5e Monk Guide
Diskmaster’s 5e Monk Guide
If anyone has played monk from a previous version of DnD, they know the difficulties of being incredibly outscaled by their entire party. Or of being one of the most MAD (multiple ability dependent) classes in the game. In older editions, there was sadly almost no reason to play a monk when every other class did everything better. In 5e however, monks are not only a viable class choice, but an powerful one to boot! Here I’ll help you decide what kind of monk you’d like to play, how to play them, and to ultimately make your dream monk character an effective and interesting party member! This guide follows the traditional color coding method used by most other guides. Sky Blue: Optimal choice, core on all builds minus a fringe build or two.
Blue:
Solid pick, not exactly optimal but still a very good choice.
Black:
Not bad, not great, there are better but you’re not hindering your character picking this.
Purple:
Bad choice, maybe some awkward situations you’ll get use out of this, but otherwise you’re wasting valuable character growth.
Red:
Nope. Just nope. There’s either something strictly better or it’s a downright awful pick. When using abbreviations like STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, and CHA, assume I am using the
MODIFIER for those scores. For example, if I say “Add your STR to damage” and your strength score is 18, you do not add 18 to damage, you add the modifier for 18 which is +4, and so on and so forth.
Table of Contents
Section 1: Races and Ability Scores
Dwarf
Elf
Halfling
Human
Dragonborn
Gnome
Half Elf
Half Orc
Tiefling
Section 2: Background and Proficiencies
Section 3: Core Monk Features
Section 4: Monk Subclasses
Way of the Open Hand
Way of the Shadow
Way of the Four Elements
Section 5: Multiclassing
Section 6: Feats, Tips, Tricks, and Strategies
Section 1: Races and Ability Scores
As of now, the best viable monk build in my
If anyone has played monk from a previous version of DnD, they know the difficulties of being incredibly outscaled by their entire party. Or of being one of the most MAD (multiple ability dependent) classes in the game. In older editions, there was sadly almost no reason to play a monk when every other class did everything better. In 5e however, monks are not only a viable class choice, but an powerful one to boot! Here I’ll help you decide what kind of monk you’d like to play, how to play them, and to ultimately make your dream monk character an effective and interesting party member! This guide follows the traditional color coding method used by most other guides. Sky Blue: Optimal choice, core on all builds minus a fringe build or two.
Blue:
Solid pick, not exactly optimal but still a very good choice.
Black:
Not bad, not great, there are better but you’re not hindering your character picking this.
Purple:
Bad choice, maybe some awkward situations you’ll get use out of this, but otherwise you’re wasting valuable character growth.
Red:
Nope. Just nope. There’s either something strictly better or it’s a downright awful pick. When using abbreviations like STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, and CHA, assume I am using the
MODIFIER for those scores. For example, if I say “Add your STR to damage” and your strength score is 18, you do not add 18 to damage, you add the modifier for 18 which is +4, and so on and so forth.
Table of Contents
Section 1: Races and Ability Scores
Dwarf
Elf
Halfling
Human
Dragonborn
Gnome
Half Elf
Half Orc
Tiefling
Section 2: Background and Proficiencies
Section 3: Core Monk Features
Section 4: Monk Subclasses
Way of the Open Hand
Way of the Shadow
Way of the Four Elements
Section 5: Multiclassing
Section 6: Feats, Tips, Tricks, and Strategies
Section 1: Races and Ability Scores
As of now, the best viable monk build in my