D&D (2024) (+) Hopes for The Monk

[Knight_Marshal]

I want a subclass named the Friar so that people who do not want monks in their western fantasy can have an alternative.

 

[mellored]

A simplified version.

You gave a ki pool equal to your wisdom modifier.
As an action, refill your ki pool.

Stunning strike takes 3 ki when you hit a target, stunned if they fail a save, dazed on a success.

So you can stun once, then need to recharge. Powerful but expensive.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I didn't see it mentioned: unarmed fighting style offhand attack does not use a bonus action -> big buff without any further rules change.

 

[Undrave]

The biggest problem with the Monk is how they NEED Ki, an extremely limited resource, to not even be on par with a Rogue who can disengage and get bonus damage all day every day.

I think Ki should be treated like Warlock spell slots. You don’t have a lot, but everytime you use it, it MATTERS. Give them at-will tricks on par with Eldritch Blast, then add an equivalent to Invocations on top and you’d have a way better class.

And cut down on the MAD.

Monks get d10 as HD

Yes! If they're meant to be in melee, no matter how temporarily, they need to be tougher. A higher hit dice also means less investment in CON needed to get better HP, helping to reduce MAD.

Unpopular Opinion: get rid of Stunning Strike. I don't mind Monks having control options, but this thing is encounter warping when it actually works, and the balance point seems to be "most of the time it doesn't, and it prevents you from doing anything else cool". Bleh.

Stunning strike is dumb because it's either worthless or over=powered, depending on wacky RNG. Too swingy. It often feels like the only decent thing the monk has that other classes aren't doing, and yet it fails a lot.

Yeah I hate Stunning Strike. It not only comes in too late, but it means you just can't do anything else with your ki anymore but try to Stun. Stunning Strike needs to go or just be retooled.

Another thing I feel that’s annoying about the Monk is that it just keeps getting unrelated abilities late in its career, it’s never just an upgrade. Suddenly you don’t age, suddenly you speak all language, suddenly you get ALL Saving Throws… it makes the whole thing feels scattered. And outside the subclass there’s like no build choice so all the Monks look the same.

It's currently an action-denial specialist. It's not a striker.

That's more wishful thinking than anything if you ask me. It has ONE ability to deny action, Stunning Strike. It's Opportunity Attack is just not threatening enough to effectively lockdown a ranged attacker. Flurry of Blow is clearly a striker ability so I think they need to choose if they want their Monk to be more of a mobile striker OR a mobile controller, it can't be built trying to be both at the same time. The controller aspect should come in with the subclass.

 

[FrogReaver]

in comparison to other TWF style classes monks in current 5e do well.

That said some minor tweaks would feel good and bringing TWF more in alignment with the other weapon styles would also be good.

1. When a monk spends a key to flurry of blows or patient defense he can also disengage or dash.

2. Each subclass should provide a unique buff to either flurry of blows or patient defense or both. - this helps make flurry of blows more attractive in relation to stunning strike.

3. This isn’t so much the monk - but the high damage combos of 5e should be removed. This will lead to the monks damage feeling more in line with other martials.

 

[ART!]

Add a feat of strength ability

A feat of Dexterity, too - and maybe feat of Constitution. Really: lot sof ways to focus their energy to boost physical activities of various kinds. This could include boosts to saves, physical skills, movement, etc.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I want a new name for the class and to make it psionic instead of ki (maybe call the power mana... in Hawaii warrior mana is your ability to fight on.

I want the unarmed damage to scale faster and be the better choice then most weapons by level 5.

I want martial arts weapons to be more personalized to subclass

I want options for out of combat abilities... things like a sage advice or call for aide or even meditate and access the collective consiusness...

 

[Blue]

That's more wishful thinking than anything if you ask me. It has ONE ability to deny action, Stunning Strike. It's Opportunity Attack is just not threatening enough to effectively lockdown a ranged attacker. Flurry of Blow is clearly a striker ability so I think they need to choose if they want their Monk to be more of a mobile striker OR a mobile controller, it can't be built trying to be both at the same time. The controller aspect should come in with the subclass.

The fighter has ONE ability to make an Attack action. They still are considered weapon attackers.

Flurry of Blows is not "clearly a striker ability". When the base MA damage is so low, it's just a different way to keep up with reasonable damage - more low damages instead of increasing fewer attacks like Paladin's Divine Smite. It's not push into striker. If you don't believe me, please go and look at monk damage numbers vs. the other classes once you are past 5th - they decisively are not strikers currently. And before 5th you don't have enough Ki to make Flurry of Blows all that meaningful, especially if you are using Ki for other purposes as well. And since FoB allows another possible hit to deliver Stunning Strike, it does support Action Denial.

Really, I can't believe anyone who has played a monk over a range of levels (or seen one played) would confuse them for a striker. Did perhaps the player want to treat them like that and the DM gave them custom magic items? Or was it a rolled ability score where MAD could be satisfied and haivng a high enough DEX to add to hit and damage that it seemed striker-like at lower levels?

 

[Undrave]

The fighter has ONE ability to make an Attack action. They still are considered weapon attackers.

Flurry of Blows is not "clearly a striker ability". When the base MA damage is so low, it's just a different way to keep up with reasonable damage - more low damages instead of increasing fewer attacks like Paladin's Divine Smite. It's not push into striker. If you don't believe me, please go and look at monk damage numbers vs. the other classes once you are past 5th - they decisively are not strikers currently. And before 5th you don't have enough Ki to make Flurry of Blows all that meaningful, especially if you are using Ki for other purposes as well. And since FoB allows another possible hit to deliver Stunning Strike, it does support Action Denial.

Really, I can't believe anyone who has played a monk over a range of levels (or seen one played) would confuse them for a striker. Did perhaps the player want to treat them like that and the DM gave them custom magic items? Or was it a rolled ability score where MAD could be satisfied and haivng a high enough DEX to add to hit and damage that it seemed striker-like at lower levels?

The Fighter’s attacks are much nastier than the Monk and they have features to support that. The monk gets Stunning Strike at level 5, I’m not sure what you’re supposed to DO before that.

The Monk is built with melee combat abilities, but is not tanky, and gets ways to disengage which would imply some sort of skirmisher. Do you send a skirmisher to do basic damage? Martial Arts seems design to keep up with normal damage (failing terribly at it), with Flurry of Blows being a ‘spike’ in damage. It looks, at early level, like it could be a pseudo-rogue with its ability score fitting for Stealth and general thievery, but it doesn’t have skill boosting abilities.

Then it gets Stunning Strike at level 5 and you should shift to spend all your Ki and actions trying to stun something, leaving you in close range to something big and nasty without the ki left to dodge or disengage. Aside from delivering more chance to use Stunning Strike, FOB doesn’t really do much in term of action denial.

I guess, if we still had minions, Flurry of Blow into a group could be considered an AOE, especially with new movement rules.

To me, it doesn’t feel focused. It doesn’t feel GOOD at any job and the stunning strike is over-centralizing. Once you get it, you just want to use it as much as possible because it’s the one clearly amazing thing you can do. It's why I often call the Monk 'a pile of legacy features'.

 

[Mecheon]

Honestly I'd flat out remove stunning strike, or at least make it only to one sub-class. The problem is its that powerful of an ability its going to impact balance. So.... Remove it from 'em all. Give one the 'you do stunning strike spam' and buff up every other one for the loss of it.

Without stunning strike, monks can get the stuff they need to make them more powerful in other aspects

Oh, and no name changes. Monk's got enough inertia behind it as an RPG Thing in this day and age. Basically if its a class in Warcraft and Final Fantasy, you can be pretty sure people know what it is.

Really, I can't believe anyone who has played a monk over a range of levels (or seen one played) would confuse them for a striker. Did perhaps the player want to treat them like that and the DM gave them custom magic items? Or was it a rolled ability score where MAD could be satisfied and haivng a high enough DEX to add to hit and damage that it seemed striker-like at lower levels?

I've seen some of them be absolute glass cannons in the right situation. Depends on what they're fighting, but they do have some good 'run in and deal damage' potential to 'em. Just, you better hope the hits absolutely connect (plus the party in question really didn't have any other big damage dealers)