D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook reveal: "New Monk"

Monk article! https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1758-2024-monk-vs-2014-monk-whats-new

Video Breakdown

Base Monk Class Notes

• Knew monk was going to get a lot of attention - both satisfaction scores and actual play numbers have historically tended to be a bit low
• Similar to ranger, monk is largely a "new class"
• Martial Arts feature at 1st level
  • Monk weapons have been broadened to all simple melee weapons and martial melee weapons with light property
  • Can make an unarmed strike as bonus action
  • Can choose to use Dex to set DCs for unarmed strike grapple and shove options (see general notes below)
  • Martial Arts die - starts at d6 at level 1, scales to d12 at level 17
• Monk's Focus feature at 2nd level
  • Ki/Discipline Points are now Focus Points
  • Patient Defense - can Disengage as bonus action for free
    • Spending 1 Focus Point lets you both Disengage and Dodge at the same time
  • Step of the Wind - can Dash as bonus action for free
    • Spending 1 Focus Point lets you both Dash and Disengage at the same time, and additionally your Jump distance is doubled for the rest of your turn
  • Flurry of Blows - Spend 1 Focus Point to make two unarmed strikes as bonus action
• Uncanny Metabolism feature at 2nd level ("I didn't hear no bell.")
  • When rolling initiative, can regain all expended Focus Points and restore a number of hit points (1/long rest)
• Redesigned Deflect Attacks feature at 3rd level
  • Roll d10 + Dex + Monk level to reduce damage from any attack that deals bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage
  • If damage is reduced to zero, can spend Focus Point to redirect force of attack to someone else - target makes a saving throw and on failure suffers an amount of Force damage based on your Martial Arts die
  • Upgrades to Deflect Energy at 13th level - can deflect any damage type
• Self Restoration feature at 10th level
  • Can end Charmed, Frightened, or Poisoned condition on self at end of monk's turn for free
• Heightened Focus feature at 10th level - further enhancements to Patient Defense, Step of the Wind, and Flurry of Blows (not detailed)
• Superior Defense feature at 18th level - mentioned as example of ways they've increased monk survivability, but not detailed
• Disciplined Survivor feature (level not mentioned) - mentioned as example of ways they've increased monk survivability, allows monk to reroll saving throws
• Stunning Strike feature
  • Can only be used once per turn, but always does something
  • If target fails saving throw, they are stunned
  • If target succeeds on saving throw, their speed is halved and the next attack roll against them has advantage
• Epic Boon at 19th level - no example specified

Subclass Notes

• Warrior of Mercy
  • Largely the same, save for tweaks to better integrate subclass with new version of the base monk class
• Warrior of the Elements
  • Completely replaces Way of the Four Elements
  • Elemental Attunement - not always active, costs Focus Points to "turn on"
    • Can increase reach of unarmed strikes using elemental power ("Not a Mr. Fantastic or One Piece style stretchy punch" )
    • Can change damage type to one of elemental themed options (not specified, but generally guessable)
    • Can force target to make a saving throw and move them around battlefield on a failure
  • Gain Elementalism cantrip
  • At 6th level, can take Magic action and expend some Focus Points to cause elemental explosion in 20-foot radius sphere up to 120 feet away, dealing damage based on Martial Arts Die
  • Themed around tapping into Elemental Chaos as a whole, rather than just one of the Elemental Planes
  • At 11th level, gain fly and swim speed when Elemental Attunement is active
  • Elemental Epitome at 17th level
    • Further improves Elemental Attunement
    • Gain elemental damage resistance (can be changed at start of every turn)
    • When using Step of the Wind, speed is increased and you can cause damage to enemies you pass
    • Additional option to deal bonus elemental damage once per turn (not elaborated)
• Warrior of Shadow
  • Can cast Darkness spell as before, but can now see through that darkness
  • Improved Shadowstep at 11th level
    • Can expend Focus Point to remove requirement to start/end teleportation in dim light or darkness, and can make an unarmed strike as part Shadowstep bonus action
  • Cloak of Shadows at 17th level
    • Turn invisible and partially incorporeal (can pass through occupied spaces as difficult terrain), and Flurry of Blows does not cost Focus Points while Cloak of Shadows is active
  • Kendrick: "Would love to see the Archfey Warlock and Shadow Monk teleporting around the battlefield fighting each other."
    • Crawford: "Not a PvP game."
• Warrior of the Open Hand
  • Wholeness of Body feature at 6th level
    • Now a bonus action and can be used multiple times per day
  • Fleet Step feature (level not specified)
    • Whenever you take a bonus action to do anything other than Step of the Wind, you can also use Step of the Wind immediately after that bonus action
  • Revised Quivering Palm
    • Deals a "truckload" of damage on failed save and a "smaller truckload" of damage on a successful one, but can no longer instantly drop creatures down to 0 hp

General Notes

• Baseline (gold?) dragonborn monk iconic art has a tail.
• Unarmed strike redesigned, intended to grant similar tactical versatility to that offered by weapon mastery - now includes three options:
  • Deal damage
  • Attempt to start a grapple
  • Attempt to shove target

 

[Mind of tempest]

to my look at it, it seems slightly better but it is still shackled to a chassis that just does not work nor have they gone out and looked at what this thing is supposed to be derived from as primary sources now are in English.

I know how it could be done better but I can't for the life of me figure out how to type it out properly

 

[Garmel]

Martials are definitely closer to wizards now.
I feel a bit for the poor rogue. But I guess even they will be fine.

Between Steady Aim and most of their weapons having the Vex weapon mastery property it looks like the Rogue will be doing Sneak Attack damage much more frequently than in 5e.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

to my look at it, it seems slightly better but it is still shackled to a chassis that just does not work nor have they gone out and looked at what this thing is supposed to be derived from as primary sources now are in English.

I know how it could be done better but I can't for the life of me figure out how to type it out properly

I don't think that they want it to look too much like "what this thing was derived from", beyond what it was in previous editions of D&D (and even then, only superficially).

 

[Chaosmancer]

If the static DC is not equal to "your passive Athletics" (which it won't be, because that is clunky) then my first point stands - Jacking your Athletics won't make you a grapple monster. It'll make you more able to escape, though!

Which I think makes a lot of sense. It was always bizarre to me that Bards and Monks were the premier grappling builds (Until Rune Knight let you get big). It would also be weird if your push as a Battlemaster was a save, but your push as a Champion was a skill roll.

Now, the strongest classes (plus the Monk who is the premier martial artist) are the best grapplers, and you have a consistent DC instead of a 20 pt spread.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Between Steady Aim and most of their weapons having the Vex weapon mastery property it looks like the Rogue will be doing Sneak Attack damage much more frequently than in 5e.

Yeah, I think Rogue's are going to surprise a lot of people. Maybe not at early levels, but mid-level rogues are going to be nasty

 

[Stalker0]

Which I think makes a lot of sense. It was always bizarre to me that Bards and Monks were the premier grappling builds (Until Rune Knight let you get big). It would also be weird if your push as a Battlemaster was a save, but your push as a Champion was a skill roll.

Now, the strongest classes (plus the Monk who is the premier martial artist) are the best grapplers, and you have a consistent DC instead of a 20 pt spread.

We will see. On the one hand it probably is better and more consistent for the game.

But on the other, people are going "man look at all these new control options for martials"

And I'm like: "yeah but you gave up one of the strongest controls in the game to do it. A grappling martial used to have restrain and forced movement on tap....basically using it whenever they wanted."

I have watched 12th level fighters make wizards jealous because while the wizard can do amazing control....its only when they can get in that save. Meanwhile the fighter's grapple is practically automatic if they build for it.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I think there might need to be a rename for Kensei, since "Warrior of (the) Kensei" or translated "Warrior of (the) Sword Saint" doesn't make as much sense as it did when "Way of" was used.

It's a terrible change, sounds like Fighter subclasses, totally misunderstands what Monks are all about RP wise.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

I think there might need to be a rename for Kensei, since "Warrior of (the) Kensei" or translated "Warrior of (the) Sword Saint" doesn't make as much sense as it did when "Way of" was used.

I am pretty sure both Kensei and Samurai are going to get new names when they come up for revision and rerelease. WOTC are in a weird place with cultural sensitivity issues with the Monk class. They seem to have less pushback when they don't use words/translations from other non-western cultures directly. I am surprised how much of the chopsocky/wuxia flavor remained in the class in the 2024 revision. Apparently a lot of issues with the current audience can be handled by renaming like they did changing Ki Points to Focus Points.

I have only seen a few accusations about "white washing" the class and cultural erasure about these changes so far so I am guessing WOTC has figured out a way to thread that needle for now.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A few moments ago, I watched the portion of the clip that talked about the Warrior of the Elements subclass. It sounds better than the 2014 Way of the Four Elements subclass. However, I think the subclass should have offered the player the option to control a single element. As not everyone wants to be the Avatar. I would rather be a simple Earthbender.

Currently I am a fan of the Manual of Adventurous Resources: Complete Elementalist class. An A5e take on PF1's Kineticist class.

The elementalist is amazing. Exactly what I want out of that kind of character.

 

[Mistwell]

Noteworthy:

Base Class:

1. Monks can now use Great Club as a monk weapon
2. Bonus action unarmed strike is a big improvement, decoupling it from the attack action.
3. Grappling and Shoving at the start of your turn before your action. That's a big deal.
4. Dex instead of Str as the DC for the grapple and shoves is very helpful. Monks will grapple and shove a lot.
5. Dash and disengage as bonus action without expending resources is good and matches Rogue, but only monks can enhance those things.
6. Deflect attacks and deflect energy are big changes here that I like for survivability in melee.
7. Step of the Wind moving a willing creature with you at level 10 is so much more powerful than I think people realize, particularly with flight.
8. I am glad the taking of damage on a failed save was removed, from a narrative standpoint. A mini-stun makes more sense.
9. Recovering focus points more often is crucial, and makes me happy.
10. You can now deliver a stunning strike with a thrown monk weapon. Interesting.

Subclasses:

11. Mercy: Not happy they changed Flurry of Healing and Harm can only be used Wis Mod per day. Big downgrade.
12. Elements: Powerful third level feature, and I like that it's usable all through higher levels. Extended reach with all attacks, move foe around battlefield with each attack, changing element type, really good. Fly speed is so great at lev 11, when combined with moving allies and enemies, and I think you'll have enough Focus to use this every combat.
13. Shadow: Looks like it's the playtest version.
14. Open Hand: fleet step slightly nerfed from playtest, must be after bonus action now.

Overall I am happy with this new monk!