Can Monks Work as D&D Villains? 

Join me in my meditation circle 🙏📿😌

I just want to say that I have literally invented a council of liches simply to use every one of your designs. Thank you so much for creating all of these.

POV: me explaining to the Medical Directors why they need to fund my expedition to the unexplored archipelago so i can learn the secret technique of punching cancer into gold.

When I saw lich monk, I hoped it was going self mummification and I was not disappointed

So Bao is basically Kung Fu Panda, but with a warlock-esque patron. At least Pointy Hat fessed up to it, so respect.

I like how the ethereal lich is basically a natural consequence of the monk trying to transcend the limits of their body (etherealness is even a part of the 18th level monk feature called Empty Body, allowing them to cast Astral Projection). Really cool concept (I didn't even know the Buddhist self-mummification was a thing)!

The leader of the Githzerai is kind of already a monk lich. He went so deep into meditation that his mind surpassed his body, leaving him in a state of neither life, death, or undeath. I think of him as maybe the logical next step of an Astral Self monk

Lore: pointy hat was originally the hat that borough Frosty the snowman alive

Immortality through the power of tea? Hmm… *Uncle Iroh has entered the chat.*

I love the fact that Pointy Hat keeps adding to the PC’s he has made and keeps adding bits of lore with them and adding updates to their designs. It would be cool to see and or play all these characters in a campaign. THEY NEED A TEAM NAME!!!

I still think the sorcerer litch is my favorite. The idea of having a family of sorcerers all feeding into one powerful litch just so much story and world potential it's too good to ignore.

I like that you took inspiration of the self mummification that real life monks have done. It also kinda makes sense that this monk doesn't need to substain itself with souls, since essentially the have reached a form of enlightenment

18:50 Wealth, fame, power. You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now you just have to find it

Did I just saw a Agostinho Carrara reference at 1:52 AND a Padre Marcelo at 2:02?? Already love this vídeo!

1:52 brazilian jumpscare

Absolutely. I have not watched the video but will comment with two words that 100% prove that monks can be villains, compelling ones at that: Za-heer.

You can tell from the Thumbnail it's gonna be a good video

Dropping the “soul Tupperware” bit verbally, just to keep it visually, was excellent

I love the idea of Pointy Hat making his human familiar wear the merch in the same manner that people dress up their pets

This is why I like DnD so much as a community because so many people can come up with cooler and refreshing ideas that’s not from the mouths of the Hasbro and Wizards. You can have fun with these homebrew and be really creatives with the stuff you make.

The body as the phylactery is SUCH a cool idea I love it. I’m thinking like whenever the ki form is defeated and it remanifests inside the body you can see the body glow a bit and attendants to it are all “Master?!?!”

I actually love this lich, the flavor of it not needing sustenance because it perfected its body and mind so much that it made its body a perpetual machine is insane, and it also makes it so rewarding both for the difficulty of the ritual(and playing monk) and for the vulnerability of the phylactery. If the monk lich wants to really interact with the world physically they would be dragging their phylactery with them everywhere they go and since the balance between mind and body is so delicate it's likely to be easier to disrupt their own unlife by damage rather than needing to outright destroy the phylactery, because the energy needed to repair a physical body will likely put a drain on the monk and either require a long time to recover or a disruption of the perpetual motion. It's lichdom as a curse in a way, I love it and it's so fitting as the only infinite lichdom by both the difficulty in the ritual, the limitations of it, and the mindset of a monk who seeks to do it. Also Bao's story is super cool and gives me the idea that Transcendant Souls might be seen as like minor deities or nature spirits, things people can seek out for wisdom and insight due to them being so detatched from the material world. It sounds like a cool concept!

"And blast all goblins within a three mile radius with the power of - " -Oh hey it's Rand al'Thor Cool

I was hoping that the Lich Monk would incorporate the concept of self-mummification ever since I learned about the process. Great video! Can’t wait to use this in my campaigns.

I was NOT expecting an Agostinho Carrara AND a padre Marcelo Rossi references but I'm glad they're here

POV: frieza 0:03

Not for D&D but in my current Call of Cthulhu game my villain is essentially a monk. My players chose Sengoku Japan as the setting so the villain is a kyonshi (basically a vampire) priest who kinda ended up fighting like a monk. The one time they’ve gotten to fight him directly so far, I had him catch an arrow fired at him and throw it back, almost killing the player. I only decided to do that because their attack roll was so poor and the villain rolled an excellent reaction. My players’ response that was so funny as they realized he was basically a monk. The hit player even asked to get thrown back and pinned to the wall by the arrow 😂

I actually got that TVTropes page started! I personally haven’t made much beyond that, shoutout to those who picked up my slack, but I still feel really happy that you noticed our work.

The coolest part is that the ritual is based off an actual Buddhist Trial in Japan called "sokushinbutsu". Fun fact, it was banned in 1877 by emperor Meiji during the Meiji era and the Sheika monks from the Legend of Zelda were also inspired by that practice. And I know this because of Gaijin Goombah's video from *7* years ago.

I love the little buried bell 🔔idea, I'd imagine it as a test of them being able to maintain their focus by hust ignoring the bell at some point and one of the reasons why it's so hard for them to reach perpetual enlightenment is there's some annoying little furry playing with the bell string 😆 "You're killin me here....literally"

This lich concept has a little of the Way of the Astral Self and the Way of the Long Death. I like it.

Fun fact about "balanced" morality - If the world around them is too Good, balance would require a monk to work for Evil.

I once had a cyborg monk as the BBEG's most loyal follower, mostly because he wanted the partys artificer dead

OMG AGOSTINHO CARRARA AND PRIEST MARCELO ROSSI IN THE SAME VIDEO OF THE POINTY HAT. AS A BRAZILIAN THAT LOVES ITS OWN MEMES I FEEL REPRESENTED 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

2:17 Seeing the image of Uriel gave me such big flashbacks. I was really inspired with the whole story you had gave Uriel and turned it into an entire campaign, and turned the three other way of flesh monks into his siblings so that him and the party had to fight and kill his siblings to protect him before finally going for the head of the house, his grandfather. It was such a fun campaign, though my party befriended one too many npcs so it became something of an all out war at the very end but boy was it glorious! Anyway thank you for all the amazing content, everything is always so top tier

Pointy Hat you are so creative and I love the enthusiasm you protrude. Every video is so fun to watch. P.s. Can’t wait for the merch online to drop

One of the bbeg of my campaign is a monk lich. He’s one of those monks that mummified himself to achieve nirvana. He’s unlife is now linked to a great cherry tree who’s roots have taken over a temple

The plant required for this ritual grows wild in the Southern US and is known as Pokeweed. It is distinctive for its broad leaves, red stalks, and deep purple berries. It is a powerful laxative that will turn someone inside out just by eating a single berry. You try maintaining your zen composure while vacating all the liquid from your lower body!

A Cleric lich would be awesome. Maybe they make a deal with their god or ideology to live as long as they maintain or work towards a certain goal.

You never, ever disappoint. Such an amazing concept! Huge fan of your hard work, all your videos are solid gold

About a month ago, I watched a short documentary on self mummifcation and it blew my mind. Love that you incorporated the real world tradition here

Dear pointy hat, i would like to say thank you for what you do and that everyone of your ideas has been an inspiration to us all.

When you mentioned HOW the monk achieves undeath, I couldn't help but remember the irl method of a monk performing self mummification, and then you revealed that it was the exact inspiration. Gotta love taking inspiration from stuff like that!

"Ascendant" seems more accurate than "Incarnate" but that's just me. Really cool concept!

This, Pointy, this one is way favorite Lich, because it is so special and I advocate for more chonky cats in your videos

Was happy you brought up Wuxia, because this was exactly what i thought when i saw the title. Like, an ancient ancestor of a weaker threat that came out of seclusion to avenge their kin is precisely how a monk could be used as a villain without adding in too many other ideas.

*pauses video* *inhales* BRAZIL MENTIONED (also this is my fave lich so far good job Cloth Beholder)

“…That inhumanly tall translucent figure with a neck bent at an odd angle I see standing right behind you” There seems to have been a misunderstanding, that’s just me.

15:44 the “that’s right boa gets a stand” meme he did was hilarious.

I love all your stuff and always look forward to your videos. To answer your "question", and help with interactions, my favorite lich is the Bard lich. The song that keeps you alive just feels so amazing. Keep up the excellent work and sorry I can't make GenCon!

I will say you are an inspiration with not only your ideas of making homebrew but your general story telling and woprd brining that we see in your videos. I have been a DM for a while and your stuff always helps me to get ideas on how to improve.

Thanks pointy hat for including brazilian memes in the video, we appreciate it

Me, a weirdo, pointing and clapping at the self-mummification ritual. Cause that's a real thing! It's really cool!

Bro this is the dopest thing I’ve ever seen well done! Love all the backstory and process you put into it

I've been playing and DMing DnD since the red box...but have only come across your channel, recently. You are incredible. I'm truly sorry that I'm not going to GenCon to meet you in person and shake your hand. But, you definitely have a new subscriber!

Is this man capable of cooking up something bad?? I loved all of the ideas in this one. Can't wait to use them!

Damn, this is cool. And another Litch for the ever-growing counsel of Litches.

Love this whole video. The lich monk concept really plays into the self reliance of the monk as a concept. To disconnect from earthly attachments. And the story of Bao and his master is super cute/nice too

the merch is really well designed. I love how obvious the effort is and how you clearly went the extra mile to add print on sleeves and the back.

Did anyone else think about The Practice of Self- Mummification when he started talking about how a monk would achieve lichdom? Sometimes true is stranger than fiction 😂

This leaves only 2 left! (Lich classic being Wizard and Mummy being Cleric Lich) Rogue and Warlock. I can't wait 4-5 months for this whole series to be done! (assuming it keeps up the current pace). I always knew the Self Mummification thing would be how you'd do Monk Lich, but the Ki Ghost really knocked it out of the park.

I like the fact that every once in a while "the" adventure party gains a new character using the topic of the video and props to you for not calling out your pun with Ki being the key feature of the soul incarnate. You're doing awesome work here and remember giving your human familiar a snack or something!

I can't put into words how good your channel is, seriously. I've been lurking around the DnD community for years now, and you are the single best youtuber out there, not only are your tips great, but you show how to put them in practice every single video, as well as giving some massive inspirations along the way. I love you man.

I haven’t played D&D in years and listening to actually play pods is my connection to the community now. Just had to say that the level of passion and effort and yourself that you share in these videos is incredible and breathtaking. Thank you for what you do and I’m glad you are getting the shine you deserve.

As always the work you put in is astonishing. Good luck with the panel

i literally pumped my arms up when i saw this

It's a crime that pointy hat hats aren't any more pointy than normal hats.

Idea for a lich cleric; a monaster who created a faith that was so powerful it gave them the divine power to become a lich, with the followers or maybe some divine relic becoming the philactory

bro Im deving out a world where Im using the idea of a lich of each class being my core set of lowish-powered gods and Ive been trying to come up with some versions of the classes you havent done yet... including the monk... and I had something I was pretty happy with but then this just blows my concept out of the water!! I love it and also am furious at you LMAO please please please keep it up with this series so I can rest and edit these as needed to fit my world without you comming in and making cooler stuff

This is awesome! I can't wait to see how you tackle the rogue lich, because these have all been amazing and I'd love to see what you do with my favorite class.

this is probably one of the best liches pointy hat has made because of the actual super interesting buddhist lore, it’s capability to be fought multiple times in a weaker form and story wise leaves it probably the most open to really interesting characters. like i love all the other ones but this is a hat (lol) trick

The south of that archipelago looks like the Canary Islands and the north like the Balearic islands, the Azores and Sicily.🤣🤣🤣

I wa literally thinking of what monster I could make a litch for my next D&D camping

Out of all the Liches you've done so far, this one is absolutely brilliant. An a-moral or rather good alignment lich WITH monk?!?! AMAZING🎉

I think this may be both the best character concept and the best adventure seed you've ever given us.

Before completing the video: my guess is this will be an extreme version of the Way of the Long Death, where killing someone’s extends life. I will edit this later with my reaction to the real lich After watching: Boy was I wrong! Lol, awesome video as usual and I liked Bao, he is cute.

07:54 ‘ki’ role lmao

I have always found the classic vision of a lich conflicting as opposed to the big ideas in this series, especially the point that lichdom cannot be something passive, I have always thought that that is the whole point of being a lich, and to tell the truth I'm glad to see that rule broken. I don't want to be a hater either, I'm still a fan of the other "Can X work as a D&D Villains" videos, the lich sorcerer is without a doubt one of my favorite fiction ideas

Thanks for tha incredibly creative video. One of your best concepts thus far. Top tier originality and design.

Dude, you nailed this class concept, and the character origin story is sooo good. I love how everything makes perfect sense!

Calling it now that the monk lich is a ki ghost with the body as the phylactery.

Fantastic intro

Pointy Hat calling me a monkey wasn’t on my list of things that I thought could happen today but hey

17:34 Bao is so cute, I approve

This was a well designed and well researched idea; as both a player of TTRPG’s and a lover of TMA and spiritual practices, you really knocked this one out of the park.

Sounding like Geto from JJK in that intro

Monk-ey

I haven't watched the video yet, but I'm calling it now: the phylactery is people again. Edit: well I have egg on my face.

Nothing warms my heart like seeing a new Pointy Hat video available

I just love that out of no where a scene of a Brazilian priest pops up. I love this channel even more now.

I love how this pulls from actual monastic rituals based on reaching nirvana

I love your out-of-the-Box ideas to create so unique, creative and also recognizable I'm so excited to see the Lich version of the Warlock (my favourite class) and the cleric

i really like how this is based on ritual mummification of the self which is really frickin cool

I love the way you establish rules in order to break them in interesting ways, like with the druid video they could become liches unwittingly and this monk lich not needing to upkeep themselves, very fitting for monks

Absolutely brilliant video, loved the idea behind the Litch this time and could not believe you used the historical method from Japan. Also love the idea you gave for allowing the litch to be a monk patron. Keep making these please as I will keep making them 🎉

I desperately need a “mummy lords are boring”, I will cry if my boy the cleric gets its own video in this series

Ideas for the rouge Lich: Rouge Lich's phylactery is the thing of their greatest crime or most infamous crime, for examples such as the corpse of the very powerful king they successfully murdered or famous art piece they stole, etc. The phylactery will not decay or degrade over time like a normal object as long as the Rouge Lich maintains a infamous reputation and is widely known by the world. If the Rouge Lich’s crimes fall out of memory and are forgotten then the phylactery will revert back into a normal object killing the Rouge Lich. This means Rouge Lich has to commit crime(s) in order to stay immortal. The more well known the crimes they commit the more time they have so either they can go route of constantly committing smaller crimes or the route of when needed committing very high-scale crimes. Either route forces the Rouge Lich to be a player in the plot and not to sit around being a lazy bum.

I cannot stretch how much you delighted me with this amazing monster idea and stat block along with a plot hook involving Canary Islands, Azores, Balearic Islands and Sicily. *MWAH* Chef kiss.

This lich and the Death March (Fighter Lich) have been my absolute favorites! Thank you for creating them, I have plans to add both to the campaign im running for my friends! Great work as always Pointy Hat!

I love how you clearly drew inspiration from esoteric Buddhist traditions.