Opinions on potential Lizardfolk Open Hand Monk build

[CTurbo]

I've been wanting to play a Lizardfolk Monk for a long time, and have been waiting until I roll good stats to do so since it doesn't give a +2 to Dex, and now I have a chance.


Stats are 18, 17, 16, 15, 13, 12. The DM has said I could turn the 12 into an 8 if I want to, and yes I think I may want to so I can put 8 in Cha. Details below.


So am envisioning this guy as somebody who does NOT "get" common humanoids, has a hard time fitting in, and is basically pretty terrible in social situations. That's why I thought putting an 8 in Cha would be appropriate. Would it matter? I think 12 is too high for his Cha.


I would take the Outlander background and he would be LN. He would maybe carry a Javelin or two but would otherwise NOT use weapons ever and would maybe not even bother with clothing. Is that appropriate for Lizardfolk? I don't even know.


Obviously I would start 18 Dex, 18 Con, and 18 Wis with Cha getting the lowest score. I was originally going to put the 15 in Str, but maybe the 15 would be better in Int. I like the idea of him being much smarter than normal especially about Nature, but it wouldn't make any sense for him to know anything about Arcana. Guess it doesn't really matter too much.


So the thing I'm looking most forward to with this build is using his bite as his main attack and using his tail to tailwhip enemies. I just LOVE the idea of him knocking enemies around with his tail using Open Hand technique.


I get a free feat to start with which I would almost certainly use to take Mobile, but I'm open to other suggestions here.
Level 4 would be +2 Dex, and level 8 would be +2 Wis. If we were to make it to level 12, I'm not sure what other feat I'd want.
Alert and Lucky are always great for any character and this one would be no different.
I think Ritual Caster(Druid probably) would add a lot of needed utility, but not sure about him doing magic.
Tough is boring but effective.
Observant is nice and would round out his Int score.
Brawny would round out his Str and expertise in Athletics would make him a pretty good grappler. I like the idea of him grappling with his bite. He could still make unarmed attacks while holding something in his mouth. I can see him biting, grappling, and dragging off an enemy with his boosted speed, and then tailwhipping any other enemy that tries to get near him.
Sentinel is a solid feat choice. Monks get a lot of reaction possibilities but being able to attack with reaction is always nice.
Martial Adept is usually really weak IMO but Lunging attack would be fun for a 10ft reach tailwhip.
I forget about Mage Slayer, but that's a pretty decent pick for Monks with high stats.


Any other feat I'm missing?






Another idea I had, would be sacrificing my stun/open hand technique save DC for flavor and starting with a single level of Barbarian before going and staying Monk.


I would be a Str Monk and use the Barb's unarmored defense. I could start 18 Str, 18 Dex, 18 Con, and 16 Wis if I took any feat that grants +1 Str or Dex as my free feat. Brawny or Athlete come to mind. I'd bump Str at level 4 and Wis at level 8. I'd lose out on Mobile for a long time, put off extra attack 1 level, and lose 1 ki point, but other than, and be -1 on the save DC, taking a level of Barb and going Str>Dex does not hurt me in any other way.


Why would I want to do this? Well I just love the idea of this guy having access to rage twice a day. I love the idea of him going into a what I envision being a feeding frenzy. I can see him grappling an enemy and just eating them alive. Of course damage resistance is just the icing on the cake. But yeah this would be mostly for flavor and thematics instead of a pure optimization move. I can see a case for a second level of Barb at some point for Danger Sense and Reckless Attack, but I don't think Monks multiclass well and you'll start to really miss the ki lost by doing so. Admittedly 3 levels of Elk Totem Barb would be pretty cool for a Monk with the extra 15ft movement while raging, but yeah I'd probably keep it to one level of Barb.


What do you think of a potential Barb level? I know I could go Barb and still go Dex>Str but I think if I do bother doing this, I may as well take advantage of the bonus rage damage. +2 to damage for each attack is pretty decent for a Monk that get's a lot of attacks.


Have I missed anything? Does this sound like a good character?

 

[Blue]

Just a side note so you don't accidentally shoot yourself in the food - if you have the Barbarian Unarmored Defense at 1st, you don't also get the Monk one when you later take a your first Monk level. (Listed under Multiclassing in the PHB.) So you'll never be a 10+DEX+WIS AC, just a 10+DEX+CON. With your rolled scores it shouldn't make much difference, just so you can make an informed decision.

 

[CTurbo]

Just a side note so you don't accidentally shoot yourself in the food - if you have the Barbarian Unarmored Defense at 1st, you don't also get the Monk one when you later take a your first Monk level. (Listed under Multiclassing in the PHB.) So you'll never be a 10+DEX+WIS AC, just a 10+DEX+CON. With your rolled scores it shouldn't make much difference, just so you can make an informed decision.

Thanks for that. I thought that when presented with multiple AC calculations, you got to pick between the options. So basically you do NOT gain the Monk's unarmored defense at all by multiclassing into the class? I didn't realize that, but luckily this is not a big deal at all as it would only ever at best make a +1 difference anyway.

 

[Blue]

Thanks for that. I thought that when presented with multiple AC calculations, you got to pick between the options. So basically you do NOT gain the Monk's unarmored defense at all by multiclassing into the class? I didn't realize that, but luckily this is not a big deal at all as it would only ever at best make a +1 difference anyway.

You would normally gain the monk Unarmed Defense when multiclassing into it, except that under the multiclassing rules there's a specific section about Unarmored Defense that says once you have it from one class you don't get it from the other.

So if you took Monk before Barbarian, you'd only have the Monk Unarmored Defense. And vice versa. But you could take other classes before either and still pick it up the first time it comes around via multiclassing.