D&D 5E Monks - Bonus Actions, Extra Attack, Flurry of Blows, and Movement

[noinert]

I just picked up the Player's Handbook and started looking over the Monk. I'm a bit confused. My friend thinks the following is possible for a 5th level Monk but I'm not sure:

Move 5 ft up to a creature, use Attack action, spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes (Flurry of Blows), move 10 ft to another creature, use Extra Attack, spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes (Flurry of Blows), move 10 ft, use bonus action (from Martial Arts) to make an unarmed strike, move 10 ft away from said creature.

Reasons this may not work:
* Flurry of Blows states that you use it "after you take the Attack action", and Extra Attack is part of Attack action. So Flurry of Blows can only be used once per turn.
* I can't find in the rules where it states you can move between an Action and Bonus Action (but you can move between Attack and Extra Attack)
* Mearls wanted fast combat; the above example seems like it will take a long time to resolve. Imagine 7 to-hit rolls and 7 damage rolls each turn. Yikes.

 

[Fanaelialae]

By my reading I don't believe you can use Flurry of Blows before your Extra attack (because it stipulates it must be used after the Attack action, which Extra Attack is part of). Also, because Flurry is a bonus action, you can only use it once per turn (because you can only use one bonus action per turn). However I see nothing that prohibits moving between your action and your bonus action (or even between the attacks granted by Flurry).

So what you could do is move 5 ft, make your first attack, move 5 ft, make your extra attack, move 5 ft, make your first Flurry attack, move 5 ft, make your second Flurry attack, move the remainder of your movement. Granted, unless you have the Mobile feat, or those are all killing blows, you're probably looking at 4 opportunity attacks...

 

[noinert]

Ack -- totally missed that part on Flurry of Blows as a bonus action. *face-palm* Thanks for the quick and very well-written response, Fanaelialae!

 

[mafioso420]

I know this has been down for awhile, but here's a revival...

My question is this...

A level 5 Monk, uses 1st Action to attack a creature. Then with "extra attack" attacks another creature for 2nd attack. Then uses bonus action for unarmed strike for an attack a 3rd time. Now...

Because "Extra Attack" says "...whenever you take the Attack action on your turn." Do you get a 4th attack as your final attack?

 

[Groggen]

The Extra Attack adds one "strike" to your Attack action, which means you can take the Attack action for one or two "strikes". Your Bonus action does not benefit from the Extra Attack feature.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Sorry, the Bonus Action unarmed strike in the Martial Arts section of the Monk class doesn't state that it benefits from the Extra Attack feature. The Extra Attack feature also says that it changes the Attack action, and has nothing to say about Bonus Actions.

Finally, if the Martial Arts bonus action gave the Monk 2 attacks after every Attack Action, the Flurry of Blows feature would be completely redundant.

 

[77IM]

Because "Extra Attack" says "...whenever you take the Attack action on your turn." Do you get a 4th attack as your final attack?

The bonus action from martial arts is an attack, but it is not the Attack action.
So, no.

 

[dmnqwk]

Just a couple of things to note:

1. It's not "Bonus" Action it's "Bonus Action." The difference is each turn you can perform 1 Move Action, 1 Action, 1 Bonus Action and 1 Reaction.
The Reaction is granted when your character reacts to things, for example Attacks of Opportunity. This is where the old "1 AoO a turn" is hidden, because you only get 1 Reaction until it's your go again.
The Move Action, as you rightly believed, can be split between Attacks of an Attack Action.

The Bonus Action is where a lot of people trip up, because they see Bonus and don't read it as a label (It could be called Sasquatch Typhoon and still have the same effect). Your fellow Monk gets to spend 1 Ki to flurry of blows after taking an Attack Action, this is when it technically gets tricky.

1) As part of the attack action, you can move fight move. So you could Move 10', attack, move 5', extra attack, move 20'.
2) When the attack action is over you then get to flurry of blows. But the tricky part is it says immediately after you take the attack action. 5th edition is full of rules like this which technically don't have definite timing - in this instance when do you "take" the attack action, is it from your first hit, or when you declare it?

Personally I'd let your friend do this:
1) After his first attack he can spend Ki to flurry of blows, and define "taking the attack action" as being when you make your first attack roll.
2) After flurry of blows he may now continue the rest of his action and move, make his extra attack and move some more.
3) Remember you only get 1 Bonus Action a turn and cannot Martial Arts + Flurry of Blows in the same turn. If you use Martial Arts there is no timing involved with the Bonus Action, so you could easily allow your friend to Move, Attack, Move, Extra Attack, Move, Bonus Attack with Martial Arts against 3 separate foes (the lack of immediately would easily allow this, even if some people interpret the rules differently).

So ultimately the Monk can achieve 2 Attacks and 1 Flurry of Blows for a total of 4 attacks in a round, 3 of which occur at the same time (and you are free to rule they must all attack the same foe too!)

 

[Staffan]

I'll just add that the net effect of Flurry of Blows is +1 attack, because if you don't spend ki on it, you still get one extra attack as a bonus action as part of the Martial Arts class feature.

So basically, the turn of a 5th level or higher monk attacking looks like this:

1. Move up to your speed - either before, after, or in between attacks.
2. Attack as your action, making two strikes with a monk weapon or an unarmed strike.
3. Bonus action - one of these alternatives:
3a: One extra attack with your unarmed strike, without paying anything.
3b: Flurry of Blows for 1 ki, making two extra attacks with unarmed strikes.
3c: Patient Defense for 1 ki, performing a Dodge.
3d: Step of the Wind for 1 ki, performing a Dash or Disengage.

Note that the monk can only use a monk weapon for the regular attacks, not for the bonus action attacks granted by Martial Arts or Flurry of Blows. This means that until probably 11th level (or maybe 5th if the monk doesn't want to use a staff or a spear two-handed for some reason), these will be slightly inferior.

 

[Leugren]

2) When the attack action is over you then get to flurry of blows. But the tricky part is it says immediately after you take the attack action. 5th edition is full of rules like this which technically don't have definite timing - in this instance when do you "take" the attack action, is it from your first hit, or when you declare it?

The most common and accepted interpretation equates "take" to "complete" in this sentence. Thus, "immediately after you take the Attack Action" is functionally equivalent to "immediately after you complete the Attack Action".

Assuming that you have the Extra Attack feature, your Attack Action is completed after you have made two attacks. You can therefore trigger Flurry of Blows as a Bonus Action after you have completed both attacks. If you choose to trigger Flurry of Blows after only one attack, then you are basically cutting your Attack Action short and foregoing the second attack from your Extra Attack feature.

Here is a snippet from Sage Advice in Jeremy Crawford confirms this interpretation:

Brandon Miracle @rbmiracle

@JeremyECrawford so FoB must be after the Attack action is fully resolved, while Unarmed Strike acts like any other bonus action then?

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Jeremy Crawford @JeremyECrawford

@rbmiracle That's correct.
12:20 PM - 14 Aug 2015

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As others have stated, you can distribute your movement between any and all attacks as long as you don't exceed your movement speed.

Cheers!

Leugren