It seems like there is a general consensus that the monk class is possibly the most MAD class in D&D 5e. Dexterity is absolutely essential for your damage as well as AC, wisdom for unarmored defense since you are likely a frontline fighter, and constitution since your d8 hit die is the worst hit die for a frontline fighter in the game.
Your AC is likely to be comparable that of other frontline characters during early levels at 15-16 AC as long as they are not using shields. And at higher levels, your ac will only stay comparable to other the other martial classes if you have used nearly all of your ASI’s in dex and wis where a medium or heavy armor user just had to find buy better armor and has had that much earlier in the game. Now combine this with the monks hit die and you have a fairly squishy front liner.
I wanted to change Unarmored Defense so that it had a similar progression without such a dependence on using nearly all of your ASI’s. With the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, WotC began to use proficiency for more that attacks, saves, and skills. My proposition is, instead of adding your wisdom modifier to AC, add your proficiency bonus. I think it works thematically as well where as the monk becomes more skilled in his martial art it becomes harder to land a blow on him. I don’t feel like this would trivialize wisdom as a monk as the save DC for your monk abilities is still tied to wisdom and there are several subclasses that are more interested in wisdom than dexterity, such as the way of the astral self and the way of the four elements. I would also feel more free to explore taking a feat with out compromising survivability in combat
What do you all think? Does this change remove the role of wisdom in the monk’s kit too much or is this a reasonable way of resolving the class’s MAD issues? Would an even simpler solution be to to just increase the hit die to a d10, on par with other frontline martial classes or is patient defense already enough of a defensive boost?
Just to look at this in-depth, let's assume our Monk starts with +3 DEX and uses every ASI to up their DEX until it is at +5.
{levels}: {DEX mod}{prof bonus} = {AC}
Levels 1-3: +3+2 = 15 AC Level 4: +4+2 = 16 AC Levels 5-7: +4+3 = 17 AC Level 8: +5+3 = 18 AC Levels 9-12: +5+4 = 19 AC Levels 13+: +5+5 or more = 20 AC or more
Compared to +3 DEX and +3 WIS off the bat, which gets 16 AC from 1-3, 17 AC from 4-7, 18 AC from 8-11, 19 AC at 12 and beyond ... you are right, this would probably go a long way towards helping them out. It also might encourage more MC with Monks, because tying it to prof means it will improve without taking additional Monk classes.
It honestly might make a one level dip into monk for a DEX based character too good. For the cost of delaying your primary class progression by a level, you get automatically scaling AC that will eventually beat wearing full plate and wielding a shield for very little investment. You only max your DEX, which you were going to do anyways. You could prevent this by adding a column to the monk table for an “Unarmored Defense Bonus” or make the bonus equal to your proficiency based on monk level, but that is a much less elegant solution.
Your basic math does not take any of the other factors that the monk picks up as it levels. Monks are Not Tanks. This is important to keep in mind. Can some tank in a pinch? They certainly could. But that is not the point of them. Just like it is not the point of the Rogue either. it takes a Tank Class. Building to be a Tank to meet or exceed a Monk's AC at most levels.
On top of doing very well in the AC department. Monks over time do very well in saves, Starting with two of the most common by having stats focused in them, and a second important physical save through proficiency, But also as you level this becomes good saves in all saves if you go high enough but before even that They get Evasion which actually let's them automatically take half damage from a good portion of the aoe damage spells and actually save on one of their best saves to take no damage at all.
They also have Patient Defense (Dodge) and Disengage to take advantage of while keep their action, The first of which imposes Disadvantage on all attacks made on the monk for the entire round that it is used on anybody that tries to attack the Monk, and on top of that has the bonus that it means when it is used Rogues cannot sneak attack the monk on that turn. And disengage completely let's the monk avoid certain attacks provoked by their own movements. They have Deflect Arrows to often negate ranged physical damage. They have High Mobility without spending any resources at all. Stunning Strike is almost more of a defensive tool than an offensive tool even though its tied to an offensive action.
On Top of this. Monks are using their ASI's to do what every other class is doing with equipment. Every other class for any real improvements in their AC has to focus on getting magical armor in place of other potential rewards to increase that AC or it's basically stagnant after a certain point. For most classes for non-magical gear this is within 2 points of the AC they start with at level 1. And These classes Still tend to spend most of their ASI's on their Primary and Secondary Attributes even with the gear requirements meaning that many of them are still doing the exact same thing that the Monk is doing but they have the added issue of Gear Requirements affecting how they choose loot on top of that. So this idea that the Monk is hindered for spending their ASI's on their primary stats is a false perception because it does not change for other classes that do it other ways.
You still need your Dexterity up to a certain point To reliably hit and affect your saves and everything else it does in it's percieved superiority and you will still need wisdom if you want to use anything with Save DC's including Stunning Strike if you actually want to make your Ki points worth much of anything with those abilities. If you don't care about Stunning strike and other DC save abilities. Then you don't need to max out Wisdom just for AC either and thus you don't need to spend those ASI's as your clearly using your Ki points in other places and your doing something different with your monk and thus you have more ASI's for Feats this way as well. The Rigid Structure of how those ASI's are spent are actually because of you and not the design of the class. And Again if your not playing into the highest Tiers of Play you will never see the full benefit of such a style anyway.
Your actually taking a system that has elegantly designed to Boost both the Monk's offense and Defense on multiple levels with just a few ASI's at a few levels, and your trying to break it while call it an improvement even though the reality is that if you lessen their ASI requirements your still going to put your ASI's there just like you would on any other character with any other AC calculation method because that is not a detail that changes. Despite the Fact that you do not have to use All your ASI's on those two main stats if you don't want to anyway and any Game that is not going to at least Level 16 is not going to enjoy the full benefits of adamant adherence to ASI's to begin with.
AT the lower levels it is possible to place one of those ASI's elsewhere without suffering in any real way if you are never going to see the 4th tier of play because of the way the game is balanced. You will not significantly fall behind in either Offense or Defense. 16's are still quite effective through tier 2 of play as useful stats. If you start with these that just makes it all the easier to take a feat instead if you wish to take a feat. if you are close there are a number of half feats as they are called that are quite useful to get you to those numbers and still gain a lot for characters.
There are other Armor calculations if you really want to use them on Monk and are willing to go search them out. The Tortle and the AC calculation tattoo's are just two of them. The AC calculation Tattoo's will actually give you a slight boost in AC at low levels and only actually become a hinderance to your AC compared to the ASI method until Tier 3 considering they give you an AC of 17 or 18 respectively depending on which one you use.
There are actually other items that a monk can pick up in their Travels that affect AC is your determined to use this false measuring stick of how the Monk is stuck doing these things as well to improve it. Both universal ones like the Ring of Protection. But also ones that most other classes cannot actually use like the Bracers of Defense. this can bring the Monk's AC higher sooner and it's Highest AC even Higher. An Important Fact that many people often willfully ignoring when discussing this is that Monks are also opened up to a plethora of other magical items to be able to use without reliance on weapons and armor. A number of them have offensive and defensive applications, such as the Ring of Invisibility and the Displacement Cloak, etc that are now much easier for the monk to collect. Even the Ring of Protection or the Ioun stone that provides AC is much more easily used because maybe one of your attunement slots is taken up by magical items that you might even consider required gear (Assuming your using the Bracers of Defense) instead of often two (your weapon and your armor) or even all 3 (such as if you also have a magical shield).
So there is a lot more to consider to the whole issue before you just decide that a feature is broken and restricting and you Just really Need to Fix it that you need to take into account. Because the current system is far from Broken and not nearly as restricting as it's often painted in an overly narrow focused white room theory crafting way such as what is being used here.
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It seems like there is a general consensus that the monk class is possibly the most MAD class in D&D 5e. Dexterity is absolutely essential for your damage as well as AC, wisdom for unarmored defense since you are likely a frontline fighter, and constitution since your d8 hit die is the worst hit die for a frontline fighter in the game.
Your AC is likely to be comparable that of other frontline characters during early levels at 15-16 AC as long as they are not using shields. And at higher levels, your ac will only stay comparable to other the other martial classes if you have used nearly all of your ASI’s in dex and wis where a medium or heavy armor user just had to find buy better armor and has had that much earlier in the game. Now combine this with the monks hit die and you have a fairly squishy front liner.
I wanted to change Unarmored Defense so that it had a similar progression without such a dependence on using nearly all of your ASI’s. With the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, WotC began to use proficiency for more that attacks, saves, and skills. My proposition is, instead of adding your wisdom modifier to AC, add your proficiency bonus. I think it works thematically as well where as the monk becomes more skilled in his martial art it becomes harder to land a blow on him. I don’t feel like this would trivialize wisdom as a monk as the save DC for your monk abilities is still tied to wisdom and there are several subclasses that are more interested in wisdom than dexterity, such as the way of the astral self and the way of the four elements. I would also feel more free to explore taking a feat with out compromising survivability in combat
What do you all think? Does this change remove the role of wisdom in the monk’s kit too much or is this a reasonable way of resolving the class’s MAD issues? Would an even simpler solution be to to just increase the hit die to a d10, on par with other frontline martial classes or is patient defense already enough of a defensive boost?
Just to look at this in-depth, let's assume our Monk starts with +3 DEX and uses every ASI to up their DEX until it is at +5.
{levels}: {DEX mod}{prof bonus} = {AC}
Levels 1-3: +3+2 = 15 AC
Level 4: +4+2 = 16 AC
Levels 5-7: +4+3 = 17 AC
Level 8: +5+3 = 18 AC
Levels 9-12: +5+4 = 19 AC
Levels 13+: +5+5 or more = 20 AC or more
Compared to +3 DEX and +3 WIS off the bat, which gets 16 AC from 1-3, 17 AC from 4-7, 18 AC from 8-11, 19 AC at 12 and beyond ... you are right, this would probably go a long way towards helping them out. It also might encourage more MC with Monks, because tying it to prof means it will improve without taking additional Monk classes.
It honestly might make a one level dip into monk for a DEX based character too good. For the cost of delaying your primary class progression by a level, you get automatically scaling AC that will eventually beat wearing full plate and wielding a shield for very little investment. You only max your DEX, which you were going to do anyways. You could prevent this by adding a column to the monk table for an “Unarmored Defense Bonus” or make the bonus equal to your proficiency based on monk level, but that is a much less elegant solution.
Your basic math does not take any of the other factors that the monk picks up as it levels. Monks are Not Tanks. This is important to keep in mind. Can some tank in a pinch? They certainly could. But that is not the point of them. Just like it is not the point of the Rogue either. it takes a Tank Class. Building to be a Tank to meet or exceed a Monk's AC at most levels.
On top of doing very well in the AC department. Monks over time do very well in saves, Starting with two of the most common by having stats focused in them, and a second important physical save through proficiency, But also as you level this becomes good saves in all saves if you go high enough but before even that They get Evasion which actually let's them automatically take half damage from a good portion of the aoe damage spells and actually save on one of their best saves to take no damage at all.
They also have Patient Defense (Dodge) and Disengage to take advantage of while keep their action, The first of which imposes Disadvantage on all attacks made on the monk for the entire round that it is used on anybody that tries to attack the Monk, and on top of that has the bonus that it means when it is used Rogues cannot sneak attack the monk on that turn. And disengage completely let's the monk avoid certain attacks provoked by their own movements. They have Deflect Arrows to often negate ranged physical damage. They have High Mobility without spending any resources at all. Stunning Strike is almost more of a defensive tool than an offensive tool even though its tied to an offensive action.
On Top of this. Monks are using their ASI's to do what every other class is doing with equipment. Every other class for any real improvements in their AC has to focus on getting magical armor in place of other potential rewards to increase that AC or it's basically stagnant after a certain point. For most classes for non-magical gear this is within 2 points of the AC they start with at level 1. And These classes Still tend to spend most of their ASI's on their Primary and Secondary Attributes even with the gear requirements meaning that many of them are still doing the exact same thing that the Monk is doing but they have the added issue of Gear Requirements affecting how they choose loot on top of that. So this idea that the Monk is hindered for spending their ASI's on their primary stats is a false perception because it does not change for other classes that do it other ways.
You still need your Dexterity up to a certain point To reliably hit and affect your saves and everything else it does in it's percieved superiority and you will still need wisdom if you want to use anything with Save DC's including Stunning Strike if you actually want to make your Ki points worth much of anything with those abilities. If you don't care about Stunning strike and other DC save abilities. Then you don't need to max out Wisdom just for AC either and thus you don't need to spend those ASI's as your clearly using your Ki points in other places and your doing something different with your monk and thus you have more ASI's for Feats this way as well. The Rigid Structure of how those ASI's are spent are actually because of you and not the design of the class. And Again if your not playing into the highest Tiers of Play you will never see the full benefit of such a style anyway.
Your actually taking a system that has elegantly designed to Boost both the Monk's offense and Defense on multiple levels with just a few ASI's at a few levels, and your trying to break it while call it an improvement even though the reality is that if you lessen their ASI requirements your still going to put your ASI's there just like you would on any other character with any other AC calculation method because that is not a detail that changes. Despite the Fact that you do not have to use All your ASI's on those two main stats if you don't want to anyway and any Game that is not going to at least Level 16 is not going to enjoy the full benefits of adamant adherence to ASI's to begin with.
AT the lower levels it is possible to place one of those ASI's elsewhere without suffering in any real way if you are never going to see the 4th tier of play because of the way the game is balanced. You will not significantly fall behind in either Offense or Defense. 16's are still quite effective through tier 2 of play as useful stats. If you start with these that just makes it all the easier to take a feat instead if you wish to take a feat. if you are close there are a number of half feats as they are called that are quite useful to get you to those numbers and still gain a lot for characters.
There are other Armor calculations if you really want to use them on Monk and are willing to go search them out. The Tortle and the AC calculation tattoo's are just two of them. The AC calculation Tattoo's will actually give you a slight boost in AC at low levels and only actually become a hinderance to your AC compared to the ASI method until Tier 3 considering they give you an AC of 17 or 18 respectively depending on which one you use.
There are actually other items that a monk can pick up in their Travels that affect AC is your determined to use this false measuring stick of how the Monk is stuck doing these things as well to improve it. Both universal ones like the Ring of Protection. But also ones that most other classes cannot actually use like the Bracers of Defense. this can bring the Monk's AC higher sooner and it's Highest AC even Higher. An Important Fact that many people often willfully ignoring when discussing this is that Monks are also opened up to a plethora of other magical items to be able to use without reliance on weapons and armor. A number of them have offensive and defensive applications, such as the Ring of Invisibility and the Displacement Cloak, etc that are now much easier for the monk to collect. Even the Ring of Protection or the Ioun stone that provides AC is much more easily used because maybe one of your attunement slots is taken up by magical items that you might even consider required gear (Assuming your using the Bracers of Defense) instead of often two (your weapon and your armor) or even all 3 (such as if you also have a magical shield).
So there is a lot more to consider to the whole issue before you just decide that a feature is broken and restricting and you Just really Need to Fix it that you need to take into account. Because the current system is far from Broken and not nearly as restricting as it's often painted in an overly narrow focused white room theory crafting way such as what is being used here.