Fun monk tales?

[ToastyTobasco]

I see monks pop up in DnD conversations just about the least of all the classes. I'm curious if you guys have any fun tales of monks in the party doing crazy, awesome or ridiculous things.

[djreynolds]

I see monks pop up in DnD conversations just about the least of all the classes. I'm curious if you guys have any fun tales of monks in the party doing crazy, awesome or ridiculous things.

We had an 12th level elemental monk, we got pinned down by archers in an alley, they were up on roof tops, some 60ft or higher

The monk climbed up 30ft, used water whip and pulled them down. It was a vicious fight, our caster got knocked out really quick.

The monk really saved our bacon

[CTurbo]

I was playing a Long Death Monk with 20 Dex, 18 Con, 20 Wis, and the Mobile feat. I don't remember what level we were, but it was 11 or 12 or similar. I carried a +2 quarterstaff and a Ring of Protection. This was a VERY OP character. I never at anytime dropped to 0 hp. But anyway, we had just finished a battle with some demons, ghouls, and ghosts when the last ghost possessed me, and then proceeded to kill the rest of the party with my character thus ending the campaign. The DM didn't play it out correctly as he wasn't sure how to run a ghost possessed Monk, but he allowed it to keep all class features. Needless to say my Monk was too much for the rest of the party to handle lol.

[ToastyTobasco]

I was playing a Long Death Monk with 20 Dex, 18 Con, 20 Wis, and the Mobile feat. I don't remember what level we were, but it was 11 or 12 or similar. I carried a +2 quarterstaff and a Ring of Protection. This was a VERY OP character. I never at anytime dropped to 0 hp. But anyway, we had just finished a battle with some demons, ghouls, and ghosts when the last ghost possessed me, and then proceeded to kill the rest of the party with my character thus ending the campaign. The DM didn't play it out correctly as he wasn't sure how to run a ghost possessed Monk, but he allowed it to keep all class features. Needless to say my Monk was too much for the rest of the party to handle lol.

That is terrifying

[Ivor_The_Mad]

One of my favorite characters is a tabaxi drunken master which I have named pinball.
He is a monk, 7 rogue 2. he has boots of speed and the mobile feat. this means he has +15 base speed then +10 from mobile so that's 55ft with boots of speed when he dashes normally it would be 110ft but now its 220ft then you use feline agility to x2 that and get 440 but with drunken master you can flurry of blows someone and then disengage to get +5ft and then cunning action dash for 60ft x2 120-240-480ft

assuming you have boots of speed and the mobile feat at 20th if you take 18 monk for the increased base speed of +30. Then for the race, you choose a tabaxi for the Feline agility feat which temporarily doubles your base speed. Then you have 18 levels of monk and 2 levels of rogue for the cunning action so you can use your action to dash after using the boots of speed and feline agility so: 70 x2 140 x2 280 x2 560 then you cunning action dash so that's 1120ft. Then if you have drunken master you can flurry of blows to disengage and get +5ft so: 75 (30 for monk 10 for mobile and 5 for drunken master) then you dash for x2 so that's 150 then feline agility so 300 then boots of speed 600 then it all doubles -5 for drunken master so 70 x2 140 x2 280 x2 560. 600+560=1160
1160ft in 6sec then x10 11600ft 1min then x60 = 696,000ft per hour which is just over 130mph. (there is a way to break 300 but I don't remember off the top of my head. Though you can get someone to cast mobility(or whatever the spell is called) to double your speed again.

I love this build.

At one point our party was trying to siege this fort in the middle of the planes and they had sent out a troop of archers so my monk just ran up flurry of blowed two of them then ran out of range of the bows and just repeated this over and over. The DM was dissapointed.

There was a time with my first ever monk character named 龙拳 (Long Quan meaning dragon fist) He was trying to sneak into a castle with a harbor when a guy in one of the towers spotted him. (The tower had a wench with the chain attached to it to let ships into the harbor.) He ran and jumped landing on the chain as one of the guys raised a crossbow. he ran up the chain toward the tower ( at this part I rolled 2 nat 20s) and caught the crossbow bolt and jumped just as the guy's friend dropped the chain landing a flying kick to the guys face and throwing the second one out a window. Coolest thing I have ever done in-game.

[ToastyTobasco]

One of my favorite characters is a tabaxi drunken master which I have named pinball.
He is a monk, 7 rogue 2. he has boots of speed and the mobile feat. this means he has +15 base speed then +10 from mobile so that's 55ft with boots of speed when he dashes normally it would be 110ft but now its 220ft then you use feline agility to x2 that and get 440 but with drunken master you can flurry of blows someone and then disengage to get +5ft and then cunning action dash for 60ft x2 120-240-480ft

assuming you have boots of speed and the mobile feat at 20th if you take 18 monk for the increased base speed of +30. Then for the race, you choose a tabaxi for the Feline agility feat which temporarily doubles your base speed. Then you have 18 levels of monk and 2 levels of rogue for the cunning action so you can use your action to dash after using the boots of speed and feline agility so: 70 x2 140 x2 280 x2 560 then you cunning action dash so that's 1120ft. Then if you have drunken master you can flurry of blows to disengage and get +5ft so: 75 (30 for monk 10 for mobile and 5 for drunken master) then you dash for x2 so that's 150 then feline agility so 300 then boots of speed 600 then it all doubles -5 for drunken master so 70 x2 140 x2 280 x2 560. 600+560=1160
1160ft in 6sec then x10 11600ft 1min then x60 = 696,000ft per hour which is just over 130mph. (there is a way to break 300 but I don't remember off the top of my head. Though you can get someone to cast mobility(or whatever the spell is called) to double your speed again.

I love this build.

At one point our party was trying to siege this fort in the middle of the planes and they had sent out a troop of archers so my monk just ran up flurry of blowed two of them then ran out of range of the bows and just repeated this over and over. The DM was dissapointed.

There was a time with my first ever monk character named 龙拳 (Long Quan meaning dragon fist) He was trying to sneak into a castle with a harbor when a guy in one of the towers spotted him. (The tower had a wench with the chain attached to it to let ships into the harbor.) He ran and jumped landing on the chain as one of the guys raised a crossbow. he ran up the chain toward the tower ( at this part I rolled 2 nat 20s) and caught the crossbow bolt and jumped just as the guy's friend dropped the chain landing a flying kick to the guys face and throwing the second one out a window. Coolest thing I have ever done in-game.

...I think I might make a Tabaxi Monk as a backup now...

Also, that is the kind of awesome stuff I m looking for

[Ivor_The_Mad]

...I think I might make a Tabaxi Monk as a backup now...

Also, that is the kind of awesome stuff I m looking for

:smallbiggrin: Then if you have someone with the spell enlarge and reduce and a bag of holding you never need to bother with travel time! Just shrink the party and stuff them in the bag and have the monk carry them!!!

[Wryte]

I was playing a hill dwarf monk with a homebrew archtype in a campaign based on the Warhammer universe. The party had just stolen a ship from an island of Nergal demons and were making our escape when three dark elven ships appeared and started chasing us down.

The elven ships were clearly faster than our ship. We had a catapult on ours, and fired a couple shots, but it was clear we weren't going to sink any of them before they caught us. So, I armed and aimed the catapult, climbed into the basket myself, and fired myself at one of the incoming ships, intending to use Slow Fall to land safely on the deck. Unfortunately, my roll came up a little short, and I missed the ship... so I used Unarmored Movement's 9th level improvement to run the rest of the way across the water and up the side of the ship, where I proceeded to use the Rod of Lordly Might I'd acquired early in the campaign to charm the ship's captain, taking command of the ship.

I reached our ship just as the last of the rest of the party was taken down by the porates from the other two ships. With the losses the rest of the party had inflicted on them, I think I could have won, but the DM put us on the railroad tracks, and next thing we knew we were waking up with none of our equipment and our magic disabled in a dark elf prison.

So, being the only one who didn't rely on either weapons or magic, I proceded to put the team on my back and carry us out.

[Scarytincan]

(The tower had a wench with the chain attached to it to let ships into the harbor.)


Tower wenches are best wenches...

Especially when they're ok with being attached to chains

[Waffleinsanity]

Currently playing a Monk in a Hombrew campaign, no special changes, no homebrew feats or busted stats.
He has a modest 16 dex, 14 con, and 18 wis, and happens to be a Lizardfolk Monk. Right now in the campaign, I was introduced as a jester with a mask on, (one of those happy Drama masks) this was almost 7 months ago. My party has no idea that I am a Lizardfolk, and I have interacted with them multiple times as my Lizard, then changed back into my outfit without them knowing. The DM enjoys this, and has used me to give out quests and guidance to the team.

Well, in interest of how sneaky he has become, I came into possession of a mansion, have been running an underground pit fight club, my instructer at the local university has been helping perfect the best longbottom leaf the world has ever had (marijuana from LOTR) and he has taken the Monk way of Shadow.

Now, the fun stuff, there was a point our rogue died, and he rolled a wizard, my monk and the wizard hit it off well and the DM had someone try and kidnap the wizard in front of me, at this point I had 45 movement, 45 dash, and a 60 ft teleport to shadow on bonus action. The DM was NOT prepared for how fast I kept up with this guy, and he was important enough to have REALLY fancy gear. He took off out the door, and ran up a wall (he had slippers of spider climb) I was a monk, I caught up to him, and smacked him across the face, not for damage, but for respect (he called me a *ussy.) He then turned into a bat and tried to fly away, I asked the DM how far he had gotten, the DM says "about 40 ft," so I took out a bucket from my inventory for just this occasion, you see, a shadow monk can teleport into any kind of darkness, I threw the bucket at the bat *NAT 20* and bonus action teleported out of the bucket to hit him again and break concentration. He fell to the ground and the team proceeded to beat his ass. (turns out he was an important leader of a faction later to be found.)

There were a couple other good times, using those new slippers to be on the ceiling of a cave, punching a stalagmite off the celing to murder an Ogre... some other perfect rolls allowing me to throw back entire "trees" being shot from a giants bow... being able to move 5.5 miles underwater, in the 15 minutes that a lizardfolk can hold their breath... That sums up most of the adventure.

What I have learned in being a Monk (I ususally play Warlocks and Clerics) is that no one really knows what your position is, youre not a tank, not a healer, not a huge damage dealer. You are a super mobile striker, and can break concentration like a mofo. If your DM doesnt allow you to do "monk-like" things like flipping up walls, running along roof tops, being sneaky and protecting the balance of life. Then it will not be fun.
Yesterday when we played our rogue got pissed off because she had to run 3 miles in like... an hour, the DM said she would have to run at a full sprint and would take a level of exhaustion, which she did. The reason she was upset is that a while later, when I, as the monk did it, I did not have to take the exhaustion, "because the whole goal of the life of a monk is perfect their body, so this would be something a Monk would want to do and try to do, thus it would be easier for a monk." that is what my DM said. [on paper, we have similar stats, only about 5ft difference in speed and she has no teleport] Your DM has to think of your characters as their classes, not as numbers on sheets of paper. Makes the Monk MUCH more appealing and fun.

[Misterwhisper]

Not a cool combat moment but a great line:

The group is walking into a secure neutral meeting area to meet with leader of on underground cult.
The meeting was held in an inn that was known for being neutral ground and VERY secure, think Shadowrunner Bar or the bar from Angel.

The first person to walk in was our Half Orc Eldritch Knight fighter, they ask him to leave all weapons and armor in a secured lockbox at the door.
He removes:
- Full Plate +1
- Shield +1
- Longsword +2
- Longbow +1
- An entire backpack of potions and mundane weapons of various types.
- 3 hidden daggers
- A magical reloading hand crossbow
- A spell book he had stolen and was trying to make heads or tails of.
- A wand
- and lastly a very well stocked component pouch.

The guard at the door looked at him and asked, "What the heck is all that for?"
His response was: "I am here to negotiate."

Next was the Halfling Open Hand Monk.

He walked up to the table and simply put a small rock on it.
The guard looked at him funny, and asked "So what do you do?"

The monk just looked at him and squinted, "I am his bodyguard."

Rolled a natural 20 on intimidate too.


An in combat example: Different monk.

The common action attack of our monk, "La Luchadora" A masked Tabaxi Monk

Interact with object action to put on her mask.
Attack action:
- Kick to the stomach.
- Grapple check
Movement to carry them 40 feet up a wall (she had items to help with speed)
- Kick to the enemy again and release the grapple to do unarmed damage and also falling damage.
- Macho Man Randy Savage style Elbow drop from 40 feet, she took no falling damage due to monk abilities but her opponent did because she fell on him, and another unarmed strike.

[Bubzors]

My favorite character I have played in a long time was a human monk named Zeke. He was a follower of Pelor along with the cleric of the party. They collectively became known as "The Sun Bros" He was a little cheesy, having mobile and mage slayer, but a lot of fun. It's great having a high movement speed.

Many good stories from Zeke. He had a penchant for climbing on creatures larger than him using the optional rules in the DMG. It was a blast to sprint up a wall, jump off it onto the shoulders of a giant and start pummeling it to death.

He once leapt from giant to giant in a major encounter, somehow landing the final blow on each before riding the collapsing body screaming "DID YOU SEE THAT????!!!!!"

He also was once dominated the BBEG during a battle. Almost caused a TPK as I ran from PC to PC stunning them. Of course all of my compatriots rolled low on the save. Allowed the BBEG to escape and live to bug us some more. I think by the end 3/5 PCs ended up with 2 death failures that battle. Good times

[ImproperJustice]

Hmmmmm.....there was that time our party wa challenged by an NPC monk tonhonorable single combat in order to overcome a specific dungeon challenge.

Our Barbarian took one look at the unarmed, tiny man and said....This will be quick....

So Barbarian steps up, loses initiative then takes a full open hand flurry, bricks his stunning fist save, and is face down in the dirt with the Monk on his back rapid punching and stomping the back of his head.
He never pulled himself together enough to rage or anything. He just got beaten senseless. To his credit, he lasted 3 rounds (18 seconds), so it was quick.
Monk and Barb were both the same level.

Later on, our party had a Shadow Monk.
The easy access to pass without trace is easily worth the price of admission alone.
But, we encountered a giant boiling mud pit, with the only means to cross a bunch of wavy iron playforms suspended by chains.

Needless to say, some of the party took one look and were like, Nope!

Shadow Monk observes the cieling is Shrouded in Darkness, and teleports above each platform, safley landing like a cat each time, and crosses in a matter of seconds securing a safety line to aid the rest of the party to more easily cross.

Back when it was a bonus action, our Four Elements Monk used to run up walls, water whip a nearby foe to them, punch the enemy a few times dbz style and then let them drop.
Did it while leaping over a pit once and that was awesome.


Most recently, fighting some giants, we have a Tabaxi Open Hand Monk, who acts as “Momma Cat” to the party. She kept referring to the giants as bullies who need a good scolding.
At some point they lobbed a rock at her, and the GM described how she planted her feet, focused for a second and then punched the rock right back at the enemy (scoring a crit).
Later that same battle I remember her grabbing a Giants Ear and demanding that he take her to his mother for a right thrashing.

Then there was the time she deflected the portable ballista shot back at some Gnolls...and the time she disarmed Blackrazor from an Ogre Mage...

[Finback]

When I started running 5e, one of my players (new to D&D) made a dragonborn monk.

Very first action of the very first combat...
"I leap off the wagon to kick the goblin!"
*rolls a nat 1*

We summed it up as him catching his foot on the wagon's edge, and faceplanting into the dirt. The player didn't mind though, as she had made him up to be a bit of an alcoholic as part of his backstory.

[CTurbo]

Monks get a lot of hate, but I think they're awesome with high stats. Seriously a 20 Dex/Wis Monk with decent Con is a complete force.

[Grey Watcher]

:smallbiggrin: Then if you have someone with the spell enlarge and reduce and a bag of holding you never need to bother with travel time! Just shrink the party and stuff them in the bag and have the monk carry them!!!

So a tabaxi taxi, essentially?

[Misterwhisper]

So a tabaxi taxi, essentially?

I can just picture the Cringer to Battlecat montage now.

[Throne12]

I love shadow monks and have played a few now my first character was a shadow monk multi classed with warlock. We where playing hotdq. There was a red wizard that attacked us. He used mislead making us think he was still in the room with us and a group of his lackeys. But he ran away. On my first turn I tried to attack him but my first pass right through him. The DM called for a int check and I pass see it was a illusion. So I started running back to his room he had a good 2 turns on me but I was a monk with a high movement. So I get to his door with all my movement just to see him about to jump off the flying castle. So I shadow step to him then grapple him. On my next turn I unarmed strike with a headbutt and stunning strike him he fails. Next turn the party catches up i stunning strike again he fails and the party just gos to town on him.

I had a kobold shadow monk that i played as a rogue. The party did care for him so the tricked him into going into a creepy house where. He was talking to someone in the house when. That person pulled a lever to open a trap door. Dropping me into a beholder lair. I snuck my way through the lair using my minor illusion cantrip and great stealth rolls to get out. This dm was was a killer dm and tried hard to kill me.

[Keravath]

One of my favorite characters is a tabaxi drunken master which I have named pinball.
He is a monk, 7 rogue 2. he has boots of speed and the mobile feat. this means he has +15 base speed then +10 from mobile so that's 55ft with boots of speed when he dashes normally it would be 110ft but now its 220ft then you use feline agility to x2 that and get 440 but with drunken master you can flurry of blows someone and then disengage to get +5ft and then cunning action dash for 60ft x2 120-240-480ft

...

I love this build.

At one point our party was trying to siege this fort in the middle of the planes and they had sent out a troop of archers so my monk just ran up flurry of blowed two of them then ran out of range of the bows and just repeated this over and over. The DM was dissapointed.

There was a time with my first ever monk character named 龙拳 (Long Quan meaning dragon fist) He was trying to sneak into a castle with a harbor when a guy in one of the towers spotted him. (The tower had a wench with the chain attached to it to let ships into the harbor.) He ran and jumped landing on the chain as one of the guys raised a crossbow. he ran up the chain toward the tower ( at this part I rolled 2 nat 20s) and caught the crossbow bolt and jumped just as the guy's friend dropped the chain landing a flying kick to the guys face and throwing the second one out a window. Coolest thing I have ever done in-game.

Cool stories :) .. especially the last one :)

However, I don't really understand the situation with the archers. Didn't your DM just have them use held actions until a target was in range and then all of them fire at once to hit you with arrows/bolts? Also, your tabaxi speed bonus is only usable on every second turn since you have to spend a turn moving zero to reset it.

I was also wondering how you were able to run out of range of the bows on each turn.

Using Flurry of Blows requires you to take the Attack action on your turn:

"FLURRY OF BLOWS
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action."

Martial Arts also requires you to take the attack action in order to allow you to use your bonus action to attack.

"When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action."

So you couldn't use flurry of blows in your case. You would have to use your attack action.

Your regular movement is 30+15+10 = 55 x 2 for boots of speed = 110 x2 for tabaxi = 220.

So you could run in 220' ... use your attack action to attack ... then run back out 220' using your bonus action to dash. Dash doesn't double your base movement ... it allows you to take your movement again.

"When you take the Dash action, you gain extra movement for the current turn. The increase equals your speed, after applying any modifiers." ... so in this case you get to move an extra 220' for a total of 440' of movement.

If you use your action to dash and bonus action to dash you could move 660'.

If there was cover to run behind then you could certainly run in and out but on an open plain 220' would leave you within long range of most bows and crossbows.

If you used the attack action, you could then use flurry of blows which with drunken master would gain you +10' of movement and disengage. However, if you use flurry of blows you can't bonus action dash since both would use your bonus action. The extra 10' of movement could become 40' due to boots of speed and tabaxi (but that may be DM dependent). So you could run in and attack, use flurry of blows and have a total of 260' of movement for the turn which is pretty cool. However, you need to remember that if you use flurry of blows you can NEVER dash in the same turn since flurry of blows uses your bonus action AND you can't use flurry of blows without using the attack action.

[Keravath]

I had the pleasure of watching my first monk in action a few days ago. They were a level 7 monk/2 warlock and it was very impressive how they were able to stun the opponents. It burns through ki but there is nothing better than being able to attack the main villain with advantage since they are stunned. The monk can even attempt this up to four times in one combat if they use flurry of blows.

In our fight the bad guy had a +7 to con saves against a DC14 or so ... but this still means they will fail 1/3 of the time more or less so although it won't always work ... the frequency with which a monk can try to stun an opponent is very impressive ... AND they get is all back on a short rest! :)

[Laserlight]

Tower wenches are best wenches...

Especially when they're ok with being attached to chains

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that way.

In our first 5e campaign, when PHB had just come out, one player wanted to be a swashbuckler, and used Open Hand Monk as the chassis for that build. I let her use a rapier and we fluffed it as "you were a student at an illegal dueling school". She usually fought shoulder to shoulder with the barbearian and did well. (Except, among other Poor Life Decisions, she let a larval Great Old One into her head. Her RL husband later decided to Reincarnate--not Resurrect--her, and she came back as the only gnome in the world).

A few campaigns later, the same player took a Tabaxi build. The characters wakened something that terrified them, even before it summoned a batch of zombies as an action.
Player: "What? Even a L9 spell takes, like, an hour or something to do that."
Me: Evil_DM_Grin
Tabaxi: "As my turn, I run....let me add up all my movement here...okay, I run across the street, up the building to the roof, past the goblin sniper nest without stopping, then...let's see, across the roof...how much more movement do I have...okay, jump over the alley, run across the next roof..."
Cleric with 25ft movement: "I get the feeling I'm being abandoned."

[GriffinRider]

Okay, I'm super late to the party on this thread but I had a fantastic night with my monk this past session. I try not to blow my own horn within group but maybe I get to do it here...

Quick backstory: an Irish-themed monk, hailing from the Moon Shaes in FR. Trained by a secretive combative order within a mundane monastery to protect people and fight tyranny a la "peasant uprising". I combined a bit of Irish Fenians with Okinawan natives under the rule of the samurai, in the sense that he would always be up against greater numbers and more heavily armed and armored foes. He was taught to act like a nobody, a simple serf. His teachers let him down and he left the monastery, lost his way in life, has just become a drunken master. Starting to realize he can do on his own what his teachers wouldn't or couldn't.

So, we're trying to do a black market deal to trade gems we found for coin (money changer in town was charging an outrageous percentage, or so our rogue said). A second group of thieves tries to rob the transaction and all hell breaks loose. Drunken master ends up finding a trap door leading into a secret tunnel and figures some of our original black marketeers have gone down that way to escape the chaotic battle, so he follows. Ends up trapped, with two enemies in front of him and two behind, in a narrow (5 foot wide) passage. All his drunken master disengage powers will not avail him here. Switches over to Patient Defense. Thanks to skills and some good rolls, and thanks to the party's rogue who eventually also noticed the trap door, rushed down and came up behind the last enemy in line, the monk kills two foes, knocks one out to take as a prisoner, and scares the last one away. He comes out of the tunnel without a scratch on him.

But wait there's more! Here comes the local constabulary, but we've heard corruption is high in this town. Not everyone can sneak away easily so the monk - and for some reason our ranger - go out the front door, surrendering loudly so that the rest of the party can slip out the back. Off to jail we go. Monk settles in for a short rest to regain ki points, and the DM says he gets the full hour...then the cell door swings open and two guards manacle his wrists and ankles and haul him off. Deeper into the dungeon he goes, and it's starting to look really bad: dim, flickering torches, damp walls and puddles on the floor, skeletons chained to walls. The guards take him into a fifteen-by-fifteen foot room, a third guard closes the door and waits outside, and a fourth man (most assuredly NOT a city official) is waiting inside. Thus begins the beatings, while they demand to know about the gems we were going to trade. Seems there's more to this than we thought, and the thieves guild has influence with the police! Monk acts pitiful, helpless and terrified (not entirely an act - I was watching my very limited HP getting whittled away fast) until he's learned some tidbits about them from their own questions. Spring into action. The monk's previous cowering has fooled them. They attempt grapples, but his Acrobatics is too good. He starts throwing punches and elbows every time their grapple attempts fail, and they start getting battered. They switch to clubs, and the monk goes back to Patient Defense (again, no room to maneuver so drunken technique is no good!) That disadvantage on their rolls makes all the difference. Two rounds of being unable to hit the monk while getting head-butted and knee-ed and they call for help from the man outside guarding the door. As soon as he opens it and steps in the monk spends his last ki point on flurry with the drunken disengage, gets past them even with his speed reduced by the manacles, closes the door behind him. He knows they have keys and he doesn't have long. Hustles back the way he came, sneaks up on a guard, chokes him out with the chains of his manacles, gets that guard's keys, unlocks himself, frees the ranger, and opens the other six cells. A mass prison break ensues, and the ranger and monk flee into the darkened town, their futures uncertain...

In short, knowing what abilities to use and when to use them really saved my bacon. Sure, the dice giveth and the dice taketh away and I had some good rolls when I needed them, but it was an unbelievable run of gameplay. What's ironic is that the monk's "act like a nobody" training has also fooled the other members of the party, who see him as a bit of a lie-about and fool, and the fight in the tunnel and the escape from the jail happened out of their sight so they STILL DON'T KNOW! They may be starting to catch on though - the rogue saw him in a spot of trouble in the secret passage, and the ranger watched him get manacled and dragged off by two guards...and then he reappears five minutes later, alone, unchained, and with his own set of keys.

Ah, anyway, best time I've had with him so far!

[Tectorman]

Spoilers (maybe) for the Rise of Tiamat ahead! You've been warned!

So, we're a decently high level party breaking into the big wizard's tower with the hedge maze. Our first attempt to get inside, therefore, is to just fly up to the top. We can get physically on top of the building, but there's a powerful force field around the only balcony up there. We try Arcane Gate (courtesy of our Warlock) to get through, and I (the Monk) volunteer to go in first.

The DM has the Warlock roll Arcana to try and finesse the spell through the force field, but it doesn't work. So I end up 500 feet above the nearby town in mid-air (with no more flying, either). But through a combination of Slow Fall and thp from the Warlock's Inspiring Leader feat, I landed a terminal velocity fall without taking any harm (and I succeeded on my Deception check to make the townspeople think it was all intentional).

Or, as I like to think of it, "the universe hit me with a planet as hard as it could, and I barely felt it".

[Lupine]

In my group, there was a corrupt noble house arresting random people (not actually random, but it seemed that way.) The monk decided to try to free the prisoners. He jumped onto the prisoner cart, whereupon a guard tried to push him off. He succeeded on the shove save, but fell back off just be leaning back. then, he used his movement to run along the cart.

Cut to guard's viewpoint. Shoves this obnoxious halfling off the cart, and hears, "thud. THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD." Then, said halfling leaps up, and slashes the ropes off the cart, making a check to use the reigns to ride both horses away, while standing on them. the guards immediately gave chase. The monk led them on a merry chase, and then lept off the horses, and onto his broom of flying
The party named itself for the broom, calling themselves the "Broom Group" their slogan was "cleaning up the streets and sweeping up crime

Hooks his broom of flying onto the cart, and drive off with it (the bard was helping push with his boots of flying.) Best part, not a single person injured, so the town now holds them as esteemed freedom fighters commuted to nonviolence.

They let the prisoners loose (turns out they an intelligence cell gone rogue), who gathered their families, and left for the hills.

[GriffinRider]

Or, as I like to think of it, "the universe hit me with a planet as hard as it could, and I barely felt it".

Awesome.

*Nonchalantly brushing himself off, looking back up at the staggeringly high tower he just fell off*

Monk:"That all you got, planet?"

[DaveOfTheDead]

We had a powerful tome of Pelor that shot a powerful radiant beam that carved through stone and structures whenever it was opened. We went to the temple of Pelor with my halfling monk Gobrick (sun soul monk of Pelor) leading the way. Long story short: after a vision of talking with Pelor himself, I didn't want to give up the destructive tome to the High Sun Keeper. So I ran away, and she yelled "GET THAT HALFLING!"

Well nobody could catch up with a dashing monk. Alarm bells were ringing for some time by the time I got to the exit. Two rows of guards were waiting for me. I ran onto a wall, dashed, and used Step of the Wind and somersaulted over the guards, gave them a quick finger, and took off.

Alternatively, we came to a different temple way early on in the campaign, and there was a burly acolyte that carried our petrified companion into the temple. I was able to sit on his shoulders and, being a halfling weighing 45 pounds on this meaty dude, he didn't notice me. I sat on his shoulders to see where he was going. Turns out, it was the bathroom! I still stayed put. My stealth vs his perception was off by one! HE BEAT ME BY ONE! I get tossed out of the bathroom, and didn't get a sneak peek at his wiener.

[DaveOfTheDead]

Oh! There was that time I stunned an adult red dragon by punching its butthole, and it rolled a natural 1 on the CON save.

[Misterwhisper]

Played a monk once who used stunning fist and then grappled someone, then got in a long argument with the dm over if my punching them with their own hand going, “stop hitting yourself” does my unarmed damage or theirs.

[Yakmala]

Remember that scene in Dr. Strange where Strange tells Dormammu he's come to bargain, and Dormammu kills him over and over and Strange just keeps returning to life until Dormammu can't deal with it any more?

That's an average day in the life of a high level Long Death Monk.

[Man_Over_Game]

A monk was in my party. He wanted to be the cool monk, the guy everyone looked up to.

Well, we're investigating these ruins, and there's this damaged tower that he goes to look into by himself. There's a beam up above him that he wants to try to get a rope around to climb up to.

He grabs a nearby skull, ties his rope, and the skull shatters from his throw.

He ties his dagger to the rope, throws it, and he fumbles, causing his dagger to drop down into his shoulder.

He throws his dagger one last time, gets it around the beam, and the beam is so old and molded that it breaks under his weight and causes the tower to fall on top of him. He survived (barely), but he wasn't so cool after that.