I'm building a treasure hoard and need something cool to stick in there for the monk. Any suggestions besides potions or a ring of protection? She's sixth level.
Small world - my wife is a recently a 6th level Way of Shadows Monk in my campaign.
Monks are tricky to create/leave items for, as they really just are a magic item - Ki-empower strikes, teleportation, super-speed, etc.
You could give her Slippers of Spider Climbing - imagine a monk who can run up walls and across ceilings, and fight upside down in the room. I know certain types of Monks can run along walls, and over the surface of liquid, but they can't stop there, and they can't hang off the ceiling.
A martial art weapon ( like a quarterstaff ) with a limited number of daily charges, which can convert one type of damage into another? That could be useful for a Monk what has identified an opponent being vulnerable to a particular type of damage. Flame Strike or Acid Strike or Cold Strike - doesn't do more damage, just changes the type of damage inflicted.
Or you could go the route where you can give the Monk items which are useful to them and the party, but not directly related to their combat effectiveness. Something like a ring which absorbs a single point of Ki, and grants the Monk the ability to use an ability something like a telepathic equivalent of the Message cantrip, 5-6 times for every point of Ki the monk sacrifices. You can scale the number of uses/Ki point, and/or how long the ring stays "charged" by the Ki to find a game balance you like.
That last one works best with the kind of player who is comfortable taking a tactical lead, as they could end up being the command and control hub for the party in certain kinds of stealth missions, as they're telepathically coordinating everyone.
I will be interested to see what other people come up with, so I can poach their ideas for my wife's character, as well ;)
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
An extending quarterstaff, red wood, tipped with decorative golden caps inscribed with runes hinting at the dual nature of the universe; ying and yang. Extends up to 300ft (and can do so rapidly enough to allow a single melee attack at that range). Uses limited to DEX mod, long rest resets. It's supposedly unbreakable.
Prayer beads. Deep emerald orbs strung together, can be worn as a necklace. 1 use, long rest resets. Contains a "healing word" spell that can be cost using no material components.
Sun god's robes. Light, durable clothing said to have been given to a great, ancient hero by a powerful god. +1 to armour class, and contains the "light" cantrip which can be cast 3 times, long rest resets. When you spend hit die during a long rest can maximise the result of one dice.
What I ended up doing was creating the Ring of Thunder Striking. It charges once per strike by any landed blow from a Monk with Ki empowered fists. It only holds 10 charges, and the Monk can discharge the ring using all 10 charges at once. Discharging the ring upon impact of an open hand attack adds 2dX Thunder Damage to the damage roll, where X is the Monk's current damage dice for their level.
It worked great: was a lot of fun, she loved it, and it didn't seem to unbalance the game.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
One of my players wanted a legacy weapon based off of kung lao from mortal combat. enjoy this ridiculousness.
Kensei's Legacy Chakram Hat
This large brimmed rice hat doubles as a functional melee/ranged weapon, hiding a razor sharp metal rim.
Tier 1, you are proficient enough to not injure yourself using this hat. though it has no magical properties for you yet, you can strike as well as throw this hat. striking an enemy within 5ft of you deals 1d4 damage. you can target one person at range (60/120) for 1d4 damage on a successful hit. on a miss the hat returns and you make a dextrerity saving throw (DC __) to catch the hat. On a hit there is a -3 penalty to the dex check
Tier 2, You have bonded more with this weapon, releasing more of its potential power. This weapon is now a +1 magical Hat of returning, when thrown the hat always returns to your hand before the start of yiur next turn. The hat now does 1d6 damage on melee and ranged attacks.
Tier 3, After much practice in combat with this weapon you have found new ways to attack with this hat, which now deals 1d8 damage. You can replace some or all your melee attacks with ranged attacks and target as many enemies as you have attacks. all these ranged attacks happen before any other melee attacks. only the first attack at range is made with bonuses to the attack rolls (other than magical). You can choose to use your Hat to attack for some or all of your flurry of blows instead of unarmed strikes.
Tier 4, The hat now has 5 charges, ans regains 1d4+1 expended charges daily at dawn. As a Bonus action you can choose to throw the hat to an unoccupied space within 60ft and teleport to that location. expends 1 charge.
Tier 5, this weapon is now considered vorpal. You gain a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. In addition, the weapon ignores resistance to slashing damage.
When you attack a creature that has at least one head with this weapon and roll a 20 on the attack roll, you cut off one of the creature's heads. The creature dies if it can't survive without the lost head. A creature is immune to this effect if it is immune to slashing damage, doesn't have or need a head, has legendary actions, or the GM decides that the creature is too big for its head to be cut off with this weapon. Such a creature instead takes an extra 6d8 slashing damage from the hit.
My halfling monk just received "Winged Wraps" which are wrist or foot wraps that act like Winged Boots. My monk just doesn't wear shoes. He's becoming more and more like a Dragon Ball Z character. Heheheh
Bracers of Defense, Ioun Stones. He also got a Ring of the Ram, which allowed him to attempt to break things down as his strength wasn't great.
Never understood how in 5th there's no such weapon, even though it was in 4th.
Some one handed weapons, that count as Monks weapons for all intents and purposes, that can give some needed enhancement and some magical effects.
Flaming Fists gauntlets, Use the monks MArtial Arts dice for the dmg, +1 to dmg and attack rolls, when it hits a target, the target suffers 2d6 fire dmg.
Lightning Claws, Use Monk's Martial arts dice for dmg, +1 for dmg and attack, targets suffers 1d8 lightning damage, on a crit the target must take a CON save or be pushed 10 ft backwards and fall prone.
Iron Spiked gauntlets, Use Monk's Martial arts dice for dmg, +1 to attack & dmg rolls, causes piercing dmg, when hit with this weapon the target must make a Dex save or bleed, taking 1d6 damage each turn, a heal or a medic check can end the bleeding.
This is extremely late to the party, but I imported ki focus items from 4e into 5e. They didn't require ki to activate but gave bonuses to attack and defense and turned your normal damage into that of an element, such as lightning. I found the idea amazing, and any monk can have them, as opposed to the four elements "spells". My original monk have the lightning version and it just has a beautiful visual to it. I made them into scarabs that burrows into your body and left a tattoo. The damage depended on the scarab, you didn't choose.
Wondrous Item, legendary (requires attunement by a Monk)
The cloth handwraps used by Master Bōdei himself have been passed down from Senpei to Kōhai for generations. They wrap the forearms and fists with enough fabric left to drape from them.
These magic hand wraps come with 6 charges. These charges count as Ki. They regain all of their expended charges each day at dawn.
While you are wearing these handwraps, and attuned to them, you gain the following benefits:
These wraps cover your forearms granting you additional protection. You have a +2 bonus to your Unarmored Armor Class.
These wraps add additional might to your blows. You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with your unarmed strikes.
The additional strips of fabric that hang from them can be used to strike out at opponents. Your unarmed strikes can extend for an additional 5 ft.
When you take the attack action on your turn, you can choose to make a special attack, lashing out with the extra strips of fabric that hang from these wraps. Make a single special unarmed strike against a creature within 30 feet. On a hit, the creature takes an additional martial arts die of damage in addition to the normal damage from your unarmed strike, and if the creature is Large or smaller, you pull the creature up to 10 feet closer to you.
The replies in this thread gave me some GREAT inspiration for a campaign I'm running composed entirely of monks (my favorite class), and I wanted to give back a bit in return, so here are the things I came up with after yall's great ideas! These have NOT been playtested in ANY way yet, and I made them kind of outrageous because we're playing kinda fast and loose in this campaign, really leaning into the chaos and rule of cool, so use at your own risk.... but all five items are accompanied by 4 matching items that enable monks of a different subclass to access the level 3 abilities of another subclass (the plot of the campaign is about 5 different nation/fighting styles joining together to save the world from evil lol). Each major item also acts as a ki storage, that may be "charged" with 3 extra ki points that may be accessed and recharged at any point (i.e, at the end of the day, if the monk has a few ki left over, they can store those ki into the item, up to three, and access them the next day). The items are for the subclasses in order: Four Elements, Shadow, Drunken Fist, Sun Soul, and Long Death.
Never understood how in 5th there's no such weapon, even though it was in 4th.
Some one handed weapons, that count as Monks weapons for all intents and purposes, that can give some needed enhancement and some magical effects.
Flaming Fists gauntlets, Use the monks MArtial Arts dice for the dmg, +1 to dmg and attack rolls, when it hits a target, the target suffers 2d6 fire dmg.
Lightning Claws, Use Monk's Martial arts dice for dmg, +1 for dmg and attack, targets suffers 1d8 lightning damage, on a crit the target must take a CON save or be pushed 10 ft backwards and fall prone.
Iron Spiked gauntlets, Use Monk's Martial arts dice for dmg, +1 to attack & dmg rolls, causes piercing dmg, when hit with this weapon the target must make a Dex save or bleed, taking 1d6 damage each turn, a heal or a medic check can end the bleeding.
Pugilist v2 has some nice unarmed weapons + some associated magic items ( though some require Attunement by a pugilist:P)
Wondrous Item, legendary (requires attunement by a Monk)
The cloth handwraps used by Master Bōdei himself have been passed down from Senpei to Kōhai for generations. They wrap the forearms and fists with enough fabric left to drape from them.
These magic hand wraps come with 6 charges. These charges count as Ki. They regain all of their expended charges each day at dawn.
While you are wearing these handwraps, and attuned to them, you gain the following benefits:
These wraps cover your forearms granting you additional protection. You have a +2 bonus to your Unarmored Armor Class.
These wraps add additional might to your blows. You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with your unarmed strikes.
The additional strips of fabric that hang from them can be used to strike out at opponents. Your unarmed strikes can extend for an additional 5 ft.
When you take the attack action on your turn, you can choose to make a special attack, lashing out with the extra strips of fabric that hang from these wraps. Make a single special unarmed strike against a creature within 30 feet. On a hit, the creature takes an additional martial arts die of damage in addition to the normal damage from your unarmed strike, and if the creature is Large or smaller, you pull the creature up to 10 feet closer to you.
my DM home-brewed my open-hand monk a very handy necklace that gets a charge every time i land an unarmed strike, holds up to 10 charges, and allows me to convert 4 charges to a ki point using a bonus action.
There is an item called Insignia of the claw that give +1 to unarmed attack's and damage. It's non-attunement which makes it pretty incredible. If your player gets into game mechanics and stuff they'll realize how good this is because even if they use a weapon their bonus action hit and flurry of blows count as unarmed strikes. Monks have very limited ranged options so giving some upgraded throwing weapons would be a big quality of life upgrade. Maybe one that does a small smoke bomb (fog cloud) effect on hit, or one that allows you to teleport to the target like the dagger from season 1 of critical role.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I'm building a treasure hoard and need something cool to stick in there for the monk. Any suggestions besides potions or a ring of protection? She's sixth level.
Dungeonmastering since 1992!
Small world - my wife is a recently a 6th level Way of Shadows Monk in my campaign.
Monks are tricky to create/leave items for, as they really just are a magic item - Ki-empower strikes, teleportation, super-speed, etc.
You could give her Slippers of Spider Climbing - imagine a monk who can run up walls and across ceilings, and fight upside down in the room. I know certain types of Monks can run along walls, and over the surface of liquid, but they can't stop there, and they can't hang off the ceiling.
A martial art weapon ( like a quarterstaff ) with a limited number of daily charges, which can convert one type of damage into another? That could be useful for a Monk what has identified an opponent being vulnerable to a particular type of damage. Flame Strike or Acid Strike or Cold Strike - doesn't do more damage, just changes the type of damage inflicted.
Or you could go the route where you can give the Monk items which are useful to them and the party, but not directly related to their combat effectiveness. Something like a ring which absorbs a single point of Ki, and grants the Monk the ability to use an ability something like a telepathic equivalent of the Message cantrip, 5-6 times for every point of Ki the monk sacrifices. You can scale the number of uses/Ki point, and/or how long the ring stays "charged" by the Ki to find a game balance you like.
That last one works best with the kind of player who is comfortable taking a tactical lead, as they could end up being the command and control hub for the party in certain kinds of stealth missions, as they're telepathically coordinating everyone.
I will be interested to see what other people come up with, so I can poach their ideas for my wife's character, as well ;)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
An extending quarterstaff, red wood, tipped with decorative golden caps inscribed with runes hinting at the dual nature of the universe; ying and yang. Extends up to 300ft (and can do so rapidly enough to allow a single melee attack at that range). Uses limited to DEX mod, long rest resets. It's supposedly unbreakable.
Prayer beads. Deep emerald orbs strung together, can be worn as a necklace. 1 use, long rest resets. Contains a "healing word" spell that can be cost using no material components.
Sun god's robes. Light, durable clothing said to have been given to a great, ancient hero by a powerful god. +1 to armour class, and contains the "light" cantrip which can be cast 3 times, long rest resets. When you spend hit die during a long rest can maximise the result of one dice.
What about wraps, knuckles, nunchucks that recharge a Ki point on a crit?
What I ended up doing was creating the Ring of Thunder Striking. It charges once per strike by any landed blow from a Monk with Ki empowered fists. It only holds 10 charges, and the Monk can discharge the ring using all 10 charges at once. Discharging the ring upon impact of an open hand attack adds 2dX Thunder Damage to the damage roll, where X is the Monk's current damage dice for their level.
It worked great: was a lot of fun, she loved it, and it didn't seem to unbalance the game.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Very cool
One of my players wanted a legacy weapon based off of kung lao from mortal combat. enjoy this ridiculousness.
Kensei's Legacy Chakram Hat
This large brimmed rice hat doubles as a functional melee/ranged weapon, hiding a razor sharp metal rim.
Tier 1, you are proficient enough to not injure yourself using this hat. though it has no magical properties for you yet, you can strike as well as throw this hat. striking an enemy within 5ft of you deals 1d4 damage. you can target one person at range (60/120) for 1d4 damage on a successful hit. on a miss the hat returns and you make a dextrerity saving throw (DC __) to catch the hat. On a hit there is a -3 penalty to the dex check
Tier 2, You have bonded more with this weapon, releasing more of its potential power. This weapon is now a +1 magical Hat of returning, when thrown the hat always returns to your hand before the start of yiur next turn. The hat now does 1d6 damage on melee and ranged attacks.
Tier 3, After much practice in combat with this weapon you have found new ways to attack with this hat, which now deals 1d8 damage. You can replace some or all your melee attacks with ranged attacks and target as many enemies as you have attacks. all these ranged attacks happen before any other melee attacks. only the first attack at range is made with bonuses to the attack rolls (other than magical). You can choose to use your Hat to attack for some or all of your flurry of blows instead of unarmed strikes.
Tier 4, The hat now has 5 charges, ans regains 1d4+1 expended charges daily at dawn. As a Bonus action you can choose to throw the hat to an unoccupied space within 60ft and teleport to that location. expends 1 charge.
Tier 5, this weapon is now considered vorpal. You gain a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. In addition, the weapon ignores resistance to slashing damage.
When you attack a creature that has at least one head with this weapon and roll a 20 on the attack roll, you cut off one of the creature's heads. The creature dies if it can't survive without the lost head. A creature is immune to this effect if it is immune to slashing damage, doesn't have or need a head, has legendary actions, or the GM decides that the creature is too big for its head to be cut off with this weapon. Such a creature instead takes an extra 6d8 slashing damage from the hit.
My halfling monk just received "Winged Wraps" which are wrist or foot wraps that act like Winged Boots. My monk just doesn't wear shoes. He's becoming more and more like a Dragon Ball Z character. Heheheh
Bracers of Defense, Ioun Stones. He also got a Ring of the Ram, which allowed him to attempt to break things down as his strength wasn't great.
Claws/Brass Knuckles/Gauntlets type of weapon.
Never understood how in 5th there's no such weapon, even though it was in 4th.
Some one handed weapons, that count as Monks weapons for all intents and purposes, that can give some needed enhancement and some magical effects.
Flaming Fists gauntlets, Use the monks MArtial Arts dice for the dmg, +1 to dmg and attack rolls, when it hits a target, the target suffers 2d6 fire dmg.
Lightning Claws, Use Monk's Martial arts dice for dmg, +1 for dmg and attack, targets suffers 1d8 lightning damage, on a crit the target must take a CON save or be pushed 10 ft backwards and fall prone.
Iron Spiked gauntlets, Use Monk's Martial arts dice for dmg, +1 to attack & dmg rolls, causes piercing dmg, when hit with this weapon the target must make a Dex save or bleed, taking 1d6 damage each turn, a heal or a medic check can end the bleeding.
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
Kain de Frostberg- Dark Knight - (Vengeance Pal3/ Hexblade 9), Port Mourn
Kain de Draakberg-Dark Knight lvl8-Avergreen(DitA)
Chromatic Wraps or Gloves
Enchanted Foot and hand wraps
Magic item Uncommon
Chromatic Wraps change the damage type of a monks unarmed strikes to the elemental damage type of their choice
cold, fire, force, lightning, , radiant, and thunder
more rare versions can be found granting damage or striking bonuses
This is extremely late to the party, but I imported ki focus items from 4e into 5e. They didn't require ki to activate but gave bonuses to attack and defense and turned your normal damage into that of an element, such as lightning. I found the idea amazing, and any monk can have them, as opposed to the four elements "spells". My original monk have the lightning version and it just has a beautiful visual to it. I made them into scarabs that burrows into your body and left a tattoo. The damage depended on the scarab, you didn't choose.
Ioun stone of wisdom or dexterity. It can look really cool floating around the head and contributes to a monk stereotype
Design a new magic item.
Master Bōdei’s Handwraps
The cloth handwraps used by Master Bōdei himself have been passed down from Senpei to Kōhai for generations. They wrap the forearms and fists with enough fabric left to drape from them.
These magic hand wraps come with 6 charges. These charges count as Ki. They regain all of their expended charges each day at dawn.
While you are wearing these handwraps, and attuned to them, you gain the following benefits:
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
The replies in this thread gave me some GREAT inspiration for a campaign I'm running composed entirely of monks (my favorite class), and I wanted to give back a bit in return, so here are the things I came up with after yall's great ideas! These have NOT been playtested in ANY way yet, and I made them kind of outrageous because we're playing kinda fast and loose in this campaign, really leaning into the chaos and rule of cool, so use at your own risk.... but all five items are accompanied by 4 matching items that enable monks of a different subclass to access the level 3 abilities of another subclass (the plot of the campaign is about 5 different nation/fighting styles joining together to save the world from evil lol). Each major item also acts as a ki storage, that may be "charged" with 3 extra ki points that may be accessed and recharged at any point (i.e, at the end of the day, if the monk has a few ki left over, they can store those ki into the item, up to three, and access them the next day). The items are for the subclasses in order: Four Elements, Shadow, Drunken Fist, Sun Soul, and Long Death.
Here!
Please let me know if there's anything that needs clarification!
The magic tattoos from Tasha's are a great fit for monks
Pugilist v2 has some nice unarmed weapons + some associated magic items ( though some require Attunement by a pugilist:P)
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.
my DM home-brewed my open-hand monk a very handy necklace that gets a charge every time i land an unarmed strike, holds up to 10 charges, and allows me to convert 4 charges to a ki point using a bonus action.
There is an item called Insignia of the claw that give +1 to unarmed attack's and damage. It's non-attunement which makes it pretty incredible. If your player gets into game mechanics and stuff they'll realize how good this is because even if they use a weapon their bonus action hit and flurry of blows count as unarmed strikes. Monks have very limited ranged options so giving some upgraded throwing weapons would be a big quality of life upgrade. Maybe one that does a small smoke bomb (fog cloud) effect on hit, or one that allows you to teleport to the target like the dagger from season 1 of critical role.