Dhampir Monks

[Dork_Forge]

Whilst making an update to a Monk guide, I noticed that there's a surprising amount of synergy between the Dhampir's Vampiric Bite and the Monk. As it's a simple melee weapon, that you're proficient in, you can use it as a Monk weapon, using your Dex over Con and increasing the 1d4 damage die with the Martial Arts Die.

Things of note:

-If you're below half health you suddenly have advantage on bite attacks

-You can heal yourself or empower an attack/ability check with it

As it's a natural weapon, I don't think this counts for unarmed strikes, right?

It seems like a pretty nice niche benefit of the Dhampir, and given the stats are what you want and you get Spider Climb enhanced by Unarmored Movement, vamp Monks seem pretty neat.

Am I missing something that invalidates any of that?

[RogueJK]

As it's a natural weapon, I don't think this counts for unarmed strikes, right?

Correct. If a natural weapon can be used to make unarmed strikes, it specifically states in in the text. See things like Tabaxi or Tortle claws, Lizardfolk bite, or Minotaur horns. These all state "...is a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes".

Compare to things like Dhampir bite or Beast Barbarian claws/bite/tail, which are natural weapons but which lack the specific ability to use them as unarmed strikes. Instead, they're specifically (armed) weapon attacks.



I think a Dhampir Sun Soul Monk undead hunter, played as a "Blade"-like character, would be a hoot. You'd be able to close in to melee to punch/kick/bite, plus have the option for ranged radiant light blasts while strolling across the ceiling.

[Amnestic]

Whilst making an update to a Monk guide, I noticed that there's a surprising amount of synergy between the Dhampir's Vampiric Bite and the Monk. As it's a simple melee weapon, that you're proficient in, you can use it as a Monk weapon, using your Dex over Con and increasing the 1d4 damage die with the Martial Arts Die.

Monk martial arts:

• You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the Attack and Damage Rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk Weapons.
Dhampir bite:

Vampiric Bite. Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite.

As written, you must use CON for your bite, you can't use Dex (or indeed, Strength)

[Ogun]

So how well can an unarmored barbarian work with Dhampir?

[RogueJK]

So how well can an unarmored barbarian work with Dhampir?

Not great, if you're planning to focus on the bite attack.

Sure, your AC will be a point or two higher, since you can focus on maxing CON first instead of STR. However, you'll seriously lag behind other Barbarians in damage output.

You won't be able to scale your bite damage past 1d4+CONMOD. So even with a +5 CONMOD, your average damage (7.5) is equivalent to a Greatsword before you add your STRMOD to the damage (7+STRMOD). And you can't apply any sort of fighting style or damage-boosting feat like GWM/PAM to it. And you won't be able to apply your Rage damage bonus to it, or Reckless Attack with it, since it's not a STR-based attack.

About the only thing going for it is that you can still make bite attacks while both hands are full (for example, with a shield and a grappled enemy, or with two grappled enemies). As a result, it might be worthwhile to have the Dhampir's bite as a backup attack option on a Grappler Barbarian build, for use when your hands are both full. But you'd still want to plan on utilizing a traditional STR-based melee weapon the rest of the time.

[Ganryu]

Alright. Ya'll ready for a fun build?

Kensei Monk Dhampir (+3 champion levels)

How does this work? We're crit fishing. There's one VERY important feat we need. Piercer.

Now, we're crit fishing. On a crit, you'll do 5d10+5, and heal for that same amount. You can do this 6 times by level 20, meaning you just spring back up from being damaged. And with max con, you'll be alright for health, despite being a monk. That, and all their defensive abilities make you hard to put down.

Start with:

17 Con
16 Wis
15 Dex

Get Piercer out the gate, then +1 con and Wis, then fey touched for hunter's mark, then max out con, then you have 2 more ASI/feats to do whatever you want with.

Pretty much a crit fishing build. Whenever you do a crit with piercing damage, add an additional damage dice.

You have a d10 hit dice for damage.

At lvl 6 you get
Deft Strike. When you hit a target with a kensei weapon, you can spend 1 ki point to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target equal to your Martial Arts die. You can use this feature only once on each of your turns. Also, can add +3 to attack and damage rolls.

So, this is 5d10+8 (+2d6 if you get hunter's mark) for a crit, and will heal you that much as well as it's all piercing damage.

So... you just suddenly regain 42.5 avg out of no where.

You have a decent health pool, AC's a little poorer, but acceptable. Also, I always gripe about Monk AC, so I'm not going to care if it's behind just a little bit more. It's a monk that can tank too, which is nice. Your damage output isn't world breaking, but it's definitely acceptable.

Perhaps go last 3 levels Fighter for Champion's improved crit. You loose out on empty body, but max out hit die, and the crit range is more important than advantage anyways. Especially seeing as you get to reroll misses anyways as Kensei.

Do lose out an ASI, but, hey, like I said, I don't care about a monk's AC as much.