Hands of Healing, Flurry of Blows question?

[Nikushimi]

Hey there! Simple question...I hope.

I've looked at the Monk subclasses and have been reading up on the Way of Mercy.

But I'm confused with the Hands of Healing Flurry of Blows feature.

Hands of Healing allows you to heal someone equal to you Martial Arts die + your Wisdom Mod for the cost of an Action AND a Ki point. That's not where the question lies.

The second part, and where my question lies is in this part "When you use your Flurry of Blows, you can replace one of the unarmed strikes with a use of this feature without spending a ki point for the healing."

Flurry of Blows requires you to take the Attack action and then spend 1 Ki point to attack two more times as a Bonus Action.

Now here is the question.

Nowhere does it say that you can target another creature with the Hands of Mercy when used with Flurry of Blows.

So am I healing my target? Can I designate who gets healed by this?

Logic says "Yes, you can choose a different target as long as they are in range." but...it just seems weird.

Maybe cause I'm imagining you going to attack an enemy, flurrying and then just smacking an ally or yourself with one of the attacks to heal yourself. It just looks weird...you attack to heal...it's weird. You're smacking your ally or yourself for health. Lol.

Am I correct in my assumption that you are basically smacking an ally and NOT healing your enemy or what? Hands of Mercy with the Flurry of Blows seems just weird...especially later on when you can change all of the attacks to healing. You basically smack your enemy and then "Whack, whack, whack, whack" your ally or yourself for health.

Just weird you have to attack something before you can heal with it. Anyways, thanks for the answers.

[runespoon]

I believe it is clearly RAI that you can indeed designate who can be healed by the Hands of Mercy when replacing one of your flurry of blows, and it seems to me to also be RAW, however my explanation of it that follows may not be wondered in the best of ways. You use your action to attack with a monk weapon/fist, then use your flurry of blow ability, that lets you spend 1 ki to make two unarmored strikes as a bonus action. Your ability from your subclass (hands of healing) allows you to replace one of those 2 attacks you are making as a bonus action with a use of the first part of healing hands, which stats that you touch a creature and restore a number of hit points equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die + your Wisdom modifier. So basically one of your bonus action attacks is getting overwritten with this effect, thus allowing you to both heal and chose the target you heal. Some else on here probly has a more elegant way of coming to the same conclusion that you indeed can chose your healing targets and do not have to heal the creature that you are using your action to attack. Also even if the hands of healing counted as an attack (even though it heals and i don't think anyone in their right mind would argue in favor of it counting as an attack, expect maybe if someone was resisting being touched for the healing) you get to chose the target for all your attacks you make.

[Pandamonium]

Hey there! Simple question...I hope.
Flurry of Blows requires you to take the Attack action and then spend 1 Ki point to attack two more times as a Bonus Action.
Now here is the question.
Nowhere does it say that you can target another creature with the Hands of Mercy when used with Flurry of Blows.


What I feel like I need to point out is that yes, you may attack two more time but nowhere is it stated that they have to be one the same targets as previous attacks in the same turn.
You get 2 more attacks and they can be directed at any creature in your range/reach.

So potentially you could smack the orc in front of you with the attack from the attack action, then use flurry of blows to gain 2 attacks one of which you smack an adjacent goblin and the last is converted to a healing touch at the party bard who got to close to the battle :)

[Nikushimi]

So basically it's as I thought.

You use your Action to Attack then Bonus Action to Flurry of Blows and then with one of those you smack yourself or an ally in range to heal them.

It's just a funny thought that I had to actually confirm. Cause I'm just imagine you going in, smacking your opponent, but like mid attack just "Boop" yourself on the shoulder or something, or an ally on the face to heal them.

It's so weird having to attack to use it, but I guess I understand it. Just a funny image, but thanks for the clarification.

It's basically just an in battle tactic, cause otherwise you can't really take the Flurry of Blows outside of combat in order to heal once you get to 11th level.

[Lunali]

So basically it's as I thought.

You use your Action to Attack then Bonus Action to Flurry of Blows and then with one of those you smack yourself or an ally in range to heal them.

It's just a funny thought that I had to actually confirm. Cause I'm just imagine you going in, smacking your opponent, but like mid attack just "Boop" yourself on the shoulder or something, or an ally on the face to heal them.

It's so weird having to attack to use it, but I guess I understand it. Just a funny image, but thanks for the clarification.

It's basically just an in battle tactic, cause otherwise you can't really take the Flurry of Blows outside of combat in order to heal once you get to 11th level.

While the ally has to be in range to heal them, there's nothing (aside from AoO) preventing you from moving over to them in the middle of your flurry.

It's a battle tactic not because you can't take flurry outside of combat, but why would you want to? Either way it will cost you a ki point, so if you don't have something to hit, you can just spend it to heal.

[x3n0n]

While the ally has to be in range to heal them, there's nothing (aside from AoO) preventing you from moving over to them in the middle of your flurry.

It's a battle tactic not because you can't take flurry outside of combat, but why would you want to? Either way it will cost you a ki point, so if you don't have something to hit, you can just spend it to heal.

That said, it looks weird at 11th level when you would get 2 heals for 1 ki with Flurry. I'd probably house-rule that the "as an action" version allows it twice at that point.

[sithlordnergal]

That said, it looks weird at 11th level when you would get 2 heals for 1 ki with Flurry. I'd probably house-rule that the "as an action" version allows it twice at that point.

I mean, why nerf it? Its really not that weird at all, at least no weirder then Way of the Open Hand always starting the day with a free Sanctuary, the Kensei's ability to turn a Flametongue into a +3 Flametongue for 1 minute, or the Sun Soul's ability to toss a 2d6 damage fireball that deals radiant damage for no Ki at all. Nor is it all that powerful. At most you could heal two creatures for 1d8 to 1d10 + Wis Mod with the ability, that's really not much.

[Danielqueue1]

I mean, why nerf it? Its really not that weird at all, at least no weirder then Way of the Open Hand always starting the day with a free Sanctuary, the Kensei's ability to turn a Flametongue into a +3 Flametongue for 1 minute, or the Sun Soul's ability to toss a 2d6 damage fireball that deals radiant damage for no Ki at all. Nor is it all that powerful. At most you could heal two creatures for 1d8 to 1d10 + Wis Mod with the ability, that's really not much.

I think they meant boost the regular action one to match the flurry boost. Not nerf the flurry.

[x3n0n]

I think they meant boost the regular action one to match the flurry boost. Not nerf the flurry.

Yes, that's what I meant; leave the Flurry buff RAW, add an option to use 1 ki to heal twice as an action (instead of once).