D&D 5E Best Kensei weapons?

So I love the kensei monk. I love it so much I want to marry it. Let's talk about weapon selection!

The obvious choices are the most damaging ones -- the battleaxe, longsword, and warhammer are Versatile (d10), and the longbow is a respectable d8 with great range. These weapons are also among the ones most frequently found as magic items. And they look cool!

What are some non-obvious choices?

Whip!

Whichever one you think looks the coolest for your character. A kama, or 3-piece rod, or even the hook sword

jaelis said:

Whip!

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Oh wow... monk with reach is positively scary. And at higher levels your whip damage would increase to match unarmed damage. Not to mention all the creative "Indiana Jones" uses of the whip. Good one!

Kensei is an interesting class. While I generally consider it a trap option, I haven't given up on it quite yet. The obvious problems with the class are twofold. 1: the class naturally gets the sama damage at higher levels making the choice of weapon pointless after 11. 2: the class gets bonuses for not using your weapon at all. as per the 3rd level ability that grants defense when not using the weapon. Iam not pointing these flaws out to discourage you from playing the class, instead I think they are the key factors to consider when determining the weapon you choose.

As Jaelis mentioned above, the whip is an interesting choice. It grants reach which transforms into mobility by allowing you to engage without being threatened by many opponents. Likewise the Longbow is an excellent choice, allowing for range attacks and the use of class features on the same turn.

I think the most interesting interactions will come in the combinations of magic items in your campaign. Weapons with low or no magical + bonuse but powerful secondary effects will be excellent and for this reason alone I highly recommend the long sword as it seems the weapon most compatible with many different enchantments. Abilities like Flametounge, slayer weapons, weapon of warning are good examples of weapons balanced by their lack of +3 variants.

The final and most important consideration is how cool your character will be with your chosen weapon. This is purely subjective but certainly worth considering.

Hope some of that was helpful.

Bardbarian said:

. 2: the class gets bonuses for not using your weapon at all. as per the 3rd level ability that grants defense when not using the weapon.

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I think you're misreading it. It says if you make an unarmed attack as part of your attack action and holding a kensei weapon do you get that bonus. Well, a monk class feature is that you can make an unarmed attack as part of the attack action by spending a bonus action.

So you attack as normal with the kensei weapon, which triggers the unarmed bonus action strike based on the declaration of the attack action. And because you used an unarmed strike as part of your initial attack action, you can apply the defense bonus as per the kensei class feature.

When you make the unarmed attack as a bonus action it is not part of the attack action because it is part of the bonus action.

They are basically letting you trade-off damage vs. AC, which is more attractive at higher levels when your martial arts damage equals or exceeds your weapon damage; it keeps the weapon from becoming totally irrelevant.

BUT it does mean that if you plan to use your weapon as a "shield" most of the time that you can pick weapons more for coolness than for any of their own characteristics. I wonder what PHB weapon stats would best represent a war fan? Probably sickle.

Sacrosanct said:

I think you're misreading it. It says if you make an unarmed attack as part of your attack action and holding a kensei weapon do you get that bonus. Well, a monk class feature is that you can make an unarmed attack as part of the attack action by spending a bonus action.

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Except that's not part of the Attack action. Flurry of Blows states that your extra unarmed strikes happen "Immediately after you take the Attack action". Still, you probably only losing a couple points of damage anyway.

Flurry is a bonus action and not part of the attack action unfortunately.

77IM said:

When you make the unarmed attack as a bonus action it is not part of the attack action because it is part of the bonus action.

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I don't think so, because it's triggered by making an attack action with a monk weapon or unarmed strike. It just costs your bonus action. Anyone can make an unarmed attack as a bonus action if you've got a one handed weapon. It's just like dual wielding, only your second weapon is a fist. So monks have to be different, or why call it out at all? It states, "When you use the attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn,..." So clearly it's triggered by declaring an attack action, and therefore is part of it.

And the kensei's agile parry states: If you make an unarmed strike as part of the attack action on your turn..."

So...by declaring a standard attack action, you get an unarmed strike. And by doing an unarmed strike, you also trigger the agile parry (assuming the weapon your'e holding is a kensei weapon)

That's how it reads to me anyway.