I was interested in this combination originally based upon solely fun little quirks like potentially shadow stepping as a panther or dire wolf. I do feel like druid is perfect for stat dumping into wisdom where the monk would need key stats like strength and dex (which I would normally dump if I were playing a druid). However I wanted to see if any one of you have played any combo of monk/druid and what your thoughts were (regardless if you have or have not) on potential scaling and flavor.
I was interested in this combination originally based upon solely fun little quirks like potentially shadow stepping as a panther or dire wolf. I do feel like druid is perfect for stat dumping into wisdom where the monk would need key stats like strength and dex (which I would normally dump if I were playing a druid). However I wanted to see if any one of you have played any combo of monk/druid and what your thoughts were (regardless if you have or have not) on potential scaling and flavor.
I could see dumping charisma and strength for a monk/druid that could give you 8/10 str, 14/15 dex, 13 con, 12 int, 14/15 wis, 8/10 cha (depending on focus dex/wis) and with a background of either hermit, sage, acolyte, cloistered scholar, or outlander. Your charisma is lower because you were secluded and didn't need to worry about interacting with people (though 10 is supposed to be average). The question would be where do you start? Did you become a monk and then your studies led you to druid circle that you join? Or are you a druid that goes to a monastery to study their texts to find an answer for a problem you've been facing and fall in love with the lifestyle of the monks that live there?
I'm not as familiar with monk and I'm not as familiar with XGtE druids, but it feels like Drunken Master and Circle of the Moon would be a good mesh and everything else might exclude those options flavor wise (though I could be very wrong, I'll have to look at it over the weekend). Monk just seems very in control to me flavor wise, which clashes with the way that moon druid feels to me. Drunken Master is the exception since the master tries to emulate the random movements exhibited by a drunk. Of course, there are plenty of other views that would be completely plausible in this case, including great roll play options mixing these views. Perhaps the druid gives control to the animal side too much while shape changing and that's why the dip into the Way of Tranquility. A "sure nature has its primal side, but I can't protect nature if I give in to it too much" type of thing. Or many the monk is tired of the rules and dogma that the monastery has forged into the monk's head and the call of the wild is what brings the monk to the druids. The strengths of each class seem to mesh well, at least in my head. You'll have to wait for others who have practical experience with it.
Multiclassing Monk/Druid it really depends on what you're looking for.
A long while ago I had a Lizardfolk Moon Druid. At one point I thought about multiclassing him into Monk or Barbarian. Both were him "taking on the beast". With Barbarian he would fall into Rage during combat and fight like an animal. With Monk he would forsake weapons, armor, and shields fighting with bare tooth and claw, forsaking the tools of man as like animal. Both multiclasses improved upon him being a Moon Druid.
I consider Monk abilities to rely heavily on your monk level, so every level of Multiclass will slow down your progress to: Martial Arts Die, Ki Points, Unarmored Movement, Deflect Missiles, Slow Fall, and when you get Extra Attack at 5th, Ki-Empowered Strikes at 6th, and Evasion & Stillness of Mind at 7th. That said that doesn't mean it's not worth multiclassing if you see and opportunity you want to try, but you want to make sure the character you end up with is as fun as you want them to be.
My advice is like this: Any 12th lvl character is going to be cool. Most any 10th/2nd, 9th/3rd or 6th/6th multi class is probably going to be awesome to play. If you made a character had 12 classes all at lvl 1, it would probably be awful to play. Because it's not reinforcing a concept that you can drive toward. If you want to be a Monk with Druid powers you'll want your Druid levels to make your Monk better/cool/more interesting. If you want to be a Druid with Monk powers then you'll want the Monk levels to support your Druid is ways that more levels of Druid just can't.
1 level of Druid gets you some spellcasting. 2nd lvl gets you Wild Shape and a Circle. If you plan on doing Monk heavy and 2 levels of Druid, then Wild Shape will give you 2 hours of wild shape and 3 lvl 1 spells as well as 2 cantrips. I would avoid Circle of the Moon as Monk will be better in combat then Wildshape.
I was interested in this combination originally based upon solely fun little quirks like potentially shadow stepping as a panther or dire wolf. I do feel like druid is perfect for stat dumping into wisdom where the monk would need key stats like strength and dex (which I would normally dump if I were playing a druid). However I wanted to see if any one of you have played any combo of monk/druid and what your thoughts were (regardless if you have or have not) on potential scaling and flavor.
I have played a cleric/monk and found it to be an effective combo. I think a druid/monk might work. I'd say several of the monk abilities would be usable in beast form. For example, your Unarmored Defense should allow you to combine your beast form DEX with your human WIS for AC. When you get to a 20 WIS this should give you a better AC then any of the standard beast forms you could turn into. You could also use your Ki for Patient Defense or Step of the Wind which are fairly strong options.
The two drawbacks I can think of are:
1. Natural Weapons are technically not the same as unarmed strikes so much of your Martial Arts benefits would be limited.
2. Would your DM allow your beast form to perform a unarmed strike in addition to using your Natural Weapons (ie via Flurry of Blows).
First, you would want to work with your DM to make sure he/she would accept that your monk order considers Natural Weapons as monk weapons for you. This will help some with your martial arts although your DM may refuse since it will boost the attack power of many of the forms you can turn into. Perhaps a compromise would be to allow only a few select beasts to benefit from martial arts. Maybe just feline forms like panthers, lions or tigers?
As for your levels...I would recommend you take at least 6 levels of druid and go with Circle of the Moon. 8 levels might be better as that will allow you to fly and as a druid 8/monk 12 you would have all your ASI's.
You would start making things work at about 4th level as a moon druid 2/monk 2. You could fight as a tiger with maybe a 15 or better AC, 50ft move and a 1d10+3 bite and could use Ki to dodge or increase your movement. Not bad. From 4th level I would probably go the next 2 levels as Monk for your ASI and cool shadow monk powers. Then back to druid for the next 6 before returning to monk to finish off.
I think by 8th level you would be fighting as a Saber-Toothed Tiger with a 16 or better AC, 1d10+5 bite, and 50ft move plus your Ki powers. If you and your DM have agreed on feline shapes allowable for your Martial Arts then this would likely be your best choice for the rest of your character's career. It should be fine at 8th level but you will find that you are falling behind as the rest of your party starts to gain magic items and other higher level abilities that you are missing out on.
Biggest issue might be that the cool shadowstepping you are speaking of would have to wait until 12th level! And that would be if you only took 6 levels of druid! The sad part of multi-classing like this is the big delays in realizing the character. Still I think this is a cool concept and wish you luck.
I was interested in this combination originally based upon solely fun little quirks like potentially shadow stepping as a panther or dire wolf. I do feel like druid is perfect for stat dumping into wisdom where the monk would need key stats like strength and dex (which I would normally dump if I were playing a druid). However I wanted to see if any one of you have played any combo of monk/druid and what your thoughts were (regardless if you have or have not) on potential scaling and flavor.
I could see dumping charisma and strength for a monk/druid that could give you 8/10 str, 14/15 dex, 13 con, 12 int, 14/15 wis, 8/10 cha (depending on focus dex/wis) and with a background of either hermit, sage, acolyte, cloistered scholar, or outlander. Your charisma is lower because you were secluded and didn't need to worry about interacting with people (though 10 is supposed to be average). The question would be where do you start? Did you become a monk and then your studies led you to druid circle that you join? Or are you a druid that goes to a monastery to study their texts to find an answer for a problem you've been facing and fall in love with the lifestyle of the monks that live there?
I'm not as familiar with monk and I'm not as familiar with XGtE druids, but it feels like Drunken Master and Circle of the Moon would be a good mesh and everything else might exclude those options flavor wise (though I could be very wrong, I'll have to look at it over the weekend). Monk just seems very in control to me flavor wise, which clashes with the way that moon druid feels to me. Drunken Master is the exception since the master tries to emulate the random movements exhibited by a drunk. Of course, there are plenty of other views that would be completely plausible in this case, including great roll play options mixing these views. Perhaps the druid gives control to the animal side too much while shape changing and that's why the dip into the Way of Tranquility. A "sure nature has its primal side, but I can't protect nature if I give in to it too much" type of thing. Or many the monk is tired of the rules and dogma that the monastery has forged into the monk's head and the call of the wild is what brings the monk to the druids. The strengths of each class seem to mesh well, at least in my head. You'll have to wait for others who have practical experience with it.
Multiclassing Monk/Druid it really depends on what you're looking for.
A long while ago I had a Lizardfolk Moon Druid.
At one point I thought about multiclassing him into Monk or Barbarian. Both were him "taking on the beast". With Barbarian he would fall into Rage during combat and fight like an animal. With Monk he would forsake weapons, armor, and shields fighting with bare tooth and claw, forsaking the tools of man as like animal. Both multiclasses improved upon him being a Moon Druid.
I consider Monk abilities to rely heavily on your monk level, so every level of Multiclass will slow down your progress to: Martial Arts Die, Ki Points, Unarmored Movement, Deflect Missiles, Slow Fall, and when you get Extra Attack at 5th, Ki-Empowered Strikes at 6th, and Evasion & Stillness of Mind at 7th. That said that doesn't mean it's not worth multiclassing if you see and opportunity you want to try, but you want to make sure the character you end up with is as fun as you want them to be.
My advice is like this: Any 12th lvl character is going to be cool. Most any 10th/2nd, 9th/3rd or 6th/6th multi class is probably going to be awesome to play. If you made a character had 12 classes all at lvl 1, it would probably be awful to play. Because it's not reinforcing a concept that you can drive toward. If you want to be a Monk with Druid powers you'll want your Druid levels to make your Monk better/cool/more interesting. If you want to be a Druid with Monk powers then you'll want the Monk levels to support your Druid is ways that more levels of Druid just can't.
1 level of Druid gets you some spellcasting. 2nd lvl gets you Wild Shape and a Circle. If you plan on doing Monk heavy and 2 levels of Druid, then Wild Shape will give you 2 hours of wild shape and 3 lvl 1 spells as well as 2 cantrips. I would avoid Circle of the Moon as Monk will be better in combat then Wildshape.
I have played a cleric/monk and found it to be an effective combo. I think a druid/monk might work. I'd say several of the monk abilities would be usable in beast form. For example, your Unarmored Defense should allow you to combine your beast form DEX with your human WIS for AC. When you get to a 20 WIS this should give you a better AC then any of the standard beast forms you could turn into. You could also use your Ki for Patient Defense or Step of the Wind which are fairly strong options.
The two drawbacks I can think of are:
1. Natural Weapons are technically not the same as unarmed strikes so much of your Martial Arts benefits would be limited.
2. Would your DM allow your beast form to perform a unarmed strike in addition to using your Natural Weapons (ie via Flurry of Blows).
First, you would want to work with your DM to make sure he/she would accept that your monk order considers Natural Weapons as monk weapons for you. This will help some with your martial arts although your DM may refuse since it will boost the attack power of many of the forms you can turn into. Perhaps a compromise would be to allow only a few select beasts to benefit from martial arts. Maybe just feline forms like panthers, lions or tigers?
As for your levels...I would recommend you take at least 6 levels of druid and go with Circle of the Moon. 8 levels might be better as that will allow you to fly and as a druid 8/monk 12 you would have all your ASI's.
You would start making things work at about 4th level as a moon druid 2/monk 2. You could fight as a tiger with maybe a 15 or better AC, 50ft move and a 1d10+3 bite and could use Ki to dodge or increase your movement. Not bad. From 4th level I would probably go the next 2 levels as Monk for your ASI and cool shadow monk powers. Then back to druid for the next 6 before returning to monk to finish off.
I think by 8th level you would be fighting as a Saber-Toothed Tiger with a 16 or better AC, 1d10+5 bite, and 50ft move plus your Ki powers. If you and your DM have agreed on feline shapes allowable for your Martial Arts then this would likely be your best choice for the rest of your character's career. It should be fine at 8th level but you will find that you are falling behind as the rest of your party starts to gain magic items and other higher level abilities that you are missing out on.
Biggest issue might be that the cool shadowstepping you are speaking of would have to wait until 12th level! And that would be if you only took 6 levels of druid! The sad part of multi-classing like this is the big delays in realizing the character. Still I think this is a cool concept and wish you luck.
Current Characters I am playing: Dr Konstantin van Wulf | Taegen Willowrun | Mad Magnar
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