D&D 5E (2014) Sticky Grappler Monk Defender

[AverageCitizen]

Monks can attack creatures they are grappling with their full unarmed damage. Anyone with both hands free can grapple two separate creatures. A monk with Grappler gets advantage vs targets they are grappling. A monk with Tavern Brawler can grapple as a bonus action after an unarmed attack.

I really like the idea of a monk grabbing an orc, dragging him over to another, grabbing that one, and then kicking the crap out of both of them.

Also, somewhere in there I think there is a fair defender.

 

[bganon]

Monks have better uses for bonus actions than making a grapple check (which they can already turn one of their regular attacks into).

Stunning Strike and Open Hand Technique already make for a decent defender. They require Ki points, but to take advantage of the Grappler feat you'd really prefer a Str/Con build, which is not great for monks.

 

[miniaturehoarder]

Monks have better uses for bonus actions than making a grapple check (which they can already turn one of their regular attacks into).

But since grapple itself eats up the attack from the attack action, until the monk gets extra attacks, if they grapple, they can't use the bonus attack from martial arts.

When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.

When you want to grab a creature or wrestle with it, you can use the Attack action to make a special melee attack, a grapple. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one o f them.

 

[bganon]

Yeah, at early levels there might be a use for it. I'm not saying that it isn't a neat trick, but Tavern Brawler's other features are pretty useless to a Monk. Grappler isn't too exciting to me either; advantage is nice but not all that hard to get other ways, and the "pinning" ability is terrible (why spend an action to restrain yourself?!). I think Barbarian would be a better class for Grappler and/or Tavern Brawler than Monk.

 

[miniaturehoarder]

and the "pinning" ability is terrible (why spend an action to restrain yourself?!).

Because your allies will be able to massacre what you are pinning AND you are "drawing the foes agro" in a way since if they don't attack you or try to break out, the foe's attacks on your friends are at disadvantage. Sure going for a pin in a crowded battle is a very derpy idea, but against a significant foe it can be quite effective unless one is only thinking of gains for their own character .

 

[bganon]

But to pin you need to grapple (instead of an attack), and then use a separate action, with a second grapple check, to make the pin. I don't think outside of Action Surge that anyone can even do this in a single turn, which means you've spent two turns dealing zero damage (or maybe a little with the bonus attack due to Grappler), during which your target has at least 3 chances to ruin the whole thing (opposing each grapple check and trying to escape on their turn), and they get to use the better of their Str or Dex scores. How many significant foes have bad Str and Dex?

Meanwhile, monks have this thing called Stunning Strike. Which gets added to a regular attack, and if the target fails a single save they're stunned for a round, which is even worse than being pinned. Stunning Strike is better than pinning in every single way other than costing a Ki point. It also uses ability scores that are actually useful for a monk, unlike grappling which really requires good Strength and proficiency in Athletics to be effective.

For a sticky monk, I think much simpler/effective tricks are Stunning Strike + Flurry + Trip attempts (Open Hand), or having some fun with Water Whip (you can even use Fist of Unbroken Air and Water Whip on the same turn, which is pretty awesome).

 

[Mistwell]

Minotaur monk for the win Advantage on shove attempts. Combine with Ki - Flurry of Blows: If you take Open Hand Technique in the Way of the Open Hand tradition, you can convert both of those attacks into free, dex-save-based shove attempts.Combined with your extra attack at level 5, this lead to huge sequences of attacks at low levels. You can grab two enemies and knock both of them prone in one turn.