Half-Orc Monk... help!

[Amechra]

So I've been fiddling with a Half-Orc Monk, mostly because I'm intrigued by the idea of having Orcish Fury (you get a ton of attacks, so having a mini-smite available seems neat), and because it seems like it'd have a nice "big bruiser" feel.

The main issue I'm running into is that having your +s in the wrong ability scores hurts. I tried to mitigate it by making a Strength-based Monk that pumped Wisdom instead of Dexterity for AC, but my AC was still very poor for anyone even pretending to be a frontliner (we're talking 13 at 1st level). So far, my best idea on how to fix this is going Drunken Master and relying on the old duck-and-weave to get me out of sticky situations.

Am I missing anything that could help my AC out, other than magic items and "begging the party Cleric for Shield of Faith"? I will also accept ways to crank up my hit-points so that I can take damage a bit better.

Things I've thought of and rejected:
• Starting off with a level of Barbarian so that I can use a shield with my Unarmored Defense, and so I'd have a bit more health. I rejected this because using a shield shuts down Martial Arts, and that's a bit painful when you're pseudo-critfishing.
• Going Kensei and abusing Agile Parry. I rejected this because the damage drop is a bit too big - it'd be a better trade if my base AC was higher, but as it stands? Nah.

[Misterwhisper]

You should check out the Pugilist class from the DMsguild. It does what you are looking for.

[firelistener]

If you start with the level in barbarian, you will use the barbarian class Unarmored Defense instead of the monk's. Then you can ditch your wisdom and pump Dex/Con/Str if your goal is to just punch things.

[Dork_Forge]

With point buy the AC calculation is going to be very rough for you, if you can afford a 13 in say Cha, you could dip Draconic Sorcerer giving you 13+Dex and just neglect Wisdom. Just so you know, froma quick read it doesn't look like ORcish Fury's mini smite aspect works with unarmed attacks, it specifies an attack with a simple or martial weapon.

[stoutstien]

You can start with 15 in both Wis and Dex and bump them both at 4.

Sure it's a lower ac(14) at 1st but be liberal with patient defence and you'll be fine.

[GlenSmash!]

You can start with 15 in both Wis and Dex and bump them both at 4.

Sure it's a lower ac(14) at 1st but be liberal with patient defence and you'll be fine.

I would go this route too. Just because a Race gives a +2 to a specific ability score does not make that your mandatory main stat.

You can start 10, 15, 14, 10, 15, 10 after racials with a respectable 14 AC at level 1 that jumps to 16 at level 4.

Or if you really want some more toughness 10, 15, 16, 8, 15, 8.

[Desteplo]

You can start with 15 in both Wis and Dex and bump them both at 4.

Sure it's a lower ac(14) at 1st but be liberal with patient defence and you'll be fine.

This, those first three levels are essentially a tutorial anyway. They go by quick compared to the other levels that at lvl4 you’ll be fine and balanced out
-half Orc gets that “endure” ability to stay at 1 health after taking lethal anyway.

[Misterwhisper]

This, those first three levels are essentially a tutorial anyway. They go by quick compared to the other levels that at lvl4 you’ll be fine and balanced out
-half Orc gets that “endure” ability to stay at 1 health after taking lethal anyway.

That ability saved my life at least a dozen times in the last campaign.

Truly amazing

[Dork_Forge]

I really wish I could agree, but barbarian has a 13 requirement of strength. So while you meet the 13 in dexterity and wisdom for monk, you don't meet the requirement for barbarian with that stat spread.

I think they were saying to just go straight Monk focusing on Dex still and just being behind a bit on stats.

[carrdrivesyou]

Grab the Mobile Feat. For a monk, it sounds awkward considering they already get movement boosts. But that's not why you want the feat. The 3rd line of the feat states that "When you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not."

The idea is that you are going to make bonus action attacks alot instead of wasting your Ki on disengaging. Your low AC is going to be made mostly redundant unless you are in tight spaces. You could attack 3 people and then just run 50ft away from them without getting an OA on you.

[FoxWolFrostFire]

Str based monks are hard. If this was rolled stats and you rolled godly it would be much easier. Let me think. I would say you would have to bunker down and BEG your DM to let you use your Str mod in place of your Dex for unarmored defense only, That or bump con more than Str and go the HP tank path and take the toughness feat on level 4. Truth be told 5e isn't friendly to a lot of Str based builds aside from Fighter, Cleric, Paladin, and Barbarian. In which cause you notice ALL but one gets heavy armor, but can use their con for AC instead.

[JellyPooga]

Str: 12+2, Con: 13+1, Dex 14, Int: 8, Wis: 15, Cha: 10

Standard Array with AC:14 and +4 to hit at lvl.1. With Point Buy, you can bump Wis down to 14 and Cha to 9 to increase Str to 16 and still have AC:14. That's...nothing to complain about.

My advice is this. Stop thinking like a Human Roleplayer and start thinking like a Half-Orc Monk. Get Str to 20 by lvl.8 and be the strong guy. Go aggressive, be reckless; it's what being a half-orc is all about! Yeah, your AC might be trash, but by the time you're hitting mid levels (around lvl.8-10), most monsters are hitting you the majority of the time, regardless of your AC (unless it's 20+ by that point) and Monks are never going to be EK levels of AC. Relentless Endurance is absolutely a life-saver and Monks have plenty of other defensive features (high mobility, stun (yes, it's a defensive ability), Evasion, etc.).

[stoutstien]

Str based monks are hard. If this was rolled stats and you rolled godly it would be much easier. Let me think. I would say you would have to bunker down and BEG your DM to let you use your Str mod in place of your Dex for unarmored defense only, That or bump con more than Str and go the HP tank path and take the toughness feat on level 4. Truth be told 5e isn't friendly to a lot of Str based builds aside from Fighter, Cleric, Paladin, and Barbarian. In which cause you notice ALL but one gets heavy armor, but can use their con for AC instead.

Str monks can be done but it is practically a necessity to use a race with a form of built in armor like loxodon or tortle or do the single lv dip in barbarian.

Another option is go for for the armored Monk. It's strange but actually works quite well just takes a little bit to get online.

[FoxWolFrostFire]

Str monks can be done but it is practically a necessity to use a race with a form of built in armor like loxodon or tortle or do the single lv dip in barbarian.

Another option is go for for the armored Monk. It's strange but actually works quite well just takes a little bit to get online.

I didn't say it couldn't be done. Just that it mostly doesn't favor it. Also I'm never really sold on the barbarian being a helpful dip for Monk. At least for AC reasons. You still NEED dex to have a good AC. It seems their biggest issue with the Monk is a piss poor AC. But you did peak my interests with the armored monk.

[Dork_Forge]

Str monks can be done but it is practically a necessity to use a race with a form of built in armor like loxodon or tortle or do the single lv dip in barbarian.

Another option is go for for the armored Monk. It's strange but actually works quite well just takes a little bit to get online.

Wait how does an armored monk work?

[Misterwhisper]

Wait how does an armored monk work?

Not very well.

You can’t use dex to hit and damage unless it is a finesse weapon, which is only dagger and short sword that they are proficient with.

You get no monk damage to unarmed or monk weapons.

You can’t bonus action unarmed strike.

You can still flurry but for 1 damage plus str.

You could wear medium armor, use a shield and a spear on a strength build but you would have to multiclass. And still need the 13 dex and Swiss to change.

It might work but you are not much of a monk at that point.

[stoutstien]

Wait how does an armored monk work?
The following monk features don't work with Armor.
Unarmored defense
Martial art damage die
Bonus action unarmed strike
Unarmored movement

What does work

Martial arts: flurry of blows, patient defense, step to the wind.
Deflect missile
Slow fall
All of the subclass features.

So a fighter one or barbarian/ monk X can have some interesting options.

Look for races with bigger unarmed strikes to make up for lose of monk damage die.

Warforged can be a cool combo or Minotaur

Example build
Minotaur 16 14 14 8 14 9
Key racial features
1d6+ str unarmed attacks
Bonus action horn attack after you dash
Free shove as a bonus action(shove away only but still)

Fighter 1-2/monk x
Or
Cleric 1-2/monk x

[Vogie]

Some options:

Ask if you can redo your stats. Switch your Wisdom & Dex. You basically want to build like a barbarian.
Use Drunken Master. At level 3 you'll essentially be able to spend your ki points to do both damage AND disengage, as each Flurry of Blows will give you the Mobile feat (disengage action and more speed) for free. That frees up your ASIs to pour into stats which you desperately need. Between Step of the Wind and Tipsy sway, you have most of the Athlete feat, thus allowing you to drop prone to avoid ranged attacks (due to disadvantage) until you get into position, popping up on your turn.
Revisit Kensei Monk. At level 3 you'll get essentially a free shield - while you'll have a longsword, you're using for Agile Parry and character building until you reach level 5, at which point your damage will spike up - you'll have a 1d10+STR first attack, a scaling unarmed second attack, and a higher AC. You'll be able to smite on your hits at 6 with Deft Strike, will never have to worry about picking up magic weapons, and also deal half decent damage at range due to Kensei's Shot, even with crappy Dex. Kensei is THE tanky/single-target-ranged archetype for monks - it's a strange design, but if you're looking for a tanky character, that's the one to choose.

[Dork_Forge]

Not very well.

You can’t use dex to hit and damage unless it is a finesse weapon, which is only dagger and short sword that they are proficient with.

You get no monk damage to unarmed or monk weapons.

You can’t bonus action unarmed strike.

You can still flurry but for 1 damage plus str.

You could wear medium armor, use a shield and a spear on a strength build but you would have to multiclass. And still need the 13 dex and Swiss to change.

It might work but you are not much of a monk at that point.

Ahh so it essentially doesn't work then, you could make an interesting multiclass but it just sounds completely suboptimal to just straight classing.

[Dork_Forge]

The following monk features don't work with Armor.
Unarmored defense
Martial art damage die
Bonus action unarmed strike
Unarmored movement

What does work

Martial arts: flurry of blows, patient defense, step to the wind.
Deflect missile
Slow fall
All of the subclass features.

So a fighter one or barbarian/ monk X can have some interesting options.

Look for races with bigger unarmed strikes to make up for lose of monk damage die.

Warforged can be a cool combo or Minotaur

Example build
Minotaur 16 14 14 8 14 9
Key racial features
1d6+ str unarmed attacks
Bonus action horn attack after you dash
Free shove as a bonus action(shove away only but still)

Fighter 1-2/monk x
Or
Cleric 1-2/monk x
So just a cool concept and not particularly effective then vs single classing any of those.

[stoutstien]

So just a cool concept and not particularly effective then vs single classing any of those.
A dwarf could pull it off with built in medium armor proficiency or tortle with set AC and boosted unarmed strike.

[Dork_Forge]

A dwarf could pull it off with built in medium armor proficiency or tortle with set AC and boosted unarmed strike.

A Tortle isn't an armored monk, just using a different unarmoured AC calculation so all the Monk, feature remain intact. A Dwarf could do it... But without the features of a multiclass dip to help you'd just be a Monk with a meh AC and no access to most of your core features.

[Daghoulish]

-snip-

Interestingly you can still use your martial arts unarmed dice damage with the sun soul subclass. As the sun bolts grow in strength when your unarmed strikes do and you don't have to be unarmed to do them. I suppose the only problem is that they have to use your dex mod. In fact, you could use all of sun soul subclass features with armor. Searing arc strike just requires the attack action not unarmed strikes, searing sunburst is just a new action you can make and your capstone is always on.