Introduction
The Way of the Four Elements Monk is highly customizable, but there are a lot of traps and challenges here. Monks have issues with flight and crowds, and Way of the Four Elements attempts to fix those problems. However, there are only a handful of good options at any given tier, which negates much of the customizability aspect, and the abilities consume your Ki very quickly, competing with core Monk options like Flurry of Blows and Stunning Fist and often causing you to run out of Ki very quickly until you learn to weigh the costs and benefits of casting a spell instead of just punching things.
The Ki-Fueled Attack Optional Class Feature is hugely important for Way of the Four Elements. Because Elemental Disciplines all use your Action, you typically can’t take the Attack action (Fangs of the Fire Snake is an exception) and, therefore, can’t use your Bonus Action to attack with Martial Arts or Flurry of Blows. Ki-Fueled Attack addresses this problem, offering a meaningful boost to your damage output. It’s not enough to fix the subclass, but it helps a lot.
You get spellcasting at a similar rate to the Eldritch Knight, though you do get access to one 5th-level spell (Cone of Cold), and Way of Four Elements gets access to their highest-level spells two levels earlier than the Eldritch Knight. Where the Monk falls behind is in the total amount of spellcasting that they can do in a day. Because the Ki point cost scales quickly, you’ll likely only be able to cast two to four spells between each Short Rest, and you don’t get Cantrips.
Because some of the abilities allow you to cast a spell, you’re vulnerable to counterspelling and issues like resistance or immunity to spells. You can upcast spells and add damage to other disciplines by spending more Ki, but there is a cap, and doing so is rarely worth the cost, so you’re typically casting low-level spells a long time after other spellcasters got access to them.
You get just four choices of Elemental Discipline, so there’s less customization than you might like and you’ll have very few options. Until level 6, your subclass essentially boils down to the ability to cast one 1st-level spell (or use an equivalent ability) a few times per Short Rest, so I hope you really like Burning Hands.
As a quick fix to Way of the Four Elements, I recommend three changes:
- Each 3rd-level discipline, except Elemental Attunement, also gives the Monk a Cantrip with the same element. So Fangs of the Fire Snake might grant Produce Flame, while Shape of the Flowing River might grant Shape Water. This gives the Monk inexpensive ways to use magic without immediately burning through their Ki.
- The Monk learns an additional discipline at levels 3, 8, and 14. This gives them a total of 7 at 17th level rather than 4, allowing some more versatility and allowing the Monk to justify something that isn’t rated .
- Use the Ki-Fueled Attack Optional Class Feature so that the Monk isn’t forced to take a turn off to stop being a monk so that they can be bad at spellcasting.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- Way of Four Elements Monk Features
- Way of Four Elements Monk Ability Scores
- Way of Four Elements Monk Races
- Way of Four Elements Monk Feats
- Way of Four Elements Monk Weapons
- Way of Four Elements Monk Armor
- Way of Four Elements Monk Multiclassing
- Example Way of Four Elements Monk Build – Destroyer of Cabbages
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.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : 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 2014 DnD 5e 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.
Way of Four Elements Monk Features
- : This is effectively the whole subclass, and it defines your not-quite-spellcasting. The actual interesting parts are your choices of Elemental Discipline.
- Elemental Disciplines:
- : This is mostly flavor and minor trickery. But hey, it’s free!
- : Really only helpful if you need fire damage or can’t stand adjacent to your target. Spending extra Ki for 1d10 damage is a poor investment beyond very low level, but, since it’s extra damage it’s multiplied on a critical hit similar to divine smite. Unfortunately, you need to activate Fangs of the Fire Snake at the beginning of your Action rather than waiting until you roll a critical hit.
- : Knocking enemies away from you doesn’t help you much since you can spend Ki to Disengage, and Thunderwave’s tiny AOE can rarely hit more than one creature. The damage scaling is decent compared to many other Elemental Disciplines, but it’s still effectively a first-level spell.
- : Decent range and damage, and it both knocks the target away and knocks them prone. The damage is slightly better than the damage output from two unarmed strikes from a high-level monk (2d10+10*65% hit chance vs. 3d10, avg: 13.65 vs 16.5), and knocking flying targets prone also causes them to fall, allowing you to counter flying enemies without flying yourself. Using Ki-Fueled Attack to follow this is especially helpful because you can likely attack the now-prone target.
- : Very situational.
- : This works similarly to Shape Water, which is one of my absolute favorite cantrips, but it’s only situationally usefully because you can only use Shape of the Flowing River meaningfully when you have a large amount of ice or water nearby. If you have a lake or something handy you can completely reshape the battlefield, but how often do you fight on or beside a lake or atop a glacier?
- : A good AOE with solid damage and decent scaling. The cone is small, but you should still be able to consistently hit two creatures while running around in melee. At low levels this is a great use of Ki compared to Flurry of Blows, but expect to retrain this as you gain levels.
- : Similar to Fist of Unbroken Air, but you can either knock the target prone or bring it into punching distance.
- Elemental Disciplines:
- : Paralysis is an off button for a single enemy. Turn them off, then go punch them a whole bunch. Unfortunately, it’s just Hold Person, so it’s only situationally useful due to the creature type limitations.
- : The next best thing to Fireball, and the best AOE damage you can get until you can get Flames of the Phoenix at 11th level. If you can hit two targets, this is likely worth the Ki. If you can hit three, it’s absolutely worth the Ki. However, it works on a Constitution save, and those tend to be high.
- Elemental Disciplines:
- : Great damage at long range. Fireball is the best instantaneous AOE damage in the game until 9th-level spells come online. The Ki cost is high, and you get this 6 levels after the Wizard, but it’s often still worth the cost if you can hit a group of enemies. The damage scales linearly and 1d6 extra damage feels small, but compare 1d6 damage to 3+ targets to the extra damage from one additional attack with Flurry of Blows. If you can hit a big group of enemies, it may be worth putting as much Ki into this as you’re allowed to spend.
- : Good escape and infiltration option, and with a 1-hour duration you can do a lot for the Ki cost.
- : Flight is a defining part of high-level combat. If you’re stuck on the ground, you’re missing half of the fighting unless Fist of Unbroken Air or Water Whip can knock some foes down to your level. At higher levels you can even use this to upcast Fly and affect your allies.
- Elemental Disciplines:
- : Just slightly more damage than Flames of the Phoenix, but without the appeal of fantastic range. Cones can work for the Monk, especially since your high speed allows you to easily position yourself to use them, but Flames of the Phoenix is less expensive and easier to use, so it’s hard to justify learning this when you get so few disciplines.
- : 1-hour duration for a fantastic defensive option, and you get to omit the material component. BUT you’re one level away from Empty Body, which will make this completely obsolete. Also note that the required level was changed in Errata from 12th level to 17th level.
- : Fantastic area control at any level, but maintaining Concentration may be difficult, fire resistance is common, and, at this level, the damage may not be especially effective. Wave of Rolling Earth may be a better choice simply because the wall can’t be walked through without first breaking it.
- : The name doesn’t quite make sense, but Wall of Stone is fantastic both as area control and for utility.
Way of Four Elements Monk Ability Scores
No different from a typical Monk.
Way of Four Elements Monk Races
No different from a typical Monk.
Way of Four Elements Monk Feats
No different from a typical Monk.
Way of Four Elements Monk Weapons
No different from a typical Monk.
Way of Four Elements Monk Armor
No different from a typical Monk.
Way of Four Elements Monk Multiclassing
No different from a typical Monk.
Example Way of Four Elements Monk Build – Destroyer of Cabbages
This build tries to find some meaningful way to make the Four Elements Monk something useful. Our best bet is to play like a Controller and use our features to forcibly move enemies into positions that are advantageous for us and our party. We eventually get Fireball and we can cast it decently often since we recharge Ki on a Short or Long Rest, but we’re certainly not a Warlock.
We’re building the absolute worst Monk subclass, so we’re going to assume all of the Optional Class Features are available.
Ability Scores
Put +1’s into Dex/Con/Wis. Pretty typical Monk stuff.
| Base | Increased | |
|---|---|---|
| Str | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 15 | 16 |
| Con | 15 | 16 |
| Int | 8 | 8 |
| Wis | 15 | 16 |
| Cha | 8 | 8 |
Race
MotM Goblin. Nimble Escape is redundant with some of our class features, but it notably doesn’t consume Ki. We need to stretch our Ki as much as possible to make room for our subclass features. We can also apply Fury of the Small’s damage bonus to our spells against a single target.
Background
Hermit. Monastic life sounds about right.
Skills and Tools
Doesn’t matter.
Feats
We’re taking straight ability score increases to rush Dexterity and Wisdom to 20. We need Dexterity to make our attacks work, then we need Wisdom to make our save DCs high enough to support our save DCs.
Levels
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unarmored Defense Martial Arts | At this level you’re a very typical monk. |
| 2 | Ki Unarmored Movement Dedicated Weapon | Upgrade from a spear to a longsword or something. |
| 3 | Subclass: Way of Four Elements Disciple of the Elements Elemental Discipline: Fist of Unbroken Air Deflect Missiles Ki-Fueled Attack | We get our subclass and we’re immediately suffering. Fist of Unbroken Air notably doesn’t have a maximum amount of Ki spent since it’s not a spell. It costs 2 Ki base and adds 1d10 damage per additional Ki spent. You could burn all of your Ki on one massive hit. At level 20, 20 Ki would deal 21d10 damage (average 115.5). That’s a terrible idea, but it’s neat that it’s possible. More importantly, Fist of Unbroken Air gives us a way to force movement and knock enemies out of the sky by knocking them prone. Forcing movement may be our most impactful option for a while, allowing us to break grapples and Remember to use Ki-Fueled Attack any time that you use Fist of Unbroken Air. You can use it with a Monk Weapon, so throw a dart if you need to attack at range. |
| 4 | Ability Score Increase: Dexterity 16 -> 18 Slow Fall Quickened Healing | Stay on the Fundamental Math. It’s all we have. |
| 5 | Extra Attack Stunning Strike Focused Aim | At least we’re still good at punching stuff. |
| 6 | Ki-Empowered Strikes Elemental Discipline: Gong of the Summit | Gong of the Summit gives us an area damage option that we can use at much longer range than Burning Hands. This is our first opportunity to retrain an Elemental Discipline, but there are only two level 6 options and Clench of the North is only situationally useful. |
| 7 | Evasion Stillness of Mind | Good defenses. |
| 8 | Ability Score Increase: Dexterity 18 -> 20 | More math. |
| 9 | Unarmored Movement Improvement | Run up walls. |
| 10 | Purity of Body | Another nice defense. |
| 11 | Elemental Discipline: Flames of the Phoenix Retrain Elemental Discipline: Gong of the Summit -> Ride the Wind | Fireball is excellent at any level, and it’s a much more efficient use of Ki than Flurry of Blows. Remember that you can spend additional Ki to upcast the spell at levels 13 and 17. Now that we have Flames of the Phoenix, we’ll retrain Gong of the Summit into Ride the Wind so that we can cast Fly on ourselves. |
| 12 | Ability Score Increase: Wisdom 16 -> 18 | Time to scale our save DCs so enemies might actually fail saves against our subclass features. |
| 13 | Tongue of the Sun and Moon | Useless on a Monk. |
| 14 | Diamond Soul | Yet another fantastic defense. |
| 15 | Timeless Body | Basically no mechanical effect. |
| 16 | Ability Score Increase: Wisdom 18 -> 20 | 20 AC and max save DCs. |
| 17 | Elemental Discipline: River of Hungry Flame | Get Wall of Fire running, then use Fist of Unbroken Air and Water Whip to repeatedly knock enemies into it. Or just Fireball them. |
| 18 | Empty Body | Your high-level combat button. Push it and go slap stuff. |
| 19 | Ability Score Increase: Constitution 16 -> 18 | We want the hit points and the +1 to Constitution saves to help maintain Concentration on Wall of Fire. |
| 20 | Perfect Self | Enough Ki to use any one of our Elemental Disciplines at least once per encounter. |
