I'm gonna be creating a monk real soon for my next campaign, but I'm uncertain which subclass should I choose. I like to balance both things RP elements and fun and/or strong mechanics.
What are your favorites monk's subclasses?
What do you think of Way of the Cobal Soul (allowed it for this campaign) or the new subclasses from Tasha's (Really intrigued by both Way of the Astral Self & Way of Mercy)?
My Monk is about to hit 7 and he's Open Hand. The lower end stuff is rather "meh" compared to some of the other subs, but I am holding out for 17 for the "kill you NOW" skill. I had, for a time, seriously considered switching to Mercy, as our group was pretty shy of healing skills. When I really looked at it, however, I decided my Ki was MUCH more valuable in battlefield tactics (Stunning Strike, extra pair of hits with FoB, and so forth) and the healing per Ki was so low I simply couldn't justify it.
My suggestion would be to look over all the subclasses, with YOUR Monk in mind. What drives him/her. what motivates, what interests? Is your Monk someone who would stop to lend aid to anyone who looked in need, maybe Mercy fits. Is your Monk fascinated with the arcane? If so, maybe Kensei or Astral are appealing. IMO, the Monk is a highly versatile class and thus far, MOST of the usefulness has come from class skills, NOT subclass.
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Depends on what sort of character you want to play and what tier you're playing at. I have a bugbear (currently L2) that will most likely go Shadow, because it fits thematically. I also like that Shadow provides benefits to the party, like Pass Without Trace. But I might yet pick Way of Mercy, as I've not tried it before.
My Monk is about to hit 7 and he's Open Hand. The lower end stuff is rather "meh" compared to some of the other subs, but I am holding out for 17 for the "kill you NOW" skill. I had, for a time, seriously considered switching to Mercy, as our group was pretty shy of healing skills. When I really looked at it, however, I decided my Ki was MUCH more valuable in battlefield tactics (Stunning Strike, extra pair of hits with FoB, and so forth) and the healing per Ki was so low I simply couldn't justify it.
My suggestion would be to look over all the subclasses, with YOUR Monk in mind. What drives him/her. what motivates, what interests? Is your Monk someone who would stop to lend aid to anyone who looked in need, maybe Mercy fits. Is your Monk fascinated with the arcane? If so, maybe Kensei or Astral are appealing. IMO, the Monk is a highly versatile class and thus far, MOST of the usefulness has come from class skills, NOT subclass.
Tasha's lets you switch subclasses, so you can go mercy, then switch to open hand at high levels.
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"The Doomvault... Probably full of unicorns and rainbows." -An imaginary quote
Monks are a really unique experience, although Im partial to open hand, four elements is good 2 ( make sure the party doesn't have wu jen, they will constantly outshine you LOL) shinobi is a pretty good subclass, I kinda liked the really sneaky lvl 6 feature, ( wink, wink, nudge, nudge, rogue multiclass ) but kensei and sun soul are pretty good, I was disapointed by drunken master, cuz I liked the movie but the subclass is kinda trash, no offense, and I don't got tasha's so idk
If you can play cobalt soul and take eldritch adept (either by v.human lvl 1 feat or a later ASI) you can pick the Mask of many faces and make a pretty cool spy kind of monk, change your appearance to get in anywhere, and figure out secrets and such..
Other than that, I kinda like the way of mercy because it's a pretty cool concept and I like the healing part of it. It's probably not one of the strongest ones but thematically it's my favorite.
If you can play cobalt soul and take eldritch adept (either by v.human lvl 1 feat or a later ASI) you can pick the Mask of many faces and make a pretty cool spy kind of monk, change your appearance to get in anywhere, and figure out secrets and such..
Other than that, I kinda like the way of mercy because it's a pretty cool concept and I like the healing part of it. It's probably not one of the strongest ones but thematically it's my favorite.
Does Cobalt Soul give you the spell casting feature like a wizard or cleric? Or pact magic like warlock? I’m not familiar with the CS monk but Eldritch Adept requires either of those two features.
Edit: mercy might actually be pretty strong with extra necrotic damage and being able to inflict the poisoned condition with no save once you get level 6. Unless they are immune to poisoned condition they are at disadvantage on rolls (attack and ability checks)
If you can play cobalt soul and take eldritch adept (either by v.human lvl 1 feat or a later ASI) you can pick the Mask of many faces and make a pretty cool spy kind of monk, change your appearance to get in anywhere, and figure out secrets and such..
Other than that, I kinda like the way of mercy because it's a pretty cool concept and I like the healing part of it. It's probably not one of the strongest ones but thematically it's my favorite.
Does Cobalt Soul give you the spell casting feature like a wizard or cleric? Or pact magic like warlock? I’m not familiar with the CS monk but Eldritch Adept requires either of those two features.
Edit: mercy might actually be pretty strong with extra necrotic damage and being able to inflict the poisoned condition with no save once you get level 6. Unless they are immune to poisoned condition they are at disadvantage on rolls (attack and ability checks)
Ah, no, it doesn't. Forgot about that requirement, sorry. They don't.. I just imagined this scene where you would walk up to your target, "stumble" into them and use the Ki to either "accidentaly" grab/grapple them (grab both shoulders and be like "oh sorry") or make more of a bodyslam type attack, pretending to trip and almost tackle them.. Depending on how hard the DM would judge the abilitys usage (just says you have to use flurry to make unarmed attacks, I think a grapple could count?). Then excuse yourself, walk away fast, go around a corner then change appearance again blending into a crowd... Just so you'd have information about your enemy for later, maybe setting it up for the rogue to assassinate it or just in case you end up fighting (maybe it's planned later..).
I mean, one part of it is being able to use your reaction if they miss to make an unarmed attack, but the other part is all the vulnerabilities, resistances and such.. Could make for a pretty cool scene later when you face them again, they (maybe being a were creature) are confident and plan to beat the shit out of you, while you're just staring at them while bringing up your silvered knuckledusters ;)
But, yeah, no magic abilities so... Hat of disguise it is! :)
Until you take a short or long rest, you know their weaknesses and resistances and such, and if you need to attack them you
As for mercy, yeah it's a somewhat short duration of poisoned though, but the end of your NEXT turn isn't that bad tbh and I'm sure it could be used well... Especially if you're using the optional uses for disarm, where you could do one hit, inflict poison and then disarm. Also note that initiative is an ability check so the poisoned target would suffer disadvantage on initiative checks while poisoned.
The healing would depend a lot on if you have much healing in your group already, but I think that since they get their Ki back on a short rest, this can actually be very useful.. Especially in combination with mobility. Their fast movement (and no attacks of opportunity) would let them dash across the battlefield and raise a downed friend (0 hp), essentially working as some kind of mobile healing word :p As "always" I feel the best use of healing in combat is to bring someone back up from 0 hp, which is the reason why healing word is so good... And the way of mercy monk can do this twice in a turn later, or even 3 times if hasted (1 with their regular action, haste Attack action so they are allowed to use flurry, then twice with the 2 flurry attacks). Either way, hopefully the party is never in this state at the same time but even so, just doing it once a turn is useful when someone goes down. And the most important part about this ability isn't the ability to do it up to 3 times in a turn, but more the fact that it would only require 1 ki to do and they regain all their ki on a short rest... So a level 5 monk could technically do it 5 times (not being able to do a lot of other fun stuff instead, but the option IS there for those few moments when your barbarian friend gets downed 5 times in a single battle :p ) They can also cure diseases and the blinded, deafened, poisoned, paralyzed and stunned conditions while healing... It's pretty good, especially later on when they can do it for "free" when they are already using ki for flurry, which I presume monks like to do a lot?
I mean, I by no means believe the way of mercy monk is the strongest option around, in fact it might be one of the weaker (though tbh I haven't tried to compare) but I do feel it makes for a really cool monk, and I believe it will be a good mix of support and offence, especially in a bigger group.
The nice thing about mercy is the extra damage from hand of harm isn’t used until you hit so it’s not wasted by a bad roll. So essentially it’s as if you had an extra unarmed strike. And healing is good in a pinch or as you said like a battlefield medic moving to downed party members. And no save on poisoned means disadvantage on attacks, which can be applied each round if you FoB at no additional cost at level 11.
Downside of mercy is everything is based on Ki so if you are out you have no subclass abilities.
Mercy, I believe, would be a good candidate for the unarmed fighting style via the feat since their abilities are based solely on unarmed attacks not monk weapon attacks. So the d8 early on is helpful and the fighting style can be swapped out at level 12 for something else like blind fighting once your unarmed strikes are naturally d8.
Just be aware even with the feat the hand of heal/harm is based on the martial arts die on the monk table, not the feat damage, so starts at d4.
This is just my ovvn preference, but If I vvere to make a monk right novv, I vvould probably make a mercy monk.. It's one of those subclasses vvhere they get a cool nevv core feature early, and that feature greatly improves as you level up.. It's just super vvell designed imo.
Shadovv is obviously pretty darn cool, but I'm not entirely sure if it's actually effective.. It's also very DM dependent... From vvhat I've seen, vvhat DM's deem as dim light can vary a lot.. But if your DM allovvs you to shadovvstep into people's shadovvs.. then you can make a really cool character imo.
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I'm gonna be creating a monk real soon for my next campaign, but I'm uncertain which subclass should I choose. I like to balance both things RP elements and fun and/or strong mechanics.
What are your favorites monk's subclasses?
What do you think of Way of the Cobal Soul (allowed it for this campaign) or the new subclasses from Tasha's (Really intrigued by both Way of the Astral Self & Way of Mercy)?
List of pros & cons for each subclass?
My Monk is about to hit 7 and he's Open Hand. The lower end stuff is rather "meh" compared to some of the other subs, but I am holding out for 17 for the "kill you NOW" skill. I had, for a time, seriously considered switching to Mercy, as our group was pretty shy of healing skills. When I really looked at it, however, I decided my Ki was MUCH more valuable in battlefield tactics (Stunning Strike, extra pair of hits with FoB, and so forth) and the healing per Ki was so low I simply couldn't justify it.
My suggestion would be to look over all the subclasses, with YOUR Monk in mind. What drives him/her. what motivates, what interests? Is your Monk someone who would stop to lend aid to anyone who looked in need, maybe Mercy fits. Is your Monk fascinated with the arcane? If so, maybe Kensei or Astral are appealing. IMO, the Monk is a highly versatile class and thus far, MOST of the usefulness has come from class skills, NOT subclass.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Depends on what sort of character you want to play and what tier you're playing at. I have a bugbear (currently L2) that will most likely go Shadow, because it fits thematically. I also like that Shadow provides benefits to the party, like Pass Without Trace. But I might yet pick Way of Mercy, as I've not tried it before.
Tasha's lets you switch subclasses, so you can go mercy, then switch to open hand at high levels.
Pronouns: he/him/his.
My posting scheduled is irregular: sometimes I can post twice a week, sometimes twice a day. I may also respond to quick questions, but ignore harder responses in favor of time.
My location is where my character for my home game is (we're doing the wild beyond the witchlight).
"The Doomvault... Probably full of unicorns and rainbows." -An imaginary quote
Monks are a really unique experience, although Im partial to open hand, four elements is good 2 ( make sure the party doesn't have wu jen, they will constantly outshine you LOL) shinobi is a pretty good subclass, I kinda liked the really sneaky lvl 6 feature, ( wink, wink, nudge, nudge, rogue multiclass ) but kensei and sun soul are pretty good, I was disapointed by drunken master, cuz I liked the movie but the subclass is kinda trash, no offense, and I don't got tasha's so idk
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.
have you ever tried CR's Way of the Cobalt Soul?
If you can play cobalt soul and take eldritch adept (either by v.human lvl 1 feat or a later ASI) you can pick the Mask of many faces and make a pretty cool spy kind of monk, change your appearance to get in anywhere, and figure out secrets and such..
Other than that, I kinda like the way of mercy because it's a pretty cool concept and I like the healing part of it. It's probably not one of the strongest ones but thematically it's my favorite.
Does Cobalt Soul give you the spell casting feature like a wizard or cleric? Or pact magic like warlock? I’m not familiar with the CS monk but Eldritch Adept requires either of those two features.
Edit: mercy might actually be pretty strong with extra necrotic damage and being able to inflict the poisoned condition with no save once you get level 6. Unless they are immune to poisoned condition they are at disadvantage on rolls (attack and ability checks)
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Ah, no, it doesn't. Forgot about that requirement, sorry. They don't.. I just imagined this scene where you would walk up to your target, "stumble" into them and use the Ki to either "accidentaly" grab/grapple them (grab both shoulders and be like "oh sorry") or make more of a bodyslam type attack, pretending to trip and almost tackle them.. Depending on how hard the DM would judge the abilitys usage (just says you have to use flurry to make unarmed attacks, I think a grapple could count?). Then excuse yourself, walk away fast, go around a corner then change appearance again blending into a crowd... Just so you'd have information about your enemy for later, maybe setting it up for the rogue to assassinate it or just in case you end up fighting (maybe it's planned later..).
I mean, one part of it is being able to use your reaction if they miss to make an unarmed attack, but the other part is all the vulnerabilities, resistances and such.. Could make for a pretty cool scene later when you face them again, they (maybe being a were creature) are confident and plan to beat the shit out of you, while you're just staring at them while bringing up your silvered knuckledusters ;)
But, yeah, no magic abilities so... Hat of disguise it is! :)
Until you take a short or long rest, you know their weaknesses and resistances and such, and if you need to attack them you
As for mercy, yeah it's a somewhat short duration of poisoned though, but the end of your NEXT turn isn't that bad tbh and I'm sure it could be used well... Especially if you're using the optional uses for disarm, where you could do one hit, inflict poison and then disarm. Also note that initiative is an ability check so the poisoned target would suffer disadvantage on initiative checks while poisoned.
The healing would depend a lot on if you have much healing in your group already, but I think that since they get their Ki back on a short rest, this can actually be very useful.. Especially in combination with mobility. Their fast movement (and no attacks of opportunity) would let them dash across the battlefield and raise a downed friend (0 hp), essentially working as some kind of mobile healing word :p
As "always" I feel the best use of healing in combat is to bring someone back up from 0 hp, which is the reason why healing word is so good... And the way of mercy monk can do this twice in a turn later, or even 3 times if hasted (1 with their regular action, haste Attack action so they are allowed to use flurry, then twice with the 2 flurry attacks). Either way, hopefully the party is never in this state at the same time but even so, just doing it once a turn is useful when someone goes down. And the most important part about this ability isn't the ability to do it up to 3 times in a turn, but more the fact that it would only require 1 ki to do and they regain all their ki on a short rest... So a level 5 monk could technically do it 5 times (not being able to do a lot of other fun stuff instead, but the option IS there for those few moments when your barbarian friend gets downed 5 times in a single battle :p ) They can also cure diseases and the blinded, deafened, poisoned, paralyzed and stunned conditions while healing... It's pretty good, especially later on when they can do it for "free" when they are already using ki for flurry, which I presume monks like to do a lot?
I mean, I by no means believe the way of mercy monk is the strongest option around, in fact it might be one of the weaker (though tbh I haven't tried to compare) but I do feel it makes for a really cool monk, and I believe it will be a good mix of support and offence, especially in a bigger group.
The nice thing about mercy is the extra damage from hand of harm isn’t used until you hit so it’s not wasted by a bad roll. So essentially it’s as if you had an extra unarmed strike. And healing is good in a pinch or as you said like a battlefield medic moving to downed party members. And no save on poisoned means disadvantage on attacks, which can be applied each round if you FoB at no additional cost at level 11.
Downside of mercy is everything is based on Ki so if you are out you have no subclass abilities.
Mercy, I believe, would be a good candidate for the unarmed fighting style via the feat since their abilities are based solely on unarmed attacks not monk weapon attacks. So the d8 early on is helpful and the fighting style can be swapped out at level 12 for something else like blind fighting once your unarmed strikes are naturally d8.
Just be aware even with the feat the hand of heal/harm is based on the martial arts die on the monk table, not the feat damage, so starts at d4.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
This is just my ovvn preference, but If I vvere to make a monk right novv, I vvould probably make a mercy monk.. It's one of those subclasses vvhere they get a cool nevv core feature early, and that feature greatly improves as you level up.. It's just super vvell designed imo.
Shadovv is obviously pretty darn cool, but I'm not entirely sure if it's actually effective.. It's also very DM dependent... From vvhat I've seen, vvhat DM's deem as dim light can vary a lot.. But if your DM allovvs you to shadovvstep into people's shadovvs.. then you can make a really cool character imo.