A Monk Tradition for the Master Physician

[Joe the Rat]

Alright Playgrounders, I've got a question.

In a bit of inspiration (or pique, it's hard to say), I decided to run a Monk Physician in the vein of Wong Fei-Hun (or more directly from this guy (http://www.realscienceadventures.com/comic/v01ch2-page-04)) in the Adventurer's League. Variant Human Monk (Hermit), Healer Feat. Master of body, health, traditional medicine, and kicking your ass. Plays like a monk, except he can stick a needle in your butt and get you up and fighting again. Thus far his characterization has been of a calm man with a strong sense of honor, and a dislike of unnecessary suffering. After the last game, he's hit 3rd level. Time to pick a tradition.

And this is where I get stuck. What direction to take him?

Here's my main thoughts:

Open Hand: The quintessential Monk, greater mastery of manipulating others energies to knock them around. Essentially more of the same, character-wise. This idea is closest to the figures of inspiration.
Long Death: Turning that medical leaning into a true mastery of life and death. He ended up doing a LOT of killing blows in the last adventure. I played him as stopping to try to calm and soothe the poor sods as they died. A lot of the fluff talks about the masters of the tradition extending the dying process to understand its workings, but the feel of it is also rather pallative - helping to ease the process.
Sun Soul: Taking Body Vitality to it's radiant extreme. It's a slightly more esoteric direction, following the lines of his exceptional fitness and proper breathing translating into burning ki blasts. A veritable beacon of health.

The hard fits:
Four Elements: Um... as Sun Soul, only more "Bend"y? The mastery of self extends to mastery of the physical world?
Shadow: I'm just not seeing it.

So, what do you think? Where should he go next?

[Trum4n1208]

First off, I really enjoy the character idea. I might have to use it next time I play a monk. Anyways, on to your question.

I agree, Shadow doesn't make much sense to me. I like your description of the Four Elements, Mastery of self extending to the physical world, but I don't think it would work.

Open Hand or Long Death have my votes, especially Long Death, when viewed through your interpretation. Just my two cents.

[lunaticfringe]

Open Hand all the way all day every day. Meh to killing blow benefits, the game is still Low Tier. You getting a lot of Killing Blows can easily change depending on Party Make up. The Fiend Bladelock grew to hate my Archer Rogue. Meh to Fear Effects that can affect your Party (Each Creature within 30ft of you, don't count on house rules in AL).

I must admit, none of the other monk options do anything for me. Assuming you are going Full Monk and aren't planning to MC.

[PeteNutButter]

Open hand makes the most sense.

I'd suggest MC thief after level 5 if you can. The healer feat begs for the thief to use it as a bonus action. You could even take expertise in medicine, although unless your DM uses it for other things it's pretty redundant.

[Fflewddur Fflam]

If no multiclassing, Open Hand all the way.
If multiclassing, how about Long Death Monk 12/Life Cleric 8. Now there's some yin and yang there!

[Joe the Rat]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like Open Hand is the probably best option.


Open Hand all the way all day every day. Meh to killing blow benefits, the game is still Low Tier. You getting a lot of Killing Blows can easily change depending on Party Make up. The Fiend Bladelock grew to hate my Archer Rogue. Meh to Fear Effects that can affect your Party (Each Creature within 30ft of you, don't count on house rules in AL).

I must admit, none of the other monk options do anything for me. Assuming you are going Full Monk and aren't planning to MC.
kill access and friendly fire are potential issues. Good points. I am open to multiclassing, but I'm wanting to stick to mostly monk.


Open hand makes the most sense.

I'd suggest MC thief after level 5 if you can. The healer feat begs for the thief to use it as a bonus action. You could even take expertise in medicine, although unless your DM uses it for other things it's pretty redundant.Funny story on that one. The way we ended up mustering, we ran 5-02 (The Black Road) with half the party at level 1, and no cleric. We had a Monk Healer (me) and a Rogue Healer, which covered our "not dying" bases rather well. A little Rogue is a possibility - it would also save ki on dashing and dodging.


If no multiclassing, Open Hand all the way.
If multiclassing, how about Long Death Monk 12/Life Cleric 8. Now there's some yin and yang there!I like this one thematically.