Some strong options include: Straight out of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is the Way of the Kensei. See Our Complete Way of the Open Hand 5E Guide. This allows you to travel the outer planes freely. Paladin: The +2 to WIS is going to be wasted, except for when you cast your Firbolg Magic spells. At level nine you can run up vertical surfaces or walk on liquids without falling. While the options presented here may be the optimal build for a monk (in my opinion), the beauty of D&D character creation is that the only limit is your imagination so feel free to build your character whichever way you want to. Monk’s use ki, the mystical energy that flows through living bodies, to enhance their physical power. Quivering Palm is a save-or-die effect, plain and simple. The save DC won't match a spellcaster's, but it should be good enough to protect you sometimes. […], Ready for something new on your next ranger build? FirbolgVGTM: A Wisdom increase, and some innate spellcasting which can complement your Monk abilities fairly well. CentaurMOoT: See above under the Races of Ravnica section. Hit Points Hit Dice: 1d8 per monk level Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per monk level after 1st Starting Proficiencies You are proficient with the following items, in addition to any proficiencies provided by your race or background. If it was updated before November 17th, it has not been updated to include the new content. Surprise attack is a nice damage boost, especially at low levels, but it's no better for the Monk than for any other class. During that time you are resistant to all damage but force damage. 1. These are known as ki points. The improved version of Unarmored Movement allows you to move up vertical surfaces like walls, and across the surface of water. I want to play this archetype but I'm having a hard time seeing how to properly use in combat with all its abilities. Obtaining the AC of a full plate set of armor and a shield while shirtless is nothing to sneeze at. However, we have discussed some of the best options below if you go in that direction. Tongue of the Sun and Moon: This would be more helpful if Monks were any good at talking to things. While your backstory does not have to be entirely dependent on your monastery, it usually makes sense for it to play a major role. Often, they seek spiritual growth. All of the following are classfeatures of the monk. Dragonmarked HumanERLW: Dragonmark traits replace ALL of your racial traits. The Monk 5E Class is the ideal warrior, well known among the individuals who want to punch things instead of wounding them or setting them ablaze. In some cases your ki feature requires a saving throw. Class Features. Ranger is another sneaky good option for a monk mulitclass. However, the Way of Shadow Monk can instead fill the role of the party's Rogue-equivalent. AarakocraEGtW: See above under the general Races section. While spells are nice, they eat up ki that could be used on the more powerful monk effects. Learn about them in our Artificer 5E Cantrips Guide. Leviathan Will and the additional skills are great additions, too. The Monk Class Guide For D&D Fifth Edition (5E) Posted on July 3, 2020 July 3, 2020 by admin The Monk 5E Class is the ideal warrior, well known among the individuals who want to punch things instead of wounding them or setting them ablaze. Monks are excellent Defenders and Strikers, and typically fill a role in party as the Fighter-equivalent. In this guide, we will be examining the 5e Monk’s Class Features and how you can optimize your Monk through choosing your Race, Ability Score, Spells, and Feats. November 21, 2020 Jason Toro Gaming, Table Top 0. If you're in a really rough spot, use Wholeness of Body and spend a Ki Point to Dodge as a bonus action. These throws are calculated using: 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier. — thanks for all you hard work! It is an interesting class, but one that can be problematic with an inefficient build. See Our Complete Way of the Long Death Guide. If so, let us know in the comment section! Monk features. What’s more, any creature that understands a language can understand your spoken words. If you're set on Monk/Paladin, I'd go Monk 2 / Paladin X, otherwise, you're giving up too many spell slots. Below we will give you some important pointers when building your monk character. The primary change is that Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger replaces Touch of Death as a secondary DPS cooldown in addition to Storm, Earth, and Fire. When it comes to underappreciated classes, the monk is way up there. Dexterity bonuses are priority 1. Martial Arts: Martial Arts is why you play a Monk. Further to the monk race — I think you meant Aarakocra not Aasimar in STRONG OPTIONS. GoblinGGTR: See above under the general Races section. For the sake of translation you can understand all spoken languages. BugbearERLW: See above under the general Races section. Eventually Monks pick up Diamond Body, giving them proficiency in all saves. LocathahLR: +1 Dexterity is helpful, but Strength is useless for the Monk and the Locathah's Natural Armor isn't good enough to reduce your reliance on Wisdom. Timeless Body: Almost never matters in-game. These monks can pull from air, fire, earth and water to cast these spells as they swiftly move through the battlefield. That said, we have covered some of the best and worst fits below. Sound intriguing? You reduce the damage from these attacks by 1d10 plus your dexterity modifier plus your monk level. HumanPHB: Versatile and fantastic at everything. Dragonborn: Wildemount presents two new Dragonborn variants, each replacing the standard Dragonborn's ability score increases and damage resistance. Monastic Tradition: Monk subclasses are briefly summarized below. Now, monks can get more powerful weapons, … There are countless feats in 5E, and many of them are beneficial across the board. Simic HybridGGTR: Fantastic and versatile, and Animal Enhancement can provide useful options to fill gaps in the Monk's skillset. If your campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms, there are dozens of monastic orders to choose from. In DnD 5e, the monk Way of the Drunken Master is a fun, maneuverable martial artists who plays the fool. While there are a lot of customization options for monks, they generally serve as frontline fighters. ... those who are decrying the power of Monks claim that the Monk can't do damage, and is so-so at combat maneuvers and therefore doesn't effectively contribute to combat like they should. We discuss these in-depth below. That's not a lot of gear, and weirdly doesn't include clothing. The gap never closes. It reaches 30 feet at level 18. This article will focus primarily on content from the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Player’s Handbook, but will also delve into some of the content in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. The DnD 5e Monk Guide Published on June 25, 2020, Last modified on July 15th, 2020 In this guide, we will be examining the 5e Monk’s Class Features and how you can optimize your Monk through choosing your Race, Ability Score, Spells, and Feats. You can use it as a reaction to reduce fall damage equal to five times your monk level. Lvl 9 . ShifterERLW: Darkvision is great, but the Monk is heavily reliant on their Bonus Action for things like Martial Arts, so Shifting is a difficult proposition when the benefits do so little for the Monk. GoblinEGtW: See above under the general Races section. Please be patient while these changes are made. Dungeons & Dragons: Best Monk Builds. Because the expanded spell options are such an important part of the dragonmarks, if you're not playing a spellcaster you're giving up a huge part of your racial traits, which makes it exceptionally difficult to justify playing a dragonmark character who can't cast spells. You regain all of your ki points after a long or short rest, just as long as you spend 30 minutes of that rest meditating. Your unarmed strike damage also increases at Level 5, which makes this potent. Monk 5. MinotaurMOoT: See above under the general Races section. Tranquility gives you the option of being a pacifist. We cover everything from the basics all the way to min-maxing techniques to optimize your survivability. Well, no. Welcome to our in-depth video guide to the Monk class in Dungeons and Dragons 5e! But the Monk does offer a variety of of interesting features bundled together with a cool system for unarmed combat. Playstyle? That said, there are a few options that are great for a single dip. Did we miss anything with our Monk 5E guide? Tiefling: Vanilla Tieflings aren't great as Monks simply due to their ability scores, but look at Feral. This means that they’re agile enough to give and avoid a couple of blows. So many of the other classes are either a weird ability fit or have overlapping abilities that multiclassing your monk isn’t always wise. I will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, even if it is my own, because I can't assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. Evasion helps to mitigate the damage, which is great since you don't have the Fighter's d10 hit points. This is a good fit, and ranger has some useful options. In fact later you list Aasimar as being of LIMITED VALUE. With most classes, the class features are the base but the subclass features are what really make a character sing. Many of these subclasses make an effort to address these flaws, but few do it adequately. Feats? The Best 3D Printer for D&D Miniatures in 2020 | Our Top Picks, Way of the Drunken Master 5E Guide | Rules, Tips, Builds, and More, With the Archfey Warlock, Wizards of the Coast was shooting for a utility spellcaster. Unfortuntely, these blasts are underpowered unless you spend a lot of ki. The class is well-balanced, and mixes in a useful crowd control ability and a huge damage dealing option at level 17. Probably the closest thing to a trap class 5e has. Not a lot of reasons to take more than two levels, however. However, you need to take at least 2 levels to be worth it. Monk 5th Edition D&D is magnificent protectors and strikers, and normally fill a jobRead More The Monk Class Guide For D&D Fifth Edition (5E) Traditions – Monk Subclasses. A Monk’s Guide To 5e: A Few Simple Things Every Monk Should Know In Dungeons And Dragons. If you missed my previous article on the Fighter just click here.Today we are going in the dojo with the monk!As before I want to take up some space and talk about the class as a whole. Posted by. They learn techniques to push and trip their opponents, manipulate ki to heal damage to their bodies, and practice advanced meditation that can protect them from harm. At level three, your monk will select a subclass known as a monastic tradition. Learn more with our Swarmkeeper 5E Guide! As dexterity should always be your top priority, your monk could avoid a lot of AOE damage. Heirlooms provide extra gear bonuses like increased experience and useful effects! Most of the weapons you use as a monk will rely on Dex for attack rolls. December 21, 2020 by Jared Rigsby. After spending a level being a martial artist, we now get Ki and we start to really feel like a monk. It gives your monk the ability to blast Dragonball Z style energy attacks at range, which in theory should address some issues with the class. Con: With only 1d8 hit points, Constitution is very important for the Monk. Hit Dice: 1d8 per monk level Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per monk level after 1st Proficiencies. With no Intelligence or Charisma, stay far away from Face skills and Knowledge skills, and Languages are basically worthless. If you opt not to use the starting gold by level method, you begin with a very small amount of equipment. Stillness of Mind is better than you might except. Perfect Self dramatically improves every aspect of a monk. Posts Monk 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Mystical Combat. You want to end your turn on solid ground, but between the Monk's increased speed, Step of the Wind, and Dash, you can run 135 ft. straight up a wall in one turn. See my Monk Subclasses Breakdown for help selecting your subclass. By this level enemies with resistance to weapon damage from non-magical attacks are increasingly common, and since unarmed strikes aren't a weapon they can't benefit from spells like Magic Weapon. Lvl 10 . Unarmed combat in 5E is not particularly fleshed out, and you can play through without having a specific form of martial art in mind for your character. Monk weapons deal their base damage or your Martial Arts damage, whichever is greater, which makes weapons a very good choice for Monks. Unarmored Defense with the ability scores we selected gives you and AC of 16, matching a fighter in heavy armor. Taking a dip into rogue suddenly makes that subclass pretty strong. Not every setting allows every race, and while most races presented in the core rules and in content for the Forgotten Realms can be used in other settings, races specific to settings like Ravnica aren't typically allowed in other settings. Monk 5e Class Guide: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/blogs/dnd/the-ultimate-monk-class-guide-5e WHAT'S THE BEST BUILD FOR A MONK IN DnD 5E? Each time you roll for initiative and have no ki points remaining, you regain 4 ki points. WarforgedERLW: Constitution and a flexible increase work great, and the bonus AC will allow you to reach an AC of 21 totally unequipped. None of the backgrounds included in the Basic Rules work especially well for the Monk, unfortunately. Lvl 8 . What’s more, when you fail a saving throw you can spend a ki point to reroll. While some races are better than others, you can make any of them work with the Monk class if you really want to. If the monastery was more altruistic, you could be a reluctant traveler seeking something to bring back to your people. KenkuEGtW: See above under the general Races section. Talk to your DM about what races are allowed in your game. Guide to Building a Monk Way of the Four Elements: DnD 5e. Stats 3. Open Hand Technique offers some fun tactical options. With Diamond Soul, you gain proficiency at all saving throws. So Dex will be your most important ability. Useful in some cases, but cool in every situation. Dragonmarked Half-OrcERLW: Dragonmark traits replace ALL of your racial traits. Follow this guide to discover how to best optimize the skills, weapons, features, and abilities for a D&D 5e Monk class character build. A spear will probably be your best weapon. You only have 2 points, and while they recharge on a short rest, you probably can't afford to use them every round. When going for the best possible monk build for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, there are a few guidelines to remember that'll make it easy. They typically are being used as fighters only who love to blast fire roars from its mouth by engulfing its foes. Monk 7. However, there are a few aspects of all monks that can play an important role in how you develop your character.