I actually had a thought for another build using the unique traits of the cobalt soul, particularly their 11th level ability. I use point buy- Dex, Con, Wis set to 15. Dump int, Cha, Str. I hate splitting stats like this but with this build we will need all the stats we can get. Custom lineage with slasher so dex can start at 18 Start fighter- more level 1 hp and martial weapons, grab a whip. Take superior technique and grab the brace maneuver. Whip will give you r each and let you hit foes when they get within 10 ft of you and slasher will slow them by 10ft Go cobalt soul from their until you hit 11. You can make your whip a monk weapon so it can scale. At 4 I would take sentinel and at 8 I would max out dex or round out Wis and Con. Use your monk speed, reach, slasher and Sentinel to help control enemy movement and stay out of reach. Once you get to 11 level of monk grab 2 more fighter levels. Pick up battle master maneuvers. Pick your favorites but this is mostly so you can use brace more times, as 11th level now you can make multiple attacks for brace and sentinel as you can pay ki for an extra reaction. After fighter 3 go rogue 5 and 1 more fighter to finish off the build. Pick up scout rogue. This gives you the skirmisher reaction move and uncanny dodge that you can use as a reaction. For your last 2 asi take whatever you didn’t at monk 8 and defensive duelist for yet another reaction to bolster your arsenal. Now at 20th level let’s go over the pros and cons. Pro- Mobile as hell, monk speed with bonus action dash(no ki points needed) plus skirmisher makes you hard to lock down. Sentinel and Slasher can do a great job of slowing foes and doing while keeping 10 ft away is great. It’s almost like using a finesse pole arm. Whip really benefits from the scaling monk die. Options galore and the ability to pick and choose. You could possibly get sneak attack every single turn of a round. With defensive duelist, uncanny dodge, and deflect missile you can be covered in most situations defensively. Even though not a focus you can still have some great skills as you have 6 different skills with expertise, even if 2 come from your intelligence of 8. Cons- Your key ability doesn’t come until 11th level and then you need several levels to build it up. Very impractical for most campaigns. Resource intensive- 11 is a good number of ki points but with all the options you may still burn through them fast. Because of how many monk levels you take your sneak attack might not hit as hard as you want at only 3d6 I compared brace with the whip to pole arm master but sadly brace doesn’t trigger an opportunity attack so it can’t drop speed to 0 when you are approached. I’m greedy, I would love the monks 14th level ability, or 6th level rogues abilities. More asi would be nice to bump wisdom or take some more feats like tough or mobile.
Great build - I like the focus on support and letting your party shine, particularly by helping them pick the best tactics for the fight. Having wizard definitely fits better than the other classes thematically, so 👍 The build guide is nice and concise; I especially like the quick reference table.
Something I went over with my dm for setting up the this build for next campaign is swapping int for wisdom. So your ki DC is 8+prof+int, AC is dex+int+10, etc. Monks are already so MAD and this subclass is unfortunately the most MAD single subclass I can think of, it needs a slight rework IMO. The trade off is that I won’t be able to multi class, but I don’t see that being a huge issue… not optimized but also it’s very much the character I want to play. This isn’t gonna be a super sneaky perceptive monk, it’s gonna be a knowledgeable investigator. A student of history/religion/arcana and fighting. A monk on a mission
