Elf monks suddenly got a lot nastyer at low levels. At lv 5 it is effectively 3 D10 longsword attacks + stun at the cost of a single ki point. First time that elf weapon proficiency becomes really good :)
Monks got some interesting boosts from Tasha's, and I'm really liking them.
Dedicated Weapon is good, and while I don't like that it infringes a bit on Way of the Kensei, if it means more Monks taking more interesting weapon choices then I can overlook that. Kensei can still do this for multiple weapon types, and get plenty of other bonuses.
Ki-fuelled Strike is fantastic. It's going to make a big difference for Way of the Four Elements, but it also combines nicely with Way of the Kensei as well; Deft Strike was an ability where it's often a bit tricky to decide when (or if) to use it, but now that it can be used to trigger an additional full weapon attack I think I'll use it a lot more. A lot of the other new features can also trigger this, so every Monk gets some access to it.
Quickened Healing I'm actually surprised by; it's expensive at level 4 to spend 2 Ki for only d4+2 but as it scales it gets better and better, and if you have spare Ki before a short rest there's no reason not to just burn them on extra healing and save your Hit Dice. It being an action means you might not use it in combat a lot, though Ki-fuelled Strike means you can still make one full attack afterwards if you do.
Focused Aim is an interesting one; being able to just spend 1-3 Ki for a +2-6 to an attack that you know just narrowly missed is… well again it's interesting. It's expensive to keep using it, so I'm probably more inclined to use it only when I know I've only just missed by one (or my DM said "you barely miss" which 99% of the time is code for "you missed by one") because it again is an ability that will trigger Ki-fuelled Strike if the attack you adjust was part of an action. The fact that it works on any attack roll is also interesting; this will be more of a benefit for casting variants or multi-classes, but being able to turn a missed spell into a hit is extra valuable, though you're spending a resource to avoid wasting either more of that resource, or a different one.
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They all are either situational, best used in certain level ranges, and/or certain kinds of builds.
Dedicated weapon is a nice bit of flavor and could result in a bit more damage. With the caveat that you might have to figure out some race combination or feat that let's you use the weapon in the first place. But it's damage factor can wear off the higher the level you get into and then it becomes more and more of a flavor issue. You might also have to do some explaining to a DM why that versatile weapon should work for your martial arts when wielded two handed as well. But it is definitely a nice touch to have to fall back on without having to potentially custom work up some kind of monastery specific variant of your subclass or something.
Ki feuled Attack can add a nice addition to the kit, specially for certain Subclasses that take other kinds of actions or builds that don't rely as much on just smacking the crap out of things and being all dex and all flurry of blows. But Damage wise it is not going to be any better than spending a ki point on flurry of blows after a certain point and eventually will a be worse if you hit consistently That second d10+3 or +4 sounds impressive and looks a little nicer in the total numbers at level 3 and 4. But it's going to average out to the same or even be less by level 5 when it becomes your 3rd d10+3 or +4 because flurry of blows is doing potentially 2 d6+3 or +4 hits. By the time your 11th level and your martial arts die are d8's it's just flat out worse unless your using the attack to hit something ranged which flurry of blows can't naturally do on it's own if your not playing certain subclasses that might be able to change that.
Quick Healing is decent but it's actually probably more useful and more worth it at higher levels than lower levels. 2 Ki is a lot to spend for small ammounts of healing at the lowest levels and it's still pretty costly in some of those mid levels. It's best use is going to be when you have lots of ki to be willing to spend that much but the healing isn't going to be anything amazing which is still going to make it situational if it's worth it but might serve to better keep you alive until the Healers turn.
And Focused Aim is entirely situational but again potentially extremely costly and might be more useful at higher levels. It's going to serve you only when your relatively close to hitting, your willing to spend potentially multiple ki points, and You either know or have a very good idea of the target number that you need to hit to succeed. But raising your attack retroactively by 2-6 points depending on how much ki you spend is potentially huge to go with that high cost it is to use. But i really wouldn't recommend it on the more resource strict subclasses.
Ki feuled Attack can add a nice addition to the kit, specially for certain Subclasses that take other kinds of actions or builds that don't rely as much on just smacking the crap out of things and being all dex and all flurry of blows. But Damage wise it is not going to be any better than spending a ki point on flurry of blows after a certain point and eventually will a be worse if you hit consistently That second d10+3 or +4 sounds impressive and looks a little nicer in the total numbers at level 3 and 4. But it's going to average out to the same or even be less by level 5 when it becomes your 3rd d10+3 or +4 because flurry of blows is doing potentially 2 d6+3 or +4 hits. By the time your 11th level and your martial arts die are d8's it's just flat out worse unless your using the attack to hit something ranged which flurry of blows can't naturally do on it's own if your not playing certain subclasses that might be able to change that.
You hit the nail on the head in the first sentence. Ki-Feuled Attack wasn't designed to compete with Flurry of Blows. It was designed to provide a Bonus Action to the subclasses where they normally wouldn't get one. Four Elements using their elemental attacks being the prime example. For most of the other subclasses it might never be used - and that's fine.
All of these optional abilities (not just the Monk ones) seem like band-aids for the bad subclasses that the good subclasses shouldn't have or don't need. They are optional after all and can only be taken if your DM says you can have them.
Ki feuled Attack can add a nice addition to the kit, specially for certain Subclasses that take other kinds of actions or builds that don't rely as much on just smacking the crap out of things and being all dex and all flurry of blows. But Damage wise it is not going to be any better than spending a ki point on flurry of blows after a certain point and eventually will a be worse if you hit consistently That second d10+3 or +4 sounds impressive and looks a little nicer in the total numbers at level 3 and 4. But it's going to average out to the same or even be less by level 5 when it becomes your 3rd d10+3 or +4 because flurry of blows is doing potentially 2 d6+3 or +4 hits. By the time your 11th level and your martial arts die are d8's it's just flat out worse unless your using the attack to hit something ranged which flurry of blows can't naturally do on it's own if your not playing certain subclasses that might be able to change that.
You hit the nail on the head in the first sentence. Ki-Feuled Attack wasn't designed to compete with Flurry of Blows. It was designed to provide a Bonus Action to the subclasses where they normally wouldn't get one. Four Elements using their elemental attacks being the prime example. For most of the other subclasses it might never be used - and that's fine.
All of these optional abilities (not just the Monk ones) seem like band-aids for the bad subclasses that the good subclasses shouldn't have or don't need. They are optional after all and can only be taken if your DM says you can have them.
It's not even entirely that the subclasses like For Elements don't have one. They just don't have an offensive one really. The only potential one for Four Elements specifically is if you don't use the errata turning water whip from a bonus action to a regular action and there are pro's and con's for both. But for that same Ki point Four Elements does have other actions that it can take such as disengage, dash, or patient defense to help protect them from any backlash they might recieve. Assuming that you have and are willing to spend the Ki Point.
But I think Monks in General and particularly Four Elements Monks could do with having just a few more Ki points. It's unfortunate that I didn't really see any real magic items or anything else that didn't address this issue. Though I understand that giving them a few more could potentially be giving them a fair bit more power by extending what they can do out for more turns or giving them just one more turn of big effort.
You might also have to do some explaining to a DM why that versatile weapon should work for your martial arts when wielded two handed as well.
"I kick it." Monks were already using versatile weapons (spear and staff) without this being an issue. This is RAW and RAI and shouldn't be an issue.
Ki feuled Attack can add a nice addition to the kit, specially for certain Subclasses that take other kinds of actions or builds that don't rely as much on just smacking the crap out of things and being all dex and all flurry of blows. But Damage wise it is not going to be any better than spending a ki point on flurry of blows after a certain point and eventually will a be worse if you hit consistently That second d10+3 or +4 sounds impressive and looks a little nicer in the total numbers at level 3 and 4. But it's going to average out to the same or even be less by level 5 when it becomes your 3rd d10+3 or +4 because flurry of blows is doing potentially 2 d6+3 or +4 hits. By the time your 11th level and your martial arts die are d8's it's just flat out worse unless your using the attack to hit something ranged which flurry of blows can't naturally do on it's own if your not playing certain subclasses that might be able to change that.
It lets you make an attack without taking the attack action. Shadow monks and four elements monks can cast a spell and make an attack. Additionally, you're not taking into account magic weapons. There aren't many official items in the game that increase unarmed attack damage. There are however plenty of magic weapons that dramatically increase damage. Also, if a monk uses stunning strike in a round, that monk can make a free attack with a weapon that would otherwise be an unarmed attack. It's free damage and doesn't require an additional ki point.
Quick Healing is decent but it's actually probably more useful and more worth it at higher levels than lower levels. 2 Ki is a lot to spend for small ammounts of healing at the lowest levels and it's still pretty costly in some of those mid levels. It's best use is going to be when you have lots of ki to be willing to spend that much but the healing isn't going to be anything amazing which is still going to make it situational if it's worth it but might serve to better keep you alive until the Healers turn.
This is the only new feature that is only meh. The amount of healing is pretty small. I'd almost never actually use this in combat. At level 5, you're going to be getting ~7 hit points back for spending 2 ki points. Those ki points would be better spent using step of the wind or patient defense. You could use this out of combat right before a short rest though. You'll be getting your ki back right away. You've got hit dice though that does the same thing. At 20 you're only looking at a ~12 point heal. The only saving grace of this ability is the awesomeness that is Ki-Fueled Attack. Small heal + an attack for 2 ki is tolerable in a pinch.
And Focused Aim is entirely situational but again potentially extremely costly and might be more useful at higher levels. It's going to serve you only when your relatively close to hitting, your willing to spend potentially multiple ki points, and You either know or have a very good idea of the target number that you need to hit to succeed. But raising your attack retroactively by 2-6 points depending on how much ki you spend is potentially huge to go with that high cost it is to use. But i really wouldn't recommend it on the more resource strict subclasses.
This is better than you think. Let's say your first attack misses by 1. You spend a ki point turning it into a hit and can now use ki fueled attack. This is way better than using that ki point to cast fury of blows. Instead of 2 chances to hit with an unarmed attack you get 1 guaranteed weapon hit and 1 chance at another weapon attack.
Let's say you're a level 5 Monk attacking a creature and have a 60% chance to hit with your quarterstaff. You narrowly miss with your first attack. From here, you have three choices:
You attempt your extra attack and use a Ki point to use flurry of blows all at 60% chance of hitting. That figures to an average of ~14 damage.
You use a Ki point using Focused Aim turning that miss into a hit. You attempt your extra attack and spend another Ki point on Flurry of Blows for a turn average of 23 damage.
You use a Ki point using Focused Aim turning that miss into a hit. You attempt your extra attack and another weapon attack made possible by Ki Fueled Attack both at a 60% chance to hit. This totals an average of ~19 damage.
In this case, the best option is number 2. It uses 2 Ki points but you're doing the most damage in that round. If you only want to spend 1, the Focused Aim + Ki Fueled Attack option gives you a roughly 33% increase in average damage over option 1. The damage disparity becomes much larger as you start using magic weapons. Let's say you're using a flame tongue short sword. Option 1 will average damage of about 18. You're at 33 if you use option 3. Option 2? Spending 2 Ki points using option 2 you're sitting at ~32. So you'll be doing slightly less damage in that case having spent 1 extra Ki. I suppose you do get more chances at doing fun stuff like interrupting a concentration spell or using stunning strike though.
Granted, this exact case of only needing 1 Ki point to turn a miss into a hit is situational. It's amazing in those situations though. As a monk get's higher in level, there are more Ki points to throw around so spending 2 or 3 Ki to turn an miss into an important hit is going to be more palatable.
Magic Weapons only really mitigate the fact that you aren't really doing more or that your actually doing less for longer. Your typical magical weapon if you have one for example is either a +1 to +3 magical weapon which at most is giving you +3 damage. Or it is something like Flame tongue and where it's going to do slightly more at lower level but the additional attack is going to still be making up for it or doing more at higher level and at the highest level it's not doing nearly the same as the monk is still. And let's face it there just are not many Flame tongue type weapons that are out there adding die rolls to every attack and the Warrior or the Paladin or the Barbarian just might be calling dibs on them if they aren't falling into the trap that two handed must be better in all situations. The cold hard reality is that By level 11 the extra damage from a magical weapon is already compensated for in a combination of larger damage die over all your martial arts attacks and your typical damage modifier from your stat which by that point is usually a +3 if not a +4 and if your really lucky a +5. And it's likely to reach that +5 stat by level 12 anyway when you get your next ASI and increase your dex to it's maximum assuming that you did a Dex priority Monk and are all about hitting things as hard as you can. Heck if your comparing it to a +2 magical weapon. The 4th hit's guaranteed damage alone covers all of the extra damage granted by the enchantment of the magical weapon. And all of this is ignoring the fact that there are actually a few ways to increase the damage that a monk can do on hit outside of magical weapons such as the eldritch claw tattoo which actually mitigates the extra damage from magical weapon even further and can apply increased damage of their own. An Empowered Eldritch Claw tattoo actually works out to more damage on the four hits with Flurry of Blows because It's adding 4d6 over all four blows instead of 3d6 to the blows done with a magical weapon in hand AND using Ki Feuled Attack.
So yes. I have taken them into account. They are a smoke screen factor that people rely on to make everything fit. They aren't the actual reality of what is going on. Also your ignoring the fact that Magical Weapons are just not a requirement for most levels of play anymore so they don't have the weight that they would have in previous editions when it comes to such things.
As for Focused Aim. I did point out that this is more viable at high level, precisely because there are more Ki points to be able to spend on such things. Though it's still a case that if your spending too many on too many hits you are only hindering yourself from using other potentially important abilities. At low level however the cost of it gets expensive fast. Particularly if your off by more than 1 or 2 points.
But here's a realization for you. With just the Eldritch claw tattoo I mentioned. Without even activating it. And only getting the two 2 martial arts attacks to land (ignoring the additional to hit that it provides to unarmed attacks). Your damage for flurry of blows and martial arts actually now exceeds the 33 damage of for your flame tongue by 2 points of average damage. Should you get only one of them to land then they would come out equal. And keep in mind. Your doing all of this math at level 5. Crank that math up to level 11 now with the same parameters. Your average damage per hit actually goes up by about 1 just for the increase in damage die. However. The Flame Tongue sword that your swinging around. It's already maxed out it's damage potential for the most part at level 5. This means that you now need to try to find a bigger better magical weapon yet somehow retain certain properties of the flame tongue weapon, which most magical weapons do not actually do, just to keep equal in damage with or to try to again exceed the damage with Ki Fueled Strike.
Now obviously we could complicate the math further by dragging in other magical items that would activate damage based off of a hit. But most of them have a very specific problem. Because of the way martial arts handles the classification of a monks unarmed strike as a melee weapon strike so that the monk can use their own abilities that refer to such like Stunning Strike. It means that most of those things will work for either and thus don't change the overall outcome. They just change the math that we are working with. The Eldritch claw tattoo being an exception in many respects because while many of it's powers could technically be used by both. It is something that is the equivalent of a plus one magic weapon that modifies only the unarmed strikes of the monk and not the weapon wielding strikes of the monk. It would till actually do slightly more with Flurry of Blows over Ki Fueled Strike because of the potential for that fourth hit.
I pointed out that even without magical items, if you turn a hit into a miss it's better than using flurry of blows. The math doesn't change at level 11 or 20. That's because you're ensuring a hit.
I'll try to simplify it further. Let's assume that the weapon attacks and the unarmed attacks are identical in terms of attack bonus and damage. You hit with your first attack, and your extra attack narrowly misses. You have 1 Ki point and want to maximize your damage on this turn. You have two options.
Flurry of blows. Result: 2 possible hits.
Focused Aim + Ki-Fueled Attack. Result: 1 definite hit and 1 possible hit.
The better option should be obvious. It basically comes down to do you want to guarantee a hit or not?
Now let's look at your example of Eldritch Claw Tattoo. Let's assume you've already used a bonus action on a previous turn to juice up the tattoo so your unarmed attacks are now hitting for an extra d6. You'll obviously want to be only using unarmed attacks for this so let's not worry about another weapon. You can do that. If your unarmed strikes are better than your weapon, you can just attack with your unarmed attacks exclusively. As you say, it might not be better than your unarmed attacks here. Let's assume 50% chance to hit and a d8 for martial arts dice. Here is the math for the two options. A hit here is 1d8+5+1d6 for an average of 13 per hit.
Flurry of Blows Option
First attack (13) Assume hit.
Extra Attack (0) Assume miss.
1st FoB Attack (13 * .5) TBD
2nd FoB Attack (13 * .5) TBD
Focus Aim + Ki Fueled Attack Option
First Attack (13) Assume hit.
Extra Attack (13) Assume miss that you turn into a Hit with Focus Aim
Ki-Fueled Attack (13 * .5) TBD
Focus Aim + Flurry of Blows Option
First attack (13) Assume hit.
Extra Attack (13) Assume miss that you turn into a Hit with Focus Aim
1st FoB Attack (13 * .5) TBD
2nd FoB Attack (13 * .5) TBD
Option 1 here does 26 damage on average. Option 2 here does 32.5. That's with everything being equal. If you want, you can combine them though which is somethin you seem to ignore. Forgive me if that's not the case. Option 3 uses FA and FoB to do an average of 39 damage. Why stop there though? You can FA all your attacks if you really want! If you ensure all your attacks hit you're averaging 52 damage. It might cost you all your Ki though!
Your unarmed attacks being equal to your weapon attacks is best case scenario for Option 1. If your weapon attacks are better than your unarmed attacks, Option 2 becomes even better compared to option 1. Nothing is stopping you from using unarmed attacks with your attack action so option 1 will never get better compared to option 2.
With or without Focused Aim is not the issue. I'm aware you keep adding it in just to cover the cost required to trigger Ki Fueled Strike and your trying to show how they work if they both only spend one Ki. But Focused Aim is not really the point and is only being used as an activator. What is being compared is the single weapon hit from Ki Fueled Strike compared to the two martial arts hits from Flurry of Blows. Those are the two like abilities that you are using one or the other for the most part regardless of what you do with the rest of the round as long as at least 1 ki is spent at the appropriate times to activate them.
Then look at your math where you kept things basically the same. With or without Focused Aim does not really matter. It's just as easy to assume you had to spend 2 Ki to ensure that hit on the example for Focused aim as it is to consider 1 ki for focused aim and 1 ki on flurry of blows to balance out the ki cost. your math shows that with Focused aim on Both and even if we assume they spent the same amount of Ki because of variability in expenditure over the turn (2 apiece). The Flurry of Blows Average Damage at level 11 (the point that a d8 kicks in) is Flurry of Blows favor by about 20% damage (7 points give or take). The margin would be smaller at level 5 because of slightly less damage on the side of Flurry of Blows. But it will actually increase further if you then take it up to level 17.
Even if you add the flame blade into the equation on behalf of the Ki Fueled Strike hit. Assuming everything else is the same and that flame blade is used for every attack option hit so that the attack actions damage is identical up until the point of the bonus action and using either Ki Fueled Strike. That is only an additional 6 damage average for Ki Fueled Strike with no actual damage change to Flurry of blows. Meaning that even at level 11 Flurry of Blows is actually slightly better over all than even one of the most significant magical weapon gains for damage that can be significantly used on every single turn. But it's only going to be seen under the particular circumstances of owning a Flame Blade and having the ability to turn it into your monk weapon.
I am not ignoring that things can be combined or stacked. But that's not the point in objective analysis because it's true of both of these abilities. However, and this is the most important part. Ki Fueled Blade and Flurry of Blows are both completely mutually exclusive abilities. You are only ever able to use one or the other in your combinations at any given moment in time. That is why you compare these two abilities under otherwise matching conditions to objectively say which one is better. The fact of the matter is that soon enough Ki Fueled Blade is not the better choice. It only wins out at low level and only by a small margin. This is why I rated Ki Fueled Blade the way I did in my critique because it's biggest use is not as a replacement for Flurry of Blows like people look at it as. It's biggest use from an objective standing is for added offense in situations where you cannot activate Flurry of blows to begin with such as when you don't take the attack action but instead use a different action that uses your Ki in your main action. It's only additional benefit beyond this for Kensai in particular is that you would be able to make a ranged attack or even an additional Ranged attack on the Kensai when it is set up for Archery which is an instance where Flurry of Blows would actually be pointless to activate but that is a unique situation found primarily only in that particular subclass.
Ok I see what you're saying. If you're just looking at the bonus action then we're in agreement. Flurry of Blows is more likely to do more damage than a single attack with a weapon from Ki-Fueled Attack. However, your original argument wasn't what does more damage with your bonus action. It was that Focused Aim wasn't very good. That was the point I was arguing against. We agree that it's situational. I just think that in those situations where it's good, it's very good. The way that it interacts with Ki-Fueled Attack makes the two features very very good.
If nothing else, Ki-Fueled Attack is an upgrade from the normal bonus action unarmed attack. That's what we should really be comparing it against. The comparison should either be the best use of a single Ki point in a given situation or the best use of the bonus action. If we limit a turn to only spending 1 Ki point, it is best spent using Focused Aim if it turns a miss into a hit and then getting to use Ki-Fueled attack. If you hit with both attacks, Focused Aim wouldn't turn a miss into a hit, or if you deem Focused Aim to have too high a cost because you missed by 6, then Flurry of Blows is obviously better. I agree with you in that Flurry of Blows will often be the better option. However, on any turn where you narrowly miss with either your attack or extra attack, it's the inferior option. Obviously in this case the best option would be to spend another Ki point on Flurry of Blows. As you said though, this still might not amount to all that much more damage and may not be worth the Ki point cost.
I think our main difference is that I don't think you can critique individual features in isolation. Well you can but I don't see the point. You get a better understanding of the class and the value of features by looking at them as part of a whole. For example, what is better? A Barbarian with 2 attacks or a Fighter with 3? Well obviously the Fighter with 3 is doing 50% more damage, right? When you factor Reckless Attack, Rage, and everything else, you might find that it's a lot close than it initially looked. The barbarian might even come out on top! Similarly, looking at just Focused Aim or just Ki-Fueled Attack in isolation, you're right, they seem underwhelming. However, when you look at them as part of the whole, they fit together with each other and other monk features so well that they're actually fantastic features.
I think they're all great except for Quickened Healing, which certainly isn't fullfilling any dream I have of recreating Monk using Chakra in Final Fantasy Tactics. I mean... if a Monk is allowed it it's better than nothing I suppose, but the way I see it 2 whole Ki for a single dice's worth of healing I think is way too steep a cost. It would cost too much during the levels it *might* be useful in, and by the time you have a decent amount of Ki I can't see it being worth spending an entire turn and 2 whole Ki to heal for less than a potion of healing. Meanwhile, while Fighters might only be able to use Second Wind a few times per long rest...it's at least a meaningful heal that gets better with Fighter level.
I guess maybe, in a pinch as a desperation heal...but even then that's two whole Patient Defenses you're burning up to get what will likely be less than 10 HP. I've really wanted Monk to have a baked in self heal tool of some sort for the longest time, as I think it's very in line with the class' flavor, but Quickened is a bit of a disappointment for me.
Focused Aim and Ki Infused Strikes are great utility to have though. Dedicated Weapon is pretty nice, and definitely doesn't infringe on Kensei considering Kensei can potentially wield well, any weapon type they want (and the DM allows.). Dedicated Weapon still has its limits, but it at least gives baseline Monks more to work with weapons wise, before needing to resort to feats or possibly multiclassing.
I've felt for years that one of this class' biggest recurring issues is that I believe it needs more baked in customization options, which might it better fill out a niche among the other classes in 5e so it's at least a start.
on the opening page where you set score or mods on top just below non standard sources there are 2 switches, click them to get the options on the class page
Ok I see what you're saying. If you're just looking at the bonus action then we're in agreement. Flurry of Blows is more likely to do more damage than a single attack with a weapon from Ki-Fueled Attack. However, your original argument wasn't what does more damage with your bonus action. It was that Focused Aim wasn't very good. That was the point I was arguing against. We agree that it's situational. I just think that in those situations where it's good, it's very good. The way that it interacts with Ki-Fueled Attack makes the two features very very good.
If nothing else, Ki-Fueled Attack is an upgrade from the normal bonus action unarmed attack. That's what we should really be comparing it against. The comparison should either be the best use of a single Ki point in a given situation or the best use of the bonus action. If we limit a turn to only spending 1 Ki point, it is best spent using Focused Aim if it turns a miss into a hit and then getting to use Ki-Fueled attack. If you hit with both attacks, Focused Aim wouldn't turn a miss into a hit, or if you deem Focused Aim to have too high a cost because you missed by 6, then Flurry of Blows is obviously better. I agree with you in that Flurry of Blows will often be the better option. However, on any turn where you narrowly miss with either your attack or extra attack, it's the inferior option. Obviously in this case the best option would be to spend another Ki point on Flurry of Blows. As you said though, this still might not amount to all that much more damage and may not be worth the Ki point cost.
I think our main difference is that I don't think you can critique individual features in isolation. Well you can but I don't see the point. You get a better understanding of the class and the value of features by looking at them as part of a whole. For example, what is better? A Barbarian with 2 attacks or a Fighter with 3? Well obviously the Fighter with 3 is doing 50% more damage, right? When you factor Reckless Attack, Rage, and everything else, you might find that it's a lot close than it initially looked. The barbarian might even come out on top! Similarly, looking at just Focused Aim or just Ki-Fueled Attack in isolation, you're right, they seem underwhelming. However, when you look at them as part of the whole, they fit together with each other and other monk features so well that they're actually fantastic features.
my original remark was actually two separate remarks. one about the pro's and con's of ki Fueled Strike on it's own standing and then a second additional remark only about Focused Aim and it's issues and where it would be useful.
As for the issue of the Bonus action. it's not necessarily better than a Basic bonus action attack. it's a situational comparison which makes them about even because one course of action is going to make the basic bonus action attack better because it's not costing you anything to actually do and maintain and is endlessly repeatable as compared to a different course that will do a bit more damage plus whatever you spent your ki for on the action which is costing you resources which might not be something that the basic bonus action attack could have been used for to begin with. And this is ignoring the fact that the best use of the bonus action as an entire examination is even more highly situational because the best use of that bonus action may be Step of the Wind, Patient Defense, or any of several other bonus actions that could be taken and really what is best at that point is going to vary highly from turn to turn. in the end taking in all of those factors and the high variability it's just going to end up with niche usage mostly in situations where other things couldn't be used or other niche situations do not apply and you've already fulfilled the conditions to use it just like so many other bonus actions that the monk already balances. The monk actually has more uses for the bonus action between it's base class and most of it's subclasses than any other class and possibly even any other class and subclass combination in the game. i don't even think Clerics come as close to as many options for it and they are usually juggling what to use their bonus action on. Rogues have a few extra but i think it's still less and theirs is far more synergistic since your not often trying to decide how to use it between a bunch of options but more keep using it every turn through different options.
If you have proficiency in long swords (from racial feature, feat, or multiclass), they can be monk weapons for you and thus use Dex for attack and damage. It's from the new Dedicated Weapon feature from Tasha's.
The funny thing about Ki Quicken Healing is that its not very good to use in combat....its such low healing, self only, high relative ki cost, and has a HIGH opportunity cost associated with it.
You would 99.9% of the time be better off attacking and potentially using 2 ki to stun instead of healing for such a poor amount. Healing is already super inefficient in play and its generally better to just remove a threat than to heal. If the amount you could heal for was higher and you could only do it once a day it would be a much better combat option.
The best use of the feature by far is to heal up before a short rest with any left over Ki. This is what actually makes it pretty useful outside of combat and I would likely use it as a monk player. I would burn my left over ki and avoid having to use my hit dice.
The funny thing about Ki Quicken Healing is that its not very good to use in combat....its such low healing, self only, high relative ki cost, and has a HIGH opportunity cost associated with it.
You would 99.9% of the time be better off attacking and potentially using 2 ki to stun instead of healing for such a poor amount. Healing is already super inefficient in play and its generally better to just remove a threat than to heal. If the amount you could heal for was higher and you could only do it once a day it would be a much better combat option.
The best use of the feature by far is to heal up before a short rest with any left over Ki. This is what actually makes it pretty useful outside of combat and I would likely use it as a monk player. I would burn my left over ki and avoid having to use my hit dice.
Agreed. That ki would be way better spent in any number of ways. If you're worried about being downed, your best bet is to use your bonus action to disengage or dodge to prevent damage, rather than to heal a small amount using 2 ki. If you're level 11, that healing is only 8 or 9 points of healing on average when you likely have around 100 hp by that point. At lower levels when 8 or 9 is a decent heal, it's cost is too high. This really is only a good option out of combat.
There are some very situational edge cases for using it in combat, and remember Ki-fuelled Strike means you can still attack once at least if you do.
The main case that jumps out at me would be if you know you're going to take damage but not from an enemy, e.g- a persistent spell effect or curse, environmental hazard or such, either against your will or as a result of something you need to do (passing through a dangerous area of effect). If you're in danger of going down then a couple Ki for a chance not to isn't a bad trade to make.
Otherwise yeah, it's definitely a boost to short rests more than anything.
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There are some very situational edge cases for using it in combat, and remember Ki-fuelled Strike means you can still attack once at least if you do.
The main case that jumps out at me would be if you know you're going to take damage but not from an enemy, e.g- a persistent spell effect or curse, environmental hazard or such, either against your will or as a result of something you need to do (passing through a dangerous area of effect). If you're in danger of going down then a couple Ki for a chance not to isn't a bad trade to make.
Otherwise yeah, it's definitely a boost to short rests more than anything.
The BA attack is fine I guess if survival of the round is the best possible idea but it quickly loses value as 8-9 HP at level 11 isnt going to do much for you to stay up the next round when the CR appropriate damage per round at that point is closer to 20 or so.
Environmental effects would be a decent use yeah....like using a BA to dash and then healing up a bit to get to stay up to get through it. I had not thought of that as a use but you are right it would be a good one.
Monk being able to heal using left over Ki does help with the common complaint of their d8 hit die so thats a big plus too.
Er.... Every monk class can use this at level 3. Use in conjunction with patient defence or step of the wibd
No. It says "If you spend 1 ki point or more as part of your action on your turn". Spending a Ki point on Step of the Wind or Patient Defence is your Bonus Action and doesn't count - not to mention the fact that the Ki-Fueled Attack uses your Bonus Action which you wouldn't have if you used SotW or PD.
That part killed me. I was psyched to think that you could use patient defense, then attack again - giving you at level 5, 3 attacks AND impose disadvantage for all attacks until your next turn, or attack-attack-step of the wind-attack.
My drunken master would have had a field day with this!
But no....they tried to save the Four Elements monk and instead pushed Kensei further ahead as arguably the best monk in game.
The healing is straight up bad. Only time to use it is right before a short rest. Way too steep a Ki cost and games rarely make it past 10th level, where the scaling would really matter.
That being said, Focused Aim is pretty great and the only thing that really benefits all monks.
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Elf monks suddenly got a lot nastyer at low levels. At lv 5 it is effectively 3 D10 longsword attacks + stun at the cost of a single ki point. First time that elf weapon proficiency becomes really good :)
Monks got some interesting boosts from Tasha's, and I'm really liking them.
Dedicated Weapon is good, and while I don't like that it infringes a bit on Way of the Kensei, if it means more Monks taking more interesting weapon choices then I can overlook that. Kensei can still do this for multiple weapon types, and get plenty of other bonuses.
Ki-fuelled Strike is fantastic. It's going to make a big difference for Way of the Four Elements, but it also combines nicely with Way of the Kensei as well; Deft Strike was an ability where it's often a bit tricky to decide when (or if) to use it, but now that it can be used to trigger an additional full weapon attack I think I'll use it a lot more. A lot of the other new features can also trigger this, so every Monk gets some access to it.
Quickened Healing I'm actually surprised by; it's expensive at level 4 to spend 2 Ki for only d4+2 but as it scales it gets better and better, and if you have spare Ki before a short rest there's no reason not to just burn them on extra healing and save your Hit Dice. It being an action means you might not use it in combat a lot, though Ki-fuelled Strike means you can still make one full attack afterwards if you do.
Focused Aim is an interesting one; being able to just spend 1-3 Ki for a +2-6 to an attack that you know just narrowly missed is… well again it's interesting. It's expensive to keep using it, so I'm probably more inclined to use it only when I know I've only just missed by one (or my DM said "you barely miss" which 99% of the time is code for "you missed by one") because it again is an ability that will trigger Ki-fuelled Strike if the attack you adjust was part of an action. The fact that it works on any attack roll is also interesting; this will be more of a benefit for casting variants or multi-classes, but being able to turn a missed spell into a hit is extra valuable, though you're spending a resource to avoid wasting either more of that resource, or a different one.
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Honestly I'm not entirely sold on any of them.
They all are either situational, best used in certain level ranges, and/or certain kinds of builds.
Dedicated weapon is a nice bit of flavor and could result in a bit more damage. With the caveat that you might have to figure out some race combination or feat that let's you use the weapon in the first place. But it's damage factor can wear off the higher the level you get into and then it becomes more and more of a flavor issue. You might also have to do some explaining to a DM why that versatile weapon should work for your martial arts when wielded two handed as well. But it is definitely a nice touch to have to fall back on without having to potentially custom work up some kind of monastery specific variant of your subclass or something.
Ki feuled Attack can add a nice addition to the kit, specially for certain Subclasses that take other kinds of actions or builds that don't rely as much on just smacking the crap out of things and being all dex and all flurry of blows. But Damage wise it is not going to be any better than spending a ki point on flurry of blows after a certain point and eventually will a be worse if you hit consistently That second d10+3 or +4 sounds impressive and looks a little nicer in the total numbers at level 3 and 4. But it's going to average out to the same or even be less by level 5 when it becomes your 3rd d10+3 or +4 because flurry of blows is doing potentially 2 d6+3 or +4 hits. By the time your 11th level and your martial arts die are d8's it's just flat out worse unless your using the attack to hit something ranged which flurry of blows can't naturally do on it's own if your not playing certain subclasses that might be able to change that.
Quick Healing is decent but it's actually probably more useful and more worth it at higher levels than lower levels. 2 Ki is a lot to spend for small ammounts of healing at the lowest levels and it's still pretty costly in some of those mid levels. It's best use is going to be when you have lots of ki to be willing to spend that much but the healing isn't going to be anything amazing which is still going to make it situational if it's worth it but might serve to better keep you alive until the Healers turn.
And Focused Aim is entirely situational but again potentially extremely costly and might be more useful at higher levels. It's going to serve you only when your relatively close to hitting, your willing to spend potentially multiple ki points, and You either know or have a very good idea of the target number that you need to hit to succeed. But raising your attack retroactively by 2-6 points depending on how much ki you spend is potentially huge to go with that high cost it is to use. But i really wouldn't recommend it on the more resource strict subclasses.
You hit the nail on the head in the first sentence. Ki-Feuled Attack wasn't designed to compete with Flurry of Blows. It was designed to provide a Bonus Action to the subclasses where they normally wouldn't get one. Four Elements using their elemental attacks being the prime example. For most of the other subclasses it might never be used - and that's fine.
All of these optional abilities (not just the Monk ones) seem like band-aids for the bad subclasses that the good subclasses shouldn't have or don't need. They are optional after all and can only be taken if your DM says you can have them.
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It's not even entirely that the subclasses like For Elements don't have one. They just don't have an offensive one really. The only potential one for Four Elements specifically is if you don't use the errata turning water whip from a bonus action to a regular action and there are pro's and con's for both. But for that same Ki point Four Elements does have other actions that it can take such as disengage, dash, or patient defense to help protect them from any backlash they might recieve. Assuming that you have and are willing to spend the Ki Point.
But I think Monks in General and particularly Four Elements Monks could do with having just a few more Ki points. It's unfortunate that I didn't really see any real magic items or anything else that didn't address this issue. Though I understand that giving them a few more could potentially be giving them a fair bit more power by extending what they can do out for more turns or giving them just one more turn of big effort.
"I kick it." Monks were already using versatile weapons (spear and staff) without this being an issue. This is RAW and RAI and shouldn't be an issue.
It lets you make an attack without taking the attack action. Shadow monks and four elements monks can cast a spell and make an attack. Additionally, you're not taking into account magic weapons. There aren't many official items in the game that increase unarmed attack damage. There are however plenty of magic weapons that dramatically increase damage. Also, if a monk uses stunning strike in a round, that monk can make a free attack with a weapon that would otherwise be an unarmed attack. It's free damage and doesn't require an additional ki point.
This is the only new feature that is only meh. The amount of healing is pretty small. I'd almost never actually use this in combat. At level 5, you're going to be getting ~7 hit points back for spending 2 ki points. Those ki points would be better spent using step of the wind or patient defense. You could use this out of combat right before a short rest though. You'll be getting your ki back right away. You've got hit dice though that does the same thing. At 20 you're only looking at a ~12 point heal. The only saving grace of this ability is the awesomeness that is Ki-Fueled Attack. Small heal + an attack for 2 ki is tolerable in a pinch.
This is better than you think. Let's say your first attack misses by 1. You spend a ki point turning it into a hit and can now use ki fueled attack. This is way better than using that ki point to cast fury of blows. Instead of 2 chances to hit with an unarmed attack you get 1 guaranteed weapon hit and 1 chance at another weapon attack.
Let's say you're a level 5 Monk attacking a creature and have a 60% chance to hit with your quarterstaff. You narrowly miss with your first attack. From here, you have three choices:
In this case, the best option is number 2. It uses 2 Ki points but you're doing the most damage in that round. If you only want to spend 1, the Focused Aim + Ki Fueled Attack option gives you a roughly 33% increase in average damage over option 1. The damage disparity becomes much larger as you start using magic weapons. Let's say you're using a flame tongue short sword. Option 1 will average damage of about 18. You're at 33 if you use option 3. Option 2? Spending 2 Ki points using option 2 you're sitting at ~32. So you'll be doing slightly less damage in that case having spent 1 extra Ki. I suppose you do get more chances at doing fun stuff like interrupting a concentration spell or using stunning strike though.
Granted, this exact case of only needing 1 Ki point to turn a miss into a hit is situational. It's amazing in those situations though. As a monk get's higher in level, there are more Ki points to throw around so spending 2 or 3 Ki to turn an miss into an important hit is going to be more palatable.
Magic Weapons only really mitigate the fact that you aren't really doing more or that your actually doing less for longer. Your typical magical weapon if you have one for example is either a +1 to +3 magical weapon which at most is giving you +3 damage. Or it is something like Flame tongue and where it's going to do slightly more at lower level but the additional attack is going to still be making up for it or doing more at higher level and at the highest level it's not doing nearly the same as the monk is still. And let's face it there just are not many Flame tongue type weapons that are out there adding die rolls to every attack and the Warrior or the Paladin or the Barbarian just might be calling dibs on them if they aren't falling into the trap that two handed must be better in all situations. The cold hard reality is that By level 11 the extra damage from a magical weapon is already compensated for in a combination of larger damage die over all your martial arts attacks and your typical damage modifier from your stat which by that point is usually a +3 if not a +4 and if your really lucky a +5. And it's likely to reach that +5 stat by level 12 anyway when you get your next ASI and increase your dex to it's maximum assuming that you did a Dex priority Monk and are all about hitting things as hard as you can. Heck if your comparing it to a +2 magical weapon. The 4th hit's guaranteed damage alone covers all of the extra damage granted by the enchantment of the magical weapon. And all of this is ignoring the fact that there are actually a few ways to increase the damage that a monk can do on hit outside of magical weapons such as the eldritch claw tattoo which actually mitigates the extra damage from magical weapon even further and can apply increased damage of their own. An Empowered Eldritch Claw tattoo actually works out to more damage on the four hits with Flurry of Blows because It's adding 4d6 over all four blows instead of 3d6 to the blows done with a magical weapon in hand AND using Ki Feuled Attack.
So yes. I have taken them into account. They are a smoke screen factor that people rely on to make everything fit. They aren't the actual reality of what is going on. Also your ignoring the fact that Magical Weapons are just not a requirement for most levels of play anymore so they don't have the weight that they would have in previous editions when it comes to such things.
As for Focused Aim. I did point out that this is more viable at high level, precisely because there are more Ki points to be able to spend on such things. Though it's still a case that if your spending too many on too many hits you are only hindering yourself from using other potentially important abilities. At low level however the cost of it gets expensive fast. Particularly if your off by more than 1 or 2 points.
But here's a realization for you. With just the Eldritch claw tattoo I mentioned. Without even activating it. And only getting the two 2 martial arts attacks to land (ignoring the additional to hit that it provides to unarmed attacks). Your damage for flurry of blows and martial arts actually now exceeds the 33 damage of for your flame tongue by 2 points of average damage. Should you get only one of them to land then they would come out equal. And keep in mind. Your doing all of this math at level 5. Crank that math up to level 11 now with the same parameters. Your average damage per hit actually goes up by about 1 just for the increase in damage die. However. The Flame Tongue sword that your swinging around. It's already maxed out it's damage potential for the most part at level 5. This means that you now need to try to find a bigger better magical weapon yet somehow retain certain properties of the flame tongue weapon, which most magical weapons do not actually do, just to keep equal in damage with or to try to again exceed the damage with Ki Fueled Strike.
Now obviously we could complicate the math further by dragging in other magical items that would activate damage based off of a hit. But most of them have a very specific problem. Because of the way martial arts handles the classification of a monks unarmed strike as a melee weapon strike so that the monk can use their own abilities that refer to such like Stunning Strike. It means that most of those things will work for either and thus don't change the overall outcome. They just change the math that we are working with. The Eldritch claw tattoo being an exception in many respects because while many of it's powers could technically be used by both. It is something that is the equivalent of a plus one magic weapon that modifies only the unarmed strikes of the monk and not the weapon wielding strikes of the monk. It would till actually do slightly more with Flurry of Blows over Ki Fueled Strike because of the potential for that fourth hit.
I pointed out that even without magical items, if you turn a hit into a miss it's better than using flurry of blows. The math doesn't change at level 11 or 20. That's because you're ensuring a hit.
I'll try to simplify it further. Let's assume that the weapon attacks and the unarmed attacks are identical in terms of attack bonus and damage. You hit with your first attack, and your extra attack narrowly misses. You have 1 Ki point and want to maximize your damage on this turn. You have two options.
The better option should be obvious. It basically comes down to do you want to guarantee a hit or not?
Now let's look at your example of Eldritch Claw Tattoo. Let's assume you've already used a bonus action on a previous turn to juice up the tattoo so your unarmed attacks are now hitting for an extra d6. You'll obviously want to be only using unarmed attacks for this so let's not worry about another weapon. You can do that. If your unarmed strikes are better than your weapon, you can just attack with your unarmed attacks exclusively. As you say, it might not be better than your unarmed attacks here. Let's assume 50% chance to hit and a d8 for martial arts dice. Here is the math for the two options. A hit here is 1d8+5+1d6 for an average of 13 per hit.
Option 1 here does 26 damage on average. Option 2 here does 32.5. That's with everything being equal. If you want, you can combine them though which is somethin you seem to ignore. Forgive me if that's not the case. Option 3 uses FA and FoB to do an average of 39 damage. Why stop there though? You can FA all your attacks if you really want! If you ensure all your attacks hit you're averaging 52 damage. It might cost you all your Ki though!
Your unarmed attacks being equal to your weapon attacks is best case scenario for Option 1. If your weapon attacks are better than your unarmed attacks, Option 2 becomes even better compared to option 1. Nothing is stopping you from using unarmed attacks with your attack action so option 1 will never get better compared to option 2.
Basically it comes down to this... 100% > 50%.
With or without Focused Aim is not the issue. I'm aware you keep adding it in just to cover the cost required to trigger Ki Fueled Strike and your trying to show how they work if they both only spend one Ki. But Focused Aim is not really the point and is only being used as an activator. What is being compared is the single weapon hit from Ki Fueled Strike compared to the two martial arts hits from Flurry of Blows. Those are the two like abilities that you are using one or the other for the most part regardless of what you do with the rest of the round as long as at least 1 ki is spent at the appropriate times to activate them.
Then look at your math where you kept things basically the same. With or without Focused Aim does not really matter. It's just as easy to assume you had to spend 2 Ki to ensure that hit on the example for Focused aim as it is to consider 1 ki for focused aim and 1 ki on flurry of blows to balance out the ki cost. your math shows that with Focused aim on Both and even if we assume they spent the same amount of Ki because of variability in expenditure over the turn (2 apiece). The Flurry of Blows Average Damage at level 11 (the point that a d8 kicks in) is Flurry of Blows favor by about 20% damage (7 points give or take). The margin would be smaller at level 5 because of slightly less damage on the side of Flurry of Blows. But it will actually increase further if you then take it up to level 17.
Even if you add the flame blade into the equation on behalf of the Ki Fueled Strike hit. Assuming everything else is the same and that flame blade is used for every attack option hit so that the attack actions damage is identical up until the point of the bonus action and using either Ki Fueled Strike. That is only an additional 6 damage average for Ki Fueled Strike with no actual damage change to Flurry of blows. Meaning that even at level 11 Flurry of Blows is actually slightly better over all than even one of the most significant magical weapon gains for damage that can be significantly used on every single turn. But it's only going to be seen under the particular circumstances of owning a Flame Blade and having the ability to turn it into your monk weapon.
I am not ignoring that things can be combined or stacked. But that's not the point in objective analysis because it's true of both of these abilities. However, and this is the most important part. Ki Fueled Blade and Flurry of Blows are both completely mutually exclusive abilities. You are only ever able to use one or the other in your combinations at any given moment in time. That is why you compare these two abilities under otherwise matching conditions to objectively say which one is better. The fact of the matter is that soon enough Ki Fueled Blade is not the better choice. It only wins out at low level and only by a small margin. This is why I rated Ki Fueled Blade the way I did in my critique because it's biggest use is not as a replacement for Flurry of Blows like people look at it as. It's biggest use from an objective standing is for added offense in situations where you cannot activate Flurry of blows to begin with such as when you don't take the attack action but instead use a different action that uses your Ki in your main action. It's only additional benefit beyond this for Kensai in particular is that you would be able to make a ranged attack or even an additional Ranged attack on the Kensai when it is set up for Archery which is an instance where Flurry of Blows would actually be pointless to activate but that is a unique situation found primarily only in that particular subclass.
Ok I see what you're saying. If you're just looking at the bonus action then we're in agreement. Flurry of Blows is more likely to do more damage than a single attack with a weapon from Ki-Fueled Attack. However, your original argument wasn't what does more damage with your bonus action. It was that Focused Aim wasn't very good. That was the point I was arguing against. We agree that it's situational. I just think that in those situations where it's good, it's very good. The way that it interacts with Ki-Fueled Attack makes the two features very very good.
If nothing else, Ki-Fueled Attack is an upgrade from the normal bonus action unarmed attack. That's what we should really be comparing it against. The comparison should either be the best use of a single Ki point in a given situation or the best use of the bonus action. If we limit a turn to only spending 1 Ki point, it is best spent using Focused Aim if it turns a miss into a hit and then getting to use Ki-Fueled attack. If you hit with both attacks, Focused Aim wouldn't turn a miss into a hit, or if you deem Focused Aim to have too high a cost because you missed by 6, then Flurry of Blows is obviously better. I agree with you in that Flurry of Blows will often be the better option. However, on any turn where you narrowly miss with either your attack or extra attack, it's the inferior option. Obviously in this case the best option would be to spend another Ki point on Flurry of Blows. As you said though, this still might not amount to all that much more damage and may not be worth the Ki point cost.
I think our main difference is that I don't think you can critique individual features in isolation. Well you can but I don't see the point. You get a better understanding of the class and the value of features by looking at them as part of a whole. For example, what is better? A Barbarian with 2 attacks or a Fighter with 3? Well obviously the Fighter with 3 is doing 50% more damage, right? When you factor Reckless Attack, Rage, and everything else, you might find that it's a lot close than it initially looked. The barbarian might even come out on top! Similarly, looking at just Focused Aim or just Ki-Fueled Attack in isolation, you're right, they seem underwhelming. However, when you look at them as part of the whole, they fit together with each other and other monk features so well that they're actually fantastic features.
I think they're all great except for Quickened Healing, which certainly isn't fullfilling any dream I have of recreating Monk using Chakra in Final Fantasy Tactics. I mean... if a Monk is allowed it it's better than nothing I suppose, but the way I see it 2 whole Ki for a single dice's worth of healing I think is way too steep a cost. It would cost too much during the levels it *might* be useful in, and by the time you have a decent amount of Ki I can't see it being worth spending an entire turn and 2 whole Ki to heal for less than a potion of healing. Meanwhile, while Fighters might only be able to use Second Wind a few times per long rest...it's at least a meaningful heal that gets better with Fighter level.
I guess maybe, in a pinch as a desperation heal...but even then that's two whole Patient Defenses you're burning up to get what will likely be less than 10 HP. I've really wanted Monk to have a baked in self heal tool of some sort for the longest time, as I think it's very in line with the class' flavor, but Quickened is a bit of a disappointment for me.
Focused Aim and Ki Infused Strikes are great utility to have though. Dedicated Weapon is pretty nice, and definitely doesn't infringe on Kensei considering Kensei can potentially wield well, any weapon type they want (and the DM allows.). Dedicated Weapon still has its limits, but it at least gives baseline Monks more to work with weapons wise, before needing to resort to feats or possibly multiclassing.
I've felt for years that one of this class' biggest recurring issues is that I believe it needs more baked in customization options, which might it better fill out a niche among the other classes in 5e so it's at least a start.
on the opening page where you set score or mods on top
just below non standard sources there are 2 switches, click them to get the options on the class page
my original remark was actually two separate remarks. one about the pro's and con's of ki Fueled Strike on it's own standing and then a second additional remark only about Focused Aim and it's issues and where it would be useful.
As for the issue of the Bonus action. it's not necessarily better than a Basic bonus action attack. it's a situational comparison which makes them about even because one course of action is going to make the basic bonus action attack better because it's not costing you anything to actually do and maintain and is endlessly repeatable as compared to a different course that will do a bit more damage plus whatever you spent your ki for on the action which is costing you resources which might not be something that the basic bonus action attack could have been used for to begin with. And this is ignoring the fact that the best use of the bonus action as an entire examination is even more highly situational because the best use of that bonus action may be Step of the Wind, Patient Defense, or any of several other bonus actions that could be taken and really what is best at that point is going to vary highly from turn to turn. in the end taking in all of those factors and the high variability it's just going to end up with niche usage mostly in situations where other things couldn't be used or other niche situations do not apply and you've already fulfilled the conditions to use it just like so many other bonus actions that the monk already balances. The monk actually has more uses for the bonus action between it's base class and most of it's subclasses than any other class and possibly even any other class and subclass combination in the game. i don't even think Clerics come as close to as many options for it and they are usually juggling what to use their bonus action on. Rogues have a few extra but i think it's still less and theirs is far more synergistic since your not often trying to decide how to use it between a bunch of options but more keep using it every turn through different options.
Need to be able to modify monk weapons like longsword to work with Dex too!
If you have proficiency in long swords (from racial feature, feat, or multiclass), they can be monk weapons for you and thus use Dex for attack and damage. It's from the new Dedicated Weapon feature from Tasha's.
Or did you mean on the character sheet in DNDB?
The funny thing about Ki Quicken Healing is that its not very good to use in combat....its such low healing, self only, high relative ki cost, and has a HIGH opportunity cost associated with it.
You would 99.9% of the time be better off attacking and potentially using 2 ki to stun instead of healing for such a poor amount. Healing is already super inefficient in play and its generally better to just remove a threat than to heal. If the amount you could heal for was higher and you could only do it once a day it would be a much better combat option.
The best use of the feature by far is to heal up before a short rest with any left over Ki. This is what actually makes it pretty useful outside of combat and I would likely use it as a monk player. I would burn my left over ki and avoid having to use my hit dice.
Agreed. That ki would be way better spent in any number of ways. If you're worried about being downed, your best bet is to use your bonus action to disengage or dodge to prevent damage, rather than to heal a small amount using 2 ki. If you're level 11, that healing is only 8 or 9 points of healing on average when you likely have around 100 hp by that point. At lower levels when 8 or 9 is a decent heal, it's cost is too high. This really is only a good option out of combat.
There are some very situational edge cases for using it in combat, and remember Ki-fuelled Strike means you can still attack once at least if you do.
The main case that jumps out at me would be if you know you're going to take damage but not from an enemy, e.g- a persistent spell effect or curse, environmental hazard or such, either against your will or as a result of something you need to do (passing through a dangerous area of effect). If you're in danger of going down then a couple Ki for a chance not to isn't a bad trade to make.
Otherwise yeah, it's definitely a boost to short rests more than anything.
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I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
The BA attack is fine I guess if survival of the round is the best possible idea but it quickly loses value as 8-9 HP at level 11 isnt going to do much for you to stay up the next round when the CR appropriate damage per round at that point is closer to 20 or so.
Environmental effects would be a decent use yeah....like using a BA to dash and then healing up a bit to get to stay up to get through it. I had not thought of that as a use but you are right it would be a good one.
Monk being able to heal using left over Ki does help with the common complaint of their d8 hit die so thats a big plus too.
That part killed me. I was psyched to think that you could use patient defense, then attack again - giving you at level 5, 3 attacks AND impose disadvantage for all attacks until your next turn, or attack-attack-step of the wind-attack.
My drunken master would have had a field day with this!
But no....they tried to save the Four Elements monk and instead pushed Kensei further ahead as arguably the best monk in game.
The healing is straight up bad. Only time to use it is right before a short rest. Way too steep a Ki cost and games rarely make it past 10th level, where the scaling would really matter.
That being said, Focused Aim is pretty great and the only thing that really benefits all monks.