D&D 5E Monk's Flurry of Blows questions

[Li Shenron]

I am confused by the exact wording of the Monk's Flurry of Blows ability...

You can make 2 unarmed attacks (separate rolls, it seems) with one attack action, but you can also spend 1 ki point to get a third attack.

But can you spend multiple ki points to get even more additional attacks?

The text is unclear because it doesn't say you can only use this once per round. In general, it seems possible to spend multiple ki points in the same round to activate different abilities (e.g. spend 1 ki to activate Supreme Flurry advantage + spend 1 ki to get Flurry of Blows additional attack + spend 1 ki for Step of the Wind bonus speed) but it's not clear if you can spend e.g. 2 ki to get two additional attacks.

It does get into a not-so-reasonable situation where a 20th level Monk could spend all her 8 ki points in the same round and get 11 attacks, although then she would be empty of ki points and needs to wait 10 rounds to build the ki back and use the same trick again.

 

[the Jester]

It does get into a not-so-reasonable situation where a 20th level Monk could spend all her 8 ki points in the same round and get 11 attacks, although then she would be empty of ki points and needs to wait 10 rounds to build the ki back and use the same trick again.

I'm not sure how the designers intend this to work, but for a 20th level monk, this sounds fine to me. After all, how many kung-fu flicks have you seen where the master kung-fu fighter takes out an entire dojo as they rush at him?

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm not sure how the designers intend this to work, but for a 20th level monk, this sounds fine to me. After all, how many kung-fu flicks have you seen where the master kung-fu fighter takes out an entire dojo as they rush at him?

It doesn't bother me that much either, but I can imagine a huge uproar against it.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Flurry of Blows was listed in a recent article as one of the things they labelled as an "extra action" which will be limited to 1 per round in the final rules.

 

[1of3]

Flurry of Blows was listed in a recent article as one of the things they labelled as an "extra action" which will be limited to 1 per round in the final rules.

That doesn't solve the problem at hand though. Even if you call the Flurry class feature an Extra Action, it's clear you cannot combine it with Extra Attacks from Fighter or Two-Weapon Fighting or that Rogue feature. We still don't know how Flurry works.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

That doesn't solve the problem at hand though. Even if you call the Flurry class feature an Extra Action, it's clear you cannot combine it with Extra Attacks from Fighter or Two-Weapon Fighting or that Rogue feature. We still don't know how Flurry works.

Extra attacks from a fighter are not considered an extra action so you can combine the two, though that isn't important.

My reading of the class feature is the feature says(with the new "rule): "Spend 1 ki to make an additional unarmed attack as part of your action. This counts as an extra action. You may not take more than one extra action per round."

In which case, you could not activate the class feature more than once, since doing so would be doing two extra actions per round. Given the entire point of the "extra actions" rule is to prevent anyone from getting more than 1 additional attack, I would assume that would apply in this situation as well.

 

[Li Shenron]

My reading of the class feature is the feature says(with the new "rule): "Spend 1 ki to make an additional unarmed attack as part of your action. This counts as an extra action. You may not take more than one extra action per round."

Well, if they reword it like that, then there is no ambiguity.

My problem was that currently it just says "as a part of the same action".

Honestly, I don't care much which of the 2 possibilities the designers will choose in the final product, but if they go for "no stacking", I really think that it would be a lot better to just keep the wording as it is now and simply add "you can't spend more than 1 ki points to get more than 1 additional attack in the same turn". That would be very clear. Instead, trying to express the limitation in terms of "extra actions" adds complexity, is open to errors (there is stuff around the game granting extra actions, not necessarily the designers would want them to work with FoB), and it still not going to be clear for everybody.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Well, if they reword it like that, then there is no ambiguity.

My problem was that currently it just says "as a part of the same action".

Honestly, I don't care much which of the 2 possibilities the designers will choose in the final product, but if they go for "no stacking", I really think that it would be a lot better to just keep the wording as it is now and simply add "you can't spend more than 1 ki points to get more than 1 additional attack in the same turn". That would be very clear. Instead, trying to express the limitation in terms of "extra actions" adds complexity, is open to errors (there is stuff around the game granting extra actions, not necessarily the designers would want them to work with FoB), and it still not going to be clear for everybody.

It's fairly clear to me. In D&D Next there are only 2 different types of actions: Things that take your action and things that don't. Attacks always take your action. You only get 1 action a turn.

However, there are a couple of class features that let you ADD to your action. You have to have already taken an action to be able to use them. They just modify your action. Things like Two-Weapon Fighting and Flurry of Blows are two of these. When you attack, you also get to add another attack.

I agree that the original text was a little unclear as to whether you could use ALL the "addition actions" in the same round or use some of them(like Ki Focus) more than once. So some people were saying "I attack. Oh, I'm using two fists for an extra attack, I'm flurrying so I get an additional attack and I use a Ki for an additional attack, I'm a fighter so I make an additional attack, then I use my rogue ability to move an extra time."

I think it's fairly clear to say "All of these abilities(except the fighter extra attack) are 'additional actions'. No matter what you do, you can't take more than one a turn. Essentially, you can make ONE attack plus whichever one ability you want to modify it." That just stops all stacking and abuse of the system in one line that doesn't require a complicated explanation in each ability.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I'm pretty sure the intention is to cap it at one: "you can spend 1 ki point to make an additional unarmed attack". (Compare the alternative: spending 1 ki point for each additional unarmed attack you wish to make).

However, it would stack with Supreme flurry -- so you can have advantage on all three attacks for 2 ki points (at second level).

 

[GX.Sigma]

I'm pretty sure the intention is to cap it at one: "you can spend 1 ki point to make an additional unarmed attack". (Compare the alternative: spending 1 ki point for each additional unarmed attack you wish to make).

That's what I thought too, but look at the next sentence: "You can decide to spend this point after seeing the result of the previous attack." That seems to imply that you can spend a point for an extra attack, resolve that attack, decide whether you want to spend another point, and so on.