Finally have to make a choice.

[ZorroGames]

Okay, my 5th level (just) OH Monk Mountain Dwarf in AL play will, after a long delay, be in a game Tuesday.

Thinking seriously of a few levels of Cleric starting at Sixth for ranged or concentration spells. Also utility. Probably 5 levels Cleric maximum, before returning to Monk levels, for third level spells.

PeteNutButter’s Guide shows War Cleric 1+ as an example but Light seems more akin to where I want to build up the character. The Domain spells alone will meet my goals I think.

Hive mind thoughts?

[Spore]

War Cleric gives you proficiency in heavy armor which you will probably never use anyway. What is the goal of your haracter exactly? Which book is your +1?

I feel as a general idea, utility focussed domains and domains that focus on the wisdom score are better for monks.

Arcana (SCAG): For the wizard cantrips that - presumably get cast with Wisdom so you can spam your Hadouken. :)

Grave (XGTE): The spells are nice, you get improved healing when people die (including the patented kick to the head on an almost dead person in order to benefit from the maximized healing).

Knowledge: If you want skills, and your monk to be a scholarly monk as well as a combative monk, this is it.

Life: While the prof. with heavy armor is useless, I feel the domain spells are exactly these spells that would be expected of a cleric all the time anyway. Everything else is a bit subpar because it scales with your cleric spells and level.

Light: Cool choice. I am not as a giant fan of blasting (because it basically cannot solve any social encounters) but if you want these spells, go for it.

Nature: One skill, one druid cantrip (even though the popular Shillelagh is useless to you, you can still have a supernatural ranged attack). The rest is meh.

War Domain is nice for the extra attack but I am honestly less than impressed.

Personally I would pick Knowledge or Light, or Grave and Life for a bit more focus on healing.

[Wildarm]

Okay, my 5th level (just) OH Monk Mountain Dwarf in AL play will, after a long delay, be in a game Tuesday.

Thinking seriously of a few levels of Cleric starting at Sixth for ranged or concentration spells. Also utility. Probably 5 levels Cleric maximum, before returning to Monk levels, for third level spells.

PeteNutButter’s Guide shows War Cleric 1+ as an example but Light seems more akin to where I want to build up the character. The Domain spells alone will meet my goals I think.

Hive mind thoughts?

Assuming your wisdom is high, grabbing a single level of cleric wouldn't be bad. Grab a ranged cantrip like Toll the Dead and prepare spells like Bless, Sanctuary and Healing word. You could take a 2nd level if you really wanted a channel divinity option. I'd take a look at the Ambition Domain. Gets you warding flare and invoke duplicity which will get you an easy source of advantage. To be honest, I'd probably just stick with a single cleric level though. Don't want to delay all your Monk abilities and defenses.

[Trustypeaches]

War Cleric gives you proficiency in heavy armor which you will probably never use anyway. What is the goal of your haracter exactly? Which book is your +1?

War Domain is nice for the extra attack but I am honestly less than impressed.The main benefit of War Cleric is the spell Divine Favor, which works splendidly with Flurry of Blows and Extra Attack, amounting to a consistent 3d4 extra damage per turn for the OP's character (4d4 for flurry of blows). The extra attack just serves as a small DPR increase for until tier 3 for when you're out of ki points or don't want to burn Flurry of Blows.

I think the only other domains that offer much of note to the Monk is Knowledge for the out of combat utility and Light for Faerie Fire (one of the BEST 1st level spell debuffs; 1-time save or be an advantage pinata for 1 minute), a burning Hands which helps clear up Hordes that monks still have problems with, and Warding Flare to help avoid big hits as a defensive feature.

[KorvinStarmast]

If you are already a Monk, consider Trickery domain. The first level domain spells are kind of good, depending on what challenges you run into. If you end up at level 3 cleric, they get better, and the Duplicate of you could be very handy.
1st Charm Person, Disguise Self
3rd Mirror Image, Pass without Trace

[strangebloke]

Well, with multiclassing, you're either trying to cover your bases or building to your strengths. Monks are kind of unique in that there really isn't a good way to 'build to your strengths' since IMO they are already very efficient at what they do. So with that said, you're looking at a generalist of some kind.

In no particular order:

Light: covers the 'aoe' gap in the monk's ability set pretty well just with the spell list, although IMO the rest of the features are meh.
Life: I'm sure you know that this is a good healing class. Still, needs to be said.
Arcana: This gives you a lots of flexibility. You'll sorta be the party ritualist if there's no wizard, and you can also drop a WIS-based greenflame blade down with your spear before switching to flurry of blows. Pretty cool, IMO. Also the only way to get wis-based ranged attack cantrips.
Grave: You won't want to be healing much, but this subclass ensures that when you do heal, it won't feel anemic despite how low-level you are as a healer. Pretty bad spell list.
War: Pretty meh, to be honest. You already have bonus action attacks, and your hits are neither very powerful nor very innacurate, so guided strike is less good.
Forge: +1 weapons are great on a monk. Also, you get AOE spells.
Knowledge: Fits best thematically, and covers a lot of gaps in terms of skills. Very versatile.
Trickery: Pass Without Trace.

[Man_Over_Game]

Is there a reason Druid isn't mentioned? The hit die are the same, Druid gets a lot of spells that synergize well with a Monk (Magic Stone, Create Bonfire, Absorb Elements), the Circle of the Land options are EXTREMELY powerful with a melee combatant (especially with Coast, Grassland or Desert), and you refresh spell slots on a short rest.

Let me just knock you prone and Open Palm you right back into my Moonbeam/Bonfire for the third time.


The clerics are cool, but some of the features are redundant, either providing Heavy Armor or relying on casting spells or having a high Wisdom. Druid offers a lot of passive abilities that don't require a high spellcasting modifier to use, and will already work with your monk playstyle and mobility.

[Nhorianscum]

Stopping before your second channel divinity makes druid much more appealing than it might be otherwise, Land: Grassland and Coast give extremely good spells for a monk at level 3 and let you keep quivering palm as a capstone.

If you do go cleric 5 (you may prefer 6 depending on your channel divinity) I would recommend forge domain for the sweet spell list (shield!) and a downtime abuseable channel but all of these options are pretty sweet.

[darknite]

I like the concept ... meshes well with a religiously-oriented monastic order! It being AL consider that it is likely you could play this character all the way to 20th level. With that in mind remember 2 things with regard to being an Open Hand monk...

1) Ki is life!
2) You need to get to 17th level to get Quivering Palm, one of the coolest abilities in D&D.