished off some enemies, but getting a +3 to Initiative for much of the early game can be enough to give e you a whole turn ahead of an enemy. Then yeah plus the switching ability is pretty nice.

On a d6, the re-roll yields an average of +0.416 damage/attack. On a d12, it would be +0.458.

The real benefit of Alert is the ability to manage Initiative. At low levels, the order of combat usually doesn't matter all that much. Everyone is just doing some variant of damage and while going first is nice, it isn't a big deal. As you move up in levels, enemies often have abilities that can absolutely devastate certain characters in the party and your party members often have abilities that can completely reshape the environment to ensure that doesn't happen.

Ultimately, this tends to mean you have high Dex characters with Alert who pass that great Initiative roll to your relatively low Dex pure casters so they can go first and drop those critical environmental effects.

Quote from VerilyRaze >>

On a d6, the re-roll yields an average of +0.416 damage/attack. On a d12, it would be +0.458.

The real benefit of Alert is the ability to manage Initiative. At low levels, the order of combat usually doesn't matter all that much. Everyone is just doing some variant of damage and while going first is nice, it isn't a big deal. As you move up in levels, enemies often have abilities that can absolutely devastate certain characters in the party and your party members often have abilities that can completely reshape the environment to ensure that doesn't happen.

Ultimately, this tends to mean you have high Dex characters with Alert who pass that great Initiative roll to your relatively low Dex pure casters so they can go first and drop those critical environmental effects.

Well put.

A Monk though does have some debuff & control options at early levels that can help shut down at least one enemy, sometimes more, depending on your build.

Level 4: Grappler feat, Level 5: Stunning Strike, Level 6 (Mercy): Hand of Hard auto-poison. Having played this, I can attest to how impactful that can be.