D&D 5E Most fun of these three Monk Subclasses?

[rgoodbb]

I am looking at Monks. (To be clear I am not actually stood outside a monastery right now looking at monks). That would be a bad abbot...

Specifically the three subclasses below.

Open Hand, Long Death and Drunken Master

Which one of these for you provides most fun to fight as mechanics wise?

 

[Arvok]

I have very little experience with 5e monks as yet so I won't get specific. However, my general advice for any question like this is talk to your DM to see if your character concept will work with his campaign and with what the other players are playing. If your DM has a very specific campaign planned without much flexibility, that might have a huge impact on what subclass (or class, even) will be more fun to play.

For example, if you choose Open Hand and you wind up mostly fighting a bunch of minions that rarely even survive your flurry of blows a lot of the crunchy fun of that subclass will be wasted. Likewise Long Death sounds good until you find out that you'll mostly be fighting undead (which can't be frightened).

 

[Charlaquin]

There’s really not that much difference between them.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I am looking at Monks. (To be clear I am not actually stood outside a monastery right now looking at monks). That would be a bad abbot...

Specifically the three subclasses below.

Open Hand, Long Death and Drunken Master

Which one of these for you provides most fun to fight as mechanics wise?

This is SO crazy! In our online "monk" game, we have three monks and they are exactly these three subclasses!

So, I can tell you from our games' experience, the Drunken Master player has been having a lot of fun. He loves using his ability to disengage after a flurry of blows and having faster movement. Also, making your enemy strike one of their own is hilarious, especially when the hit takes that enemy out of the fight!

The Long Death is probably the least fun. That player has talked about asking to switch subclasses because he isn't really enjoying it.

I am playing Open Hand and I like it over all. The ability to knock opponents prone or back has been useful.

The biggest thing, particularly with three monks in one party, is Stunning Strikes. Between the three of us, if we burn through the ki, we can stun just about anything every round. Makes BBEG fights really easy, for better or worse. shrug

 

[DND_Reborn]

There’s really not that much difference between them.

Seeing them all in action at the same time, they play very differently--so, respectfully, I must disagree with you. But YMMV.

 

[rgoodbb]

This is SO crazy! In our online "monk" game, we have three monks and they are exactly these three subclasses!

So, I can tell you from our games' experience, the Drunken Master player has been having a lot of fun. He loves using his ability to disengage after a flurry of blows and having faster movement. Also, making your enemy strike one of their own is hilarious, especially when the hit takes that enemy out of the fight!

The Long Death is probably the least fun. That player has talked about asking to switch subclasses because he isn't really enjoying it.

I am playing Open Hand and I like it over all. The ability to knock opponents prone or back has been useful.

The biggest thing, particularly with three monks in one party, is Stunning Strikes. Between the three of us, if we burn through the ki, we can stun just about anything every round. Makes BBEG fights really easy, for better or worse. shrug

That is indeed spooky! I did wonder if redirect attack would be as much fun as it actually sounds. That's good to know, thanks.

 

[DND_Reborn]

That is indeed spooky! I did wonder if redirect attack would be as much fun as it actually sounds. That's good to know, thanks.

Yeah, because they automatically hit, it isn't just a rerolled attack against the new target! It is pretty funny IMO.

Oh, and I talked to the other player about the Long Death monk, and he did change it to a Sun Soul.

 

[Larrin]

I've played drunken master and open hand and between the two drunken master was my preference. The drunken master powers had much more influence over how I played and what I could do. Open hand was nice, but its powers fell into more of a "I can also do this, sometimes" where as the the drunken masters flurry power was sort of what defined my play with him.

 

[rgoodbb]

Yeah, because they automatically hit, it isn't just a rerolled attack against the new target! It is pretty funny IMO.

Oh, and I talked to the other player about the Long Death monk, and he did change it to a Sun Soul.

I have just noticed that Redirect Attack is on a melee attack roll. So I'm assuming that covers spells of that nature as well? If so that's even more awesome!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I am looking at Monks. (To be clear I am not actually stood outside a monastery right now looking at monks). That would be a bad abbot...

Specifically the three subclasses below.

Open Hand, Long Death and Drunken Master

Which one of these for you provides most fun to fight as mechanics wise?

The Open Hand is the Standard Kung Fu Monk. It will do pretty much exactly what you expect from it.

Drunken Master is the judo master, use the tides or the wind as a metaphor for fighting, monk. Grab insight and consider using a feat to grab manuevers and riposte and parry. Weave through the field of battle untouchable, use the enemy's aggression against them, etc.

Long Death is spooky and goth, I guess? It just doesn't do a great job of...well, doing it's job. It doesn't leverage it's mechanics well toward the goals set out by it's flavor text.

There’s really not that much difference between them.

I couldn't agree more, having played a few monks and seen more in action.