My primary Adventurer's League character, and my second major (maybe third?) D&D character concept overall, was a Drunken Master monk. While now I look back on that subclass and feel it was kind of underpowered, I love the flavor of it. And nothing would delight me more than to see a really good version of the Drunken Master that meets its full potential.
First off, not a comment on the mechanics, but I hate this new name. Drunken Master is so much better than "Intoxication." They mean the same thing, but one calls to mind the classic martial arts form of Drunken Boxing, as made particularly famous by Jackie Chan's Drunken Master movies.
I will say, one new addition to this is something I felt the original version was missing, which also links it a bit with World of Warcraft's Brewmaster Monks, which we'll get to. The Monk overall got a lot stronger in 2024, so any subclass will benefit. Let's see how it is!
Level 3:
Bonus Proficiencies:
You gain the Performance skill, or another Monk proficiency if you already have it. You also gain proficiency with Brewer's Supplies (but evidently don't get a different one if you already have that).
It's a ribbon, but fun.
Drunken Technique:
When you use Flurry of Blows, your speed increases by 10 feet until the end of your turn and your movement on that turn doesn't provoke opportunity attacks.
This is unchanged, giving you a free disengage and speed boost when you use what most Monks are going to be using most turns. Monks don't need to rely as much on being evasive as they used to thanks to Deflect Attacks, but it's nice. Is this enough for level 3? Eh, Monks are particularly strong in tier 1, so it's probably ok (and I think the other 2024 Monk subclasses don't get a ton at level 3).
Level 6:
Tipsy Sway:
When you are prone, you can stand up using just 5 feet of movement. If a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can spend 1 FP as a reaction to cause the attack to hit one creature of your choice that is within 5 feet of you and isn't the attack.
In practice, I didn't get to use the Redirect Attack feature all that much (frustratingly, I had a moment were, RAW, I should have been able to, but because the swarm attacking me had to be within the same space to attack, the DM ruled it couldn't be redirected 5 feet away). Flavorfully, this is a lot of fun. Combined with Deflect Attack, you can really punish people for attacking you.
Mystic Brew:
When you finish a short or long rest while holding Brewer's Supplies, you can use the tool to magically produce a bottle or cask of one of the following beverages (the container appears when you brew the concoction and vanishes when you drink it). A beverage will last until you finish a short or long rest or until you drink it.
Only you can drink the beverage, and you have to drink a pint of it before gaining its benefits. You can spend 1 minute to drink a pint, and then gain its benefits for 1 hour.
If you expend 1 FP when you create the brew (presumably meaning after finishing the rest, so you don't immediately get it back,) the duration of the brew's effect now lasts 8 hours.
This is brand new and finally makes actual brewing a part of the subclass. I LOVE this.
The brews are:
Cinnamon Dragon: You can take a magic action to exhale toxic flames in a 30 foot cone. Each creature in the cone must make a Dex save (DC based on Wisdom). On a failure, they take four rolls of your Martial Arts die of fire damage and are poisoned until the end of their next turn. On a success, they take half damage only.
Ok, flavorfully I freaking love this - it's almost precisely the Breath of Fire ability from WoW, and feels perfect and what the old version was lacking. Let's figure out some math, though: we're sacrificing two attacks for this. If we have a +4 to Dex at this level, that means 1d8+4 twice, or 17 average damage. There are potentially crits and wraps of unarmed prowess and things that could affect that. 4d8 is 18 on average, and potentially hitting multiple targets. Yeah, this is probably worth it, then. It's save for half, which I think more than makes up for the lack of crits, and if we can hit multiple targets, that's huge. Even without the poison effect, this is great. Yeah, love it.
Heavenly Spirit: You gain resistance to psychic and radiant damage.
Super situational. Not nearly as exciting. Not a ton of monsters do radiant damage. Might throw in, like, Necrotic?
Refreshing Dip: Whenever you regain HP, you regain additional HP equal to a roll of your MA die.
Yeah, it's a small amount of bonus healing.
For sure my default here would be Cinnamon Dragon. The others are both too weak and not nearly cool enough.
Level 11:
Master Brewer:
You gain two new brew options:
Blue Lightning: Whenever you take a reaction that isn't making an opportunity attack or casting a spell, you can make one unarmed strike as part of that reaction.
I mean, Monks are always making Deflect Attack reactions (or Tipsy Sway redirect attacks) so once again, we're really punishing foes for going after us. This is possibly the only competition for Cinnamon Dragon, but I still see that as my default.
Drunkard's Luck: You gain Heroic inspiration if you don't already have it, and you can give yourself Heroic inspiration when you roll initiative without it.
While not as godawful as the old sole level 11 Drunken Master feature, I doubt this would be my choice when I could get Blue Lighting or Cinnamon Dragon.
Level 17:
Intoxicated Frenzy:
When you use Flurry of Blows, you can make up to three additional unarmed strikes with it (for a total of six) provided each strike targets a different creature this turn.
This is unchanged, if I recall, from the old version, though of course Flurry of Blows get buffed at level 10 now to give you a third strike. Given that you can now only Stunning Strike once per turn, the most powerful aspect of this is gone, meaning it's essentially turning into glorified AoE, with damage equal to only 1d12+5, most likely.
Overall Thoughts:
I love the Brewing Mechanic, but I do think that we need to make the other options more exciting - Cinnamon Dragon is just so much better than almost all the other ones (please don't nerf it!) The rest of the subclass is nearly unchanged, and while again, they got rid of the most dogshit feature (the old Drunkard's Luck, which let you spend 2 Ki - 2! - to cancel disadvantage on a roll - not, like, give you advantage instead or something) I might take another pass at Intoxicated Frenzy and maybe even bump the Mystic Brew thing up to level 3.
I feel like it needs just a little oomph, but once again, I love, love, love the Mystic Brew idea, which might just need a bit of refinement.
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