D&D General Help with Mystic Arts Monk

[Mort]

This campaign goes to 20 - I don't see much benefit to using strength when her dex is already 20 and will eventually reach 24+.

Str is useful if your DM is a stickler for weight when you are trying to move your opponents around. Especially if you use the trick of grabbing them, launching into the air and falling (you get slow fall, they take falling damage). Otherwise, sure dex should compensate most of the time.

She already has the grappler feat. Boots of jumping (I assume you mean Striding and Springing?) are a cool option that I never thought of!

I meant the ring of jumping, but boots of striding and springing do essentially the same thing, sure.

Thinking of the wraps +1 - they actually stack with the eldritch claw tattoo...and with the insignia of claws as well, if I wanna get to an extra +3 to hit and damage just using uncommon items. Seems cheesy, though.

Edit: or winged boots, which complement monk's speed. Though they kind of overshadow her ability to run up walls and on water.

Winged Boots as an uncommon item have always seemed busted to me. Though your movement will be so good and you can move over just about anything, so a fly speed of 60' isn't quite as good as for most other characters (still good though).

Edit: thought it was 60', but winged Boots give a fly speed of 30'. So they actually slow you down! Still full flight though, which is very useful.

 

[Clint_L]

I mentioned the grappler feat because it lets you move opponents with no speed reduction. I can’t imagine any DM I played with being that tendentious about carry capacity, so I’m good there. Though if they were, boots of striding and springing also solve that problem. I think they will be one of my choices, because they’re just fun.

You’re right about winged boots - I thought the speed would just be your normal speed but nope, they would slow her down. Lame! Besides, my spouse told me they’re making themselves a pair with one of their infusions, and I don’t wanna steal their thunder.

 

[ECMO3]

Hey - I'll be starting a Deadfall campaign soon and playing a monk. Thinking of trying a Warrior of the Mystic Arts. Wondering what folks would recommend for spells, especially some of you theory crafters like @ECMO3. At Level 11 she'll have three sorcerer cantrips, along with eight spells with four level one and three level two slots.

I think this screams for a Ranger dip for the weapon mastery (well really any Monk does), here you get some spells too! Also depending on how your DM interprets "Sorcerer spell" a 4-level Sorcerer dip is also pretty awesome on this subclass.

On this PC I like a Goliath for the Cold's Chill ability. I also like Magic Initiate-Cleric with Guidance, Light and Sanctuary for the Origin Feat.

For spells I would look at the following:
Cantrips: Sorcerous Burst and Truestrike, At level 10 Bladeward. Truestrike with a Monk weapon for high damage and Stunning Strike.

1st level: Jump, Shield, Absorb Elements, Sleep (trade Sleep for Spellfire Flare at level 13). Jump is a great mobility boost, it lest you jump over bad guys and obstacles and jump up and grapple low flying enemies. The others are pretty straightforward.

2nd level: Mirror Image, Shadow Blade, Misty Step, Crown of Madness (note Crown of Madness is not very powerful or optimal, but Monks are awesome at grappling. Running around with a grappled enemy who is charmed by you and making him hit his allies is just too cool to pass up). Mirror Image and Misty Step are good on any melee PC. At 17th level you will be able to cast Mirror Image on a Bonus action with Flurry of Blows, although by this level Trusight will be on a lot of enemies.

3rd level: Dispel Magic, Fear, Fly, (note Haste seems attractive here, but I would be worried about Concentration without Warcaster), also you can consider Blink although the action cost to cast can be high.

4th level: Dimension Door, Backlash

Abilities: D16 W17. Normally Monks are kind of have a decision - Wisdom for abilities/SS or Dex for attacks, since your most powerful attack is Truestrike here, I don't think there is a tradeoff, I think high Wisdom is better generally. If you are building for combat probably a 14 Constitution and a 10 Strength or Charisma, if you want a more diverse PC then split remaining between the other abilities in a way that makes sense.

For Feats I would get the following:
Level 4: Spell Connoisseur (W18) for Cure Wounds and Prayer of Healing. Prayer of Healing is the find here because it recharges all your Focus Points. Also with the wording of Mystic Focus; trading Focus points for a spell slot is usually a bad deal since it is after a Short Rest. Whereas with POH you can finish a normal short rest, cash in your focus points, and then ask the party to take 10 more minutes to get them back. This is also free once a day and you can only do it once a day, so it is not cutting into your spell slots.

Level 8: Cold Caster (W19): With Sorcerous Burst and Frost's Chill you have a good way of debufffing someone before your Stunning Strike

Level 12: Grappler (D17): Grappler is great on any Monk, here you have a Goliath ability to turn Large so you can Grapple Huge creatures. This is almost good enough to get first. If you revewrsed this and started with a 17 Dex it would work just as good even though Truestrike and SS are a bit weaker.

Level 16: D18/W20

Level 19: Lot's of options here. I like Boon of Recovery and Boon of Iron Mind. If you get the latter you probably want to pick up Haste. You also have Boon of Magic School Mastery for Conjure Celestial, I am probably getting Grease as first level spell with that and spamming it with FOB.

Multiclass options:
Ranger 1: Nick with daggers doing Monk weapon damage or situationally topple with a quarterstaff. Hunter's Mark is pretty good on a Monk, but great when you have 3rd level spells and make a Ranged attack with Spellfire Flare. Also if you do this you have Ranger options for Boon of Magic School Mastery which means you can get Ensnaring Strike and spam it on Ranged attacks.

Ranger 1/Sorcerer 1: This is for you if your DM lets you use Innate Sorcerery with your Monk spells. You open with Truestrike-Topple rolling with advantage and then if you topple him you grapple him or keep wailing with advantage. You play with a 13 Charisma and put Shield and Absorb Elements on Sorc. Get Blade Ward and 3 utility Cantrips. Can also take Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade as these will be using Dex.

Cold Ranger 4: This let's you do Cold damage, so you go with a different species. A long time to come online though.

Divine Soul Sorcerer 4: Here you go with a different Origin Feat (I like Spellfire Spark) and you take Cold Caster, Grappler and Spellfire Adept. You get Prayer of Healing through your subclass. There are two ways to play this - 13 Wisdom/16 Cherisma/17 Dex. If you do this you get Mage Armor for AC, start with Shield and Mage Armor as a Sorc, then get these two as an Arcane Monk before you go back to Sorc after level 6 (Sorc1/Monk 5)-you are not doing stunning strike if you do this, but there are other great uses for focus, Truestrike and Sorcerous Burst are on Charisma if you go this route. The other way is go 17 Wisdom/13 Charisma/16 Dex, which plays more like a Monk with more spells slots and metamagic

 

[Mort]

I think this screams for a Ranger dip for the weapon mastery (well really any Monk does), here you get some spells too! Also depending on how your DM interprets "Sorcerer spell" a 4-level Sorcerer dip is also pretty awesome on this subclass.

On this PC I like a Goliath for the Cold's Chill ability. I also like Magic Initiate-Cleric with Guidance, Light and Sanctuary for the Origin Feat.

For spells I would look at the following:
Cantrips: Sorcerous Burst and Truestrike, At level 10 Bladeward. Truestrike with a Monk weapon for high damage and Stunning Strike.

1st level: Jump, Shield, Absorb Elements, Sleep (trade Sleep for Spellfire Flare at level 13). Jump is a great mobility boost, it lest you jump over bad guys and obstacles and jump up and grapple low flying enemies. The others are pretty straightforward.

2nd level: Mirror Image, Shadow Blade, Misty Step, Crown of Madness (note Crown of Madness is not very powerful or optimal, but Monks are awesome at grappling. Running around with a grappled enemy who is charmed by you and making him hit his allies is just too cool to pass up). Mirror Image and Misty Step are good on any melee PC. At 17th level you will be able to cast Mirror Image on a Bonus action with Flurry of Blows, although by this level Trusight will be on a lot of enemies.

3rd level: Dispel Magic, Fear, Fly, (note Haste seems attractive here, but I would be worried about Concentration without Warcaster), also you can consider Blink although the action cost to cast can be high.

4th level: Dimension Door, Backlash

Abilities: D16 W17. Normally Monks are kind of have a decision - Wisdom for abilities/SS or Dex for attacks, since your most powerful attack is Truestrike here, I don't think there is a tradeoff, I think high Wisdom is better generally. If you are building for combat probably a 14 Constitution and a 10 Strength or Charisma, if you want a more diverse PC then split remaining between the other abilities in a way that makes sense.

For Feats I would get the following:
Level 4: Spell Connoisseur (W18) for Cure Wounds and Prayer of Healing. Prayer of Healing is the find here because it recharges all your Focus Points. Also with the wording of Mystic Focus; trading Focus points for a spell slot is usually a bad deal since it is after a Short Rest. Whereas with POH you can finish a normal short rest, cash in your focus points, and then ask the party to take 10 more minutes to get them back. This is also free once a day and you can only do it once a day, so it is not cutting into your spell slots.

Level 8: Cold Caster (W19): With Sorcerous Burst and Frost's Chill you have a good way of debufffing someone before your Stunning Strike

Level 12: Grappler (D17): Grappler is great on any Monk, here you have a Goliath ability to turn Large so you can Grapple Huge creatures. This is almost good enough to get first. If you revewrsed this and started with a 17 Dex it would work just as good even though Truestrike and SS are a bit weaker.

Level 16: D18/W20

Level 19: Lot's of options here. I like Boon of Recovery and Boon of Iron Mind. If you get the latter you probably want to pick up Haste. You also have Boon of Magic School Mastery for Conjure Celestial, I am probably getting Grease as first level spell with that and spamming it with FOB.

Multiclass options:
Ranger 1: Nick with daggers doing Monk weapon damage or situationally topple with a quarterstaff. Hunter's Mark is pretty good on a Monk, but great when you have 3rd level spells and make a Ranged attack with Spellfire Flare. Also if you do this you have Ranger options for Boon of Magic School Mastery which means you can get Ensnaring Strike and spam it on Ranged attacks.

Ranger 1/Sorcerer 1: This is for you if your DM lets you use Innate Sorcerery with your Monk spells. You open with Truestrike-Topple rolling with advantage and then if you topple him you grapple him or keep wailing with advantage. You play with a 13 Charisma and put Shield and Absorb Elements on Sorc. Get Blade Ward and 3 utility Cantrips. Can also take Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade as these will be using Dex.

Cold Ranger 4: This let's you do Cold damage, so you go with a different species. A long time to come online though.

Divine Soul Sorcerer 4: Here you go with a different Origin Feat (I like Spellfire Spark) and you take Cold Caster, Grappler and Spellfire Adept. You get Prayer of Healing through your subclass. There are two ways to play this - 13 Wisdom/16 Cherisma/17 Dex. If you do this you get Mage Armor for AC, start with Shield and Mage Armor as a Sorc, then get these two as an Arcane Monk before you go back to Sorc after level 6 (Sorc1/Monk 5)-you are not doing stunning strike if you do this, but there are other great uses for focus, Truestrike and Sorcerous Burst are on Charisma if you go this route. The other way is go 17 Wisdom/13 Charisma/16 Dex, which plays more like a Monk with more spells slots and metamagic

I agree with many of your choices but:

1. Since this campaign is expected to go to level 20, passing up that monk capstone is hard!

2. Since this is an extremely heavy caster campaign (red wizard focused), I think counterspell is a very strong choice for 3rd level. Particularly since the MA monk can easily impose disadvantage on the save (as its now Con save).

 

[ECMO3]

I agree with many of your choices but:

1. Since this campaign is expected to go to level 20, passing up that monk capstone is hard!

You get the capstone for 1 level and whatever you play after 20th level (which can be a lot). I never really worry about that though. It is a concern for multiclassing though you are right.

A level 4 dip though can get you 2 Boons, so that would compensate quite a bit.

2. Since this is an extremely heavy caster campaign (red wizard focused), I think counterspell is a very strong choice for 3rd level. Particularly since the MA monk can easily impose disadvantage on the save (as its now Con save).

I am not a huge fan of Counterspell in 2024, especially in high-level play. The problem is at the level you get it (13) a lot of enemies will have Legendary Resistance even if they don't have good Constitution saves. It is an option certainly, and a good one but personally I would get more use out of Dispel Magic than Counterspell. You don't get to cast it as a reaction and you have to deal with the spell until your turn (which may take away your turn), but it is easier to land generally than Counterspell is.

You could take them both and if I did that I would get rid of Fear probably.

If you are looking at the Deadfall options playing a Monk Thayan knight with a Thayan Scimitar would be pretty awesome on a Ranger dip getting nick.

 

[SLJ]

I mentioned the grappler feat because it lets you move opponents with no speed reduction. I can’t imagine any DM I played with being that tendentious about carry capacity, so I’m good there.

This is the intended way to run it, I think. Monsters don't have published weights, and otherwise the player and the DM would be guessing every time whether or not you could drag an enemy. Dragging is solely a function of size categories and the Grappler feat.