Playing this past weekend, my sister's Halfling Monk attacked a T-Rex. She lunged in with her quarterstaff and struck a mighty blow against it's ankle. She then spent a ki point to use Flurry of Blows; two (halfling-sized) devastating strikes to the poor T-Rex's achilles tendon! She then imposed Open Hand Technique, the T-Rex failed it's DEX check and BOOM!, she sent the T-Rex to the ground.
The party was having such a good time, I tried not to bog down the fight with a few dozen Google searches. Was that move legal? I have looked around and it appears it was a completely legal move from what I can tell. No size or weight restriction that I could find.
Totally legal - the DEX save is the only protection for the creature. As with any forced movement or prone effects not restricted by size, it is quite powerful. However, the Monk still has to spend Ki to fuel the Flurry of Blows, at least one of the blows has to hit, you have to choose the prone option over the push or no-reaction, and the target has to fail a Dex save. On top of that, while prone is debilitating for providing advantage on melee attacks, it also provides disadvantage to ranged attacks and is easy for an enemy to sort out (standing up only costs half movement), so how bad it is does depend on turn order.
Wait until the party realises that a grappled monster cannot stand up from prone because it has no movement to do so...
Grappling and prone are some of the nastier tricks for creatures. Usually grappling and prone effects are sized based, but the Open Hand Monk's key feature, the Open Hand Technique is not.
As such, it is surprisingly effective, particularly against creatures that are bigger than you.
As I play a Genasi Open Hand Monk, who has knocked a Hill Giant and an Adult Dragon prone, yup, it's legal. AND fun, lol. Of course, the Dragon was PO'd and took exception to my antics and targeted me, which didn't benefit me in any way, but it was still a great moment.
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Playing this past weekend, my sister's Halfling Monk attacked a T-Rex. She lunged in with her quarterstaff and struck a mighty blow against it's ankle. She then spent a ki point to use Flurry of Blows; two (halfling-sized) devastating strikes to the poor T-Rex's achilles tendon! She then imposed Open Hand Technique, the T-Rex failed it's DEX check and BOOM!, she sent the T-Rex to the ground.
The party was having such a good time, I tried not to bog down the fight with a few dozen Google searches. Was that move legal? I have looked around and it appears it was a completely legal move from what I can tell. No size or weight restriction that I could find.
Totally legal - the DEX save is the only protection for the creature. As with any forced movement or prone effects not restricted by size, it is quite powerful. However, the Monk still has to spend Ki to fuel the Flurry of Blows, at least one of the blows has to hit, you have to choose the prone option over the push or no-reaction, and the target has to fail a Dex save. On top of that, while prone is debilitating for providing advantage on melee attacks, it also provides disadvantage to ranged attacks and is easy for an enemy to sort out (standing up only costs half movement), so how bad it is does depend on turn order.
Wait until the party realises that a grappled monster cannot stand up from prone because it has no movement to do so...
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
Grappling and prone are some of the nastier tricks for creatures. Usually grappling and prone effects are sized based, but the Open Hand Monk's key feature, the Open Hand Technique is not.
As such, it is surprisingly effective, particularly against creatures that are bigger than you.
Nice trick, totally legal.
As I play a Genasi Open Hand Monk, who has knocked a Hill Giant and an Adult Dragon prone, yup, it's legal. AND fun, lol. Of course, the Dragon was PO'd and took exception to my antics and targeted me, which didn't benefit me in any way, but it was still a great moment.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.