The Monk is one of the few classes to get multiple subclasses in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. While the Way of Long Death was never reprinted (for good reason, I'll contend,) the other subclass, the Way of the Sun Soul, did get a reprint in Xanathar's. As we're trying to go chronological here, I'm actually going to put it before the other Xanthar options.
The Sun Soul monk is practically the opposite of the Way of Shadow. If you want to blast foes with bolts of radiant energy like Captain Marvel, this seems to be the subclass for you.
At level 3, you get Radiant Sun Bolt. You get a new attack action, which is a ranged spell attack with a range of 30 feet. You are proficient in it, and you add your Dex modifier to attack and damage rolls. The damage is radiant, and it levels up in die just like your unarmed strikes, starting with a d4. When you take the attack action and use this attack on your turn, you can spend a ki point to make the attack twice as a bonus action (basically letting you Flurry of Blows with it.) Also, when you get Extra Attack, you can use this for either of your two attacks.
Parsing this, it seems that you do not get to make your usual free bonus action attack with this, but otherwise this works just like a normal unarmed strike, except for its damage type and range. Having free, on-demand radiant damage as a class that is not a Cleric or a level 11+ paladin is amazing if your campaign involves zombies, vampires, or other radiant-averse creatures. Note, however, that you cannot use Stunning Strike with these attacks, which require it be a melee attack.
At level 6, you get Searing Arc Strike. After you take the attack action, you can spend 2 ki points to cast Burning Hands as a bonus action. You can spend additional ki points to upcast the spell, increasing its level by 1 for each ki point spent. The max number of ki points (including the initial 2) you can spend is half your monk level. So, by level 20, you could cast this at 9th level, which would be 11d6. Practically speaking, this is just giving you an AoE option if you're facing a lot of foes, and as such I think is kind of situational, but nice to have.
At level 11, you get Searing Sunburst. As an action, you can create an orb of light and hurl it at a point you choose within 150 feet, where it erupts. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a Con save or take 2d6 radiant damage, though if they're behind total, opaque cover, they automatically succeed. You can increase this damage by spending ki points, to a maximum of 3, which ups the damage by 2d6 per ki point. While at max this is a base-level fireball that doesn't spread around cover and allows people to save for no damage, the fact that you can toss these for free at low damage is pretty nice (though 2d6 is pretty pitiful at level 11, so you'll basically always want to spend some ki on it.)
At level 17, you get Sun Shield. You naturally shed bright light in a 30-ft radius and dim light for another 30 feet. You can extinguish this or restore it as a bonus action. If a creature hits you with a melee attack while the light is shining, you can use a reaction to deal radiant damage equal to 5 + your Wisdom modifier. At level 17, you probably aren't in need of a Light spell, though the RP possibilities of glowing like a giant floodlight could be cool. The ability to damage attackers is nice.
I think overall that the level 3 feature here is the best selling point of the subclass, but the latter abilities are a little underwhelming. Moving on.
The Way of the Drunken Master is, flavor-wise, one of if not my favorite monk subclass. Drunken Boxing, most famously popularized by Jackie Chan, is a style of martial arts that looks utterly ridiculous, and also... probably never saw serious use in actual combat. But the principles behind it are really cool - where you maintain an unpredictable flow to your movements like that of a drunkard. This is one of the subclasses in D&D I've played the most, getting a Drunken Master monk to level 12 in Adventurer's League, and I really enjoy it.
At level 3, you first get bonus proficiencies: you get the Performance skill, and proficiency in brewer's supplies.
You also get Drunken Technique: when you use Flurry of Blows, you gain the benefit of the Disengage action and your walking speed increases by 10 feet until the end of your current turn. This is great for allowing you to get in, land some hits, and then get out before your foes can retaliate.
At level 6, you get Tipsy Sway. This has two benefits. Leap to Your Feet lets you spend just 5 feet of movement to stand up instead of half your speed (which is already a lot because you're a monk.) You also get Redirect Attack - if a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can spend 1 ki point as a reaction to have that attack hit another creature of your choice within 5 feet of you. This is maybe the crown jewel of the subclass - if you get a decently high AC and put yourself between two things that make really nasty hits (maybe use Patient Defense to be harder to hit,) you can potentially have that Iron Golem hit the other Iron Golem with its nasty attack. Pure Jackie Chan move.
At level 11, you get Drunkard's Luck. If you make an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw and have disadvantage, you can spend 2 ki points to cancel the disadvantage. Now, this, on the other hand, is so weirdly narrow. I'd love if it did something like give you advantage, but no.
At level 17, you get Intoxicated Frenzy. When you use Flurry of Blows, you can make up to three additional attacks with it (meaning 5 total, which then means 7 total in that turn with the attack action) as long as each Flurry of Blows attack targets a different creature this turn. This! This is the kind of high level BS you want to see. While this will not let you go hogwild on the boss, if you're up against a big swarm, you can get a lot of hits in. And remember, with Drunken Technique, you're already disengaging, and also, each of those hits can potentially be a Stunning Strike (though you'll have to spend a total of 8 ki points that turn to pull it off.) On a good turn, this can absolutely wreck a mob of enemies.
While not every feature is a big winner, I really like the Drunken Master. The only glaring oversight here is that a Drunken Master should be able to treat improvised weapons like monk weapons. Ultimate tavern brawler.
Finally, from Xanathar's, we come to the Way of the Kensei. While Monks are famed for their unarmed combat capabilities, the Kensei says "well, hold on, what if my monastic practice revolves around weapon training?"
At level 3, you get Path of the Kensei, which has a few features. Overall, it likens your fighting style to the painting and calligraphy.
You get Kensei Weapons. You choose two weapons, one melee, one ranged. Each weapon can be any simple or martial weapon without the heavy or special properties. Longbow is also considered acceptable, despite being heavy. You gain proficiency with the weapons if you aren't already. And they count as monk weapons for you. At level 6, 11, and 17, you can choose additional weapon types to be your Kensei weapons as long as they fit the same criteria. (Great for if you get a super-cool magic longsword or something.)
You also get Agile Parry. If you make an unarmed strike as part of the attack action and are holding a kensei weapon, you can use it to defend yourself if it is a melee weapon, gaining +2 to AC until the start of your next turn as long as you're holding the weapon and you aren't incapacitated. (So, of course, once you get Extra Attack, you can make one with the weapon and one with your fist and still get this.)
You also get Kensei's Shot. You can use a bonus action on your turn to increase the damage of your ranged kensei weapon for this turn by 1d4, and this benefit continues until the end of the turn. (So, if you use this, your Longbow becomes 1d8+1d4+Dex, or actually 1d10+1d4+Dex by level 17, and that goes for both attacks.)
Finally, you get Way of the Brush, which gives you proficiency in your choice of calligraphy or painter's supplies.
Phew, that's a lot at level 3. Naturally, this is going to be the core of the class. A Monk that can do decently at range is pretty great. Also, if you're using firearms in your campaign, you can be a cowboy monk with a revolver, which is awesome.
At level 6, you get One with the Blade. This has two benefits:
Magic Kensei Weapons: your attacks with your kensei weapons are magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunities. This is great, even if you hopefully have magic weapons by this level. But basically, like any monks, at level 6 you're never going to have to worry about that again.
You also get Deft Strike. When you hit a target with a kensei weapon, you can spend 1 ki to cause the weapon to deal extra damage equal to your martial arts die. You can do this only once per turn. Being able to turn any hit into a crit, effectively, is pretty damn cool.
At level 11, you get Sharpen the Blade. As a bonus action, you can expend up to 3 ki points to grant one kensei weapon a bonus to attack and damage rolls when you attack with it, equal to the ki spent. The bonus lasts for 1 minute or until you use this feature again. This does not work on magic weapons that already have a bonus like this. So, while you can't make anything into a +6 weapon, the fact that you can, for 3 ki, turn your weapon into a +3 weapon is pretty cool. This is, of course, dependent on how generous your DM has been with magic items, but at level 11 it's very rare to get anything beyond a +1, maybe +2 weapon - being able to say "nah, this one's a +3 one" right before a boss fight has the potential to be pretty great.
Finally, at level 17, you get Unerring Accuracy. If you miss with an attack roll using a monk weapon, you can reroll it. You can only use this once per turn. So, basically, you have on-demand advantage for these attacks. I wouldn't say this is a flashy ability, but the fact that it's free and can be used once a turn is definitely going to help.
The Kensei has really solid fundamentals, and I like that it also empowers the use of ranged weapons. Nothing here is useless, and it creates a monk who cares a lot more about the magic weapons they might find in dungeon hoards.
So, there we have part two of our Monk subclass review. Next time, we'll be looking at the subclasses out of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and the not-yet-released-as-of-this-post Fizban's Treasury of Dragons (reviewing the UA version, in the expectation that not much will change.)
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