Class is in session! If you want to play the ultimate martial arts master, you’ve come to the right monastery. This week, we take a deep dive into a monastic tradition that allows you to emulate the great martial artists of the ancient world—and the flashy martial artists of Hollywood and Hong Kong kung-fu and wuxia films. The Way of the Open Hand grants you all this power and more.
Story of the Way of the Open Hand
“You would draw blades against me?” The monk looked at the trio of hobgoblins that stood before him with incredulity. He looked small and weak and practically naked before them, wearing only a simple tunic while they wore heavy, spiked plate armor.
The monk opened wide his hands, displaying to all that he was unarmed. “I’ve studied in monasteries across the Moonsea. The monks of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose taught me how to fight with infinite vigor at altitudes where the air is thin as smoke. At the Black Raven Monastery, I learned how to sense the flowing rivers of ki within my foes’ body—and how to disrupt them with a touch. And at the House of the Broken God, I learned how to fight in a way that showed mercy and grace towards all living beings.”
At this, the hobgoblins only laughed, and drew closer. The monk scowled, and clenched his fists. “Yet you—You are testing the limits of my mercy. I will demonstrate to you what I have learned.”
The Way of the Open Hand instantly draws comparison to the stars of Hong Kong action cinema, like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Cheng Pei-Pei—perhaps even more than it draws comparison to actual martial arts! This is to be expected, since D&D’s somewhat abstract combat system encourages cinematic action over gritty realism. Though the class is named “monk,” you must dispel any images of Friar Tuck that appear in your mind. The class’s name was probably coined perhaps in reference to Shaolin monks, who were renowned for their martial arts prowess—but the monk class has no inherent ties to faith, unlike the Christian monks of medieval Europe or the Buddhist monks of feudal China or Japan.
When creating a monk—especially one who follows the Way of the Open Hand, which is the platonic ideal of a martial artist monk—try to think of stories that feature monastic warriors, who fight in the name of an organization or a philosophical ideal rather than a faith or a god. For monks who wield weapons in addition to unarmed strikes—like in D&D—think of the souhei, warrior-monks of feudal Japan, especially during the sengoku jidai, or Warring States period. These monastic warriors often fought with bows and naginata spears, like any sensible soldier of the time. For a non-historical example, think of the Jedi knights from Star Wars, and how their fighting style melds weaponry, sorcery, and philosophy.
Finally, be sure to read the “Monastic Orders” sidebar in the Player’s Handbook. This elaborates that while most monasteries that teach a martial art in the Forgotten Realms are Shou in origin—and thus have a broad “East Asian” aesthetic—monasteries dedicated to gods rather than ideals or philosophies are common on the Sword Coast. The monk class isn’t monolithic, and neither is the Way of the Open Hand. It’s kind of like the differences between Hong Kong and Hollywood martial arts movies; similar in topic, but wildly different in content, tone, and approach.
Way of the Open Hand Features
As stated earlier, the Way of the Open Hand is the most iconic, essential ideal of the monk class. As such, its class features tend to enhance the class’s strengths and leave its weaknesses relatively untouched. The features of this subclass grant you the ability to manipulate not just the ki (energy) within your own body, but the ki within other creatures, as well. Generally, these features either allow you to cause harm to enemies or heal harm done to your own body. The monk gains access to four subclass features in addition to their monk class features, gained at increasingly wide intervals at 3rd, 6th, 11th, and 17th level.
You can read all of the Way of the Open Hand features for free in the D&D Basic Rules. In summary, your subclass features allow you to:
- Use martial arts to hinder your enemies’ movement or reactions.
- Manipulate your own ki to heal your wounds.
- Surround yourself with an aura of peace.
- Kill a creature with a single strike.
Benefits of Playing a Way of the Open Hand Monk
Monks who follow the Way of the Open Hand rely predominantly on skills as martial artists, rather than upon any sort of supernatural powers, making them more akin to Cheng Chao-an (Bruce Lee’s street-fighting protagonist in The Big Boss) than to Yin Chik-ha (Wu Ma’s ghost-fighting Taoist priest in A Chinese Ghost Story). Or, for a more contemporary example, more like Ty Lee or Suki than Azula or Zuko (all from Avatar: The Last Airbender).
As such, your subclass focuses on making you a well-balanced melee combatant, and does a good job at it. It strikes an impressive balance of offense and defense, and gets to the good stuff quickly while still tantalizing you with one of the most striking “capstone” features in the game. Your Open Hand Technique, the first feature you gain in this subclass, grants you a diversity of tactical offensive options that allow you to manipulate your enemies’ position on the battlefield. Knocking an enemy prone can set up a devastating Sneak Attack combo with your party’s rogue, and battlefields with hazardous terrain like acid pits or lava, or active spell effects like moonbeam make pushing a creature up to 15 feet a niche but useful ability.
Wholeness of Body’s healing isn’t as useful as a fighter’s Second Wind trait in the heat of combat, it can still provide some additional healing between battles. Fortunately, it scales better than Second Wind, making it useful even as you rise into higher levels. Additionally, Tranquility shouldn’t be underestimated as a defensive feature. Gaining the effects of a sanctuary that lasts your entire adventuring day—or until you take hostile action yourself—protects you from ambushes in the first combat encounter of any given day. This isn’t the best in long dungeon crawls, but it is useful when traveling long distances, such as in the jungles of Chult or the Faerûn’s Savage Frontier.
This subclass’s most exciting feature, gained at 17th level, is Quivering Palm. By spending 3 ki points, you can fill a creature’s body with imperceptible vibrations that last for a number of days equal to your monk level. At any point during that time, you can use another action to turn those vibrations into a lethal disruption of that creature’s ki—forcing them to make a successful Constitution saving throw or die instantly. Even on a successful save, the creature takes a significant amount of damage. The power to kill a creature instantly on a single failed save is always impressive, and its low ki cost makes it even more appealing. Creatures that can instantly succeed on saving throws thanks to Legendary Resistance aren’t quite as intimidated by this ability. Nevertheless, the thought of killing an ancient red dragon by tricking it into spending its Legendary Resistances on trivial spells, only to slay it with a Quivering Palm is enough to drive any monk mad with power.
Drawbacks of Playing a Way of the Open Hand Monk
The monk’s central crisis is that it’s torn between being a frontline fighter and a stealthy speedster—and isn’t always able to do both. Spending a bonus action to Disengage by using Step of the Wind is nice, but is it really worth sacrificing using your bonus action to attack two more times with Flurry of Blows? Your Open Hand Technique helps somewhat by allowing you to disable an enemy’s reactions, allowing you to dart in, attack, and escape, but this subclass does nothing to solve the problem of the monk’s mediocre hit points or middling Armor Class—and while it provides some defensive abilities in the form of Wholeness of Body and Tranquility, neither of them are tremendously useful in the midst of combat.
In a phrase, the Way of the Open Hand does nothing to address the iconic weaknesses of the monk class, such as mediocre defenses, dependence on a wide array of ability scores, and lack of ranged attack options.
Along these lines, since you don’t have any magical powers or proficiency with martial weapons, your ability to fight from afar is severely limited. You can pick up a handful of thrown weapons like handaxes or javelins, and a few ranged weapons like shortbows or light crossbows, but finding magic items that support your limited ranged options can be difficult. A single +1 handaxe won’t get you far. Here are all potential options available to you from the core rulebooks. Of all of these options, the javelin of lightning is probably the most exciting—essentially transforming the thrown javelin into a lightning bolt, piercing all creatures between you and your target with crackling energy. All other options are simply weapon types (like vicious weapon or weapon of warning) that can apply to any weapon in D&D.
Suggested Build
If you’re playing a monk from 1st level, you should choose a race that improves either Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom—ideally two of the three. Dexterity will make your attacks stronger and more accurate, Constitution will grant you more hit points, which will help you last longer on the front lines, and Wisdom will increase your Armor Class and make it harder for foes to resist your martial abilities.
Wood elves gain a bonus to both Dexterity and Wisdom, making them agile and cunning martial artists. Likewise, stout halflings gain a bonus to both Dexterity and Constitution, making them nimble but durable skirmishers. And, as always, humans gain either a small bonus to all ability scores, or can gain a feat by taking the “variant human” race, making them more flexible in their builds.
Once you’ve prioritized your primary ability scores, you should consider which among your Strength, Intelligence, and Charisma are strongest and weakest. A high Strength will make it easier for you to initiate grapples and resist being overpowered in those few situations when your Dexterity won’t allow you to slip out of a creature’s grip. A high Intelligence will help you make the most of knowledge skills like Religion and History. A high Charisma will help you interact better with NPCs, and make alliances with them by showing them either compassion or intimidating them into submission. As usual, your character’s background is up to you. You can make your character more unique by choosing unusual backgrounds like Criminal, representing a convict who turned to a monastic life out of penance, or follow a more traditional archetype by choosing a background like Acolyte, representing someone who has dedicated themselves to their faith since birth.
Choose EQUIPMENT instead of GOLD at the end of character creation. Choose a shortsword or another simple melee weapon of your choice. While other Dexterity-based combatants have to worry about choosing weapons with the Finesse property, you don't have to. Any monk weapon—that is, shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property—allows you to add your Dexterity bonus to attack and damage rolls.
You won’t choose your Way of the Open Hand subclass until you reach 3rd level as a monk, so use this time as a 1st- and 2nd-level monk to figure out if Way of the Open Hand is really the right path for you. Are you enjoying the fantasy of being a peerless martial artist? Do you feel like you need more Avatar-style elemental magic? Or would you rather embrace the shadows as a ninja? If you’re enjoying yourself, stay the course.
Feats
Once you’ve reached 4th level in this class—or even at 1st level, if you selected the “variant human” race—you have the option to select a feat or improve your ability scores. As a monk, you have a lot of flexibility built into your core class already, and a lot ability scores you want to make as high as possible (Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom), so eschewing feats entirely isn’t a bad idea. Nevertheless, if you want to customize your character further, consider some of the following feats:
- Athlete. Monks are already highly mobile combatants, but improving your Strength or Dexterity score while also making it harder for the environment to restrict your movement can be a potent, if niche, benefit.
- Martial Adept. This feat is an interesting one; if you want to be an even more tactically oriented combatant, taking the Martial Adept feat will grant you access to two maneuvers from the fighter’s Battle Master subclass, which could help you pull off the cinematic stunts your class is themed around.
- Mobile. Monks are already incredible speedsters; taking the Mobile feat makes them nearly impossible to slow down, netting them an additional movement speed buff, an immunity to the slowing effect of difficult terrain when you take the Dash action (which you can do as a bonus action through your Step of the Wind feature), and an easy way to shut down opportunity attacks, just by attacking a creature. With all these features at your disposal, a Mobile monk can speed around even the most hostile battlefields, throwing out attacks with impunity.
- Resilient (Wisdom). Monks are proficient in Strength and Dexterity saving throws, but gaining proficiency in Wisdom saving throws and improving that ability score by 1 is a significant boost to your defenses against magical effects. Note that, if you plan on playing into high levels, this feat loses some oomph, as you gain proficiency in all saving throws when you reach level 14 in this class.
- Skulker. If your party doesn’t have a rogue, you may be the closest thing to a scout or stealth specialist your party has. The Skulker feat will help you fill this role even better.
If you want more advice for building a monk, check out Monk 101: A Beginner's Guide to Mystical Combat. Have you ever played a Way of the Open Hand monk? What advice would you give to players that want to make a character like this?
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
Great article, as usual, and I can't wait to show this to my new players who want to be a monk!
I'd argue against taking Resilient, since at level 14, monks get proficiency in ALL saving throws. You could take an ASI for +2 Wisdom and ultimately get a better result.
No mention of the Mobile feat is a crime. It arguably makes for the best kiter-type character in the game.
In the Suggested Build section, you talk about taking finesse weapons (as they can replace strength with dexterity for attack/damage rolls), but the monk’s Martial Arts feature notes that any monk weapon (shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property) innately allows replacement of strength with dexterity.
Another advantage to the Wood Elf as a monk race is the ability to take Wood Elf Magic, snagging the most important feature of the Shadow path (Pass w/o Trace) w/o sacrificing the melee abilities of the Empty Hand. Proficiency with the longbow helps with the monk's limited options at range.
Given the monk's attacks per round, consider a 3-level dip into Brute for the +1d4 to all attacks. However, since Brute Force only works with a weapon, this requires choosing a race with natural weapons that can be used to make unarmed strikes -- the aarakocra is an obvious choice, tabaxi and lizardfolk are also respectable options. You also snag Second Wind, Action Surge, and a fighting style (Mariner's is a good choice, since you are not going to be using armor or a shield anyway: you can use the bonus to armor class, and the climbing and swimming speeds are on brand for the highly mobile monk.)
Another good dip is 2 or 3 levels of the spell-less ranger. In combination with the martial adept feat, your monk gets 4 Battle Master maneuvers and 5 superiority dice per short rest -- making you truly the ultimate close-quarters martial artist (the list is an embarrassment of riches -- an empty-hand master will likely want some mix of parry, riposte, maneuvering attack, menacing attack, pushing attack, and/or trip attack.) If you are using the updated Ranger as the base class of your spell-less ranger, you can also snag advantage on initiative roles, advantage in the first round of combat, a favored enemy (humanoids make roleplaying sense, reflecting the study of humanoid body language, pressure points, joint locks, etc), and the ability to ignore difficult terrain (and again you can snag a fighting style.)
You don't need to worry about taking a Finesse weapon, you can use your Dex bonus with any "monk weapon" - shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property. So a spear or quarterstaff are great: Versatile lets you get d8 - the highest damage for simple weapons.
Something about the finesse weapon bit: As a monk, you don't need a finesse weapon. So long as the weapon you have is a simple weapon, and does not have the special or two-handed properties, you can use your dex modifier for them a la your Martial Arts feature. Additionally, as your martial arts damage increases, you can replace the damage done by the weapon with your martial arts dice, potentially doing 1d10+dex with daggers and clubs if you get that far.
One combo I've found to be absolute gold is Wood elf Monk 5+/Fighter 3. Get to Monk 5 to get to Open Hand, Stunning Strike and Extra Attack, the bread and butter of all monks, and get 3 levels in fighter. You get Second Wind, Action Surge, and most importantly, a subclass. I like to go Battlemaster for the sheer utility it provides, since it essentially provides you with 4 free ki points in the form of Superiority Dice, for the price of 3 levels (Efficiency!). From that point on, keep going Monk, boosting Dex and Wis every chance you get. When you get feats, take Elven Accuracy, if you have Xanathar's Guide, or Mobile if you just feel cheeky.
What you get is a monk with some pretty decent nova potential that prevents a single enemy from ever playing D&D. Run up to the evil boss mage, the tyrant knight, the ulitharid or what have you, and start with your attack action for two weapon hits. Then, action surge, and hit them twice more with your weapon. THEN, spend a ki point, and hit them twice more with your unarmed strikes. Roll below a 10? that's alright, just use a superiority dice to make it a precision strike and add a d8 to your roll! You already hit with your normal actions? Stun the thing! Did it save? Make it roll more saves with a tripping, menacing, or disarming strike off your superiority dice! (Remember, if you crit, all damage dice are doubled, including ones added after the fact)
And then you just sprinkle on your last two attacks from your Flurry of Blows, and remove the enemy's reaction, and maybe prone or push them if you're feeling spicy. Congratulations, if the enemy isn't dead, they sure wish they would be as they are stunned, prone, potentially frightened, and perhaps pushed 15 feet closer to your barbarian, without any reactions.
Did I mention all these resources come back on a short rest?
Signed,
Someone Who Has only Played Monks in 3 Years of Playing Adventurers League.
That's true! My mistake.
It absolutely deserves a mention!
These multiclass options weren't mentioned, since they are all exclusive to Unearthed Arcana, and thus aren't official options.
Love the article. I have in my mind a Tabaxi Open Hand Monk. It's true that the Tabaxi get an increase in Dexterity when at the three ability scores above, but I also find the Feline Agility feature to be a good asset for the Monk class. A good first attack would be to use Feline Agility if you need to close the distance quickly, or reach the long range attackers, attack, and then use Patient Defense as a bonus action. Can you imagine a level 17 Open Hand Monk that's also Tabaxi?
Monks can automatically apply their Dexterity bonus to all monk weapons. All simple melee weapons without the two-handed or heavy properties qualify as monk weapons. Monks therefore do not need to choose a simple melee weapon that has the Finesse property. Also, the Resilient (Wisdom) feat loses a lot of its luster once you get the Diamond Soul feature at 14th level, which grants proficiency in all saving throws. It can be an okay choice prior to that if you have an odd Wisdom score, and if you often find yourself getting sidelined by effects that require a Wisdom save. I would have mentioned the Mobile feat since it provides you with a way to effectively disengage from enemies you attack in melee without burning any ki points. If I were playing a variant human, it's the first feat I'd consider, especially given the big drawback you mention in your article: "it's torn between being a front-line fighter and a stealthy speedster".
Great article.
If any of you guys like playing monks or someone in your group is a monk I would suggest asking your DM if you can use this expanded weapon list. It makes playing a monk a lot more fun.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwF09f1afXWlS20ySnVuMjAxckk/view?pli=1
Well, obviously, people are using whatever resources they are using. I would think that would go without saying. If you wanted a similar dip strictly confined to existing sourcebook materials, good options might be 3 levels of Battle Master, or 3 levels of Gloom Stalker (giving up the maneuvers of the spell-less version for the extra punch of Hunter's Mark and added mobility of Jump and Longstrider.) The Gloom Stalker (which, like the Brute, started out as UA content) not only gets their Wis bonus to initiative but also the (overpowered?) Dread Ambusher ability, giving an extra attack and extra damage as well as even MORE speed in the first round of combat. Gloomy's night vision, concealment, and disguise self abilities also make it a natural dip for ninja types.
For the Skulker feat, it would be better if the character was a Way of the Shadow monk instead.
Great article makes me want to play monk.
You forgot to mention tortles!
17th level Way of the Open Hand Monk: "Omae wa mou shindeiru."
Ancient blue dragon that already used up its legendary resistances and rolled a nat 3 on its Con save: "Nani?"
look above you
What resource has wood elves getting pass without trace? I'm only aware of mask of the wild.
Racial feat in Xanthar's Guide.
A note on maximizing Quivering Palm:
If you meet the prerequisite 13 Int, after picking up Quivering Palm at 17th level you can multiclass into Wizard at 18th level. This allows you to learn the School of Divination by 20th. The Diviner's ability, Portent, can be used to manipulate the saves of the enemy you have chosen to Quivering Palm. There is also some valuable RP potential here, as the Dim Mak (which Quivering Palm is based off of) requires deep knowledge of the body, the environment (the Five Element cycles of Destruction in Qigong), and time itself.