Mobile feat for a Monk

[Santra]

Thinking about running an open hand path monk in a game my DM is starting. Got looking through the phb and came across the Mobile feat. The extra speed is ok but what I was really wondering about was the ability to deprive enemies opportunity attacks against you by attacking them. Seems like it would be a great way to run through several enemies punching them so that they cant attack you. Is all that worth +2 to an attribute?

[hymer]

While it's a cool image, just how often is it important to go past enemies without provoking AoO? I really want to like Mobile (and for e.g. a Wood Elf archer rogue it may well provide you with that extra bit of kite string you want), but it seems to lack oomph in my opinion.

[Strill]

Thinking about running an open hand path monk in a game my DM is starting. Got looking through the phb and came across the Mobile feat. The extra speed is ok but what I was really wondering about was the ability to deprive enemies opportunity attacks against you by attacking them. Seems like it would be a great way to run through several enemies punching them so that they cant attack you. Is all that worth +2 to an attribute?

You can already do that when you use Flurry of Blows with Open Hand style.

[Dunditschia]

It mostly seems useful for hit and run attacks, using your huge speed (55 ft as a wood elf) to run towards an enemy, punch them, and run away again. If you start close to the enemy he should never be able to catch up with you and attack in the same turn.

Open hand technique lets you do pretty much the same thing (no reactions until the end of your next turn) on a flurry of blows though, so unless you're dedicated to the hit-and-run style it's not really required. It does free up your ki for other stuff though.

Being able to dash through difficult terrain might also be useful, depending on how heavily your DM uses difficult terrain.

[Tavo]

I only got a few combats under my belt, as we recently started our campaign, but I found the monk - mobile feat combination to be pretty handy.

I don't feel quite beefy enough to sit there and exchange blows with most of the monsters our DM is throwing at us, so the option of moving to a guy, hitting it, and moving back without having to worry about AoOs is very useful. Also, a couple of times I found myself surrounded by 2-3 enemies and being 100% sure not to take attacks by splitting the Flurry hits got me out of trouble.

Remember, with the talent you are not required to hit, only attacking is enough to avoid the attacks. If you enjoy the play style and/or are in a group where you'd rather have someone else between you and the bad guys, I'd say it's worth it.

Maybe ask your DM if you are planning to take the feat variant of human and running an early campaign starting before lvl 4, as I noticed that this talent can make you look quite above par compared to the early enemies, as I suspect they are not balanced well around lvl 1-3 characters that already have a feat (since those tend to be pretty powerful in 5.0).

[Strangways]

Thinking about running an open hand path monk in a game my DM is starting. Got looking through the phb and came across the Mobile feat. The extra speed is ok but what I was really wondering about was the ability to deprive enemies opportunity attacks against you by attacking them. Seems like it would be a great way to run through several enemies punching them so that they cant attack you. Is all that worth +2 to an attribute?

It's a very valuable feat for a monk, so much so that variant human is my top racial choice for the monk class. The reason is that you are a melee class but you do not start out with great armor. You cannot just stand there and take the hits like a fighter in heavy armor. With mobile plus your superhuman speed you can hit and run, ideally to position yourself somewhere so that the target cannot get to you without taking opportunity attacks from your allies. If one of those allies has Sentinel, so much the better. Yes, you can cut off reactions with your flurry of blows ability, but only by spending precious Ki points that will always be in short supply at low levels. With Mobile you can do it for free and spend your Ki points where they really count, stunning strike and knocking things prone.

[mephnick]

While it's a cool image, just how often is it important to go past enemies without provoking AoO?

As a melee rogue I find it amazing. It lets me move in and out of combat because of the extra move speed and freeing up my cunning action for dashing every turn rather than disengaging. If I miss my sneak attack I can still twf and move away a bit without provoking.I've had a monk in my group use it in a similar fashion. Remember that their abilities cost ki and Mobile doesn't.

[Dudewithknives]

I have played a monk 3 times in 5e, 1 open hand, 1 shadow, and 1 Monk of the long death.

The only time I ever got to take a feat was when I was a V-Human, they just need too many other stats.

Mobile is a good feat, but it lacks the oomph on a monk it would have on certain other classes.

I like a lot of the racial feats from the UA Racial feat PDF.

Prodigy is nice, and so is Human Determination.
Elven Accuracy is not bad at all.
I have even seen an odd build for a Dwarf monk who made good use of Dwarves Resilience and/or Squat Nimbleness.

[Xrposiedon]

In my current game, we rolled for stats. I ended up getting final stats with both 18 in wis and dex....variant human, after asi added.

I took Mobile, and Alert at 4.

I can tell you, Mobile has saved my ass more times than I can count. I was in combat with 2 things, used my action and bonus to attempt to hit, ran away 50 feet.....safe!

Then tossed knives at them. Also, you can always be the potion guy of your party, run in, give potion, and get out. It is extremely useful.

[mephnick]

Also, you can always be the potion guy of your party, run in, give potion, and get out. It is extremely useful.

Another reason I love my Mobile rogue: Move in, stab dude that just downed your ally, BA healer kit your friend, move out.

[Maxilian]

Well i have played Monks a couple of times and the only time i did not had a true need for the Mobile feat, was with the Sun Soul Monk and that's because Range attacks (and still i had my moments where i needed to go near the enemy), Mobile give the Monk the chance to play around the hit and run tactics, making them really good against other melee characters (even more when you have in mind, that you will most likely, have more speed than any non-flying enemy), it is also pretty useful againt range enemies as you will need to close distance fast against them, even more if they are casters

[mephnick]

Off topic: How did you find the Sun Soul, Max? Was thinking about it for my next character.

[Dudewithknives]

Off topic: How did you find the Sun Soul, Max? Was thinking about it for my next character.

I played in a game where someone played a Sun Soul monk from level 1 to 14.

The biggest issue is that their Radiant Sun Bolt only has a range of 30 feet.

If it was 60 or better yet, 90. It would be pretty nice.

The main problem I have with the subclass is that is might as well just say: "Hey, want to play a DBZ character? Then that just leads to people wanting to do all kind of anime crap in a tabletop game."

[Specter]

Mobile on a Monk is like Half-Orc on a Barbarian: it takes what you can already do and improves it a lot. +10ft. of speed means reaching even further, no op. attack from a victim is very nice and ignoring difficult terrain is icing on the cake.

The best use of it is to use your bonus for something better than Disengage; you can attack and walk away from the opponent's range, so he either attacks someone else or wastes an action to reach you. That greatly improves your survival chances.

[warsawwombats]

I ran a variant human shadow monk with Mobile and Mage Slayer for a little while. It was moderately fun in early levels, but it became absolutely amazing at lockdown at level five. I was our party's homing missile.

Run up a hill, through difficult terrain, bitch-slapping your way through a whole mob of mooks, to stun lock an enemy caster in the back for the entire encounter. The mooks either turn their backs to the rest of your party to save their caster and get shot in the back, OR, they charge your party without the any magic support from their caster.

[Fflewddur Fflam]

Thinking about running an open hand path monk in a game my DM is starting. Got looking through the phb and came across the Mobile feat. The extra speed is ok but what I was really wondering about was the ability to deprive enemies opportunity attacks against you by attacking them. Seems like it would be a great way to run through several enemies punching them so that they cant attack you. Is all that worth +2 to an attribute?

Mobile is totally unnecessary on an Open Hand Monk. Either you are stunning (hence no reactions for OA) or you are doing Flurry (hence no reactions for OA).

[Varlon]

Mobile is totally unnecessary on an Open Hand Monk. Either you are stunning (hence no reactions for OA) or you are doing Flurry (hence no reactions for OA).

I'm sure my perspective is skewed given that I play a shadow monk, for whom Mobile is more important, but I think "totally unnecessary" is a little strong. The benefit of Mobile is that it has no cost besides the investment into the feat, and is 100% reliable. With Stunning Strike you have to 1) land the attack, 2) spend the ki point, and 3) hope the enemy fails their save. When you pick the Open Hand effect to deny reactions, you have to land the attack, and you don't get to attempt to push or knock over the enemy. With Mobile, at the beginning of your turn you know exactly what you're capable of, and there's no chance of getting stuck next to an enemy you don't want to be next to.

[djreynolds]

For a monk to disengage, they must use a bonus action and step of the wind.

So for a 5th level, they have 5 KI points. That's 5 FOB, or stunning fists, ect. in usually 10 rounds of combat. Its not much but they do have three attacks if they use their BA for the extra unarmed strike

Now lets assume, with standard array they have an 18 in dex and 16 in wisdom, 17AC. That's almost as good as chainmail and shield.

Now 17 AC is okay, its not bad. So a monk could stay in melee and use his BA for his extra attack and 1 KI point for FOB.

The mobile feat allows that monk to walk away from one lone opponent who does not have the "sentinel feat ability" and move off to another opponent or just hit and run.

The mobile feat does nothing versus groups of enemy, only versus the enemy you just attacked

The mobile feat has it uses when fighting nasty stuff that can kill you if you stay in melee, like the BBEG but at the cost of damage and skills and to hit and AC

The standard 5th level wood elf monk might have a 14 in con and 38 hit points and a 17AC and has +7 to hit and +4 damage because he has an 18 dex

The same 5th level wood elf monk who took the mobile feat has 38hp, 16AC, +6 to hit and +3 damage because he has a 16 dex

The mobile feat is great, but it doesn't always work if you are fighting multiple opponents that within 5ft of each other.

IMO it is a toss up at 4th level to take the mobile feat or an 18 in dex, that 17AC is like 5% stronger than a 16AC and your attacks are adding +1 damage to 2-4 attacks.

If you are fighting gangs of goblins go for more dexterity for damage, to hit and AC

If you are fighting lone big nasty whatevers all the time go with the mobile feat

[ChampionWiggles]

Mobile is probably one of the best feats to take as a Monk. With unarmored movement, it enhances the already great speed of Monks and makes them even better with hit and run tactics. People saying it's redundant with Open Hand don't seem to realize that Open Hand feature to take away reactions requires the attack to hit, where Mobile doesn't require a hit. That and it reserves your choice with Open Hand Flurry to push or knock them prone. Your Dash will be 100 ft to start, meaning pretty much any ground enemies won't be out of your reach.

[Varlon]

The mobile feat allows that monk to walk away from one lone opponent who does not have the "sentinel feat ability"

Even better, Sentinel does not interact with Mobile. (https://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/01/10/sentinel-feat-vs-fancy-footwork-and-mobile-feat/) This was my read of Sentinel anyway, good to know there's an SA for it.

[ChampionWiggles]

The mobile feat allows that monk to walk away from one lone opponent who does not have the "sentinel feat ability" and move off to another opponent or just hit and run.

The mobile feat does nothing versus groups of enemy, only versus the enemy you just attacked



I think you have a misunderstanding of what Mobile does. Mobile doesn't provoke opportunity attacks even IF the enemy has Sentinel feat. Sentinel only allows you to OA creatures even if they take Disengage. This isn't the Disengage action, so you get to walk away without an OA. Mobile's mechanics trumps Sentinel due to RAW.

The Mobile feat works against groups too. There's nothing in the feat that says it prevents OAs once per turn and there's no rule that says you have to attack the same thing. So @ lvl 5, you can attack up to 4 separate creatures with FOB and get out. If the group of enemies is larger than 4, then yes, you are right.

[djreynolds]

Even better, Sentinel does not interact with Mobile. (https://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/01/10/sentinel-feat-vs-fancy-footwork-and-mobile-feat/) This was my read of Sentinel anyway, good to know there's an SA for it.

You guys are correct that the mobile feat and fancy footwork does beat the sentinel feat or ability

mikemearls @JeremyECrawford Sentinel feat vs Fancy Footwork & Mobile Feat. Does Sentinel feat still get OA attack?

The second benefit of the Sentinel feat is intended to counteract the Disengage action only.


I think you have a misunderstanding of what Mobile does. Mobile doesn't provoke opportunity attacks even IF the enemy has Sentinel feat. Sentinel only allows you to OA creatures even if they take Disengage. This isn't the Disengage action, so you get to walk away without an OA. Mobile's mechanics trumps Sentinel due to RAW.

The Mobile feat works against groups too. There's nothing in the feat that says it prevents OAs once per turn and there's no rule that says you have to attack the same thing. So @ lvl 5, you can attack up to 4 separate creatures with FOB and get out. If the group of enemies is larger than 4, then yes, you are right.

The mobile feat 3rd perk is

"when you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not"

But flurry of blows, "immediately after you take the attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 KI point to make two unarmed attacks as a bonus action"

I guess you could hit a mook with a staff, another mook with a staff, and punch another mook and then punch his friend... if they were all within reach and that could happen.

Okay you sold me on mobile feat versus a group of mooks, as long as you are within reach and have the KI you could smack 4 mooks and move away.

[Citan]

Thinking about running an open hand path monk in a game my DM is starting. Got looking through the phb and came across the Mobile feat. The extra speed is ok but what I was really wondering about was the ability to deprive enemies opportunity attacks angainst you by attacking them. Seems like it would be a great way to run through several enemies punching them so that they cant attack you. Is all that worth +2 to an attribute?
Yeah totally.
Especially if you are a Shadow Monk (only Stunning goes off Wis so you can perfectly keep it at 18) or if you have ways to enhance tohit otherwise (multiclass or friends's abilities/spells meaning you can bear with lesser tohit). Because AC-wise the loss of 1AC is much than compensated through the regular avoidance of many attacks in the first place.

Even when considering the tohit/damage aspect honestly it is in most cases better than a +2 Dex because of the economy in bonus action : each time a normal Monk would need to Disengage, you can instead get either the free weapon attack or Flurry of Blows. So unless you managed to make a Monk that stands his ground without Disengage in general, the extra attacks should counterbalance the small loss of accuracy and damage. : )

Even on an Open Hand Monk it is great because it means you can use your feature to try a push or prone instead of the "no reaction" effect.

Same when wanting to reach a far target : normal Monk will have a conundrum while you can Dash and attack safely. : )
@djreynolds : this may be an occasion where Mobile shines because lets not forget you can move between attacks. So for example a caster feels safe 10 feet behind a giant guarding a chokepoint. Mobile Monk can blow an attack on giant as he goes by and still get 3 attacks on the caster (or one and Dash maybe). : )

[SharkForce]

The mobile feat 3rd perk is

"when you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not"

But flurry of blows, "immediately after you take the attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 KI point to make two unarmed attacks as a bonus action"

I guess you could hit a mook with a staff, another mook with a staff, and punch another mook and then punch his friend... if they were all within reach and that could happen.

Okay you sold me on mobile feat versus a group of mooks, as long as you are within reach and have the KI you could smack 4 mooks and move away.

even if you don't have ki (or just don't want to spend it on this), you can attack up to 3 creatures without spending any ki, round after round. and again, you don't need to hit, just make an attack.

it really is good for a monk :)

[Fflewddur Fflam]

I'm sure my perspective is skewed given that I play a shadow monk, for whom Mobile is more important, but I think "totally unnecessary" is a little strong. The benefit of Mobile is that it has no cost besides the investment into the feat, and is 100% reliable. With Stunning Strike you have to 1) land the attack, 2) spend the ki point, and 3) hope the enemy fails their save. When you pick the Open Hand effect to deny reactions, you have to land the attack, and you don't get to attempt to push or knock over the enemy. With Mobile, at the beginning of your turn you know exactly what you're capable of, and there's no chance of getting stuck next to an enemy you don't want to be next to.

Monk's are sooooo better served by pumping their WIS and DEX to 20 instead of getting a feat like Mobile. At least Open Hand Monks are. Shadow Monks kind of suck, so I guess they need it. :smallwink:

[Cyan Wisp]

I have a Lvl 10 Shadow Monk. Love him! I considered taking Mobile at 4th, ended up with Athlete instead - which I have used quite a bit (usually for dropping/getting up from prone and climbing before I hit 9th).

Truth be told, Mobile would have come in very handy. I tend to teleport in for the Advantage, but that means I can't Step of the Wind out or even Patient Defence and hang about. I hope for a timely Stun, or brace for impact. Mobile would mean I could high tail out, rinse and repeat.

Do I regret not taking it? A little bit, but I have so many other options that I try not to think about it anymore. I can hit and run quite easily with Step of the Wind. Costs ki, sure, but an hour and a sandwich later and it's back to business.

Patient Defence is super awesome. No need to hit and run usually if I lay that on each round.

So, I reckon take it - I doubt you'll regret it.

[Citan]

Monk's are sooooo better served by pumping their WIS and DEX to 20 instead of getting a feat like Mobile. At least Open Hand Monks are. Shadow Monks kind of suck, so I guess they need it. :smallwink:
Posters are sooooo better served by reading any kind of construed argument (or better a demonstration) instead of getting a useless because unfounded and unsupported (by facts/examples) opinion. :smallwink:

I'd like to provide one based on an official encounter, but I have no "adventure" book (plus it would make a mean spoiler).
With that said, I feel several people here already gave some illustrations or facts about how Mobile is great for any Monk. ;)

So, please, bring your own actual experience with an example, really it will be more interesting for everyone.

[Pex]

Mobile is totally unnecessary on an Open Hand Monk. Either you are stunning (hence no reactions for OA) or you are doing Flurry (hence no reactions for OA).

It's useful for when you aren't spending Ki on Flurry of Blows. You don't have an infinite amount of it.

[SharkForce]

Monk's are sooooo better served by pumping their WIS and DEX to 20 instead of getting a feat like Mobile. At least Open Hand Monks are. Shadow Monks kind of suck, so I guess they need it. :smallwink:

mobile is a feat that gives more movement (which is always nice), ability to bypass difficult terrain sometimes, and the ability to save ki in situations where you might normally need to use it. it is valuable for any melee monk. it may be slightly more valuable or slightly less valuable for certain subclasses, but it is valauble for all of them, simply because it allows you to have more ki to spend on other things. every time it saves you from needing to pay a ki for disengage or dodge, or to flurry an unimportant enemy to avoid opportunity attacks, or otherwise saves you a point of ki, it is amazing.

an extra 1-2 (potentially more) stunning strikes per short rest is well worth the cost of a feat, even for MAD monks :P

[Chugger]

This certainly is something to consider. Lately my rogue has been more a medic, using cunning action to get to zero'd players and give em a potion (or use my heal kit to at least stabilize em, if potions have run out). And I can't hit back on these rounds. Sometimes I have to do a positioning round and hide - then go heal - that can be three rounds out of combat (who for various reasons got downed far from where the combat has moved), which stinks. I'm glad to get players back into the fight, but I would've made a Life Cleric if... so next asi I'll consider this.

[Chugger]

Oh, another use for mobile is that it lets you put booming blade cantrip on a target and then get away from it, enticing it to move and take more damage.

For a monk - I think it messes up the monk's use of bonus action for extra attacks - so it might not be so good. For other classes, maybe. The main problem w/ bb is getting the victim to move the next round - it's not always easy. But you have to look at what you're giving up to have the option to sometimes get that. And mobile is a feat - you'd have to dip or take another feat for many classes to get a cantrip like bb (you can get it as a racial cantrip, like a high elf - half elves can opt to take cantrip, too (from ... is it scag?).

Anyway, bb is a consideration. Some classes or combos can make it more useful w/ mobile.

[Strangways]

Monk's are sooooo better served by pumping their WIS and DEX to 20 instead of getting a feat like Mobile. At least Open Hand Monks are. Shadow Monks kind of suck, so I guess they need it. :smallwink:

Do both - play a variant human, start with Mobile, then max DEX, then max WIS, and you'll have one ASI left over at level 19 to spend as you wish.

[djreynolds]

I'm sold on mobile at 4th level.

Yes you do lose out on the damage, to hit, AC

But sage advice confirms, all you have to do is "attempt" to punch and move without provoking an attack and sentinel

This can really save not only KI points, but the bonus action attached to it.

If you want to use step of the wind to disengage or patient defense you give up KI point and your bonus action, and that means you only get your attacks and not that sweet bonus unarmed strike

Now I always saw the monk as locking down the BBEG, and running around and smacking the BBEG, but the mobile feat lets you punch groups of mooks and move on as well

And at 4th level you can smack 3 of them, and at 5th level and on you can smack 4 and walk as long as they are within range of you.

[SharkForce]

I'm sold on mobile at 4th level.

Yes you do lose out on the damage, to hit, AC

But sage advice confirms, all you have to do is "attempt" to punch and move without provoking an attack and sentinel

This can really save not only KI points, but the bonus action attached to it.

If you want to use step of the wind to disengage or patient defense you give up KI point and your bonus action, and that means you only get your attacks and not that sweet bonus unarmed strike

Now I always saw the monk as locking down the BBEG, and running around and smacking the BBEG, but the mobile feat lets you punch groups of mooks and move on as well

And at 4th level you can smack 3 of them, and at 5th level and on you can smack 4 and walk as long as they are within range of you.

exactly. it basically takes what you're good at and lets you do it more often, more consistently, and with fewer resources expended. it is just a really good feat :P

[polymphus]

Mobile is great, and will get you more survivability than +2 Wis. You're squishy, and mobile lets you do a hit-and-run playstyle that means you never get hit. I find not being in the path of fire saves my bacon a lot more than +1AC would.