Wierd that in this article they don't mention you can now always bonus action unarmed strike, grapple or shove as long as you don't wear armor like they did in their youtube video.
A nit pick with the empowered strike for 2024 monk. It is both weaker and unnecessary change from the 2014 monk. 2014 monks unarmed strikes simply counted as magical for overcoming resistances. Aka monks had magical blugening. Technically the strongest dmg type in the game i think
To answer your question at 18:26 about Stunning Strike. It APPEARS that it's being moved to just monk weapons/unarmed strikes instead of all melee attacks so that you can now do it with ranged monk weapons. Whether it be a thrown weapon like a dart, a shortbow, or what have you. This really helps out Kensei monks who get a longbow as they could not stun people without running up to them and punching them.
@@TerrariaGolem @oicmorez4129 They are not. Monk weapons in 2014 "are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don't have the two-handed or heavy property." But it hardly matters anyway in 2014. If you throw a dart, you're not in melee to attack with the bonus action anyways, and ranged weapons already use Dex. EDIT:I guess its lower damage since it doesn't scale with the martial arts die, but let's be real, you weren't doing much damage as a monk anyways.
Listen here's what u do, u find random unsuspecting people, u help them learn DND and run games for them and then once u them trapped with friendship and DND, u unleash Ur ranger hate on them.
In 5e everyone was making fun of the Monk, now in 5.5e everyone points at Ranger and laugh, Wizards sometimes can do really good things, but when they miss it's really terrible
can't actually because 1) vicious mockery forces you to make a save and is not considered an attack and 2) you can only reduce the damage of non-physical energy types, not redirect them (at least based on the wording we have here - it will depend on what the actual 2024 phb says).
@@dealbreakerc 1)You are right; it is not an attack, but that doesn't mean it can't be interpreted as one. 2) I agree that it is open to interpretation. My friend played a bard in university who was cursed to be silent. Whenever they spoke, a shockwave came out of their mouth, similar to Black Bolt from the MCU. For flavor (and some item synergy), we at the table considered this as a spell attack. I know it's house rules and not rules as written, but still... This was supposed to be a joke; we shouldn't be analyzing the viability of it, lmao.
Something really really really REALLY important for Shadow Monk that was not mentioned in this article but was mentioned in the interview about monk, is that they can SEE THROUGH THEIR OWN DARKNESS NOW. This is a massive buff, and alongside being able to move this darkness around pretty much makes up for losing pass without trace and silence.
@@landler656 That was him reading the 2014 monk rules to compare with the new rules. The 2024 shadow monk subclass and 2024 monk class as a whole are heavily taken from the UA6 and UA8 playtest versions of the class, and in these playtests Shadow Monk could no longer cast Silence, Pass without Trace, or Darkvision (this one is because they just get darkvision built in now). If exactly like the UA versions (which it has followed very closely so far) the Shadow Arts feature now only allows the casting of Darkness (1 focus point) and minor illusion, on top of getting darkvision and the unique ability to move the Darkness and see through it.
Ngl I asked my dm if I could cast darkness on my tongue piercing and use a free action to close my mouth, so I already managed to get that moving darkness. Pair that with silence and I'm the groups resident mage killer.
18:16 To answer your question Jacob, before stunning strike could be used with ANY melee weapon attack. So your monk could hit something with a great axe and force the con save. Now since a great axe is not Monk weapon this will not work (unless your a Kensei monk). Successfully applied just means the target fails the save.
i'd also assume, based on the comment, that it can be applied on ranged attacks too now. Darts and shortbows are on the table to stun now, which is kinda huge and honestly turns the rework into a solid net buff
@@isaacorwhatever4329 I hadn’t considered range attacks. That’s a huge buff to Kenseis who get a ranged weapon of their choice at level 3 that counts a monk weapon for them. I can hear my DM raging now 😂
Edit: I have been informed the following comment is incorrect because the definition of 'weapon attack' is weird. I think a very important part that everyone is missing is "or an unarmed attack". Monks is D&D are know for their proficiency with unarmed attacks yet previously one of their strongest features only worked with a weapon. Now you could have a powerful monk that truly only uses unarmed attacks.
As an avid Monk player, who has from the very start of getting into D&D loved playing and the concept/flavour of the Monk, these changes feel like an actual dream..
I have a buddy who’s saying he’s play tested it and the monks have been severely nerfed Not sure what his issue is as he’s been arguing with everybody for weeks saying the 2014 monk is better
@@coolgoku810 oh I agree the new changes are amazing I hated the old monk but love the new one. My buddy argues that the new monk sucks cause they aren’t as good st stun locking. They got so much versatility though and buffs that I adamantly disagree with him
@@edwardlomeli5657 I mean if that's what he's relying on to play monk then he's not even playing the class at all. So much versatility and he locks himself to one move?
@@coolgoku810 oh like I said I adamantly disagree with him and argue about it. I was being sarcastic with my first response if it didn’t come out that way. Hr thinks the monk got mostly nerfs and I’ve had to break it down for him buff by buff. Hes adament that the class is now garbage to everybody that it’s lead to a lot of arguments
I have an easy fix for the new ranger. "When casting Hunters Mark without using a spellslot using the Rangers class feature, it doesn't require concentration"
It happened in UA2 or 4, but no, Wizards think it's too OP besides everyone liking it, and in Tasha there was an ability called Favored Foe which was a free HM, if you could combine both in this way, maybe it would be strong for early game, (1d8 long bow, +1d6 HM +1d4 Favored Foe +Dex Mod)
@@juliocesar6795It is though. Even with it's current implementation Ranger is still strong. I agree that the feature shouldn't just be the Hunter's Mark spell though. They really should've just thrown both out entirely for something brand new like what they did with Revised Ranger. I think just a flat damage & Survival/Nature skill bonus in areas you've spent enough time in & against Foe types you've already faced would work perfectly and just use those new features for all Ranger spells instead of just Hunter's Mark.
@@malmasterson3890 I've only played a few rangers, but I've never used Hunters Mark. There just always seems to be cooler spells I'd rather use that have concentration, like Zephyrs Strike for melee (Which my DMs usually let me have the bonus speed before the attack as a combat opener), or Hail of Thorns for ranged. If a class is given a nice spell list, but all their features revolve around just using one spell and never any of the others, then why even have that spell list? It's like with Paladins, I very rarely actually use Divine Smite, if only because they have some really nice spells they could use isntead. Sure, I'd drop a Divine Smite on a crit, but other then that, I like their spell potential. Including the normal smite spells like Searing ro Branding or Thunderous (which I totally wish had dice progression. Imagine like, a Paladin/Cleric of Talos multiclass for limited maxed out Thunderous smites)
@@juliocesar6795 I've never used Hunters Mark when playing rangers, and I rather like Favoured Enemy so I never replaced it with Favoured Foe. But even then, Favoured Foe takes concentration, locking you out of some of the other cool spells Rangers can cast, like Hail of Thorns or Zephyr Strike.
I've always loved the Monks, they were the first class I played and the class that I've played the most throughout my time playing dnd. I'm glad they finally started showing some love to Monks after years of neglect :)
Monks are THE physical class for me. I love playing monks that are like my one character "Karate Kim" who was a 90s sports mom who had MI-6 training from her father who "just did a little espionage in the war days"
Monks finally feel like a class that has dedicated themselves to perfecting their body, through discipline and study, to stand toe to toe with anyone in a world full of magic and monsters. Its like they watch mages conjur magic from their body and figure out how that must mean the body has to be able, somehow, to direct that force. So they grab their lab coats and start redirecting fire with just their bare hands.
Jeremy sending a patch update to his player was a vibe. "Dude, this isn't even an official patch update, and i barely consider this a mod, but rather see this as file leak; have this gameplay boost"
I think the only reason that people hate monks is purely because the mechanics don’t want you to stand still, but 5e players want to stand still to avoid opp attacks
I mean, they could always kite, but now they can as long as there is space. They can solo any creature with less speed than them that lacks better projectiles than them.
on stunning stikes's "Now can be used with any monk weapon or unarmed strike" it think that means that it works with thrown weapons, like daggers are a light weapon but can also be thrown, so you may be able to imbue the stunning strike into the dagger while thrown.
No. Ranged weapons cannot be monk weapons, it must be "any Martial Melee weapon with the Light property" or "all Simple Melee weapons" The keyword in both cases is "melee". Even the old version specified "melee weapon attack." The change is twofold. First, it clarifies right in the book, as opposed to Sage Advice or another external source, that it does work with Unarmed Strike. Previously, it just stated "melee weapon attack" and they clarified elsewhere that yes, an Unarmed Strike counts as a weapon attack, so now that clarification is right in the main book instead. The other change is that previously, it was any melee weapon attack. This means that you could use a greatsword or greataxe, despite them not being monk weapons, and still perform a Stunning Strike. Now you can't. It has to be a monk weapon specifically or your Unarmed Attack. I think that second change is harder to notice because I don't think a lot of people really considered that option before
No it doesn't, that's a misunderstanding. It says it requires a Monk weapon or Unarmed Strike. And going back to what counts as a Monk weapon, it needs to be a melee weapon (a Martial Melee weapon with the Light feature or a Simple Melee weapon). Simply put, the ability itself doesn't say ranged attacks are allowed, and the definition of a Monk Weapon directly says they are not allowed. What the change does is both clarify that yes, Unarmed Strikes work (it previously said "melee weapon attack", which led to people thinking Unarmed Strikes didn't work, but it was clarified elsewhere that Unarmed Strikes counts as a melee weapon attack), and it actually limits the weapons available. Previously it was any melee weapon, even if not a Monk Weapon, allowing you to Stunning Strike with a Greataxe or Greatsword. But now it specifies it must be a Monk Weapon, restricting the weapons that it can be used with
Not many people are confronted with a dragon and decide to kick it in the face, monk gets points solely for that anyway Monk is a tank now and that's awesome
Monk was always kinda a Tank it was just deisgned wierdly. Like it got 20 AC for putting points in its main stats which are some of the best saving throw stats in the game besides Charisma. They could reflect ranged attacks, stop enemies from doing things outright, could heal themselves, etc etc.
Not really... deflect attacks doesn't do anything to encourage enemies to target the monk over their allies, and not being invisible at 18th level is just a flat nerf, even if it does mean they'll get targeted more often as a result... Edit: I do like uncanny metabolism, though... might take that into my home game, if nothing else!
@@bricknolty5478 5e monk should've had AT THE VERY LEAST d10 for hitpoints. Heck, I could see it receiving a d12, like barbarian, because... All they do all day is train their damn bodies and minds. Makes sense. However, with so many cool ways to "actively tank" now, I don't mind a d8 I guess. Will be more "lemme dodge and parry" instead of "I'll tank with my sheer prowess" kinda of gameplay.
14:00 I'm pretty sure the new Elementalism cantrip is replacing the 4 cantrips of Shape Water, Mold Earth, Gust, and Control Flames. Something Druids, Sorcerers, and Wizards will have access too. It looks like it's a slightly watered down version of those 4, except Water is definitely watered down since their is no more ice, animating it, or changing it's color. You can shape 1 cubic foot of water (or any element) and have it hold it's shape for 1 hour, and you can make 1 cup of water... that evaporates after 1 minute. The spell is "Duration: Instantaneous", so I don't know how many of each of these effects you can have going at once. I didn't see a "no more than two of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time" clause when I googled it, but it also might be the UA version I found so this entire comment could be wrong.
It's more like an alternative to Prestidigitation or Thaumaturgy than a replacement for Shape Water, Mold Earth, Gust, and Control Flames. It also directly says in the UA "you exert control over the elements, creating one of the following effects within range", which means you can only do one of the 5 options at a time. But I don't think they expect people to use it in combat anyway, only outside of combat, so that doesn't really matter too much. While it doesn't do much on its own, it's quite clearly more meant for more roleplay specific moments, like blowing closed a door to slow down someone's escape or writing words in the dirt to subtly signal someone, or spraying mist to help cool people down in a hot area. Again, like the uses for Prestidigitation and Thaumaturgy.
@@Kahadi How many effects you can have active at once was referring to how cantrips like Shape Water and Prestidigitation say you can only have so many long lasting effects active at the same time, not how many different actions you could preform with 1 casting. The UA version I read for Elementalism doesn't say anything about a limit, so you could waterbend a cubic foot of water into a floating ball, and then do it again, and again and again until the water balls start popping after 1 hour. Shape water had a limit and said you could only have 2 "water balls" active at once, instead of the now theoretically 600 without a limit.
Monk buff of biblical proportions. I am escatic, and I will immediately be screeching at my dm to ask if I can use these holy fucking absolute shit this is incredible. WE ARE SO BACK!!!!!!!
New Monk is the first I've ever been excited to play a monk. They made it better but even more important, they made it more fun to play. Part of that is feeling like you keep up with other party members, but part of it is also fixing features that were annoying and un-fun to use.
13:12 could you imagine how scary this would be you're like in a street tunnel or one of those markets that has the little fabric overhangs on it that make Shadow for people above it so there's light coming through a dude walks up looks at you from the other side of the market snaps his fingers the ground turns black he pops his hood up he fucking vanishes and then the shadow on the floor starts flying towards you this would be so cool as an animation or something from some D&D UA-cam channel
They mentioned in the video's presenting the changes from a few weeks ago that Shadow Monks will also be able to see inside the Darkness bubble they create. No more need to waste a feat to take Blind Fighting or the Warlock invocation
Idea: make Hunter's Mark a non-concentration spell and remove the jumping targets as a bonus action part. Ranger can now focus on his spells and still use his signature spell.
8:09 I know what you’re thinking Jacob and you probably don’t know that an Unarmed Strike can now be used to Grapple or… either Shove or knock Prone, I forgot. So Monk kinda had Weapon Masteries built into punches.
The issue with Ranger is that it's always had an identity problem. Monk knew exactly what it is (frankly, *too* well, to the point where the book's flavor text was too narrow for what a Monk could actually be, hence the Ki > Focus and subclass naming scheme changes), but was balanced poorly. Noone knows what a Ranger is "supposed" to be, not even WOTC. We all have an *idea*, but most of them could just be Fighter or Rogue subclasses, and none of them mesh very well with what the Ranger actually plays like. (For example: if you want to play as a nimble, well-traveled hunter, experienced in the ways of the wild and good with a bow? Just play a rogue with the Scout subclass. they do all the same things, but better, and you don't have to waste your time messing around with a spell list that doesn't even contribute to the core class fantasy.) I've seen suggestion that they just make the Ranger a dedicated pet class, but I don't love that. I don't think it works for the class fantasy that people are trying to have when they choose Ranger, unless they're picking one of the subclasses that already do that, which is why those options exist. I think the Ranger should be closer to a skill-monkey class with Expertise, like Rogue or Bard, to fit their whole thing of being the more experienced navigator for their group, responsible for all the "mundane" problems introduced while traveling. Nature, survival, medicine- things necessary to get a party from point A to point B, but kind of boring, and not necessarily high priorities for characters whose skillsets revolve around hurling fireballs and beating up bad guys. I think the core class fantasy for Rangers, rather than just being the druid equivalent of a Paladin, is that of a person whose only extraordinary skill is being good at a lot of very ordinary things. That doesn't mean they can't be useful in combat, or have a cool magic pet, just- a little more down-to-earth and mundane than the other classes. I would like to see a Ranger that's more similar to something like a cross between a Rogue and a nonmagical Artificer; using ingenuity to outsmart their enemies with mundane traps, tools, or even a repertoire of poisonous or otherwise modified arrows, in the same vein as the rogue's new Cunning Strike, to play kinda like Green Arrow. (Or, you know- doing the same thing to melee weapons, like Oils from The Witcher 3)
Monk has always been my favourite subclass, so to see so many new changes really makes me excited. Can't wait to use these new step of the winds to help maneuvers my party around, I love support stuff like that
Jacob, I never get tired of what you have to say. It's so fun to hear your and Spencer's opinions, and the jokes you both make. It always puts a smile on my face :)
Late but comparing the article on the Monk changes to the one on the Ranger changes is REALLY funny. It's just funny seeing how succinct all the descriptions of the Monk changes are, compared to every Ranger change being accompanied by "hey, you can still use spellcasting to do this!" or "I really like this change because it's more THEMATIC!" or "trust me guys, this minor improvement is REALLY COOL!" It's like they knew the Ranger changes were garbage and the Monk changes were good enough to speak for themselves.
I know this is a Monk vid, but it got me thinking about how they could have made Ranger more fun to play that fit its flavor. They could have added a new early feature where the Ranger could choose a creature type once per long rest, and then have some benefit to tracking or fighting that creature type for the whole day. For example, when you hit a creature of that type, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than you for a round (cuz rangers are like protectors). And you can sense if there are any of those creatures nearby and which direction they are (similar to Paladin’s Sense Evil/Good). That way you keep the old Ranger flavor while still having some versatility to swap creature types when you need to.
I remember years ago learning the basic rules and breakdowns of each class from your videos, now I'm a dungeon master running weekly sessions at my local game store and I'm about to unleash the Fireball Wizard upon my players as a "friendly" NPC (I bought the beard and everything). Thank you for helping guide me in my journey to becoming a DM
My second playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 was an Open Hand Monk, that I then subclassed into a Thief Rogue, so that I could get an extra bonus action. So I was doing 2 normal attacks and 2 flurry of blows, for a total of 6 unarmed attacks per turn, which were dealing 1d6 base, then 1d4 elemental from Ki-Empowered Strikes, then 1d10 force from the gloves that Hope gives you, +6 from dexterity, then +4 from Wisdom, then +4 from Wisdom *again* because of some nice boots... all adding up to 17-34 damage per punch, for a total of a whopping *102-204 damage per turn.* Even just using basic unarmed bonus attacks instead of flurry of blows, that's still 68-136 per turn. ...Imagine my surprise upon learning that actually, Monk is NOT the ridiculous glass cannon I thought it was, and that it's widely regarded as the weakest class in the proper game. So, neat to see that the class is getting some pretty significant buffs! Even if it seems like 'Elements' is getting the elemental damage die for your unarmed strikes instead of Open Hand. Which.... makes sense, but I do think Open Hand should be a bit better at just punching things, instead of having a heal.
It's very telling that the *newest* changes to the classes come after the *MASSIVE* success of Baldur's Gate 3 which, quite literally, buffed every single one of them and made them all *not* suck ass -- so all the people who were playing 5e already went "oh thank god" and the people who *havent* played 5e, got the game, then played 5e went "oh god why". Meanwhile, WotC has maintained their design was totally fine and cool and *none* of the classes were underperforming or bad and that it's *YOUR* fault for simply not utilizing them properly.
Monk was only ever a mediocre class if played pure. It in particular compared to other classes, has REALLY strong synergies when multiclassing. On tabletop, where the magic item options are much more expansive than BG3, it is hilariously easy to flip the classic "quadratic wizards, linear warriors" D&D equation on it's head and achieve average damage rolls that are so high that nothing in the monster manuals has the HP to survive a single round burst. And that's by level 12 for certain builds and some optimal itemization. Specifically, you could have taken your BG3 build and added at least 3 or more levels of the Brute Fighter subclass (which adds 1d4 damage to ALL attack damage rolls). Add on the amulet that adds 1d6 fire damage to weapon attacks (which fists count as for monks), a second action surge if you take Brute far enough, and slap it all on a Half-Orc for the increased critical damage (which you will be getting many of since you get to roll so many attack dice) and by that level 12 I mentioned before and for a small ki investment you can turn literally everything you meet into a cloud of red mist (or appropriately colored mist if it doesn't have normal blood). You GM might think they can control you by throwing in Bear Totem barbarians to have enemies that can resist all your damage types but it won't matter because every level past 12 only further makes you into more of a blender and even resisting all damage types won't be enough to save any NPC statblock in any of the monster manuals from at MOST a 2 round kill. If they survive more than 2 rounds then you know your GM is using some homebrew bullshit or just straight up lying about the HP numbers.
@@MisterZimbabweEven with multiclassing it still isn't as broken compared to the best builds with any other class. I do love taking levels in Fighter or Cleric though with Monk indeed. The synergies with those two classes in particular make them a lot better and more viable, but that is because those classes are also just better than a Monk is.
@@MisterZimbabweFunny that you mentioned the extra bonus actions from BG3, cause that's the only thing here I feel like they missed out on. Definitely shouldn't be implemented how it was in the video game, but giving all Monk's a limited extra bonus action mid 2nd tier would really help out a lot.
I really like the compromise with the new stunning strike of only using it once per turn but still benefitting from it even if the creature makes the saving throw.
At the end of Soul Eater manga one of the main characters was able to deflect lasers with bare hands. I can't unsee BlackStar now as every monk in dnd now
I do think this will become the default monk now, only thing I can see people not letting go of is multiple stunning strikes per turn. And I've always liked subclass first because to me it just makes more sense.
8:59 Literally what i was thinking for the last few minuets like???? I'm seriously going to rewatch your ranger vid cause NO WAY did they cook with fire for some of these classes, then made THAT RANGER
Stunning Strike clarification I'd like to make: 'the next attack made against them is done so with advantage' That means any attack from anyone. It doesn't say YOUR next attack. You can stunning strike, they make the save... they lose half their movement, and any follow-up attack is getting advantage. ;)
I love the idea of a lvl 15 monk assassin squad that shows up, spends their 4 focus points to throw a billion punches at you, flees in the blink of an eye, and then re-engages like 30 seconds later to regain their focus points indefinitely
So a vampire strategy? I did that with vampires because they have HP regen and super-speed. You can also give them spells or bows with sharpshooter feats and really piss off people.
Him: *Reads buff* UA-cam: *Immediately plays ad with dance music* Me only listening: *Imagines a cut to him dancing with dance club lights, then realizes it's an ad*
I love seeing how giddy you are for some of these new classes, would you consider making a video about how you would make improvements to Pali and the Ranger. Thanks!
@@guilha1506 while that's true, IF any of those great spells are concentration, like any of the conjuring spells are, the new Ranger will not be benefiting from like four of its class features in order to cast those spells. It's just unsatisfactory design
@@jacobtrost5048 It’s indeed quite bad design, but doesn’t mean the class is weak. Bad features don’t make a class bad, lack of good features is what makes a class bad, and ranger has tons of good features
@@guilha1506ranger was strong even in 2014, still was considered ome of the worst class of the games. Flavor and flexibility is everything, that's what makes a class beloved, even if it's doing bad dpr. That's why they did nothing to fix the ranger, they just bumped up some statistics, but it's still a clanky, undefined class, that requires tons of homebrew adjustments
What we're missing with the ranger is that probably they won't even take their time to go through another truckload of revisions, they'll just forget about it until the next book comes out in 10 years
If I'm not mistaken, there is also another buff to the Monk via the changes in Unarmed Strikes. Of course all characters can perform an unarmed strike, but b/c the Monk class uses this the most often, the class receives the most benefit from the change. Basically, whenever a character takes an Unarmed Strike as an action, instead of only dealing damage, the Player/DM has the option of one of the following three options for the character to perform: Deal damage like normal/before, attempt to grapple another character, or attempt to shove another character. So, instead of trying to grapple or shove an enemy (or I guess you might want to shove your ally, idk) and that taking up your whole action, if you are able to Unarmed Strike multiple times in a single attack action (or bonus action ala Furry of Blows), then you could attempt to grapple/shove someone(s) up to that many times. Or to put it another way, you can now attempt either of these options more than just once a turn now! Also as a side note, don't underestimate "shoving attacks" people! That's how you could get an enemy away from you so that you don't have to suffer from an attack of opportunity! And don't forget to look out for doing this for your other party members if they don't have a high strength stat or a way to disengage as easily like a Rogue or Monk.
This actually existed before. It was just kinda buried in the book, so most people didn't know about it. The only change is now monks bonus action attack can also be replaced with grapple/shove.
Another thing not mentioned is that the monk weapon change is a nerf. Before, you could make any martial melee weapon that wasn't heavy into a monk weapon (including scimitar). Now, it has to be a martial weapon with the light property, which is literally ONLY the scimitar, which, thanks to the martial arts buff, deals the same damage as an unarmed strike. I guess now if you want to spend a bunch of extra GP you could have your monk deal slashing damage??? Which, mind you, you could already do because hand axe exists and is a straight upgrade to the scimitar in literally every way except for the fact it lacks finesse (monk weapons can use dexterity regardless of whether or not they have finesse). This is such a useless change... although, I did not stop to consider the possibility of new weapons in the new book. Still probably a net negative but if they add something nice that you can use I guess it's less bad?
@@Brass319 *Scimitar and Shortsword are the only martial weapons with the light property, still not much but it's there. They're mostly just there so monk can round out it's physical damage types, having access to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage (between weapons and martial arts). And to be absolutely fair, the Dedicated Weapon feature that gives monk other weapon choices was only added in Tasha's because the rest of the class was so weak. With the new version of monk being buffed so much there wasn't much need to keep Dedicated Weapon around, plus it gives the backwards compatible Kensei monk more indiviuality and purpose now that only it can use other martial weapons. I'm also curious to see if any of the feats might give a character access to weapon mastery, as Monk getting access to the Nick property of scimitar will allow them to get in another attack as part of their attack action when dual wielding. It's also interesting to point out that features like stunning strike now proccs on any unarmed or monk weapon attack, not just melee weapons, so ranged attacks with shortbows, darts or hand axes (or long bows in the case of kensei) can stunning strike now.
@@FBI_Metal_Slime 1. monks could already use shortswords (so I didn't count them), and like I said hand axes are a straight upgrade to scimitars for monk with or without the tasha's rule 2. I mean yeah that's fair but let's be real this is a bandaid fix at best compared to reworking kensei to give you actual abilities you can use (assuming that was even the intension), not to mention you lose out on some cool flavor opportunities as well as better magic item compatibility (something monk can famously struggle with at times if the dm isn't careful) 3. Not gonna lie I liked the melee weapon attacks only version of stunning strike best, felt like the least cheesy of the bunch. Ultimately the main limiter _should_ be your ki points, so letting you dump a whole four of them for four attempts to stun was a bit questionable.
You can roll the credits at 4:00. 🎉 These changes make the Monk so much better and distinct from other classes. Finally you feel the pro-boxer-level training of a monk right from the start.
"There is something about rangers I might be missing." Unfortunately you'll have to prepare and cast a spell to find that out now, as natural explorer, favored enemy (bad reworks), and primeval awareness were all removed.
Deft Explorer was a good change and Favored Enemy is still better than it was before. They just failed to deliver on new stuff. The spellcasting is something that a lot of you are missing ironically. Ranger will have more spells and they have some great flavorful rituals. I'm not a fan of the Hunter's Mark features at all either, but the rest of the Ranger is a lot better than it's being given credit for.
Natural Explorer was quite good, just make it apply to terrain of choice on Long Rest. Give them all a buff to Crit on Surprised creatures like the Assassin subclass since that is a major part of their schtick.
I know this is the monk video, but I want to comment this before I forgot. So I had an idea for ranger and wanted to run it by everyone; what if Ranger's main thing in combat was getting additional damage and advantages in combat based on the environment or how you fight? Like when you have the high ground you deal additional ranged damaged, when an opponent is on difficult terrain they are knocked prone by your attacks, you crit on more than just a 20 against prone or grappled enemies, things like that. Maybe they could even have something like eldritch invocations, where you choose specific things in the environment that your ranger likes and gets a bonus from (that would make this hypothetical ranger more adaptable if a DM likes to use specific terrain a lot)? So this ranger is a class that loves to take advantage of the terrain. I just had this idea randomly and haven't thought it over too much and I haven't thought how it would interact with subclasses at all so IDK
iv been playing the new monk since it was in playtest 8 (its basically identical except swap out what happens when an enemy saves on stunning strike) and it is shockingly tanky. Its to a point that Barbarian Monk multi class actually could be viable solely because rage + defect attack would be beast of a combo
My biggest monk homebrew rule: They can add their Martial Arts die to any check to trip, grapple, shove, or disarm an enemy; and if they succeed at any of those checks then they will not suffer an opportunity attack if they move away that round. It wouldn't cause any damage, but it would allow them to pinball around a room and disorientate a bunch of mooks, setting them up for the barbarian to waltz in afterwards and go nuts
i’m imagining a something like in anime where there’s a crowd of enemies and the monk pinballs around to all of them in a dash of light. then all the enemies look down to find their swords broken in half and their pants on the ground, just to look up and see a raging barbarian barreling towards them
@@GiveMeTheRice Yeah, you get it! Most of the monk discourse is around how to increase their damage output, when I've always felt that they can have a real good niche as the "martial buff/debuff caster". Intercept and deflect attacks towards allies and trip up enemies as they dance around the battlefield.
Mine was letting them use Acrobatics or Dex-Athletics to Grapple and Prone. They do that with some Rogue-Expertise mixed in and they just throw monsters down and beat them while the monster can’t do anything.
Self Restoration is also really great, because instead of taking an action, the condition will just end, it adds poisoned to the mix, and there was the whole debate of whether or not a Monk could actually use Stillness of Mind while charmed, because they wouldn't necessarily know they are under the condition.
Monks are rule of cool incarnate but in practical terms fall short of everything they promise in combat or social encounters. A quick and dirty fix would be to give them an ability to intimidate or otherwise influence enemies based on wisdom and dexterity with their feats of prowess rather than strength and charisma so that every time they do something cool like their missile-catching or wall running it passively scares or fascinates enemies making them vulnerable to followup attacks to counter their lowered direct damage potential and handicapped survival since they lose out on magically enhanced weapons and armour leaving them in the dust without those significant bonuses. Well, unless you homebrew some cloth robes and weapons that count as unarmed attacks, at any rate. Likewise allowing wisdom to apply to diplomacy checks or giving other edges in mediating between extreme viewpoints in the good/evil law/chaos axis keeping with their theme of spiritual balance like an explicit advantage to using the help action during diplomacy can add to social encounters to supplement a dedicated face would be extremely appreciated.
New monk feels like pieces that are, hopefully, put together neatly by subclasses. It doesn't feel whole. But in ways that I feel that subclasses will never entirely fix.
@@ShiningDarknesStill doesn't solve the bonus action problem or really give you ANYTHING outside of combat. They did a great job of upping Monk's combat power, but it's still practically useless outside of combat compared to most of the classes.
@@malmasterson3890i don't get it? Besides Rogue and wizard, most classess also focused on combat. You probably still have the running over water and the high speed one, so you can run arouns better than anyone
@@malmasterson3890 100% due to your lack of imagination. I never had issues using the monk's kit outside of combat. I have no fucking clue what nonsense you are trying to say with "bonus action problem" because that is a "problem" for all classes that have multiple things to do with bonus actions, it is called action economy and actually you were not paying attention because at least one feature listed mentioned being able to use the level 2 bonus action effects when doing any other bonus action. You two make no sense. You are just hating on it because it sounds fun.
@@namikazenara9379 Any class with spells automatically has way more stuff to do outside of combat than most. Barbarians new buffs to Rage make it so now it actually gives them enhancements outside of combat, Fighters now at least can gain a buff to skill checks. Really the most flavorful out of combat ability Monk has is indeed just to run across water and fall slowly. Rangers get climbing & swimming speeds, languages, and ability to shrug off exhaustion better. Even without spells that's definitely more flavor than Monk yet everyone criticizes them for it. Outside of combat everyone is just gonna have more to do than the Monk. Don't get me wrong the movement is absolutely nice and was the biggest thing old Monk had outside of Stunning Strike, but I wish they gave it more attention in the other pillars.
I always liked Monk because they were cool as fuck even if they're not amazing but now they've been buffed unfathomably. But every good change just makes me think "Why did they turn the Ranger into the Hunters Marker"
Mr. XPtoLevel3, I am just a random dude, but I hope you will read this comment! Regarding Ranger: Look, I totally get it the new Ranger doesn't have a lot of the flavor and identity of the ranger from 2014. I fundamentally appreciate how that is sucking the flavor and the identity from the Ranger. Especially considering how makes Hunter's Mark its most contested, or perhaps congested... identifying feature, both thematically and mechanically. One thing I noticed is that the new ranger seems to have a much more evenly split balance between the power of the core class and each of its respective archetypes - and perhaps this is something that we will have to discover as we get to playing more 2024 ranger and its strengths and shortcomings become more apparent with time. Now, that doesn't mean that the real pain of removing many of its interactions with the wilderness, adventuring, and other ranger-y aspects do not still exist. But, _I do think_ that when people start to play a ranger and begin mixing and matching their abilities, combining with spells, and weapon masteries... we will start to see something a little bit more robust. I feel as though WotC could have changed some of the established core ranger abilities, like Primeval Awareness, to be more closely realized to the Paladin ability 'Divine Sense', which got buffed recently to last longer and do *more* while it was up. I think that's part of the answer, but not the whole of it. Ultimately, The greatest offense to me, even as a non-ranger player was the fact that their Capstone was a simple dice size upgrade for hunters mark. You compare that to the monk capstone and were not even playing the same game hardly. However, I do want to take a moment to discuss the nature of 5e including everything from 2014 to today if you will indulge me. Context: I started playing in high school in 2007. I've played 2e, 3e, 3.5e, and about three sessions of 4e. The majority of my play experience has now been 5e without a doubt. Disregarding all of the numerical and class changes that deal with abilities - what you get upon leveling, etc - the greater impact has been the change in the expression of the game from being one of dungeon delving, problem solving, and exploration, to one of, essentially, serialized narrative. That's not a problem on its own; however, most people who play Dungeons and Dragons nowadays don't play it for the same reasons that we played the previous editions and that's ok, but it does mean that the activities that a given table will engage in will tend to pivot towards social engagements as well as combat - and less about exploration. I feel like the 2014 Ranger was made the way that it was because the game and the people that would play it from 2014 onward were never on the same page about exploration. They made the 2014 Ranger Agnostic of the way the culture of DND would change, and without providing real reasons, or rewards for engaging in exploration. It's one of those things that you had to make matter as a dm otherwise it was never going to come up. Of course, this is only a small section of my analysis, and there is room for me to be both wrong and right about what I've said. And this is coming from a person who's generally excited for ONE DND, or whatever we decide to call it because that name f*ckin' BLOWS! 🤣🤣 I just call it 5.5. It's easier and makes the most sense to me... Thanks for taking the time here, I really appreciate it and am thankful for your contributions! Be well, Zenith110
Damn bro wrote an essay. You're right tho. As someone who started with 1e AD&D and then jumped to 5e, the way the game is played is very different. And even more so as someone whose favorite class was ranger in those 1e games, it's clear why ranger had trouble fitting into 5e. Ranger made more sense when wandering monsters were a bigger deal and you had track down a monster's lair to find its treasure hoard. I remember in 1e we'd usually only see like a third of a module by the time we finished it, there was so much you could optionally do and explore.
I present to you : the 69 Taxi build. Monk + Grappler + Speedster Feats You can go 69m (not my fault) per round while transporting 2 people with you (1 if out of Focus points), not provoke opportunity attacks and ignore difficult terrain.
IF YOU BRING UP “The Horse Thing” ONE MORE TIME MAN SO HELP ME GOD, IT IS A GOOD CHANGE, ALL IT DID WAS ADD ACCESSIBILITY FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LEAN INTO THAT PLAY STYLE, IT TOOK AWAY LITERALLY ZERO THINGS
I feel the Monk has such a great overhaul that he's like that one kid with a bowl filled to the brim with his favorites...not like the ranger over there in the corner, crying into his still empty bowl. XD
Something I did pick up on recently with 2024 Ranger, is that the Hunter's Mark they seem to be using is taken from UA6 (given by how it is confirmed to do force damage now). This means when it's upcast not only does it's duration increase up to 24 hours, but it's damage now increases by upwards of two extra dice at a 5th level slot (total of 3d6 force damage). This makes 2024 Foe Slayer actually somewhat decent at least, as it can get that Hunter's Mark damage up to 3d10 (once per turn, unless changed from UA6/2014) when cast at 5th level, plus the upcast gives it a 24 hour duration with unbreakable concentration on top of having advantage on all attacks against marked targets. That's actually pretty nice damage and usability at least for late game. Also several sources claiming that lot's of Ranger spells are no longer concentration, plus conjure barrage was confirmed to be buffed to 5d8 force damage and choosable targets within the cone, ranger spells might be getting some good buffs all around to help supliment the class (and explain why they focused 2024 Ranger so much around spells). Whether or not putting so much more of it's focus into it's half casting aspect is good game design is debatable, but I'm at least hopeful 2024 Ranger isn't outright weak thanks to it's spells being better.
Speaking on what Jacob said about the Paladin and Smiting, After hearing the final version, I did a rework for our play group. Its back to being a core class feature, not a spell. Its limited to once per turn and you can cast it at 1st level a number of times equal to your CHR mod after which you have to use a spell slot
Ranger is actually good in the most common levels to play, with hunter's mark and vex, doing 4d6 + 6 damage at base. They still suck to stay at high levels (if you don't make a coffelock with them. Exhaustion down on short rest might actually be broken in that case) Anyways, you just take ranger to lvl 5 and then anything else. Ranger is now the same as barbarian in 2014, just with more spells and less tankiness. Having high dex on a person with pass without trace is still broken.
Honestly, I’m glad I watched this. I had seen other videos by people who had more cynical takes (understandably so), but this enthusiasm is just great to listen too. Gets me excited about DnD too
Honestly I'm just glad they didn't make monk bad It really brightens my day And it gave me an idea for my TRRPG (no, it's not even close to be finished and it was made only to be played with my friends, MAYBE when I complete it I'll do a Kickstarter) Still I have a lot to complain about ranger, but I'll do the same as you, stay optimistic and let the numbers do the talking (it's sad I have to say this, but probably fun won't talk)
Yeah. I’m going to homebrew that it’s light AND finesse martial. But at least the oversight on monks not qualified for 70% of the feats was addressed from like UA 7 or was it 8?
I have also always loved the flavor of monks, but had such a hard to making build for them that feel satisfying and like something I want to play. This. Changes. EVERYTHING! I can not wait to make so many monks. It might become my favorite class now.
New monk looks amazing, most of it's nerfs are mild/ removing ribbons and it's buffs are all great/ flavourful. It's nice how Shadow monk's gotten a stronger focus on darkness in it's capstone, opportunist was a good feature but it didn't seem to have much to do with the subclass's aesthetic, though it is noteworthy that a moderately weaker version of Cloak of Shadows was the 2014 PHB's 11th level subclass feature which they've definitely revised based on player feedback because _that_ one does end the moment you enter bright light and it's just invis. Hadn't realised stunning strike didn't have the unarmed/ monk weapon restriction but I guess it's because those are what you'd be using for melee attacks as a monk anyway when given the choice. It's interesting how they seem to have changed from "your unarmed attacks count as magical for overcoming resistance to nonmagic damage" to "your unarmed attacks deal force damage." It's a simplification and a welcome one but I wonder what part of the old version they didn't like. It's also interesting that they seem to have done away with timeless body and purity of body, and rolled an adjustment of their benefits into stillness of mind; The later was an action to end charm/ fear on yourself, so now it's free at turn's end, and also applies to poison, but you're no longer flat out immune to poison or disease, and instead of "you no longer need food or water" you just have a way to avoid exhaustion incurred from a lack of them (which implies a limit to how long you can last but we'll see).
"I have never played, or DM'd a game where a person has used Quivering Palm so I have no idea how this looks or how this plays" TLDR: It's a massive nerf to Quivering Palm that doesnt make mathematical sense to use. I've done both, and this is a *massive* nerf to the sub class, but, one that maybe needed to happen with how *other* classes were balanced in the prior 5e books. To put it bluntly, Quivering Palm was 3 ki to either kill something instanty, or, deal an absurd amount of damage to something. There was no "save for half". You either made your save and took 10d10 necrotic damage, or, you failed your save and died. This was *THREE* ki points and could be applied to *any* unarmed attack that you hit. The only limits were that you HAD to hit an UNARMED attack, and, that it took an *action* to force the save. Meaning that it took *2 Turns to see if you killed them (you can get around this with Action Surge, Haste, or any other ability or effect that would allow you to save your "action" for a turn). Now, that's an incredible ability. That's 50 damage (average) for 3 ki if they make their save, or, literally instant death if they dont. This meant the Open Hand monk was the *only* character in the game who could instantly kill something regardless of its HP value at the time. For instance if you were lucky, you could on your first turn of combat punch a Tarrasque 4 times with flurry of blows, inflicting Stunning Strike on each blow to force it burn through legendary resistances, then on your final punch in the flurry spend 3 ki to prime your Quivering Palm, then, action surge and detonate it. You could have rolled 1s on ALL of your damage die, it wouldnt matter, if the monster failed the save they would be set to 0 hit points. Now, that's a niche example of the instant death working, but even without it, it *arguably* beats the damage of doing nearly anything else. Every turn an Open Hand monk attacks he gets 3 attack, 4 if they spend 1 ki. At level 17 this is 1d10 per attack. This is 3d10 for no ki, 4d10 for one ki. Quivering Palm deals 10d10 minimum on its own, but, it also needs to have been applied by an attack with is 1d10 for a monk of this level effectively making it an 11d10 move. This means to *beat* the damage of Quivering Palm you had to spend at least 2 ki for 2 turns worth of flurries (8d10) and then on the third turn hope you hit at least 2 attacks of the 3 you can make without a flurry. If you spent 3 ki across 3 turns and landed all your hits (12d10) you could beat quivering palm (you TECHNICALLY could beat it earlier, since all your attacks landing means youre applying your damage bonuses such as Dex mod, which means with +5 modifier, you could beat the Quivering Palm damage in just 6d10 which is an average of 30+30 but these calculations are long enough with this pedantry) It *certainly* out paces any other monk subclass damage ability. Long Death monk has a similar feature that allows you to use your action to deal a load of damage to a target. For the Long Death monk it's 2d10 per ki spent with a max of 10 ki being allowed to spend. That meant for 3 ki on the Long Death monk, you got 6D10. With your action you would force a con save, if they failed the save they'd take the full damage (average 30), if they passed they'd take half (average 15). A long death monk, to get the same damage as an Open Hand monk for the same action cost, has to spend 5 ki (10d10 for average 50) and, unlike the Open Hand monk, their option has the chance to *LOSE* damage if the target saves (average 25). This meant, for 3 ki points, the Open Hand monk was either immediately killing their target, or, dealing nearly double the dice in damage the Long Death monk was dealing. If the Long Death monk was slightly worse, or the Open Hand monk was slightly better, it *would* be double. But it doesnt need to literally be double the dice when it already outpaces the damage with *zero* room for damage mitigation outside of having resistance to necrotic -- which, ironically, wasn't as big a problem because once again, you could potentially kill and enemy outright, so even if they were resistant to necrotic damage you could *still* justify quivering palm since, if they *DO* fail the save, they are either going to be forced to use a legendary resistance, or, theyre going to die. Open Hand being changed to... what was it here? 10d12? With a save for half? For *4* ki points? Makes it significantly worse than it was. Since monks now *get* d12s for their unarmed strikes, spending 4 ki on 10d12 is only marginally better damage economy than simply attacking, since it requires an action to detonate. Each turn the new monk can make 4 attacks for 4d12 per turn if you spend ki with the new monk. So, why would I settle for 10d12 for 4 ki (save for half) when instead I could deal 12d12 across 3 turns for LESS ki cost? Also, keeping in mind, that each of the ACTUAL punches adds my damage modifiers and due to how Open Hand applies its special debuffs without ki cost, im taking away reactions or knocking enemies around. Quivering palm *REQUIRES* a hit to connect anyhow, and an ACTION to detonate. If Quivering Palm allowed me to detonate it on a REACTION that'd be nice, since this means an open hand monk could dump a truckload of ki into one massive turn for the potential for a heap of damage at the cost of NOT being able to do their reaction gimmicks for a round. But that's not the case. This, also, serves as a stealth buff for Astral Monks. Since Astral Monks get the ability to effectively double the damage of one of their attacks per turn at lvl 11 if they manifest their arms and visage (2 ki) they can be dealing 5d12 on a turn where they flurry (1 ki per turn they flurry). Meaning, for the same cost (4 ki) an Astral Monk can flurry 2 turns in a row to deal the same damage (10d12) and that's not even their full power. They can manifest their full suit at the same level for just 1 ki more (5 ki) and for doing that they get the damage boost, and a third attack added to their extra attack. This means an Astral Monk at the same level as an Open Hand monk can be dealing 5d12 per turn for the entire fight for the one time payment of 5 ki, and, they can still pump their damage with flurries, making for 6d12 on a turn where they do. This isn't hugely relevant to how it affects Open Hand, but, people already have pointed out how it's very hard to keep pace with an Astral Monk and this change to Quivering Palm does damage the one ability that soundly was able to keep up them -- the previous calculation was 3 ki for 10d10 vs. 5 ki for 4d10 which meant that an Open Hand monk could *afford* to take an entire turn to trigger their Quivering Palm without falling behind the DPT of another monk, especially since the Open Hank monk had *also* dealt damage with the attack that allowed them to set up Quivering Palm to begin with (functionally making Quivering Palm an 11d10 attack, since you need to LAND an attack to even set it up). Anyhow, the change to quivering palm doesnt make a lot of mathematical sense, since it was already something that *maybe* could outdamage your punches. You could do 4d10+20 on your first turn then 10d10 on your second with the cost of 4ki (average 90) If you took 4 turns with of flurries instead you'd have dealt 16d10+80 across them (average 160) Upping the damage of quivering palm to d12s doesnt mean anything when martial arts also goes up to d12s. The cost increase makes it even *less* attractive, and the fact it can't potentially kill something instantly makes the gamble that it *could* outpace your damage not worth taking. You may as well remove the novelty that you can use on any creature on the same plane as you too, since the fact you can't potentially instantly kill a retreating dragon is now squarely off the table. *EDIT:* I just got to the part in the video where the new monk apparantly gets to make *three* attacks with Flurry of Blows. This now makes Quivering *OBJECTIVELY* worse than just attacking. This means you get 5 attacks with 1 ki point, bringing *ALL* monks in line with the damage numbers the Astral Monk was doing, *AND* it brings the Astral Monk's DPT to 6d12 with the one time cost of 5 ki, and 7d12 on a turn they want to flurry. This *WILDLY* outpaces Quivering Palm, making it effectively useless as level 17 ability. You may as well get nothing, because the *only* time you'd *ever* want to use this in favor of simply punching. *MAYBE* if the enemy has vulnerability to necrotic specifically so you can deal *effectively* 20d12 to them. But I do not even know if there's a single creature in the game who is specifically vulnerable to necrotic -- I *GUESS* you could like, team up with a Grave cleric who would get a *MUCH* better use of their feature that lets them apply Vulnerable to a singular instance of damage? But that's even more niche than just killing an enemy outright.
i was not prepared to click on read more this reads like a reddit post although it would be in bad will to just say that and so after having read through it i just agree, like for starters quivering used to feel like monk got access to a small part of the major shenanigans high level wizards had and just that got replaced with a really standard move, but now that monk got buffed the move just falls really fall behind with everything else in comparison. i just wish you got it on earlier levels
@@egg4444 The edit I made to the post later pushed the TLDR into the "read more" portion, which is unfortunate, but I do feel it was important to add, since that change quite literally makes quivering palm obsolete as a class feature. If Quivering Palm *WERENT* a purely damage focused tool, then I likely wouldn't have needed to sound like a white-room-mathematics redditor. But, as Quivering Palm's *ONLY* job is to deal damage, offering *NO* other benefit or utility (compare to the Open Hand's other options that allow for healing, and tactical control respectively) we can *ONLY* compare Quivering Palm's usefulness as an ability to your ability to deal damage by other means. Which sucks, especially since it does leave a break down of the ability looking like a spreadsheet, but, since that's *ALL* it does, that's *ALL* we have to measure. At level 17, there is *no* reason not to give a class the ability to instantly kill. A Wizard or Bard of equal level can cast Wish or Power Word Kill for "instant death" methods and have already had things like Disintergrate, Finger of Death, and Fireball for many levels more. Not to be pedantic but casting Wish and saying "I wish the monster had a fatal heart attack that killed it immediately" is arguably *more* effective than Quivering Palm while accomplishing the same thing. However, I can appreciate the desire to nerf it, because one of the *problems* with Quivering Palm is that *INSTANT DEATH* is something of a meme. In online spaces especially, it's *easy* to look at something like Long Death and say "Ok, but, can it INSTANTLY kill something like Open Hand can?" which in a discussion about the monk and its subclasses is great way to reduce all classes that dont do *crazy* shit, like for instance, the Astral Monk, who was a hot discussion topic precisely *because* it's power and abilities were so good it could compete with Open Hand's *capstone* ability. I think it's a *strong* option at level 17 not because it could potentially kill something instantly, but, because it made the Open Hand monk the undisputed *MASTER* of blowing through Legendary Resistance, something that becomes *more* common in that level range. If an Open Hand monk wanted to, in a single turn, they could spend 8 ki to force a target to save against 4 instances of Stunning Strike, 2 instances of the "Open Hand Tecnique" to knock the target prone, or knock them 15 away, and of course set up quivering palm. That's *6* saving throws from *ONE* character in 2 turns (one turn if they have a means of detonating palm in a single turn). That's not including the incoming saves from other members of the party. Combine that with the fact the Open Hand monk is *very* hard to get rid of swiftly, and you have a very dangerous tactical threat *even* if the monk is dealing no real damage. Simply by forcing so many saves, saves you dont WANT to fail, they're more poised to blow through legendary resistance than even some of the best casters in the game. No monster WANTS to be stunned, no monster WANTS to take 10d10 necrotic damage for just existing, but also, no monster wants to just DIE instantly. This makes the Open hand monk a "tank" in a way no other monk is, which is something the fact the class was the only one with a dedicated self heal for some time more apparant. The open hand monk became a "tank" by becoming a priority target. You couldnt burn them away with dragon breath or zap them with disintegrate or charm with dominate monster or banish them with banish or grapple them, or petrify them, or throw them off a mountain or cook them alive with heat metal. You had to use dedicated honest attacks to hitting them, which was difficult to do with an AC of 20~ The Open Hand monk was a *menace* for boss monsters with Quivering Palm simply because they could not be ignored. In a world where a "tank" is defined by they're ability to demand an enemy do not ignore them and their ability to survive having that attention, the Open Hand monk excelled at that more than any other monk *BECAUSE* Quivering Palm was as powerful as it is. The DM *must* make a decision every time they fail a saving throw and they must make the decision knowing that, for just 3 ki, this fight can be *OVER*. This in turns, made the monks OTHER save-based shine more, because as a DM I would much rather have a monster stunned for a turn than have them dead. I'd rather them get knocked prone by Way of the Open Hand than be dead. I'd rather them take 10d10 necrotic damage than be dead. This is on TOP of the considerations youre making as a DM for where the monster directs its attacks. Do you attack the rogue who's routine stabbing it for 60 damage a turn? Do you have it smack the Cleric who's keeping the party healthy and alive? Do you have it smack the fighter who's giving it persistent Disadvantage on all of its attacks by simply existing? Or, do you target the monk whois threatening to take the monster out of the fight entirely even if they havent succeeded yet? The *real* use case for Quivering Palm as I've seen it functionally used, is to "kill" an enemy on their last legs. If you set up Palm early, you can detonate it at *ANY* time. So, if a monster has 100hp but over the course of a fight you dwindle them down to 50 -- congrats, the fight is over. On the monks turn they simply activate Quivering Palm and unless the target plane-shifts they're dead even if they pass the con save. Quivering Palm as it is a strong tactical tool because it is a threat that demands it be taken seriously, no matter how unlikely it is to actually apply. No DM *wants* to lose their big bad to instant death. But it's super cool when it happens, and it makes the Open Hand monk uniquely able to assault the DM's resources for monsters in a way no other class in the game can. The ability itself isnt interesting but the threat is poses in any given fight makes every fight more dynamic. Before it was debatable, there was the white-room mathematic calculations which said it's a fringe ability that generally outpaces your normal damage but may not be worth using more than a flurry because of other calculations, and the practical tabletop engagement with the feature which was as I described above -- a *potent* threat in any encounter due to how it either ENDED the encounter then and there, or, made the encounter easier. Now it's just another save for half. At level 17, assuming i've still only got 17 ki points? I'm not wasting *FOUR* of them to deal less damage than 2 turns of flurry of blows. That's double the cost for nothing. No DM is going to be like "aaahhhh shiiiit dude, man oh man, which do I want? Do I wanna not take full damage from this or do I not wanna be stunned?" they're gonna choose to save the legendary resistance for Stunning Strike, or any of the spells in the game that are even *WORSE* to fail. - Slow - Hold Person/Monster - Plane Shift - Feeble Mind - Contagion - True Polymorph I *could* go on. Spellcasters in this game have spells that can *DEVASTATE* a monster, and entire encounter. They are a REAL threat at the table, and very few DMs want to have their baddies turned into a tea-cup, or sent to the far realm. But I *doubt* we'll see those spells getting nerfed. Despite many of them coming BEFORE quivering palm. The fact WotC made this decision, without even doing the *basic* math for this change, tells me they made it because they just didn't want the monk to have an Instant Death move. That's my ultimate point, I suppose. This decision clearly wasnt made because they understood Quivering Palm, otherwise, the change wouldn't have made it so *boring.*
In case you haven't since learned this, Quivering Palm can now be activated by replacing an unarmed strike in during your attack action, rather than needing to take an entire action on its own.
@@JoeThomas-lu6fy That makes it marginally better, but still a wholesale downgrade. All this does is make it *useable* now. The math is still less than great, and for the Ki point cost, it's *still* only edging out spending that ki on further flurries and only if you have higher than average damage rolls. I still don't think these changes were made by a person who could do simple math, I don't even think these changes were made by a person who has played with a monk of the open hand in the last 10 years. But, at the very least it won't be doing *WORSE* than if you'd just done nothing at all.
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Wierd that in this article they don't mention you can now always bonus action unarmed strike, grapple or shove as long as you don't wear armor like they did in their youtube video.
A nit pick with the empowered strike for 2024 monk. It is both weaker and unnecessary change from the 2014 monk.
2014 monks unarmed strikes simply counted as magical for overcoming resistances. Aka monks had magical blugening. Technically the strongest dmg type in the game i think
...coming? Bruh it's August
@@invictus7736 respectfully, we've got one more day
New level 3 monk ability: why are you hitting yourself
RULES OF NATURE
not gonna shugarcoat it
@@tamakona113AND THEY RUN WHEN THE SUN COMES UP
@@Unmustache1WITH THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE
@@Local_Phantasm (ALIVE!)
WoTC to Monk: "You, my son, you will have all the figgy pudding"
WoTC to Ranger: "Don't you people have spells?"
“You guys literally all have spells”
You guys have phones, right?
SAM O NELLA MENTIONED!!!
Well The Ranger Changes seem Cool I Guess
im glad they ditched Primeval Awareness
Ranger gets spells at level 1 now.
Biblical revival of Four Elements monk
It was never really alive tbh, more like a rebirth
four elemental monks are biblically accurate now
And just like that the Avatar was born again.
@@karlkhai51 like they said in the ancient legends
We're so back.
The Monk’s glow up is what Jeremy THINKS the Ranger got.
Lmao really. The way he described the Ranger update compared to the description I got from a full breakdown was…. an interesting difference.
Still the worse class, hardly a glowup
@@punishedwhispers1218 it starts doing 30% more damge, thats a massive change before anything else.
new monk feels like it says "skill issue" every time it lands an attack lol
more like every time someone lands an attack on them and they just swat it right back at the attacker "skill issue."
New monk got that Royal Guard Rizz
New monk class: "lmao get parried scrub"
Tiger Drop Negates all Damage
@@MrAkaidu "gg git gud"
To answer your question at 18:26 about Stunning Strike. It APPEARS that it's being moved to just monk weapons/unarmed strikes instead of all melee attacks so that you can now do it with ranged monk weapons. Whether it be a thrown weapon like a dart, a shortbow, or what have you. This really helps out Kensei monks who get a longbow as they could not stun people without running up to them and punching them.
Finally I can play my stun gun Kensei
Darts are not monk weapons, not in 2014 nor in 2024.
@oicmorez4129 they have the light property, no?
@@TerrariaGolem @oicmorez4129 They are not. Monk weapons in 2014 "are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don't have the two-handed or heavy property."
But it hardly matters anyway in 2014. If you throw a dart, you're not in melee to attack with the bonus action anyways, and ranged weapons already use Dex.
EDIT:I guess its lower damage since it doesn't scale with the martial arts die, but let's be real, you weren't doing much damage as a monk anyways.
@@TerrariaGolem Yes, but they are not a melee weapon
“We’re not gonna go on 15 minute tangents about the Ranger” BUT WHAT IF I WANT TO GO ON 15 MINUTE TANGENTS ABOUT THE RANGER 😭😭😭
sounds like you're gonna be disappointed, then! not by this video, mind you.
Lets have more 15 minute tangents about paladin as well 😂
"GET IN THE COMMENTS"
Listen here's what u do, u find random unsuspecting people, u help them learn DND and run games for them and then once u them trapped with friendship and DND, u unleash Ur ranger hate on them.
In 5e everyone was making fun of the Monk, now in 5.5e everyone points at Ranger and laugh, Wizards sometimes can do really good things, but when they miss it's really terrible
You can Deflect Energy Vicious Mockery...
Enemy: You dumb
Monk: No, you dumb
Enemy: *Surprise Pikachu Face*
can't actually because 1) vicious mockery forces you to make a save and is not considered an attack and 2) you can only reduce the damage of non-physical energy types, not redirect them (at least based on the wording we have here - it will depend on what the actual 2024 phb says).
@@dealbreakerc 1)You are right; it is not an attack, but that doesn't mean it can't be interpreted as one.
2) I agree that it is open to interpretation.
My friend played a bard in university who was cursed to be silent. Whenever they spoke, a shockwave came out of their mouth, similar to Black Bolt from the MCU. For flavor (and some item synergy), we at the table considered this as a spell attack. I know it's house rules and not rules as written, but still... This was supposed to be a joke; we shouldn't be analyzing the viability of it, lmao.
@@dealbreakercliterally the level 13 feature lets you reduce the damage of attacks of any damage type
Attacks and saves are different unfortunately.
@@Popchip99but it doesn't say anything about redirecting them, not here anyway. We'll have to see the actual book
The line "his gun, Tasha's cauldron of everything" had me chuckling
Same. "His other eye was also the Rogue" got me too.
@@aodhfyn2429Oh yeah, he's always had great comedic timing
@@MrLegrooveth true
Something really really really REALLY important for Shadow Monk that was not mentioned in this article but was mentioned in the interview about monk, is that they can SEE THROUGH THEIR OWN DARKNESS NOW. This is a massive buff, and alongside being able to move this darkness around pretty much makes up for losing pass without trace and silence.
11:33 ~I don't think they lost those spells~
Lol nevermind this was wrong
@@landler656that was Jacob on the current shadow monk page to shoe what spells it used to have
@@landler656 That was him reading the 2014 monk rules to compare with the new rules. The 2024 shadow monk subclass and 2024 monk class as a whole are heavily taken from the UA6 and UA8 playtest versions of the class, and in these playtests Shadow Monk could no longer cast Silence, Pass without Trace, or Darkvision (this one is because they just get darkvision built in now). If exactly like the UA versions (which it has followed very closely so far) the Shadow Arts feature now only allows the casting of Darkness (1 focus point) and minor illusion, on top of getting darkvision and the unique ability to move the Darkness and see through it.
Oh that makes way more sense
Ngl I asked my dm if I could cast darkness on my tongue piercing and use a free action to close my mouth, so I already managed to get that moving darkness. Pair that with silence and I'm the groups resident mage killer.
18:16 To answer your question Jacob, before stunning strike could be used with ANY melee weapon attack. So your monk could hit something with a great axe and force the con save. Now since a great axe is not Monk weapon this will not work (unless your a Kensei monk).
Successfully applied just means the target fails the save.
Someone else mentioned it might also apply to non-melee attacks as well like thrown daggers or darts.
i'd also assume, based on the comment, that it can be applied on ranged attacks too now. Darts and shortbows are on the table to stun now, which is kinda huge and honestly turns the rework into a solid net buff
@@isaacorwhatever4329 I hadn’t considered range attacks. That’s a huge buff to Kenseis who get a ranged weapon of their choice at level 3 that counts a monk weapon for them. I can hear my DM raging now 😂
Edit: I have been informed the following comment is incorrect because the definition of 'weapon attack' is weird.
I think a very important part that everyone is missing is "or an unarmed attack". Monks is D&D are know for their proficiency with unarmed attacks yet previously one of their strongest features only worked with a weapon. Now you could have a powerful monk that truly only uses unarmed attacks.
@@snowsun538 true I just always ruled that an unarmed strike worked for stunning strike cuz martial arts says it counts a melee weapon attack.
Guy who updated Warrior of Shadows monk can neither confirm nor deny whether or not he was playing Aragami while writing it.
yeah, cool game
"Monk is all about positioning" -Missionary
Oh this joke's got layers
Lol
Shadow Monks def hit it from behind. Backdoor all day
saw a video about dnd character romances and monk characters had the most romances so it checks out
Reverse Piledriver
At this point, the Monk is just the Landlord from Kung Fu Hustle and I am all for it.
😂
s
@@overdrive7349 no, never cook again
@@DucksAndCatnip I was adding the s to landlord because it was two and they were both pretty powerful
my dumbass thought this was kung fu panda LMFAO
As an avid Monk player, who has from the very start of getting into D&D loved playing and the concept/flavour of the Monk, these changes feel like an actual dream..
I have a buddy who’s saying he’s play tested it and the monks have been severely nerfed
Not sure what his issue is as he’s been arguing with everybody for weeks saying the 2014 monk is better
@@edwardlomeli5657 idk man that darkness ability and deflect attacks are keeping me alive and God knows the dm is trying to kill me
@@coolgoku810 oh I agree the new changes are amazing I hated the old monk but love the new one.
My buddy argues that the new monk sucks cause they aren’t as good st stun locking. They got so much versatility though and buffs that I adamantly disagree with him
@@edwardlomeli5657 I mean if that's what he's relying on to play monk then he's not even playing the class at all. So much versatility and he locks himself to one move?
@@coolgoku810 oh like I said I adamantly disagree with him and argue about it. I was being sarcastic with my first response if it didn’t come out that way.
Hr thinks the monk got mostly nerfs and I’ve had to break it down for him buff by buff.
Hes adament that the class is now garbage to everybody that it’s lead to a lot of arguments
Imagine a Halfling Shadow Monk running from NPC shadow to NPC shadow to stay invisible
Write that down, write that down! 😂
@@leila13dnd just like every adventure I write I now have to find the path to get to that scene.
my ass read this as if the shadows were the npcs
WOTC: "No, no, come on guys, I don't have a favorite child."
Leans in to whisper to Monk
WOTC: "It's you, and by a lot."
This is more like finally recognizing your bastard child. Monks in 5e really wasn’t that great it was just really mobile
I have an easy fix for the new ranger.
"When casting Hunters Mark without using a spellslot using the Rangers class feature, it doesn't require concentration"
It happened in UA2 or 4, but no, Wizards think it's too OP besides everyone liking it, and in Tasha there was an ability called Favored Foe which was a free HM, if you could combine both in this way, maybe it would be strong for early game, (1d8 long bow, +1d6 HM +1d4 Favored Foe +Dex Mod)
@@juliocesar6795It is though. Even with it's current implementation Ranger is still strong. I agree that the feature shouldn't just be the Hunter's Mark spell though. They really should've just thrown both out entirely for something brand new like what they did with Revised Ranger. I think just a flat damage & Survival/Nature skill bonus in areas you've spent enough time in & against Foe types you've already faced would work perfectly and just use those new features for all Ranger spells instead of just Hunter's Mark.
@@malmasterson3890 I've only played a few rangers, but I've never used Hunters Mark. There just always seems to be cooler spells I'd rather use that have concentration, like Zephyrs Strike for melee (Which my DMs usually let me have the bonus speed before the attack as a combat opener), or Hail of Thorns for ranged. If a class is given a nice spell list, but all their features revolve around just using one spell and never any of the others, then why even have that spell list? It's like with Paladins, I very rarely actually use Divine Smite, if only because they have some really nice spells they could use isntead. Sure, I'd drop a Divine Smite on a crit, but other then that, I like their spell potential. Including the normal smite spells like Searing ro Branding or Thunderous (which I totally wish had dice progression. Imagine like, a Paladin/Cleric of Talos multiclass for limited maxed out Thunderous smites)
@@juliocesar6795 I've never used Hunters Mark when playing rangers, and I rather like Favoured Enemy so I never replaced it with Favoured Foe. But even then, Favoured Foe takes concentration, locking you out of some of the other cool spells Rangers can cast, like Hail of Thorns or Zephyr Strike.
This is what I'm doing with the homebrew for our playgroup
I've always loved the Monks, they were the first class I played and the class that I've played the most throughout my time playing dnd.
I'm glad they finally started showing some love to Monks after years of neglect :)
Monks are THE physical class for me. I love playing monks that are like my one character "Karate Kim" who was a 90s sports mom who had MI-6 training from her father who "just did a little espionage in the war days"
@@fateisme
"We do a little trolling"
- Destabilizer of Governments
I teared up watching this video ngl
They wernt my first real character… but they were my second. And honestly one of my favorites. But I’m glad they are getting a well deserved buff
same, monks are my favorite in any rpg and my first dnd character was a monk
Monks finally feel like a class that has dedicated themselves to perfecting their body, through discipline and study, to stand toe to toe with anyone in a world full of magic and monsters.
Its like they watch mages conjur magic from their body and figure out how that must mean the body has to be able, somehow, to direct that force. So they grab their lab coats and start redirecting fire with just their bare hands.
Jeremy sending a patch update to his player was a vibe.
"Dude, this isn't even an official patch update, and i barely consider this a mod, but rather see this as file leak; have this gameplay boost"
I think the only reason that people hate monks is purely because the mechanics don’t want you to stand still, but 5e players want to stand still to avoid opp attacks
I mean, they could always kite, but now they can as long as there is space. They can solo any creature with less speed than them that lacks better projectiles than them.
on stunning stikes's "Now can be used with any monk weapon or unarmed strike" it think that means that it works with thrown weapons, like daggers are a light weapon but can also be thrown, so you may be able to imbue the stunning strike into the dagger while thrown.
RANGED STUN!
No. Ranged weapons cannot be monk weapons, it must be "any Martial Melee weapon with the Light property" or "all Simple Melee weapons"
The keyword in both cases is "melee". Even the old version specified "melee weapon attack."
The change is twofold. First, it clarifies right in the book, as opposed to Sage Advice or another external source, that it does work with Unarmed Strike. Previously, it just stated "melee weapon attack" and they clarified elsewhere that yes, an Unarmed Strike counts as a weapon attack, so now that clarification is right in the main book instead. The other change is that previously, it was any melee weapon attack. This means that you could use a greatsword or greataxe, despite them not being monk weapons, and still perform a Stunning Strike. Now you can't. It has to be a monk weapon specifically or your Unarmed Attack. I think that second change is harder to notice because I don't think a lot of people really considered that option before
@@Kahadi daggers have the thrown property. it ticks the box of being a light melee weapon, so you can apply stunning strike with a dagger throw
At this point, I'm willing to homebrew a base ranger myself. I mean, come on WotC designers, you've already proved you know how to do it
Monk has always been one of my favorite classes. Seeing it get some of the treatment it deserves is so great
With the word changing to monk weapon at 18:25 it specifically opens up thrown weapons, and hence ranged stunning strikes
🤘
No it doesn't, that's a misunderstanding. It says it requires a Monk weapon or Unarmed Strike. And going back to what counts as a Monk weapon, it needs to be a melee weapon (a Martial Melee weapon with the Light feature or a Simple Melee weapon). Simply put, the ability itself doesn't say ranged attacks are allowed, and the definition of a Monk Weapon directly says they are not allowed.
What the change does is both clarify that yes, Unarmed Strikes work (it previously said "melee weapon attack", which led to people thinking Unarmed Strikes didn't work, but it was clarified elsewhere that Unarmed Strikes counts as a melee weapon attack), and it actually limits the weapons available. Previously it was any melee weapon, even if not a Monk Weapon, allowing you to Stunning Strike with a Greataxe or Greatsword. But now it specifies it must be a Monk Weapon, restricting the weapons that it can be used with
@@Kahadi a thrown melee weapon is still a melee weapon, and it doesn't explicitly DISallow thrown weapons.
Not many people are confronted with a dragon and decide to kick it in the face, monk gets points solely for that
anyway Monk is a tank now and that's awesome
Monk was always kinda a Tank it was just deisgned wierdly. Like it got 20 AC for putting points in its main stats which are some of the best saving throw stats in the game besides Charisma. They could reflect ranged attacks, stop enemies from doing things outright, could heal themselves, etc etc.
Not really... deflect attacks doesn't do anything to encourage enemies to target the monk over their allies, and not being invisible at 18th level is just a flat nerf, even if it does mean they'll get targeted more often as a result...
Edit: I do like uncanny metabolism, though... might take that into my home game, if nothing else!
It still only gets a d8 for hit dice 🙃
Weve been house ruling to a d10 for awhile now, like the other martial classes get, and it feels way better
Well there's the story of Los Tiburion who got on the dragon's back, rolled to pin it's wings, and killed it with fall damage.
@@bricknolty5478 5e monk should've had AT THE VERY LEAST d10 for hitpoints. Heck, I could see it receiving a d12, like barbarian, because... All they do all day is train their damn bodies and minds. Makes sense.
However, with so many cool ways to "actively tank" now, I don't mind a d8 I guess. Will be more "lemme dodge and parry" instead of "I'll tank with my sheer prowess" kinda of gameplay.
14:00 I'm pretty sure the new Elementalism cantrip is replacing the 4 cantrips of Shape Water, Mold Earth, Gust, and Control Flames. Something Druids, Sorcerers, and Wizards will have access too. It looks like it's a slightly watered down version of those 4, except Water is definitely watered down since their is no more ice, animating it, or changing it's color. You can shape 1 cubic foot of water (or any element) and have it hold it's shape for 1 hour, and you can make 1 cup of water... that evaporates after 1 minute.
The spell is "Duration: Instantaneous", so I don't know how many of each of these effects you can have going at once. I didn't see a "no more than two of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time" clause when I googled it, but it also might be the UA version I found so this entire comment could be wrong.
Essentially Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy and Druidcraft of an Elemental variety.
It's more like an alternative to Prestidigitation or Thaumaturgy than a replacement for Shape Water, Mold Earth, Gust, and Control Flames. It also directly says in the UA "you exert control over the elements, creating one of the following effects within range", which means you can only do one of the 5 options at a time. But I don't think they expect people to use it in combat anyway, only outside of combat, so that doesn't really matter too much.
While it doesn't do much on its own, it's quite clearly more meant for more roleplay specific moments, like blowing closed a door to slow down someone's escape or writing words in the dirt to subtly signal someone, or spraying mist to help cool people down in a hot area. Again, like the uses for Prestidigitation and Thaumaturgy.
@@Kahadi How many effects you can have active at once was referring to how cantrips like Shape Water and Prestidigitation say you can only have so many long lasting effects active at the same time, not how many different actions you could preform with 1 casting. The UA version I read for Elementalism doesn't say anything about a limit, so you could waterbend a cubic foot of water into a floating ball, and then do it again, and again and again until the water balls start popping after 1 hour. Shape water had a limit and said you could only have 2 "water balls" active at once, instead of the now theoretically 600 without a limit.
This should keep me going while I homebrew a working ranger
Lmaooooo
pIs make the IeveI 20 better than +2 damage IoI
It works, people are just over reacting.
Tasha's Ranger is fine tbh
The new ranger is objectively better than og ranger. It's not even bad either. You've just gaslit urself into thinking it's bad
Monk buff of biblical proportions.
I am escatic, and I will immediately be screeching at my dm to ask if I can use these holy fucking absolute shit this is incredible.
WE ARE SO BACK!!!!!!!
New Monk is the first I've ever been excited to play a monk. They made it better but even more important, they made it more fun to play. Part of that is feeling like you keep up with other party members, but part of it is also fixing features that were annoying and un-fun to use.
13:12 could you imagine how scary this would be you're like in a street tunnel or one of those markets that has the little fabric overhangs on it that make Shadow for people above it so there's light coming through a dude walks up looks at you from the other side of the market snaps his fingers the ground turns black he pops his hood up he fucking vanishes and then the shadow on the floor starts flying towards you
this would be so cool as an animation or something from some D&D UA-cam channel
They mentioned in the video's presenting the changes from a few weeks ago that Shadow Monks will also be able to see inside the Darkness bubble they create. No more need to waste a feat to take Blind Fighting or the Warlock invocation
0:06, as somebody who mainly plays monks, this was exactly my reaction to the changes
Idea: make Hunter's Mark a non-concentration spell and remove the jumping targets as a bonus action part. Ranger can now focus on his spells and still use his signature spell.
The monk will be the first class I play in the new book!
Bot stole your comment
@@SnowyOwl369 Thanks, don’t know why these bots exist
@@bigt1574 i liked the bots comment til i saw ur reply and scrolled to like urs instead
@@WGGplant thanks bro, how the fuck does the bots comment have 16 times the likes of mine?
@@bigt1574 The bots have other bots that they use to like their own comments. It's like a matryoshka doll but it's just layers upon layers of bots...
8:09 I know what you’re thinking Jacob and you probably don’t know that an Unarmed Strike can now be used to Grapple or… either Shove or knock Prone, I forgot.
So Monk kinda had Weapon Masteries built into punches.
As a monk main, this is the greatest day in the history of television.
The issue with Ranger is that it's always had an identity problem. Monk knew exactly what it is (frankly, *too* well, to the point where the book's flavor text was too narrow for what a Monk could actually be, hence the Ki > Focus and subclass naming scheme changes), but was balanced poorly.
Noone knows what a Ranger is "supposed" to be, not even WOTC. We all have an *idea*, but most of them could just be Fighter or Rogue subclasses, and none of them mesh very well with what the Ranger actually plays like.
(For example: if you want to play as a nimble, well-traveled hunter, experienced in the ways of the wild and good with a bow?
Just play a rogue with the Scout subclass. they do all the same things, but better, and you don't have to waste your time messing around with a spell list that doesn't even contribute to the core class fantasy.)
I've seen suggestion that they just make the Ranger a dedicated pet class, but I don't love that. I don't think it works for the class fantasy that people are trying to have when they choose Ranger, unless they're picking one of the subclasses that already do that, which is why those options exist.
I think the Ranger should be closer to a skill-monkey class with Expertise, like Rogue or Bard, to fit their whole thing of being the more experienced navigator for their group, responsible for all the "mundane" problems introduced while traveling. Nature, survival, medicine- things necessary to get a party from point A to point B, but kind of boring, and not necessarily high priorities for characters whose skillsets revolve around hurling fireballs and beating up bad guys.
I think the core class fantasy for Rangers, rather than just being the druid equivalent of a Paladin, is that of a person whose only extraordinary skill is being good at a lot of very ordinary things. That doesn't mean they can't be useful in combat, or have a cool magic pet, just- a little more down-to-earth and mundane than the other classes. I would like to see a Ranger that's more similar to something like a cross between a Rogue and a nonmagical Artificer; using ingenuity to outsmart their enemies with mundane traps, tools, or even a repertoire of poisonous or otherwise modified arrows, in the same vein as the rogue's new Cunning Strike, to play kinda like Green Arrow.
(Or, you know- doing the same thing to melee weapons, like Oils from The Witcher 3)
Monk has always been my favourite subclass, so to see so many new changes really makes me excited. Can't wait to use these new step of the winds to help maneuvers my party around, I love support stuff like that
20:03 instantly reminded me of Kong Fu Panda 3. I'm imagining the anguish of DMs after they hear their player say "Skadush" for the 12th time.
Jacob, I never get tired of what you have to say. It's so fun to hear your and Spencer's opinions, and the jokes you both make. It always puts a smile on my face :)
Late but comparing the article on the Monk changes to the one on the Ranger changes is REALLY funny. It's just funny seeing how succinct all the descriptions of the Monk changes are, compared to every Ranger change being accompanied by "hey, you can still use spellcasting to do this!" or "I really like this change because it's more THEMATIC!" or "trust me guys, this minor improvement is REALLY COOL!" It's like they knew the Ranger changes were garbage and the Monk changes were good enough to speak for themselves.
"hope you aren't tired of this" JACOB, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR 2 YEARS FOR YOU TO TALK ABOUT THIS
Monk being so cool basically made jacob revert to before taking his meds. Love it
I know this is a Monk vid, but it got me thinking about how they could have made Ranger more fun to play that fit its flavor. They could have added a new early feature where the Ranger could choose a creature type once per long rest, and then have some benefit to tracking or fighting that creature type for the whole day. For example, when you hit a creature of that type, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than you for a round (cuz rangers are like protectors). And you can sense if there are any of those creatures nearby and which direction they are (similar to Paladin’s Sense Evil/Good). That way you keep the old Ranger flavor while still having some versatility to swap creature types when you need to.
I remember years ago learning the basic rules and breakdowns of each class from your videos, now I'm a dungeon master running weekly sessions at my local game store and I'm about to unleash the Fireball Wizard upon my players as a "friendly" NPC (I bought the beard and everything). Thank you for helping guide me in my journey to becoming a DM
My second playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 was an Open Hand Monk, that I then subclassed into a Thief Rogue, so that I could get an extra bonus action. So I was doing 2 normal attacks and 2 flurry of blows, for a total of 6 unarmed attacks per turn, which were dealing 1d6 base, then 1d4 elemental from Ki-Empowered Strikes, then 1d10 force from the gloves that Hope gives you, +6 from dexterity, then +4 from Wisdom, then +4 from Wisdom *again* because of some nice boots... all adding up to 17-34 damage per punch, for a total of a whopping *102-204 damage per turn.* Even just using basic unarmed bonus attacks instead of flurry of blows, that's still 68-136 per turn.
...Imagine my surprise upon learning that actually, Monk is NOT the ridiculous glass cannon I thought it was, and that it's widely regarded as the weakest class in the proper game.
So, neat to see that the class is getting some pretty significant buffs! Even if it seems like 'Elements' is getting the elemental damage die for your unarmed strikes instead of Open Hand. Which.... makes sense, but I do think Open Hand should be a bit better at just punching things, instead of having a heal.
It's very telling that the *newest* changes to the classes come after the *MASSIVE* success of Baldur's Gate 3 which, quite literally, buffed every single one of them and made them all *not* suck ass -- so all the people who were playing 5e already went "oh thank god" and the people who *havent* played 5e, got the game, then played 5e went "oh god why".
Meanwhile, WotC has maintained their design was totally fine and cool and *none* of the classes were underperforming or bad and that it's *YOUR* fault for simply not utilizing them properly.
@@nananamamana3591classic Wotc let’s be honest with ourselves here
Monk was only ever a mediocre class if played pure. It in particular compared to other classes, has REALLY strong synergies when multiclassing.
On tabletop, where the magic item options are much more expansive than BG3, it is hilariously easy to flip the classic "quadratic wizards, linear warriors" D&D equation on it's head and achieve average damage rolls that are so high that nothing in the monster manuals has the HP to survive a single round burst. And that's by level 12 for certain builds and some optimal itemization.
Specifically, you could have taken your BG3 build and added at least 3 or more levels of the Brute Fighter subclass (which adds 1d4 damage to ALL attack damage rolls). Add on the amulet that adds 1d6 fire damage to weapon attacks (which fists count as for monks), a second action surge if you take Brute far enough, and slap it all on a Half-Orc for the increased critical damage (which you will be getting many of since you get to roll so many attack dice) and by that level 12 I mentioned before and for a small ki investment you can turn literally everything you meet into a cloud of red mist (or appropriately colored mist if it doesn't have normal blood).
You GM might think they can control you by throwing in Bear Totem barbarians to have enemies that can resist all your damage types but it won't matter because every level past 12 only further makes you into more of a blender and even resisting all damage types won't be enough to save any NPC statblock in any of the monster manuals from at MOST a 2 round kill.
If they survive more than 2 rounds then you know your GM is using some homebrew bullshit or just straight up lying about the HP numbers.
@@MisterZimbabweEven with multiclassing it still isn't as broken compared to the best builds with any other class. I do love taking levels in Fighter or Cleric though with Monk indeed. The synergies with those two classes in particular make them a lot better and more viable, but that is because those classes are also just better than a Monk is.
@@MisterZimbabweFunny that you mentioned the extra bonus actions from BG3, cause that's the only thing here I feel like they missed out on. Definitely shouldn't be implemented how it was in the video game, but giving all Monk's a limited extra bonus action mid 2nd tier would really help out a lot.
2:00 I played a Way of Shadow Monk as my very first character and, since then, Monk has been my second favorite class.
I really like the compromise with the new stunning strike of only using it once per turn but still benefitting from it even if the creature makes the saving throw.
At the end of Soul Eater manga one of the main characters was able to deflect lasers with bare hands. I can't unsee BlackStar now as every monk in dnd now
I do think this will become the default monk now, only thing I can see people not letting go of is multiple stunning strikes per turn.
And I've always liked subclass first because to me it just makes more sense.
8:59 Literally what i was thinking for the last few minuets like???? I'm seriously going to rewatch your ranger vid cause NO WAY did they cook with fire for some of these classes, then made THAT RANGER
Monk is one of the coolest classes IMO and one of my favorites in ANY game and seeing just those changes up to level 3 makes me excited
what kind of words would you want to use to describe that monk artwork again? should we be concerned? is it... is it hot?
Stunning Strike clarification I'd like to make:
'the next attack made against them is done so with advantage'
That means any attack from anyone. It doesn't say YOUR next attack. You can stunning strike, they make the save... they lose half their movement, and any follow-up attack is getting advantage. ;)
Gives a great guarenteed set up for rouge's sneak attack
"I'm always willing to be excited and hopeful over doom and gloom."
This. This is why I watch this channel.
I love the idea of a lvl 15 monk assassin squad that shows up, spends their 4 focus points to throw a billion punches at you, flees in the blink of an eye, and then re-engages like 30 seconds later to regain their focus points indefinitely
*And their health if they lost any.
So a vampire strategy? I did that with vampires because they have HP regen and super-speed. You can also give them spells or bows with sharpshooter feats and really piss off people.
Its once per long rest 🤔
@@Colaschnittchen At level 15, they regain focus points up to 4 *every* initiative.
Monk looks so much healthier and more fun now. I never thought I'd be excited for monk of all things but here we are.
Him: *Reads buff*
UA-cam: *Immediately plays ad with dance music*
Me only listening: *Imagines a cut to him dancing with dance club lights, then realizes it's an ad*
I love seeing how giddy you are for some of these new classes, would you consider making a video about how you would make improvements to Pali and the Ranger. Thanks!
I suspect what we're missing for ranger is the spells. Its probably a LOT more spell focused and its only main concentration spell is Hunters Mark.
People always forget that ranger gets some of the best spells from the Druid list on top of doing the work of a martial
@@guilha1506 while that's true, IF any of those great spells are concentration, like any of the conjuring spells are, the new Ranger will not be benefiting from like four of its class features in order to cast those spells. It's just unsatisfactory design
@@jacobtrost5048 It’s indeed quite bad design, but doesn’t mean the class is weak. Bad features don’t make a class bad, lack of good features is what makes a class bad, and ranger has tons of good features
@@guilha1506ranger was strong even in 2014, still was considered ome of the worst class of the games.
Flavor and flexibility is everything, that's what makes a class beloved, even if it's doing bad dpr. That's why they did nothing to fix the ranger, they just bumped up some statistics, but it's still a clanky, undefined class, that requires tons of homebrew adjustments
@@eliascabbio7598 People really underrate how busted spells and archery fighting style are. Ranger stomps any marcial
What we're missing with the ranger is that probably they won't even take their time to go through another truckload of revisions, they'll just forget about it until the next book comes out in 10 years
Unironically Tasha's fixed Ranger and they just pretend it doesn't exist
If I'm not mistaken, there is also another buff to the Monk via the changes in Unarmed Strikes. Of course all characters can perform an unarmed strike, but b/c the Monk class uses this the most often, the class receives the most benefit from the change. Basically, whenever a character takes an Unarmed Strike as an action, instead of only dealing damage, the Player/DM has the option of one of the following three options for the character to perform: Deal damage like normal/before, attempt to grapple another character, or attempt to shove another character. So, instead of trying to grapple or shove an enemy (or I guess you might want to shove your ally, idk) and that taking up your whole action, if you are able to Unarmed Strike multiple times in a single attack action (or bonus action ala Furry of Blows), then you could attempt to grapple/shove someone(s) up to that many times. Or to put it another way, you can now attempt either of these options more than just once a turn now!
Also as a side note, don't underestimate "shoving attacks" people! That's how you could get an enemy away from you so that you don't have to suffer from an attack of opportunity! And don't forget to look out for doing this for your other party members if they don't have a high strength stat or a way to disengage as easily like a Rogue or Monk.
This actually existed before. It was just kinda buried in the book, so most people didn't know about it. The only change is now monks bonus action attack can also be replaced with grapple/shove.
Another thing not mentioned is that the monk weapon change is a nerf. Before, you could make any martial melee weapon that wasn't heavy into a monk weapon (including scimitar). Now, it has to be a martial weapon with the light property, which is literally ONLY the scimitar, which, thanks to the martial arts buff, deals the same damage as an unarmed strike. I guess now if you want to spend a bunch of extra GP you could have your monk deal slashing damage??? Which, mind you, you could already do because hand axe exists and is a straight upgrade to the scimitar in literally every way except for the fact it lacks finesse (monk weapons can use dexterity regardless of whether or not they have finesse). This is such a useless change...
although, I did not stop to consider the possibility of new weapons in the new book. Still probably a net negative but if they add something nice that you can use I guess it's less bad?
@@Brass319 *Scimitar and Shortsword are the only martial weapons with the light property, still not much but it's there. They're mostly just there so monk can round out it's physical damage types, having access to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage (between weapons and martial arts). And to be absolutely fair, the Dedicated Weapon feature that gives monk other weapon choices was only added in Tasha's because the rest of the class was so weak. With the new version of monk being buffed so much there wasn't much need to keep Dedicated Weapon around, plus it gives the backwards compatible Kensei monk more indiviuality and purpose now that only it can use other martial weapons. I'm also curious to see if any of the feats might give a character access to weapon mastery, as Monk getting access to the Nick property of scimitar will allow them to get in another attack as part of their attack action when dual wielding. It's also interesting to point out that features like stunning strike now proccs on any unarmed or monk weapon attack, not just melee weapons, so ranged attacks with shortbows, darts or hand axes (or long bows in the case of kensei) can stunning strike now.
@@FBI_Metal_Slime 1. monks could already use shortswords (so I didn't count them), and like I said hand axes are a straight upgrade to scimitars for monk with or without the tasha's rule
2. I mean yeah that's fair but let's be real this is a bandaid fix at best compared to reworking kensei to give you actual abilities you can use (assuming that was even the intension), not to mention you lose out on some cool flavor opportunities as well as better magic item compatibility (something monk can famously struggle with at times if the dm isn't careful)
3. Not gonna lie I liked the melee weapon attacks only version of stunning strike best, felt like the least cheesy of the bunch. Ultimately the main limiter _should_ be your ki points, so letting you dump a whole four of them for four attempts to stun was a bit questionable.
You can roll the credits at 4:00. 🎉 These changes make the Monk so much better and distinct from other classes. Finally you feel the pro-boxer-level training of a monk right from the start.
"There is something about rangers I might be missing." Unfortunately you'll have to prepare and cast a spell to find that out now, as natural explorer, favored enemy (bad reworks), and primeval awareness were all removed.
Deft Explorer was a good change and Favored Enemy is still better than it was before. They just failed to deliver on new stuff. The spellcasting is something that a lot of you are missing ironically. Ranger will have more spells and they have some great flavorful rituals. I'm not a fan of the Hunter's Mark features at all either, but the rest of the Ranger is a lot better than it's being given credit for.
Natural Explorer was quite good, just make it apply to terrain of choice on Long Rest. Give them all a buff to Crit on Surprised creatures like the Assassin subclass since that is a major part of their schtick.
I know this is the monk video, but I want to comment this before I forgot.
So I had an idea for ranger and wanted to run it by everyone; what if Ranger's main thing in combat was getting additional damage and advantages in combat based on the environment or how you fight?
Like when you have the high ground you deal additional ranged damaged, when an opponent is on difficult terrain they are knocked prone by your attacks, you crit on more than just a 20 against prone or grappled enemies, things like that.
Maybe they could even have something like eldritch invocations, where you choose specific things in the environment that your ranger likes and gets a bonus from (that would make this hypothetical ranger more adaptable if a DM likes to use specific terrain a lot)?
So this ranger is a class that loves to take advantage of the terrain.
I just had this idea randomly and haven't thought it over too much and I haven't thought how it would interact with subclasses at all so IDK
I, for one, think that sounds freakin awesome, more thinking in 3-D is needed in the game.
15:52 Lmao at Jacob talking shit on whoever wrote the Ranger article but giving props to the Monk author, and yet…LE GASP, ITS THE SAME PERSON
iv been playing the new monk since it was in playtest 8 (its basically identical except swap out what happens when an enemy saves on stunning strike) and it is shockingly tanky. Its to a point that Barbarian Monk multi class actually could be viable solely because rage + defect attack would be beast of a combo
It kind always was. I have a Tortle Astral Self Monk/Barbarian with Bear totem and it was pretty functional using Strength for attack rolls.
Old Monk: stereotypical orientalist martial artist
New Monk: Actually just a member of Cipher Pol 0. We Rob Lucci up in here
I mean, they work better w longbows and guerrilla tactics. BA Dash without ki makes them broken with their super speed and arrow deflection.
My biggest monk homebrew rule: They can add their Martial Arts die to any check to trip, grapple, shove, or disarm an enemy; and if they succeed at any of those checks then they will not suffer an opportunity attack if they move away that round. It wouldn't cause any damage, but it would allow them to pinball around a room and disorientate a bunch of mooks, setting them up for the barbarian to waltz in afterwards and go nuts
i’m imagining a something like in anime where there’s a crowd of enemies and the monk pinballs around to all of them in a dash of light. then all the enemies look down to find their swords broken in half and their pants on the ground, just to look up and see a raging barbarian barreling towards them
@@GiveMeTheRice Yeah, you get it! Most of the monk discourse is around how to increase their damage output, when I've always felt that they can have a real good niche as the "martial buff/debuff caster". Intercept and deflect attacks towards allies and trip up enemies as they dance around the battlefield.
Mine was letting them use Acrobatics or Dex-Athletics to Grapple and Prone. They do that with some Rogue-Expertise mixed in and they just throw monsters down and beat them while the monster can’t do anything.
Self Restoration is also really great, because instead of taking an action, the condition will just end, it adds poisoned to the mix, and there was the whole debate of whether or not a Monk could actually use Stillness of Mind while charmed, because they wouldn't necessarily know they are under the condition.
NEW MONK?!?!?!
That is an insane upgrade for the Monk class wow!
I love that the Shadow capstone lets you make a cartoon dust cloud with implied fighting in it.
Monks are rule of cool incarnate but in practical terms fall short of everything they promise in combat or social encounters. A quick and dirty fix would be to give them an ability to intimidate or otherwise influence enemies based on wisdom and dexterity with their feats of prowess rather than strength and charisma so that every time they do something cool like their missile-catching or wall running it passively scares or fascinates enemies making them vulnerable to followup attacks to counter their lowered direct damage potential and handicapped survival since they lose out on magically enhanced weapons and armour leaving them in the dust without those significant bonuses. Well, unless you homebrew some cloth robes and weapons that count as unarmed attacks, at any rate. Likewise allowing wisdom to apply to diplomacy checks or giving other edges in mediating between extreme viewpoints in the good/evil law/chaos axis keeping with their theme of spiritual balance like an explicit advantage to using the help action during diplomacy can add to social encounters to supplement a dedicated face would be extremely appreciated.
I can't help but think of Aang bringing out his spinning pebbles to win over the locals on Kioshi island.
New monk feels like pieces that are, hopefully, put together neatly by subclasses.
It doesn't feel whole. But in ways that I feel that subclasses will never entirely fix.
What are you smoking? This thing sounds amazing it is literally the old 2014 monk, but better.
@@ShiningDarknesStill doesn't solve the bonus action problem or really give you ANYTHING outside of combat. They did a great job of upping Monk's combat power, but it's still practically useless outside of combat compared to most of the classes.
@@malmasterson3890i don't get it? Besides Rogue and wizard, most classess also focused on combat. You probably still have the running over water and the high speed one, so you can run arouns better than anyone
@@malmasterson3890 100% due to your lack of imagination. I never had issues using the monk's kit outside of combat.
I have no fucking clue what nonsense you are trying to say with "bonus action problem" because that is a "problem" for all classes that have multiple things to do with bonus actions, it is called action economy and actually you were not paying attention because at least one feature listed mentioned being able to use the level 2 bonus action effects when doing any other bonus action.
You two make no sense. You are just hating on it because it sounds fun.
@@namikazenara9379 Any class with spells automatically has way more stuff to do outside of combat than most. Barbarians new buffs to Rage make it so now it actually gives them enhancements outside of combat, Fighters now at least can gain a buff to skill checks. Really the most flavorful out of combat ability Monk has is indeed just to run across water and fall slowly. Rangers get climbing & swimming speeds, languages, and ability to shrug off exhaustion better. Even without spells that's definitely more flavor than Monk yet everyone criticizes them for it.
Outside of combat everyone is just gonna have more to do than the Monk. Don't get me wrong the movement is absolutely nice and was the biggest thing old Monk had outside of Stunning Strike, but I wish they gave it more attention in the other pillars.
I always liked Monk because they were cool as fuck even if they're not amazing but now they've been buffed unfathomably. But every good change just makes me think "Why did they turn the Ranger into the Hunters Marker"
Xp: I’m not saying just buff every class
Me: … I am 😂
Mr. XPtoLevel3,
I am just a random dude, but I hope you will read this comment! Regarding Ranger:
Look, I totally get it the new Ranger doesn't have a lot of the flavor and identity of the ranger from 2014. I fundamentally appreciate how that is sucking the flavor and the identity from the Ranger. Especially considering how makes Hunter's Mark its most contested, or perhaps congested... identifying feature, both thematically and mechanically.
One thing I noticed is that the new ranger seems to have a much more evenly split balance between the power of the core class and each of its respective archetypes - and perhaps this is something that we will have to discover as we get to playing more 2024 ranger and its strengths and shortcomings become more apparent with time.
Now, that doesn't mean that the real pain of removing many of its interactions with the wilderness, adventuring, and other ranger-y aspects do not still exist. But, _I do think_ that when people start to play a ranger and begin mixing and matching their abilities, combining with spells, and weapon masteries... we will start to see something a little bit more robust. I feel as though WotC could have changed some of the established core ranger abilities, like Primeval Awareness, to be more closely realized to the Paladin ability 'Divine Sense', which got buffed recently to last longer and do *more* while it was up. I think that's part of the answer, but not the whole of it.
Ultimately, The greatest offense to me, even as a non-ranger player was the fact that their Capstone was a simple dice size upgrade for hunters mark. You compare that to the monk capstone and were not even playing the same game hardly.
However, I do want to take a moment to discuss the nature of 5e including everything from 2014 to today if you will indulge me.
Context: I started playing in high school in 2007. I've played 2e, 3e, 3.5e, and about three sessions of 4e. The majority of my play experience has now been 5e without a doubt. Disregarding all of the numerical and class changes that deal with abilities - what you get upon leveling, etc - the greater impact has been the change in the expression of the game from being one of dungeon delving, problem solving, and exploration, to one of, essentially, serialized narrative. That's not a problem on its own; however, most people who play Dungeons and Dragons nowadays don't play it for the same reasons that we played the previous editions and that's ok, but it does mean that the activities that a given table will engage in will tend to pivot towards social engagements as well as combat - and less about exploration.
I feel like the 2014 Ranger was made the way that it was because the game and the people that would play it from 2014 onward were never on the same page about exploration. They made the 2014 Ranger Agnostic of the way the culture of DND would change, and without providing real reasons, or rewards for engaging in exploration. It's one of those things that you had to make matter as a dm otherwise it was never going to come up. Of course, this is only a small section of my analysis, and there is room for me to be both wrong and right about what I've said. And this is coming from a person who's generally excited for ONE DND, or whatever we decide to call it because that name f*ckin' BLOWS! 🤣🤣 I just call it 5.5. It's easier and makes the most sense to me...
Thanks for taking the time here, I really appreciate it and am thankful for your contributions!
Be well,
Zenith110
Damn bro wrote an essay.
You're right tho. As someone who started with 1e AD&D and then jumped to 5e, the way the game is played is very different. And even more so as someone whose favorite class was ranger in those 1e games, it's clear why ranger had trouble fitting into 5e. Ranger made more sense when wandering monsters were a bigger deal and you had track down a monster's lair to find its treasure hoard. I remember in 1e we'd usually only see like a third of a module by the time we finished it, there was so much you could optionally do and explore.
When do y’all think Colby will comment and be like “FINALLY!”
I present to you : the 69 Taxi build.
Monk + Grappler + Speedster Feats
You can go 69m (not my fault) per round while transporting 2 people with you (1 if out of Focus points), not provoke opportunity attacks and ignore difficult terrain.
0:56 The sun does Radiant Damage, not Fire Damage...
Only if you're a vampire, take this 🧄
I like that Jacob's videos are just him reading the books because he knows that his fan base doesn't know how to read
I was just going to bed...
Frick off
Guess I'll have to get a quick one out...
If I wasn't drunk this wouldn't happen damnit
IF YOU BRING UP “The Horse Thing” ONE MORE TIME MAN SO HELP ME GOD, IT IS A GOOD CHANGE, ALL IT DID WAS ADD ACCESSIBILITY FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LEAN INTO THAT PLAY STYLE, IT TOOK AWAY LITERALLY ZERO THINGS
GLAZE MONK UP BABY
I feel the Monk has such a great overhaul that he's like that one kid with a bowl filled to the brim with his favorites...not like the ranger over there in the corner, crying into his still empty bowl. XD
Something I did pick up on recently with 2024 Ranger, is that the Hunter's Mark they seem to be using is taken from UA6 (given by how it is confirmed to do force damage now). This means when it's upcast not only does it's duration increase up to 24 hours, but it's damage now increases by upwards of two extra dice at a 5th level slot (total of 3d6 force damage). This makes 2024 Foe Slayer actually somewhat decent at least, as it can get that Hunter's Mark damage up to 3d10 (once per turn, unless changed from UA6/2014) when cast at 5th level, plus the upcast gives it a 24 hour duration with unbreakable concentration on top of having advantage on all attacks against marked targets. That's actually pretty nice damage and usability at least for late game. Also several sources claiming that lot's of Ranger spells are no longer concentration, plus conjure barrage was confirmed to be buffed to 5d8 force damage and choosable targets within the cone, ranger spells might be getting some good buffs all around to help supliment the class (and explain why they focused 2024 Ranger so much around spells). Whether or not putting so much more of it's focus into it's half casting aspect is good game design is debatable, but I'm at least hopeful 2024 Ranger isn't outright weak thanks to it's spells being better.
Speaking on what Jacob said about the Paladin and Smiting, After hearing the final version, I did a rework for our play group. Its back to being a core class feature, not a spell. Its limited to once per turn and you can cast it at 1st level a number of times equal to your CHR mod after which you have to use a spell slot
"Ki is called Focus Points now."
*Laughs in Pathfinder*
it would be totally justified to sue them back lmao
I know. I died when I heard this. Especially since PF2e is releasing a book tomorrow that changes Ki to Qi so they don't get sued by D&D.
@@snowsun538it's more because the anglicization of "ki" (key) was incorrect anyways, being more pronounced as a "kh" (tchi) or "q" sound
Ranger is actually good in the most common levels to play, with hunter's mark and vex, doing 4d6 + 6 damage at base. They still suck to stay at high levels (if you don't make a coffelock with them. Exhaustion down on short rest might actually be broken in that case)
Anyways, you just take ranger to lvl 5 and then anything else. Ranger is now the same as barbarian in 2014, just with more spells and less tankiness. Having high dex on a person with pass without trace is still broken.
Honestly, I’m glad I watched this. I had seen other videos by people who had more cynical takes (understandably so), but this enthusiasm is just great to listen too. Gets me excited about DnD too
Honestly I'm just glad they didn't make monk bad
It really brightens my day
And it gave me an idea for my TRRPG (no, it's not even close to be finished and it was made only to be played with my friends, MAYBE when I complete it I'll do a Kickstarter)
Still I have a lot to complain about ranger, but I'll do the same as you, stay optimistic and let the numbers do the talking (it's sad I have to say this, but probably fun won't talk)
The Monk Weapon rework sounds really cool, until you realize the only Martial Melee Weapons with the Light property are the Shortsword and Scimitar
Yeah. I’m going to homebrew that it’s light AND finesse martial. But at least the oversight on monks not qualified for 70% of the feats was addressed from like UA 7 or was it 8?
He didn't read it out, but it says "Simple Melee weapons also count as Monk Weapons"
I have also always loved the flavor of monks, but had such a hard to making build for them that feel satisfying and like something I want to play. This. Changes. EVERYTHING! I can not wait to make so many monks. It might become my favorite class now.
Monk's Focus? More like Funk's Mocus
New monk looks amazing, most of it's nerfs are mild/ removing ribbons and it's buffs are all great/ flavourful. It's nice how Shadow monk's gotten a stronger focus on darkness in it's capstone, opportunist was a good feature but it didn't seem to have much to do with the subclass's aesthetic, though it is noteworthy that a moderately weaker version of Cloak of Shadows was the 2014 PHB's 11th level subclass feature which they've definitely revised based on player feedback because _that_ one does end the moment you enter bright light and it's just invis.
Hadn't realised stunning strike didn't have the unarmed/ monk weapon restriction but I guess it's because those are what you'd be using for melee attacks as a monk anyway when given the choice. It's interesting how they seem to have changed from "your unarmed attacks count as magical for overcoming resistance to nonmagic damage" to "your unarmed attacks deal force damage." It's a simplification and a welcome one but I wonder what part of the old version they didn't like.
It's also interesting that they seem to have done away with timeless body and purity of body, and rolled an adjustment of their benefits into stillness of mind; The later was an action to end charm/ fear on yourself, so now it's free at turn's end, and also applies to poison, but you're no longer flat out immune to poison or disease, and instead of "you no longer need food or water" you just have a way to avoid exhaustion incurred from a lack of them (which implies a limit to how long you can last but we'll see).
"I have never played, or DM'd a game where a person has used Quivering Palm so I have no idea how this looks or how this plays"
TLDR: It's a massive nerf to Quivering Palm that doesnt make mathematical sense to use.
I've done both, and this is a *massive* nerf to the sub class, but, one that maybe needed to happen with how *other* classes were balanced in the prior 5e books.
To put it bluntly, Quivering Palm was 3 ki to either kill something instanty, or, deal an absurd amount of damage to something. There was no "save for half". You either made your save and took 10d10 necrotic damage, or, you failed your save and died.
This was *THREE* ki points and could be applied to *any* unarmed attack that you hit. The only limits were that you HAD to hit an UNARMED attack, and, that it took an *action* to force the save. Meaning that it took *2 Turns to see if you killed them (you can get around this with Action Surge, Haste, or any other ability or effect that would allow you to save your "action" for a turn).
Now, that's an incredible ability. That's 50 damage (average) for 3 ki if they make their save, or, literally instant death if they dont. This meant the Open Hand monk was the *only* character in the game who could instantly kill something regardless of its HP value at the time. For instance if you were lucky, you could on your first turn of combat punch a Tarrasque 4 times with flurry of blows, inflicting Stunning Strike on each blow to force it burn through legendary resistances, then on your final punch in the flurry spend 3 ki to prime your Quivering Palm, then, action surge and detonate it. You could have rolled 1s on ALL of your damage die, it wouldnt matter, if the monster failed the save they would be set to 0 hit points.
Now, that's a niche example of the instant death working, but even without it, it *arguably* beats the damage of doing nearly anything else. Every turn an Open Hand monk attacks he gets 3 attack, 4 if they spend 1 ki. At level 17 this is 1d10 per attack. This is 3d10 for no ki, 4d10 for one ki. Quivering Palm deals 10d10 minimum on its own, but, it also needs to have been applied by an attack with is 1d10 for a monk of this level effectively making it an 11d10 move. This means to *beat* the damage of Quivering Palm you had to spend at least 2 ki for 2 turns worth of flurries (8d10) and then on the third turn hope you hit at least 2 attacks of the 3 you can make without a flurry. If you spent 3 ki across 3 turns and landed all your hits (12d10) you could beat quivering palm (you TECHNICALLY could beat it earlier, since all your attacks landing means youre applying your damage bonuses such as Dex mod, which means with +5 modifier, you could beat the Quivering Palm damage in just 6d10 which is an average of 30+30 but these calculations are long enough with this pedantry)
It *certainly* out paces any other monk subclass damage ability. Long Death monk has a similar feature that allows you to use your action to deal a load of damage to a target. For the Long Death monk it's 2d10 per ki spent with a max of 10 ki being allowed to spend.
That meant for 3 ki on the Long Death monk, you got 6D10. With your action you would force a con save, if they failed the save they'd take the full damage (average 30), if they passed they'd take half (average 15). A long death monk, to get the same damage as an Open Hand monk for the same action cost, has to spend 5 ki (10d10 for average 50) and, unlike the Open Hand monk, their option has the chance to *LOSE* damage if the target saves (average 25).
This meant, for 3 ki points, the Open Hand monk was either immediately killing their target, or, dealing nearly double the dice in damage the Long Death monk was dealing. If the Long Death monk was slightly worse, or the Open Hand monk was slightly better, it *would* be double. But it doesnt need to literally be double the dice when it already outpaces the damage with *zero* room for damage mitigation outside of having resistance to necrotic -- which, ironically, wasn't as big a problem because once again, you could potentially kill and enemy outright, so even if they were resistant to necrotic damage you could *still* justify quivering palm since, if they *DO* fail the save, they are either going to be forced to use a legendary resistance, or, theyre going to die.
Open Hand being changed to... what was it here? 10d12? With a save for half? For *4* ki points? Makes it significantly worse than it was. Since monks now *get* d12s for their unarmed strikes, spending 4 ki on 10d12 is only marginally better damage economy than simply attacking, since it requires an action to detonate. Each turn the new monk can make 4 attacks for 4d12 per turn if you spend ki with the new monk. So, why would I settle for 10d12 for 4 ki (save for half) when instead I could deal 12d12 across 3 turns for LESS ki cost? Also, keeping in mind, that each of the ACTUAL punches adds my damage modifiers and due to how Open Hand applies its special debuffs without ki cost, im taking away reactions or knocking enemies around.
Quivering palm *REQUIRES* a hit to connect anyhow, and an ACTION to detonate. If Quivering Palm allowed me to detonate it on a REACTION that'd be nice, since this means an open hand monk could dump a truckload of ki into one massive turn for the potential for a heap of damage at the cost of NOT being able to do their reaction gimmicks for a round. But that's not the case.
This, also, serves as a stealth buff for Astral Monks. Since Astral Monks get the ability to effectively double the damage of one of their attacks per turn at lvl 11 if they manifest their arms and visage (2 ki) they can be dealing 5d12 on a turn where they flurry (1 ki per turn they flurry). Meaning, for the same cost (4 ki) an Astral Monk can flurry 2 turns in a row to deal the same damage (10d12) and that's not even their full power. They can manifest their full suit at the same level for just 1 ki more (5 ki) and for doing that they get the damage boost, and a third attack added to their extra attack. This means an Astral Monk at the same level as an Open Hand monk can be dealing 5d12 per turn for the entire fight for the one time payment of 5 ki, and, they can still pump their damage with flurries, making for 6d12 on a turn where they do. This isn't hugely relevant to how it affects Open Hand, but, people already have pointed out how it's very hard to keep pace with an Astral Monk and this change to Quivering Palm does damage the one ability that soundly was able to keep up them -- the previous calculation was 3 ki for 10d10 vs. 5 ki for 4d10 which meant that an Open Hand monk could *afford* to take an entire turn to trigger their Quivering Palm without falling behind the DPT of another monk, especially since the Open Hank monk had *also* dealt damage with the attack that allowed them to set up Quivering Palm to begin with (functionally making Quivering Palm an 11d10 attack, since you need to LAND an attack to even set it up).
Anyhow, the change to quivering palm doesnt make a lot of mathematical sense, since it was already something that *maybe* could outdamage your punches.
You could do 4d10+20 on your first turn then 10d10 on your second with the cost of 4ki (average 90)
If you took 4 turns with of flurries instead you'd have dealt 16d10+80 across them (average 160)
Upping the damage of quivering palm to d12s doesnt mean anything when martial arts also goes up to d12s. The cost increase makes it even *less* attractive, and the fact it can't potentially kill something instantly makes the gamble that it *could* outpace your damage not worth taking. You may as well remove the novelty that you can use on any creature on the same plane as you too, since the fact you can't potentially instantly kill a retreating dragon is now squarely off the table.
*EDIT:* I just got to the part in the video where the new monk apparantly gets to make *three* attacks with Flurry of Blows.
This now makes Quivering *OBJECTIVELY* worse than just attacking. This means you get 5 attacks with 1 ki point, bringing *ALL* monks in line with the damage numbers the Astral Monk was doing, *AND* it brings the Astral Monk's DPT to 6d12 with the one time cost of 5 ki, and 7d12 on a turn they want to flurry.
This *WILDLY* outpaces Quivering Palm, making it effectively useless as level 17 ability. You may as well get nothing, because the *only* time you'd *ever* want to use this in favor of simply punching. *MAYBE* if the enemy has vulnerability to necrotic specifically so you can deal *effectively* 20d12 to them. But I do not even know if there's a single creature in the game who is specifically vulnerable to necrotic -- I *GUESS* you could like, team up with a Grave cleric who would get a *MUCH* better use of their feature that lets them apply Vulnerable to a singular instance of damage? But that's even more niche than just killing an enemy outright.
i was not prepared to click on read more this reads like a reddit post
although it would be in bad will to just say that and so after having read through it i just agree, like for starters quivering used to feel like monk got access to a small part of the major shenanigans high level wizards had and just that got replaced with a really standard move, but now that monk got buffed the move just falls really fall behind with everything else in comparison. i just wish you got it on earlier levels
@@egg4444
The edit I made to the post later pushed the TLDR into the "read more" portion, which is unfortunate, but I do feel it was important to add, since that change quite literally makes quivering palm obsolete as a class feature.
If Quivering Palm *WERENT* a purely damage focused tool, then I likely wouldn't have needed to sound like a white-room-mathematics redditor. But, as Quivering Palm's *ONLY* job is to deal damage, offering *NO* other benefit or utility (compare to the Open Hand's other options that allow for healing, and tactical control respectively) we can *ONLY* compare Quivering Palm's usefulness as an ability to your ability to deal damage by other means.
Which sucks, especially since it does leave a break down of the ability looking like a spreadsheet, but, since that's *ALL* it does, that's *ALL* we have to measure.
At level 17, there is *no* reason not to give a class the ability to instantly kill. A Wizard or Bard of equal level can cast Wish or Power Word Kill for "instant death" methods and have already had things like Disintergrate, Finger of Death, and Fireball for many levels more.
Not to be pedantic but casting Wish and saying "I wish the monster had a fatal heart attack that killed it immediately" is arguably *more* effective than Quivering Palm while accomplishing the same thing.
However, I can appreciate the desire to nerf it, because one of the *problems* with Quivering Palm is that *INSTANT DEATH* is something of a meme. In online spaces especially, it's *easy* to look at something like Long Death and say "Ok, but, can it INSTANTLY kill something like Open Hand can?" which in a discussion about the monk and its subclasses is great way to reduce all classes that dont do *crazy* shit, like for instance, the Astral Monk, who was a hot discussion topic precisely *because* it's power and abilities were so good it could compete with Open Hand's *capstone* ability.
I think it's a *strong* option at level 17 not because it could potentially kill something instantly, but, because it made the Open Hand monk the undisputed *MASTER* of blowing through Legendary Resistance, something that becomes *more* common in that level range.
If an Open Hand monk wanted to, in a single turn, they could spend 8 ki to force a target to save against 4 instances of Stunning Strike, 2 instances of the "Open Hand Tecnique" to knock the target prone, or knock them 15 away, and of course set up quivering palm.
That's *6* saving throws from *ONE* character in 2 turns (one turn if they have a means of detonating palm in a single turn). That's not including the incoming saves from other members of the party. Combine that with the fact the Open Hand monk is *very* hard to get rid of swiftly, and you have a very dangerous tactical threat *even* if the monk is dealing no real damage. Simply by forcing so many saves, saves you dont WANT to fail, they're more poised to blow through legendary resistance than even some of the best casters in the game. No monster WANTS to be stunned, no monster WANTS to take 10d10 necrotic damage for just existing, but also, no monster wants to just DIE instantly.
This makes the Open hand monk a "tank" in a way no other monk is, which is something the fact the class was the only one with a dedicated self heal for some time more apparant. The open hand monk became a "tank" by becoming a priority target. You couldnt burn them away with dragon breath or zap them with disintegrate or charm with dominate monster or banish them with banish or grapple them, or petrify them, or throw them off a mountain or cook them alive with heat metal. You had to use dedicated honest attacks to hitting them, which was difficult to do with an AC of 20~
The Open Hand monk was a *menace* for boss monsters with Quivering Palm simply because they could not be ignored. In a world where a "tank" is defined by they're ability to demand an enemy do not ignore them and their ability to survive having that attention, the Open Hand monk excelled at that more than any other monk *BECAUSE* Quivering Palm was as powerful as it is. The DM *must* make a decision every time they fail a saving throw and they must make the decision knowing that, for just 3 ki, this fight can be *OVER*.
This in turns, made the monks OTHER save-based shine more, because as a DM I would much rather have a monster stunned for a turn than have them dead. I'd rather them get knocked prone by Way of the Open Hand than be dead. I'd rather them take 10d10 necrotic damage than be dead.
This is on TOP of the considerations youre making as a DM for where the monster directs its attacks. Do you attack the rogue who's routine stabbing it for 60 damage a turn? Do you have it smack the Cleric who's keeping the party healthy and alive? Do you have it smack the fighter who's giving it persistent Disadvantage on all of its attacks by simply existing? Or, do you target the monk whois threatening to take the monster out of the fight entirely even if they havent succeeded yet?
The *real* use case for Quivering Palm as I've seen it functionally used, is to "kill" an enemy on their last legs. If you set up Palm early, you can detonate it at *ANY* time. So, if a monster has 100hp but over the course of a fight you dwindle them down to 50 -- congrats, the fight is over. On the monks turn they simply activate Quivering Palm and unless the target plane-shifts they're dead even if they pass the con save.
Quivering Palm as it is a strong tactical tool because it is a threat that demands it be taken seriously, no matter how unlikely it is to actually apply. No DM *wants* to lose their big bad to instant death. But it's super cool when it happens, and it makes the Open Hand monk uniquely able to assault the DM's resources for monsters in a way no other class in the game can. The ability itself isnt interesting but the threat is poses in any given fight makes every fight more dynamic.
Before it was debatable, there was the white-room mathematic calculations which said it's a fringe ability that generally outpaces your normal damage but may not be worth using more than a flurry because of other calculations, and the practical tabletop engagement with the feature which was as I described above -- a *potent* threat in any encounter due to how it either ENDED the encounter then and there, or, made the encounter easier.
Now it's just another save for half. At level 17, assuming i've still only got 17 ki points? I'm not wasting *FOUR* of them to deal less damage than 2 turns of flurry of blows. That's double the cost for nothing. No DM is going to be like "aaahhhh shiiiit dude, man oh man, which do I want? Do I wanna not take full damage from this or do I not wanna be stunned?" they're gonna choose to save the legendary resistance for Stunning Strike, or any of the spells in the game that are even *WORSE* to fail.
- Slow
- Hold Person/Monster
- Plane Shift
- Feeble Mind
- Contagion
- True Polymorph
I *could* go on. Spellcasters in this game have spells that can *DEVASTATE* a monster, and entire encounter. They are a REAL threat at the table, and very few DMs want to have their baddies turned into a tea-cup, or sent to the far realm. But I *doubt* we'll see those spells getting nerfed. Despite many of them coming BEFORE quivering palm.
The fact WotC made this decision, without even doing the *basic* math for this change, tells me they made it because they just didn't want the monk to have an Instant Death move. That's my ultimate point, I suppose. This decision clearly wasnt made because they understood Quivering Palm, otherwise, the change wouldn't have made it so *boring.*
In case you haven't since learned this, Quivering Palm can now be activated by replacing an unarmed strike in during your attack action, rather than needing to take an entire action on its own.
@@JoeThomas-lu6fy
That makes it marginally better, but still a wholesale downgrade. All this does is make it *useable* now. The math is still less than great, and for the Ki point cost, it's *still* only edging out spending that ki on further flurries and only if you have higher than average damage rolls.
I still don't think these changes were made by a person who could do simple math, I don't even think these changes were made by a person who has played with a monk of the open hand in the last 10 years. But, at the very least it won't be doing *WORSE* than if you'd just done nothing at all.