Dungeons & Dragons 5.1E — Monk

[thoroughlyS]

I like the unarmored movement change and would certainly lobby for it if they were rebuilding monk from scratch. However, you already get to disengage freely when using the drunken master, open hand, astral self, and arguably mercy and sun soul. It also basically negates the buff to step of the wind.
Since it's kind of overlapping with benefits granted by other features I think I'd prefer a feature that had some kind of tradeoff, so that the subclass features listed above still feel strong. I've always liked the effect "you can expend 15ft of movement to move 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks". Maybe that would be nice instead??

Ideally, I would look over subclasses and make tweaks to them as necessary. I think the Open Hand feature for example is still useful because removing a reaction can be so much more than just Disengaging for you. Similarly, while my version of Step of the Wind and Unarmored Movement have overlapping benefits it is not redundant because they are times when you may want to not provoke opportunity attacks while not spending attacks (like if you want to run past a bunch of people and hit a backrow combatant).

The powerspike at 9th is absolutely huge. That should come at 11th instead! I'd move diamond soul to 11th, and tack the new abundant step feature onto unarmored movement.

That is an interesting idea, but I would like to give Diamond Soul as early as feasible, because it is a hallmark feature of the monk. They are supposed to have good saves.

I would ignore what others are saying about Decisive Strike because it is a monstrously powerful effect and essentially grants one free attack per turn. Your monk's damage remains rock solid at higher levels. The fact it overlaps with Kensei doesn't matter too much because the two effects can proc off each other's bonus attacks.

This is a case where I would probably tweak the subclass. I just haven't had a kensei at my table.

Personally I wouldn't add Wis mod to Ki, I'd allow monks to recover an amount of Ki equal to their Wis mod as an action once per short or long rest. This is because I'm hesitant about keeping their "nova potential" in check at about 5th level. I like the buff to multiclassing though, it's wise. Perhaps Level + Prof bonus instead??

That seems overly complicated, especially considering I have toned down the most spammable thing a monk does already. I would postulate that you won't see a 5th level monk do more in any one combat using my system or yours.

All in all, I think it's just about sat in the goldilocks zone of reworks - it doesn't change too much, and doesn't change too little. If I had to guess where its power sat in the grand scheme of things, I'd say it is probably overshadowing rogue significantly in combat, and is easily keeping up with an average barbarian or fighter. Looks alright, and I prefer these changes to the ones in Tasha's. Much better focused on their issues at higher levels.

I wouldn't discount rogues so much. Two-weapon fighting significantly impacts their damage, if that is what a character wants to do.