(5e) why does no-one talk about the monk-barian.

[notXanathar]

When people talk about the most broken builds they almost always talk about variations on paladin, sorcerer, warlock multiclasses. It seems to me that a monk barbarian multiclass would be super effective. admittedly, you would need a lot of multiple ability dependence, but the barbarian focuses on a flat damage bonus to every attack, and the monk makes a lot of attacks. this multiplies out to a lot of damage. plus, stunning strike gives advantages on attacks which can help for things like brutal critical. also, the extra HP from barbarian helps to make the monk less squishy.

Justifying it narratively is also not super difficult. One character that I've got lined up for a friends game is a neutral researcher monk who is looking into cosmic secrets. As they uncover more they become chaotic (read lovecraft protagonist), at which point I start taking barbarian levels.

Anyway, this was just an idea, so give me your thoughts.

[Kaptin Keen]

Respectively 'any lawful' for monk, and 'any non-lawful' alignment for barbarian. That's not .. the only issue, but it's one.

[Tectorman]

Respectively 'any lawful' for monk, and 'any non-lawful' alignment for barbarian. That's not .. the only issue, but it's one.

Not an issue in 5E. Nor should it ever have been one.

[Kaptin Keen]

Nor should it ever have been one.

Debatable. Not the only issue, regardless.

[LibraryOgre]

When people talk about the most broken builds they almost always talk about variations on paladin, sorcerer, warlock multiclasses. It seems to me that a monk barbarian multiclass would be super effective. admittedly, you would need a lot of multiple ability dependence, but the barbarian focuses on a flat damage bonus to every attack, and the monk makes a lot of attacks. this multiplies out to a lot of damage. plus, stunning strike gives advantages on attacks which can help for things like brutal critical. also, the extra HP from barbarian helps to make the monk less squishy.

Justifying it narratively is also not super difficult. One character that I've got lined up for a friends game is a neutral researcher monk who is looking into cosmic secrets. As they uncover more they become chaotic (read lovecraft protagonist), at which point I start taking barbarian levels.

Anyway, this was just an idea, so give me your thoughts.

In 5e, the real issue is the "Unarmored Defense." The Barbarian ability and the Monk ability do not stack. So, while you might have a raging monk doing a lot of damage on their many attacks, then you're going to have these two overlapping abilities.

[Talsin]

In 5e, the real issue is the "Unarmored Defense." The Barbarian ability and the Monk ability do not stack. So, while you might have a raging monk doing a lot of damage on their many attacks, then you're going to have these two overlapping abilities.

Yes, between this and the aforementioned MAD-ness of this build are the reasons you don't see it. You need 4 different scores to be high; You can only use STR to get the damage bonus from Rage, DEX for having not crap for armor, CON for survivability & Barb Armor if you choose that method, and WIS for Stunning strike/Monk-DCs as well as Monk armor if you choose that route. You wind up splitting between levels of Monk and Barbarian, greatly weakening each - Monk gets less Ki and would have a lower Monk-Weapon damage, while Barb will not have as potent a rage.

Unless you've got some good scores, this just doesn't seem to work well. Anyone care to do an example build? I would love to be proven wrong :smallsmile:

[Contrast]

admittedly, you would need a lot of multiple ability dependence

To be a good barbarian you need good Strength, Con and Dex. To be a good Monk you need good Dex, Wisdom and Con.

To be a good barbonk (I will accept no other name) you need a good strength, con, wis and dex. That just isn't really feasible.

I also think you've overstating the synergy. A load of their class features just don't flat work together very well.

Yay we can stunning strike for advantage. But that requires 5 levels of monk and we probably have a worse wis than a regular monk because we've been multiclassing and boosting strength so its less likely to work and we have less Ki points anyway.

But we get +2 rage damage to attacks! Except a normal barbarian would just be using a d12 damage die instead of a d8 like we are and we lose out on an attack the turn we activate it as a monk.

If you roll for stats and happened to roll very well then I could see Barb2/MonkX being a thing but even then it feels more like a thing you can do rather than some super OP combo to me.

[JackPhoenix]

In 5e, the real issue is the "Unarmored Defense." The Barbarian ability and the Monk ability do not stack. So, while you might have a raging monk doing a lot of damage on their many attacks, then you're going to have these two overlapping abilities.

You aren't. "If you already have the Unarmored Defense feature, you can’t gain it again from another class."

Anyway, it's not that good anyway. Rage bonus damage doesn't progress by character level, but by class level, and so does monk's Martial Arts damage, meaning you'll be behind on both. You'll get one extra attack compared to pure barbarian (assuming the usual GWM/PAM build), but that attack (and the main attack) will have lower damage die (because you can't use heavy weapons as a monk), and you'll be limited by your ki. In addition, all attacks will have to be made with Str, and due to limited number of ASI (further delayed due to multiclassing), you can't max Str, Dex and Wis/Con, which means your AC will be worse than either pure monk or pure barbarian (who can just wear armor, something monks can't do without losing Martial Arts), and the extra rage damage you get (few times per long rest) will be compensated by lower ability.

TL:DR: few people talk about it because it is broken, but not in the sorcadin's "it's very powerful" way, but in "doesn't really work" way.

[ragnorack1]

As others have said its far from optimal, being both Mad and requiring resources that scale with level such as ki, rage and martial die.
The exception to this rule I feel would be if playing a homebrew gestalt game, where you can have both classes leveling together. Although it would still be MAD you would atleast have enough resources and there is some synergy between the classes features at higher levels eg. Danger sense+evasion, higher martial die and brutal critical, rage damage and flurry of blows, advantage on strength checks and unarmed strikes for grappling, and strength +7 with step of the wind for a 20foot jump height.

[MikeRoxTheBoat]

I think the only way people do this is using Tortle's natural AC to allow them to pump STR, CON, and WIS. Other than that, dipping just a level might be worth it for rage if you somehow get stuck in a bad place in melee, but it's still a hard sell.

[Waazraath]

Competing bonus actions (at least on the first turn when needing to activate rage), reckless attack being a lot less good when you're squishy (lower HD/AC than pure bbn) and can't use heavy weapons, and all stuff already mentioned by others.

There ain't much to talk about.

[redwizard007]

I can see it being workable with maxed Strength, Dex, and Wis. Maybe on a Firbolg or Kenku chassis. You will never be a dominant character, but it could be fun to play.

[rbstr]

I think it works moderately well, really. Mostly as a 1-4level monk dip on what's primarily a Barbarian.
Your regular attack is capped a bit lower, but you get an every-round bonus action attack that's as good as the pole-arm master attack (without GWM of course).
Kensei would get you the longsword two-handed for those regular attacks or and/or some extra AC a round. Plus a few more ki to do stuff with.

Barbarians already need to have moderate dex, in addition to the high strength and con. You can use strength for monk's martial arts/flurry attacks ect. You can roll with 14 dex, and only bump str/con and it'd be fine. Also consider that you don't have to take PAM to get the bonus attack any more, so you get that stat bump instead. That part isn't an issue. The biggest issue is the need for 13 wisdom on top. You can easily keep it at just 13 but it's still a problem at character creation.

[Hail Tempus]

Debatable. Not the only issue, regardless.This is simply not a rule in 5e. None of the classes have a RAW alignment limitation.

Anyway, from a fluff perspective, barbarian/monk multiclassing is just silly. I wouldn’t allow it, any more than a Oath of Devotion/Fiend Warlock.

[SodaQueen]

Anyway, from a fluff perspective, barbarian/monk multiclassing is just silly. I wouldn’t allow it, any more than a Oath of Devotion/Fiend Warlock.Now that is just silly. Characters with duality, with aspects that seemingly contradict each other but nevertheless are one and the conflict that arises, in a concept as old as fiction.

[sithlordnergal]

Anyway, from a fluff perspective, barbarian/monk multiclassing is just silly. I wouldn’t allow it, any more than a Oath of Devotion/Fiend Warlock.

How is it silly from a fluff perspective? A barbarian that uses their fists instead of weapons sounds fine to me. As does a Monk that uses their unbridled fury and rage instead of the normal grace.

That said, I have played with the idea a few times. It feels like it would be a really fun build. However I could never get it to work well with AL rules. The ability scores alone are terrible since you need absolutely need Strength, Dex, and Con. You have to rely on one of your Unarmored Defenses, or you lose out on the Monk abilities.

Next is the level balance. Both classes have major abilities tied to class level. At best I could see a Barbarian 4/Monk 16 working...but then you really need to focus on Wisdom since most of your Monk abilities key off Wisdom.

Since there's no real way to lower the Madness you need to be a normal Human and put all your ASIs into ability scores, so that means no feats. You end up being better off as a pure Monk or Barbarian.

[FabulousFizban]

In 5e, the real issue is the "Unarmored Defense." The Barbarian ability and the Monk ability do not stack. So, while you might have a raging monk doing a lot of damage on their many attacks, then you're going to have these two overlapping abilities.

doesn't matter. eventually you will want to wear medium armor as a barbarian anyway.

[NNescio]

doesn't matter. eventually you will want to wear medium armor as a barbarian anyway.

This makes Monkbarbs even less viable. Armor also means no Martial Arts (and no Unarmored Movement), so your flurry is pretty much pointless.

[Dork_Forge]

doesn't matter. eventually you will want to wear medium armor as a barbarian anyway.

That would shut down most, if not all of a Monk's abilities.

[Fnissalot]

Instead of talking high levels, at level 2, a 1 barb 1 monk hit for an average of 17 damage (1d8+1d4+2*2(rage)+3*2(str mod)) while a 2 monk would hit for 13 without spending ki or 18.5 if they do flurry of blows (1d8+1d4+3*2(str mod))+flurry(1d4+3(str mod)) and a 2 barbarian would only hit for 12 (2d6+3(str mod)+2(rage)) but they can hit more often with reckless attacks.

[JackPhoenix]

2 barbarian would only hit for 12 (2d6+3(str mod)+2(rage)) but they can hit more often with reckless attacks.

Or 22 with GWM. Or 24 if they drop an opponent. Or 44 with GWM if they drop an opponent (which isn't that hard to do with that kind of damage). Or 18 with PAM. Or 14 with TWF. Or 16 with TFW and Dual Wielder.

[Waazraath]

Instead of talking high levels, at level 2, a 1 barb 1 monk hit for an average of 17 damage (1d8+1d4+2*2(rage)+3*2(str mod)) while a 2 monk would hit for 13 without spending ki or 18.5 if they do flurry of blows (1d8+1d4+3*2(str mod))+flurry(1d4+3(str mod)) and a 2 barbarian would only hit for 12 (2d6+3(str mod)+2(rage)) but they can hit more often with reckless attacks.

Only 2 times/day. And not taking into account that the first round of combat you can't use 2 bonus attacks (rage / bonus attack).

[Fnissalot]

Or 22 with GWM. Or 24 if they drop an opponent. Or 44 with GWM if they drop an opponent (which isn't that hard to do with that kind of damage). Or 18 with PAM. Or 14 with TWF. Or 16 with TFW and Dual Wielder.

That requires a feat and variant humans as you wont get feats that early otherwise.


Only 2 times/day. And not taking into account that the first round of combat you can't use 2 bonus attacks (rage / bonus attack).

1 bonus attack less the first round since you get flurry at level 2. So 9.5 in the first round (1d8+3+2) and limited to 2 rages per long rest but the last requirement is an issue for any barbarian at level 2.

[JackPhoenix]

That requires a feat and variant humans as you wont get feats that early otherwise.

So? I don't see any racial restrictions anywhere.

[sleepyhead]

Monk/Barbarian

You might call this a Brawler, a barbarian who takes prefers to engage his foes with bare hands. The discipline required to take on the way of the monk life, might be in conflict with the barbarian nature, but not all monk orders are the same. Perhaps this barbarian spent some time in a monastery, or perhaps they learn to tap an inner disciplined rage.

A monk who dips barbarian gains access to rage, and a different non-stacking AC. The rage is great for damage resistance, but the damage bonus likely won’t apply while using dex. For a non-monky build taking 1-4 levels of barbarian and the rest monk could result in a very tanky character with resistance to damage and bonus action dodging. It comes at the cost of a little MADness and several dead levels/class features. Tortle solves all these problems though, making this MC str based.
Spoiler: E.g.
Hide
Tortle
Barb 2/Kensei 5+
17, 13, 14, 9, 14, 8

Rage plus flurry plus reckless attack is a whole lot of damage. Only the Tortle can pull this off and still have a decent AC. I've played this character, and it is surprisingly very very powerful.
From PeteNutButter's Multiclassing Guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?502248-Ultimate-Optimizer-s-Multiclassing-Guide)

[darkdragoon]

Kensei would be thematic and help somewhat on AC but still limited on weapons.

[Misterwhisper]

Main issue is the stats needed for it.

If I rolled monstrous stats it would be great, in point buy, just not going to have the numbers for it

[Jamesps]

I really like it as a "Troop transport" device. You get mobility and play a race that doubles your encumbrance (Bugbear, Goliath). Then you grab your allies and move them where they need to be on the battlefield, throwing out a few attacks on the way. It's a lot of fun to play, but you need to recognize you're more fragile than a barbarian, and can't control like a monk. You really need to rely on your mobility to stay alive and contribute.

[strangebloke]

TL:DR: few people talk about it because it is broken, but not in the sorcadin's "it's very powerful" way, but in "doesn't really work" way.

Got it in 1.

But the bigger issue is the lack of internal synergy.

Barbarians are HP tanks. They get resistance and reckless attack makes them drop their AC if they want to deal damage. They need to use STR for attack if they want either rage damage or reckless attack. Its to the point that though their unarmored defense feature is strictly better than the monk's feature, they almost never use it because its simply not worth investing into DEX when you're going to be throwing away your AC anyway.

Monks are dodge tanks. They rely on their high mobility to dodge in and out of combat range, and later on rely on high AC, dodging, and evasion to stay alive.

Barbarians are heavily weapon-focused. They're either using two weapons to get rage damage twice, or they're using GWM+reckless to cleave through enemies like a beast. They have mobility, but its purely to help them close with their enemy quickly.

So you won't have better damage than a regular monk because you're missing out on scaling martial arts damage and extra ki points. You will have worse AC because you're MAD and if you use reckless you'll be way worse. If you try to keep up with Barbarians for damage by getting GWM you will no longer be getting anything significant from the monk levels and you'll have less HP to begin with.

Theory crafting the best possible build I could, this is what I got:

Tortle Drunken Master 5/Bear Barbarian 4/Drunken Master 'x'

Tortle lets you ignore AC. Flurry to get rage damage four times a round for a slight damage boost. Rage to become very, very tanky, particularly if you dodge. But being tanky by itself isn't very good, especially in this case as you can't actually force enemies to attack you. You'll be the last member of your party alive, but you won't be able to stop them from dying. Your damage is mediocre even if you reckless attack.

[Fnissalot]

Got it in 1.

But the bigger issue is the lack of internal synergy.

Barbarians are HP tanks. They get resistance and reckless attack makes them drop their AC if they want to deal damage. They need to use STR for attack if they want either rage damage or reckless attack. Its to the point that though their unarmored defense feature is strictly better than the monk's feature, they almost never use it because its simply not worth investing into DEX when you're going to be throwing away your AC anyway.

Monks are dodge tanks. They rely on their high mobility to dodge in and out of combat range, and later on rely on high AC, dodging, and evasion to stay alive.

Barbarians are heavily weapon-focused. They're either using two weapons to get rage damage twice, or they're using GWM+reckless to cleave through enemies like a beast. They have mobility, but its purely to help them close with their enemy quickly.

So you won't have better damage than a regular monk because you're missing out on scaling martial arts damage and extra ki points. You will have worse AC because you're MAD and if you use reckless you'll be way worse. If you try to keep up with Barbarians for damage by getting GWM you will no longer be getting anything significant from the monk levels and you'll have less HP to begin with.

Theory crafting the best possible build I could, this is what I got:

Tortle Drunken Master 5/Bear Barbarian 4/Drunken Master 'x'

Tortle lets you ignore AC. Flurry to get rage damage four times a round for a slight damage boost. Rage to become very, very tanky, particularly if you dodge. But being tanky by itself isn't very good, especially in this case as you can't actually force enemies to attack you. You'll be the last member of your party alive, but you won't be able to stop them from dying. Your damage is mediocre even if you reckless attack.

I would go ancestral guardian over bear as it would motivate hitting you and would thematically fit as well.

[notXanathar]

My one real thing when thinking about this multiclass was really the fact that if you go strength monk you can multiply the rage damage bonus by all those attacks, effectively doubling(or whichever) the efficacy of the core class feature, although I recognise the many problems of multiple ability scores, etc.

[Reevh]

It's not the strongest, but it works OK (standard array):

https://ddb.ac/characters/17253192/9hgZzW

Low AC, but 101 hp with bear totem resistance to damage, plus some extra temp HP when you kill enemies. Damage is 2d8+14+1d6+7 on turns you don't spend ki, or 2d8+14+2d6+14 on turns you do. More if you have magic weapons.

It's not a power build, but it's alright.

[Warlush]

This guy's page helps. He doesn't spend much time worrying about alignment restrictions that don't exist.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?502248-Ultimate-Optimizer-s-Multiclassing-Guide

[Sahe]

I'm currently playing this with a setting specific homebrew race and rolled stats (8+2d4).

I got lucky and got 2 16's and a 15 which brought my stats at the Start with bonuses to 16 16 18 12 13 12

I went Barb 1/Monk 2. We're now level 9 with me being Drunken Master 6/Bear Totem 3. For my ASI I raised Str to 18 I don't ever use any weapons (only fists) and spam Reckless Attack. I do ok damage, have pretty decent HP and an AC of 17. I was only once close to dropping when I got stunned while being trapped in a magic bubble with enemies, but my allies came through and helped.

My damage is ok, my build is hardly optimized, but it's fun. I'm ahead of pure Monk damage, but behind in utility. I'm roughly on par with a normal Barbarian (assuming GWM with Greatsword or Maul) but beed to hit more attacks. Though I can also spread them out more and don't take the penalty. PAM/GWM would probs deal more dmg, but with a 16 str. My stunning strike isn't worth much though.

I intend to go deeper into Barb and no higher than 8 Monk for background reasons.

[Mitsu]

As others have said - its too MAD to work. Monk is generally not really good for multiclassing, though there are some multiclasses that work really nice like

Shadow Monk/2 Trickery Domain Cleric - you can boost others stealth with touch and you can 1/shor rest summon your illusionary copy that not only can serve as distraction/trick etc but also gives you advantage on all your attacks for 1 minute vs any enemy if your illusion is 5 feet from you. This is very

Monk/Light Cleric - Flare is very nice ability to have because monks can be very squishy.

Monk/1 Hexblade (if you have 13 CHA) - a nice combo as Curse gives you big bonuses to your many attacks per turn. Plus access to nice range attack cantrip + short rest slot for some spell like Hex or Shield.

[strangebloke]

I would go ancestral guardian over bear as it would motivate hitting you and would thematically fit as well.

Ah, you're probably right, yeah. And getting extra tankiness here is somewhat dubious anyway.

Ancestral Barbarian is really a weird one in that, against really powerful opponents you're actually better off hitting the boss and then running away, or even shooting them at range.

Actually! New build!

Wood Elf Kensei Monk 5/Ancestral 4/Monk x
Starting stats with point buy and racial modifiers:
12/17/15/8/14/8

your AC starts at 15, which isn't great, but with agile parry and patient defense you can have 17 AC with enemy's attacking with disadvantage. Then at level four you boost DEX and CON and your AC goes up to 18 and your HP is great. Then at level six you switch to Barbarian AC and you go up to 19.

With barbarian levels, there's really nothing stopping you from fighting with STR if you want to do that, but the main goal here is the damage resistance, which even at sixth level will still be really useful for a monk. Level 7 (barb 2) is pretty bad, with Danger sense being kind of redundant, but level 8 (barb 3) is crazy good. Now you can force the boss to attack you. Run in, longsword once, punch once (wouldn't want to reckless attack anyway) and use patient defense. The boss then either attacks the creatures with resistance and (effectively)23 AC, or it faces huge reduction attacking anyone else.

Then at 9 you can take sharpshooter for the lulz and snipe the crap out of your enemies. Or not, your choice. You're ahead of a normal monk on AC at this point and you've got other defensive boons so it isn't like you need to max DEX.

[Misterwhisper]

Ah, you're probably right, yeah. And getting extra tankiness here is somewhat dubious anyway.

Ancestral Barbarian is really a weird one in that, against really powerful opponents you're actually better off hitting the boss and then running away, or even shooting them at range.

Actually! New build!

Wood Elf Kensei Monk 5/Ancestral 4/Monk x
Starting stats with point buy and racial modifiers:
12/17/15/8/14/8

your AC starts at 15, which isn't great, but with agile parry and patient defense you can have 17 AC with enemy's attacking with disadvantage. Then at level four you boost DEX and CON and your AC goes up to 18 and your HP is great. Then at level six you switch to Barbarian AC and you go up to 19.

With barbarian levels, there's really nothing stopping you from fighting with STR if you want to do that, but the main goal here is the damage resistance, which even at sixth level will still be really useful for a monk. Level 7 (barb 2) is pretty bad, with Danger sense being kind of redundant, but level 8 (barb 3) is crazy good. Now you can force the boss to attack you. Run in, longsword once, punch once (wouldn't want to reckless attack anyway) and use patient defense. The boss then either attacks the creatures with resistance and (effectively)23 AC, or it faces huge reduction attacking anyone else.

Then at 9 you can take sharpshooter for the lulz and snipe the crap out of your enemies. Or not, your choice. You're ahead of a normal monk on AC at this point and you've got other defensive boons so it isn't like you need to max DEX.

You can't have both types of their armor calculations only the first, so you can't gain the barbarian ac calculation.

You could not multi into barbarian with 12 strength.


I love the idea of a barbaric unarmed fighter, but monk has almost no synergy with barbarian.

As a theme, it could be done, but you will not be very effective at it.


If I was going to build an unarmed, unarmored, mauler kind of character, I will just build a Warforged Brute Fighter.
With Brute damage bonus you can do respectable damage.
Or if you wanted to be a little more defensive, take Tavern Brawler on whatever race you want, and fight with a shield and unarmed as a Brute.
Shield is proficient with tavern brawler, you get your shield AC, and you can do respectable damage.

Or

A race with a natural weapon and play a Battlerager barbarian.


None of them are all that optimized, because let's face it, if you do not have PAM/GWM/SS/CBE you are not considered optimized for combat.

[rbstr]

Besides missing the multi-class stats, I think missing out on rage damage is a big mistake. To me rage and advantage on a ton of punches is the biggest benefit of the MC. IMO if a build doesn't make use or at least most of the class features in some way it's missing out.
Similarly, with your MAD, you just aren't going to be good at stunning strike, which I see as a big draw to having more monk levels - so maybe be more barb than monk?


So this isn't something I'm thinking is "optimal" just something I think works pretty well without a ton of waste ad would be fun:
Barb1, Monk 1, Barb 5, Kensei 4, barb X.
Level 2 and the thing is up and running mostly, bonus action punches with rage damage.
Take any barb archetype that isn't asking for (many) bonus actions.
Take an ASI to strength, since you don't want/need PAM.
Extra attack
Monk levels. Take a monk archetype not reliant on wisdom for their level 3 feature. I like that Kensei will get you some extra AC and the ability to upgrade your weapon damage(and versatility) a bit. Long death is a bit appealing, even though it's a small amount of THP (probably 5), since you've got resistances.

I think it works pretty well through the whole leveling process too - it works as soon as you MC and doesn't really wait for some combo to come online.

Several races can make this work as long as you have a choose-two of str/dex/wis bonuses. Just need to start something like 16/14/14/x/13/x.
Mountain Dwarf @ 16/14/16/8/13/9
Human @ 16/14/16/8/13/9
Vhuman kinda needs a +1 to something feat.
Half orc has a bit awkward con or dex score.
IMO you could start with a 14/15 in strength even. A wood elf could do 15/14/15/10/13/8 and hit 16/16 str/con at level 4.

[strangebloke]

You can't have both types of their armor calculations only the first, so you can't gain the barbarian ac calculation.

You could not multi into barbarian with 12 strength.

You're right.

I've never met a DM who kept both those restrictions (and still allowed multiclassing) so I often forget it.

None of them are all that optimized, because let's face it, if you do not have PAM/GWM/SS/CBE you are not considered optimized for combat.
ehhhhh.

A TWF barb keeps pretty good pace even with GWM until after level five. Even then, a barbarian who hyper-specializes in halberds is really just doubling down on the class's strengths and I would argue that "optimized for combat" should include a powerful ranged option.

[Yunru]

None of them are all that optimized, because let's face it, if you do not have PAM/GWM/SS/CBE you are not considered optimized for combat.
Except that Martial Arts renders PAM redundant.

[Misterwhisper]

Except that Martial Arts renders PAM redundant.

Battle rager makes them both redundant.

Taking monk also stops the use of a shield which is limiting

[TripleD]

There is one build that Barbarian/Monk seems to do better than any other class combination. I’ll admit that it’s a novelty build, but it would be so much fun to play.

Race: Go Tortle. The Bonuses are nice and the AC helps make up for the fact that your Unarmored defences will not be high.

Stats: Pump STR and CON. DEX and WIS should be above zero, but we won’t be using our ki on Stunning Fist so this isn’t important.

Classes: Totem Barbarian (Tiger) and Monk (Open Hand). Ideally you would get to level 5 in Barbarian before going Monk the rest of the way.

Strategy:
1. Rage
2. Grapple an enemy. Possibly two if you can. You will have advantage due to raging, grappling counts as an attack for maintaining rage, and the Monk and the Barbarian’s speed bonuses work together nicely to overcome the halving of speed due to grapple.
3. Hopefully maintain the grapple through the rest of the round until your next turn.
4. Use your bonus action and 1 ki to activate “Step of the Wind”.
6. Jump. With +5 bonus to attack, and step of the wind doubling that, you will jump 22 feet into the air.
7. Drop the enemies. They each take 2d10 damage. No save.
8. Hit them while they are prone for further damage.

There are ways to make this even better. If you can get the “Boots of Springing and Striding” then your jump distance is tripled, leaving you with a whopping 66 foot jump! Granted to actually jump that far you will have to give up your action to Dash (50 feet per turn * 0.5 due to Grapple * 2 due to Step of the Wind * 2 due to Dash = 100 feet of movement) but for an extra 4d10 damage per enemy it feel like a decent trade.

You could do this with pure Barbarian or Monk, but combining the Monks mobility with the Barbarians grappling, along with their mutual speed boosts, seems like such a perfect match.

This build is only useful if you are fighting enemies you can actually grapple, and it’s very easy to burn through all your ki, but I’d have to test it “in the field” to see how big of an issue that is.