I am generally against that. I think the Monk has everything they need right now and giving them more will make them OP at high levels.
I would disagree, generally speaking, and I think part of the reason is because by making these things pay-fors, you generally see them not get used compared to something like Flurry of Blows.
A Rogue does not get extra attack, stunning strike, ability bonus added to offhand attacks (not to mention being able to use a higher damage weapon and get a bonus action attack), ability to substitute martial arts dice for weapon damage, slow fall or most importantly diamond soul.
I find a lot of that missing what I'm arguing about. Rogues aren't about multiple attacks, they are about getting
one hit, since Sneak Attack is generally easy to setup. They already have something to mitigate not having a bunch of attacks by allowing them to do a ton of damage in
one. In the playtest, as far as I could tell, it looked like they were going to gain a bunch of powers through the new Strike system (Hey, a spendable resource that never runs out! How
novel!) along with a bunch of other powers that aren't tied to something you can run out of (
Steady Aim is a good example of a power that has a solid limit/cost for a powerful advantage without pegging it to some resource pool). Talking about damage misses that the classes have two fine ways of doing damage and that's not really my complaint.
My point is about Monk defense: the class that is meant to be fast and dodgy has to spend part of its limited resource that all its other cool stuff is tied to. Diamond Soul is great, but that's at
14th level. Cunning Action, meanwhile, is at
2nd. Rogues also get a bunch of defense stuff (including sharing a few things with the Monk), but Monks are missing something for AC.
The point here is that some of this stuff wouldn't infringe on the gimmick of the Rogue, but give another lightly-armored character a chance to actually not get hit, while still having limits because it plays into the Bonus Action funnel. That, in itself, is already a cost for these bonus action-heavy classes, possibly even moreso for the Monk since it's way more reliant on using extra attacks to cause damage or special effects.
As a base class, Monk is substantially better than a base Rogue at combat at most levels. An Arcane Trickster gets some stuff that evens it up against a lot of Monk subclasses, but then a Long Death Monk gets some quite nice features too and would put Monks back on top.
I find that debatable given what it looks like Rogues will be getting with their Sneak Attack strikes. Again, that's a really cool design and it's not limited by a finite and small resource pool.
Also while Monks are a weak class in teir 2, giving them the ability to do what "Rogues do for free" in tier 2 would make them way overpowered at high levels when they have an abundance of ki and would not have to spend any on doing that.
Would it? Being able to Dash or Disengage for free? I might buy giving them Dodge, but honestly I think that's more of a necessity given the squishiness of the Monk and how it derives its AC. Forcing them to spend ki, which gives most subclasses access to all their special abilities, is a double-cost. Again, there's already a hard limit with the Bonus Action funnel, so you have to balance putting out more damage versus not getting hit.
I think the best way for a Monk to get cunning action is a 2-level dip in Rogue, but if you want to buff the Monk in tier 2 the best way to do it is give them more ki early. Instead of 1 ki a level, make it 4 at level 2, 6 at level 4, 8 at level 6, 9 at level 8 and then go on with the amount they currently get after that. That will largely eliminate the "running out of ki" problem.
Meh, I feel like this ignores the problem. Focusing on disposable resources that require hard recharges is a mistake; making them more able to push on without having to stop or allowing them to be interesting without their ki is a far better idea.
Another thing that would help the Monk is make Glaives and Longswords Monk weapons as these are iconic martial arts weapons (or the DND weapon class for those weapons). Also make whip a Monk weapon. When I play a Monk I usually try to get Whip proficiency somehow.
I mean, I'm not against any of this but I don't think it really helps the class as much as it just expands some build ideas. But I'm also not quite sure how the "Weapon Mastery" part of the playtest is ultimately going to shake out.
That is why dash is such a better option than disengage. If you dash you take 1 AOO but usually no attacks at all on the enemies turn (and most enemies have multi attack). This is particularly true when you are fighting something that has Legendary action attacks. Take the AOO but take away their other attacks!
Yeah, but if you're squishy and they hit you for a serious chunk, that's enough to dissuade you. It's situational, but there are a whole bunch of benefits to disengage, not the least of which being able to maneuver around a crowded battlefield if necessary.
Unless you refocus the DC for the ki abilities that will not make them less MAD. A Monk who does not stay on the Wisdom ladder loses a lot of power because their saves are not great, this is particularly true because their signature ability is on a constitution save. A 9th level Monk with a 17 DC, 17 AC and +3 attack stat is much more capable than a 9th level Monk with a 15DC, 19 AC and +5 attack stat.
I mean... maybe? I dunno, it's something to think about. I know I had a friend talk to me about how they wish the Monk felt like less of a vehicle to put out Stunning Strikes as well, which I was thought was interesting.