UA Monks Introduces the Kensai and Tranquility Traditions

This makes me wonder if we're going to be seeing the other Oriental Adventures classes done up as Archtypes in coming weeks (i.e. Sohei, Yakuza, etc.)

ad_hoc said:

Kensai: This is fine I suppose, maybe overpowered. It's not interesting to me because there isn't narrative power to it. It's just a Monk with a weapon. As is it is better than the Open Hand.

At level 5 you can attack for 2d6+4, 1d6+4, 1d6+4, and get +2 AC all for no Ki cost. That's pretty good.

Tranquility: I like the idea but it needs more. A Monk with disarm, shove, grappling, and other non-damaging incapacitating powers would have been cool. For example, they could have a power to attempt to disarm (while taking the weapon) in the place of an attack. They could also have a power to attempt to shove an opponent as a reaction to their opponent missing them with an attack, and if successful it ends their opponent's turn (Judo inspired).

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Count in me in the group that likes that tranquility idea.

I find this wording in the kensai a bit strange.

dealing an additional 1d4 bludgeoning damage to that target and to any other target you hit with the weapon as part of the Attack.

But you don't have abilities that allouw you to damage more then 1 target with a attack, almost making me wonder if it should be attack action instead of just atack at the end of that scentence.

for Douse the Flames of War they should remove the bolded.

This effect ends if the target is attacked, takes damage, or is forced to make a saving throw or if the target witnesses any of those things happening to its allies

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because it's too situational with the above line.

I need to look deeper at the Way of the Kensei. But i don't think it should get the pummel ability. Considering the potential benefits of using a martial weapon with reach or a larger damage die. It shouldn't get free bonus action damage on top of that. I would still consider flurry of blows to be fine though, considering it costs ki.

For the above to make sense you need to realise that the martial weapons count as kensei weapons but not as monk weapons. This is important since it won't allow you to make an unarmed attack as a bonus action using martial arts.

The problem with the Kensai is it consumes the bonus action for not enough in return. With Open Hand you will be doing more damage and tacking a prone, push, or killing their reactions in addition to the damage. This doesn't even count that the prone from Open Hand could lead to a whole series of attacks with advantage, or the shove could just eliminate them (off the cliff, or into the lava, etc.)

To me the Open Hand monk has the best and easiest suite of uses for bonus actions in the game. Anything that changes the monk has to be compared to the ease of use of the Open Hand bonus effects.


The Kensai path feature is worse than Polearm master feat as that give a bonus attack with full modifiers that includes the chance of a critical hit. This is just bonus damage. It should give you something better as it is the defining and starting feature of the path.

only on attack

ad_hoc said:

Path of Tranquility rework - Allow shove, grapple, and disarm attempts while under sanctuary spell. Replace Healing Hands with grapple and shove abilities. The other abilities are unchanged.

Path of Tranquility:
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can become an island of calm in even the most chaotic of situations. With this feature, you can cast the sanctuary spell on yourself, no material component required, it lasts up to 8 hours, and does not end if you make a grapple, shove, or disarm attempt. It's saving throw DC equals 8+ your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier. A creature that succeeds on the save is immune to this effect for 1 hour.
Once you cast the spell in this way, you can’t do so again for 1 minute.
/QUOTE]

Sanctuary, I believe, is only stopped if the warded Monk attacks or casts a harmful spell. Shove and disarm could be seen as defensive and not considered a part of the 'attack' action. Maybe grapple too depending on the DM. Also, consider Dodge and Disengage.

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I've been wanting a Kensei since the playtest of 5th edition. Yet I find myself completely unimpressed.

First of all, being able to use any weapon as a dexterity weapon may be too powerful, but part of the problem is the new terminology.

This martial weapon is a Kensei Weapon, not a monk weapon, does this mean you don't get any of the benefits of Martial Arts while wielding it? If it does, then all of your unarmed strike abilities are worthless, because you are hitting with str+mod and 1 damage.

If the Kensei Weapon is a monk weapon, then pummel is nearly useless, as it is only +1d4 damage, unmodified by anything. The only advantage of it is using your bonus action to automatically hit, but by higher levels you could be hitting for 1d8+5 instead of a flat 1d4.

If it isn't a Monk Weapon, then it also makes the ability to get +2 AC nearly worhtless, because again, attacking with unarmed strikes is a very bad idea when you lose all your normal bonuses.


So, the advantage is getting a 1d10 polearm or one of the heavy weapons like the greataxe and using them with Finesse as a monk. After all, the staff already did 1d8, so you need to be looking for a 1d10 or higher weapon die to increase your damage.

Then Precise Strike is... not useless, but really uninspiring to me. A +3 to +6 to hit with 1 attack, at the cost of your bonus action, when your bonus action is so vital to the monk's flexibility. It just feels like too little, and the magic weapons a fist monk already has.

Sharpen Blade is very nice, getting you a solid benefit for a chunk of ki, and Unerring Accuracy isn't bad, but they come a bit late to make this feel like a good sub-class.

Actually, Sharpen Blade is really good, on a second reading. You can "bless" any weapon, even a magical one. So if you are wielding a magic sword you can make it an even better magical sword.

Overall though, it doesn't seem to work for me.


Tranquility is amazing though.

You start by getting a long term, almost at will Sanctuary spell and a massive pool of healing. I get that it is double the Paladin Lay on Hands, but Paladins are definetly more damage oriented and have other spells on top of their smites, so I'm okay with this being a larger pool. And you can use it as part of your Flurry of Blows giving you even more options.

Emissary and Douses are great for roleplaying peaceful meetings, and make it easier for hot-headed enemies to sit and talk with you. There are a lot of limits on Douses, but it is a cool, if niche, ability

Anger of a Gentle Soul is crazy good. By this level most monks can easily make 4 attacks a round, making this an additional 68 damage against a tough foe. Of course, to pull that off you have to choose not to heal the ally, so it will generally be 3 attacks and a use of Healing hands.


Yeah, I really Like tranquility. It is very difficult to play a pacificist character in D&D, but this character isn't penalized for fighting. They just are much better at negotiating peace. I think it is a really solid design

What's the RAW on shove and grapple? are they considered attacks that would end the sanctuary spell?

Fritzo said:

What's the RAW on shove and grapple? are they considered attacks that would end the sanctuary spell?

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Both are considered attacks.

I do like how they have merged the kensei and way of the bow style monks into the kensei class. Choose longbow and a couple of melee weapons and you're good to go.

Tranquillity monk I think could be interesting.