Tasha's, Class by Class - Monks

 Hey, have you been sleeping on Monks? Monks are one of the coolest, craziest classes in 5e, and while I think some people might be turned off by what they view as a limited class fantasy (which... buckle up when you see these subclasses) the number of cool features Monks get is really over-the-top and awesome.

So let's see what they get in the new book!

Class Features:

Dedicated Weapon (2nd level):

When you finish a short or long rest, you can touch a weapon, focus your ki on it, and count that as a monk weapon until you use this feature again. The weapon has to meet the following criteria:

It has to be a simple or martial weapon. You must be proficient with it. And it must lack the heavy and special properties.

    So no, you can't start using a maul as a monk weapon. The proficiency element does limit this somewhat - after all, the weapons monks are proficient with are already mostly monk weapons. But this would allow you to use, for example, a Longsword (my Drunken Master actually has a Sunblade that he'd really love to use as a Monk weapon - but can't because while anyone proficient with a shortsword is considered proficient with it, it's technically a longsword.) But given that some races, backgrounds, or, you know classes you might have multiclassed into, grant other weapon proficiencies, you could start using other weapons. For example, a Dwarf might use a Warhammer. Or a wood elf like my Monk could make unarmed strikes after shooting things with his longbow.

Ki-Fueled Attack (3rd level):

If you spend 1 ki point or more as part of your action on your turn, you can make one attack with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon as a bonus action before the end of the turn.

    While a lot of ki-abilities either take a bonus action or can be used while you're making an attack anyway, this should make non-attack ki moves a little more appealing, as you can still hit things.

Quickened Healing (4th level):

As an action, you can spend 2 ki points and roll a Martial Arts die. You regain hit points equal to the number + PB.

    Just a nice bit of self-healing.

Focused Aim (5th level):

When you miss with an attack roll, you can spend 1-3 ki points to increase your attack roll by 2 per ki point spent, potentially turning the miss into a hit.

    This is pretty amazing - potentially giving yourself a +6 bonus to your attack roll. If you really need to land a hit, this can be a lifesaver, and it's pretty great that you'll know exactly how many you need before you spend your ki.

Subclasses:

Way of Mercy:

Hey, want to play a creepy monk? And a creepy monk who's also a healer? There are, admittedly, already a lot of tables with options to suggest how you can flavor various subclasses that I've already covered, but this one struck me in particular: Way of Mercy monks typically wear a signature mask of their order - the illustrated option being that of a Plague Doctor, which is always cool.

Way of Mercy monks get both Hands of Healing and Hands of Harm. The latter is straightforward, allowing you to add necrotic damage to your strikes by spending Ki (and a fair amount, I'll say - Martial Arts die plus Wisdom). But the former allows you to heal a creature you can touch by that same amount if you either spend 1 ki point as an action, or replace one of your unarmed strikes from Fury of Blows.

This improves, letting you use them more often without spending ki as you level up. You also gain the ability to cure blindness, deafness, paralyzation, poison, and stuns with your Hands of Healing, or inflict the poisoned condition with Hands of Harm.

Eventually, you can spend 5 ki points to bring someone back to life once per long rest, healing them for 4d10 plus your Wisdom.

Way of the Astral Self:

While not precisely the psionic monk I had dreamed up, the Way of the Astral self really leans into the mystical side of things. It's also a subclass that pushes a Monk to actually prioritize Wisdom over Dexterity (though ideally you'll max both eventually.)

Basically, as a bonus action, you can start to summon more and more of your "astral soul," essentially fighting with your spirit more than your body.

There are a lot of ways the subclass can use Wisdom to replace both Strength and Dexterity, and you eventually get the ability to effective deflect missiles against acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, and thunder damage. The only real downside is that you need to spend ki points to activate any of these features, so you'll need to lobby almost as hard as the Warlock for those short rests whenever you can. The transformation lasts 10 minutes, regardless of how many of your features are active.

    Monks are pretty awesome already, and I think the push into more mystical, supernatural subclasses is a lot of fun. Again, the two presented in this book are very different from one another, which I also count as a point in their favor.