D&D 5E 4-Element monks are the only monk archetype that excels against flying enemies

[Guest 6801328]

Thats totally cool, but why 5E? Its a game of gonzo highpowered superheroes.

Doesn't have to be.

And because it's what the most people want to play most of the time.

 

[Flamestrike]

Doesn't have to be.

It kind of does, unless your campaigns routinely stop at around 5th level.

 

[Flamestrike]

This whole discussion is besides the point of the thread, to be honest. RAW, there's no way to get a monk to fly without DM permission or multiclassing, which is my point.

'Be an Aaracroka'.

 

[Asisreo]

'Be an Aaracroka'.

Aaracroka are up to DM permission. In each side-book that displays an aaracroka, they tell DM's to be careful and tells them it can change how encounters play out greatly. None of the WOTC modules seem to take 1st level flight into account.

 

[Flamestrike]

If you keep telling fellow EN World members that they “are playing wrong” or “not playing D&D” then quite frankly you are posting incorrectly.

I dint say anyone was playing it wrong. Please dont put words in my mouth. What I said was you're designing encounters wrong if flight is trivialising them. The 'it' was encounter design, the 'it' was not playing DnD in a 'badwrong' way.

If you have PCs that can fly, you need to take that into account with your encounter design. Just like you should be taking into account the number of PCs present, their level, and abilities in general. That's what the CR system is all about.

I mean; if you design encounters of land based creatures, in the open, with no ranged attacks as a matter of course against flying PCs, I expect your encounters will be trivialised. But from where I sit, thats not the fault of flight, that's the fault of the DM for designing his encounters that way.

Its no different to constantly designing encounters featuring nothing but bunched up low HP mooks vs a PC with fireball, or never ending encounters of low HD undead against a Cleric. They're going to get smashed, and it's going to get boring, fast.

Encounters are supposed to be (as a general rule) challenging. They're supposed to be designed relative to the PCs that are expected to encounter them (your players). If your encounters are constantly getting trivialised by something as common as flight, you're not really doing your job as a DM.

 

[Flamestrike]

Aaracroka are up to DM permission.

Everything is up to DM permission, including 4E Monks.

What about Winged tieflings, or Aasimar? They can all fly at 1st (or 3rd) level as well.

Heck, Protector Aasimar get +1 Wisdom as well.

Avariel elves and Dragonborn (with a feat) can fly as well, but that's UA.

You're acting like fight is a big deal. It's really not. IME most PCs can fly by mid levels.

None of the WOTC modules seem to take 1st level flight into account.

That's an assumption. of yours. One I disagree with.

 

[Asisreo]

Everything is up to DM permission, including 4E Monks.

What about Winged tieflings, or Aasimar? They can all fly at 1st (or 3rd) level as well.

Heck, Protector Aasimar get +1 Wisdom as well.

Avariel elves and Dragonborn (with a feat) can fly as well, but that's UA.

You're acting like fight is a big deal. It's really not. IME most PCs can fly by mid levels.



That's an assumption. of yours. One I disagree with.

I've never seen winged tieflings across my XGtE, PHB, MToF, VGtM, or Eberron which are the ones that are usually given as RAW or AL-legal. Aaracokra are also not here.

Protector Aasimar can't fly until level 3.

 

[Guest 6801328]

It kind of does, unless your campaigns routinely stop at around 5th level.

Except that it doesn't, and they don't. :-/

 

[Asisreo]

You're acting like fight is a big deal. It's really not. IME most PCs can fly by mid levels.

I 100% don't care if a player finds a way to fly at level 1 within my rules I've established and I don't think flying absolutely demolishes all my encounters.

But if you beg me for a flying magic item because you want to shore up a weakness and be stronger and I say no but you persist, you're not getting anything short of a Boot of Removal.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

Even with Ki as a SR resource the 4 Elements Monk suffers by not really having enough batteries to power all it's toys. It's almost a really cool subclass, but not quite. It needs slightly cheaper Ki costs to really hum.

By the by, comparing SR to LR resources is fine, it's not exactly apples and oranges. It will, for example, do a wonderful job showing how the Warlock is actually pretty balanced as far as spell levels cast per day compared to the other full casters. I get that they aren't the same, but that doesn't mean you can't compare them at all.

I think that's literally everybody's fix for the Four Elements Monk.

I personally like the stuff the Way of the Four Elements Revised adds as well, because if you can't fire punch people, are you even an elemental monk?