Uh-huh, except here's the problem:
The amount of HP casters have in 5E, compared to the DPR of even optimized Monks means that's incredibly unlikely beyond a string of high-rolling crits.
So that doesn't work.
was talking specifically about Rogues there, but I understand the confusion.
But this part also goes into the next point
But Stunning Strike does. Unfortunately it's insanely powerful so takes up huge design space.
I mean, this isn't really the problem.
Monks are already pretty good at reaching their target. It's doing anything but Stunning Strike when they get there that's the issue.
But if you give them something
in addition to Stunning Strike, which you just said is
really good, then you just end up with something too good.
However, if you
replace Stunning Strike, you just make them worse, because this new ability would, presumably, work primarily, if not
exclusively on spellcasters.
Spellcasters are plenty dangerous, but A: They aren't going to be in every adventuring day, let alone every encounter, and B: That sort of thing wouldn't fit with the fiction of the base Monk. Monks are about being the class that sees a Dragon and says "Catch these hands.", not stopping spellcasters. That and having a base class whose primary identity is basically being a satellite, as in, orbiting around something else and pretty much doing
only that, is dumb.
You generally cannot "kill off" weaker enemies with the solid-but-unremarkable damage Monks do in 5E. Even where you can, Monks are vast inferior to the role than pretty much ANY full caster (because virtually all full casters in 5E have some at least decent ranged AOE spells).
You can see this pretty easily just by looking at the HP values of mobs of an appropriate CR for a Hard encounter for a Monk. You're not taking them down in one round unless things go spectacularly. Sometimes not even then.
You're missing the point, I feel.
It's not "streak passed a group of enemies dealing low damage to each of them" it's "The big hitter just ended their turn and they thing they attacked is
almost dead. I'm gonna break off from what I'm doing real quick, give that guy a slap or two, and run back to what I was doing so the big hitter do
all of their big hits to something else." You know, like an actual skirmisher.
To me that's missing the point.
The entire class is designed as a skirmisher.
To make only one subclass actually good at skirmishing seems a little bit silly.
Really? I didn't know a skirmisher was something that was primarily supposed to deal with spellcasters. I thought it was something that ran up to the main force, pestering and weakening them, so that
their main force could come in and have a much easier time of doing things.
The Monk is pretty good at doing that, honestly. Could use a bit of extra help, but they do fine as is.
Too bad Monks are the latest "This class doesn't mesh with The Meta (which is using and abusing the Warlocks great early level stuff) well so it needs to be banished and all players need to be told how if you're playing one then you might as well be playing against then party." class. Puts them with such luminaries like Ranger and Sorcerer.
That was to bring this derail back to the main discussion of the thread.