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View Full Version : Monk with a level of warlock + true evil (vs. DMs)...



samcifer
2020-11-23, 02:32 PM
We did a one-shot this weekend with lv. 12 characters and a stat block of 16, 16, 15, 14, 13, and 12. I wanted to try out the new Astral Self monk and decided to optimize him by going with Bugbear for my race and +2 Dex / +1 Wis, then used my 2 ASIs to max out Dex and boost Wis.

Wnting more damage, I decided to go 11 as monk and 1 level of hexblade, then took Mage Hand and Prestidigitation as my cantrips along with Shield and Hex for my levelled spells. I made my favored monk weapon a whip (giving me 15ft. reach on all my melee attacks as the astral arms also add +5ft. of range on attacks, giving me double-reach on melee fighting).

We were only allowed t have a single long rest in the homebrewed dungeon we were going through, but could take as many short rests as we wanted.

I sweated bullets in the first encounter when I took nearly 50 damage from several enemies and one of them tried to fuse with my body (the real body, not just my astral form from the monk sub-class).

For the second and third of the 3 battles we went up against 2 solo bosses, a nharlatemp (guessing on spelling here as well as the fact that it was kind of pig-demon fiend, can't remember the actual name), then a Balor Demon. In turn 1 of each encounter I cast Hex and selected Constitution for the save they had disadvantage on.

Basically The pig-demon got stunned and went down before my second turn. The same happened with the second boss and while it took 2 and a half rounds, I kept it stun-locked so that it could only use its burning aura to do any damage to us. I never had encounters go so easily for me before and enjoyed feeling important for once (strategy-wise, at least).

The troublesome dm of my group didn't seem to mind me using it, but he made it clear that whenever he dms, if I tried to use that character he'd make sure to stun me with his monsters as much as possible to make sure I couldn't use that tactic against him.

The DM I *did* use it on felt rather sad that his bosses were taken down so easily.

I honestly never had so much fun with a character before, but doubt I'll ever be allowed to use that combo again in my group.

Amechra
2020-11-23, 02:38 PM
Well, um... Hex penalizes ability checks, not saves.

Other than that... welcome to the Monk! You were using it properly. The Monk absolutely laughs at solo boss fights, just like any class that has solid "remove an enemy from the battle temporarily" abilities or spells.

Unoriginal
2020-11-23, 03:02 PM
Well, um... Hex penalizes ability checks, not saves.

Other than that... welcome to the Monk! You were using it properly. The Monk absolutely laughs at solo boss fights, just like any class that has solid "remove an enemy from the battle temporarily" abilities or spells.

Seconded for everything.

Although I'm surprised you went Astral Self and didn't max out WIS rather than DEX.



We were only allowed t have a single long rest in the homebrewed dungeon we were going through, but could take as many short rests as we wanted.

Well damn, that's what you call super-charging a Monk.



The DM I *did* use it on felt rather sad that his bosses were taken down so easily.

Well that's why you have mooks with the boss.

Honestly though while your Monk bulldozed and built a parking lot over them in record time, at the level you were and with the rest advantage you had, your group was almost certainly going to beat both of those bosses too fast for your DM's tastes unless he buffed them up quite a bit.

samcifer
2020-11-23, 03:15 PM
Seconded for everything.

Although I'm surprised you went Astral Self and didn't max out WIS rather than DEX.



Well damn, that's what you call super-charging a Monk.

It was my first time playing that subclass, and I don't play many monks (esp. not higher-level ones). I wanted to focus more on hitting than saving against what I did as I tend to roll poorly in dnd in general.

Unoriginal
2020-11-23, 03:18 PM
It was my first time playing that subclass, and I don't play many monks (esp. not higher-level ones). I wanted to focus more on hitting than saving against what I did as I tend to roll poorly in dnd in general.

I get that, just saying that one of the big advantages of the Astral Self is that they hit with their WIS mod.

samcifer
2020-11-23, 04:22 PM
I get that, just saying that one of the big advantages of the Astral Self is that they hit with their WIS mod.

Actually, you can only use Wisdom for the spectral arms, not your regular attacks, which I think is why I focused more on Dex since the spectral arms can use Dex like my regular attacks and if I'd focused more on Wis, the regular attacks would have had a lower to-hit-bonus.