Since some styles of Martial Arts are based on Animal Styles, I thought that a Druid (Circle of Moon)/Monk (Drunken Master) would be a viable combination. But while making it I thought of an issue: How many of the Monk's features could still be used in Animal form?
My opinion is: Flurry of Blows, Stunning Strike, Deflect Arrows (though not necessarily the attack with the weapon), Step of the Wind, Slow Fall, Bonus to movement speed, and many of the Drunken Master features (Drunkards Luck, Drunken Style, Kip Up) should all work with this combination.
AC improvement using Wisdom might not, though I could be convinced to change my mind on this.
Wild Shape says that "You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so." The monks Unarmored Defense falls under a feature from your class so its benefit still applies when you Wild Shape.
Do keep in mind though that your game statistics will be replaced by the statistics of the beast, but you retain your alignment, personality, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. Meaning that your AC while in Wild Shape will be: (10 + The Dexterity modifier of the Beast you Wild Shape into + Your Wisdom modifier), assuming you keep in mind the restriction to armor and shields for Unarmored Defense.
As far as I know all of the monks class features can still be used while in your Wild Shape. With maybe the only exceptions being: Not able to catch the missile when using the Deflect Missiles feature due to a lack of hands depending on the Form of your Wild Shape. I would recommend you ask your DM if your Beast Form can perhaps catch the missile in some other way for example by mouth, beak or feet even. But even if they won't allowed you to catch it, you can still deflect it nonetheless. Furthermore, lvl 13 Tongue of the Sun and Moon wouldn't really be useful in Wild shape seeing as you cant speak while in Beast form and level 18 Empty Body spending 8 ki points to cast Astral Projection wouldn't work either because you can't cast spells while in Wild shape.
So yeah, Moon Druid/Drunken Monk is defiantly a viable combination. Wild shaping into a Bear and then clawing your way through the enemies while getting drunk Winnie the Pooh style eating/drinking Honey mead. Sounds Cool to me! Also a good contester for a Monk subclass would be the Way of the Astral Self from Tasha's, seeing as your Druid's main state probably already is Wisdom and that Astral Self Monks uses Wisdom for there Unarmed Strikes.
The only real issue with this combination, unless you only dip into the monk class, is that it will seriously delay the Druid wild shape feature. Bears are very cool and powerful when you obtain the ability to wild shape into them but their usefulness fades a lot over the next few levels and depending on how many levels of monk you take, you might be using a bear form for a very long time.
If your game goes long enough, it will also delay your elemental wild shapes at level 10 which are arguably the strongest moon Druid wild shapes available. In addition, since the elementals are capable of talking in at least one language, the Druid in elemental form can also talk and communicate with the party.
However, one level of monk gets the alternate method of calculating AC which is a significant improvement for high dex wild shapes (with 20 wisdom, an air elemental ends up with a 20AC). In addition, the creature also has a 1d4 + stat bonus action attack.
Finally, good use of monk abilities is limited by how much ki they have. This means that you might often want more levels in monk to increase both ki and access to abilities like Extra Attack (which might work with creatures without the Multiattack action), stun, evasion etc.
The bottom line is that both monk and moon druid really benefit from more levels in each class respectively so significant multiclassing can really slow down the character abilities.
On the other hand, a level 10 druid/10 monk might be an interesting mix of abilities but getting there in a fun way might be a challenge.
It's not an optimized build, but it is a fun one. I made one which emphasizes a hit and run play style - combining monk speed, mobile, and charge/pounce.
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Since some styles of Martial Arts are based on Animal Styles, I thought that a Druid (Circle of Moon)/Monk (Drunken Master) would be a viable combination. But while making it I thought of an issue: How many of the Monk's features could still be used in Animal form?
My opinion is: Flurry of Blows, Stunning Strike, Deflect Arrows (though not necessarily the attack with the weapon), Step of the Wind, Slow Fall, Bonus to movement speed, and many of the Drunken Master features (Drunkards Luck, Drunken Style, Kip Up) should all work with this combination.
AC improvement using Wisdom might not, though I could be convinced to change my mind on this.
Thoughts?
Wild Shape says that "You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so." The monks Unarmored Defense falls under a feature from your class so its benefit still applies when you Wild Shape.
Do keep in mind though that your game statistics will be replaced by the statistics of the beast, but you retain your alignment, personality, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. Meaning that your AC while in Wild Shape will be: (10 + The Dexterity modifier of the Beast you Wild Shape into + Your Wisdom modifier), assuming you keep in mind the restriction to armor and shields for Unarmored Defense.
As far as I know all of the monks class features can still be used while in your Wild Shape. With maybe the only exceptions being: Not able to catch the missile when using the Deflect Missiles feature due to a lack of hands depending on the Form of your Wild Shape. I would recommend you ask your DM if your Beast Form can perhaps catch the missile in some other way for example by mouth, beak or feet even. But even if they won't allowed you to catch it, you can still deflect it nonetheless. Furthermore, lvl 13 Tongue of the Sun and Moon wouldn't really be useful in Wild shape seeing as you cant speak while in Beast form and level 18 Empty Body spending 8 ki points to cast Astral Projection wouldn't work either because you can't cast spells while in Wild shape.
So yeah, Moon Druid/Drunken Monk is defiantly a viable combination. Wild shaping into a Bear and then clawing your way through the enemies while getting drunk Winnie the Pooh style eating/drinking Honey mead. Sounds Cool to me! Also a good contester for a Monk subclass would be the Way of the Astral Self from Tasha's, seeing as your Druid's main state probably already is Wisdom and that Astral Self Monks uses Wisdom for there Unarmed Strikes.
Hope this helped! :)
The only real issue with this combination, unless you only dip into the monk class, is that it will seriously delay the Druid wild shape feature. Bears are very cool and powerful when you obtain the ability to wild shape into them but their usefulness fades a lot over the next few levels and depending on how many levels of monk you take, you might be using a bear form for a very long time.
If your game goes long enough, it will also delay your elemental wild shapes at level 10 which are arguably the strongest moon Druid wild shapes available. In addition, since the elementals are capable of talking in at least one language, the Druid in elemental form can also talk and communicate with the party.
However, one level of monk gets the alternate method of calculating AC which is a significant improvement for high dex wild shapes (with 20 wisdom, an air elemental ends up with a 20AC). In addition, the creature also has a 1d4 + stat bonus action attack.
Finally, good use of monk abilities is limited by how much ki they have. This means that you might often want more levels in monk to increase both ki and access to abilities like Extra Attack (which might work with creatures without the Multiattack action), stun, evasion etc.
The bottom line is that both monk and moon druid really benefit from more levels in each class respectively so significant multiclassing can really slow down the character abilities.
On the other hand, a level 10 druid/10 monk might be an interesting mix of abilities but getting there in a fun way might be a challenge.
It's not an optimized build, but it is a fun one. I made one which emphasizes a hit and run play style - combining monk speed, mobile, and charge/pounce.
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