D&D (2024) Playtest 8 Monk Discussion

[Kurotowa]

Hey, here's a Monk question: what's a good choice for your level 1 feat? I've found myself defaulting to Magic Initiate with a lot of other One D&D builds I've been doing, but I feel like Cantrips don't work well with the Monk's action economy. Can't take any of the Fighting Style feats because of the lack of the class feature. Lucky? Savage Attacker? Tough?

Okay, so first a disclaimer. The Character Origins UA is a year and a half old at this point. I would not consider it complete or up to date, and fully expect there to be changes in the final release. So don't plan too hard on anything from it.

That said, if you just want a generic combat upgrade, you've got a few choices. Alert, Lucky, and Tough are broadly useful for just about anyone. With Alert, even if you don't want to go early in the turn order, remember that you can swap with a willing ally. Being able to supply an early action might let your party's tank get into position or your Wizard friend Fireball the enemy before they scatter. Savage Attacker isn't great, both because it's weak and because it only works with weapon attacks, but again see the disclaimer.

If you want non-combat upgrades you can always pick up more proficiencies with Crafter, Musician, or Skilled. Nothing wrong with having more skills or tools available.

 

[Mistwell]

Hey, here's a Monk question: what's a good choice for your level 1 feat? I've found myself defaulting to Magic Initiate with a lot of other One D&D builds I've been doing, but I feel like Cantrips don't work well with the Monk's action economy. Can't take any of the Fighting Style feats because of the lack of the class feature. Lucky? Savage Attacker? Tough?

A good choice is weapon mastery, though I think that might be a 4th level feat. Tough will help some of the lower hit point issues remaining.

 

[Vikingkingq]

Mobile, definitely. A much better way to skirmish around without having to sacrifice damage output or wait on subclass abilities. Plus extra movement speed is nice.

EDIT: sorry, I was thinking if you're a variant human, I don't know offhand if Mobile is one of the new starter feats or not.

Oh, that would be nice. But it's not there.

 

[Vikingkingq]

Okay, so first a disclaimer. The Character Origins UA is a year and a half old at this point. I would not consider it complete or up to date, and fully expect there to be changes in the final release. So don't plan too hard on anything from it.

Yeah, it's pretty outdated - a lot of the Expert UA feats aren't compatible any more. I'm mainly thinking for playtesting purposes.

That said, if you just want a generic combat upgrade, you've got a few choices. Alert, Lucky, and Tough are broadly useful for just about anyone. With Alert, even if you don't want to go early in the turn order, remember that you can swap with a willing ally. Being able to supply an early action might let your party's tank get into position or your Wizard friend Fireball the enemy before they scatter. Savage Attacker isn't great, both because it's weak and because it only works with weapon attacks, but again see the disclaimer.

Yeah, I'm thinking Alert, Lucky, and Tough are where it's at.

 

[Kurotowa]

Oh, that would be nice. But it's not there.

Mobile got cut down and repackaged as Speedster, a 4th level feat. It gained an ASI to Dex or Con, but lost the "ignore Opportunity Attacks" clause, and the speed increase doesn't work if you're in Heavy armor.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Alert is the likely best pick. You're a Dex class, so you're in the best position to ensure a good initiative spot (even if there is a Rogue in the party, they likely want to go for Magic Initiate for Blade cantrips or Lucky for defense). And you're a skirmisher who hunts casters, so if you go first, you can zoom over to them earlier and maybe stun them out of casting anything, or you can gift the spot to your own caster so they can control the enemies early.

Lucky is multi-purpose, but its unique ability is making the opponent reroll their attack = defense. If the Monk stays about where they are in the latest package, you should be covered on the defense front and don't need more.

Musician is ridiculously good for someone to have, as every short rest you top up everyone's Inspiration. Even in a smaller party (3 players), you can still benefit, as if you give it to someone who already has Inspiration, they can bounce it back to you. It is kind of busted for non-dungeon-crawls, as everything will be done at an advantage, you just need to visit a local cafe between scenes.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Mobile got cut down and repackaged as Speedster, a 4th level feat.

Much as I like a speed boost, it's really terrible when they're giving PAM/GWM/Warcaster the stat boost as well. I can understand why they'd want to remove the 'no opportunity attacks bit', but that was its whole selling point.

I packaged Speedster together with Athlete for my playtest, and it's still bad. Clearly, I need a third bad feat to shove in there... ah, Durable!

 

[Kurotowa]

Much as I like a speed boost, it's really terrible when they're giving PAM/GWM/Warcaster the stat boost as well. I can understand why they'd want to remove the 'no opportunity attacks bit', but that was its whole selling point.

I packaged Speedster together with Athlete for my playtest, and it's still bad. Clearly, I need a third bad feat to shove in there... ah, Durable!

Different feats for different character builds. Still, I again point at my above disclaimer. The version from 2022 may not be the version that gets published.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Tavern brawler is nothing to sneeze at.

Rerolling 1s and being able to deal damage and initiate a grapple will also benefit the monk greatly.

Edit: i was wrong here. It is just a shove.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Tavern brawler is nothing to sneeze at.
Rerolling 1s and being able to deal damage and initiate a grapple will also benefit the monk greatly.

Rerolling 1s becomes worse as your martial arts die gets bigger.
Tavern brawler does nothing for grappling, all it gives is one 5ft push.

It's not useless, it's just, like, on the level of why people aren't picking up Savage Attacker for their barbarians either.