Which are the best Monk races?

[BladeWing81]

Hi all,
I've seen a couple of Monk guides in the past and most of them usually set Wood elf, Variant human as the best of the best for the Monk but set the half-elf only as a "good" option but truthfully I think it should be set as a higher option, now even more with the variations added from the SCAG book, this is what I see:
+1 to two abilities: let's be honest, this is +1 Wisdom and +1 Dexterity.
+2 Charisma: is not very useful for Monks unless you want to add some roleplaying bonuses on intimidation and persuasion skills which is always fun.
Darkvision: what's not to like about seeing in the dark?
Fey ancestry: advantage to not being charmed or put to sleep is sweet in the initial levels

you also get to choose one the two below
Skill versatility: two extra skills is nothing to sneeze about and having +2 Charisma opens up even more options for the skills that Monks don't usually grab but makes for some fun roleplaying interactions.
OR
Half elf Variants: you can choose from the the elf subraces to get:
-Wood elf: Elf weapon training, Fleet of foot or Mask of the wild
-Moon or sun elf: Elf weapon training or a cantrip (:smallsmile:)
-Drow: Drow Magic.
-Aquatic: 30 Swiming speed (you'd be surprised how many times this would have been useful to me).

I don't wanna take down any race here I just think half-elf should be in a higher regard because of it's versatility. any thing I'm missing? I haven't seen the genasi but I think the water and the air version seem like a good option too.

What are your thoughts? maybe there's a race which is even better?

[Gastronomie]

Just saying, a lot of people consider Half-Elf to be one of the best races for almost every single class in the game, even including when the class doesn't utilize CHA.

I personally think nothing will be wrong with the DM allowing "tweaking the bonuses around" - for instance, allowing a Dragonborn Draconic Sorcerer to take +2 CHA +1 CON instead of +2 STR +1 CHA (it's honestly stupid that a Dragonborn doesn't make a very good Draconic Sorcerer). But that's for your DM to decide.

[EvanescentHero]

Aarakocra get dex and wis as well, plus their ridiculous speed helps them with the monk's role anyway. It does kind of eliminate class features like slow fall and running across water or up walls though.

[RickAllison]

Ghostwise Halfling: Yoda, you are.
+2 Dex, +1 Wis
Telepathy (great for stealthy monks, especially Shadow)
Reroll all the 1s that might make you cry
Move through the spaces of Medium and larger creatures, making the monk even more maneuverable!

Aarakocra: Wire-fu, for the win!
+2 Dex, +1 Wis
Flight
Gain the option of slashing damage for your unarmed attacks
Flight (why else are you a bird-man?)

Water Genasi: You are the ocean itself
+2 Con, +1 Wis
Amphibious
Swim speed (which will then be raised by your Unarmored Defense)
Resistance to acid
Shape Water cantip
This race is less useful for monks overall, but can be very potent in a campaign with lots of water.

Duergar: You wouldn't like me when I'm angry...
+2 Con, +1 Str
120' Darkvision (Hello, Shadow)
Advantage against illusions and being paralyzed
Duergar Magic, aka Hulk out once per long rest to deal an extra 1d4 damage on each of your 3 or 4 attacks
Sunlight Sensitivity (unfortunate downside)
Fantastic for Shadow monks, Underdark campaigns, and anything that doesn't involve sunlight.
Also sets up a nice synergy with grappling, if that's your fancy.

Just some thoughts from EEPC and SCAG.

[BladeWing81]

Aarakocra get dex and wis as well, plus their ridiculous speed helps them with the monk's role anyway. It does kind of eliminate class features like slow fall and running across water or up walls though.

I think they also get reach 10ft with their weapons because of their long arms. no wonder they are banned in Adventure League play.

[RulesJD]

Hi all,
I've seen a couple of Monk guides in the past and most of them usually set Wood elf, Variant human as the best of the best for the Monk but set the half-elf only as a "good" option but truthfully I think it should be set as a higher option, now even more with the variations added from the SCAG book, this is what I see:
+1 to two abilities: let's be honest, this is +1 Wisdom and +1 Dexterity.
+2 Charisma: is not very useful for Monks unless you want to add some roleplaying bonuses on intimidation and persuasion skills which is always fun.
Darkvision: what's not to like about seeing in the dark?
Fey ancestry: advantage to not being charmed or put to sleep is sweet in the initial levels

you also get to choose one the two below
Skill versatility: two extra skills is nothing to sneeze about and having +2 Charisma opens up even more options for the skills that Monks don't usually grab but makes for some fun roleplaying interactions.
OR
Half elf Variants: you can choose from the the elf subraces to get:
-Wood elf: Elf weapon training, Fleet of foot or Mask of the wild
-Moon or sun elf: Elf weapon training or a cantrip (:smallsmile:)
-Drow: Drow Magic.
-Aquatic: 30 Swiming speed (you'd be surprised how many times this would have been useful to me).

I don't wanna take down any race here I just think half-elf should be in a higher regard because of it's versatility. any thing I'm missing? I haven't seen the genasi but I think the water and the air version seem like a good option too.

What are your thoughts? maybe there's a race which is even better?

No offense to their authors, but the Monk guides are some of the weakest of the class guides.

Half-Elf is second only to Variant Human for power gaming builds of the Monk, possibly Wood Elf. The enhanced movement speed of a Wood Elf is almost entirely pointless on a Monk unless your DM takes extra special care for very specific rules, which most don't.

Half-Elf is great because one of the strongest Monk builds involves taking some levels of Pact of the Tome Fiend Warlock, so that extra +2 Cha is vital for hitting the multiclass Cha requirement on a class that's already ridiculously MAD.

Half-Elf Monks also got a huge boosts as you noted because of the new variants allowing access to a Wizard cantrip (aka Booming Blade).

[eastmabl]

I think they also get reach 10ft with their weapons because of their long arms. no wonder they are banned in Adventure League play.

No, they don't.

[RickAllison]

No, they don't.

Indeed. The only benefit for monks besides the flight and increased speed is the ability to choose to do slashing damage instead of bludgeoning with your unarmed attacks.

[BladeWing81]

No offense to their authors, but the Monk guides are some of the weakest of the class guides.

Half-Elf is second only to Variant Human for power gaming builds of the Monk, possibly Wood Elf. The enhanced movement speed of a Wood Elf is almost entirely pointless on a Monk unless your DM takes extra special care for very specific rules, which most don't.

Half-Elf is great because one of the strongest Monk builds involves taking some levels of Pact of the Tome Fiend Warlock, so that extra +2 Cha is vital for hitting the multiclass Cha requirement on a class that's already ridiculously MAD.

Half-Elf Monks also got a huge boosts as you noted because of the new variants allowing access to a Wizard cantrip (aka Booming Blade).

Maybe the issue is that the guides haven't updated. none of them even mentions the sun soul Monk (my personal favorite subclass). much less add everything else from SCAG or EEPC. the new backgounds from SCAG and CoS seem also useful and fun.

[Spacehamster]

Hill dwarf is pretty neat too for a more sturdy monk. :)

[Joe the Rat]

Halflings do fairly well in general. Stouts get a touch of sturdiness, and Lightfoots ease the pain of Monk-lock builds. Ghostwise are, as RickAllison noted, Jedi Monk: the Subspecies.

Feral Tieflings do as well as the Lightfoots (Lightfeet?), with a few variations in their ability options (such as the ever-bannable Flight option!).

[Foxhound438]

Think of it this way:

monks don't need charisma. Charisma +2 for them is basically nothing, so they end up with +1dex, +1wis as their stats, the same as they would get for being vuman

darkvision is good but it's not great. you can get torches, lanterns, etc to see fine in combat, and out of combat if you want to be stealthy you can let someone else guide you.

fey ancestry is pretty much useless in combat, so mechanically it's a flavor ribbon. Unless your dm has a history of putting you to sleep, but that's a corner case.

2 skills is neat, but you're neither a rogue nor a bard, so you're not a go-to skill monkey. Vuman gets you one skill, and wood elf gets you one as well, albeit not one of your choice.

Alternative to the skills, you can get your choice of weapon training, movement + 5, a cantrip, drow magic, mask of the wild, or swim speed. Of the 6, 3 are worse than Vuman's feat (weapon training does nothing for monk, since most of your stuff is monk-weapon restricted, 5 movement vs mobile, cantrip vs magic initiate for 2 cantrips and one 1st level). Drow magic and swimming are both moderately attractive, but neither is as good as a feat. swimming can be covered by magic items, and drow magic doesn't give the monk a lot that it's looking for; darkness is nice to blot out ranged attackers, but otherwise it's not something you'd use a lot. Personally I would say that drow magic is still worse than magic initiate, since you can chose spells that will actually benefit you. Mask is potentially good, but it's not something you really can expect to benefit from fully without rogue 2 to hide every turn.

So half elf is way worse than Vuman, 9 times out of 10, thus it will never be rated as being on par with Vuman. Vuman's benefits are useful in far more situations and is thus generally better.

Compared to wood elf, you get all the same benefits minus a skill and either mask of the wild or fleet of foot, or plus one skill and minus both of those (not a skill monkey, so again this is worse generally), and with roughly the same stats. By point buy a wood elf can get x/16/14/x/16/x, x's being 2 10's and one 8, while a half-elf can get x/16/14/x/16/10, x's being one 10 and one 8. The latter is thus worse since you can't chose to dump cha to 8, while you can with the wood elf. Even if you want to dump str and int to 8 for cha 12, wood elf can still do that just as easily.

So half elf is really just a bit beneath wood elf, in every way. Same end stats, fewer of the wood elf's other minor benefits. The only way half elf would be preferable is if you're expected to be a skill monkey, but 6 skills compared to 5 is pretty minor.

[Foxhound438]

Half-Elf is great because one of the strongest Monk builds involves taking some levels of Pact of the Tome Fiend Warlock, so that extra +2 Cha is vital for hitting the multiclass Cha requirement on a class that's already ridiculously MAD.


wood elf monk, takes some less good stats for higher cha:
10/14+2/12/8/15+1/13; 2+7+4+0+9+5=27

half elf monk, takes some less good stats for higher cha:
10/15+1/12/8/15+1/11+2; 2+9+4+0+9+3=27

you don't need the +2 in cha to get there.

[RulesJD]

wood elf monk, takes some less good stats for higher cha:
10/14+2/12/8/15+1/13; 2+7+4+0+9+5=27

half elf monk, takes some less good stats for higher cha:
10/15+1/12/8/15+1/11+2; 2+9+4+0+9+3=27

you don't need the +2 in cha to get there.

Nice spot, I hadn't actually noticed you could hit the same on 27 pointbuy for a Wood Elf. Scratch my advice then regarding the stat difference.

[. Shadowblade .]

Aarakocra - high flying speed buffs greatly monk's mobility

Winged Feral Tiefling - good flying speed, darkvision, alternative to Aarakocra if you prefer to be more human-like monk

(if DM doesnt ban the flying races)

[RickAllison]

As a continuation from my earlier post (which had more optimized races), here are some other races that could work decently well!

Variant Human:
+1 Dex, +1 Wis
Free feat
Feats aren't generally a big desire for monks, but this let's you grab one without giving up an ASI!

Eladrin:
+2 Dex, +1 Int
Int doesn't do much for you, but Misty Step once per short rest will save your bacon on occasion.
Longbow proficiency gives you a fantastic ranged alternative.

Hill Dwarf:
+2 Con, +1 Wis
HP. What more is there to say? Combos especially well with the already-hardy Long Death monks.

Forest Gnome:
+2 Int (urgh), +1 Dex
Minor Illusion. Very versatile cantrip.
Gnome Cunning.
If you wanted to play the more Force-y side of Yoda monk, this is for you.

Half-elf:
Others have covered this, so I won't bother.
Half-eladrin could be great if you can convince your DM! Misty Step, for the win!

Half-Orc/Goliath:
I will cover these in the same entry: Grappling. It's a more niche build (especially if you want to do it armored), but the option is technically there.

[JumboWheat01]

There's a reason Wood Elf is so well loved. Dexterity and Wisdom are both great stats for a monk, but let's not just look at the stats.

1) Wood Elves get five more feet of movement. While this may seem to be a drop in the bucket compared to to a monk's already massive movement speed, this comes online earlier, and still makes them faster than anything. Get to a high enough level and you can dash such a distance you wonder why teleportation is a thing.

2) Wood Elves can take the Hide action in natural weather. Sure, your monk doesn't HAVE to have stealth, but it gives you an option you can take advantage of. Unless your DM hates weather.

3) All elves get Perception for free. Perception is pretty much considered one of the god skills of 5e, oh, and guess what it's keyed off of? Wisdom. Which monks love. The only things that could potentially be more perceptive than you are caster Druids and Clerics.

4) All elves get Darkvision. Well, so does 3/4 of the playable races, admittedly (number not real, just pulling it out of my backside,) but combine it with Perception (which you are naturally proficient with,) and Stealth, which you should really consider taking, and you are a night-time scout beyond compare. Throw in being a Shadow Monk, and you can teleport around in the dark just fine, since you can still see your destination. No non-Darkvision race can say the same.

5) All elves are proficient with the Long Bow. Ranged combat is something that monks aren't the greatest at. And you should be maxing our your Dexterity, allowing you to take advantage of using a nice long bow to great affect at things that you can't get close to.


Of course, there's nothing wrong with playing a race that may not give as many options, in fact, that can be more fun that way.

[BladeWing81]

As a continuation from my earlier post (which had more optimized races), here are some other races that could work decently well!

Variant Human:
+1 Dex, +1 Wis
Free feat
Feats aren't generally a big desire for monks, but this let's you grab one without giving up an ASI!


Why is that? Why are there so little options on Feats for a Monk, I mean to me that's why the V-human isn't all that great. It's either Alert, Mobile, Skulker, MAAAYBE lucky or GTFO! :smallannoyed:

[JNAProductions]

Tough actually wouldn't be bad for a front-line Monk.

[RulesJD]

Why is that? Why are there so little options on Feats for a Monk, I mean to me that's why the V-human isn't all that great. It's either Alert, Mobile, Skulker, MAAAYBE lucky or GTFO! :smallannoyed:

Generally speaking Magic Initiate for a Monk is one of the best choices, although I'll grant you feats are far less important for a Monk. Honestly Monks pick up more from Multiclassing than anything else, so V-Human is still the best choice, it's not nearly to such an extent as for other classes.

[RickAllison]

Why is that? Why are there so little options on Feats for a Monk, I mean to me that's why the V-human isn't all that great. It's either Alert, Mobile, Skulker, MAAAYBE lucky or GTFO! :smallannoyed:

Exactly. Any of those would be good for monks, but generally not worth it over an ASI. With vhuman, you can take advantage of them and still not be far behind (and I'm particularly fond of Observant).

[Tanarii]

Stout Halfling! YEAH BABY!

I have no idea why, but I think of Stout Halflings as being Monks by default.

[Thomeyis]

No offense to their authors, but the Monk guides are some of the weakest of the class guides.

Half-Elf is second only to Variant Human for power gaming builds of the Monk, possibly Wood Elf. The enhanced movement speed of a Wood Elf is almost entirely pointless on a Monk unless your DM takes extra special care for very specific rules, which most don't.

Half-Elf is great because one of the strongest Monk builds involves taking some levels of Pact of the Tome Fiend Warlock, so that extra +2 Cha is vital for hitting the multiclass Cha requirement on a class that's already ridiculously MAD.

Half-Elf Monks also got a huge boosts as you noted because of the new variants allowing access to a Wizard cantrip (aka Booming Blade).

Can I get some more details on this build?

[RulesJD]

Can I get some more details on this build?

At least Warlock 2 for Devil's Sight + Darkness on a Monk that can teleport through darkness. Also provides Hex, Eldritch Blast for ranged attacks, temp HP on kill. Warlock 3 gets you a Familiar, Guidance, et al. benefits of Tome Warlock. Honestly if you're not big into versatility (which Monks are highly versatility) Warlock 2 generally gets you where you want to go, with Devil's Sight and Fiendish Vigor being fantastic for a Shadow Monk.

Now with Swashbuckler there are some better options, as is a 1 level dip into War Cleric getting you most of what you really want (added damage per hit) from Warlock anyways.

[RickAllison]

Stout Halfling! YEAH BABY!

I have no idea why, but I think of Stout Halflings as being Monks by default.

I like Stouts, and the Con buff is just fine (as you can see from my earlier posts, I'm fond of them). The issue I see is that one of the primary buffs for the subclass is something that monks get for free at a higher level (and better!). For a low-level game, or if you would MC such that the poison immunity would come too late, it is a valid option.

[Tanarii]

I like Stouts, and the Con buff is just fine (as you can see from my earlier posts, I'm fond of them). The issue I see is that one of the primary buffs for the subclass is something that monks get for free at a higher level (and better!). For a low-level game, or if you would MC such that the poison immunity would come too late, it is a valid option.
I just like small halflings smashing face with their bare hands. It's not really 'best' :)

[BladeWing81]

Exactly. Any of those would be good for monks, but generally not worth it over an ASI. With vhuman, you can take advantage of them and still not be far behind (and I'm particularly fond of Observant).

yeah I forgot that one too, but none of them are damage boosters, a few of them have some mild combat utility but none of them outright help the monk on damage like other feats help melee damage for almost every other class except Monk.

Feats have restrictions, why not make a Feat similar to Fighting style where you can choose to have: Archery, Defense, Dueling, GWF, Protection or TWF with a restriction that you can't choose one you already have and you can only take this feat if you have either STR or Dex equal or above 15.

A change I think would benefit the Monk also is on Martial arts the rule states: your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapon that don't have the two handed or heavy property. why not change the definition of monk weapons to: any melee weapon you are proficient with that doesn't have the two handed or heavy property.

The monk starts with proficiency with simple weapons and shortswords so it wouldn't affect the current tables and this simple change could make wood elves an even greater powerhouse and weapon master could be a great feat option for the Monk. not to mention that a high % of magic weapons are no longer useless to you. a monk can finally grab a Freaking Dawnbringer.

[MrStabby]

Not "best" but an honourable mention goes to non-variant human.

Monks are MAD so +1 to all stats is not as bad as on other classes. Now if you were to go Monk-lock and need the Cha it actually becomes almost respectable.

[BladeWing81]

Not "best" but an honourable mention goes to non-variant human.

Monks are MAD so +1 to all stats is not as bad as on other classes. Now if you were to go Monk-lock and need the Cha it actually becomes almost respectable.

you could easily do 15,15,13,12,8,8 which also works for the Monk/warlock build everyone wants, even better because you can get more Cons you would end up with:
STR 9
Dex 16
Cons 14
Int 9
Wis 16
Char 13

[Foxhound438]

Why is that? Why are there so little options on Feats for a Monk, I mean to me that's why the V-human isn't all that great. It's either Alert, Mobile, Skulker, MAAAYBE lucky or GTFO! :smallannoyed:

tough, mage slayer, magic initiate, and observant are all decent options, 3/4 being combat oriented. magic init for hex gives you a huge damage boost for one combat per day.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Why is that? Why are there so little options on Feats for a Monk, I mean to me that's why the V-human isn't all that great. It's either Alert, Mobile, Skulker, MAAAYBE lucky or GTFO! :smallannoyed:

Can't you take Defensive Duelist and wield a shortsword in your offhand for parrying while beating up people with your fists and feet?

Or am I the only one who does that?

[JumboWheat01]

Can't you take Defensive Duelist and wield a shortsword in your offhand for parrying while beating up people with your fists and feet?

Or am I the only one who does that?

You can use your butt to. It still counts as an "unarmed" attack. Given their lawful nature and strict discipline, it gives a literal meaning to the term "hard ass."

Still, it's sound logic to carry a piece of metal to deflect other sharp pieces of metal coming your way, even if you never really use it for attacking.

[MeeposFire]

I would need to check for sure but I think you could take the two weapon fighting feat, wield two weapons for the extra AC and maybe ranged throwing attacks, and use unarmed strikes in melee.

Probably not actually worth it but interesting all the same.

[Foxhound438]

Can't you take Defensive Duelist and wield a shortsword in your offhand for parrying while beating up people with your fists and feet?

Or am I the only one who does that?

competes for reaction with deflect missiles, but still good. Now you have a way to deal with attacks ranged or not. It's just kind of a feels-bad moment when you parry and then in the same round get hit by an arrow.

[djreynolds]

This might be a better look, what party is best for a monk.

If you are the main melee attraction of the party, you will spend your KI points differently, mainly on dodging as a bonus action. So yeah defense, wis and dex and con might be best to focus on and having a race with bonuses to those may help.

Monks really need to focus on wisdom and dexterity and maybe able to squeeze in a feat, like mobile which can help conserve KI points and defensive duelist deserves a look at if you fight with a short sword. Toughness is nice.

But you need to define your role in the party. Tank, skirmisher, etc. A hill dwarf can make a great, tanky monk. Where as a wood elf can really fit the bill as a skirmisher. Half-elf can really help with skills.

So if you can find a race that gives a bonus to two of three stats, dex, wis, and con you should be fine as this will allow you the ability to take a feat.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

competes for reaction with deflect missiles, but still good. Now you have a way to deal with attacks ranged or not. It's just kind of a feels-bad moment when you parry and then in the same round get hit by an arrow.
They're only competing if you happen to be targeted by someone with ranged weapon attacks and someone with melee attacks at the same time, which while not rare, is definitely not going to be every round or even every combat.

Like you said, it's nice to have an option for dealing with non-ranged attacks.

[Centik]

I'm partial to Goliath monks myself, but I'm weird, so...

[BladeWing81]

This might be a better look, what party is best for a monk.

If you are the main melee attraction of the party, you will spend your KI points differently, mainly on dodging as a bonus action. So yeah defense, wis and dex and con might be best to focus on and having a race with bonuses to those may help.

Monks really need to focus on wisdom and dexterity and maybe able to squeeze in a feat, like mobile which can help conserve KI points and defensive duelist deserves a look at if you fight with a short sword. Toughness is nice.

But you need to define your role in the party. Tank, skirmisher, etc. A hill dwarf can make a great, tanky monk. Where as a wood elf can really fit the bill as a skirmisher. Half-elf can really help with skills.

So if you can find a race that gives a bonus to two of three stats, dex, wis, and con you should be fine as this will allow you the ability to take a feat.

I've had the bad luck of being the Main tank, either because I'm the one with better AC and everyone else wants to be the the high hitter, or the paladins ,fighters and clerics are to chicken to go in the front lines so yeah I'm more of a tank but not by choice. so I guess hill dwarf would be for me next time I make a monk.

[Specter]

First of all, I clearly believe V. Human is the best race for any build, any level. Not many things compete with a feat from the start.

That said, genasi are great for monks, both mechanically and thematically. The water genasi is the obvious choice for the WIS bonus, but for those who didn't go the Shadow way and still want Stealth, the earth genasi's Pass Without Trace is massive.

Other than that, Wood Elves, Ghostwise Halflings and Hill Dwarves stand out.

[DireSickFish]

I might have missed it but I'm surprised no one mentioned Air Genasi for a monk. Give you bnous to primary and secondary stat and not needing to breath opens gives them yet another thing they are immune/resistant to. You can also pull off a cool run up the wall levitate then run up the wall next round trick to scale some impressive heights.


Basically Anything with Dex or Wis bonus makes good monks. Anything with both makes great monks. There are some corner cases that also work but are a bit more oddball because they're relying on racial abilities.

I do agree that I haven't found a good monk guide. I'm not even sure they have the elemental monk spells rated in the guides.