Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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With the Warrior of the Mystic Arts subclass coming out in Arcana Unleashed, I am wondering how people are using it as a multi-class.
What would you do?
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Unlike Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster, the WMA Monk uses the wisdom stat. So right off the bat I am wondering if there is a Cleric or Druid combo that hits hard.
I have not used WMA in live play so this is just theory-crafting for me at this point.
What I really like about the WMA is its sorcerer like ability to convert spell slots into Focus Points.This means that basically you can take maybe just a 3-level dip in monk and then go Cleric X or Druid X and use some of the spell slots to create Focus Points. Most builds would probably hate this trade off.
But…. then there’s the Moon Druid which can’t cast spells while Wildshaped until very high levels. So it stands to reason a Moon Druid might be able to spare the spell slots in exchange for some Monk stuff.
I am also wondering if a Monk 3 Cleric/Druid X would at some point have more Focus Points than a pure monk. I’m not building out any tables yet, but it would be interesting to see if the best WMA Monk is a dip with a full caster.
I also think a Trickster or War Cleric could have a lot of fun with a WMA Monk multiclass. You could take an origin feat other than Magic Initiate Wizard and still have true strike. You could even switch to MI Druid and take Shillelagh and use it with Booming Blade or Green Fire blade and still use your bonus action for martial arts (I believe). A War Cleric that can use Martial Arts is just a cool concept. But the Duplicate of the Trickster Cleric is even cooler considering you can grant all of your monk attacks advantage while also running spirit guardians as the duplicate runs around in between duels.
Unfortunately, you need 6 levels in monk to convert spell slots into focus points.
A level 20 WMA Monk has a total of 43 focus points available if they convert all of their spell slots to focus points - 20 from Monk levels, 23 from converted spell slots.
A Monk 6/Druid 14 (Monk 6 needed to convert spell slots), would have a total of 68 available - 6 from Monk levels, 62 from converted spell slots.
While a fun exercise in theory-crafting, this trade off would definitely not be worth doing in actual play. The Druid spells you would be giving up would not be worth giving up your higher-level spell slots considering the things you could do that would be much more beneficial. Even if you were just going for damage, an upcast 7th level Conjure Minor Elementals would be way more valuable than 7 focus points considering that it would add 5d8 to each of your 4 hits per turn (with Flurry of Blows) for a whopping 20d8 per turn in damage.
I wouldn’t multiclass a monk. They get cool stuff pretty much every level. And they have one of the best capstones in the game.
As for going the other way, and being a cleric but taking a monk dip. I wouldn’t want to give up my spell progression. And putting on the cleric’s armor will turn off many of the monk’s abilities. I guess you could go high dex as your secondary stat, and you’d be ok unarmored.
Still it seems like trying to spread yourself too thin.
Multiclass thoughts obviously not complete.
Dips 1 level:
A short dip into any of the 3 wisdom casters (Druid/Ranger/Cleric) all provide a nice set of 1st level spells while not messing up your stats
A short dip into any of the martials with aligned ablities (Fighter, Ranger, Rogue) for weapon mastery is extremely useful
Ranger ends up one of the better choices as you get both weapon mastery and spell slots and skills (entangle is an excellent spell to add to the monk).|
I can't recommend multis into the charisma and intelligence classes, and Barbarian is interesting but has difficulties as well.
Dips 3 level Subclass:
Winter Walker Ranger combined with cold caster allows for an every turn debuff to a save which leads to better stunning strikes.
This can be done easier by being a Warrior of the Elements Monk and taking Cold Caster at level 4. It requires no multicasting, and your Unarmed Strikes can deal cold damage while your Elemental Attunement is active, thus activating the saving throw debuff from Cold Caster. If you really want to make things go badly for your enemies, you can take Fairy Trickster at level 8 as well, stacking the 1d4 debuff with Disadvantage on saving throws to really make those Stunning Strikes land hard.
Agreed that the element monk is an easier path to cold caster, but I was assessing the best multiclasses for MA monk. Ranger itself is already an excellent choice with weapon mastery, 2HM, and spell slots plus access to an elite control spell in Entangle and healing. Level 2 gets you a fighting style and expertise, and then you go to decide subclasses. The biggest problem multiclassing into Ranger is that at high level the bonus Hunter's Mark uses become less valuable as your bonus action/flurry of blows simply does more damage using your BA for HM. So in order to keep that feature useful you need to get something from it. There are really two answers here Hollow Warden (converts HM into fear aura, +1 AC, and ability to reaction attack when hit), and Winter Walker (when casting HM you get temp HP in addition). I think Hollow Warden is the better of the two, but Winter Walker does open up Cold Caster to the MA monk.
The MA monk has an additional trick to play with cold caster. They can combine mind sliver with cold caster to double debuff a stun save. The other part of Cold Caster (Ray of Frost) is also a sneaky good choice for the MA monk. While the MA monk could choose it or Firebolt already, their best cantrips for attack replacement are probably True Strike, Mind Sliver, and Blade ward. They only get three. Also generally if you are attacking at the range needed you aren't using attack replacement, so getting a true ranged cantrip is still valuable. As for the value of Cold Caster vs. Fairy Trickster, FT has limited uses, lasts longer, and requires a save. FT is more powerful, but Cold Caster is just there every turn hitting the enemy, no action, no limited uses, you will use it even when you can't stun to set up others.