With Mordenkainen presents: Monsters of the Multiverse has the Bugbear become a top choice for the Monk? It has the new/revised trait.
Surprise Attack
If you hit a creature with an attack roll, the creature takes an extra 2d6 damage if it hasn’t taken a turn yet in the current combat.
So if you can go before the enemy all of your attacks get the additional damage so turn one would be a great time to FoB.
Also they have:
Long-Limbed
When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
This helps the monk keep all of their attacks and move away without having to burn a Ki point for Step of the Wind or take an OA.
The fact that they also have Stealth proficiency helps so you can take another skill if you wanted to be a stealthy build.
Sneaky
You are proficient in the Stealth skill. In addition, without squeezing, you can move through and stop in a space large enough for a Small creature.
I would really like to try the new Bugbear and take the Alert feat at level 4. Alas, my DM doesn’t allow them as one of the PC races.
Monks need some help with their low HP, and long limbed provides it. they can make melee attacks and unarmed strikes 10 feet away with the ability. And the enemy just has to stand there fighting the other melee allies and sulk that they can't attack the monk without provoking OA's.
Yeah, this is definitely a top choice for monks.
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This is what I don't like about alignment changes. Evil races are always overpowered, so they are supposed to be limited by their evil, selfish nature. Evil turns upon itself. When that factor is taken away, you end up with Bugbears and Goblins running around everywhere.
This is what I don't like about alignment changes. Evil races are always overpowered, so they are supposed to be limited by their evil, selfish nature. Evil turns upon itself. When that factor is taken away, you end up with Bugbears and Goblins running around everywhere.
I don't think the traditionally evil races are particularly overpowered, with the one possible exception of the legacy Yuan-ti.
vHuman and custom linage are the races most often used by optimisers in order to get the feat (I accect custom linage can be a "evil" race but it could also be a "good" race). A monk could then choose something like mobile to avoid op attacks.
Half elves are another optimisers favorite race for the extra ASI along with skill versatility, fey ancestry and darkvision.
Overall I thing races are reasonably well balanced, some are stronger than others and some suit particular builds but I don't think the traditionally evil races are overall any stronger.
If you look at the thread on best races for a monk they is a mix between the "evil" and "good" races.
Even before the MMM bugbear boost it was a good race to consider for monk mainly because of long limbed. The boost to damage round one if the target hasn’t gone yet is just icing on the cake.
I always wanted to play a bugbear Drunken Master monk that talked like Bobcat Goldthwait.
This is what I don't like about alignment changes. Evil races are always overpowered, so they are supposed to be limited by their evil, selfish nature. Evil turns upon itself. When that factor is taken away, you end up with Bugbears and Goblins running around everywhere.
Not every setting is the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. Eberron has been in the hobby for almost two decades and has had non-evil playable goblinoids since the beginning. Goblinoids have been playable in Mystara for even longer than that. Goblins aren't evil in Ravnica.
The fact that Goblinoids are playable and not required to be evil is a good thing for having the game support a bunch of different settings.
And I don't think that the changes to the Bugbear are overpowered. They're situationally beneficial, requiring that you get higher initiative than the creature you're attacking and only works on the first round of combat.
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I'm actually surprised they made the damage apply to every attack in the first round in addition to making it a lot easier to trigger (just need a decent initiative roll and you should beat something). The original 2d6 bonus on the first round was already okay when you got it, the problem was getting it, not it being only once in the turn. It feels like a possible mistake.
But yeah, for a Monk, like you say that's potentially 6d6 on the first round with a Flurry of Blows, or 8d6 from 5th-level, and that's ignoring the chance of rolling a critical hit on one of those four attacks (if you can get advantage somehow then your chances are pretty good). If you've got the levels to do it throw on three in Rogue for Assassin and make your enemies really regret rolling less than you as you punch them in half in round one… 😂
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Adding on to what I said earlier because I was didn't have much time to post then:
Monks only have a d8 hit die, and usually they don't have room for a high con score. Staying 10 feet away and making melee attacks (including unarmed strikes) allows the monk to do there normal routine while probably staying out of reach of most of the "big enemies" attacks. This allows the tanks to tank and the monk to keep swinging.
If the monsters want to get the monk, they'd have to move through the other melee combatants and take several OA's or else knock out all the other enemies first. This is less useful in combat with a lot of different weaker monsters, but is, nonetheless, quite a good ability for monks.
The stealth proficency is great for "Wanna be rogues" monks. The extra damage seems great because monks rely on high dex score and thus have high inititive, so they probably would get to make use of it a lot. And at low levels? The extra damage is REAL overpowered.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it got errata’d to once one a turn. Allowing it on all attacks, even if it is just round one (or could be more if you actually got surprise and beat their initiative)
Edit: I misread it. Even if you surprise an enemy they still get a turn they just can’t take actions. So it would only be round one
The Way of the Astral Self is a somewhat trash subclass until level 17, but is significantly better with Bugbear. Since Arms of the Astral Self extends the range of your Stan arms 5 ft beyond your typical reach, Bugbear arms work really well in combination with it. The limitation here is that 1st round of activities might be partially wasted just summoning your long phantom limbs with a BAction.
This is what I don't like about alignment changes. Evil races are always overpowered, so they are supposed to be limited by their evil, selfish nature. Evil turns upon itself. When that factor is taken away, you end up with Bugbears and Goblins running around everywhere.
Not every setting is the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. Eberron has been in the hobby for almost two decades and has had non-evil playable goblinoids since the beginning. Goblinoids have been playable in Mystara for even longer than that. Goblins aren't evil in Ravnica.
The fact that Goblinoids are playable and not required to be evil is a good thing for having the game support a bunch of different settings.
And I don't think that the changes to the Bugbear are overpowered. They're situationally beneficial, requiring that you get higher initiative than the creature you're attacking and only works on the first round of combat.
While it doesn't bother me that the goblinoids, kobolds, etc. are no longer default Evil per se, I do think that the new PC sourcebook (let's not speak it's outlandishly grandiose name) feels only half-finished since there is little to no lore to support the species/races printed there. They could have at least dropped a few thematic storytelling hooks in for each species, as was attempted in the PHB.
And while I don't think that Bugbears are OP in and of themselves, it should not be a surprise to any one that an all-Bugbear party is now pretty easy to optimize into a "First Strike" squad (borrowing a bit of lingo from Wizards' other flagship product).
While it doesn't bother me that the goblinoids, kobolds, etc. are no longer default Evil per se, I do think that the new PC sourcebook (let's not speak it's outlandishly grandiose name) feels only half-finished since there is little to no lore to support the species/races printed there. They could have at least dropped a few thematic storytelling hooks in for each species, as was attempted in the PHB.
I think that is deliberate. When the PHB (and Volo's and Xanather's) came out D&D was based on the Forgotten Realms. Now there is published material on Eberon, Ravnica and Wildmount and more are coming out all the time. To make Drow lore in Forgotten Realms compatable to the lore in Wildmount you would need to complete rewrite history, by not mentioning lore future publications, and homebrew worlds are free to choose their own lore.
The bugbear before would instakill supposedly equal opponents at level one then fall off later, now it goes from instakilling things at low levels to sometimes still instakilling things at high levels.
They should have just made the effect slightly easier to activate and added scaling with level, because no character should deal fireball damage at level 2.
The race is balanced until people make monk-fighter-assassin builds to instakill ancient dragons before they’re supposed to be fighting ancient dragons.
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I used to think the Tabaxi was the best because it gave you dark vision and 40ft base movement. Add in Felion agility and ferrous claws feat (in my opinion they should be one combined racial feat, but I digress) and you have an amazing monk d8 slashing unarmed strike with 240 movement speed (step of the wind Felion reflexes). 280 if you have mobility to (that is one high Supplex good thing you're a monk and can ignore most fall damage) 560 feet if you have haste. You can still move faster this is only with the plus 10ft you get at the early levels of monk. I like to add a dash of mage slayer to take out any spell sniping warlocks.
This on the other had fixes the biggest issue with monk other than being unable to properly abuse polearm master sentinel feat combo and being unable to use great weapon master. That is the extra 5 feat you need to use polearm master at range notice this feat doesn't say the attack has to be made with the spear or quatre staff you just need to be holding it.
So, you can make an attack of opportunity before enemies get close reduce their movement to 0 then hit them during your turn and back away rinse repeat or stunning strike Bug bear monks officially the best monk class now. All we need is the return of combat reflexes feat to give us 1+ wisdom or dex attacks of opportunity per round and the bug bear monk would be the new king.
How does this work with the Astral monk do your attacks go up to 25 feat or are they unchanged?
While it doesn't bother me that the goblinoids, kobolds, etc. are no longer default Evil per se, I do think that the new PC sourcebook (let's not speak it's outlandishly grandiose name) feels only half-finished since there is little to no lore to support the species/races printed there. They could have at least dropped a few thematic storytelling hooks in for each species, as was attempted in the PHB.
I think that is deliberate. When the PHB (and Volo's and Xanather's) came out D&D was based on the Forgotten Realms. Now there is published material on Eberon, Ravnica and Wildmount and more are coming out all the time. To make Drow lore in Forgotten Realms compatable to the lore in Wildmount you would need to complete rewrite history, by not mentioning lore future publications, and homebrew worlds are free to choose their own lore.
I mean, I'd be fine with that if we'd also get properly fleshed out source books for the different settings instead of a sourcebook that's actually an adventure book with stuff that mostly amounts to a teaser to the setting at best. The Eberron books are fine in that regard, the others though? Not so much.
I’m pretty sure strixhaven is almost pure adventure module
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Long-Limbed. When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
Long-Limbed of the bugbear, it is not only an advantage for the monk, but I would say especially for any class that has weapons with reach. 15 feet of reach during your turn to attack and 10 feet to attack in reaction.... Absurd.
Surprise Attack. If you surprise a creature and hit it with an attack on your first turn in combat, the attack deals an extra 2d6 damage to it. You can use this trait only once per combat.
Surprise
A band of adventurers sneaks up on a bandit camp, springing from the trees to attack them. A gelatinous cube glides down a dungeon passage, unnoticed by the adventurers until the cube engulfs one of them. In these situations, one side of the battle gains surprise over the other.
The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.
If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.
I don't understand if Surprise Attack can be used on multiple creatures in the same Surprise turn, or even for any attack made during that turn (even on the same creature). But on the text it is written in singular and so I guess it can be done on only one creature. If this racial ability is used for every attack it is absolutely abnormal. The monk and the fighter could actually take advantage of it.
I can only infer from this that it is one of the strongest races in the game and an excellent choice for any melee combatant.
If you hit a creature with an attack roll, the creature takes an extra 2d6 damage if it hasn’t taken a turn yet in the current combat.
In this case it is even stronger. Now you don't even need an ambush, it's just a matter of initiative, perfect for an assassin or better yet a shadow monk assassin.
With Mordenkainen presents: Monsters of the Multiverse has the Bugbear become a top choice for the Monk? It has the new/revised trait.
So if you can go before the enemy all of your attacks get the additional damage so turn one would be a great time to FoB.
Also they have:
This helps the monk keep all of their attacks and move away without having to burn a Ki point for Step of the Wind or take an OA.
The fact that they also have Stealth proficiency helps so you can take another skill if you wanted to be a stealthy build.
I would really like to try the new Bugbear and take the Alert feat at level 4. Alas, my DM doesn’t allow them as one of the PC races.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Monks need some help with their low HP, and long limbed provides it. they can make melee attacks and unarmed strikes 10 feet away with the ability. And the enemy just has to stand there fighting the other melee allies and sulk that they can't attack the monk without provoking OA's.
Yeah, this is definitely a top choice for monks.
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HERE.This is what I don't like about alignment changes. Evil races are always overpowered, so they are supposed to be limited by their evil, selfish nature. Evil turns upon itself. When that factor is taken away, you end up with Bugbears and Goblins running around everywhere.
I don't think the traditionally evil races are particularly overpowered, with the one possible exception of the legacy Yuan-ti.
vHuman and custom linage are the races most often used by optimisers in order to get the feat (I accect custom linage can be a "evil" race but it could also be a "good" race). A monk could then choose something like mobile to avoid op attacks.
Half elves are another optimisers favorite race for the extra ASI along with skill versatility, fey ancestry and darkvision.
Overall I thing races are reasonably well balanced, some are stronger than others and some suit particular builds but I don't think the traditionally evil races are overall any stronger.
If you look at the thread on best races for a monk they is a mix between the "evil" and "good" races.
Even before the MMM bugbear boost it was a good race to consider for monk mainly because of long limbed. The boost to damage round one if the target hasn’t gone yet is just icing on the cake.
I always wanted to play a bugbear Drunken Master monk that talked like Bobcat Goldthwait.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Not every setting is the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. Eberron has been in the hobby for almost two decades and has had non-evil playable goblinoids since the beginning. Goblinoids have been playable in Mystara for even longer than that. Goblins aren't evil in Ravnica.
The fact that Goblinoids are playable and not required to be evil is a good thing for having the game support a bunch of different settings.
And I don't think that the changes to the Bugbear are overpowered. They're situationally beneficial, requiring that you get higher initiative than the creature you're attacking and only works on the first round of combat.
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I'm actually surprised they made the damage apply to every attack in the first round in addition to making it a lot easier to trigger (just need a decent initiative roll and you should beat something). The original 2d6 bonus on the first round was already okay when you got it, the problem was getting it, not it being only once in the turn. It feels like a possible mistake.
But yeah, for a Monk, like you say that's potentially 6d6 on the first round with a Flurry of Blows, or 8d6 from 5th-level, and that's ignoring the chance of rolling a critical hit on one of those four attacks (if you can get advantage somehow then your chances are pretty good). If you've got the levels to do it throw on three in Rogue for Assassin and make your enemies really regret rolling less than you as you punch them in half in round one… 😂
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Adding on to what I said earlier because I was didn't have much time to post then:
Monks only have a d8 hit die, and usually they don't have room for a high con score. Staying 10 feet away and making melee attacks (including unarmed strikes) allows the monk to do there normal routine while probably staying out of reach of most of the "big enemies" attacks. This allows the tanks to tank and the monk to keep swinging.
If the monsters want to get the monk, they'd have to move through the other melee combatants and take several OA's or else knock out all the other enemies first. This is less useful in combat with a lot of different weaker monsters, but is, nonetheless, quite a good ability for monks.
The stealth proficency is great for "Wanna be rogues" monks. The extra damage seems great because monks rely on high dex score and thus have high inititive, so they probably would get to make use of it a lot. And at low levels? The extra damage is REAL overpowered.
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HERE.I wouldn’t be surprised if it got errata’d to once one a turn. Allowing it on all attacks, even if it is just round one
(or could be more if you actually got surprise and beat their initiative)Edit: I misread it. Even if you surprise an enemy they still get a turn they just can’t take actions. So it would only be round one
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
The Way of the Astral Self is a somewhat trash subclass until level 17, but is significantly better with Bugbear. Since Arms of the Astral Self extends the range of your Stan arms 5 ft beyond your typical reach, Bugbear arms work really well in combination with it. The limitation here is that 1st round of activities might be partially wasted just summoning your long phantom limbs with a BAction.
While it doesn't bother me that the goblinoids, kobolds, etc. are no longer default Evil per se, I do think that the new PC sourcebook (let's not speak it's outlandishly grandiose name) feels only half-finished since there is little to no lore to support the species/races printed there. They could have at least dropped a few thematic storytelling hooks in for each species, as was attempted in the PHB.
And while I don't think that Bugbears are OP in and of themselves, it should not be a surprise to any one that an all-Bugbear party is now pretty easy to optimize into a "First Strike" squad (borrowing a bit of lingo from Wizards' other flagship product).
I think that is deliberate. When the PHB (and Volo's and Xanather's) came out D&D was based on the Forgotten Realms. Now there is published material on Eberon, Ravnica and Wildmount and more are coming out all the time. To make Drow lore in Forgotten Realms compatable to the lore in Wildmount you would need to complete rewrite history, by not mentioning lore future publications, and homebrew worlds are free to choose their own lore.
The bugbear before would instakill supposedly equal opponents at level one then fall off later, now it goes from instakilling things at low levels to sometimes still instakilling things at high levels.
They should have just made the effect slightly easier to activate and added scaling with level, because no character should deal fireball damage at level 2.
The race is balanced until people make monk-fighter-assassin builds to instakill ancient dragons before they’re supposed to be fighting ancient dragons.
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I used to think the Tabaxi was the best because it gave you dark vision and 40ft base movement. Add in Felion agility and ferrous claws feat (in my opinion they should be one combined racial feat, but I digress) and you have an amazing monk d8 slashing unarmed strike with 240 movement speed (step of the wind Felion reflexes). 280 if you have mobility to (that is one high Supplex good thing you're a monk and can ignore most fall damage) 560 feet if you have haste. You can still move faster this is only with the plus 10ft you get at the early levels of monk. I like to add a dash of mage slayer to take out any spell sniping warlocks.
This on the other had fixes the biggest issue with monk other than being unable to properly abuse polearm master sentinel feat combo and being unable to use great weapon master. That is the extra 5 feat you need to use polearm master at range notice this feat doesn't say the attack has to be made with the spear or quatre staff you just need to be holding it.
So, you can make an attack of opportunity before enemies get close reduce their movement to 0 then hit them during your turn and back away rinse repeat or stunning strike Bug bear monks officially the best monk class now. All we need is the return of combat reflexes feat to give us 1+ wisdom or dex attacks of opportunity per round and the bug bear monk would be the new king.
How does this work with the Astral monk do your attacks go up to 25 feat or are they unchanged?
P.S. 10ft stunning strike.
I’m pretty sure strixhaven is almost pure adventure module
Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
Quest offer! Enter the deep dungeon here
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Long-Limbed of the bugbear, it is not only an advantage for the monk, but I would say especially for any class that has weapons with reach. 15 feet of reach during your turn to attack and 10 feet to attack in reaction.... Absurd.
Surprise
A band of adventurers sneaks up on a bandit camp, springing from the trees to attack them. A gelatinous cube glides down a dungeon passage, unnoticed by the adventurers until the cube engulfs one of them. In these situations, one side of the battle gains surprise over the other.
The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.
If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.
I don't understand if Surprise Attack can be used on multiple creatures in the same Surprise turn, or even for any attack made during that turn (even on the same creature). But on the text it is written in singular and so I guess it can be done on only one creature.
If this racial ability is used for every attack it is absolutely abnormal. The monk and the fighter could actually take advantage of it.
I can only infer from this that it is one of the strongest races in the game and an excellent choice for any melee combatant.
In this case it is even stronger. Now you don't even need an ambush, it's just a matter of initiative, perfect for an assassin or better yet a shadow monk assassin.
Is really a BUG-bear.