This magic sword lasts until the spell ends. It counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. It deals 2d8 psychic damage on a hit and has the finesse, light, and thrown properties (range 20/60).
And, according to the Monk class
monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don't have the two-handed or heavy property.
Seems like it would qualify; the main difficulty is how to get it, as you need to be able to cast it yourself and taking the three levels required in Sorcerer, Wizard or such will slow down your Monk progression (fewer Ki points, may get Extra Attack, Evasion etc. later and so-on) while giving you not all that many spell slots to cast the spell with. In that respect Warlock might be the best multiclass option (as its slots come back on short rest).
You also don't get many benefits from it being a Monk weapon; even once you hit a d10 martial arts dice, it won't improve the shadow blade as 2d8 is already better than 1d10.
But in bursts it should be fun to push two attacks per turn with it, or three if you use Ki-fuelled Attack, Stunning Strike or Deft Strike (as a Kensei).
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I'm building a 5lvl Hexblade / 8lvl Shadow Monk PC. He's meant to be a mystic assassin with the actor feat, Disguise Self at will, Suggestion, Gaseous Form, Invisibility, Detect Magic at will, Devil's Sight, Darkness, Pass w/o Trace, Teleportation, Blink, etc.
With Shadow Blade, he'll be doing potentially four attacks at 3d8 + 10 with the potential to stun, with a crit on 19 or 20, attacking at advantage.
If the GM permits Mage Armor to stack with unarmored defense, he'll have an AC of 22.
Must be houseruling Thirsting Blade to stack with Extra Attack (ordinarily it can't), and also that Shadow Blade can be a pact weapon (can't normally be).
That's a lot of houseruling though as the combo is already pretty good; Unarmored Defence gives you a higher AC than most warlocks can get, and using Stunning Strike with Ki-fuelled Attack to get three attacks per turn with a shadow blade is still very strong in the first place, as most classes that can take shadow blade can't manage more than one or two, with the exception of Eldritch Knights. I assume it's to balance against boosts given to other players?
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Thank you for asking. It caused me to check the rules a little deeper. I had not noticed that the two attacks from Flurry of Blows are Unarmed. That being the case, this character has a maximum of two attacks at 3d6 + 5 (from Dex) + 5 (from Hexblade's Curse) and two attacks at 1d6 + 5 (from Dex) + 5 (from Hexblade's Curse)
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The spell states
And, according to the Monk class
Seems like it would qualify; the main difficulty is how to get it, as you need to be able to cast it yourself and taking the three levels required in Sorcerer, Wizard or such will slow down your Monk progression (fewer Ki points, may get Extra Attack, Evasion etc. later and so-on) while giving you not all that many spell slots to cast the spell with. In that respect Warlock might be the best multiclass option (as its slots come back on short rest).
You also don't get many benefits from it being a Monk weapon; even once you hit a d10 martial arts dice, it won't improve the shadow blade as 2d8 is already better than 1d10.
But in bursts it should be fun to push two attacks per turn with it, or three if you use Ki-fuelled Attack, Stunning Strike or Deft Strike (as a Kensei).
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
It is a simple melee weapon that doesn't have the two-handed or heavy property so would count as a Monk weapon, if you had the spell slots to cast it.
I'm building a 5lvl Hexblade / 8lvl Shadow Monk PC. He's meant to be a mystic assassin with the actor feat, Disguise Self at will, Suggestion, Gaseous Form, Invisibility, Detect Magic at will, Devil's Sight, Darkness, Pass w/o Trace, Teleportation, Blink, etc.
With Shadow Blade, he'll be doing potentially four attacks at 3d8 + 10 with the potential to stun, with a crit on 19 or 20, attacking at advantage.
If the GM permits Mage Armor to stack with unarmored defense, he'll have an AC of 22.
Four attacks with the blade? How's that?
Must be houseruling Thirsting Blade to stack with Extra Attack (ordinarily it can't), and also that Shadow Blade can be a pact weapon (can't normally be).
That's a lot of houseruling though as the combo is already pretty good; Unarmored Defence gives you a higher AC than most warlocks can get, and using Stunning Strike with Ki-fuelled Attack to get three attacks per turn with a shadow blade is still very strong in the first place, as most classes that can take shadow blade can't manage more than one or two, with the exception of Eldritch Knights. I assume it's to balance against boosts given to other players?
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Thank you for asking. It caused me to check the rules a little deeper. I had not noticed that the two attacks from Flurry of Blows are Unarmed. That being the case, this character has a maximum of two attacks at 3d6 + 5 (from Dex) + 5 (from Hexblade's Curse) and two attacks at 1d6 + 5 (from Dex) + 5 (from Hexblade's Curse)