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

 

[Remathilis]

11. Mercy: Not happen they changed Flurry of Healing and Harm can only be used Wis Mod per day. Big downgrade.

I'm utterly disappointed that they have retreated from prof per day back to ability score per day. It's going to further push players to max out their primary score to 20 as fast as possible. Major step back.

 

[mellored]

I'm utterly disappointed that they have retreated from prof per day back to ability score per day. It's going to further push players to max out their primary score to 20 as fast as possible. Major step back.

I don't think it will make much difference for the monk. They want to max Dex and Wis no matter what.

 

[g00se99994]

I'm utterly disappointed that they have retreated from prof per day back to ability score per day. It's going to further push players to max out their primary score to 20 as fast as possible. Major step back.

I dunno there are some nice feats out there too with a +1 ability score.

 

[Merlecory]

I already bemoan that the warrior of shadow loses pass without trace.

Darkness does halfway replace it. But the being near invisible was stylish and useful.

They also lost Silence, and likely the darkvision spell. The class is now just put darkness down (and hopefully not screw over other party members) and punch things. Lots of utility was lost.

Personally, I feel like the base class took several steps forward, but subclasses somehow managed to regress.

 

[Merlecory]

I am not sure I understand why they felt deflect attack should become a saving throw dealing force damage. It's not mechanically bad, but feels very off. I catch, then throw an arrow, which makes it suddenly work differently from an other arrow I shoot, or item I throw? I feel like they keep naughty word with damage types for some "clever" reason that is going to cause a huge headache without solving any actual problems.

 

[palikhov]

• 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

I thought that such options were always available.
grapple needed free hand, shove too

 

[GarrettKP]

They also lost Silence, and likely the darkvision spell. The class is now just put darkness down (and hopefully not screw over other party members) and punch things. Lots of utility was lost.

Personally, I feel like the base class took several steps forward, but subclasses somehow managed to regress.

They lost Darkvision the spell because the subclass just gives you Darkvision as a feature now.

Also, the subclasses did not regress. Even if you somehow think Shadow is worse now (it isn’t), Elements and Open Hand got such big boosts that they more than make up for it.

 

[Merlecory]

They lost Darkvision the spell because the subclass just gives you Darkvision as a feature now.

Also, the subclasses did not regress. Even if you somehow think Shadow is worse now (it isn’t), Elements and Open Hand got such big boosts that they more than make up for it.

Darkvision spell could go on your allies that can't see in your darkness. While I would agree that the new Elements monk is stronger, I don't think it is better. A lot of the draw of the old one is gone, replaced with 10 ft of reach and a feature that is a cantrip.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Noteworthy:

Base Class:

1. Monks can now use Great Club as a monk weapon

More out of morbid curiosity, but does this even make a difference in anything? two-handed 1d8 weapon means it is kind of the exact same as the Quarterstaff, and the monk isn't naturally gaining access to Weapon Masteries, since they are the best at the unarmed strikes and grapples/shoves

 

[Chaosmancer]

I am not sure I understand why they felt deflect attack should become a saving throw dealing force damage. It's not mechanically bad, but feels very off. I catch, then throw an arrow, which makes it suddenly work differently from an other arrow I shoot, or item I throw? I feel like they keep naughty word with damage types for some "clever" reason that is going to cause a huge headache without solving any actual problems.

I feel it is because they needed to limit the range, and make sure it didn't feel useless in specific situations. For example, they didn't want to figure out if an arrow shot 600 ft away by a sharpshooter could be thrown 600 ft back, while a dagger could only be thrown back 30 ft. Hence, everything is 60 ft for range and 5 ft for melee.

You can't have the damage of the reflected attack based off the attack itself, because deflecting smaller attacks like a 1d4+2 shouldn't feel like a waste of ki compared to deflecting big attacks like 2d12+6. SO the damage is standardized. This also makes it easier to run at the table.

Then, you have to consider Deflect Energy. Since it is possible for a mage to use Firebolt from 120 ft away, and the only viable target for your redirect could be a fire elemental summoned by that mage, it makes a lot of sense that, to keep the ability useful, you can't have the deflected attack use the same damage type.

Combine that with Ki damage being Force damage, per the level 6 ability, and now you have force damage equal to two rolls of the martial arts dice, with a range of either 60 ft or 5ft. And the save recognizes the fact that you are already rolling a few times as the player, and swapping to the DM gives them the chance to dodge the redirection.