@@bonewizardjust want to ask whenever you finish doing your update on classes and subclasses I believe you should run a few one shot dnd games with your changes and see how they play out or a long campaign whichever is to your liking
I like the approach of improving their features much more than "DM gives them a bunch of magic items", because then the character becomes a lot more DM depended
I mean i still aprove of giving martials good magic items. DMs should do that because its cool and LITERALLY baked it how the game is meant to be played.
@@bonewizard Nah, I'm sure the way it was meant to work by WotC is meet a monster with immunity to weapon attacks and then the mages do all the work, or you just TPK. With how heavily weighted in the CR and max HP calculation those immunities and resistances are for a stat block, that's the only logical conclusion. ...For instance, Werewolves have around half the HP of other CR 3 monsters that have only 11 or 12 AC.
@@bonewizard absolutely, that's not what I meant. It's just, when you choose a class and subclass, you make a decision of what character with what abilities you want to play. Magic items are great, but it's the DM giving the player what they think they want their character to have. I mean I have great communication with my DM but if I bring up an idea of what I would like as a magic item I get something similar but mostly kinda different than I imagined it to be. 🤷
@@Shalakor not to mention above a certain CR literally everything has resistance or immunity to non-magical damage which is just such a weird concept I dunno why they don't just remove non-magical and give physical immunity
Which, it's worth mentioning that if a DM is consistently having to give a player more magic items than other players just for them to keep up, it can be misinterpreted as the DM playing favorites. I've seen it happen before, and it's not fun trying to explain to the Cleric why the Monk is just having trouble keeping up, without making the monk feel bad for picking monk.
I have always thought that monk should be the reaction class, letting them parry attacks is an amazing idea that works so well with the fantasy of the agile, close quarters class and bulking them up to be able to actually fight in the frontline is so nice. This makes the monk sound actually fun to play.
i think something like the cavalier fighter’s ability to gain more reactions would be right at home in the monk’s base kit, it would also make them feel a lot more active in their play style instead of stunning an enemy, wailing on them for your turn, and then sitting and doing nothing unless something gets shot at you
@bonewizard I think an extra reaction would be a good feature for lvl 15. Monastic Reflexes - once per turn if you're target by an Attack and have already used your reaction, you can spend 1 ki to gain another reaction for use of Deflect Attack. Edit: it fits well with the theme/fantasy of the Monk too.
A monk player might like these changes as much as a fighter would like the DM to say they get action surge, second wind, and indomitable every turn but that doesn't make it good balance. It doesn't make the monk feel viable so much as it has the side effect of invalidating all other martial classes. Hits about as hard as the fighter, tankier than the barbarian, exceeds the rogue in every metric aside being a skill monkey. Each individual change sounds like it'd be cool if monks could do those things but there's not consideration of the overall balance of the result against the other options.
My own inpression of the monk has always been that it's like a warrior that also works like a Quarter Caster. Also maybe let them have the option of stacking one stat on another, like how a really old martial artist can still be extremely strong, despite their aging body. And I don't mean it in a Timless Body way, I mean it in a Kaku Kaioh from the Baki series kind of way. You're this super tough guy that can also shoot the occasional beam for long range attacks, either with KI or just punching so hard you send out a shockwave at your enemy.
I love that this follows the Buff/Nerf philosophy I've seen praised in fighting games. It does not only make something weaker or stronger, but it wears down what is a potentially overused trait, as it's Stunning Strike, while giving better use to something that could be seen as Unoptimal, like Deflecting. It makes it more compeling to bring variety to the table instead of just changing the meta. Also Parries are objectively badass.
Thanks man. Reworking stuff in dnd when you treat the mechanics like a video game oddly works, at least for me. Not how you should DM, but for reworks like this it works. Also i used the parry sound from street fight 3
@bonewizard This might be the best monk fix video on UA-cam, it makes everything better but not unreasonable. This is a debate I've been engrossed in for years, now I'm just gonna show people this video.
I had a monk at my table. These are the buffs i gave him. I doubled his ki points and called them yin and yang, half were for damamge and half were for not damage. I also let him use patient defence as a reaction, added his wisdom as on hit damage during flurry of blows.
Omg i had a whole thing where every extra straight hour you meditate you get an extra ki point limited to your monk level. But this is so much better, i feel like this is so good they should make a subclass around this concept
What did they think about it? Sounds like some great adjustments, might ask my DM if we can change some parts of Monk doing a mix of the video and this Yin and Yang points.
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One DnD: 'trying to fix the monk' Magical Bone Man: Hold my beer. The fact that you remade the entire class is insane, making it better than any one subclass improvement could of. Bonus, I'm on foundry and can actually edit the core class! Hope I get to see it in action some time.
I could be deep in my cups and still put out better content than wizard. But thank you for the compliment! Glad you can put this into foundry. Let me know how the changes work for you!
The saddest part about monk is that, with the introduction of the unarmed fighting style, you can make way better unarmed characters by just having other classes (most notably fighter) pick that fighting style. Now I like the unarmed fighting style. The Punch Knight is a sick character. But man is it just putting salt in the monk's wounds. That was like... the monk's whole thing! Anyways, great video mate! Never encountered this channel before, but I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it.
Honestly, the unarmed fighting style is overhyped. It doesn't give you a bonus action punch, so unarmed monks do tend to substantially outdamage unarmed fighters. (At least up until level 11 when the fighter gets a third attack and the monk...doesn't). Also, unarmed fighter gets none of the monk features such as stunning strike, increased movement, or magical punches to bypass non-magical bludgeoning resistance. An unarmed fighter mostly just deals damage (and it's less damage than a Monk). The one thing they are a little better at is taking a hit. That's not really enough to make up for everything else they're missing. Monks are undertuned, of course, but unarmed fighters somehow manage to be even more undertuned than monks.
When you described blocking multiple hits and parrying in a turn I literally shouted with full hype, this actually makes the class sound AMAZING to play
I absolutely adore the monk. Whenever I'm not a DM, it is my go-to class to play in my friends' campaigns. I love LITERALLY ALL of these changes. As someone who has playing and DMing this system since 2017, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Something people keep missing about Quickened Healing is that it's not a combat ability, it's a "let's use up all my ki before a short rest to get free hitdice" ability.
Which makes it trash. If you have Ki left you weren't in trouble and if you weren't in trouble, you don't need to heal. Generally speaking at least. Look at it this way: You could stun the Ogre for 1 Ki, preventing 2d8+5 damage (idk how hard an Ogre hits from the top of my head). OR You could heal 5 damage, for 2 Ki I will take my chance with stunning, every day of the week, thank you.
If I were to rework Stunning Strike, I'd change it to inflict the Dazed condition from One D&D (honestly Dazed should just replace Stunned entirely as its far less punishing) and I'd make it so you cannot force the same creature to make the saving throw more than once per turn. So if you use Stunning Strike on a creature, you cannot use it on that creature again for the rest of the turn no matter if they fail or succeed the save. Let's you daze multiple creatures but not brute force it to guarantee daze one particular creature
Yeah. That was my change, except I didn't replace Stun with Daze. Mostly because, yes, players will be salty, even if it's a buff overall. I want Monk to feel Great, and I won't let Stunning Strike stop me.
@@bonewizard I`ve tested the dazed condition for monks, along with some other buffs. Bigger hit dice and martial arts dice as well as adding Wisdom to the number of ki did wonders, and now are required at my table for every monk. But Dased was pretty clunky as a change, it was good only when I was the only one in mele because I could just walk away and force them to use movement. The problem is - we had a lot of mele characters and even one other character in mele with the monster makes dazed almost meaningless, as they still could use their multi-attack.
I feel like the most obvious buff was never considered or mentioned: Increase the amount of attacks with flurry of blows at certain capstone levels. Go from 2 hits to 5 hits at level 20. Easily too powerful, but it’s for that punchy feel we all crave.
As someone who has played a Battle Master Fighter to level 23 (or 24 after killing the final big bad) having too many attacks all the time can be a huge slog that slows down gameplay. Your turn becomes all about adding up a bunch of numbers over making the attacks feel impactful. The idea of making off turn attacks more reliably common was a nice compromise in this homebrew's design. At the very least, making a greater number of attack with things like Flurry of Blows should be subclass specific (especially if the Bonus Action can be used whenever you want like in this version). ...I say that having done my own, different, take on fixing Monk, so I'm mostly speaking in the context of this version.
Check out pf2e monk if you want to dee how good monk can be. They are not as good at hittin and crittin as a fighter, but their ability to to dominate the in your face game with potent grappling, great AC, and of course their inate speed along with MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY OTHER OPTIONS makes them one of the best monk itterations in tabletop.
Instead of increasing the number of attacks, just increase the damage. Too many attacks is a slog for little damage(especially since an unarmed attack is 1d4-1d10).
I always imagined the monk's ideal capstone ability to be like, spending every ki point you have and getting a damage buff to every attack for that turn for every ki point spent, but i do love yours
I always thought it would be cool if your level 20 allows you to regain KI points whenever you roll an odd (or even, doesnt matter, as long as its consistent) number on your martial arts die throws.
I think your Improved Dedicated Weapon should require that a monk have held the weapon (or be attuned it). RAW this feature allows you to just, choose a weapon and gain its properties even if the DM doesn’t give it to you or it breaks the lore. Technically, you never lose proficiency from Dedicated weapon, so you can add a new artifact level magic weapon to your armory every long rest. The feature is great, but a slight lapse in wording (just make it like Pact of the Blade and it’s perfect)
You’re welcome; honestly, the improved dedicated weapon is a really eloquent solution to monks and magic items. I’m surprised I haven’t seen something like it before
I've always felt like monks should gain additional reactions once they hit a certain level. They are supposed to have incredible reflexes, so it just makes sense.
Bro, I know it's been 8 months but *what* playtests? Like, WotC have been criticized heavily in no small part because they haven't playtested their new edition in any meaningful capacity lol
honestly i think the cap stone should switch out Con for Wis for two reasons 1: it befits the monk both physically and spiritually be truly attuned with there ki 2: Base Monks (and some subclasses) benefit from higher wisdom and i feel like with your suggested buffs they don't need the extra health from the con increase plus it would make there AC incredibly high with possibly a AC of 24 giving that feeling of a monk feeling untouchable and if we used the suggested idea were monks also use wisdom for there deflect attack it would still help there survivability a good bit
@@bonewizardI think those should be 2 separate abilities. One of the issues I have with monks is how once u run out of Ki, u don't have anything cool to do. All base abilities should be free. Patient defence should be use ur reaction to impose disadvantage a melee attack, if the attack misses, u can pay a point to counterattack. Flurry of flows free, pay 1 Ki point to add one die to the damage roll
@@bonewizardWhat about: „Increase Dex and Con or Dex and Wis“? This way, the player is more flexible in how to build his monk. Not get hit at all, or deal more damage on cost of hp
Wow, this is a very interesting take on the monk class! I'm totally going to try this in my next game. My group was already play testing some new grappling rules I added for the monks specifically (2 of 'em), so this is going to be fun! Also, if someone ever asks you to have a were-kangaroo... just say no. A were-kangaroo monk is just scary! 🤣
@@bonewizard On this front, do you have any thoughts (I'm sure you do, lol) on grappling overall and grappling as a monk? I feel like 5E made grappling (by default, anyway) a complete waste of time, especially from an advantage/disadvantage and action economy point of view. I figure since you made lots of monk-related content recently, you'd probably want to think about grappling (if you haven't already!) since martial arts-type characters would probably want to make use of this more. I mean... if even knights in full plate armor and wielding pole arms made use of grappling, I'm sure monks would, too! Plus... it's just cool! :D
From what I've seen of the one DnD monk revision (playtest 8) it looks rather good. They made stunning strike more reasonable by limiting it to one per turn, but buffed the fist dice and several other aspects to make up for it
Baulder's Gate 3 does a fantastic job with the Open Hand monk with it's Manifestations and the plethora of magical gloves and gauntlets that boost unarmed combat damage. It's a shame that DnD will never wrap that into the base monk. BG3 makes monks feel powerful, dangerous and brutal. Gotta say, though, I'll be using your changes for the base Monk, it's really cool.
Even though the OneDnd monk is hot garbo, I did like the change they did to Step of the Wind. It now lets you use BOTH dash and disengage, really helps with giving them even more mobility.
@@AlexT7916Their 3 primary bonus actions should all be free and have a more powerful Ki spending version. Although Flurry of Blows already has that, it's just unwritten because it comes from Martial Arts at level 1. I'd say make their fists have actual weapon properties, especially finesse, and take away the DEX bonus because it's now using actual TWF rules. But then take away the bonus action entirely, it's a free attack. (Under OneD&D masteries, I'd say let you retrain masteries every day, and one of the options is Nick for the free action attack). Now, Flurry of Blows is a bonus action and 1 point for an additional strike. 2 attacks, or 3 at level 5, and your bonus action is between 1 more strike, dashing, disengaging, or dodging. And if you spend 1 point, you can dash and disengage too. Dodging is really strong so I can't think of a way to make it weaker but free. I say give them fighting styles too, or at least let them be options for a 1st level feat like they were going to be before they nixed class groups (right before the Monk could have seen any benefit, how convenient).
dude, i love the monk and the whole idea around it, and this was both a beautiful criticism/redesign of monk and a joy to watch. you have secured a new subscriber-keep it up
I've always wanted monks to gain features similarly to warlock eldrich invocation, like making your own martial style for your character as you get stronger.
Some additional tweaks I am making: - like others have mentioned, I am replacing stun with the dazed condition, and you can only attempt to stun (daze) any given creature once per turn. - if you score a critical hit, you can attempt to daze that creature, no ki required. - Changed patient defense to a reaction - Throwing missiles back at a creature does not require ki - give monks two reactions at 11th level (when fighters get three attacks). The additional reaction must be used for a monk feature or attack of opportunity (to avoid multiclass shenanigans) This has not yet been playtested, but I think it suits the fantasy of the monk doing a bajillion things in a round.
I'd rather keep throwing missiles to require ki. As OP as this idea of Deflect Attacks is, I'd rather the deflect doesn't require ki but the attack back does. Or have a system involving scaling charges that replenish on a long rest.
One of the many ideas I brainstormed for Monk was heavily leaning into parries and counters. Reactions equal to their Proficiency, let them opportunity unarmed attack when attacked (including spells), and some other changes. Could be interesting, but relies on enemies attacking the Monk instead of the Monk attacking more, which I know isn't always the player's ideal fantasy, haha.
One thing I often do is modify ki empowered strikes so you can add half your proficiency bonus rounded down to your attack and damage rolls with unarmed and monk weapon attacks. Since you can turn your fist into a legendary god killing sword this will let you keep up a bit more without breaking the bank.
@@bonewizard Yeah its powerful, but by the time both of them get maxed out most other characters are nearing demigod status anyways so who cares. In fact for the majority of the time its just canceling out any great weapon master or sharpshooter accuracy drops which the barbarian, and certain paladin subclasses are already capable of doing from level 2 or 3.
The amount of google docs I have of me trying to buff/change monk before ultimately giving up because of ADHD is sad. It's also so nice to see an explanation of what irks me about monk being perfectly described. I have talked to DM's and others I play alongside with and they never understand and just say something along the lines of "I think Monk is fine, maybe it's just not the class for you." Which kind of made me feel like my opinion was invalid and I gave up until I saw your video pop up in my feed. I played the UA Dragon Monk and felt super weak alongside the Celestial Cleric, Moon Druid that could turn into monstrosities, and the Wild Magic Sorcerer. It was crazy to me that they nerfed the subclass before it went live.. Anyways, thank you for what you do here with this. I appreciate you for making me not feel like my opinion is worthless or invalid. Edit: I also completely forgot to mention my distain for Stunning Strike. I didn't know how to describe it but it always felt super cheesy to me..
I really liked the path you took for improving the monk. It does feel way better than what we have currently. When I tried to tweak the monk, I wanted to add the level 3 ability from the open hand subclass to base class, cause I thought that it would be cool to give the monk more effects to its attacks and make it more unpredictable. As well as at a higher level, flurry of blows get upgraded to making two additional attacks on top of the default bonus action attack, but that seem too much. Overall this looks like the best Monk overhaul I’ve seen yet. I am going to try to convince my DMs to let me use this version instead. Thanks for the buff and the great video.
I love the feature BG3 gave open hand monks at 6, restore ki points, hit points, and get 2 bonus actions for 1 minute. That could easily be ported over as an incredible 7th, 10th, or 13th level feature. It’s a really great feature, and having it deep into the Monk’s level progression means it can’t be used as a broken level dip for other classes. I also had the idea of having something akin to “called shots” as a replacement to stunning strike. Allow the monk to block the flow of ki in a creatures body (like Ty Lee in Avatar:TLA), disabling limbs to have various effects like reduced movement, limited attacks, etc.
Deflect Attack is absolutely BRILLIANT, that's exactly what's been missing from this class both mechanically and fantasy-wise! I got my DM to agree to everything except Robust Body and Unwavering, and felt like Better Healing should require a ki point; I'm very much looking forward to this game now. Thanks a lot!
This rework is great! Out of all the Monk fixing videos I've seen yours is definitely my favourite. Can't wait to see what you do with Sun Soul monks, hope the kamehamehas are flying left right and center
I've been at this hobby for 20+ years and this is the most useful video essay on monks I've watched. Well done and bravo. Had some good chuckles along the way, as well
22:08 Man, specially in this part I laughted so hard I almost chocked, this is the funniest video of D&D I've seen this year, loved your content and animations just subbed, keep up the great content
I have never played monk before, however this video has made me want to. And judging by the views, a lot of people were wanting this as well. Thank you so much for the wonderful video and im looking forward to see what you do with the subclasses!
I can respect a man who has to pay his rent XD. I'm also friends with Buddy and he told me what he did for you, so I'm glad of you both! You did an awesome job!
As a DM, I came here because our cleric was one-shotting orcs at level 1-2, while our Monk attacked several times and barely did any damage. Thanks for the video.
This video is damn near perfect and almost made me cry tears of joy, then tears of sadness knowing we'll never get it. Deflect Attacks is something ive been saying for years (along with step of the wind costing no ki). You got a new sub!
Thank you so much for working on this. Monk is my favourite class aside from Warlock with its aesthetic, but I’ve always felt like I need to multiclass in order to keep up with the rest of the table.
Amazing video. I was sold on this the second you explained Deflect Attack. Neo blocking incoming punches is EXACTLY the kind of fantasy I have with Monks. In fact, the difference between the fantasy and mechanics of Monk is what has kept me from actually playing one. One quick question though: If I were a level 8 Monk and managed to reduce two incoming attacks to zero damage, would I need to spend a Ki on each reaction attack?
@@bonewizard I don't know about that. They seem to watch Treantmonk. And only Treantmonk. Just enough so to be weirdly reactive without addressing all issues, though.
@@bonewizard I think so, just as much content and I've been cackling the entire time but the changes felt very focused around the class identity instead of just being buffs. Can't wait for the subclasses, monk needed the love
Great vid, was waiting for this since the barbarian vid and it did not disappoint. As a monk lover I've brain stormed on how to rework this class A LOT and this was a really interesting take. Making them tankier and given them a "best defense is a good offense" vibe with the reworked deflect attacks. This monk sees really fun to play, might just use this monk or take some of the ideas from it and add it to the monk for my home games.
Thanks to your silliness, my yuan-ti monk is able to dish out 6 attacks per turn using his reaction, simply walking into enemy reach, leaving it, provoking an opportunity attack, and parrying it. Doing this to 2 enemies, robbing them of their reactions. I really love your work, keep it up!
Really loved the way monk is buffed and reworked for this, i got into dnd at like the start of this year and monk was one of my favorite classes from the jump but I was a bit bummed they seemed to not get that many interesting abilities that actually impacted fights more (aside from stunning strike) definitely gonna use this for any games I DM for to make stuff more fun for monk players
Honestly anything to even vaguely close the gap between martial classes and the others is so nice to see. I’ve had too many DMs that just accept that casters and half casters are stronger on average so they just give up and let them fall behind. It’s felt punishing just to want to enjoy a different style of play before
I love how, when looking at the document, this video ALONE takes up like 7 pages. No complaints, just an observation, and I love it for that. I also love how this class adaptation (as well as one of the Blood Hunter's orders) are the only options in the game that let you bump a score over the 20 threshold. I would love it if each class had something similar to this in addition to their existing level 20 capstone abilities
I think they also really suffer from a weird perception of far eastern spirituality. My friends and I have always thought they would be more interesting if they had decoupled monk from wisdom and allowed their subclass to determine their secondary stat (not really possible for a published dnd class but meh) Great stuff as always from the bone man.
This is very nice, you knocked the goblin off the battlemap with this video. I usually allow my players to use your homebrew changes in my games, and this is why. I think your capstone ability is fine, however i did remember seeing a different homebrew Monk capstone somewhere else on UA-cam (I forget where). It allowed you to change your Creature type to any of your choosing, along with the mediocre official capstone. So your Long Death monk could become an Undead or your Kensai Monk could become a Fae. I think that this addition is INSANELY flavourful. It's also not even the wild considering that we now have official, non humanoid races. Nice video, keep up the good work!
thanks im glad you like the video! Im not sure how changing your creature type would help or harm you but thats interesting. I think, at its core monk is celebration of the human spirit. It is the power fantasy of hard work paying off. You are not super naturally gifted, you had to build your power from nothing through hard work. Monk is the most human class there is because with enough work, you can kill gods and demons with nothing but your bare hands.
@@bonewizard That is a solid point. I for one always play human unless it's for a specific build. However not every character is a human, some are Dhampir or Dragborn... Although at this point, you might as well homebrew in the creature type yourself lol. The indomitable human spirit is one of my favorite concepts. You don't really see many other parts of DnD where you gain abilities based on your sheer mastery over your own form and humanity. There should honestly be more, entirely mundane classes/subclasses with a wide variety of skill and abilities that can scale up to casters. That is why Fighter and Monk are my favorite classes. I find beauty in sheer mental and physical prowess overcoming the toughest threats the world has to offer. (Yes I am a Human Fighter player, sue me). You are one of my favorite dungeons and dragons content creators. Your homebrew is simple yet effective. Have you ever given thought to designing your own subclass? If not, it might be a fun thought experiment. And you could always sell them to your fans.... I'd buy them lol. Have a great day my guy.
I think that homebrew was probably taking inspiration from 3E Monk, who ended up being considered "Outsiders" from their bodies exceeding physical limitations. Empty Body kind of fills that vibe better, and without just straight disconnecting you from your origins. (Although, it would kinda be cool to go the whole Pinocchio route and have a Warforged achieve humanity through pure force of spirit.)
@reehigh7772 first off, human fighter is great. People are just mad cuz they want everyone to be a "unique snowflake". When in reality there is a 99% chance your favorite character is a human, and a large chance that they are a fighter. Coming from nothing and earning your power is far more interesting than having a birthright. I actually have conisdered makeing subclasses. A spiderman monk and a luchador barbarian. We are doing playtesting for it now. If you are interested, you can get it on patreon for $2. No pressure.
i love the video. I usualy buff monk for my players in a much simpler way, just more ki, life and damage in the unarmed dice. And men... what a video, i am stunned by the deflect atack ability, is so simple and good and balanced, why i dont think about this before. This buffs are very very good, its impressive. Great video Bone, thank you.
I let one of my monk players roll Arcana to use Deflect Missiles on an enemy’s Fireball spell. Now this was under the extreme circumstance that if he failed the fireball would have killed him and another player. He barely succeeded enough to toss the fireball away before it detonated. It did end up inspiring me to make a homebrew, quartercaster monk subclass.
Sounds great so far. I'm looking forward to hearing about subclasses. I want the sunsoul npc I'm going to use to actually be able to do some cool stuff. I thought about using Treantmonks version, but yours is more shiny and I like that. What Treantmonk came up with is good in it's own way, but it's more about monk players not being disappointed all the time. I really do not think they need to be disappointed for their choice of class at all. I wish he would analyze your monk version in one of his videos.
Also, there was a stunning strike rework I saw that was really good. It costs one ki, and every attack you make that turn inflicts a status condition that gets worse with every hit. It stacks on a creature from no reactions to dazed to stunned.
I really, really like your changes that you made to Monk! Talking to a friend of mine that'll be in an upcoming campaign i'm running to allow them to use these rules for their Monk! My one issue I have with it is the proficiency in Death Saves at 7th level, other than that, these rules are fire!! ✌️💀
This is sensational. Not only are these ideas all great (did you just hear a "yoink" sound"?), but I actually laughed at the video, to the point of tears in my eyes. Admittedly, it was the dick punch joke, which doesn't speak highly of my sense of humour, but I'm about the binge watch a bunch more of your videos as a result of this!
Amazing video, glad monks are getting the love they deserve, my only complaint is i feel improved dedicated weapon is at too high of level, you play monk to be punchy but you’d still need to use a magic weapon for half the campaign, i’d say tack improved dedicated weapon onto ki-empowered strikes, having said that, i have no idea what to put at level 11
ive only played one game of dnd it was rather recently and it was fun, and even without lnowing that much about this game it was really fun to watch your editing is good, your jokes hit, and you explain topics in a way that is simple but still detailed enough so there arent any holes
For Astral Monk (my personal favorite subclass) Make it less reliant on Ki or at least increase the timer that you have your ability up cause imo this subclass despite it being my favorite just burns through Ki like no other subclass but that’s really it, other then that i feel like the subclass is amazing
acw;lsx Thanks for this buff to the monk. I'm going to pitch this to my DM since I'm playing a monk in a campaign that's like a homebrew Black Suns, which we just did the first session of. Edit: Additionally, I'd like to see the subclasses be reworked or even some more homebrew ones.
the subclass reworks are coming but there is a Spider-man subclass video i made that's out now. ua-cam.com/video/UhmBRDhqoGU/v-deo.htmlsi=y0CKF-FHnjHZd5e7
I have been working on a monk revamp for months now and this was some hearty inspiration! My big addition was a whole spreadsheet of ki abilities they can take instead of some normal ones, including making stunning strike optional
I think something that would help monk tremendously is just switching unarmored defense and ki over to Constitution. That way, you don’t need 3 high stats to make a good monk, you just need 2. One thing I try to keep in mind with changes to classes or abilities is just “keep it simple stupid”. I’ve been trying to come up with a rewrite for the monk class myself, this videos has helped a lot, thank you
I see your point, and I think its dumb. The point of using Wisdom for monk's saves and AC is that it's meant to represent discipline. You're a monk who uses their mastery over their mind and body to revoke other people's body privileges, not a barbarian who simply doesn't care if they get hurt.
I am playing with my friends and one of them is playing a monk We buff the class with 3 things: 1d10 for hp The damage of martial arts start 1d6 and goes to 1d12 And the ki is the level+prof. Bonus And is going pretty good
Best monk revamp I've seen so far! Most other revamps tend to stick to the ''dont change too much because scared of imbalancing'' scenario and honestly monk could use it. The changes you offer are mostly in line with what other classes can do so I don't really see them breaking anything. Considering a ton of campaigns dont even reach lvl 14+, the high end changes can be easily balanced by the dm changing encounters if necessary. Great stuff 10/10 want to try this version asap, finally an incentive to take it to lvl 20
Literally the best rework I’ve seen, although I think the monk relies too little on their wisdom now, subclass abilities often still rely on it enough. I’m going to use this on my new party to shield them from the horrors of old 5e monk
Wow I sure am engaged in this content. Just watching this has massaged my mind to be more susceptible to advertising. If I was a media conglomerate I'd sure be happy you were around.
This is in response to your latest Monk Short. Let's go! I've actually been wondering for awhile now if you saw what they did to the monk class, and now I have my answer. Still pushed for a 2 ro 3 bump to AC, and an extra ASI at level 10 or 11 to help with the MAD condition of the class in my survey response. However, the monk is in a significantly better place, and you (and possibly others ;)) have aided. Take care all.
referred here after comments on dndbeyond re: the new monk noticed similarities. One time through the video wasn't enough, but it's literally the first time I've ever seen a monk redesign that made me unabashedly excited about it. Most other designs are either bonkers or fall way, way short. I think the official new design falls short too, but is probably reasonably balanced. This was really sweet. Thank you!
This is the first vid of yours that I have seen. Thank you for your awesome vid here and I look forward to more of your content. You are awesome Noble Sir and your work is much appreciated 🙌🏾😌
monk is by far my favorite class when it comes to flavor, and i will now be sending this video to every single campaign group with monks anywhere in it
Watched this video pretty soon after it was released and I loved it and now SO many of the changes you made were added to the new one dnd monk play test so really great job👍
I've been burning through your vids. I really like this rework. Personally, I never had a problem with monk, but any time I've tried it, it's been low level one shots. I can definitely see that I stopped before more most of the glaring imbalances started to happen. I also really like how you pull up comparable abilities when introducing new ones for these buffs.
a homebrew idea that i wanted to apply to my Owlin monk was to allow it to infuse her feathers with Ki and be able to throw them like daggers, and it also made me think of other racial specific abilities you can give monks, such as giving dragonbornes the ability to spend a ki point to completely shrug off an attack or something unique like that, leaning more into the fully honed body thing
Unironically, before watching this video I was making a monk subclass, and theres a few features that you added that I sort of made as a 6th and 11th level feature around the both saving throws and increasing the ki by gaining them back after getting hit using patent defense. I'd love to show it to you sometime especially because I'm still making it atm.
The dancing joke improve my day, watered my crops and made me want to live again just to fuck with my DM. Thank you for the inspiration to cause more chaos in my games. :)
This wasnt a buffing the monk video, this was a remaking the monk video and honestly the monk needs to be remade
oh, ya i guess that was more of a remake than a buff video huh.
@@bonewizard honestly I really like it gives you more chances to do something new with the class
Here here!
@@bonewizardjust want to ask whenever you finish doing your update on classes and subclasses I believe you should run a few one shot dnd games with your changes and see how they play out or a long campaign whichever is to your liking
@nexusaquarian9281 i mean im recording a podcast right now.
I like the approach of improving their features much more than "DM gives them a bunch of magic items", because then the character becomes a lot more DM depended
I mean i still aprove of giving martials good magic items. DMs should do that because its cool and LITERALLY baked it how the game is meant to be played.
@@bonewizard Nah, I'm sure the way it was meant to work by WotC is meet a monster with immunity to weapon attacks and then the mages do all the work, or you just TPK. With how heavily weighted in the CR and max HP calculation those immunities and resistances are for a stat block, that's the only logical conclusion. ...For instance, Werewolves have around half the HP of other CR 3 monsters that have only 11 or 12 AC.
@@bonewizard absolutely, that's not what I meant. It's just, when you choose a class and subclass, you make a decision of what character with what abilities you want to play. Magic items are great, but it's the DM giving the player what they think they want their character to have. I mean I have great communication with my DM but if I bring up an idea of what I would like as a magic item I get something similar but mostly kinda different than I imagined it to be. 🤷
@@Shalakor not to mention above a certain CR literally everything has resistance or immunity to non-magical damage which is just such a weird concept I dunno why they don't just remove non-magical and give physical immunity
Which, it's worth mentioning that if a DM is consistently having to give a player more magic items than other players just for them to keep up, it can be misinterpreted as the DM playing favorites. I've seen it happen before, and it's not fun trying to explain to the Cleric why the Monk is just having trouble keeping up, without making the monk feel bad for picking monk.
I have always thought that monk should be the reaction class, letting them parry attacks is an amazing idea that works so well with the fantasy of the agile, close quarters class and bulking them up to be able to actually fight in the frontline is so nice. This makes the monk sound actually fun to play.
Enjoy
i think something like the cavalier fighter’s ability to gain more reactions would be right at home in the monk’s base kit, it would also make them feel a lot more active in their play style instead of stunning an enemy, wailing on them for your turn, and then sitting and doing nothing unless something gets shot at you
How about we move the hit dice back to 1d8, and then give him TWO reactions per turn
@@Sup3rFlight i d rather more health, more reactions, and drop defelect attack putting you into a stance.
@bonewizard I think an extra reaction would be a good feature for lvl 15.
Monastic Reflexes - once per turn if you're target by an Attack and have already used your reaction, you can spend 1 ki to gain another reaction for use of Deflect Attack.
Edit: it fits well with the theme/fantasy of the Monk too.
As someone who loves monk, I really love these changes, they just make the monk feel viable and thematically make so much sense!
Thanks! Hope you get to try them in your game!
Let's sit and pray they do a remake similar to this to the monk class
A monk player might like these changes as much as a fighter would like the DM to say they get action surge, second wind, and indomitable every turn but that doesn't make it good balance. It doesn't make the monk feel viable so much as it has the side effect of invalidating all other martial classes. Hits about as hard as the fighter, tankier than the barbarian, exceeds the rogue in every metric aside being a skill monkey. Each individual change sounds like it'd be cool if monks could do those things but there's not consideration of the overall balance of the result against the other options.
My own inpression of the monk has always been that it's like a warrior that also works like a Quarter Caster.
Also maybe let them have the option of stacking one stat on another, like how a really old martial artist can still be extremely strong, despite their aging body. And I don't mean it in a Timless Body way, I mean it in a Kaku Kaioh from the Baki series kind of way.
You're this super tough guy that can also shoot the occasional beam for long range attacks, either with KI or just punching so hard you send out a shockwave at your enemy.
I love that this follows the Buff/Nerf philosophy I've seen praised in fighting games. It does not only make something weaker or stronger, but it wears down what is a potentially overused trait, as it's Stunning Strike, while giving better use to something that could be seen as Unoptimal, like Deflecting. It makes it more compeling to bring variety to the table instead of just changing the meta.
Also Parries are objectively badass.
Thanks man. Reworking stuff in dnd when you treat the mechanics like a video game oddly works, at least for me. Not how you should DM, but for reworks like this it works.
Also i used the parry sound from street fight 3
@bonewizard This might be the best monk fix video on UA-cam, it makes everything better but not unreasonable. This is a debate I've been engrossed in for years, now I'm just gonna show people this video.
@@Fenikkusu14 that would be very cool if you did, thank you.
I've already started 🫡
@@Fenikkusu14 Same. Solid changes for a super weak class.
I had a monk at my table. These are the buffs i gave him. I doubled his ki points and called them yin and yang, half were for damamge and half were for not damage. I also let him use patient defence as a reaction, added his wisdom as on hit damage during flurry of blows.
Daoism is canon in dnd
Omg i had a whole thing where every extra straight hour you meditate you get an extra ki point limited to your monk level. But this is so much better, i feel like this is so good they should make a subclass around this concept
This sounds much more balanced and reasonable
What did they think about it? Sounds like some great adjustments, might ask my DM if we can change some parts of Monk doing a mix of the video and this Yin and Yang points.
One DnD: 'trying to fix the monk'
Magical Bone Man: Hold my beer.
The fact that you remade the entire class is insane, making it better than any one subclass improvement could of.
Bonus, I'm on foundry and can actually edit the core class! Hope I get to see it in action some time.
I could be deep in my cups and still put out better content than wizard. But thank you for the compliment! Glad you can put this into foundry. Let me know how the changes work for you!
The saddest part about monk is that, with the introduction of the unarmed fighting style, you can make way better unarmed characters by just having other classes (most notably fighter) pick that fighting style.
Now I like the unarmed fighting style. The Punch Knight is a sick character. But man is it just putting salt in the monk's wounds. That was like... the monk's whole thing!
Anyways, great video mate! Never encountered this channel before, but I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it.
The addition of that fighting style is so frustrating. Its like they are just pretending everyone doesn't allow multiclassing.
Would have been better if it just added an extra d4 or d6 instead, then Monk multi class with more often and is still better.
D&D 5e 🤝Pathfinder 2e (Fighters get enough support to be better monks than monks)
Honestly, the unarmed fighting style is overhyped.
It doesn't give you a bonus action punch, so unarmed monks do tend to substantially outdamage unarmed fighters. (At least up until level 11 when the fighter gets a third attack and the monk...doesn't).
Also, unarmed fighter gets none of the monk features such as stunning strike, increased movement, or magical punches to bypass non-magical bludgeoning resistance. An unarmed fighter mostly just deals damage (and it's less damage than a Monk).
The one thing they are a little better at is taking a hit. That's not really enough to make up for everything else they're missing.
Monks are undertuned, of course, but unarmed fighters somehow manage to be even more undertuned than monks.
that is 100% correct. But it gets annoying when you start multi classing to get a d8 martial arts die by level 2.@@KaitlynBurnellMath
Adding your prof. bonus to the ki pool is an absolutely enlightened decision, I cant believe I didn't think of it before
When you described blocking multiple hits and parrying in a turn I literally shouted with full hype, this actually makes the class sound AMAZING to play
Have fun and parry the world
I absolutely adore the monk. Whenever I'm not a DM, it is my go-to class to play in my friends' campaigns.
I love LITERALLY ALL of these changes. As someone who has playing and DMing this system since 2017, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Something people keep missing about Quickened Healing is that it's not a combat ability, it's a "let's use up all my ki before a short rest to get free hitdice" ability.
Which makes it trash. If you have Ki left you weren't in trouble and if you weren't in trouble, you don't need to heal. Generally speaking at least.
Look at it this way: You could stun the Ogre for 1 Ki, preventing 2d8+5 damage (idk how hard an Ogre hits from the top of my head).
OR
You could heal 5 damage, for 2 Ki
I will take my chance with stunning, every day of the week, thank you.
If I were to rework Stunning Strike, I'd change it to inflict the Dazed condition from One D&D (honestly Dazed should just replace Stunned entirely as its far less punishing) and I'd make it so you cannot force the same creature to make the saving throw more than once per turn. So if you use Stunning Strike on a creature, you cannot use it on that creature again for the rest of the turn no matter if they fail or succeed the save. Let's you daze multiple creatures but not brute force it to guarantee daze one particular creature
Thats one of the best takes i heard on stunning strike in a very long time. I never thought of that. Its a good idea.
Yeah. That was my change, except I didn't replace Stun with Daze. Mostly because, yes, players will be salty, even if it's a buff overall. I want Monk to feel Great, and I won't let Stunning Strike stop me.
If it's just dazed you probably don't need a saving throw at all.
@@kaemonbonet4931I disagree a little with it, but we can change to a wisdom saving throw at least
@@bonewizard I`ve tested the dazed condition for monks, along with some other buffs. Bigger hit dice and martial arts dice as well as adding Wisdom to the number of ki did wonders, and now are required at my table for every monk. But Dased was pretty clunky as a change, it was good only when I was the only one in mele because I could just walk away and force them to use movement. The problem is - we had a lot of mele characters and even one other character in mele with the monster makes dazed almost meaningless, as they still could use their multi-attack.
I feel like the most obvious buff was never considered or mentioned: Increase the amount of attacks with flurry of blows at certain capstone levels. Go from 2 hits to 5 hits at level 20. Easily too powerful, but it’s for that punchy feel we all crave.
As someone who has played a Battle Master Fighter to level 23 (or 24 after killing the final big bad) having too many attacks all the time can be a huge slog that slows down gameplay. Your turn becomes all about adding up a bunch of numbers over making the attacks feel impactful. The idea of making off turn attacks more reliably common was a nice compromise in this homebrew's design. At the very least, making a greater number of attack with things like Flurry of Blows should be subclass specific (especially if the Bonus Action can be used whenever you want like in this version). ...I say that having done my own, different, take on fixing Monk, so I'm mostly speaking in the context of this version.
Check out pf2e monk if you want to dee how good monk can be. They are not as good at hittin and crittin as a fighter, but their ability to to dominate the in your face game with potent grappling, great AC, and of course their inate speed along with MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY OTHER OPTIONS makes them one of the best monk itterations in tabletop.
That's way too wide of a gap to wait. Just tack on another two attacks at level 5 and you completely negate the problem of their action economy.
Basically way of the ASTO self does this but they still turn it up to 11
Instead of increasing the number of attacks, just increase the damage. Too many attacks is a slog for little damage(especially since an unarmed attack is 1d4-1d10).
I always imagined the monk's ideal capstone ability to be like, spending every ki point you have and getting a damage buff to every attack for that turn for every ki point spent, but i do love yours
Thanks
I always thought it would be cool if your level 20 allows you to regain KI points whenever you roll an odd (or even, doesnt matter, as long as its consistent) number on your martial arts die throws.
I think your Improved Dedicated Weapon should require that a monk have held the weapon (or be attuned it). RAW this feature allows you to just, choose a weapon and gain its properties even if the DM doesn’t give it to you or it breaks the lore. Technically, you never lose proficiency from Dedicated weapon, so you can add a new artifact level magic weapon to your armory every long rest. The feature is great, but a slight lapse in wording (just make it like Pact of the Blade and it’s perfect)
Changed it so you can only have one dedicated weapon at a time. Thanks for the catch.
You’re welcome; honestly, the improved dedicated weapon is a really eloquent solution to monks and magic items. I’m surprised I haven’t seen something like it before
@@bananabanana484 thanks mate. I got alot of my ideas from gunfire reborn.
Or you could mega man it by absorbing its properties
@@Staff7I honestly like the idea of consuming a sword with your bare hands
I've always felt like monks should gain additional reactions once they hit a certain level. They are supposed to have incredible reflexes, so it just makes sense.
It would be fair. Doesn't rogue gain an extra bonus action at lvl 4(?) right? Why couldn't they get a bonus reaction
@@vicovico9999I think u mean Cunning Action where they get Dash, Disengage, and Hide as bonus actions and that's at lv2. Lv4 is always an ASI
Wotc casually picking things up from this video in their latest Playtest for OneDnd
unfortunately this is a good idea which means wotc will avoid it like the plague
Bro, I know it's been 8 months but *what* playtests? Like, WotC have been criticized heavily in no small part because they haven't playtested their new edition in any meaningful capacity lol
honestly i think the cap stone should switch out Con for Wis for two reasons
1: it befits the monk both physically and spiritually be truly attuned with there ki
2: Base Monks (and some subclasses) benefit from higher wisdom and i feel like with your suggested buffs they don't need the extra health from the con increase plus it would make there AC incredibly high with possibly a AC of 24 giving that feeling of a monk feeling untouchable and if we used the suggested idea were monks also use wisdom for there deflect attack it would still help there survivability a good bit
Ya you could go that direction. Both work. Personally id rather the higher hp because of deflect attack, but thats just me.
@@bonewizardI think those should be 2 separate abilities. One of the issues I have with monks is how once u run out of Ki, u don't have anything cool to do. All base abilities should be free. Patient defence should be use ur reaction to impose disadvantage a melee attack, if the attack misses, u can pay a point to counterattack. Flurry of flows free, pay 1 Ki point to add one die to the damage roll
@@bonewizardWhat about: „Increase Dex and Con or Dex and Wis“? This way, the player is more flexible in how to build his monk. Not get hit at all, or deal more damage on cost of hp
@@activekiwi1221 ya thats fine too.
Wow, this is a very interesting take on the monk class! I'm totally going to try this in my next game.
My group was already play testing some new grappling rules I added for the monks specifically (2 of 'em), so this is going to be fun!
Also, if someone ever asks you to have a were-kangaroo... just say no. A were-kangaroo monk is just scary! 🤣
Noted
@@bonewizard On this front, do you have any thoughts (I'm sure you do, lol) on grappling overall and grappling as a monk?
I feel like 5E made grappling (by default, anyway) a complete waste of time, especially from an advantage/disadvantage and action economy point of view.
I figure since you made lots of monk-related content recently, you'd probably want to think about grappling (if you haven't already!) since martial arts-type characters would probably want to make use of this more. I mean... if even knights in full plate armor and wielding pole arms made use of grappling, I'm sure monks would, too!
Plus... it's just cool! :D
From what I've seen of the one DnD monk revision (playtest 8) it looks rather good. They made stunning strike more reasonable by limiting it to one per turn, but buffed the fist dice and several other aspects to make up for it
Baulder's Gate 3 does a fantastic job with the Open Hand monk with it's Manifestations and the plethora of magical gloves and gauntlets that boost unarmed combat damage. It's a shame that DnD will never wrap that into the base monk. BG3 makes monks feel powerful, dangerous and brutal. Gotta say, though, I'll be using your changes for the base Monk, it's really cool.
I love playing strength in BG3 and being able to chuck enemies at other enemies never gets old for me.
That's because unarmed is one of the strongest attack types and unarmored AC is one of the best defensive types.
Even though the OneDnd monk is hot garbo, I did like the change they did to Step of the Wind. It now lets you use BOTH dash and disengage, really helps with giving them even more mobility.
Ya, i can see that be a good addition to monk.
@@bonewizardit's either or making it be free , after Rogues can do it so why not Monks ?
@@AlexT7916Their 3 primary bonus actions should all be free and have a more powerful Ki spending version. Although Flurry of Blows already has that, it's just unwritten because it comes from Martial Arts at level 1.
I'd say make their fists have actual weapon properties, especially finesse, and take away the DEX bonus because it's now using actual TWF rules. But then take away the bonus action entirely, it's a free attack. (Under OneD&D masteries, I'd say let you retrain masteries every day, and one of the options is Nick for the free action attack).
Now, Flurry of Blows is a bonus action and 1 point for an additional strike. 2 attacks, or 3 at level 5, and your bonus action is between 1 more strike, dashing, disengaging, or dodging. And if you spend 1 point, you can dash and disengage too. Dodging is really strong so I can't think of a way to make it weaker but free.
I say give them fighting styles too, or at least let them be options for a 1st level feat like they were going to be before they nixed class groups (right before the Monk could have seen any benefit, how convenient).
the changes sound amazing, and you comparing it to other classes truely puts things into perspective
dude, i love the monk and the whole idea around it, and this was both a beautiful criticism/redesign of monk and a joy to watch. you have secured a new subscriber-keep it up
Glad to hear it!
I've always wanted monks to gain features similarly to warlock eldrich invocation, like making your own martial style for your character as you get stronger.
you should look at pathfinder second edition.
Keep doing the sketches. It sets you apart from other DnD youtubers. Also you're style of comedy is very goofy and endeering. Honestly best quality.
Thanks! Glad you like it!
Some additional tweaks I am making:
- like others have mentioned, I am replacing stun with the dazed condition, and you can only attempt to stun (daze) any given creature once per turn.
- if you score a critical hit, you can attempt to daze that creature, no ki required.
- Changed patient defense to a reaction
- Throwing missiles back at a creature does not require ki
- give monks two reactions at 11th level (when fighters get three attacks). The additional reaction must be used for a monk feature or attack of opportunity (to avoid multiclass shenanigans) This has not yet been playtested, but I think it suits the fantasy of the monk doing a bajillion things in a round.
I also support two reactions at level 11.
I'd rather keep throwing missiles to require ki. As OP as this idea of Deflect Attacks is, I'd rather the deflect doesn't require ki but the attack back does. Or have a system involving scaling charges that replenish on a long rest.
@@synckar6380 Fairly sure the deflect does not require Ki.
One of the many ideas I brainstormed for Monk was heavily leaning into parries and counters. Reactions equal to their Proficiency, let them opportunity unarmed attack when attacked (including spells), and some other changes. Could be interesting, but relies on enemies attacking the Monk instead of the Monk attacking more, which I know isn't always the player's ideal fantasy, haha.
@@TrixyTrixter The original deflect missiles doesn’t, but the video’s idea of deflect attacks does I believe
One thing I often do is modify ki empowered strikes so you can add half your proficiency bonus rounded down to your attack and damage rolls with unarmed and monk weapon attacks. Since you can turn your fist into a legendary god killing sword this will let you keep up a bit more without breaking the bank.
ya i think thats pretty good fix. Might be kinda nuts with improved dedicated weapon with another +3, but i say lets the monks rule the earth.
@@bonewizard Yeah its powerful, but by the time both of them get maxed out most other characters are nearing demigod status anyways so who cares. In fact for the majority of the time its just canceling out any great weapon master or sharpshooter accuracy drops which the barbarian, and certain paladin subclasses are already capable of doing from level 2 or 3.
The amount of google docs I have of me trying to buff/change monk before ultimately giving up because of ADHD is sad. It's also so nice to see an explanation of what irks me about monk being perfectly described. I have talked to DM's and others I play alongside with and they never understand and just say something along the lines of "I think Monk is fine, maybe it's just not the class for you." Which kind of made me feel like my opinion was invalid and I gave up until I saw your video pop up in my feed. I played the UA Dragon Monk and felt super weak alongside the Celestial Cleric, Moon Druid that could turn into monstrosities, and the Wild Magic Sorcerer. It was crazy to me that they nerfed the subclass before it went live..
Anyways, thank you for what you do here with this. I appreciate you for making me not feel like my opinion is worthless or invalid.
Edit: I also completely forgot to mention my distain for Stunning Strike. I didn't know how to describe it but it always felt super cheesy to me..
I really liked the path you took for improving the monk. It does feel way better than what we have currently. When I tried to tweak the monk, I wanted to add the level 3 ability from the open hand subclass to base class, cause I thought that it would be cool to give the monk more effects to its attacks and make it more unpredictable. As well as at a higher level, flurry of blows get upgraded to making two additional attacks on top of the default bonus action attack, but that seem too much.
Overall this looks like the best Monk overhaul I’ve seen yet. I am going to try to convince my DMs to let me use this version instead. Thanks for the buff and the great video.
Hope you get to play it!
This seems like the same issue with the fighter and the battle master.
By all rights, the battle master maneuvers should be part of the base fighter.
that's just not true. Check the google doc @@fallenangel7364
I love the feature BG3 gave open hand monks at 6, restore ki points, hit points, and get 2 bonus actions for 1 minute. That could easily be ported over as an incredible 7th, 10th, or 13th level feature. It’s a really great feature, and having it deep into the Monk’s level progression means it can’t be used as a broken level dip for other classes.
I also had the idea of having something akin to “called shots” as a replacement to stunning strike. Allow the monk to block the flow of ki in a creatures body (like Ty Lee in Avatar:TLA), disabling limbs to have various effects like reduced movement, limited attacks, etc.
Deflect Attack is absolutely BRILLIANT, that's exactly what's been missing from this class both mechanically and fantasy-wise! I got my DM to agree to everything except Robust Body and Unwavering, and felt like Better Healing should require a ki point; I'm very much looking forward to this game now. Thanks a lot!
One monk buff I've always loved the idea of is giving them 2 bonus actions at level 11.
I'm really hoping to use these in my game. This is exactly the buff I was looking for
Let me know how it goes! Lovevthe feedback.
These changes are now mandatory in my games.
Perfect video and much deserved sub!
Thanks dude. I hope your players like them.
This rework is great! Out of all the Monk fixing videos I've seen yours is definitely my favourite. Can't wait to see what you do with Sun Soul monks, hope the kamehamehas are flying left right and center
Itll be a blast
I've been at this hobby for 20+ years and this is the most useful video essay on monks I've watched. Well done and bravo. Had some good chuckles along the way, as well
22:08 Man, specially in this part I laughted so hard I almost chocked, this is the funniest video of D&D I've seen this year, loved your content and animations just subbed, keep up the great content
As a monk enthusiasts this is giving me life
a life with punching is a life worth living
I've always disliked Monks as a DM, almost entirely because of stunning strike, despite my natural inclination you've got me convinced. Well done sir.
AYYYY we got one!
Why hate the monk because wotc designed stunning strike poorly.....
@@verdurite Why not hate bad design? (Yes, I know that's not the way you meant it.)
I have never played monk before, however this video has made me want to. And judging by the views, a lot of people were wanting this as well. Thank you so much for the wonderful video and im looking forward to see what you do with the subclasses!
Glad you like the video!
"Hybrid-Bed! Saving the planet one napp at a time" I want that on a T-shirt!
maybe
I can respect a man who has to pay his rent XD. I'm also friends with Buddy and he told me what he did for you, so I'm glad of you both! You did an awesome job!
Just trying to keep a roof over my head lol
As a DM, I came here because our cleric was one-shotting orcs at level 1-2, while our Monk attacked several times and barely did any damage. Thanks for the video.
@@MathewAGTales hope it helps.
This video is damn near perfect and almost made me cry tears of joy, then tears of sadness knowing we'll never get it.
Deflect Attacks is something ive been saying for years (along with step of the wind costing no ki).
You got a new sub!
Dont cry, homebrew exists for a reason. Talk to your dm.
Thank you so much for working on this. Monk is my favourite class aside from Warlock with its aesthetic, but I’ve always felt like I need to multiclass in order to keep up with the rest of the table.
Hopefully you can go full monk now.
That beginning skit was throwing so much shade it blotted out the sun.
Amazing video. I was sold on this the second you explained Deflect Attack. Neo blocking incoming punches is EXACTLY the kind of fantasy I have with Monks. In fact, the difference between the fantasy and mechanics of Monk is what has kept me from actually playing one.
One quick question though: If I were a level 8 Monk and managed to reduce two incoming attacks to zero damage, would I need to spend a Ki on each reaction attack?
this was great!
i love these changes, especially the deflect attacks one :3
cant wait for the monk subclass video(s)!
thank you mr. Otter
Agreed. The Deflect attack one was also the most satisfyingly Monk themed change I have seen in a while. I really hope WotC are watching 😉.
trust me, they don't listen to the community!@@tormunnvii3317
@@bonewizard ms*, but youre welcome
@@bonewizard I don't know about that. They seem to watch Treantmonk. And only Treantmonk. Just enough so to be weirdly reactive without addressing all issues, though.
Thank you! I love the concept of monks and wizards of the coast did them dirty, a renewal is NEEDED
New Bone Zone video, just as I finished rewatching the other ones. Impeccable timing as always skelly-boi.
You think this one is better than the others?
@@bonewizard I think so, just as much content and I've been cackling the entire time but the changes felt very focused around the class identity instead of just being buffs. Can't wait for the subclasses, monk needed the love
Great vid, was waiting for this since the barbarian vid and it did not disappoint. As a monk lover I've brain stormed on how to rework this class A LOT and this was a really interesting take. Making them tankier and given them a "best defense is a good offense" vibe with the reworked deflect attacks. This monk sees really fun to play, might just use this monk or take some of the ideas from it and add it to the monk for my home games.
Glad it was worth the wait. Let me know if the changes are good in your game! I love the feedback.
Thanks to your silliness, my yuan-ti monk is able to dish out 6 attacks per turn using his reaction, simply walking into enemy reach, leaving it, provoking an opportunity attack, and parrying it. Doing this to 2 enemies, robbing them of their reactions.
I really love your work, keep it up!
Really loved the way monk is buffed and reworked for this, i got into dnd at like the start of this year and monk was one of my favorite classes from the jump but I was a bit bummed they seemed to not get that many interesting abilities that actually impacted fights more (aside from stunning strike) definitely gonna use this for any games I DM for to make stuff more fun for monk players
Glad you like it! happy punching!
Honestly anything to even vaguely close the gap between martial classes and the others is so nice to see. I’ve had too many DMs that just accept that casters and half casters are stronger on average so they just give up and let them fall behind. It’s felt punishing just to want to enjoy a different style of play before
I love how, when looking at the document, this video ALONE takes up like 7 pages. No complaints, just an observation, and I love it for that. I also love how this class adaptation (as well as one of the Blood Hunter's orders) are the only options in the game that let you bump a score over the 20 threshold. I would love it if each class had something similar to this in addition to their existing level 20 capstone abilities
I love the deflect attack feature! Definitely incorporating that for my home campaigns
Do it up mate
I think they also really suffer from a weird perception of far eastern spirituality. My friends and I have always thought they would be more interesting if they had decoupled monk from wisdom and allowed their subclass to determine their secondary stat (not really possible for a published dnd class but meh) Great stuff as always from the bone man.
12:41 I was already intrigued but the moment that Okami music kicks in, I am literally gluing myself to the screen.
Thats amatarasu's theme from marvel vs capcom 3. But basically ya, its from okami haha
@@bonewizard Thank you, I thought it was just a remix of Rising Sun. I never played the game but I did know Ammy got into the game.
This is very nice, you knocked the goblin off the battlemap with this video. I usually allow my players to use your homebrew changes in my games, and this is why.
I think your capstone ability is fine, however i did remember seeing a different homebrew Monk capstone somewhere else on UA-cam (I forget where). It allowed you to change your Creature type to any of your choosing, along with the mediocre official capstone. So your Long Death monk could become an Undead or your Kensai Monk could become a Fae. I think that this addition is INSANELY flavourful. It's also not even the wild considering that we now have official, non humanoid races.
Nice video, keep up the good work!
thanks im glad you like the video! Im not sure how changing your creature type would help or harm you but thats interesting. I think, at its core monk is celebration of the human spirit. It is the power fantasy of hard work paying off. You are not super naturally gifted, you had to build your power from nothing through hard work. Monk is the most human class there is because with enough work, you can kill gods and demons with nothing but your bare hands.
@@bonewizard That is a solid point. I for one always play human unless it's for a specific build. However not every character is a human, some are Dhampir or Dragborn... Although at this point, you might as well homebrew in the creature type yourself lol.
The indomitable human spirit is one of my favorite concepts. You don't really see many other parts of DnD where you gain abilities based on your sheer mastery over your own form and humanity. There should honestly be more, entirely mundane classes/subclasses with a wide variety of skill and abilities that can scale up to casters.
That is why Fighter and Monk are my favorite classes. I find beauty in sheer mental and physical prowess overcoming the toughest threats the world has to offer. (Yes I am a Human Fighter player, sue me).
You are one of my favorite dungeons and dragons content creators. Your homebrew is simple yet effective. Have you ever given thought to designing your own subclass? If not, it might be a fun thought experiment. And you could always sell them to your fans.... I'd buy them lol. Have a great day my guy.
I think that homebrew was probably taking inspiration from 3E Monk, who ended up being considered "Outsiders" from their bodies exceeding physical limitations. Empty Body kind of fills that vibe better, and without just straight disconnecting you from your origins. (Although, it would kinda be cool to go the whole Pinocchio route and have a Warforged achieve humanity through pure force of spirit.)
@reehigh7772 first off, human fighter is great. People are just mad cuz they want everyone to be a "unique snowflake". When in reality there is a 99% chance your favorite character is a human, and a large chance that they are a fighter. Coming from nothing and earning your power is far more interesting than having a birthright.
I actually have conisdered makeing subclasses. A spiderman monk and a luchador barbarian. We are doing playtesting for it now. If you are interested, you can get it on patreon for $2. No pressure.
@Shalakor i never played 3e. Also a Pinocchio character would be a really cool PC.
i love the video. I usualy buff monk for my players in a much simpler way, just more ki, life and damage in the unarmed dice. And men... what a video, i am stunned by the deflect atack ability, is so simple and good and balanced, why i dont think about this before. This buffs are very very good, its impressive. Great video Bone, thank you.
thanks man. thats really nice. Hope the changes work at your table.
I let one of my monk players roll Arcana to use Deflect Missiles on an enemy’s Fireball spell. Now this was under the extreme circumstance that if he failed the fireball would have killed him and another player. He barely succeeded enough to toss the fireball away before it detonated.
It did end up inspiring me to make a homebrew, quartercaster monk subclass.
Sounds great so far. I'm looking forward to hearing about subclasses. I want the sunsoul npc I'm going to use to actually be able to do some cool stuff. I thought about using Treantmonks version, but yours is more shiny and I like that. What Treantmonk came up with is good in it's own way, but it's more about monk players not being disappointed all the time. I really do not think they need to be disappointed for their choice of class at all. I wish he would analyze your monk version in one of his videos.
Thatd be fun if he did haha.
Also, there was a stunning strike rework I saw that was really good. It costs one ki, and every attack you make that turn inflicts a status condition that gets worse with every hit. It stacks on a creature from no reactions to dazed to stunned.
That's probably the coolest way to make your character feel like Neji!
I'm rewatching this as a weekly activity because holy moly this is well made. It can't be this entertaining, it should be illegal
Thanks dude. Glad you like it.
I really, really like your changes that you made to Monk! Talking to a friend of mine that'll be in an upcoming campaign i'm running to allow them to use these rules for their Monk!
My one issue I have with it is the proficiency in Death Saves at 7th level, other than that, these rules are fire!! ✌️💀
That was an oversight. It got changed in the google doc.
@@bonewizard Nevermind then, God-tier class changes !!
I love monk and have eddited them so much. This gave me so much ideas. Thanks dude.
no problem
This is sensational. Not only are these ideas all great (did you just hear a "yoink" sound"?), but I actually laughed at the video, to the point of tears in my eyes. Admittedly, it was the dick punch joke, which doesn't speak highly of my sense of humour, but I'm about the binge watch a bunch more of your videos as a result of this!
Glad you like the vids! Feel free to yoink any and all the ideas from my videos.
Amazing video, glad monks are getting the love they deserve, my only complaint is i feel improved dedicated weapon is at too high of level, you play monk to be punchy but you’d still need to use a magic weapon for half the campaign, i’d say tack improved dedicated weapon onto ki-empowered strikes, having said that, i have no idea what to put at level 11
Ya you can. You could put it at level 1 like i said. Just be careful with what you give players.
The animations in this video are INCREDIBLE!!!
Extremely entertaining watch. 👏 😊
That means alot! Thank you!
ive only played one game of dnd it was rather recently and it was fun, and even without lnowing that much about this game it was really fun to watch your editing is good, your jokes hit, and you explain topics in a way that is simple but still detailed enough so there arent any holes
Thanks mate
Been waiting on this forever! Woooo! 🥳🥳🥳
Hope it was worth the wait!
@@bonewizardIt was all I wanted and more 😎
So any thoughts for how I should buff the monk subclasses? 👊👊👊
Making way of the four elements monk into a true half caster could be interesting
@@thebestgummybear9744 four element monk... oh boy. How does one polish a turd?
For Astral Monk (my personal favorite subclass)
Make it less reliant on Ki or at least increase the timer that you have your ability up cause imo this subclass despite it being my favorite just burns through Ki like no other subclass but that’s really it, other then that i feel like the subclass is amazing
ill keep that in mind, thanks.@@Splashzone263
Give way of the astral self monk the time stop spell
ZA WARUDO
This is the first video I've seen of yours And I was not disappointed by the content! So funny very good work!
Glad you like the videos!
acw;lsx
Thanks for this buff to the monk. I'm going to pitch this to my DM since I'm playing a monk in a campaign that's like a homebrew Black Suns, which we just did the first session of.
Edit: Additionally, I'd like to see the subclasses be reworked or even some more homebrew ones.
the subclass reworks are coming but there is a Spider-man subclass video i made that's out now.
ua-cam.com/video/UhmBRDhqoGU/v-deo.htmlsi=y0CKF-FHnjHZd5e7
“WoTC after finishing ONE D&D stats for Monk”
WoTC: Yep, this is fine 8:01
lets just do almost nothing, and jsut say we remade monk! they will love it!
I have been working on a monk revamp for months now and this was some hearty inspiration! My big addition was a whole spreadsheet of ki abilities they can take instead of some normal ones, including making stunning strike optional
I think something that would help monk tremendously is just switching unarmored defense and ki over to Constitution. That way, you don’t need 3 high stats to make a good monk, you just need 2. One thing I try to keep in mind with changes to classes or abilities is just “keep it simple stupid”. I’ve been trying to come up with a rewrite for the monk class myself, this videos has helped a lot, thank you
Glad it helped
I see your point, and I think its dumb. The point of using Wisdom for monk's saves and AC is that it's meant to represent discipline. You're a monk who uses their mastery over their mind and body to revoke other people's body privileges, not a barbarian who simply doesn't care if they get hurt.
I am playing with my friends and one of them is playing a monk
We buff the class with 3 things:
1d10 for hp
The damage of martial arts start 1d6 and goes to 1d12
And the ki is the level+prof. Bonus
And is going pretty good
you will enjoy this video
Giving me Pathfinder 1e Unchained Monk vibes and I am here for it
Best monk revamp I've seen so far! Most other revamps tend to stick to the ''dont change too much because scared of imbalancing'' scenario and honestly monk could use it. The changes you offer are mostly in line with what other classes can do so I don't really see them breaking anything. Considering a ton of campaigns dont even reach lvl 14+, the high end changes can be easily balanced by the dm changing encounters if necessary. Great stuff 10/10 want to try this version asap, finally an incentive to take it to lvl 20
Literally the best rework I’ve seen, although I think the monk relies too little on their wisdom now, subclass abilities often still rely on it enough.
I’m going to use this on my new party to shield them from the horrors of old 5e monk
Go for it.
It took me way too long to realise the beach wizard is a WOTC reference...😅
Wow I sure am engaged in this content. Just watching this has massaged my mind to be more susceptible to advertising. If I was a media conglomerate I'd sure be happy you were around.
This is in response to your latest Monk Short. Let's go! I've actually been wondering for awhile now if you saw what they did to the monk class, and now I have my answer. Still pushed for a 2 ro 3 bump to AC, and an extra ASI at level 10 or 11 to help with the MAD condition of the class in my survey response. However, the monk is in a significantly better place, and you (and possibly others ;)) have aided. Take care all.
referred here after comments on dndbeyond re: the new monk noticed similarities. One time through the video wasn't enough, but it's literally the first time I've ever seen a monk redesign that made me unabashedly excited about it. Most other designs are either bonkers or fall way, way short. I think the official new design falls short too, but is probably reasonably balanced. This was really sweet. Thank you!
Hope it helps your game! have fun!
This is the first vid of yours that I have seen. Thank you for your awesome vid here and I look forward to more of your content. You are awesome Noble Sir and your work is much appreciated
🙌🏾😌
Thanks dude. New videis are coming soon, but feel free to check out the rest of my videos.
monk is by far my favorite class when it comes to flavor, and i will now be sending this video to every single campaign group with monks anywhere in it
good luck
Really enjoyed the bit in the level three section where you spoke about being able to parry fuckin Anthrax and Hepatitis B on top of melee attacks.
I am a huge Anthrax hater.
Watched this video pretty soon after it was released and I loved it and now SO many of the changes you made were added to the new one dnd monk play test so really great job👍
Thanks man
I've been burning through your vids. I really like this rework. Personally, I never had a problem with monk, but any time I've tried it, it's been low level one shots. I can definitely see that I stopped before more most of the glaring imbalances started to happen.
I also really like how you pull up comparable abilities when introducing new ones for these buffs.
a homebrew idea that i wanted to apply to my Owlin monk was to allow it to infuse her feathers with Ki and be able to throw them like daggers, and it also made me think of other racial specific abilities you can give monks, such as giving dragonbornes the ability to spend a ki point to completely shrug off an attack or something unique like that, leaning more into the fully honed body thing
That's a fun idea. Feather daggers. You could have a tortle spin on its back and do some kind of breakdance spin move. Like an AoE of fists and feet.
Unironically, before watching this video I was making a monk subclass, and theres a few features that you added that I sort of made as a 6th and 11th level feature around the both saving throws and increasing the ki by gaining them back after getting hit using patent defense. I'd love to show it to you sometime especially because I'm still making it atm.
Awesome Video, first time on the channel and instantly saved your welcome to the buff zone document I will 100% need to discuss that with my DM
go for it. Enjoy.
A monk feeding a stray dog IS a cute image. ^_^
Also, thanks for making a full class fix for the Monk. I imagine this was a heavy lift.
no problem. Also there are TONS of videos of monks feeding packs of dogs. Its worth a UA-cam search.
@@bonewizard "monks feeding packs of dogs" is going in the search bar right now.
The dancing joke improve my day, watered my crops and made me want to live again just to fuck with my DM. Thank you for the inspiration to cause more chaos in my games. :)
I got to say I love the lore you put into your videos great job😊
Glad you like it. Never sure if people are into it
This is in my opinion one of the better dnd rebalancing/remaking video I have seen in so long
Thanks
Actual funny content, great improvement ideas, AND BlazBlue music? Take my sub you madman.
Thanks for the sub! Hope the buffs are fun in your game!
Demonac sent me to the Sun Soul video, I'mma watch your entire channel now :)
enjoy!