Feats for Astral Self Monk?

[werescythe]

Just have some fun ideas for an Astral Self monk that uses their astral self to punch ghosts and other supernatural beings and I was wondering, what would be some good feats that can work with the monk's astral self?

[J-H]

You get to use Wis for Athletics checks, so you can be a Wis-based grappler. The feat that grants expertise in a skill (Athletics) would be a good fit.

Mobile gives you even more speed and ki-free disengage.

None of the damage feats apply. You already have mobility and vision covered. I can't think of much else unless you go out to stuff like Chef or Ritual Caster or Fey/Shadow touched.

[werescythe]

Mobile gives you even more speed and ki-free disengage.

I actually didn't know that Mobile could free up your disengage from using Ki. That's actually pretty cool. I had thought that Resilient might be good, simply because Monk's aren't proficient in Wisdom saving throws (for some bloody reason).

[BerzerkerUnit]

Every Class gets 2 saves: 1 important, 1 less so. Dex, Con, Wis tend to be the important ones, they protect against Save or Sucks and big damage. Str, Int, Cha are the less important ones. There are few spells or effects that call for them and those that do tend to be lesser nerfs (Banish being a big exception).

A Monk eventually gets proficiency in all saves.

Depending on how far you may want to go in Monk, how high the campaign starts/is intended to go, and which campaign, you have some options.

Baseline stuff, like Lucky or the Touched/Gift feats that grant some spell or effect and a stat boost are always good.

I strongly encourage the Prodigy/Skill Expert feat for Athletics.

If you don't plan on going full monk, Fighting Initiate for Unarmed Style isn't bad. If you're doing a Ravenloft/Dread Realm campaign, and the DM is open to letting you choose your Dark Gift, Touch of Death is good, turning your Grapple damage into d4/d10. upto ~level 5 the single unarmed strike for d10 necrotic might be a better choice then a regular unarmed strike unless you get the Fighting initiate feat early (like Variant Human).

Since the power of your class and subclass is lots of attacks and you can be an amazing SAD grappler, the Grappler feat isn't terrible. Grapple and Flurry, if you went Elf you could have Elven Accuracy and be rolling 3 dice for attacks that all have advantage.

If the campaign is starting in the higher levels, you can probably skip fighting initiate altogether.

Race choice is more significant for Monks (even assuming Tasha's stat reallocation) because the mobility and off hand features they get can be great since the Class as a whole is a little less so.

Goliath's (particularly the new variant) have awesome durability.
Earth Genasi (only the new variant) have awesome durability.
Hexbloods offer Hex, also great for a class making 3 attacks/round out of the gate (Fey Touched can get you another casting).

Human and Custom Lineage grant feats
Van Richten's lineages grant great resistances and utility (Reborn), mobility options (Dhampir).

Fairy/Duergar can Enlarge granting bonus d4 damage (anything that adds 1 or more dice to all attacks is great for monks provided you can set up).

If it were me, playing in a game I don't expect to get past 10th, going Monk all the way to 10.

Custom Lineage +2 Wisdom, Darkvision, Fighting Initiate: Unarmed, Points buy: 8 Str, 15 Dex, 13 Con, 10 Int, 15 Wis, 8 Cha, Skills- Athletics/Stealth

Level 4 +1 Dex, +1 Wisdom
Level 8 +2 Wisdom

I'm going to pray for Dragonbelt, Bracers of Defense, Tome of Wisdom, and an Eldritch Claw Tattoo.

You might be tempted to go for that half feat out of the gate, which is fine, but I think you'll see more effect out of the Fighting Initiate at 1-4 than the +1 wisdom. Note: you're not exactly dumping Dex, this is optimizing the Arms and Stunning Blow.

Good luck!

[werescythe]

Wait! Can the Eldritch Claw Tattoo extend the Astral Self's range to 20ft?

[ProsecutorGodot]

Wait! Can the Eldritch Claw Tattoo extend the Astral Self's range to 20ft?

Yes, Eldritch Claw Tattoo sets your range with unarmed strikes to 15ft while it's active and Astral Arms say "when you make an unarmed strike with the arms, your reach for it is 5ft greater than normal".

It's a combination I use on the Astral Self Monk I'm currently playing. It's a bit of a hassle to set up, lots of bonus action commitment and the durations are short enough that doing it prior to combat isn't reliable.

[werescythe]

Yes, Eldritch Claw Tattoo sets your range with unarmed strikes to 15ft while it's active and Astral Arms say "when you make an unarmed strike with the arms, your reach for it is 5ft greater than normal".

That's so cool! :D

[RogueJK]

If you're going for a (relatively) WIS-SAD Astral Monk, then Magic Initiate Cleric/Druid or Wood Elf Magic gives you some WIS-based ranged cantrip options. Otherwise, the Astral Self Monk is limited to DEX-based ranged weapon attacks.

Additionally, it gets you access to a means to utilize your otherwise unused Concentration, through the 1/day 1st level spell. Good options include stuff like Bless for the Attack/Save bonus, Shield of Faith for the AC boost (Monk have notoriously middling AC), Faerie Fire for the Advantage and the anti-invisibility utility, Longstrider for the long duration and added mobility, or Entangle for the AoE restrained effect. All of those are broadly useful, and continue to be so even in higher levels.


Mobile is normally great on most Monks, but is slightly less so on Astral Self Monks, since they have 10' reach. So they won't be needing to Disengage as often as a standard Monk with only 5' reach.

[Psyren]

OP what are your stats? One of the big problems with monks is that while there are feats out there that help them, they typically want to invest into both Wis and Dex (while also having decent Con) so they can survive being in melee + deal decent damage/control, and so that typically forces them to delay picking up feats until levels when a lot of campaigns are wrapping up. The other problem is that they are hard to multiclass with as monk levels are the only way to get more ki. But if you rolled for stats and got high numbers instead of point buy or standard array, you might have more freedom to grab something like Magic Initiate early on.

[Kane0]

Feats for an Astral monk eh?
Alert, Observant, Fighting Initiate, Martial Adept, Lucky, Sentinel, Shadow Touched, Skill Expert. Maybe Gift of the Gem Dragon too?

[follacchioso]

A good option is Fey Touched.

It gets you Misty Step, always useful to get out of those situations where a walking speed is not enough. For example, you can teleport out of an Entangle area, of a Forcecage, or to the other side of a chasm.

The other spell could be Hunter's Mark, which stacks very well on a Monk, especially if you focus on single powerful enemies.

Finally, the +1 to Wis will boost your main stats, and there is even more synergy than other monk subclasses.

[RogueJK]

The other spell could be Hunter's Mark, which stacks very well on a Monk, especially if you focus on single powerful enemies.

Similarly, Shadow Touched also gets you +1 WIS, along with access to Hex. Hex is +1d6 added damage to all attacks like Hunter's Mark, but also has the additional benefit of giving the target disadvantage on ability checks for one chosen ability.

Like, for example, Disadvantage on STR or Dex for the opposed Athletics/Acrobatics check to avoid being Grappled. This can combo nicely with the high-WIS Astral Monk's WIS-based grapples.


A VHuman/CLineage Astral Self Monk going +1 WIS Shadow Touched (Hex) at 1st and +1 WIS Skill Expert (Athletics) at 4th could be a beast of a grappler starting at a relatively low level, on top of all the usual Monkly goodies.