Multiclass for Adventurer's League 4 elements monk.

[Spiderguy24]

So I've been thinking of making a monk for adventurer's league, and I wanted to take a dip into the 4 elements, despite it's... overshadowed status. To expand his mastery of the elements, I've decided to multiclass into one of the caster classes to gain more elemental spells, but I don't know which one would give me the most and that makes it less MAD. Anyone got any good suggestions for this?

[Desteplo]

3/4 lvls in druid is a great supplement to the way of 4 element monk. Then just do the rest in monk

-if you wanted to go more elemental and less animal style go coastal land druid
-gives you a bonus action teleport
-some actual earth spells like entangle and shileaighleigh

[The Ship's dog]

3/4 lvls in druid is a great supplement to the way of 4 element monk. Then just do the rest in monk

-if you wanted to go more elemental and less animal style go coastal land druid
-gives you a bonus action teleport
-some actual earth spells like entangle and shileaighleigh

Alternatively, taking Moon Druid is also really fun because RAW, you can do pretty much all of the monk things in Wild Shape as well just as long as you don't cast spells.

Or you could take 2 levels in Trickery Cleric for Invoke Duplicity and get advantage on most attacks.

[Talionis]

I'd suggest not multiclassing with elements monk. It burns Ki faster than any monk. Getting your Ki pool as large as possible and hitting breaks to get new "monk elemental spells"/options is going to feel the best. Second reason for the suggestion is a general lack of efficient low level elemental spells. What would you grab? You won't have good spell slot levels to upcast the spells in. Most of the better elemental spells come online at level five when you get third level spells or higher.

My thought would be pick up a cantrip with Magic initiate cleric Sacred Glame uses Wisdom to target. But Chill Touch or Eleritch Blast from Warlock are interesting because picking up Hex as your first level spell is a real thought since Hex pairs nicely with your multiple attacks as a Monk.

[Scorpion_Strike]

I'm not familiar with how exactly one goes about Adventurers' League play compared to more casual campaign play, but I have played several monks and am pretty well versed on the power and uses of its features (in fact, I'm working on an extensive guide for the class, but that'll be a while to complete still). The Way of the Four Elements is really tricky to use until you get the higher-level disciplines, which are actually powerful enough to justify the Ki cost of using them. Depending on what level you're creating the character at, multiclassing could delay getting those disciplines. If you're planning to go all the way to level 20 eventually, I'd recommend not going beyond level 2 in any other class as Empty Body is a very powerful feature. Given the elemental disciplines' reliance on Ki saves, making Wisdom your primary stat would be a good idea, and multiclassing a level into druid or nature cleric to get shillelagh could help with that. Pop a useful discipline with your first action in combat (i'd recommend the battlefield control ones at lower levels for their sustained benefits and the fact that no other Monk gets to do anything like that on that scale), use Shillelagh as that turn's bonus action, and then you get to clean up with Wisdom alone on the following turns. At higher levels, you'll probably still want to boost Dexterity for the AC bonus, which would outmode the Shillelagh. It could still help you through the early levels and allow you to make the disciplines as effective as possible early on without sacrificing on martial abilities. The Magic Initiate feat could accomplish the same thing, and as was already mentioned, it could get you an elemental damage cantrip if you want to go for the feeling of throwing elements at people right from the get-go. However, the harsh reality of the Four Elements Monk is that you are just not going to be an efficient blaster in any way until level 11, and are better off focusing on creative uses of battlefield control disciplines until then.

[Specter]

I'd only bother with a single level of Druid, to get ahold of some cantrips (probably Produce Flame, for at-will range, and Thunderclap for hordebreaking). It would also give you some goodies like Entangle and Fog Cloud.

[ZorroGames]

Edit: Just woke up fully and found the thread where I asked earlier.

Yes you can MC but it takes a chunk out of the Monk abilities from what I see.

:smallredface:

[Quoxis]

According to what i heard, the best way to mc an elements monk is to take monk 0/anything else 20.

Jokes aside, going any spellcasting class which uses wis as its casting stat and taking a ranged attack cantrip is a good idea.
I'm a sucker for clerics. Light cleric gives you warding flare and access to blasting spells, nature cleric gives you a druid cantrip (grasping vine!), and arcana cleric from scag gives you wizard cantrips off of wisdom - shocking grasp for an attack with free disengage (without having to spend the ever-so-precious ki points), the scag cantrips (greenflame/booming blade) or whatever else, those are all ideas to consider.

[Specter]

According to what i heard, the best way to mc an elements monk is to take monk 0/anything else 20.

Jokes aside, going any spellcasting class which uses wis as its casting stat and taking a ranged attack cantrip is a good idea.
I'm a sucker for clerics. Light cleric gives you warding flare and access to blasting spells, nature cleric gives you a druid cantrip (grasping vine!), and arcana cleric from scag gives you wizard cantrips off of wisdom - shocking grasp for an attack with free disengage (without having to spend the ever-so-precious ki points), the scag cantrips (greenflame/booming blade) or whatever else, those are all ideas to consider.

Don't forget Tempest, which is thematic and gives you a reaction to electrocute your enemies.

[Quoxis]

Don't forget Tempest, which is thematic and gives you a reaction to electrocute your enemies.

The thundermonk, hitting people with lightning and fists as fast as it. Me likey.

[Citan]

So I've been thinking of making a monk for adventurer's league, and I wanted to take a dip into the 4 elements, despite it's... overshadowed status. To expand his mastery of the elements, I've decided to multiclass into one of the caster classes to gain more elemental spells, but I don't know which one would give me the most and that makes it less MAD. Anyone got any good suggestions for this?
Basically, all are great choices but because of Monk being more dependant from other on several attributes, I'd stick with Cleric or Druid in your place. Both are very fine choices.

Cleric
- Nature Cleric would totally fit in what it brings as subclass features: Druid cantrip, "element resistance" at level 6, extra elemental damage at level 8. Problem is obvious: it's not really a dip anymore, it's a true dual-class (not that this would be a bad thing though).
- Light is another strong contender: you get Warding Flare for yourself, and Burning Hands and later Fireball. With that said, these can (and probably should) be taken as a Monk.
- Tempest is thus the probable better choice: at level 3, you get a powerful AOE (maximized Shatter), in addition to everything a Cleric provides usually (Bless, Healing Words, Sanctuary, Spiritual Weapon).
- Arcane Cleric must be quoted for the cantrips, but beyond that is subpar unless you take it very high level (it's really sad you cannot choose the spells, because otherwise it would be golden because of Chromatic Bolt).

Druid
- Moon Druid 3 if you are very interested in Wild Shape: you get all 1st level "elemental damage spell", also Pass Without Trace, which you can combine with up to CR1 forms to sneak and make surprise attacks.
- Land Druid 6+ otherwise: just totally trumps Moon Druid for a simple reason: Spike Growth + Land's Strike ON A MONK!!! Choose the Land that gives Haste for extra efficiency. Or just cast Plant Growth and become the "you shall not pass" Monk, Gandalf Style (well, except for flyers of course).

In short...

For a single level dip (I recommend against this): Druid: Produce Flame, Frostbite, Mold Earth, Thorns Whip (you'll have to choose ^^), but also Longstrider, Entangle, Thunderwave, Ice Knife, Earth Tremor, Absorb Elements all of that at first level. Problem is, with a single level dip, you will feel extremely frustrated I fear: 2 slots per day...

For a two-level dip (still not the best idea I'd say but doable, unless you know you can reach character level 20, in which case stop the dipping here at all costs: Empty Body is just too great):
- Life Cleric 1 / Druid 1 : Life Goodberries for you, otherwise 3 1st level slots to spend on Longstrider, Jump, or elemental spells
- Tempest Cleric 2: except that you'd get only Thunderwave. You can learn Shatter as a Monk though, so it's a decent choice.
- Moon Druid 2: only if you really like the Wild Shape in itself, and if you take this ASAP (maybe even Monk 5 in fact, like Monk 2 > Moon Druid 2 > Monk X) so you can use it a bit in encounters before it becomes plain useless except very situational things.

For a three-level dip
Moon Druid 2 / Life Cleric 1: Cleric for access to buffs and Life Goodberries: you will mainly use slots on self-buffs or occasional damage spell.
Tempest Cleric 3: "self-contained" maximized Shatter, buffs.
Coast Druid: Misty Step or Mirror Image as exclusives for when danger is too strong, otherwise all the great elemental themed spells a Druid provides.

For a multiclass
Grassland (Haste) or Mountain (Lightning Bolt) Druid 6: this means you will get Diamond Soul as a capstone should you ever reach character level 20.
This is a strong choice to make because, to take fun from it, you obviously have to dual class early enough, (like straight after Monk 6) so it will feel clunky resources-wise for a few levels. And you will be overall less sturdy than a normal Monk since the defensive features will come much much later.
Like Monk 6 > Druid 3 > Monk 7 > Druid 6 > Monk
Go up there only if you like the idea of combos I provided (Spike Groth / Plant Growth with Land's Stride as a Monk).

Otherwise, ditch the last level of Druid to instead get Life Cleric: that way, you can level up in a more mixed, balanced way. Monk 6 > Cleric 1 > Druid 1 > Monk 8 > Druid 4 then either take last Druid level now for Haste or get Monk higher first. At least this way you get some spells and cantrips enough to realize your concepts and help you survive and be better (Bless, Shield of Faith) while you are waiting for higher Monks levels. And you end with just a tad less power overall (depending on short-rest), but far more versatile than a pure 4 Elements.

[draco359]

I am also having a go at playing a 4 elements monk and am strugling to decide on what classes to chose for multiclassing as I feel that going full monk is not the best choice.

My monk managed to land 13 int at character creation,meaning that divination wizzard is a possibility for me.

The classes I feel work best with 4 elements monk are 4 levels in Hunter Ranger (horde breaker or collosus slayer+ability score improvement+fighting style+some spellcasting) however Rogue 2 for Cunning Action and Fighter 2 for Action Surge, which can be used to cast monk spells or Figher 3 (instead of fighter 2) for some Battlemaster manuvers for more control options.