D&D 5E [poll] Monk Satisfaction Survey

[Xetheral]

With every poll now, there is always someone who votes that they are completely dissatisfied and no amount of tweaking would fix the class (every poll, even the older ones, got hit with this yesterday at about the same time). I'm extremely curious to know why, but no one who voted that way has ever explained it. I've seen people explain why they are dissatisfied and would need major tweaks to get what they want, but no one has explained why the class is totally broken and unable to be fixed.

Admittedly part of me has thought about making votes public to see if it's the same person(s), but I don't think that would be fair since I didn't start that way.

Just because someone picked a specific survey option doesn't mean they completey agree with the literal text of that option. Oftentimes respondants won't agree with the literal text of any of the options and will instead pick the closest match.

For example, someone who was dissatisfied with the monk class despite thinking it only needed minor changes might plausibly pick either the second or the third survey option despite not fully agreeing with either.

 

[Redthistle]

I've always like the class, even in editions where they were called ''weak'', so I'm a little biased, but I voted completely satisfied. In the weeks to come, I'll hand over my LMoP campaign to one of my player to use a a starter point for OotA because I'll lack preparation time whit a newborn at home, so I'll be a player instead and I'll be running a Bugbear Shadow Monk. I like how the class represent many archetypes, with both grace and brute force equally represented. I feel like this is one of the more ''complete'' class where every features makes sense and the archetype enhance both flavor and mechanics of the core class.

Bugbear Shadow Monk?!? What a brilliantly scary combo!

 

[Mercule]

You're not breaking the polls, if your answers are honest answers. And I'm not talking about those folk who are dissatisfied with major tweaks being needed. I was more referring to those who think the class is broken and can't be fixed (the second to last option). I would be very curious as to know why. Maybe because I believe most every class could be fixed, so in my mind I have a hard time seeing how a class they put out is so broken that it would have to be completely redone differently. Curiosity, that's all.

No worries. That was all done with a bit of a wink. I was genuinely not sure whether you'd seen my posts or just the vote. Wasn't actually concerned about breaking anything.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Bugbear Shadow Monk?!? What a brilliantly scary combo!

For the moment I'm DMing LMoP for a group of 5, and one or two players at this table get their gratification from sparing intelligent enemies and trying to make them start a new life. If they roleplay well the encounter and roll high enough, I name the enemy and create its character sheet, banking them as playable character if a player want to retire his adventurer or his pc dies. They saved the life of one bugbear in the red brand hideout after killing his companion, taking him to the local chaplain and paying a huge some for some healing tobacco. When I created his sheet, I wanted to go for something that would make sense with the strict hierarchy of the goblinoid armies, while relating to the surprising grace and stealth of those large brutes. After reading the Hobgoblin Iron shadow's entry in Volo's, I knew this character would just be a perfect match, even before looking into the mechanics.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Voted mostly satisfied. In fact, I'm actually very satisfied with the base of the class and most of its subclasses. However, the Elements subclass drags down the vote by one full category.

I like the Elements monk as a concept, but the execution, well, needs an execution. Then needs to be redone along the mechanical lines of the Sun Soul.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

The shadow monk is also a great archetype. It really gives you the flavor of "kinda ninja," and I would love to play it- except I like the "base" (open hand) way too much.

Not just "kinda", it literally says "ninja" in the PHB description of the subclass. It seems most people never notice that...so I guess it's doing it's job properly.

 

[Dualazi]

Just because someone picked a specific survey option doesn't mean they completey agree with the literal text of that option. Oftentimes respondants won't agree with the literal text of any of the options and will instead pick the closest match.

For example, someone who was dissatisfied with the monk class despite thinking it only needed minor changes might plausibly pick either the second or the third survey option despite not fully agreeing with either.

This is me to a T. I've typically put "mostly satisfied" but in truth it's much closer to being somewhere between the minor tweaks and major tweaks options. Likewise, monks aren't unplayable, and they don't have enough wrong for me to re-write the whole class, but they do have enough wrong to sour my opinion of them.

As other have said, way of the elements is the biggest stain on the class as a whole. I feel like this is another space where wizards was bizarrely conservative in their design scope, and I would argue that at present it's a real contender for worst subclass in the game, at least as far as official releases go.

Likewise, I'm annoyed with the stat requirements for monk, as it's really hard to make a decent strength based monk, which should not at all be a niche option thematically, and the class is MAD even without attempting to keep strength up.

Lastly, and perhaps unfairly, the UA stuff for monks was amazingly bad in my opinion, and really gives me no real hope for wizards to turn around my opinion of the class down the line, unless they're also accompanied by a ranger-style rework.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I think this is the best monk of any edition. Just the other day I was reading their feature that gives them proficiency in all saves, and realizing that it also includes the ability to spend 1 ki point to reroll a failed save. That's just an incredible ability.

I'm a major fan of the way they allow you to mix and match armed and unarmed attacks. With 3e monks, as soon as you got a decent magic weapon, you never punch or kick again. 5e did it in a way that makes sure you'll always be using your unarmed strikes, whether or not you choose to add weapons to the mix.

And they just get so many abilities. That's one of the things that always stands out when I read through the class (which isn't often, because I haven't dealt with many yet). Lots of abilities, and quite good ones at that.

Not only that, but they managed to throw a ninja into the PHB as an unobtrusive little sub-class of monk, and it feels right. (Sure, if there were a unique ninja class it could fit better, but Way of Shadow is definitely close enough for anyone who isn't running some sort of campaign that needs multiple types of ninjas.)

I do agree with the problems with Way of the Four Elements (it stood out to me as weak from my first read I think), and the issue with going Strength-based is unfortunate. Overall though, I think they did an excellent job of making a monk I can really like.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I agree with those who've said this is the best D&D Monk yet. Very evocative design amd a very versatile class. The Way of the Open Hand is the only Monk I've seen in play...their ability to limit reactions or move creatures when they strike is great.

Among my group's first "wow" moments in 5E was when I ised the Monk's flurry to hit the boss that he was fighting and take away its ability to react, run 20 feet over to another party member being attacked by an ogre, use his second attack to strike the ogre and push it back 10 feet...which was over the side of a cliff, and then run 20 feet back to the boss and hit him again, this time knocking him prone.

The party Fighter then went, and had advantage on the prone boss, and finished him off.

The whole table was surprised to see the battle turn so quickly because of the Monk's turn.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Awesome.

I agree with those who've said this is the best D&D Monk yet. Very evocative design amd a very versatile class. The Way of the Open Hand is the only Monk I've seen in play...their ability to limit reactions or move creatures when they strike is great.

Among my group's first "wow" moments in 5E was when I ised the Monk's flurry to hit the boss that he was fighting and take away its ability to react, run 20 feet over to another party member being attacked by an ogre, use his second attack to strike the ogre and push it back 10 feet...which was over the side of a cliff, and then run 20 feet back to the boss and hit him again, this time knocking him prone.

The party Fighter then went, and had advantage on the prone boss, and finished him off.

The whole table was surprised to see the battle turn so quickly because of the Monk's turn.