It'd be cool if monks could do more maneuvers with their abilities

[soldersbushwack]

There are a bunch of combat maneuvers such as shoves, grapples, disarm attempts and giving help that seem like classic martial arts things to do. The Martials Arts bonus attack only triggers off of melee weapon attacks and not any of these other maneuvers. Furthermore the Martial Arts and Flurry of Blows bonus attacks only lets one use unarmed strikes and not any of these combat maneuvers. Open Hand Monk does basically lets a monk do shoves with Flurry of Blows. I think it'd be cool if monks or maybe just Open Hand Monks could do more of these maneuvers with Martial Arts and Flurry of Blows. Also, the Grappler feat pinning action should be doable as one of these maneuvers.

Some of the stuff I'm think about can already be done with improvised actions and the Open Hand Monk but in general I think more martial arts movies stuff like the following should be doable.

A monk grabs an enemy's head, spends Flurry of Blows, drives his thumbs into the enemy's eyes and then slam the enemy's head against a wall.

A monk pokes an enemy in the eyes (a help attempt towards himself), spends Flurry of Blows, knees him in the stomach and then kicks him away (a shove.)

A monk grabs an enemy, spends Flurry of Blows, shoves him to the ground and then pins him in place (with Grappler.)

A monk sweeps an enemy's legs out (a shove) which triggers Martial Arts and then the monk strikes the enemy in the face.

[Specter]

True dat. That's why Tavern Brawler would be a good feat if it weren't redundant.

[EvilAnagram]

Wouldn't taking Martial Adept and Grappler accomplish everything you're looking for?

[Grod_The_Giant]

The Martials Arts bonus attack only triggers off of melee weapon attacks and not any of these other maneuvers.
Luckily, the ability specifically says "When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn," probably to prevent it from triggering on things like AoOs. Shoving and Grappling aren't their own things; they're each specifically called out as using the Attack action. As for the DMG options,

"Climb onto a Bigger Creature" works on a successful grapple, so it's still good
Disarm specifies "a weapon attack," so you should be able to do it with a monk weapon
Mark only requires a "melee attack," so even your bonus action strikes can work.
Shove Aside uses the base Shove rules, so it still works

Tumble and Overrun both require separate actions or bonus actions, so they're not compatable. But most other things are.

[mgshamster]

Luckily, the ability specifically says "When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn," probably to prevent it from triggering on things like AoOs. Shoving and Grappling aren't their own things; they're each specifically called out as using the Attack action. As for the DMG options,

"Climb onto a Bigger Creature" works on a successful grapple, so it's still good
Disarm specifies "a weapon attack," so you should be able to do it with a monk weapon
Mark only requires a "melee attack," so even your bonus action strikes can work.
Shove Aside uses the base Shove rules, so it still works

Tumble and Overrun both require separate actions or bonus actions, so they're not compatable. But most other things are.

I came in here to post this. Glad to see its been covers. :)

[Malifice]

Just to add to the above, a 3 level dp into BM Fighter is totally worth it too.

[TheUser]

Just to add to the above, a 3 level dp into BM Fighter is totally worth it too.

I'd say taking the feat might be better

[soldersbushwack]

Luckily, the ability specifically says "When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn," probably to prevent it from triggering on things like AoOs. Shoving and Grappling aren't their own things; they're each specifically called out as using the Attack action. As for the DMG options,

"Climb onto a Bigger Creature" works on a successful grapple, so it's still good
Disarm specifies "a weapon attack," so you should be able to do it with a monk weapon
Mark only requires a "melee attack," so even your bonus action strikes can work.
Shove Aside uses the base Shove rules, so it still works

Tumble and Overrun both require separate actions or bonus actions, so they're not compatable. But most other things are.

Unarmed strikes and shoving both use the Attack action. However, shoves aren't unarmed strikes. Oddly, the language seems to suggest that if one used a monk weapon to shove or grab people it'd trigger Martial Arts perfectly fine.

Your other points are right though.

[Tanarii]

Luckily, the ability specifically says "When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn," probably to prevent it from triggering on things like AoOs. Shoving and Grappling aren't their own things; they're each specifically called out as using the Attack action.
Fixed your bolding to show why Shove and Grapple definitely don't work with Martial Arts. They are their own type of attack within the attack action, and don't use unarmed strike or weapons.

Edit: that said, once you have extra attack, if one of your attacks was a shove/grapple and one was with an unarmed strike/monk weapon, it would qualify. Maybe that's what you mean?

[R.Shackleford]

I would be awesome if 5e would have taken a bit from fighting games when coming to the monk and allowed for combos.

Round 1: Step of the Wind + Attack Action
Round 2: Dodge + Attack Action
Round 3: Action (Finisher Move)

You can use these finisher moves at any time for 4 ki, however if you use combos of SotW and Dodge (and other things) you can reduce the cost of the Finisher move by 1, 2, or whatever based on level.

If you use deflect missile and then follow it up with Step of the Wind you can stab the creature with the missile and deal a rider effect as you finisher move.

[Elminster298]

As a DM, if you describe your intentions in a way that would justify them I would gladly allow them and support further creative thinking. I like to believe that MOST DMs would do the same. It is easy to justify small house rulings like this not only for flavor but for the simple "rule of cool" way of thinking.

[Joe the Rat]

Just to add to the above, a 3 level dp into BM Fighter is totally worth it too.


I'd say taking the feat might be better
I think a Battlemaster Tradition would work best here, but that's homebrew territory.

[Zalabim]

Fixed your bolding to show why Shove and Grapple definitely don't work with Martial Arts. They are their own type of attack within the attack action, and don't use unarmed strike or weapons.

Edit: that said, once you have extra attack, if one of your attacks was a shove/grapple and one was with an unarmed strike/monk weapon, it would qualify. Maybe that's what you mean?

Prefacing this by saying I really don't know what Martial Arts is supposed to mean, but it's not the same wording as TWF or Polearm Master which requires you to take the attack action and attack with the right kind of weapon.

[djreynolds]

A monk can attack and take patient defense for 1 KI point, a bonus action, pretty cool. Attack and dodge as a bouns action. At 5th level you can attack twice and the dodge.

A monk can use quivering palm and kill you outright, or do up to 100hp on made save.

Open Hand monk is awesome, when you hit with FOB, you can impose a trip or push, it costs no KI other than Ki spent on FOB. And when you trip them prone, it is a dex save which most individuals in the game will fail. There is your trip right there.

[NecroDancer]

Note to self, play a battlemaster 3/monk x

[wilhelmdubdub]

I wonder what the max distance one could shove a creature back would be with a build like this. 15'/attack with movement between attacks means suddenly that cliff behind the PC is closer than you think. Does your unarmed strike when you flurry count as a weapon attack?