2024 DnD 5e Monk Class Guide

Introduction

The Monk is DnD 5e’s iconic martial artist, popular among those who prefer to punch things rather than stabbing them or setting them on fire (though stabbing things and/or setting them on fire is still a possibility for the Monk). Unique among other classes, Monks usually fight unarmed and unarmored, using their incredible capabilities to perform superhuman acts of athleticism and skill.

Monks are excellent Strikers, and can serve as a Defender or a Scout depending on your build. Certain subclasses also introduce Blaster, Healer, and Support capabilities, allowing monks to thrive in new roles depending on your build.

The Monk can be difficult to play compared to the Fighter or the Rogue. They are the most MAD (multiple ability dependent) class in DnD 5e, needing three high ability scores to function effectively with very little room to ignore any of them. Monks also lean heavily into using Bonus Actions right from level 1, which can be briefly confusing for new players who are still acclimating to the game’s mechanics. Subclasses can introduce additional complexity to the class, but that complexity also brings a lot of diversity and a lot of fun options.

You might also enjoy our other supporting content:

This article is for the 2024 DnD 5e rules. For the 2014 rules, see our 2014 DnD 5e Monk Class Guide.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Monk Class Features

Hit Points: d8 hit points is hard for a front-line martial class like the Monk, so be sure to boost your AC and hit points wherever possible.

Saves: Strength saves aren’t terribly common, but Dexterity saves are great for resisting damaging AOE effects, and the Monk’s need for Constitution and Wisdom cover the other two big saves. At high levels, Disciplined survivor gives you proficiency in all saves and lets you reroll any failed save.

Proficiencies: No armor, no shields, and not a lot of weapons. You’re expected to use “monk weapons”, which are defined under the Martial Arts entry. Essentially you’ll be using a 1d6 weapon with Versatile until level 10 (which means either a quarterstaff or a spear), then you’ll use Unarmed Strikes from then on unless you’ve found a magic weapon. Monks get the typical 2 skills, and the Monk skill list includes a lot of mediocre options which depend on abilities which Monks don’t generally need and therefore can’t afford to invest in.

1. Martial Arts: The Monk’s signature feature.

  • Bonus Unarmed Strike: Twice as many attacks as normal right from level 1, and, unlike two-weapon fighting, you get to add your ability modifier to the damage.
  • Martial Arts Die: This scales slowly, but at high levels it’s pretty great. At low levels you’ll do more damage using a quarterstaff or a spear 2-handed for the 1d8 damage die, but that won’t help your Bonus Unarmed Strike.
  • Dexterous Attacks: Using unarmed strikes to Grapple and Shove enemies is a central tactic for the Monk. Be sure to consider the Grappler and Tavern Brawler feats, which makes Grapple/Shove even easier.

1. Unarmored Defense: At low levels, having an AC of at most 16 is a major vulnerability for the Monk. You’ll need to rely heavily on Patient Defense and on Deflect Attacks to stay alive. At high levels, once your Dexterity and Wisdom have increased, you can match the AC of a character in full plate and using a shield.

2. Monk’s Focus: Focus Points are the Monk’s limited resource pool, fueling your most powerful class features. You get 1 per Monk level, and they recharge on a Short Rest, but it’s still very easy to feel starved for resources. You can’t afford to use a Focus Point every turn until you’re high level, so learn to use them when it will have a major mechanical impact.

  • Flurry of Blows: The go-to use for your Focus Points. Try to use this when you’ll get a lot of value, such as when you’ll have Advantage on your attacks.
  • Patient Defense: Disengage for free means that you can safely move through combat without provoking Opportunity Attacks. This will let you get out of dangerous situations and also let you reach high-priority enemies who are trying to hide behind their allies. Spending a FP to also Dodge is a powerful defensive option, especially when you’re expecting to draw more attacks than you can handle with Deflect Attacks.
  • Step of the Wind: Dash as a Bonus Action means that range will rarely be an issue for you, especially as Unarmored Movement scales. Also Disengaging for a FP allows you to move about the battlefield quickly and unimpeded.

2. Unarmored Movement: On its own, additional movement isn’t always impactful. It’s great for rushing into melee since the Monk is a nearly melee-only class.

If you lean into grappling, your exceptional movement speed offers another tactical option: dragging enemies out of combat. Once you’re grappling a creature, you can move the grapple at half speed, bringing grappled creatures with you. As your speed increases, the distance which you can drag enemies grows.

Adding Step of the Wind doubles your distance at no resource cost, allowing you to move your full speed. You may be able to drag enemies so far out of combat that it will take them multiple turns to return, which you and your incredible speed can race back into battle on your next turn. If you have attacks remaining, you can Shove them prone, forcing then to spend half of their movement to stand before limping back toward the battle.

Adding the Grappler feat removes the half speed issue, making this tactic even more powerful. If you get fast enough you can grab one or two foes, run them out of range, then run back into combat all on the same turn.

2. Uncanny Metabolism: Once per day recover your FP and a few hit points. This is a huge help with managing your limited pool of Focus Points.

3. Deflect Attacks: This is crazy powerful. The scaling damage reduction will scale faster than the amount of damage dealt by most single attacks, but remember that this only affects a single attack per round. Creatures with Multiattack will be able to hit you multiple times. The ability to redirect damage is neat, too, but using that point for Flurry of Blows may be more impactful, especially once you get Heightened Focus at level 10.

3. Subclass: Monk subclasses are briefly summarized below. See our Monk Subclasses Breakdown for help selecting your subclass.

  • Warrior of Mercy: Heal, harm, or both by using Flurry of Blows.
  • Warrior of Shadow: Emphasize stealth and gain the ability to create magical darkness and teleport.
  • Warrior of the Elements: Use the power of the elements to enhance your blows and blast your enemies.
  • Warrior of Open Hand: Emphasize the Monk’s core martial abilities to do things like slapping enemies 10 feet into the air and delivering quivering palm strikes for massive damage.

4. Slow Fall: Only situationally useful, but pit traps and being knocked off of cliffs and ledges are persistent dangers that adventurers have faced for as long as D&D has existed.

5. Extra Attack: Excellent.

5. Stunning Strike: Very powerful. Constitution saves are the highest saving throw on average, which makes them unreliable, but robbing a target of their turn at the cost of 1 FP is frequently worth that gamble. Consider which is more impactful: 1 more attack with Flurry of Blows, or a 50/50 chance that the target won’t get their next turn and that your whole party can spend the next round attacking them with Advantage?

6. Empowered Strikes: Converting your unarmed strike damage to Force damage will let you bypass damage resistances, but it also locks you out of feats like Crusher which otherwise offer some really fun tactical options. Unfortunately, resistance to Bludgeoning/Piercing/Slashing damage becomes increasingly common as you gain levels.

7. Evasion: With proficiency in Dexterity saves and high Dexterity, you’ll hardly ever take damage from things like breath weapons and fireballs.

9. Acrobatic Movement: Running across water is very cool, but rarely matters. Running up walls isn’t quite a climb speed, but it’s pretty close, and it notably doesn’t require the use of your hands like climbing does.

Remember our trick with dragging enemies out of combat? There’s nothing stopping you from doing that across water or up/down a wall. You could run enemies 100 feet up a huge wall, drop them for 10d6 falling damage, then run back down the wall and wait for them at the bottom.

10. Heightened Focus: Monk’s Focus was already great, and now it gets even better.

  • Flurry of Blows: 3 attacks as a Bonus Action in a damage where most martial characters are excited to get 2 attacks as an Action.
  • Patient Defense: Add some Temporary Hit Points when you spend a Focus Point. These points don’t have a listed duration, so they last until you finish a Long Rest. Make sure that you never walk into an encounter without THP, and if you go into a Short Rest with spare FP, spend them on Patient Defense to repeatedly reroll the dice to get as much THP as possible.
  • Step of the Wind: Bring a friend along when you spend a Focus Point with Step of the Wind. If you grapple two allies, you could drag three friends along with you at once!

10. Self-Restoration: Charmed, Frightened, and Poisoned are all very common debuffs. Many creatures’ special abilities will make you Charmed, Frightened, or Poisoned, then also apply other nasty effects while you’re under that effect.

13. Deflect Energy: Attacks which don’t deal any Bludgeoning/Piercing/Slashing damage are rare, and they come almost exclusively from spellcasters. That said, they still exist, and spellcasters become increasing common as you reach high levels.

14. Disciplined Survivor: A massive defense against anything that calls for a saving throw.

15. Perfect Focus: This guarantees that you never go into combat without some points to spend. 4 isn’t much, but in low-difficulty encounters, it’s plenty. You can’t use this at the same time as Uncanny Metabolism, so save Uncanny Metabolism for more important fights. You can also use this as an excuse to spend leftover FP on Patient Defense to reroll repeatedly for Temporary Hit Points if you finish an encounter with 4 or fewer FP.

18. Superior Defense: If you’re expecting to take damage in any significant amount, this is great. It notably doesn’t cover Force damage, but Force damage is exceptionally rare.

20. Body and Mind: A massive mathematical boost. +2 to attack and damage, +2 to your save DC’s, and +4 to AC.

2024 Monk Changes from 2014 Rules

This section is from our 2024 DnD Rules Transition Guide.

  • Monk starting equipment makes a spear the monk’s default weapon. This isn’t a noteworthy mechanical change, but I’ve been advocating for spears for all 10 years of 5e’s lifetime in the face of a world that said “quarterstaff”, and I’m claiming vindication here.
  • Proficiencies: Monks no longer get proficiency specifically with short swords; instead, they proficiency with martial weapons with the Light property.
  • 1. Martial Arts.
    • The Bonus Action attack no longer requires you to take the Attack action in order to use it.
    • The damage die starts at 1d6, and is 1 step higher than the 2014 version through the full level range.
    • You can use your Dexterity modifier for your Grapple DC, making the Monk an absolutely stellar grappler.
  • 2. Monk’s Focus. Ki has been renamed to “Focus Points”.
    • Flurry of Blows. No longer requires you to take the Attack action to use.
    • Patient Defense. Disengage as a Bonus Action for no point cost. This is going to make the Monk’s mobility considerably more useful. You can spend 1 FP to also Dodge.
    • Step of the Wind. Dash as a Bonus Action for no point cost. You can spend 1 FP to also Disengage.
    • Between Patient Defense and Step of the Wind you can either Dash or Disengage for free, or for 1 FP you can Disengage+Dodge or Dash+Disengage.
  • 2. Uncanny Metabolism. New. Once per long rest, recover all of your FP and heal some hit points when you roll initiative. Adds some much-needed sustainability to a resource-starved class.
  • 3. Deflect Attacks. Reworked from Deflect Missiles. Massive buff. Works against melee attacks in addition to ranged attacks. One-on-one fights against monks are now extremely difficult.
  • 5. Stunning Strike. On a successful save, the target’s speed is halved and the next attack against them has Advantage. However, the duration now ends at the start of your next turn rather than at the end of your next turn.
  • 6. Empowered Strikes. Reworked. Now your unarmed strikes can deal force damage, bypassing most damage resistances, or their normal damage type.
  • 7. Evasion. No longer works while you’re incapacitated.
  • 10. Purity of Body. Gone.
  • 10. Heightened Focus. New.
    • Flurry of Blows. Now 3 attacks instead of 2.
    • Patient Defense. When you spend a FP, you also get temporary hit points.
    • Step of the Wind. When you spend a FP, you can also bring a friend with you.
  • 10. Self-restoration. New. Mostly replaces Purity of Body, but notably doesn’t affect diseases. Ends Charmed/Frightened/Poisoned automatically, and you don’t need food or drink.
  • 13. Tongue of the Sun and Moon. Gone.
  • 13. Deflect Energy. New. Allows Deflect Attacks to work against any damage type instead of just B/P/S.
  • 14. Disciplined Survivor. Renamed from Diamond Soul.
  • 15. Perfect Focus. Replaces the 2014 Monk’s Perfect Self capstone. Start combat with 4 FP if you had fewer.
  • 18. Empty Body. Gone.
  • 18. Superior Defense. New. Replaces Empty Body. Only costs 3 FP instead of 4, but doesn’t turn you invisible.
  • 20. Body and Mind. +4 to both Dexterity and Wisdom.

Monk Backgrounds

An increase to Dexterity is too crucial to forego, so any Background which doesn’t include Dexterity is immediately out. Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom on one background is ideal.

For information and advice regarding Origin Feats, including those granted by your Background, see the Monk Feats section, below.

  • Artisan (PHB) : The Dexterity increase is not enough on its own.
  • Charlatan (PHB) : Dexterity, Constitution, and Skilled is a great combination for the Monk, especially if you’re filling in for a Rogue in the party. However, you don’t get proficiency in Thieves’ Tools.
  • Criminal (PHB) : A good choice if there isn’t a Rogue in the party.
  • Farmer (PHB) : Constitution and Wisdom are decent, but you really want Dexterity. Tough is also tempting, but it’s not enough. Altogether, this is really close to a lot of things that the Monk would like, but not enough.
  • Guide (PHB) : Perfect ability scores and decent skills. The spellcasting may be hard to use offensively, so stick to utility, healing, and support options. If you lean into Wisdom, you might use Shillelagh with a quarterstaff as your primary attack option.
  • Hermit (PHB) : Passable ability scores, and Healer is nice on a class that can’t heal others, but the skills are poor.
  • Sailor (PHB) : Excellent ability scores, one good skill, and Tavern Brawler is amazing on the Monk. Reroll your worst damage rolls and use the once per turn push to get enemies out of reach so that you don’t need to waste your Bonus Action to Disengage if you need to move away.
  • Scribe (PHB) : A great choice if there isn’t a Rogue in the party, even beating out Criminal. With two good ability scores for the Monk, two good skills, and Skilled to pick up proficiency in things like Stealth and Thieves’ Tools, you can cover all of the proficiencies that you need to substitute for a Rogue while also getting the ability scores that we want at level 1.
  • Soldier (PHB) : Decent ability scores, but Savage Attack is a poor choice for the Monk, and the skills are poor.
  • Wayfarer (PHB) : Good ability scores, and between the skills and Thieves’ Tools you could fill in for a Rogue in your party. Lucky is an easy feat on any character.

Monk Species

What you want from your species may depend on your role in your party. If you’re serving as a Defender, you want more durability to compensate for the Monk’s low AC at low levels and their relatively low hit dice. If you’re serving as a Striker, you may want additional skill proficiencies to close some of the skill gap between the Monk and the Rogue. Additional combat options like the Goliath’s Giant Heritage can offer options which complement the Monk’s core capabilities.

Innate spellcasting is an option, but not always an easy choice. The Monk’s need for Wisdom can support offensive spellcasting, but it won’t totally replace unarmed strikes.

  • Aasimar (PHB): Two damage resistances, Darkvision, a once per day heal, and a once per day combat transformation. The transformation is very tempting, but the Monk’s Bonus Action is already heavily overtaxed and you’ll struggle to find a time to transform.
  • Dragonborn (PHB): A damage resistance, likely to a common damage type like poison or fire, and a decent way to handle crowds of small enemies which most Monks can’t replicate. You also get Darkvision and flight once per day.
  • Dwarf (PHB): Darkvision, resistance to the most common non-weapon damage type, and more hit points. Tremorsense may be hard since the Monk’s Bonus Action is so heavily taxed, but if you can’t find your enemies, you certainly can’t punch them. The durability is very welcome on the Monk.
  • Elf (PHB): Darkvision and an extra skill are both great. The innate spellcasting may be useful, but once per day isn’t enough for some of the spells to feel impactful. You don’t need to totally avoid offensive spells like many martial characters because of the Monk’s reliance on Wisdom, but the Wood Elf is likely still your best choice. If you do go for High Elf, consider Blade Ward for your cantrip.
  • Gnome (PHB): Darkvision and Gnomish Cunning are both great, and the added cantrips from Gnomish Lineage offer some interesting utility options. Gnomish Cunning, paired with the Monk’s high Wisdom, is enough to make up for not being proficient in Wisdom saves.
  • Goliath (PHB): Giant Heritage offers numerous excellent options, but several will be redundant with the Monk’s class features. Cloud’s Jaunt is less appealing when you can Disengage for free and have crazy speed. Stone’s Endurance is nice, but partially redundant with Deflect Attack. Hill’s Topple is great since the Monk doesn’t get Weapon Mastery, though it is redundant for Warrior of the Open Hand. The on-hit damage options work fine. Large Size and Powerful Build won’t see consistent use.
  • Halfling (PHB): Monks aren’t proficient with Wisdom saves, so Brave and the Monk’s high Wisdom will help protect you from a common status condition. Halfling Nimbleness will help you to move past and through enemy’s spaces, especially when using Patient Defense/Step of the Wind to move about. Lucky will be helpful with the Monk’s unusually high number of attacks. Naturally Stealthy is only useful outside of combat since the Monk doesn’t get Cunning Action.
  • Human (PHB): An additional skill and origin feat are an easy choice on any build.
  • Orc (PHB): The temporary hit points from Adrenaline Rush are nice, but the Monk’s Bonus Action is already heavily overtaxed. Relentless Endurance is nice, but if you’re worried about taking too much damage, you can play defensively by kiting or boost your defenses with Patient Defense.
  • Tiefling (PHB): Darkvision, a damage resistance, and some innate spellcasting. You won’t use the spellcasting consistently, and if you want a damage resistance you can get it from the Dragonborn.

Monk Ability Scores

The Monk is the most MAD (Multiple Ability Dependent) class in the game. While Dexterity is their primary ability score, they also need both Constitution and Wisdom to function. Fortunately, you have very little use for Strength, Intelligence, or Charisma, so it’s easy to dump 3 ability scores and focus exclusively on the 3 that we care about.

Since we need 3 high ability scores, our choice of Background is especially important. You may need to compromise from the ability scores recommended here to get a more appealing background. But that’s the nature of character optimization: maximizing opportunity costs to get the best results.

Str: Monks are proficient Strength saves, which reduces the need for Strength. Dump this,.

Dex: Your primary ability score.

Con: With only d8 hit dice, Constitution is very important for the Monk.

Int: Generally dump, unless you really need to use knowledge skills.

Wis: Wisdom fuels Monk’s AC and many of their special abilities. It notably sets the save DC for class features which allow targets to make saving throws, so it’s especially important for subclasses which rely heavily on offensive special abilities.

Cha: Dump. Take a vow of silence if necessary.

Point BuyAdjustedStandard ArrayAdjustedPHB RecommendedAdjusted
Str88881212
Dex151515171517
Con151613141314
Int8812121010
Wis151614141414
Cha88101088

Monk Skills

  • Acrobatics (Dex): Functionally useless.
  • Athletics (Str): Functionally useless.
  • History (Int): A good knowledge skill, but you don’t have the Intelligence to support it.
  • Insight (Wis): The closest thing you get to a Face skill.
  • Religion (Int): A good knowledge skill, but you don’t have the Intelligence to support it.
  • Stealth (Dex): With such a high dependence on Dexterity, Stealth is an obvious option.

Monk Feats

This section does not address every published feat, as doing so would result in an ever-growing list of options which don’t cater to the class. Instead, this section will cover feats which we think work especially well for the class or which might be tempting but poor choices.

Origin Feats

These feats typically come from your Background, but you can also select an Origin Feat any time that you could select a General Feat, and you may get more from sources like the Human’s species traits.

  • Alert (PHB): Never a bad choice, but less impactful for martial characters than for full casters.
  • Crafter (PHB): Neat, but not especially impactful. Crafting mundane gear stops being impactful early in the game as players quickly accumulate enough to afford nearly anything in the Player’s Handbook. This notably omits the Herbalist Kit as a choice, so you can’t even use this to craft Potions of Healing.
  • Lucky (PHB): An easy choice on any character. It won’t directly impact your build, but it’s a great default if you don’t need anything else.
  • Magic Initiate (PHB): Monks have enough Wisdom to make Wisdom-based spellcasting an option, but it won’t compete with your martial capabilities.
  • Musician (PHB): A great way to contribute to any party.
  • Savage Attacker (PHB): Monks rely on small damage dice at low levels and numerous attacks at high levels, so there is never a point where this is a mathematically significant of your total damage output.
  • Skilled (PHB): Great for picking up skills and Thieves’ Tools proficiencies so that you can easily replace a Rogue in your party.
  • Tavern Brawler (PHB): Absolutely amazing on the Monk. Consistently impactful for your whole career.
  • Tough (PHB): A nice complement to the Monk’s d8 hit points, especially at low levels before your AC has scaled enough to keep you alive.

General Feats

  • Athlete (PHB): A decent choice for many martial characters. A climb speed is the next best thing to a fly speed. The ability to stand up quickly makes falling or being knocked prone less of a problem. The ability to jump with less of a running start may let you easily jump over difficult terrain and other obstacles which otherwise might slow your movement in combat.
  • Charger (PHB): Some useful synergy with Step of the Wind, plus the Charge Attack allows you to push enemies without needing Weapon Mastery.
  • Chef (PHB): An excellent source of additional healing and of Temporary Hit Points, but you likely won’t use the treats in combat since the Monk’s Bonus Action is already heavily taxed.
  • Crusher (PHB): A simple and easy way to control enemies’ positions in combat. Of course, Empowered Strikes will cause some issues here, so this may become a frustrating option as you gain levels and damage resistances become increasingly common.
  • Defensive Duelist (PHB): Too much overlap with Deflect Attack.
  • Dual Wielder (PHB): Competes with Martial Arts. You can still use weapons with the Nick mastery to engage in two-weapon fighting, but you need to leave your Bonus Action free for the Monk’s class features.
  • Durable (PHB): Not as good as you would hope. The Bonus Action to spend a Hit Point Die notably does not add your Constitution modifier, which makes it an expensive and frustrating way to burn through your Hit Point Dice very quickly with minimal impact. Unless your party has some other deep, inexpensive healing resource, you need those dice for Short Rests to refill your massive pool of hit points. Take Chef instead.
  • Elemental Adept (PHB): You’re probably thinking “Warrior of the Elements.” Don’t. Just switch elements.
  • Fey Touched (PHB): Misty Step could be very useful, but once a day likely isn’t enough to justify the feat.
  • Grappler (PHB): Absolutely amazing on the Monk. Punch and Grab gives you the benefits of an additional unarmed strike per turn. Attack Advantage gives you an easy way to get Advantage on your attacks. Fast Wrestler lets you use your incredible speed to haul enemies far, far away from your allies. Strongly consider using Step of the Wind to run enemies away from combat and leave them there before returning to resume fighting. Leaving an enemy down a hallway or otherwise several turns of movement away from combat can dramatically shift the tide of an encounter without the possibility of failure offered by even the most powerful save-or-suck effects.
  • Inspiring Leader (PHB): A massive amount of temporary hit points.
  • Mage Slayer (PHB): Between high Wisdom and Disciplined Survivor, saving throws aren’t as scary for the Monk as they are for other martial characters. But at the same time, Disciplined Survivor is high enough level that you might never get to use it.
  • Martial Weapon Training (PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
  • Medium Armor Master (PHB): Borderline worthless. Put +2 into Dexterity and wear light armor.
  • Moderately Armored (PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
  • Observant (PHB): If you’re proficient in Perception and have decent Wisdom, you may be well qualified to use Perception reliably. But even then, this is only helpful if your DM likes to use stealthy enemies and/or likes to include traps in combat encounters.
  • Piercer (PHB): Unarmed strikes don’t deal piercing damage, and, even if your race provides that capability, Empowered Strikes will make this much less useful since you’ll want to deal Force damage to avoid increasing common damage resistances.
  • Resilient (PHB): Disciplined Survivor will make you proficient in all saving throws.
  • Sentinel (PHB): Fantastic for any melee build. This adds all of the Stickiness that you need to serve as your party’s Defender, but waiting to make an Opportunity Attack also conflicts with Deflect Attacks, which you desperately need to survive melee.
  • Shadow-Touched (PHB): Invisibility is great, but without the ability to re-cast the spells, the benefits are minor.
  • Skill Expert (PHB): Monks make decent Scouts, but unlike the Ranger and the Rogue, you don’t get Expertise. This closes that gap.
  • Slasher (PHB): Unarmed strikes don’t deal slashing damage, and, even if your race provides that capability, Empowered Strikes will make this much less useful since you’ll want to deal Force damage to avoid increasing common damage resistances.
  • Speedy (PHB): You have Step of the Wind for this.
  • Weapon Master (PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea, but the Monk may be an exception. Since you can’t benefit from the Fighter’s proficiencies, and most Fighting Style options aren’t appealing to the Monk, Weapon Master may be easier to fit into your build.

Epic Boons

  • Boon of Combat Prowess (PHB): Helpful, but it only affects on your 3 or more attacks.
  • Boon of Dimensional Travel (PHB): Most Monks don’t have a way to take the Magic action.
  • Boon of Energy Resistance (PHB): A powerful defense on any character.
  • Boon of Fate (PHB): Use this to debuff an enemy’s save when you hit them with Stunning Strike.
  • Boon of Fortitude (PHB): Even with relatively high AC and the Monk’s other defense, you’re still a melee-only class with d8 hit dice. More hp is great. For Warrior of Mercy and Warrior of the Open Hand, remember the bonus healing whenever you regain hit points.
  • Boon of Irresistible Offense (PHB): With 5 attacks between Extra Attack and Flurry of Blows (maybe six with two-weapon fighting shenanigans), you have a lot of opportunities to roll a 20. If you can get Advantage, such as from knocking an enemy prone, you might be rolling 12 d20s for attack rolls in a single turn.
  • Boon of Recovery (PHB): The Last Stand feature is great insurance, but definitely not enough to justify your first Epic Boon. Try to get someone to cast Death Ward on you.
  • Boon of Skill (PHB): Potentially useful in a small party with poor skill coverage.
  • Boon of Speed (PHB): You don’t really need any of this unless you’re getting a ton of use out of having way too much speed.
  • Boon of the Night Spirit (PHB): Free invisibility is amazing on any character, but this gets absolutely crazy on Warrior of Shadow, allowing you to cast Darkness and get more benefits than you would from Superior Defense.
  • Boon of Truesight (PHB): Probably your only option for handling invisible enemies.

Monk Weapons

The Monk is proficient in simple weapons and martial weapons with the Light property, but only melee weapons that fit those criteria are considered “Monk Weapons.” Monks do not get access to Weapon Mastery.

  • Dagger: Your go-to ranged attack option. The damage die is small, but you can replace it with your Martial Arts die, so it’s not an issue.
  • Quarterstaff / Spear: When used two-handed, these provide a small damage boost compared to your unarmed strikes until you reach level 5.

Monk Armor

The Monk is proficient in no armor. Instead, Monks rely on Unarmored Defense.

Monk Multiclassing

This section briefly details some obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn’t fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. For more on multiclassing, see our Practical Guide to Multiclassing.

  • Barbarian: One level for the Barbarian’s version of Unarmored Defense will let you focus on Dexterity and Constitution, emphasizing your martial capabilities over features like Stunning Fist. Subclasses which rely heavily on saving throws should generally avoid this tactic, and unless you’re planning to take Constitution to 20 this isn’t necessarily better than a standard Monk.
  • Druid: Shillelagh looks tempting, but remember that your Bonus Action attacks will still be Dexterity-based.
  • Fighter: 1 level for Weapon Mastery may be worthwhile, but the Ranger has more to offer the Monk.
  • Ranger: With the Monk’s high number of attacks, Hunter’s Mark looks very tempting. 1 level lets you cast Hunter’s Mark up to 4 times per day and also gets you Weapon Mastery. 2 levels will getr you Expertise and a Fighting Style.
  • Rogue: One level for Expertise may be worthwhile.