Ultimate Tank? Monk of the Long Death

[MaxWilson]

So, did anyone else's eyebrows raise at the Monk of the Long Death?

3rd level, Touch of Death: get (Wis + monk level) temp HP whenever you reduce a creature within 5' to 0 HP.
6th level, Hour of Reaping: as an action, everyone that can see you within 30' must Wisdom save or be frightened.
11th level, Mastery of Death: spend 1 ki point to avoid a killing blow (drop to 1 HP instead of 0 HP), no reaction required.

Put this together with the monk's base class abilities (missile catching, Stunning Strike on opportunity attacks), and this kind of looks like the ultimate party tank, doesn't it? In combat you can spend your actions intimidating everybody with Hour of Reaping to prevent them from closing on your spellcasters and ranged fighters. If they do make any attacks (probably missile attacks) on you or your fellow PCs, those attacks are made at disadvantage for being frightened. If you want to be more proactive you can mix it up in melee instead with regular monk Martial Arts/etc., and you basically don't have to even pay attention to your HP because it takes a dozen or more hits (per short rest!) to even bring you to 0 HP, which is still not the same thing as being dead. And while normally you'd be afraid of mobs because 20 hobgoblins can make a lot of attacks to burn through all your ki quickly, in your case you're still not afraid because between your high AC, your missile catching, your ability to frighten them and all the temp HP you suck down from killing them when you're not busy scaring them, they'll have a tough time killing you even when you have only 1 real HP remaining.

I imagine the normal state of a Monk of Long Death as being the guy who basically ignores all the dagger wounds and arrows sticking out of his body, not even bothering to pull them out until the party stops for lunch. No wonder he's so scary!

So we already had a ninja (Shadow Monk) but now we have a tank too. Put that together with some ranged firepower (Ranger, Warlock, Necromancer, or Sharpshooter fighter) and you have a nice little two-man party.

[Ralanr]

I still think totem bear barbarian is better.

[The Shadowdove]

Monk of long death has always been my favorite monk order.


I want this book to be released so I can read this!

[T.G. Oskar]

Remember: the tank isn't the character who can no-sell any attack; it's the one that mitigates the most damage for the party without necessarily going through crowd control or excessive damage (though those traits help a tank the most; Lockdown for crowd control and a good combat strategy for damage).

Bear Totem Barbarian has the ability to halve nearly all damage for its allies, plus it has the Barbarian's natural inclination towards lots of damage. That makes it a tank.

The Paladin itself has spells that mitigate some of the damage allies take, while at the same time letting them no-sell status effects like fear, charm or compulsion. Oath of Ancients Paladin also happens to halve magic damage for allies with its aura. That makes it a tank.

The Monk, on its own, is capable of surviving pretty much anything, and the Monk of the Long Death just adds more "no-sell" options to that list, to the point that it can even survive death by spending ki. However, the Monk still isn't a tasty target for most enemies, which will suddenly realize it's pointless to attack the Monk, and will most likely target the Rogue (which has very few defensive options, mostly Light Armor + Dex or Uncanny Dodge as a reaction), the Warlock, or attempt to hit the Wizard (which most likely has Blink or Mirror Image around, therefore hitting another no-seller). Monk of the Long Death is a survivor, not necessarily a tank - that said, if you complement that with a solid offensive routine, then you force a catch-22 on the enemy. Either they hit you (and most likely fail) because you're a threat, or they ignore you and you can take them down to your leisure. Monk of the Long Death is mostly the "defensive" option for Monks, but not the "tank" option.

[Maxilian]

Not ultimate tank, but it is a pretty cool option (the ability to fall to 1 HP is really good!)

[lordshadowisle]

I agree, the level 6 and 11 abilities combine quite well. The level 11 ability is strong; if you conserve your ki, it means it takes a minimum of 12 blows per short rest to kill you! It's the half-orc's relentless endurance on steroids.

The level 6 ability is interesting, since it costs an action. If you're willing to devote yourself purely to mitigating damage for the rest of the party, it could greatly reduce the enemy's damage dealing. It does conflict with the level 1 ability though, since you won't be doing much else on your turn, so it's probably not an action you want to take every time.

[CNagy]

Remember: the tank isn't the character who can no-sell any attack; it's the one that mitigates the most damage for the party without necessarily going through crowd control or excessive damage (though those traits help a tank the most; Lockdown for crowd control and a good combat strategy for damage).

Bear Totem Barbarian has the ability to halve nearly all damage for its allies, plus it has the Barbarian's natural inclination towards lots of damage. That makes it a tank.

How does the Bear Totem Barbarian halve nearly all damage for its allies? The only thing about the Bear Barbarian that is Tank-like in the traditional sense is the 14th level ability, which just gives disadvantage to enemies within 5 feet if they attack someone other than the Barbarian. Reckless Attack might draw some blows, but once the enemy sees that the Barbarian is shaking off the hits due to rage, there isn't much of anything to keep them from slipping past him to more fragile targets.

The Long Death Monk has an (admittedly crowd control) ability to Frighten everyone who sees him within 30ft. They can't approach the Monk (and thus the party) and any attacks they make have disadvantage. He has more attacks with Martial arts (which can translate to basically a free shove each turn) and a means of keeping an enemy rooted in place with Stunning Strike. Yeah, the Monk can survive most things--his weakness on the frontlines before now has been how fragile he is if the hits manage to land on him. Long Death solves that by letting him soak attacks completely and gain temporary HP for kills. The Long Death Monk is a Controller/Tank, but still a Tank.

[BW022]

How does the Bear Totem Barbarian halve nearly all damage for its allies?

Any barbarian has resistance to piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning attacks while ranging. The bear totem (when raging) has resistances to everything except psychic. Assuming your tank is able to block... in most combats he is effectively halving all damage which the party would be taking. In practice... few tanks can 100% block everything. Range weapons, spells, and area spells will likely get other party members, and in large rooms or outdoors... enemies can often just move around a single tank. And of course, rages can not be up all the time.

This said... all these apply to nearly any tank. Any good tank should be taking the majority of attacks. Given the best of circumstances, the barbarian is highly likely to reduce overall damage taken by the party by up to 50% as long as he can continue raging and keeping the attacks on him. Overall, maybe 30%-40% given many encounters are in dungeons and few actual monsters have missile weapons. That is still large.

[Ralanr]

Best tank, 3 totem bear barbarian, 17 swashbuckler rogue.

[CNagy]

Any barbarian has resistance to piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning attacks while ranging. The bear totem (when raging) has resistances to everything except psychic. Assuming your tank is able to block... in most combats he is effectively halving all damage which the party would be taking. In practice... few tanks can 100% block everything. Range weapons, spells, and area spells will likely get other party members, and in large rooms or outdoors... enemies can often just move around a single tank. And of course, rages can not be up all the time.

This said... all these apply to nearly any tank. Any good tank should be taking the majority of attacks. Given the best of circumstances, the barbarian is highly likely to reduce overall damage taken by the party by up to 50% as long as he can continue raging and keeping the attacks on him. Overall, maybe 30%-40% given many encounters are in dungeons and few actual monsters have missile weapons. That is still large.

But functionally that's not unique to the Barbarian. Anyone standing on the front lines is a physical obstacle for enemies to have to bypass. The Bear Barbarian resists half of most damage that comes to him, so he can remain an obstacle for longer. But anything that allows a person to soak damage would let any other character do the same. Terrain (like a dungeon) forcing melee attacks against the Barbarian is no different than terrain forcing melee attacks against the Monk, and rather than cutting most damage in half, the Monk takes regular damage until he gets down to zero and then he just starts ignoring hits completely while he still has Ki or until he gains temporary HP from killing something. Edit: And then, of course, at 18 the Monk gets his own Rage: 4 ki for 1 minute of invisibility and 1/2 damage from everything except Force.

[JoeJ]

The Long Death Monk has an (admittedly crowd control) ability to Frighten everyone who sees him within 30ft. They can't approach the Monk (and thus the party) and any attacks they make have disadvantage.

Does he always frighten everybody, or can he choose? If it's everybody, that can hurt the party as much as it does the bad guys.

[CNagy]

Does he always frighten everybody, or can he choose? If it's everybody, that can hurt the party as much as it does the bad guys.

It's everyone who can see him within 30 feet, which suggests a way for the party to be immune (know it is coming ahead of time/get a coded warning and look away/close your eyes).

[MaxWilson]

It's everyone who can see him within 30 feet, which suggests a way for the party to be immune (know it is coming ahead of time/get a coded warning and look away/close your eyes).

Monsters can probably do this too. Just like you can avert your eyes from an Umber Hulk or a Medusa, you should be able to avert your eyes from a Monk of Long Death. However, doing so makes him effectively invisible to you that round.

Also, most monsters run by most DMs typically won't do this. If they did, Disguise Self (Medusa) would equate to "no-concentration Greater Invisibility for one hour" as the monsters avert their gazes.

At will fear on everybody within 30' who can see you is a powerful, powerful tanking effect, much better than anything a totem barbarian has. Fear imposes disadvantage on attacks and ability checks, and it disallows them from moving closer to you. The only thing it doesn't do is inflict damage, but remember that damage is just a means to an end. Your ultimate goal as a tank is to ensure that the enemies don't attack the other PCs, and frightening enemies does exactly that. Unlike a barbearian you can even protect your fellow PCs from missile attacks to a limited degree.

[The Shadowdove]

Is there a place where I can read about the entire archetype?

[MaxWilson]

Is there a place where I can read about the entire archetype?

I posted everything but the 17th level ability in the first post, but to recap, it's a monk subclass with the following four abilities:

3rd level, Touch of Death: when you reduce a creature within 5 feet of you to 0 HP, gain temp HP = monk level + Wisdom bonus. (Combines in amusing ways with a Fast Hands Healer Thief BTW.)

6th level, Hour of Reaping: as an action, every creature within 30' that can see you must Wisdom save or be frightened until the end of your next turn. (Compare this to Berserker's 10th level Intimidating Presence, which works only on one creature within 30', and once a creature saves they are immune for 24 hours. Hour of Reaping comes sooner and is about five times as good.)

11th level, Mastery of Death: whenever you're reduced to 0 HP, can expend 1 ki point (no action/reaction required) to have 1 HP instead.

17th level, Touch of the Long Death: as an action, expend between 1 and 10 ki points to touch a creature within 5 feet of you. Creature takes (2d10 x ki expended) points of necrotic damage, Con save for half.

(Of course it still has all the standard monk abilities like Stunning Strike, Diamond Soul, Empty Body, etc.)

The way I see this playing out in practice is that the monk (possibly with Alert feat) will do Hour of Reaping at the start of any nontrivial combat to protect his party and will move to place himself so that the enemy can't approach the party. If too many enemies made their saves, he may possibly add in Patient Defense to protect himself. If enemies try to bypass him to attack the party, put Stunning Strike on his opportunity attacks. Party will kill enemies to death with ranged attacks, then once the enemy morale shatters and they flee, monk will chase down an enemy and finish him off to gain temp HP. Rinse and repeat all day.

[ad_hoc]

There are some funny rules & options in SCAG. The worst probably the Half-Elf choice of giving up 2 skill proficiencies to get proficiency in perception.

I think I will have the fear act more like frightful presence just with the short duration. So you can choose who it affects and if a creature saves against it they can't be affected again for 24 hours.

I may change Mastery of Death to be 2 Ki per use. 1 seems very good.

[Tenmujiin]

Note that if a single attack would take you to negative health equal or greater than your max health you instantly die (no death saves).

A PC on 1 HP has a decent chance of being instagibbed by any critical hit (i've had two characters in my group die from FULL hp though they were particularly large hits that also crit and rolled high...same player both times too).

[JellyPooga]

Note that if a single attack would take you to negative health equal or greater than your max health you instantly die (no death saves).

A PC on 1 HP has a decent chance of being instagibbed by any critical hit (i've had two characters in my group die from FULL hp though they were particularly large hits that also crit and rolled high...same player both times too).

Whilst true, once your Max HP get above 30 or so, even Critical Hits cease to pose this kind of threat; few individual attacks deal anywhere near that kind of damage.

[MaxWilson]

Note that if a single attack would take you to negative health equal or greater than your max health you instantly die (no death saves).

Only if the attack reduces you to zero HP (see PHB 197), which means that Mastery of Death, like Death Ward, prevents death from massive damage. Half-orcs can still die to massive damage though and so can barbarians, because their ability has an extra clause: "when you drop to zero HP and don't die outright." Mastery of Death does not have this clause.

[Fire Tarrasque]

I'd class as a Long Death 11, Totem Bear 3 for a great low high level tank. Raging until you get to low health, then using your ki to refuse to go unconscious. Maybe even mix in a bit of Phoenix Sorc if it's allowed.

[Specter]

If you want to be really annoying, find a way to get Blur (Desert Druid, or other casters/1/3 casters). That way, it's disadvantage on all attacks against you. Couple that to resist physical damage with Evasion to avoid (most) elemental damage, and you'll annoy the hell out of everyone.

[strangebloke]

I'd class as a Long Death 11, Totem Bear 3 for a great low high level tank. Raging until you get to low health, then using your ki to refuse to go unconscious. Maybe even mix in a bit of Phoenix Sorc if it's allowed.

could just go zealot and get the same effect at the same level!

People oversell bear totem 3, IMO. Regular barbarian already halves most of the important damage types. Fire, Cold, etc. are much less common.