Fighter & Monk Hybrid: Good Idea?

[Zorahai]

I’m playing a 5e Level 15 one-shot with my friends in the near future and we’re allowed to make almost whatever we want (as long as we do point buy and only use book info).

That being said, one idea I have is to try a Fighter & Monk hybrid as there aren’t any martial classes in the group yet. My initial plan is that I’ll put 9 levels into fighter and 6 into monk.

Race: Kenku
Fighter Type: Champion
Monk Tradition: Kensei

What do you all think? Is this a good idea?

[Lolzyking]

Kind of odd.

I've always considered Open hand/Battlemaster Vuman ( manuevers feet) to be the pinnacle of fighter/monk.

[djreynolds]

The new UA fighter archetype Brute could be up your alley, adding 1d4 to all attacks at 3rd level

[Armored Walrus]

Sounds fun to me and would probably work fine.

If you're asking in terms of optimizing, you're giving up Extra Attack(2), and a second fighting style, and gaining Stunning Strike plus the ability to cast burning hands with ki points, compared to Fighter 12/Monk 3.

[Citan]

I’m playing a 5e Level 15 one-shot with my friends in the near future and we’re allowed to make almost whatever we want (as long as we do point buy and only use book info).

That being said, one idea I have is to try a Fighter & Monk hybrid as there aren’t any martial classes in the group yet. My initial plan is that I’ll put 9 levels into fighter and 6 into monk.

Race: Kenku
Fighter Type: Champion
Monk Tradition: Kensei

What do you all think? Is this a good idea?
Hi!

The base idea of mixing both is great, and your split would work fine overall, but I wouldn't say it's "optimized".

I actually don't understand at all why go that high into Fighter but then stop at 9th, when you have 3rd attack at 11.
Conversely, Monk 5 does net your Stunning Strike, but you'll feel a bit cramped with Ki.

Unless you had some feat-heavy planning done, I'd rather suggest going higher in Monk.
Going as high as 11 may allow you to be extremely reliable when paired with Champion's "critical on 19". Although Battlemaster would probably be better mechanics-wise.
Plus high mobility, making you a kind of Rurouni Kenshin (especially with Battlemaster's Disarm or Trip manoeuvers). ;)

For a more balanced build, I'd suggest Monk 8 / Fighter 7.
You wouldn't be as mobile, but you would get Fighter's 2nd archetype feature and one more ASI to spend on a feat. ;)

[Gydian]

Kensei 11 archane archer 4 makes a damn powerful ranged fighter.

Champion 7 and open hand, shadow, or drunken 8 would make a great melee fighter.


If you combine monk and fighter in any way take the first level in fighter.

[PeteNutButter]

The optimal split is fighter 11/monk 4 or monk 12/fighter 3.

Level 11 is huge for fighter and pretty dang good for kensei too, so you'll want one of those tier 3 abilities if you're starting at 15. That leaves you with 4 levels to go and since the cap is an ASI either way the difference between going more monk or more fighter is the monk gives you another ki point.

The fighter heavy version would really be better off with a better fighter subclass, but making 3 to 5 attacks a round is some solid offensive capability. Ki for flurry of blows might be a little weak at that level, so you'll probably get more mileage out of spending the ki to dodge. If you go that route, you don't even lose much for wearing heavy armor and all.

The monk heavy version has the +3 to a weapon feature which is very potent. Starting at that level are you given any magic items? If you are allowed to pick up a rare item of your choice, I'd recommend a Flame Tongue sword to make it a +3 Flame Tongue. In this case you'd do just fine with 3 levels of champion, as the crit on top of all those dice is not bad. This one operates mostly just as a monk.

[bid]

What do you all think? Is this a good idea?
You haven't given any reason why you'd want to mix and match. It seems to be a mere fancy without any backing. It's ok to aim for a RP concept even if it weakens you combat potential. Do you have a goal that makes you want this MC?

I can see fighter 1 for archery or defense mariner style, fighter 2 for action surge and BM 3 for cool maneuvers. But more than that eats too deep into your ki to be worth it.

Monks are too ki-starved to take more than a dip. And kensei 11 is too strong a feature.


Dipping rogue makes more sense: you get expertise, disengage/dash without ki, extra damage with finesse weapon. For kensei, you can get exotic with longbow or whip for ranged, all of them doing your martial arts 1d8 damage.

[Malifice]

I’m playing a 5e Level 15 one-shot with my friends in the near future and we’re allowed to make almost whatever we want (as long as we do point buy and only use book info).

That being said, one idea I have is to try a Fighter & Monk hybrid as there aren’t any martial classes in the group yet. My initial plan is that I’ll put 9 levels into fighter and 6 into monk.

Race: Kenku
Fighter Type: Champion
Monk Tradition: Kensei

What do you all think? Is this a good idea?

Battlemaster 3 [precision attack, riposte, disarming strike]/ Monk 12 (Kensai) looks very tasty.

Use a Jian if you want the Wuxia feel, or a Katana if you want more Japan feel to it.

I like Aaracrocka (just re-fluffed to a Human that can do the 'Wuxia flight' thing, because bird people are weird). Stat bonuses line up nicely with Dex and Wis. Faiing that, get some Winged Boots.

Pick a magic weapon (weapon of alertness?) without a bonus to hit. Then you can use your sharpen the blade with it.

[Quoz]

Open hand + battle master. On a flurry you can impose a massive 30 feet of forced move or 15 feet and knock prone and throw on a stun to boot. You would probably want to go monk heavy for the most ki.

[Malifice]

Open hand + battle master. On a flurry you can impose a massive 30 feet of forced move or 15 feet and knock prone and throw on a stun to boot. You would probably want to go monk heavy for the most ki.

I like [move] plus [action + extra attack] + [action surge + extra attack] = [Bonus action flurry].

Once stunned with stunning strike, they automatically fail Dex and Str saves. So you can spam a Sup dice to auto knock them prone on attack one, then auto disarm them on attack 2, or the other way around (make them drop thier weapon, and then knock them back 10' away from it, and then kick and stab them a few more times).