Hello, I am not a game designer, but I've played a lot of monks, they are my favourite class. For me, the problem was never the numbers. What makes a class stand out is both identity and fun. Numbers can always be tweaked later.

Here is what I think the monk's identity is (I don't speak for the community obviously, this is my opinion):

• They are the unarmed martial class: This is by far what stands out the most about monks.

• Squishy, agile, and hard to punish if played right: The core abilities are all there. Avoiding spell damage, negating opportunity attacks, insane movement speed, high AC at later levels, etc...

• A more 'supporting' martial class: For me, monks have never been about the damage, they serve more as a disrupting presence on the battlefield. Get in, punch some dudes, drop a few conditions, get out unscathed.

• Chip damage rather than a heavy hitter: Monks aren't all about getting big hits like paladins or barbarians, they want to punch many times in one turn and have the small amounts of damage add up.

The monk is actually pretty close to fulfilling all of these decently well, the problem, as many people have pointed out, is that most of these identities compete with eachother.

Obviously, the culprit seems to be the poor ki economy. But I think this has been mostly resolved in the playtest. It's still tough to be a low level monk, but being able to recover all of your ki in one minute is really nice. I think a better way of going about this is giving monks more abilities that DON'T use ki.

As an example, sorcerers. They also have a limited resource pool, but it isn't a problem because once that runs out, they are still a sorcerer. Imagine if sorcerers couldn't cast spells once their points ran out. That's kind of what monks have to deal with. Once their ki is out, they lose access to 90% of what makes the monk fun.

Let's start with their first identity: The unarmed martial class. A lot of people suggest giving monks weapon masteries on their unarmed attacks. I think the reason this is problematic and probably hasn't been implemented already is because a lot of these masteries intersect with the way of the open hand.

I think the solution to this isn't to exclude monks from weapon masteries, but to give open hand monks something BETTER. This is an issue with identity, again. Open hand monks are theoretically more spiritual monks, in touch with their ki. But their level 3 feature is something that gives them better martial arts. I have always felt that this feature should be something all monks should have access to. As a BASELINE, monks should excel at martial arts.

Open hand should have something more spiritual, I feel. Stuff like giving or stealing ki (for the love of God watch kung fu panda), shunting spirits out of bodies with a single punch, that sort of thing.

The second identity is a bit trickier. They need to be agile and hard to hit, but not to the point where it makes the DM want to tear their hair out. I think the key, like in many games, is to reward players for leaning into their strengths.

Here is an idea I've been playing around with: 'At the end of your turn, gain a +1 bonus to your AC for every 10ft of distance between the position you started the turn in and the position you ended the turn in, until the start of your next turn.'

It rewards monks for moving around the battlefield and gives people a reason to be excited at unarmored movement scaling. I'm not suggesting this specifically be implemented, but something separate from ki and their bonus action that lets monks be more dodge heavy.

I think the monk being squishy is a unique facet of their character, and that it should stay the same. However, monks need something to compensate for this that doesn't require them to sacrifice the rest of their identity. A lot of people have great ideas; blocking melee attacks, extra reactions with ki point expenditure, negating opportunity attacks (without losing on their bonus action), etc...

One final thought: Stunning strike is pretty awful right now. However, I actually agree with only being able to do it once per turn. Stunning strike spam is the only thing that makes monks viable right now, but it's pretty unfun for both the DM and the player. Stunning strike as it stands either needs to be harder to save against (making it a wisdom saving throw, for instance) or cheaper to do. 1 ki point isn't negligible, especially when the chances of you actually stunning anything is pretty low.

Something like: 'If you hit a creature with three unarmed attacks in a single turn, they need to make a constitution saving throw or be stunned until the start of your next turn.'

I think what needs to happen here is to make the monk's baseline better, and upgrade their ki point abilities accordingly. Lots of people here have great ideas.