I have a shadow monk in my game right now, and I rule that even in bright light, at a minimum, creatures cast a shadow, so I let my monk teleport next to creatures basically all the time. It may be strong, but monks need the help
And it's absolutely gigachad to see in game, i approve it! Oh and if you play on the grid you can even decide from where the light comes and so on which side of the opponent or object he can teleports, creating interesting position mechanics possibly!
Darkvision lasts 8 hours and you can recover your Ki in just 1. You can cast it on any party member that doesn’t naturally have it, and then just recharge and still have 7 hours left.
No DM is going to let you short rest right after a long rest. Wait, that wasn't what you said. Sorry, I misunderstood. You can't always short rest whenever you want. If you are entering an underground dungeon or cavern or start an infiltration mission, you can't just plop down and chill out for a hour. It could work in the right circumstance, but not reliably.
I got to play a really fun shadow monk/shadow sorcerer multi class. Which sounds like it doesn't synergize well cause it's very mad but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it actually meshed together. Step one use sorcery points to cast darkness. Step two shadow blade a short sword (which counts as a monk weapon). Step three thank the dm profusely for letting you use tashas optional rules, in this case being ki fueled attacks. Step four profit!
It is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Every time you open your mouth, darkness will surround you. It will make conversations hard or annoying. If you're a Snake-eyes type ninja commando, and you don't talk or rarely talk, that could work. I could never do that. Even my most taciturn characters talk quite a bit.
@@ericpeterson8732 Actually I'm not sure if the darkness would immediately surround you, when opening your mouth, or rather cast a beam of darkness, like a flashlight of shadows. Either way, it's certainly an eery sight to behold.
@@ericpeterson8732 my shadow monk wears an enchanted mask that neutralizes my tongue piercing. I can talk all I want. Also works great on putting on enemies with magical breath attacks. Just unleash the shadow and force that sucker on. Our wizard seals it shut. We are surprisingly a good team 😂
I made a 8' tall shadow monk ursine character in the last campaign (possibly bringing to next one since we had to end it early). To me it's kind of hilarious since he's so huge and stealthy but also super strong (rolled very well on my strength and got a +1 for race bonus)
I have a character that is a triple classed (i know clunky but has a goal in mind and has been going well so far) Shadow Monk being the starting class, Gloom Stalker Ranger, and Storm Sorcerer. Monk and sorcerer being the power house and Gloom stalker to take more advantage in dim light/ darkness. Storm sorcerer is more for additional mobility and cause big distractions when needed. Rangers fighting style being Blind Fighting, so they can navigate within darkness spell. Especially if you act like you are cornered, told to drop a weapon, preferably a dagger, pretend you surrender only to use ki to cast darkness on the dagger pick it up and charge them, only to drop the dagger in an effective spot to blind them all and make your get away. Sure My character won't get the benifits of the shadow monks higher level abilities; but hey with the right spells from sorcerer not entirely needed.
I've seen people using a coin inside a shuttered lantern as the target for Darkness. You can then turn it on and off very easily. Dropping a level of cleric or druid or two levels of ranger for spellcasting will allow you access to Eldritch Adept for Devil's Sight which makes Darkness a much stronger option for you.
I made a level 8 monk (way of the shadow) and multiclassed 4 levels into Cleric (Twilight Domain). It's really fun with the dim light bubble from their channel divinity feature.
If you combine this with infernal vision it makes the Teleport ability bit better because you will always be in darkness. Same with playing a dhampir because it lets you walk on walls not 2 mention the bite scales with monk
Shadow monks are awesome, playing one right now I'll admit, they aren't entirely optimized, I favored wisdom in character creation but circumstance led me to choosing shadowmonk as my subclass, still good fun though. Luckily rolled well on my stats so it isn't crippling. Shadow arts are definitely my favorite part about the subclass, though minor illusion gets the most use in order to block line of sight from me or an ally to a spellcaster though it has declined in use as I have leveled up and got more ki points. Darkness also has another point going for it, while yes you don't see through magical darkness, you can't make opportunity attacks on creatures you can't see making it fairly usable if cast on your weapon and combined with your movement speed into a hit and run machine, with the added bonus of making you impossible to target with spells that require the ability to see you. Another synergy is being able to use shadow step with a bow and sharpshooter, while I don't have sharpshooter myself, if I was forced into a situation where I didn't want to be in melee, having advantage on my first ranged attack is definitely something I would want especially combined with sharpshooter. Awesome video dude
So! A lot of people haven’t adapted this new subclass yet, but personally I would take 1 level into Night Cleric. 1 they’re wisdom based so no issues with ability score requirements and 2 you get the ability to see in MAGICAL DARKNESS! Which is a huge feature for a level 1 dip. And night cleric get some pretty decent spells that flavor wise tie into a shadow monk pretty well imo.
Disclaimer: Putting this on this vid, as I feel it's most appropriate. I feel that the utility of Darkness is being overloooked. While it sucks that you can't see through it, neither can anyone else. You have the equivalent of a smoke bomb, that requires no material components, and has a range of 60 feet. You can totally use this to your advantage. Drop it while you are running from someone. This breaks line of sight, allowing for an easier getaway. You could also use it to help break up groups of enemies. It can be used to conceal light sources, both magical and non-magical. And being able to make objects the source allows you to trap enemies in it, if you make the source a weapon, and then stick them with it. Depending on how big the enemy is, you could impose permanent disadvantage on them, without affecting your party members. Without out the ability to see through it, you need to use it more defensively, but it can still be used to great effect.
If you're going to play a Shadow Monk, you REALLY need to get good at the rules for Bright Light, Dim Light, Darkness and Magical Darkness. Let's start off with the obvious, daylight is Bright Light. So everything else here must assume indoors or at night. In D&D, light sources are defined by a radius of Bright Light, and a larger radius of Dim Light, beyond the second radius is darkness. Obviously, with these definitions, the word Darkness doesn't mean absolutely no light, and even Dim Light isn't as dark as many think. A torch, for instance, has a 20ft radius of Bright. That's it. Even across the widest part of the circle, that's only 40ft. The Light cantrip is the same. Dancing Lights doesn't create any Bright Light at all. To maximize the Shadow Step feature, you do not need to continuously bug the DM. You need to know the rules, and where the light sources are, and a way to track distance. That's it. Everything outside of the circle of Bright Light is fair game.
i swear if they just made the darkvision a passive that lets you see in magical darkness, it would be an ACTUALLY useful ability or AT LEAST giving you superior dark vision to see a full 36m in full darkness meaning regardless of race, you would get maxed out darkvision for free
5:00 tbf shadowmonks are of course meant to be ninjas and irl, ninjas WERE NOT about being super skilled fighters with while they did train HEAVILY in VERY MANY ways to murderize people to death, that was only for the reason of their main purpose... no matter what the mission or situation, their FIRST priority above all else was to *SURVIVE...* hell thats what the word ninja means roughly speaking in japanese being one who survives basically so being the masters of entering, doing the job with little to NO interaction with any opposing force, and than dipping as soon as possible after finishing it as quickly as possible whether its subtrefuge, assassination, scouting, or etc. meaning this at least is PEAK for living up to the concept of being a fucking ninja ;D
Even if there is bright light in your area, if there are any objects or people nearby, then there will always be a shadow cast by them. I don’t think bright light is that much of a nerfing situation as someone might think it is for a shadow monk
My idea for using Shadow Monk, is to cast darkness on my spear and use Devil's sight in bright light area. Also I would like to ask for opinions for this bit, if "I" would look beyond the area of darkness with Devil sight would that be classed as Dim Light? If so, as part of either an attack or item interaction, I want to throw my spear at an area. Then after 5ft of throwing the spear, the darkness area would travel with it, can I use Shadow Step to travel with the spear to "Move " to a area with dim light or darkness which in this case would be the area where the spear lands? Hope this makes sense I suck at explaining things :P
To answer your questions, number one, dim light is not created by using Darkness in an area of bright light. Where the Darkness ends, bright light begins. Number two, to use the Shadow Step ability, both the areas the monk is departing from and arriving to must be in shadow or darkness at the same time. But the darkness on the spear tip is a great idea. I would only hurl the spear in certain situations like when you are already in natural darkness but need to reach a brightly lit area.
@@tirionpendragon That's where inspiration came from :) I'm running a Soul knife Rogue, getting to level 9 to do the dagger throw teleport in the day and using shadow step at night. I was just wondering if I could use shadow step during the day
@@Deffy_Dhuck Well this will be convoluted and a multiclass mess, but twilight creates dim light and the 4th lvl warlock exclusive spell shadow of moil turns dim light into darkness. Figure out for yourself if that is worth it.
I'm thinking of coming up with a Tabaxi Shadow monk, My own DM liking it I just trying to figure out what kind I want to play as as this monk since I never play a monk. I'm as a Paladin right now just found you looking up shadow monks
I have a shadow monk in my game right now, and I rule that even in bright light, at a minimum, creatures cast a shadow, so I let my monk teleport next to creatures basically all the time. It may be strong, but monks need the help
And it's absolutely gigachad to see in game, i approve it!
Oh and if you play on the grid you can even decide from where the light comes and so on which side of the opponent or object he can teleports, creating interesting position mechanics possibly!
Darkvision lasts 8 hours and you can recover your Ki in just 1. You can cast it on any party member that doesn’t naturally have it, and then just recharge and still have 7 hours left.
No DM is going to let you short rest right after a long rest. Wait, that wasn't what you said. Sorry, I misunderstood. You can't always short rest whenever you want. If you are entering an underground dungeon or cavern or start an infiltration mission, you can't just plop down and chill out for a hour. It could work in the right circumstance, but not reliably.
@@ericpeterson8732 Eight hours of darkvision is plenty to do in safety, in advance. I'd say it's pretty reliable.
Great point!
@@ericpeterson8732 Why not? It is stupid thing to restrict. Even more stupid considering you already playing on the hard mode - you are monk.
if you multiclass into Twilight Cleric, you could theoretically create your own Areas of Dim Light to use the Monks Shadow Step in
I got to play a really fun shadow monk/shadow sorcerer multi class. Which sounds like it doesn't synergize well cause it's very mad but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it actually meshed together.
Step one use sorcery points to cast darkness.
Step two shadow blade a short sword (which counts as a monk weapon).
Step three thank the dm profusely for letting you use tashas optional rules, in this case being ki fueled attacks.
Step four profit!
The tongue piercing idea is divine! Made my day, thanks mate.
It is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Every time you open your mouth, darkness will surround you. It will make conversations hard or annoying. If you're a Snake-eyes type ninja commando, and you don't talk or rarely talk, that could work. I could never do that. Even my most taciturn characters talk quite a bit.
@@ericpeterson8732 Actually I'm not sure if the darkness would immediately surround you, when opening your mouth, or rather cast a beam of darkness, like a flashlight of shadows. Either way, it's certainly an eery sight to behold.
@@ericpeterson8732 my shadow monk wears an enchanted mask that neutralizes my tongue piercing. I can talk all I want. Also works great on putting on enemies with magical breath attacks. Just unleash the shadow and force that sucker on. Our wizard seals it shut. We are surprisingly a good team 😂
A flying race like owlin with darkvision is epic on a shadow monk, a true predator of the night.
I’ve been wanting to do a multiclass of Shadow Monk with GloomStslker Ranger. I think the two subclasses would play well off each other.
I made a 8' tall shadow monk ursine character in the last campaign (possibly bringing to next one since we had to end it early). To me it's kind of hilarious since he's so huge and stealthy but also super strong (rolled very well on my strength and got a +1 for race bonus)
I have a character that is a triple classed (i know clunky but has a goal in mind and has been going well so far)
Shadow Monk being the starting class, Gloom Stalker Ranger, and Storm Sorcerer.
Monk and sorcerer being the power house and Gloom stalker to take more advantage in dim light/ darkness. Storm sorcerer is more for additional mobility and cause big distractions when needed.
Rangers fighting style being Blind Fighting, so they can navigate within darkness spell.
Especially if you act like you are cornered, told to drop a weapon, preferably a dagger, pretend you surrender only to use ki to cast darkness on the dagger pick it up and charge them, only to drop the dagger in an effective spot to blind them all and make your get away.
Sure My character won't get the benifits of the shadow monks higher level abilities; but hey with the right spells from sorcerer not entirely needed.
I've seen people using a coin inside a shuttered lantern as the target for Darkness. You can then turn it on and off very easily. Dropping a level of cleric or druid or two levels of ranger for spellcasting will allow you access to Eldritch Adept for Devil's Sight which makes Darkness a much stronger option for you.
Now you got me thinking about going three levels into Rouge for Arcane Trickster, spellcasting met and a few extra goodies for the stealth build.
I'm looking forward to your build for this subclass.
I can't wait for the Shadow monk build now!! 😍🤩⛄
I made a level 8 monk (way of the shadow) and multiclassed 4 levels into Cleric (Twilight Domain). It's really fun with the dim light bubble from their channel divinity feature.
If you combine this with infernal vision it makes the Teleport ability bit better because you will always be in darkness. Same with playing a dhampir because it lets you walk on walls not 2 mention the bite scales with monk
Shadow monks are awesome, playing one right now I'll admit, they aren't entirely optimized, I favored wisdom in character creation but circumstance led me to choosing shadowmonk as my subclass, still good fun though. Luckily rolled well on my stats so it isn't crippling. Shadow arts are definitely my favorite part about the subclass, though minor illusion gets the most use in order to block line of sight from me or an ally to a spellcaster though it has declined in use as I have leveled up and got more ki points.
Darkness also has another point going for it, while yes you don't see through magical darkness, you can't make opportunity attacks on creatures you can't see making it fairly usable if cast on your weapon and combined with your movement speed into a hit and run machine, with the added bonus of making you impossible to target with spells that require the ability to see you.
Another synergy is being able to use shadow step with a bow and sharpshooter, while I don't have sharpshooter myself, if I was forced into a situation where I didn't want to be in melee, having advantage on my first ranged attack is definitely something I would want especially combined with sharpshooter.
Awesome video dude
correction on the shadowstep with ranged attack, it specifies a melee attack upon rereading it.
So! A lot of people haven’t adapted this new subclass yet, but personally I would take 1 level into Night Cleric. 1 they’re wisdom based so no issues with ability score requirements and 2 you get the ability to see in MAGICAL DARKNESS! Which is a huge feature for a level 1 dip. And night cleric get some pretty decent spells that flavor wise tie into a shadow monk pretty well imo.
What subclass do you mean when you say night cleric? Twilight?
@@madhattressnightcore2754 no. Humblewoods night cleric
Disclaimer: Putting this on this vid, as I feel it's most appropriate.
I feel that the utility of Darkness is being overloooked. While it sucks that you can't see through it, neither can anyone else. You have the equivalent of a smoke bomb, that requires no material components, and has a range of 60 feet. You can totally use this to your advantage. Drop it while you are running from someone. This breaks line of sight, allowing for an easier getaway. You could also use it to help break up groups of enemies. It can be used to conceal light sources, both magical and non-magical. And being able to make objects the source allows you to trap enemies in it, if you make the source a weapon, and then stick them with it. Depending on how big the enemy is, you could impose permanent disadvantage on them, without affecting your party members. Without out the ability to see through it, you need to use it more defensively, but it can still be used to great effect.
If you're going to play a Shadow Monk, you REALLY need to get good at the rules for Bright Light, Dim Light, Darkness and Magical Darkness.
Let's start off with the obvious, daylight is Bright Light. So everything else here must assume indoors or at night.
In D&D, light sources are defined by a radius of Bright Light, and a larger radius of Dim Light, beyond the second radius is darkness.
Obviously, with these definitions, the word Darkness doesn't mean absolutely no light, and even Dim Light isn't as dark as many think.
A torch, for instance, has a 20ft radius of Bright. That's it.
Even across the widest part of the circle, that's only 40ft.
The Light cantrip is the same.
Dancing Lights doesn't create any Bright Light at all.
To maximize the Shadow Step feature, you do not need to continuously bug the DM. You need to know the rules, and where the light sources are, and a way to track distance. That's it.
Everything outside of the circle of Bright Light is fair game.
Magica initiate control flames could be great for shadow/ invisible jumps.
i swear if they just made the darkvision a passive that lets you see in magical darkness, it would be an ACTUALLY useful ability or AT LEAST giving you superior dark vision to see a full 36m in full darkness meaning regardless of race, you would get maxed out darkvision for free
5:00 tbf shadowmonks are of course meant to be ninjas and irl, ninjas WERE NOT about being super skilled fighters with while they did train HEAVILY in VERY MANY ways to murderize people to death, that was only for the reason of their main purpose... no matter what the mission or situation, their FIRST priority above all else was to *SURVIVE...* hell thats what the word ninja means roughly speaking in japanese being one who survives basically so being the masters of entering, doing the job with little to NO interaction with any opposing force, and than dipping as soon as possible after finishing it as quickly as possible whether its subtrefuge, assassination, scouting, or etc. meaning this at least is PEAK for living up to the concept of being a fucking ninja ;D
Even if there is bright light in your area, if there are any objects or people nearby, then there will always be a shadow cast by them. I don’t think bright light is that much of a nerfing situation as someone might think it is for a shadow monk
Yaknow.... lol not untill just now did I realize this subclass reminds me of the 3.5 prestige class Shadow Dancer. Lol
The best mobility in the game!
My idea for using Shadow Monk, is to cast darkness on my spear and use Devil's sight in bright light area. Also I would like to ask for opinions for this bit, if "I" would look beyond the area of darkness with Devil sight would that be classed as Dim Light?
If so, as part of either an attack or item interaction, I want to throw my spear at an area. Then after 5ft of throwing the spear, the darkness area would travel with it, can I use Shadow Step to travel with the spear to "Move " to a area with dim light or darkness which in this case would be the area where the spear lands? Hope this makes sense I suck at explaining things :P
To answer your questions, number one, dim light is not created by using Darkness in an area of bright light. Where the Darkness ends, bright light begins.
Number two, to use the Shadow Step ability, both the areas the monk is departing from and arriving to must be in shadow or darkness at the same time.
But the darkness on the spear tip is a great idea. I would only hurl the spear in certain situations like when you are already in natural darkness but need to reach a brightly lit area.
@@G-Blockster Brilliant thank you for the info! I've been scratching my head over that for weeks :)
I want to say that this thing is cool af, looks like Minato Namikaze when he throws the kunai and than teleports on that. 🤩
@@tirionpendragon That's where inspiration came from :) I'm running a Soul knife Rogue, getting to level 9 to do the dagger throw teleport in the day and using shadow step at night. I was just wondering if I could use shadow step during the day
@@Deffy_Dhuck Well this will be convoluted and a multiclass mess, but twilight creates dim light and the 4th lvl warlock exclusive spell shadow of moil turns dim light into darkness. Figure out for yourself if that is worth it.
I am a way of the shadow monk in the underdark with blood fury tattoo. Lol
I am playing a Shadow Monk for the first time and I want to use a Chain weapon how would i do this ???
I'm thinking of coming up with a Tabaxi Shadow monk, My own DM liking it I just trying to figure out what kind I want to play as as this monk since I never play a monk. I'm as a Paladin right now
just found you looking up shadow monks
Welcome!
I have a shadow monk plasmoid character that’s pretty busted
❤️
Butcher build please
you so pretty ^-^