TheCrowing1432
2014-09-23, 02:45 AM
Warning: I have not actually played a monk in this edition as of this writing. Everything written here is based on my interpretation and my experience of playing 3.5 which is around 4-5 years. So apologies up front if something is wrong here, this is my first guide ever.
http://theindiedragon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/monk___17_06_12_by_lucastorquato27-d5mlyph.jpg
Ah yes the monk. The famous martial artist with the furious fists. Characters that use their fists have been in RPGS for as long as there have been RPGS. What is it about the Monk that people love so much? Are they fans of Jet Li and other martial artists? Do they watch too much anime? Does the idea of punching a dragon in the face just sound awesome? Whatever your reasons, monks are beloved by a lot of people.
In 3.5 Monks got shafted, they had a handful of useful abilities, but most of them were useless, ill fitting, or the mechanics of the game itself stopped them from working together (Hello Fast Movement and Flurry of Blows) I have never played 4th edition so I do not know if the changes to Monk were good, but from what I can tell, in 5th Monks are gonna do just fine.
Why Be a Monk?
Extra Attacks, Extra Options: Monks are one of the classes that have a resource system, in this case ki points. These points can be spend to augment your abilities, always giving you an option in combat. Either offensively or defensively, Monks always have something to give them an edge.
Versatility: Their sub class features allow them to take many different roles. Open Hand lets you focus on Melee Combat, Way of Shadow allows you to be a Ninja, Way of the Four Elements allows you to be a spell casting gish. As with the above point, options, options, options
Color Coding
Light Blue is the best
Blue is Great
Black is average
Red is bad
Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Someone might think a class feature or ability is better/worse then I do. Thats ok. This is simply suggestions, not absolute truth.
Lets take a look under the hood shall we?
Monk Chassis
Hit Dice: 1d8 per monk level - Ohhh, for a class meant to be up close and personal, this really hurts, yeah they get some pretty good ac, but if something bypasses that, monks can get swatted around pretty easily.
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier - Roughly an average of at least 10-12 hit points at starting level. Not too bad.
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your
Constitution modifier per monk level after 1st - assuming you take the average of 5 every level, thats 103 hp at level 20, not countng your con bonus which should be 20 by then. *+5*13=103 + bonuses from con. Monks are not that hardy.
Armor: None - Not to surprising, you need to not wear armor for your monks abilities to work.
Weapons: Simple w eapons, shortswords - All Monk weapons scale with your martial artist level. Using different damage types for different resistances is good, keep at least one type of weapon with you at all times to overcome Damage Reduction or whatever they call it in 5th.
Tools: Choose one type o f artisan’s tools or one
musical instrument - Artisans tools could give you a useful skill, instrument? Not so much, I mean besides roleplaying
Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity Good throws to have, surprised Wisdom isnt on here since it fuels the monks ki power
You have two skills to choose from, Its a small list. Pick something that your background/race doesnt give you.
Acrobatics/Athletics -Both of these are very good and have their use in doing physical things, you're DEX will most likely be higher then your STR so, Acrobatics might be better.
History - Not particularly useful especially with a more intelligence based character in the party
Insight - This use changes depending on how often you interact with people. Typically you'll want the party face to take this, you just sit back and wait for someone to punch.
Religion - Save this for the Cleric/Paladin
Stealth- Way of the Shadow or not, stealth is one of the best skills in the game, especially since it synergizes so well with your dexterity. Team up with the party rogue to lay an ambush.
You start with the following equipment, in addition to
the equipment granted by your background:
• (a) a shortsword or (b) any simple weapon - Both of these are average choices, the highest damage you can get at level 1 is 1d4 with your fists, so you might as well take one of the 1d6 weapons and call it a day. Once you get higher damage die, it begins to equal out and it doesnt matter what monk weapon or fist you choose, though damage type does come into play.
• (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack -Explorers pack wins because it comes with a bedroll, and a messkit. Which in my opinion is more useful then a crowbar, a hammer and 10 pitons, but its really up to you. Otherwise they are identical.
• 10 darts - Have your DM change these to shuriken, but yeah these are ok.
STR- Not needed, Monks can automatically make their monk weapons and their fists finesse able, The only real use for STR now is Grapple checks or carrying capacity.
DEX- Your key ability for damage, to hit and pretty much everything else in the class including AC.
CON- Needed by everyone, especially you with your d8 hit die.
INT- You get two skills which are based on Intelligence, and both of them are better served being taken by another class. Fully Dumpable stat, since skill points are no longer a thing.
WIS - Fuels the saves of your Ki Abilities, gives you AC and provides a bonus to your Insight skill, if you choose to take it.
CHA- - Nothing here uses Charisma at all, unless you take a background that grants you a charisma skill, fully dump able.
Work In Progress
Dwarfs
Dwarfs make.....ok monks. Their racial abilities are more suited for fighters though.
Con +2 - Anything to make you bulkier is good.
Speed- Normally its 25 Feet, but Monks get boosted movement, however a dwarf monk will always be 5 feet slower then any other monk, besides elves, who he would be 10 feet slower.
Darkvision- Very nice, especially when combined with your Stealth and Fast Movement, you can become an effective scout in the dark.
Saves Against Poison - Monks get immunity to disease and poison at level 10, so this will hold you over until then.
Dwarven Combat Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, throwing hammer,
and warhammer. - Useless, according to RAW only monk weapons (simple weapons, shortswords) benefit from the monk abilities, racial presidencies. do not count under this.
Now I would figure most DM's would allow you to use these weapons to augment your monk powers, but thats up to the DM's choice, otherwise these profiencies are useless to monks. Wizards might errata this in the future.
Bows however can still be made use of as you have a high Dex, so you can do decent damage with it, but none of your class abilities will apply to it.
Tools - Ohh more artisans tools to combine with the one you get as a monk, you can become a regular little crafter with dwarf and monk depending on what tools you choose to use.
Stonecunning - Almost as useless as it was back in 3.5, this is only useful in a small handful of situations.
Hill Dwarf
Wis+1 - I dont really need to tell you how good this is, do I?
Your hit point maximum
increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you
gain a level. - More health to not die, thats great.
Mountain Dwarf
Str+2 - Meh, Str Isnt important.
Light/Medium Armor Proficiency- Your monk powers stop working when you wear armor, useless.
Elf - Elves are one of the best Monks around.
Dex +2 - Plus to a great stat, ok.
Darkvision- As with Dwarves, Darkvision is great.
Perception Skill - Surprised Monks dont already come with this, stacking perception and stealth is just wonderful.
Resistence to Sleep - Only useful in a handful of situations.
High Elf
Int +1-Not Useful
proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow. -Useless, according to RAW only monk weapons (simple weapons, shortswords) benefit from the monk abilities, racial presidencies do not count under this.
Now I would figure most DM's would allow you to use these weapons to augment your monk powers, but thats up to the DM's choice, otherwise these profiencies are useless to monks. Wizards might errata this in the future.
Bows however can still be made use of as you have a high Dex, so you can do decent damage with it, but none of your class abilities will apply to it.
Cantrip - Depends on which one you take. I will be going over the cantrips at a future date to say on which ones are good and which ones arent.
Extra Language - More roleplaying oppertunities.
Wood Elf
Wis+1
proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow. -Useless, according to RAW only monk weapons (simple weapons, shortswords) benefit from the monk abilities, racial presidencies do not count under this.
Now I would figure most DM's would allow you to use these weapons to augment your monk powers, but thats up to the DM's choice, otherwise these profiencies are useless to monks. Wizards might errata this in the future.
Bows however can still be made use of as you have a high Dex, so you can do decent damage with it, but none of your class abilities will apply to it.
Walking Speed Increase to 35 Feet - Wow this makes elven monks even faster.
Mask of the Wild. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena. - a very mild Hide in Plain sight, but still useful nontheless.
Drow
Cha+1 - Not useful to monks
Superior Darkvision Sight radius increased? Sign me up.
Sunlight Sensitivity - Ugh disadvantages in daylight suck.
Drow Spells - a handful of situation ally useful spells that uses charisma as the casting stat? no thanks.
Rapier, Shortsword, Handcrossbow Profiency - Here we have, Useless, Redundant, and actually helpful.
You can use the Hand crossbow at least since you'll have decent dex.
Halflings - Due to Small Size not reducing their damage dice, halflings make decent monks, though elves far out strip them. Still a decent choice.
Dex+2 - Plus to the main skill, great
Speed-25 - as with Dwarves, this is minimized by monks fast movement but you'll always be slower then those who had 30 natural speed as monks.
Lucky- Very Handy skill, reroll just about anything, doesnt appear to be a limit per rest, so I think you can do this unlimited times.
Brave- Saves against fear are common enough to make this useful
Halfling Nimbleness - Circumvent some of the penalties for being small, excellent.
Lightfoot.
Cha+1 - Not useful to monks
Naturally Stealthy - you can hide behind one creature larger then you. Hmm this has its uses especially if you go Way of Shadow.
Stout
Con+1 - Bonuses to health are always appreciated.
Resistance to poison - As with Dwarves, pre 10, this ability has some use, but once you hit immunity to poison this ability becomes useless.
Humans - Humans are average monks. A plus to every stat, useful and useless stats alike. Variant human is pushed up to Blue. I plan to go over feats on a later date.
Dragonborn - Dragonborn make indifferent monks, their racial abilities arent particularly helpful to monks, but not harmful either.
Str+2, Cha+1 - An upgrade to an indifferent stat and a useless one.
Breath Weapon - An option for ranged combat that isnt a bow. Its save is CON based, which should be your third highest stat behind WIS and DEX, so your results may very on its saving throw. It gets stronger as you level so its always a viable option if you cant punch.
Damage Resistance To Breath Weapon - This one is DM dependent, if you pick fire, watch enemies mysteriously not cast any fire damage spells or abilities. If you have a DM that DOESNT do that, then against those enemies, this is Blue, but otherwise its useless.
Gnomes make pretty bad monks most of their racial abilities aren't needed or particularly useful to them.
Int+2 -Not a useful skill
Speed - 25 feet - Same as Halfling and Dwarf, Slow
Gnome Cunning, Advantage in Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma saving throws against magic. - This ones actually useful as things like this are usually dominate person and the like.
Forest Gnome
Dex+1 - a plus to one of your key skills.
Natural Illusionist - Minor Illusion Cantrip with int as the casting stat. Minor Illusion is similar to Ghost Sound/Silent Image from 3.5 but can only imitate a sound OR an image, not both. As with any illusion, it depends on the creativity of the user and what your DM allows you to do with it.
Speak with Small Beasts - Leave this to the ranger.
Rock Gnome
Con+1 Having more health is always good.
Artificiers Lore - Add double your profiency bonus in Knowledge History on certain magical things. Only occasionally helpful really.
Tinker - gain profiencies in Tinkers tools (yay) and the ability to make a toy, a firestarter and a music box. Its ok for rp purposes but not really helpful
Half Elf - Unlike in 3.5 Half Elves can actually do things, and they make pretty good monks
+2 Cha - Pluses to a not useful skill, but wait theres more.
+1 to any two stats of your choice. - Dex and Wis go here, no question.
Proficiency with any two skills of your choice. Pick whatever isnt covered by Monk, or your background.
Darkvision - Seeing in the dark is great.
Immunity to Sleep, Resistance to charm - Decent when they come up, but not especially helpful overall.
Half Orc - Half Orcs make good monks.
Str +2 - Eh
Con +1 - bonus to health is always good
Darkvision - Seeing in the dark is great.
Menacing - Intimidation is fun, though its under Charisma instead of Strength, talk to your DM about changing so that Intimidation can be under STR instead, might as well make some use out of your Strength score.
Relantless Endurance - A one shot Die Hard feat, not to shabby
Savage Attacks - Extra Damage on crits is a terrific feat, talk to your DM to see if you can get it applied to your fists.
Tiefling - They make terrible Monks, dont do it, trust me.
Int +1, Cha+2 - Stats you dont need.
Darkvision - Never stops being useful
Fire Resistance - Limited.
Infernal Legacy - Spells are always nice, Darkness can be used with Stealth monks. Thaumaturgy is like a minor Prestigination, Hellish Rebuke makes a good retaliation spell, since it uses a dex saving throw
Martial Arts - The reason why you become a monk. Keeping with 5E's less is more. This is actually three abilities in one. Shortswords, Simple Melee weapons that arent two handed or heavy, and your unarmed strikes get these benefits
-All of these weapons you can use your DEX mod for damage and to hit instead of your STR.
- You can use the Monks Unarmed Damage progression on all these weapons which starts at 1d4 and goes all the way up to 1d10. This is optional, however, and if your weapon has a damage die thats higher then the monk damage, you can use that instead.
- Bonus Action Unarmed Strike, whenever you hit with a monk weapon/unarmed strike you can make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, essentially granting you Extra Attack at level 1.
Unarmored Defense - Your wisdom and your dex modifier is added to your AC. at 20 WIS/DEX plus your natural 10, that ends up being an AC of 10 without any magical boosts, which is roughly equivalent to a full plate/shield.
KI - This is your resource, I am a huge fan of resources on classes as it provides a lot of agency and tactical decisions to be made, the ki points are equivalent to your monk level, (2 at level 2, 20 at Level 20) each of them fuel stuff for your class features.
Flurry of Blows - Instead of taking 1 extra unarmed strike with your bonus action, activating this gives you two instead.
Extra Attacks means extra damage, Monks can really pour it on at early levels.
Patient Defense - You can spend a ki point to take a dodge action as bonus action.
Step of the Wind - You can spend a ki point to take a Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action.
Both of these can help get out of a tense situation either by running away from the damage or avoiding it.
Unarmored Movement - The monks fast movement skill, starts at 10 goes all the way up to 30.
Really helps with races that have a movement speed penalty and makes you a mobile hit and run fighter, as you can run up to a foe, hit him, then move again and use Extra Attack to hit another one. This tactic does not work with the extra attack from Marital Arts or Flurry of Blows as they require the same target to be hit.
Its 9th level ability allows you run across liquids and veritcal surfaces, so you can do all the anime naruto stuff you;ve always wanted
Monastic Tradition - gives unique spin on your monk, abilities will be described after this.
Deflect Missiles - As a reaction you can deflect a ranged attack, the damage is reduced by 1d10+your dex mod+monk level, if you reduce it to 0, you catch it in your hand, if you spend a ki point you can make a ranged attack with the missle at whoever threw it at you with profiency.
Useful skill if you find yourself under the crosshairs of ranged attackers. I do not know if you need at least one hand free to get this benefit like you did in 3.5.
Abilty Score Improvement - A standard in a lot of classes, bump DEX or WIS as needed.
Slow Fall - Way better then the 3.5 equivalent, you reduce damage 5 x your monk level.
Extra Attack - Another class standard, everyone gets it except fighter who get it multiple times
Stunning Fist - An encounter ender, when you hit with an unarmed strike you can blow a ki point to stun someone, they get a CON save if they fail they're stunned. This can trivialize encounters pretty easilly. CON saves are rare.
Ki Empowered Strikes - Your unarmed strikes become magical for overcoming DR. Eh, its ok again, relevant when you face creatures with Magical DR and irrelevant when you dont.
Evasion - Half Damage on failed saving throws, show them mages whose boss.
Stillness of Mind - Straight up shrug off a charm/fear effect by using up your action. Really good since you dont have to use up any KI. Combine with Step of the Wind/Patient Defense to make up for using your action.
Purity of Body - Become immune to poison/disease. No DM really uses diseases, but poison seems like its going to be a thing in this edition, so ignoring poison damage could be helpful in a lot of ways.
Tongue of the Sun and Moon - You can understand every language and every creature that has a language can understand you. Erm, ok? But monks dont have any social skills......
Diamond Soul - Gain profiencies in ALL saving throws AND get the ability to reroll a failed save, combine this with the halflings Lucky Trait and you could effectively become immune to saving throws.
Timeless Body - You dont take aging penalties and cant be magically aged, but you still die when your time is up. Eh i've never faced natural character death before and most DM's I know dont even bother with aging penalies, in fact I dont even know if this edition has them, at least not in the players handbook. Oh also you dont need to eat or drink, another thing most DM's I've had never really bothered keeping track of.
Empty Body - Spend 4 Ki points to become invisible and gain resistance to all damage except force, spend 8 and cast astral projection on yourself.
The party wizard has been casting these spells for awhile now but hey now you dont need to bug him for the spell slots, so thats a plus.
Perfect Self - Gain 4 Ki Points if you have 0 during the initiative roll
Ugh, this seems to be what a lot of resource using classes get as their capstone. At least it doesnt turn you into an outsider, which had its own host of problems.
As it is, this is a really weak capstone considering your ki points restore themselves at every short rest.
http://theindiedragon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/monk___17_06_12_by_lucastorquato27-d5mlyph.jpg
Ah yes the monk. The famous martial artist with the furious fists. Characters that use their fists have been in RPGS for as long as there have been RPGS. What is it about the Monk that people love so much? Are they fans of Jet Li and other martial artists? Do they watch too much anime? Does the idea of punching a dragon in the face just sound awesome? Whatever your reasons, monks are beloved by a lot of people.
In 3.5 Monks got shafted, they had a handful of useful abilities, but most of them were useless, ill fitting, or the mechanics of the game itself stopped them from working together (Hello Fast Movement and Flurry of Blows) I have never played 4th edition so I do not know if the changes to Monk were good, but from what I can tell, in 5th Monks are gonna do just fine.
Why Be a Monk?
Extra Attacks, Extra Options: Monks are one of the classes that have a resource system, in this case ki points. These points can be spend to augment your abilities, always giving you an option in combat. Either offensively or defensively, Monks always have something to give them an edge.
Versatility: Their sub class features allow them to take many different roles. Open Hand lets you focus on Melee Combat, Way of Shadow allows you to be a Ninja, Way of the Four Elements allows you to be a spell casting gish. As with the above point, options, options, options
Color Coding
Light Blue is the best
Blue is Great
Black is average
Red is bad
Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Someone might think a class feature or ability is better/worse then I do. Thats ok. This is simply suggestions, not absolute truth.
Lets take a look under the hood shall we?
Monk Chassis
Hit Dice: 1d8 per monk level - Ohhh, for a class meant to be up close and personal, this really hurts, yeah they get some pretty good ac, but if something bypasses that, monks can get swatted around pretty easily.
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier - Roughly an average of at least 10-12 hit points at starting level. Not too bad.
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your
Constitution modifier per monk level after 1st - assuming you take the average of 5 every level, thats 103 hp at level 20, not countng your con bonus which should be 20 by then. *+5*13=103 + bonuses from con. Monks are not that hardy.
Armor: None - Not to surprising, you need to not wear armor for your monks abilities to work.
Weapons: Simple w eapons, shortswords - All Monk weapons scale with your martial artist level. Using different damage types for different resistances is good, keep at least one type of weapon with you at all times to overcome Damage Reduction or whatever they call it in 5th.
Tools: Choose one type o f artisan’s tools or one
musical instrument - Artisans tools could give you a useful skill, instrument? Not so much, I mean besides roleplaying
Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity Good throws to have, surprised Wisdom isnt on here since it fuels the monks ki power
You have two skills to choose from, Its a small list. Pick something that your background/race doesnt give you.
Acrobatics/Athletics -Both of these are very good and have their use in doing physical things, you're DEX will most likely be higher then your STR so, Acrobatics might be better.
History - Not particularly useful especially with a more intelligence based character in the party
Insight - This use changes depending on how often you interact with people. Typically you'll want the party face to take this, you just sit back and wait for someone to punch.
Religion - Save this for the Cleric/Paladin
Stealth- Way of the Shadow or not, stealth is one of the best skills in the game, especially since it synergizes so well with your dexterity. Team up with the party rogue to lay an ambush.
You start with the following equipment, in addition to
the equipment granted by your background:
• (a) a shortsword or (b) any simple weapon - Both of these are average choices, the highest damage you can get at level 1 is 1d4 with your fists, so you might as well take one of the 1d6 weapons and call it a day. Once you get higher damage die, it begins to equal out and it doesnt matter what monk weapon or fist you choose, though damage type does come into play.
• (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack -Explorers pack wins because it comes with a bedroll, and a messkit. Which in my opinion is more useful then a crowbar, a hammer and 10 pitons, but its really up to you. Otherwise they are identical.
• 10 darts - Have your DM change these to shuriken, but yeah these are ok.
STR- Not needed, Monks can automatically make their monk weapons and their fists finesse able, The only real use for STR now is Grapple checks or carrying capacity.
DEX- Your key ability for damage, to hit and pretty much everything else in the class including AC.
CON- Needed by everyone, especially you with your d8 hit die.
INT- You get two skills which are based on Intelligence, and both of them are better served being taken by another class. Fully Dumpable stat, since skill points are no longer a thing.
WIS - Fuels the saves of your Ki Abilities, gives you AC and provides a bonus to your Insight skill, if you choose to take it.
CHA- - Nothing here uses Charisma at all, unless you take a background that grants you a charisma skill, fully dump able.
Work In Progress
Dwarfs
Dwarfs make.....ok monks. Their racial abilities are more suited for fighters though.
Con +2 - Anything to make you bulkier is good.
Speed- Normally its 25 Feet, but Monks get boosted movement, however a dwarf monk will always be 5 feet slower then any other monk, besides elves, who he would be 10 feet slower.
Darkvision- Very nice, especially when combined with your Stealth and Fast Movement, you can become an effective scout in the dark.
Saves Against Poison - Monks get immunity to disease and poison at level 10, so this will hold you over until then.
Dwarven Combat Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, throwing hammer,
and warhammer. - Useless, according to RAW only monk weapons (simple weapons, shortswords) benefit from the monk abilities, racial presidencies. do not count under this.
Now I would figure most DM's would allow you to use these weapons to augment your monk powers, but thats up to the DM's choice, otherwise these profiencies are useless to monks. Wizards might errata this in the future.
Bows however can still be made use of as you have a high Dex, so you can do decent damage with it, but none of your class abilities will apply to it.
Tools - Ohh more artisans tools to combine with the one you get as a monk, you can become a regular little crafter with dwarf and monk depending on what tools you choose to use.
Stonecunning - Almost as useless as it was back in 3.5, this is only useful in a small handful of situations.
Hill Dwarf
Wis+1 - I dont really need to tell you how good this is, do I?
Your hit point maximum
increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you
gain a level. - More health to not die, thats great.
Mountain Dwarf
Str+2 - Meh, Str Isnt important.
Light/Medium Armor Proficiency- Your monk powers stop working when you wear armor, useless.
Elf - Elves are one of the best Monks around.
Dex +2 - Plus to a great stat, ok.
Darkvision- As with Dwarves, Darkvision is great.
Perception Skill - Surprised Monks dont already come with this, stacking perception and stealth is just wonderful.
Resistence to Sleep - Only useful in a handful of situations.
High Elf
Int +1-Not Useful
proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow. -Useless, according to RAW only monk weapons (simple weapons, shortswords) benefit from the monk abilities, racial presidencies do not count under this.
Now I would figure most DM's would allow you to use these weapons to augment your monk powers, but thats up to the DM's choice, otherwise these profiencies are useless to monks. Wizards might errata this in the future.
Bows however can still be made use of as you have a high Dex, so you can do decent damage with it, but none of your class abilities will apply to it.
Cantrip - Depends on which one you take. I will be going over the cantrips at a future date to say on which ones are good and which ones arent.
Extra Language - More roleplaying oppertunities.
Wood Elf
Wis+1
proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow. -Useless, according to RAW only monk weapons (simple weapons, shortswords) benefit from the monk abilities, racial presidencies do not count under this.
Now I would figure most DM's would allow you to use these weapons to augment your monk powers, but thats up to the DM's choice, otherwise these profiencies are useless to monks. Wizards might errata this in the future.
Bows however can still be made use of as you have a high Dex, so you can do decent damage with it, but none of your class abilities will apply to it.
Walking Speed Increase to 35 Feet - Wow this makes elven monks even faster.
Mask of the Wild. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena. - a very mild Hide in Plain sight, but still useful nontheless.
Drow
Cha+1 - Not useful to monks
Superior Darkvision Sight radius increased? Sign me up.
Sunlight Sensitivity - Ugh disadvantages in daylight suck.
Drow Spells - a handful of situation ally useful spells that uses charisma as the casting stat? no thanks.
Rapier, Shortsword, Handcrossbow Profiency - Here we have, Useless, Redundant, and actually helpful.
You can use the Hand crossbow at least since you'll have decent dex.
Halflings - Due to Small Size not reducing their damage dice, halflings make decent monks, though elves far out strip them. Still a decent choice.
Dex+2 - Plus to the main skill, great
Speed-25 - as with Dwarves, this is minimized by monks fast movement but you'll always be slower then those who had 30 natural speed as monks.
Lucky- Very Handy skill, reroll just about anything, doesnt appear to be a limit per rest, so I think you can do this unlimited times.
Brave- Saves against fear are common enough to make this useful
Halfling Nimbleness - Circumvent some of the penalties for being small, excellent.
Lightfoot.
Cha+1 - Not useful to monks
Naturally Stealthy - you can hide behind one creature larger then you. Hmm this has its uses especially if you go Way of Shadow.
Stout
Con+1 - Bonuses to health are always appreciated.
Resistance to poison - As with Dwarves, pre 10, this ability has some use, but once you hit immunity to poison this ability becomes useless.
Humans - Humans are average monks. A plus to every stat, useful and useless stats alike. Variant human is pushed up to Blue. I plan to go over feats on a later date.
Dragonborn - Dragonborn make indifferent monks, their racial abilities arent particularly helpful to monks, but not harmful either.
Str+2, Cha+1 - An upgrade to an indifferent stat and a useless one.
Breath Weapon - An option for ranged combat that isnt a bow. Its save is CON based, which should be your third highest stat behind WIS and DEX, so your results may very on its saving throw. It gets stronger as you level so its always a viable option if you cant punch.
Damage Resistance To Breath Weapon - This one is DM dependent, if you pick fire, watch enemies mysteriously not cast any fire damage spells or abilities. If you have a DM that DOESNT do that, then against those enemies, this is Blue, but otherwise its useless.
Gnomes make pretty bad monks most of their racial abilities aren't needed or particularly useful to them.
Int+2 -Not a useful skill
Speed - 25 feet - Same as Halfling and Dwarf, Slow
Gnome Cunning, Advantage in Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma saving throws against magic. - This ones actually useful as things like this are usually dominate person and the like.
Forest Gnome
Dex+1 - a plus to one of your key skills.
Natural Illusionist - Minor Illusion Cantrip with int as the casting stat. Minor Illusion is similar to Ghost Sound/Silent Image from 3.5 but can only imitate a sound OR an image, not both. As with any illusion, it depends on the creativity of the user and what your DM allows you to do with it.
Speak with Small Beasts - Leave this to the ranger.
Rock Gnome
Con+1 Having more health is always good.
Artificiers Lore - Add double your profiency bonus in Knowledge History on certain magical things. Only occasionally helpful really.
Tinker - gain profiencies in Tinkers tools (yay) and the ability to make a toy, a firestarter and a music box. Its ok for rp purposes but not really helpful
Half Elf - Unlike in 3.5 Half Elves can actually do things, and they make pretty good monks
+2 Cha - Pluses to a not useful skill, but wait theres more.
+1 to any two stats of your choice. - Dex and Wis go here, no question.
Proficiency with any two skills of your choice. Pick whatever isnt covered by Monk, or your background.
Darkvision - Seeing in the dark is great.
Immunity to Sleep, Resistance to charm - Decent when they come up, but not especially helpful overall.
Half Orc - Half Orcs make good monks.
Str +2 - Eh
Con +1 - bonus to health is always good
Darkvision - Seeing in the dark is great.
Menacing - Intimidation is fun, though its under Charisma instead of Strength, talk to your DM about changing so that Intimidation can be under STR instead, might as well make some use out of your Strength score.
Relantless Endurance - A one shot Die Hard feat, not to shabby
Savage Attacks - Extra Damage on crits is a terrific feat, talk to your DM to see if you can get it applied to your fists.
Tiefling - They make terrible Monks, dont do it, trust me.
Int +1, Cha+2 - Stats you dont need.
Darkvision - Never stops being useful
Fire Resistance - Limited.
Infernal Legacy - Spells are always nice, Darkness can be used with Stealth monks. Thaumaturgy is like a minor Prestigination, Hellish Rebuke makes a good retaliation spell, since it uses a dex saving throw
Martial Arts - The reason why you become a monk. Keeping with 5E's less is more. This is actually three abilities in one. Shortswords, Simple Melee weapons that arent two handed or heavy, and your unarmed strikes get these benefits
-All of these weapons you can use your DEX mod for damage and to hit instead of your STR.
- You can use the Monks Unarmed Damage progression on all these weapons which starts at 1d4 and goes all the way up to 1d10. This is optional, however, and if your weapon has a damage die thats higher then the monk damage, you can use that instead.
- Bonus Action Unarmed Strike, whenever you hit with a monk weapon/unarmed strike you can make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, essentially granting you Extra Attack at level 1.
Unarmored Defense - Your wisdom and your dex modifier is added to your AC. at 20 WIS/DEX plus your natural 10, that ends up being an AC of 10 without any magical boosts, which is roughly equivalent to a full plate/shield.
KI - This is your resource, I am a huge fan of resources on classes as it provides a lot of agency and tactical decisions to be made, the ki points are equivalent to your monk level, (2 at level 2, 20 at Level 20) each of them fuel stuff for your class features.
Flurry of Blows - Instead of taking 1 extra unarmed strike with your bonus action, activating this gives you two instead.
Extra Attacks means extra damage, Monks can really pour it on at early levels.
Patient Defense - You can spend a ki point to take a dodge action as bonus action.
Step of the Wind - You can spend a ki point to take a Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action.
Both of these can help get out of a tense situation either by running away from the damage or avoiding it.
Unarmored Movement - The monks fast movement skill, starts at 10 goes all the way up to 30.
Really helps with races that have a movement speed penalty and makes you a mobile hit and run fighter, as you can run up to a foe, hit him, then move again and use Extra Attack to hit another one. This tactic does not work with the extra attack from Marital Arts or Flurry of Blows as they require the same target to be hit.
Its 9th level ability allows you run across liquids and veritcal surfaces, so you can do all the anime naruto stuff you;ve always wanted
Monastic Tradition - gives unique spin on your monk, abilities will be described after this.
Deflect Missiles - As a reaction you can deflect a ranged attack, the damage is reduced by 1d10+your dex mod+monk level, if you reduce it to 0, you catch it in your hand, if you spend a ki point you can make a ranged attack with the missle at whoever threw it at you with profiency.
Useful skill if you find yourself under the crosshairs of ranged attackers. I do not know if you need at least one hand free to get this benefit like you did in 3.5.
Abilty Score Improvement - A standard in a lot of classes, bump DEX or WIS as needed.
Slow Fall - Way better then the 3.5 equivalent, you reduce damage 5 x your monk level.
Extra Attack - Another class standard, everyone gets it except fighter who get it multiple times
Stunning Fist - An encounter ender, when you hit with an unarmed strike you can blow a ki point to stun someone, they get a CON save if they fail they're stunned. This can trivialize encounters pretty easilly. CON saves are rare.
Ki Empowered Strikes - Your unarmed strikes become magical for overcoming DR. Eh, its ok again, relevant when you face creatures with Magical DR and irrelevant when you dont.
Evasion - Half Damage on failed saving throws, show them mages whose boss.
Stillness of Mind - Straight up shrug off a charm/fear effect by using up your action. Really good since you dont have to use up any KI. Combine with Step of the Wind/Patient Defense to make up for using your action.
Purity of Body - Become immune to poison/disease. No DM really uses diseases, but poison seems like its going to be a thing in this edition, so ignoring poison damage could be helpful in a lot of ways.
Tongue of the Sun and Moon - You can understand every language and every creature that has a language can understand you. Erm, ok? But monks dont have any social skills......
Diamond Soul - Gain profiencies in ALL saving throws AND get the ability to reroll a failed save, combine this with the halflings Lucky Trait and you could effectively become immune to saving throws.
Timeless Body - You dont take aging penalties and cant be magically aged, but you still die when your time is up. Eh i've never faced natural character death before and most DM's I know dont even bother with aging penalies, in fact I dont even know if this edition has them, at least not in the players handbook. Oh also you dont need to eat or drink, another thing most DM's I've had never really bothered keeping track of.
Empty Body - Spend 4 Ki points to become invisible and gain resistance to all damage except force, spend 8 and cast astral projection on yourself.
The party wizard has been casting these spells for awhile now but hey now you dont need to bug him for the spell slots, so thats a plus.
Perfect Self - Gain 4 Ki Points if you have 0 during the initiative roll
Ugh, this seems to be what a lot of resource using classes get as their capstone. At least it doesnt turn you into an outsider, which had its own host of problems.
As it is, this is a really weak capstone considering your ki points restore themselves at every short rest.