Hi folks. I recently rebooted one of my characters as a Kensei Monk, and one issue I've come up with that I'm just not sure about is the issue of the "Agile Parry" ability.

Specifically, the ability says: If you make an unarmed strike as part of the Attack action on your turn and are holding a kensei weapon, you can use it to defend yourself if it is a melee weapon. You gain a +2 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn, while the weapon is in your hand and you aren’t incapacitated.

Now, when I read this, when it says "...as part of the Attack action...," to me, that means it specifically has to be either your first (primary) attack, or, later on, when you get Extra Attack, that secondary attack. To my mind, you cannot utilize your Monk class's bonus unarmed strike to fulfill this condition. It basically comes down to choosing whether you want the extra damage of your kensei weapon or the raised AC.

However, my DM believes that any unarmed strike taken on my turn fulfills the condition and raises my character's AC. While I feel like this fits with the "spirit" of the subclass, being able to agilely defend yourself while attacking, it's not what the book actually says. What is your thought on this matter? I don't want to nerf my character voluntarily if I don't have to, but if I'm going strictly by the way the ability reads, I think I'm doing it wrong.

Her AC actually doesn't matter too much because she has Mobile and 55 ft. of movement, but I am curious.

Your interpretation is correct; a bonus action is always its own thing.

You are correct, and it is a perplexing oddity. There was a pretty good discussion of it here in the monk section as I recall.

It's not weird at all; you're holding back with your weapon to keep it available for parrying.

I feel it is odd, as others stated more eloquently in the previous thread, for someone whose focus is excellence with one weapon it seems odd (to me) to forgo using it offensively. I understand the defensive argument I just disagree with it. It makes more sense to me to have the Kensai sacrifice his bonus action to agile parry.

Additionally I disagree with more weapon options as progression bonuses (but thats another thread), the Kensai is devoted to the one weapon in my mind.

Quote from Quasimojo>>

It makes more sense to me to have the Kensai sacrifice his bonus action to agile parry.

That'd be much worse. Trading an attack with a 1d10 melee weapon for a 1d4 unarmed strike only costs you 3 damage on average, and the cost goes down as your martial arts damage increases. Giving up your bonus action means losing at least 5.5 damage (1d4 + 3), and you lose more damage as your martial arts die and DEX mod increase.

You're right from a numbers standpoint, but I focus more thematically. You don't have to Agile Parry, but if you do my way makes more sense to me.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll take up doing it the correct way to avoid making a bad habit of it. Little as it matters to her having the extra 2 AC, it's a nice option when she's the tankiest option in the party. Combined with her Cloak of Protection, and her eventual Bracers of Defense, Ring of Protection and Defensive Duelist, she'll be plenty capable of holding her own when the need arises. Otherwise, the rest of the time, she'll probably lean more heavily on her mobility and offense.