Rounding out the final (for now, of course) roster of Monk subclasses, we have the options out of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and the upcoming Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. For the latter one, I'll be reviewing the Unearthed Arcana version of the subclass, so bear in mind that it is subject to change.
Starting it off, we have the Way of the Astral Self. While high-level monks do eventually get to cast Astral Projection on themselves for a boatload of ki points, this subclass takes that focus on the power of the mind and puts it front and center. While monks should generally prioritize both Dexterity and Wisdom, Astral Self monks might actually consider pushing Wisdom to 20 before Dex - if they can afford the ki points, that is. The concept here is that you use your ki to summon the astral version of yourself - the kind of "true self" composed entirely of thought, and as you level up, you can get more parts of that self summoned. This is a great chance to be creative, as your astral self might look very different from your physical body.
At level 3, you get Arms of the Astral Self. As a bonus action, you can spend 1 ki to summon the arms, which take the form of spectral arms hovering near your shoulders or surrounding your physical arms. They last 10 minutes and vanish early if you are incapacitated or die. When you summon them, creatures of your choice within 10 feet of you that you can see must make a Dexterity saving throw or take force damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die.
While you have the spectral arms out, you get the following benefits:
You can use Wisdom instead of Strength when making Strength checks or Strength saving throws.
You can use the arms to make unarmed strikes.
When you make an unarmed strike with the arms on your turn, its reach is increased by 5 feet (weird that this doesn't work for opportunity attacks).
And your unarmed strikes you make with the arms can use your Wisdom modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity for the attack and damage rolls, and their damage is force.
So, looking at all of this: the arms are pretty great to have, though they will cost a ki to summon (this is a theme.) Luckily, the ki you spend to summon it also does this immediate AoE burst attack (which also compensates you for the lost bonus action.) Extra reach means being able to attack without getting in melee range with most monsters, and if you pump everything into Wisdom, you'll have the chance to use a much better stat than you're likely to have. Now, the thing I'm really curious about is whether using Wisdom for a Strength save still uses the monk's proficiency in Strength saving throws. This becomes irrelevant by level 14, but before then, it could make a big difference.
At level 6, you get Visage of the Astral Self. As a bonus action, or as part of the bonus action to activate the Arms of the Astral Self, you can spend 1 ki point to summon this visage for 10 minutes, which also ends early if you're incapacitated or die. While the visage is up, you get the following:
Astral Sight: you can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
Wisdom of the Spirit: You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Charisma (Intimidation) checks.
Word of the Spirit: When you speak, you can direct your words to a creature of your choice within 60 feet of you, making it so that only they can hear you. Alternatively, you can amplify your voice so that all creatures within 600 feet can hear you.
Interestingly, much of this is actually fairly social-focused, though Devil's Sight can be very useful in the heat of battle. Word of the Spirit can also be great for communicating while you need to remain hidden.
At level 11, you get Body of the Astral Self. When you summon both your astral arms and astral visage, you can cause your astral body to also appear (no extra ki or action required.) The body covers your physical form while arms and visage are present. While active, you get the following benefits:
Deflect Energy: When you take acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, or thunder damage, you can use your reaction to deflect it. When you do the damage you take is reduced by 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1.)
Empowered Arms: Once on each of your turns when you hit with the Arms of the Astral Self, you can deal extra damage equal to your Martial Arts die.
So, you can basically deflect missiles against magic (and it doesn't have to be an attack - you can do this with a dragon's fire breath) and then you can choose to crit once a turn (and maybe you can double-crit if you actually roll a Nat 20?) While I could imagine leaving off the Visage in certain fights prior to level 11, you'll want to do both when you reach level 11 to take advantage of these very good features.
At level 17, you get Awakened Astral Self. As a bonus action, you can spend 5 ki points to summon the arms, visage, and body and awaken it for 10 minutes, ending early if you're incapacitated or die. While awakened, your astral self gives you the following benefits:
Armor of the Spirit: You gain +2 to Armor Class.
Astral Barrage: When you use the Extra Attack feature to attack twice, you can instead attack three times if all the attacks are made with your Astral Arms.
So, on one hand, this is a big expenditure of ki points. On the other hand, getting an extra attack per turn and effectively a shield are pretty good bonuses (by this level you hopefully have an AC of 20 from Unarmored Defense and then maybe a pair of Bracers of Defense to make it 22. Add a cloak and ring of protection and you're starting to look mighty hard to hit.)
Overall, I think that this does a lot of very cool things. The one downside is that every feature requires you to spend ki on them instead of other monk things. The cost isn't enormous (at least until you get the level 17 feature, though by that point you do have a lot of ki points to spend) but given that these do nothing if you don't spend the ki on them when the fighting starts, it will require some careful resource management. On the other hand, if you prioritize Wisdom over Dexterity, you'll likely have more foes failing against Stunning Strike, which could wind up saving you more ki points.
Next, we have the Way of Mercy. This is a really interesting take on giving monks some healing capabilities, along with making them spooky as hell.
Tangent: when I was 8 years old, my family went on a month-long road trip through Europe. We stopped in Venice, and my parents had a rather romantic notion that the best way to experience the city would be to walk around it late at night. Venice is known for its masks, and one in particular, the "bauta," which was historically worn by Venetian senators to allow them to vote anonymously, was often on display in mask shops with a single bright light illuminating a mannequin wearing the mask along with, as tradition dictates, a black cloak and a black tricorne hat. And these mask displays spooked the shit out of 8-year-old me (it didn't help that my older sister, whom I love dearly despite this, would sing a spooky song that was popular on the radio that summer whenever we saw them). However, as I grew older and I sort of appropriated that imagery as something I like to use in fiction I write.
Point is: these monks would totally wear that mask, though probably more likely the also-famous plague doctor mask, which was a genuine attempt at a medical mask but from an era before we had the microbe theory of disease (and thus people thought that "miasmas," which more or less meant bad smells, were what caused disease to spread.)
Anyway, big tangent aside: what do these spooky but helpful monks bring?
At level 3, you get Instruments of Mercy, gaining proficiency in Insight and Medicine, and the herbalism kit. You also get the aforementioned mask, which you "often wear" when using the features of this subclass. Pure flavor, but pure awesome.
You also get Hand of Healing. As an action, you can spend 1 ki point to touch a creature and restore hit points equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die + your Wisdom modifier. If you use Flurry of Blows, you can replace one of the unarmed strikes with a use of this feature without spending a ki point for the healing.
Additionally, you get Hand of Harm. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 1 ki point to deal extra necrotic damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die + your Wisdom modifier. You can do this only once per turn.
So: there's the core of it. You can either heal (even in the flurry of combat - in fact, it almost seems to encourage you to use Hand of Healing while doing a Flurry of Blows) or pump a pretty significant amount of extra damage into a strike. Remember that you can heal yourself with Hand of Healing, so in essence this gives you a little bit of extra survivability.
At level 6, you get Physician's Touch. When you use Hand of Healing on a creature, you can also end one disease or one of the following conditions affecting them: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, poisoned, or stunned. Also, when you use Hand of Harm, you can subject the creature to the poisoned condition until the end of your next turn.
Obviously, clearing status effects as a bonus is great, but the ability to inflict the poisoned status on a hit, rather than on a save, can be very useful. While a lot of creatures are fully immune to the condition, anyone who isn't will automatically get poisoned, which is a pretty huge deal in combat if they're trying to make attack rolls.
At level 11, you get Flurry of Healing and Harm. When you use Flurry of Blows, you can now replace both of the unarmed strikes with Hand of Healing, without spending ki points for any of the healing. In addition, when you make an unarmed strike with Flurry of Blows, you can use Hand of Harm on that strike without spending any extra ki - though you still can only use it once per turn.
This really makes the whole class significantly more efficient. Unless you worry about being able to hit the target, this means you can basically always just Flurry of Blows if you want to do Hand of Harm. And this then doubles the healing-per-ki of Hand of Healing.
Finally, at level 17, you get Hand of Ultimate Mercy. As an action, you can touch the corpse of a creature that died within the past 24 hours and expend 5 ki points. The creature returns to life and regains hit points equal to 4d10 + your Wisdom modifier. If the creature died while blinded, deafened, paralyzed, poisoned, or stunned, this removes them. And once you use this, you can't until you finish a long rest.
I mean, it's a resurrection. It's material-component-free resurrection. It's a single action and heals the target for about 27 hit points. And you're a monk.
Yes, my overall assessment of Way of Mercy is that the features are pretty simple, but it's a simple concept executed elegantly. I really want to play one. You're not going to be able to replace a Cleric or Druid (or Divine Soul Sorcerer) as the party's primary healer, but you can do a lot to make their job easier, and if the healer goes down (and you're high enough level,) you can be the one to bring them back.
Finally, we get into a bit of prognostication. Let's look at the yet-to-be-officially-released Way of the Ascendant Dragon.
This is, of course, the dragon-themed subclass. I think there are a lot of cool ways to flavor this - I think I'd have the grandmaster of my monastery be a dragon in humanoid form. Let's see what they get.
At level 3, you get Draconic Disciple. When you damage a target with an unarmed strike, you can change the damage to acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. You also learn Draconic if you didn't know it already. Also, if you fail a Charisma (Intimidation) or Charisma (Persuasion) check, you can use your reaction to reroll the check. Once this turns a failure into a success, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Additionally at level 3, you get Breath of the Dragon. When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of the attacks with an exhalation of draconic energy. You choose a 20-foot cone or a 30x5 foot line, and a damage type (from acid, cold, fire lightning, or poison). Creatures in the area have to make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, they take that damage type equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts dice, or half as much on a success. At level 11, the damage increases to three rolls.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining these uses if you finish a long rest. While you're out of uses, you can spend 1 ki to use it again.
First off: dragon breath is fun. While the damage isn't enormous, the fact that you can replace just a single attack (and still use your other attack and maybe a flurry of blows) with it makes it really great. On top of that, I love this "get a few for free, spend ki for more" system, as it makes you feel freer to use it without making it totally unlimited. The Draconic Disciple stuff is mostly just cool flavor, at least once you hit level 6 and your fists are magic.
At level 6, you get Wings Unfurled. When you use Step of the Wind, you can unfurl spectral dragon wings from your back that vanish at the end of your turn. While they exist, you have a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You can use this PB times per long rest, or, if you're out of uses, you can spend an additional ki point (on top of the one for Step of the Wind) to use it again.
This is obviously not quite like getting a flying speed over all, but you can potentially disengage and get out of reach of your foes, or use this to cross wide gaps.
At level 11, you get Aspect of the Wyrm. As a bonus action, you can create an aura of power that radiates 30 feet from you for one minute. Choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage. For the duration, you gain the following effects:
You and allies within your aura have resistance to the chosen type. Additionally, if an ally in the aura is hit with an attack made by another creature, within the aura, the target that was hit can use a reaciton to deal damage of your chosen type equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die.
You can use this once per long rest, and can spend 4 ki to use it again if you've already used it that day.
This one... The aura of resistance is pretty good, especially when fighting a dragon. The reflective damage is a bit overcomplicated - and maybe too little? I know that we're monks and we want everything to be based on Martial Arts dice, but maybe the damage should be equal to your proficiency bonus? And/or maybe it should be passive and not require a reaction? I don't know. I'm curious to see if this one changes.
Finally, at level 17, you get Ascendant Aspect. You gain the following benefits:
You gain blindsight out to 30 feet, meaning you can see anything that isn't behind total cover even if you're blinded, and you can see invisible creatures as long as they aren't hidden from you.
When you damage a creature with your Breath of the Dragon, the energy clings to them, and they take damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die at the start of each of their turns. They can repeat the save at the end of their turn, ending the effect on a success. Note that as currently worded, unless they have something like Evasion, they're going to take at least some damage even on a success, so this should affect every foe you even targeted with your breath. Again, it's UA, so take it with a grain of salt.
Finally, when you activate Aspect of the Wyrm, you can choose any number of creatures in your aura. They take 4d10 of the chosen damage type. No save.
So, these are pretty powerful effects. Given how often you're likely using those breath weapons, enemies are going to constantly be taking that "clinging" damage. (Given how it's worded, it almost seems like you can "stack up" multiple effects, though I can't imagine that's intended.) Still, even a single round of this on a large group of foes could mean a really significant amount of damage, which again, costs only 1 ki (and then only after you've run out of free uses.)
Naturally, we might see some changes to this subclass. I think some of the features require a bit of tweaking, but I think overall the idea of being the monk that can do a dragon breath as part of their attacks is a pretty cool fantasy.
The Monk in general is a pretty strong class, and on top of that, its subclasses add a fair amount of power. While I think I can confidently put Way of the Long Death as the type I'm least interested in playing (though that "spend 1 ki to not die" thing is pretty absurdly good) there are, honestly, a lot of these I'd be really interested in trying out. Ah, the same dilemma I have with Warlocks! I still love my Drunken Master monk, but I think my next option might be Way of Mercy.
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