D&D 5E Why do Monks only have d8 HP instead of d10 HP?

[Nefermandias]

Recently started a Curse of Strahd game as a Way of Mercy Monk, and... yeah. Really hoping this class becomes fun to play after we hit level 5, but I doubt it will. It feels like I'm having to burn through a limited resource not to do cool stuff, but just to be borderline competent. And the refrain that "well, you don't need to buy gear!" rings a little hollow when money stops mattering in 5E so quickly. Assuming your allies aren't scavenging their armor and weapons off of fallen humanoid enemies early on, in which case money doesn't matter almost from the get-go. And the negative impact of wearing heavy armor rarely comes up in comparison.
They can move quickly... but their movement abilities so rarely matter. It feels like this class was designed with so many ribbons that they forgot to actually give them impactful stuff to do.

Yes, the class is a disconnected mess of things that "feel" cool with no real substance at all.

What makes the situation worse is all the people who seems to be okay with that and always push back when someone complains.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Yes, the class is a disconnected mess of things that "feel" cool with no real substance at all.

What makes the situation worse is all the people who seems to be okay with that and always push back when someone complains.

It would be nice if they moved out the way as half of them do not even care if the monk exists at all let alone wanting it to be good.

 

[billd91]

Yes, the class is a disconnected mess of things that "feel" cool with no real substance at all.

What makes the situation worse is all the people who seems to be okay with that and always push back when someone complains.

Or, shockingly, they have different opinions of what things are "cool" or of "real substance" to do.

It would be nice if they moved out the way as half of them do not even care if the monk exists at all let alone wanting it to be good.

And you know this because... you're the Shadow who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men... or something?

 

[Willie the Duck]

And then what? The problem is the they don't really DO anything with that mobility, unless they get real lucky and stun somebody. After level 5.

With the exception of ranged-character-kiting (or just getting to the melee one round faster), TTRPGs often don't have a lot of things that they do with mobility. It's something of an ongoing problem I have noticed.

 

[JezzaThunderson]

I go another way, giving more offensive power. Unarmed strike damage increases as follows: 2d4 dmg at 4th, 2d6 at 8th, 2d8 at 12th, 2d10 at 16th and 2d12 at 20th.
At 10th level, also allow any 1's or 2's on intial rolls to be re-rolled once, like Great Weapon fighting technique.
This balances the class out nicely (on the whole); the few players I've had found the monk performed comparatively with most martial builds.
However, I only use PHB, Sword Coast AG, and Xanathar's for classes available to PCs, but allow racial mods and spells from Tasha's and other WOTC books.
Cheers

 

[steeldragons]

My initial thought/presumption would be that in either an implicit "nostalgia"/traditions of the game kind of way and an explicit feature of the class concept, that people -both in the game's origins and for 5e's design team- more closely associate the Monk in concept and flavor to a Cleric (who had/used d8s) than a Fighter.

A class than could hold a secondary/supporting role in combat (and with/against magic, whether actual "spells" or special/supernatural type abilities) but that was not intended or supposed to "outshine"/step on the toes of the classes who were supposed to be the "best at fighting" [Fighters, Paladins, Rangers].

There's probably a lot more to it than that...but that seems the obvious Occam's razor to me.

 

[BrokenTwin]

I have an incredibly difficult time articulating why the D&D monk disappoints me so much. I could think of a few easy quality of life changes that I think would really benefit it, but nothing that really solves my core issue of it being so unenjoyable for me despite being the closest thing to style of character I most enjoy playing (supernatural martial artist). Giving the base monk the Way of the Open Hand's Open Hand Technique would go a long way towards making them feel like martial controllers, which I personally think is a good niche for them to occupy separate from the other martial classes. Improve the Unarmored Movement ability so that it imposes Disadvantage on enemy Attacks of Opportunity, and you have a much stronger incentive and ability to stay mobile.

Honestly, 5E as a whole would have worked a lot better if they had taken a page out of Fantasy Craft's book and given each class a "Core Ability" that you only get when you start as that class. Then they'd be able to stop worrying about giving classes fun abilities earlier on that get collected via dipping.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I have an incredibly difficult time articulating why the D&D monk disappoints me so much. I could think of a few easy quality of life changes that I think would really benefit it, but nothing that really solves my core issue of it being so unenjoyable for me despite being the closest thing to style of character I most enjoy playing (supernatural martial artist). Giving the base monk the Way of the Open Hand's Open Hand Technique would go a long way towards making them feel like martial controllers, which I personally think is a good niche for them to occupy separate from the other martial classes. Improve the Unarmored Movement ability so that it imposes Disadvantage on enemy Attacks of Opportunity, and you have a much stronger incentive and ability to stay mobile.

Honestly, 5E as a whole would have worked a lot better if they had taken a page out of Fantasy Craft's book and given each class a "Core Ability" that you only get when you start as that class. Then they'd be able to stop worrying about giving classes fun abilities earlier on that get collected via dipping.

I flat out assume they should move to being a half caster so the mystical martial artist can really shine.

but something unique for each that you can't just multi-class for is a good idea.

 

[BrokenTwin]

I flat out assume they should move to being a half caster so the mystical martial artist can really shine.

I honestly wouldn't object to them using a similar setup to the warlock, but with a more martial bent to the warlock's mage angle. I do worry that the drive to make everything not strictly mundane caster-based is going to lead to the same bland uniformity that people accused early D&D 4E of having.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I honestly wouldn't object to them using a similar setup to the warlock, but with a more martial bent to the warlock's mage angle. I do worry that the drive to make everything not strictly mundane caster-based is going to lead to the same bland uniformity that people accused early D&D 4E of having.

that is a fear yes but I want modularity and half caster-ness at the most like maybe it is the half caster to a point-based psion or something but anything more than that is blasphemous.