Monk players - how do you use them?

[Zerubbabel]

Hi I'm new to playing a Monk and looking for guidance on how you strategically use your Monk in your parties. Both for combat and also social encounters or other actions the team are taking throughout the adventure. How do they interact with other classes and what do they do in your party that benefits the team really well?
:smallcool:

[Dork_Forge]

In my experience Monks excel as scouts and skirmishers, making full use of their mobility and ability to lock down targets.

[DeadMech]

Limited personal experience but generally the impression I get is that you should worry less about dealing damage and more about battlefield control. When I see them they excel at getting in people's faces and making their day worse. They are very quick and it's pretty hard to stop them from going wherever they want to thanks to step of the wind.

They seem to pair well with the sentinel feat. Being able to stop enemies from moving away from them. Combined with patient defense you can make yourself quite the annoying obstacle. Relatively hard to knock down and unable to be ignored.

And while stunning strike is a con save which is a mark against it, stun is a very nice condition to land on opponents. So if you have ki points to spare and you're pretty sure you won't need them for anything else before a short rest this is a good place to spend them.

Mostly you are tanking or diving on troublesome opponents like casters, trying to shut them down and set them up for your party to deal massive damage. So you might pair well with rogues since you can give them advantage for their sneak attacks. Or set up a paladin with a better chance to land a crit for a devastating smite. Or people who rely on strength or dex saves to hurt or hinder their opponents. A grappler or even some blaster casters.

You are very likely focusing dex and wis so perceptions and insight are great to have. and Stealth isn't the worst thing to have access to. You and a rogue will have allot of fun sneaking around probably. You probably aren't the party face though so it's nice to have a charisma class around. Sorcerers, bards, warlocks, paladins. You skill choices might step on the toes of clerics though. But those other classes can make alright divine casters and healers in their stead. And while you aren't convincing people to do things you are likely the walking lie detector that protects your party from being taken advantage of.

[HappyDaze]

Hi I'm new to playing a Monk and looking for guidance on how you strategically use your Monk in your parties. Both for combat and also social encounters or other actions the team are taking throughout the adventure. How do they interact with other classes and what do they do in your party that benefits the team really well?
:smallcool:

Never seen a 5e monk in play. Mainly they exist IME for the players that want a non-spellcaster to look over before deciding on playing a Barbarian, Fighter, or Rogue.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Find the caster and stun them.
It will stop the concentration.

Get to the running away enemy and stun them.

Stun a high profile enemy.

Stun an enemy in order to let you ally the ability to fall back.


In order to do more you will need a subclass.

[LordNibbler]

You don’t have the AC or hp to stay in melee. You need to move in and out of melee a lot to remain effective over the duration of the fight. That’s why the Mobile feat or Cunning Action are so valuable. You can do the same thing with Step of the Wind but it eats up your bonus action and costs ki. If you can’t get out, you can spend ki for Patient Defense. This is particularly useful for occupying a hoard of enemies with low attack bonuses. Playing a monk is all about strategic planning for what to do with your bonus action. And stunning. There’s also that.

[Keravath]

Depending on level, monks can contribute meaningfully to damage. They won't keep up with a sharpshooter/GWM build but they are competitive with most classes with extra attack. However, their real strengths are mobility and stun with other control features like knocking a target prone or casting some spells using ki.

For example, I have a variant human shadow monk with the mobile feat and goggles of the night. In dim light or darkness he can use shadow step to teleport 60'. At level 6, with mobile, he has a base movement of 55'.

In the last two encounters I played, there were casters standing some distance behind a row of undead defenders. My monk shadow stepped near the caster and attacked. In both cases, he hit and stunned the caster preventing them from casting another spell and/or breaking their concentration and giving everyone else advantage on their attack rolls against the caster. Casters are among the more dangerous opponents. Hold spells, dominate spells, fireballs, hypnotic pattern can all really hurt the party (in this case the opponents were casting hunger of hadar in several cases). The biggest limitation is that he only has 6 ki/short rest so he has to carefully select when to use ki for stun, ki for bonus action dodge or ki to cast a spell like darkness/silence/pass without trace/darkvision (which is another shadow monk ability). The good thing is that ki is a short rest resource so it is easier to squeeze in short rests compared to long rests.

The stun lasts until the end of the monk's next turn. This means that everyone on the team has an opportunity to attack the target AND the target misses their turn. Since 5e combats typically seem to run 3-5 rounds to deal with all the opponents, the monk can usually keep the most dangerous target locked down for 1 or 2 rounds while the rest of the party with ranged weapons helps finish them off. In addition, with mobile and some luck, the monk might be able to stun more than one opponent but it uses their resources very quickly.

Anyway, so far I have found it to be quite a fun character to play. Role play wise and out of combat, you can act as a scout if you have reasonable stealth or want to use 2 ki for pass without trace and depending on the skills selected you can do all of the other usual things.

[stoutstien]

Hi I'm new to playing a Monk and looking for guidance on how you strategically use your Monk in your parties. Both for combat and also social encounters or other actions the team are taking throughout the adventure. How do they interact with other classes and what do they do in your party that benefits the team really well?
:smallcool:

Monks are force multipliers. As noted above, being Dex and wisdom focus gives you a good list of skills to pick from that are always relevant. On top of that the base class has a ton of ways to just bypass potential problems.
In combat monks are interesting due to how they play changes depending which tier you are in. Tier one you are mobile striker who can spike damage with flurry or enhance defense with patient defense. Tier two you are still doing decent damage but with high mobility and stunning strike you find the biggest threat (s) and neutralize them. Tier three you start stacking Defense on so you have little to fear from Spells and other effects. Tier four gives the ability to tank with the best of them for fairly cheap cost. Your effective HP is up there with barbarian.
Scattered throughout are little perks like the ablity to talk to anyone and wall/water running so you don't need much support to always find something to do.
Once you start looking at all the subclasses on top on this it's easy to see where monks shine.

However, a common complaint is that DM see SS as to strong and either cheat ST or buff saves to prevent a monk from turning deadly encounters into super easy which severely hampers the biggest class feature. I'd have a talk with the DM before playing a monk at some tables.

In short monks tend to be great backups in most cases and everyone sees them as a best friend by providing ways to enhance their own abilities.

[diplomancer]

You are a good scout. If you are a shadow monk, you are probably the best scout in the game. To be even a better scout try to start with an odd wisdom and get the observant feat.
In combat, you are no tank. But if you DO have to be the tank to distract from other characters, patient defense is great. Always try to save some ki points for it.

[ScoutTrooper]

Nothing to really add, everyone above pretty much covers a lot of the Pros about playing a Monk Class.

It is one of my favorite classes to play, I enjoy the niche roll of mobility and versatile in combat plus the large amount of action economy. You can aid the face-tanking Cleric/Barb/Paly/Fighter. Break off and keep enemies off the squishes in the back. Run back and provide a flanking bonus.

Narrative and Role playing wise: Sometimes you're not the leader, but you can easily be a voice of reason to reign in your other neutral / chaotic leaning party members. Being very loose with your gold I find relaxing, I don't feel the need to horde in order to buy that +1 sword or armor.

I do miss 3.5's Vow of Poverty

Probably my favorite write up playing a monk was a Vanara (3.5 > 5e homebrew) Background enslaved (TL;dr: stolen from homeland, sold in foreign place, first master was kind, 2nd one was going to be real @$$, saved by a drunken master, left at the monastery) Played with my own brand of justice and natural law.

That being said, I'm waiting to play a Lizardfolk Kensai Monk, Far-traveler

[Frozenstep]

I'll add that you should push your party for short rests whenever the chance comes up. In order to keep up in combat, you want to be able to freely spend ki to fit the situation. Saving your ki points for too long is just as bad as wasting them on nothing.

[Waazraath]

Monk players - how do you use them?

We make 'em bring the beers and food stuff. And have 'em dance for us, when we are sad.

[GlenSmash!]

Monks are highly mobile single target controllers. Their job is to harass the most difficult single enemy in each combat.

[KorvinStarmast]

In our level 10 one shot, I tended to keep my ki for those moments when I needed to move to find the most dangerous enemy and then stun them. Once stunned, the assist from other party members closed the deal rather quickly.

At lower levels: scout and skirmisher. At levels 1-2, Monk having a quarter staff attack and a bonus attack can turn into some nice beat downs on the lower level threats.

[MilkmanDanimal]

Run up to something.
Punch.
Run away.



All snark aside, pretty much that; you're a mobile flanker and skirmisher, and you do hit and run. It's why Drunken Master and Open Hand both excel in combat; they both give you options for Disengage after hitting, so you can run in, try to stun somebody, and run out. I'm playing a Drunken Master right now, and it's hilariously fun.

[YoFizz]

I've been playing open hand monk for about a year now and I'm at level 8 currently.

I'm a halfling so losing out on the 5ft of movement stinks a little so if you can pick elf you're probably better off.

once you get stunning strike is over.

I spent my time trying to give my team advantage, either using flurry of blows to knock someone prone to give my melee friends some death blows or when I got stunning strike I would keep them on their feet but stun them for my sharpshooter ranger to pump damage. And automatically push my foes back from me.

Keep in mind you can chose an effect for each hit on flurry of blows if you're open hand.

You are not DPS you are support, you will never be DPS.

If something has wings try to ride it. It has been the most fun I've had with my character. The first time I tried this I had just gotten slow fall and I rode a wyvern, did flurry of blows and knocked it prone. It took 30 fall damage ontop of whatever I did to it in my turn. If you can convince your DM that it should also take your fall damage do that too.

You are like a boxer, stick and move. If you leave yourself open for a hit you're going to get hit. And then probably start making death saves.

Pump your Dex first and when you get evasion beg your spell caster to ignore you and just throw the dang fireball, you'll dodge it.

[Undyne]

Hi I'm new to playing a Monk and looking for guidance on how you strategically use your Monk in your parties. Both for combat and also social encounters or other actions the team are taking throughout the adventure. How do they interact with other classes and what do they do in your party that benefits the team really well?
:smallcool:

Monks are great at scouting, skirmishing, and sneaking. They are best suited for the exploration and combat focused parts of D&D, but they have great RP opportunities, like all classes, if done right. If you have anything that can cast Haste, its fine to just nyoom across the battlefield, and they make great stun-lockers once they hit Level 5, ESPECIALLY WITH WAY OF THE OPEN HAND. All monk types fill a special niche.

Open Hand is a control archetype.
Drunken Master is crowd control.
4 Elements is a caster (Although it needs a small buff)
Kensei is great for damage.
Sun Soul covers the monks range weakness.
Shadow makes you super stealthy.

The only thing a Monk can't do really is heal, but you don't need to do everything in a party. I love monks simply for the flavor of their stories: I've played a Bugbear who sought redemption, and got it in a monastery.

[MikeRoxTheBoat]

As a Goblin Shadow Monk with a dash of ranger (if your DM is crazy like mine and allows UA Ranger dips, by God take it), I find my role tends towards a round 1 assassin. I can count on one hand the number of times in the last year I haven't gone first in initiative. My gameplan is to suss out the most troublesome target, then wreck his face before he can do anything. Usually it's a caster.

I'm currently Shadow Monk 8/Gloomstalker 3 and my first turn burst isn't something to be underestimated. If I get a precast of Hunter's mark beforehand, I can do over 100 damage on top of forcing a couple of stunning strike saves. If I want to take a small damage hit from not using a magical weapon, I can force up to five saves if I really want something stunned or if I want to break through legendary resistances.

My turn 2 strategy then turns to picking off enemies, silencing casters, blinding enemies, and generally skirmishing and causing havoc. I can off tank in a pinch if I want to give someone flanking and I'm usually the most mobile if I need to pick someone up with a potion or cure wounds. I'm also great bait to draw in enemies for a fireball.

Monks are one of those characters that can literally be everywhere at once and a lot of their abilities are designed specifically to thwart strategies that would take you off the field.

It's also just all around great fun.

[Zerubbabel]

Am I right in saying that an Aarakocra Monk (particularly if hasted and with high DEX) using Open Hand archetype is extraordinarily OP for stick and move style control?

The vast majority of opponents and encounters they will usually get initiative and be able to move in and pummel something/stun and then fly back out (or into the air) with free disengage?

[MagneticKitty]

Mobility and applying effects is mostly what my monk is good for. Our group not having counter spell, my open fist monk being able to take away reactions and knock things prone to floor them if they're flying so the other martials can reach them is my main job. Stunning a powerful target is also great.

[Sigreid]

Use your mobility to get that guy at the back that is a PITA. Then help clean up the others.

[Blood of Gaea]

I like to use Open Hand Monks on conjuction with a blaster in the party. Monks give a decent amount of control with their Open Hand abilities and Stunning Strike. And Stunning Strike also sets up enemies to autofail Str and Dex saves. The damage isn't amazing, but it's respectable.

Stunning also makes grappling easy enough.