D&D 5E Best Kensei weapons?

[Sacrosanct]

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 different monk ability than the unarmed strike monks get when declaring an attack action. Let me ask you this. If the unarmed strike a monk gets after declaring their attack action is just a bonus unarmed strike, then why call it out? Every PC can use a bonus action to make an additional unarmed strike if they want. It's treated the same as duel wielding, only instead of a dagger or sword, it's your fist you're using.

 

[Bardbarian]

Because a monk can do it without a weapon. Normally you need to be holding a weapon in the secondary hand. under two weapon fighting it says the attack must be made with a different weapon than the one the attack action was taken with. unarmed attacks are weapon attacks, but an unarmed strike is not a weapon technically and was removed from the weapons table after the first printing of the PHB for this reason.

 

[cbwjm]

Whether or not flurry of blows is part of the attack action doesn't matter when you reach level 5. You can still make at least one attack with your monk weapon and one with an unarmed strike thanks to extra attack.

My thoughts on making an unarmed strike as a bonus action and the reason that it was called out for the monk is that they can add their stat modifier to damage whereas if you are a different class who makes an unarmed strike you don't add your stat mod to damage unless you have the fighting style. That's how I run it anyway.

 

[Phazonfish]

Flurry is a different monk ability than the unarmed strike monks get when declaring an attack action. Let me ask you this. If the unarmed strike a monk gets after declaring their attack action is just a bonus unarmed strike, then why call it out? Every PC can use a bonus action to make an additional unarmed strike if they want. It's treated the same as duel wielding, only instead of a dagger or sword, it's your fist you're using.

Let's assume you are correct that you can use duel wielding to make an unarmed attack even if you are not a monk. The monk's martial arts ability is still worth being called out because, unlike the off hand unarmed strike you refer to, the monk's bonus action strike can apply it's ability modifier to damage.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Because a monk can do it without a weapon. Normally you need to be holding a weapon in the secondary hand. under two weapon fighting it says the attack must be made with a different weapon than the one the attack action was taken with. unarmed attacks are weapon attacks, but an unarmed strike is not a weapon technically and was removed from the weapons table after the first printing of the PHB for this reason.

Do you have a source that states that? Logically it makes no sense. A second bonus action attack is just an offhand attack. Doesn't matter if one hand has a dagger and the other is unarmed. or one has a sword and the other has an axe. or if both have daggers. It's literally using both appendages to attack. It makes no sense to say "on your turn, you can attack with a sword in your main hand, but you can't punch with the other--you have to have another weapon in that hand to do so"

I can just go by my book, which has unarmed in the weapon's table. And I can go by the description, which counts unarmed attacks as melee attacks (as all natural weapons are), and I'd certainly consider an unarmed attack "light", so it fits under two weapon fighting as well

 

[Bardbarian]

it's in the eratta document. They rewrote the unarmed attack in the first eratta for the PHB they released. All subsequent print runs contain the new text.

 

[cbwjm]

Reading the errata is sounds like you can use an unarmed strike as a bonus action attack. It has two conflicting statements. That you can use an unarmed strike in place of a melee weapon attack and that they do not count as weapon attacks so take your pick I guess.

 

[Bardbarian]

those are not conflicting. the game uses specific terminology for those things.
Weapon attack= attack made with a weapon.
Melee weapon attack. A melee attack that applies proficiency and strength modifiers. While usually made with a weapon, other attack like unarmed attacks can be used in this type of attacks. Most monster attacks function the same way. They are not made with a weapon but they are melee weapon attacks.

 

[hejtmane]

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!

Add a couple Level Fighter and you can add +2 damage

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

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?

It also depends on your monks level.
as Kensei weapons count as monk weapons .

You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike or monk weapon. This die changes as you gain monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.

so the higer your level the less relevant the original damage dice of the weapon becomes.