What martial feat(s) have you taken for your monk character(s)? Meaning, what is a great "go to" feat for a monk the same way the sharpshooter, crossbow expert, great weapon master, polearm master, and sentinel feats are for barbarians, fighters, paladins, and rangers?
That’s difficult because monks want to get two ability scores up to 20. Doing that takes 4 or 5 ASIs unless you’re rolling dice and you roll really, really well.
That’s difficult because monks want to get two ability scores up to 20. Doing that takes 4 or 5 ASIs unless you’re rolling dice and you roll really, really well.
Crusher! Pushing up to four people around in one round is so much fun! And it increases your con. Also, for a level 1 or 4 feat Weapon Master is quite good, because it increases your dex and gives you proficiency with a martial weapon that let´s you deal 1D10 with your main hand attack(s).
I played a monk in a lvl 20 one shot, and took the alert feat for the last ASI. It didn't do me much good because I never rolled higher than a 4 on my initiative rolls. It gave me something like 12 or 13 total initiative, which at 20th lvl, isn't very good. But, I the sample size was fairly small, and I doubt you'd have too many nights where 4 initiative rolls are that low.
I'm currently playing a kenku monk. I'm planning on taking the chef feat when he reaches level 4. His dexterity is already 20 (a good roll, plus racial bonus), with a wisdom of 17. His constitution is already an even number, so splitting the 2 points between wisdom and constitution won't change the my constitution bonus at all. By taking the chef feat, his wisdom will be raised to 18, and he gets to make healing treats.
Martial adept can be nice on a monk. Fun having an extra trick to pull out per short rest.
Magic initiate can be useful too. There are a lot of options you can get from the cleric spell list, like toll the dead for a ranged option and shenanigans with spamming the help option while tanking with sancturary. Fey Touched or shadow touched have similarly neat options.
Defensive duelist might give a monk some mileage. A monk's reaction is usually a less precious resource, so it could be a good use for it.
Crusher can be fun, though not super powerful most of the time.
Oops, then I played it wrongly... Thanks for the lead! Anyway, it is still a great feat. BTW, I forgot to mention the King of Combat feats for monks: Fighting Initiate to get the Unarmed Fighting Style and get a 1d8 for your attacks, what you normally get at level 11 as a monk. And, you can replace it later on.
+1 Strength, or Constitution, move creatures you attack
Buff, Combat
You are practiced in the art of crushing your enemies, granting you the following benefits:
Increase your Strength or Constitution by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack that deals bludgeoning damage, you can move it 5 feet to an unoccupied space, provided the target is no more than one size larger than you.
When you score a critical hit that deals bludgeoning damage to a creature, attack rolls against that creature are made with advantage until the start of your next turn.
That can turn a flurry of blows into the party just smacking the stuffing out of a bbg.
None generally unless taking variant human and getting one at character creation. I played a shadow monk with alertness (pre TCoE), but the group had worked out before we started that we were all trying to go darkness themed.
BTW, I forgot to mention the King of Combat feats for monks: Fighting Initiate to get the Unarmed Fighting Style and get a 1d8 for your attacks, what you normally get at level 11 as a monk. And, you can replace it later on.
The problem witht the Unarmed Fighting Style is that it explicitly states that you use STR with it. It's worth a shot talking to the DM but RAW it contradicts Martial Arts and you'd have to pick one or the other.
I agree with you, but there is a fire storm of a sub where most of the regulars on here disagreed with that take so... probably not kosher to a lot of DM's.
But I think the bigger issue is how fast that feat becomes irrelevant for the investment. Its great for those low levels where monks shine anyways, but becomes virtually pointless at level 5.
Its better for fighters/barbs who want to be martial artists. Although the Eldritch Claw tattoo or some kind of homebrewed silver knuckle dusters will be needed to overcome magic resistance and make it worthwhile.
I have played an open hand monk Into epic levels. First feat was at 19 (agree you want tomax dex and wis first) but ended up taking
Tough: the d8 hurts a monk's survivability the extra hp help a lot especially when not using empty body
Crusher: for reasons mentioned above but as soon as I took this feat I stopped rolling 20s on attacks
Mobile: less use on an open hand but for many monks I would rate it as the best feat, monks are skirmishers and not having to burn a bonus action and a ki to disengage is huge
Skill Expert: Not really a martial feat but paired it with crusher to get my con up. Allows you to have incredible level of skill, saw how awesome expertise in perception was in a fellow party member and took it in insight all my attack roll 20s moved here I had multiple 39 skill checks (with ioun stone of mastery). Depending how you play stealth, survival and acrobatics are other options.
Count me as another one for Crusher; the main reason is that it's a half feat, which is great if any of your ability scores are odd either by accident or on purpose. In the case of Crusher it means probably having an odd Constitution, but since boosting Constitution is something you'll want to do if you can then it can work well. It's also just a really good feat; the old go-to used to be Mobile for the free Disengage-lite, but with Crusher you can do the same by shunting an enemy away from yourself, but can also use this to aid a vulnerable caster in your party and so-on, which can make it very flexible. Plus the critical hit bonus is almost like getting a free Stunning Strike, and on a class that can throw out four attacks in a turn from 5th level your chances are pretty good at landing a crit from time to time.
Otherwise it's probably still Mobile for me, since it doubles down on a Monk's speed advantage, with basically no risk of attacks of opportunity, meaning you're very hard to pin down so you can focus on wrecking key targets like enemy casters.
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It must be clarified, which wording has priority: Monk-class: "You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons." Or Fighting initiate-feat/Unarmed fighting style: "Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 (1d8)+ your Strength modifier on a hit". I think it is a fair compromise if a monk player has to choose between 1d4+Dex or 1D6/8+str.
But pointless beyond level 5? You can replace it at level 8 or 12! Imagine a Shadow Monk with blindsight!
Fighting initiate is neat in that its fighting style can be swapped out. I meant the unarmed fighting becomes pointless.
Blind sight is good, although 10ft its mechanically aggravating. In situations of darkness, do you just assume your monk knows the location of targets outside of blindsight range to move to them? And spamming darkness can mess with the rest of your team.
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What martial feat(s) have you taken for your monk character(s)? Meaning, what is a great "go to" feat for a monk the same way the sharpshooter, crossbow expert, great weapon master, polearm master, and sentinel feats are for barbarians, fighters, paladins, and rangers?
That’s difficult because monks want to get two ability scores up to 20. Doing that takes 4 or 5 ASIs unless you’re rolling dice and you roll really, really well.
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I think a very fair answer to my question “none”.
Alert fear with a high dex will let you strike first and control battlefield with stunning strike
Crusher! Pushing up to four people around in one round is so much fun! And it increases your con. Also, for a level 1 or 4 feat Weapon Master is quite good, because it increases your dex and gives you proficiency with a martial weapon that let´s you deal 1D10 with your main hand attack(s).
I played a monk in a lvl 20 one shot, and took the alert feat for the last ASI. It didn't do me much good because I never rolled higher than a 4 on my initiative rolls. It gave me something like 12 or 13 total initiative, which at 20th lvl, isn't very good. But, I the sample size was fairly small, and I doubt you'd have too many nights where 4 initiative rolls are that low.
I'm currently playing a kenku monk. I'm planning on taking the chef feat when he reaches level 4. His dexterity is already 20 (a good roll, plus racial bonus), with a wisdom of 17. His constitution is already an even number, so splitting the 2 points between wisdom and constitution won't change the my constitution bonus at all. By taking the chef feat, his wisdom will be raised to 18, and he gets to make healing treats.
Martial adept can be nice on a monk. Fun having an extra trick to pull out per short rest.
Magic initiate can be useful too. There are a lot of options you can get from the cleric spell list, like toll the dead for a ranged option and shenanigans with spamming the help option while tanking with sancturary. Fey Touched or shadow touched have similarly neat options.
Defensive duelist might give a monk some mileage. A monk's reaction is usually a less precious resource, so it could be a good use for it.
Crusher can be fun, though not super powerful most of the time.
Sentinel isn't bad either.
Oops, then I played it wrongly... Thanks for the lead! Anyway, it is still a great feat.
BTW, I forgot to mention the King of Combat feats for monks: Fighting Initiate to get the Unarmed Fighting Style and get a 1d8 for your attacks, what you normally get at level 11 as a monk. And, you can replace it later on.
For certain builds specifically, like a Shadow Monk, Elven Accuracy is excellent.
Crusher, also has another ability that wasn't mentioned:
You are practiced in the art of crushing your enemies, granting you the following benefits:
That can turn a flurry of blows into the party just smacking the stuffing out of a bbg.
None generally unless taking variant human and getting one at character creation. I played a shadow monk with alertness (pre TCoE), but the group had worked out before we started that we were all trying to go darkness themed.
I agree with you, but there is a fire storm of a sub where most of the regulars on here disagreed with that take so... probably not kosher to a lot of DM's.
But I think the bigger issue is how fast that feat becomes irrelevant for the investment. Its great for those low levels where monks shine anyways, but becomes virtually pointless at level 5.
Its better for fighters/barbs who want to be martial artists. Although the Eldritch Claw tattoo or some kind of homebrewed silver knuckle dusters will be needed to overcome magic resistance and make it worthwhile.
I have played an open hand monk Into epic levels. First feat was at 19 (agree you want tomax dex and wis first) but ended up taking
Count me as another one for Crusher; the main reason is that it's a half feat, which is great if any of your ability scores are odd either by accident or on purpose. In the case of Crusher it means probably having an odd Constitution, but since boosting Constitution is something you'll want to do if you can then it can work well. It's also just a really good feat; the old go-to used to be Mobile for the free Disengage-lite, but with Crusher you can do the same by shunting an enemy away from yourself, but can also use this to aid a vulnerable caster in your party and so-on, which can make it very flexible. Plus the critical hit bonus is almost like getting a free Stunning Strike, and on a class that can throw out four attacks in a turn from 5th level your chances are pretty good at landing a crit from time to time.
Otherwise it's probably still Mobile for me, since it doubles down on a Monk's speed advantage, with basically no risk of attacks of opportunity, meaning you're very hard to pin down so you can focus on wrecking key targets like enemy casters.
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 must be clarified, which wording has priority: Monk-class: "You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons."
Or Fighting initiate-feat/Unarmed fighting style: "Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 (1d8)+ your Strength modifier on a hit".
I think it is a fair compromise if a monk player has to choose between 1d4+Dex or 1D6/8+str.
But pointless beyond level 5? You can replace it at level 8 or 12! Imagine a Shadow Monk with blindsight!
Fighting initiate is neat in that its fighting style can be swapped out. I meant the unarmed fighting becomes pointless.
Blind sight is good, although 10ft its mechanically aggravating. In situations of darkness, do you just assume your monk knows the location of targets outside of blindsight range to move to them? And spamming darkness can mess with the rest of your team.