@@CyberPunkBadGuy Not sure anyone can make that assessment yet without having played the final version. Might be that they turn out to be one of the best classes, but for now I wouldn't just assume that it is the case. Fighter and Barbarian also got loads of great changes in this book and all the other classes also got mostly buffed and not nerfed so I don't think there is any evidence currently that monk suddenly jumps to the top of the list. Let's wait and see shall we...
@@mojin7470 Everything is already published. I have been playing with the one dnd for a long time now, even last weak. All the changes they made in the UA they kept or even improved for monk. this is he final build, the other classess buff DO NOT COMPARE. This is the final version mate, the RAW base monk class is extremly strongn NO SUBCLASS NEEDED. Fighter and barbarian got nothing good in compared to monk. Fighter got, some more second wind (3/) move when you second wind (level 5) weapon mastery ( Ricoulous cause you wont be swapping 5 weapons at a time) and a better indominatable (which was bad before now descent) Barbarian got a better rage which is good And a Relentless endurance level 11 which is great, thats it. Meanwhile monk get about 10 new things that beat barbarian and fighter in DAMAGE , MOVEMENT , DURABILITY AND UTILITY AND SCALING. and its evidence from low level going up. Monk ARE the best martial, And I wont even mention the joke that is rogue,
@@CyberPunkBadGuy Im not really sure if you're trolling or being serious, cuz it could be both but if you're serious then please calm down you dont need to shout and scream like a maniac. And if you are actually trolling, then idk... good for you I guess... Now a few things in case that you are actually being serious: 1. Its not called OneDnD, OneDnD was a filler name that they used in the very beginning of the playtest and that they have dropped a long time ago. Its still just called DnD 5e. Its the same edition just modernised. 2. Where would the final versions be published? Can you give me a source? The only people who should have access to the final versions (afaik) are influencers who got the preview from Wizards to make videos about it. Everything else is still in preorder phase, so how would it already be published? Unless of course someone stole the data and illegally uploaded it to the internet, which I have no knowledge of. 3. I only know the stuff thats been done in the Playtest and from the Data we have from there, and to my knowledge during playtesting Monks did not deal more damage than Fighters and Barbarians nor are they tankier than Fighters or Barbarians. The strength of the Monk lies elsewhere, not in its damage or tankyness. Based on the playtest I would rate the Monk as about equal to the Fighter and the Barbarian, just in different gameplay aspects, so all 3 of them seem like decent classes. 4. You said in your original comment, that Monks are now one of the strongest classes in the game. To me that means something like Top 3 of all classes in the game. Now theres a problem with that. I do not think that Monks beat Fullcasters. For all we know all the Martial classes got stronger, but so did all the Caster classes. So even if the Monk actually was stronger than the Barb or the Fighter as you say, that does not make them better than all the Caster classes which all got stronger as well. 5. I agree that Rogue for sure is probably the weakest combat class in the game now, but Rogue was never about being powerful in combat because the Rogue had loads of other use-cases and gaps to fill within an adventuring party. So I personally don't like comparing Rogues to other classes by combat power since this is not their main purpose. I hope you are able to react to this comment like a civilized person and answer calmly and not completely lose your shit.
Quick side note, since it wasn't specifically mentioned in the beginning of the video, is that Flurry of Blows also got the Attack Action requirement removed, so it has the same improvement as Martial Arts.
oh nice gives more flexibility, helps with multi class with a caster a ton also seemingly small change but it will be large in practice for caster multi monks
5:59 They capped it at 25 to prevent you from getting a +8 in dex or wis with the epic boon asi while not making the +1 from an epic boon feat useless in case you want to keep going past level 20 with more epic boons
@@2MeterLP The way they’ve been explaining epic boons, they seem to be a way to keep going past level 20. So while being able to go up to 25 doesn’t matter if you stop at level 20, it does if you want to round it up later
It's stupid that they even clarify the maximum instead of just saying your maximum increases by 4 too. (And just do that for any feature that lets you go above the normal max of 20)
Using Flurry of Blows to knock an enemy prone and grapple them with a single bonus action is kinda awesome, if the new Open Hand is comparable to the pld one, you could potentially prone and grapple two creatures at the same time if I interpret this correctly
I'm perhaps one of the most outspoken Monk defender of everyone I know, and this might sound weird but I am actually glad they did not change its hit dice to D10. I think a lot of people run on a misconception that the Monk needs to be directly compared to the Fighter or the Barbarian, but I do not think this is true; their job is not to simply stand in place and absorb hits, it is to strategically navigate the battlefield and find where they can deal the most damage with the least retaliation. Monks are a complex, high-skill class whose power is not strictly in their damage output, but in their flexibility and sheer action output. They have the unparalleled ability to switch up and pinch hit for any objective on the map that they need to; they can rush down key targets, leap to hard-to-reach places, and they can even tank in a pinch! I personally like the changes they've made, and I would have been saddened if they chose to just turn Monk into a Fighter variant rather than lean into its unique strengths.
But if you want to play that d10 tank, you can play a fighter and take the unarmed fighting style!!!! So if you want to play the buff guy punching everyone, with the high AC and high AC, you absolutely can!
I'm a monk main and I've always been of the opinion that they are a melee single-target-control class. Calling them the weakest class because they put out the least DPS is dumb, this isn't a single player game. If I'm able to B E A N N O Y I N G to the high value targets and waste their turns to try to deal with me, I am a much more effective party member than if I were to try to go full melee DPS. Control casters are best at crowds, but an A N N O Y I N G monk will burn through legendary resistances faster than any other class while still having (depending on archetype,) at least one way to get out of dodge.
Don't need a d10 to tank anyways. Patient defense, high stats already make u an absolute unit. Plus had archetypes like long way of death which meant u never died lol
The 2014 Monk was way too squishy to be a melee class, because all its good defensive features came in way too late, so I was of the opinion that the Monk needed a higher hit die to equalize. But with the new rules in the 2024 Book, I agree that the d10 hit-die hurts the theme and flavor of the monk with the way they chose to go. I always thought that to improve the Monk from 2014, they needed to focus on one thing that the Monk was meant to be the best at... Either they make him super high DPS but low tankyness, or they make him high tankyness but low damage, or they make him super high-control and mobility but low damage and tankyness and really hone into one of those aspects. And I think the way they chose to go in the end is really cool, making the monk's speciality its mobility and tactical aspect, but also boosting its damage and tankyness in slight but meaningful ways without making them the Monks defining features. I think this Iteration of the Monk can definitely be accepted as a solid Mid-Tier class on par with classes like the Fighter or the Barbarian in the value that they bring to a party, but focussing on a very different overall skillset.
@@shaness112233I don’t think of the pros of monks you listed are exclusive to monks except for the burning legendary resistances part, which is mostly active during higher levels. At middling levels and lower levels, Barbarians are literally THE class for wasting enemy’s turns. Monks just get outshine by every other class. And even with a Monk’s movement, ESPECIALLY in a teamwork setting are they more useless, because if you run away, the enemies can just refocus their attacks on another creature. Monks don’t have Compel Duel either so… The stunning strike uses CON, which is bound to be higher in single target enemies…
You state that the problem of not having enough focus points in the early game is still unaddressed, but that's not true. Being able to recharge all of your points when you roll initiative is one thing but also not having to use your points to disengage or Dash is another. So you're not only using less points in general, but you are also having a ability to recharge the points. I finished a campaign using playtest rules that had a monk in it and I can confirm that he rarely if ever ran out of focus points, and I run a mixture of story based sessions and dungeons. In the dungeons, with about four fights in it, he could easily get through three of those fights having full focus points on each one. Then he just need another short rest on the fourth one.
The problem is that old monk was allowed to do cool "monk" stuff a stupid low amount of times, where rogues had similar things for free. The change we have right now definitly adress the issue of having to use your Ki for defense or atack making it so you can do "cool" monk stuff more often, but still gives you a ridiculously limited amount of Ki to play in lower levels, still not adressing that problem, and at higher levels most classes dont have that problem as they can compensate with a lot more stuff. Personally i dont se why Monks can just add their Wis modifier to the pool of Ki at level 2. That way thei wll have around 4/5 ki points wich bumps up the stuff they can do, not gimp them to much or force them to save ki points ONLY for the clearly upcomig big battle, and allows them to have more fun with their stuff. Monk definitly got a lot of bumps up but could still be better and more fun without going overboard
@@urbanassassin26 Can confirm this. Been playing the playtest myself at lower levels. It feels so much more alive despite the number of ki points not changing
@@PiscesAustrinus You can do cool "monk" stuff without using focus points. Monk bonus action at level 2 has 3 different options (5 if you count all unarmed strike options) for doing cool "monk" stuff and they do not require spending a focus point. I am satisfied saving my focus point for critical moments (similar to how I'd save action surge on a fighter) because I can already do so much without even spending a point. Also within 3 levels, the low focus point problem disappears completely.
Fair point! It just feels like a bit of tight squeeze in the early game imho if you are an elements monk to use 1 ki to enter your elemental attunement and then only be able to flurry once and deflect attacks once before running dry
I think Deflect Attacks/energy is limited to attacks so something like Mind Sliver isn't something that can be deflected since it is a saving throw, not an attack.
@@Mitcheck315you possibly can't beacause disintegrate is at minimum is 50 dmg(base 40 + all 1 on 10d6 is 10) and monk ability let's him negate only d10 + dexetery mod. + monk lvl, so the maximum here is 35...
Not having to spend key on dashing and disengaging is going to GREATLY extend your focus points compared to 2014. Having to spend ki points on a requirement to survive at a d8 hit die is the biggest reason they were blown through so quickly at low level.
With Deflect Attack, I got this strange image of a monk ally making an attack on them with a low damage weapon, like a dagger or sling, and the monk converting that into something more powerful on their enemy.
also it is missing here. you make very good summaries of this stuff it would be a shame if i had to look it up elsewhere now you mentioned it I want it from you
I don't think the focus point issue is still unaddressed, they reduced the need of focus points by making base features usable independent of those points
Yeah! Monk can now move like monk should and you son`t nesessary need docus to basic things… In the last i was forsed to take one level of burglar to get disengage… no it is not a must… but still viable option.
@@gloryrod86 I'd also say with all the buffs the Fighter has received that the Monk and the Fighter both seem of similar power now. Fighter probably higher damage and higher tankyness but Monk way more mobility and control in general, so I think it balances out.
Boney got some good buffs. I especially like his warrior of the spider subclass (aka the "SPIDER-MONK"). It was funny when Jeremy Crawford talked about changes to the monk by using the same sports car analogy that Bonewizard did.
I think the focus points at low levels seems pretty fair. Sure you can only do 2 things per encounter at level 2, but full spellcasters only have 3 level 1 spell slots at this level and almost none of them will have the action economy that monks have at this point in the game. On top of that, the monks will get those 2 focus points back at the start of the 2nd encounter of the day, which no other caster except wizards can match with their spell slots.
@@caiusdrakegaming8087 I have read a few comments similar, my idea is to homebrew the 'per long rest' of the feature to short instead. To me it seems kinda strange that they recover all focus from resting but not the feature related to focus regen. Although strange I do still see several arguments about why lorewise it might be. Perhaps it's strenuous to the body/mind? In that case id argue allowing it multiple times/short(or long) rest, but with every subsequent use there is a accumulating chance for a level of exhaustion.
@@caiusdrakegaming8087 yes but at the same time in many tables short rests are pretty rare. Maybe at your tables it’s a small/insignificant buff but in most groups I’ve been a part of, that feature would be very impactful
I think Cloak of Shadows is pretty good, because you don't have to cast the Darkness spell that can hinder your allies because instead you're just "shrouding yourself in darkness," you can move through Bright Light while invisible as long as you don't end your turn there, and you don't break the invisibility for attacking. Sure on that turn you give up the attack action, but for the remaining 9 turns, you get all your attacks with advantage unless they can see you while you're invisible. And the remaining 9 turns being able to do 5 attacks without spending any focus points is... pretty strong.
@@MagusAgrippa8 exactly. Where the barb is the uncontrolable sheer brute force, the monk is the wise and disciplined warrior who elevated combat to the state of art
Here's an idea for flurry of blows to streamline: If you get 4 attacks, you make up to four rolls. On your first successful roll, the remaining attacks are considered hits (if the roll was critical, only the first attack is considered critical, the remaining hits are normal). In this way, if you miss a lot, you will make several rolls, but if you're hitting on the first attack, you save the trouble of rolling additional its. I think this streamlines pretty nicely. Yes, your 'auto-hits' from the subsequent attacks will not have the opportunity to crit, but you also get through rolls and damage rolls much faster, which over the course of the game could be hundreds of rolls. It really matters.
One thing that I think often gets missed in discussions about the monk is their maneuverability. Monks were always better used as skirmishers than frontline fighters and with the new changes to step of the wind they are now one of if not THE best mage killers in the game. First turn you can just dash right past that pesky wall of skeletons and start laying in to the necromancer. I don't care how high your con save is that concentration isn't standing up to 5 attacks per round.
It's even better than that, you can drag the necromancer right back to the Barbarian with your new grappling abilities. Nothing can get away from your party. It's amazing.
I mean, you *should* care about how high their save is because when you get to +9 (which my wizard will achieve at level 12), it becomes impossible for you to fail your concentration saving throw if each attack does 21 or less damage, since the DC is just 10. However even in such scenarios Stunning Strike's much higher DC gives a good chance to break concentration in addition to all of the other obvious benefits.
@@cjirwin867I remember there being at least 1 or 2 that would actually interact with forced movement from the spells of 5E I don't know if it will stay that way in OneDND
the reason the capstone caps at 25 is that a lot of the epic level feats will give a +1 to a stat, so if you get your dex to 20, then at level 19 you take the recommended feat that (among other effects) bumps your strength or dex up by 1, then the capstone would be less affective to you because you functionally only get +3, if it capped at 24 it'd be a big disincentive to bring your dex to 20
So a level 17 Shadow Monk can just walk out of prison or even a force cage, while invisible for 10 rounds and furry of blows are effectivly free while in this state with advantage. It is also a good question, if the partial incoporability offers immunity/resistance to attacks, where the attacker is disadvanteged and needs to find the monk. The Warlock invocation Devil's Sight can see through the darkness and accessible via feats. Dealing with invisbility requires different spells and abilities to overcome than darkness. With 2 different ways to become unseeable the DM has to hand out True Sight and Blindsight like candy to opponents.
But how does it matter, I just looks nicer. You still only benefit from the 24, so capping it at that and just write "up to a max of 24" would do the same, since the +3 you'd get does exactly the same.
Well you wouldn't get the full +4 promised by the feature, and any other bonuses to ability score, like epic boons post 20, would care about the additional point. There's no harm in letting it go to 25 if that's how the math works out
I'm playing a UA monk right now, and it's been a blast! All it took was a couple Uncommon items and I have the same DPR as our Echo Knight. And even before I got those I was still doing just fine as an off-tank.
@@AguionStryke I don't think it's +10ft because then all elemental monks would have a 15ft range, but they don't. Your range becomes 10 instead of 5 and the Bugbear adds 5.
@@TitanBait that's the thing, it says 10 ft greater rather than 10ft or 5 greater, which is how astral self currently reads. also this is just improved fang of the fire snake from four elements and that one also reads increase by 10 rather than to 10
@@AguionStryke May I ask where you are reading that? I can't find anything that has the text of the elemental monk and the wording of the current Astral Self says "When you make an unarmed strike with the arms on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal."
@@TitanBait which is the exact same wording as here, but here it says 10 feet greater, hence 15 ft range also I'm reading on 5e tools, fire snake is one of the four elements monk spell things that I forget the name and will not go open the site again to check
At this point Laser Llama should be making their own book. Those classes are amazing. I'll be curious to see your take on the sorcerer. While wild magic got a bit of a buff, you brought up a point about the elements monk that I mentioned about wild sorcery: bogging down the game. You're to roll on the wild magic table, then you roll again for an additional sub-table for the number you just rolled. The joke of it taking 10 minutes before it's your turn again absolutely fits the narrative here if you have a wild magic sorcerer and elements monk forcing saves on every attack.
I mean now Monks don’t really need more points because they’re not using as many. Patient Defense and Step of the Wind are free now if you want. And with the ability to immediately regain all of them, Monks should basically never run out of Focus points. And if you do it’s because it’s been a busy day. And you function better without points now.
12:26 I wouldn't say it's bad. Even though most creatures can't see you in darkness, you can also go invisible in dim light. You can just be in dim light and be invisible, that is pretty good since creatures can normally see you in that lighting. Depending on the campaign the darkness part can be great too, like a campaign that has a lot of dark places with creatures that have darkvision The incorporeal part can be fine, mostly against larger creatures that occupy more space. Flurry of blows for free for one minute too, that's crazy. You spend 3 focus points, and if you use flurry of blows every turn, then you're saving 7 points, and can instead use those points for other features, like stunning strike.
I completely agree. it's really good. Dim light is so common. Plus, you can also go through walls, including wall spells and even ceiling cages and other things. It really goes well with your ability to go up walls.
Finally, monks can punch better than a fighter at lv 1. It’s a shame about stunning strike but it was probably intended that it could only be used once and they just didn’t write it well in 2014, and unlike smite I can see why they want to restrict stun locking. Also the monk subclasses are good but the bar was like 4 inches off the ground, shame about the instant death touch but getting better stuff earlier is better than a capstone I’ll never see. I hope they get through all the subclasses though because they all need a rework and consistency, even if it’s mediocre, would be nice.
Hold up, the level 15 feature is NOT the old capstone. Ignoring what level you get it at, RAW the old one would do nothing if you had 1, 2 or 3 ki because it specified no ki points. Not only do you get the new one sooner, but if you have fewer than 4 focus, you get set back up to 4, not just when you have 0.
Yea that might be true, its still a massive ribbon feature that nobody ever asked for... You will never run out of Ki at 15th level anyway and if you do, you either get all your points back from your 2nd level feature, or you just take a short rest and get all your points back... So yeah, I'd be very surprised if the lvl 15 feature had any semblance of impact ever for any character in any campaign. It's basically only relevant if you have more than 2 high-intensity combats per Short Rest, which let's be honest here, will never happen in 99.9% of campaigns. So imo probably the most useless feature I've seen in the whole 2024 PHB so far.
Thanks, mane! I've been waiting for this. My first intro to D&D was 5e, and Four Elements sounded so cool to a noob. It was rough. Homebrew helped. Made it to lv 11. Still runnin' that character. I'll probably pick and choose.
I love the shoutout for laserllama. His reworks seriously bang. If you ever wanna play a martial class but also want to have fun I cannot recommend them enough.
bro, i think you are the man. just because you put your naked self on the thumbnail for this video. amazing confidence. keep it up, i almost always watch your content
1d6 > 1d8 > 1d10 > 1d12 still has all the same problems of martials lagging behind casters. Another system I've played goes 1d6 > 2d6 > 3d6 > 4d6 and you can multi attack from level 1, and monk also gets to attack an additional time on top of that compared to other classes. You can also etch runes into your handwraps or weapons to get additional effects like punching so hard and fast you have a chance of deafening your target on a crit, add extra damage types to all of your attacks, or punching a flying creature back to earth and grounding them for a period of time. A really fun monk feature is that you can learn different stances that grant you unique attacks instead of your default strike. It's like having the ability to change weapons but you shift your body instead going from tiger claw, to crane wing, to dragon tail, to gorilla slam, to stumbling swing. There's up to 21 different stances you can choose to learn.
A new perspective why 5e Monks are good in combat A Tier 1 (lv 1 to 4) barbarian in rage with a greatsword will deal an average 12 damage (2d6+3+2). A monk can make 2 atacks since lv 1 without spendind resources. The average damage of this 2 attacks combined is 13 (1d8+3+1d4+3). Using resources (ki) to make 3 attacks in one turn make the monk damage near a barbarian with Great Weapon Master Feat. The average subclass (open hand) will buff a bit the monk attack in control ways. The best subclass, Mercy Monk, let the tier 1 monk use healing word with half of a bonus action. So, people often like Tier 1 Monks in 5e, because, at this levels, they are a good DPS. Tier 2 (lv 5 to 10) is widely considered where the game (5e) have the best balance. When I imagine the first LOTR movie, I imagine tier 2 characters protecting the Hobbits. Starting at this Tier people often dislike the monks and start to say that they are a weak class, even weaker at tier 3 (lv 11 to 16) or 4 (lv 17 to 20). There are two reasons for that: 1 -The first reason is that they do not realize that, starting at level 5, the best feature of the monk is no longer martial arts or flurry of blows, is the stunning strike. Starting at lv 5, as a Monk in 5e, you are no longer a DPS, you are a Control Specialist. Most of the times in Tier 2, a Monk should save Ki points for performing more stunning strikes and should not spend them to increase your damage with flurry of blows. What makes a Lv 11 monk a lot stronger than a Lv 5 monk? Is that a Lv 11 Monk can use stunning strike 3 times every round of the combat. That multiple use of stunning strike is so powerfull that got nerfed both by Baldur's Gate 3 game and by Jeremy in the next DnD edition. My extra hint would be: go use the lv 4 and lv 8 upgrades to get Wisdom 20. 2 - The second reason is an unfortunate disconection between the average adventuring day setted in the Dungeon Master's Guide and the way Masters prepare the game session in average. In the DMG we have: 3 to 4 medium to hard encounters in the morning, with a short rest between then + 3 to 4 medium to hard encounters in the afternoon with a short rest between then. So you would have 2 short rests between combats before you have a long rest. So the monk ki points should get replenished 3 times more often than a feature that only replanish in long rests (examples that only replanishes in long rest: the sorcerer spell slots and the sorcery points). Most of the DMs use one or none short rests between long rests or full recoveries. That reality unbalance the classes, making classes that have its major resources replanished in short rest weaker than they were designed to be. My extra hint is: Homebrew that the short rest does not exist and adapt what is linked to it. For things that should be replanished 3 times more such as ki points, I just double. Lv 2 Monk have 4 ki points. And the HP of every PC is calculated like they have half more levels (rounded up).
YESSSSS OH MY GODDDD. I have always loved monks, and I was actually making a boxing homebrew for the monk. After hearing the changes though? I don’t really think I’ll have to, since a lot of the problems are being addressed here, and they really make you feel strong with your hand to hand combat
Upside to the elemental attacks pushing on a failed save: Let's say they fail all saves, you can do a rush-style attack; they move you follow. Could help isolate from a group or just be bada$$. Or ping pong then back and forth.
This Monk is way more attractive for Multiclassing just for how insane their bonus action gets. For *just Monk 2* , any character gains the following options for bonus actions - unarmed strike for 1d6+Dex, shove 5 feet using Dex, prone enemy using Dex, grapple using Dex, two of any of the previous using 1 focus, Disengage, Dash, Disengage + Dodge for 1 focus, Dash + Disengage and double jump distance for 1 focus, with total focus of 2 + 2/short + an independent 2/long. That's 6 native uses for the bonus action that don't consume focus plus an additional 3 (1 of which is actually 16 different options due to the new unarmed strike rules) that can be used roughly 6 times per long rest assuming 1 short rest in the day. Only two levels makes it a viable dip for Caster classes while still allowing the PC to get to 9th level spells eventually, plus it also still gives both Unarmored Movement albeit only +10 ft and Unarmored Defense [unexciting, but sometimes you get caught outside your armor once you get proficiency from Cleric or Druid later and it's viable at low levels until you get good enough armor to skip it]. Level 5 for Stunning Strike, extra attack, and roughly 15 focus points per long rest gets things even spicier. One thing I think is under-emphasized in this video and the reveal is how the changes to unarmed strike, bonus action unarmed strike not needing to be triggered by a previous attack action, and the baseline effect on successful save for Stunning Strike despite the new once per turn limit gives the Monk absolutely unhinged options for a Martial. You can just bonus action fish for Stunning Strike to at worst give them -15 ft speed for one focus, then move away [taking an opportunity attack, sure, but whatever], then [as an example, Monk 5/Druid 3+] cast Spike Growth and put them in Bush Jail. Even without spells, kinda nasty you can [level 5+] bonus action fish for grapple, if it works force move them somewhere safer then attack action shove them prone then attack with advantage without expending resources. You can also attack into stunning blow then, on a failed save, grapple them, then move them at half speed, then prone them *entirely uncontested* , they make no actions on their turn, on your next turn sure they are no longer stunned but you're attacking 3 times minimum at advantage and can drag them another 20 ft. No Custom Lineage or weird feat setups, no awkward multiclassing, no massaging the rules, no DM fiat, just a ton of versatility and power RAW/RAI at level 5 while doing Rapier damage on Unarmed Strikes.
2:30 not sure if it's overhyped if the level 20 monk feature was to just regain 4 ki points. This early feature is just so much better than the mess they gave us in 2014.
I can't wait to have a homebrew/possibly official Warrior of thousand stances subclass. The core could be as simple as giving your unarmed strikes different mastery properties based on which stance you're in.
I can't speak for anyone else, but given that at high levels, most enemies were probably making the save for Quivering Palm anyway, I'll happily give up the rare instant drop to zero HP to get force damage instead of necrotic. Yes, necrotic isn't resisted *that* often, but it's still far more often than force, unless they've changed a lot of monster resistances.
I agree when i play tested the monk in the UA 2024 material the Shove & Grapple Saving Throw slowed the game to a halt. Personally if it was me i would make it as follows: When you hit with an attack or use the martial arts feature to make a Shove / Grapple Check you roll an Athletics Check (Dex Based) vs the targets passive Strength Saving Throw (10+Save Bonus). By doing this in Roll 20 you could easily add the extra effect in your attack roll macro and all the DM has to do is check the passive save check of the target. Quicker in online play and if you play physically you could have a different color die for the Athletics check. But again the multiple rolls a round do stagger the game a ton. You look at other martial classes (Not Fighter) and you get 2 attack rolls (a few rerolls if your ranger) some at advantage some not, but here the monk gets 5 attacks a round and other than Action Surge Fighters who are suppose to be the masters of combat don't get that many attacks reliably nor the utility that monks get.
DND Shorts "I'd like my monk bois THICK" :D Seriously though, the 1d4 to 1d6 at level one change was NEEDED and so welcome. It was silly being a monk but needing to use weapons until level 5 Getting your Ki (rebranded focus) points back at every new start of battle was also needed to increase their power across the day. Deflect attacks is a very nice survivability increase, and I think makes up for the monk bois not being as THICK hp-wise as other melee. I know there's some other great changes too, but those three really make me think Monks are viable now.
I do wish they introduced some way to do a strength and con based hand to hand character, but this is actually the first good class change that I’ve seen so far!
A few thoughts: First, the 2014 monk Stillness of Mind ability used to come online at level 7. I do wish they had left it there; it's not effectively any stronger aside from no longer requiring your action, and it sucks that there's one less class resistant to charm and fear effects before level 10. Additionally Monks used to become immune to poison damage at 10; now it looks like they just end any poisoned condition. That's a nerf. Wholeness of Body for Open Hand is an interesting one. It's a massive bump at lower levels, but at higher levels getting anywhere from 45 to 60 hitpoints guaranteed was huge. Hell, just using an action to get guaranteed 30hp at level ten is fantastic for only an action and no resources. Now at level ten, assuming your wisdom is +4, you can get anywhere from 5-12 hp a turn, or a total of 20-48 over four turns. A higher ceiling, but definitely a lower floor. At level 20 with their new capstone it does even out, however, with anywhere from 8-19 hp a turn for a total of 56-133 over seven turns, using their capstone ability. I'm torn. They didn't mention the Diamond Soul at all, so I'm hoping that one is unchanged.
I wont lie, it'd be pretty fun to see popular homebrew subclasses/class tweaks get spotlighted. As long as it doesn't end up being reviews of the same thing over and over.
The 25 is logical, since at 19, when you get an epic boon you get a +1 to a stat, wich can be used to get a stat to 21. This way you don't lose the stat gain from the epic boon. Further epic boons can then increase the (now 25) stat up to a maximum of 30
Could you please do a video on Laserllama’s Alternate Monk please? I think it’s really interesting because it’s still so different from the 5.5E monk, and the inclusion of monk techniques is such a great combination of crunch and flavour.
Also the Way of the Four Elements first abikity kind of just feels like they took slightly nerfed versions the two best abilities from the former way the class worked, Fist of Unbroken Air and Fangs of the Fire Snake, mixed that with the Way of the Ascendant Dragons damsge type changing feature, and called it a day. Which is not bad by any means, its juat funny to note. Their 6th Level ability also reminds me of The Way of the Ascendant Dragons Breathe Weapon type attack as well.
6:12 the maximum 25 instead of 24 makes sense because of Epic Boons. You use this capstone to get to 25, then at level 20 you get your first Epic Boon Feat, which could include a +1 to one of those stats, with no maximum, bringing you to 26.
A cursed idea. Give monks ki points equal to the square of their level. i.e. 4, 9, 16, ...400 at level 20 The catch is they have to play way of the four elements 5e.
I really like the new monk. It still needs more points, but everything from buffing the base martial arts moves to the stunning strike sidegrade feels much better.
Cant wait to take 1 level of fighter to grab "Nick" and Two-weapon Fighting Style. An extra attack with your action that scales with your martial arts die. A dagger hitting 3 times doing a 3d10+10, then flurry of blows for 3 more attacks is going to be awesome.
I disagree with your take on Quivering Palm. Yes, wizards can cast spells like wish or power word kill at that level, but they can do it once per day, while monks can use Quivering Palm up to 5 times per short rest in the current version or 4 times per combat in the 2024 version. That's like 5 power word kills that require saves or 40d12 damage, I think the old version was overpowered but acceptable with how underpowered the rest of monk was, while the new version is still very strong.
Tell me how many chain lightnings can a wizard cast at level 17? Also a portent wizard can get around the " save " requirement, which monks never had the ability to change die. The way to balance it would have been to increase the Ki points requirement, such that you couldn't use it more than once rather than making it a mediocre high level wizard spell.
I do not agree with you, and I think this is not a good way of thinking about wizzards. A wizzard on lvl 17 should have a ton of spellscroll and magical items for disposal, and not use their spellslots, just if needed. Also when you meet a monk, you know they should not touch you, but if you meet with a wizzard, you would never know what can happen, because of their spell repertoir. They can win a fight without a fight.
L take. Every caster is mechanically better in everyway than a martial. Then a Martial gets one busted thing and suddenly the games bad. Magic caster double standard kills this game.
I think the new version is stronger honestly. 10d10 on a successful save that required two turns to trigger vs 10d12 that you can trigger multiple times in one turn for half damage on a successful save is great. I can see a 20th level Monk punching a big boss 3 times then detonating them twice, then on their next turn they can detonate them two more times! That’s 40d12 damage half on a successful save! It cost all your points but it’s worth it imo!
I got really lucky with my monk rolls, and now I have to update it... IDK if monk still has evasion, but whoever stands in my way is gonna catch these hands.
I think the focus recovery plus less features requiring focus fixes the problem. They did an awesome job with the new monk! Any negativity is 100% nitpicking.
I really don't have a problem using the new Quivering Palm, since it's easier to use. I only require my DM to allow my enemy to explode like in First of North Star when it drop to 0 HP with it.
I like the idea of giving additional key points with a magic item like the pearl of power. This would allow you to homebrew a scenario where you can hand your monk extra key in the beginning, then because it's a magic item It can be Removed at higher levels when it's no longer needed.
