Hello, WarAxe145 here. Wondering if a tiefling monk combination would work. I honestly don’t know what to think.

It would work.

Any race/class combo works.

Would it work? Sure, as FoxefireInferno stated, any Race/Class combination works

Would it be interesting? Indeed it could be, as any non-optimal combination

Would it be optimized? Probably not, but that's not the point of a TTRPG (imho)

Quote from LeK >>

 

Would it be optimized? Probably not, but that's not the point of a TTRPG (imho)

 
It's not like it's bad, with the +2 Dex. And there are variants that do offer +2 Dex +1 Wis, which is optimal.

But I do certainly agree that going optimal is not really the point and any race/class combo can be effective and fun.

There's no reason why it wouldn't work.

Thanks!

To many work on this idea that there are class options that do and don't work for any particular race. I've even seen a number of youtube video's by people that otherwise give good information falling into this trap and talking about proper or good classes for any particular race and I think this is actually kind of silly and detrimental to the game.

5e does not need an optimal build for a successful character even at high level.  most of the game is actually based around a level of suboptimal mixes while still being quite functional and overly optimized builds can actually seem very boring unless a DM specifically caters to them with over powered challenges much in the same way that they might have to do for overly large groups.

On top of this, many races are either by their nature(such as human and half elf) or through different subraces of that race suited to a lot of different styles of play quite naturally through their stats.  Tieflings for example have the variant rules for them in the Sword Coast book.

I played a Feral Tiefling Shadow Monk and it was one of my favorite characters. Play the character you want to play, you are the factor that makes it 'work'. It can definitely be min-maxed if that is what you're going for, but it is really about what you want to do and how you want to play.

I always liked Class/race combos that are visually opposites. A Goliath Wizard, a Gnome Barbarian. Stuff like that just makes me smile.

Whether or not something "works" is up to your play style.  Some people care about optimization and some people don't.  

If all your friends are playing optimized melee characters and you aren't, that's okay as long as you're okay with not dealing as much damage as they are.

That said, party composition may impact how much you enjoy playing a particular class or flavor of a particular class if the DM is throwing really challenging stuff at the party.  If you wind up playing the only melee-focused character in a party where everybody else is a wizard or rogue, you'll be dealing with more pressure since they'll be somewhat reliant on you to prevent mage-ganking by opponents.  In a party with multiple heavy hitters, what kind of Monk you play matters a lot less.

I just made one and I cannot wait to play him! He's definitely not min/maxed but he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve to a be an asset to the group. I like the high persuasion tieflings have so that can work well in determining how influential his conversations can be. It's almost the opposite of a light monk taking the devot vow of silence (Chinese) but rather one that doesn't shut up!

A build I have been wanting to try is a tiefling 4 elements monks based on fire elemental disciplines. 4 elements monks isn't the best monk subclass, but by choosing elemental disciplines that let you cast fire spells (burning hands, fireball, wall of fire) and by taking the Flames of Phlegethos racial feat for tieflings, you can at least ensure that for the high ki cost of using your elemental disciplines you are getting a better than average damage output. Plus the feat gives a fun little fire shield, which will be super useful if you are always in melee combat.