I am about to start playing a campaign as a level 3 Drunken Master Tabaxi monk. This is my first time playing a monk and I'm unsure of how to do combat with my character. I have heard a lot of the same thing, people saying to stay mobile and stuff like that, but I'm not sure how to do hit and run if I can only disengage as a bonus three times per short rest. How do I stay mobile when doing so costs valuable resources?
Well, low level Monks are kind of weak that way. It's best if you have a Paladin or Fighter ally to help take some of the heat off of you when you get into melee against high CON enemies. If your party doesn't rely on you for melee, pick up darts/acid vials/holy water and use them to hit enemies while staying out of their reach until you get a shot at their casters or archers and unleash the beast. Once you get to level 6, you can do the kip up thing where you can drop prone to make yourself a difficult target for their ranged attacks and spring up again for 5 ft of movement when their heavies get close. Also keep in mind that you have a good climb speed, so you can use trees/walls/cliffsides to get the drop on your foes and literally drop stuff on them if they don't know you're there.
If you're already a level 3 Drunken Master, then you automatically get Disengage whenever you utilize Flurry of Blows, so there's no need to ever use your bonus action on justDisengage (as other monks must).
You are a skirmisher. Pick off weakened/isolated targets, and then move back out of retaliation range. If your target(s) don't die--or you're just trapped next to more enemies than you can handle--pop that Ki point on Flurry of Blows to both deal more damage and get the free Disengage.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
I think the OP's issue was that, at level 3, that's still using Ki. After three Flurries, there's nothing left until the next 1 hour rest. So the effectiveness for sustained attack+defense depends a lot on the DM.
Advice for any character thats worth it: If you cant prevent damage try to mitigate it.
For a monk your ac and weapon usage encourage you to be in melee and (barring starting stats of 18 wis and dex) whilst in melee on average being hit with just under one of every two attacks made by even a cr 1/4 monster. To mitigate this - dont put yourself in a position where mulitple opponents will attack you, do consider a shove or trip attempt if your first attack fails to silence your victim.
If your table encounters regularly feature multiple combatants or hordes of opponents you may need to consider mobile as a feat at 4th (if feats are acceptable to your DM) this will allow you to move away from combat when an attack is made on an opponent without them allowed an attack of opportunity. Combined with three attacks at 5th (including the bonus) thats three opponents you can attack, then retreat behind your armoured combatant from (and the extra 10' movement from the feat is just gravy)
Terrain is your friend. a grapple and drag with higher movement, can move a target with you, allowing you to move it out of the line of combat to deal with it, without its comrades all attacking you. Moving it into a pit / fire is a bonus. Escaping from combat by involuntary movement provokes no attacks of opportunity - that cliff is your friend Fall! And you may take no damage when you land as your a monk.
If in doubt accept the reduced damage and throw darts from a short distance - better if the enemy cant catch up to you and have no melee weapons you will defeat them providing you have enough darts and time.
Always carry caltrops. Always. whats better than being faster than your enemy? slowing them to make sure they will never catch you even with a dash action. if they wont walk on them willingly? Grapple and drag them, ball bearings are also fun and you can check with your DM if your acrobatics allows you to 'scate' across them. A prone target has disadvantage to hit, which will allow you to retreat with more chance of success.
Cover +2ac for 50% of your body mass covered: Attack from corners / over barricades / out of trenches.
Monks are one of the classes that are harder to work with, even when you preplan your options. You wont always have a good option to turn a situation around, when that happens you will need to rely on your party and start burning your short and long rest resources.
Mobile feat is very redundant for a Drunken Master. You probably shouldn't take it. In my experience 3 rounds of flurries with free disengagement is usually enough to turn the encounter in your favour. Sometimes you won't need to spend ki at all as your first or second attack may finish the opponent.
There are quite some moves you can make for the fun of a party. For instance at fourth level you would be able to make some hillarious grapple attacks. Being a tabaxi allows you to grapple a target, then climb 10 ft with it and then jump down dealing 1d6 damage to a target and making it fall prone, while you can cancel fall damage to yourself due to Slow Fall ability. And then you can make one or two (with flurry of blows) unarmed attacks with advantage. Next round the target won't be able to stand until it escapes your grapple. And if it doesn't make it, you can climb with it once more, and then attack with advantage using main and bonus actions.
By the way you don't have to be tabaxi to perform this grapple-fall combo. Any monk would be able to do it at lvl 9. And any monk with 14 stength at lvl 4 can achieve similar results using step of the wind and then vertically jump, grappling an enemy.
If you are not the target of the opponent. You don't necessarily need to disengage and leave that target. Other party members like the rogue may be a bigger threat and/or gain advantage from your positioning. There is nothing shameful about softening up an opponent and having a team mate finish it off. You still win and the end result is for the group. Not the individual.
You do not need to use flurry of blows on every attack just because you have it.
These are two things that all new monk players need to learn and some fail to do so. They think because they have it they need to use it and end up blowing all their ki without thinking. You need to learn moderation first and then as your monk gets higher level get a bit more free with such things.
Monks start getting flashy more at the mid to high levels. Where they have more resources to spend and a lot of options to do things so don't be afraid to go kind of over looked and unspotlighted at the lower levels. You'll usually make up for it later on.
Staying mobile is one of your main things to think about when playing monk and if your playing drunken master your turn will look like this ( action, bonus action then disengage.)
I'm up to level 5 with my first run-through as a Drunken master monk. FWIW, my opinion so far:
it is fun
it is helpful to the group i'm playing with
me and other players have learned how to leverage each other's abilities (e.g. my stunning attack makes a person easy pickings for my gunslinger; with the Mobility feat - using dash - I can overcome difficult terrain thrown up by our spellcasters so I can go in to do damage when enemies are slowed or stuck)
I took Mobility at level 4 and do not regret it. Now at level 5, I hit three times and get away unscratched without spending Ki, allowing me to use it for Stunning Strike and other abilities that will come along. The extra ten feet makes it that much easier to hit-and-run and end your turn out of range of melee enemies. And you see above how I take advantage of Mobility to overcome difficult terrain.
So if you're not at level 5 yet, stick to it. That's when you start seeing the time invested start to pay off. And it only gets funner. In fact, at this point, I am finding it difficult to justify really needing to do any type of multiclassing.
Not a single recommendation for Dodge in this entire Thread yet... geez. If you’re surrounded, be completely ok with Patient Defense, or just plain Dodging with your Action instead of attacking.
You get literally 1 attack per round. And then any more than 2-3 enemies will each get an attack at you. That’s a terrible trade off at level 3. But if you dodge... the enemies have the option of wasting their attacks on you (they won’t hit), or running away - which means you either successfully distract 3 enemies, or they run away from you *and you get your attack anyways!*
As an experienced DM you’d be surprised how easy it is to make an encounter difficult for anyone - just surround them with monsters and watch them just absolutely flounder as they get chipped to pieces. One dodge action can save the day.
Save your Drunken Technique for specific situations. ie. If your enemy is already stuck to another tank, and you’re low on HP. Slide in, attack with flurry, and move away. To retaliate the enemy has to eat that AoO from your tank. It’s all about making your enemies make bad decisions.
As for a Feat, I personally wouldn’t go Mobile. You’ll be able to use Drunken Technique much more often later on. If you want an actionable Feat I would go with Sentinel (making that Dodge action even more deadly to those enemies surrounding you), or Mage Slayer.
Mage Slayer gives you an interesting synergy - if the enemy front line is protecting an enemy wizard, you can use Drunken Technique yo strike a bunch of the tanks as you sprint past them, directly to the back row and the wizard on the first round - and now you’re nearly immune to his magic and you get a free shot if he casts something as well. It’s a solid “blitz” strategy that they won’t be prepared for. :)
Oh yeah, true about Patient Defense. And Step of the Wind.
one time, a teammate rolled a 1 to hit with his magical weapon, sending it flying out of his hands and way behind enemy lines. We were fighting magical creatures so he needed it. it was a hold my beer moment. I Stepped so i has enough movement to get there and back, hit the two enemies I passed alongthe way so they couldn’t AOO (because I had Mobility), got to where the weapon ended up, and brought it back to him.
After that, i didn’t look back on mobility. I am considering Mage slayer. Building off of stunning strike, I’m trying to find other ways to neutralize enemies.
Monk playstyle depends a great deal on party makeup. If you're lacking tanky types, you'll want to focus more on controlling enemies and defending yourself and party members. If you're lacking damage, you'll want to focus on doing as much as possible. Figure out what your party will need from you and build towards that.
Something I only just realised in the last couple of days: Once you get the ability to use your movement to ascend vertical surfaces, any monk spec can dash as their action (or bonus action with a ki point) to run double their movement - 100' or thereabouts - up a sheer cliff!
Something I only just realised in the last couple of days: Once you get the ability to use your movement to ascend vertical surfaces, any monk spec can dash as their action (or bonus action with a ki point) to run double their movement - 100' or thereabouts - up a sheer cliff!
Or they could do both and run triple their movement up a climbable cliff. Note that while most DMs will consider this ability to work as you say, some will read it as the ability to move horizontally on walls.
If you're already a level 3 Drunken Master, then you automatically get Disengage whenever you utilize Flurry of Blows, so there's no need to ever use your bonus action on justDisengage (as other monks must).
You are a skirmisher. Pick off weakened/isolated targets, and then move back out of retaliation range. If your target(s) don't die--or you're just trapped next to more enemies than you can handle--pop that Ki point on Flurry of Blows to both deal more damage and get the free Disengage.9999999
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I am about to start playing a campaign as a level 3 Drunken Master Tabaxi monk. This is my first time playing a monk and I'm unsure of how to do combat with my character. I have heard a lot of the same thing, people saying to stay mobile and stuff like that, but I'm not sure how to do hit and run if I can only disengage as a bonus three times per short rest. How do I stay mobile when doing so costs valuable resources?
Well, low level Monks are kind of weak that way. It's best if you have a Paladin or Fighter ally to help take some of the heat off of you when you get into melee against high CON enemies. If your party doesn't rely on you for melee, pick up darts/acid vials/holy water and use them to hit enemies while staying out of their reach until you get a shot at their casters or archers and unleash the beast. Once you get to level 6, you can do the kip up thing where you can drop prone to make yourself a difficult target for their ranged attacks and spring up again for 5 ft of movement when their heavies get close. Also keep in mind that you have a good climb speed, so you can use trees/walls/cliffsides to get the drop on your foes and literally drop stuff on them if they don't know you're there.
If you're already a level 3 Drunken Master, then you automatically get Disengage whenever you utilize Flurry of Blows, so there's no need to ever use your bonus action on just Disengage (as other monks must).
You are a skirmisher. Pick off weakened/isolated targets, and then move back out of retaliation range. If your target(s) don't die--or you're just trapped next to more enemies than you can handle--pop that Ki point on Flurry of Blows to both deal more damage and get the free Disengage.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
I think the OP's issue was that, at level 3, that's still using Ki. After three Flurries, there's nothing left until the next 1 hour rest. So the effectiveness for sustained attack+defense depends a lot on the DM.
Advice for any character thats worth it: If you cant prevent damage try to mitigate it.
For a monk your ac and weapon usage encourage you to be in melee and (barring starting stats of 18 wis and dex) whilst in melee on average being hit with just under one of every two attacks made by even a cr 1/4 monster. To mitigate this - dont put yourself in a position where mulitple opponents will attack you, do consider a shove or trip attempt if your first attack fails to silence your victim.
If your table encounters regularly feature multiple combatants or hordes of opponents you may need to consider mobile as a feat at 4th (if feats are acceptable to your DM) this will allow you to move away from combat when an attack is made on an opponent without them allowed an attack of opportunity. Combined with three attacks at 5th (including the bonus) thats three opponents you can attack, then retreat behind your armoured combatant from (and the extra 10' movement from the feat is just gravy)
Terrain is your friend. a grapple and drag with higher movement, can move a target with you, allowing you to move it out of the line of combat to deal with it, without its comrades all attacking you. Moving it into a pit / fire is a bonus. Escaping from combat by involuntary movement provokes no attacks of opportunity - that cliff is your friend Fall! And you may take no damage when you land as your a monk.
If in doubt accept the reduced damage and throw darts from a short distance - better if the enemy cant catch up to you and have no melee weapons you will defeat them providing you have enough darts and time.
Always carry caltrops. Always. whats better than being faster than your enemy? slowing them to make sure they will never catch you even with a dash action. if they wont walk on them willingly? Grapple and drag them, ball bearings are also fun and you can check with your DM if your acrobatics allows you to 'scate' across them. A prone target has disadvantage to hit, which will allow you to retreat with more chance of success.
Cover +2ac for 50% of your body mass covered: Attack from corners / over barricades / out of trenches.
Monks are one of the classes that are harder to work with, even when you preplan your options. You wont always have a good option to turn a situation around, when that happens you will need to rely on your party and start burning your short and long rest resources.
Good luck and have fun!
At 4 take the mobile feat. Never use disengage again.
Mobile feat is very redundant for a Drunken Master. You probably shouldn't take it. In my experience 3 rounds of flurries with free disengagement is usually enough to turn the encounter in your favour. Sometimes you won't need to spend ki at all as your first or second attack may finish the opponent.
There are quite some moves you can make for the fun of a party. For instance at fourth level you would be able to make some hillarious grapple attacks. Being a tabaxi allows you to grapple a target, then climb 10 ft with it and then jump down dealing 1d6 damage to a target and making it fall prone, while you can cancel fall damage to yourself due to Slow Fall ability. And then you can make one or two (with flurry of blows) unarmed attacks with advantage. Next round the target won't be able to stand until it escapes your grapple. And if it doesn't make it, you can climb with it once more, and then attack with advantage using main and bonus actions.
By the way you don't have to be tabaxi to perform this grapple-fall combo. Any monk would be able to do it at lvl 9. And any monk with 14 stength at lvl 4 can achieve similar results using step of the wind and then vertically jump, grappling an enemy.
Two big things to keep in mind.
If you are not the target of the opponent. You don't necessarily need to disengage and leave that target. Other party members like the rogue may be a bigger threat and/or gain advantage from your positioning. There is nothing shameful about softening up an opponent and having a team mate finish it off. You still win and the end result is for the group. Not the individual.
You do not need to use flurry of blows on every attack just because you have it.
These are two things that all new monk players need to learn and some fail to do so. They think because they have it they need to use it and end up blowing all their ki without thinking. You need to learn moderation first and then as your monk gets higher level get a bit more free with such things.
Monks start getting flashy more at the mid to high levels. Where they have more resources to spend and a lot of options to do things so don't be afraid to go kind of over looked and unspotlighted at the lower levels. You'll usually make up for it later on.
Thank you for this advice! I struggle with this one quite a bit.
Staying mobile is one of your main things to think about when playing monk and if your playing drunken master your turn will look like this ( action, bonus action then disengage.)
*Main weapon* *flurry of blows* *disengage*
I'm up to level 5 with my first run-through as a Drunken master monk. FWIW, my opinion so far:
I took Mobility at level 4 and do not regret it. Now at level 5, I hit three times and get away unscratched without spending Ki, allowing me to use it for Stunning Strike and other abilities that will come along. The extra ten feet makes it that much easier to hit-and-run and end your turn out of range of melee enemies. And you see above how I take advantage of Mobility to overcome difficult terrain.
So if you're not at level 5 yet, stick to it. That's when you start seeing the time invested start to pay off. And it only gets funner. In fact, at this point, I am finding it difficult to justify really needing to do any type of multiclassing.
Have fun!
Not a single recommendation for Dodge in this entire Thread yet... geez. If you’re surrounded, be completely ok with Patient Defense, or just plain Dodging with your Action instead of attacking.
You get literally 1 attack per round. And then any more than 2-3 enemies will each get an attack at you. That’s a terrible trade off at level 3. But if you dodge... the enemies have the option of wasting their attacks on you (they won’t hit), or running away - which means you either successfully distract 3 enemies, or they run away from you *and you get your attack anyways!*
As an experienced DM you’d be surprised how easy it is to make an encounter difficult for anyone - just surround them with monsters and watch them just absolutely flounder as they get chipped to pieces. One dodge action can save the day.
Save your Drunken Technique for specific situations. ie. If your enemy is already stuck to another tank, and you’re low on HP. Slide in, attack with flurry, and move away. To retaliate the enemy has to eat that AoO from your tank. It’s all about making your enemies make bad decisions.
As for a Feat, I personally wouldn’t go Mobile. You’ll be able to use Drunken Technique much more often later on. If you want an actionable Feat I would go with Sentinel (making that Dodge action even more deadly to those enemies surrounding you), or Mage Slayer.
Mage Slayer gives you an interesting synergy - if the enemy front line is protecting an enemy wizard, you can use Drunken Technique yo strike a bunch of the tanks as you sprint past them, directly to the back row and the wizard on the first round - and now you’re nearly immune to his magic and you get a free shot if he casts something as well. It’s a solid “blitz” strategy that they won’t be prepared for. :)
Oh yeah, true about Patient Defense. And Step of the Wind.
one time, a teammate rolled a 1 to hit with his magical weapon, sending it flying out of his hands and way behind enemy lines. We were fighting magical creatures so he needed it.
it was a hold my beer moment. I Stepped so i has enough movement to get there and back, hit the two enemies I passed alongthe way so they couldn’t AOO (because I had Mobility), got to where the weapon ended up, and brought it back to him.
After that, i didn’t look back on mobility. I am considering Mage slayer. Building off of stunning strike, I’m trying to find other ways to neutralize enemies.
Monk playstyle depends a great deal on party makeup. If you're lacking tanky types, you'll want to focus more on controlling enemies and defending yourself and party members. If you're lacking damage, you'll want to focus on doing as much as possible. Figure out what your party will need from you and build towards that.
Something I only just realised in the last couple of days: Once you get the ability to use your movement to ascend vertical surfaces, any monk spec can dash as their action (or bonus action with a ki point) to run double their movement - 100' or thereabouts - up a sheer cliff!
Or they could do both and run triple their movement up a climbable cliff. Note that while most DMs will consider this ability to work as you say, some will read it as the ability to move horizontally on walls.