Help improve my monk?

[oaken]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to create a character that fights with a sword, armorless and very quick, so a monk seemed like a good idea. I've been thinking about getting a few levels of another class, but I can't decide on fighter for Action Surge and Second Wind or rogue for Sneak Attack, Cunning Action and Assassinate. Which would you recommend, and what would be the best point to take these multiclass levels (assuming I don't get killed in HotDC :))?

I should probably say that our party is not very well balanced, as we don't have anyone strong in the frontline. Besides my monk, we have a ranger, a bard, a druid, a wizard and a rogue.

Thoughts? Thanks a lot!

[Eslin]

Hey everyone!

I wanted to create a character that fights with a sword, armorless and very quick, so a monk seemed like a good idea. I've been thinking about getting a few levels of another class, but I can't decide on fighter for Action Surge and Second Wind or rogue for Sneak Attack, Cunning Action and Assassinate. Which would you recommend, and what would be the best point to take these multiclass levels (assuming I don't get killed in HotDC :))?

I should probably say that our party is not very well balanced, as we don't have anyone strong in the frontline. Besides my monk, we have a ranger, a bard, a druid, a wizard and a rogue.

Thoughts? Thanks a lot!

Get 5 levels of monk before you go anywhere, stunning fist and extra attack are really useful. I'd recommend 3 levels of battlemaster fighter - action surge is incredibly useful, and the maneuvers synergise very well with the monk's playstyle.

[Yorrin]

Which Monk subclass will you be taking? Open Hand lends itself better to Fighter and Shadow lends itself better to Rogue. Open Hand + Fighter essentially makes you a lot harder to kill and more focused on melee-style battlefield control, whereas Shadow + Rogue is super-ninja with solid spike damage potential paired with amazing stealth potential.

[Person_Man]

My advice is to go strait Monk. Mutli-classing slows your access to your first Feat and Extra Attack, which is huge. And even if you were starting at a 7th-ish level build, your Ki points, monk weapon/unarmed damage, movement speed, and access to your best mid-high level abilities all depend on your Monk level. In particular, Evasion is super potent and you will never feel like you have enough Ki points.

The benefits of Rogue levels overlaps with Shadow Monk. Shadow Jump is functionally a variant of Cunning Action, and Pass Without Trace provides you with a massive Stealth bonus, and Ki points can provide bonuses to Acrobatics.

The benefits of being a Fighter (Action Surge and Second Wind) overlap with the extra attacks and healing gained from Ki. Although it might seem nice to be able to "go nova" with Flurry + Action Surge once per Short Rest, functionally its better to just have more Ki points so that you can just Flurry multiple rounds. And again, remember that your damage scales with your Monk level.

[Rummy]

I also recommend straight monk. You want to get to monk 14 as soon as possible.

[Easy_Lee]

Monks don't get as many ATI's as they often need in order to stay competitive with stats. If you want to be SAD, you can multiclass warlock for armor of shadow invocation and have up to AC 18 from just that plus DEX (this also gets you some useful warloxm abilities).

Generally speaking, a single-class monk is more monkey than any multiclass, and the benefits of archetype features and extra ki should not be dismissed. It's difficult to multiclass a monk because of ki, so be careful when doing so.

[Tenmujiin]

I would suggest strait monk, use a short-sword as your main weapon and you still trigger Martial Arts and once you have 1d8 Martial Arts damage you can replace the damage for your short-sword with your martial arts damage. Talk to your DM about re-fluffing your martial arts/flurry attacks as sword strikes (since they do the same damage after lv5 anyway). Remember that most of the fluff on your abilities can be changed to a more western style if you want to, just because most monks wear robes and are trained in a monastery doesn't mean you have to. DO NOT multiclass until lv5 unless you are willing to have your damage fall behind quite severely and as a previous poster said, rogue would be best for a shadow monk, fighter for either (better for open hand).
Warlock is also a good multi-class for shadow monks if you focus on spells without charisma saves (hex comes to mind since post lv5 you can pump out 3 attacks a round or 4 with flurry, sneak attack doesn't apply more than once a round so this would do more damage than a 3 level dip into rogue) and the invocation Devil's Sight allows you to see through magical darkness (and shadow monks can cast darkness).

[oaken]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I am planning on going Open Hand, so it seems like Fighter does make more sense. Strait Monk sounds good too, I guess I will have to see how things go depending on our party composition and strategies.

What I have in mind a the moment is: if I become too dependent in healing then getting Second Wind after 5 Monk levels may be worth it, otherwise I may just go strait Monk indeed.