D&D 5E How Good/Bad are Monks?

[Rhenny]

I had a player play an elemental monk for about 5 levels. He wanted to change over to a shadow monk after that. He ended up loving the mobility but the elemental spell abilities were weak. He definitely felt that the ability to scout, move, dodge was the meat of the class. He also tried to do interesting jumps, climbs and tumbles mostly to roleplay and feel like an agile PC.

I agree with others who said that they are not really a class for combat optimization (especially elemental and shadow), but they can be fun to play as they do have a strong "feel" and a number of choices they can make using ki.

Note: The player in my group is also notorious for wanting to start/change to new pcs, so take that into account when evaluating our experience.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I haven't seen an elemental monk in play. I've heard they kinda suck because the cost of their abilities is too high, but the open hand and ninja monks are all right. The ninja one makes for a great scout, but their effectiveness is dependent on the amount of dim light on the battlefield.

While I haven't seen one in play either, and I agree that their abilities are priced too high, there is one thing to consider. Unlike other types of monks, they have access to AoEs.

As someone who played in a campaign where no one had any real AoE potential to speak of, certain fights that would be effortless with a fireball can often be borderline TPKs without it. While I wouldn't play an elemental monk in any party that already had a decent AoEer, I'd strongly consider it for a party that had none.

 

[Zardnaar]

The Sun Soul Monk has an AoE not sure if its better than the Elemental monk. Part will have AoEs though.

Rolled stats.

16
14
14
14
11
10

Not as good as one of the other players rolls.

10
12
17
17
15
13

I think the high stats one will be the cleric.

 

[Xeviat]

Sun Soul Monk powers are much better than the 4 Element's Monk. The Sun Soul's burning hands costs 2 pp and is a bonus action; the 4 Element's burning hands costs 2 pp and is an action. The Sun Soul has a free weak fireball (2d6 for free) that can be pumped up with Ki; the 4 Elements has to spend ki on their fireball all the time.

The 4 elements monk gets hardly anything outside of new ways to spend their ki. If it got extra ki, or some more things (energy resistance, attack cantrips), it would be fine.

 

[Aquion]

I recently played a Gnome monk. Insane amount of fun. I never felt underpowered.

 

[Flamestrike]

As long as your DM isnt being a douche with short rests, and sticks to the 6-8/ 2 short rest paradigm theyre great.

From 1-4th they have competitive damage - they really come online at 5th with stunning fist though.

They require a bit of pazaz to play correctly. Dont play them as a tank - they're a striker; more correctly a precision guided stunning fist delivery system. Their job is to stun lock down priority targets while the cavalry arrive.

My personal fave is monk 17/ BM fighter 3. The splash in fighter gives you a fighting style, action surge and (importantly) superiority dice (great for extra damage and even more battlefield control). You lose nothing from monk aside from delayed progression. This is a super short rest dependent class however - again, stay away from it if your DM uses 1-3 encounter adventuring days or is stingy with short rests.

The monk/ BM can move in (along the walls, or leaping over dudes if needed) to a priority target and then via action surge, extra attack and martil arts/ flurry make up to six attacks, spamming stunning fist and sup dice as needed. Stunned critters automatically fail str and dex saves, so you can run up to the enemy spellcaster or other priority target and [stun] them till the end of your NEXT turn, then [open hand monk] knock down then [battlemaster] disarm them, using your free object interaction to pick up [spell focus] all the while dealing considerable damage and laughing in your DMs face.

 

[cmad1977]

Monks do fine.

 

[77IM]

I have a level 11 monk in an AL game. It's "challenging" but fun; lots of good advice given upthread matches my experiences.

Regarding ranged attacks: daggers count as monk weapons (as they are simple weapons with neither the heavy nor two-handed property) and should gain the benefit of such even when thrown (since the benefits of Martial Arts apply to attacks with such weapons, not necessarily melee attacks). It's possible that this has been ruled out by errata or sage advice, and it makes little sense that the thrown dagger's damage would improve with level but the dart's wouldn't, but by a very strict reading, an 11th-level monk could throw daggers for 1d8 damage and then get a Martial Arts bonus attack to run over and kick somebody.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

As long as your DM isnt being a douche with short rests, and sticks to the 6-8/ 2 short rest paradigm theyre great.

From 1-4th they have competitive damage - they really come online at 5th with stunning fist though.

They require a bit of pazaz to play correctly. Dont play them as a tank - they're a striker; more correctly a precision guided stunning fist delivery system. Their job is to stun lock down priority targets while the cavalry arrive.

I think that's a good description.

I would bring up a couple of things that I think get under-emphasized. 1) The Way of the Open-Hand's Open Hand Technique is great for battlefield control/tactical positioning. The single point of ki you are spending for Flurry of Blows now gives you a chance to add up to 2 free turbo-shoves that turn. While Stunning Fist is often an improvement, Flurry of Blows can still be used with it or in lieu of it effectively depending on the situation. 2) Other than hit points, monks have incredible defenses. Not only will they end up proficient in all saves (including death saves), but they get immunity to poison (there is a lot of poison in 5e) and disease, and gain a way to break out of charmed and frightened.

While they aren't tanks, they are versatile and virtually unstoppable (literally, given their abilities) tactical skirmishers.

That said, if your group/player isn't much into playing a finesse/tactical/teamwork character, and everyone is optimizing for hit points and personal DPR, then you might find them a little weak for your needs, since they aren't the best for that playstyle. Even then though, a reasonably well-played monk should always be a fun contributor. An underwhelming monk is probably a result of operator error.

 

[Flamestrike]

That said, if your group/player isn't much into playing a finesse/tactical/teamwork character, and everyone is optimizing for hit points and personal DPR, then you might find them a little weak for your needs, since they aren't the best for that playstyle.

Theyre fine in these groups, as theyre able to shut down high priority targets while the high DPR tanks wade in and kerb stomp the stunned BBEG to the floor.

They suck in games where the DM is either stingy with short rests, or only throws 1-3 encounters at the party per AD.

The latter of which is more likely to happen in parties that feature optimised nova strike orientated PCs (becuase theyre building such characters in response to the DMs encounter meta).

If your DM is giving you an average of 6-8 encounters per day, featuring around 2 short rests then you'll be fine.

On the flip side if your DM doesnt police rests at all (and you can short rest after every single encounter) then they become amazing.

Of course, if that was the case I would load up on BM Fighter 3 + Warlock 17 but thats just me