Hey there, so my friend is going to be starting up a new campaign soon and I wanted to play a Aarakocra monk. Could you give me any tips for playing monk.
I see, i'm thinking of going open hand. Doesn't open hand get a self heal perk?
It does, at level 6. Open palm is still completely dependent on melee. When playing a flying race, I like focusing on range. Four elements, UA astral self, and kensei also have ranged options.
Probably less likely to be targeted or banned doing melee though.
When I hear that a DM will let you play Aarakocra, I have a hard time not wanting to take full advantage of it. If you can splash but one level of Warlock, you will have the most effective attack mode in the game at your disposal: Eldritch Blast from the skies. With two levels, you can add charisma to each missile, and extend it to a 300 foot spell. No other Warlock levels are necessary at that point, that and being an Aaracokra have made you complete....
Which leaves 18 levels free to be a monk, yay! I find Shadow Monk to be the most interesting, given the sheer breadth of utility that it brings to an otherwise straightforward combat class. Long Death monks are the tankiest characters in 5E bar none, as nobody else can potentially negate dozens of killing blows in a row without using any type of action or save, for the low cost of a plentiful short-rest-renewable resource. Open Hand are... fine, but pretty much just vanilla melee combatants. Sun Soul are interesting ranged characters, but objectively inferior to a 2-level multi of Warlock soooo...
I'd very much advocate that you go Shadow Monk (you're a raven!), because combined with flying, you are going to be the most survivable thing ever while outside, while also being a fully level ninja for close quarters and non-combat missions. Here's a link to the build.
Level 1: 8/17/12/8/14/15, start as a Monk.
Levels 2 and 3, take Warlock.
Whatever patron you'd like... Hexblade will probably help you the most in combat by helping you crit fish with your flurry of blows or Eldritch Blast, but your DM may not allow your Unarmed Strikes or Talons to be designated as Hex Weapons. Still, it gives you access to Shield which is almost a class feature in itself. Other notable picks include Fey (if anything reaches you in the air, fearing them will give you time to re-create distance, Sleep is an amusing spell to cast while 100 feet in the air), Fiend (easy way to generate THP while flying above the battlefield raining death, Command "grovel" is just as fun to cast on flying enemies as Sleep is), or maaaaaybe Undying if you know your campaign will feature lots of undead (essentially a permanent Sanctuary effect against undead, not bad!).
For invocations, Agonizing Blast and Devil Sight - of course you want Eldritch Spear to be able to snipe from further/higher, but if you're only taking 2 warlock levels, and you're going Shadow Monk, being able to see through Darkness is much more beneficial. Taking additional Warlock levels is certainly allowed (you can fit 6 comfortably by level 20 and it costs you very little monkness, though it slows down your monk progression at the table), but if you get to level 5 in Warlock and unlock a third invocation you may have a tough time taking Eldrtich Spear over Book of Ancient Secrets, it's just too versatile! You probably only get Spear if you aren't a Shadow Monk, and.... why?
Levels 4-16, finish up Monk to 14. You want that faster speed, you want Shadow Monk and more Ki points to cast Darkness on yourself, giving you essentially an invulnerability bubble from which you can snipe people or wreak mayhem on the battlefield while being essentially untargetable/unhittable. You want to be able to teleport while in darkness or shadow (which will be almost always in combat, since you're always in Darkness!), and better melee attacks for those rare occasions when you get cornered and need to punch/stun someone before flying away. And at your level 14 capstone, you certainly want proficiency in all saves!
Levels 17-20, or whenever you can fit a one or two level break from Monk earlier in your career, go back and finish up Warlock. It isn't that it holds anything amazing for you, other than the Pact of the Tome giving you some more cantrips (Guidance is huge for when you're sneaking around being a ninja, but Gust and Message feel good too), unlocking the ability to learn all the first, second, and third level Rituals with Book of Ancient Secrets (nice on a ninja scout, again), and a couple of versatile utility spells like Counterspell and some illusions.
Heh. Specific high-level build you're never likely to get to aside...
Monks generally play as mobile strikers or skirmishers; they move very quickly, especially as aarakocra with that ridiculous flight speed, and can unload tons of attacks, but each individual attack is fairly weak and the monk itself is on the flimsier side. Your Unarmored Defense is not generally going to be as strong as the regular armor of other classes unless you have very high Dex and Wis both (which, admittedly, aarakocra helps with), and there's fewer ways for you to boost your armor than there is for other classes.
In general, you want to make "Stick and Move" a religion. Make good use of your speed to isolate and hound squishier targets; monks make excellent mage hunters given that each hit in their Fusillade of Fisty Fury can provoke concentration checks, and they have an easier time than most classes do of getting to squishy wizards in the back. Avoid getting bogged down in stand-and-deliver melee combat - if you're taking a punch, get away from whatever is punching you. Aarakocra have that enormous fifty-foot flight speed, further bolstered by Unarmored Movement if I read the class feature right - fly in, punch, fly away again.
You'll never be the one dealing stellar, first-rate damage, but you can pursue fleeing targets better than any other class in the game and your mobility will give you other ways to contribute in combat, or to help out off the battlefield. So long as you can stay agile and evasive enough to keep your beak attached to your face, you'll do fine.
Alternatively, especially if you're not looking to multiclass? Consider Way of the Kensei. Kenseis can take the longbow as one of their Kensei weapons, specifically making it a monk weapon and thus valid for Martial Arts, and the longbow has eighty percent of the damage and even better reach than Eldritch Blast. With Kensei's Shot, you can deal an extra d4 with each of your longbow attacks every turn whenever you're too far away to use your other bonus-action features. You can also take your choice of (most) melee weaponry as a Kensei weapon as well, so you're not hopeless in close fights either. Kensei isn't as flashy as other monk traditions, but when you're a birdman with a seventy-foot flight speed and a 150-foot empowered longbow reach? You don't need flash.
I see, i'm thinking of going open hand. Doesn't open hand get a self heal perk?
It does, at level 6. Open palm is still completely dependent on melee. When playing a flying race, I like focusing on range. Four elements, UA astral self, and kensei also have ranged options.
Probably less likely to be targeted or banned doing melee though.
This is why I carry my friend the Kobold Sorcerer around when I'm flying around with my Drunken Master Aarakocra. I start & end my turn safely in the sky while she nukes from orbit on her turn. On my turn, I divebomb to either clean/soften up as many enemies as I can, and finish up back in the air with the auto-Disengage from Drunken Technique.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
It really is! If I wanted to just stay ranged, I could always throw axes/daggers/darts/javelins, but why? The best part about an Aarakocra Monk isn't just flight... it's the high speed flight, and Drunken Master synergizes with it to make the perfect storm of skirmishing potential.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Tipsy Sway is kind of a waste if you're spending your time off-turn in mid-air and not in melee range of an enemy... but getting Flyby in exchange for performing Flurry of Blows is pretty cool!
To be fair Champ, while the flying Eldritch Blasting aarakocra is absolutely a monster beast...nothing about it really says monk. You could replace the Way of Shadows levels with just about anything that doesn't need heavier armor and get mostly the same character. It's absolutely an objectively malevolent build, but I believe Void was asking more for basic monking tips than in-depth build guides. Pretty sure, anyways.
I mean yeah, but eighty percent of your gameplan is the racial flight speed and two levels of warlock :P The rest is seasoning, and could be seasoning of any flavor one likes.
I maintain that Kensei is a good sweet spot between not wanting to multiclass and wanting to make full use of the aarakocra's build-defining super wings, but yeah. Seems like driveby birb punching is the order of the day, which the aarakocra at least has the speed to make work.
I mean yeah, but eighty percent of your gameplan is the racial flight speed and two levels of warlock :P The rest is seasoning, and could be seasoning of any flavor one likes.
I maintain that Kensei is a good sweet spot between not wanting to multiclass and wanting to make full use of the aarakocra's build-defining super wings, but yeah. Seems like driveby birb punching is the order of the day, which the aarakocra at least has the speed to make work.
Yeah, and flavoring that as Monk is probably the least useful. Monk only really provides extra movement (super useful, but completely ancillary if the plan is to stay at range), and some ribbon abilities. Unarmored Defense is great, but now you're even more MAD from making Charisma your attack stat. You're also implicitly giving up all bonus action options, other than Patient Defense & Step of the Wind, if you're not getting into melee.
Kensei & Sun Soul are the best options for a range-focused Murder-Birb. Any Monastic Tradition is good for a spread of melee-focused Murder-Birb builds. Drunken Master is perfect for a shock & awe, "I have an option for everything" Murder-Birb.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Note: not trying to talk OP into playing a shadow monk, I'm just ruffled over people slandering the monk/warlock as somehow being not a monk!
Look, Shadow Monk is a monk. Shadow monks create Darkness, better/more often than any other class in the game really, and they have a lot of tools to exploit it (teleportation, advantage, becoming invisible in darkness or dim light). But seeing through that Darkness they cast in melee is one big weak point that stops you from entirely optimizing it and just walking around the battlefield in a protective/debuffing Darkness bubble. Still, Shadow Monk is the most scouty/versatile of the monks, since its spells provide several ways to buff your party or make yourself the perfect solo spy operative, and adding a race with a very very fast flight speed on top of that (so that you can fly over walls, escape when discovered, etc) synergizes very well with the idea of being able to scout ahead of the party but also be able to fall back and be whereever you need to be. And compared to some of the other monk subclasses, Shadow Monks don't particularly need Wisdom for anything other than Stunning Strike (which you can attempt so many times per round, that having a 14 Wisdom doesn't nerf it much) and their general skill checks, and get plenty of defense just from being in Darkness, which means they're one of the least MAD monk possibilities and only really need Dexterity.
An Aarakocra Shadow Monk is a good melee combatant, and a very good thief-type. One that splashes two meager levels of Warlock to pick up Devil Sight makes them an outstanding melee combatant, and a slightly better thief-type that I would still call very good. One that splashes one or two more levels of Warlock to pick up Book of Ancient Secrets and Guidance is suddenly an outstandingthief-type, in addition to being an outstandingmelee combatant. And since there is little or no opportunity cost to doing so if you're going down that route, picking up Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast suddenly slingshots you to outstanding ranged combatant, while still being an outstandingmelee combatant, and outstanding thief-type.
Being good at new things does not mean you are no longer good, or no longer care about being good, at the things you already were and continue to be good at. Monks (shadow monks especially) get very little from their last 6 levels except for more Ki points and like ~3-5 more damage per round, so multiclassing to synergize with their strengths or open up new roles is in no way a betrayal of their monk-ness.
For Shadow Monks, I add 2-6 levels of Warlock to enhance the monk, not 14-18 levels of monk to enhance the Warlock. That 2-6 levels could be Rogue instead (for sneak attacks and expertise), or Cleric (especially Twilight, for better team support and operative magic tricks), or Battlemaster (for melee dominance), or Ranger (Gloomstalker, for melee dominance and alpha strike cheese).... or I suppose 2-6 more levels of monk. In any and all of these events, they're still a "Shadow Monk" first and foremost.
Hey there, so my friend is going to be starting up a new campaign soon and I wanted to play a Aarakocra monk. Could you give me any tips for playing monk.
Void.
When I made aaracokra monk, I went sun soul to use radiant bolts from the sky. Aaracokra are no longer allowed in our group...
I see, i'm thinking of going open hand. Doesn't open hand get a self heal perk?
It does, at level 6. Open palm is still completely dependent on melee. When playing a flying race, I like focusing on range. Four elements, UA astral self, and kensei also have ranged options.
Probably less likely to be targeted or banned doing melee though.
When I hear that a DM will let you play Aarakocra, I have a hard time not wanting to take full advantage of it. If you can splash but one level of Warlock, you will have the most effective attack mode in the game at your disposal: Eldritch Blast from the skies. With two levels, you can add charisma to each missile, and extend it to a 300 foot spell. No other Warlock levels are necessary at that point, that and being an Aaracokra have made you complete....
Which leaves 18 levels free to be a monk, yay! I find Shadow Monk to be the most interesting, given the sheer breadth of utility that it brings to an otherwise straightforward combat class. Long Death monks are the tankiest characters in 5E bar none, as nobody else can potentially negate dozens of killing blows in a row without using any type of action or save, for the low cost of a plentiful short-rest-renewable resource. Open Hand are... fine, but pretty much just vanilla melee combatants. Sun Soul are interesting ranged characters, but objectively inferior to a 2-level multi of Warlock soooo...
I'd very much advocate that you go Shadow Monk (you're a raven!), because combined with flying, you are going to be the most survivable thing ever while outside, while also being a fully level ninja for close quarters and non-combat missions. Here's a link to the build.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Okay thank you.
Heh. Specific high-level build you're never likely to get to aside...
Monks generally play as mobile strikers or skirmishers; they move very quickly, especially as aarakocra with that ridiculous flight speed, and can unload tons of attacks, but each individual attack is fairly weak and the monk itself is on the flimsier side. Your Unarmored Defense is not generally going to be as strong as the regular armor of other classes unless you have very high Dex and Wis both (which, admittedly, aarakocra helps with), and there's fewer ways for you to boost your armor than there is for other classes.
In general, you want to make "Stick and Move" a religion. Make good use of your speed to isolate and hound squishier targets; monks make excellent mage hunters given that each hit in their Fusillade of Fisty Fury can provoke concentration checks, and they have an easier time than most classes do of getting to squishy wizards in the back. Avoid getting bogged down in stand-and-deliver melee combat - if you're taking a punch, get away from whatever is punching you. Aarakocra have that enormous fifty-foot flight speed, further bolstered by Unarmored Movement if I read the class feature right - fly in, punch, fly away again.
You'll never be the one dealing stellar, first-rate damage, but you can pursue fleeing targets better than any other class in the game and your mobility will give you other ways to contribute in combat, or to help out off the battlefield. So long as you can stay agile and evasive enough to keep your beak attached to your face, you'll do fine.
Alternatively, especially if you're not looking to multiclass? Consider Way of the Kensei. Kenseis can take the longbow as one of their Kensei weapons, specifically making it a monk weapon and thus valid for Martial Arts, and the longbow has eighty percent of the damage and even better reach than Eldritch Blast. With Kensei's Shot, you can deal an extra d4 with each of your longbow attacks every turn whenever you're too far away to use your other bonus-action features. You can also take your choice of (most) melee weaponry as a Kensei weapon as well, so you're not hopeless in close fights either. Kensei isn't as flashy as other monk traditions, but when you're a birdman with a seventy-foot flight speed and a 150-foot empowered longbow reach? You don't need flash.
Please do not contact or message me.
Yeah I think I might stick with monk now, another thing is you don't have to worry about armour, just you weapon attacks and unarmed strikes.
Hey, it plays like a full monk right from 1, two levels of lock for orbital lasers is barely a speed bump and all it does is add features!!!
sigh... flying melee specialist it is, what a waste...
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I wasn't going to multiclass.
This is why I carry my friend the Kobold Sorcerer around when I'm flying around with my Drunken Master Aarakocra. I start & end my turn safely in the sky while she nukes from orbit on her turn. On my turn, I divebomb to either clean/soften up as many enemies as I can, and finish up back in the air with the auto-Disengage from Drunken Technique.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
That seems very fun.
It really is! If I wanted to just stay ranged, I could always throw axes/daggers/darts/javelins, but why? The best part about an Aarakocra Monk isn't just flight... it's the high speed flight, and Drunken Master synergizes with it to make the perfect storm of skirmishing potential.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
I see.
Tipsy Sway is kind of a waste if you're spending your time off-turn in mid-air and not in melee range of an enemy... but getting Flyby in exchange for performing Flurry of Blows is pretty cool!
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
To be fair Champ, while the flying Eldritch Blasting aarakocra is absolutely a monster beast...nothing about it really says monk. You could replace the Way of Shadows levels with just about anything that doesn't need heavier armor and get mostly the same character. It's absolutely an objectively malevolent build, but I believe Void was asking more for basic monking tips than in-depth build guides. Pretty sure, anyways.
Please do not contact or message me.
I feel like 14-18 levels of monk "says monk" just fine :p
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I mean yeah, but eighty percent of your gameplan is the racial flight speed and two levels of warlock :P The rest is seasoning, and could be seasoning of any flavor one likes.
I maintain that Kensei is a good sweet spot between not wanting to multiclass and wanting to make full use of the aarakocra's build-defining super wings, but yeah. Seems like driveby birb punching is the order of the day, which the aarakocra at least has the speed to make work.
Please do not contact or message me.
Yeah, and flavoring that as Monk is probably the least useful. Monk only really provides extra movement (super useful, but completely ancillary if the plan is to stay at range), and some ribbon abilities. Unarmored Defense is great, but now you're even more MAD from making Charisma your attack stat. You're also implicitly giving up all bonus action options, other than Patient Defense & Step of the Wind, if you're not getting into melee.
Kensei & Sun Soul are the best options for a range-focused Murder-Birb. Any Monastic Tradition is good for a spread of melee-focused Murder-Birb builds. Drunken Master is perfect for a shock & awe, "I have an option for everything" Murder-Birb.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Note: not trying to talk OP into playing a shadow monk, I'm just ruffled over people slandering the monk/warlock as somehow being not a monk!
Look, Shadow Monk is a monk. Shadow monks create Darkness, better/more often than any other class in the game really, and they have a lot of tools to exploit it (teleportation, advantage, becoming invisible in darkness or dim light). But seeing through that Darkness they cast in melee is one big weak point that stops you from entirely optimizing it and just walking around the battlefield in a protective/debuffing Darkness bubble. Still, Shadow Monk is the most scouty/versatile of the monks, since its spells provide several ways to buff your party or make yourself the perfect solo spy operative, and adding a race with a very very fast flight speed on top of that (so that you can fly over walls, escape when discovered, etc) synergizes very well with the idea of being able to scout ahead of the party but also be able to fall back and be whereever you need to be. And compared to some of the other monk subclasses, Shadow Monks don't particularly need Wisdom for anything other than Stunning Strike (which you can attempt so many times per round, that having a 14 Wisdom doesn't nerf it much) and their general skill checks, and get plenty of defense just from being in Darkness, which means they're one of the least MAD monk possibilities and only really need Dexterity.
An Aarakocra Shadow Monk is a good melee combatant, and a very good thief-type. One that splashes two meager levels of Warlock to pick up Devil Sight makes them an outstanding melee combatant, and a slightly better thief-type that I would still call very good. One that splashes one or two more levels of Warlock to pick up Book of Ancient Secrets and Guidance is suddenly an outstanding thief-type, in addition to being an outstanding melee combatant. And since there is little or no opportunity cost to doing so if you're going down that route, picking up Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast suddenly slingshots you to outstanding ranged combatant, while still being an outstanding melee combatant, and outstanding thief-type.
Being good at new things does not mean you are no longer good, or no longer care about being good, at the things you already were and continue to be good at. Monks (shadow monks especially) get very little from their last 6 levels except for more Ki points and like ~3-5 more damage per round, so multiclassing to synergize with their strengths or open up new roles is in no way a betrayal of their monk-ness.
For Shadow Monks, I add 2-6 levels of Warlock to enhance the monk, not 14-18 levels of monk to enhance the Warlock. That 2-6 levels could be Rogue instead (for sneak attacks and expertise), or Cleric (especially Twilight, for better team support and operative magic tricks), or Battlemaster (for melee dominance), or Ranger (Gloomstalker, for melee dominance and alpha strike cheese).... or I suppose 2-6 more levels of monk. In any and all of these events, they're still a "Shadow Monk" first and foremost.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.