Monk suggestions for HotDQ

[Gryndle]

So my group just started Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and for once I am not the DM. So no spoilers please! And we do plan on continuing the campaign through Rise of Tiamat.

My group is a Moon Elf GoO Warlock going bladelock (my character's twin), a one-handed tiefling fighter (Dex based, not sure what build yet but likely Champ or Battlemaster), and a Moon Elf Shadow Sorcerer.

I am playing a Moon Elf Monk. we rolled for ability scores and mine were so good that I self nerfed them and still have a 20 DEX.

THe character personality has come together for pretty well, but I have no clue what type of Monk I am going for at 3rd. I have only ruled out the Elementalist monk so far. Subtypes from PHB ad SCAG are allowed.

SO, for those of you that have played through HOtDQ, what would your suggestions be for my Monk Tradition?

[RickAllison]

It can be a pretty lethal campaign. Long Death monk gives you an THP boost to survive a little longer, an at-will AoE fear effect, and near invulnerability to death (which might be at too high of a level to make use of it.

Especially if you have a high Wisdom for a higher DC or a lower Con, it lets you lock down small fry while your allies tear them apart.

[Gryndle]

yeah, the DM had warned us it was set up to be pretty brutal and he wouldn't pull many punches. BUt he did give us a lot of leeway with character creation so that we are bit tougher than normal.
He is fairly new to DMing and I have had to help him with a few things, which means I couldn't avoid some of the spoilers for chapter 1.
But we are two sessions in and I am enjoying the risk factor.

Long Death is appealing, and kinda fits with the theme of the party. We aren't exactly bright-shiny heroes.

When the campaign started and we saw Greenest was under attack, at first we were going to sneak in and see how best we could profit. The we ran across a wounded man, a woman with a shield and broken spear defending a few children from kobolds & cult loonies.
THen our characters were like, "oh crap, we cant just cut and run our on the kids, so lets go be heroes (but an aside to the sorc.."Remember to loot everything")

[gfishfunk]

Honestly, I don't particularly think any build is better for the adventure. If it were underdark, a shadow monk would be better. (I don't really know the Long Death option).

The real question is how you foresee using Ki: do you want to knock people down / away / deny reactions? Or do you want to be all dark and silent and stuff?

I like knocking folks prone, your bladelock and tiefling friends will enjoy it, but the sorcerer will not; on the other hand, canceling reactions help them get out of adjacency if you need to worry about helping your friends move around.

I particularly like shadow monks, but you need to be much more careful about where you put your silence zones and darkness zones. You also get access to Pass Without A Trace, which is very powerful.

[Sir cryosin]

I played a shadow monk in both books i dipped 2lvs in warlock to get devil's sight. The shadow step is pretty convenient. But I haven't play a death monk yet so I won't waigh in on that. But I loved my shadow monk.

[RulesJD]

I played a shadow monk in both books i dipped 2lvs in warlock to get devil's sight. The shadow step is pretty convenient. But I haven't play a death monk yet so I won't waigh in on that. But I loved my shadow monk.

What he said. With your Warlock buddy as a Bladelock, dropping Darkness (you'll have 3 different players with it) with at least the two of you having Devil's Sight is extremely powerful, even late game.

I'll say this, most dragon fights take place in dragon lairs, which means alllllll sorts of dim light to Shadow Step...perhaps on top of the dragon who is clinging to the ceiling out of range of your melee.

Seriously though, if you have the ASI for it, Shadow Monk + 2 level dip Warlock really can't be beat for both versatility (Silence is amazingly useful), Ki resource management (Shadow Step not costing Ki is nuts), and just plain fun.

Other than that, I'd say Open Hand for the additional effects, but you burn your Ki getting there for the Flurry of Blows.


Curious though, why a one handed Tiefling? Kind of limiting play options with only 1 handed weapons and no shield.

[Fflewddur Fflam]

If you can get to level 17 (you won't), then Open Hand Monk is unquestionably the best because Quivering Palm is so crazy good. That path is just great anyway. The Long Death Monk is really hard to kill though, so I would really consider that. I'd only do the Shadow Monk if you were multiclassing with rogue (assassin) and wanted to get some sneak attack damage (and critical damage from assassinate!) in.

Thematically and mechanically, Long Death Monk and Assassin work really well together as well. Long Death Monk 14/Assassin 6 is what you would be shooting for, but you should always start off those multiclasses as a rogue first so you get all those skill proficiencies.

[Gryndle]

Mechanically speaking I'm not really sure why the Tiefling's player chose to be one handed. He does use his tail as prehensile, so maybe it was a balance thing he discussed with DM.
I do know his backstory was he was a criminal that got his hand chopped off for stealing.

Thanks to everyone for the input.

[BladeWing81]

If you plan on also playing Rise of Tiamat then I would recommend taking Sun soul Monk because you'll be able to hit dragons (and there will be a lot of them) with 4 radiant sun bolts while they're flying and also you'll be able to attack most enemies at a distance too. At lvl 6 you'll get a burning hands spell to use as a bonus action. otherwise I would recommend you get open hand monk with mobile feat to knock prone your opponents and get away quickly.