The 2024 Player’s Handbook brings the return of one of the most distinctive classes in Dungeons & Dragons. Almost every aspect of the Monk has seen improvements and refinements, from Martial Arts at level 1 to the new Body and Mind feature at level 20.
In this article, we’ll look at all the key improvements of the 2024 Monk that you’ll find within the new Player’s Handbook. While most of the Monk’s features saw some improvements or have been fully replaced, those that remain unchanged or changed very marginally may not appear in this article.
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Perfect Focus |
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2024 Monk Class Features Overview

Martial Arts — Level 1
Changes to the Monk come early with adjustments to Martial Arts. The biggest change is that the Monk’s Martial Arts die starts one size larger at 1d6 and now goes all the way to 1d12. Next up, Monk weapons have been simplified. Now any Martial Melee weapon with the Light property qualifies as a Monk weapon. All Simple Melee weapons are also considered Monk weapons. Finally, you can now use Dexterity instead of Strength when attempting to Grapple or Shove a creature.
Also, you can now make an Unarmed Strike as a Bonus Action, even if you don't take the Attack action on your turn, which is an upgrade from the 2014 version of Martial Arts.
Monk's Focus — Level 2
Monk's Focus is a new name for a familiar level 2 feature where you’ll find Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, and Step of the Wind, the last two having seen some fun improvements.
Patient Defense now allows you to take the Disengage action as a Bonus Action without spending any Focus Points, but if you do spend a Focus Point, you can Disengage and Dodge as the same Bonus Action.
Likewise, Step of the Wind allows you to Dash as a Bonus Action, no Focus Point required, but spending one allows you to Disengage and Dash as part of the same Bonus Action. Using a Focus Point for Step of the Wind also doubles your jump distance for a turn, so go ahead, you can definitely clear that gap.
Finally, similar to Martial Art's Bonus Unarmed Strike, Flurry of Blows no longer requires the Monk to take the Attack action first.
Uncanny Metabolism — Level 2
This new level 2 feature allows a Monk character to regain all expended Focus Points when they roll Initiative once per Long Rest. Additionally, when you use this feature, you also regain Hit Points equal to your Monk level plus a roll of your Martial Arts die.
Deflect Attacks — Level 3
Formerly Deflect Missiles, as the name might suggest, Deflect Attacks now has much more usability. No longer limited to Ranged weapon attacks, Deflect Attacks allows you to reduce the damage of any attack that includes Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage. The damage is reduced by 1d10 plus your Dexterity modifier and Monk Level, and if you reduce that damage to 0, you can use a Focus Point to redirect the attack.
Depending on if the attack was a melee or ranged attack, you can target a creature within 5 feet or 60 feet, respectively, and force them to make a saving throw against damage based on your Martial Arts die and your Dexterity modifier.
Monk Subclass— Level 3

At level 3 the Monk class gets to pick its subclass, choosing from four options: Warrior of Mercy, Warrior of Shadow, Warrior of the Elements, or Warrior of the Open Hand.
- Warrior of Mercy: First appearing in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the 2024 Warrior of Mercy subclass has seen the fewest changes of all the Monk subclasses. The familiar features such as Hand of Harm and Implements of Mercy return, albeit with some minor tweaks. Hand of Healing, for example, is now classed as a Magic action, a new action classification to improve clarity of the rules. The most significant change is that Flurry of Healing and Harm can now be used a number of times per Long Rest equal to your Wisdom modifier. While there haven't been too many major tweaks, the updated Monk class features ripple into this subclass to improve its abilities. For example, now that Monks can use Flurry of Blows to make up to three Unarmed Strikes at level 10, Flurry of Healing and Harm can heal up to three times now instead of two.
- Warrior of Shadow: The Warrior of Shadow really shines in 2024, pun intended. Shadow Arts has been reworked, allowing you to cast Darkness and Minor Illusion, and you can move the field of Darkness you create. The feature also gives you Darkvision (or upgrades yours if you have it) and lets you see through the Darkness of your own Darkness spell. As you level up, your level 11 Improved Shadow Step allows you to spend a Focus Point to ignore the Dim Light or Darkness restriction of Shadow Step and make an Unarmed Strike immediately after you teleport as part of the same Bonus Action. Finally, Cloak of Shadow is a new level 17 feature that allows you to wreath yourself in shadows. This effect lasts for 1 minute, until you’re Incapacitated, or you end your turn in Bright Light. While it’s active, you have the Invisible condition, which persists even if you attack or cast a spell; you can move through occupied spaces as if they were Difficult Terrain; and you can use Flurry of Blows without needing to spend any Focus Points.
- Warrior of the Elements: The Warrior of the Elements has had the most number of changes and has received a lot of new and exciting changes. Elemental Attunement now gives you 10-foot reach of your Unarmed Strikes and deals your choice of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage. You can also push or pull a target 10 feet on a failed save. On top of that, you learn the new Elementalism cantrip. As you level up, you'll get the ability to create AoE elemental bursts, fun ways to navigate the battlefield, and damage resistances to aid survivability.
- Warrior of the Open Hand: Open Hand Technique remains largely unchanged, with the exception of one of its options only blocking Opportunity Attacks rather than all Reactions. Wholeness of Body has been moved to a Bonus Action and now heals a number of Hit Points equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die plus your Wisdom Modifier, rather than three times your Monk level. However, you can now use it a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier per Long Rest rather than just once. The new Fleet Step feature allows you to use Step of the Wind as part of any Bonus Action that wasn’t already used to perform Step of the Wind, and Quivering Palm has been rebalanced. It now costs 4 Focus Points and does 10d12 Force damage on a failed save rather than reducing the target to 0 Hit Points, and half as much on a successful save. While it might not insta-kill any longer, you can end the vibrations by forgoing one attack granted by the Attack action rather than taking your entire action.
Stunning Strike — Level 5
Stunning Strike, a popular Monk feature, has received a rebalance in the 2024 version of the class. It now requires the use of a Monk weapon or Unarmed Strike. If successfully applied, the Stunned condition now ends at the start of your next turn rather than the end, and it can only be used once per turn. However, if the target succeeds on their saving throw against Stunning Strike, their Speed is halved until the start of your next turn, and the next attack made against them is done so with Advantage.
Empowered Strike — Level 5
With this new version of Ki-Empowered Strike, you can change the damage type of your Unarmed Strikes to Force damage. Handy for getting around those resistances.
Heightened Focus — Level 10
Heightened Focus is a new level 10 feature that improves several of your core Monk features. First, Flurry of Blows gains an additional attack, bringing the total to three per Bonus Action. Next up, Patient Defense now grants you Temporary Hit Points based on two rolls of your Martial Arts die. Finally, when you use Step of the Wind you can move one willing creature that’s Large or smaller along with you until the end of your turn, and they don’t provoke Opportunity Attacks as you do.
Self-Restoration — Level 10
Another new level 10 feature, Self-Restoration lets you avoid the levels of Exhaustion you would normally accumulate when going without food or water, and at the end of your turn, end the Charmed, Frightened, or Poisoned condition on yourself.
Deflect Energy — Level 13
An upgrade to Deflect Attacks, Deflect Energy allows you to reduce the damage of attacks of any damage type.
Perfect Focus — Level 15
If when you roll Initiative, you’re below 4 Focus Points and don’t use Uncanny Metabolism, you immediately regain enough Focus Points to bring you back up to 4, perfect for when you’re on your fifth or sixth encounter of the day!
Superior Defense — Level 18
At the start of your turn you can expend 3 Focus Points to gain Resistance to all damage types except Force for 1 minute, or until you’re Incapacitated. It’s ideal when you’re up against high-level enemies that are pummeling you with elemental damage, like the Ancient White Dragon’s Cold Breath, or a Fire Giant Dreadnought's Shield Charge
Epic Boon — Level 19
In the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide, Epic Boons were a special reward handed out at the Dungeon Master’s discretion. Now they’ve made their way over to the 2024 Player’s Handbook as a new type of feat with the prerequisite of being level 19+. While Monks can take any Epic Boon, the recommended pick is the Boon of Irresistible Offense, which we’ll look at here:
- Boon of Irresistible Offense: First, increase your Strength or Dexterity ability score by 1, up to a maximum of 30. Next, Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage you deal always ignores resistance. Additionally, when you roll a 20 on an attack roll, you can deal additional damage equal to the ability score you increased with this feat.
Body and Mind — Level 20
As the level 20 feature of the Monk, Body and Mind increases your Dexterity and Wisdom scores by 4 each, up to a maximum of 25.
Putting the Art Into Martial Artist
The 2024 Player’s Handbook is now available on the D&D Beyond marketplace, which means it's time to set out on new adventures with fresh or familiar characters!
The 2024 Player’s Handbook brings with it probably the most changes for the Monk out of all of the classes, revitalizing the class and solving many of its weaknesses and pain points. The Warrior of the Elements probably showcases this most, a completely redesigned subclass that still captures the theme of its 2014 predecessor but delivers it much more effectively.
We’re delighted to share with you the changes to fifth edition D&D that appear in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Make sure to keep an eye out on D&D Beyond for more useful guides on using the wealth of new options, rules, and mechanics found in the 2024 Player's Handbook!

Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including his daughter Willow (well, one day). The three of them live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in south of England.
This article was updated on August 13, 2024, to issue corrections or expand coverage for the following features and subclasses:
- Martial Arts: Added that you no longer have to take the Attack action before being able to use your Bonus Action Unarmed Strike.
- Monk’s Focus: Added that you no longer have to take the Attack action before being able to use Flurry of Blows.
- Monk Subclass (Warrior of Mercy): Expanded coverage to detail how the improved base Monk class impacts the subclass's features.
- Monk Subclass (Warrior of Shadow): Added a note that the subclass allows you to see through the Darkness spell that you cast.
- Monk Subclass (Warrior of the Open Hand): Clarified that Quivering Palm's vibrations can be ended by forgoing one of your attacks granted by the Attack action.
I dont agree the Monk is useless for 2024. Its is objectively better overall but the a lot of plus side is eliminated with the changes to Stunning Strike. The simple fix here is simply allow players to use the old Stunning Strike feature and then allow Monks to do damage and either shove or grapple when they make an Unarmed Strike...a sort of Weapon Mastery for Monks only. The already added those options to the Unarmed Strike as a whole, this just makes it so Monk ALSO get to do something cool tactically that all the other martials can do with weapons. These two changes evens out the Monks major issues with regards to the other martials. Simple enough.
I find it ironic that you lament the 2024 Monk potentially having to give the advantage on a strike to another player when you take the position that the Monk's role should be to set the party up for big attacks.
That is not even correct anyway. The 2014 Monk has been defined many different ways: the martial crowd controller, the backline striker, the fighter stand-in, the rogue stand-in, and the waste of space. From all this, we can conclude that the 2014 Monk had no fixed role, but rather, could fill many roles depending on the needs of the party. Stunning Strike was one way, and perhaps the only way that made the 2014 Monk worth playing at all for min-maxers, but that is hardly their 'primary role'. Even if it was, so what? Things change. Different does not mean bad and in the case of the 2024 Monk, it means a great deal better for most players of the Monk. I can safely say most too, as the survey results from the Monk numbered in the tens of thousands and was overwhelmingly positive... a great deal different than the 2014 Monk survey results, which were the literal most critical and unfavorable of all the classes. You speak for a very small number of players who, honestly, will find something else to make their new one-trick playstyle in the 2024 rules. Why should I care what those people think when they are, right now, dissecting the 2024 rules to squeeze every point of damage potential out of any of the classes? They won't even care about the 2014 Monk in a few month's time because they will have found some other new thing to covet.
I don't really care what the Monk from 2014 or the 2014 Stunning Strike could do; I won't be playing it come September, just like most people won't. There will be new solutions to any problem you can now point out from the Stunning Strike change. There will be new ways to help spellcasters save spell slots. Notably, there are a lot of free uses of many caster's spells in the 2024 rules anyway, which makes the best feature for the 2014 Monk, according to you, entirely pointless.
Lastly, I am not a member of the 2024 Rules dev team, though I would have loved to be part of this incredible and already widely-loved change.
" So you're basically turning a monk into a road because you're going to jump in attack and then jump out. Yay! A big whoop I get to move around like a rogue now."
So, you move into melee, attempt a stun and if the stun sticks you stay where you are and initiate a flurry of blows. If the stun doesn't stick, at least you've slowed down the target and can use your bonus action to get away without expending Focus.
This is literally giving more choices about what a monk player does with their turn. I mean, it's like you're trying to not like these changes.
One of the choices should still be to be able to use Stunning Strike as often as they wish. Its their resource to manage, let them manage their Ki their way. Its the same exact issue I have with the Paladin Smite. If you want to burn all your spell slots to nova, fine. Go for it. Often just means the rest of the day is going to very painful for you. I run adventures over several sessions typically and there is typically many encounters between rests. People either manage well or run out when they need shit most. And simply doing this, solves 99 percent of the problems. I think the issue is that newer players are not doing old school type DnD set ups/adventures, so they never feel the pain of being low on HP, spell slots, etc. But do this. Grab a 2nd or3rd ed adventure/dungeon crawl. Then see how those complaints go away...yes some spells might still make resting easy/easier but not every caster takes them and not every group has a caster CAPABLE of casting them. One group I ran didnt have ANY casters....which really sucked for them...lol.
Nearly all the problems people have and calls for nerfs is because they are running slice of life games, not what adventures in the sense of classic DnD...those shit were BRUTAL through all levels and death really was a real thing. And its the primary reason I fight against every nerf cause I know its just not needed...its just that DMs are running very easy games for their player so they never have to face the possibility of failure and death.
Dudes, Elemental Monk with the tavern brawler and grappler feat combined with the 15 ft reach of elemental attunement is just plain crazy. Use dex for grapple DC, move grappled opponent from a 15 ft distance, apply damage and attempt a grapple on the same attack, and advantage on attacks on grappled opponents. 2014 minks could never dream about doing this good.
Okay let me clarify something. The advantage thing I was not saying that a Monk could not pass on the advantage to the next player I said that it would be wasted by the month because they would be attacking the creature the next attack anyways. The fact That you misunderstood my position as in the monk using the advantage for their own next attack would be a waste of opportunity for some other player is why you don't understand the monk you're supposed to set up others not set up themselves. As for everyone liking the monk they like the monk because they get they deal more damage. Now a whole one damage die more. They also like the fact that monks can grapple now because they couldn't figure out how to make a monk good class now grapple before. I could also go on and say about the spellcasters having free spells. Those free spells are freaking nothing new because they're called cantrips.
You didn't give them more choices. You took choices away. So I get to use less attacks. Do less damage but I get to run around. Yay!
Wrong on every level since there were tattoos that could give you that ability. On top of the fact that while yes grapple checks where strength base and now they can be strength or Dex base. You do know the grapple check the opponent still gets to decide if they're going to use Athletics or Acrobatics. Like the people who couldn't grapple with the 2014 monks didn't know how to build them. Yeah were they the great grapplers hell no, not at all but they could do it and do it pretty effectively if you knew how. Especially if you stun them first. Just FYI if you want really be a Grapplers at 15 you might as well get the Coiling Grasping Tattoo.
Lol, such histrionics. That tattoo is usable for 1 minute, once per day, requires attunement, and takes a bonus action to activate.
True. I will give you the Monk can Grapple using their Dex is sweet. But noticed I never said everything about the new Monk was bad. I said the changes to Empower Stick was bad. That Stunning Strike change makes it almost useless. The changes to Step of the wind and Patient Defense basically make Monks a weaker Rogue.
I'm sorry, complaining that a Sub-class feature takes the usefulness of a magic item is kinda idiotic. And no, 2014 Monk weren't good grapplers. Fighter & Barbarians were by far the better grapplers, because Monk wanted, and still want, Dex-->Wis-->Con-->Str in that order.
I am sorry that I misunderstood your post. I am not a grammarian and your messages are not exactly written in a way that people other than you can precisely understand them. I freely admit that my own experience with the 2014 Monk probably was very different from you own. I still don't really care for any of the things that you think made the 2014 class worthwhile. The 2024 Monk is better than the 2014 Monk in every meaningful way for me. If you do not like it, don't play it. I promise that it will not upset me if you refuse to play the 2024 Monk. The 2024 Monk does everything that I want them to do and they got rid of everything that I thought made the 2014 Monk a weak class. Sorry you disagree. I guess enjoy playing a class that was weak in 2014 and will be even weaker when dropped into a 2024 game.
100% agree. The only time I saw a 2014 monk being effective is when the DM homebrewed some fixes for them. Stunning Strikes could be effective once in a while but most of the time the target makes con save after con save and the monk just ends up wasting all of their ki for nothing. I for one am looking forward to playing a monk for once.
That was my experience as well. Monsters are frequently decent to pretty good at Con Saves, which left me burning through ki and feeling like my turn was all but entirely wasted. If you didn't have maxed out Wisdom, your chances of having nothing happening at all were pretty high in low to medium tiers of play. Now, in 2024, even when you fail, you succeed as a Monk. I welcome that change.
How like the younger generation.....never wanting to fail....lol. This is entirely why I dont like the change to SS as it is, well not entire, but its this attitude....plus the change to BEGINNING of your next turn is shit. Let alone not being able to use on all your attacks. Nah, screw this change.
So then you never got a Belt of Dragonhide or built you Monk to have a high DC. ON top of I already explained how the Stunning Strike is actually worse now. Also enjoy fighting creatures with Force Damage Resistance and Immunity because your 2024 Monk is going to be real effective against those.
You don't succeed the effect of Movement speed means nothing to a Melee FRONTLINE FIGHTER. Now if it reduced the Movement Speed to 0 then i can slightly see it, but still pointless overall because the Monk is 5ft away. As for the Advantage on the next attack will most likely be the Monk which doesn't really help the party. You might as well go any other Melee Class and get a Weapon Mastery ability.
Thank you someone understands.
I never said the 2014 was the best Grapplers hell I admitted they were not. You could build them to be all you had to give up was Monk Movement and Unarmored Defends. You put the Monk in Leather Armor and give him decent AC and then go Wis-Str-Con-Dex. But I like how I say I don't like the changes because of Stunning Strike and Empowering Strike changes and why. Your respond now is that Monk can Grapple with Dex now.
Aww OLD SCHOOL DND