VenerableBede
Adventurer
After reading ChameleonX's proposed monk fix, I decided to try my hand at my own
Here are my goals for this rework:
Let me know your thoughts once you've read through it!
Monk
Hit Points
Unchanged.
Proficiencies
Strength and your choice of Dexterity or Wisdom.
Everything else unchanged.
Everything else unchanged.
Armor Training
Unchanged.
Starting Equipment
Unchanged
1st Level: Martial Arts
Your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use your Unarmed Strike and Simple Weapons.
You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only Simple Weapons and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield:
Monk Weapons. For you, Unarmed Strikes and Simple Weapons that do not have the two-handed property count as “monk weapons.” You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your Monk Weapons.
Bonus Unarmed Strike. When you use the Attack action with a Monk Weapon, you can make one Unarmed Strike as a Bonus Action on the same turn.
Martial Arts Die. You can roll a d6 in place of the normal damage of your Monk Weapons. This die changes as you gain Monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.
Precise Technique. When you make an Unarmed Strike and choose to Grapple or Shove rather than deal damage, you may use your Dexterity or Wisdom modifier to calculate the DC to escape the grapple or resist the shove.
1st Level: Unarmored Defense
Unchanged.
1st Level: Weapon Mastery
Your martial training grants you access to Mastery properties with weapons and your Unarmed Strikes. You learn two Masteries, which may be two weapons, two Mastery properties applied to your Unarmed Strikes, or one of each
Weapon Mastery. You may use this feature to access the Mastery properties of Simple weapons, such as Daggers and Spears.
Unarmed Mastery. In place of a weapon you may apply a Mastery property to your Unarmed Strikes. This Mastery property must be one that can be applied to one-handed, melee Simple Weapons with the Light weapon property. You may only apply a Mastery property to Unarmed Strikes when your intent is to deal damage, not Grapple or Shove. You may not apply more than one Mastery property to any single Unarmed Strike.
Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can change the kinds of Simple Weapons you chose (or Mastery properties applied to your Unarmed Strikes). For example, you could switch to using the Mastery property of Slings and apply the Sap Mastery to your Unarmed Strikes.
2nd Level: Martial Discipline
Your self-discipline and martial training allow you to harness a well of extraordinary energy
within yourself. Your access to this energy is represented by a number of Discipline Points. Your Monk level determines the number of points you have, as shown in the Discipline Points column of the Monk table.
You can spend these points to fuel various Martial Discipline features. You start knowing three such features: Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, and Step of the Wind. You learn more Martial Discipline features as you gain levels in this class.
When you spend a Discipline Point, it is unavailable until you meditate for five uninterrupted minutes, at the end of which you regain all your expended points. You may meditate in this way twice, then must finish a Long Rest before you can do so again. You also regain all Discipline Points when you finish a Long Rest.
Some of your Martial Discipline features require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature’s effects. The saving throw DC equals 8 plus your Proficiency Bonus plus your Wisdom modifier.
Flurry of Blows. Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 Discipline Point to make two attacks as a Bonus Action. These attacks must be made with Monk Weapons.
Patient Defense. You can spend 1 Discipline Point to take the Dodge action as a Bonus Action.
Step of the Wind. You can spend 1 Discipline Point to take both the Disengage and Dash actions as a Bonus Action. In addition, your jump distance is doubled for the turn and is determined by your Dexterity rather than your Strength.
2nd Level: Striker
When you use the Attack action with Monk Weapons, you do not provoke opportunity attacks from creatures that you target; this lasts until the end of your turn, whether you hit or not.
In addition, your speed increases by 10 feet while you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a Shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain Monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.
3rd Level: Deflection and Redirection
You gain two new Martial Disciplines.
Deflect Missiles. When you are the target of a ranged attack, as a Reaction you may spend 1 Discipline Point to attempt to deflect it. When you do so, make an attack roll as if you were making an Unarmed Strike. If your attack roll exceeds the attack roll against you, you take no damage from the attack.
When you use this Martial Discipline, you may protect yourself from a number of ranged attacks equal to your Wisdom modifier until the beginning of your next turn. If you are attacked by a greater number of ranged attacks, you may spend additional Discipline Points to continue protecting yourself without needing to spend an additional Reaction.
You may not use this Martial Discipline to protect yourself from missiles that are too large for you to make an attack with yourself. (For example, a Halfling Monk is not large enough to make an attack with a boulder thrown by a giant and would not be able to use this feature against that attack.)
Redirect Missiles. After using Deflect Missiles, you may choose to redirect the ranged attack against a creature within 60 feet of yourself that isn’t behind Total Cover. If the attack roll you made with Deflect Missiles would hit that creature, it takes damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die plus your Dexterity modifier. The damage is the same type dealt by the original ranged attack.
You may not use this Martial Discipline to redirect ranged attacks from spells.
4th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
4th Level: Slow Fall
Unchanged.
5th Level: Extra Attack
Unchanged.
5th Level: Punishing Strikes
When you attack with a Monk Weapon, you score a critical hit on a roll of 19–20.
In addition, when you attempt to Shove a creature, or when a creature attempts to escape your grapple, you may spend 1 Discipline Point to impose disadvantage on the creature’s save.
6th Level: Empowered Strikes
Whenever you make an attack with a Monk Weapon, you can deal your choice of Force damage or the attack’s normal damage type.
In addition, you may choose to make attack and damage rolls using Dexterity or Wisdom with Monk Weapons.
Finally, you may Grapple or Shove creatures up to two size categories larger than you
6th Level: Subclass Feature
Unchanged.
7th Level: Evasion
Unchanged.
7th Level: Heightened Metabolism
You may spend a Hit Die to meditate to regain Discipline Points. You still may meditate twice before finishing a Long Rest at no cost.
8th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
9th Level: Acrobatic Movement
Unchanged.
10th Level: Self-Restoration
Through sheer force of will, you can spend a Bonus Action or 1 Discipline Point to remove one of the following conditions from yourself on your turn: Charmed, Frightened, or Poisoned. You may do this no more than once per turn.
In addition, forgoing food and drink doesn’t give you levels of Exhaustion.
11th Level: Unending Flurry
The Flurry of Blows discipline no longer costs Discipline Points for you to use.
11th Level: Subclass Feature
Unchanged.
12th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
13th Level: Empowered Deflection and Redirection
You may use the Redirect Missiles discipline to redirect ranged attacks from spells.
In addition, you may use Deflect Missiles to protect yourself from any ranged attack.
14th Level: Disciplined Survivor
Unchanged.
15th Level: Perfect Discipline
Whenever you reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points you regain 2 Discipline Points. The creature must be at least CR 1/8 to gain this benefit.
16th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
17th Level: Extra Attack
You may attack thrice, instead of once or twice, when you take the Attack action on your turn.
17th Level: Subclass Feature
Unchanged.
18th Level: Superior Defense
Unchanged.
19th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
12th Level: Defy Death
As long as you have Discipline Points, you cannot be rendered Incapacitated or Unconscious against your will.
If you are reduced to 0 Hit Points, you may continue to act as normal, although you still make Death Saving Throws. You have Advantage on these saving throws.
Monk Subclasses
The above changes would probably necessitate some changes in the subclasses, but I didn’t go into them in depth. Here’s the result of me skimming and providing quickfire ideas.
Way of Shadow
Maybe Cloak of Shadows should cost 4 Discipline Points, since this version of the Monk is expected to be at max Discipline Points at the beginning of almost any new encounter. Alternatively, maybe it should just have limited per-day uses in this version.
Warrior of the Elements
For similar reasons to the above, consider having Environmental Blast cost 1 more point, but it might not be a big deal.
Warrior of the Hand
Open Hand Technique’s Topple is redundant in this version of the Monk.
Fleet Step loses some of its oomph with base class changes allowing you to not provoke opportunity attacks from creatures you attack, so it might need a boost—but it is still useful in large crowds, or when you don’t want to spread your flurry of attacks across multiple creatures.
Way of the Kensei
“What? This isn’t in the Playtest!”
Yeah, I know… Be really cool if it ended up in the One DnD rulebook, though. Here’s how I’d do it!
3rd Level: Path of the Kensei
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your special martial arts training leads you to master the use of weapons outside the normal scope. This path also includes instruction in the deft strokes of calligraphy or painting. You gain the following benefits:
Kensei Weapons. Choose two types of weapons to be your kensei weapons: one melee weapon and one ranged weapon. Each of these weapons can be any simple or martial weapon that lacks the heavy and special properties. The longbow is also a valid choice. You gain proficiency with these weapons if you don't already have it, and you may access the Mastery properties for these weapons. Weapons of the chosen types are Monk Weapons for you, but you may not use them with Flurry of Blows. Many of this tradition's features work only with your kensei weapons. When you reach 6th, 11th, and 17th level in this class, you can choose another type of weapon – either melee or ranged – to be a kensei weapon for you, following the criteria above.
Agile Parry. If you make an unarmed strike as part of the Attack action on your turn and are holding a kensei weapon, you can use it to defend yourself if it is a melee weapon. You gain a +2 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn, while the weapon is in your hand and you aren’t incapacitated.
Kensei's Shot. You can use a bonus action on your turn to make your ranged attacks with a kensei weapon more deadly. When you do so, any target you hit with a ranged attack using a kensei weapon takes an extra 1d4 damage of the weapon’s type. This damage increases to 1d6 at 11th level. You retain this benefit until the end of the current turn.
Way of the Brush. You gain proficiency with your choice of calligrapher's supplies or painter's supplies.
6th Level: Heavy Hitter
When you hit a target with a kensei weapon, you can spend 1 ki point to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target equal to your Martial Arts die. You can use this feature only once on each of your turns.
In addition, whenever you change your Weapon Masteries you may choose to apply a Mastery property to your Unarmed Strikes that has the Heavy weapon property as a prerequisite.
11th Level: Sharpen the Blade
Unchanged.
17th Level: Unerring Accuracy
Unchanged.
Here are my goals for this rework:
- Lean into the fact that I think Monk's should be hard-hitting skirmishers and not tanks.
- Make Monk fun and fully functional when focusing solely on Wisdom and Dexterity, rather than needing Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom to be good or better to fully accomplish everything the class is trying to do.
- Make Discipline Points focused on having what you need each encounter, rather than just having a lump sum for the day.
- Making Stunning Fist unnecessary.
- Integrating Weapon Masteries with the unique aspects of Monk a little better.
- Remove Short Rest mechanics because Short Rests, as they currently work within the rules, suck.
Let me know your thoughts once you've read through it!
Monk
Hit Points
Unchanged.
Proficiencies
Strength and your choice of Dexterity or Wisdom.
Everything else unchanged.
I actually think Monks should have Dexterity and Wisdom as their saves, but that’s never going to happen, and not just because it breaks convention by providing two good saves at level 1.
Armor Training
Unchanged.
Starting Equipment
Unchanged
1st Level: Martial Arts
Your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use your Unarmed Strike and Simple Weapons.
You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only Simple Weapons and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield:
Monk Weapons. For you, Unarmed Strikes and Simple Weapons that do not have the two-handed property count as “monk weapons.” You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your Monk Weapons.
Bonus Unarmed Strike. When you use the Attack action with a Monk Weapon, you can make one Unarmed Strike as a Bonus Action on the same turn.
Martial Arts Die. You can roll a d6 in place of the normal damage of your Monk Weapons. This die changes as you gain Monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.
Precise Technique. When you make an Unarmed Strike and choose to Grapple or Shove rather than deal damage, you may use your Dexterity or Wisdom modifier to calculate the DC to escape the grapple or resist the shove.
1st Level: Unarmored Defense
Unchanged.
1st Level: Weapon Mastery
Your martial training grants you access to Mastery properties with weapons and your Unarmed Strikes. You learn two Masteries, which may be two weapons, two Mastery properties applied to your Unarmed Strikes, or one of each
Weapon Mastery. You may use this feature to access the Mastery properties of Simple weapons, such as Daggers and Spears.
Unarmed Mastery. In place of a weapon you may apply a Mastery property to your Unarmed Strikes. This Mastery property must be one that can be applied to one-handed, melee Simple Weapons with the Light weapon property. You may only apply a Mastery property to Unarmed Strikes when your intent is to deal damage, not Grapple or Shove. You may not apply more than one Mastery property to any single Unarmed Strike.
Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can change the kinds of Simple Weapons you chose (or Mastery properties applied to your Unarmed Strikes). For example, you could switch to using the Mastery property of Slings and apply the Sap Mastery to your Unarmed Strikes.
2nd Level: Martial Discipline
Your self-discipline and martial training allow you to harness a well of extraordinary energy
within yourself. Your access to this energy is represented by a number of Discipline Points. Your Monk level determines the number of points you have, as shown in the Discipline Points column of the Monk table.
For this version of the Monk the chart would cap out at roughly 8 Discipline Points at level 8, but the points would otherwise gained at the same pace. This will make sense when you see how recovery for these points work at this level and at level 7.
My goal behind this change is for Monks to reliably have the exact amount of Discipline Points they need every encounter, no more or less. This might irk people who like being given all of their resources at the beginning of the day and then having to carefully manage them as time goes on, but not every class has to work that way, and I think it makes less sense for Martials to work that way than Casters anyway.
My goal behind this change is for Monks to reliably have the exact amount of Discipline Points they need every encounter, no more or less. This might irk people who like being given all of their resources at the beginning of the day and then having to carefully manage them as time goes on, but not every class has to work that way, and I think it makes less sense for Martials to work that way than Casters anyway.
When you spend a Discipline Point, it is unavailable until you meditate for five uninterrupted minutes, at the end of which you regain all your expended points. You may meditate in this way twice, then must finish a Long Rest before you can do so again. You also regain all Discipline Points when you finish a Long Rest.
Some of your Martial Discipline features require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature’s effects. The saving throw DC equals 8 plus your Proficiency Bonus plus your Wisdom modifier.
Flurry of Blows. Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 Discipline Point to make two attacks as a Bonus Action. These attacks must be made with Monk Weapons.
Patient Defense. You can spend 1 Discipline Point to take the Dodge action as a Bonus Action.
Step of the Wind. You can spend 1 Discipline Point to take both the Disengage and Dash actions as a Bonus Action. In addition, your jump distance is doubled for the turn and is determined by your Dexterity rather than your Strength.
2nd Level: Striker
When you use the Attack action with Monk Weapons, you do not provoke opportunity attacks from creatures that you target; this lasts until the end of your turn, whether you hit or not.
In addition, your speed increases by 10 feet while you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a Shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain Monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.
In my opinion, this is not redundant with Step of the Wind, but it does overlap a little. Step of the Wind gives you lots of speed and protection from Opportunity Attacks even against enemies you didn't attack, while this feature allows you to Flurry of Blows and strike hard on one creature before retreating a little bit, or get a little damage on several creature before retreating.
3rd Level: Deflection and Redirection
You gain two new Martial Disciplines.
Deflect Missiles. When you are the target of a ranged attack, as a Reaction you may spend 1 Discipline Point to attempt to deflect it. When you do so, make an attack roll as if you were making an Unarmed Strike. If your attack roll exceeds the attack roll against you, you take no damage from the attack.
When you use this Martial Discipline, you may protect yourself from a number of ranged attacks equal to your Wisdom modifier until the beginning of your next turn. If you are attacked by a greater number of ranged attacks, you may spend additional Discipline Points to continue protecting yourself without needing to spend an additional Reaction.
You may not use this Martial Discipline to protect yourself from missiles that are too large for you to make an attack with yourself. (For example, a Halfling Monk is not large enough to make an attack with a boulder thrown by a giant and would not be able to use this feature against that attack.)
Redirect Missiles. After using Deflect Missiles, you may choose to redirect the ranged attack against a creature within 60 feet of yourself that isn’t behind Total Cover. If the attack roll you made with Deflect Missiles would hit that creature, it takes damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die plus your Dexterity modifier. The damage is the same type dealt by the original ranged attack.
You may not use this Martial Discipline to redirect ranged attacks from spells.
I am aware this is a huge buff for the original feature, Deflect Missiles, but I think the feature needed to be much better to be worthwhile. I also prefer features that make the players more active than the DM, and this version of the feature has the player rolling more rather than the DM, while also decreasing the overall number of die rolls and therefore decreasing some of the time this feature eats up.
4th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
4th Level: Slow Fall
Unchanged.
5th Level: Extra Attack
Unchanged.
5th Level: Punishing Strikes
When you attack with a Monk Weapon, you score a critical hit on a roll of 19–20.
In addition, when you attempt to Shove a creature, or when a creature attempts to escape your grapple, you may spend 1 Discipline Point to impose disadvantage on the creature’s save.
I killed Stunning Strike. I don’t think it’s necessary in this version of the Monk. I think applying Weapon Masteries to Unarmed Strikes, calculating Grapple and Shove DCs off of abilities the Monk actually wants, and using Discipline Points to make it harder for creatures to succeed on their saves more than covers the gap, while also making the Monk less of a one-trick pony.
6th Level: Empowered Strikes
Whenever you make an attack with a Monk Weapon, you can deal your choice of Force damage or the attack’s normal damage type.
In addition, you may choose to make attack and damage rolls using Dexterity or Wisdom with Monk Weapons.
Finally, you may Grapple or Shove creatures up to two size categories larger than you
6th Level: Subclass Feature
Unchanged.
7th Level: Evasion
Unchanged.
7th Level: Heightened Metabolism
You may spend a Hit Die to meditate to regain Discipline Points. You still may meditate twice before finishing a Long Rest at no cost.
In my opinion, this is better than getting a whole bunch of Discipline Points, for reasons explained earlier. (Not that any Monk ever actually felt like they had a whole bunch...) The Monk, at this point, really should have all the Discipline Points he needs each encounter, except for on really, really long adventuring days—or weeks.
8th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
9th Level: Acrobatic Movement
Unchanged.
10th Level: Self-Restoration
Through sheer force of will, you can spend a Bonus Action or 1 Discipline Point to remove one of the following conditions from yourself on your turn: Charmed, Frightened, or Poisoned. You may do this no more than once per turn.
In addition, forgoing food and drink doesn’t give you levels of Exhaustion.
11th Level: Unending Flurry
The Flurry of Blows discipline no longer costs Discipline Points for you to use.
11th Level: Subclass Feature
Unchanged.
12th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
13th Level: Empowered Deflection and Redirection
You may use the Redirect Missiles discipline to redirect ranged attacks from spells.
In addition, you may use Deflect Missiles to protect yourself from any ranged attack.
14th Level: Disciplined Survivor
Unchanged.
15th Level: Perfect Discipline
Whenever you reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points you regain 2 Discipline Points. The creature must be at least CR 1/8 to gain this benefit.
16th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
17th Level: Extra Attack
You may attack thrice, instead of once or twice, when you take the Attack action on your turn.
17th Level: Subclass Feature
Unchanged.
18th Level: Superior Defense
Unchanged.
19th Level: Ability Score Improvement
Unchanged.
12th Level: Defy Death
As long as you have Discipline Points, you cannot be rendered Incapacitated or Unconscious against your will.
If you are reduced to 0 Hit Points, you may continue to act as normal, although you still make Death Saving Throws. You have Advantage on these saving throws.
Monk Subclasses
The above changes would probably necessitate some changes in the subclasses, but I didn’t go into them in depth. Here’s the result of me skimming and providing quickfire ideas.
Way of Shadow
Maybe Cloak of Shadows should cost 4 Discipline Points, since this version of the Monk is expected to be at max Discipline Points at the beginning of almost any new encounter. Alternatively, maybe it should just have limited per-day uses in this version.
Warrior of the Elements
For similar reasons to the above, consider having Environmental Blast cost 1 more point, but it might not be a big deal.
Warrior of the Hand
Open Hand Technique’s Topple is redundant in this version of the Monk.
Fleet Step loses some of its oomph with base class changes allowing you to not provoke opportunity attacks from creatures you attack, so it might need a boost—but it is still useful in large crowds, or when you don’t want to spread your flurry of attacks across multiple creatures.
Way of the Kensei
“What? This isn’t in the Playtest!”
Yeah, I know… Be really cool if it ended up in the One DnD rulebook, though. Here’s how I’d do it!
3rd Level: Path of the Kensei
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your special martial arts training leads you to master the use of weapons outside the normal scope. This path also includes instruction in the deft strokes of calligraphy or painting. You gain the following benefits:
Kensei Weapons. Choose two types of weapons to be your kensei weapons: one melee weapon and one ranged weapon. Each of these weapons can be any simple or martial weapon that lacks the heavy and special properties. The longbow is also a valid choice. You gain proficiency with these weapons if you don't already have it, and you may access the Mastery properties for these weapons. Weapons of the chosen types are Monk Weapons for you, but you may not use them with Flurry of Blows. Many of this tradition's features work only with your kensei weapons. When you reach 6th, 11th, and 17th level in this class, you can choose another type of weapon – either melee or ranged – to be a kensei weapon for you, following the criteria above.
Agile Parry. If you make an unarmed strike as part of the Attack action on your turn and are holding a kensei weapon, you can use it to defend yourself if it is a melee weapon. You gain a +2 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn, while the weapon is in your hand and you aren’t incapacitated.
Kensei's Shot. You can use a bonus action on your turn to make your ranged attacks with a kensei weapon more deadly. When you do so, any target you hit with a ranged attack using a kensei weapon takes an extra 1d4 damage of the weapon’s type. This damage increases to 1d6 at 11th level. You retain this benefit until the end of the current turn.
Way of the Brush. You gain proficiency with your choice of calligrapher's supplies or painter's supplies.
6th Level: Heavy Hitter
When you hit a target with a kensei weapon, you can spend 1 ki point to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target equal to your Martial Arts die. You can use this feature only once on each of your turns.
In addition, whenever you change your Weapon Masteries you may choose to apply a Mastery property to your Unarmed Strikes that has the Heavy weapon property as a prerequisite.
11th Level: Sharpen the Blade
Unchanged.
17th Level: Unerring Accuracy
Unchanged.
