Open Hand Monk/ Life Cleric?

[RavensLuck]

Hi!
So, currently I’m a Open Hand Monk level 5.
The DM just recently gave me a pair of gauntlets that are based on Wisdom and deal one dice higher than my current monk punching damage dice. So, using the gauntlets, I would use a 1d8+WIS compared to a 1d6 +DEX.
My problem is that there isn’t really any way for our players to get reliable healing:
In my group, there is a champion fighter, a wild sorcerer, a gloomstalker ranger, and an open hand monk (that’s me!)

In combat, individuals go down a lot. And while the ranger does heal them up, I think it would be nice if he didn’t feel the need to do that, if that makes sense. And unfortunately, healing potions are a bit nonexistent. It seems that’s clerics have found their true value in depleting the market and charging exuberant prices for their services.

My current stats are:
STR 8
CON 14
DEX 18
INT 10
WIS 16
CHA 8

I’ve been role playing so that I could pursue the Road of a life cleric
Should I multiclass into cleric, and if so, when?

Thank you in advance!

[Yunru]

And unfortunately, healing potions are a bit nonexistent.

They're 25gp to make with a Herb Kit, or 50gp to buy.
If you're DM's not having them for sale... bully on him, craft them.

[MrWesson22]

Your ranger has access to healing spirit. That should be all the healing your party needs.

[djreynolds]

1 or 2 levels of cleric is actually quite nice.

I might consider nature cleric because you can grab 2 druid cantrips like thorn whip, which has no size limit in what you can pull to you.

Also, you have nothing to concentrate on, so having bless up and running could be beneficial to everyone.

Life is an okay choice, but I would look at light, nature, or arcana also

[KOLE]

...Wow, two replies with super unhelpful advice.

OP, I'd go to level 6 as an open hand Monk for magic strikes and Wholeness of Body. Wholeness of body will keep yourself healed up, so that's one less person to worry about healing.

Use this level to make darn sure your team really needs more healing, and maybe talk to your DM about getting more healing potions first, though it sounds like they're intentionally keeping healing potions locked off for a more challenging campaign. That's fine! But if its not intentional and just an oversight, than start stashing up on potions and keep going Monk. A Cleric dip is going to put you behind, so it should be a last resort. But if you decide to do it:

I'd take two levels of Life Cleric for the terrific healing and the Channel Divinity healing. No more than this, as you're not getting much useful to a Monk with many more levels and those three spell slots should be plenty of healing going around. You can also prepare some useful Cleric rituals and keep your slots stashed for keeping everyone up.

If you want to go full cheese mode, I'd also consider either taking a level in Druid or, more ideally, taking Magic Initiate: Druid and picking up Goodberry. Goodberry + Disciple of life = 10 berries that heal 4hp per use. 40hp of healing will go a long, long way. Since you have good Wisdom, the Druid Cantrips will also be great. Consider Shillelagh as Quarterstaffs are a monk weapon! Wis mod + d8 damage plus unarmed strikes will be killer. Thorn Whip is also a great cantrip that can get enemies away from your friends, saving them having to disengage when they're in trouble. Man, now I want to roll up a Monk Druid!

After that, keep going Monk!

[RavensLuck]

OP, I'd go to level 6 as an open hand Monk for magic strikes and Wholeness of Body. Wholeness of body will keep yourself healed up, so that's one less person to worry about healing.

Use this level to make darn sure your team really needs more healing, and maybe talk to your DM about getting more healing potions first, though it sounds like they're intentionally keeping healing potions locked off for a more challenging campaign. That's fine! But if its not intentional and just an oversight, than start stashing up on potions and keep going Monk. A Cleric dip is going to put you behind, so it should be a last resort. But if you decide to do it:

I'd take two levels of Life Cleric for the terrific healing and the Channel Divinity healing. No more than this, as you're not getting much useful to a Monk with many more levels and those three spell slots should be plenty of healing going around. You can also prepare some useful Cleric rituals and keep your slots stashed for keeping everyone up.

After that, keep going Monk!

Thank you so much!

[Yunru]

...Wow, two replies with super unhelpful advice.

Yes, "here's how you can get healing potions" is super unhelpful advice for "my party's low on healing ability."
Sure.

[Cespenar]

One level of Cleric is actually surprisingly good for any non-caster in 5e, mainly because of Bless and Healing Word, two broken 1st level spells.

Going for the second cleric level is up to you.

[RavensLuck]

Yes, "here's how you can get healing potions" is super unhelpful advice for "my party's low on healing ability."
Sure.

I do plan to bring it up to the DM. I just don't know how he'll respond-- nor do I wanna be too pushy. I do want to make sure that the DM is enjoying the game too. Thank you for the advice, Yunru. :smallsmile:

[KOLE]

Yes, "here's how you can get healing potions" is super unhelpful advice for "my party's low on healing ability."
Sure.

Question: "Should I take a Cleric dip? If so, when?"

Your answer: "Let's ignore everything in this topic other than a single sentence and just tell them to bully their DM. That should go well."

Yeah, super helpful stuff there.

[CTurbo]

This is the kind of dip that REALLY needs to make sense story wise to do.... not just "happen" for mechanical benefits. So your Monk decides to officially the clergy? ...and that is going to make sense to your character???

Somebody in party should consider grabbing the Healer feat instead. Something like Inspiring Leader would be a very strong choice too.

Side note: Those gauntlets aren't going to provide any real benefit to you and I see no reason to keep/use them. 1d8+Wis is going to be the same on average as 1d6+Dex since your Dex is +1 higher.

[Yunru]

Question: "Should I take a Cleric dip? If so, when?"

Your answer: "Let's ignore everything in this topic other than a single sentence and just tell them to bully their DM. That should go well."

Yeah, super helpful stuff there.

Well I mean, if we were to actually honestly summarise things it'd be:
"Our party's low on healing and we haven't had much access to healing potions. Should I take a Cleric dip?"
To which my answer was "[implied "no"] You should be able to get Healing Potions by [...]"
It's called addressing the core issue.


Side note: Those gauntlets aren't going to provide any real benefit to you and I see no reason to keep/use them. 1d8+Wis is going to be the same on average as 1d6+Dex since your Dex is +1 higher.

They'll really shine we he gets his next ASI though, as it's a really hard choice normally between Wis (save DC and AC) and Dex (Accuracy and AC).

[RavensLuck]

This is the kind of dip that REALLY needs to make sense story wise to do.... not just "happen" for mechanical benefits. So your Monk decides to officially the clergy? ...and that is going to make sense to your character???

Side note: Those gauntlets aren't going to provide any real benefit to you and I see no reason to keep/use them. 1d8+Wis is going to be the same on average as 1d6+Dex since your Dex is +1 higher.
First of all, thank you for replying.

Those gauntlets were a gift from an order for our group helping them with fighting some demons. Seeing our promise, they offered us the opportunity to join, and some of our group (myself included), agreed.

So another way to look at it is that the gauntlets were given as an initiation— after all, punching people to help the world, is there really anything better? They’re like vaccines. A win-win situation.

It’s not a big hurdle from officially knowing more about this religious order, since I’m already a beginning member.

Also, gauntlets are so cool!

[CTurbo]

First of all, thank you for replying.

Those gauntlets were a gift from an order for our group helping them with fighting some demons. Seeing our promise, they offered us the opportunity to join, and some of our group (myself included), agreed.

So another way to look at it is that the gauntlets were given as an initiation— after all, punching people to help the world, is there really anything better? They’re like vaccines. A win-win situation.

It’s not a big hurdle from officially knowing more about this religious order, since I’m already a beginning member.

Also, gauntlets are so cool!

Sounds good then. There is definitely an obvious mechanical benefit to dipping Cleric given the Wis dependency so go for it.

[djreynolds]

One level of Cleric is actually surprisingly good for any non-caster in 5e, mainly because of Bless and Healing Word, two broken 1st level spells.

Going for the second cleric level is up to you.

Thank You

The gloomstalker and champion, who will be using either sharpshooter or great weapon master, will greatly appreciate and extra 1d4 on attacks and saves.

IMO, your choice should be organic to the game itself, if think you need a level of cleric or druid or whatever, go for it.

I recommend either arcana, nature, or light cleric... those three offer something...... but do not forget knowledge cleric, it doesn't hurt for the monk to get expertise in religion and history, actually fitting

So grab 1 level of knowledge cleric

[MrWesson22]

My apparently also not useful comment was also apparently not direct enough.

No, don't dip cleric. Your DM should allow you more access to healing potions, and your ranger already has access to the best healing spell in the game.

[djreynolds]

My apparently also not useful comment was also apparently not direct enough.

No, don't dip cleric. Your DM should allow you more access to healing potions, and your ranger already has access to the best healing spell in the game.

I do agree with your opinion, you have enough healing in the party and open hand does get some healing at 6th level.

Perhaps just having a cleric makes your party braver?

[Talionis]

...Wow, two replies with super unhelpful advice..

If you want to go full cheese mode, I'd also consider either taking a level in Druid or, more ideally, taking Magic Initiate: Druid and picking up Goodberry. Goodberry + Disciple of life = 10 berries that heal 4hp per use. 40hp of healing will go a long, long way. Since you have good Wisdom, the Druid Cantrips will also be great. Consider Shillelagh as Quarterstaffs are a monk weapon! Wis mod + d8 damage plus unarmed strikes will be killer. Thorn Whip is also a great cantrip that can get enemies away from your friends, saving them having to disengage when they're in trouble. Man, now I want to roll up a Monk Druid!

After that, keep going Monk!

Shillelagh and Magic Stones are usually terrible on a Monk. You almost always max Dexterity before Wisdomand even when you max Wisdom first you are working towards maxing Dexterity eventually. To make it worse you will eventually have Monk weapons base damage higher than Shillelagh so the spell becomes obsolete.

You have wasted either an ASI or a character level on something you will eventually not use.

There are some builds that can use these but generally they are strange where you multi class and for some reason max Wisdom but not Dexterity.

[KOLE]

Shillelagh and Magic Stones are usually terrible on a Monk. You almost always max Dexterity before Wisdomand even when you max Wisdom first you are working towards maxing Dexterity eventually. To make it worse you will eventually have Monk weapons base damage higher than Shillelagh so the spell becomes obsolete.

You have wasted either an ASI or a character level on something you will eventually not use.

There are some builds that can use these but generally they are strange where you multi class and for some reason max Wisdom but not Dexterity.

The OP noted they received some homebrew gauntlets that allow them to use their wisdom modifier for unarmed strikes, therefore Shillelagh would allow this monk to be completely SAD, with AC, Attack, Damage, and Ki save all keying off wisdom.

[Yunru]

The OP noted they received some homebrew gauntlets that allow them to use their wisdom modifier for unarmed strikes, therefore Shillelagh would allow this monk to be completely SAD, with AC, Attack, Damage, and Ki save all keying off wisdom.

Except said gauntlets makes Shillelagh completely redundant.

[KOLE]

Except said gauntlets makes Shillelagh completely redundant.
You're right; I had forgotten that Monks can make an unarmed strike to access their bonus action unarmed attack; I thought they still had to follow standard two weapon fighting rules with a Monk weapon.

Well, that changes things! Forget Magic Initiate and take those ASIs on Wisdom. You're a SAD Monk now; that's not to be underestimated!