Kensei Monks, Longbows, Reach, and Opportunity Attacks

[Easy_Lee]

I used to think that the primary drawback to being a ranged attacker was the loss of potential opportunity attacks. I just realized that's not entirely accurate.

Suppose a Kensei monk has the feat Mobile and wields a longbow. He might attack an enemy and then move within 5 feet of it. Next turn, he might kick it once so that he does not provoke opportunity attacks when he moves out of its reach and fires more arrows at it, then moves back within 5 feet.

Here's why he might do that:

Hostile creatures provoke opportunity attacks when they willingly leave your reach without disengaging.
Opportunity attacks can be made with unarmed strikes.
The Kensei is always "wielding" his unarmed strike.

With two hands in the longbow, the Kensei can still kick creatures trying to run away from him. If he makes at least one unarmed strike as part of his attack action, he can gain +2 AC until his next turn. So there are actually multiple reasons to do something like the above.

Wielding a longbow also qualifies the Kensei for Sharpshooter, should he desire it. Additionally, stunning strike can be used on opportunity attacks.

Just thought I'd share.

[strangebloke]

So, basically reverse skirmishing, right? Instead of running into melee, getting off melee attacks, and running away, you're running out of melee, getting ranged attacks, and running back in.

I like it, and Sharpshooter answers the question of 'why bother?'

[Joe the Rat]

Any monk could do this using shortbow, or if they had longbow proficiency through other means. Nothing about martial arts shuts down due to non-monk weapons.

Open Hand gives you the hilarious option of Kick, Kick flurry+shove 15', shoot, catch up. You don't need Mobile if they're the ones leaving.

Kensei however is most suited for this sort of shenanigans, as they can gain the longbow proficiency without multiclassing, and the AC bonus for kicking people while holding a bow.


Arrow makes so much more sense now.

[rbstr]

Any monk could do this using shortbow, or if they had longbow proficiency through other means. Nothing about martial arts shuts down due to non-monk weapons.
Except the whole of martial arts stops working if you aren't using a monk weapon.

You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield
So you lose the bonus action attack, the monk damage die and dex-for-unarmed attacks.

What you get to keep w/o a monk weapon is the Ki stuff.

[MeeposFire]

Except the whole of martial arts stops working if you aren't using a monk weapon.

So you lose the bonus action attack, the monk damage die and dex-for-unarmed attacks.

What you get to keep w/o a monk weapon is the Ki stuff.

Kensai he chooses to make the longbow as his chosen weapon so he can do this just fine (well the book version of kensai anyway).


Just as an aside any character could technically do this as any character can punch the big difference of course is effectiveness as other characters can only deal 1 damage with a punch (1d4 if you take tavern brawler) and must use str rather than dex so generally more mad than this so kensai is the way to go in general. Other characters can make opportunity attacks while wielding a ranged weapon they just are nowhere near as decent.

[rbstr]

Kensai he chooses to make the longbow as his chosen weapon so he can do this just fine (well the book version of kensai anyway).

Right...I was not saying Easy_Lee's idea doesn't work kensei makes the bow a monk weapon (and it mostly works even w/o a monk weapon). However, Joe the Rat is totally wrong about the monk's martial arts feature it explicitly requires monk weapons.



Just as an aside any character could technically do this as any character can punch the big difference of course is effectiveness as other characters can only deal 1 damage with a punch (1d4 if you take tavern brawler) and must use str rather than dex so generally more mad than this so kensai is the way to go in general. Other characters can make opportunity attacks while wielding a ranged weapon they just are nowhere near as decent.

This is one of the things I was thinking about too. I'm pretty sure everyone can do an unarmed AoO...the rule doesn't seem to prevent it just as nothing really explicitly says monk can punch as an AoO.

[Joe the Rat]

Except the whole of martial arts stops working if you aren't using a monk weapon.

So you lose the bonus action attack, the monk damage die and dex-for-unarmed attacks.

What you get to keep w/o a monk weapon is the Ki stuff.
Yep, I missed that bit. Never mind. Carry on.

[Zalabim]

If a creature gets stunned, it's not even necessary to move back before shooting. Any monk can potentially pull out Sharpshooter for that, though the Kensai is a little better at it and a little more self-contained for it. Even if you have no plans to use it, every character should carry a ranged attack anyway.

With two hands in the longbow, the Kensei can still kick creatures trying to run away from him. If he makes at least one unarmed strike as part of his attack action, he can gain +2 AC until his next turn.
The +2 AC on Kensai only works if the weapon you're holding is a melee weapon though.

[BobZan]

2 sharpshoots, 2 flurry kicks. Solid.

Kensei rocks

[Grod_The_Giant]

Crossbow Expert might be a better option than Mobile. You don't have to do the kick-retreat-advance thing, you can just stand in their face and alternate kicks and arrows. You can also use a heavy crossbow to eek out a little more damage, or a hand crossbow (which, thanks to martial arts, will catch up to longbow damage at 11th) to take advantage of the extra bonus-action ranged attack.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Kensei make some of the best archer options in the game, this is one of the reasons why.


Alternatively Lizardfolk can do this all day on any class. Get in too close and get bit! But of course Kensei monk actually does this best since it’s less mad, synergises better than other monk options and monk is very good at the skirmish/kite style of fighting.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Crossbow Expert might be a better option than Mobile. You don't have to do the kick-retreat-advance thing, you can just stand in their face and alternate kicks and arrows. You can also use a heavy crossbow to eek out a little more damage, or a hand crossbow (which, thanks to martial arts, will catch up to longbow damage at 11th) to take advantage of the extra bonus-action ranged attack.

Hand crossbow is great as always, but heavy crossbow won’t work, only heavy weapon Kensei can use is longbow.

[Lombra]

I used to think that the primary drawback to being a ranged attacker was the loss of potential opportunity attacks. I just realized that's not entirely accurate.

Anyone can make an unarmed opportunity attack for 1+STR, or an OA with an improvised weapon for 1d4+STR (hitting with a bow for example) if he's not wielding any melee weapon. Agile parry requires the wielding of a melee weapon, and kensei shot uses your bonus action, so I don't see what the purpose of this waltz is honestly.