We need to talk about the new Monk 

DO NOT *EAT* THESE DICE. DO NOT!! dndshorts.myshopify.com/

I know it doesn't seem like it, but being able to attack with a bonus action when you didn't take the attack option is super useful in a ton of situations.

The carry willing creature isnt lame. You are a monk with like 50 ft mov. It happens when u dash so 100 ft U can bring ur paladin into mellee range of a far away enemy. Take someone out of range of a spell . U can be like the flash repositioning ur allies😊

I think people are vastly underestimating the power of the bonus action attack and flurry of blows change. Being able to do them before your attack or without any attack at all opens up a lot of multiclass synergy with action spells, and allows open hand monks to prone their enemy with a flurry and then attack at advantage with their action. Also, being able to run in and grab an ally out of a pack of enemies is pretty strong. Or carrying a low move speed character or a barbarian into melee range to ensure they are useful.

Might want to watch Colby and Treatmonk’s coverage of this. They noticed some things you missed, like the fact that, with 5 attacks, you can set off the new quivering palm twice in one turn if you’re okay burning through your ki/discipline points.

6:12 I disagree. I think the ability is amazing and a reality strong team mechanic. You can bring your slower tanks with you to the front lines. You can grab allies out of grapples, you can move unconscious allies to safety, you can do so many things with this! It's not supposed to be an offensive ability. It's a team support ability and I love it!

A few other details and buffs: Monks now have prof with hand crossbows! Also, Quivering Palm is something you can do every single turn as long as you have the DP. Start your turn with BA Flurry of Blows (get a free dash in) to set up the quivers and immediately detonate them plus get three extra attacks in. Also level 20 monks have a 25 AC without magic items

The thing about the Quivering Palm: the old one was once per long rest; while the new one, though weaker, can be used as long as you have enough KI

Letting stunning strike be attempted once per round per creature could be a good way to buff it without running into the boring gameplay loop. So crowds can still be stopped, but you can't spam it on a boss to burn legendary resistances

You actually can pick up an owlbear and drag it through Spike Growth. And it's a lot easier to do so now, since grappling is based on your dexterity.

6:19 basically use the monk speed to move your allies or save your allies

So. The 3rd level feature of the way of the hand is actually pretty good now. Old Open Hand was limited to one flurry of blows attack proving the effect. Now each landed attack can do separate things. You could knock a bitch prone, then yeet them through a spike growth for instance. Or do a series of run and punches to yeet a fool 45ft away.

Other minor points i liked about these buffs is just that action economy wise you actually get quite a lot of options which help with ki point economy. For example, in low levels, if i want to dodge but not run away, no need to actually spend ki to use patient defense. Just dodge and bonus action attack. Heck, dodge and flurry of blows for more attacks per turn than a kiless turn, except now youre dodging. Old monk would get 1 attack and need to spend ki to dodge. Significant upgrade. 5th level makes this option less viable...but then its back baby at level 10 And thats just one example.

Monk is actually interesting now. Unarmed strikes aren't forced as they brought back Monk Weapons and several abilities can use them. Monk is one of 2 classes I have never played in 5e, but I wouldn't actually mind playing one if this was the final version. Wonder if we will get a way of the foot subclass? Since their whole opposite thing lol.

I think the melee change to Deflect Attacks is HUGE for the Monk’s defenses, especially at lower levels. B/P/S will be the vast majority of the attacks you receive at low levels. Being able to reduce the damage of one attack a turn makes Monks SUPER resilient, even with a middling AC. Falls off a fair bit once multi-attack comes into play, and having multiple creatures attacking the Monk. But it’s still a VERY welcome change imo.

I am biased by being primarily a DM but I despised the old stunning strike it just being either "spend a point to do nothing, or make the target miss a turn" that you could spam and try repeatedly was so stupid and it makes the monk unable to do everything really quickly so the monk player stops having fun, and the DM isn't having fun as their big monster got stunned again. This forces the monk to pace themselves, but makes the stunning strike feel like a bigger attack. giving your attack action or flurry of blows the feeling of doing jab jab shoryuken in street fighter.

Uncanny Metabolism is even nuttier! YOU ALSO HEAL! A once per day Ki restoration and a small heal can go a long way. The heal isn't so great late game, but it's better than using hit die.... too soon?

A correction: you can kidnap creatures, monks can grapple with their dexterity now (I didn't see you mention that) and they get a lot of attacks they can replace with grapples

What I would like to see is more customizability options for the monk. Like maybe they can choose from a list of techniques to add to their arsenal like the battle master maneuvers that instead use discipline.

I think one small thing that should be added to monks is letting them do jumps with dexterity rather than strength. This would be put in with acrobatic movement. A monk would be able to wall run around like a titanfall 2 pilot because there are no rules against long jumping out of a wall run. It would be cool and add some rare utility that would make the class feel so much cooler to play.

Warlocks need a similar ability for their spell slots. once per long rest you regain your spell slots when you roll initiative. To be fair I am used to playing on a Westmarch server where short rests are rare so warlocks are hella knee-capped, but still give my sugar babies more access to spells.

The new quivering palm for 'the hand' subclass is not actually that bad (right now) as using the second part of the feature doesn't end the vibrations, so it seems like you can carry on using the second part in subsequent rounds, at least that's how I read it.

7:25 Isn't damage reduction applied before resistances? As per current player handbook (unless it has changed in Onednd) "Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after all other modifiers to damage. For example, a creature has resistance to bludgeoning damage and is hit by an attack that deals 25 bludgeoning damage. The creature is also within a magical aura that reduces all damage by 5. The 25 damage is first reduced by 5 and then halved, so the creature takes 10 damage."

The heightened Step of the Wind doesn't need to have special forced movement for unwilling creatures because it already does that if you grapple them. The Dash will negate the halved movement speed, and you've got lots of monk speed to work with, so you can easily drag a grappled creature wherever you want.

I'm very happy with this monk. My feedback was to give the monk more options to feel like a monk when they're out of ki and they kind of delivered on that, while also just making ki recovery a bit more accessible. I also personally really like the level 10 feature giving more value to you just being a monk and doing martial arts. That step of the wind bonus makes you a really effective body guard too.

Love yer work my dude thanks.

Crazy strong, you are underestimating these changes.

I gotta say you have the best ad reads/skits of like anyone on RU-vid

Huh. I may actually try playing a monk with this update

Something I always loved from Monk, was some of the flavor things they got like Tongue of Sun and Moon and Timeless Body, but they've removed them, instead of giving them earlier, because level 13 and 15 respectively is way too late for things like that. I don't know, they're removing some of the fun flavor things and not giving us anything in return as well, which is partly why I enjoy playing monk so much.

the subtle change in stunning strike FROM lasting to the end of your next turn TO lasting to the beginning of your next turn...

15 feet is one HELL of a push. That's a hilariously long way to stumble without falling down.

Disciple points are a fun slip. I hope "Disc" replaces Ki as a single syllable shorthand version of Discipline Points.

Punch as a bonus action is super good improvement I think

Getting my points every initiative roll is amazing alone. Thanks for the video

Make the deflect attacks work only on ranged and spell attacks, but give monks a reaction for free that works on melee attacks. Then as the monk levels up, give them more than 1 reaction per turn (maybe up to 4 reactions at level 20, not really sure what the number should be without playtesting). It fits thematically with dodging/parrying and then counter striking, and lets functionally be tankier like a martial class should be. Would also open up so interesting multiclass options for classes that get unique reaction options (like warding flare).

My favorite 5E Monk build is Aasimar Sun Soul 17/Zealot Barbarian 3. I’m really hoping Sun Shield gets buffed. I don’t like using my reaction for it. I also think it needs to also burn all enemies within 5 feet at the start of their turn, and when they enter the radius. Edit: Searing Sunburst should do half damage on a successful save. Since it’s a Con save, it’ll bypass Evasion. 😈

I wonder if the Monk's d8 hit dice would be more acceptable if the Monk were given more options to be a glass cannon hit & run striker like the Rogue. This sounds incredulous because Monks are ALREADY extremely mobile, but the insistence that Monk's _need_ a d10 hit dice leads me to believe that people are "optimally" playing the Monk by standing in place and leaving them in harm's way. When I think about a martial artist, I think about a combatant who relies on their reflexes, instincts, and superior technique to simply avoid being hit, rather than simply tanking hits to the face. If Monks had a d10 hit dice, I feel like they'd just become Worse Fighters, rather than fulfilling a niche as a lightweight speed demon that overwhelms foes with the most absurd action economy of all classes.

The fact that he rolled a nat 1 at the end of the dice promotion 3:41

The Pugilist custom class by Sterling Vermin did many of these kinds of changes to make an unarmed character that’s viable at higher levels and more flexible outside of combat. I’m glad to see that the spirit of ‘monk need fix pls’ is still alive.

The way I would nerf stunning strike is if an enemy succeeds its saving throw it becomes immune to the ability until your next turn. That way you could still attempt to stun multiple enemies in one turn, without letting you spam it willy nilly

2 things to fix the monk, but they are really close here 1: D10 hit die 2: put the 9th level feature as a lower level feature that only applies when you either dash or step of the wind, and replace level 9 with "your unarmed attacks do an extra d6 force damage", and maybe spend a point to upgrade that to a d8/10/12 as you level up.

Easy fix for the martial-caster divide: all spells are 1 level higher. Cantrips are strictly _prestidigitation_ stuff (but unlimited). Make the old 9th-level spells “legendary” spells only available to gods and arch-mages of legend (NPCs). And mortals who cast 9th-level & legendary spells must save vs death or lose 1 point of wisdom permanently. Result: mad arch-wizards, which explains funhouse dungeons.

Monk would be an amazing 1- or 2-level dip for fighters, rogues, and bladesinger wizards, just off the top of my head. The unarmed attack as a bonus action at any time is just good action economy. And the healing and restoration of all discipline points at just level 2 whenever you roll initiative is really good. Also can we please get a similar feature for Sorcerers with their Metamagic at a similar level? It would help nail their place as the masters of Metamagic. Maybe increasing the amount of times you can attempt Stunning Strike to…wisdom times per round. So you can still theoretically down like 5 dudes surrounding you in a flash. Or definitely down one particular dude with an overwhelming series of punches to critical points on the opponent’s body. Let me fulfill my chi blocking fantasy dammit! I wanna KO 3 dudes and save myself and someone else in a turn. All in all, let monks murder people.

"let the monk murder people" yes please. I played a way of open hand monk in my first dnd campaign, in the high lvls I was finally decent at action economy and was basically one punch man it was so fun. Also its way better than power-word kill as that specifies that it has to have 100 or less hp

You forgot to mention the re-introduction to monk weapons in Martial Arts

If you know how to properly play around with Hit And Run tactics on monks, these changes are freaking awesome. Also the Deflect energy is way better than one would think. Ya might think Martial Arts Dice + DEX + Level isn't much, but even at level 13 being able to reduce income enemy attack on average of 23 points, for no other cost than relfex, is HUGE. Especially since Monks can now take dodge action and then bonus action attack. And yeah, comboing Deflect Energy with the level 18 ability is also great.

The step of the wind upgrade is a lot better than you give it credit for because you can take an ally with you to an advantageous position and get them out of danger, which is huge for team support. Also the deflect attacks upgrade is great because by that point a lot more enemies use more varied damage types so it helps monk defense a lot which is needed because d8 hit points.

It had some issues of it's own, but the martial lag in the high levels is why I really enjoyed what "The Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords" was doing back in 3.5

They should keep the d8 hit die but whenever you expend a discipline point you should heal a set amount like 2 or 3. That way when your monk starts getting hurt, they can dump the points to have a big turn and heal at the same time.

Overall, yeah the monk isn't now as powerful as casters, but it's important to recognize that they are now serious contenders against all of the other martials. They are arguably the best base grapplers and elusive melee fighters in OneD&D right now. That's not only a huge upgrade compared to Playtest 6 Monk, but a huge advancement for WotC as a whole to finally meaningfully buff monks.

The amount of changes here are awfully similar to Bone Wizard's reimagination of 5E monk. Deflect Attack, swapping perfect self for a stat boost, the class feats involving saving throws... It just catches my attention.

Minor nitpick, but it's "discipline points", not "disciple points"

The refresh on discipline points feels like the classic moment of meditation right before action happens.

The damage reduction of deflect attacks is actually calculated before resistance, so its additive value is actually halved, not doubled like it would be if calculated after

I think the best part of old quivering palm is it awakens a sense of mortality in your enemies when you can tell them you can kill them at any moment if they don’t stand down/surrender/give information/etc like you can use it on a bbeg to force them to stand down or a bandit captain to force information out of them it becomes so versatile! Doing big damage is cool and all but removes in my opinion the core feature of the ability

"you can only stunning strike once per turn" *Every DM liked that*

Take a shot for every time he says "Disciple Points", lol.

You can hold your action to attack in the enemis turn with a reaction and use bonus action to attack in your turn as normal, so u can use stunning strike 2 times

This seems like something that would just never die

Rest in peace Quivering Palm. Gone but not forgotten.

They were definitely looking at the community for this. In between you saying they’ve used your features and the level 20 feature and deflect attacks from the Bone Wizard’s recently released monk rework, they’re definitely paying attention. Go wizards!

1:56 Ooh boy, you are underestimating Dodge action. It's really good

Hooray! Monks are functional again! One thing I would do for that lv 10 is "willing, unless they cannot defend themself." If they are stun-locked, for example, they physically cannot stop you from yoinking them.

It’s interesting to consider how the old subclasses will mesh with this new version of the base class. For instance I think it gives Ascendant Dragon a massive boost. Increased damage dice for breath of the dragon features. Step of the Wind being free now means that Wings Unfurled doesn’t use up two limited pools of resources. A massive win if you are already playing a monk 😊

1:16 my monk fix went even further - ki points are still a thing, but you only ever get (proficiency bonus -1) of them, and they refresh at the start of your turn, every round. Other changes included giving them more reactions, locking Stunning Strike to be used only once per round, giving Flurry of Blows and their attacks extra attack scaling along with the fighter, and locking their martial arts die to d4s because dear lord do these monks attack a *lot.* Diamond Soul comes online at level 6 now, there’s a new feature where you dump your ki points for the next turn to turn a hit into a miss, and reaction-attacks whenever someone misses you in melee range. I changed the hit die to a d10, let them attack as a bonus action if they don’t use their action to attack, and added the Kensai features to the base monk class kit. A few other things, too, but that’s pretty much it - and my god are they fun to play at the table, since they’re now super good at mage shutdown plays, and they’re just *stupidly* mobile.

The bonus action unarmed strike and flurry of blows not needing to take the action action anymore is a bigger buff that you might initially think. Now the open hand monk can use flurry of blows to topple an enemy, knocking them prone, and you then use your action to grapple (which you can do with your high DEX now, not STR) to lock them in the prone condition as they can't stand up with 0 movement speed. Then all the other martial characters in your party can attack with advantage. Also on their turn your enemy either has to use their action to attempt break the grapple and stand up ( forfeiting their attacks that turn) or attack at disadvantage from prone and take another round of attacks at advantage.

"Let the Monk murder!" Goofy: "I'll do it again! Hyuck!"

This is quality of life for 5e monk.

Nice review of the new stuff, I definitely agree I like the changes to stunning strike. I have often felt this ability is what the rest of the monk is balanced around hence the lackluster class. When I tried to improve the monk I had stunning strike be its own resource instead of using Ki as well, it was a big win. Monk needs more Ki but it doesn't need to spam stunning strike more, I'm happy to see it at once a turn and just hope Wizards will boost the rest of monk now that they don't need to balance around a class getting 4 save or suck effect attempts per turm.

Here’s a way in which limiting stunning strike would work. 1. Make it go through if the attack goes through. 2. You must declare stunning strike before the attack roll. You hit, you get an automatic stun.

Okay, here is my monk (calling it tempest blade) 1)Retaliation: You get 1 single retaliation/level IN A SINGLE TURN and can use it on 1 enemy at a time. A retaliation cancels enemy attacks if greater and then does damage if better than their AC. So on lvl 3 you can retaliate to 3 different foes. All of these are counted as attacks 2) 2handed grandmaster: If can do 2 unarmed strieks on lvl1 or 2 attacks instead of 1 attack and a bonus action with all profiecy and stat bonuses. 3)Full contact Any attack that passes AC by 5 renders humanoid enemy into full contact. You get advantage on rolling your next attack. The second success with the margin of 7 tumbles them so you can sit on their chest giving them a disadvantage dice. Lucky feat cancelled on this one. 4) Unarmed full contact: while having no weapons and in full contact you get to retaliate to all enemy attacks. 0) No chi points sadly. LVL2----you get to push opponents while hitting them by 5 feet if they are standing and are of normal size. Any weapon you use can scale with agility! LVL3----Retaliation goes against ranged fire LVL 4 --- ability, prof score incr, unarmed does d6 LVL 5 --- Combat dance: YOu move across the battlefield and don't stop. You don't get hindered while between enemy. It is a skill check both you and enemy take. If the enemy fails, it can only do a reaction to you even if they moved to your character's position. Only the enemy you ended next to can deal all their melee attacks LVL 6 -- You can make weapons, fist count like +1 items. 3 attacks/round LVL7:.----- You can deflect magical projectiles with retaliation. LVL 8: -----ability incr, d8 damage. You can retaliate 2x to an enemy as you move LVL9: ---- Difficult terrain, footing, acrobatics don't effect your combat. If your hands are occupied, you kick for unarmed damage. LVL10 ---- Unlimited retaliation to single enemy that is not in full contact LVL 11 ---- 4 attacks/round, DMG: d8, +10feet move within combat.... Kind of whatcky but this is first few levels...

Love your videos! keep it up

10:15 "Let the Monk murder people, damn!" 😂😂😂

Stunning Strike also ends at the start of your turn instead of at the end, which means you are less likely to benefit from stunning as much as before.

I think the best thing to improve this version is replace damage on save against stunning strike with a temporary stun until end of turn that doesn't auto break concentration. It'll still improve damage via advantage but also prevent oa's allowing you to skirmish without sacking attacks to disengage.

7:26 RAW, you first reduce damage, and then apply Resistance at the end.

I mean new Quivering Palm can do over 100 damage on average in conjunction with flurry of blows, and can be done twice per fight in between short rests. So we're talking 200-300 damage in 4 turns per fight every single fight essentially. It's still good and generally outperforms Power Word Kill that can be done once per day and requires enemy health to be less than 100

Also to note... Monks are allowed to take Weapon Master feat, which is a STR/DEX choice half-feat giving access to Weapon Mastery. Giving a Point Buy Monk that starts at 17 with the right stats from Background (2 DEX / 1 WIS) who takes this feat at level 4 rounding to 18, they can then max out DEX at 20 with ASI boost at level 8. A Monk can then pick on their way some Light weapons with the Nick property (Dagger, Scimitar, Club, Handaxe, Light Hammer, etc.) through Weapon Master(y), letting them do another attack as part of the attack action, then at level 10 with Heightened discipline they can do 3 martial arts with flurry of blows. This is 6 attacks in a single turn. Quite nice if I dare say.

The Melee deflect/redirect is awesome imo

This is an ability I just made up for monk, battle meditation, available at level 2, you can spend 1 minute meditating or 2 ki points to gain similar buffs to a barbarians rage, you gain resistancd to bludgeoning piercing and slashing damage, a buff to Melee attacks and advantage on wisdom and dexterity saving throws for the next 2 minutes, possibly requiring concentration to make up for the massive buff. On the one hand without concentration this is an incredibly powerful ability, on the other hand it is for monk so... Also just got to the end of the video, its superior defence, oh.

I think the reason they couldn’t let quivering palm insta kill is because now you can spam it every turn while get 4 attacks off which is kinda crazy nova but if you could still insta kill then every enemy meant to be strong would have to have legendary resistance.

I'm hoping they do something with weapon masteries - that would provide a small power boost to all martials, and give some new combat options. Adding that on top of the small buffs the individual martial classes are getting would really help the martial/caster divide.

I think with Quivering Palm what they should do is make it do the new effect when then target is over half health, but when the target is at half or below, it can insta kill them on a failed save.

Ah yes, the subclass "my lover"

In regards to the quivering palm feature of the hand warrior: it is stated that "whenever you inflict physical damage you can apply these vibrations" which means you can apply them for every attack, I think? If so, it's still very much awesome.

So what I’m hearing is I’m gonna have to continue homebrewing the monk to fit in with my crew, got it!

"Let the monk **MURDER PEOPLE!**"-DnD Shorts, 28/11/23

One thing the monk should have is the mobile feat built in to the class. You hit something, it can't take an opporunity attack against you. Yeah you can now take disengage as a free BA, but you give up an attack or a chance to flurry.

Using deflect attacks on anything not just bludgeoning piercing or slashing means you can deflect spells which is awesome.

Haven't seen anyone talk about this, but Deflect Attack doesn't specify weapon attacks. At level 13, Monks can deflect Chromatic Orbs, Firebolts and similar attacks from spellcasters.

1e monk tells the magic user "hold my beer."

Actually, I think the changes at level 2 make a monk dip very attractive for martials. You get the same mobility boost that rogues get with cunning action, and you also have the ability to give everything disadvantage to hit you, all the time, forever. It's basically a defensive version of Reckless Attack from a Barbarian dip.

Having watched D4's video I feel like this really sells this version of the Monk short. I'm with you on the d10 hit die but this is wayyyy better than you're giving it credit for.

You can kidnap an enemy, it is called grappling, which you can do as a bonus action if you would like. This monk looks nice.

Warrior of the Elements, fly speed when using Step of the Wind, grab your barbarian friend, fly to the wizard enemy, kill it in one round.

The topic and thumbnail of this video is such a coincidence considering I played a monk cosplaying aang a few days ago…

You can redirect to any target, ranged attacks can hit any target in 60 ft melee to any target in 5 ft, not just to the one that attacked you.

Yeah, I still think level 20 should be something like immunity to all death spells or something like that.

I'm glad monks can set aside their stunning strike addiction.