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What's so bad about Kensei?
My Kensei Breakdown:

A. Weapon Choice:

A monk can already use dexterity with their monk weapons, and they can use dexterity with any weapon that they choose for their Kensei weapon.
A monk also has no reason to not be using a weapon two handed if it is versatile because they can't use a shield and they can bonus action attack anyway so no reason to ever two weapon fight.
You start with 2 choices, one melee and one ranged, but they can't be heavy and can't have special properties, so that leaves:

Battleaxe/Longsword/Warhammer: Same weapon essentially, it is a 1d8 weapon with versatile 1d10. So one die size bigger damage if used two handed than a spear that you can already use but it is not a throwing weapon. 1 damage higher but not throwable, kind of breaks even.

Flail/Morningstar/Pick: Same weapons again, but this time just non-versatile versions of the better ones. No reason to ever pick these.

Rapier/Scimitar/Shortsword: The finesse property is redundant because you already can use dex, and light doesn't matter because you don't dual wield. So all these are replaceable with a spear or great club if you really wanted. Only reason to pick these is you pick the parry feat or you are multiclassing into rogue. But then again, you could just use a dagger or short sword, but you can't sneak attack with an unarmed strike, so just kind of ok, not great even then.

Trident: It is just a worse spear... so no reason to pick it, ever.

Whip: Gives reach, which can be nice, but it will always scale with your unarmed damage so you are not gaining any damage. A subclass pick to get a ranged option, maybe.

Ranged Weapons: They might as well have just said, "Pick a melee weapon and a longbow"

You get 5 choices over the subclass but you never have a reason to use more than 2, one ranged and one melee.
Your melee choices are: 7 weapons that are the same as something you already use, or just plain worse, 3 weapons that are all the same but net you one point of damage for losing the thrown trait, and 1 weapon that is the a damage loss for a good while and then does no more than unarmed but gives you reach.

B. 3rd level Kensei ability:

Melee: You now know how to use your new weapon in melee, so at most you gained 1 point of damage in by giving up the versatility of using a spear as well as not using PAM if you chose to take it.
However, for level 3 and 4 you only get one weapon attack and a bonus unarmed attack maybe 2 if you flurry. You can attack with your new weapon, or you can just stand there and hold it and use an unarmed strike like every other monk can do to gain +2 ac but now you have dropped from a 1d8 or maybe 1d10 damage to a 1d4 for that 2AC.
At level 5+ you can make 2 weapon attacks and 1 or 2 unarmed, or you can make 1 weapon attack and 2 maybe 3 unarmed strikes to gain 2 AC. You are essentially giving up the whole point of the subclass to use a different part of the same subclass.

Ranged: Bonus action to add 1d4 to each ranged attack. Nothing wrong with that. You can always make unarmed attacks while holding the Longbow so you can still make OA. The issue is that many monks are elves who can already use a longbow, and all monks can use a short bow so it is just a 2-3 damage boost at the cost of your bonus action.
EX. Wood Elf is a VERY common race for monks, and they can all use a longbow. So any woodelf can attack at range if needed for 1d8 + Dex and use their bonus action for something like Step of the Wind/Patient Defense or and this is key Read the specific wording of Flurry of Blows compared to Martial Arts. Martial arts says: "When you use the Attack action with an unarmed
strike or a monk weapon on your turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action." but Flurry of Blows says:"Immediately after you take the Attack action on your
turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action." It does not say it has to be a monk weapon. So you could shoot once, or twice if level 5+ then just spend a ki, walk over and unarmed attack twice with FoB.

With monk's massive levels of mobility as is, it is already a great chance you can reach someone to unarmed attack, and would be almost impossible for you to not be in range for a bow attack.
Is it worth it to give up 1 or maybe even 2 unarmed attack to do 1d4 extra damage with a bow shot? Maybe, but not very often.

Another issue with archery based monks is ASI, Monks need a great Dex, a pretty good if not great Wis, and a good Con, but unlike classes like Fighter or Rogue, Monks don't get any bonus ASI, so you could easily get to level 16 before ever being able to take an archery based feat, also monks do not get a fighting style without multi classing. If I was going to make an archer monk, it would only be 3 levels of monk and the rest would be battle master.

C: Level 6 features:

Your Kensei Weapon counts as magic for overcoming damage resistance. Cool. But how long before that becomes redundant by you just getting a magic weapon. That and any monk can still just unarmed attack for magic damage if the have to. It also depends on: A. how often your DM uses resistant monsters, B. how the magic item distribution is in the game, and C. Will what you attack with really be that much better than an unarmed strike in the first place, by now your unarmed strikes are 1d6, the most you are going to get out of a weapon is 1d10 and that is only 2 attacks a round, only 1 if you want the 2 ac, if you are at ranged, the most common magic item in the entire game is a +1 arrow, by now you should have enough around to shoot a bow against things you simply can't reach that are ALSO resistant to non-magic that it shouldn't matter.

other ability is 1ki for a mini-smite. In the long run not a great as just using that same ki for some of your other abilities, but on a crit i can see it being used against some targets. Not too cost effective but pretty good.

You also get to pick another Kensei Weapon, so if you found a magic Longsword but your Kensei weapon was a battleaxe you can pick it up now, but that also makes a bigger chance that your first level 6 ability gets redundant early.

D: Level 11 feature:

Can spend 1/2/3 ki to give your Kensei weapon a + 1/2/3, not bad at all BUT, it does not stack with any other +s on the weapon already.
If you have a +1 longsword, this ability is pointless unless you also carry a normal longsword you can pull to spend 3 ki to make it a +3.
Most magic weapons have a +1/2/3 already so are out, if you do find one of the ones that don't like the flame tongue, you have to have picked it as a Kensei weapon.
This feature also makes your level 6 ability redundant, again.
Again also, if you want that +2 ac, you will only be attacking once with your new magic enhanced weapon, but 2 maybe 3 times with your unarmed strike.
I can see this being good as a backup plan for if your weapons are taken, but then again, back to the idea that any monk can just attack unarmed for 1d8 by this point.
IF and that is a big if, you can use this ability on your main weapon that is already magic, great, you got very lucky.
For most of the time, this will not be getting used to its fullest at all.
Also, another Kensei Weapon to pick from, at this point you have taken a Longbow and whatever 1d8 versatile 1d10 weapon you wanted, at level 3, so the rest are just whatever you find that is magic, make it a Kensei weapon.

E. Level 17 Feature:

A free re-roll on a miss once a turn. Yes, that is some kind of nice. Had to wade through some blah features to get it but sweet. This is what kensei should have been like all the way through.


The Subclass is mediocre at best, but could have been so amazing if it was just tweeked a little bit.

There is no need for that many Kensei weapon choices.

Let them pick 1 weapon at level 3 and another at level 11.
Their level 6 ability makes whatever weapon they picked a +1 weapon
Level 11 makes it a +2, second weapon becomes +1
Level 17 makes it a +3 , second weapon becomes +2

Add in a clause of "as long as you have enough Ki points left in your pool = to the + you can have it is active" if you want.

OR

Let them pick unarmed strike as a Kensei weapon.

I love the concept of the weapon master monk, they just really fouled it up.