Best feats for The Way of Kensei Monk?

Hey guys,

New to the forums, looking for some help picking feats for a Way of the Kensei Monk. I am using the revised Unearthed Arcana version.

We're starting at level 4, variant human, point buy stats, I took 15, 15 and bumped up to 16s. Planning on taking +2 dex for the lvl pick up and leaning towards starting with Weapon Specialization(Longsword/Katana) from the expanded feats packet, +1 to hit +2 to dmg with chosen weapon and once per short rest gain advantage, planning on taking Improved Critical as well later down the road, since, as far as I can tell, Sharpen the Blade class feature to spend Ki to add weapon damage to an attack should stack in a critical.

The question though is what order to take feats in and which ones to skip all together.

+2 dex(Maxed) screams out as being unmissable, +1 to hit. +1 dmg, +1 to armor class, +1 initiative, +1 Skills

Improved Critical, makes weapon "keen", also from the expanded 5e feats.

+2 Wis, +1 AC through Unarmored Defense, ok but probably can get better with a feat?

Blade Mastery(Unearthed Arcana) +1 to hit, reaction to parry gaining +1 AC, advantage on opportunity attacks

Duelist(5e feats) +1 AC while holding a single weapon, reaction to increase you AC by your proficiency

Defensive duelist when hit you can use your reaction to add your proficiency to AC. Probably worse then duelist but maybe more fun since you can use it once you've been hit.

Extra ki(5e feats), Adds three more ki, seems good with the Kensei monk powers like Sharpen the blade or One with the blade. Drop 6 ki point to make your sword +6?! Seems good ;p

There also is the Power Attack feat, in 5e feats, that gives you the -5 to hit +10 dmg, and reroll weapon damage dice when power attacking. Seems great, also pretty thematic to be using the katana to slice and dice some baddies. Also the kensei has some of the best accuracy boosts so you can probably afford to take the -5 most of the time. Problem being, the pre req is 13 str and to grab 13 str I have to dump both Int and Cha at 8 but it works with non heavy weapons, unlike Great Weapon Master and since the Monk already gets bonus actions it doesn't waste that aspect of the feat from GWM.




What do you guys and gals think? What's the best way to build up a badass katana wielding wandering swordsman?

Thanks,
P

Dex first, easily.
Wis is a strong second. Not just for AC, but also improves your DC for stuns.

Improved crits and dualist don't add very much.


But mobility, and defensive dualist (at higher levels), both work well.
The healer feat is also nice.

Resilent wisdom for saving throws is also a nice one two birds one throw

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hejtmane said:

Resilent wisdom for saving throws is also a nice one two birds one throw

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Monks get proficiency in all saves at level 14.

Though that might be far enough away to not matter.

mellored said:

Monks get proficiency in all saves at level 14.

Though that might be far enough away to not matter.

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Forgot about that ability

Thanks for the responses all!

All of those sound good. Isn't Duelist just sort of better then Defensive Duelist? Since you get +1 AC always on and they basically do the same thing? I guess you can choose to use Defensive Duelist after being hit as opposed to in reaction to the attack.

I mostly liked the idea of Improved Critical because of the Kensei's Precise Strike feature that you can spend a ki point to add a martial arts dice to your weapon dmg on a hit, which I imagine doubles under a crit, which honestly seems like the only time you would ever use that feature, since other then on a critical, Flurry of blows would do more dmg since you get add your modifiers again, assuming you hit.
I had kind of passed over Mobile and Mobility since you can kind of use Step of the Wind to do most of that.

I haven't played with him much yet though so I dunno how starved for ki you end up.



Cheers,
P

Patrick Buermeyer said:

Thanks for the responses all!

All of those sound good. Isn't Duelist just sort of better then Defensive Duelist? Since you get +1 AC always on and they basically do the same thing? I guess you can choose to use Defensive Duelist after being hit as opposed to in reaction to the attack.

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+3 AC is bigger than +1 AC.

You need to be attacked a lot of times in a single round for +1 AC to be more valuable. And monks don't get any benefit from dual wielding.

I mostly liked the idea of Improved Critical because of the Kensei's Precise Strike feature that you can spend a ki point to add a martial arts dice to your weapon dmg on a hit, which I imagine doubles under a crit, which honestly seems like the only time you would ever use that feature, since other then on a critical, Flurry of blows would do more dmg since you get add your modifiers again, assuming you hit.

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Yes.
But you only crit a tiny bit of the time. 6d6 extra crit damage * 0.05 = 1.05 damage.

I had kind of passed over Mobile and Mobility since you can kind of use Step of the Wind to do most of that.

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Mobility isn't a requirement.

I haven't played with him much yet though so I dunno how starved for ki you end up.

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Stuns are the main thing.
You can always start playing and decide later.