@@jacobhamilton2473 Probably 3 levels of warlock for pact of the chain. He's gonna have to roll his stats. And he's probably going to have to use some UA material.
I clicked this video not because I needed a monk build, but because I knew Chris talking about monks for nearly 50 minutes was bound to be entertaining. I was not disappointed.
It also costs an action to activate. Many combats last 3 or 4 rounds, making this ability a trap unless you can activate it before you roll initiative.
Yeah the resistance to all but force damage is strong! Actually the greater invisibility part is basically useless at 18th level since most creatures you're fighting at that level have truesight or blindsight so that side of things you are only using vs minions. But the resistance is good if you can setup beforehand it's great.
I know this is 10 months late, but I'd say that Diamond Soul is the "capstone." Proficiency in all saves and the ability to reroll saves for a ki point, to me, is their best feature.
Note that empty body finally grants a way to gain consistent advantage, allowing you to finally use elven accuracy. I think it would be best to go with the crusher feat, because even if you get a magic item, you’ll still be using a lot of unarmed strikes to apply hands of harm.
@@Quintal100kg I used the crusher feat on my monk to even out odd constitution score. I’m planning on taking elven accuracy because I have an odd dexterity stat. I’m also planning on taking sharpshooter and using a sling which all works together.
When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye, and asks you if you paid your dues; you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have you paid your dues, Jack? Yes sir, the check is in the mail."
Usually I see you as a by the book guy, but this intro reminded me that other than knowlege and objectiveness to make builds you need creativity, that intro was hilarious!!!
For a moment I thought Treantmonk was making shorts to feed the algorithm and this was going to be him just saying "Don't" and then thanking his patrons.
This is cool to see but it still stings that an unarmed Monk is impossible to optimize. I guess the designers just want to punish anyone who grew up with Dragonball Z
Wouldn't 3 levels of fighter (battle master) not only give you unarmed fighting for the early d8, but also give significant burst damage enhancement due to maneuvers (also riposte) and action surge? 1 level of light cleric and you also get warding flare which scales with proficiency and you can have access to both shield of faith and bane, (boosting stunning strike). I just take Mercy Monk to 11 with levels of cleric and fighter sprinkled in.
@@blshouse At least in something like Baldur’s Gate monks eventually rolled a d20 for damage making it optimized to use your hands rather than a weapon. That monk variation was a viable and interesting model that would be well worth the designers looking at for the next edition.
For damage, yes. For control, not necessarily. I'm kicking around the idea of a Grung grappler build. It can work with Monk at lower levels, starts to hurt at higher tiers of play I think. Even though Grung's poison DC is pretty low, forcing the enemy to keep making saves until they fail is a pretty good lockdown strategy. Rune Knight seems like a better option for this than Monk, though. Ironic.
You have to really, really want it. I levelled a monk in 1st edition to Grandmaster of Flowers. It took me 3 years irl; it was probably the hardest and least rewarding class to play on paper, at least until level 8. But I loved playing him, and everyone in my group opened up plenty of opportunities for me to enjoy the experience. At the end of the day, thats the deciding factor.
Some of them are gimmicky, but I feel like there are a few monks which work in even an optimized party just because they come with unique contributions. Open hand monks being able to turn off reactions basically at will - that warrants a slot in an "optimized" party almost by itself. Another option for a half feat, which is dependent upon the resources your DM allows you to work with, would be the Aberrant Dragonmark from Eberron. 1/Short rest level 1 sorcerer spell, and a cantrip, with +1 constitution. So you still get your half ASI, and you can get an additional option for a cantrip - that might be a worthwhile stand in when you are out of Ki.
The Monk chassis needs a really big overhaul, especially in giving it more ki points, like add +10 ki at Level 1 and carry it onward through all levels then make it +15 ki starting at level 10 or 11. And perhaps have Flurry of Blows deal two Unarmed Strikes instead of just one. One D&D3.5e Monk I played paid a Grafter to attach a miniature Beholder's main eye to his forehead as a third eye. This gave him a 15-ft Anti-magic Field/Ray and True Sight that messed up any magic of opponents the Open-Hand Monk was facing. Super awesome with Flurry of Blows! I suggest something similar to the Monk's chassis revision if a D&D6e or 5.5e ever comes up.
I'm putting together a monk right now. I pitched my DM on Chris's changes, but given he's a relatively new DM he was reluctant to adopt them(entirely fair!), but he did counteroffer extra ki points equal to my WIS. modifier, which should smooth out the earliest levels a bit. (Also a few other little tweeks, including accelerating the martial die by starting with a d6, and the d10 hit die.) I think she's going to be fun.
i did have a good use of Hand of Heal standard action + patient defense bonus action. It's the only way you can heal and dodge in the same round, though it takes 2 ki. It made the difference in the moment though, so it was well spent.
If you were a dwarf with the dwarven fortude feat you could get that for 1 ki. (not saying that it's good but it's still better than some other race options)
I like the mobile feat with monk, I know it will put your AC a little lower, but we use it very well to stay safe with our great movement speed (And eventual ability to move over liquids and walls). I especially like it on Mercy monk, because wisdom is not as critical (we do less stunning strikes).
Last thought - at level 17 or whenever your monk damage exceeds versatile longsword damage. if you took whip proficiency instead of warhammer proficiency you could be using a 1 handed reach weapon to be making attacks - just a fun option :P
One thought I did have was going hill dwarf over half-elf for the extra HP per level, Starting 15 con, 17 dex, 16 wisdom gives us the same HP. Though I'd say half-elf's Fey Ancestry is probably more potent than Dwarven Resilience and of course, Elven Accuracy is very nice.
One thing that might be worth trying for a slight bump to damage (campaign dependent) is the Gunner feat. It gives the same +1 DEX as elven accuracy, but will let you use a firearm in melee. This could let you switch from the longsword to a musket, which is a 1d12 weapon, though it IS likely to lock you out of magic weapons which is not worth the trade at all.
How about adding fighting style: archery and Sharpshooter on top of that? At 20 you'd make your two attacks in melee with a musket, dealing 6.5+5 each, or 6.5+5+10 with Sharpshooter, then two flurry attacks unarmed 5.5+5 each, then hand of harm 5.5+5. Might need a Fighter dip to snatch the fighting style.
@@lholliday198 I'm doing a long death monk, and bear totem barbarian multiclass man is super tanky. At level 10 can walk through a meteor swarm and only take 30ish points of damage on a failed save XD most of which most likely gotten eaten by the temp hp he gens from killing something.
@@lholliday198 I'm mostly doing monk ups my ki, and makes me generate more and more temp hp, at 11 monk and 3 Barb so 14 total you'd have to kill him 12 times per short rest to get it to actually stick something we've already shown is hard to do.
@@afrosamurai3847 hell yeah I would do the same. If I wasn't playing in a campaign where monk would be no more than a floor smear I might have tried monk
Invisibility grants advantage on attack rolls and this invisibility (Empty Body) does not disappear when you attack you also get resistance to all damage except for force which is amazing
I would argue that even if you are using a longsword, you are still getting at least some benefit from Crusher because the unarmed strikes are blunt. It would be a bigger consideration to me if the other members of the party had spells like spike growth they were planning on using. That said, I agree with elven accuracy if they weren't.
@@TreantmonksTemple I think I would go variant human and take crusher at level 1. Using a quarter staff, I would be giving up 1 avg damage with my attack action, but totally worth it for the forced move and occasional critical rider, in perceived utility and fun. In the end, same ability scores. But losing out on elven accuracy, darkvision, fey ancestry, longbows, and 1 more skill.
Another great video, Chris! With the Fey Touched feat, how about taking the Hex spell? You’d add 1d6 necrotic to every attack, which would be 4d6 when you use Flurry of Blows. Sure, you can only cast it once a day, but that would be a nice add-on worth saving for the big fight.
You can definitely still do Variant Human with a Half-Feat as the free Feat option and that will get you 3 16's. You miss out on 1 skill and the weapon tool profs but just saying that Crusher is pretty damn good on most Monks even at low levels.
for a defensive choice, I really like 2-3 levels of barbarian. d12 hit die, rage for resistance, danger senses advantage on dex saves goes great with evasion, and then an archetype. bear totem for resistance against all damage except psychic, zealot for d6 radiant or necrotic damage on the first hit, beast barbarian for claw, tail, or bite gives you options vs the situation.
That's going to cost a lot when it comes to pointbuy, though, cause you'll need to raise STR from 8 to 13 to qualify for a barbarian multiclass. Probably dropping CON from 16 to 14 for that (gets you to 12 STR) And then also dropping the starting DEX from 17 to 16 (13 STR, 1 point left over) so losing elven accuracy as well.
I'd be interested to see what the strongest "fake monk" would look like. That is, some sort of build that takes few or even no levels in monk, but chooses a monk from fiction or legend and follows it thematically as closely as possible.
Ultimately, it could depend on the length of the battle, but in general you are giving up hands of harm and 3 of 4 attacks on round 1, so that's a big cost.
@@ecopis 1 minute of invisibility isn't gonna let you scout all that much in most cases at all. The most you could reasonably use it for on any kind of stealth section would be to run past a handful of guards but that's not exactly that great of an 18th level ability for scouting now is it?
Mmm I wish it was better, but the fact is a warlock's third level imp familiar could do the same much better without expending four ki points (or a rogue making a stealth check and throwing a rock to distract the guards, for that matter). I do find that I and my players more often get the opportunity to prep for battles in actual play than Chris usually assumes, so I could see using this in combat for sure.
But this was in response to Chris's specific build, which uses the longsword as a martial weapon. Not solely as an unarmed combatant monk. I would like to see the gap between Unarmed Fighting Style and the regular Monk though. I'm literally pulling out a sheet of paper to figure out crunchy folks do the math so perty
Imo the Monk Capstone should just be a re-wording of the Barbarian Capstone: -Your Dexterity and Wisdom Scores both increase by 4 to a maximum of 24. Additionally, your Ability Score maximums for these two abilities increase to 24. -Infinite Ki Before you say "overpowered", it still wouldn't be as strong as the barbarian capstone.
How would you feel about the martial arts die size being increased by one step? So it would start as a d6 and end as a d12 at level 17. I feel like there's really no good reason for it to be as small as a d4 when you start out.
Did this as a house rule at my table, and it really helps the Monk stay relevant. I also add prof bonus to Ki pool. Two changes that really help the monk out a lot.
@@brettmajeske3525 Yeah, weve houseruled monk too and it really does feel solid with a few buffs. We did some to allow unarmed builds, PAM/GWM, and multiclass viability: 1 larger die for martial arts Martial can be monk weapons (no extra profs tho) Kensei allows heavy Patient defense and step dont cost ki. The first stunning strike until beginning of next turn doesnt cost ki Monk feels in line with fighter and barb with these changes.
Empty Body and Perfect Self are underrated and are a lot better in use then they appear on paper. Perfect self ensures you can use empty body every encounter, And empty body is an amazing ability. You seemed to have rode right past that is gives you resistance to *all* damage types but force (no one ever said barbarian's resistance was lack luster, and it's far worse than this ability). It also makes many spells and abilities completely useless against you, as many of them are only usable on "a target you can see" . I'd say this cancels about 80% of all abilities that can be used against you. Since you are invisible , most attacks are going to be made at disadvantage against you, also most attacks you make will be made with advantage b/c you are unseen by your opponent. Sure it uses and action, you can still attack as a bonus action using two weapon fighting and apply your hands of harm. You only need to use it on the first round anyway, it lasts pretty much all encounter. You don't even need to rest to reuse it if you have Perfect Self. Empty Body is an amazing ability. Also you can planes walk, I mean : that's pretty cool.
@@theeye8276 You can attune to several items, this particular item allows you to double the HP you gain back from Dwarven Fortitude when you use a bonus action for Patient Defense.
@@theeye8276 Not using a weapon at level 20 with this build, as you get 2 attacks + up to 5 unarmed via flurry of blows. The belt is great, of course, but you're assuming you get multiple high level magic items... the RAW of 5e is determinable that you have access to no magic items. :chuckle: I always hope I get at least 1 very rare and 1 rare, everything else is "luck" for me personally.
Whenever I watch these videos, I do it with an eye to house-ruling to bring things more in line with each other... And I just saw there's also a video on that.... so... I'll be watching that next. But seeing how much effort went into making a Monk that is "barely above baseline", I'm thinking that Monks can accept a WHOLE LOT of buffs, and still will not be over-powered...
Just finished playing an Aarakocra 4 element monk in AL Masters Candlekeep mysteries games at Megacon. Took mobile feat so I got flyby attacks, or I can water whip an enemy 25 feet up, attack them before they fall down into my allies spike growth, where they take falling damage and are prone. It was pretty enjoyable to play.
Archery monk Variant human- sharpshooter Battlemaster 3 -precision attack, archery fighting style Monk 17 kensai- at 6th level deft strike feature activates ki fueled attack, Thats 3 bow attacks per round. Use ki only for deft strike and focused aim. Precision attack and focused aim will keep you hitting more frequently Decent damage and out of range of most attacks means reasonable survivability.
Monks are one of my favourite characters, and the first character I got to 20 was a monk (18 OH/1 rogue/1 war cleric), and I really wanted to find a way to use the astral projection spell as it's presumably a feature. The best I could come up with was to astrally project, find a portal or other means of travel back to your realm*, choose not to re-enter your body, stash it somewhere, and adventure around semi-immortal. Dangers of course are if your silvery cord is cut, and that you're not on hand to easily rejoin the party once you're brought down to 0HP *Travelling between planes was eventually hassle free, as I gained a planar travel boon in one of my adventures. So in my particular case I could reasonably easily astrally project, then go to [chosen plane of Elysium], then back from Elysium to the Material plane.
20d6 is 70 damage but it might be 120 as well... also there is the high gravity falling damage which i think turns that into 20d10 (or 20d8) and if your playing "Hard mode D&D" then high gravity falls might be something the DM might want to deploy against an optimized group
Very cool video on the mercy monk, thanks Treantmonk! The mercy beaucoup pun was awesome! I think one feat not to be understated on the mercy monk is mobile. Hand of heal can be so clutch at all levels for the party, either bringing an unconscious ally back up or saving them from stuns, paralysis etc. But its range is touch. So to use it in combat effectively while still having an action to attack, that free disengage from mobile is amazing. Another way to maybe make some use of this free disengage mechanic could be taking 3 levels in Swashbuckler rogue after level 17. Maybe not highly optimized, but for a level 20 one shot I’d consider playing it, otherwise it might be a difficult build to get going at earlier levels
One build I like with Monk is using a Loxodon if your game master allows it. Its built-in unarmored defense isn't awesome but with it you can keep your wisdom very low. If you don't want to play a mercy monk I think it might be the way to go, choose something like way of shadow and you get a really edgy elephant. In my opinion, it's the only way to play a good Strenght Monk, because you're not hindering your unarmored defense either, and your trunk allows you to grapple while keeping your hands free. You end-up with a good grappler, and can multiclass quite easily in barbarian, rogue or fighter for athletics bonuses. In the end it's quite tanky, and the flavor is insanely fun ! I once played it with a one level dip in barbarian and it was surprisingly decent ! I mean, decent compared to a classic non-mercy monk, of course. You still deal sub-par damage, sub-par control and sub-par tanking while unnecessarily stacking 3 unarmored defenses but still, a functionnal Monk build which doesn't focus on dex nor wis is quite a feat ! If you don't multiclass you can even dump dex and wisdom and just focus on strenght and constitution, opening up a lot of room for feats usually suboptimal on monks. That's the kind of novelty I like ! Anyways Chris, thanks for this awesome video, you never disappoint !
My go to monk is either tortle or tabaxi open hand Now that we have slasher you can jump in and out of combat while actually ensuring your enemies will be somewhat threatened by your attacks (at least reduced speed, potentially stuns, falling prone etc) It’s not super powerful, it’s a monk, but at least it does the one thing monks are supposed to be good at in a way that is relevant
So...I would like your opinion on the following option. Same build except Variant human with Sharpshooter. 1 level dip in Fighter to get archery fighting style and proficiency with martial weapons. The downside is obviously 14 CON instead of 16 CON. The upside is...when attacking at range you can use focused aim to pretend you are a semi battlemaster using precision attack--the times when you can spend 1 ki to turn a sharpshooter miss into a hit, that's roughly 20 damage for 1 ki. But when the time is right you're ALSO a mercy monk that is maxing out DEX and WIS (DEX first obviously). You can still flow right into melee combat, and you'll be...a little bit worse than the half-elf build in melee, but not that much worse (14 CON instead of 16 CON, 1 level behind from the dip). I feel like we're maybe sacrificing...by my spreadsheet 13% of our HP in exchange for...something like a 59% boost to our archery damage. (I don't know if you think that's a good trade or not, but...when I played monk I found myself attacking with a bow a lot more than I expected when I made the character, cause I was a monk, I wasn't very durable, using my higher movement to run ahead of party members and land punches on turn 1 was usually too risky--better to hang back, take a few shots with my bow while my party gets into position, then, when they have my back, move in and punch).
@@TreantmonksTemple I'm aware of the full archer monk builds. What I'm curious about here is the "partial" archer monk, which never gets crossbow expert, still maxes out WIS and DEX. Still goes into melee range frequently. Even on a melee monk, I find myself using a bow probably one turn per combat (often on the first turn when enemies are far away). And if I wanted to, I could squeeze in a second turn (the turn I move into melee range to apply hands of harm, shoot twice with a bow as I move in to punch, for example). If I assume one turn where every monk is attacking with a bow anyway, and one turn where you have the option of using a bow as you move into melee, and then two more turns that are 100% melee, it's like...+14 damage over the whole combat, overall 3.5 DPR gain? Something like that? This does come at the cost of 2 CON from being VHuman, and a 1 level dip. Maybe that makes it overall worse? Not sure.
Old rant I know, but adding wisdom modifier to ki points would help so much. Heck, even regaining wisdom modifier ki points at the start of combat would help so much. Both might be a bit broken.
I think 1 level of War Cleric early will give you more value than 20 straight monk will. Get access to a couple of Blesses or Divine Favor for a bit more reliability hitting or bit extra damage on hits, and a few bonus action weapon attacks on turns you can't Flurry or Touch of Harm because of lack of ki. Also gives you access to all martial weapons, so you can do something else with your Half-Elf subrace feature while getting access to Longswords, Warhammers, and additionally Battleaxes. Even at levels 15+ I've had that d4 from Bless be the difference for multiple hits that would have been misses against ACs of 18-20
Point buy: Str - 8 Dex - 15 Con - 12 Int - 12 Wis - 15 Cha - 8 Race - Custom Lineage (Gunner feat) +2 Dex Perception Investigator background - Insight, Investigation Monk 8 (Way of the Kensei), Fighter 12 (Battle Master) Weapons: Pistol x2 (DMG), Longsword (closest approx. to a katana without homebrew) I call it the Equilibrium Build.
I went custom lineage for the +2 Wisdom. I went Way of the long death for the "collateral damage prone" ability that does a 30' fear blast. Then I dipped Druid 2 and went Circle of Stars for Starry form, so I have a damage spell with my bonus action. (Saving my Ki for bouncing back to 1 hp.) I used Shillelagh and flurry of blows until character level 6. Just need to find a tactic vs undead and constructs...
Since I also try to make a Monk work I have some advice on this build. It´s generally fine, but as a monk you just can´t stand in melee combat. It´s probably the toughest drawback playing a Monk. You don´t have AC or HP to survive that. My solution is the Mobile Feat, which allows you to weave in and out of melee. It´s my defense substitute of choice for my kobold mercy monk and works just fine.
3 rouge actually grabs you some helpful things. Go swashbuckler and you have free disengages and cunning action helps you get away as well. Its just better step of the wind really.
You can make a very decent Kensei archer thanks to Ki-Fueled attacks. That let's you shoot with your Kensei longbow as a bonus action in exchange of spending at least one ki point as part of your action. This is better than Crossbow Expert and combines better with Sharpshooter and Elven Accuracy than most other builds. You can apply Sharpshooter with both strikes. If you hit with both attacks, you can apply Deft Strike to one of them. If you miss with one of them, you can make it a hit with Focused Aim. Either way you get a bonus action attack with your Kensei longbow and keep applying Sharpshooter if you need to. The Half-Elf possesses all the traits necessary to make this happen by level 8. Level 6 if you decide to apply Sharpshooter at level 4 instead of Elven Accuracy.
Great video. Given that a monk must spread their attributes scores among three stats and how they must go into melee without armor, I wonder if WotC should have given monks a d10 or even a d12 for hitpoints. Even in well optimized builds like this one, they just seem so frail when compared to the other martials. Edit: grammar
Since the Monk's capstone is not very good how about starting with dipping 3 levels in Rogue and subclassing in Thief to get the extra bonus action. Then Monk all the way to level 17. It's not perfect, but it gives the Monk an extra action every turn. This becomes very, very useful.
Just as a note on the feat you can swap it out for blind fighting at 4th level, I actually don't thing the fighting style thing works with martial arts... But the best Monk is probably a Fighter with the Unarmed fighting fighting style if you dont think stunning strike is worth while
Hey, one question, giving the fact that the last 3 levels don't give that much, and that the last ASI it's not needed that much, you could multiclass and not lose that much a gain a lot more The 1st thing that comes to my mind is multiclass into Ranger or Fighter for 3 levels, and not only you get to choose the subclass feature, you also get the Mariner Fighting style, which makes a super nice combo with Unarmored movement and also helps with the AC problem on early levels. Any opinions, what do you think of my idea?
Chris have you thought about doing a sharpshooter Kensei post-Tasha’s? Ki-Fuelled Attack and Focus Aim work great to give you extra bow attacks while also increasing you chance to hit, and it’s relatively manageable with ki spending
I start with level 1 fighter for con save proficiency and the unarmed fighting style for the early d8, then take it to battle master gradually for the extra burst damage and riposte (which should be a monk feature *anyway*. I also take 1 level of light cleric for shield of faith and guiding bolt for some versatility. Mercy Monk basically ends at 11 anyway, the rest of those levels could go to fighter (4) and cleric (5).
If you want a unarmed and unnarmored combatant, take 1 levels in monk, then 1 level in fighter style (Unarmed), 1 level in monk, 4 levels in Fighter (Eldritch knight To get spells like shield and blur) at this point you take 2 more levels of monk and the rest fighter (not sure best order). Race Wild Hunt Shifter (+2 wis +1 dex, no advantage attacks on you withing 30 feet and advantage on wisdom saves). Feats from stat increases Tough, Resilient (con). Would max out dex then take Resislent (con) then max Wisdom, then increase con by two. End result str 12, dex 20, con 16, int 10, wis 20, cha 8. speed 40, HP 219 AC 20. unarmed attack 1d8+5 with 3 attack +martial art/flurry. In a pinch you can action surge for 4 more attack and flurry for 2 more. defense you can throw up a blur or a mirror image and if hit use shield. Absorb elements can mitigate some damage. Also you can have haste that you can cast and magic weapon so your unarmed attacks are magic. It basicaly makes you a unarmed/armored fighter with some cool magic for melee fighting and can fall back on a ranged cantrip while closing range. A average round of fighting would be 3+1 attacks at 1d8+5 at +11 to hit seems to be good enough to hit all times so 38 damage per round at end, with the ability to burst for double. I don't know if this would be any better thanyour pure monk build but I think it would be a good build for monk flavor and give you a nice little bag of tricks with your magic with spells like haste, blur, mirror image, and shield. Oh for Monk Tradition go with Drunken master, give a little boost if you are flurry of blows and since you only get the base abilities I think it is the best.
So regarding fighting style, what is the consideration of taking 1st level fighter first for the style and then swapping it later, which also gives you the weapon profs
Big issue with that plan is that, if you get your fighting style from fighter, you can only change styles when you get an ASI from your fighter levels. So you'll need to go at least 4 deep into fighter to swap styles, which is super not worth it. Using a single level of fighter for Dueling is... fine? But it adds very little, and probably isn't worth the delay in Way of Mercy abilities.
@dobatag Right. What Bernier was saying was that you can never spec out of Unarmed Fighting, not without reaching Fighter 4, and that fighting style becomes close to useless at Monk 5, and utterly useless at Monk 11. So you take a whole level-- delaying not just Mercy abilities, but ASIs, ki, etc-- for something that eventually becomes a complete waste. When you go Fighter 1 just for a fighting style, on a class that can't benefit from weapon/armor/shield profs, you're basically wasting an entire level. Bernier rightly said, bad deal for UF, then offered, in addition, that it's not even very good for Dueling, which offers damage comparable to UF (+2 damage is the same as D4->D8, but is never made irrelevant, and variance is the enemy of the protagonist players who are expect to win >50% of their fights.) Arbitrary limits of Dueling make it worse than that for Monks, but it's important to recognize that UF is worse than Dueling for Fighters, and Dueling isn't even a great fighting style for Fighters.
I wanted to add as potential good feats, in case you start w rolled stats and they are better than 15 15 15 in the main 3 (possible tough a bit unlikely) lucky if it can be taken earlier than 14 is invaluable, more so than tough, and the same for mobile, tough I agree that once you reach a high lvl tough autscales em a bit. Also crusher if you have odd con is great (you'll won a use a Warhammer at that point).
I've been playing a Monk for two years. He's my only long-time character, and he struggles very hard despite my attempts at optimization. Hearing "you can't start with below 16 Constitution" was really enlightening, as my Monk started with a 14 for Dex and a 12 for the second highest stat. Between rolling terrible stats, choosing Monk, and being brand new to DnD, I have no idea how that character is alive
If this build isn't just a 1 level dip in monk, I'm going to be impressed.
Hahaha. Nice one! ^^
Just got here. Is it 2 levels of warlock and 18 monk?
@@jacobhamilton2473 Probably 3 levels of warlock for pact of the chain. He's gonna have to roll his stats. And he's probably going to have to use some UA material.
Monk 1, Wizard 19?
@@poilboiler Don't you have to take at least 3 levels of monk to call it a monk build?
OMG! Chris that's the best intro ever. I love "Big Trouble in Little China". The French pun was a perfectly done dad joke, too.
Merci beaucoup!
@@TreantmonksTemple Too good. Thanks for the extra laugh.
@@TreantmonksTemple mercy beacoup
I clicked this video not because I needed a monk build, but because I knew Chris talking about monks for nearly 50 minutes was bound to be entertaining. I was not disappointed.
18 level doesn't just give you greater invisibility it give you full resistance to all damage but force damage
it is THE monk capstone
This! It's weird that nobody acknowledges the bear totem level resistances
Too bad is only at 18th level :/
It also costs an action to activate. Many combats last 3 or 4 rounds, making this ability a trap unless you can activate it before you roll initiative.
Yeah the resistance to all but force damage is strong! Actually the greater invisibility part is basically useless at 18th level since most creatures you're fighting at that level have truesight or blindsight so that side of things you are only using vs minions. But the resistance is good if you can setup beforehand it's great.
I know this is 10 months late, but I'd say that Diamond Soul is the "capstone." Proficiency in all saves and the ability to reroll saves for a ki point, to me, is their best feature.
*hears pun. Shudders in pain*
That did WAY more damage than any Monk ever could do
Also, seriously want to play this, but with Triton instead of Half-Elf. Granted, I'm less optimal, but Fishman Karate
It might have been subtle spelled Snyaptic Static judging the AoE it caused.
Thank you for the puns. Merci beaucoup!
So dip one level Bard and use vicious mockery
Did he just greentext us??
actual monk build, from TreantMonk, wow
Note that empty body finally grants a way to gain consistent advantage, allowing you to finally use elven accuracy.
I think it would be best to go with the crusher feat, because even if you get a magic item, you’ll still be using a lot of unarmed strikes to apply hands of harm.
But Crusher doesn't allow to increase DEX or WIS, so it is in no way a good pick for monk
@@Quintal100kg oh shoot I didn’t realize that. You’re right
@@Quintal100kg I used the crusher feat on my monk to even out odd constitution score.
I’m planning on taking elven accuracy because I have an odd dexterity stat.
I’m also planning on taking sharpshooter and using a sling which all works together.
If you go for the Crusher Feat with bonus to Con, either before or after you can do Dex & Con ability increase.
@@Quintal100kg con is good for anyone
Big trouble in Little China.
Mercy Boku... Your character names are the unsung heroes of your channel
.
When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye, and asks you if you paid your dues; you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have you paid your dues, Jack? Yes sir, the check is in the mail."
Usually I see you as a by the book guy, but this intro reminded me that other than knowlege and objectiveness to make builds you need creativity, that intro was hilarious!!!
As a French person, this pun was a stunning strike…
I see what you did there.
and you failed your con save? you should become more resilient....
For a moment I thought Treantmonk was making shorts to feed the algorithm and this was going to be him just saying "Don't" and then thanking his patrons.
Something to think about: the poisoned condition means you aren’t spending precious ki on patient defense
I knew this day would eventually came.. I can't wait to come back home and see the whole vid. Cheers
This is cool to see but it still stings that an unarmed Monk is impossible to optimize. I guess the designers just want to punish anyone who grew up with Dragonball Z
Monks being sub-optimal in D&D was a thing long before Dragonball Z. ;-)
Wouldn't 3 levels of fighter (battle master) not only give you unarmed fighting for the early d8, but also give significant burst damage enhancement due to maneuvers (also riposte) and action surge? 1 level of light cleric and you also get warding flare which scales with proficiency and you can have access to both shield of faith and bane, (boosting stunning strike). I just take Mercy Monk to 11 with levels of cleric and fighter sprinkled in.
@@blshouse At least in something like Baldur’s Gate monks eventually rolled a d20 for damage making it optimized to use your hands rather than a weapon. That monk variation was a viable and interesting model that would be well worth the designers looking at for the next edition.
For damage, yes. For control, not necessarily. I'm kicking around the idea of a Grung grappler build. It can work with Monk at lower levels, starts to hurt at higher tiers of play I think. Even though Grung's poison DC is pretty low, forcing the enemy to keep making saves until they fail is a pretty good lockdown strategy. Rune Knight seems like a better option for this than Monk, though. Ironic.
You have to really, really want it. I levelled a monk in 1st edition to Grandmaster of Flowers. It took me 3 years irl; it was probably the hardest and least rewarding class to play on paper, at least until level 8. But I loved playing him, and everyone in my group opened up plenty of opportunities for me to enjoy the experience. At the end of the day, thats the deciding factor.
I don't have a lot to add, but I wanted to say that I very much appreciated the Big Trouble in Little China backstory in the intro.
I have to commend you on your dedication. Two and a half minutes telling a story to set up a bad pun takes commitment, and I applaud you.
Some of them are gimmicky, but I feel like there are a few monks which work in even an optimized party just because they come with unique contributions. Open hand monks being able to turn off reactions basically at will - that warrants a slot in an "optimized" party almost by itself.
Another option for a half feat, which is dependent upon the resources your DM allows you to work with, would be the Aberrant Dragonmark from Eberron. 1/Short rest level 1 sorcerer spell, and a cantrip, with +1 constitution. So you still get your half ASI, and you can get an additional option for a cantrip - that might be a worthwhile stand in when you are out of Ki.
The Monk chassis needs a really big overhaul, especially in giving it more ki points, like add +10 ki at Level 1 and carry it onward through all levels then make it +15 ki starting at level 10 or 11. And perhaps have Flurry of Blows deal two Unarmed Strikes instead of just one.
One D&D3.5e Monk I played paid a Grafter to attach a miniature Beholder's main eye to his forehead as a third eye. This gave him a 15-ft Anti-magic Field/Ray and True Sight that messed up any magic of opponents the Open-Hand Monk was facing. Super awesome with Flurry of Blows! I suggest something similar to the Monk's chassis revision if a D&D6e or 5.5e ever comes up.
My general monk fix video is coming.
I'm putting together a monk right now. I pitched my DM on Chris's changes, but given he's a relatively new DM he was reluctant to adopt them(entirely fair!), but he did counteroffer extra ki points equal to my WIS. modifier, which should smooth out the earliest levels a bit. (Also a few other little tweeks, including accelerating the martial die by starting with a d6, and the d10 hit die.)
I think she's going to be fun.
I was not ready for this. Great video, this may not be the most fun build but it is certainly a potent monk!
I think it will be quite fun, it might even be my next build. The most powerful...no.
i did have a good use of Hand of Heal standard action + patient defense bonus action. It's the only way you can heal and dodge in the same round, though it takes 2 ki. It made the difference in the moment though, so it was well spent.
If you were a dwarf with the dwarven fortude feat you could get that for 1 ki. (not saying that it's good but it's still better than some other race options)
@@jugglejunk Dwarf is a nice option, esp. with the Way of the Long Death monk. He becomes a mildly effective off tank, situationally.
I like the mobile feat with monk, I know it will put your AC a little lower, but we use it very well to stay safe with our great movement speed (And eventual ability to move over liquids and walls). I especially like it on Mercy monk, because wisdom is not as critical (we do less stunning strikes).
Last thought - at level 17 or whenever your monk damage exceeds versatile longsword damage. if you took whip proficiency instead of warhammer proficiency you could be using a 1 handed reach weapon to be making attacks - just a fun option :P
You could just use a spear 1-handed as well tho, no proficiency needed.
One thought I did have was going hill dwarf over half-elf for the extra HP per level, Starting 15 con, 17 dex, 16 wisdom gives us the same HP.
Though I'd say half-elf's Fey Ancestry is probably more potent than Dwarven Resilience and of course, Elven Accuracy is very nice.
You have outdone yourself with this intro.
That introductory story was legendary.
One thing that might be worth trying for a slight bump to damage (campaign dependent) is the Gunner feat. It gives the same +1 DEX as elven accuracy, but will let you use a firearm in melee. This could let you switch from the longsword to a musket, which is a 1d12 weapon, though it IS likely to lock you out of magic weapons which is not worth the trade at all.
I can't explain why, but reading this comment and imagining that to make a good monk you need to give him a gun made me laugh for 5 minutes straight.
All about that Gun-fu lol
How about adding fighting style: archery and Sharpshooter on top of that? At 20 you'd make your two attacks in melee with a musket, dealing 6.5+5 each, or 6.5+5+10 with Sharpshooter, then two flurry attacks unarmed 5.5+5 each, then hand of harm 5.5+5. Might need a Fighter dip to snatch the fighting style.
Is the best level 20 Monk build a Fighter/Barbarian multiclass with the Unarmed Fighting Style and zero levels in Monk?
I was thinking something like a Long Death Monk 3 Beast Barbarian X. At level 8 you get 4 attack per turn always? 5 with Furry.
@@lholliday198 I'm doing a long death monk, and bear totem barbarian multiclass man is super tanky. At level 10 can walk through a meteor swarm and only take 30ish points of damage on a failed save XD most of which most likely gotten eaten by the temp hp he gens from killing something.
@@afrosamurai3847 Holy crap, which class are you taking more of? If you max out monk you get a lot of goodies
@@lholliday198 I'm mostly doing monk ups my ki, and makes me generate more and more temp hp, at 11 monk and 3 Barb so 14 total you'd have to kill him 12 times per short rest to get it to actually stick something we've already shown is hard to do.
@@afrosamurai3847 hell yeah I would do the same. If I wasn't playing in a campaign where monk would be no more than a floor smear I might have tried monk
Monk do have a way to get advantage. Empty body. There is nothing that says the invisibility ends when you attack.
Invisibility grants advantage on attack rolls and this invisibility (Empty Body) does not disappear when you attack you also get resistance to all damage except for force which is amazing
I would argue that even if you are using a longsword, you are still getting at least some benefit from Crusher because the unarmed strikes are blunt. It would be a bigger consideration to me if the other members of the party had spells like spike growth they were planning on using. That said, I agree with elven accuracy if they weren't.
That's true. Crusher not giving a Dex or Wis option is the biggest concern for me.
@@TreantmonksTemple I think I would go variant human and take crusher at level 1. Using a quarter staff, I would be giving up 1 avg damage with my attack action, but totally worth it for the forced move and occasional critical rider, in perceived utility and fun. In the end, same ability scores. But losing out on elven accuracy, darkvision, fey ancestry, longbows, and 1 more skill.
sooooo you are going to make a Jack Burton build now, right?
Another great video, Chris! With the Fey Touched feat, how about taking the Hex spell? You’d add 1d6 necrotic to every attack, which would be 4d6 when you use Flurry of Blows. Sure, you can only cast it once a day, but that would be a nice add-on worth saving for the big fight.
The problem with Hex is it's so bonus action hungry, and monks always have something to do with their bonus.
Divine Favor is going to be better for a Monk.
Dear Treantmonk,
The intro was a masterpiece!!!
Big Trouble In Little China is one of my absolute favorite movies, that intro had me hooked from second one. Props dude.
I watched 2 and a half minutes only to hear the punchline of the intro and I can say it was completely worth it, now to watch the rest
This is legitimately a build I'd enjoy playing!
I loved your whole Jack Burton story culminating in a pun so good/bad it made me literally groan out loud at you... good work 😉
You can definitely still do Variant Human with a Half-Feat as the free Feat option and that will get you 3 16's. You miss out on 1 skill and the weapon tool profs but just saying that Crusher is pretty damn good on most Monks even at low levels.
Good call.
for a defensive choice, I really like 2-3 levels of barbarian. d12 hit die, rage for resistance, danger senses advantage on dex saves goes great with evasion, and then an archetype. bear totem for resistance against all damage except psychic, zealot for d6 radiant or necrotic damage on the first hit, beast barbarian for claw, tail, or bite gives you options vs the situation.
Especially if you’re skipping a terrible capstone
That's going to cost a lot when it comes to pointbuy, though, cause you'll need to raise STR from 8 to 13 to qualify for a barbarian multiclass. Probably dropping CON from 16 to 14 for that (gets you to 12 STR) And then also dropping the starting DEX from 17 to 16 (13 STR, 1 point left over) so losing elven accuracy as well.
I'd be interested to see what the strongest "fake monk" would look like. That is, some sort of build that takes few or even no levels in monk, but chooses a monk from fiction or legend and follows it thematically as closely as possible.
Barbarian fighter soulknife rogue with the rage flavoured as a state of deep tranquillity and the soulknives being ki punches is my favourite
All of that just for “mercy boku”. I love you ❤️
Hi Treant, are you sure using an action to have improved invisibility at 18 isn't worthwhile, given that you have Elven Accuracy?
Ultimately, it could depend on the length of the battle, but in general you are giving up hands of harm and 3 of 4 attacks on round 1, so that's a big cost.
It also gives you resistance to all damage but force, so I think that may make it worth it.
You can use to scout. You guys just battle all the time?
@@ecopis 1 minute of invisibility isn't gonna let you scout all that much in most cases at all. The most you could reasonably use it for on any kind of stealth section would be to run past a handful of guards but that's not exactly that great of an 18th level ability for scouting now is it?
Mmm I wish it was better, but the fact is a warlock's third level imp familiar could do the same much better without expending four ki points (or a rogue making a stealth check and throwing a rock to distract the guards, for that matter). I do find that I and my players more often get the opportunity to prep for battles in actual play than Chris usually assumes, so I could see using this in combat for sure.
The framing around Big Trouble in Little China is crackin' my @$$ up, lol. Inspired!
I always thought Unarmed fighting style was really cool on Monk. Good to be taught differently
But this was in response to Chris's specific build, which uses the longsword as a martial weapon. Not solely as an unarmed combatant monk.
I would like to see the gap between Unarmed Fighting Style and the regular Monk though. I'm literally pulling out a sheet of paper to figure out crunchy folks do the math so perty
@@RashidMBey monk damage outclasses the unarmed fighting style at almost every level due to number of attacks
I like this subclass a lot, thanks for the build!
It's my favorite Monk subclass by a country mile.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom Einstein-sensei!
Imo the Monk Capstone should just be a re-wording of the Barbarian Capstone:
-Your Dexterity and Wisdom Scores both increase by 4 to a maximum of 24. Additionally, your Ability Score maximums for these two abilities increase to 24.
-Infinite Ki
Before you say "overpowered", it still wouldn't be as strong as the barbarian capstone.
Wow, I love the Big Trouble in Little China reference.
How would you feel about the martial arts die size being increased by one step? So it would start as a d6 and end as a d12 at level 17. I feel like there's really no good reason for it to be as small as a d4 when you start out.
I definitely think that's the way it should be.
Did this as a house rule at my table, and it really helps the Monk stay relevant. I also add prof bonus to Ki pool. Two changes that really help the monk out a lot.
@@brettmajeske3525 Yeah, weve houseruled monk too and it really does feel solid with a few buffs.
We did some to allow unarmed builds, PAM/GWM, and multiclass viability:
1 larger die for martial arts
Martial can be monk weapons (no extra profs tho)
Kensei allows heavy
Patient defense and step dont cost ki.
The first stunning strike until beginning of next turn doesnt cost ki
Monk feels in line with fighter and barb with these changes.
And here I was thinking the Rogue build's name was good,
That Name line delivery was amazing Treant monk caught me off guard.
Empty Body and Perfect Self are underrated and are a lot better in use then they appear on paper. Perfect self ensures you can use empty body every encounter, And empty body is an amazing ability. You seemed to have rode right past that is gives you resistance to *all* damage types but force (no one ever said barbarian's resistance was lack luster, and it's far worse than this ability). It also makes many spells and abilities completely useless against you, as many of them are only usable on "a target you can see" . I'd say this cancels about 80% of all abilities that can be used against you. Since you are invisible , most attacks are going to be made at disadvantage against you, also most attacks you make will be made with advantage b/c you are unseen by your opponent. Sure it uses and action, you can still attack as a bonus action using two weapon fighting and apply your hands of harm. You only need to use it on the first round anyway, it lasts pretty much all encounter. You don't even need to rest to reuse it if you have Perfect Self. Empty Body is an amazing ability. Also you can planes walk, I mean : that's pretty cool.
That was an incredible intro, way to start the video!
I was just thinking of a build like this when I found your video, I’m definitely going to try it out some day!
Hill Dwarf, Monk Way of the Drunken Master, Dwarven Fortitude (Feat), Periapt of Wound Closure (Item)... best Monk build I've ever seen at level 20.
I would hope you can attune to something better than an uncommon item at lvl 20.
@@theeye8276 You can attune to several items, this particular item allows you to double the HP you gain back from Dwarven Fortitude when you use a bonus action for Patient Defense.
@@AnthonyTyger ya I know but I'd rather have a bunch of very rare or legendary magic items by that point.
@@AnthonyTyger like a belt of cloud giant strength, legendary weapon, and something else cool might be better
@@theeye8276 Not using a weapon at level 20 with this build, as you get 2 attacks + up to 5 unarmed via flurry of blows. The belt is great, of course, but you're assuming you get multiple high level magic items... the RAW of 5e is determinable that you have access to no magic items. :chuckle: I always hope I get at least 1 very rare and 1 rare, everything else is "luck" for me personally.
Whenever I watch these videos, I do it with an eye to house-ruling to bring things more in line with each other... And I just saw there's also a video on that.... so... I'll be watching that next.
But seeing how much effort went into making a Monk that is "barely above baseline", I'm thinking that Monks can accept a WHOLE LOT of buffs, and still will not be over-powered...
Just finished playing an Aarakocra 4 element monk in AL Masters Candlekeep mysteries games at Megacon. Took mobile feat so I got flyby attacks, or I can water whip an enemy 25 feet up, attack them before they fall down into my allies spike growth, where they take falling damage and are prone. It was pretty enjoyable to play.
Fun fact: Boku means "I" or "me" in japanese
Fun fact stacked: specifically in reference to calling one's self boy, especially in reference to being ignorant or inexperienced
Boku no pico
mercy me.
Archery monk
Variant human- sharpshooter
Battlemaster 3 -precision attack, archery fighting style
Monk 17 kensai- at 6th level deft strike feature activates ki fueled attack,
Thats 3 bow attacks per round.
Use ki only for deft strike and focused aim.
Precision attack and focused aim will keep you hitting more frequently
Decent damage and out of range of most attacks means reasonable survivability.
A million Likes for that awesome intro!
I love BTiLC, and had a big grin the whole time. 🤠
Monks are one of my favourite characters, and the first character I got to 20 was a monk (18 OH/1 rogue/1 war cleric), and I really wanted to find a way to use the astral projection spell as it's presumably a feature.
The best I could come up with was to astrally project, find a portal or other means of travel back to your realm*, choose not to re-enter your body, stash it somewhere, and adventure around semi-immortal. Dangers of course are if your silvery cord is cut, and that you're not on hand to easily rejoin the party once you're brought down to 0HP
*Travelling between planes was eventually hassle free, as I gained a planar travel boon in one of my adventures. So in my particular case I could reasonably easily astrally project, then go to [chosen plane of Elysium], then back from Elysium to the Material plane.
That's what we've been waiting for
Those gauntlets from candlekeep mysteries are insane.
20d6 is 70 damage but it might be 120 as well... also there is the high gravity falling damage which i think turns that into 20d10 (or 20d8) and if your playing "Hard mode D&D" then high gravity falls might be something the DM might want to deploy against an optimized group
Ah, blast from the past. So awesome to see some Big Trouble in Little China :D
Very cool video on the mercy monk, thanks Treantmonk! The mercy beaucoup pun was awesome!
I think one feat not to be understated on the mercy monk is mobile. Hand of heal can be so clutch at all levels for the party, either bringing an unconscious ally back up or saving them from stuns, paralysis etc. But its range is touch. So to use it in combat effectively while still having an action to attack, that free disengage from mobile is amazing.
Another way to maybe make some use of this free disengage mechanic could be taking 3 levels in Swashbuckler rogue after level 17. Maybe not highly optimized, but for a level 20 one shot I’d consider playing it, otherwise it might be a difficult build to get going at earlier levels
One build I like with Monk is using a Loxodon if your game master allows it. Its built-in unarmored defense isn't awesome but with it you can keep your wisdom very low. If you don't want to play a mercy monk I think it might be the way to go, choose something like way of shadow and you get a really edgy elephant. In my opinion, it's the only way to play a good Strenght Monk, because you're not hindering your unarmored defense either, and your trunk allows you to grapple while keeping your hands free. You end-up with a good grappler, and can multiclass quite easily in barbarian, rogue or fighter for athletics bonuses. In the end it's quite tanky, and the flavor is insanely fun ! I once played it with a one level dip in barbarian and it was surprisingly decent ! I mean, decent compared to a classic non-mercy monk, of course. You still deal sub-par damage, sub-par control and sub-par tanking while unnecessarily stacking 3 unarmored defenses but still, a functionnal Monk build which doesn't focus on dex nor wis is quite a feat ! If you don't multiclass you can even dump dex and wisdom and just focus on strenght and constitution, opening up a lot of room for feats usually suboptimal on monks. That's the kind of novelty I like !
Anyways Chris, thanks for this awesome video, you never disappoint !
The intro is just awesome! The Pork Chop Express indeed!!!
My go to monk is either tortle or tabaxi open hand
Now that we have slasher you can jump in and out of combat while actually ensuring your enemies will be somewhat threatened by your attacks (at least reduced speed, potentially stuns, falling prone etc)
It’s not super powerful, it’s a monk, but at least it does the one thing monks are supposed to be good at in a way that is relevant
Phenomenal opening! Well done.
That was so much build up for a terrible pun. I hate that it made me laugh. Keep up the awesome work ☺️
So...I would like your opinion on the following option.
Same build except Variant human with Sharpshooter. 1 level dip in Fighter to get archery fighting style and proficiency with martial weapons.
The downside is obviously 14 CON instead of 16 CON. The upside is...when attacking at range you can use focused aim to pretend you are a semi battlemaster using precision attack--the times when you can spend 1 ki to turn a sharpshooter miss into a hit, that's roughly 20 damage for 1 ki.
But when the time is right you're ALSO a mercy monk that is maxing out DEX and WIS (DEX first obviously). You can still flow right into melee combat, and you'll be...a little bit worse than the half-elf build in melee, but not that much worse (14 CON instead of 16 CON, 1 level behind from the dip).
I feel like we're maybe sacrificing...by my spreadsheet 13% of our HP in exchange for...something like a 59% boost to our archery damage.
(I don't know if you think that's a good trade or not, but...when I played monk I found myself attacking with a bow a lot more than I expected when I made the character, cause I was a monk, I wasn't very durable, using my higher movement to run ahead of party members and land punches on turn 1 was usually too risky--better to hang back, take a few shots with my bow while my party gets into position, then, when they have my back, move in and punch).
You can go archery with monk. Not sure I would go mercy though.
@@TreantmonksTemple I'm aware of the full archer monk builds. What I'm curious about here is the "partial" archer monk, which never gets crossbow expert, still maxes out WIS and DEX. Still goes into melee range frequently.
Even on a melee monk, I find myself using a bow probably one turn per combat (often on the first turn when enemies are far away). And if I wanted to, I could squeeze in a second turn (the turn I move into melee range to apply hands of harm, shoot twice with a bow as I move in to punch, for example).
If I assume one turn where every monk is attacking with a bow anyway, and one turn where you have the option of using a bow as you move into melee, and then two more turns that are 100% melee, it's like...+14 damage over the whole combat, overall 3.5 DPR gain? Something like that?
This does come at the cost of 2 CON from being VHuman, and a 1 level dip. Maybe that makes it overall worse? Not sure.
@@KaitlynBurnellMath it makes the build a "Master of none"
Old rant I know, but adding wisdom modifier to ki points would help so much. Heck, even regaining wisdom modifier ki points at the start of combat would help so much. Both might be a bit broken.
I think that's an excellent idea for *part* of improving Monks. I don't think it would do the whole thing on its own though.
@@MsNathanv true. Iunno, increase the base ma to a d6? Still irks me that fighters can have a better unarmed for two tiers than the monk.
I think 1 level of War Cleric early will give you more value than 20 straight monk will. Get access to a couple of Blesses or Divine Favor for a bit more reliability hitting or bit extra damage on hits, and a few bonus action weapon attacks on turns you can't Flurry or Touch of Harm because of lack of ki. Also gives you access to all martial weapons, so you can do something else with your Half-Elf subrace feature while getting access to Longswords, Warhammers, and additionally Battleaxes. Even at levels 15+ I've had that d4 from Bless be the difference for multiple hits that would have been misses against ACs of 18-20
It has been a quite a while since I have seen such great intro.
I really liked that intro so awesome
Point buy:
Str - 8
Dex - 15
Con - 12
Int - 12
Wis - 15
Cha - 8
Race - Custom Lineage (Gunner feat)
+2 Dex
Perception
Investigator background - Insight, Investigation
Monk 8 (Way of the Kensei), Fighter 12 (Battle Master)
Weapons: Pistol x2
(DMG), Longsword (closest approx. to a katana without homebrew)
I call it the Equilibrium Build.
I went custom lineage for the +2 Wisdom.
I went Way of the long death for the "collateral damage prone" ability that does a 30' fear blast.
Then I dipped Druid 2 and went Circle of Stars for Starry form, so I have a damage spell with my bonus action. (Saving my Ki for bouncing back to 1 hp.)
I used Shillelagh and flurry of blows until character level 6.
Just need to find a tactic vs undead and constructs...
Scrolls?
Since I also try to make a Monk work I have some advice on this build. It´s generally fine, but as a monk you just can´t stand in melee combat. It´s probably the toughest drawback playing a Monk. You don´t have AC or HP to survive that. My solution is the Mobile Feat, which allows you to weave in and out of melee. It´s my defense substitute of choice for my kobold mercy monk and works just fine.
I've been playing a rabbit and using my full movement before attacking to jump and disengage on big guys or to help others
3 rouge actually grabs you some helpful things. Go swashbuckler and you have free disengages and cunning action helps you get away as well. Its just better step of the wind really.
roflmao. This narrative is AMAZING. I love that movie!
Lol love the throwback to this classic movie! Can we get a build for Jack Burton next?
Big Trouble in Little China! Loved that move!
You can get a +4 to a stat at level one if you take Custom Lineage and a feat which boosts the stat you like.
You can make a very decent Kensei archer thanks to Ki-Fueled attacks. That let's you shoot with your Kensei longbow as a bonus action in exchange of spending at least one ki point as part of your action. This is better than Crossbow Expert and combines better with Sharpshooter and Elven Accuracy than most other builds. You can apply Sharpshooter with both strikes. If you hit with both attacks, you can apply Deft Strike to one of them. If you miss with one of them, you can make it a hit with Focused Aim. Either way you get a bonus action attack with your Kensei longbow and keep applying Sharpshooter if you need to. The Half-Elf possesses all the traits necessary to make this happen by level 8. Level 6 if you decide to apply Sharpshooter at level 4 instead of Elven Accuracy.
Great video. Given that a monk must spread their attributes scores among three stats and how they must go into melee without armor, I wonder if WotC should have given monks a d10 or even a d12 for hitpoints. Even in well optimized builds like this one, they just seem so frail when compared to the other martials.
Edit: grammar
Since the Monk's capstone is not very good how about starting with dipping 3 levels in Rogue and subclassing in Thief to get the extra bonus action. Then Monk all the way to level 17. It's not perfect, but it gives the Monk an extra action every turn. This becomes very, very useful.
That opening had me cracking up.
I was suprised the race you chose wasn't Treant.
Just as a note on the feat you can swap it out for blind fighting at 4th level, I actually don't thing the fighting style thing works with martial arts... But the best Monk is probably a Fighter with the Unarmed fighting fighting style if you dont think stunning strike is worth while
Hey, one question, giving the fact that the last 3 levels don't give that much, and that the last ASI it's not needed that much, you could multiclass and not lose that much a gain a lot more
The 1st thing that comes to my mind is multiclass into Ranger or Fighter for 3 levels, and not only you get to choose the subclass feature, you also get the Mariner Fighting style, which makes a super nice combo with Unarmored movement and also helps with the AC problem on early levels.
Any opinions, what do you think of my idea?
Merci beaucoup pour cette vidéo
Chris have you thought about doing a sharpshooter Kensei post-Tasha’s? Ki-Fuelled Attack and Focus Aim work great to give you extra bow attacks while also increasing you chance to hit, and it’s relatively manageable with ki spending
It's viable. I'm not sure I see the value of it over battlemaster CBE/SS though. In this case we're doing something unique to help the party.
I start with level 1 fighter for con save proficiency and the unarmed fighting style for the early d8, then take it to battle master gradually for the extra burst damage and riposte (which should be a monk feature *anyway*. I also take 1 level of light cleric for shield of faith and guiding bolt for some versatility. Mercy Monk basically ends at 11 anyway, the rest of those levels could go to fighter (4) and cleric (5).
Cool build =). I'm working on a shadow blindfighting build that outputs higher damage than this one, but lacks any sort of healing.
If you want a unarmed and unnarmored combatant, take 1 levels in monk, then 1 level in fighter style (Unarmed), 1 level in monk, 4 levels in Fighter (Eldritch knight To get spells like shield and blur) at this point you take 2 more levels of monk and the rest fighter (not sure best order). Race Wild Hunt Shifter (+2 wis +1 dex, no advantage attacks on you withing 30 feet and advantage on wisdom saves). Feats from stat increases Tough, Resilient (con). Would max out dex then take Resislent (con) then max Wisdom, then increase con by two. End result str 12, dex 20, con 16, int 10, wis 20, cha 8. speed 40, HP 219 AC 20. unarmed attack 1d8+5 with 3 attack +martial art/flurry. In a pinch you can action surge for 4 more attack and flurry for 2 more. defense you can throw up a blur or a mirror image and if hit use shield. Absorb elements can mitigate some damage. Also you can have haste that you can cast and magic weapon so your unarmed attacks are magic. It basicaly makes you a unarmed/armored fighter with some cool magic for melee fighting and can fall back on a ranged cantrip while closing range. A average round of fighting would be 3+1 attacks at 1d8+5 at +11 to hit seems to be good enough to hit all times so 38 damage per round at end, with the ability to burst for double. I don't know if this would be any better thanyour pure monk build but I think it would be a good build for monk flavor and give you a nice little bag of tricks with your magic with spells like haste, blur, mirror image, and shield. Oh for Monk Tradition go with Drunken master, give a little boost if you are flurry of blows and since you only get the base abilities I think it is the best.
So regarding fighting style, what is the consideration of taking 1st level fighter first for the style and then swapping it later, which also gives you the weapon profs
Big issue with that plan is that, if you get your fighting style from fighter, you can only change styles when you get an ASI from your fighter levels. So you'll need to go at least 4 deep into fighter to swap styles, which is super not worth it. Using a single level of fighter for Dueling is... fine? But it adds very little, and probably isn't worth the delay in Way of Mercy abilities.
@@shanebernier2483 Two levels of fighter at the end of the build to get action surge might be worth it though.
@dobatag Right. What Bernier was saying was that you can never spec out of Unarmed Fighting, not without reaching Fighter 4, and that fighting style becomes close to useless at Monk 5, and utterly useless at Monk 11. So you take a whole level-- delaying not just Mercy abilities, but ASIs, ki, etc-- for something that eventually becomes a complete waste. When you go Fighter 1 just for a fighting style, on a class that can't benefit from weapon/armor/shield profs, you're basically wasting an entire level. Bernier rightly said, bad deal for UF, then offered, in addition, that it's not even very good for Dueling, which offers damage comparable to UF (+2 damage is the same as D4->D8, but is never made irrelevant, and variance is the enemy of the protagonist players who are expect to win >50% of their fights.) Arbitrary limits of Dueling make it worse than that for Monks, but it's important to recognize that UF is worse than Dueling for Fighters, and Dueling isn't even a great fighting style for Fighters.
I wanted to add as potential good feats, in case you start w rolled stats and they are better than 15 15 15 in the main 3 (possible tough a bit unlikely) lucky if it can be taken earlier than 14 is invaluable, more so than tough, and the same for mobile, tough I agree that once you reach a high lvl tough autscales em a bit.
Also crusher if you have odd con is great (you'll won a use a Warhammer at that point).
I've been playing a Monk for two years. He's my only long-time character, and he struggles very hard despite my attempts at optimization. Hearing "you can't start with below 16 Constitution" was really enlightening, as my Monk started with a 14 for Dex and a 12 for the second highest stat. Between rolling terrible stats, choosing Monk, and being brand new to DnD, I have no idea how that character is alive
Either a merciful DM or luck.
@@grrsss8335 yeah, in my case it was the DM
This was conviently timed. I was just about to make a Way of Mercy monk.