D&D 5E Monk Weapons

[Sacrosanct]

Don't underestimate the ability of not getting hit with AoO after one of your many monk attacks either. In one battle, I ran up to a helmed horror and used one of my attacks because I needed to get past it to attack the priestess, who I attacked with my other 3 attacks to stun lock her.

 

[Li Shenron]

Hmm. No two handed weapons? Other than the obvious "because the rules say so" - why not? Various lengths of fighting sticks, many wielded with two hands go all the way to the very roots of almost every known martial arts style in recorded history.

I would stick to the quarterstaff, but allow changing descriptions and minor properties e.g. damage type. So if you want to use a naginata or other long weapons, I'd let you say you have whatever weapon you want in your hands, but use all the statistics of a quarterstaff, except letting you do slashing or piercing damage instead of bludgeoning (which is practically equivalent).

This way, you avoid all possible criticism about changing the game balance.

Does making a two-handed attack with a versatile weapon confer the "two-handed" property? If I were making the ruling, I would say it doesn't.

I think the designers would have to agree with you. The text specifically mention a hard-coded property called "two-handed", it's not a free-form text. 'Confering' hard-code properties must be an explicit thing.

 

[Azzy]

So I assume this means that the Monk can make a two-handed attack with the quarterstaff for 1d8+dex, then an unarmed Martial Arts strike as their bonus action, with the in-game reasoning being that the quarterstaff's "versatile" property allows the Monk to grip it with just one hand while he strikes with the other, whereas a weapon explicitly labeled as "two-handed" would be too heavy for him to hold reliably in one-hand while making that bonus strike?

That's pretty much how I see it. Since the Greatclub is the only weapon in the Simple Melee Weapon list that has the two-handed" property (none have the "heavy" property), it's the only one that doesn't qualify as a "Monk Weapon"—AFAIC.

 

[hejtmane]

While if you wait for SCAG you will have a Monk option to cover your ranged monk

 

[Connorsrpg]

Not getting into the arguments about monk weapons - we use weapon groups. But if looking for a variety of weapons, with different properties, you might be interested in our Equipment Page: http://connorscampaigns.wikidot.com/d-d-equipment. The weapon lists at the bottom include a lot more specific oriental monk weapons than in the PHB.

It refers a lot to the EN5ider article, As good As His Blade, for expanded weapon qualities. Not sure how your GM feels about optional rules, but there is plenty to use there.

 

[epithet]

But the monk couldn't hit for 1d8 as that's the two handed property it would be 1d6 then unarmed bonus strike I believe happy to be corrected

You absolutely can hit for 1d8, because that is the versatile property, not two-handed. The quarterstaff doesn't have the two-handed property, even if you use it with both hands. Also note that if you make an attack with a versatile weapon with both hands, you can still make an unarmed strike as a kick or a headbutt.

Personally I like the spear as a monk weapon. You have a pointy end for piercing damage, and I can't imagine a DM that wouldn't let you use the other end for bludgeoning if you wanted to.

 

[Valmarius]

Personally I like the spear as a monk weapon. You have a pointy end for piercing damage, and I can't imagine a DM that wouldn't let you use the other end for bludgeoning if you wanted to.

I second the Spear as an excellent Monk weapon. Best starting damage, along with the quarterstaff, and you can THROW them! There's your Monk's (short) ranged weapon.

 

[psychophipps]

Complete agreement from me as well on the Spear. My issue is that Quarterstaff (a Spear sans the pokie bit...no, really) can be used with Polearm Master but the humble Spear gets the shaft (no, the other kind of shaft)...

A DM could probably also be convinced to allow a Jian, aka Tai Chi Sword (use Rapier stats) if you'd rather go with some Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-type sword action.

 

[bid]

A DM could probably also be convinced to allow a Jian, aka Tai Chi Sword (use Rapier stats) if you'd rather go with some Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-type sword action.

A rapier's blade is much narrower. Jian is an arming sword aka shortsword.

 

[psychophipps]

A rapier's blade is much narrower. Jian is an arming sword aka shortsword.

I was waffling between the two but decided on Rapier because they're both primarily thrusting weapons and the Jian is typically too long to be a "short sword". Also, they serve similar purposes in actual fighting with great similarity in technique once you get passed the east/west thing.