The fact that there are people alive that use their superior movement speed and agility to run at someone like Attack on Titans Titans and flail their limbs while standing in place hurts my soul. This isn’t the only monk anime reference. Sun soul is a giant Dragon Ball reference lol
The issue here is that both disengage and flurry of blows compete for your bonus action, and flurry of blows requires that initial attack standard action. It also doesn't help that Step of the Wind uses Ki too so it also competes for resources. Since the Monk's unarmed attacks aren't very strong for the majority of it's career it relies on that Flurry of Blows to actually do relevant damage. Basically you either have to choose to stay and tank for bellow average damage while using a resource, or zip in and out to do pitiful damage while also using a resource. Basically their mobility is hampered by the fact that using it often undermines the classes' ability to function as a striker.
@@Tomeroche yeah the main issue of monk is how everything works off of ki when so many classes get to do half the shit monks do for free, coughcoughroguecough the main class's issues are alleviated by taking a bunch of the base class's abilities off of ki and if you really want to "balance" it, just slap on a condition that it's free if you have at least one single ki point. but also perfect self is a very stupid ability that frankly should have been an ability five to ten levels ago. something that boosts your dex and wisdom like the barbarian gets for strength and constitution would have more than sufficed, and maybe making fury of blows free. finally monks really should get martial arts' bonus action attack and fury of blows regardless of whether you've attacked that turn but restrict it to unarmed attacks. also it is rather odd that monks use dex instead of strength, look at real martial art monks and you'll see why, and if we're sticking to it, might as well allow them to make athletics checks and grapples with dex. Or allow monks to use STR + WIS for their AC instead of DEX. The monk's unarmed attack die should START at a d6 like how the unarmed fighters do, and finally the monk should get an ability that regens ki faster than a short rest but make it limited. There's also some math showing that just giving early monks an extra static number of ki points it helps them at early levels then becomes irrelevant if just a bit more convenient at higher levels, WIS modifier sounds like a good use, plus it helps cover the cost of the Astral Self, the main gimmick of the subclass that has to share a resource pool with everything else the monk gets. so tl;dr, if we keep ki numbers as-is, make it only used by a couple of base monk abilities and free up usage for the subclasses. and you should do this anyway and either fix ki regen or give them some more ki at early levels.
Consider swapping the Fighter subclass from Champion to Echo Knight to not only double down on the flurry of attacks, but get either a second stand or role play that your stand can now move and exchange places with you. Pretty cool., and with high enough constitution, your looking at 10 attacks when you Action Surge and use Flurry of Blows.
I once used the power of a tabaxi monk to run straight at the big guy at the other side of the battlefield and stun lock him out of the fight. It turns out he was a werewolf and I stun locked him before he had a chance to transform.
First of all, love to see the Monk respect. Second of all, Astral Self can also work for the future King of the Pirate: Monkey D. Luffy - Astral Arms gives you stretched out attacks - Astral Sight makes you see better (Observation Haki) and Word of the Spirit let's you communicate with someone far away (Voice of All Things), or just scream your career path at the top of your lungs - Astral Body let's you absorve lighting (Cus you're made of rubber) and fire (Cus you're gutsy) - Awakened Astral Self basically acts like Gear 4, everything you were doing before, you're now doing it better and doing it more often. - Plus all the anime stuff from regular monk: Multi attacks, shmovement, multiple dubs, MC powers, etc.
Also, lets not forget that when it comes to anime: barbarians are the main character Let me expand: - they are not ususally really smart - they survive injuries that nobody else could and get just scratches - when they get angry they get a nonsense boost of powers and became a lot reckless to get more damage dealt on the enemy - when raging, they gete even more difficult to kill, to the point when they are at zero hp and keep fighting, even when uncounscious (zealot) -some subclasses gets 'auras' or effects that trigger when on rage, aka, became furios or enrage and get its nonsense power boost - some subclasses get abilities or features that makes no sense but can make you fly, or go faster, even random magic boosts that you cannot repeat at will even if you want it - they scream a lot and rush in on a front attack of rage, no plans, just go and hit -they get incredible reflexes to dodge stuff even when they are not really fast So yeah, barbarians are "anime main characters"
I love this subclass because its so falvourful, the astral self can literally be anything you want and the arms can also cover your own arms if you dont want them floating behind you. ive got a character that spews blood out of their arms and it turns into blades, practically chainsaw man once i add the astral visage
I think the reason Monks get such a bad rap isn't so much as them not being frontliners as much as it is them being so starved for Ki. It feels like you get all these features that cost Ki but then you're spent until next short rest meanwhile other classes are still gonna be pumping out their main gimmicks every fight. Astral Monk definitely helps patch the 'dip in and out' playstyle Monks are so good at up, and because you're investing in wisdom your ki save effects are so much more likely to hit and stick. I've seen a homebrew rule pop up recently where Monks get extra ki points equal to their wisdom modifier and honestly I really like that homebrew because it gives you just enough to use your abilities more frequently but not so much you're basically always doing everything until high level where it's totally understandable to be that badass because Wizards are reality shaping at that point. I'm actually a fan of the good ol 'Gunk' build. Where you take a gun and make it into your monk weapon to attack more safely from range, and you can even spend ki to make a bonus action attack, or shoot- then go into melee with flurry of blows or stunning strike. Even though it's not a traditional subclass I would actually love to one day see a 'You might be a Gun Monk' since it's a pretty unique way of play that feels like a subclass unto itself. No class is truly bad in this game honestly, and any overtly weaker character in a game is just patched up by a good DM balancing the game and handing out the right magic weapons. Monks can still be great but I find their limitations to put them below overall compared to other classes.
I agree with most of your comment, but there's a few things I like to add. MAD is basically one half a stunning strike problem, the other half an AC one. Astral Self *mostly* fixes the former at a small cost. However, even if Astral Self makes Stunning Strike better, casters have an immeasurable action economy advantage when it comes to control. This isn't just a Wall of Force problem, this is a Web problem. Spell slots might be shorter in supply, but their DC is higher (unless astral self) and they can target different saves without needing to hit with an attack roll first, the effects can target multiple enemies, often last multiple rounds, and spells can be fired off at range. Stunning Strike comes online at 5th level where it is already painfully outclassed. Then there's equipment. Gunks are indeed neat. Monks do very well with bows/guns + sharpshooter, particularly with TCE and an archery dip. However, this forgoes most of martial arts and stunning strike becomes not only even less reliable due to the feat tax, the same feat tax also kicks your AC in the balls. Still, the gunk makes excellent use of unarmored movement and its upgrades, which is really fun. In melee, it is a different story. Monks can't cast spells to augment their attacks and don't have features like smite and sneak attack. Fighters and barbarians have the same limitations, but they can use heavy weapons. When the monk does so, either they'll have awful AC because they need to invest into strength, or they wear armour and forgo martial arts and unarmored movement. Focused aim can make the latter ok, but at that point just play a barbarian for reckless attack. Also skirmishing in melee is a trap because everything has attacks of opportunity. Either you pray your enemy fails their con save on stunning strike, or you spend ki and a bonus action, or you take mobile, or you're not skirmishing at all. Also, if an enemy can't target you, they're just going to hit the barbarian. At that point you have to wonder, what party is more likely to win and survive a fight? One with a barbarian and a melee monk, or one with 2 barbarians? There's a few funky ways to play a monk effectively. Besides the Gunk, Mercy is honestly pretty neat just by itself. vHuman mercy monk with crusher is a fun support build with the right party. A tortle monk can afford to go stronk and dip barbarian for rage, reckless and a subclass. etc. You're also absolutely right in that a good DM can design their adventures around the monk's strengths (particularly their insane and mostly free movement). But overall, I do hope onednd ends up giving monks some love because they got it pretty rough in 5e.
This. Flurry of Blows Costa ki. Step of the wind costs ki. Literally the 2 things your Monk is supposed to do leaves you handicapped. Can't do any real damage without being stuck in place. Can't disengage with giving the enemy a little love tap
Let's be fair, considering the subclass ties with echo knight as being 'so you want to be a stand user?' for it's usual bs, if he didn't, it would be a wasted opportunity.
I love how _technically_ the description says that your -stand- astral self covers your body like armor, but we've just collectively, unconsciously houseruled that it can also exist and function separately. _> And yes, obviously I've made one. A fairy astral monk who's astral visage is distinctly lupine. Stand name: Steppenwolf.
I’m so happy to see this finally. My currently character is an Aarakocra Monk who is going to gain Astral Self next level. I’m so excited to slowly build this Monster and so glad you mentioned the cross class to fighter for action surge. I was considering that choice and now seeing this confirms that choice. Thank you so much!!!
Nice combo for dropping enemies onto other enemies from above :D Dont forget to take Expert feat to get Expertise in Athletic and cap wisdom to make enemies unable to leave your grapple! Great defensive layer due to most enemies have only 5ft reach!
The only problem with monk is that we need to spend ki to do anything cool and amount of ki you get is kinda shit. also the reason wy people thing monks as front line fighter is because when you think monk you think martial arts and when you think that you think Bruce lee and when you think Bruce Lee you think him fighting 5 guys at once.
Pretty much, it's also hurt by a few errata that gave everyone 1d4 unarmed damage and unarmed proficiency which made their Martial Arts feature much less meaningful in the starting levels. It also doesn't combine with any natural weapon features. Probably the biggest kneecap to the monk was how it's made for mobility but it's only way to use said mobility is to give up Flurry of Blows for the turn (both use the bonus action). So they have to choose between just staying in melee but doing decent damage, or trying to move around the battle field but only doing pitiful damage. So much of the monk's frustration comes from how much parts of it compete with itself.
My first DnD character was an astral monk. Just a gnome with a silly hat who punched with his floating hands. Made him annoying by multiclassing into Cleric, trickster. Channel Divinity to make an illusion then summon arms. Most enemies thought the illusion was punching them.😂
Water Earth Fire Air Long ago, the four nations once lived in harmony Then everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. One hundred years later my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, a monk named Aang. He freaking sucks, the world is doomed.
I did make an Astral Self Barbarian Monk inspired by Asura's Wrath. It worked out well. Didn't play long enough to know HOW well, sadly, but was pretty solid. Also made a Monk that can move up to 330 per round (Provided the Ki is available to power Step of the Wind) and recently found out that HASTE double's that... and adds a 2nd action (Reading the spell directly) that can be used to attack, disengage, or DASH again, bringing it up to about 880 feet in the standard 6 seconds. So: Base Movement-110, Action Dash-110, Haste dash-110, Bonus Action (step) Dash-110 for a total of 440, doubled by Haste to 880. For the base-movement math: Centaur-40 feet, Monk lv 16 +30 feet, Horseshoes of Speed +30 feet, Mobile (for Dashing over rough terrain as well) +10 feet for a total of 110. I didn't take other potential movement enhancing feats because they were either unnecessary, or unavailable at the time. Haste was a spell that I recently re-read and found out it turned this particular Monk into a danged race-car!
I'm never gonna stop loving just how God Damn *ANIME* Tashia's Calderon was of an addition; Reminder to those who may not have it or may not remember, it added *not only* JJBA as a Monk Subclass but also Persona 5 as a Rogue Subclass, and Devil Fruit from One Piece as just a World Object you can throw into campaigns.
@dilans.5831 it's like Cursed Fruits or something. I don't remember the actual name of it but it's in the DM World Items segment of Tasha's, where you eat one and get something off a table of results that last 8 hours to a day.
Love the content man! Keep up the awesome work. I laughed so hard during this video I had to rewind a few times. Four thumbs (two from astral arms) way up!
AND REMEMBER you can multiclass into an echo knight fighter for some extra ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAAAAA and an early full body stand
Since we're talking about Za Warudo... I'm disappointed with the timestop spell in dnd. What do you mean "It ends instantly if you do anything to a different creature"?!!!
Would throwing a bunch of knives in the general direction of someone, with those knives (once they leave your hand) getting stuck in the Timestop be consideren "do anything to a different creature"?
@@MercuryAlphaInc Correction: not because it's an attack, but because an action you made during timestop affected or will affect a creature or object that isn't being carried or worn by you.
Fun fact: At fighter lvl 1 you can pick "unarmed combat" as your fighting style and if you already have martial arts or the tavern brawler feat your punches it´s for a d8. Which means you will be able to punch just as hard as a lvl 11 monk minus stat improvements. Hell even if you wanna play a pure monk just pick human variant or a custom lineage as your race and pick the feat fighting Initiate which let´s you pick the "unarmed combat" fighting style and punch for d8 at lvl 1. You will be skipping 10 lvls right there. Still if you wanna play a Astral Self Monk I do recommend you take 3 lvls in fighter and pick the Echo Knight subclass, why you may ask, cus you´ll basically get a second stand and even more attacks. Plz enjoy. And to you "You Might Be A DND" I say great video as always and I hope you like the little side tips I tossed in here.
i have a character who is a monk using way of the astral self right now, and watching your video opened my eyes to how little i have been using the abilities as intended
D4: D&D Deep Dive points out that Monks don't theorycraft well as two of the core abilities are stunning strike and the ability to walk to the moon and back every turn. Neither of those show up on damage calculators at all, really. Add in that Ki is limited because its a short rest based resource, and typically, unless the table leader is running a warlock, wildshape-heavy(moon/spore) druid, monk or fighter, you're not likely to take that many short rests. Also, if you're going to multiclass, consider going gloomstalker ranger as 3 levels will make your DM cry when they accidentally start a fight in a place with shadows.
yeah I'm definitely an Astral Self Monk my DM also is letting me get away with some homebrew and extra things because she wanted a high power campaign Consider: Astral Self Monk 18 (11 currently) + Twilight Cleric 2 (1 currently), Feral Tiefling Boon of Spell Mastery (Hex, which I got from Fey Touched (Wisdom)), so I have infinite free Hex She has given everyone in the party a forced attunement item (which she removed the necessity for attunement to after we'd been playing the campaign for a year in real time), and mine has a sentient and friendly inhabitant named Kotari, gives +1 To Hit and +1 to Damage Rolls, grants 30ft of darkvision that penetrates magical darkness (hi Infernal Legacy Darkness spell), Prof on Sleight of Hand, +3 Wisdom even over 20, and Initiate of High Sorcery (Lunitari; Disguise Self, Longstrider, Sword Burst). My attunements are now: 1. Gloves of Soul Catching 2. Dragonhide Belt +2 3. Orb of the Veil (yes this means my Wisdom is 25) The actual healer in the party keeps me equipped with a Bloodstone Spell Gem (Haste) to use... yes my character is Batman with a Stand so anyway my typical turn looks like: Action: Empowered Astral Arms of the Self (WIS) +11 To-Hit (2d8+7 Force + 2d10 Force/Healing from Gloves DMG), Arms of the Astral Self (WIS) +11 To-Hit (1d8+7 Force + 2d10 Force/Healing from Gloves DMG), then a third one of the Arms if I have Haste up and then BA Flurry of Blows x2 which also gets Gloves bonus damage :kekw: plus whatever Stunning Strikes I need good luck hitting me unless you have Devil's Sight or Truesight or Blindsight or something because I'm probably running Darkness over Hex
I also believe another reason why people hate monks is because people would associate it with anime I love monks and they're my favorite class. Followed by rangers:D I'm both a fan of DnD and anime and I never knew Matt Mercer is the english voice of Jotaro. Probably because I'm not a fan of critical role and don't play attention much to voice actors
So, Jotaro's an Astral Self Monk with a two level Fighter Dip Polnareff's an Echo Knight Joseph's a monk/divination wizard variant human with the Lucky and Martial Adept feats at the cost of ABIs What's Kakyoin, Avdol, and Iggy?
Fun concept. Astral Self monk with no hands and the magic initiate feat (mage hand, unseen servant and 1 other appropriate cantrip). Flavoured as you using your astral self as a substitute for normal hands
Honestly never really understood all the hate for monks. Sure they are not perfact but it's always fun to beat the crap out of assholes with fancy kung fu moves. Also this video reminded me why I freaking love jojo.
Some people will never understand the war that was fought to make it to this video. So many lost fights to reach this point we even made an alliance with our opponents
Wait, if you multiclass into an Echo Knight, would you get a pair of shadow clones as well as your Stand?! If so, that has the potential to be busted as hell!
I've never watched JoJo, but even when this subclass was unearthed arcana, I understood the reference. So the fact that he went full-blown on this, I'm all here for
Warforged +1AC 3 levels of Ranger Hunter - Horde Breaker +1 attack - Mariner fighting style +1AC - Wilderness flavor - Longstrider even more movement - Hunter's Mark, more damage on how many frigging attacks? Stack Tunnel Fighter on that reach, Crusher on all those fists, and Menacing for one out of all of those attacks. Thats an Astral Self with +2AC, +1 situational attack, Swimming and Climbing, Longstrider movement increase, Hunter's Mark damage increase. Deft Explorer will also give you free Expertise in a skill of your choice. Why not Stealth? Wilderness Monk with expertise in Stealth... yeah.
I lovwe the idea of channeling an animal spirit, and as you summon the visage and arms it takes on bodyparts, but when you do the combining part, it's like a set of spiritual animal armor/aura. Plus hey, on the Insect theme I mentioned, you could have all sortts of wings for slow fall. Also for the obligotory Japanese mention in this comments section, it lets you be a Kamen Rider. More of the mystical type, but if you can flavor it to cyborg stuff, sure.
Monks were only introduced into this Western European fantasy game due to the insane popularity of the show "Kung Fu" starring David Carradine back in the early 70s.
Not gonaa lie bot make 5 attacks per turn in level 17 is kinda underwhelming. At least make me use Flurry of blows in that extra attack (level 5 and level 17 Astral Self).
great vid as always but you missed out on the ultimate jojo's character. Instead of going champion fighter, go ECHO KNIGHT !! Now you got a literal stand that can go up to 30 feet and still punch out to 10ft and you can resummon for free with the bonus action !!
I love how everyone joke about the astral self being your stand, it’s just undeniable. If you have a friend who is a Jojo fan, then introduce this class to him.
As always good job on making look cool and strong. The Ki points are so lacking though, the reason I never tried a monk is all the cool abilities hinge on a resource that seems to be in dire short supply. Is it ghat bad in play as it looks on paper??
@@pl412 Fair, sometimes you do in fact just have to be the Avatar. But I'll give drunken master a pass because the martial art does technically exist independent of Jackie Chan in pop culture.
I have genuinely come to look forward to these. You know, you sound exactly like one of the people on saturday night live. It's bizarre but is it a bizarre adventure... no, no it's not.
"Note to self: Make a spell that lets you throat-punch people with your ghost."
-Tasha
I legit chose touch of the fey for my feat and had tashad horrid laughter as my enchantment spell for it
Mage hand but more angry... Thasha's mage fist
The fact that there are people alive that use their superior movement speed and agility to run at someone like Attack on Titans Titans and flail their limbs while standing in place hurts my soul. This isn’t the only monk anime reference. Sun soul is a giant Dragon Ball reference lol
The issue here is that both disengage and flurry of blows compete for your bonus action, and flurry of blows requires that initial attack standard action. It also doesn't help that Step of the Wind uses Ki too so it also competes for resources. Since the Monk's unarmed attacks aren't very strong for the majority of it's career it relies on that Flurry of Blows to actually do relevant damage. Basically you either have to choose to stay and tank for bellow average damage while using a resource, or zip in and out to do pitiful damage while also using a resource. Basically their mobility is hampered by the fact that using it often undermines the classes' ability to function as a striker.
@@Tomeroche yeah the main issue of monk is how everything works off of ki when so many classes get to do half the shit monks do for free, coughcoughroguecough
the main class's issues are alleviated by taking a bunch of the base class's abilities off of ki and if you really want to "balance" it, just slap on a condition that it's free if you have at least one single ki point. but also perfect self is a very stupid ability that frankly should have been an ability five to ten levels ago. something that boosts your dex and wisdom like the barbarian gets for strength and constitution would have more than sufficed, and maybe making fury of blows free.
finally monks really should get martial arts' bonus action attack and fury of blows regardless of whether you've attacked that turn but restrict it to unarmed attacks. also it is rather odd that monks use dex instead of strength, look at real martial art monks and you'll see why, and if we're sticking to it, might as well allow them to make athletics checks and grapples with dex. Or allow monks to use STR + WIS for their AC instead of DEX. The monk's unarmed attack die should START at a d6 like how the unarmed fighters do, and finally the monk should get an ability that regens ki faster than a short rest but make it limited. There's also some math showing that just giving early monks an extra static number of ki points it helps them at early levels then becomes irrelevant if just a bit more convenient at higher levels, WIS modifier sounds like a good use, plus it helps cover the cost of the Astral Self, the main gimmick of the subclass that has to share a resource pool with everything else the monk gets.
so tl;dr, if we keep ki numbers as-is, make it only used by a couple of base monk abilities and free up usage for the subclasses. and you should do this anyway and either fix ki regen or give them some more ki at early levels.
So if astral self is jojo and sun soul is dragon ball, I wonder if any of the other subclasses have some sort of anime references in them.
@@עומרשרייבר-ל4רMercy Monk(The only good Monk in my oppinion) is Fist of the North Star
Since the whole Healing Touch and also Death Touch
@@עומרשרייבר-ל4ר way of the four elements is an avatar reference
Consider swapping the Fighter subclass from Champion to Echo Knight to not only double down on the flurry of attacks, but get either a second stand or role play that your stand can now move and exchange places with you. Pretty cool., and with high enough constitution, your looking at 10 attacks when you Action Surge and use Flurry of Blows.
Coolest of beans
Isn't that litterly whitesnake from jjba
At that point it’s persona
That's just D4C
I once used the power of a tabaxi monk to run straight at the big guy at the other side of the battlefield and stun lock him out of the fight. It turns out he was a werewolf and I stun locked him before he had a chance to transform.
This is a perfect guide to a bizarre adventure
"Guess what? You might be a JoJo fan~!" 😂
Guess what? You might be a jojo reference
First of all, love to see the Monk respect.
Second of all, Astral Self can also work for the future King of the Pirate: Monkey D. Luffy
- Astral Arms gives you stretched out attacks
- Astral Sight makes you see better (Observation Haki) and Word of the Spirit let's you communicate with someone far away (Voice of All Things), or just scream your career path at the top of your lungs
- Astral Body let's you absorve lighting (Cus you're made of rubber) and fire (Cus you're gutsy)
- Awakened Astral Self basically acts like Gear 4, everything you were doing before, you're now doing it better and doing it more often.
- Plus all the anime stuff from regular monk: Multi attacks, shmovement, multiple dubs, MC powers, etc.
I'm actually doing a pirate build based off this very idea except a tabaxi
Also, lets not forget that when it comes to anime: barbarians are the main character
Let me expand:
- they are not ususally really smart
- they survive injuries that nobody else could and get just scratches
- when they get angry they get a nonsense boost of powers and became a lot reckless to get more damage dealt on the enemy
- when raging, they gete even more difficult to kill, to the point when they are at zero hp and keep fighting, even when uncounscious (zealot)
-some subclasses gets 'auras' or effects that trigger when on rage, aka, became furios or enrage and get its nonsense power boost
- some subclasses get abilities or features that makes no sense but can make you fly, or go faster, even random magic boosts that you cannot repeat at will even if you want it
- they scream a lot and rush in on a front attack of rage, no plans, just go and hit
-they get incredible reflexes to dodge stuff even when they are not really fast
So yeah, barbarians are "anime main characters"
Lore Bard looks around nervously in the next community poll....
_"Am I next?"_
I love this subclass because its so falvourful, the astral self can literally be anything you want and the arms can also cover your own arms if you dont want them floating behind you. ive got a character that spews blood out of their arms and it turns into blades, practically chainsaw man once i add the astral visage
I love your positivity and take on the monk class! So many doomsayers that I was a little discouraged about rolling one up.
Monks are my favorite class and Astral Monk is the reason I love it so much. Thank you so much for FINALLY covering this class!
A fellow monk enjoyer, I see.
I think the reason Monks get such a bad rap isn't so much as them not being frontliners as much as it is them being so starved for Ki. It feels like you get all these features that cost Ki but then you're spent until next short rest meanwhile other classes are still gonna be pumping out their main gimmicks every fight. Astral Monk definitely helps patch the 'dip in and out' playstyle Monks are so good at up, and because you're investing in wisdom your ki save effects are so much more likely to hit and stick. I've seen a homebrew rule pop up recently where Monks get extra ki points equal to their wisdom modifier and honestly I really like that homebrew because it gives you just enough to use your abilities more frequently but not so much you're basically always doing everything until high level where it's totally understandable to be that badass because Wizards are reality shaping at that point.
I'm actually a fan of the good ol 'Gunk' build. Where you take a gun and make it into your monk weapon to attack more safely from range, and you can even spend ki to make a bonus action attack, or shoot- then go into melee with flurry of blows or stunning strike. Even though it's not a traditional subclass I would actually love to one day see a 'You might be a Gun Monk' since it's a pretty unique way of play that feels like a subclass unto itself.
No class is truly bad in this game honestly, and any overtly weaker character in a game is just patched up by a good DM balancing the game and handing out the right magic weapons. Monks can still be great but I find their limitations to put them below overall compared to other classes.
I agree with most of your comment, but there's a few things I like to add.
MAD is basically one half a stunning strike problem, the other half an AC one. Astral Self *mostly* fixes the former at a small cost. However, even if Astral Self makes Stunning Strike better, casters have an immeasurable action economy advantage when it comes to control. This isn't just a Wall of Force problem, this is a Web problem. Spell slots might be shorter in supply, but their DC is higher (unless astral self) and they can target different saves without needing to hit with an attack roll first, the effects can target multiple enemies, often last multiple rounds, and spells can be fired off at range. Stunning Strike comes online at 5th level where it is already painfully outclassed.
Then there's equipment. Gunks are indeed neat. Monks do very well with bows/guns + sharpshooter, particularly with TCE and an archery dip. However, this forgoes most of martial arts and stunning strike becomes not only even less reliable due to the feat tax, the same feat tax also kicks your AC in the balls. Still, the gunk makes excellent use of unarmored movement and its upgrades, which is really fun.
In melee, it is a different story. Monks can't cast spells to augment their attacks and don't have features like smite and sneak attack. Fighters and barbarians have the same limitations, but they can use heavy weapons. When the monk does so, either they'll have awful AC because they need to invest into strength, or they wear armour and forgo martial arts and unarmored movement. Focused aim can make the latter ok, but at that point just play a barbarian for reckless attack.
Also skirmishing in melee is a trap because everything has attacks of opportunity. Either you pray your enemy fails their con save on stunning strike, or you spend ki and a bonus action, or you take mobile, or you're not skirmishing at all. Also, if an enemy can't target you, they're just going to hit the barbarian. At that point you have to wonder, what party is more likely to win and survive a fight? One with a barbarian and a melee monk, or one with 2 barbarians?
There's a few funky ways to play a monk effectively. Besides the Gunk, Mercy is honestly pretty neat just by itself. vHuman mercy monk with crusher is a fun support build with the right party. A tortle monk can afford to go stronk and dip barbarian for rage, reckless and a subclass. etc. You're also absolutely right in that a good DM can design their adventures around the monk's strengths (particularly their insane and mostly free movement). But overall, I do hope onednd ends up giving monks some love because they got it pretty rough in 5e.
@@bijnahonderdeuro very good response. i agree with your criticisms as well and mostly i just didn't wanna dig too deep into em.
This.
Flurry of Blows Costa ki.
Step of the wind costs ki.
Literally the 2 things your Monk is supposed to do leaves you handicapped.
Can't do any real damage without being stuck in place.
Can't disengage with giving the enemy a little love tap
Perfect. Now I can make a femme fatale Astral self monk and Ora Ora while I Ara Ara.
😂 The comment scroll was worth it for this comment alone
Damnit
JOKES ON YOU THERE IS AN ACTUAL CARACTER THAT SCREAM ARA ARA ARA INSTEAD OF ORA ORA ORA AND IS A MALE... a very gay one with memory problems
Dont forget to make her a mother so you have a Milf
booooo
This whole episode was nothing but jojo references, AND I LOVED IT!
As someone who hasn't fully committed to JoJo, This is the best "You Might Be A . . " Vid cause those references were the world lmao
@@johnfranklin87 they were out of this ZA WARUDO
Let's be fair, considering the subclass ties with echo knight as being 'so you want to be a stand user?' for it's usual bs, if he didn't, it would be a wasted opportunity.
I love how _technically_ the description says that your -stand- astral self covers your body like armor, but we've just collectively, unconsciously houseruled that it can also exist and function separately.
_>
And yes, obviously I've made one. A fairy astral monk who's astral visage is distinctly lupine.
Stand name: Steppenwolf.
I’m so happy to see this finally. My currently character is an Aarakocra Monk who is going to gain Astral Self next level. I’m so excited to slowly build this Monster and so glad you mentioned the cross class to fighter for action surge. I was considering that choice and now seeing this confirms that choice. Thank you so much!!!
Nice combo for dropping enemies onto other enemies from above :D
Dont forget to take Expert feat to get Expertise in Athletic and cap wisdom to make enemies unable to leave your grapple! Great defensive layer due to most enemies have only 5ft reach!
The only problem with monk is that we need to spend ki to do anything cool and amount of ki you get is kinda shit. also the reason wy people thing monks as front line fighter is because when you think monk you think martial arts and when you think that you think Bruce lee and when you think Bruce Lee you think him fighting 5 guys at once.
Pretty much, it's also hurt by a few errata that gave everyone 1d4 unarmed damage and unarmed proficiency which made their Martial Arts feature much less meaningful in the starting levels. It also doesn't combine with any natural weapon features.
Probably the biggest kneecap to the monk was how it's made for mobility but it's only way to use said mobility is to give up Flurry of Blows for the turn (both use the bonus action). So they have to choose between just staying in melee but doing decent damage, or trying to move around the battle field but only doing pitiful damage. So much of the monk's frustration comes from how much parts of it compete with itself.
My first DnD character was an astral monk. Just a gnome with a silly hat who punched with his floating hands. Made him annoying by multiclassing into Cleric, trickster. Channel Divinity to make an illusion then summon arms. Most enemies thought the illusion was punching them.😂
Water
Earth
Fire
Air
Long ago, the four nations once lived in harmony
Then everything changed when the fire nation attacked.
Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them.
But when the world needed him most, he vanished.
One hundred years later my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, a monk named Aang.
He freaking sucks, the world is doomed.
THERE'S ALWAYS SOME FOOL, WHO WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD!
i wanna use this subclass so bad. i’ve only gotten to use one monk so far but when i did it was so fun
Love the astral self monk, it’s a very cool and flavorful subclass. My friend is playing one and MONKING SHIT UP
F*cking love all the Jojo's references in this one! Hilarious!
I did make an Astral Self Barbarian Monk inspired by Asura's Wrath. It worked out well. Didn't play long enough to know HOW well, sadly, but was pretty solid.
Also made a Monk that can move up to 330 per round (Provided the Ki is available to power Step of the Wind) and recently found out that HASTE double's that... and adds a 2nd action (Reading the spell directly) that can be used to attack, disengage, or DASH again, bringing it up to about 880 feet in the standard 6 seconds. So: Base Movement-110, Action Dash-110, Haste dash-110, Bonus Action (step) Dash-110 for a total of 440, doubled by Haste to 880.
For the base-movement math: Centaur-40 feet, Monk lv 16 +30 feet, Horseshoes of Speed +30 feet, Mobile (for Dashing over rough terrain as well) +10 feet for a total of 110. I didn't take other potential movement enhancing feats because they were either unnecessary, or unavailable at the time. Haste was a spell that I recently re-read and found out it turned this particular Monk into a danged race-car!
I'm never gonna stop loving just how God Damn *ANIME* Tashia's Calderon was of an addition;
Reminder to those who may not have it or may not remember, it added *not only* JJBA as a Monk Subclass but also Persona 5 as a Rogue Subclass, and Devil Fruit from One Piece as just a World Object you can throw into campaigns.
I've played for a while but I don't get the devil fruit reference, what is it?
@dilans.5831 it's like Cursed Fruits or something. I don't remember the actual name of it but it's in the DM World Items segment of Tasha's, where you eat one and get something off a table of results that last 8 hours to a day.
Love the content man! Keep up the awesome work. I laughed so hard during this video I had to rewind a few times. Four thumbs (two from astral arms) way up!
AND REMEMBER you can multiclass into an echo knight fighter for some extra ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAAAAA
and an early full body stand
I am so becoming a stand user for my next character
It's finally here!!!
Somewhat regrettably, I am not an astral self monk.
But it's good to know what they can do! :D Well done; keep up the good content. :)
excellent description of what a monk should be doing.
Please do Oath of the ancients next.
Astral self and blade song make a great combo, I'm a combo of them right now and it's amazing
dope
Since we're talking about Za Warudo... I'm disappointed with the timestop spell in dnd. What do you mean "It ends instantly if you do anything to a different creature"?!!!
Would throwing a bunch of knives in the general direction of someone, with those knives (once they leave your hand) getting stuck in the Timestop be consideren "do anything to a different creature"?
@@MercuryAlphaInc
It counts as making an attack, which ends the spell
@@MercuryAlphaInc
Correction: not because it's an attack, but because an action you made during timestop affected or will affect a creature or object that isn't being carried or worn by you.
Glad u did astral self monk I think this was the last for your series...wait there's artificer and paladin next lol can't wait
Fun fact: At fighter lvl 1 you can pick "unarmed combat" as your fighting style and if you already have martial arts or the tavern brawler feat your punches it´s for a d8. Which means you will be able to punch just as hard as a lvl 11 monk minus stat improvements. Hell even if you wanna play a pure monk just pick human variant or a custom lineage as your race and pick the feat fighting Initiate which let´s you pick the "unarmed combat" fighting style and punch for d8 at lvl 1. You will be skipping 10 lvls right there.
Still if you wanna play a Astral Self Monk I do recommend you take 3 lvls in fighter and pick the Echo Knight subclass, why you may ask, cus you´ll basically get a second stand and even more attacks. Plz enjoy.
And to you "You Might Be A DND" I say great video as always and I hope you like the little side tips I tossed in here.
Yes, now I can begin putting together my Asura's Wrath build ❤
I've seen someone combo this with Ancestral Guardian Barbarian and it is VERY strong.
Nice video,but you have to choose between Unarmored Movement and Dedicated Weapon, because Dedicated Weapon is an optional class feature.
i have a character who is a monk using way of the astral self right now, and watching your video opened my eyes to how little i have been using the abilities as intended
Me thinks someone had too much fun with this vid 😂
I make this comment to feed the insatiable hunger of the algorithm
I love my Shadow Monks, especially when I'm in a trolling mood and want to annoy party members while Shadow Stepping up and down castle walls.
D4: D&D Deep Dive points out that Monks don't theorycraft well as two of the core abilities are stunning strike and the ability to walk to the moon and back every turn. Neither of those show up on damage calculators at all, really.
Add in that Ki is limited because its a short rest based resource, and typically, unless the table leader is running a warlock, wildshape-heavy(moon/spore) druid, monk or fighter, you're not likely to take that many short rests.
Also, if you're going to multiclass, consider going gloomstalker ranger as 3 levels will make your DM cry when they accidentally start a fight in a place with shadows.
Man I adore monks but hate how they got butchered
yeah I'm definitely an Astral Self Monk
my DM also is letting me get away with some homebrew and extra things because she wanted a high power campaign
Consider:
Astral Self Monk 18 (11 currently) + Twilight Cleric 2 (1 currently), Feral Tiefling
Boon of Spell Mastery (Hex, which I got from Fey Touched (Wisdom)), so I have infinite free Hex
She has given everyone in the party a forced attunement item (which she removed the necessity for attunement to after we'd been playing the campaign for a year in real time), and mine has a sentient and friendly inhabitant named Kotari, gives +1 To Hit and +1 to Damage Rolls, grants 30ft of darkvision that penetrates magical darkness (hi Infernal Legacy Darkness spell), Prof on Sleight of Hand, +3 Wisdom even over 20, and Initiate of High Sorcery (Lunitari; Disguise Self, Longstrider, Sword Burst).
My attunements are now:
1. Gloves of Soul Catching
2. Dragonhide Belt +2
3. Orb of the Veil (yes this means my Wisdom is 25)
The actual healer in the party keeps me equipped with a Bloodstone Spell Gem (Haste) to use...
yes my character is Batman with a Stand
so anyway my typical turn looks like:
Action: Empowered Astral Arms of the Self (WIS) +11 To-Hit (2d8+7 Force + 2d10 Force/Healing from Gloves DMG), Arms of the Astral Self (WIS) +11 To-Hit (1d8+7 Force + 2d10 Force/Healing from Gloves DMG), then a third one of the Arms if I have Haste up
and then BA Flurry of Blows x2 which also gets Gloves bonus damage :kekw:
plus whatever Stunning Strikes I need
good luck hitting me unless you have Devil's Sight or Truesight or Blindsight or something because I'm probably running Darkness over Hex
is this... Am I... the first?
oh this is lovely
Love punching stuff
I also believe another reason why people hate monks is because people would associate it with anime
I love monks and they're my favorite class. Followed by rangers:D
I'm both a fan of DnD and anime and I never knew Matt Mercer is the english voice of Jotaro. Probably because I'm not a fan of critical role and don't play attention much to voice actors
So,
Jotaro's an Astral Self Monk with a two level Fighter Dip
Polnareff's an Echo Knight
Joseph's a monk/divination wizard variant human with the Lucky and Martial Adept feats at the cost of ABIs
What's Kakyoin, Avdol, and Iggy?
Nice video would be able to make a video on the Oath of the ancients
the monk is awesome! lol easily my favorite class, followed by bard and barbarian
I was here when he did Astral Self
Fun concept. Astral Self monk with no hands and the magic initiate feat (mage hand, unseen servant and 1 other appropriate cantrip). Flavoured as you using your astral self as a substitute for normal hands
So with this, you still need to do a video on a subclass of Artificer, Bard, Paladin, and Sorcerer
Were the sun soul failed to capture the anime magic of dbz the Astral self nails its jojo posing power
Honestly never really understood all the hate for monks. Sure they are not perfact but it's always fun to beat the crap out of assholes with fancy kung fu moves.
Also this video reminded me why I freaking love jojo.
bro as always the video quality is insane this channel is for sure going to blow up
Monk is my favorite martial class and I’m glad someone is finally showing it some respect!
I'm going to flavor this to be like Raphael's mystic power from rottmnt
Worth the wait.
I feel like monks (All martials for that matter) would greatly benefit from gaining access to martial techniques like the Battlemaster.
Some people will never understand the war that was fought to make it to this video. So many lost fights to reach this point we even made an alliance with our opponents
Day 6 asking for Vengeance Paladin
So 6 days of being ignored?
Pretty much
you and me both
Good grief
its so weird you only have 10 k subs wtf i thought you wpould have blown up by this point .... what a shame
a TFS yes that as a jojo reference wouldve been choice somewhere in there
Astral monk video accomplished. Return to base.
I decided to sub class with Barbarian it’s fun
Wait, if you multiclass into an Echo Knight, would you get a pair of shadow clones as well as your Stand?! If so, that has the potential to be busted as hell!
The better thing is can you cast your Stand THROUGH your Echo.
Cue Last Train Home.
Wait was that a jojo reference?
Yes, yes it was
vampire race astral self monk KONO DIO DA!
Turtle monk in thumbnail is either Master Oogway or a Ninja turtle?
Nice to see the astral self monk finally! Now astral self monk lovers, support the lore bard in the next poll!
I've never watched JoJo, but even when this subclass was unearthed arcana, I understood the reference. So the fact that he went full-blown on this, I'm all here for
Can I learn the Spin with Monk?
Wait, is that a Jojo reference?
You just cant hate jojo-referencing, because hating jojo is a jojo-reference
Warforged +1AC
3 levels of Ranger Hunter
- Horde Breaker +1 attack
- Mariner fighting style +1AC
- Wilderness flavor
- Longstrider even more movement
- Hunter's Mark, more damage on how many frigging attacks?
Stack Tunnel Fighter on that reach, Crusher on all those fists, and Menacing for one out of all of those attacks.
Thats an Astral Self with +2AC, +1 situational attack, Swimming and Climbing, Longstrider movement increase, Hunter's Mark damage increase.
Deft Explorer will also give you free Expertise in a skill of your choice. Why not Stealth? Wilderness Monk with expertise in Stealth... yeah.
Really great video. I've enjoyed the series and this video was a treat. I'm eager to see what else you cover
I lovwe the idea of channeling an animal spirit, and as you summon the visage and arms it takes on bodyparts, but when you do the combining part, it's like a set of spiritual animal armor/aura. Plus hey, on the Insect theme I mentioned, you could have all sortts of wings for slow fall.
Also for the obligotory Japanese mention in this comments section, it lets you be a Kamen Rider. More of the mystical type, but if you can flavor it to cyborg stuff, sure.
Monks were only introduced into this Western European fantasy game due to the insane popularity of the show "Kung Fu" starring David Carradine back in the early 70s.
Not gonaa lie bot make 5 attacks per turn in level 17 is kinda underwhelming. At least make me use Flurry of blows in that extra attack (level 5 and level 17 Astral Self).
great vid as always but you missed out on the ultimate jojo's character. Instead of going champion fighter, go ECHO KNIGHT !!
Now you got a literal stand that can go up to 30 feet and still punch out to 10ft and you can resummon for free with the bonus action !!
I love how everyone joke about the astral self being your stand, it’s just undeniable.
If you have a friend who is a Jojo fan, then introduce this class to him.
As always good job on making look cool and strong. The Ki points are so lacking though, the reason I never tried a monk is all the cool abilities hinge on a resource that seems to be in dire short supply. Is it ghat bad in play as it looks on paper??
Fire as always! 🔥
Honestly I'm thinking of trying to make an astral self monk paired with a Mystic githzerai. Anyone hot any tips mayhaps?
You Astral Monks sound fun. I've always found the Jojo Fan service in the subclass was way to meta for my liking.
You mean like throwing fireballs (Dragonball) or teleporting through shadows (Nightcrawler)?
dont forget about the way of the four elements and the drunken fist either. media references in your dnd? more likely than you think
@@pl412 Fair, sometimes you do in fact just have to be the Avatar.
But I'll give drunken master a pass because the martial art does technically exist independent of Jackie Chan in pop culture.
Astral Self sounds fun until you actually play it. Yes, only thing monk need is even more bonus action and ki starvation
Awesome! Now let's see a video for Kensei monks!
I definitely want to figure out how to multiclass this with soulknife rogue.
I have genuinely come to look forward to these. You know, you sound exactly like one of the people on saturday night live. It's bizarre but is it a bizarre adventure... no, no it's not.
Don’t get me wrong. I love monk. I just feel their resource pool could be bigger so you can do the cool things as often as the other classes.
5 months late, but like... can you add in more JoJo References? I don't think there's enough
Astral monk is the only monk i will use. Because jojo. I get to play a level 20 version and i am trying to keep it mostly monk.
The ONLY thing I don't like about monks is that you miss out on the fun of weapon and armor loot.
no bard video? D;