The Monk class is one enjoyed by many D&D players. It's one I've often played and enjoyed. These people, myself included, play the Monk as it is written in 5e materials.
If your opinion is that the Monk is wholly terrible and does nothing of value and should be changed regardless of what people who enjoy the class think, do not comment on this thread. If you are unwilling to consider any other viewpoint but your own or that of vitriolic pundits, or to consider other people's enjoyment of the class as valid, then any response espousing shallow toxic sentiment toward the class or those who play it is entirely unnecessary and entirely unhelpful. If you do not care enough to even form actual arguments and responses to anything in this post, do not comment.
You are not the majority, even if you create an atmosphere that is unwelcome toward players of the class, even if others who echo opinions they did not form on their own clap you on as you espouse negativity and vitriol.
Level 1: Martial Arts, Unarmored Defense
I am glad to see Monk Weapons return, as getting Martial Arts die on thrown weapons is a significant asset to a Monk. However, the choice of weapons it applies to is strange. For starters, Monks get proficiency with all Simple Weapons, but only get melee Simple Weapons as Monk Weapons. However, light Martial Weapons all qualify, which as many have pointed out qualifies the hand crossbow as a Monk Weapon but not darts or ranged Simple Weapons.
That qualifier is a problem, though. Monks no longer receive Weapon Mastery, which is strange given that it deprives Monks of a feature with various control options when Monks themselves are meant to be the control-expert martials. However, it is entirely possible for Monks to gain Weapon Mastery through a dip or feat, which leads to them being able to exploit the Nick mastery to gain an extra attack as part of their Attack action, matching their Martial Arts die. (It's also possible for them to gain the Two-Weapon Fighting style from feats or dips, meaning they add their modifier to that attack.) As a result, a specific feat increases the Monk's Attack damage output by 50% at Level 5 and higher. This vastly disadvantages Monks who don't opt for this specific playstyle.
The increase to the Martial Arts die is a fair increase that doesn't throw off balance, and getting the Bonus Unarmed Strike without needing to Attack is fair given that later Monk features gave that as an option whenever you used Ki Points as part of your action. Being able to shove or grapple off of Dexterity is completely pointless, not just because of tougher grapple checks, but because literally other Level 1 martial can have the option to Push or Topple via Weapon Mastery, without giving up an attack for it (or even without a saving throw for Push).
However, the Monk has a glaring issue here in that while other classes have received enhancements to their options at Level 1 - Weapon Mastery for most martials, improved Lay on Hands for Paladins, spellcasting from the start for Paladins and Rangers - the Monk receives nothing new at their first level. No new features or options - just an upper-cap increase of two points on their Bonus Unarmed Strike.
Level 2: Monk's Discipline, Uncanny Metabolism, Unarmored Movement
Now comes a...questionable aspect of the new Monk. Their Step of the Wind and Patient Defense give new options, a Dash and Disengage BA without Discipline Point cost respectively. This is something people have hailed as "saving" the Monk. However, the thing is...Monks really didn't need this.
As I said above, Monks having Martial Arts damage on their thrown weapons gives them a big boost to versatility, because it gives them the option to engage enemies without putting themselves in direct danger. It allows them to play the "skirmisher" that many insist the Monk is meant to solely be. As such, a free Disengage is only an option the Monk would need if they found themselves surrounded and in a bad situation.
Even if you are playing a melee Monk...multiple subclasses have answers for this. Astral Self's reach, Drunken Master's Disengage with Flurry of Blows, Open Hand's reaction denial. All of these operate on the feature you're going to be using as a Monk, without taking away your ability to use your Bonus Unarmed Strike or Flurry of Blows. (Thus equating to the same number of attacks you'd get with thrown weapons anyway, with no option for Ki-Fuelled Attack either.)
Likewise, a free Dash extends on top of what the Monk already has. A Monk with typical movement will have 40 feet at Level 2, so a free Dash extends that to 80 feet. Whereas the Rogue is limited to simply doubling normal movement with their Cunning Action, a Monk with a free Dash BA can end up hit-and-running out of many enemies' effective ranges. (Or the other possibility, that an enemy's effective range is such that being able to Dash doesn't actually help.)
In the end, neither of these features really give the Monk much, and if you are playing a Monk in melee, they still require you to give up your Bonus Unarmed Strike, lessening your damage output. A Monk with 16 DEX/WIS will have 16 AC, the same AC as other melee martials that don't opt for a shield over a two-handed weapon. The few hit points less they may have than a Fighter or a Paladin very rarely makes a difference at low levels - a Fighter can get downed just as quickly.
Arguably, these features most benefit martials who equip themselves to not utilize the Bonus Unarmed Strike regularly, as while that has the requirement of being unarmored and wielding only Monk Weapons, these options do not.
Then we get to Uncanny Metabolism. A frequent insistence I've seen among people who decry the 5e Monk is that they are short-rest dependent, and that they need their points in order to be effective. This is not true - a Monk matches front-line martials in melee damage, and has numerous features even at low levels that give them added mobility and durability. A Monk not using Flurry of Blows does as much damage as a Fighter or Paladin not making use of their damage-boosting features.
This is often accompanied by people claiming that short rests are impossible to fit into an adventuring day, that the recommended 6-8 encounters per day is infeasible. Most such people I've talked to espouse a preference for one or two big fights per day, where PCs unload all of their resources ASAP, followed by a long rest with no short rests in-between. Deliberately choosing to play the game in a way that ignore the mechanics it is balanced around, then complaining that this disadvantages certain classes is certainly...a choice. However, it's clear that this is the choice Uncanny Metabolism is meant to cater to.
First, having an extra 100% Discipline is a huge difference...if you're comparing it to 100% Discipline. Given that Monks (as well as other martials) are expected to operate with two short rests per day, a Monk in typical play will actually have 300% of their Discipline Point total to work with throughout the day. An extra 33% isn't as much a deal.
However, it often won't be an extra 33% anyway. Because of how the feature functions, a single-use full Discipline restore, it strongly encourages bottoming out your Discipline before using. This is easier for some subclasses than others; most prominently, this lets a Mercy Monk use all of their Discipline for healing before taking their full restore.
It's also a highly-inflexible feature, betraying that it is specifically designed to appeal to players who do only a small number of predictable encounters per day. That it can only be triggered at initiative means it doesn't help during an encounter, such as if luck goes against the party or if reinforcements arrive during a battle. Likewise, the more encounters you have per day, the less you know if any given encounter is when you should make use of it (and/or expend your Discipline to make optimal use of it) - and carries the risk that the rest of the party may need a short rest anyway, or that the opportunity for a short rest will be present shortly.
Lastly, it's also imbalanced for both other players and the DM. If the Monk has to expend their resources to get through a tough battle, other classes will have had to as well. The Fighter doesn't get an on-demand Action Surge restore, nor does the Barbarian get on-demand extra Rages. It allows the Monk to refill their resources and theirs alone when the rest of the party almost certainly is in need as well. It also becomes a problem for DMs, because the ability for one party member to suddenly refill their resource at any point during an adventure can throw off the intended difficulty of encounters and thus the adventure as a whole.
If the Monk is to get a Discipline restore, it should be in a more flexible form. And more so, it should come at the point when Monks get more options to use their Discipline Points on, when other classes are gaining additional resource pools, rather than at Level 2.
Level 3: Deflect Attacks
This is...a problematic change. Now, Deflect Missiles is situational, but that makes sense for the potency of the ability. Given the damage reduction, 1d10 + DEX + Monk level, it often completely nullifies the damage dealt by ranged attacks at low levels. And at low levels, melee attacks are rarely that much more powerful than ranged attacks. As a result, it gives Monks a near-certain chance to nullify most enemies' offense at low levels.
The aspect of this that has drawn a certain crowd's attention is enabling the counter-attack follow-up in melee, an attack that targets the Dexterity save (which is often easier to hit than AC) and deals damage equal to two rolls of the Martial Arts die plus DEX mod. Since this is the strongest damage output per Discipline Point, some are hyping up the idea of intentionally baiting opportunity attacks from enemies in order to trigger this counter-attack as often as possible.
It should be noted, this is an obviously impractical strategy. You'd want DEX to increase the damage and WIS to increase the save DC, but at the same time those boost your AC, making yourself harder to hit and thus trigger the counter-attack in the first place.
Furthermore, Level 3 is typically just before average enemies throw more melee attacks at you per turn. Being able to nullify one melee attack is one thing, but when a monster throws three or more at you, it may make little difference. As such, being able to deflect melee attacks is absurdly overpowered at low levels, but much less useful at higher levels. It is also much more effective when multiclassing into other classes that can also further reduce damage, the prime example being the Barbarian (all the more glaring given the carve-out for Martial Arts in their Rage Damage).
Level 5: Extra Attack, Stunning Strike
The big change here is Stunning Strike, while being limited to one use per turn still, now does Force damage equal to your Martial Arts die plus your Wisdom modifier if the target passes their saving throw.
Limiting Stunning Strike to once per turn would be reasonable in 5e, since it is a powerful control option the Monk can use repeatedly. However, with One D&D introducing the ability to attempt to knock any enemy prone, on every attack and every turn and without cost, to other martials, it seems a less sensible limitation. Even more so when the Rogue gains a Cunning Strike option that renders a creature unconscious, a much more powerful condition, off of the same save and with no resource cost.
Also nonsensical is the incentive for the target passing their saving throw. Stunning Strike is already attached to a successful attack, thus the attack does damage regardless of the save. Other options that inflict controlling conditions don't give any special privilege to passed saves. If your Hold Person cast fails, there's no consolation damage or effect.
I can't help but to think the incentive is for Monks who don't follow Monk builds. Namely, ones that take races or multiclass in a way that lets them build for high unarmored AC without investing in Wisdom. For instance, if you were to multiclass into Barbarian. (It should be noted that Barbarian in this same UA carves a niche for DEX-based Unarmed Strikes into its Rage damage boost.) Thus, Stunning Strike becomes a form of extra DPR for such players more than an attempt to control a dangerous enemy - something that plays into a preference for fewer encounters per day and a pre-encounter non-short-rest Discipline restore.
Level 10: Heightened Discipline, Self-Restoration
Heightened Discipline augments each of the Monk's Discipline options given at Level 2. And most of them are...questionable in nature, as well as bringing into question common complaints levied at the Monk to begin with.
The first gives you three Unarmed Strikes with Flurry of Blows instead of two. With the increase to Martial Arts dice, that gives you five attacks at d8 at Level 10, and one level after rewards you with five attacks at d10. (And with the aforementioned Weapon Mastery exploitation, this increases to six attacks.) Conversely, Fighters will be making three attacks, at d12 at most; assuming +5 modifiers, this works out to 21-51 for the Fighter and 30-75 for the Monk at Level 11. The Fighter can spike higher with Action Surge, but that applies only to one turn at that level while the Monk can do so 11 times at most, or spike higher with other features.
In 5e, the Monk is balanced around not needing to frequently use Ki Points at lower tiers, matching other martials' resourceless damage output while not using their own resource. Once you hit Level 10 and above, you reach the point where it is feasible to use at least one Ki Point per turn and not run out before your next short rest. There are still instances where you won't even do so, such as taking advantage of other subclass features, using ranged attacks, or if your Attack action finishes off an enemy. But your damage output at that point is reflected in your increasing ability to regularly use your Ki abilities.
Here, you simply receive a sharp jump in damage output. And this is glaring, because the following level, Level 11, is where damage-oriented Monk subclasses gain features that improve their damage output, such as Mercy Monks getting a free Hands of Harm with their Flurry of Blows or Astral Self getting an additional Martial Arts die of damage per turn. In a two-level span, the One D&D Monk using any of these subclasses would gain a significant damage output increase, beyond what other martials would gain around this point.
But enough on Flurry of Blows. Next we look at Patient Defense, which confers two Martial Arts dice's worth of Temporary Hit Points. Aside from the unreliable aspect of this...keep in mind complaints about Monks' durability. This stems primarily from them, at the level this feature is granted, having...11 less HP than a d10 martial with the same Constitution. This feature, which can be used out of battle and in-battle, gives the Monk an easily-used source of extra hit points before any battle while still retaining their defensive advantages.
The last new addition, Step of the Wind...is actually pretty interesting. The ability to move another creature with you! This lets you take advantage of your mobility to reposition allies or pull them out of danger. However, there is one glaring problem with how the ability is worded: you have no ability to willingly release the escorted creature. You cannot drop them off at a position that suits them before moving somewhere else yourself - that creature moves with you until the end of your turn.
Self-Restoration is a simple thing, end a condition at the end of your turn. That it doesn't let you free up conditions before you act is a drawback, but it also isn't hindered by something that prevents you from acting at all, so here and there.
Level 13: Deflect Energy
This is a nice improvement to Deflect Missiles, but to be honest, I feel it's a bit late given that it doesn't reduce damage any further than what you would be reducing physical damage by anyway.
Level 15: Perfect Discipline
This is nice in that it drops the trend of needing to be at zero to have a resource replenished. However, it exemplifies how Uncanny Metabolism isn't a good idea, because at this point you now don't get as much out of the feature since you'll always have 4 Discipline Points anyway, and at this point standard play would see the Monk having 45 Discipline Points to work with throughout the day anyway, so you might not often benefit from this feature.
Rather than Uncanny Metabolism and Perfect Discipline, it would be much preferable to have a feature that lets you restore Discipline as a bonus action, once per long rest, and then have the Level 15 feature let you use that twice per long rest, or even refresh it on short rest instead. This would better benefit Tier 4 play, where the Monk will want to be using multiple Discipline Points per turn.
Level 18: Superior Defense
The only significant change here, aside from dropping invisibility, is not requiring an action. I'm not sure why this is a problem for a feature that lasts a minute anyway, that even one bonus action is such a sacrifice.
Level 20: Body and Mind
The existing Monk capstone is pretty uninteresting, and rarely comes up in high-tier play since you have so many Ki Points anyway. A +4 to both Dexterity and Wisdom is a pretty huge boon, and arguably more so than the Barbarian's similar feature. Most campaigns don't go to Level 20, so why not give something real special for it?
So that's my takes on the new and altered Monk features. Now, what I enjoy about the Monk is its support options, alongside being a solid front-line attacker. Many of its subclasses give it new utility options, but seeing new additions to other classes made me hopeful for new options for the Monk or skill-focused features akin to what the Fighter and Rogue have received.
What was given are features I just don't see myself using. Maybe I might make use of the free Dash/Disengage BA now and then, but I would have much rather gotten something to boost the class's utility. The one-two DPR boost that Level 10 and Level 11 will result in will throw off the class's damage-output balance, but still don't give the class any support options.
To be honest, Discipline Points actually are a limitation now...because other classes get Weapon Mastery, and other features that improve their damage and utility without resource cost. The Monk actually has to spend more Discipline Points now to keep up with other classes' new features which cost them nothing. Getting a once-per-long-rest restore doesn't help in that regard if you're playing in groups that expect standard-length adventuring days, because that just gives other classes more turns in which they can utilize their free features while the Monk still has to preserve their limited Discipline Points.
I'll touch on the subclasses later, because they're the more dire aspect of One D&D's changes: for a class built around utility, two subclasses have had much of their utility features stripped entirely from them.
The Shadow Monk is one subclass that focuses on versatility. Unfortunately, a huge chunk of its versatility is stripped in favor of making the subclass operate entirely around darkness and shadows.
3rd Level: Shadow Arts
The 5e Shadow Monk started with four useful spells that had strong utility in both combat and stealth usage. The One D&D Shadow Monk gets...one. Silence, Pass without Trace, and Darkvision are all stripped to focus on Darkness, giving the Shadow Monk a version that they can see within and can move at the start of your turn. While this confers a combat advantage to the Monk, it still sheds a significant amount of options from the class for no reason.
6th Level: Shadow Step is unchanged, but leads into 11th Level: Improved Shadow Step, which allows the Monk to ignore the need for dim light or darkness and to make their Bonus Unarmed Strike in the same bonus action. This is not a bad feature; however, it's now been obsoleted. The UA9 Open Hand Monk can use Step of the Wind alongside their Bonus Unarmed Strike or Flurry of Blows or any other bonus action. The Archfey Warlock revolves a similar feature, with a number of control and damage options beyond one attack.
17th Level: Cloak of Shadows
Cloak of Shadows is moved to the subclass capstone. Rather than simply conferring invisibility while in dim light or darkness, this lets you remain invisible for a period of time, move through solid objects, and get free uses of Flurry of Blows. While this does confer utility, the free usage of Flurry of Blows isn't all that necessary. Cloak of Shadows can last an entire encounter as long as the Shadow Monk stays out of light, and the Shadow Monk isn't going to be blazing through Discipline Points with their features regardless.
Ultimately, the Warrior of Shadow's greatest flaws are its loss of versatility, and having two levels dedicated to subclass features that ultimately don't compare to other subclasses' features. Rather than strip options from its 3rd-level feature, give the Shadow Monk versions of its original spells that have unique qualities like its new version of Darkness. Give it a Silence that the Shadow Monk can telepathically communicate within, a Pass without Trace that gives the Shadow Monk advantage to Perception against creatures near them or allies, a Darkvision that also confers blindsight. (Why doesn't the Shadow Monk gain blindsight? Seems like a good fit.)
Warrior of the Elements
While the original subclass was too heavily constrained by Ki costs and limited options, it did have an interesting basis that made tweaking the subclass to a solid state quite easy. Unfortunately, One D&D's revision of the subclass reduces it to a cross between the existing Ascendant Dragon, Astral Self, Elements, and Sun Soul subclasses with little utility.
3rd Level: Elemental Attunement
Along with giving an element-based cantrip, this feature allows you to spend one Discipline point to imbue yourself with elemental energy. This gives you the ability to deal acid, fire, cold, or lightning damage on your unarmed attacks (a la Ascendant Dragon), gives them greater reach (a la Astral Self), and lets you force a saving throw to push the target away.
That last aspect is what the Push mastery does, except there is no saving throw, thus is inferior to an option other classes can utilize for zero cost. The options for elemental damage are actually reduced from what Ascendant Dragon offers, and don't fit the theme of the four elements at all. It does provide another example of how Monks aren't in need of a free-BA Disengage, as this provides an option to attack from range without compromising damage.
(It should be noted as well that this version of the feature has a major oversight that Astral Self lacks. Whereas Astral Self gives the option of making unarmed strikes with the astral arms and thus giving increased reach, this feature innately boosts the reach of your unarmed strikes. This means, unless you are holding a regular weapon, you now have a fifteen-foot area around you in which enemies have not moved out of the reach of your weapon and thus have not presented themselves for opportunity attacks.)
6th Level: Environmental Burst
This feature mirrors the Breath of the Dragon of the Ascendant Dragon as well as the Sun Soul's Searing Sunburst feature. However, it pales in comparison especially to Breath of the Dragon, as that feature allowed you to replace one of your attacks on your turn with the breath attack, whereas this both requires your entire action and costs two Discipline Points (without PB free uses per day).
11th Level: Stride of the Elements
This gives you a flying and swim speed equal to your regular speed for 10 minutes whenever you use Step of the Wind. Of course, we have to note that Step of the Wind "now" has a free option, thus bringing this feature's existence into question.
While a swim speed might have some utility, flying speed isn't as useful for Monks as other classes, as their Acrobatic Movement lets them run up walls to deal with vertical obstacles.
17th Level: Elemental Epitome
This feature grants resistance to one damage type of the above elements, and when using Step of the Wind you can damage creatures you move within five feet of. Again, I expect this feature to be adjusted in light of a free Step of the Wind option, but it isn't that strong regardless. Ascendant Dragon gives you better options for dealing damage to multiple enemies and lets allies gain elemental resistance alongside you much earlier, while Astral Self gives you better single-target damage output.
That no attempt has been made to make the original Four Elements Monk more useful is an embarrassment, to be frank. This "revision" of the subclass just takes from other subclasses, but ultimately isn't as useful as any one of them (save for perhaps Sun Soul). Retaining and rebalancing Elemental Disciplines would have been a much better effort - an easy way to make such an approach unique for the Monk would be letting them replace one of their attacks with an Elemental Discipline, and scaling the dice used in offensive Elemental Disciplines with the Monk's Martial Arts dice.
Warrior of the Hand (UA9)
This version of the subclass has been praised by many who vehemently criticize the original Monk, but when we look at the features, we see that half of them are largely unimpressive compared to what other classes receive and others are...of questionable balance.
Level 3: Open Hand Technique
This gives the Monk the classic Open Hand added effects on Flurry of Blows: save or push, save or prone, and denying opportunity attacks. (Monster design in recent releases give monsters multiple reactions and more potent types of reactions, thus complete reaction denial would be much stronger in the One D&D era.)
The problem that arises here is that this feature is near-completely worthless in a world where Weapon Mastery exists. Weapon Mastery gives a guaranteed push effect, or prone on a failed save, and this can be used every turn on regular attacks for zero cost whereas the Monk can only trigger these effects by spending Discipline Points. It is a perfect example of how other classes receiving free support features with zero limitations end up making the Monk actually dependent on Discipline Points to keep up with them. Even denying opportunity attacks is less useful, given that an enemy pushed out of range can't make opportunity attacks anyway.
Level 6: Wholeness of Body
This gives you Wisdom-modifier number of self-heals per day, equal to Martial Arts die + Wisdom modifier. There's no Discipline cost and you regain uses on a long rest.
This might sound nifty, but...Monks receive what is effectively a self-heal bonus action as part of their main class anyway, with Heightened Discipline's Patient Defense. But more to the point, this is more limited and less effective version than the Fighter's revised Second Wind. With Second Wind gaining multiple uses, and recovering one use on short rests, Second Wind will almost certainly heal more per use and likely have as many uses as the Monk would throughout the day.
Level 11: Fleet Step
This feature allows you to use Step of the Wind as part of any bonus action other than Step of the Wind. Remember that Step of the Wind now has a free option that costs no Discipline Points to give the benefit of the Dash action.
In short, this feature permanently doubles the Hand Monk's move speed at zero cost whatsoever. There is never any reason for the Monk to not use a bonus action, and thus no reason for the Hand Monk to not gain Step of the Wind's benefit as well. Now consider that, at level 11, the Monk gains +20 feet of movement from Unarmored Movement. This means, when the Monk gains this feature, they are permanently raised to 100 feet of movement range, capping at 120 feet.
Giving one class more than three times the movement range of any other base character is obviously absurd.
Level 17: Quivering Palm
This retains the UA6 Monk's revision so that it only deals 10d12 Force damage max, instead of instantly lowering the target to 0 HP. However, it changes the trigger of the vibrations so that you can replace one of your Attack action attacks with triggering the damage.
The problem this results in is that, as written, this feature can be set up and triggered on the same turn. In fact, depending on how a DM permits breaking up your Attack action and your Flurry of Blows, it is conceivable that you can trigger the vibrations twice on the same turn. To analyze how much damage that could deal, a Level 17 Monk using its new Flurry of Blows:
One use: 4d12 + 20 + 10d12 = 34-188 damage (29-128 damage on successful save) Two uses: 3d12 + 15 + 20d12 = 38-291 damage (28-191 damage on both successful saves)
For comparison, a Paladin using two 5th-level Divine Smites in one turn: 2d12 + 10 + 2d8 + 12d8 = 26-146 damage
Even if you only permit triggering Quivering Palm once per turn, this does almost as much damage as the nova build the designers openly acknowledged having to nerf. (Keep in mind too that this doesn't factor in magic weapons; if the Monk has a magic weapon that does the same thing as the Paladin's, their added effects and damage trigger more due to hitting more.)
In conclusion, the Warrior of the Hand has two features that are rendered largely pointless to other classes' improvements or even the base class's revisions, and two features that wildly break the game. And as appealing as the new Quivering Palm may seem, to get there you have to spend 14 levels using your limited resource to do what the designers decided every other martial should get to do for free...while playing the subclass originally meant to specialize in being the martial who could do that sort of stuff.
Did you post this yesterday or the day before and delete it, because I am sure I remember seeing this before I think I did have a few things to say about a lot of it, but well I haven't got time to go back over it all again now, however let me go over at least the below point for now and come back to my feelings on the rest
Heightened Discipline augments each of the Monk's Discipline options given at Level 2. And most of them are...questionable in nature, as well as bringing into question common complaints levied at the Monk to begin with.
The first gives you three Unarmed Strikes with Flurry of Blows instead of two. With the increase to Martial Arts dice, that gives you five attacks at d8 at Level 10, and one level after rewards you with five attacks at d10. (And with the aforementioned Weapon Mastery exploitation, this increases to six attacks.) Conversely, Fighters will be making three attacks, at d12 at most; assuming +5 modifiers, this works out to 21-51 for the Fighter and 30-75 for the Monk at Level 11. The Fighter can spike higher with Action Surge, but that applies only to one turn at that level while the Monk can do so 11 times at most, or spike higher with other features.
I would say fighter at level 11 is doing more damage but to establish why, we first need to compare the base classes like you have.
I think the most optimized you can get here for fighter is using a greatsword with great weapon master feat and at +5, you could also pick-up sentinel for a few potential extra reactions and still get a +5 by level 8. For these calculations, I am going with a standard 65% chance to hit and 5% chance to critical (normal attack)
In practice, fighter's DPR will be higher, because I can not calculate how often fighter will get extra attacks from taking creatures down to 0 HP or other methods of boosting critical hits. the ~8.33 comes from a greatsword benefiting from great weapon fighting, the .14 comes from about a 14.2% chance to get a critical hit with 3 attacks (for the bonus action attack) and the remaining 3.8285 comes from proficiency bonus damage (adjusted for chance to miss all attacks) that great weapon master gives. Also as greatsword is a graze wepaon, you always do your ability score modifier in damage, hit or miss. Without GWM, it'd be 32.493 DPR...
Your monk on the other hand at a d10 die is doing: (~5.5 * 0.7 + 5 * 0.65)) * 5 = ~34.25
As a monk, there isn't any good half feats that directly add damage, you could grab grappler with a +1 dexterity as a good choice for getting advantage but that has it's own issues. There is also the possibility you get an extra ~5.5 + 5 force damage from a failed stunning strike... why stunning strike doesn't also deal the damage on a failed save, I dunno, it feels odd and should just do the damage irrespective of save/fail, like a paladin smite spell or a battlemaster manoeuvrer like trip attack, but stunning strike is using more discipline points... so it's question if to include that at all since you'll exhaust faster.
anyway, point stands, base damage, fighter actually wins with the greatsword+GWM+GWF combo. There is however more points, 2nd is that fighter subclasses, most of them add a lot of damage, battlemaster, arcane archer, gunslinger & psi warrior all have resources which can add damage to attacks. Even champion fighter is going to boost the damage seen since more critical hits is more chance to get that bonus action attack on top of said critical hit damage. Monk subclasses do not really add damage like fighter subclasses do. Then after all of this, fighter does still have that action surge...
Last is easily homebrewed around, but there are items like +1/+2/+3 greatswords, flame-tongue greatsword and multiple other such weapons... monk doesn't really get much from official content to increase the damage of their unarmed attacks. But I feel most DMs probably would be willing to homebrew those in, given where monk is.
Overall for damage, I think monk is healthier with this 3rd attack on flurry of blows but actually is still lagging slightly. Personally, I am unsure why stunning strike only deals extra force damage on a successful save, I understand wanting stunning strike to not feel like a wasted ki point when it fails but the extra damage could just apply as default like the damage of a paladin smite spell or a battlemaster manoeuvrer like trip attack.... since stun is still so powerful most monks are going to continue using stunning strike and having situations where having the stun not go off are actually beneficial (where the extra force damage finishes the creature), just feels weird to me.
The Shadow Monk is one subclass that focuses on versatility. Unfortunately, a huge chunk of its versatility is stripped in favor of making the subclass operate entirely around darkness and shadows.
3rd Level: Shadow Arts
The 5e Shadow Monk started with four useful spells that had strong utility in both combat and stealth usage. The One D&D Shadow Monk gets...one. Silence, Pass without Trace, and Darkvision are all stripped to focus on Darkness, giving the Shadow Monk a version that they can see within and can move at the start of your turn. While this confers a combat advantage to the Monk, it still sheds a significant amount of options from the class for no reason.
6th Level: Shadow Step is unchanged, but leads into 11th Level: Improved Shadow Step, which allows the Monk to ignore the need for dim light or darkness and to make their Bonus Unarmed Strike in the same bonus action. This is not a bad feature; however, it's now been obsoleted. The UA9 Open Hand Monk can use Step of the Wind alongside their Bonus Unarmed Strike or Flurry of Blows or any other bonus action. The Archfey Warlock revolves a similar feature, with a number of control and damage options beyond one attack.
17th Level: Cloak of Shadows
Cloak of Shadows is moved to the subclass capstone. Rather than simply conferring invisibility while in dim light or darkness, this lets you remain invisible for a period of time, move through solid objects, and get free uses of Flurry of Blows. While this does confer utility, the free usage of Flurry of Blows isn't all that necessary. Cloak of Shadows can last an entire encounter as long as the Shadow Monk stays out of light, and the Shadow Monk isn't going to be blazing through Discipline Points with their features regardless.
Ultimately, the Warrior of Shadow's greatest flaws are its loss of versatility, and having two levels dedicated to subclass features that ultimately don't compare to other subclasses' features. Rather than strip options from its 3rd-level feature, give the Shadow Monk versions of its original spells that have unique qualities like its new version of Darkness. Give it a Silence that the Shadow Monk can telepathically communicate within, a Pass without Trace that gives the Shadow Monk advantage to Perception against creatures near them or allies, a Darkvision that also confers blindsight. (Why doesn't the Shadow Monk gain blindsight? Seems like a good fit.)
Warrior of the Elements
While the original subclass was too heavily constrained by Ki costs and limited options, it did have an interesting basis that made tweaking the subclass to a solid state quite easy. Unfortunately, One D&D's revision of the subclass reduces it to a cross between the existing Ascendant Dragon, Astral Self, Elements, and Sun Soul subclasses with little utility.
3rd Level: Elemental Attunement
Along with giving an element-based cantrip, this feature allows you to spend one Discipline point to imbue yourself with elemental energy. This gives you the ability to deal acid, fire, cold, or lightning damage on your unarmed attacks (a la Ascendant Dragon), gives them greater reach (a la Astral Self), and lets you force a saving throw to push the target away.
That last aspect is what the Push mastery does, except there is no saving throw, thus is inferior to an option other classes can utilize for zero cost. The options for elemental damage are actually reduced from what Ascendant Dragon offers, and don't fit the theme of the four elements at all. It does provide another example of how Monks aren't in need of a free-BA Disengage, as this provides an option to attack from range without compromising damage.
(It should be noted as well that this version of the feature has a major oversight that Astral Self lacks. Whereas Astral Self gives the option of making unarmed strikes with the astral arms and thus giving increased reach, this feature innately boosts the reach of your unarmed strikes. This means, unless you are holding a regular weapon, you now have a fifteen-foot area around you in which enemies have not moved out of the reach of your weapon and thus have not presented themselves for opportunity attacks.)
6th Level: Environmental Burst
This feature mirrors the Breath of the Dragon of the Ascendant Dragon as well as the Sun Soul's Searing Sunburst feature. However, it pales in comparison especially to Breath of the Dragon, as that feature allowed you to replace one of your attacks on your turn with the breath attack, whereas this both requires your entire action and costs two Discipline Points (without PB free uses per day).
11th Level: Stride of the Elements
This gives you a flying and swim speed equal to your regular speed for 10 minutes whenever you use Step of the Wind. Of course, we have to note that Step of the Wind "now" has a free option, thus bringing this feature's existence into question.
While a swim speed might have some utility, flying speed isn't as useful for Monks as other classes, as their Acrobatic Movement lets them run up walls to deal with vertical obstacles.
17th Level: Elemental Epitome
This feature grants resistance to one damage type of the above elements, and when using Step of the Wind you can damage creatures you move within five feet of. Again, I expect this feature to be adjusted in light of a free Step of the Wind option, but it isn't that strong regardless. Ascendant Dragon gives you better options for dealing damage to multiple enemies and lets allies gain elemental resistance alongside you much earlier, while Astral Self gives you better single-target damage output.
That no attempt has been made to make the original Four Elements Monk more useful is an embarrassment, to be frank. This "revision" of the subclass just takes from other subclasses, but ultimately isn't as useful as any one of them (save for perhaps Sun Soul). Retaining and rebalancing Elemental Disciplines would have been a much better effort - an easy way to make such an approach unique for the Monk would be letting them replace one of their attacks with an Elemental Discipline, and scaling the dice used in offensive Elemental Disciplines with the Monk's Martial Arts dice.
Warrior of the Hand (UA9)
This version of the subclass has been praised by many who vehemently criticize the original Monk, but when we look at the features, we see that half of them are largely unimpressive compared to what other classes receive and others are...of questionable balance.
Level 3: Open Hand Technique
This gives the Monk the classic Open Hand added effects on Flurry of Blows: save or push, save or prone, and denying opportunity attacks. (Monster design in recent releases give monsters multiple reactions and more potent types of reactions, thus complete reaction denial would be much stronger in the One D&D era.)
The problem that arises here is that this feature is near-completely worthless in a world where Weapon Mastery exists. Weapon Mastery gives a guaranteed push effect, or prone on a failed save, and this can be used every turn on regular attacks for zero cost whereas the Monk can only trigger these effects by spending Discipline Points. It is a perfect example of how other classes receiving free support features with zero limitations end up making the Monk actually dependent on Discipline Points to keep up with them. Even denying opportunity attacks is less useful, given that an enemy pushed out of range can't make opportunity attacks anyway.
Level 6: Wholeness of Body
This gives you Wisdom-modifier number of self-heals per day, equal to Martial Arts die + Wisdom modifier. There's no Discipline cost and you regain uses on a long rest.
This might sound nifty, but...Monks receive what is effectively a self-heal bonus action as part of their main class anyway, with Heightened Discipline's Patient Defense. But more to the point, this is more limited and less effective version than the Fighter's revised Second Wind. With Second Wind gaining multiple uses, and recovering one use on short rests, Second Wind will almost certainly heal more per use and likely have as many uses as the Monk would throughout the day.
Level 11: Fleet Step
This feature allows you to use Step of the Wind as part of any bonus action other than Step of the Wind. Remember that Step of the Wind now has a free option that costs no Discipline Points to give the benefit of the Dash action.
In short, this feature permanently doubles the Hand Monk's move speed at zero cost whatsoever. There is never any reason for the Monk to not use a bonus action, and thus no reason for the Hand Monk to not gain Step of the Wind's benefit as well. Now consider that, at level 11, the Monk gains +20 feet of movement from Unarmored Movement. This means, when the Monk gains this feature, they are permanently raised to 100 feet of movement range, capping at 120 feet.
Giving one class more than three times the movement range of any other base character is obviously absurd.
Level 17: Quivering Palm
This retains the UA6 Monk's revision so that it only deals 10d12 Force damage max, instead of instantly lowering the target to 0 HP. However, it changes the trigger of the vibrations so that you can replace one of your Attack action attacks with triggering the damage.
The problem this results in is that, as written, this feature can be set up and triggered on the same turn. In fact, depending on how a DM permits breaking up your Attack action and your Flurry of Blows, it is conceivable that you can trigger the vibrations twice on the same turn. To analyze how much damage that could deal, a Level 17 Monk using its new Flurry of Blows:
One use: 4d12 + 20 + 10d12 = 34-188 damage (29-128 damage on successful save) Two uses: 3d12 + 15 + 20d12 = 38-291 damage (28-191 damage on both successful saves)
For comparison, a Paladin using two 5th-level Divine Smites in one turn: 2d12 + 10 + 2d8 + 12d8 = 26-146 damage
Even if you only permit triggering Quivering Palm once per turn, this does almost as much damage as the nova build the designers openly acknowledged having to nerf. (Keep in mind too that this doesn't factor in magic weapons; if the Monk has a magic weapon that does the same thing as the Paladin's, their added effects and damage trigger more due to hitting more.)
In conclusion, the Warrior of the Hand has two features that are rendered largely pointless to other classes' improvements or even the base class's revisions, and two features that wildly break the game. And as appealing as the new Quivering Palm may seem, to get there you have to spend 14 levels using your limited resource to do what the designers decided every other martial should get to do for free...while playing the subclass originally meant to specialize in being the martial who could do that sort of stuff.
the elements feature isnt just push, its also pull, which is a HUGE difference imo. especially for a flier with 15 foot range. Scorpion get over here, 15 foot grapples, And narrative and Ooc flavor. This is actuall a really big deal.
Flight is super useful for anyone. you can avoid many enemies, and chase down fliers, or escape. add to this push pull from 15 feet away, its a pretty big deal.
elements isn't what it was, it a totally different class concept. More Avatar Bender or mystical martial arts fantasy, than monkxwizard.
Monk was the weakest class with the poorest resource pool. Most boosts the monk got were necessary just to bring it up to the level of other classes. Is it perfect? Nope. But so far the general concensus for the monk changes seem to be positive. I think the final version will be quite similar to what was in the UA.
I disagree with... so many things in the above essay that it's probably not even worth typing a reply. These buffs gave Monk a lot more tactical flexibility and raw power in the form of offensive and defensive options, and I can't fathom the perspectives of people who don't see that. I have to wonder if they only played monks at heavily houseruled or RP-focused tables that abstracted or avoided combat entirely.
Your post is long, so I won't be replying to it all or highlighting parts of it. However, I would like to point out a pattern of assumptions.
The first is that everyone plays optimally by choice. Now, I don't mean people should dump DEX and WIS because nothing forbids them from doing so, but (for example) I don't expect seeing that many weapon-throwing monks. Claiming certain abilities are useless because, optimally, players wouldn't need them - it's just wrong. I can assure you there will be plenty of monks using spears/quarterstaffs/unarmed only. And those people (me included, probably) will really appreciate being able to disengage for free. And subclasses that allow Ki-based solutions don't really solve the problem for low levels. That's the whole point of the Ki-free improvement.
Second, that people choose to play in a different way than what might have been 'the intended way' should be something the game developers should be prepared for. Should you play a low-INT Wizard and complain your spells suck? No. But you should be allowed to pick a race that is melee-orineted and still find use in it. That's why you have a subclass and quite a few spells that might seem a waste for most Wizards but are a valuable addition to those Wizards. Similarly, the added damage for Stunning Strike isn't wrong just because it supports low-WIS builds. And besides, Hold Person doesn't last just one round, and at level 5 a spellcaster can cast it 5 times, targeting up to 7 creatures with it. Also, Stunned and Paralyzed aren't the same.
There's more but I'll point out one last thing and that's use of feats/multiclass in your calculations. Not only are people not sure to take those choices, but you're also often using too many of those. For example, in the comparison of the 11th level Fighter vs Monk, the Monk can't use the mastery+the damage modifier+have maxed modifier while being at the exact same total level as the Fighter. That is, assuming you didn't roll for stats since that makes any such comparisons irrelevant. And also, that Fighter might also multiclass or take feats that were not taken into account (which are easier to fit into a Fighter build for many reasons), which will add to that Fighter. If we're talking optimization, both sides of the comparison must be optimized equally.
And one (truly) last thing: You can't just flag every comment that disagrees with you as toxic, abusive, irrlevant or what not. ESPECIALLY not by insulting them while doing so.
This thread isn't for people who think anyone who plays and enjoys a class they don't like is clearly just stupid or has to houserule the class or is playing the game wrong in any other fashion.
[REDACTED]
...What? 🤨 All I did was say I disagreed with the opening post. That's allowed here, this is a public discussion forum, not a personal blog or echo chamber where you can keep all dissenting voices out of a given thread.
If your opinion is that the Monk is wholly terrible and does nothing of value and should be changed regardless of what people who enjoy the class think, do not comment on this thread. If you are unwilling to consider any other viewpoint but your own or that of vitriolic pundits, or to consider other people's enjoyment of the class as valid, then any response espousing shallow toxic sentiment toward the class or those who play it is entirely unnecessary and entirely unhelpful. If you do not care enough to even form actual arguments and responses to anything in this post, do not comment.
Given that I never thought the Monk was "wholly terrible and does nothing of value" then this doesn't apply to me. I do greatly like the Monk class. Which is why I support the upgrades the designers have provided it based on community feedback. They managed to thread what I thought was a very difficult needle - powering up the monk without just turning it into a martial caster the way they did in 4e (or that PF1's Unchained/Qinggong monk did.)
Given that I never thought the Monk was "wholly terrible and does nothing of value" then this doesn't apply to me. I do greatly like the Monk class. Which is why I support the upgrades the designers have provided it based on community feedback. They managed to thread what I thought was a very difficult needle - powering up the monk without just turning it into a martial caster the way they did in 4e (or that PF1's Unchained/Qinggong monk did.)
What you support is stripping the class entirely of its identity and versatility while loading on features that pander to people who want to do as much damage as possible every round.
Their changes are based on community feedback - your community. If One D&D and its "community" wants to tell me I'm a worthless sack of crap and a loser for my enjoyment of the game, that I clearly must be being babied to enjoy a certain class, that I should go to hell for wanting the Monk to get new Monk stuff instead of becoming the new Paladin-esque damage-nova class, then you and the "community" can have One D&D.
(And no, you didn't just disagree with the post, you declared that I and anyone else who enjoys the class must obviously be benefitting from homebrewed additions to have fun with the class. In short, you treated everyone who enjoys the class as someone being babied for their idiotic taste. You can just tell me that my opinion is poo-poo without thinking you're being cute and clever.)
What you support is stripping the class entirely of its identity and versatility while loading on features that pander to people who want to do as much damage as possible every round.
I don't support any such thing. In fact, I just said how the designers threaded the needle between maintaining the class' identity while improving its mechanical ability.
If One D&D and its "community" wants to tell me I'm a worthless sack of crap and a loser for my enjoyment of the game, that I clearly must be being babied to enjoy a certain class, that I should go to hell for wanting the Monk to get new Monk stuff instead of becoming the new Paladin-esque damage-nova class, then you and the "community" can have One D&D.
Uh... I didn't call you, or tell you to do, any of those things 🤨
(And no, you didn't just disagree with the post, you declared that I and anyone else who enjoys the class must obviously be benefitting from homebrewed additions to have fun with the class. In short, you treated everyone who enjoys the class as someone being babied for their idiotic taste. You can just tell me that my opinion is poo-poo without thinking you're being cute and clever.)
The houserule comment was conjecture on my part as to why you're not seeing the same combat deficiencies with the class that the designers clearly are. It wasn't meant to be a slight; I use houserules too, they're not inherently bad, but if they're not accounted for then balance or class design issues can go unnoticed.
This is often accompanied by people claiming that short rests are impossible to fit into an adventuring day, that the recommended 6-8 encounters per day is infeasible. Most such people I've talked to espouse a preference for one or two big fights per day, where PCs unload all of their resources ASAP, followed by a long rest with no short rests in-between. Deliberately choosing to play the game in a way that ignore the mechanics it is balanced around, then complaining that this disadvantages certain classes is certainly...a choice. However, it's clear that this is the choice Uncanny Metabolism is meant to cater to.
I want to address this point here. As a warlock player, I empathize with you on short rests. The fact is however, that DMs run the game they want to run, and the class design needs to account for that. More encounters means more work the the DM. Furthermore, narratively, short rests often make no sense. It's my group that prevents me from getting my short rests more than the DM does. What's more...I cannot disagree with them when they say 'sitting down to take a lunch break makes no sense right here'. We can stamp our feet and cry "6-8 and two shorts!", but the game is going to be what it is. The designers don't get to 'enforce' 6-8 and two shorts anymore than a warlock or monk player can, and really, asking the DM to accommodate us with the extra work is unfair.
Our features need to be designed around how the game is actually played at most tables, not how the designers think it should be. They need to adjust for how we play, rather than try to force feed. And as warlock and monk players, we need to try to get our class design on board with how the game is played at most tables. Us and the designers being stubborn around short rest game design isn't going to help anybody. We need to live in the reality that actually exists.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
A preface, before you comment.
The Monk class is one enjoyed by many D&D players. It's one I've often played and enjoyed. These people, myself included, play the Monk as it is written in 5e materials.
If your opinion is that the Monk is wholly terrible and does nothing of value and should be changed regardless of what people who enjoy the class think, do not comment on this thread. If you are unwilling to consider any other viewpoint but your own or that of vitriolic pundits, or to consider other people's enjoyment of the class as valid, then any response espousing shallow toxic sentiment toward the class or those who play it is entirely unnecessary and entirely unhelpful. If you do not care enough to even form actual arguments and responses to anything in this post, do not comment.
You are not the majority, even if you create an atmosphere that is unwelcome toward players of the class, even if others who echo opinions they did not form on their own clap you on as you espouse negativity and vitriol.
Level 1: Martial Arts, Unarmored Defense
I am glad to see Monk Weapons return, as getting Martial Arts die on thrown weapons is a significant asset to a Monk. However, the choice of weapons it applies to is strange. For starters, Monks get proficiency with all Simple Weapons, but only get melee Simple Weapons as Monk Weapons. However, light Martial Weapons all qualify, which as many have pointed out qualifies the hand crossbow as a Monk Weapon but not darts or ranged Simple Weapons.
That qualifier is a problem, though. Monks no longer receive Weapon Mastery, which is strange given that it deprives Monks of a feature with various control options when Monks themselves are meant to be the control-expert martials. However, it is entirely possible for Monks to gain Weapon Mastery through a dip or feat, which leads to them being able to exploit the Nick mastery to gain an extra attack as part of their Attack action, matching their Martial Arts die. (It's also possible for them to gain the Two-Weapon Fighting style from feats or dips, meaning they add their modifier to that attack.) As a result, a specific feat increases the Monk's Attack damage output by 50% at Level 5 and higher. This vastly disadvantages Monks who don't opt for this specific playstyle.
The increase to the Martial Arts die is a fair increase that doesn't throw off balance, and getting the Bonus Unarmed Strike without needing to Attack is fair given that later Monk features gave that as an option whenever you used Ki Points as part of your action. Being able to shove or grapple off of Dexterity is completely pointless, not just because of tougher grapple checks, but because literally other Level 1 martial can have the option to Push or Topple via Weapon Mastery, without giving up an attack for it (or even without a saving throw for Push).
However, the Monk has a glaring issue here in that while other classes have received enhancements to their options at Level 1 - Weapon Mastery for most martials, improved Lay on Hands for Paladins, spellcasting from the start for Paladins and Rangers - the Monk receives nothing new at their first level. No new features or options - just an upper-cap increase of two points on their Bonus Unarmed Strike.
Level 2: Monk's Discipline, Uncanny Metabolism, Unarmored Movement
Now comes a...questionable aspect of the new Monk. Their Step of the Wind and Patient Defense give new options, a Dash and Disengage BA without Discipline Point cost respectively. This is something people have hailed as "saving" the Monk. However, the thing is...Monks really didn't need this.
As I said above, Monks having Martial Arts damage on their thrown weapons gives them a big boost to versatility, because it gives them the option to engage enemies without putting themselves in direct danger. It allows them to play the "skirmisher" that many insist the Monk is meant to solely be. As such, a free Disengage is only an option the Monk would need if they found themselves surrounded and in a bad situation.
Even if you are playing a melee Monk...multiple subclasses have answers for this. Astral Self's reach, Drunken Master's Disengage with Flurry of Blows, Open Hand's reaction denial. All of these operate on the feature you're going to be using as a Monk, without taking away your ability to use your Bonus Unarmed Strike or Flurry of Blows. (Thus equating to the same number of attacks you'd get with thrown weapons anyway, with no option for Ki-Fuelled Attack either.)
Likewise, a free Dash extends on top of what the Monk already has. A Monk with typical movement will have 40 feet at Level 2, so a free Dash extends that to 80 feet. Whereas the Rogue is limited to simply doubling normal movement with their Cunning Action, a Monk with a free Dash BA can end up hit-and-running out of many enemies' effective ranges. (Or the other possibility, that an enemy's effective range is such that being able to Dash doesn't actually help.)
In the end, neither of these features really give the Monk much, and if you are playing a Monk in melee, they still require you to give up your Bonus Unarmed Strike, lessening your damage output. A Monk with 16 DEX/WIS will have 16 AC, the same AC as other melee martials that don't opt for a shield over a two-handed weapon. The few hit points less they may have than a Fighter or a Paladin very rarely makes a difference at low levels - a Fighter can get downed just as quickly.
Arguably, these features most benefit martials who equip themselves to not utilize the Bonus Unarmed Strike regularly, as while that has the requirement of being unarmored and wielding only Monk Weapons, these options do not.
Then we get to Uncanny Metabolism. A frequent insistence I've seen among people who decry the 5e Monk is that they are short-rest dependent, and that they need their points in order to be effective. This is not true - a Monk matches front-line martials in melee damage, and has numerous features even at low levels that give them added mobility and durability. A Monk not using Flurry of Blows does as much damage as a Fighter or Paladin not making use of their damage-boosting features.
This is often accompanied by people claiming that short rests are impossible to fit into an adventuring day, that the recommended 6-8 encounters per day is infeasible. Most such people I've talked to espouse a preference for one or two big fights per day, where PCs unload all of their resources ASAP, followed by a long rest with no short rests in-between. Deliberately choosing to play the game in a way that ignore the mechanics it is balanced around, then complaining that this disadvantages certain classes is certainly...a choice. However, it's clear that this is the choice Uncanny Metabolism is meant to cater to.
First, having an extra 100% Discipline is a huge difference...if you're comparing it to 100% Discipline. Given that Monks (as well as other martials) are expected to operate with two short rests per day, a Monk in typical play will actually have 300% of their Discipline Point total to work with throughout the day. An extra 33% isn't as much a deal.
However, it often won't be an extra 33% anyway. Because of how the feature functions, a single-use full Discipline restore, it strongly encourages bottoming out your Discipline before using. This is easier for some subclasses than others; most prominently, this lets a Mercy Monk use all of their Discipline for healing before taking their full restore.
It's also a highly-inflexible feature, betraying that it is specifically designed to appeal to players who do only a small number of predictable encounters per day. That it can only be triggered at initiative means it doesn't help during an encounter, such as if luck goes against the party or if reinforcements arrive during a battle. Likewise, the more encounters you have per day, the less you know if any given encounter is when you should make use of it (and/or expend your Discipline to make optimal use of it) - and carries the risk that the rest of the party may need a short rest anyway, or that the opportunity for a short rest will be present shortly.
Lastly, it's also imbalanced for both other players and the DM. If the Monk has to expend their resources to get through a tough battle, other classes will have had to as well. The Fighter doesn't get an on-demand Action Surge restore, nor does the Barbarian get on-demand extra Rages. It allows the Monk to refill their resources and theirs alone when the rest of the party almost certainly is in need as well. It also becomes a problem for DMs, because the ability for one party member to suddenly refill their resource at any point during an adventure can throw off the intended difficulty of encounters and thus the adventure as a whole.
If the Monk is to get a Discipline restore, it should be in a more flexible form. And more so, it should come at the point when Monks get more options to use their Discipline Points on, when other classes are gaining additional resource pools, rather than at Level 2.
Level 3: Deflect Attacks
This is...a problematic change. Now, Deflect Missiles is situational, but that makes sense for the potency of the ability. Given the damage reduction, 1d10 + DEX + Monk level, it often completely nullifies the damage dealt by ranged attacks at low levels. And at low levels, melee attacks are rarely that much more powerful than ranged attacks. As a result, it gives Monks a near-certain chance to nullify most enemies' offense at low levels.
The aspect of this that has drawn a certain crowd's attention is enabling the counter-attack follow-up in melee, an attack that targets the Dexterity save (which is often easier to hit than AC) and deals damage equal to two rolls of the Martial Arts die plus DEX mod. Since this is the strongest damage output per Discipline Point, some are hyping up the idea of intentionally baiting opportunity attacks from enemies in order to trigger this counter-attack as often as possible.
It should be noted, this is an obviously impractical strategy. You'd want DEX to increase the damage and WIS to increase the save DC, but at the same time those boost your AC, making yourself harder to hit and thus trigger the counter-attack in the first place.
Furthermore, Level 3 is typically just before average enemies throw more melee attacks at you per turn. Being able to nullify one melee attack is one thing, but when a monster throws three or more at you, it may make little difference. As such, being able to deflect melee attacks is absurdly overpowered at low levels, but much less useful at higher levels. It is also much more effective when multiclassing into other classes that can also further reduce damage, the prime example being the Barbarian (all the more glaring given the carve-out for Martial Arts in their Rage Damage).
Level 5: Extra Attack, Stunning Strike
The big change here is Stunning Strike, while being limited to one use per turn still, now does Force damage equal to your Martial Arts die plus your Wisdom modifier if the target passes their saving throw.
Limiting Stunning Strike to once per turn would be reasonable in 5e, since it is a powerful control option the Monk can use repeatedly. However, with One D&D introducing the ability to attempt to knock any enemy prone, on every attack and every turn and without cost, to other martials, it seems a less sensible limitation. Even more so when the Rogue gains a Cunning Strike option that renders a creature unconscious, a much more powerful condition, off of the same save and with no resource cost.
Also nonsensical is the incentive for the target passing their saving throw. Stunning Strike is already attached to a successful attack, thus the attack does damage regardless of the save. Other options that inflict controlling conditions don't give any special privilege to passed saves. If your Hold Person cast fails, there's no consolation damage or effect.
I can't help but to think the incentive is for Monks who don't follow Monk builds. Namely, ones that take races or multiclass in a way that lets them build for high unarmored AC without investing in Wisdom. For instance, if you were to multiclass into Barbarian. (It should be noted that Barbarian in this same UA carves a niche for DEX-based Unarmed Strikes into its Rage damage boost.) Thus, Stunning Strike becomes a form of extra DPR for such players more than an attempt to control a dangerous enemy - something that plays into a preference for fewer encounters per day and a pre-encounter non-short-rest Discipline restore.
Level 10: Heightened Discipline, Self-Restoration
Heightened Discipline augments each of the Monk's Discipline options given at Level 2. And most of them are...questionable in nature, as well as bringing into question common complaints levied at the Monk to begin with.
The first gives you three Unarmed Strikes with Flurry of Blows instead of two. With the increase to Martial Arts dice, that gives you five attacks at d8 at Level 10, and one level after rewards you with five attacks at d10. (And with the aforementioned Weapon Mastery exploitation, this increases to six attacks.) Conversely, Fighters will be making three attacks, at d12 at most; assuming +5 modifiers, this works out to 21-51 for the Fighter and 30-75 for the Monk at Level 11. The Fighter can spike higher with Action Surge, but that applies only to one turn at that level while the Monk can do so 11 times at most, or spike higher with other features.
In 5e, the Monk is balanced around not needing to frequently use Ki Points at lower tiers, matching other martials' resourceless damage output while not using their own resource. Once you hit Level 10 and above, you reach the point where it is feasible to use at least one Ki Point per turn and not run out before your next short rest. There are still instances where you won't even do so, such as taking advantage of other subclass features, using ranged attacks, or if your Attack action finishes off an enemy. But your damage output at that point is reflected in your increasing ability to regularly use your Ki abilities.
Here, you simply receive a sharp jump in damage output. And this is glaring, because the following level, Level 11, is where damage-oriented Monk subclasses gain features that improve their damage output, such as Mercy Monks getting a free Hands of Harm with their Flurry of Blows or Astral Self getting an additional Martial Arts die of damage per turn. In a two-level span, the One D&D Monk using any of these subclasses would gain a significant damage output increase, beyond what other martials would gain around this point.
But enough on Flurry of Blows. Next we look at Patient Defense, which confers two Martial Arts dice's worth of Temporary Hit Points. Aside from the unreliable aspect of this...keep in mind complaints about Monks' durability. This stems primarily from them, at the level this feature is granted, having...11 less HP than a d10 martial with the same Constitution. This feature, which can be used out of battle and in-battle, gives the Monk an easily-used source of extra hit points before any battle while still retaining their defensive advantages.
The last new addition, Step of the Wind...is actually pretty interesting. The ability to move another creature with you! This lets you take advantage of your mobility to reposition allies or pull them out of danger. However, there is one glaring problem with how the ability is worded: you have no ability to willingly release the escorted creature. You cannot drop them off at a position that suits them before moving somewhere else yourself - that creature moves with you until the end of your turn.
Self-Restoration is a simple thing, end a condition at the end of your turn. That it doesn't let you free up conditions before you act is a drawback, but it also isn't hindered by something that prevents you from acting at all, so here and there.
Level 13: Deflect Energy
This is a nice improvement to Deflect Missiles, but to be honest, I feel it's a bit late given that it doesn't reduce damage any further than what you would be reducing physical damage by anyway.
Level 15: Perfect Discipline
This is nice in that it drops the trend of needing to be at zero to have a resource replenished. However, it exemplifies how Uncanny Metabolism isn't a good idea, because at this point you now don't get as much out of the feature since you'll always have 4 Discipline Points anyway, and at this point standard play would see the Monk having 45 Discipline Points to work with throughout the day anyway, so you might not often benefit from this feature.
Rather than Uncanny Metabolism and Perfect Discipline, it would be much preferable to have a feature that lets you restore Discipline as a bonus action, once per long rest, and then have the Level 15 feature let you use that twice per long rest, or even refresh it on short rest instead. This would better benefit Tier 4 play, where the Monk will want to be using multiple Discipline Points per turn.
Level 18: Superior Defense
The only significant change here, aside from dropping invisibility, is not requiring an action. I'm not sure why this is a problem for a feature that lasts a minute anyway, that even one bonus action is such a sacrifice.
Level 20: Body and Mind
The existing Monk capstone is pretty uninteresting, and rarely comes up in high-tier play since you have so many Ki Points anyway. A +4 to both Dexterity and Wisdom is a pretty huge boon, and arguably more so than the Barbarian's similar feature. Most campaigns don't go to Level 20, so why not give something real special for it?
So that's my takes on the new and altered Monk features. Now, what I enjoy about the Monk is its support options, alongside being a solid front-line attacker. Many of its subclasses give it new utility options, but seeing new additions to other classes made me hopeful for new options for the Monk or skill-focused features akin to what the Fighter and Rogue have received.
What was given are features I just don't see myself using. Maybe I might make use of the free Dash/Disengage BA now and then, but I would have much rather gotten something to boost the class's utility. The one-two DPR boost that Level 10 and Level 11 will result in will throw off the class's damage-output balance, but still don't give the class any support options.
To be honest, Discipline Points actually are a limitation now...because other classes get Weapon Mastery, and other features that improve their damage and utility without resource cost. The Monk actually has to spend more Discipline Points now to keep up with other classes' new features which cost them nothing. Getting a once-per-long-rest restore doesn't help in that regard if you're playing in groups that expect standard-length adventuring days, because that just gives other classes more turns in which they can utilize their free features while the Monk still has to preserve their limited Discipline Points.
I'll touch on the subclasses later, because they're the more dire aspect of One D&D's changes: for a class built around utility, two subclasses have had much of their utility features stripped entirely from them.
Warrior of Shadow
The Shadow Monk is one subclass that focuses on versatility. Unfortunately, a huge chunk of its versatility is stripped in favor of making the subclass operate entirely around darkness and shadows.
3rd Level: Shadow Arts
The 5e Shadow Monk started with four useful spells that had strong utility in both combat and stealth usage. The One D&D Shadow Monk gets...one. Silence, Pass without Trace, and Darkvision are all stripped to focus on Darkness, giving the Shadow Monk a version that they can see within and can move at the start of your turn. While this confers a combat advantage to the Monk, it still sheds a significant amount of options from the class for no reason.
6th Level: Shadow Step is unchanged, but leads into 11th Level: Improved Shadow Step, which allows the Monk to ignore the need for dim light or darkness and to make their Bonus Unarmed Strike in the same bonus action. This is not a bad feature; however, it's now been obsoleted. The UA9 Open Hand Monk can use Step of the Wind alongside their Bonus Unarmed Strike or Flurry of Blows or any other bonus action. The Archfey Warlock revolves a similar feature, with a number of control and damage options beyond one attack.
17th Level: Cloak of Shadows
Cloak of Shadows is moved to the subclass capstone. Rather than simply conferring invisibility while in dim light or darkness, this lets you remain invisible for a period of time, move through solid objects, and get free uses of Flurry of Blows. While this does confer utility, the free usage of Flurry of Blows isn't all that necessary. Cloak of Shadows can last an entire encounter as long as the Shadow Monk stays out of light, and the Shadow Monk isn't going to be blazing through Discipline Points with their features regardless.
Ultimately, the Warrior of Shadow's greatest flaws are its loss of versatility, and having two levels dedicated to subclass features that ultimately don't compare to other subclasses' features. Rather than strip options from its 3rd-level feature, give the Shadow Monk versions of its original spells that have unique qualities like its new version of Darkness. Give it a Silence that the Shadow Monk can telepathically communicate within, a Pass without Trace that gives the Shadow Monk advantage to Perception against creatures near them or allies, a Darkvision that also confers blindsight. (Why doesn't the Shadow Monk gain blindsight? Seems like a good fit.)
Warrior of the Elements
While the original subclass was too heavily constrained by Ki costs and limited options, it did have an interesting basis that made tweaking the subclass to a solid state quite easy. Unfortunately, One D&D's revision of the subclass reduces it to a cross between the existing Ascendant Dragon, Astral Self, Elements, and Sun Soul subclasses with little utility.
3rd Level: Elemental Attunement
Along with giving an element-based cantrip, this feature allows you to spend one Discipline point to imbue yourself with elemental energy. This gives you the ability to deal acid, fire, cold, or lightning damage on your unarmed attacks (a la Ascendant Dragon), gives them greater reach (a la Astral Self), and lets you force a saving throw to push the target away.
That last aspect is what the Push mastery does, except there is no saving throw, thus is inferior to an option other classes can utilize for zero cost. The options for elemental damage are actually reduced from what Ascendant Dragon offers, and don't fit the theme of the four elements at all. It does provide another example of how Monks aren't in need of a free-BA Disengage, as this provides an option to attack from range without compromising damage.
(It should be noted as well that this version of the feature has a major oversight that Astral Self lacks. Whereas Astral Self gives the option of making unarmed strikes with the astral arms and thus giving increased reach, this feature innately boosts the reach of your unarmed strikes. This means, unless you are holding a regular weapon, you now have a fifteen-foot area around you in which enemies have not moved out of the reach of your weapon and thus have not presented themselves for opportunity attacks.)
6th Level: Environmental Burst
This feature mirrors the Breath of the Dragon of the Ascendant Dragon as well as the Sun Soul's Searing Sunburst feature. However, it pales in comparison especially to Breath of the Dragon, as that feature allowed you to replace one of your attacks on your turn with the breath attack, whereas this both requires your entire action and costs two Discipline Points (without PB free uses per day).
11th Level: Stride of the Elements
This gives you a flying and swim speed equal to your regular speed for 10 minutes whenever you use Step of the Wind. Of course, we have to note that Step of the Wind "now" has a free option, thus bringing this feature's existence into question.
While a swim speed might have some utility, flying speed isn't as useful for Monks as other classes, as their Acrobatic Movement lets them run up walls to deal with vertical obstacles.
17th Level: Elemental Epitome
This feature grants resistance to one damage type of the above elements, and when using Step of the Wind you can damage creatures you move within five feet of. Again, I expect this feature to be adjusted in light of a free Step of the Wind option, but it isn't that strong regardless. Ascendant Dragon gives you better options for dealing damage to multiple enemies and lets allies gain elemental resistance alongside you much earlier, while Astral Self gives you better single-target damage output.
That no attempt has been made to make the original Four Elements Monk more useful is an embarrassment, to be frank. This "revision" of the subclass just takes from other subclasses, but ultimately isn't as useful as any one of them (save for perhaps Sun Soul). Retaining and rebalancing Elemental Disciplines would have been a much better effort - an easy way to make such an approach unique for the Monk would be letting them replace one of their attacks with an Elemental Discipline, and scaling the dice used in offensive Elemental Disciplines with the Monk's Martial Arts dice.
Warrior of the Hand (UA9)
This version of the subclass has been praised by many who vehemently criticize the original Monk, but when we look at the features, we see that half of them are largely unimpressive compared to what other classes receive and others are...of questionable balance.
Level 3: Open Hand Technique
This gives the Monk the classic Open Hand added effects on Flurry of Blows: save or push, save or prone, and denying opportunity attacks. (Monster design in recent releases give monsters multiple reactions and more potent types of reactions, thus complete reaction denial would be much stronger in the One D&D era.)
The problem that arises here is that this feature is near-completely worthless in a world where Weapon Mastery exists. Weapon Mastery gives a guaranteed push effect, or prone on a failed save, and this can be used every turn on regular attacks for zero cost whereas the Monk can only trigger these effects by spending Discipline Points. It is a perfect example of how other classes receiving free support features with zero limitations end up making the Monk actually dependent on Discipline Points to keep up with them. Even denying opportunity attacks is less useful, given that an enemy pushed out of range can't make opportunity attacks anyway.
Level 6: Wholeness of Body
This gives you Wisdom-modifier number of self-heals per day, equal to Martial Arts die + Wisdom modifier. There's no Discipline cost and you regain uses on a long rest.
This might sound nifty, but...Monks receive what is effectively a self-heal bonus action as part of their main class anyway, with Heightened Discipline's Patient Defense. But more to the point, this is more limited and less effective version than the Fighter's revised Second Wind. With Second Wind gaining multiple uses, and recovering one use on short rests, Second Wind will almost certainly heal more per use and likely have as many uses as the Monk would throughout the day.
Level 11: Fleet Step
This feature allows you to use Step of the Wind as part of any bonus action other than Step of the Wind. Remember that Step of the Wind now has a free option that costs no Discipline Points to give the benefit of the Dash action.
In short, this feature permanently doubles the Hand Monk's move speed at zero cost whatsoever. There is never any reason for the Monk to not use a bonus action, and thus no reason for the Hand Monk to not gain Step of the Wind's benefit as well. Now consider that, at level 11, the Monk gains +20 feet of movement from Unarmored Movement. This means, when the Monk gains this feature, they are permanently raised to 100 feet of movement range, capping at 120 feet.
Giving one class more than three times the movement range of any other base character is obviously absurd.
Level 17: Quivering Palm
This retains the UA6 Monk's revision so that it only deals 10d12 Force damage max, instead of instantly lowering the target to 0 HP. However, it changes the trigger of the vibrations so that you can replace one of your Attack action attacks with triggering the damage.
The problem this results in is that, as written, this feature can be set up and triggered on the same turn. In fact, depending on how a DM permits breaking up your Attack action and your Flurry of Blows, it is conceivable that you can trigger the vibrations twice on the same turn. To analyze how much damage that could deal, a Level 17 Monk using its new Flurry of Blows:
One use: 4d12 + 20 + 10d12 = 34-188 damage (29-128 damage on successful save)
Two uses: 3d12 + 15 + 20d12 = 38-291 damage (28-191 damage on both successful saves)
For comparison, a Paladin using two 5th-level Divine Smites in one turn: 2d12 + 10 + 2d8 + 12d8 = 26-146 damage
Even if you only permit triggering Quivering Palm once per turn, this does almost as much damage as the nova build the designers openly acknowledged having to nerf. (Keep in mind too that this doesn't factor in magic weapons; if the Monk has a magic weapon that does the same thing as the Paladin's, their added effects and damage trigger more due to hitting more.)
In conclusion, the Warrior of the Hand has two features that are rendered largely pointless to other classes' improvements or even the base class's revisions, and two features that wildly break the game. And as appealing as the new Quivering Palm may seem, to get there you have to spend 14 levels using your limited resource to do what the designers decided every other martial should get to do for free...while playing the subclass originally meant to specialize in being the martial who could do that sort of stuff.
Did you post this yesterday or the day before and delete it, because I am sure I remember seeing this before I think I did have a few things to say about a lot of it, but well I haven't got time to go back over it all again now, however let me go over at least the below point for now and come back to my feelings on the rest
I would say fighter at level 11 is doing more damage but to establish why, we first need to compare the base classes like you have.
I think the most optimized you can get here for fighter is using a greatsword with great weapon master feat and at +5, you could also pick-up sentinel for a few potential extra reactions and still get a +5 by level 8. For these calculations, I am going with a standard 65% chance to hit and 5% chance to critical (normal attack)
GWM + greatsword: (~8.33*0.7+5) * 3.14 + 3.8285 = ~37.83784
In practice, fighter's DPR will be higher, because I can not calculate how often fighter will get extra attacks from taking creatures down to 0 HP or other methods of boosting critical hits. the ~8.33 comes from a greatsword benefiting from great weapon fighting, the .14 comes from about a 14.2% chance to get a critical hit with 3 attacks (for the bonus action attack) and the remaining 3.8285 comes from proficiency bonus damage (adjusted for chance to miss all attacks) that great weapon master gives. Also as greatsword is a graze wepaon, you always do your ability score modifier in damage, hit or miss. Without GWM, it'd be 32.493 DPR...
Your monk on the other hand at a d10 die is doing: (~5.5 * 0.7 + 5 * 0.65)) * 5 = ~34.25
As a monk, there isn't any good half feats that directly add damage, you could grab grappler with a +1 dexterity as a good choice for getting advantage but that has it's own issues. There is also the possibility you get an extra ~5.5 + 5 force damage from a failed stunning strike... why stunning strike doesn't also deal the damage on a failed save, I dunno, it feels odd and should just do the damage irrespective of save/fail, like a paladin smite spell or a battlemaster manoeuvrer like trip attack, but stunning strike is using more discipline points... so it's question if to include that at all since you'll exhaust faster.
anyway, point stands, base damage, fighter actually wins with the greatsword+GWM+GWF combo. There is however more points, 2nd is that fighter subclasses, most of them add a lot of damage, battlemaster, arcane archer, gunslinger & psi warrior all have resources which can add damage to attacks. Even champion fighter is going to boost the damage seen since more critical hits is more chance to get that bonus action attack on top of said critical hit damage. Monk subclasses do not really add damage like fighter subclasses do. Then after all of this, fighter does still have that action surge...
Last is easily homebrewed around, but there are items like +1/+2/+3 greatswords, flame-tongue greatsword and multiple other such weapons... monk doesn't really get much from official content to increase the damage of their unarmed attacks. But I feel most DMs probably would be willing to homebrew those in, given where monk is.
Overall for damage, I think monk is healthier with this 3rd attack on flurry of blows but actually is still lagging slightly. Personally, I am unsure why stunning strike only deals extra force damage on a successful save, I understand wanting stunning strike to not feel like a wasted ki point when it fails but the extra damage could just apply as default like the damage of a paladin smite spell or a battlemaster manoeuvrer like trip attack.... since stun is still so powerful most monks are going to continue using stunning strike and having situations where having the stun not go off are actually beneficial (where the extra force damage finishes the creature), just feels weird to me.
the elements feature isnt just push, its also pull, which is a HUGE difference imo. especially for a flier with 15 foot range. Scorpion get over here, 15 foot grapples, And narrative and Ooc flavor. This is actuall a really big deal.
Flight is super useful for anyone. you can avoid many enemies, and chase down fliers, or escape. add to this push pull from 15 feet away, its a pretty big deal.
elements isn't what it was, it a totally different class concept. More Avatar Bender or mystical martial arts fantasy, than monkxwizard.
Monk was the weakest class with the poorest resource pool. Most boosts the monk got were necessary just to bring it up to the level of other classes. Is it perfect? Nope. But so far the general concensus for the monk changes seem to be positive. I think the final version will be quite similar to what was in the UA.
I disagree with... so many things in the above essay that it's probably not even worth typing a reply. These buffs gave Monk a lot more tactical flexibility and raw power in the form of offensive and defensive options, and I can't fathom the perspectives of people who don't see that. I have to wonder if they only played monks at heavily houseruled or RP-focused tables that abstracted or avoided combat entirely.
Your post is long, so I won't be replying to it all or highlighting parts of it. However, I would like to point out a pattern of assumptions.
The first is that everyone plays optimally by choice. Now, I don't mean people should dump DEX and WIS because nothing forbids them from doing so, but (for example) I don't expect seeing that many weapon-throwing monks. Claiming certain abilities are useless because, optimally, players wouldn't need them - it's just wrong. I can assure you there will be plenty of monks using spears/quarterstaffs/unarmed only. And those people (me included, probably) will really appreciate being able to disengage for free. And subclasses that allow Ki-based solutions don't really solve the problem for low levels. That's the whole point of the Ki-free improvement.
Second, that people choose to play in a different way than what might have been 'the intended way' should be something the game developers should be prepared for. Should you play a low-INT Wizard and complain your spells suck? No. But you should be allowed to pick a race that is melee-orineted and still find use in it. That's why you have a subclass and quite a few spells that might seem a waste for most Wizards but are a valuable addition to those Wizards. Similarly, the added damage for Stunning Strike isn't wrong just because it supports low-WIS builds. And besides, Hold Person doesn't last just one round, and at level 5 a spellcaster can cast it 5 times, targeting up to 7 creatures with it. Also, Stunned and Paralyzed aren't the same.
There's more but I'll point out one last thing and that's use of feats/multiclass in your calculations. Not only are people not sure to take those choices, but you're also often using too many of those. For example, in the comparison of the 11th level Fighter vs Monk, the Monk can't use the mastery+the damage modifier+have maxed modifier while being at the exact same total level as the Fighter. That is, assuming you didn't roll for stats since that makes any such comparisons irrelevant. And also, that Fighter might also multiclass or take feats that were not taken into account (which are easier to fit into a Fighter build for many reasons), which will add to that Fighter. If we're talking optimization, both sides of the comparison must be optimized equally.
And one (truly) last thing: You can't just flag every comment that disagrees with you as toxic, abusive, irrlevant or what not. ESPECIALLY not by insulting them while doing so.
Varielky
...What? 🤨 All I did was say I disagreed with the opening post. That's allowed here, this is a public discussion forum, not a personal blog or echo chamber where you can keep all dissenting voices out of a given thread.
Given that I never thought the Monk was "wholly terrible and does nothing of value" then this doesn't apply to me. I do greatly like the Monk class. Which is why I support the upgrades the designers have provided it based on community feedback. They managed to thread what I thought was a very difficult needle - powering up the monk without just turning it into a martial caster the way they did in 4e (or that PF1's Unchained/Qinggong monk did.)
What you support is stripping the class entirely of its identity and versatility while loading on features that pander to people who want to do as much damage as possible every round.
Their changes are based on community feedback - your community. If One D&D and its "community" wants to tell me I'm a worthless sack of crap and a loser for my enjoyment of the game, that I clearly must be being babied to enjoy a certain class, that I should go to hell for wanting the Monk to get new Monk stuff instead of becoming the new Paladin-esque damage-nova class, then you and the "community" can have One D&D.
(And no, you didn't just disagree with the post, you declared that I and anyone else who enjoys the class must obviously be benefitting from homebrewed additions to have fun with the class. In short, you treated everyone who enjoys the class as someone being babied for their idiotic taste. You can just tell me that my opinion is poo-poo without thinking you're being cute and clever.)
I don't support any such thing. In fact, I just said how the designers threaded the needle between maintaining the class' identity while improving its mechanical ability.
Uh... I didn't call you, or tell you to do, any of those things 🤨
The houserule comment was conjecture on my part as to why you're not seeing the same combat deficiencies with the class that the designers clearly are. It wasn't meant to be a slight; I use houserules too, they're not inherently bad, but if they're not accounted for then balance or class design issues can go unnoticed.
This is often accompanied by people claiming that short rests are impossible to fit into an adventuring day, that the recommended 6-8 encounters per day is infeasible. Most such people I've talked to espouse a preference for one or two big fights per day, where PCs unload all of their resources ASAP, followed by a long rest with no short rests in-between. Deliberately choosing to play the game in a way that ignore the mechanics it is balanced around, then complaining that this disadvantages certain classes is certainly...a choice. However, it's clear that this is the choice Uncanny Metabolism is meant to cater to.
I want to address this point here. As a warlock player, I empathize with you on short rests. The fact is however, that DMs run the game they want to run, and the class design needs to account for that. More encounters means more work the the DM. Furthermore, narratively, short rests often make no sense. It's my group that prevents me from getting my short rests more than the DM does. What's more...I cannot disagree with them when they say 'sitting down to take a lunch break makes no sense right here'. We can stamp our feet and cry "6-8 and two shorts!", but the game is going to be what it is. The designers don't get to 'enforce' 6-8 and two shorts anymore than a warlock or monk player can, and really, asking the DM to accommodate us with the extra work is unfair.
Our features need to be designed around how the game is actually played at most tables, not how the designers think it should be. They need to adjust for how we play, rather than try to force feed. And as warlock and monk players, we need to try to get our class design on board with how the game is played at most tables. Us and the designers being stubborn around short rest game design isn't going to help anybody. We need to live in the reality that actually exists.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
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