I believe this has been answered several times, but: The monk is a highly mobile control focused PC melee class. It is intended that they'd use their mobility and versatility to engage key targets in a battle and shut them down....Highly effective at WHAT? I still have no idea what the designers intended the Monk to actually DO. What's his role in a party? What does he bring to the table? Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to survive contact with the table. Like their silly ideas that people wouldn't plan ahead for their subclasses. The Monk isn't a class, it's a pile of legacy features the designers were nostalgic for...
and in my experience, what happens is that you waste two or three Ki points failing to get a Stun, maybe even doing a flurry of blow for another shot at it, doing about 15 pts of damage total, and, whether you get the stun or not, you end up stuck behind enemy lines where any doofus can land a hit and take off 2/3 of your meager life points. Then you have to waste a turn limping out of there.I believe this has been answered several times, but: The monk is a highly mobile control focused PC melee class. It is intended that they'd use their mobility and versatility to engage key targets in a battle and shut them down.
In my experiences, the (mid level and above) monk will get to a key bad guy in Rd 1 and engage them, locking them down with a stun. While they can take about one less hit than other classes, they do have defensive abilities that make up for that lack in hps, and by mid-levels are often competitive in AC with non-shield melee classes.
The monks I have played have been very effective at these tactics, especially as the levels advance up. There have been battles where they've been unable to do their shtick (outside versus a flying dragon, for example), but every class has battles where they are less effective (wizard versus beholder, archers against highly mobile foes that get in their face, etc...)
I think I'd go with being able to regain half your ki as an action, proficiency bonus per day, instead of increasing the size of the pool.I want to test if giving the Tough Feat at 1st level and Mobile Feat at 3rd level goes some way towards overcoming the Hitpoint disparity with other martial classes and the utterly terrible Ki pool.
(Seriously WOTC ranp up the Ki pool with levels, it's a joke)
I've seen a monk use Step of the wind ONCE in all the years I've DMed simply because the Ki pool is so low and using Ki to replicate the Rogue's ability to double dash any damned time they like is ridiculous.
I have already established a Homebrew rule that as long as their Monk character has at least 1 Ki point they can use Step of The Wind without expending any Ki points and this has helped a bit, so I'm going to play test the bonus Feats to see if it brings them close to other classes
I think your experience is non-standard, judging by the fact that there doesn't seem to be anywhere near the same kind of dissatisfaction with the monk as there has been with the ranger and sorcerer. In fact, the elemental monk stands out as the only subclass that people who aren't into CharOp forum discussions rag on, IME.and in my experience, what happens is that you waste two or three Ki points failing to get a Stun, maybe even doing a flurry of blow for another shot at it, doing about 15 pts of damage total, and, whether you get the stun or not, you end up stuck behind enemy lines where any doofus can land a hit and take off 2/3 of your meager life points. Then you have to waste a turn limping out of there.
It sounds cool in concept but in reality it doesn't work.
'Lock down one guy' is NOT a real party role. It's not something a mobile skirmisher should do! That's more of a defender's schtick.
Highly effective at WHAT? I still have no idea what the designers intended the Monk to actually DO. What's his role in a party? What does he bring to the table?
Lock down one guy is maybe a single spell like banishment'Lock down one guy' is NOT a real party role. It's not something a mobile skirmisher should do! That's more of a defender's schtick.
Or level 2 Enchantment wizard ability.Lock down one guy is maybe a single spell like banishment