Class change

[Mwhawk2]

Was recently encouraged by a buddy to build a new character for an upcoming Frostmaiden campaign and forego my general tendency to go Paladin or fighter. Leaning towards an Astral Self monk, primarily because the subclass is new and monks have always intrigued me. Torn between building a Feral Tiefling or either Wildhunt or SwiftStrider Shifter as my race option. Just wondering if anyone has any experience building and playing this kind of monk with either option? Thank you!

[heavyfuel]

Unlike most Monks, you can aim for 20 Wis before maxing Dex. Usually you can afford to start with 16 14 14 in Wis Dex Con respecively. You still want good Dex though, especially in the early levels. For the first 2 levels, you cannot use Wis to attack, and even once you get the Subclass at level 3, Arms of the Astral Self is pretty limited in that it consumes Ki and uses your Bonus Action. As a Monk, you have plenty of other uses for both of these things, so don't go too crazy.

The first few levels you should play very conservatively with your Ki. Gauge how often your DM lets you Short Rest. I've seen DMs that allow Short Rests after every combat, and DMs that think the world will implode if the party stops for an hour. The Monk is considerably weaker with the second kind, but most DMs will fall somewhere in the middle.

Is Tasha's rules about swapping racial ability score increases in play? If so, Feral Tiefling is pretty good, but Monks are super MAD (Multiple Abilities Dependant), needing 3 ability scores to function, so you really don't want to "waste" a racial +1 on something like Int.

Still, I'd advise against Shifter. Their main schtick - shifting - requires a Bonus Action, which I've already mention is pretty busy for Monks.

If Feats are in play and there's any feat you might want, I strongly recommend Variant Human, as you really cannot afford a feat otherwise.

[Mwhawk2]

I’m also thinking of going half-Drow and building a backstory based on an offshoot priesthood of Drow monks who practice a martial art based on the movements and tactics of the sword spider. Although I’m still working on a decent backstory, I’m leaning towards basing it on something similar and making a half-elf Astral Self monk, trained in this art who finds his way to Icewind Dale. I like the idea of a monk who summons spectral sword spider legs and is able to use Drow magic (particularly faerie fire and darkness) to add some additional flavor to the build. We are using Point Buy so off the top of my head, his stats could be STR-8/ DEX-15/WIS-15/ CONS- 14/INT-8/ CHA- 8 (plus a +2 to CHA and two +1s to DEX and WIS from his Racial bonuses). It also allows me to pick up Darkness at level 5 and potentially pair it with Astral Visage at level 6 as a poor mans version of the warlock Darkness/Devilsight combo. Thoughts? Definitely seems to be an interesting concept but having never played a monk, I’m curious if this would be a viable option to those who have?