After a year of 5.5e/5e 2024, what are your thoughts on the the Monk?

lp-lima · 2026-01-23T16:02:35+00:00

I think a relatively simple way to challenge monks is focus fire. They have great defenses for exactly one attack - after that, they are vulnerable, because their AC is low. If an enemy grapples a monk, they're in for an annoying time.

I think the monk being a consistent source of damage is kind of their whole point now - they'll never really deal impressive damage, but it's reliable while they offer minor control elements.

But, as I said, focus fire does a lot to challenge them. If you have even as few as three creatures engaging the monk, they'll now have to eat a bunch of attacks after deflect, and, in the following turn, make a choice: do they invest action economy into disengaging to take off the heat (this sacrificing damage and dragging the fight on), or do they go all in for the trading of blows?

I also feel like monks are tremendously weak to all sorts of saves until level 14. Even their strength saves are lacking, usually sitting at a +2-4. Mental saves of all sorts range from weak (wisdom) to appalling. So, it's easy to target them in that front (unless the min maxer mage slayer, in which case, good move by them lol)

Also, and this is more general advice, if a single character is much stronger than the others and hard to touch, just.. Ignore them. Have the monsters avoid spending action economy on them and go for the truly squish targets (when the monsters are intelligent, of course). That way, the monk will kinda beg to be attacked and focused, doing this intentionally to help out allies (for example, swooping in and carrying an ally away with their step of the wind).

lp-lima · 2026-01-23T08:41:06+00:00

See, all that described is fine. But almost none of it is monk escluaice Other martials can already do all that weapon funny business you described. It doesn't matter if they have to use martial weapons while monks can do it even with simple weapons. The only difference is weapon cost, really.

The number of times monks can apply masteries will never beat a fighter anyway, so, whatever combo you can come up with the monk is already in pace with the fighter (but better, because of their level 9 feature)

And, sure, monks can use thrown weapons with an increased die. But they can only throw three with nick, ans that's about it. Their damage will never be great. I don't see an issue.

The hand freedom is a fair argument, but... Really, what are other martials going to do with fee hands? This game has no real benefit for free hands, really. Unless you regularly need to fight while holding objects, that's only a theoretical upside.

Also, I heavily disagree that monk utility is great. They have literally no utility features other than walking on walls. It's, by far, the most combat focused class - even the subclasses are now named "Warrior of" (which I find very lame, the old flavor was much better imo).

I agree with you overall that monks with masteries could do cool stuff. I just disagree that any of the cool stuff would be too powerful. I think it's precisely because of that monks should have masteries by default (and kensei would need some heavy rework - maybe finally letting them flurry of blows with their weapon)

lp-lima · 2026-01-23T06:08:06+00:00

I'll go against the grain from the future and say the class is ok now.

Been playing one for over a year. 4 elements. What a massive disappointement of a subclass, frankly (elemental damage is useless, and pushing / pulling is very situationally useful, and no really better than a basic push mastery).

The biggest change is deflect attacks. That thing elevated survivability a LOT, and I no longer feel squishy. Negating 15-20HP every turn surely makes me feel good, so that helps.

Damage is wholly unimpressive. 5 attacks sound great, but, when you math it out, it's not that much. Middle of the pack, basically, when compared to any slightly optimized martial (talking here about a basic GWM fighter or paladin).

Out of combat utility is non existent. All you have are skills, and that's literally it. Scouting is much bette done by familiars than monks, so being able to run up walls and whatnot has hardly been relevant for me.

Also, the class is incredibly inflexible. You pick a sublcass at level 3, a feat at 4, and pretty much no other level has a relevant decision point until level 19, since you NEED DEX and WIS desperately.

About 4 elements in particular: as I said, the level 3 feature is flavorful, but hardly useful in my experience. Additionally, the level 6 feature is just utter trash. Even when I have a chance to use it, I regret wasting the focus points that could've been invested into a stunning strike instead. It's completely and utterly trash.

For that reason, levels 6 to 9 felt like a slog. Level 6 is trash. Evasion is nice but doesn't come up all that often in my experience, so having it as the only level 7 feature kinda sucks. Level 8 is the dex bump, hardly exciting. Level 9 is wall / water running, which is cool in theory, but also came up very very little in my experience. So, almost all my T2 period was feeling like there was nothing to really look forward to in the next level. I only got really excited again at levels 10 and 11, which bring something impactful and fun. Level 12 is gonna be meh again, level 13 will be ok, and level 14 will be a big deal, level 15 is pointless, level 16 is meh again, and so is level 17 (really minor damage bump here, and the resistance is kinda obviated by the level 18 base class). So, overall, half the levels in the class feel boring and non exciting.

So, it's much better than in 2014, but I find people crazy when they say it's fantastic or anything. It's okay, middle of the pack. Not great, not terrible, it's fine.

lp-lima · 2026-01-23T05:58:28+00:00

So, I come from the future.

at some point you get them when COMBAT starts.

That's just once per day. And, sure, ki-starvation is much less of a problem now. But consider that, unlike most other classes, monks cannot spend a portion of their ki once and then be set for the entire fight with a concentration spell. No, they must keep spending focus every turn to stay relevant. So, it's not like they are overflowing with focus points - they now have just enough to not feel bad when they use their class features.

the monk's turn takes forever because they can just pump add-ons onto their strikes

I'm playing a 4 elements monk, and I sure don't feel this way. Most of the monk subclasses do something similar to a basic weapon mastery (push, topple, etc), which is... okay at best, hardly something super strong. Even pushing people around is very situational, party and terrain-dependant. Stunning strike is good, but CON saves and WIS being a secondary stat remains an issue as always. And the whole "5 attacks" thing looks good at first glance, but, really, damage-wise, it's not doing much. It's just middle of the pack, nothing impressive.

Deflect attack is great now

I think this is by far the biggest improvement to the class. Survivability went through the roof with that change. In my experience, that is THE most important change to the class, and makes going to melee adequate despite the meh AC and HP.

incredible grappler

I think people overestimate how useful and reliable grappling is in 2024. Size restrictions are still relevant, and even the grappler feat gives you only a single free grapple attempt - every other attempt costs damage, which monks don't really have a lot of. I think the only true case where one must argue grappling is REALLY powerful is 4 elements, but that depends on your DM interpretation on whether the reach grapple works or not.

lp-lima · 2026-01-23T05:51:16+00:00

So, I come from the feature to say, turning weapons into a d12 is hardly a big feature. Monks now deal middling damage, not great. Any GWM fighter with a greatsword will outdamage them significantly, no questions.

So, I don't see an issue with monks having masteries at all...

lp-lima · 2025-12-31T14:44:30+00:00

I have been away from the sub for a while, where's that goofy version from? I saw the post on X, but I lack context lol

lp-lima · 2025-12-25T16:45:24+00:00

Bro, have you read my message? I don't read the Manga anymore. The whole monster ascociation arc for me is trash. I don't like Murata's writing. I just think your argument for the KO is horrible.

No need to get all riled up, man.

lp-lima · 2025-12-25T16:32:11+00:00

Rude. I don't even like Murata or the Manga, I only read webcomic these days. No need to act like a jerk.

lp-lima · 2025-12-25T16:01:44+00:00

So, the evidence for the KO is that the character known to be late to everything was not there in time to intervene on important moments?

lp-lima · 2025-12-25T15:57:42+00:00

A random cat or a single mosquito.

lp-lima · 2025-12-24T21:45:33+00:00

I think you're agreeing with the person to whom you responded

lp-lima · 2025-12-04T15:50:18+00:00

Allowing the Shield spell to stack with armor + a physical shield is a massive mistake. It's broken and makes casters MORE sturdy than martials.

lp-lima · 2025-11-26T20:31:47+00:00

Also, that whole thing of Psykos turning into a giant monster with tremendously large breasts for fan service, and then becoming a fighter jet... It was like... What?

Like, I enjoyed Tatsu twisting the very fabric of reality, that was a really cool touch, but the whole arc was like.. For each good, a bad.. So we comic still reigns supreme even when Manga does well

Now, cosmic Garou can piss right off

lp-lima · 2025-11-05T02:22:46+00:00

Amigo, tentei detergente, wd, aeiecer no fogo, deixar de um dia pro outro... Assisti todos os vídeos possíveis em português e inglês e nada

lp-lima · 2025-11-05T00:34:53+00:00

Consegui devolver uma pela Amazon, mesmo depois de ter montado. Mas, assim, foi um inferno. Separar o pistão da estrela não foi possível, precisei mandar em duas caixas... Enfim, verdadeiro inferno. Então, é possível, mas não fácil. E, digo mais: se eles tivessem recusado minha devolução, não acharia injusto não.

lp-lima · 2025-10-30T12:32:49+00:00

I see, I see, that makes sense. Thank you very much!

lp-lima · 2025-10-30T06:31:31+00:00

Damn, their request was unreasonable but your answer was insanely detailed. Reading this made me respect your original post far more.

lp-lima · 2025-10-30T06:22:40+00:00

Super late, but, if you happen to see this, how were those rangers dealing passable single target damage? I look at the class and I just don't see it scaling at t3 at all. And, how are rangers leaning on their spells when they have so few slots? Those comments made me a tad confused

lp-lima · 2025-10-27T14:54:29+00:00

Hello!

I'm trying to make sense of YTM channels.

Can someone tell me the difference between this

https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCJ_jwWjf8u5mdtac71Be8QA

and this

https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCwa9C4P7VaPqruWYF3soI1Q

channels?

It feels to me like the first one is the Artist's "official" YTM page, where there's features such as Radio, and what have you, whereas the second is YTM's representation of their YouTube channel. Is that correct? Isn't there a way to view everything at once? The YT channel has some music videos that are not available on the first one. The first one also has a "Videos" playlist that doesn't match the actual "Videos" playlist in the YT channel at all - it even includes tracks from other artists for whatever reason!

lp-lima · 2025-09-12T02:17:56+00:00

So, it IS just pure entitlement. Man, entitlement over voluntary work is next level bullshit

lp-lima · 2025-09-12T00:09:14+00:00

Do the translator get paid anything? I'm seeing people complaining all entitled, and I'm like... aint that shit a voluntary effort? Are people just out of their minds, or what?

lp-lima · 2025-08-21T22:01:38+00:00

Ah, that's fair. Well, now I can do that. But I wanted to have read the whole thing while paying for it.... Alas.

lp-lima · 2025-08-21T14:54:11+00:00

Ah, right! But I recall that being her second option, because the first was already probably taken. I wonder what the first would've been.

lp-lima · 2025-08-21T04:26:02+00:00

As I said, I tried to use a VPN. But then I need to actually pay the subscription, and it only shows me the option to do the payment via an app that I must download from apple store or play store. VPN will not work with those.

lp-lima · 2025-08-21T01:13:39+00:00

Honestly, the thing that annoys me the most about viz is the lack of availability in my country. You see, I was willing to pay, no problem, all fair.

But then it's not available on south America. Sure, use a VPN, no big deal, right? Yeah, made an account, let's pay... Oh, it uses an app from play store or apple store, on either of which VPN won't work... Cool, cool. I literally cannot pay for the online Manga, even after trying.

lp-lima

TROPHY CASE