Tortles actually have natural claws, which boost your unarmed strikes up to 1d6, so you get a bit more damage with each unarmed strike until you're a level 5 monk. Also, here's an idea for one way to reflavor this character: A Tarrasque-born. Beast Barb can also let you choose a bite attack and a tail attack instead of the claws, and your Tortle shell could be the Tarrasque's carapace.
@@halohawkxxagreed. The best answer I'd have is that you were not a descendant of a terrasque. But instead a mages failed attempt to recreate something in the vein of a terrasque that was subservient to his will. Maybe you managed to escape the wizard and would eventually join your monastery, seeking their help to harden your mind so that if your creator ever found you, you'd be able to resist their attempts to control you and lock you away once again. Maybe to continue further from this idea you would eventually leave the monastery because you felt like you wanted to take vengeance on your Creator, something that the monks discouraged. Feeling limited and caged you decided to get again run away, living by your own terms and seeking your old master.
The longsword wouldn't actually be necessary as the claws could become your kensai weapon (being considered simple melee weapons). You could also use the tail weapon form instead to lean into the more defensive style as it can add a d8 to your AC as a reaction
I know this seems like a stretch I would allow this but what IF someone were to argue that for agile Parry you have to be "holding" your monk weapon and claws are technically just part of your hand and you aren't actually holding it cause I could see how rules as written can argue for both cases
@@dotsonci13 The claws do specify that they are considered held like weapons in the text its why you can use Two weapon fighting with them using Dual wielder.
Great idea! If you haven't tried the Barbarian- Rogue multiclass, it is really quite fun and impressive and very much Batman. You become a ultra tough, high ac, skill monkey dpr monster. Personally I went Zealot Barbarian and Scout Roge for Max dpr and max mobility. The synegies are quite many like. Barbarian rage resistance and uncanny dodge. Evasion and Danger sense, expertise in 6 skills and advantage on athletics, Very reliable damage with sneak attack + zealot damage + reckless attack. And a movement speed of 50ft and extra feats.
Did a level 10 two-shot about a year ago with a very similar build. dwarven lvl 3 zealot and lvl 7 rogue (for the life of me i cant remember the rogue subclass i used). But dude was a UNIT. it was about 3 decent sized battles and we didn't get a single short rest, by the end i still had about 60% of my health without ever being healed or anything and was probably the 2nd highest DPS outta 5 PCs with reckless guaranteeing sneak attack. And you don't use any resources outside of Rages. 100% agree, with danger sense/uncanny dodge/evasion, you are just a slippery hardy MFer.
Love this. I’ve long loved the idea of playing a beast Barbarian that re flavors it’s “natural weapons” as fighting stances. An alternative path I think is to go Drunken Master, a lot of the features work well with this. Drunken Technique: extra movement and a free disengage. Use to control your positioning by grappling a target and getting away from their friends. Leap to your Feet: nice to avoid prone crippling your mobility. Really doubles down on being able to move where you want. Redirect Attack: Now we’re cooking!! Drag your target away from their friends, knock him prone and start wailing at advantage.(without reckless attack) If another opponent comes up, you can potentially turn one of their attacks against their prone ally. (Once you can run up walls, getting your target prone doesn’t even require a shove-attack) Drunkards Luck: ehhh… this one might be useful sometimes. Intoxicated Flurry: Did some say extra rage damage? 😂🤠 I’d also switch out the longsword for a rapier and take the Defensive Duelist Feat, works REALLY well with monks.
Also with this build If you wanted to go full in on defense, you could use a sheild. Sheilds only turn off 3 things, 1. Unarmored defense: you aren't using that as a tortle anyway. 2. Martial arts: tortles naturally get a d6 unarmed strike thanks to natural weapons. And you loose your bonus action attack, but not the ability to spend ki points as a bonus action so flurry of blows and patient defense Still work. 3. Unarmored movement, if younreally need this feature just dont use the shield.
My thought for a barbarian monk is to go defensive. For your race go mountain dwarf for the two +2 and to take dwarven resilience. Focus on dex and con for the barbarians unarmored defense. For your barbarian subclass take Ancestral Guardian. This subclass is so good. Giving the baddest thing on the field disadvantage to hit anyone but you is crazy, but even if they do hit you’ve made your entire party into Bear totem barbarians. With flurry of blows you make it even more likely you hit your foe to get the taunt off. If you don’t need your flurry of blows to get the taunt up, take the dodge action as a bonus action. This works great for you because with the dwarven resilience feat when ever you take the dodge action you can use hit die to heal yourself. Eventually you’ll be untouchable. An ac of 20 at least which you can impose disadvantage on, advantage on dex save plus great dexterity and evasion means you’re barely going to take any damage from fireballs ever, a maxed out con for great hp and the ability to self heal if necessary, if you go high enough diamond soul to give you proficiency in all saves. This makes you a very well rounded survivable character. As for monk subclasses, mercy and kensei come to mind. Mercy gives you a chance to be an emergency medic while raging as you can use a quick heal or eventually grant disadvantage to a second target by poisoning them increasing your ability to protect your team. Kensei can give a nice ac boost, especially at lower levels before you can really invest asi into increasing your ac. It also gives a fun ranged option to your kit as the ancestral guardians protection just cares if you hit a target with a weapon attack, not a melee attack like many other barbarian abilities. Despite using dex for your attacks Gauntlets of ogre strength could be an fun magic item to get as they open the option of using a shield to bump ac even further. This turns off martial arts but you can still use ki points to do flurry of blows or dodge, or use any of the kensei or mercy abilities as they just care if you hit with an unarmed strike and not the damage, and this build doesn’t care about damage. Plus it lets you use reckless attacks which we have been previously ignoring.
So, the trick is that beast barbarian text includes that their claws and such count as simple weapons. This means they apply for dedicated weapon and kensei weapon (natural weapons usually don't because they are unarmed strikes.) This means you can use a different weapon. For example, a greatsword. This opens up a reckless/gwm/focused aim combo. The best part here is, if you need focused aim, you can use it on your gwm attack, if you don't, kensei strike on a claw hit or use stunning strike on anything if you don't go kensei. You can also just use bite or tail with this combo for a bigger dice on ki-fueled attack and the secondary benefit if both of your attacks are greatsword attacks.
Totally going to try this in Baldur's Gate 3! Thanks! I love the concept of a rage-filled chaotic barbarian that comes into ordered self-mastery through hard work
All the “natural weapons” can still be used as unarmed strikes. They are also now all 1d6, which I thought was neat because it meant that's race with one of these features gets a stronger unarmed strike out the gate when playing a monk at early levels. I believe this was changed In Monsters of The multiverse for an errata rule change so yes The claws SHOULD count as unarmed strikes.
I thought simple weapons couldn't be unarmed strikes? Dhampire bite for example. I know they can be your monk weapon but aren't eligible for the flurry of blows
There's a few things to note with this build: 1) You can't add rage damage to the unarmed strikes of Flurry of Blows. RAW you can only add rage damage to Strength-bases melee weapon attacks. 2) You can only use Reckless Attacks with Strength-based melee WEAPON attacks, meaning you can't go Reckless with unarmed strikes 3) Since you're building into a Tortle and they have natural armor giving them AC17, and you're building a Barbarian which requires you to be a Strength-bases Monk, you will not be using Dexterity as much as other monks. This means you should really only invest in Strength, Constitution (for more HP), and Wisdom (for Monk saves). 4) The kensei agile parry feature requires you to make an unarmed strike as part of your attack action while you are holding your kensei weapon in order to benefit from the AC bump. I think RAI is that you're supposed to have both hands empty to use the claws for two attacks meaning you can't hold a long sword. So you're technically always holding your kensei weapon with the Beast Barbarian weapons, be they be the claw, bite, or tail. However, if you rage into the beast tail transformation, but don't make it your kensei weapon, and instead make some other weapon, like a longsword, your kensei weapon, you can hold it, make an unarmed strike as part of the attack action, and gaining a +2 to AC and the ability to add 1d8 to AC as a party using your reaction. This means a Tortle is AC20 base, and possibly higher at AC27, if you roll well. 5) Tortles actually have natural claw weapons that count as unarmed strikes of which you can use for flurry of blows and to proc agile parry. This allows you to start with a 1d6 Flurry of Blows instead of a 1d4. 6) I'm of the opinion that Open Hand monk would serve this type of build better. However, you'd need to sink more levels into Barbarian to make the Beast claws magical.
I believe that while the rage damage and reckless work with weapon attacks, unarmed attacks still count as a weapon attack. I think the only time unarmed attacks don't work is specifically when a feature says "an attack made with a melee weapon" Such as the Battle Master Brace Maneuver. (twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1088200198814232577)
Funny thing I had a character like that in mind as well. Barbarian POTB + Monk. The flavor is that he was a half orc orphan raised by a monastery and taught martial arts but was completely clueless about ki and finese. Instead he did everything through seer natural strength and endurance. But he did pick up a few monk technics. Not easy to get 17 AC natural like tortle but with + 3 con and + 1 dex + 2 with a shield you get a solid 16 which can turn 18 with the kensei feat. Later on you can ASI in Con to get one more. 5 reckless attacks with the added damage of the rage boost is nothing to laugh at especialy with the extra crit damage of half orcs. Not to mention that you can attack and take the dodge action with patient defence and have a bonus to AC and the damage resistance of rage. And not droping once per long rest instead surviving with 1 hp for one last barrage of attacks or to draw enemy fire a bit more with high AC is insane. You can even combine the defence properties with the tail form for extra tankiness.
To add even more to the Defense side, take Defensive Duelist once your PB hits 4 or so. With a Reaction and a Finesse weapon in your hand (and you're not using the longsword anyway so switch it out), you get to add your PB to your AC for a single incoming attack. Another very useful feature that costs 1-3 Ki points but lasts a whole minute is Sharpen the Blade.
I've always liked a bear totem barb for 3 and then finish on monk. I like open hand for some crowd control, but last time I did this I went drunken master. Helped flavor the bear totem defenses as just being too drunk to feel the pain.
One of my favorite builds was an owlin I made for grappling. Took elk totem barbarian to level5 for the extra 25 movement. Then went the rest into drunk monk for even more extra movement, bonus dash and a few extra goodies. I was able to grapple 2 enemies at the same time and reach the 200feet fly speed and drop them to their death. If really needed, falling on top of them while raging and being a monk meant I would almost never take any fall damage myself. :D
Flying barbarians are broken for just that reason. I don't know how a regular encounter could counter that tactic. Fireball with friendly fire, I guess. After all, that enemy is as good as dead. But any other tactic is going to reveal my metagaming. Earthbind (why would the enemy have that? Flyers are rare) Hold Person? (Common enough spell, I guess) Bows aren't going to cut it. Formations? (Clump up, ready actions? Maybe...) Anyway, that's why many DMs won't allow the flying races (Aarakorca and Owlin and Fairy, although Fairies being small reduce the effectiveness of the Flying Pile Driver)
@@ericpeterson8732 There are many solutions and very simple. First one is just ranged attacks. The second is flying enemies or movement spells like teleports of even slowfall. Third option is just fighting inside, the damage is very small or 0 if the height is less than 20ft. Also, at level 5, pretty much everything is capable of flying, either temporarily or permanently and without any armor limitations.
@@nightangel6868 That's why I prefer 3rd level flying druid casting spike growth aka the flying cheese grater. works in almost any sized space, on anything you can grapple. good for campaigns that are more dungeon crawly than open air. even better if you are the flying barb and have a regular druid in you party to cast that for you.
@@askyw69 The partner for my owlin was casting either haste or spike growth depending on the situation, but most of the times doubling the speed was way more useful because even flying repeatedly to a height of 10ft for 1d6 was very devastating if doing it 10+ times in a single turn. :D
1:38 So, you're the group that allows Agile Parry with claws even though you aren't "holding them". Imo that's how it should work, but RAW it doesn't, but it's cool you think it should 4:25 Nvm lol, although the Claws 100% would count for Kensei weapons
i did a build like this, but used the earth genasi race instead for the beast barbarian natural weapons, instead of having my character grow out claws from their hands they wiuld use the earth and stone around them to shape it into claws and tails
I have an ongoing build in my head that mixes these two classes. Conceptually, I had the idea that when you rage, your Barbarian unarmored defense is used, as you are throwing yourself into the fray. While on the other side, when you're calm and at peace, your Monk unarmored defense is used. This would add a lot of flavor, especially if either Wisdom or Constitution was higher than the other; that way there would be a struggle within the character that I think would be really fun to play.
I have a very similar build as a back up character for a CoS game. The DM allows blood hunter so it's a level three Order of the Lycan, other levels into kensei monk. The race is custom Lineage, flavor is a dryad that was horribly burnt and is now almost undead as this living peace of charcoal. Their 'Lycan' transformation is them growing and being more like an Ent that is set ablaze and use this fire to fight those that burned him in the first place. They have an Axe in one hand, but refuse to use it till they find the person that left it in him. Very fun, very flavorful.
This build combines my two favorite classes/subclasses; also turtle is a great solution to ac. I would lean into the defensive stance and hold a shield since your ac is a flat 17; on your offensive turn just use claws, then at the top of your defensive turn, draw your kensei weapon, or with extra attack claw twice, draw weapon and unarmed strike. You could maintain this defensive stance with a sword and shield, making unarmed strikes, or on any turn you could use your action to stow the sword and use patient defense as a bonus action until your next turn, if you want to set up your attack stance again. You could conceivably set a dagger as your Kensei weapon, and place it between your teeth as a free action instead of using an action to sheathe it.
While beast barbarian + monk slaps, I don’t like mercy unless you’re playing at really high levels. Spending ki to get like 3.5+1 healing or to do 3.5+1 damage is just so much worse than doing flurry of blows. You really need the level 11 feature to give you free hand of harm, but you won’t have that until level 14 minimum
I put one of these together that focused on Ancestral Guardian Barbarian with a 3 level dip in Kensei. I liked Kensei because Agile Parry & Kensei Shot are non-scaling tools that do not require Ki points, which you won't have much of with this build. That aside, the monk dip gives you a few other interesting toys to play around with that actually synergize pretty well with barbarian: Flurry of Blows (Barbarian loves more daka) Patient Defense (Basically negates downside of Reckless) Step of The Wind (More movement is always good...especially if you don't have to sacrifice your action to get it) Deflect Missiles (neat, if situational, defensive feature if you don't have anything else to do w/your reaction). The basic idea is to Rage and then tag someone, either in melee or at range using a thrown weapon of some kind (javelins are probably iconic but I like the idea of hand axes myself). This forces them to either come for you or else attack others at disadvantage. If they choose the later you can either start raining weapons on them adding an additional D4 from Kensei Shot...or you can just chase them down with a barbarian's already enhanced movement speed plus Step of the Wind to augment that if need be. If they come for you you're already a tanky raging barbarian but Agile Parry then allows you to boost your defense further to make you even harder to hit and you can also tack on Patient Defense if you really need to. This is definitely a more defensive focused Barbarian but the trade off is you can make yourself a serious annoyance for an opponent at both long range or up close while also making yourself very difficult to get away from.
This reminds of one of my builds that i have planned but only for either a high level campaign or a Level 20 One Shot, and it's the "Focused Rage Build" Battlemaster Fighter (11) Open Hand Monk (6) Totem Barbarian (3) You only need Str/Wis/Dex + Tough Feat/Fighting Initiate Feat in that order. 3 attacks + Flurry of Blows + ACTION SURGE means = 10 attacks + Rage Damage + Superiority Dice Conditions/Stunning Strike and Open Hand Techniques. You could literally drop kick and enemy 15 Feet, Prone and Stunned IN THE SAME TURN. Plus Totem's overall Resistance to EVERYTHING (except Psychic Damage...) means your HP is basically doubled most of the time, so you can kind of afford a low constitution.
Ohhh this is very fun and interesting. Personally, I would change from tortle to mountain dwarf, and with the extra feats get defensive duelist and dwarven fortitude.
Another good barbarian/monk multiclass is a variant of the Battlemaster "monk" you had a build for, where you just play a battlemaster fighter with unarmed attack: I added that you start with one level in barbarian to get the barb's (better than monk's, because you can keep wisdom at a 13 and ignore it for the rest) _Unarmored Defence,_ then a level in monk to get _Martial Arts,_ letting you attack twice and with your dexterity, then go Battlemaster fighter the rest of the way. A nice build that only relies on Dexterity (for attack & defence) and Constitution (for defence). Yes, your _Rage_ doesn't add to your damage, but otherwise it's a good build I'm looking forward to playing. I also took the _Athlete, Crusher, Mobile_ and _Tough_ feats to round out the abilities over the course of getting to level 20 and give it more "monk" flavour.
I've heard it interpreted that you can't wield other weapons with the beast barbarian claws, "Each of your hands transforms into A claw", "-so like a crab claw, rather than clawed fingers or something like Wolverine. So you might need to select the fang or tail rage form to be able to wield a kensei weapon, which while mechanically they are more defensive, it would offer less flexibility in a turn by turn play style. If you're allowed to choose the beast claws as your kensei weapon, you're all set, but it might be hard to justify monastic 'mastery' of a weapon when you can only ever conjure it for 3 minutes a day. So if the claws can't become kensei weapons they're stuck at d6 and the kensei subclass shuts off while they're out unless you're allowed to wield a weapon in one of them.
you didnt mention this, but beast barbarian also gives you the tail, which enhances your ac, so you can choose between extra damage with claws, or extra defense with the tail. Granted you cant really switch it up every turn like with the other features, but still neat i think
Hey, i have an idea for a build for tons of attacks, you go beast barbarian, ranger gloomstalker and fighter echo knight. First turn you attack twice with your action and another attack with beast barbarian then another one from gloomstalker and one attack from your echo (unleash incarnation), then you action surge and do all over again.
I think I'd prefer to add 1 lvl order cleric and enough sorcerer for a bonus action haste. Because of order cleric (after you've affected yourself with a leveled spell tell yourself to make an attack against a target as a reaction) you get a reaction attack and then attack action (fighter 11 lvl=3 attacks) + gloomstalker + unleash incarnation + haste x action surge. Depending on interpretation of the wording on gloom stalker and or unleash incarnation you would get an additional use of that feature. With haste you provide another attack action. Because this variation of the rules interpretation is a bit too lose for even my liking, I didn't add it above. If you can use the most generous interpretation it'll add about 4 attacks using action surge. What do you think? 🤔😉😁
My Werewolf build is a Moon Druid 2/Beast Barbarian 6/Long Death Monk 12 which lets me go Dire Wolf (large size, 50’ speed, pack tactics, pounce attack with 2d6+Str bite) with Rage (2d6+Rage+Str slashing, damage reduction, +10’ speed, beast features) for 6 claw attacks (2 claw attacks each on both attacks + flurry of blows for 2 more, +20’ speed, Monk maneuverability, temp HP, fear, etc). Super fun so far at lvl 7 (Druid 2, Barb 3, Monk 2). It’s like playing a Battle Master fighter with two Great Swords knocking people prone followed by 3-4 strikes.
Ok Sage .... loving the flavor. But let's correct a thing or two. And add to the flavor. Fix: Tortles already have a claw attack, which can become monk weapons later on in the build. So you don't have to waste the rage feature with growing claws. Now for the flavor. Rage. ... don't grow the claws. But you can grow a Maw. For that awesome claw claw bite. And some healing from the bite. Defensive stance: Rage and grow thw tail. All and all awesome build. And very flavorful. ☕️ for all How
I made a similar build, currently monk 5 barbarian 2 but eventually barbarian 3 monk 6. I chose owlin (aracocra but owl) as a race since unarmored movement is added to fly speed. The game plan is to grapple two people and then step of the wind up 100 ft then drop down for a not insignificant amount of damage to my victims, 20-40 damage with no saves, and the most damage my guy has taken was 6. I only punch when we’re in a building, and mobile means I’ve never had to really worry about hp or ac.
You don't need the sword at all, actually. You can make your claws be your Kensei weapon. They're simple melee weapons that lack the special property. Now the build looks much nicer in action. There is some question over if the rage damage would apply to your unarmed attacks. The rules kinda imply that an unarmed attack is not a melee weapon attack, which I don't like honestly. The alternating between an offensive stance and a defensive stance is a very cool mechanic! And in both stances you're still doing good damage and have good defense, its just choosing which is the one you want to make *really* good.
@@mattlockshin4744 Ohhhhh right. I thought the reason rage didn't work on unarmed attacks was the same reason Divine Smite doesn't work for unarmed, but that's actually a different and stupider reason lmao. Fair enough, I was wrong, ignore me
I would totally go dragonborn with the draconic scales feat... You can really get some flavor out of how ferocious they are without sacrificing the world immersion because. Well you have the razor sharp skin of a DRAGON.... Like why would you need a sword at that point. Bonus point is you can breathe fire. Extra handy in survival dnd games too.
I made an absolute terminator with a L20 Shadar-kai, Zealot Barbarian (6), Long Death Monk (11), Phantom Rogue (3). He's sitting at 217 HP, and is almost always taking half damage, whether it's from raging or the Raven Queen's Blessing. I can also get Temp HP on a kill. IF I get taken down to 0 HP, I can spend 1 ki point to come back to 1 HP (no action required), which means I can do it as many times as I have ki points, and I don't have to wait for my turn. Even if I die outright, I can be brought back to life at no cost, other than time & a spell slot.
This build is amazing, sadly however it's a tortle exclusive build because of how strong having racially built in heavy armor is, and it's so MAD that if it wasn't a tortle there's no way to actually build it.
how about the monk paladin (14m 6 p) most monk features don't actually require not wearing armor (unless specifically called out) so your ac can be really high what's so special about 14th monk and 6th paladin? diamond soul (prof in all saves) and aura of protection (+cha to all saving throws), and maximize cha i don't think it has great damage output, but it's basically a wall
I personaly would allow a monk to do Stillness of Mind + a bonus action attak granted by the optional feature from Tasha's (they dont spend ki in this feature but its cool and nesesary)
This is not my character, but I’m currently playing in a campaign with a Monk/Barbarian, he’s mostly monk (homebrew subclass), but he took a 3 level dip into Acestral Gaurdians Barbarian, it makes him a great hit and run “tank”, he runs in hits the most dangerous creature gives it disadvantage and the party resistance, and he can step of wind out. Barbarian also just make monk a little more survivalable over all with Rage (as well as reckless helps his subclass which get a bonus for consecutive hits), it is a bit mad but if you roll decent stats it a fairly effective.
One thing you would have to do with this build is describe your claw attacks as karate chops that go through flesh like a lightsaber. Sure its slashing damage, but who says they have to be claws?
I was just thinking about how I could make a monk barbarian for an upcoming campaign, and I'm just finishing up a campaign as a tortle circle of the moon druid, so I went with tortle. We will be starting at level 5 so I went with two levels of barbarian and three of monk and chose Kensai. Top see what else I could do to have fun with this, I searched on Monk Barbarian and this came up. Guess I'm on the right track! (great minds, and all of that) I love tortles.
so on this build i have a question: cause my ancestral barbarian/drunken monk uses the unarmed fighting style with d8 to hit, since i dont have weapon nor shield in hand. and that actuall works if i read it correctly: phb 76 says :You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your UNARMED STRIKE or monk weapon. and tce 42 says: Your UNARMED STRIKEs can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier on a hit. If you aren't wielding any weapons or a shield when you make the attack roll, the d6 becomes a d8. so correct me if im wrong, but that means as a variant human, on barb1/monk2 i hit 3 times d8. but i guess thats dm dependent....
Cool build! Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you can run while grappling someone (you would have to drag them) so I think many DMs wouldn't allow this.
In the PHB "Moving a Grappled Creature. When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled Creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you." Obviously any DM can change this though
I wanted to play Kung Fu Panda so the obvious way was monk/druid but I also through battle master/Swarmkeeper in there just to stack damage. But I wasn’t feeling it. Now beast barb/mercy monk really sold it for me ik you guys are probably like why mercy but think about hands of harm as a watered down scdooswh…. Though it was fire
I actually reall like Cleric + monk... peace of course is very good, but also arcana... ranged cantrips, bless, healing word... you can even do cleric 5 and add spirit gardians to your monk...
Simic hybrid beast barbarian. Do you want 2 claw 1 tentacle and a grapple attack followed up with a high jump? Or do you want 5 claw attacks 🤔 what a whacky fun combo lol
I like this but since started dnd in January I've played an unarmed rune knight for my dragonlance campaign, a lv3 tabaxi monk, a lv5 ghostlance with eldritch blast flavoured as portals to a huge beast punching through the portal and i really should play something that doesnt punch people 😂
I love the flavor of the stances and it would be great. Unfortunately claws count as simple weapons, but NOT unarmed strikes. Do you can’t get a third hit in with your material arts.☹️
So i am building a beast barbarian/dragon monk lizardfolk. I specialize with the tail since i already have a bite attack. I want to get the dragon flavors eventually but since the tail counts as a kensai weapon, should i look at kensai?
It probably wouldn't be too busted as heavy armor master is good, but not overpowered. I would probably allow it if they had heavy armor proficiency, if not it would be a case by case basis probably
“monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don't have the two-handed or heavy property.” Monk “Until the rage ends, you manifest a natural weapon. It counts as a simple melee weapon for you” Beast barbarian
I want to make a dhampir barbarian 2(3 if bear totem) long death monk X with gwm XD when below half hp bite with advantage for boost gwm attack when you kill something you get HP back and attack more. I love the concept but stats suks and so does the ac XD
Bro, if you use martial arts, you cannot spend ki points for a bonus action since martial arts are thr bonus action.... I'm starting to play and you got me so confused....
@@DnD_Daily appreciate the time for answering, ty tho, this was the first build that occurred to me, and that's why I ended up in your video, do you think mercy would work with this?
I'm not sure if Rage adds DMG into flurry of blows. I've seen a few reddit posts discussing this and why it's not the case. I think mechanically it has something to do with the difference between a melee weapon and a melee weapon attack. In terms of flavor I've also seen it said that it doesn't make sense to be able to channel your monk training while raging
Sorry for coming early with the criticism. Just finished the video and I really loved it. Been thinking about a monk who turned away from his order in my next campaign. Was going to do 5 lvls into monk and then start the Barb until the end of the campaign. Maybe I'll have to rethink that! Thanks this was good
That has always struck me as a fairly narrow interpretation of the lore. If anything, you've got some cool character story hooks built in to the build. You have someone who is turning to monastic training as a means to gain control over a boundless rage that consumes them. Like that's a fuckin story arc right there.
rage description mentions melee weapon attack. Unarmed strike is as a melee weapon attack. If im not mistaken the only similar thing that unarmed strikes wouldn't interact with RAW is smite
Rage doesn’t necessarily have to mean mindless anger. Rage can also be interpreted as entering a Zen-like state, when you become dulled to pain while focusing your strength into each strike.
Tortles actually have natural claws, which boost your unarmed strikes up to 1d6, so you get a bit more damage with each unarmed strike until you're a level 5 monk.
Also, here's an idea for one way to reflavor this character: A Tarrasque-born. Beast Barb can also let you choose a bite attack and a tail attack instead of the claws, and your Tortle shell could be the Tarrasque's carapace.
The question becomes at that point: who the FUCK allowed the terrasque to impregnate it? Lol
@@halohawkxxagreed. The best answer I'd have is that you were not a descendant of a terrasque. But instead a mages failed attempt to recreate something in the vein of a terrasque that was subservient to his will.
Maybe you managed to escape the wizard and would eventually join your monastery, seeking their help to harden your mind so that if your creator ever found you, you'd be able to resist their attempts to control you and lock you away once again.
Maybe to continue further from this idea you would eventually leave the monastery because you felt like you wanted to take vengeance on your Creator, something that the monks discouraged. Feeling limited and caged you decided to get again run away, living by your own terms and seeking your old master.
The tail in beast barb is the best. Add a 1d8 to every attack made on you to your ac
*How to describe this build without words:* 🗡💃🛡
The longsword wouldn't actually be necessary as the claws could become your kensai weapon (being considered simple melee weapons). You could also use the tail weapon form instead to lean into the more defensive style as it can add a d8 to your AC as a reaction
The bite also gives you temporary hit points once per turn, which works well with your Rage resistance.
I know this seems like a stretch I would allow this but what IF someone were to argue that for agile Parry you have to be "holding" your monk weapon and claws are technically just part of your hand and you aren't actually holding it cause I could see how rules as written can argue for both cases
@@dotsonci13 The claws do specify that they are considered held like weapons in the text
its why you can use Two weapon fighting with them using Dual wielder.
Great idea! If you haven't tried the Barbarian- Rogue multiclass, it is really quite fun and impressive and very much Batman. You become a ultra tough, high ac, skill monkey dpr monster. Personally I went Zealot Barbarian and Scout Roge for Max dpr and max mobility. The synegies are quite many like. Barbarian rage resistance and uncanny dodge. Evasion and Danger sense, expertise in 6 skills and advantage on athletics, Very reliable damage with sneak attack + zealot damage + reckless attack. And a movement speed of 50ft and extra feats.
Did a level 10 two-shot about a year ago with a very similar build. dwarven lvl 3 zealot and lvl 7 rogue (for the life of me i cant remember the rogue subclass i used). But dude was a UNIT. it was about 3 decent sized battles and we didn't get a single short rest, by the end i still had about 60% of my health without ever being healed or anything and was probably the 2nd highest DPS outta 5 PCs with reckless guaranteeing sneak attack. And you don't use any resources outside of Rages. 100% agree, with danger sense/uncanny dodge/evasion, you are just a slippery hardy MFer.
Berserker Assassin Half orc.
Love this. I’ve long loved the idea of playing a beast Barbarian that re flavors it’s “natural weapons” as fighting stances.
An alternative path I think is to go Drunken Master, a lot of the features work well with this.
Drunken Technique: extra movement and a free disengage. Use to control your positioning by grappling a target and getting away from their friends.
Leap to your Feet: nice to avoid prone crippling your mobility. Really doubles down on being able to move where you want.
Redirect Attack: Now we’re cooking!! Drag your target away from their friends, knock him prone and start wailing at advantage.(without reckless attack) If another opponent comes up, you can potentially turn one of their attacks against their prone ally.
(Once you can run up walls, getting your target prone doesn’t even require a shove-attack)
Drunkards Luck: ehhh… this one might be useful sometimes.
Intoxicated Flurry: Did some say extra rage damage? 😂🤠
I’d also switch out the longsword for a rapier and take the Defensive Duelist Feat, works REALLY well with monks.
Also with this build If you wanted to go full in on defense, you could use a sheild. Sheilds only turn off 3 things,
1. Unarmored defense: you aren't using that as a tortle anyway.
2. Martial arts: tortles naturally get a d6 unarmed strike thanks to natural weapons. And you loose your bonus action attack, but not the ability to spend ki points as a bonus action so flurry of blows and patient defense Still work.
3. Unarmored movement, if younreally need this feature just dont use the shield.
Tortle’s are great for monk. I’ve made four separate ninja turtles builds that really benefit from the AC bump
Tortle monk Ninja turtles! I love that!
Mine was a standard Shifter Beast/Open Hand MC.
Like the hand-to-hand fighter aspect with permanent advantage
My thought for a barbarian monk is to go defensive. For your race go mountain dwarf for the two +2 and to take dwarven resilience. Focus on dex and con for the barbarians unarmored defense. For your barbarian subclass take Ancestral Guardian. This subclass is so good. Giving the baddest thing on the field disadvantage to hit anyone but you is crazy, but even if they do hit you’ve made your entire party into Bear totem barbarians. With flurry of blows you make it even more likely you hit your foe to get the taunt off. If you don’t need your flurry of blows to get the taunt up, take the dodge action as a bonus action. This works great for you because with the dwarven resilience feat when ever you take the dodge action you can use hit die to heal yourself. Eventually you’ll be untouchable. An ac of 20 at least which you can impose disadvantage on, advantage on dex save plus great dexterity and evasion means you’re barely going to take any damage from fireballs ever, a maxed out con for great hp and the ability to self heal if necessary, if you go high enough diamond soul to give you proficiency in all saves. This makes you a very well rounded survivable character. As for monk subclasses, mercy and kensei come to mind. Mercy gives you a chance to be an emergency medic while raging as you can use a quick heal or eventually grant disadvantage to a second target by poisoning them increasing your ability to protect your team. Kensei can give a nice ac boost, especially at lower levels before you can really invest asi into increasing your ac. It also gives a fun ranged option to your kit as the ancestral guardians protection just cares if you hit a target with a weapon attack, not a melee attack like many other barbarian abilities. Despite using dex for your attacks Gauntlets of ogre strength could be an fun magic item to get as they open the option of using a shield to bump ac even further. This turns off martial arts but you can still use ki points to do flurry of blows or dodge, or use any of the kensei or mercy abilities as they just care if you hit with an unarmed strike and not the damage, and this build doesn’t care about damage. Plus it lets you use reckless attacks which we have been previously ignoring.
So, the trick is that beast barbarian text includes that their claws and such count as simple weapons. This means they apply for dedicated weapon and kensei weapon (natural weapons usually don't because they are unarmed strikes.) This means you can use a different weapon. For example, a greatsword.
This opens up a reckless/gwm/focused aim combo. The best part here is, if you need focused aim, you can use it on your gwm attack, if you don't, kensei strike on a claw hit or use stunning strike on anything if you don't go kensei. You can also just use bite or tail with this combo for a bigger dice on ki-fueled attack and the secondary benefit if both of your attacks are greatsword attacks.
Totally going to try this in Baldur's Gate 3! Thanks! I love the concept of a rage-filled chaotic barbarian that comes into ordered self-mastery through hard work
All the “natural weapons” can still be used as unarmed strikes. They are also now all 1d6, which I thought was neat because it meant that's race with one of these features gets a stronger unarmed strike out the gate when playing a monk at early levels. I believe this was changed In Monsters of The multiverse for an errata rule change so yes The claws SHOULD count as unarmed strikes.
I thought simple weapons couldn't be unarmed strikes? Dhampire bite for example. I know they can be your monk weapon but aren't eligible for the flurry of blows
There's a few things to note with this build:
1) You can't add rage damage to the unarmed strikes of Flurry of Blows. RAW you can only add rage damage to Strength-bases melee weapon attacks.
2) You can only use Reckless Attacks with Strength-based melee WEAPON attacks, meaning you can't go Reckless with unarmed strikes
3) Since you're building into a Tortle and they have natural armor giving them AC17, and you're building a Barbarian which requires you to be a Strength-bases Monk, you will not be using Dexterity as much as other monks. This means you should really only invest in Strength, Constitution (for more HP), and Wisdom (for Monk saves).
4) The kensei agile parry feature requires you to make an unarmed strike as part of your attack action while you are holding your kensei weapon in order to benefit from the AC bump. I think RAI is that you're supposed to have both hands empty to use the claws for two attacks meaning you can't hold a long sword. So you're technically always holding your kensei weapon with the Beast Barbarian weapons, be they be the claw, bite, or tail.
However, if you rage into the beast tail transformation, but don't make it your kensei weapon, and instead make some other weapon, like a longsword, your kensei weapon, you can hold it, make an unarmed strike as part of the attack action, and gaining a +2 to AC and the ability to add 1d8 to AC as a party using your reaction. This means a Tortle is AC20 base, and possibly higher at AC27, if you roll well.
5) Tortles actually have natural claw weapons that count as unarmed strikes of which you can use for flurry of blows and to proc agile parry. This allows you to start with a 1d6 Flurry of Blows instead of a 1d4.
6) I'm of the opinion that Open Hand monk would serve this type of build better. However, you'd need to sink more levels into Barbarian to make the Beast claws magical.
I believe that while the rage damage and reckless work with weapon attacks, unarmed attacks still count as a weapon attack. I think the only time unarmed attacks don't work is specifically when a feature says "an attack made with a melee weapon" Such as the Battle Master Brace Maneuver. (twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1088200198814232577)
his build was strength based for the rage damage and reckless attack potential
Funny thing I had a character like that in mind as well. Barbarian POTB + Monk. The flavor is that he was a half orc orphan raised by a monastery and taught martial arts but was completely clueless about ki and finese. Instead he did everything through seer natural strength and endurance. But he did pick up a few monk technics. Not easy to get 17 AC natural like tortle but with + 3 con and + 1 dex + 2 with a shield you get a solid 16 which can turn 18 with the kensei feat. Later on you can ASI in Con to get one more.
5 reckless attacks with the added damage of the rage boost is nothing to laugh at especialy with the extra crit damage of half orcs. Not to mention that you can attack and take the dodge action with patient defence and have a bonus to AC and the damage resistance of rage. And not droping once per long rest instead surviving with 1 hp for one last barrage of attacks or to draw enemy fire a bit more with high AC is insane. You can even combine the defence properties with the tail form for extra tankiness.
To add even more to the Defense side, take Defensive Duelist once your PB hits 4 or so. With a Reaction and a Finesse weapon in your hand (and you're not using the longsword anyway so switch it out), you get to add your PB to your AC for a single incoming attack. Another very useful feature that costs 1-3 Ki points but lasts a whole minute is Sharpen the Blade.
Barbarian monk is great! Super cool to see it covered on your channel!
I've always liked a bear totem barb for 3 and then finish on monk. I like open hand for some crowd control, but last time I did this I went drunken master. Helped flavor the bear totem defenses as just being too drunk to feel the pain.
Haha I love that
One of my favorite builds was an owlin I made for grappling. Took elk totem barbarian to level5 for the extra 25 movement. Then went the rest into drunk monk for even more extra movement, bonus dash and a few extra goodies. I was able to grapple 2 enemies at the same time and reach the 200feet fly speed and drop them to their death. If really needed, falling on top of them while raging and being a monk meant I would almost never take any fall damage myself. :D
Flying barbarians are broken for just that reason. I don't know how a regular encounter could counter that tactic. Fireball with friendly fire, I guess. After all, that enemy is as good as dead. But any other tactic is going to reveal my metagaming. Earthbind (why would the enemy have that? Flyers are rare) Hold Person? (Common enough spell, I guess) Bows aren't going to cut it. Formations? (Clump up, ready actions? Maybe...) Anyway, that's why many DMs won't allow the flying races (Aarakorca and Owlin and Fairy, although Fairies being small reduce the effectiveness of the Flying Pile Driver)
@@ericpeterson8732 There are many solutions and very simple. First one is just ranged attacks. The second is flying enemies or movement spells like teleports of even slowfall. Third option is just fighting inside, the damage is very small or 0 if the height is less than 20ft. Also, at level 5, pretty much everything is capable of flying, either temporarily or permanently and without any armor limitations.
@@nightangel6868 That's why I prefer 3rd level flying druid casting spike growth aka the flying cheese grater. works in almost any sized space, on anything you can grapple. good for campaigns that are more dungeon crawly than open air. even better if you are the flying barb and have a regular druid in you party to cast that for you.
@@askyw69 The partner for my owlin was casting either haste or spike growth depending on the situation, but most of the times doubling the speed was way more useful because even flying repeatedly to a height of 10ft for 1d6 was very devastating if doing it 10+ times in a single turn. :D
1:38
So, you're the group that allows Agile Parry with claws even though you aren't "holding them". Imo that's how it should work, but RAW it doesn't, but it's cool you think it should
4:25
Nvm lol, although the Claws 100% would count for Kensei weapons
i did a build like this, but used the earth genasi race instead
for the beast barbarian natural weapons, instead of having my character grow out claws from their hands they wiuld use the earth and stone around them to shape it into claws and tails
I played a Gestalt game once and Monk/Barb is so much fun. You really feel like a crazy superhero
You heard the man. Efficiency is ki to building a good monk
… 👀
your builds are all always so good
I've seen a build like this as an Emerald (psychic) Dragonborn Ascendant Dragon Monk/Bear Totem Barbarian
Rage also grants damage resistances that enhance your defensive stance even more
And it's damage bonus increases over time
I have an ongoing build in my head that mixes these two classes. Conceptually, I had the idea that when you rage, your Barbarian unarmored defense is used, as you are throwing yourself into the fray. While on the other side, when you're calm and at peace, your Monk unarmored defense is used. This would add a lot of flavor, especially if either Wisdom or Constitution was higher than the other; that way there would be a struggle within the character that I think would be really fun to play.
Unfortunately the mechanics don’t support this. You only get the unarmored defense you took first.
I’d allow it though cause it’s bad ass
I have a very similar build as a back up character for a CoS game. The DM allows blood hunter so it's a level three Order of the Lycan, other levels into kensei monk. The race is custom Lineage, flavor is a dryad that was horribly burnt and is now almost undead as this living peace of charcoal. Their 'Lycan' transformation is them growing and being more like an Ent that is set ablaze and use this fire to fight those that burned him in the first place. They have an Axe in one hand, but refuse to use it till they find the person that left it in him.
Very fun, very flavorful.
Hold a dagger and say it's a parrying dagger.
This build combines my two favorite classes/subclasses; also turtle is a great solution to ac. I would lean into the defensive stance and hold a shield since your ac is a flat 17; on your offensive turn just use claws, then at the top of your defensive turn, draw your kensei weapon, or with extra attack claw twice, draw weapon and unarmed strike. You could maintain this defensive stance with a sword and shield, making unarmed strikes, or on any turn you could use your action to stow the sword and use patient defense as a bonus action until your next turn, if you want to set up your attack stance again. You could conceivably set a dagger as your Kensei weapon, and place it between your teeth as a free action instead of using an action to sheathe it.
I saw a really cool Beast Barb 3/Mercy Monk 17 build that actually had damage comparable to a GWM build, which honestly floored me.
While beast barbarian + monk slaps, I don’t like mercy unless you’re playing at really high levels.
Spending ki to get like 3.5+1 healing or to do 3.5+1 damage is just so much worse than doing flurry of blows.
You really need the level 11 feature to give you free hand of harm, but you won’t have that until level 14 minimum
I put one of these together that focused on Ancestral Guardian Barbarian with a 3 level dip in Kensei. I liked Kensei because Agile Parry & Kensei Shot are non-scaling tools that do not require Ki points, which you won't have much of with this build. That aside, the monk dip gives you a few other interesting toys to play around with that actually synergize pretty well with barbarian:
Flurry of Blows (Barbarian loves more daka)
Patient Defense (Basically negates downside of Reckless)
Step of The Wind (More movement is always good...especially if you don't have to sacrifice your action to get it)
Deflect Missiles (neat, if situational, defensive feature if you don't have anything else to do w/your reaction).
The basic idea is to Rage and then tag someone, either in melee or at range using a thrown weapon of some kind (javelins are probably iconic but I like the idea of hand axes myself). This forces them to either come for you or else attack others at disadvantage. If they choose the later you can either start raining weapons on them adding an additional D4 from Kensei Shot...or you can just chase them down with a barbarian's already enhanced movement speed plus Step of the Wind to augment that if need be. If they come for you you're already a tanky raging barbarian but Agile Parry then allows you to boost your defense further to make you even harder to hit and you can also tack on Patient Defense if you really need to.
This is definitely a more defensive focused Barbarian but the trade off is you can make yourself a serious annoyance for an opponent at both long range or up close while also making yourself very difficult to get away from.
This reminds of one of my builds that i have planned but only for either a high level campaign or a Level 20 One Shot, and it's the "Focused Rage Build"
Battlemaster Fighter (11) Open Hand Monk (6) Totem Barbarian (3)
You only need Str/Wis/Dex + Tough Feat/Fighting Initiate Feat in that order.
3 attacks + Flurry of Blows + ACTION SURGE means = 10 attacks + Rage Damage + Superiority Dice Conditions/Stunning Strike and Open Hand Techniques.
You could literally drop kick and enemy 15 Feet, Prone and Stunned IN THE SAME TURN. Plus Totem's overall Resistance to EVERYTHING (except Psychic Damage...) means your HP is basically doubled most of the time, so you can kind of afford a low constitution.
Ohhh this is very fun and interesting. Personally, I would change from tortle to mountain dwarf, and with the extra feats get defensive duelist and dwarven fortitude.
Another good barbarian/monk multiclass is a variant of the Battlemaster "monk" you had a build for, where you just play a battlemaster fighter with unarmed attack: I added that you start with one level in barbarian to get the barb's (better than monk's, because you can keep wisdom at a 13 and ignore it for the rest) _Unarmored Defence,_ then a level in monk to get _Martial Arts,_ letting you attack twice and with your dexterity, then go Battlemaster fighter the rest of the way. A nice build that only relies on Dexterity (for attack & defence) and Constitution (for defence).
Yes, your _Rage_ doesn't add to your damage, but otherwise it's a good build I'm looking forward to playing. I also took the _Athlete, Crusher, Mobile_ and _Tough_ feats to round out the abilities over the course of getting to level 20 and give it more "monk" flavour.
I love the idea of "Grapple, Wall-Climb, Fall".
Repeat as desired.
I've heard it interpreted that you can't wield other weapons with the beast barbarian claws, "Each of your hands transforms into A claw", "-so like a crab claw, rather than clawed fingers or something like Wolverine. So you might need to select the fang or tail rage form to be able to wield a kensei weapon, which while mechanically they are more defensive, it would offer less flexibility in a turn by turn play style. If you're allowed to choose the beast claws as your kensei weapon, you're all set, but it might be hard to justify monastic 'mastery' of a weapon when you can only ever conjure it for 3 minutes a day. So if the claws can't become kensei weapons they're stuck at d6 and the kensei subclass shuts off while they're out unless you're allowed to wield a weapon in one of them.
you didnt mention this, but beast barbarian also gives you the tail, which enhances your ac, so you can choose between extra damage with claws, or extra defense with the tail. Granted you cant really switch it up every turn like with the other features, but still neat i think
Hey, i have an idea for a build for tons of attacks, you go beast barbarian, ranger gloomstalker and fighter echo knight. First turn you attack twice with your action and another attack with beast barbarian then another one from gloomstalker and one attack from your echo (unleash incarnation), then you action surge and do all over again.
Could you then add a level or two in monk to make a multiclass monstrosity that attacks yet one more time with a kick or something?
I think I'd prefer to add 1 lvl order cleric and enough sorcerer for a bonus action haste. Because of order cleric (after you've affected yourself with a leveled spell tell yourself to make an attack against a target as a reaction) you get a reaction attack and then attack action (fighter 11 lvl=3 attacks) + gloomstalker + unleash incarnation + haste x action surge.
Depending on interpretation of the wording on gloom stalker and or unleash incarnation you would get an additional use of that feature. With haste you provide another attack action.
Because this variation of the rules interpretation is a bit too lose for even my liking, I didn't add it above. If you can use the most generous interpretation it'll add about 4 attacks using action surge.
What do you think? 🤔😉😁
My Werewolf build is a Moon Druid 2/Beast Barbarian 6/Long Death Monk 12 which lets me go Dire Wolf (large size, 50’ speed, pack tactics, pounce attack with 2d6+Str bite) with Rage (2d6+Rage+Str slashing, damage reduction, +10’ speed, beast features) for 6 claw attacks (2 claw attacks each on both attacks + flurry of blows for 2 more, +20’ speed, Monk maneuverability, temp HP, fear, etc). Super fun so far at lvl 7 (Druid 2, Barb 3, Monk 2). It’s like playing a Battle Master fighter with two Great Swords knocking people prone followed by 3-4 strikes.
I would add that Barbarians have a feature that gives +10 movement, so combined with monk, this characters gonna be a speedy guy
You need five levels in Barbarian for that, though, I think.
@@jonathanrich9281 5 levels in Elk Barbarian + Mobile + Unarmored Movement: I am speed
Ok Sage .... loving the flavor. But let's correct a thing or two. And add to the flavor.
Fix: Tortles already have a claw attack, which can become monk weapons later on in the build. So you don't have to waste the rage feature with growing claws.
Now for the flavor. Rage. ... don't grow the claws. But you can grow a Maw. For that awesome claw claw bite. And some healing from the bite.
Defensive stance: Rage and grow thw tail.
All and all awesome build. And very flavorful.
☕️ for all
How
☕️
Very nice! For defensive stance you could forego the claws and choose tail. This would even mean more AC
Bro, get out of my head! 😂 I've been working on a Tortle Beast Barb Monk build for quite a bit now, but I couldn't decide between Kensei or Mercy lmao
Great minds my friend! 🧠
I made a similar build, currently monk 5 barbarian 2 but eventually barbarian 3 monk 6. I chose owlin (aracocra but owl) as a race since unarmored movement is added to fly speed. The game plan is to grapple two people and then step of the wind up 100 ft then drop down for a not insignificant amount of damage to my victims, 20-40 damage with no saves, and the most damage my guy has taken was 6. I only punch when we’re in a building, and mobile means I’ve never had to really worry about hp or ac.
You don't need the sword at all, actually. You can make your claws be your Kensei weapon. They're simple melee weapons that lack the special property. Now the build looks much nicer in action.
There is some question over if the rage damage would apply to your unarmed attacks. The rules kinda imply that an unarmed attack is not a melee weapon attack, which I don't like honestly.
The alternating between an offensive stance and a defensive stance is a very cool mechanic! And in both stances you're still doing good damage and have good defense, its just choosing which is the one you want to make *really* good.
Unarmed attacks are melee weapon attacks but not attacks with a melee weapon. The Sage Advice Compendium outlines what this means.
@@mattlockshin4744 Ohhhhh right. I thought the reason rage didn't work on unarmed attacks was the same reason Divine Smite doesn't work for unarmed, but that's actually a different and stupider reason lmao. Fair enough, I was wrong, ignore me
I recommend playing this if you roll crazy stats. Then we are talking solid performance.
I’ve always liked the idea of a barb dip for monks. Gives them that “kung fu theater” vibe to me. Like, your partner gets killed and BOOM RAAAAAAAGE!
I would totally go dragonborn with the draconic scales feat... You can really get some flavor out of how ferocious they are without sacrificing the world immersion because. Well you have the razor sharp skin of a DRAGON.... Like why would you need a sword at that point. Bonus point is you can breathe fire. Extra handy in survival dnd games too.
Would this build use any feats or no?
I made an absolute terminator with a L20 Shadar-kai, Zealot Barbarian (6), Long Death Monk (11), Phantom Rogue (3). He's sitting at 217 HP, and is almost always taking half damage, whether it's from raging or the Raven Queen's Blessing. I can also get Temp HP on a kill.
IF I get taken down to 0 HP, I can spend 1 ki point to come back to 1 HP (no action required), which means I can do it as many times as I have ki points, and I don't have to wait for my turn.
Even if I die outright, I can be brought back to life at no cost, other than time & a spell slot.
I also equipped him with a Blood Fury Tattoo, +3 Dragonhide Belt, Weapon of Certain Death Shortsword, and Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
Last thing, my 4 rages & 6 teleports reset on a long rest, which for Shadar-kai is only 4 hours, combined with 11 ki points per short rest.
And his name is Sunday.
This build is amazing, sadly however it's a tortle exclusive build because of how strong having racially built in heavy armor is, and it's so MAD that if it wasn't a tortle there's no way to actually build it.
how about the monk paladin (14m 6 p)
most monk features don't actually require not wearing armor (unless specifically called out) so your ac can be really high
what's so special about 14th monk and 6th paladin? diamond soul (prof in all saves) and aura of protection (+cha to all saving throws), and maximize cha
i don't think it has great damage output, but it's basically a wall
Try looking at a wildhunt shifter beast barb 3 / 17 living weapon monk 6 claw attacks at 20th lvl.
I personaly would allow a monk to do Stillness of Mind + a bonus action attak granted by the optional feature from Tasha's (they dont spend ki in this feature but its cool and nesesary)
This is not my character, but I’m currently playing in a campaign with a Monk/Barbarian, he’s mostly monk (homebrew subclass), but he took a 3 level dip into Acestral Gaurdians Barbarian, it makes him a great hit and run “tank”, he runs in hits the most dangerous creature gives it disadvantage and the party resistance, and he can step of wind out. Barbarian also just make monk a little more survivalable over all with Rage (as well as reckless helps his subclass which get a bonus for consecutive hits), it is a bit mad but if you roll decent stats it a fairly effective.
One thing you would have to do with this build is describe your claw attacks as karate chops that go through flesh like a lightsaber.
Sure its slashing damage, but who says they have to be claws?
I think a wildshaped Moon Druid Barbarian Kensei Monk could work hmmm
I was just thinking about how I could make a monk barbarian for an upcoming campaign, and I'm just finishing up a campaign as a tortle circle of the moon druid, so I went with tortle. We will be starting at level 5 so I went with two levels of barbarian and three of monk and chose Kensai. Top see what else I could do to have fun with this, I searched on Monk Barbarian and this came up. Guess I'm on the right track! (great minds, and all of that)
I love tortles.
so on this build i have a question: cause my ancestral barbarian/drunken monk uses the unarmed fighting style with d8 to hit, since i dont have weapon nor shield in hand. and that actuall works if i read it correctly: phb 76 says :You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your UNARMED STRIKE or monk weapon. and tce 42 says: Your UNARMED STRIKEs can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier on a hit. If you aren't wielding any weapons or a shield when you make the attack roll, the d6 becomes a d8. so correct me if im wrong, but that means as a variant human, on barb1/monk2 i hit 3 times d8. but i guess thats dm dependent....
Pretty clear cut yes if you ask me
Cool build! Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you can run while grappling someone (you would have to drag them) so I think many DMs wouldn't allow this.
In the PHB "Moving a Grappled Creature. When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled Creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you."
Obviously any DM can change this though
I wanted to play Kung Fu Panda so the obvious way was monk/druid but I also through battle master/Swarmkeeper in there just to stack damage. But I wasn’t feeling it. Now beast barb/mercy monk really sold it for me ik you guys are probably like why mercy but think about hands of harm as a watered down scdooswh…. Though it was fire
I actually reall like Cleric + monk... peace of course is very good, but also arcana... ranged cantrips, bless, healing word... you can even do cleric 5 and add spirit gardians to your monk...
I would flavor this build as Akuma tbh. He’s not a turtle, but he IS impossible to hit and puts out a truckload of rage damage
Simic hybrid beast barbarian. Do you want 2 claw 1 tentacle and a grapple attack followed up with a high jump? Or do you want 5 claw attacks 🤔 what a whacky fun combo lol
I'm sorry but that's...umm... legitimate Master Oogway 😂
Eeeh… I think more like Raphael 😂🐢
I like this but since started dnd in January I've played an unarmed rune knight for my dragonlance campaign, a lv3 tabaxi monk, a lv5 ghostlance with eldritch blast flavoured as portals to a huge beast punching through the portal and i really should play something that doesnt punch people 😂
I love the flavor of the stances and it would be great. Unfortunately claws count as simple weapons, but NOT unarmed strikes. Do you can’t get a third hit in with your material arts.☹️
make claws your kensei weapon. boom. fixed.
Unarmed strikes can be made with any part of your body--it's not limited to your hands/claws. So you can kick or headbutt for your unarmed strike.
So i am building a beast barbarian/dragon monk lizardfolk. I specialize with the tail since i already have a bite attack. I want to get the dragon flavors eventually but since the tail counts as a kensai weapon, should i look at kensai?
Maybe the sword isn’t a sword - parries with the scabbard but the blade has a magical effect. Justify holding but not using.
Described through pokemon: aegislash the dnd build
On a separate note, would you allow a Tortle to take the Heavy Armor Master feat, with just using their shell?
It probably wouldn't be too busted as heavy armor master is good, but not overpowered. I would probably allow it if they had heavy armor proficiency, if not it would be a case by case basis probably
D4: D & D Deep Dive did a remarkably similar build Tuesday: th-cam.com/video/5jDsPK9ym0s/w-d-xo.html
Great minds think alike 👍
How do the claws count as monk weapons? You can’t do the dedicated weapon feature and they aren’t unarmed strikes.
“monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don't have the two-handed or heavy property.”
Monk
“Until the rage ends, you manifest a natural weapon. It counts as a simple melee weapon for you”
Beast barbarian
@@DnD_Daily neat interaction
Your unarmed strikes won't count as weapon attacks until you get those claws from beast barbarian.
@@johannesstephanusroos4969 Typo, you knew what it meant, edited
I want to make a dhampir barbarian 2(3 if bear totem) long death monk X with gwm XD when below half hp bite with advantage for boost gwm attack when you kill something you get HP back and attack more. I love the concept but stats suks and so does the ac XD
Is human variant to get the unarmed fighting style bad in this build?
It is probably not mechanically optimal, but you could still have a very fun character doing that!
Bro, if you use martial arts, you cannot spend ki points for a bonus action since martial arts are thr bonus action.... I'm starting to play and you got me so confused....
You're correct, just trying to say that you can always have a bonus action unarmed attack, and if you want to spend ki you can have 2 instead
@@DnD_Daily appreciate the time for answering, ty tho, this was the first build that occurred to me, and that's why I ended up in your video, do you think mercy would work with this?
Why doesn’t Monk end with D12 martial arts die?
Alternatively named TMNT
Imagine gestalting this
I'm not sure if Rage adds DMG into flurry of blows. I've seen a few reddit posts discussing this and why it's not the case.
I think mechanically it has something to do with the difference between a melee weapon and a melee weapon attack.
In terms of flavor I've also seen it said that it doesn't make sense to be able to channel your monk training while raging
Sorry for coming early with the criticism. Just finished the video and I really loved it. Been thinking about a monk who turned away from his order in my next campaign.
Was going to do 5 lvls into monk and then start the Barb until the end of the campaign. Maybe I'll have to rethink that! Thanks this was good
That has always struck me as a fairly narrow interpretation of the lore. If anything, you've got some cool character story hooks built in to the build. You have someone who is turning to monastic training as a means to gain control over a boundless rage that consumes them. Like that's a fuckin story arc right there.
rage description mentions melee weapon attack. Unarmed strike is as a melee weapon attack. If im not mistaken the only similar thing that unarmed strikes wouldn't interact with RAW is smite
With the latest UA playtest it's obvious and literally spelled out that Rage doesn't turn off your brain so this will work just fine.
Rage doesn’t necessarily have to mean mindless anger. Rage can also be interpreted as entering a Zen-like state, when you become dulled to pain while focusing your strength into each strike.
You don't need Con to multiclass into barbarian
Nope, but you need it for survivability
@@DnD_Daily so if you were going point buy you'd stick 3, 14s into Str, Con and Wis 13 into Dex and put a bum 9 and 8 into a the mental dump stats