Monk/Fighter build

[psychopomp23]

Hi, it looks like i'll soon have to create a new character in my current game so i was looking at something of a monk/battle master build.

I'm hoping to create something that can 'control' the enemies around him and deal a decent amount of damage. He would start with 3 levels of fighter and then continue down the monk path and i'm looking for your input/suggestions.

Level: 5
Race: Human (Variant)

I'm using the ones of my current character and i hope i won't have to reroll
STR: 15
DEX: 18
CON: 16
INT: 12
WIS: 16
CHA: 13

Lv.1 Fighter
Lv.2 Fighter
Lv.3 Fighter (Battle Master)
Lv.4 Monk
Lv.5 Monk


So far i was thinking Martial Adept for the extra maneuvers and dice but suggestions are greatly appreciated


Fighting style:
Dueling

Maneuvers:
Commander's Strike
Disarming Attack
Parry
Precision Attack
Trip Attack


With those levels/stats my unarmed strike would be 1d4+4 so I'll probably add the quarterstaff 1d6+4+2(from the dueling). I haven't given much thought for range so let me know what you think.

I think that's the gist of it, if you need more info, ask away!

[JellyPooga]

Don't bother with Martial Adept; there are much better options out there. I'd probably spring for Mobile, Alert, Sentinel or Lucky, depending on what sort of character you're looking for.

[psychopomp23]

Don't bother with Martial Adept; there are much better options out there. I'd probably spring for Mobile, Alert, Sentinel or Lucky, depending on what sort of character you're looking for.

I like the lucky feat, i didn't see that one!

Which maneuvers would you keep from those i listed?

[gfishfunk]

I like the lucky feat, i didn't see that one!

Which maneuvers would you keep from those i listed?

Commander's Strike
Parry
Precision Attack
Disarming Attack OR Trip Attack

Trip attack is more useful in general because the opponent does not need to be armed (take that, wolf). However, if you have a ranged heavy party, trip attack makes it harder for them to hit. If you have a more melee heavy party, trip attack is great. Disarming attack is pretty good on armed opponents.

The Lucky feat is obejctively the best feat - wonderfully useful. Your DM might not allow you to take it because it is too good all the time. Many / Most believe that it is overpowered.

For a monk build, I would tend to get the Alert feat or the Magic Initiate. I think Monks could do for a concentration spell, even if it is once a day.

[Specter]

Monks love Sentinel, because it frees their bonus action. Then they can hit, evade the enemy and they can't follow because they're slow. I'd go with that.

If you want control, go Sentinel and quarterstaff, but you won't be the best for it.

As for maneuvers, Trip stands out as the first attack in a round, followed by Action Surge and Flurry. 6 attacks at level 7, 5 of them with advantage? Yes please.

[JellyPooga]

Commander's Strike
Parry
Precision Attack
Disarming Attack OR Trip Attack

I would tend to agree here, for the reasons given.

I would probably switch out Precision Attack for Menacing. You've got an amazing DC on your maneuvers and a better than average to hit modifier. Frightened is a very powerful condition to inflict and well worth considering.


The Lucky feat is obejctively the best feat

Arguable (rendering this statement inherently false, I suppose). Lucky is definitely very good, no argument there, yet I've still to see it in actual play; lots of people talk about grabbing it, but I've yet to see someone advocate it over something more specialised like GWM or War Caster for a given build.

Lucky shines brightest in games where the 10-minute workday is the norm; i.e. alpha-strike with everything you've got, then go rest up. In a game where you're going for even the recommended 6 encounters a day, let alone anything more hardcore (I've played in a game where getting one long rest a day would have been a luxury posted all the way from easy street!), you're only using Lucky once every other encounter; potentially game-changing, but due to infrequency it's hardly broken. "Saving" your Luck for a Boss Fight can potentially trivialise it, but then you're spending the rest of the day as if you had no Feat at all. On the whole, I think it's balanced.

[gfishfunk]

Arguable (rendering this statement inherently false, I suppose). Lucky is definitely very good, no argument there, yet I've still to see it in actual play; lots of people talk about grabbing it, but I've yet to see someone advocate it over something more specialised like GWM or War Caster for a given build.

Lucky shines brightest in games where the 10-minute workday is the norm; i.e. alpha-strike with everything you've got, then go rest up. In a game where you're going for even the recommended 6 encounters a day, let alone anything more hardcore (I've played in a game where getting one long rest a day would have been a luxury posted all the way from easy street!), you're only using Lucky once every other encounter; potentially game-changing, but due to infrequency it's hardly broken. "Saving" your Luck for a Boss Fight can potentially trivialise it, but then you're spending the rest of the day as if you had no Feat at all. On the whole, I think it's balanced.

I have seen it in practice, and it will often turn a critical miss into a hit. I think we can both agree that it is very, very good.

[JellyPooga]

I have seen it in practice, and it will often turn a critical miss into a hit. I think we can both agree that it is very, very good.

Oh without a doubt. The 3/day limit is, I think, both balanced/fair and a necessary limitation to prevent it being overpowered.

[Sir cryosin]

I have seen it in practice, and it will often turn a critical miss into a hit. I think we can both agree that it is very, very good.

Ya but halflings can do that for free every turn.

[gfishfunk]

Oh without a doubt. The 3/day limit is, I think, both balanced/fair and a necessary limitation to prevent it being overpowered.


Ya but halflings can do that for free every turn.

Lets not get sucked into a discussion of the Lucky feat. The main point: yes, it is a good feat for a human variant monk.

[psychopomp23]

Ya but halflings can do that for free every turn.

True but it's only on a '1' hopefully i don't roll that many in a 'day' lol

[psychopomp23]

What do you guys think of the mix? I haven't played a lot of characters in 5th e yet

[Fflewddur Fflam]

First off: Don't start Fighter, you want to start monk to get Dex saving throw proficiency because Evasion is GREAT.

Second: Your leveling should be first 5 levels monk, than do 3 levels fighter. You do this because you want to get to level 5 as fast as possible for Extra Attack and Stunning Strike. If you took 3 levels of fighter first, you wouldn't get Extra Attack until level 8 and your character would be really behind compared to other martials who already had Extra Attack 3 levels earlier.

Third: feats are cool and all but you want to get your wisdom to 18 by the time you get stunning strike. Stunning strike is really the most important thing a monk brings to the battlefield and you want to get that save DC for it high. You definitely want to get Dex and Wis at 20 sooner rather than later.

[JellyPooga]

What do you guys think of the mix? I haven't played a lot of characters in 5th e yet

Many features don't mesh well; the Fighters Heavy Armour vs. the Monks Unarmoured AC and features.

Having said that, there's a lot to be said for it; you'll have a lot of attacks and the option to stack maneuvers on them with Battlemaster. When you get to Monk 3, if you take Open Hand, you'll be able to stack multiple effects on to each attack. All this adds up to a fairly strong melee nova build, but the multiclassing means you'll have to watch out for running out of resources too quickly between rests.

[Fflewddur Fflam]

What do you guys think of the mix? I haven't played a lot of characters in 5th e yet

It's not a bad way to get more damage from a monk. Another option I would recommend is Monk 12/Hunter Ranger 3/Swashbuckler Rogue 5. THAT puts out a lot of damage. You'd have Hunter's Mark giving you +1d6 per hit, plus Colossus Slayer giving you +1d8 per attack, plus +3d6 sneak attack plus dueling fighting style +2 on your shortsword hits (you can get dueling style from fighter as well, of course).

I personally think the best monk for multi-classing is SCAG's Long Death Monk so I'd recommend that one for either your monk/fighter build or this one I've provided above. If you are doing Monk 17/Fighter 3 than I would go Open Hand Monk for quivering palm, assuming you ever get to level 20 with that build.....

[DragonSorcererX]

A good build would be Warforged Fighter 2/Monk 18, it is really OP as a Str monk, you will have AC 20 (Plate 18 + 1 Composite Plating + 1 Defensive Fighting Style), and, since you are a Warforged your armor is built-in, so, even if you are captured you will not lose your cheesy AC... unless the captor is an Artificer...

[Zman]

For maneuvers I'd say Trip, Precision Strike, and Riposte. Trip for Advantage with lots of attacks is great. Hitting the hints when needed makes Precision strike solid. A Riposte a Stunning Strike to interrupt an enemies attack sequence could be devastating.

For feats, Lucky is hard to pass up. Mobile is great too.

[djreynolds]

An open hand monk can already trip and with forcing dex saving throw to boot. And you can stun.

Every level not monk is less KI points to use.

I would grab something else, cleric or ranger or druid.

Fighter sounds like an awesome fit, but ranger's horde breaker might be better along with hunter's mark.

I like the flavor of a battle master monk, but you are very short rest dependent.

[Citan]

First off: Don't start Fighter, you want to start monk to get Dex saving throw proficiency because Evasion is GREAT.

Second: Your leveling should be first 5 levels monk, than do 3 levels fighter. You do this because you want to get to level 5 as fast as possible for Extra Attack and Stunning Strike. If you took 3 levels of fighter first, you wouldn't get Extra Attack until level 8 and your character would be really behind compared to other martials who already had Extra Attack 3 levels earlier.

Third: feats are cool and all but you want to get your wisdom to 18 by the time you get stunning strike. Stunning strike is really the most important thing a monk brings to the battlefield and you want to get that save DC for it high. You definitely want to get Dex and Wis at 20 sooner rather than later.
+10 to all of this. Also, for a controller, Open Hand is the best because of the free effect on Flurry of Blows. Meaning though that you will want to spend all your ki on either FoB, or Stunning Strike, or both combined. Which implies in turn a decent ki pool (at least 10, higher is much better).
The alternative (if SCAG allowed) would be Long Death, great resilience and great at-will ability (it DOES use your action though, so you wouldn't contribue anything to damage).

Hi, it looks like i'll soon have to create a new character in my current game so i was looking at something of a monk/battle master build.

I'm hoping to create something that can 'control' the enemies around him and deal a decent amount of damage. He would start with 3 levels of fighter and then continue down the monk path and i'm looking for your input/suggestions.

Level: 5
Race: Human (Variant)

I'm using the ones of my current character and i hope i won't have to reroll
STR: 15
DEX: 18
CON: 16
INT: 12
WIS: 16
CHA: 13

Lv.1 Fighter
Lv.2 Fighter
Lv.3 Fighter (Battle Master)
Lv.4 Monk
Lv.5 Monk


So far i was thinking Martial Adept for the extra maneuvers and dice but suggestions are greatly appreciated


Fighting style:
Dueling

Maneuvers:
Commander's Strike
Disarming Attack
Parry
Precision Attack
Trip Attack


With those levels/stats my unarmed strike would be 1d4+4 so I'll probably add the quarterstaff 1d6+4+2(from the dueling). I haven't given much thought for range so let me know what you think.

I think that's the gist of it, if you need more info, ask away!
Hi!

First...
- If your DM is ready to allow you to use the "Spellless" Ranger and agrees that manoeuvers stack, take a 2 level dip by all means.
- If in general UA content is allowed, take Mariner Fighting Style (swimming and climbing may be redundant later, but you can profit for at least 9 levels, and +1 as Unarmored is great).

Second, as for feat, I agree with everything others said, there are many better feats than Martial Adept. Mobile is the one of choice for you here.

Third, for Manoeuvers choice, I'd say...
- drop Commander's Strike unless you have a Rogue with you.
- keep Precision Attack at start and swap later, unless there is nobody to give you help to hit.
- Trip Attack is great for you, but beware if you plan on playing with several ranged attackers, you will annoy them.
- if you don't take Mobile, Evasive Footwork can be a great choice for you, especially since you often want to reach and stun a dangerous foe guarded by mooks.

Fourth, you have crazy good stats, take advantage of it. Once your build is online (Open Hand Monk 5 / Battlemaster 4), don't disregard dips.
- Rogue 2 is a pretty heavy cost, but will be great in the long run because when Flurry of Blow is not required, you can Dash/Disengage as a bonus action without consuming Ki. You can also get Expertise in Stealth and Athletics (with your STR score, you could actually be a pretty decent Shover/Grappler: meaning Trip Attack becomes less interesting, and you could choose another Monk archetype and still be good at control).
- Nature Cleric 2 would give you Bless and Shield of Faith for the big fights of the day, Guidance great cantrip for everything, Sacred Flame as a ranged option, Shillelagh to get SAD or Thorn Whip for situational uses.
- Life Cleric 1 and Druid 1 would net you everything above along with other useful spells and Wild Shape (which you could use to Stealth your way towards a better position before the fight begins for example).
- Any Cleric 3 would get you access to Spiritual Weapon, which can be crazy fun with Long Death Monk's lvl 6 ability.
- Vengeance Paladin 3 (rarity for a Monk!) would give you a few good spells and spell slots to use, but more importantly perma-advantage against a select enemy. You would become the worst nightmare of BBEG. ;)

As for other ideas I would have in mind, they are for once you reach 9th level and beyond so, I'd say we'll have time to see this coming. ;)

[psychopomp23]

Thanks everyone for your comments! I have a lot to think about