5.5, Class by Class: Monks

 Ok, so Monks:

When I first got the core rulebooks, I was not much of a fan of unarmed fighters in general, and kind of breezed past the class. However, I went back and read through it again and fell in love - this is a class that gets an absurd number of really interesting abilities. In fact, my second-ever D&D character was a monk.

But how are monks in terms of real strength?

In terms of damage output, Monks have a big advantage in that they effectively get three attacks per round on most turns (after getting extra attack at level 5) and can spend a resource to turn that into four attacks. But there are also downsides: first off, the type of weapon you can use is limited. The best weapon a Monk can naturally use is a Quarterstaff, which, when two-handed, deals 1d8 damage. Thus, even though you don't have a shield, you'll be fighting with what is doing the equivalent of another martial class's one-handed weapon (or an archer's longbow). It's perhaps a minor issue, but if Monks need to deal a ton of damage to justify their shortcomings, this holds them back slightly.

The next is that their unarmed strikes never get to "scale up" if you get magic items. Compare this with a Fighter - they might get a +3 weapon and thus find themselves hitting much more frequently and for more damage, but a Monk never gets to boost those elements. At the very least their two "regular" attacks can use magic weapons, but it creates an odd imbalance.

But maybe these are nitpicks. Let's get to the meat of it:

Monks have amazing abilities centered on themselves. Indeed, I love the fact that Monks get something new basically every level - even levels when they get ability score improvements. These range from the flavorful (Timeless Body) to the situational (Deflect Missiles) to the just plain really good (Diamond Soul).

What, fundamentally, is the Monk supposed to bring to the party? I think that's the core question that needs to be answered to see if we can improve its design.

As I see it, as it currently stands, the Monk's two biggest elements are: Multiple Attacks and Stunning Strike.

Monks get to make two attacks every turn from the get-go. And even if their weapons aren't as strong as, say, a paladin wielding a maul, the ability to get a second attack in at level 1 is pretty huge. That paladin with +3 to Strength (a reasonable assumption for level 1) is going to be doing an average of 10 damage on a turn where they hit. A Monk with +3 to Dexterity and a quarterstaff is going to hit for 7.5 with the quarterstaff on average and then 5.5 with their unarmed strike, for a total of 13, if they hit both times.

At level 5, if we assume both got to +4, the paladin (ignoring Great Weapon Fighting) is now hitting for 22 with two strikes on average, versus a Monk hitting for 8.5 twice (17) and then 7.5 with their unarmed strike, meaning we're still leading in damage with 24.5 (without spending ki on flurry of blows).

So maybe we're not actually being very fair. Even with the extra damage from a fighting style, we're still in the same ballpark.

Still, given that the Monk is relying on those unarmed strikes to balance out their slightly lower "attack action" damage, I could imagine that in some scenarios, the limits on the Monk start to add up. And it also means that a Fighter, who eventually gets three and then even four attacks per action, starts doing what the Monk does but better.

Now, let's look at Stunning Strike.

Getting a stun off on an enemy is enormous. Honestly, just taking away their turn is huge, but then giving yourself and allies advantage on attacks against them is a big deal. Perhaps, though, that's the reason why it's limited to a Constitution saving throw against a DC that is based on a Monk's secondary stat. With the standard array, you'd probably only be able to max out your Wisdom at level 19 (unless you went with only +1 to Con at level 1, which is a bit risky for a melee fighter).

Con saves are tough to fail for big bad monsters. Thus, it feels often like a Monk's there more to crowd-control minions. That, of course, can be a huge benefit, so maybe we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss them.

Indeed, I think perhaps the issue with the Monk isn't really the base class design. I was watching a recent Dungeon Dudes video giving their impressions of the Fizban's subclasses, and expressing dismay that the Ascendant Dragon Monk isn't very good, and maybe even just bad. And I have to say I think they've got a point.

Their big argument, and one that I think might be the key to all of this, is that a lot of monk subclasses have you doing things that pull you away from the Monk fundamentals - things that take up your bonus action or require you to spend a lot of ki on abilities that might not be terribly useful.

I think the best-designed subclass for the Monk in recent times is the Way of Mercy. This does give you yet more things to spend your ki points on, but they play into the Monk's strength in a number of ways, and grow more efficient as you get to higher levels. Indeed, I figured out that the Way of Mercy's Hand of Harm is actually far more ki-to-damage efficient than doing a Flurry of Blows (mainly because you know it's already connected,) though there's nothing preventing you from doing both.

I think some of the earlier subclasses have features that reward you for using existing Monk abilities - Open Hand prevents your target from using reactions if you use Flurry of Blows and Drunken Masters increase your movement speed and give you an automatic disengage if you do so, both of which allow you to use hit-and-run tactics that will serve the relatively low-health Monk well.

Personally, I adore the flavor of the Drunken Master monk even if there are some shortcomings to its mechanics (primarily I think Drunkard's Luck is insanely narrow and expensive). I think Way of the Four Elements is really cool in concept, and perhaps not as bad as some people have made it out to be, but I might play around with, rather than creating a new thing to spend ki on, instead allowing you to pick disciplines that add effects to your existing abilities.

Like a lot of classes, I think that Monks have that one subclass in the PHB that is the "standard," which is Open Hand. I think that's fine. Way of Shadow is both pretty good and also gives us the classic Ninja archetype (granted, I think you could argue that Rogues in general are closer to Ninjas). In fact, I like that the Four Elements Monk gives us something that is fundamentally distinct from the other two PHB options while still feeling like a central Monk fantasy (and, let's be honest, a pretty clear reference to a very popular Nickelodeon show).

So, perhaps all the Monk needs is to see its PHB subclasses given some empowering redesigns, and maybe tweaking the design philosophy for future subclasses. I'll also say that Dedicated Weapon is a very welcome optional feature - my Wood Elf Drunken Master, if I ever play him again, is going to get much better use of his Sun Blade as a result.