D&D 5E How Do Monks Survive At Low Levels?

[Kithas]

You could just have a good Con score...
Make Con your highest, with Dex and Wis right after, your ac would be lower but you would be able to survive. Hill Dwarf as a race sounds perfect.

 

[Eejit]

I've played a couple low-level monks. I think the trick to survival is to realize that they're not really tanks. As in, don't just rush in at the earliest opportunity and draw the immediate ire of a horde of enemies. I've seen sooooo many monks go down that way. They seem to function better at mopping up once the main party tank has managed to engage the main force of the enemy in melee. Alternate with ranged attacks if this hasn't happened yet or you should be low on health. Unless you can position yourself so that only a few of the enemy can reach you. Yes this will decrease your damage output; sometimes survival is better. Monks seem to work particularly well with battlefield control assistance from allies.
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Exactly what I did when I played a Monk in LMoP.

I had a Fighter and melee Ranger in the party, as well as two casters with cantrips at the back. I was the clean-up crew, going after the enemies who had been hit at least once to finish them up so I could (usually) retreat safely. My AC was 15 IIRC.

Remember that at levels 1-4 your enemies also tend to have low HP. If they've already taken some damage you often have a good chance, with some luck, to finish them and thus be able to retreat without AoO.
Bigger enemies who have higher HP tend to be obvious - with them you either focus on supporting vs enemy minions until the big bad has taken more damage or you prepare to use Dodge or risk an AoO while retreating.

I ended up going down once or twice, but no more than the party average at those low levels.

 

[Matt Byers]

I'm currently playing a low level monk and so far the trick for me is using my surroundings to bottle neck the enemy's once you get level 2 your moment speed goes up by 10 so make a choke point take out the first guy and move farther then they can away rinse and repeat and hopefully you have a ranged character softening them up so you have a better chance of one attack kills. It's worked well for me so far.

 

[CydKnight]

Use the abilities given to the Monk to survive. Assuming you are using Unarmored Defense, you will have a decent starting AC for level 1 if you made Dexterity and Wisdom your two highest ability scores. Making Constitution your 3rd highest, will give you additional hit points.

You could become more of a ranged fighter at level 1 and 2 to stay away from melee. Use the extra speed from Unarmored Movement to your advantage. When Patient Defense kicks in, don't be afraid to use Dodge as a bonus action.

Once you start getting into melee combat, make sure at least one of your allies is there with you so you aren't getting ganged up on by the enemy. Use Step of the Wind strategically to attack then Disengage or Dodge to avoid getting hit. You will also be able to Deflect Missles at level 3 giving you some ranged defense.

So by level 3 you should have plenty of tools to survive as a Monk if you use it's abilities wisely.

 

[Yunru]

Goblin's make ironically good low-level Monks. V.Humans are better still, because their disengage doesn't cost an action, but...

 

[Aedistopholes]

In my experience, they don't. Simply said, they don't tend to survive. The monk in our group is very much DPS and is often tied for how quickly he's knocked unconscious (tied with the rogue). On the other hand, we have two tanks (one of which is my own Fighter/Bard) who can waddle through (thanks to heavy armor) the ranks of the enemy and perform minor healing to get them back from the brink of death. Our other tank is a paladin . We started at level 1 and have made our way up to level 6 so far in the Horde of the Dragon Queen campaign. There were a few close calls, but no one had died permanently...yet.

 

[CydKnight]

In my experience, they don't. Simply said, they don't tend to survive. The monk in our group is very much DPS and is often tied for how quickly he's knocked unconscious (tied with the rogue). On the other hand, we have two tanks (one of which is my own Fighter/Bard) who can waddle through (thanks to heavy armor) the ranks of the enemy and perform minor healing to get them back from the brink of death. Our other tank is a paladin . We started at level 1 and have made our way up to level 6 so far in the Horde of the Dragon Queen campaign. There were a few close calls, but no one had died permanently...yet.

If they are just jumping in and maxing out damage then they should expect to get knocked down a lot especially if they are jumping into melee first instead of waiting on the tanks. It sounds like this Monk you describe is trying to be a tank when he isn't equipped to be. In doing so they aren't maximizing the Monk's abilities. Maybe instead of using the bonus action for flurry of blows until all ki is spent, this monk could mix in a bonus action to dodge or disengage every now and then?

 

[Weiley31]

Beyond Damage Dice: Monk Weapons, Part 1

Monk Weapons A weapon is more than the damage it deals. In combat, skilled warriors use their weapons to confuse, disorient, and disadvantage their enemies before moving in for the kill. Beyond Damage Dice ties unique maneuvers to weapons from both the core rules and the Midgard Campaign...

koboldpress.com

Kobold Press, in their Beyond Damage Die series, offers a special Unarmed technique that the Monk can do called the Butterfly Kick. It states that, "As a single Action, you can perform an Attack Roll: if it hits, then you can take the Dodge action immediately, requiring no action. Which makes it sound like your Monk makes an attack, that when it hits, does damage and makes them immediately go into a defensive stance after the attack is done.

Now I kinda make the argument that one of the attack rolls made, if you have multiple attacks, can be used to do a Flurry of Blows into a Butterfly Kick. So you can attack and dodge action without spending a Ki Point. So this would, in theory, make the Monk a tiny bit tankier via its Unarmored Defense backed up by Advantage on defending against attacks.

I guess the balancing point is A, its technically 3PP since its Kobold Press which means DM convincing/authorization, and B, it probably means you ONLY make a single attack and can't Extra Attack/Flurry of Blows into it with one of the extra/flurry attacks counting as the Butterfly Kick linker.