Not really any weakness, but their integrated armor trait is more or less useless to you. Your monk unarmored defense will be superior to the integrated protection since monks are not proficient with any armor (which is required to add your proficiency bonus to AC as a warforged).
Integrated Protection is 'useless' only if the monk in question doesn't dip an armored class, or pick up Lightly Armored, to get an armor proficiency. Light-armor Integrated Protection still counts as unarmored so all one's monk shit works with it, and at higher levels it's strictly superior to Unarmored Defense in terms of protection. A warforged monk that dips (or starts) one level in rogue to gain light armor in addition to a ton of other proficiencies can use Integrated Defense just fine.
The warforged's other abilities are neutral in regards to class. Warforged Resilience means the DM can't slip you a mickey and ensure you're captured with the rest of the party, which may or may not be a boon. Not needing rations super helps if your campaign tracks that stuff, and is fluff if it doesn't. Not needing to breathe is a very fun trait, but it doesn't tend to be a gamechanger unless nobody in the party breathes. Resistance to poison damage is helpful for anybody since poison is everywhere. Sentry's Rest is handy but not essential. All of the above tends to be class neutral for the most part.
The big thing with a warforged Monk is deciding whether you're going to try and rely on Unarmored Defense, with all the attendant MADness problems thereof, or find a way to use (light) Integrated Protection instead so you don't need to push three stats. That's super hard to do with standard array or point buy, which barely lets you push one, but could be easier if your game has alternative character generation methods. You can't tank Wisdom entirely though, since a lot of your monk features rely on your WIS-based Monkpunching DC. Integrated Protection mostly means you can afford to let WIS sit at 16 for a few levels, or favor Dexterity over moar WIS. If you ever get to the point where your proficiency bonus is +6, it becomes strictly superior to Integrated Protection, but that can take a while.
I have a warforged Shadow monk/Assassin Rogue build that's pretty nifty. Envoy chassis, darkwood core, take Monk to level 6 then then 6 Rogue and finish the rest monk. Makes for a very slick stealthy agile killer. With point buy you can start out with Str 8 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 10 Wis 16 Cha 8, grab proficiency in thieves tool, perception, stealth, sleight of hand and you've got a pretty sweet shadow assassin.
Integrated Protection, in Darkwood Core state, is 11 + proficiency. At level 1 (or more realistically 2 to 4), that's equivalent to Unarmored Defense with 16 WIS. Every point of proficiency you gain is worth another point of Wisdom, up to the point where you'd need a +7 Wisdom modifier just to break even with Integrated Protection.
Astral Self is likely to beat IP in the early game simply because it's hyperfocused on Wisdom, and because it attacks with its own unique subclass weapon it doesn't care about any of the other hornswoggle you can do with other classes. Astral Self wants the highest possible ki total and a maxed-out WIS modifier; it's the monk least likely to care about Integrated Protection.
Open Hand is a different story. Open Hand Technique wants a high Monk Shit(C) DC, which needs WIS, but it also needs DEX to actually land its attacks and do damage and at least some CON because it's a melee-focused monk and it's going to take a punch or two. Whether or not you want to rely on IP depends on how your game generates stats and whether you're married to the idea of a bare-fisted weaponless monk. Warforged Kensei, or Open Hands that mix in weapon strikes with the monk's bonus Monkpunchery(TM), could benefit a great deal from a level of fighter giving them armor proficiency for IP, Dueling fighting style to stiffen up their otherwise relatively low dice damage, and the usual level 1 fighter benefits, but that's only if you intend to use a shortsword or a Kensei weapon. Otherwise you're kinda up a creek with the usual MADness concerns on monks, and even if you stick with IP, your Monk Shit(C) DC is going to be lower than you'd like.
For a Warforged, there is particular synergy with "Way of the Astral Self", and even the Unearthed Arcana, "Way of Tranquility".
A big part of what makes a Warforged is their grim past as war machines...and who they are now.
Does it haunt them? Do they even remember? Does a sentient machine dream...? Or do they only have nightmares of atrocities they committed during their time as weapons?
"Way of the Astral Self" gives the warforged an oppurtunity to customize their astral self as who they wish to be...symbolizing the spirit within the machine.
Or you could just make a four-armed (or more!), robot warrior of ancient rage, ala "Asura's Wrath".
The "Way of Tranquility" takes that in the opposite direction...the warforged could distinctly remember their bloody past, and seek a path of enlightenment and peace.
This is closer to your Zenyatta from "Overwatch".
However, the "Tranquility" capstone, "Anger of a Gentle Soul", could be flavored as the warforged's dormant rage or battle commands...briefly letting them become the death machine they once were.
Whatever one might pick, the warforged monk essentially "does" become immortal...if they can't be aged (rusted?) magically, and they don't really have an expiration date...they will continue to live forever.
It's a cool concept. Love to see how they would get along with elves, Firbolgs or gnomes.
Everything previously said about warforged monks in this thread is now wildly inaccurate. It was said about the UA Warforged, which was an awesomely powerful war machine. The Eberron Rising warforged are...not that.
The plus side is that nuIntegrated Protection no longer clashes with Monkly Unarmored Defense - you just get +1 AC, flat. You gain +1 to your choice of Dex or Wis, as well as +2 Con, so warforged can make for inherently tougher monks.
The minus side is that Integrated Protection no longer allows you to disregard Unarmored Defense, so your warforged monk is back to being obnoxiously MAD and unable to properly function if built on standard array or point buy. Other warforged features tend to overlap with late-game monk stuff, and there's no cool bonus features on the warforged subraces that didn't make the cut in Rising that helps monks out.
At this point, there's not really anything that sets warforged apart from any other kind of monk, other than being kinda bad at it because the only way to make a monk in 5e with standard array/point buy that doesn't suck is with a wood elf and very lucky magic item finds.
Monks are not MAD, you need Dex and/or Wisdom (only reason to max both is if you want highest AC, or if you're a save-based monk that has to make dex-based attacks like Long Death, Open Hand, or Sun Soul), and Con as a backup. Two/three stats is the same baseline that every other class has, and they happen to be the big three stats that EVERY character wants (dex for AC and dex saves to avoid damage, Con for HP and con saves to avoid dying, wisdom for spotting things and wisdom saves to avoid being charmed/incapacitated). And that +1 AC from Warforged makes them even less reliant on maxing both dex and wisdom, because a monk doesn't really need 21 AC before magic enhancements, given that they're strikers not tanks, and already have access to Patient Defense.
Barbarians are MAD (you need to max Strength AND want to max Dex and Con AND probably want a decent wisdom in order to be tribal-ish AND might want some charisma to be able to intimidate someone). Rogues can feel that way, if you want to do it all (max Dex AND want good Con for HP AND want good intelligence for search AND want good wisdom for perception AND want good charisma for social). Paladins are fine single class but MAD if you want to splash them in a non-charisma or non-strength multiclass build to cheese Smite. But monks? They're straightforward, and a 13 dex/wis is something that almost every other class wants anyway so they multi easily.
If there's one thing that Warforged have that synergizes with monk, it might be that they don't sleep, and so can stand watch all night for the party. As the party member who is likely to have the highest wisdom and perception check, that's a nice synergy. Also, the bonus skills and tools aren't bad on a two-proficiency class.
If Stunning Strike were a spell that used up limited long rest spell slots, and which took up your entire Action to cast, then yes maxing your Save DC might be important. But a monk can very easily afford to attempt up to 4 Stunning Strikes on a target in a single round (also potentially one more on a reaction!) using only a short rest renewable resource, essentially forcing the enemy to have ultra-mega-super-disadvantage on that save. Having your DC be 1 or 2 lower than it would be with maximized Wisdom is not a deal breaker for Stunning Strike in any way.
The issue, methinks, is that Monks get almost nothing in terms of magical items or equipment to augment their abilities, Champ. There is precisely ONE item in the game that can give them a boost to their AC beyond plain ordinary Rings/Cloaks of Protection, and that is Bracers of Defense. Which tend to be super rare, and also require attunement so they clash with Rings/Cloaks. You need a minimum of 16 Wisdom, which is a huge investment in SA/PB, simply to break even with a rogue wearing the +1 studded leather he found at level 4 and can use freely, without any attunement or investment at all.
The same can be said of their attacks. RAW, there is not one single item in the entire base game that assist or augments a monk's unarmed attacks. It's one of the most commonly homebrewed things out there for a reason - monks get nothing. They don't even get so much as a basic +1, outside of using "Monk Weapons" and defeating half the point of the Martial Arts feature. if you want to make use of the unarmed strikes that come from Martial Arts and Flurry of Blows, you need to absolutely maximize your Dexterity bonus because there will never be a magical item that helps you. You can't make do with an 18 and some really good weapons - weapons for you just don't exist.
Because you get no armor or protective items and no weapons or damage-augmenting gear, it's really hard to justify anything but pushing hard for 20 in both Dex and Wis, and even then you end up falling behind at higher levels simply because the sort of crazy badass shit other people get to make free use of never comes your way. If your campaign is very swords-and-sorcery and baller magic gear never enters the equation, then all right - maybe you can get away with 16s in your two main stats and whatever else.
But man, when your party's ranger is wearing +2 halfplate and two-weapon fighting with a Flametongue and a Nine Lives Stealer with their Cloak of Protection flaring dramatically behind them and you're sitting there with Wonder Woman bangles and your naked monkey paws? All those ki powers and cool martial-arts moves start to look a lot less cool.
Unlike 4e, magic items are not an assumed part of a character's progression. Heck, a piece of +1 armor might as well be an optional rule, and typically when builds are discussed you look at them "naked" in nothing but mundane gear. A 20 Dex/20 Wis monk has an AC 20, 21 if they dual wield daggers or other monk weapons and take Dual Wielder, or with +proficiency to AC as a reaction if they take Defensive Duelist . With a Warforged only receiving a +1 in Dex or Wis, after 5 feats at 20 you realistically can expect to either have maxed your Dex and Wis (AC 21), or have taken one of those feats (still AC 21 for Dual Wielder, or AC 20+6 as a reaction with Defensive Duelist). That's comparable with other melee classes (18 for 2-handed characters, 19 for dual wielders, or 20 for shield users, +1 if they take the Defensive fighting style). On top of that, as a monk you are quite capable of attacking twice and then also taking a Dodge Action, which makes you far tankier than most other melee characters sitting at your same AC would be.
Any enhancement impacting a monk weapon (shortswords and any simple melee one-handed weapons without heavy)
Your own level 6 class ability, which likely gives you a "magic weapon" before your peers
These complaints just don't really add up. A mundane monk has the potential for AC equivalent to mundane shield fighters, or even higher. And if the DM is handing out magic items, there are plenty of items that can enhance the monk's offensive and defensive capabilities, just as there are for everyone else.
What be the benefits and weaknesses of having a warforged monk?
Not really any weakness, but their integrated armor trait is more or less useless to you. Your monk unarmored defense will be superior to the integrated protection since monks are not proficient with any armor (which is required to add your proficiency bonus to AC as a warforged).
But you can think of some of the possibilities.
Heh.
Integrated Protection is 'useless' only if the monk in question doesn't dip an armored class, or pick up Lightly Armored, to get an armor proficiency. Light-armor Integrated Protection still counts as unarmored so all one's monk shit works with it, and at higher levels it's strictly superior to Unarmored Defense in terms of protection. A warforged monk that dips (or starts) one level in rogue to gain light armor in addition to a ton of other proficiencies can use Integrated Defense just fine.
The warforged's other abilities are neutral in regards to class. Warforged Resilience means the DM can't slip you a mickey and ensure you're captured with the rest of the party, which may or may not be a boon. Not needing rations super helps if your campaign tracks that stuff, and is fluff if it doesn't. Not needing to breathe is a very fun trait, but it doesn't tend to be a gamechanger unless nobody in the party breathes. Resistance to poison damage is helpful for anybody since poison is everywhere. Sentry's Rest is handy but not essential. All of the above tends to be class neutral for the most part.
The big thing with a warforged Monk is deciding whether you're going to try and rely on Unarmored Defense, with all the attendant MADness problems thereof, or find a way to use (light) Integrated Protection instead so you don't need to push three stats. That's super hard to do with standard array or point buy, which barely lets you push one, but could be easier if your game has alternative character generation methods. You can't tank Wisdom entirely though, since a lot of your monk features rely on your WIS-based Monkpunching DC. Integrated Protection mostly means you can afford to let WIS sit at 16 for a few levels, or favor Dexterity over moar WIS. If you ever get to the point where your proficiency bonus is +6, it becomes strictly superior to Integrated Protection, but that can take a while.
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OK. What if I chose Way of the Astral Self or Way of the Open Hand?
I have a warforged Shadow monk/Assassin Rogue build that's pretty nifty. Envoy chassis, darkwood core, take Monk to level 6 then then 6 Rogue and finish the rest monk. Makes for a very slick stealthy agile killer. With point buy you can start out with Str 8 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 10 Wis 16 Cha 8, grab proficiency in thieves tool, perception, stealth, sleight of hand and you've got a pretty sweet shadow assassin.
Integrated Protection, in Darkwood Core state, is 11 + proficiency. At level 1 (or more realistically 2 to 4), that's equivalent to Unarmored Defense with 16 WIS. Every point of proficiency you gain is worth another point of Wisdom, up to the point where you'd need a +7 Wisdom modifier just to break even with Integrated Protection.
Astral Self is likely to beat IP in the early game simply because it's hyperfocused on Wisdom, and because it attacks with its own unique subclass weapon it doesn't care about any of the other hornswoggle you can do with other classes. Astral Self wants the highest possible ki total and a maxed-out WIS modifier; it's the monk least likely to care about Integrated Protection.
Open Hand is a different story. Open Hand Technique wants a high Monk Shit(C) DC, which needs WIS, but it also needs DEX to actually land its attacks and do damage and at least some CON because it's a melee-focused monk and it's going to take a punch or two. Whether or not you want to rely on IP depends on how your game generates stats and whether you're married to the idea of a bare-fisted weaponless monk. Warforged Kensei, or Open Hands that mix in weapon strikes with the monk's bonus Monkpunchery(TM), could benefit a great deal from a level of fighter giving them armor proficiency for IP, Dueling fighting style to stiffen up their otherwise relatively low dice damage, and the usual level 1 fighter benefits, but that's only if you intend to use a shortsword or a Kensei weapon. Otherwise you're kinda up a creek with the usual MADness concerns on monks, and even if you stick with IP, your Monk Shit(C) DC is going to be lower than you'd like.
Please do not contact or message me.
On the other hand, a Way of the Sun Soul warforged monk could be skinned to look a lot like Iron Man, so that's pretty cool.
Partway through the quest for absolute truth.
For a Warforged, there is particular synergy with "Way of the Astral Self", and even the Unearthed Arcana, "Way of Tranquility".
A big part of what makes a Warforged is their grim past as war machines...and who they are now.
Does it haunt them? Do they even remember? Does a sentient machine dream...? Or do they only have nightmares of atrocities they committed during their time as weapons?
"Way of the Astral Self" gives the warforged an oppurtunity to customize their astral self as who they wish to be...symbolizing the spirit within the machine.
Or you could just make a four-armed (or more!), robot warrior of ancient rage, ala "Asura's Wrath".
The "Way of Tranquility" takes that in the opposite direction...the warforged could distinctly remember their bloody past, and seek a path of enlightenment and peace.
This is closer to your Zenyatta from "Overwatch".
However, the "Tranquility" capstone, "Anger of a Gentle Soul", could be flavored as the warforged's dormant rage or battle commands...briefly letting them become the death machine they once were.
Whatever one might pick, the warforged monk essentially "does" become immortal...if they can't be aged (rusted?) magically, and they don't really have an expiration date...they will continue to live forever.
It's a cool concept. Love to see how they would get along with elves, Firbolgs or gnomes.
So long as we're necromancing threads anyways...
Everything previously said about warforged monks in this thread is now wildly inaccurate. It was said about the UA Warforged, which was an awesomely powerful war machine. The Eberron Rising warforged are...not that.
The plus side is that nuIntegrated Protection no longer clashes with Monkly Unarmored Defense - you just get +1 AC, flat. You gain +1 to your choice of Dex or Wis, as well as +2 Con, so warforged can make for inherently tougher monks.
The minus side is that Integrated Protection no longer allows you to disregard Unarmored Defense, so your warforged monk is back to being obnoxiously MAD and unable to properly function if built on standard array or point buy. Other warforged features tend to overlap with late-game monk stuff, and there's no cool bonus features on the warforged subraces that didn't make the cut in Rising that helps monks out.
At this point, there's not really anything that sets warforged apart from any other kind of monk, other than being kinda bad at it because the only way to make a monk in 5e with standard array/point buy that doesn't suck is with a wood elf and very lucky magic item finds.
Please do not contact or message me.
Monks are not MAD, you need Dex and/or Wisdom (only reason to max both is if you want highest AC, or if you're a save-based monk that has to make dex-based attacks like Long Death, Open Hand, or Sun Soul), and Con as a backup. Two/three stats is the same baseline that every other class has, and they happen to be the big three stats that EVERY character wants (dex for AC and dex saves to avoid damage, Con for HP and con saves to avoid dying, wisdom for spotting things and wisdom saves to avoid being charmed/incapacitated). And that +1 AC from Warforged makes them even less reliant on maxing both dex and wisdom, because a monk doesn't really need 21 AC before magic enhancements, given that they're strikers not tanks, and already have access to Patient Defense.
Barbarians are MAD (you need to max Strength AND want to max Dex and Con AND probably want a decent wisdom in order to be tribal-ish AND might want some charisma to be able to intimidate someone). Rogues can feel that way, if you want to do it all (max Dex AND want good Con for HP AND want good intelligence for search AND want good wisdom for perception AND want good charisma for social). Paladins are fine single class but MAD if you want to splash them in a non-charisma or non-strength multiclass build to cheese Smite. But monks? They're straightforward, and a 13 dex/wis is something that almost every other class wants anyway so they multi easily.
If there's one thing that Warforged have that synergizes with monk, it might be that they don't sleep, and so can stand watch all night for the party. As the party member who is likely to have the highest wisdom and perception check, that's a nice synergy. Also, the bonus skills and tools aren't bad on a two-proficiency class.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
IMO Stunning Strike in and of itself makes every type of monk (other than possibly Astral Self) very MAD.
Partway through the quest for absolute truth.
If Stunning Strike were a spell that used up limited long rest spell slots, and which took up your entire Action to cast, then yes maxing your Save DC might be important. But a monk can very easily afford to attempt up to 4 Stunning Strikes on a target in a single round (also potentially one more on a reaction!) using only a short rest renewable resource, essentially forcing the enemy to have ultra-mega-super-disadvantage on that save. Having your DC be 1 or 2 lower than it would be with maximized Wisdom is not a deal breaker for Stunning Strike in any way.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
The issue, methinks, is that Monks get almost nothing in terms of magical items or equipment to augment their abilities, Champ. There is precisely ONE item in the game that can give them a boost to their AC beyond plain ordinary Rings/Cloaks of Protection, and that is Bracers of Defense. Which tend to be super rare, and also require attunement so they clash with Rings/Cloaks. You need a minimum of 16 Wisdom, which is a huge investment in SA/PB, simply to break even with a rogue wearing the +1 studded leather he found at level 4 and can use freely, without any attunement or investment at all.
The same can be said of their attacks. RAW, there is not one single item in the entire base game that assist or augments a monk's unarmed attacks. It's one of the most commonly homebrewed things out there for a reason - monks get nothing. They don't even get so much as a basic +1, outside of using "Monk Weapons" and defeating half the point of the Martial Arts feature. if you want to make use of the unarmed strikes that come from Martial Arts and Flurry of Blows, you need to absolutely maximize your Dexterity bonus because there will never be a magical item that helps you. You can't make do with an 18 and some really good weapons - weapons for you just don't exist.
Because you get no armor or protective items and no weapons or damage-augmenting gear, it's really hard to justify anything but pushing hard for 20 in both Dex and Wis, and even then you end up falling behind at higher levels simply because the sort of crazy badass shit other people get to make free use of never comes your way. If your campaign is very swords-and-sorcery and baller magic gear never enters the equation, then all right - maybe you can get away with 16s in your two main stats and whatever else.
But man, when your party's ranger is wearing +2 halfplate and two-weapon fighting with a Flametongue and a Nine Lives Stealer with their Cloak of Protection flaring dramatically behind them and you're sitting there with Wonder Woman bangles and your naked monkey paws? All those ki powers and cool martial-arts moves start to look a lot less cool.
Please do not contact or message me.
Unlike 4e, magic items are not an assumed part of a character's progression. Heck, a piece of +1 armor might as well be an optional rule, and typically when builds are discussed you look at them "naked" in nothing but mundane gear. A 20 Dex/20 Wis monk has an AC 20, 21 if they dual wield daggers or other monk weapons and take Dual Wielder, or with +proficiency to AC as a reaction if they take Defensive Duelist . With a Warforged only receiving a +1 in Dex or Wis, after 5 feats at 20 you realistically can expect to either have maxed your Dex and Wis (AC 21), or have taken one of those feats (still AC 21 for Dual Wielder, or AC 20+6 as a reaction with Defensive Duelist). That's comparable with other melee classes (18 for 2-handed characters, 19 for dual wielders, or 20 for shield users, +1 if they take the Defensive fighting style). On top of that, as a monk you are quite capable of attacking twice and then also taking a Dodge Action, which makes you far tankier than most other melee characters sitting at your same AC would be.
Now as far as enhancements helping AC...
Enhancements that help your attacks...
These complaints just don't really add up. A mundane monk has the potential for AC equivalent to mundane shield fighters, or even higher. And if the DM is handing out magic items, there are plenty of items that can enhance the monk's offensive and defensive capabilities, just as there are for everyone else.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.