Puglio
Level 4
2 years ago
2 Likes
Hey there folks!
We're back with more information about the upcoming Inner Strength DLC (which releases November 14th), this time featuring the Monk! The perfect opportunity to make references to dumb (but fun) kung fu movies. But before that, here are some of our new hires!
Say hello to Selma and Zelda, our two newest fluffy and adorable hires!
I know Kung Fu
If I ask you which class runs around half-naked on the battlefield while smashing enemies left and right, you say... Barbarian, okay I guess that's correct too. But hear this - you want to go even faster? Punch people in the face and kick them in the nuts instead of relying on a big chunk of metal to swing around? Well look no further than Monks. These expert martial artists are simply the fastest among all existing classes, and although they are less durable than most other front liners their speed allows them to quickly get in and out of combat. Each of their strike may not deal large amounts of damage, but they can be empowered with Ki to add debilitating effects, such as the infamous Stunning Strike (which makes many DMs weep for their boss monsters).
First drafts of the Monk outfits
Starting at level 1 Monks get access to Unarmed Defense, allowing them to add their Wisdom modifier to their Armor Class as long as they are not wearing armor. They also get their class-defining feature Martial Arts, which grants them scaling damage when fighting unarmed (from 1d4 at level 1 to 1d8 at level 11), allows them to use Dexterity instead of Strength for those attacks and gives them the ability to do an additional unarmed strike with a bonus action.
Your face to my foot style!
At level 2 Monks get a passive movement speed increase (from +2 cells at level 2 to +4 cells at level 10) with the Unarmored Movement feature, making them the fastest of all classes. They also unlock a pool of Ki points, which is the class resource Monks spend to use most of their powers. By using 1 Ki point and their bonus action, they can use Flurry of Blows to make two additional unarmed strikes, Patient Defense to Dodge, or Step of the Wind to Disengage or Dash and double their jump distance.
At level 3 Monks commit to a Monastic Tradition, which unlocks their Subclass features. They also get Deflect Missiles, which allows them to use their reaction to lower the damage they take from ranged weapon attacks. If Deflect Missiles lowers the damage to zero, a Monk can even spend 1 Ki point to return the projectile to their attacker
Excuse me sir I believe that's yours.
At level 4 Monks get access to Slow Fall, greatly reducing fall damage and allowing them to get back up on their feet immediately after falling.
At level 5, Monks get an Extra Attack like most other martial classes, but they also unlock the bane of all Dungeon Masters... Stunning Strike. By using 1 Ki Point, they can force any creature they hit to roll a Constitution saving throw or be stunned for 1 round. This is where I remind you that Monks can attack 4 times per round thanks to their Flurry of Blows, meaning there is a very high chance whoever they're targeting is in for a very bad time.
Kill bosses with this simple trick! DMs hate it!
At level 6 Monks gain Ki-Empowered Strikes, making their unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity.
At level 7 Monks gain access to Stillness of Mind, making them immune to the charm and frighten conditions. They also get Evasion, allowing them to take no damage at all instead of half damage when succeeding a dexterity saving throw, and only half damage if failing it.
More color sketches to work on the Monk outfit
At level 10 Monks gain Purity of Body, making them immune to disease and poison. That's a lot of immunities!
Way of the Open Hand (SRD)
Open Hand Monks are honed martial artists who can easily take control over the battlefield. Their signature Open Hand Technique automatically adds one of three effects when they use Flurry of Blows - they can either knock their target prone, shove them away or prevent them from taking reactions. At higher levels, they get Wholeness of Body which allows them to heal themselves once per long rest, and with Tranquility they can spend 1 Ki point to cast Shield.
Way of Survival (Homebrew)
For Survival Monks, the best offence is a strong defense. With Defensive Stance, they get a bonus +2 AC when not wearing any armor - and they have advantage on attack rolls as long as they are under the effect of Patient Defense. At level 6 they unlock Unbreakable Body, which further enhance their toughness. Patience Defense now also grants resistance to all damage, and taking damage makes you heal a small amount of HP at the start of your next turn. At level 11, Survival Monks turn resilience into power with Unmoving Strength to add their Constitution modifier to unarmed strikes damage rolls.
Way of Light (Community)
The winner of the Wishing Well, Light Monks are specialized against creatures who dwell in the dark - such as Soraks! They learn the Light and Shine cantrips with Luminous Ki, and creatures hit by Flurry of Blows automatically start emitting bright light. This enables their level 6 feature Radiant Strikes, which adds radiant damage to each of their attacks when hitting enemies under the effect of Luminous Ki or Shine. Lastly at level 11 they get Blinding Flash, which allows them to use 2 Ki points and their bonus action to deal radiant damage and blind enemies surrounding them.
Way of Freedom (Lost Valley)
Freedom Monks are a tempest of blows flying accross the battlefield. With Swift Steps, Flurry of Blows grants them the effect of Dash for free and advantage of their next attack. At level 6, Swirling Dance allows them to use their reaction to counterattack right after an enemy misses them with a melee attack. And at level 11, Unending Strikes improves their Flurry of Blows to attack three times instead of two.
Alright folks, this is the end for today! Next time we'll be talking about the Warlocks. Thank you for reading, and don't hesitate to drop by our Forums or our Discord Server.
Article by Tactical Myzzrym
4 Comments
Llacote
Level 7
2 years ago
Overall a bit disappointing. Monk is a comparatively weaker class in terms of both damage per round and defense,
Nope. This has been debunked quite a lot of times. It's just that many people are dishonest around there and just repeat wrong assertions / biaised reasonings instead of digging by themselves.
You start with the same armor class as Heavy armor users, because nobody gets the best armor (s)he could wear. That armor class is also, if you build a "standard" Monk with 16 DEX and WIS, significantly better than all casters (except Clerics) AND Rogues, and similar or better to DEX Fighters.
The only martials to beat Monk's starting AC are those wearing shield along, which also means they can neiter two-hand weapons nor dual-wield. Which brings to the next point.
At first level, anyone using two-weapon fighting beats anyone using single weapon, simply because having two chances to hit is overall better. Fighters get the best of that world.
As soon as 2nd level comes in Monks get equal with even optimized Fighters.
- Two-weapon fighting? (1d6+3)*2
- Two-handed? 1d10+3
- Polearm? 1d8+3 + 1d4+3
- Monk's Unarmed? 1d8+3 + 1d4+3.
Please don't bring me Sharpshooter or GWM in. Taking that feat as level 1 for the -5+10 is a big trap unless you really have someone else in party that can greatly boost your accuracy (even advantage is often not enough except for very low AC creatures).
And taking it at level 4 is honestly still early "in isolation" (again if you have teamwork to back you then it's probably not that bad since you get an accuracy bump with proficiency).
So if anything Monks are equal or actually (slightly) better than other if they blow Ki on Flurry.
The only way to be better is taking Dual Wielder feat at level 1, surprise.
So what does level 5 change? Well, nothing since all martials except Rogue get Extra Attack.
Level 6? Fighter gets a feat/ASI which is nice to set up martial combos. Monks get... Well, just being 100% efficient against whatever enemy they face while everyone else will go weep dealing half-damage until they find magic weapons, ideally ones fitting their build.
and there isn't a lot here to address that or make up for it in other ways. On the subreddit we were hoping the subclasses would be powerful to shore up the class.
Maybe you should read again while putting aside your preconceptions.
Open Hand is, well, Open Hand: effective but very repetitive and kinda bland.
The other subclasses? Damn strong, quite close to the wrong side of the balance line really.
Way of Survival is a flat +2 to AC (like you have a shield yet you still have both arms) AND spending one Ki boosts your defense immensely while keeping you nearly as effective in damage as if you used it on Flurry of Blows instead (and overall as good as just using bonus action on simple unarmed attacks): in situations where all 4 attacks would hit of course it's less effective. But unless you go for very low AC, you'd probably miss one, possibly two of those 4 attack rolls.
Feature giving advantage means you deal at most only 2 instances of damage but you still get 4 attacks rolls. While also avoiding most chances of getting critically hit, and just hit.
Level 6 makes you a "light Barbarian" by basically giving a preview of what being a level 18 Monk is. And level 11 is probably a +2 flat increase, or possibly +3/+4 if player decided to play the aggro tank part to the end.
Way of Light would probably feel too situational for other campaigns but for Solasta this is definitely the best. Considering not all races have darkvision and learning Darkvision just for that is annoying, having an auto-light effect on simple hit is MASSIVE benefit in action economy and attack efficiency. Level 6 sets up a combo that provides radiant damage which is better than plain "magical physical" against some enemies, and level 11 is a nice mix of short-timed control and damage boosting offense and defense for all party.
Way of Freedom finally is a very nicely designed way to enhance Monk's natural strengths in an original way: first benefit, like Drunken Master and Open Hand, makes it easier to use Flurry of Blows while maintaining threat to acceptable level. Swirling Dance gives extra chance to attack (and apply Stunning Strike) and synergizes well with going evasive with Patient Defense once you aggroed a powerful enemy. And Unending Strikes is a plain flat big boost of raw power.
All three are interesting, richly flavored and tightly integrating into what Monk class really is.
I'm very impatient to try them out personally. :) GG to the devs.
1 Like
Vizardlorde
Level 4
2 years ago
Monks are weaker than other classes in tabletop, but it is not TA's job to do WOTC's job and fix it. The ability to short rest whenever you want makes them much better in Solasta than in tabletop. The changes to open hand's Tranquility and base monk stillness of mind are welcome changes.
Nope. This has been debunked quite a lot of times. It's just that many people are dishonest around there and just repeat wrong assertions / biaised reasonings instead of digging by themselves.
DPR calculations show the monk is the weakest damage wise due to poor martial arts dice scaling and all features relying on ki.
3 Likes
Llacote
Level 7
2 years ago
Monks are weaker than other classes in tabletop, but it is not TA's job to do WOTC's job and fix it. The ability to short rest whenever you want makes them much better in Solasta than in tabletop. The changes to open hand's Tranquility and base monk stillness of mind are welcome changes.
Nope. This has been debunked quite a lot of times. It's just that many people are dishonest around there and just repeat wrong assertions / biaised reasonings instead of digging by themselves.
DPR calculations show the monk is the weakest damage wise due to poor martial arts dice scaling and all features relying on ki.
First, it's plain wrong until level 11. See above. During their own turn, Monks are competitive damage-wise with NO investment whatsoever (even Flurry of Blows) with TWF style, PAM, Dueling. Off-turn PAM gives an edge since enemies "coming in" is the easiest trigger to get for OA, but it also means going Variant Human at level 1 or using a later feat for that.
And later Monks not only catch up but can, punctually, largely surpass even those with GWM or Sharpshooter if they decide to spend 3-4 Ki on Stunning Strike. Why? Because not only do they get advantage on their own attacks once it lands (so at worst they'll have advantage on own attacks next round, with luck some of their attacks in current turn), but they also improve EVERY ally's attacks, EVEN RANGED. So their total damage over a round with Stunning Strike is a) own damage, b) every instance of damage that got through thanks to the advantage. Which brings to the next point.
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Second those DPR analyses you find over net are wrong overall because those whiteroom DPR calculations always assume a) you're always already in range of melee attack b) you always hit c) you never suffer any threat on the way or back. Which are all three hilariously wrong.
In actual play, there are a lot of times where you cannot go fully on offense in melee for a variety of reasons: you're too far away, enemies are behind an obstacle requiring an action to Athtletically jump over, you've gotten prone / restrained / dominated, or you're simply down for good because you were too much in frontline.
The latter is typically the case for Barbarian: either because no rage left, or activated rage too late, or simply was even more Reckless than expected. Once you're in too deep and want to fallback, you have to use action on Dodge and avoid damage (but also risk losing rage) or take opportunity attacks which may let you weak enough to be finished off with a simple arrow or thrown weapon. Same and worse with melee Fighter which don't even have damage reduction by default.
Monk? Just one Ki point is enough to either stand through the storm so enemies don't divert to other targets, or Disengage and fall back with increased speed to cover (or simply getting out of the way for upcoming friendly AOE).
And when you're in opposite situation and enemies are just too far away, pure STR martials have only their eyes to cry: best case draw one or two throwable weapons if enemy is less than 30 feet. Worst case need to Dash towards enemy (or Dodge if you anticipate lot of ranged/melee heat before your next turn). Monk? Sit back, draw shortbow, enjoy getting your full Attack while you close in nearly as fast as your pals Dashing.
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Monks are a *strong* martial, even with only the recommended short rest allocation per day. Solasta's lack of restriction on short rest just makes short-rest centric classes much more powerful and possibly skewing balance.
People simply need to stop consider that Ki-fueld abilities should be spent every turn (they cost resource for a reason: it's powerful) and stop focusing on Flurry/Stunning Strike exclusively (Flurry is unnecessary unless specific situation, Stunning Strike is worth only if you can get at least two attempts in the same row unless you face an enemy which you know has crappy CON saves).
Like
Overall a bit disappointing. Monk is a comparatively weaker class in terms of both damage per round and defense, and there isn't a lot here to address that or make up for it in other ways. On the subreddit we were hoping the subclasses would be powerful to shore up the class.
They'd need a free disengage to get in and out of combat, as you describe. All the movement squares in the world don't mean much if you get your ass beat for using them.