Index
I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for about half of my life, first introduced to the game at the tail end of v3.5. I have been playing 5E since its release, and it is my favorite version of the game. I feel like the rules are simple, elegant, and cohesive... for the most part. But no game is truly perfect, even to an individual, and there are some rules that I feel were suboptimally implemented. Some build options in the game outshine others, leading to an oversaturation in play. Meanwhile, other build options are so underwhelming that they are neglected an are often called for reworks.
In this thread, I present my list of houserules (listed in red) which have the sole purpose of trying to make bad options good, and the best options merely great. In doing so, I hope to allow players at my table a greater breadth of concepts to explore, simply by making everything worth playing. These changes are to the monk, which was recently brought to my attention by the illustrious Treantmonk. This is one of my more involved reworks, which basically just cranks up a lot of the numbers so that monks can afford to use their features.
Martial Arts
Your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons (which are shortswords, and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property).
You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield:
- You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons.
- You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike or monk weapon. This die changes as you gain monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts table. (1d6 at 5th, 1d8 at 9th, 1d10 at 13th, and 1d12 at 17th)
- When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action on your turn.
- When you spend 1 or more ki points as part of your action, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action on your turn.
Spoiler: Notes
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I step up the scaling for damage so that monks can stay competitive with other classes. I also fold in the Ki-Fueled Attacks option feature from Tasha's which makes integrating subclass features easier.
Ki
Starting at 2nd level, your training allows you to harness the mystic energy of ki. Your access to this energy is represented by a pool of ki points. You have a number of ki points equal to your Monk level + your Wisdom modifier.
You can spend these points to fuel various ki features. You start knowing three such features: Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, and Step of the Wind. You learn more ki features as you gain levels in this class.
When you spend a ki point, it is unavailable until you finish a short or long rest, at the end of which you draw all of your expended ki back into yourself. You must spend at least 30 minutes of the rest meditating to regain your ki points.
Some of your ki features require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature’s effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:
Ki save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
Spoiler: Notes
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The official monk runs out of ki points so fast at low levels that it is depressing. The class features are predicated on you spending at least 1 ki point per turn, and you just can't sustain that at low levels.
Step of the Wind
You can spend 1 ki point on your turn to move with unparalleled grace. For that turn, your speed and jump distance are doubled, and your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.
Spoiler: Notes
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The official Step of the Wind is unilaterally worse than Cunning Action from the rogue. I know you shouldn't really be comparing features of different classes against one another, but that comparison best illustrates just what's wrong with this feature. I make it a significantly stronger feature to account for the fact that it is drawing from the same resource as the main thing your supposed to be doing.
Unarmored Movement
Starting at 2nd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.
In addition, when you make an attack with an unarmed strike against a creature, you don’t provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or miss.
At 9th level, you gain the ability to move along vertical surfaces and across liquids on your turn without falling during the move.
Spoiler: Notes
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The entire playstyle of the monk is: move in, punch, punch, move out. This is much the same as the rogue. The difference is that the only native way a monk had to do that drew from the most important resource they had. To circumvent this, most people saw Mobile as a feat tax the monk had to take as early as possible. With that in mind, I just give them the important part of mobile for free. We can do it with the swashbuckler, so why can't we do it with the monk?
Monastic Tradition
When you reach 3rd level, you commit yourself to a monastic tradition. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 13th, and 17th level.
Spoiler: Notes
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I move a Tradition feature to make room for a tier break feature below.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 10th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Spoiler: Notes
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I add an impactful feature at 10th level, alongside Purity of Body. This is the same level that a rogue gets an extra ASI. I would rather add a unique feature, but I ran out of ideas after hammering out all the ones below.
Stunning Strike
Starting at 5th level, you can interfere with the flow of ki in an opponent’s body. When you hit another creature with a melee weapon attack as part of your action, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a stunning strike. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.
Spoiler: Notes
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Perhaps the most unexpected change, a nerf to the monk's iconic feature. As I mention above, the monk's playstyle is: move in, punch, punch, move out. At 5th level, every time you punch you are also potentially debuffing your target. This gives the monk a reputation as a minor battlefield controller. This reputation is somewhat misguided, but it manifests in one very specific thing: the monk is expected to stunlock bosses and eat through Legendary Resistance. I want to reign in any feature that just gets spammed at the table. Basically, I want the monk to feel like they can do other things besides burning ki to Flurry of Stuns every turn, without making it more expensive to use this feature.
Diamond Soul
Beginning at 9th level, your mastery of ki grants you proficiency in all saving throws.
Additionally, whenever you make a saving throw and fail, you can spend 1 ki point to reroll it and take the second result.
Spoiler: Notes
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Another feature that adds to the monks reputation. It is this feature which leads to the idea that monks have good saves. Sadly it doesn't come into play until mid-Tier 3, after many campaigns end. I give it as a kind of Tier 2 capstone.
Abundant Step
At 11th level, you can use a bonus action on your turn and spend 1 ki point to gain a magical fly speed equal to your walking speed until the end of your turn. While you have this fly speed, you also gain the effect of a freedom of movement spell.
When your turn ends, you float gently to the ground if you are still aloft.
Spoiler: Notes
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A brand new tier break feature. Veterans of v3.5 or Pathfinder might recognize the name, but the mechanics have been redone. The idea here is that barbarians get better durability at 11th, fighters get better damage, and rogues get better utility, so the monk should get better mobility. Now you can run up into the air and try to stun a flying enemy, or slip through magical restraints to attack your foe.
Decisive Strike
By 14th level, you have learned the truth inherent to practicing a single kick one thousand times. Once on your turn, when you make an attack roll with an unarmed strike or monk weapon and miss, you can reroll it and take the second result.
Spoiler: Notes
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One unfortunate consequence of my change to stunning strike is that if you miss with an attack, you have lost half of your stun attempts for that turn. This is to make that less of a concern. Shamelessly stolen from the Arcane Archer, but given during a more appropriate tier.
Ki Sense
At 15th level, you can open your senses to see the ki of other creatures. You can use a bonus action on your turn and spend 2 ki points to gain truesight to a range of 30 feet for 1 minute.
Spoiler: Notes
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I fully admit that by this point I just needed to make levels feel meaningful. This is a mirror to the rogue's Blindsense, which is to deal with some of the hurdles magical enemies can throw at you.
Empty Body
Beginning at 18th level, you can use a bonus action on your turn and spend 4 ki points to become invisible for 1 minute. During that time, you also have resistance to all damage but force damage.
Additionally, you can spend 8 ki points to cast the astral projection spell, without needing material components. When you do so, you can’t take any other creatures with you.
Spoiler: Notes
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At this level, and for this cost, I think you should be able to do this without having to give up your Attack action.
Perfect Self
At 20th level, you attain perfect control over the flow of your own ki. You can use Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, and Step of the Wind without spending ki points.
Spoiler: Notes
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For your capstone, you can use your basic ki features for free.
Dungeons & Dragons 5.1E — Monk
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