Is no one else totally okay with the fact that a burly tavern brawler can't just pummel a ghost to death as easily as a cleric with a magical holy mace?

Yes, a strong unarmed fighter is cool, but the whole point of weapon resistance is that magical monsters require magical means. Letting your pit fighter sidestep that without any kind of magical assistance undermines the whole concept. Why not just let mundane weapons work too while we're at it? It's vital to the concept of my blacksmith character!

To me, monk is defined by its mechanics, not its flavor. So I don't see a need to change the mechanics to fit that flavor. They are a nimble, dextrous combatant that can mystically infuse their attacks. They are so closely tied to DEX and WIS because it's the foundation of their identity.

Does the class have problems? Yeah. It should reward WIS investment without practically requiring the monk to max it by 20. It also needs to pay ki for way too many of its features, has too little to do outside of combat, and tends to fall behind offensively in the higher tiers (although it can become a defensive powerhouse). But these are different problems than what I see posed here.

Quote from scatterbraind >>

Is no one else totally okay with the fact that a burly tavern brawler can't just pummel a ghost to death as easily as a cleric with a magical holy mace?

Yes, a strong unarmed fighter is cool, but the whole point of weapon resistance is that magical monsters require magical means. Letting your pit fighter sidestep that without any kind of magical assistance undermines the whole concept. Why not just let mundane weapons work too while we're at it? It's vital to the concept of my blacksmith character!

To me, monk is defined by its mechanics, not its flavor. So I don't see a need to change the mechanics to fit that flavor. They are a nimble, dextrous combatant that can mystically infuse their attacks. They are so closely tied to DEX and WIS because it's the foundation of their identity.

Does the class have problems? Yeah. It should reward WIS investment without practically requiring the monk to max it by 20. It also needs to pay ki for way too many of its features, has too little to do outside of combat, and tends to fall behind offensively in the higher tiers (although it can become a defensive powerhouse). But these are different problems than what I see posed here.

 To explain yet again.  

"Mystical" does not need to mean "wisdom".  The Barbarian's ability to resist damage appears "mystical" but is tied to their Constitution for example. Ki could be tied to a physical stat just as easily. Path of the Zealot has "Mystical" Abilities yet no ties to an extra stats. Path of the Beast physically transforms the character and allows them to over come resistance to non-magical damage yet again no ties to Wisdom or other stats beyond Con.

Good example of what I feel would work for Monk is how Battle Masters pick either Dex or Str for the DC to resist their abilities.

Here is another example of Mundane attacks that are simply better just because of training

Exceptional Training

Beginning at 7th level, on any of your turns when your beast companion doesn’t attack, you can use a bonus action to command the beast to take the Dash, Disengage, or Help action on its turn.

In addition, the beast's attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Quote from Golaryn >>

Quote from scatterbraind >>

Is no one else totally okay with the fact that a burly tavern brawler can't just pummel a ghost to death as easily as a cleric with a magical holy mace?

Yes, a strong unarmed fighter is cool, but the whole point of weapon resistance is that magical monsters require magical means. Letting your pit fighter sidestep that without any kind of magical assistance undermines the whole concept. Why not just let mundane weapons work too while we're at it? It's vital to the concept of my blacksmith character!

To me, monk is defined by its mechanics, not its flavor. So I don't see a need to change the mechanics to fit that flavor. They are a nimble, dextrous combatant that can mystically infuse their attacks. They are so closely tied to DEX and WIS because it's the foundation of their identity.

Does the class have problems? Yeah. It should reward WIS investment without practically requiring the monk to max it by 20. It also needs to pay ki for way too many of its features, has too little to do outside of combat, and tends to fall behind offensively in the higher tiers (although it can become a defensive powerhouse). But these are different problems than what I see posed here.

 To explain yet again.  

"Mystical" does not need to mean "wisdom".  The Barbarian's ability to resist damage appears "mystical" but is tied to their Constitution for example. Ki could be tied to a physical stat just as easily. Path of the Zealot has "Mystical" Abilities yet no ties to an extra stats. Path of the Beast physically transforms the character and allows them to over come resistance to non-magical damage yet again no ties to Wisdom or other stats beyond Con.

Good example of what I feel would work for Monk is how Battle Masters pick either Dex or Str for the DC to resist their abilities.

Here is another example of Mundane attacks that are simply better just because of training

Exceptional Training

Beginning at 7th level, on any of your turns when your beast companion doesn’t attack, you can use a bonus action to command the beast to take the Dash, Disengage, or Help action on its turn.

In addition, the beast's attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Oh I would love this. Instead of having to have Dex, Con, and Wis, I could just focus on Dex and Con. That would go a long way to untangle the knot that is monk, though I really also love the idea of anchoring some of these features to nothing at all.