TIFA from FF7 Mr. Miyagi Jean Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport Tony Jaa Ongbak the Thai Warrior Jet Li Once Upon A Time In China "Wong Fei Hong" Son Wukon the Monkey God king Neo from The Matrix "I know kungfu" Westley Snipes as Blade
You guys should look into making videos of low level builds. It's all too often that I play a game that never makes it to the really big boy levels so to have a guide suggesting the most damage or best tank at level 4, 6, 8 or even 2 honestly could be really cool and helpful. Just also wanted to say you guys do an amazing job and are definitely the best d&d channel I've seen.
I agree. I see many 'builds' that don't really mature until after lvl 12 and many games never get that far. I would love to see the first 1-6 levels of different character types
Bard 4/tomelock 3 is a phenomenal low level build. You'll be blasting all day while having all kinds of unique spell options between your tome, the bard list, the warlock list, and magical secrets
@@Luxxicon the better question is why does every scenario change needs a new charakter? got the feeling it´s like one adventure and our heroes are done and go into retirement. are there no more succesfull bands, just one hit wonders? My GM iss running a campaign for 3 years now i am playing there for 2 years now and still play the same charakter. why allways start a new character for every new adventure? coz from zero to hero? why not take old charakters over into the new scenario, if there are few who want to start over with a new charakter so be it, just let them start at the level of their old charakter for party-balance sake. i would be extremely disappointed and would avoid to much investment in a charakter if i know i had to throw that away before even half through to max!
IMHO, Rogue is the most front-loaded class, so you can have a terrific character by maybe level 2. Pick any race that helps the key Rogue stats or brings good bonuses. Try... Tabaxi.
Dude I loved playing a Long Death monk. When I hit level 18, our DM brought in a nemesis from my characters backstory for a second time. I rolled second in initiative and on my turn, closed the 50ft distance and one shot this guy who was supposed to be one of the BBG's (big bad guys). You can put 1 to 10 ki points into Touch of the Long Death and it does 2d10 damager per ki point spent, giving it the potential to double the damage Quivering Palm would do if it doesn't reduce to 0. I actually ended up doing 160+ damage in one hit. When I declared I was pumping 10 ki points into it, our DM seemed intrigued. When I one shot the dude, he face palmed and was like, "God dammit, I had this awesome encounter planned out."
Woah, a reply on a comment from two years ago lol. No, there wasn't any multi-classing. I was just comparing Touch of the Long Death with Quivering Palm.
@@Syntheticbreed Got you!! It would be cool if a DM would allow you to Muti-class Monastic Traditions. Why not? You can Muti-class anything else!! For instance: you can be a Human: Wizard/ Rogue.
Ty Lee from Avatar The Last Airbender is a great example of a monk and offers some pretty great role-playing options if you choose to base a character off of her. Not to mention that if you compare the Base class abilities to what she does in the series then it can help you understand how this class functions. I think the best Ty Lee build would be to do a monk wood elf with an entertainer background.
@@Muchogrande83 feel free. If I didn’t want people to use this idea then I wouldn’t have posted it. Hope you enjoy your character and may rngesus bless your dice.
Also, all of the Goblin's racial features are synergic with the Monk class. Fury of the Small adds even more damage to unarmed attack, Nimble Scape lets you punch and run (using disengage as bonus action) making the most of your mobility and Darkvision is great for Way of the Shadows monks.
I played a one shot as “yoda” the goblin bladesinger. He’d spam green flame blade, and took spells like catapult, charm person, mage hand, and feather fall to imitate the Force.
I remember about a week after Xanathar's guide came out some friends of mine invited me to a one-shot to test out some of the new subclasses and one of the characters was a 'outback' kensei monk named Liam. He talked with a really exaggerated Australian accent, wore short shorts, and used a whip and a bunch of boomerangs as his primary weapons. Because the kensei abilities, the boomerand did 2d4+3 damage, and the DM allowed him to use the whip as a rope and Indiana jones'd the party over a pit of spikes. It was a really cool character and a far step in the right direction away from the traditional monk.
Here I am, two years later, reading your comment, playing a monk with boomerang and whip as my kensei weapons, not realizing the indy comparison! *facepalm*
Honestly what I love most about monks is that they could be wearing nothing but a bedsheet, holding a torch in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other, and still be completely unhindered in kicking ass.
This is a bit less usual, but if your DM allows it, the Ghostwise Halfling variant from SCAG gets +2 Dex and +1 Wis bonuses, and along with their halfling luck this makes them a great monk race choice. The telepathy adds a bit of flavor for role playing the stoic silent type of monk, as well.
@@DungeonDudes At 9th level Unarmed Movement can you possibly run up let's say waterfalls or run down a building or walls? Run sideways on a wall 🧱 like Hidden 🐉 Dragon Crouching 🐅 Tiger?
Here's a really obscure Monk: Haschel from Legend of Dragoon. Where everybody else in the party has a weapon, he needs only his fists and his ancestral Rouge Martial Art. Dude brought down a huge stone door with one punch, and he's _old._ The man's pushing at least 60 and moves like a man a third his age.
Conner Wilcox arent variant tieflings al illegal, or at least the getting the wings options for them? Or was that retconned, like aasimars being exempted from phb + 1
@@QuiescentPilot nope, Fly is at a higher level than it should be. taking 20d6 (or 40d6 if you use a more realistic homebrew) of maximum damage at Lv.1 causes insta-death.
Neo, from the Matrix trilogy. And his fight against the thousand Smiths in particular. And you barely mentioned the unarmored movement! 10-30 feet extra per turn. Double the speed of anyone else. From level 9, physics become guidelines rather than rules. Liquids are just another surface, and gravity a suggestion. (Slow fall from level 4 helps too)
"I would totally play a dwarven drunken master monk", I already am and she is one of my favorites to roleplay. My DM allowed me to replace "Dwarven combat training" with the "tavern brawler" feat (minus the stat increase) making her play a lot like Jackie Chan with the way she uses everything around her to defend herself. Ladders, benches, tables, glass bottles, quills, torches all weapons in her hands. She recently came across a talking racist dwarf skull (called Carter) tied it to a rope and uses it as an improvised meteor hammer (a Shaolin weapon which is basically a metal ball on the end of a long piece of rope). She has the "Urban Bounty Hunter" backgound which she uses to get booze money. Her basic backstory is that after she left her monastery due to a tragedy, she turned to alcohol and did something to get her exiled from the stronghold. As she was begging to get money for booze, she got caught up in a tavern brawl and after knocking them out found that one of them had a bounty on his head and spent the lot on booze. Noticing this, the tavern owner struck a deal where he would give her info on bounties for a cut and she can use the rest on as much drink as she can handle. I imagined the philosphy of the monastery she left as being a clan of dwarves that temper the steel Moradin crafted them from into axes that never dull and shields that never break. Strengthening thier bond with him through medetation, concentrating on their breath, the same kind of breath that Moradin used to cool their casts and give them life. However to those outside the clan there's a popular rumour about the clan founder that he was a failed mercenary that dropped every weapon he tried to use, so he eventually gave up and started punching things. Also looking forward to getting the "Dwarven Fortitude" feat as that means I can use a hit die when I use a dodge action to heal adding my con mod to the roll, which, as a monk, you can use as the "patient defense" bonus action for the price of a single Ki point. Then maybe the "Durable" feat to boost the healing from the hit dice so the minimum roll you get from the hit dice is double your con modifier (which for me is +3 (although after the con bonuses from Dwarven fortitude and Durable would bring it up to a +4) so healing a minimum roll of 8 on a d8 so minimum 11 healing for a bonus action as well as imposing disadvantage on incoming attacks from patient defense) leading to a surprisingly tanky monk character.
The dream for me is to find a DM that'll let me build a Daredevil style monk. Have the character use blindsense & tremorsense and then some cons to balance it out. Like not being able to see the surface of srolls/parchment, cant see faces, totally blind outside of the senses ranges, etc. Not sure how much to throw in for balance but I just love the concept of "you don't need sight to see".
Another backstory for a monk is someone who was raised among the animals like Tarzan or the little boy in Jungle Book, Mowgli. They develop styles related to the animals that raised them.
@@luckyworm2400 I played a Sex monk who was a backstreet boxer and giglio. Eventually I opened a boxing gym/brothel/prostitute school with the dude good times. Lol 😂😂
One of my favorite against-type monks is the Scout from Team Fortress 2. If you think about it he can easily fit the role. He's very mobile, he's got the agility for a high-dex build, he's got a good bit of street smarts (wisdom), his baseball bat can be either a club or a quarterstaff for the purposes of monk weapons. His shotgun can be a reflavored version of the Burning hands offered by the Way of the Sun Soul's Searing Arc Strike, and his pistol a reflavored version of the subclass's Radiant Sun Bolt.
@@jemm113 I love that the way of the kensei is supposed to be like "I have focused my ki into this honorable weapon" or it can be, so I found this gun and I want it to be my powers and stuff
Let's keep in mind that historically, there were martial monks in pretty much all cultures. There were spiritual warriors from Africa, the Ancient Americas, India, Middle East, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Hawaii, South Pacific and more. They had special physical training exercises to increase their abilities in martial situations. Many were led by a spirit who guided them to their path.
Dude! You talk about Volo's Guide and then forget tabaxi? Tabaxi are crazy-powerful monks. Their claws count as monk weapons, and when you combine Feline Agility with monk movement, you really do have a character who can literally just be anywhere on the map you want them to be. Tabaxi monks FTW!
Unless there’s been an errata, natural weapons neither count as simple, light, or finesse. Quirky but true. So still strength based and not monk weapon. Could always house rule it though.
I am playing a monk tabaxi right now, and I know that they are crazy powerful. Even though I am extremely new to D&D. I really wish that they had a tabaxi video.
The Gneech lvl 7 Tabaxi way of the open hand, I am beating the brakes off shit in this curse of strahd we’re running. I jumped out of a door that had 2 dire wolves and a druid outside jumped out grabbed her threw here back in the room our rouge slammed the door behind us that’s were we commenced to boot party her ass our Druid cast thorn on the door so while her wolf homies f’d themselves up trying to break in till our Dragonborn barb smashed his way through the door and basically launched them 20 feet back were they smashed into a wall and died
My fun thing was a warforged monk, he had his shortswords built into his arms and took sun soul for the idea of robo ki blasts, then he died and was reincarnated by a high level druid friend and is now a human
Defensive Duelist is a great feat for a monk, since you're pretty much always are going to be wielding a finesse weapon, and you cant use shields anyway, so that's a great way to get that AC bonus when you need it.
I like how "The One" by Jet Like shows a lawful good and a chaotic evil monk in the same person. The evil version is driven by hunger for the ki he absorbs from killing and relishes domination and raw, physical violence.
This was fun to watch! I'mm 32 and finally started to play D&D back in February. I went with a Drunken Master Monk, we're lvl4 and I'm loving it so far. He was exiled for a crime he didn't commit, was taken in by a monastery and learned from them, and found out that he's a hell of cook. But he started to drink, and found out as well he fights better while shit faced. He left the monastery because of the people that are hunting him, he doesn't want his fellow Monks mixed up in his past mistakes.
My first ever character was a Dragonborn monk! Super chatty and easy-going normally, shouting out overdramatic move names against unintelligent monsters if the fight wasn't too dangerous a situation. The only time he actually calmed down and acted like a monk was when things got serious. Or when facing an evil dragon-related creature, who I decided I'd have him loathe. Honestly I made him a monk so I could have a dragonman run around punching monsters in the face, and I made that his goal as well, though more nuanced. Really fun character to play...
One of my friends calculated the maximum speed for a tabaxi monk at 20th level. I believe it was 360 feet of movement in 1 round which equates to about 41 mph (65.8368 km/h). Keep in mind that this is also with instantaneous acceleration, so this would likely crack the ground from the push off. The way this works is if you use feline agility to double your speed, then take the dash action to move 240 feet. Finally, use your bonus action to spend a ki point and dash with the step of the wind feature.
At level 20 you have 20 ki points or so? So you have 360 feet of movement per 6 seconds, and you can do it for 2 minutes. You can run over a mile in 2 minutes
I am old enough to have been there for the original Karate Kid, and while Ralph Macchio's character was a major wanker, Mister Miyagi was the coolest, most memorable teaching monk I have ever seen. Wax on! Wax off!
Favorite Ninja Turtle was always Donatello, love me someone who fights with a quarterstaff, easy to learn but hard to master. I think Beast from the X-Men is a Monk and obviously Iron Fist.
@@mortisCZ 'Cause the eyes of a ranger are upon you Any wrong you do, he's gonna see When you're in Texas, look behind you 'Cause that's where the ranger's gonna be
I made a Variant Human Monk. Any archetype can work, but I went with Shadow. Their deal: Kick things till they stop moving. Then chop 'em up for ingredients and cook a meal for the party. He's inspired by Sanji, of One Piece fame. Not the typical Monk, but it works. Feat for V.Human: Magic Iniate - Wizard. Prestidigitation (For cleaning his clothes and cookwear), Mage Hand (Help with cooking, and staying groomed). And as the spell: Tenser's Floating Disc. Because any chef worth their salt isn't going to let something silly like no proper table get in the way of them prepping their ingredients for cooking! I don't expect to play this character anytime soon, but it's going to be insanely fun if and when I do get to break this one out for a party to run with.
Underrated monk. Step 1: take tinker's tools Step 2: be kensei monk Step 3: take a pistol or pepper box Step 4: take crossbow expert Step 5: be John Wick
I created a monk inspired by the Pokémon: Hitmolee. He only uses his feet to attack and he was trained in the arts of capoeira so you get somewhat of an image of how he moves
I've never been interested in playing a monk before I watched this video. Tonight I'm going to play my first ever monk character, thanks for the awesome content guys. :)
My current character is a wood elf kensei. Her weapons are the longbow, longsword, and whip, giving her great versatility in combat. She can tango in melee, hit hard at range, and do spring attacks with her whip. I'll be taking Sharpshooter at 12th level to really focus on her ranged potential. I've been absolutely loving this character! :)
I’m currently playing a Way of Mercy monk with a Kenku. It is such a fun race and class to play, being a mischievous or enigmatic wild card who mimics NPC’s to emphasize points of interest or clues to the story, and often using callbacks to great comedic effect. It forces me to be creative in role playing when I can’t say my own words, so I rely on body language and sound effects or other character voices to allude and emote.
Another great video, Check out “The Forbidden Kingdom” for monk examples. Jackie Chan and Jet Li each play a different kind of monk. There are several other characters/types of monks in the movie.
I've got two monks on my back burner in case of character death: a fighter (mercenary/soldier) who lost an arm in battle to save someone's life, then gave up the violent way of the sword to settle down and find peace; and a shadow monk/rogue multiclass who works as an assassin to keep his family fed back home. I love to pull inspiration from the old black and white samurai flicks, like Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood. Also, Michelangelo is clearly the best!
I had an idea for a shadow monk warlock multi class which could be pretty fun. It's just two levels of warlock, but it grants you the devil's sight invocation, so now you can see clearly in magical darkness, so you can focus on you darkness spell, and suddenly you have advantage on all your attacks and enemies have disadvantage on attacks against you. In my opinion there is also a pretty darn good way to roleplay it to. I'm thinking you have a monk order dedicated to a devil, maybe asmodeus, or just gains their insight and knowledge of the shadows from a fiend, and then you could pretty much pick this stuff up at will.
@@liammitchell2225 You have just described one of my AL characters, Madyrn Tyl (which is Elven for Shadow Monk), a Wood Elf Shadow Monk 6, Warlock 2. I routinely use the Darkness/Devil Sight combo.
I know monk is the main unarmed combat class, but I've always wanted more when it came to an unarmed combatant. The agility was nice, don't get me wrong, but what I've always wanted, but haven't had much luck creating is more of a brawler, who rather than hit quick, they hit hard. I've wanted a class or even subclass based around improvised weapons and powerful hits. Someone who could bring a chair to battle and still come out alive.
You want a fighter with unarmed style tavern brawler. Go rune knight. Get big, punch, grapple BA, action surge, push, now use them as an improvised weapon against their friends.
2 levels of Rogue; Cunning Action and Sneak Attack, leaving Ki points for Flurry of Blows and add a d6 of damage in your attacks at an early stage is awesome
Dudes, I was just thinking about the Kensei, and reread the entire entry. I found that the Kensei can be really frickin' deadly. 1) You get your choice of two martial weapons that are monk weapons for you (one must be ranged); 2) Martial Arts says you can roll a d4 (greater at higher levels) in place of unarmed strike or Monk Weapon damage; 3) Choosing a Blowgun (normally 1 dmg) as one of your weapons becomes 1d4+dex... at 17th level it becomes 1d10+dex; 4) Deft Strike (gained at 6th level), spend 1 Ki to deal extra damage equal to your Martial Arts die. At 17th level your damage could be 1d10+dex+1d10. This is all without considering critical hits. Crit with the blowgun at this stage would be effectively 4d10+dex (4-40+dex damage... average 20 points +dex of damage from a blowgun needle) Concealed weapon (flute), so you could gain surprise for advantage. If you built it on a Half-Elf, you could take the racial feat Elven Accuracy, which essentially gives you "Trivantage" (roll 3 d20's and take the highest). With that, crits would be more likely to occur. You could do the same with a whip for your melee weapon of choice. I like the description of the Blacksnake Whip, which is also easily concealable as a sort of monk belt, so you might never be unarmed and it has reach. What are your thoughts on this?
You can go kensei, with some levels in barbarian: take V.human, for more feats or half elf for elven accuracy; pick great weapon FS , GWM, and polearm master; pick either glaive or spear( versitile weapon). With the kensei , you will be able to use your weapon as a monk weapon, if you pick the glaive, you will have a d10 right of the bat, plus your dex mod. With the spear, as a an half elf, being a versitile weapon , you can roll more times; and You have rage, if you get reckless attack, or pick Zealot, you will get tons of damage. If you stun the enemy, you go full on rage, reckless attack, 4d10+mods(RA,GWM,FofB) . You will have some amaizing damage outburst at lower level, can have only a little dip in berserker, go all the way kensei or even get other dip maybe in fighter Battle Master, or even paladin Oath of revenge for some smite. And then You have a battle monk in a journey of reavenge or a monk that wants to be the strongest fighter of all time, and is in a journey of training, polishing his/her skills. What do you guys think?
Great analysis as always. It's a pity monk gets some very weak abilities at high levels (lv13 Tongue of Sun and Moon, lv15 Timeless Body... Both useful, but low level spells can have a party overcome those problems easily). I also feel the way of the four elements is underwhelming, and I'd suggest you look into the Remastered version, a fan made more balanced one. Personally I'll go for the way of the long death, it seems fun. (Btw yeah, you can't use Quivering Palm without looking at your enemy dead in the eye and saying "Omae wa mou shinderu")
Aarakocra Monk, since movement speed bonus from monk affects fly speed, and you have the ability to switch between bludgeoning or piercing damage with unarmed strikes
The main reason to play a Kensei Monk is the +2 AC when wielding their kensei weapon, apart for the access to martial weapons. Zatoichi would be my favourite film monk, I think.
Combining Way of the Shadow Monk with a couple levels of Warlock to get the Devil's Sight Invocation makes for a brutal combination that can teleport around in their own darkness field and completely wreck opponents.
For anyone on the spectrum considering classes to play Monk is perhaps my favorite to approach as an easy first character and ease-into for roleplay. The concept of mastering the self, and in the process obviously coming to accept the self and harness their strengths to better the world is very easy to slip into. My first was a way of the astral self path so was able to represent my autism/adhd through the astral projections starting out initially chaotic and progressively becoming more refined, controlled, and empowered.
Just got 5th edition and created a monk. Loved your video. Even through its 2 years ago I hope you read this. I am a dragonborn monk, my background is I was found as a child by the monastery and raised by the monks. At the age of 15, adulthood, he sets out(1st lvl) to find who he is. The build is awesome which is why I was surprised you never talked about dragonborn in your video.
Way of the Long Death has one fantastic ability. At level 11 (I think - I'm away from my books right now) when reduced to 0 HP they can spend 1 Ki (*without* using an action) to instead be at 1HP. This can even prevent death from massive damage. And I can't believe you didn't mention that the Way of the Sunsoul has a Spirit Bomb. A damage dice count-selectable Fireball with a CON save (at 0 Ki cost if your only want 2d6 to clear out wimps). Sure CON saves are generally high, but if you gotta clear out some Rogues *this* is the go to!
I'm toying with a multi-class assassin build. Currently I have it as a Tabaxi 11 Shadow Monk/ 3 Ranger (Gloom Stalker)/ 3 Warlock (Pact of the Chain)/ 3 Rogue (Assassin). I have an invisible Imp to help with scouting and reconnaissance. Mad abilities from the Gloom Stalker and Assassin for the first round kill. The ability to cast darkness in 2 different ways and to always see through it. Shadow teleportation, and all the other monk goodies
Monks are fantastic - my favourite tactic as a monk was been to stand back with the squishy spellcasters to protect them initially, as the meat shields charge in... then use mobility to wander into combat to where she was most needed e.g. once the fighters were being frustrated by phase spiders constantly popping in/out, so monk held action then ran in to stun the spiders when they appeared
My monk is a half-elf with the way of open hand tradition. His back story is that his village is burnt down by a red dragon but he is saved by a monk that coincidently saw the incident. When he saw the monk defeated the Dragon in one hit, he ask the monk to teach him martial arts so he is not helpless if such situation arise again. Monk is the only class that I don't worry to much about choosing which subclass to choose because basically just the core class feature is already so powerful. I won't even bother with backstop that much either. even with the standard back story, what important is the way your character is planning to achieve revenge or whatever
One of my favorite characters is a harper monk kensei with pirate background. He's got a whip of wounding, a singing shortsword that sings dirty sea shanties, a pirate hat with displacer beast tentacles attached, a portable boat with full wet bar, 2 minotaur drinking horns, boots of speed (great for battlefield control), and a few other odds and ends to round him out. He's got a lot of personality. A mix of Jack Sparrow and Zorro. CN alignment but leans goodish. Does a lot of the dirty infiltration work that the regular goody Harper types don't want to get their hands dirty doing.
I am knew to playing.. about a year and always in lockdown from home. I was finding it difficult to get to grips with rules and classes on my own but you guys have helped so much and given me the confidence to make better characters! Thank you!
I just created a Wood Elf Monk - Open Hand. I just love the idea of a Ty Lee from the Avatar series Monk based character. So I just created one. Love it! When you observe her fighting style and her precise jabs stun her opponents. Cant wait for the opportunity to use her in a campaign! Special SHOUT OUT THANKS to Dungeon Dudes for all the great videos they put together !
I know it is only slightly related but I have been seeing so many people take such a bad review of Volo's Kobold player race and it baffles me. The sunlight sensitivity seems to be this huge "red flag" to people and often called out as the biggest reason why they're so "bad". I don't think people understand the interaction between having both advantage and disadvantage at the same time in 5e. With Pack Tactics giving advantage any time an concise ally is within 5 feet totally negates the Sunlight Sensitivity and turns it into a regular roll. Also, I think people get hung up on Direct Sunlight and assume anything during the day is direct sunlight and that is far from true. Any forest, jungle, tall grass you can slink into, any building/ruin/castle are all in indirect light. The sheer amount of attacks you get at advantage is insane which ends up giving you so many more natural 20s. The other thing that is often lamented is the Grovel, Cower, and Beg to grant advantage to your companions. So many people see this as unheroic and undignified (which I argue fits perfectly) but is so easily reflavored as something else visually that I don't understand why it is a hangup. Call it "Distracting Cry" if you want and RP it as him screeching in rage so loudly it hurts the ears of the enemy and draws their attention letting your party get advantage. I bring it up because a kobold monk or rogue is such an amazing combo that I think people are missing out on. Kobolds are my one of my favorite races of all time and I don't think nearly as many people realize their potential as should. They're missing out on a mechanically brilliant race with treasure troves of RP. I'd love to see you guys do a video on how amazing they are. Lastly, cheers on yet another fantastic video and keep up the good work.
I’m actually going to be playing a Kobold Monk soon, and I can agree, Pack Tactics is very helpful. From the onset, it negates the Sunlight Sensitivity (which, as you said, isn’t “I’m in sun, I have disadvantage” and more “there’s nothing blocking the sun, so it’s getting all up in my eyes”), but when that’s not active, more d20s, so more chance of crits. And, in terms of the other feature... it can be viewed as a taunt. If you give up, either everyone is going to gang up and kill you, or they’re going to ignore you. You gain their attention either way to give allies advantage, and there is potential to actually roleplay a Grovel/Cower/Beg to extend its effects (I’d certainly allow you to keep the ruse going if you roleplay it to be believable (like pleading with your allies to stop attacking; making an offering, then changing your mind to make a different offering as you beg; offering yourself as a minion to the enemy, but being extremely hesitant to actually fight your allies, forcing the enemy to stop focusing on your allies to either reprimand you or to coax you into attacking them; etc.)). There’s also the fact that your Strength detriment doesn’t matter much when your Martial Arts allows Monk weapons to use your Dexterity, even when not normally able to (my Kobold, thanks to a lucky roll, has a 19 in Dex at Lv. 1) However, it’s also fun to reason why your character went the monastic tradition. As a Kobold, you might expect Way of Shadows, since they’re cave-dwellers. I chose Sun Soul, since he has lived on the plains all his life, and with inspiration from deep-sea creatures with bioluminescence (they shed light to prevent other predators from seeing their shadows, since you have no shadow if you are the source of light and are surrounded by darkness) when it comes to the 17th-level feature, and RADIANT HADOUKENS. Overall, he’s an entire 2 feet of whoop-ass and will be loads of fun to play, even aside all the “problems” Kobolds have. And who says the DM can’t just make a quest for sunglasses to nullify the Sun Sensitivity if it’s that much a problem?
The other problem they have is the -2str. So they only see negatives not understanding the interplay and forgetting that many builds do not require strength. I have a 4 Elements kobold monk on hold. People want to way overspend on ki with his way but they do that with normal monks as well.
I love the vid, and I especially appreciate that you didn't just trash the Way of the Drunken Master like a couple other youtubers i've watched. I know it has some faults but i also recognize that if you think a little bit out of the box, and use that drunken flavor both in your roleplay and in your combat. The Drunken Master can wreck in combat, and be a bit of comedic relief and that surprising wise sage within your party.
Woo! my favorite class. :) glad to hear your opinions. Some of my favorite mythical monks are any Jackie Chan role (particularly in Drunken Master, Who am I?, and Forbidden kingdom), Jedi in general, Chen Stormstout from WoW, Mr Miyagi, Batman, Master Splinter from TMNT, Iroh from Avatar: the last airbender, and Monk Onji and Sanouske from Rurouni Kenshin just to name a few. (forgive any spelling errors please this was done spur of the moment XD.)
I just made my first monk character for a new campaign! I built them as an owlin monk with a homebrew class of spirit bond. This is definitely very helpful with figuring out how to play them and role-playing them. Thank you!!
I combined the monks martial arts with dragonhide claws. So I thought directly of Wolverine but also for some reason of Russia so now I'm playing IVAN the Russian, wolverine-esque dragonborn
Gonna be starting descent into avernus in a few weeks, and I'm gonna be playing a tabaxi shadow monk. He's a bounty hunter, and spent a lot of time in the underdark, turning his naturally black fur a dusty Grey. Roleplay wise, I'm leaning towards a bit of a smooth talker, like siv redthistle (if anyone watches the dungeon run).
My Monk I plan on making is a Half-Orc that definitely has those rage issues. And that's his struggle he wants to do the right thing and he can be smart, but he is also impatient and reckless. So when he sees a grave injustice like slavery his instinct is to fight it violently and instantly even if he knows sneaking in and freeing everyone later is a safer move.
Awesome video game guys. Donnie Yen is the greatest monk be it Ip Man or Chirrut in rouge one. Keep up the great work I send all new players over to you guy.
I appreciate the monk guide. I just disagree with stunning strike. When I played my monks. The dice gods must have been against me. Couldn't make it work.
For my next DnD campaing I have made an Air Genasi Monk. I think the genasi have some great habilities to become a Monk (levitate, and a +2 Cons. I´m planning of taking the Four Elements Path, and give her the elemental powers that are related to the air or the temperature (that will be my explanation for the Ki)
@@EldenRingplayer407 I would say half no half yes. If it fails the saving throw, it technically wouldn't be damaged. Just reduced to 0 HP. However if it succeeds it would be immune to the necrotic
two levels of Wizard with the rest in Monk. Divination Specialization. Portent with a 1 or so. Tag an enemy with Quivering Palm. Say that they rolled the one. Ded.
I'm a new DM and one of my players is going to be a monk, thank you for giving insight on how to help his character really get to be pushed to full potential! (His monk is based on Aang from Avatar but a little more okay with murder so hearing how I can integrate his backstory in so many different ways will make my campaign so much smoother)
My buddy is playing a Monk in our newest campaign. He's usually the headstrong fighter type and now he's playing his monk as wise and soft spoken. I know it's the "basic bland" monk, however he leans so far into it we all love it. Sometimes it works for a table, especially when it plays against the player's norm.
Love playing my ghostwise Way of the long death (all SCAG). It can be an alternative way to playing an evil character that does not disrupts the party. You get a energy surge after you're first kill and attempt to test the limits of life and death by keeping a mouse and bringing it to 0 every morning stabilize it to gain the temp HP. I know it's discarded, but it offers nice role play, that's a bit darker for a hero.
So glad you mentioned The Bride from Kill Bill. That's exactly what I was thinking of when I decided to try out a monk. I think, at east for backstory, Wolverine is a good example. Most people think of him as a barbarian but he has a monk like background and essentially fights hand to hand.
Lately, I've been a big fan of using class mechanics to achieve a character concept, while not necessarily conforming to the common descriptor/concept of the class. Monk is one of the classes that works really well in this regard, much like the rogue. I'm currently playing a happy-go-lucky halfling swashbuckler. I started this character prior to the Swordcoast Adventures swashbuckler subclass being published, so it is a mix of other classes worked out with my GM. My build is a Ghostwise halfling (+1 Dex/+ 1Wis) Ranger 3 (Hunter) /Monk 3 (Way of the Open Hand), with the sailor background. We dropped the telepathic communication ability. He chose the Dueling fighting style, which works perfectly with martial arts (which I define more like dirty fighting). He chose humanoids as his favored enemies (Humans and Merfolk), with coastal as his favored terrain, expertise with navigator's tools (instead of thieves' tools), and sailor's patois (instead of thieves' cant). With my DM's permission, he is allowed to use the rapier as a monk weapon; also, his ranger spells are treated more like Ki abilities (so no components), but I'm limited to spells that could be explained as internal, Ki-like abilities (Hunter's Mark, Cure Light Wounds, Longstrider). In combat, he is a skirmisher, working in tandem with our rogue. We currently don't have a frontline heavy in our party, which is challenging. However, in a typical round he typically does 1d8 +6 (rapier + duelist) + 1d4 +4 (bonus attack) + 1d6 (Hunter's Mark) +1d8 (Colossus Slayer), which is described as a combination of precision damage and dirty fighting.
I am kinda disappointed that you didn't mention The jurney to the west in the inspiration section, a DM I know basicly just copied a bunch of stuff from that for a compain. Also it is literally a monk traveling with his deciples. And a charackter is the basis of son goku, which you did mention.
I have a couple monk ideas (not counting Batman which I also wanna make, lol): Mr. Rogers - Monk/Lore Bard. Why monk? Do you really think sweet old Mr. Rogers is gonna wear armor and pick up a weapon? 😄 No, but he can slap some sense into you if you throw a tantrum! That blind guy from Rogue One - Clearly a monk using a quarterstaff, that has the polearm expert and sentinel feats. 👍 The Hulk - Monk Barbarian. Literal fists of fury, basically. Rage is his center. Half orc, who I'd probably flavor to look human until he rages, when he morphs into his orc form. (An interesting side take on the concept is using a half orc as an Artificer or Mastermind Rogue and be Professor Hulk instead.)
As always, we'd love to hear about your favourite examples of Monks from fiction, games, and more!
Dungeon Dudes Yoda, he is the topical sensei monk, passing on his wisdom and acting for peace, but can kick serious butt when needed
Dungeon Dudes Rock lee unfortunately there isnt really a class for the 8 gates
Kung Fu (TV)
Dungeon Dudes I know Naruto is called a ninja but he is more of monk and so are most characters in that world.
TIFA from FF7
Mr. Miyagi
Jean Claude Van Damme in Bloodsport
Tony Jaa Ongbak the Thai Warrior
Jet Li Once Upon A Time In China "Wong Fei Hong"
Son Wukon the Monkey God king
Neo from The Matrix "I know kungfu"
Westley Snipes as Blade
You guys should look into making videos of low level builds. It's all too often that I play a game that never makes it to the really big boy levels so to have a guide suggesting the most damage or best tank at level 4, 6, 8 or even 2 honestly could be really cool and helpful.
Just also wanted to say you guys do an amazing job and are definitely the best d&d channel I've seen.
I agree. I see many 'builds' that don't really mature until after lvl 12 and many games never get that far. I would love to see the first 1-6 levels of different character types
I completely agree. Our group rarely gets above lvl 6 before changing scenarios.
Bard 4/tomelock 3 is a phenomenal low level build. You'll be blasting all day while having all kinds of unique spell options between your tome, the bard list, the warlock list, and magical secrets
@@Luxxicon the better question is why does every scenario change needs a new charakter?
got the feeling it´s like one adventure and our heroes are done and go into retirement. are there no more succesfull bands, just one hit wonders?
My GM iss running a campaign for 3 years now i am playing there for 2 years now and still play the same charakter. why allways start a new character for every new adventure? coz from zero to hero?
why not take old charakters over into the new scenario, if there are few who want to start over with a new charakter so be it, just let them start at the level of their old charakter for party-balance sake.
i would be extremely disappointed and would avoid to much investment in a charakter if i know i had to throw that away before even half through to max!
IMHO, Rogue is the most front-loaded class, so you can have a terrific character by maybe level 2. Pick any race that helps the key Rogue stats or brings good bonuses. Try... Tabaxi.
Dude I loved playing a Long Death monk. When I hit level 18, our DM brought in a nemesis from my characters backstory for a second time. I rolled second in initiative and on my turn, closed the 50ft distance and one shot this guy who was supposed to be one of the BBG's (big bad guys). You can put 1 to 10 ki points into Touch of the Long Death and it does 2d10 damager per ki point spent, giving it the potential to double the damage Quivering Palm would do if it doesn't reduce to 0. I actually ended up doing 160+ damage in one hit. When I declared I was pumping 10 ki points into it, our DM seemed intrigued. When I one shot the dude, he face palmed and was like, "God dammit, I had this awesome encounter planned out."
Did your DM allow you to muti-class Monastic Traditions? You can have Way of Open Hand and The Way of the Long Death?
Interesting!!
Woah, a reply on a comment from two years ago lol. No, there wasn't any multi-classing. I was just comparing Touch of the Long Death with Quivering Palm.
@@Syntheticbreed Got you!! It would be cool if a DM would allow you to Muti-class Monastic Traditions. Why not? You can Muti-class anything else!! For instance: you can be a Human: Wizard/ Rogue.
My plan with a four elements monk with the Unbroken air move
While I feel bad for the DM it still sounds like an epic moment.
Ty Lee from Avatar The Last Airbender is a great example of a monk and offers some pretty great role-playing options if you choose to base a character off of her. Not to mention that if you compare the Base class abilities to what she does in the series then it can help you understand how this class functions. I think the best Ty Lee build would be to do a monk wood elf with an entertainer background.
That would be a cool character concept to build from Ty Lee.
Aang would be much better
Yeah I’m stealing this idea
@@Muchogrande83 feel free. If I didn’t want people to use this idea then I wouldn’t have posted it. Hope you enjoy your character and may rngesus bless your dice.
Goblin+ monk = master yoda
What have you brought upon these *C U R S E D L A N D S?*
Also, all of the Goblin's racial features are synergic with the Monk class. Fury of the Small adds even more damage to unarmed attack, Nimble Scape lets you punch and run (using disengage as bonus action) making the most of your mobility and Darkvision is great for Way of the Shadows monks.
lol yeah. Maybe the gravity monk that came out in Darkmatter?
I played a one shot as “yoda” the goblin bladesinger. He’d spam green flame blade, and took spells like catapult, charm person, mage hand, and feather fall to imitate the Force.
Shadow monk + criminal = Mandalorian?
I remember about a week after Xanathar's guide came out some friends of mine invited me to a one-shot to test out some of the new subclasses and one of the characters was a 'outback' kensei monk named Liam. He talked with a really exaggerated Australian accent, wore short shorts, and used a whip and a bunch of boomerangs as his primary weapons. Because the kensei abilities, the boomerand did 2d4+3 damage, and the DM allowed him to use the whip as a rope and Indiana jones'd the party over a pit of spikes. It was a really cool character and a far step in the right direction away from the traditional monk.
Here I am, two years later, reading your comment, playing a monk with boomerang and whip as my kensei weapons, not realizing the indy comparison! *facepalm*
Honestly what I love most about monks is that they could be wearing nothing but a bedsheet, holding a torch in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other, and still be completely unhindered in kicking ass.
Multiclassing the monk into sorcerer and/or druid, warlock, etc makes for some awesome Mortal Kombat characters! Sub-zero is beast!
RAIDEN all the way. He is bad ass^^
Twinned lightning lure into a flurry blows
Cleric can also use the great wisdom while gaining access to great level one features.
This is a bit less usual, but if your DM allows it, the Ghostwise Halfling variant from SCAG gets +2 Dex and +1 Wis bonuses, and along with their halfling luck this makes them a great monk race choice. The telepathy adds a bit of flavor for role playing the stoic silent type of monk, as well.
Very cool catch. I like it.
wut
Kalashtar would work well in this vein as well and their telepathy has twice the effective range as a ghostwise halfling
Woodelf gives 2 dex and 1 wis also and additional 5 feet speed to make u ZOOM! And u get darkvision for scouting ;)
@@DungeonDudes At 9th level Unarmed Movement can you possibly run up let's say waterfalls or run down a building or walls?
Run sideways on a wall 🧱 like Hidden 🐉 Dragon Crouching 🐅 Tiger?
Here's a really obscure Monk: Haschel from Legend of Dragoon. Where everybody else in the party has a weapon, he needs only his fists and his ancestral Rouge Martial Art. Dude brought down a huge stone door with one punch, and he's _old._ The man's pushing at least 60 and moves like a man a third his age.
Dude! Thanks for reminding me of that game. It’s been ages since I’ve last thought of it. Might still have the disc too. Thank you!
It warms my heart that some actually know and remember this game!!
Amazing game. Now i want to play it again lol.
PC: "may I play an Aaracokra?"
DM: "of course! just don't forget that you may be taken down by Falling damage"
throws back arrows like a boss!
Falling damage? *laughs in Monk*
Aaracokra are so broken... an always-active, concentration-free version of a 3rd-Level spell at 1st level should not be a thing...
@@QuiescentPilot which is why Adventurers League doesnt allow them. But they now allow variant tiefling to have a fly speed at level 5
Conner Wilcox arent variant tieflings al illegal, or at least the getting the wings options for them? Or was that retconned, like aasimars being exempted from phb + 1
@@QuiescentPilot nope, Fly is at a higher level than it should be. taking 20d6 (or 40d6 if you use a more realistic homebrew) of maximum damage at Lv.1 causes insta-death.
Neo, from the Matrix trilogy. And his fight against the thousand Smiths in particular.
And you barely mentioned the unarmored movement! 10-30 feet extra per turn. Double the speed of anyone else. From level 9, physics become guidelines rather than rules. Liquids are just another surface, and gravity a suggestion. (Slow fall from level 4 helps too)
Plus double it every now and then if yr a tabaxi ;)
@@cameronscott9399 Oh yeah Feline Agility.
To say nothing of shadow step if you choose the Shadow Monk.
Kung Fu Hustle is a great martial arts movie with a d&d twist. Highly recommended!
Big Trouble in Little China also has that twist.
The only one I can think of at the moment is "The Forbidden Kingdom"
Kung Fu Hustle is fucking amazing.
D&D twist = a scene where one character uses what is essentially Bigby's Hand. Lol. Cool movie. :-)
I thought I was the only person on the planet in love with that movie!
"I would totally play a dwarven drunken master monk", I already am and she is one of my favorites to roleplay. My DM allowed me to replace "Dwarven combat training" with the "tavern brawler" feat (minus the stat increase) making her play a lot like Jackie Chan with the way she uses everything around her to defend herself. Ladders, benches, tables, glass bottles, quills, torches all weapons in her hands. She recently came across a talking racist dwarf skull (called Carter) tied it to a rope and uses it as an improvised meteor hammer (a Shaolin weapon which is basically a metal ball on the end of a long piece of rope).
She has the "Urban Bounty Hunter" backgound which she uses to get booze money. Her basic backstory is that after she left her monastery due to a tragedy, she turned to alcohol and did something to get her exiled from the stronghold. As she was begging to get money for booze, she got caught up in a tavern brawl and after knocking them out found that one of them had a bounty on his head and spent the lot on booze. Noticing this, the tavern owner struck a deal where he would give her info on bounties for a cut and she can use the rest on as much drink as she can handle.
I imagined the philosphy of the monastery she left as being a clan of dwarves that temper the steel Moradin crafted them from into axes that never dull and shields that never break. Strengthening thier bond with him through medetation, concentrating on their breath, the same kind of breath that Moradin used to cool their casts and give them life. However to those outside the clan there's a popular rumour about the clan founder that he was a failed mercenary that dropped every weapon he tried to use, so he eventually gave up and started punching things.
Also looking forward to getting the "Dwarven Fortitude" feat as that means I can use a hit die when I use a dodge action to heal adding my con mod to the roll, which, as a monk, you can use as the "patient defense" bonus action for the price of a single Ki point. Then maybe the "Durable" feat to boost the healing from the hit dice so the minimum roll you get from the hit dice is double your con modifier (which for me is +3 (although after the con bonuses from Dwarven fortitude and Durable would bring it up to a +4) so healing a minimum roll of 8 on a d8 so minimum 11 healing for a bonus action as well as imposing disadvantage on incoming attacks from patient defense) leading to a surprisingly tanky monk character.
For a proper Jackie Chan homage build, you should also take the Tavern Brawler feat, so you can use any object as an effective weapon.
This is great!
K?
Same, though went with Stout Halfling.
Is your dm allowing you to use improvised weapons as monk weapons as well?
Daredevil is a blind monk
The dream for me is to find a DM that'll let me build a Daredevil style monk. Have the character use blindsense & tremorsense and then some cons to balance it out. Like not being able to see the surface of srolls/parchment, cant see faces, totally blind outside of the senses ranges, etc. Not sure how much to throw in for balance but I just love the concept of "you don't need sight to see".
Also Danny Rand.
Zatoichi?
In one of my campaigns, there is literally a daredevil monk. He is blind and he's a monk and he's awesomely Epic.
Best part of blind characters is that they are almost totally immune to illusion spells
Another backstory for a monk is someone who was raised among the animals like Tarzan or the little boy in Jungle Book, Mowgli. They develop styles related to the animals that raised them.
them: "grace, agility, unarmored combat styles"
me: *accidently hits a civilian in the face with my quarter staff*
"There are no accidents"
@@collingahagan7750 I had to have played the most obnoxious monk ever nothing about him was graceful
I had a monk that would you fury of blows on a persons balls it work so many times.
@@Rule-be6lw your name is so cursed
@@luckyworm2400 I played a Sex monk who was a backstreet boxer and giglio. Eventually I opened a boxing gym/brothel/prostitute school with the dude good times. Lol 😂😂
One of my favorite against-type monks is the Scout from Team Fortress 2. If you think about it he can easily fit the role. He's very mobile, he's got the agility for a high-dex build, he's got a good bit of street smarts (wisdom), his baseball bat can be either a club or a quarterstaff for the purposes of monk weapons. His shotgun can be a reflavored version of the Burning hands offered by the Way of the Sun Soul's Searing Arc Strike, and his pistol a reflavored version of the subclass's Radiant Sun Bolt.
Or you can even dip into Matt Mercer's Gunslinger subclass for fighter to get pistols that work off dex and you could easily rule as Kensei weapons.
Human so give him the mobility feat. It's underrated. :)
@@jemm113 I love that the way of the kensei is supposed to be like "I have focused my ki into this honorable weapon" or it can be, so I found this gun and I want it to be my powers and stuff
Let's keep in mind that historically, there were martial monks in pretty much all cultures. There were spiritual warriors from Africa, the Ancient Americas, India, Middle East, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Hawaii, South Pacific and more. They had special physical training exercises to increase their abilities in martial situations. Many were led by a spirit who guided them to their path.
Dude! You talk about Volo's Guide and then forget tabaxi? Tabaxi are crazy-powerful monks. Their claws count as monk weapons, and when you combine Feline Agility with monk movement, you really do have a character who can literally just be anywhere on the map you want them to be. Tabaxi monks FTW!
Unless there’s been an errata, natural weapons neither count as simple, light, or finesse. Quirky but true. So still strength based and not monk weapon. Could always house rule it though.
Thomas Sierp FYI claws can be used as unarmored strike mobile.twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/800045721218990080
I am playing a monk tabaxi right now, and I know that they are crazy powerful. Even though I am extremely new to D&D. I really wish that they had a tabaxi video.
The Gneech lvl 7 Tabaxi way of the open hand, I am beating the brakes off shit in this curse of strahd we’re running. I jumped out of a door that had 2 dire wolves and a druid outside jumped out grabbed her threw here back in the room our rouge slammed the door behind us that’s were we commenced to boot party her ass our Druid cast thorn on the door so while her wolf homies f’d themselves up trying to break in till our Dragonborn barb smashed his way through the door and basically launched them 20 feet back were they smashed into a wall and died
My fun thing was a warforged monk, he had his shortswords built into his arms and took sun soul for the idea of robo ki blasts, then he died and was reincarnated by a high level druid friend and is now a human
Defensive Duelist is a great feat for a monk, since you're pretty much always are going to be wielding a finesse weapon, and you cant use shields anyway, so that's a great way to get that AC bonus when you need it.
I like how "The One" by Jet Like shows a lawful good and a chaotic evil monk in the same person. The evil version is driven by hunger for the ki he absorbs from killing and relishes domination and raw, physical violence.
underrated movie
@@erikwilliams1562 I ever watched the one!!
This was fun to watch! I'mm 32 and finally started to play D&D back in February. I went with a Drunken Master Monk, we're lvl4 and I'm loving it so far. He was exiled for a crime he didn't commit, was taken in by a monastery and learned from them, and found out that he's a hell of cook. But he started to drink, and found out as well he fights better while shit faced. He left the monastery because of the people that are hunting him, he doesn't want his fellow Monks mixed up in his past mistakes.
Ang from Avatar : the last air bender is an archetype of a monk I totally love....
Just make sure it's Aang from the TV series and not from the movie which shall not be named
Rock lee! 8 lvl open hand monk. 12 lvl frenzied Barbarian. Frenzied till you get to the point of near death. Gate of limit open!
My first ever character was a Dragonborn monk! Super chatty and easy-going normally, shouting out overdramatic move names against unintelligent monsters if the fight wasn't too dangerous a situation. The only time he actually calmed down and acted like a monk was when things got serious. Or when facing an evil dragon-related creature, who I decided I'd have him loathe. Honestly I made him a monk so I could have a dragonman run around punching monsters in the face, and I made that his goal as well, though more nuanced. Really fun character to play...
One of my friends calculated the maximum speed for a tabaxi monk at 20th level. I believe it was 360 feet of movement in 1 round which equates to about 41 mph (65.8368 km/h). Keep in mind that this is also with instantaneous acceleration, so this would likely crack the ground from the push off. The way this works is if you use feline agility to double your speed, then take the dash action to move 240 feet. Finally, use your bonus action to spend a ki point and dash with the step of the wind feature.
At level 20 you have 20 ki points or so? So you have 360 feet of movement per 6 seconds, and you can do it for 2 minutes. You can run over a mile in 2 minutes
Get some Boots of Speed and have someone cast Haste.
@@Arkainjel and 2 levels in fighter for actionsurge. have someone cast longstrider as well as it's not concentration
I am old enough to have been there for the original Karate Kid, and while Ralph Macchio's character was a major wanker, Mister Miyagi was the coolest, most memorable teaching monk I have ever seen. Wax on! Wax off!
Saw it the theater too!
Favorite Ninja Turtle was always Donatello, love me someone who fights with a quarterstaff, easy to learn but hard to master. I think Beast from the X-Men is a Monk and obviously Iron Fist.
Monk + Paladin = Walker, Texas Ranger.
I mean, he HAS to be pumping Smite into those roundhouse kicks, right?
In the eyes of a ranger
The unsuspecting stranger
Had better know the truth of wrong from right
@@mortisCZ 'Cause the eyes of a ranger are upon you
Any wrong you do, he's gonna see
When you're in Texas, look behind you
'Cause that's where the ranger's gonna be
I made a Variant Human Monk. Any archetype can work, but I went with Shadow.
Their deal: Kick things till they stop moving. Then chop 'em up for ingredients and cook a meal for the party. He's inspired by Sanji, of One Piece fame. Not the typical Monk, but it works.
Feat for V.Human: Magic Iniate - Wizard. Prestidigitation (For cleaning his clothes and cookwear), Mage Hand (Help with cooking, and staying groomed). And as the spell: Tenser's Floating Disc.
Because any chef worth their salt isn't going to let something silly like no proper table get in the way of them prepping their ingredients for cooking!
I don't expect to play this character anytime soon, but it's going to be insanely fun if and when I do get to break this one out for a party to run with.
Underrated monk.
Step 1: take tinker's tools
Step 2: be kensei monk
Step 3: take a pistol or pepper box
Step 4: take crossbow expert
Step 5: be John Wick
John Wick:
Inquisitive Rogue (for Insightful Fighting), Kensei Monk, and a few levels in Battlemaster Fighter.
Tavern brawler feat
For the ultimate pencil
I created a monk inspired by the Pokémon: Hitmolee. He only uses his feet to attack and he was trained in the arts of capoeira so you get somewhat of an image of how he moves
I've never been interested in playing a monk before I watched this video. Tonight I'm going to play my first ever monk character, thanks for the awesome content guys. :)
My current character is a wood elf kensei. Her weapons are the longbow, longsword, and whip, giving her great versatility in combat. She can tango in melee, hit hard at range, and do spring attacks with her whip. I'll be taking Sharpshooter at 12th level to really focus on her ranged potential. I've been absolutely loving this character! :)
Wood Elf Kensai who multi-classes to Gloomstalker at 9-12. Just saying...
Great video, but if you guys havent seen "Ip Man" yet, you definitly should, HUGE inspiration for a monk!
Absolutely love the series.
I’m currently playing a Way of Mercy monk with a Kenku. It is such a fun race and class to play, being a mischievous or enigmatic wild card who mimics NPC’s to emphasize points of interest or clues to the story, and often using callbacks to great comedic effect. It forces me to be creative in role playing when I can’t say my own words, so I rely on body language and sound effects or other character voices to allude and emote.
Another great video, Check out “The Forbidden Kingdom” for monk examples. Jackie Chan and Jet Li each play a different kind of monk. There are several other characters/types of monks in the movie.
I've got two monks on my back burner in case of character death: a fighter (mercenary/soldier) who lost an arm in battle to save someone's life, then gave up the violent way of the sword to settle down and find peace; and a shadow monk/rogue multiclass who works as an assassin to keep his family fed back home.
I love to pull inspiration from the old black and white samurai flicks, like Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood.
Also, Michelangelo is clearly the best!
I had an idea for a shadow monk warlock multi class which could be pretty fun. It's just two levels of warlock, but it grants you the devil's sight invocation, so now you can see clearly in magical darkness, so you can focus on you darkness spell, and suddenly you have advantage on all your attacks and enemies have disadvantage on attacks against you. In my opinion there is also a pretty darn good way to roleplay it to. I'm thinking you have a monk order dedicated to a devil, maybe asmodeus, or just gains their insight and knowledge of the shadows from a fiend, and then you could pretty much pick this stuff up at will.
Also, if you want to double down on the ridiculous movement, tabaxi monks are great. Nothing can escape them.
If u get 1 level more in Monk u would have 2 more darkneses and the pact of the Chain/tome/blade
@@Korow- I think you mean Warlock. But the Shadow Monk casts darkness using 2 ki points.
@@liammitchell2225 You have just described one of my AL characters, Madyrn Tyl (which is Elven for Shadow Monk), a Wood Elf Shadow Monk 6, Warlock 2. I routinely use the Darkness/Devil Sight combo.
@@patricklyons794 because that's the single most broken combo in 5e
Wuxia is a massive inspiration to D&D monks that not everyone knows too much about and Don't Stop Thinking has a great video on it.
I know monk is the main unarmed combat class, but I've always wanted more when it came to an unarmed combatant. The agility was nice, don't get me wrong, but what I've always wanted, but haven't had much luck creating is more of a brawler, who rather than hit quick, they hit hard. I've wanted a class or even subclass based around improvised weapons and powerful hits. Someone who could bring a chair to battle and still come out alive.
Sounds like a barb with the tavern brawler feat.
You want John wick
You want a fighter with unarmed style tavern brawler. Go rune knight. Get big, punch, grapple BA, action surge, push, now use them as an improvised weapon against their friends.
The pugilist homebrew is literally what you're looking for. Extremely well made and balanced.
I'm playing a Tortle monk right now and was thinking of trying to do a Hulk build by subclassing a barbarian
I'm planning on playing a monk in our next campaign. This was really helpful! Thanks!
you forgot kung fu panda i thought about making master uguay once
Letholdus my whole party are different types of tortle monks. Master oogway and the teenage mutant ninja turtles
I'd personally go for Tigress or Tai Lung
2 levels of Rogue; Cunning Action and Sneak Attack, leaving Ki points for Flurry of Blows and add a d6 of damage in your attacks at an early stage is awesome
Dudes, I was just thinking about the Kensei, and reread the entire entry.
I found that the Kensei can be really frickin' deadly. 1) You get your choice of two martial weapons that are monk weapons for you (one must be ranged); 2) Martial Arts says you can roll a d4 (greater at higher levels) in place of unarmed strike or Monk Weapon damage; 3) Choosing a Blowgun (normally 1 dmg) as one of your weapons becomes 1d4+dex... at 17th level it becomes 1d10+dex; 4) Deft Strike (gained at 6th level), spend 1 Ki to deal extra damage equal to your Martial Arts die. At 17th level your damage could be 1d10+dex+1d10.
This is all without considering critical hits. Crit with the blowgun at this stage would be effectively 4d10+dex (4-40+dex damage... average 20 points +dex of damage from a blowgun needle) Concealed weapon (flute), so you could gain surprise for advantage. If you built it on a Half-Elf, you could take the racial feat Elven Accuracy, which essentially gives you "Trivantage" (roll 3 d20's and take the highest). With that, crits would be more likely to occur.
You could do the same with a whip for your melee weapon of choice. I like the description of the Blacksnake Whip, which is also easily concealable as a sort of monk belt, so you might never be unarmed and it has reach.
What are your thoughts on this?
You are the ultimate minmaxer
You can go kensei, with some levels in barbarian: take V.human, for more feats or half elf for elven accuracy; pick great weapon FS , GWM, and polearm master; pick either glaive or spear( versitile weapon). With the kensei , you will be able to use your weapon as a monk weapon, if you pick the glaive, you will have a d10 right of the bat, plus your dex mod. With the spear, as a an half elf, being a versitile weapon , you can roll more times; and You have rage, if you get reckless attack, or pick Zealot, you will get tons of damage. If you stun the enemy, you go full on rage, reckless attack, 4d10+mods(RA,GWM,FofB) . You will have some amaizing damage outburst at lower level, can have only a little dip in berserker, go all the way kensei or even get other dip maybe in fighter Battle Master, or even paladin Oath of revenge for some smite.
And then You have a battle monk in a journey of reavenge or a monk that wants to be the strongest fighter of all time, and is in a journey of training, polishing his/her skills. What do you guys think?
@@GustavoMartins-hg9wl naw id rather cut an enemy in half with a single needle. More fun that way. Demoralising too.
Gustavo Martins You should be able to, and I'd allow it at my table, but Kensei monk can't take two-handed weapons as Kensei weapons.
@@dascientist8443 Improved Kensei Weapon says you can
Frankly I think the Second Edition Kensei was an amazing thing that I’m glad to see return in some form back into 5e.
As a monk player, I had been waiting for this! Can't wait to watch it!
...and right on time: my character is getting to level 3 tomorrow!
Great analysis as always. It's a pity monk gets some very weak abilities at high levels (lv13 Tongue of Sun and Moon, lv15 Timeless Body... Both useful, but low level spells can have a party overcome those problems easily). I also feel the way of the four elements is underwhelming, and I'd suggest you look into the Remastered version, a fan made more balanced one. Personally I'll go for the way of the long death, it seems fun.
(Btw yeah, you can't use Quivering Palm without looking at your enemy dead in the eye and saying "Omae wa mou shinderu")
Aarakocra Monk, since movement speed bonus from monk affects fly speed, and you have the ability to switch between bludgeoning or piercing damage with unarmed strikes
The main reason to play a Kensei Monk is the +2 AC when wielding their kensei weapon, apart for the access to martial weapons.
Zatoichi would be my favourite film monk, I think.
Monk inspiration movie, gotta be Forbidden Kingdom with Jet Li and Jackie Chan. There's an awesome variety of monk archtypes to be inspired by.
I always recommend you site to all newbies. There is nothing better than your videos to learn everything D & D
Combining Way of the Shadow Monk with a couple levels of Warlock to get the Devil's Sight Invocation makes for a brutal combination that can teleport around in their own darkness field and completely wreck opponents.
Or just take eldritch adept to take devils sight
@@wesleygoerzen-sheard5706 now, yes. But my original comment was from 2 years ago before Tasha's came out.
For anyone on the spectrum considering classes to play Monk is perhaps my favorite to approach as an easy first character and ease-into for roleplay. The concept of mastering the self, and in the process obviously coming to accept the self and harness their strengths to better the world is very easy to slip into. My first was a way of the astral self path so was able to represent my autism/adhd through the astral projections starting out initially chaotic and progressively becoming more refined, controlled, and empowered.
You guys got me pumped to play my Sun Soul monk. Thanks!
Just got 5th edition and created a monk. Loved your video. Even through its 2 years ago I hope you read this. I am a dragonborn monk, my background is I was found as a child by the monastery and raised by the monks. At the age of 15, adulthood, he sets out(1st lvl) to find who he is. The build is awesome which is why I was surprised you never talked about dragonborn in your video.
I am currently playing a Dragonborn drunken master. It’s so much fun.
Thanks for the video guys, I'm about to play my first session ever with the Monk class and you gave me inspiration on how I'll enjoy this! :)
Let us know how it goes! I (Kelly) have really enjoyed playing my monk, taking inspiration from a number of hand to hand style comic book heroes.
Way of the Long Death has one fantastic ability. At level 11 (I think - I'm away from my books right now) when reduced to 0 HP they can spend 1 Ki (*without* using an action) to instead be at 1HP. This can even prevent death from massive damage.
And I can't believe you didn't mention that the Way of the Sunsoul has a Spirit Bomb. A damage dice count-selectable Fireball with a CON save (at 0 Ki cost if your only want 2d6 to clear out wimps). Sure CON saves are generally high, but if you gotta clear out some Rogues *this* is the go to!
I love this for my dwarf tanking
I'm toying with a multi-class assassin build. Currently I have it as a Tabaxi 11 Shadow Monk/ 3 Ranger (Gloom Stalker)/ 3 Warlock (Pact of the Chain)/ 3 Rogue (Assassin). I have an invisible Imp to help with scouting and reconnaissance. Mad abilities from the Gloom Stalker and Assassin for the first round kill. The ability to cast darkness in 2 different ways and to always see through it. Shadow teleportation, and all the other monk goodies
I've started playing a dual wielding axe throwing goblin monk....I'm loving it 😆
Just straight up, Oh you think my punches can't reach you? taste axe
I'm a martial artist so This is definitely a class I'm going to try in the future. open hand seems to be the one I'll be playing.
This is great, I can't wait for the warlock video, it's my favorite class
Monks are fantastic - my favourite tactic as a monk was been to stand back with the squishy spellcasters to protect them initially, as the meat shields charge in... then use mobility to wander into combat to where she was most needed e.g. once the fighters were being frustrated by phase spiders constantly popping in/out, so monk held action then ran in to stun the spiders when they appeared
Monk+Tortle=Master Oogway.
Best character concept ever
מה קורה אחי
My monk is a half-elf with the way of open hand tradition. His back story is that his village is burnt down by a red dragon but he is saved by a monk that coincidently saw the incident. When he saw the monk defeated the Dragon in one hit, he ask the monk to teach him martial arts so he is not helpless if such situation arise again.
Monk is the only class that I don't worry to much about choosing which subclass to choose because basically just the core class feature is already so powerful. I won't even bother with backstop that much either. even with the standard back story, what important is the way your character is planning to achieve revenge or whatever
My favourite TMNT turtle is definetly Michaelangelo he is a party dude and loves pizza and im all about that life.
joeofdoom Raphael duuuude!🤙
I always liked him too. Guess he was a role model too because I basically became him later in life.
One of my favorite characters is a harper monk kensei with pirate background. He's got a whip of wounding, a singing shortsword that sings dirty sea shanties, a pirate hat with displacer beast tentacles attached, a portable boat with full wet bar, 2 minotaur drinking horns, boots of speed (great for battlefield control), and a few other odds and ends to round him out. He's got a lot of personality. A mix of Jack Sparrow and Zorro. CN alignment but leans goodish. Does a lot of the dirty infiltration work that the regular goody Harper types don't want to get their hands dirty doing.
You guys are amazing thank you for these gems
I am knew to playing.. about a year and always in lockdown from home. I was finding it difficult to get to grips with rules and classes on my own but you guys have helped so much and given me the confidence to make better characters! Thank you!
Try Tabaxi monk with their speed boost, climbing speed. I love it
I just created a Wood Elf Monk - Open Hand. I just love the idea of a Ty Lee from the Avatar series Monk based character. So I just created one. Love it! When you observe her fighting style and her precise jabs stun her opponents. Cant wait for the opportunity to use her in a campaign! Special SHOUT OUT THANKS to Dungeon Dudes for all the great videos they put together !
I know it is only slightly related but I have been seeing so many people take such a bad review of Volo's Kobold player race and it baffles me. The sunlight sensitivity seems to be this huge "red flag" to people and often called out as the biggest reason why they're so "bad". I don't think people understand the interaction between having both advantage and disadvantage at the same time in 5e. With Pack Tactics giving advantage any time an concise ally is within 5 feet totally negates the Sunlight Sensitivity and turns it into a regular roll.
Also, I think people get hung up on Direct Sunlight and assume anything during the day is direct sunlight and that is far from true. Any forest, jungle, tall grass you can slink into, any building/ruin/castle are all in indirect light. The sheer amount of attacks you get at advantage is insane which ends up giving you so many more natural 20s.
The other thing that is often lamented is the Grovel, Cower, and Beg to grant advantage to your companions. So many people see this as unheroic and undignified (which I argue fits perfectly) but is so easily reflavored as something else visually that I don't understand why it is a hangup. Call it "Distracting Cry" if you want and RP it as him screeching in rage so loudly it hurts the ears of the enemy and draws their attention letting your party get advantage.
I bring it up because a kobold monk or rogue is such an amazing combo that I think people are missing out on. Kobolds are my one of my favorite races of all time and I don't think nearly as many people realize their potential as should. They're missing out on a mechanically brilliant race with treasure troves of RP. I'd love to see you guys do a video on how amazing they are.
Lastly, cheers on yet another fantastic video and keep up the good work.
I’m actually going to be playing a Kobold Monk soon, and I can agree, Pack Tactics is very helpful. From the onset, it negates the Sunlight Sensitivity (which, as you said, isn’t “I’m in sun, I have disadvantage” and more “there’s nothing blocking the sun, so it’s getting all up in my eyes”), but when that’s not active, more d20s, so more chance of crits. And, in terms of the other feature... it can be viewed as a taunt. If you give up, either everyone is going to gang up and kill you, or they’re going to ignore you. You gain their attention either way to give allies advantage, and there is potential to actually roleplay a Grovel/Cower/Beg to extend its effects (I’d certainly allow you to keep the ruse going if you roleplay it to be believable (like pleading with your allies to stop attacking; making an offering, then changing your mind to make a different offering as you beg; offering yourself as a minion to the enemy, but being extremely hesitant to actually fight your allies, forcing the enemy to stop focusing on your allies to either reprimand you or to coax you into attacking them; etc.)). There’s also the fact that your Strength detriment doesn’t matter much when your Martial Arts allows Monk weapons to use your Dexterity, even when not normally able to (my Kobold, thanks to a lucky roll, has a 19 in Dex at Lv. 1)
However, it’s also fun to reason why your character went the monastic tradition. As a Kobold, you might expect Way of Shadows, since they’re cave-dwellers. I chose Sun Soul, since he has lived on the plains all his life, and with inspiration from deep-sea creatures with bioluminescence (they shed light to prevent other predators from seeing their shadows, since you have no shadow if you are the source of light and are surrounded by darkness) when it comes to the 17th-level feature, and RADIANT HADOUKENS.
Overall, he’s an entire 2 feet of whoop-ass and will be loads of fun to play, even aside all the “problems” Kobolds have. And who says the DM can’t just make a quest for sunglasses to nullify the Sun Sensitivity if it’s that much a problem?
The other problem they have is the -2str. So they only see negatives not understanding the interplay and forgetting that many builds do not require strength.
I have a 4 Elements kobold monk on hold. People want to way overspend on ki with his way but they do that with normal monks as well.
I love the vid, and I especially appreciate that you didn't just trash the Way of the Drunken Master like a couple other youtubers i've watched. I know it has some faults but i also recognize that if you think a little bit out of the box, and use that drunken flavor both in your roleplay and in your combat. The Drunken Master can wreck in combat, and be a bit of comedic relief and that surprising wise sage within your party.
I'm loving the Bruce Lee references in the beginning.
Woo! my favorite class. :) glad to hear your opinions.
Some of my favorite mythical monks are any Jackie Chan role (particularly in Drunken Master, Who am I?, and Forbidden kingdom), Jedi in general, Chen Stormstout from WoW, Mr Miyagi, Batman, Master Splinter from TMNT, Iroh from Avatar: the last airbender, and Monk Onji and Sanouske from Rurouni Kenshin just to name a few.
(forgive any spelling errors please this was done spur of the moment XD.)
I ran a variant human for a monk. I ended up taking tough as a feat.
I just made my first monk character for a new campaign! I built them as an owlin monk with a homebrew class of spirit bond. This is definitely very helpful with figuring out how to play them and role-playing them. Thank you!!
I combined the monks martial arts with dragonhide claws. So I thought directly of Wolverine but also for some reason of Russia so now I'm playing IVAN the Russian, wolverine-esque dragonborn
Ivan the Honeybadger Dragonborn?
Gonna be starting descent into avernus in a few weeks, and I'm gonna be playing a tabaxi shadow monk. He's a bounty hunter, and spent a lot of time in the underdark, turning his naturally black fur a dusty Grey. Roleplay wise, I'm leaning towards a bit of a smooth talker, like siv redthistle (if anyone watches the dungeon run).
Thanks for portraying female epic characters for inspiration !
My Monk I plan on making is a Half-Orc that definitely has those rage issues. And that's his struggle he wants to do the right thing and he can be smart, but he is also impatient and reckless. So when he sees a grave injustice like slavery his instinct is to fight it violently and instantly even if he knows sneaking in and freeing everyone later is a safer move.
Awesome video game guys. Donnie Yen is the greatest monk be it Ip Man or Chirrut in rouge one. Keep up the great work I send all new players over to you guy.
im so glad you make these kind of vidoes...
it helps so much since im new to the game!
I appreciate the monk guide. I just disagree with stunning strike. When I played my monks. The dice gods must have been against me. Couldn't make it work.
For my next DnD campaing I have made an Air Genasi Monk. I think the genasi have some great habilities to become a Monk (levitate, and a +2 Cons. I´m planning of taking the Four Elements Path, and give her the elemental powers that are related to the air or the temperature (that will be my explanation for the Ki)
Omae wa
mou shindeirou
--quivering palm user
THE HONEY BADGER Goes for the balls Nani?!?
If an enemy is immune to necrotic damage, would this technique fail?
@@EldenRingplayer407 I would say half no half yes. If it fails the saving throw, it technically wouldn't be damaged. Just reduced to 0 HP. However if it succeeds it would be immune to the necrotic
hakai
two levels of Wizard with the rest in Monk. Divination Specialization. Portent with a 1 or so.
Tag an enemy with Quivering Palm. Say that they rolled the one. Ded.
I'm a new DM and one of my players is going to be a monk, thank you for giving insight on how to help his character really get to be pushed to full potential! (His monk is based on Aang from Avatar but a little more okay with murder so hearing how I can integrate his backstory in so many different ways will make my campaign so much smoother)
I'm currently playing a tortle monk. Livin' the dream!
Shadow style of course.. Ninja Tortle. :p
My buddy is playing a Monk in our newest campaign. He's usually the headstrong fighter type and now he's playing his monk as wise and soft spoken. I know it's the "basic bland" monk, however he leans so far into it we all love it. Sometimes it works for a table, especially when it plays against the player's norm.
Love playing my ghostwise Way of the long death (all SCAG). It can be an alternative way to playing an evil character that does not disrupts the party. You get a energy surge after you're first kill and attempt to test the limits of life and death by keeping a mouse and bringing it to 0 every morning stabilize it to gain the temp HP.
I know it's discarded, but it offers nice role play, that's a bit darker for a hero.
Pearl from Steven Universe is very much a monk to me.
So glad you mentioned The Bride from Kill Bill. That's exactly what I was thinking of when I decided to try out a monk. I think, at east for backstory, Wolverine is a good example. Most people think of him as a barbarian but he has a monk like background and essentially fights hand to hand.
Great Bruce Lee quote!
Lately, I've been a big fan of using class mechanics to achieve a character concept, while not necessarily conforming to the common descriptor/concept of the class. Monk is one of the classes that works really well in this regard, much like the rogue. I'm currently playing a happy-go-lucky halfling swashbuckler. I started this character prior to the Swordcoast Adventures swashbuckler subclass being published, so it is a mix of other classes worked out with my GM. My build is a Ghostwise halfling (+1 Dex/+ 1Wis) Ranger 3 (Hunter) /Monk 3 (Way of the Open Hand), with the sailor background. We dropped the telepathic communication ability. He chose the Dueling fighting style, which works perfectly with martial arts (which I define more like dirty fighting). He chose humanoids as his favored enemies (Humans and Merfolk), with coastal as his favored terrain, expertise with navigator's tools (instead of thieves' tools), and sailor's patois (instead of thieves' cant). With my DM's permission, he is allowed to use the rapier as a monk weapon; also, his ranger spells are treated more like Ki abilities (so no components), but I'm limited to spells that could be explained as internal, Ki-like abilities (Hunter's Mark, Cure Light Wounds, Longstrider). In combat, he is a skirmisher, working in tandem with our rogue. We currently don't have a frontline heavy in our party, which is challenging. However, in a typical round he typically does 1d8 +6 (rapier + duelist) + 1d4 +4 (bonus attack) + 1d6 (Hunter's Mark) +1d8 (Colossus Slayer), which is described as a combination of precision damage and dirty fighting.
Love the videos, would love some reviews on the Matt Mercer home brew classes
Class: _Monk_
Race: _Variant Human_
Subclass: _Way of Open Hand_
Feat: _Fighting Initiate_ -> _Unarmed Fighting Style for d8 damage_
Secondary Feat: _Tough_
Background: _Sage_ or _Urchin_
Uncommon Magic Item: _Eldritch Claw Tattoo_
I am kinda disappointed that you didn't mention The jurney to the west in the inspiration section, a DM I know basicly just copied a bunch of stuff from that for a compain.
Also it is literally a monk traveling with his deciples. And a charackter is the basis of son goku, which you did mention.
I have a couple monk ideas (not counting Batman which I also wanna make, lol):
Mr. Rogers - Monk/Lore Bard. Why monk? Do you really think sweet old Mr. Rogers is gonna wear armor and pick up a weapon? 😄 No, but he can slap some sense into you if you throw a tantrum!
That blind guy from Rogue One - Clearly a monk using a quarterstaff, that has the polearm expert and sentinel feats. 👍
The Hulk - Monk Barbarian. Literal fists of fury, basically. Rage is his center. Half orc, who I'd probably flavor to look human until he rages, when he morphs into his orc form.
(An interesting side take on the concept is using a half orc as an Artificer or Mastermind Rogue and be Professor Hulk instead.)