D&D 5E Best Kensei weapons?

[jgsugden]

You do not need magic weapons you are kensi you make your weapons magic you should be hopping for bracers of defense just saying.

Sadly, you do want a magic weapon that is not superseded by class features if you want to be 'competitive' with the big weapon folks. If you don't care that your PC deals substantially less damage, it is not an issue - but most players care enough that it is. When you watch the paladin or barbarian deal 60 damage per round and you're dealing only about 30.... and you're mainly a melee class ...

Now me personally as a DM I always do custom magic items ( my favorite part of being a dm custom magic items) never understood why the game punished non sword users makes the game more fun when we do not have 500 melee characters all with swords.

While many of us make custom magic items, some games do not. AL games do not.

 

[77IM]

Whip is a nifty idea, but if you remain at 10' to take advantage of reach you can't also get any martial arts attacks in, which means no bonus attacks and no AC bonus. There are certainly situations where that will be a good thing, but I would think most of the time you're not going to be using the reach quality.

You can make your first attack with a whip, and if it hits and if the victim fails their save against Stunning Strike, then you know that you can close in for an unarmed strike and you'll still be able to retreat afterwards without triggering an OA. If your whip attack misses or the target succeeds on their save against stun, then you can decide whether or not to risk closing to melee for the extra unarmed strike, or whether you'd rather spend your bonus action on something else, like Patient Defense.

Also, more broadly, with a reach weapon you can sometimes get in a position where enemies would trigger OAs from you, but you would not trigger OAs from them.

This reminds me of another good kensei weapon: The humble quarterstaff, because of its interaction with Polearm Master. The advantages of Polearm Master for monks in general are well-documented, but the main one here is the extra OA when enemies enter your reach, which gives another opportunity to lay on the +3 goodness from Sharpen the Blade.

Insane Option: By a strict reading of Polearm Master, you can hold a quarterstaff in one hand, and a whip in your other, and get OAs against people entering within 10 feet of you using your whip. This is expensive for ordinary monks (who are not proficient in whip) but could be super-sweet for someone who chooses whip as their kensei weapon.

This option is insane because I'm not sure the strict reading of the rules totally makes sense here.

 

[hejtmane]

Sadly, you do want a magic weapon that is not superseded by class features if you want to be 'competitive' with the big weapon folks. If you don't care that your PC deals substantially less damage, it is not an issue - but most players care enough that it is. When you watch the paladin or barbarian deal 60 damage per round and you're dealing only about 30.... and you're mainly a melee class ...
While many of us make custom magic items, some games do not. AL games do not.

you really are not going to be that competitive I mean even with the best weapon you can use the martial versatile 2h with furry of blows and you hit on every hit you will still be behind them you would average like 40 damage.

The only way to kind of get close is to multiclass you could do Ranger 3-4 levels and colossal slayer and hunters mark (3 per long rest) you take a hit first round but then furry of blows and two attacks with the Hunters mark get you closer

Could go Battle master and get superiority die which come back on a short rest + action surge and free heal as a bonus action at the end of the day the magic weapon does not close the gap.

Other than if the they happen to not have magic weapons you win because all your attacks are counted as bypassing magic immunity at 6th level monk open hand or kensei weapon

As for AL yea I feel for them talk about getting shafted

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Sadly, you do want a magic weapon that is not superseded by class features if you want to be 'competitive' with the big weapon folks. If you don't care that your PC deals substantially less damage, it is not an issue - but most players care enough that it is. When you watch the paladin or barbarian deal 60 damage per round and you're dealing only about 30.... and you're mainly a melee class ...
While many of us make custom magic items, some games do not. AL games do not.

Monks have a lot more going for them than just "melee DPS". If you would willingly give up the monk's considerably superior mobility, versatility and control options compared to a fighter, just to do similar damage, then monk may not be the best choice.

Insane Option: By a strict reading of Polearm Master, you can hold a quarterstaff in one hand, and a whip in your other, and get OAs against people entering within 10 feet of you using your whip. This is expensive for ordinary monks (who are not proficient in whip) but could be super-sweet for someone who chooses whip as their kensei weapon.

This option is insane because I'm not sure the strict reading of the rules totally makes sense here.

Unfortunately, I believe that this is a perfectly legal option.

 

[Bardbarian]

Insane Option: By a strict reading of Polearm Master, you can hold a quarterstaff in one hand, and a whip in your other, and get OAs against people entering within 10 feet of you using your whip. This is expensive for ordinary monks (who are not proficient in whip) but could be super-sweet for someone who chooses whip as their kensei weapon.

This option is insane because I'm not sure the strict reading of the rules totally makes sense here.

This does not work because Polearm master specifies it only works with 4 specific weapons. The whip is not one of them.

 

[77IM]

This does not work because Polearm master specifies it only works with 4 specific weapons. The whip is not one of them.

While you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, or quarterstaff, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter your reach.

Ergo, I think it does work.

 

[Bardbarian]

wielding means using, there is other terminology for some items and abilities says while you are HOLDING.

 

[Wrathamon]

Glaive, longsword, Hand-crossbow, Dagger, Darts, whip is interesting idea.

go crossbow expert and do some gun-fu

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

This does not work because Polearm master specifies it only works with 4 specific weapons. The whip is not one of them.

I don't think that Polearm Master specifies that the attack or reach must be of the pole weapon. - Although I'm pretty sure that that was the intent.

Plus during your turn you can attack with either, or both the whip and the staff after 5th level.

 

[Coroc]

A tetsubo?