D&D 5E (2024) 2024 Kensai?

Bill Zebub · 2026-03-23T19:42:30+0000

I haven't been paying attention to D&D for a while now, but I'm curious: has there been any hint about an official update to the Monk Kensai subclass? That was my favorite in 2014 D&D.

Plaguescarred · 2026-03-23T19:52:51+0000

I didn't hear anything on that front yet.

Azzy · 2026-03-23T19:53:36+0000

Bill Zebub said:
I haven't been paying attention to D&D for a while now, but I'm curious: has there been any hint about an official update to the Monk Kensai subclass? That was my favorite in 2014 D&D.

No hints at all. BTW, it should be "kensei" with an "e", not an "a" (sorry, it's just a pet peeve of mine).

Bill Zebub · 2026-03-23T20:45:45+0000

Azzy said:
No hints at all. BTW, it should be "kensei" with an "e", not an "a" (sorry, it's just a pet peeve of mine).

Are there official translations of kanji to English, or just convention? Certainly as fluid as English is, "sai" could have a range of pronunciations.

And I have about a hundred pet peeves far more picky and arbitrary than that, so I'm in no position to criticize....

Bill Zebub · 2026-03-23T20:47:33+0000

What I loved about the Kens....that particular subclass is that it played well (with some refluffing) as the "unarmored sword master" with no monk-like references. (Hilt-smashes get a little repetitive, but hey...)

Tigris · 2026-03-23T20:59:19+0000

Bill Zebub said:
What I loved about the Kens....that particular subclass is that it played well (with some refluffing) as the "unarmored sword master" with no monk-like references. (Hilt-smashes get a little repetitive, but hey...)

What hinders you in doing this in 5e 24 just with any other monk class? They all have now access to short swords and Scimitar. You can also just reflavour these weapons.

Bill Zebub · 2026-03-23T21:36:20+0000

Tigris said:
What hinders you in doing this in 5e 24 just with any other monk class? They all have now access to short swords and Scimitar. You can also just reflavour these weapons.

Really the only thing is that I want it to be a sword held in two hands, which works perfectly for a versatile weapon like a longsword.

Sure, I could do it with a short sword, with the only downside being that the damage would be lower until my martial arts die scaled up.

But....but....I just would never be able to get the image out of my head of my Swordmaster holding this dinky little blade in two hands.

EDIT: And your question makes me realize that this was, literally, the ONLY feature of the original subclass that I actually cared about. The other subclass features were fine, but I really just wanted to hold a longsword.

Tigris · 2026-03-23T22:20:28+0000

Bill Zebub said:
EDIT: And your question makes me realize that this was, literally, the ONLY feature of the original subclass that I actually cared about. The other subclass features were fine, but I really just wanted to hold a longsword.

Haha thats kind of the vibe I got from your initial post, because Kensei, except using weapons, is really not that interesting, and the new monk (without a subclass even) is not a worse fit for a sword master.

Well you just need your GM to give you a light 2 handed sword then

Flobby · 2026-03-23T23:51:01+0000

Bill Zebub said:
Are there official translations of kanji to English, or just convention? Certainly as fluid as English is, "sai" could have a range of pronunciations.

And I have about a hundred pet peeves far more picky and arbitrary than that, so I'm in no position to criticize....

I don’t know what “official” would mean, but it’s pronounced like “say” which is generally written as sei in English.

Tigris · 2026-03-24T00:00:58+0000

Flobby said:
I don’t know what “official” would mean, but it’s pronounced like “say” which is generally written as sei in English.

Well official would mean what the roman writing of the sillable language used to write Kensei is. But normally it uses roman pronounciation so it its said like "say" it would be sei as you say.