Mistweaver concept help (Monk/Cleric?)

[NiklasWB]

I just recently tested World of Warcraft for the first time ever (like 14 years late to the party, I know), and I was reading up on the various classes and specs.

Most classes and specializations seem to be able to be replicated in 5e, but one spec that I'm having a bit of trouble adapting is the Mistweaver Monk. For those that don't know, the Mistweaver is a monk who weaves chi (ki) into healing mist and supports the party through healing and buffs. So I was thinking that I should ask for some input on how one could build a Mistweaver in 5e. Some core things the build needs: unarmored defense (for aesthetics), martial arts, heavy healing focus, mobile and defensive playstyle.

My initial thought was to simply homebrew a Monastic Tradition for the Mistweaver, but overall I always want to at least try to build a concept using existing subclasses and multiclassing before resorting to homebrew.

I think one could probably use a multiclass between Monk and a Life Domain Cleric, but I'm not sure if the classes synergize well. It seems a bit like their respective playstyles and action economy would clash somewhat.

So how would you go about doing this? Mostly Cleric and a dip of a few levels in Monk? Mostly Monk and a dip in Cleric for some healing? What would be the actual spread of levels and in what order? 12/8, 17/3, 14/6? Obviously focus on WIS and DEX primarily 8getting them to 20 ASAP), maybe throw in a Feat if possible, but it will probably not be necessarily needed for the build.

Thanks for the input.

[Arkhios]

I'd argue, that since Mistweaver isn't much of a fighter in its current state, a cleric (I'd argue that nature domain is better, as seen below) would work just fine on its own. Just pick up Tavern Brawler feat so that you can still pack a decent punch when you need it. Although, that unarmed strike would still rely on strength, which is somewhat an issue, unless your DM is willing to house rule it.

Another class that could work, for the theme, is the Shepherd Druid. Just don't use wild shape, and you're great. Mistweaving is pretty close to nature magic, and many of their more magical abilities deal nature damage in WoW, so don't dismiss druid immediately.

That said, cleric (or druid) only requires you to have a decent wisdom (a minimum of 13 if you intend to multiclass) while monk requires a decent dexterity and wisdom (both 13 at minimum if you intend to multiclass), so that in mind those classes do have a pretty great synergy. I do understand why you'd want the unarmored defense, but honestly, you can replicate that with Barkskin, for example.

[CTurbo]

I just recently tested World of Warcraft for the first time ever (like 14 years late to the party, I know), and I was reading up on the various classes and specs.

Most classes and specializations seem to be able to be replicated in 5e, but one spec that I'm having a bit of trouble adapting is the Mistweaver Monk. For those that don't know, the Mistweaver is a monk who weaves chi (ki) into healing mist and supports the party through healing and buffs. So I was thinking that I should ask for some input on how one could build a Mistweaver in 5e. Some core things the build needs: unarmored defense (for aesthetics), martial arts, heavy healing focus, mobile and defensive playstyle.

My initial thought was to simply homebrew a Monastic Tradition for the Mistweaver, but overall I always want to at least try to build a concept using existing subclasses and multiclassing before resorting to homebrew.

I think one could probably use a multiclass between Monk and a Life Domain Cleric, but I'm not sure if the classes synergize well. It seems a bit like their respective playstyles and action economy would clash somewhat.

So how would you go about doing this? Mostly Cleric and a dip of a few levels in Monk? Mostly Monk and a dip in Cleric for some healing? What would be the actual spread of levels and in what order? 12/8, 17/3, 14/6? Obviously focus on WIS and DEX primarily 8getting them to 20 ASAP), maybe throw in a Feat if possible, but it will probably not be necessarily needed for the build.

Thanks for the input.


I don't know what Mistweaver is, but I can say that mechanically speaking, I think it's be much better to be a Monk with a level or 3 of Cleric depending on what you want out of the class than a Cleric with a few levels of Monk.

I'm not sure what you're wanting from the Cleric class, but I would probably either take a single level or a chunk of 5 levels. Not sure I'd be sold on Life though.

Life gets you extra healing but that's it over other domains.

Light might be my pick. You get the very awesome Faerie Fire spell, a bit of blasting, and the very good Warding Flare feature which you'd be able to make good use of.

Tempest would also be awesome. When you REALLY need to kill some stuff, Destructive Wrath is there for you. There are some great control spells here too, and Wrath of the Storm is another great use of your reaction.

Knowledge if you want to be smart. Get 2 Int skills with proficiency. Be able to use any tool you need.

Nature if you want to be more friendly with plants and animals. Free Druid cantrip

Not sure the others are even worth mentioning

[Arkhios]

I don't know what Mistweaver is, but I can say that mechanically speaking, I think it's be much better to be a Monk with a level or 3 of Cleric depending on what you want out of the class than a Cleric with a few levels of Monk.

I'm not sure what you're wanting from the Cleric class, but I would probably either take a single level or a chunk of 5 levels. Not sure I'd be sold on Life though.

Life gets you extra healing but that's it over other domains.

Light might be my pick. You get the very awesome Faerie Fire spell, a bit of blasting, and the very good Warding Flare feature which you'd be able to make good use of.

Tempest would also be awesome. When you REALLY need to kill some stuff, Destructive Wrath is there for you. There are some great control spells here too, and Wrath of the Storm is another great use of your reaction.

Knowledge if you want to be smart. Get 2 Int skills with proficiency. Be able to use any tool you need.

Nature if you want to be more friendly with plants and animals. Free Druid cantrip

Not sure the others are even worth mentioning

To answer to the bolded part, OP already delivered it fairly clearly. But here's another take:

Mistweaver is a "sub-class" of Monk in World of Warcraft. In WoW, just like in 5th edition, a class always has only one of the available sub-classes. (In contrary to D&D, though, WoW allows the character to swap between their available sub-classes but that's irrelevant).

In WoW, monk is pretty similar to what it is in D&D. An unarmed and (relatively speaking) unarmored combatant, with the skill and capability to use weapons if they want to. However, that's where the similarities end, more or less.
Mistweaver is a dedicated healer. In WoW's terms, that means you focus your time and energy (or, in this case your Chi and mana) to heal your allies, and if necessary, remove other ailments as well, or even resurrect dead ones.
NOT to deal lots of AoE damage or Crowd Control.

However, because monk is an unarmed combatant, it is capable of dealing decent damage. Not as well as the Wind Walker "sub-class" which is a dedicated damage dealer (a "Striker" as it would've been called in D&D's 4th edition), but well enough to survive a fight on its own. Not against many, but a few.

As healers in general (in WoW) mistweavers are more likely to stay in the back, and heal allies from range, which they are very capable of doing, as they have a strong baseline "heal over time" ability, which channels their chi to heal injured ally or allies. Chi, as I mentioned before, is labeled under nature magic in WoW, which is why I suggested going with the druid route.

While Mistweavers are capable of doing damage in melee with or without weapons, they are not as good at it as the more standard monk stereotype, which is better represented by the aforementioned Wind Walker.

Monks in 5th edition have, despite their subclasses, more tools for damage dealing and utility powers, rather than reliable and easily recovered healing resources, neither in melee nor from range.
Thus, I repeat, Mistweaver monk in 5th edition D&D is much better represented with an actual spellcasting class that can heal from range as well as in melee. Clerics are great, and so are druids.

In other words, my advice is to not read too much into what being a monk means in WoW, and focus more on what you could use to represent their abilities the best way possible with 5th edition's resources. Also, just because clerics and druids get armor proficiency up to medium (or heavy depending on domain), they can still choose to wear light armor, which would be appropriate for a WoW-monk representation.

That said, I won't say you shouldn't try and create a new monastic tradition for monk, if you feel it's absolutely necessary.

[Rixitichil]

Monk 5 is generally regarded as a good cut-off point if you want to be good at martial arts. The Extra Attack and Stunning Fist use mean you can do a reasonable job in melee.
However to get the healing part of the build, you either want to go Cleric, (for which Life is good if you want to focus on healing, but a domain which empowers melee attacks at level 8 will synergise better with your martial arts,) or Druid, (of which Dream has a solid healing focus.). Druids get slightly more Weather and nature related spells which might match the theme of a Mistweaver better.
Build wise, you either start as Monk 1 then go full Caster. This will mean you rely mostly on your spells, but have the Monk look. At the point you feel you are happy falling behind with your healing and other spellcasting, (maybe once you hit 3rd level spells, but each has their own preferences) you then pick up more Monk levels, or just go pure spellcaster.
The Second option is going Monk 5 first, only adding your spellcasting ability after that point. You can use Magic Initiate or the Healer feat as a crutch to get some limited mist weaving powers until that point, (especially if you are a variant Human,) but the aim is to make sure you are a decent skirmishing martial artist first.

[CTurbo]

To answer to the bolded part, OP already delivered it fairly clearly. But here's another take:

Mistweaver is a "sub-class" of Monk in World of Warcraft. In WoW, just like in 5th edition, a class always has only one of the available sub-classes. (In contrary to D&D, though, WoW allows the character to swap between their available sub-classes but that's irrelevant).

In WoW, monk is pretty similar to what it is in D&D. An unarmed and (relatively speaking) unarmored combatant, with the skill and capability to use weapons if they want to. However, that's where the similarities end, more or less.
Mistweaver is a dedicated healer. In WoW's terms, that means you focus your time and energy (or, in this case your Chi and mana) to heal your allies, and if necessary, remove other ailments as well, or even resurrect dead ones.

However, because monk is an unarmed combatant, it is capable of dealing decent damage. Not as well as the Wind Walker "sub-class" which is a dedicated damage dealer (a "Striker" as it would've been called in D&D's 4th edition), but well enough to survive a fight on its own. Not against many, but a few.

As healers in general (in WoW) mistweavers are more likely to stay in the back, and heal allies from range, which they are very capable of doing, as they have a strong baseline "heal over time" ability, which channels their chi to heal injured ally or allies. Chi, as I mentioned before, is labeled under nature magic in WoW, which is why I suggested going with the druid route.

While Mistweavers are capable of doing damage in melee with or without weapons, they are not as good at it as the more standard monk stereotype, which is better represented by the aforementioned Wind Walker.

Monks in 5th edition have, despite their subclasses, more tools for damage dealing and utility powers, rather than reliable and easily recovered healing resources, neither in melee nor from range.
Thus, I repeat, Mistweaver monk in 5th edition D&D is much better represented with an actual spellcasting class that can heal from range as well as in melee. Clerics are great, and so are druids.

In other words, my advice is to not read too much into what being a monk means in WoW, and focus more on what you could use to represent their abilities the best way possible with 5th edition's resources. Also, just because clerics and druids get armor proficiency up to medium (or heavy depending on domain), they can still choose to wear light armor, which would be appropriate for a WoW-monk representation.

That said, I won't say you shouldn't try and create a new monastic tradition for monk, if you feel it's absolutely necessary.


Well after reading that, I would agree with you. If this character HAS to be unarmored then maybe a Cleric with a small Monk dip would work.

[Rixitichil]

The Primal Savagery cantrip might be a decent way to replicate martial arts.
With more powerful melee spells like Inflict Wounds or Contagion performing a similar role.

[Wisefool]

I think multiclassing into 3 levels or more of Druid is your best option. And I say 3 because if your DM allows it, you'll gain access to the Healing Spirit spell of which you can reflavor the "spirit" into a "mist" that you can direct around the battlefield. But you need to check with your DM because the spell as written is quite broken.

Now regarding which Druid Circle to take, I think you have a few options.

Circle of the Land - Coast gives you Misty Step (perfect for a Mistweaver to always know) and Mirror Image (fantastic spell for a Monk, advantage when you need to attack, yes please!). And Land's Natural Recovery synergizes with Monk's short rest economy and gives you more mileage out of your limited spell slots from this 3 level dip.

Circle of Dreams gives the player the ability to use "fey energy" d6s at 2nd level to add temp HP to allies. The fey energy can easily be refluffed to healing mist, but you would need to take more levels of Druid to get the most out of this as the # of d6s are based on your Druid levels. Both the 6th and 10th level features can be reskinned with mist in mind, so this Circle is good if you wanted to go Druid heavy. 5 levels of Monk for Extra Attack gets you the last feat in Dreams as your new capstone. Or if you don't care for it, maximize your ASIs with a Druid 12/Monk 8 split which gives you Evasion from Monk.

Circle of the Shepard also has a Spirit Totem feature at level 2 that has different effects that revolve around healing and buffing the party. Each spirit could be reskinned as a different color mist while keeping the language of the effect the same. I would only suggest a 3 level (if Healing Spirit is allowed) or just a 2 level dip (Healing Spirit is banned) as the remaining feats of the Shepard don't mesh well with your idea unless you want to start summoning various mist beasts.

Lastly Circle of Spores would take some work as you are taking the Circle and flipping everything on its head, but the image of a Spores Druid launching toxic spores at enemies can be easily flipped to sending healing mist to allies. Halo of Spores becomes Mists of Healing with the poison damage turned into healing points. Symbiotic Entity becomes Ki Empowered. Here I would change the add 1d6 poison dmg to a melee weapon attack with when you use your action to heal, you can add your WIS mod to the healing (double it if the spell adds it already) during the 10 min timespan. Fungal Infestation at 6 could be swapped to Misty Revival when your Mists of Healing revive an unconscious ally, that ally is veiled in mists giving disadvantage to any creature that attempts to attack it. The mists dissipate at the end of the ally's next turn OR after the ally makes an attack. At 10, Spreading Spores becomes Swirling Mists and if your DM doesn't like Healing Spirit, this is more of the same except RAW you don't get to pick who is damaged by the spores, so refluffed, you shouldn't be able to pick who heals from the mists either (although you do have the option to dispel the mists early). The 14th level feat Fungal Body can be named Misty Shroud and doesn't need to be refluffed, but the idea that you can't be blinded or deafened because you are always covered in mists and became accustomed to those conditions is pretty cool.

[Spectrulus]

There's an actual Monastic Tradition called Path of Tranquility. Its main feature is a pool of healing equal to 10 times level. These healing points can be used to cure poison and disease as well. They can also be combined with Flurry of Blows to help a party member instead of a punch. It would probably take care of what you're looking for rather than a multiclass.

[Arkhios]

I think multiclassing into 3 levels or more of Druid is your best option. And I say 3 because if your DM allows it, you'll gain access to the Healing Spirit spell of which you can reflavor the "spirit" into a "mist" that you can direct around the battlefield. But you need to check with your DM because the spell as written is quite broken.

Now regarding which Druid Circle to take, I think you have a few options.

Circle of the Land - Coast gives you Misty Step (perfect for a Mistweaver to always know) and Mirror Image (fantastic spell for a Monk, advantage when you need to attack, yes please!). And Land's Natural Recovery synergizes with Monk's short rest economy and gives you more mileage out of your limited spell slots from this 3 level dip.

Circle of Dreams gives the player the ability to use "fey energy" d6s at 2nd level to add temp HP to allies. The fey energy can easily be refluffed to healing mist, but you would need to take more levels of Druid to get the most out of this as the # of d6s are based on your Druid levels. Both the 6th and 10th level features can be reskinned with mist in mind, so this Circle is good if you wanted to go Druid heavy. 5 levels of Monk for Extra Attack gets you the last feat in Dreams as your new capstone. Or if you don't care for it, maximize your ASIs with a Druid 12/Monk 8 split which gives you Evasion from Monk.

Circle of the Shepard also has a Spirit Totem feature at level 2 that has different effects that revolve around healing and buffing the party. Each spirit could be reskinned as a different color mist while keeping the language of the effect the same. I would only suggest a 3 level (if Healing Spirit is allowed) or just a 2 level dip (Healing Spirit is banned) as the remaining feats of the Shepard don't mesh well with your idea unless you want to start summoning various mist beasts.

Lastly Circle of Spores would take some work as you are taking the Circle and flipping everything on its head, but the image of a Spores Druid launching toxic spores at enemies can be easily flipped to sending healing mist to allies. Halo of Spores becomes Mists of Healing with the poison damage turned into healing points. Symbiotic Entity becomes Ki Empowered. Here I would change the add 1d6 poison dmg to a melee weapon attack with when you use your action to heal, you can add your WIS mod to the healing (double it if the spell adds it already) during the 10 min timespan. Fungal Infestation at 6 could be swapped to Misty Revival when your Mists of Healing revive an unconscious ally, that ally is veiled in mists giving disadvantage to any creature that attempts to attack it. The mists dissipate at the end of the ally's next turn OR after the ally makes an attack. At 10, Spreading Spores becomes Swirling Mists and if your DM doesn't like Healing Spirit, this is more of the same except RAW you don't get to pick who is damaged by the spores, so refluffed, you shouldn't be able to pick who heals from the mists either (although you do have the option to dispel the mists early). The 14th level feat Fungal Body can be named Misty Shroud and doesn't need to be refluffed, but the idea that you can't be blinded or deafened because you are always covered in mists and became accustomed to those conditions is pretty cool.

That's all sound advice, indeed. Although, I must add that your alterations/refluffs to Circle of Spores might require a bit more thorough preview by more than one pair of eyes before I would allow them if I were the DM.

Regarding Healing Spirit, while it's been evaluated by the community to be "Overpowered", as a DM I'd be inclined to allow it, since it's from an official book, and maybe revoke afterwards if it feels too strong in play.


There's an actual Monastic Tradition called Path of Tranquility. Its main feature is a pool of healing equal to 10 times level. These healing points can be used to cure poison and disease as well. They can also be combined with Flurry of Blows to help a party member instead of a punch. It would probably take care of what you're looking for rather than a multiclass.

I'm AFB, but if I recall that was never published in a book. I'd be very wary with UA options, in general (and that includes Circle of Spores above). Otherwise, yeah, Path of Tranquillity might work for the concept.

[NiklasWB]

Thanks for all the input guys.

I did play around with the idea of taking some druid levels instead of cleric, but I'm not sure it really fits the concept. Wild Shape would be completely wasted (since it doesn't fit the concept), and even if I take the Land Druid path, sure, Fog Cloud and Misty Step would be thematic (for a Coast Land Druid), but other than that, the spells don't really fit. I'm looking almost exclusively for healing effects and some buffs like Bless, which the Life Cleric does better and easier. Like 70% of the druid spells are too 'natur-y' and wouldn't be used for this build.

So given that I go for a cleric/monk spread, is it worth going more into monk or cleric if I'm only going to use the spell slots for healing? I was looking at like 12 levels of Open Hand Monk, and 8 levels of Life Cleric, but it may take too long to get online. It may also be a bit lagging behind in both in terms of healing and in terms of damage output from unarmed strikes. Perhaps more Cleric levels?

[Arkhios]

Thanks for all the input guys.

I did play around with the idea of taking some druid levels instead of cleric, but I'm not sure it really fits the concept. Wild Shape would be completely wasted (since it doesn't fit the concept), and even if I take the Land Druid path, sure, Fog Cloud and Misty Step would be thematic (for a Coast Land Druid), but other than that, the spells don't really fit. I'm looking almost exclusively for healing effects and some buffs like Bless, which the Life Cleric does better and easier. Like 70% of the druid spells are too 'natur-y' and wouldn't be used for this build.

So given that I go for a cleric/monk spread, is it worth going more into monk or cleric if I'm only going to use the spell slots for healing? I was looking at like 12 levels of Open Hand Monk, and 8 levels of Life Cleric, but it may take too long to get online. It may also be a bit lagging behind in both in terms of healing and in terms of damage output from unarmed strikes. Perhaps more Cleric levels?

If you're really only going to use your spell slots for healing and nothing else, then I would actually suggest monk 10/cleric 10, essentially becoming a half-caster (with just as many spell slots as a paladin or ranger has).

To resemble an equal pace of spellcasting increase, take the levels in this order (yes, I'm aware that it would set back your first ASI quite a few levels, but otoh, you'd get two of them on consequent levels. Likewise, Extra Attack is being delayed by quite a bit as well, but - again - otoh, your role is to heal, not to attack all the time, and when you do need to attack multiple times, you can rely on Flurry of Blows):
1.Monk1
2.Cleric1 (paladin2 would get 1st-level slots)
3.Cleric2
4.Monk2
5.Cleric3 (paladin5 would get 2nd-level slots)
6.Monk3
7.Cleric4
8.Monk4
9.Cleric5 (paladin9 would get 3rd-level slots)
10.Monk5
11.Cleric6
12.Monk6
13.Cleric7 (paladin13 would get 4th-level slots)
14.Monk7
15.Cleric8
16.Monk8
17.Cleric9 (paladin17 would get 5th-level slots)
18.Monk9
19.Cleric10
20.Monk10

Or, if I were to homebrew, I'd use that as the chassis, and just put the ASI's and Extra Attack where they would come normally (ASI's at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th. Extra Attack at 5th. Perhaps with the cleric's 8th level domain feature at 11th). Also, I'd probably choose to have the cleric domain as the "sub-class". Maybe calling this combination the "Sacred Fist", in respect to the concept's origins in 3.5 D&D.

[JackPhoenix]

If you want to focus purely on healing and support, one level of monk for Unarmored Defense and Martial Arts to use in a pinch is enough for for a clonk. You could go deeper if you wish, but you'll delay your spellcasting progression and other clerical features, which may or may not be worth it, depending on your intentions and the expected length of the game.

Not relevant to 5e, but while it was pretty weird build, I loved my monk/cleric archer in DDO. Essentially the same thing, but with shooting arrows (though not anywhere as effectively as proper ranged character) instead of punching stuff between spellcasting.

[Wisefool]

Another homebrew option is to take the Way of Shadow subclass with one small change- switch the four spells Shadow Monks get (Darkness, Darkvision, Pass Without A Trace, and Silence) with four 2nd level Cleric spells. The four that have the highest healing potential are Aid, Lesser Restoration, and Prayer of Healing. Choose either Enhance Ability or Gentle Repose for the fourth or swap in Cure Wounds/Healing Word and they cast at 2nd level. The minor illusion cantrip can be used to flavor your heals in mists. All the other feats remain the same, just substitute "mist" wherever it says "shadow."

This will keep your Mistweaver monk its monkiest, but will not be a main healer after the early levels unless your DM allows you to upcast with extra ki using the table shown for 4E Monk.

[Theodoxus]

I appreciate the attempt to make a mistweaver using established classes.

I don't think it'll map particularly closely.

Now, I quit WoW about halfway through Legion, so take this all with a grain of salt - but I played every healing spec of all 5 healing classes - to level 110.

What I'd suggest would be obtaining access to the following spells (however you want to do it):

Lesser Restoration - replicates Detox
Healing Word - replicates Essence Font (sans HoT)
Cure Wounds - replicates Vivify (sans range)
Healing Spirit - replicates Renewing Mist
Stoneskin - replicates Fortifying Brew

Grabbing a single level of Cleric (Life Domain) lets you replicate Enveloping Mists
Grabbing a second level of Cleric (Life Domain) lets you replicate Revival (though more cleric levels boosts that ability)

Since WoW monks can use Leather Armor, there's little need to take an actual level of monk in 5E, unless you really want to be halfway decent at unarmed attacks.

I do wish D&D healing hewed closer to MMORPGs - It's one reason I actually like 4th Ed - though I get I'm a minority opinion on that.

5E's accelerated healing is kinda like the "finesse" feats in Pathfinder. 5E rolled the feats into dex attacks, removing the feat tax. Healing should have been handled in the same way. There's really no reason to not start every fight at max hit points. Though I think everyone should have another resource that's depleted on a daily basis...

hmm, maybe I should go back to 4th... if only I could find players!