Introduction

The Monk is most easily compared to the Fighter. Where the Fighter is the master of arms and armor, the Monk is the master fighting unarmed and unarmored. While some monks use a handful of specialized Monk Weapons, most monks fight unarmed. Where fighters often differentiate themselves by the arms and armor they use, monks are most easily differentiated by the stances that they use.

In a party, the Monk is a Defender and a Striker, standing on the front lines of melee combat to keep foes far away from their less sturdy allies. In some cases, the Monk can also access some area of effect abilities, but those options aren’t numerous or reusable enough to make the Monk viable as a Blaster. With sufficient investment in certain skills, the Monk can also serve as a Scout due to their need for high Dexterity and Wisdom, allowing them to fill roles traditionally covered by both the Fighter and the Rogue. However, this broad skillset doesn’t come without cost. Monks are extremely MAD, and despite Pathfinder 2e’s generous number of Ability Boosts you simply can’t be good at everything that the Monk can do.

Unlike other classes, the Monk does not have a subclass option. Instead, monks are generally defined by the styles that they use, if any. This notably means that a monk could totally reconstruct their build with enough time to retrain their feats, though their options may be affected by how you’ve chosen your ability scores.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

  • 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.

Monk Class Features

Key Ability: Strength or Dexterity. Your key ability is used for all of your Monk class feature DC’s with the exception of Ki Spells, which are Wisdom-based.

Hit Points: 10 hit points is standard for fron-line martial characters.

Initial Proficiencies: Monks are fantastic defensively, especially at low levels. With no items and without actively doing anything, they can expect an AC of 18 or 19, and they’re Expert in every type of saving throw. However, monks have few attack proficiencies and severely lack good ranged weapon options, and their Perception proficiency starts poor and barely increases. In short, monks are really good at what they do best, but they’re bad at nearly everything else.

  • Perception: You never get past Expert normally, and despite decent Wisdom you’re still not going to be good at Perception. Consider Canny Acumen as you approach 17th level so that you can get up to Master.
  • Saving Throws: Expert in all saving throws, and due the Monk’s normal spread of ability scores you’ll be good at all of them. Unfortunately, only two of them will rise to Master, then one of those two will rise to Legendary, so one of your saving throws will be stuck at Expert forever. You can take Canny Acumen to raise the third saving throw to Master, but that won’t take effect until 17th level.
  • Skills: 4+ skills is normal.
  • Attacks: You only get simple weapons and Unarmed Attacks. Most monks will choose to rely on Unarmed Attacks, but you can also choose Monastic Weaponry to get a better selection of weaponry.
  • Defenses: You don’t get any armor, but you start at Expert in Unarmored Defense, so your AC will be good. With 18 Dexterity, you could have an AC of 19 at 1st level with no items of any kind. You can then pile typed bonuses on top of that. Monks are one of the only classes to reach Legendary in Unarmored Defense (Champion do too, but they’re much less likely to fight unarmored), and with some investment in Explorer’s Clothing or Bracers of Armor, your AC should be excellent.
  • Class DC: Your Monk Class DC can be either Strength- or Dexterity-based, which works for any monk build. You’ll use it for a number of important Monk Class Feats like Stunning Fist.

Flurry of Blows: This is so good that multiclass characters can’t get it until 10th level. It’s mostly the same as making two individual Strike actions because the Multiple Attack Penalty still works normally. A turn in which your only attacks come from Flurry of Blows is a perfectly fine turn, and since you’ll have additional actions you can use them for things like Stepping and Grappling. Also note that you can only use Flurry of Blows with Unarmed Attacks unless you take the Monastic Weaponry feat, in which case you can also flurry with Monk weapons.

Powerful Fist: This is an average of 1 additional damage per damage die, and you’re almost certainly going to override this with a Stance or by using a weapon.

Monk Feats: See Monk feats, below.

Skill Feats: Standard for everyone except the Rogue.

General Feats: Standard.

Skill Increases: Standard for everyone except the Rogue.

Ability Boosts: Standard.

Ancestry Feats: Standard.

Incredible Movement: +10 ft. of movement is a 40% increase over the normal 25 ft. speed of most humanoids, and the bonus increases by another 5 ft. every 4 levels to a maximum total bonus of 30 ft.

Mystic Strikes: +1 Handwraps of Mighty Fists are level 2 items, costing just 35 gp., and they’re your most important item. If you don’t have a +1 weapon by 3rd level when you get Mystic Strikes you’re doing something very odd or your DM isn’t giving you enough treasure. Of course, if you’re using weapons primarily this is a helpful way to fall back on Unarmed Attacks if your weapon is ineffective for some reason. This can be a helpful option once abilities like Metal Strikes come online.

Alertness: More Perception is always great, but it would be nice if you went further than Expert.

Expert Strikes: More proficiency with your attacks is always good. Remember that if you took Monastic Weaponry this also applies to the affected Monk weapons.

Path to Perfection: Bring one saving throw to Master.

Weapon Specialization: More damage is great, and since you can use Flurry of Blows to make more attacks than most characters you can get a lot of mileage out of small bonuses.

Metal Strikes: Absolutely essential if you’re not using a weapon because you don’t get to change what your hands are made of. For weapon users, it’s helpful if your weapon happens to be the wrong metal.

Monk Expertise: An important boost to important options like Stunning Fist, as well as to your spell DCs with Ki Spells.

Second Path to Perfection: Bring a second saving throw to Master.

Graceful Mastery: Another +2 to AC.

Master Strikes: Another +2 to your attacks.

Greater Weapon Specialization: Double the damage bonuses from Weapon Specialization.

Third Path to Perfection: Bring one of your two previous selections from Master to Legendary. Tragically, your third saving throw will be left at Expert unless you also take Canny Acumen to raise it to Master.

Adamantine Strikes: The rules for adamantine weapons allow adamantine weapons to ignore half the hardness of struck items, so long as the attacking weapon’s hardness exceeds that of the target item. Unfortunately, you don’t have a Hardness, so you don’t get that benefit. You get to ignore resistance to non-adamantine weapons, but that’s all.

Graceful Legend: Improve your AC, your Class DC, and your spell attacks/DC all at once. This is a really fun level, even if it’s only numeric improvements.

Perfected Form: You’re guaranteed at least a 10, but you can still roll natural 20’s. In many cases, that means that you can guarantee that you will hit with at least one Strike every turn. If you use Stunning Fist and Flurry of Blows, that means that you can potentially stun a target every turn.

Ability Scores

Monks were famously MAD in Pathfinder 1st edition; because Wisdom defined so many of their capabilities, including their AC, it was an essential ability score. The 2nd edition Monk is still MAD, but their hit points are better and their Wisdom is considerably less important, so it’s not quite as bad as it once was.

An extremely important note: Wisdom is used to determine the Monk’s Spell DC’s, so if you plan to use Ki Spells (Focus Spells) that allow saving throws, you need high Wisdom. For other monks, Wisdom is no more useful than it is for any other character, and you can even use many Ki Spells without worrying about Wisdom. Tragically, the text specifying that Wisdom determines the Monk’s spell DC was omitted in the first printing of the core rulebook. Hopefully we’ll see written errata soon.

Strength-Based Monk

Strength-based monks focus primarily on hitting stuff and doing damage. Your attacks won’t be any more accurate than a Dexterity-based monk’s attacks because Finesse is so readily available, but your attacks will deal more damage and options like the Bo Staff and Dragon Style are considerably more effective.

Str: Choose Strength as your Key Ability both so that it gets and extra +2 Ability Boost, but also so that it sets your Monk Class DC.

Dex: Even if you choose to emphasize Strength, you still want high Dexterity. Monks fight unarmored, so you need Dexterity to pad your AC. You can probably stop at 20 (+5) Dexterity, which you should reach at 15th level, because the Dexterity Cap on Explorer’s Clothing is +5 and you want to be able to put Magic Runes on your clothes. The big exception is Mountain Stance, which gives you a Dex Cap of +0, so you can start at 1st level with 10 Dexterity and never suffer a reduced AC (so long as you’re in your Stance). This cap eventually rises to +2 with some class feats, so you’ll want to reach 14 Dexterity at some point, and doing it during Character Creation is a fine time to do it if you can spare the boosts.

Con: Essential for hit points and saving throws.

Int: Intelligence will give you more Trained skills at first level, and more skills means that you can more easily replace a Rogue outside of combat.

Wis: Helpful for Perception and some skills, but you don’t need very much Wisdom. Even if you plan to explore some Ki Spells like Ki Strike, you can (and should) easily avoid spells which allow saving throws.

Cha: Dump. Monks have no dependence on Charisma. If you have the skills for it you might serve as your party’s Face, but other members of your party will be more able to easily emphasize that skillset.

Dexterity-Based Monk

Dexterity-based monks will have higher AC than Strength-based monks, but they’ll have lower damage output. They’ll also be more effective as Scouts because of their higher Dexterity, which will help you with skills like Stealth and Thievery..

Str: You still add your Strength bonus to damage even if you’re attacking with Dexterity, so most monks need at least a little bit of Strength for the damage bonus.

Dex: Your key ability. Finesse is readily available on various unarmed strikes, as well as on some monk weapons. Dexterity also sets your AC. Expect to exceed the Dex Cap on Explorer’s Clothing/Bracers of armor, but it will be only be by +1 or +2, and the AC bonuses from the runes on your armor will likely exceed those bonuses at an insignificant cost.

Con: Essential for hit points and saving throws.

Int: Intelligence will give you more Trained skills at first level, and more skills means that you can more easily replace a Rogue outside of combat.

Wis: Helpful for Perception and some skills, but you don’t need very much Wisdom. Even if you plan to explore some Ki Spells like Ki Strike, you can (and should) easily avoid spells which allow saving throws.

Cha: Dump. Monks have no dependence on Charisma. If you have the skills for it you might serve as your party’s Face, but other members of your party will be more able to easily emphasize that skillset.

Ki Monk

Ki Monks are the only monks which actually need Wisdom, but Dexterity is still your definitive ability. You are, first and foremost, a martial artist. No matter how many Ki Spells you learn, you’re still limited to a Focus Pool of just three points, so you can cast at most three Ki Spells per encounter. You want those to be as impactful as possible, but after you spend those points you need to go right back to punching things and you need to be good at it.

Str: You don’t need a ton of Strength since all it’s doing for you is adding a flat numeric bonus to your damage. 14 is plenty at first level because that gets you +1 damage with Propulsive attacks from Wild Winds Stance, but if it’s convenient you may want more for fighting in melee.

Dex: Dexterity should be your go-to option because you can use it with ranged attacks like Wild Winds Stance. You’re also likely to have higher AC than Strength-based monks, which is always nice, but you’ll deal less damage with your attacks.

Con: Essential for hit points and saving throws.

Int: Only useful for skills, and given the choice between more Strength and more Intelligence, you should go for Strength.

Wis: The DC for your spells is determined by your Wisdom. You want it to be as high as possible, but remember that Dexterity is still

Cha: Dump. Monks have no dependence on Charisma. If you have the skills for it you might serve as your party’s Face, but other members of your party will be more able to easily emphasize that skillset.

Ancestries

Because monks are so MAD, good ability boosts are much more important than they are for most classes. Using the Voluntary Flaw rules is a great idea in most cases because you need increases to multiple physical ability scores, and with the exception of Free Ability Boosts there’s no way to get an Ability Boost to all three physical ability scores from your Ancestry.

Dwarf: Constitution and Wisdom is a great start, and the free boost can go into your choice of Strength or Dexterity. Voluntary Flaws are an option, but you’ll need to change the +2 Wisdom to -2 Wisdom or to take -4 Intelligence. Either option is fine, but they’ll probably feel bad when you write them down.

Elf: The Elf’s Constitution penalty is hard for many martial characters, and the Monk is no different. The Intelligence increase isn’t especially useful, either. Use the Voluntary Flaws rule to change the +2 Int to -2 Int and offset the Constitution Flaw. That leaves you with +2 Dexterity and a Free Ability Boost which you can use for Strength or Wisdom.

Gnome: The Gnome’s ability scores are a very difficult starting point, similar to the Elf’s. Because the Gnome’s Ability Flaw is in Strength, you’ll want to stick to Dexterity-based builds or Ki Monk builds.

Goblin: A Wisdom flaw makes Ki Monk builds difficult, but otherwise the Goblin is a fine choice. Use the Voluntary Flaws rule to change the +2 Cha to -2 Cha, and put both Free Ability Boosts into your physical ability scores so that you get +2 to all three. Unbreakable Goblin, combined with Cat Fall and feats which allow you to jump absurd distances can help bridge you deal with problems normally solved by flight, which is commical if nothing else.

Halfling: Dexterity and Wisdom boosts are great, and you can survive a Strength Flaw if you don’t want to deal with the Voluntary Flaws rules, but you may still want to use them to offset the Strength Flaw. Halfling Luck is a great option for the Monk because you’re already going to be good at every type of Saving Throw, and you can use Halfling Luck on those rare occasions that you fail a save.

Human: Take Versatile Heritage to get Toughness to make yourself more durable. Use the Voluntary Flaw rules to dump Intelligence and Charisma, giving you three Free Ability Boosts to do with as you please. If you’re not building a Ki Monk, put them in your physical ability scores. If you’re building a Ki Monk, put them in Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom.

Backgrounds

Pick a background which gives you a boost to the ability scores which you care about (physical ability scores, plus Wisdom for Ki Monks). The skills and Skill Feats which you care about depend heavily on your role within the party, but Athletics and Acrobatics are safe choices, and Wisdom-based skills can also be helpful.

If you’re having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions:

  • Hermit
  • Martial Disciple
  • Street Urchin

Skills and Skill Feats

You get Skill Increases at 3rd and 5th level to raise skills to Expert, increases at 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th level to raise skills to Master, and increases at 15th, 17th, and 19th level to raise skills to Legendary. That means that you can maximize at most three skills, and the rest of your skills might not advance beyond Trained.

You get Skill Feats at even-numbered levels, giving you a total of 10 Skill Feats (and maybe another from your Background) by 20th level. Generally, you want to invest these feats in the same skills which you are choosing to maximize, though in some cases you may want to grab feats from skills which don’t require that you be more than Trained.

  • Acrobatics (Dex): A broad range of applications, and you’ll have enough Dexterity to be good at it.
    • Assurance: Useful in combat, and knowing that you’ll get a consistent result from those checks makes skill actions much easier to rely upon. However, Assurance won’t always guarantee success. See my Practical Guide to Assurance for more information.
    • Cat Fall: Monks can do a few things like running up walls or flying which might place them slightly further off the ground than you want to be. Cat Fall can help mitigate those issues, and if you’re clever you can use the additional safe fall distance to get more out of your movement then fall great distances without issue.
  • Arcana (Int): Intelligence is a dump stat.
  • Athletics (Str): Athletics-based actions are very useful for the Monk. You spend a lot of time fighting with one or both hands free, making options like grappling, shoving, and tripping both easy to use and option very effective.
    • Assurance: Useful in combat, and knowing that you’ll get a consistent result from those checks makes skill actions much easier to rely upon. However, Assurance won’t always guarantee success. See my Practical Guide to Assurance for more information.
  • Crafting (Int): Intelligence is a dump stat.
  • Deception (Cha): Charisma is a dump stat.
  • Diplomacy (Cha): Charisma is a dump stat.
  • Intimidation (Cha): Charisma is a dump stat.
  • Lore (Int): Lore is hard to use because it’s so broad and there are so many variations, and since your Intelligence isn’t fantastic you won’t be especially good at it.
  • Medicine (Wis): Many monks, especially Ki Monks, will have enough Wisdom to be effective at Medicine.
  • Nature (Wis): The only Wisdom-based knowledge skill. Even if no one else in your party has it, being Trained can still go a long way.
  • Occultism (Int): Intelligence is a dump stat.
  • Performance (Cha): Charisma is a dump stat.
  • Religion (Wis): An important knowledge skill, and you have enough Wisdom to make it work.
  • Society (Int): Intelligence is a dump stat.
  • Stealth (Dex): Monks need high Dexterity to boost their AC, so they’re already most of the way to making good use of Stealth. Proficiency and an occasionaly increase can make you an excellent Scout.
    • Swift Sneak: The Monk has the most to lose by moving at half their speed, but at the same time it’s also less of a problem because your speed will still be excellent.
  • Survival (Wis): Situational.
  • Thievery (Dex): You have high enough Dexterity that you can handle picking locks, disarming traps, and other things typically handled by the Rogue or a simialr class.

Feats

Monk Feats

1st Level

  • Crane Stance: One of the more defensive stance options at 1st level, Crane Stance is a great defensive option for monks with high Dexterity. The extra jumping distance is neat, but extremely situational. Note that the AC bonus is a Cirumstance bonus, so it won’t stack with the bonus from a shield if you’re using one.
  • Dragon Stance: Dragon Stance is the most Unarmed Strike damage you can get, but the attacks also have some of the worst traits. The only interesting trait is Backswing, which is just a worse version of Agile. Dragon Stance is one of few monk options which lacks Finesse, so it’s only a good option for Strength-based monks.
  • Gorilla Stance: Solid damage, and the combination of both backswing and forceful means that hit or miss you’re rewarded for making numerous Strikes in the same turn. If you just want to stand around and hit people without much fussing, that’s very appealing, but the combination of weapon traits adds some complexity which might not be apparent at a glance because you don’t need to take any extra Actions to make use of the style.
  • Ki Rush: Very situational. Notably, this feat does not expand your Focus Pool if you already have one, so I don’t recommend taking this if you already have a Focus Pool.
  • Ki Strike: At low levels, being able to use Ki Strike for a 1-turn boost to damage looks really tempting, but it’s not as useful as a permanent benefit you could get from other 1st-level feats like a Stance feat. You might consider this later if you’re going for a build which emphasizes Focus Spells (a “Ki Monk”). Notably, this feat does not expand your Focus Pool if you already have one, so I don’t recommend taking this if you already have a Focus Pool.
  • Monastic Archer Stance: If you want to build a ranged monk, this is the way to do it. The ability to apply Monk Class Feats which are typically melee-only allows you match melee monks capabilities without giving up your bow. However, you need be within half of your bow’s first range increment to use those feats, so there is always an incentive to be relatively close to your targets. Half of a shortbow’s range is still 30 ft., which is still enough to keep you at least one Stride out of reach for many creatures. It’s also interesting to note that this is one of very few ways that the Monk can avoid needing a high Strength score to boost their damage output.

    I’m not going to maintain a full list of the feats and abilities which can be applied through Monastic Archer Stance, but Stunning Fists is a good example.

  • Monastic Weaponry: Choosing to use monk weapons generally means choosing weapons over stances. That’s a perfectly fine choice, and you won’t need to worry about spending an Action to enter your Stance every time you enter combat. However, don’t expect to be able to shift tactics any faster than Stance-based monks. As soon as you get into magic weapons, you’ll likely be as attached to a single weapon as you are to your own arms.
  • Mountain Stance: At 1st level, this gives you an AC of 19 (+5 proficiency with Unarmored Defense, +4 Status) with 10 Dexterity. That will match the AC of other monks with 18 Dexterity. Because you don’t need to significantly raise your Dexterity you can focus on other ability scores. You will still want 14 Dexterity at some point as you gain feats which further improve Mountain Stance, but boosting Dexterity at 5th and 10th level will get you the Dexterity you need before the feats become available.
  • Stumbling Stance: Backstabber offers a modest, but reliable damage boost if you can make the target Flat-footed. Conveniently, Stumbling Stance offers built-in ways to make that happen by using Feint or by being hit with a melee Strike. This won’t be as easy to use as something simple like Gorilla Stance, and I’m not convinced that it’s any better for the added complexity.
  • Tiger Stance: Tiger Stance is great if you just want to stand and hit enemies, but its emphasis is on hit-and-run tactics. Dealing ongoing Bleed damage and allowing you to Step 10 feet encourages you to hit a target, then Step away to put yourself out of the target’s reach. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can combine this with the Elf Step feat because both feats specify exact distances that you can Step.
  • Wolf Stance: If you have an ally like a rogue who benefits significantly from flanking, this is a great option. If you can’t rely on flanking, Tiger Stance will likely be more effective.

2nd Level

  • Ancestral Weaponry: Situational, but only because not every ancestry has a suitable set of ancestral weapons. Dwarfs get the Clan Dagger and the Dwarven War Axe, neither of which are notably better than existing options. Catfolk get claw blades and kenky get wakizashim both of which may be viable if you’re building around weapons.
  • Brawling Focus: Over the course of your life you’re going to make a lot of critical hits. The Critical Specialization effect for Brawling weapons causes enemies to become Slowed 1 (assuming that they fail a Fortitude Saving Throw), which robs them of an Action on their next turn. Of course, Stunning Fist makes the target Stunned on the same save, and doesn’t require a Critical hit. You can combine the two, but if you need to choose one it should be Stunning Fist.
  • Crushing Grab: Crucial if you like grappling, otherwise skip it.
  • Dancing Leaf: Magical flight will make this obsolete and until that time it’s doubtful that the tiny amount of extra jump distance will matter.
  • Elemental Fist: Situational. You only want to use this when attacking enemies which are weak to a specific element. Otherwise, Lawful, Negative, and Positive damage are all fantastic options that are very rarely resisted.
  • Shooting Stars Stance: Similar in many ways to Monastic Archer Stance, the only practical difference between the two is which weapon you can use. A Shortbow, even at half of its range increment, can still apploy monk abilities and feats out to 30 ft. The Shuriken’s range increment is just 20 ft., so it has trouble matching the Shortbow’s range. However, the Shuriken isn’t limited to applying abilities and feats within a fixed range: if your shuriken can hit it, you can apply the feat. If you can somehow throw a shuriken 120 ft. (the end of 6 range increments) and still hit with the -12 attack penalty, you can apply Stunning Fist or whatever else. Also note that since shurikens are a thrown weapon, they apply your Strength modifier to damage rather than half like a composite bow would with the Propulsive property.
  • Stunning Fist: Using Flurry of Blows to repeatedly attack a single creature will happen constantly, and adding the ability to rob the target of an action by stunning them makes your attacks considerably more dangerous.

4th Level

  • Cobra Stance: Poison damage is an interesting prospect. It gets you around resistances to typical weapon damage types, but poison is also a common resistance/immunity. You also gain poison resistance, which is neat. The biggest problem is the 1d4 damage die, but I’m not sure if that’s a deal breaker.
  • Deflect Arrow: Too situational.
  • Flurry of Maneuvers: The listed maneuvers are all fantastic, but since you’re relying on Flurry of Blows already, you probably have spare Actions to spend on maneuvers. The only case I can think of where you want to use this is if you only want to make a single maneuver and a single Strike in the same turn, and that’s a very specific circumstance which I don’t think justifies this feat. In those cases you may just need to give up on the Strike, perform your maneuver, and be done with it.
  • Flying Kick: Possibly useful as a way to cross difficult terrain, but primarily intended to allow you to attack flying enemies. At low levels this may be tempting, but magical flight is right around the corner so expect to retrain this if you choose to take it. If you don’t have any other option, ranged weapons should be able to handle flying enemies, though your options are admittedly very limited.
  • Guarded Movement: While many melee-oriented enemies have the Attack of Opportunity reaction, most do not. If you’re fighting a melee enemy, you probably want to continue fighting that enemy rather than running away from it to fight something else. If you do want to get away, you can typically Step away without cutting into your attacks significantly because Flurry of Blows allows you to make two Strikes in a single Action.
  • Peafowl Stance: Unless you got a sword from Ancestral Weapons, you’re using a Temple Sword with this because there are no other options. This stance sacrifices the ability to make other types of Strikes for the ability to get a free Step every round. A Step isn’t always useful, but the ability to get a free Action at this low level is rare. If you have an ally who relies on enemies being Flat-Footed, such as a rogue, this can be a great way to quickly flank enemies without cutting into your damage output.
  • Stand Still: Similar in many ways to Attack of Opportunity, Stand Still has a more restrictive trigger, but it gains the ability to halt a creature if you score a critical hit.
  • Wholeness of Body: If you’re going to take one Focus Spell, make it Wholeness of Body. The hit point recovery is fantastic, and since Focus can be recovered for free with sufficient time you can use Wholeness of Body to remove diseases and poisons and to return to full hit points after most fights.

6th Level

  • Abundant Step: Even limited teleportation is still teleportation, and teleportation is really good.
  • Align Ki: If you’re built to rely on the Monk’s Focus Spells, you probably already too Wholeness of Body. This will add to the amount of healing, and allow you to heal using other Focus Spells, but with the 1-hour cooldown it’s not worth the feat. Use Wholeness of Body, Refocus, repeat.
  • Crane Flutter: If you’re enganging an enemy in melee one-on-one, you can expect to use this nearly every round, potentially gaining an extra attack every round.
  • Dragon Roar: Frightened 1 applies some helpful debuffs, but the area of effect is small and Dragon Roar uses your Intimidation DC rather than your class DC, so you need to invest heavily in Intimidation and you need to have high Charisma, which is hard because nothing else about the Monk requires Charisma.
  • Gorilla Pound: There are a lot of positives and negatives to consider here, so bear with me. Intimidation is a hard choice for the Monk because they have so little reason to invest in Charisma, but getting to Expert in Intimidation is easy, and you’re not giving up an Action to Demoralize which is a nice benefit. The bonus damage is going to be +3 if you succeed on Intimidation or +6 if your Critically Succeed, both of which are decent damage bonuses that add onto the already excellent benefits of applying the Frightened condition. This notably has the Flourish trait, so you can’t use it in the same turn in which you use Flurry of Blows, so you’re giving up a free Strike in exchange for a free Demoralize. That’s an even trade, and you can still use Flurry of Blows on later turns, which you’ll do a lot becuase Demoralize grants temporary immunity after it wears off.

    You also get a climb speed, which is really nice. Climb speeds are the next best thing to flight.

    Taken as a whole, it’s difficult to rate Gorilla Pound. It’s good, but it requires a lot of investment which is going to be hard for many monks, and taking an optional Flourish is really hard when Flurry of Blows is so good and so hard to forgo. Making on less Strike also means that you’re not benefiting as much from the Forceful weapon trait, so you could argue that this intentionally sidestaps part of what makes Gorilla Stance appealing. I think this is a situationally useful option. It’s helpful in some cases, but you don’t really need it even if you go for Gorrila Stance.

  • Ki Blast: One of very few ways that the Monk can handle groups of enemies efficiently. Unfortunately, it requires that you already have Ki Spells, so hopefully you learned one at a previous level.
  • Mountain Stronghold: Raising the Dexterity cap of Mountain Stance raises your AC by 1, and you can use the Mountain Stronghold action to gain AC similar to the way the Raise a Shield action works. This raises your AC by a total of 3 (in addition to your AC increasing by 1 every level), though you do need to spend an Action to get the +2 Circumstance bonus.
  • One-Inch Punch: If your stance doesn’t grant the Agile trait on your Strikes and has a large damage die, this could be appealing. However, it’s difficult to justify this when you have Flurry of Blows for free.
  • Return Fire: Too situational.
  • Stumbling Feint: Spectacular, and a great addition to Stumbling Stance. Flurry of Blows now allows you to do a total of three Actions worth of stuff with a single Action. That alone would be blue, but on top of that if you roll a Success the target is Flat-Footed for both attacks from Flurry of Blows. You can still roll a Critical Success when you Feint to make the target Flat-Footed even longer.
  • Tiger Slash: The extra damage dice are nice, and since it’s only a single Strike your Multiple Attack Penalty won’t hamper your damage output unless you’ve made other Strikes earlier in your turn. However, since you’re pushing the target away from you you will likely have issues making any other attacks in the round. I don’t think that I would use this as a go-to attack option, especially since you can make a Flurry of Blows and a Step (stepping 10 ft. thanks to Tiger Stance) with the same number of Actions, and usually that will have a similar or better effect. You might use this to follow up a Flurry of Blows, but even then making a Strike and a Step will guarantee that you put distance between yourself and the target regardless of the outcome of the Strike.
  • Water Step: Too situational.
  • Whirling Throw: Situational, but much more effective than Shove, and there’s definitely room for abuse here. If you multiclass into Fighter and take Combat Grab, you can make a Flurry of Blows, follow up with Combat Grab, then finish up your turn with a Whirling Throw, hurling your oponent a sizeable distance and dealing a pile of damage while not concerning yourself with a Multiple Attack Penalty since the action doesn’t have the Attack trait. Of course, this means three feats (Whirling Throw, Fighter Multiclass Dedication, Basic Maneuver) for a gimic that you can’t necessarily use every turn, and that’s often a hard investment to make.
  • Wolf Drag: With the same number of actions you could Trip the target then make a Flurry of Blows. Due to the additional number of rolls, you’re more likely to get at least some benefit from those actions rather than the all-or-nothing you get with Wolf Drag, and if you’re lucky you may even be able to hit twice with Flurry of Blows despite the -4 Multiple Attack Penalty for going this route. This also leaves your third Action free.

    However, Wolf Drag has some advantages. Since it doesn’t require an Athletics check, you’re able to effectively trip foes without relying on Athletics, which makes it an option for monks with low Strength and against foes with good defenses. You also don’t need to roll anything to trip the target: if you hit, they fall prone. If you lead with Wolf Drag, you can follow it with a Flurry of Blows against your now-prone target, offsetting most of the -4 Multiple Attack Penalty (remember that Wolf Stance’s attacks are Agile, and Wolf Drag only counts as one attack for the Multiple Attack Penalty).

    Fatal d12 looks neat, but it’s a very minor part of the feat. You’re most likely to score a critical hit on your first attack each turn, but you’re here for the Trip effect.

8th Level

  • Arrow Snatching: Deflect Arrow is already very situational, and improving a very situational option is rarely a good option.
  • Clinging Shadows Initiate: See Focus Spells, below.
  • Ironblood Stance: A great option for weapon users, this provides a small amount of universal damage resistence. It notably allows you to perform a new type of unarmed strike, but does not limit you to those strikes like many stances, which makes this a stance usable by monks who prefer to rely on weapons.
  • Mixed Maneuver: Delaying the Multiple Attack Penalty until after you make both maneuvers is nice, but this is only useful for builds which are heavily reliant on the affected maneuvers. For such builds, using Mixed Maneuvers to Grapple and Trip a target (or to either to two targets), is a great way to keep foes on the ground since Grabbed/Restrained both prevent the target from standing. Characters who use of Mixed Maneuvers won’t use it every round, but the Grapple/Trip combo is a good go-to option every time you move to a new target who you can reliably Grapple/Trip and who is worth the Actions to do both.

    Using Mixed Manevuers leaves you with your third Action free, but at your maximum Multiple Attack Penalty you’ll likely want to use it for something other than a Flurry of Blows, such as a Stride to get close enough to use Mixed Maneuver. This generally means that one turns where you’re using Mixed Maneuvers you should plan to give up damage output for that turn, so you need to be sure that using two maneuvers will be more impactful than just hitting the same creature.

  • Pinning Fire: Since the feat doesn’t specify, I’m assuming that it takes an Action to perform the Athletics check. The DC is low enough that creatures will be able to escape with ease even if they’re not proficienct in Athletics, but the fact that they need to spend an Action to do so puts you at a huge advantage because it costs you nothing to apply this, but the target needs to either give up on the idea of moving (in which case you can shoot them to death at range) or spend an Action to remove the effect. Honestly, the fact that there’s a DC at all seems mostly unnecessary, but low-Strength enemies might struggle to escape if their rolls are poor.
  • Tangled Forest Stance: Stand Still can generally cover this need, but Stand Still eats your Reaction so it only works once per round, so Tangled Forest Stance works better for multiple enemies.
  • Wall Run: Very cool, but totally useless comapred to magical flight.
  • Wild Winds Initiate: See Focus Spells, below.

10th Level

  • Cobra Envenom: Persistent damage is really good, and the fact that this is multiplied by your weapon damage dice means that it will remain a significant source of damage for your whole career. Adding 5 ft. of reach to this attack allows you to use it for hit-and-run tactics with less risk of triggering Reactions, too. The only problem is the 1-minute cooldown, but if you only get to use this once per encounter it will still be impactful. Use it early in the encounter to maximize the potential persistent damage which you can deal.
  • Knockback Strike: If you want to get enemies away from you, Whirling Throw is considerably better.
  • Peafowl Strut: Peafowl Stance gives you a free Step every turn if you can hit once. Peafowl Strut is a Flourish, so you’re using it in place of Flurry of Flows. If you do hit with the attack from Peafowl Strut, you can Step twice, Strike, then Step again. This allows you to dance in and out of melee reach, forcing your enemies to spend their own Actions to Stride or Step to reach you. However, the Monk is typically their party’s Defender, so you’re expected to interpose yourself between your enemies and your comparably frail allies. Repeatedly removing yourself from melee makes it easy for enemies to talk around you in order to reach your allies. Using this also reduces the number of attacks that you’re making, thereby reducing your damage output.
  • Prevailing Position: A +4 Circumstances bonus as a Reaction is huge. That’s double the bonus from Raise a Shield, and you only need to use it as a Reaction rather paying a persistant tax to maintain the bonus. You do drop out of your Stance, however, so you’ll need to spend an Action on your next turn to get back into your Stance. Still, if this prevents you from taking a pile of damage it’s probably worth the Action.
  • Sleeper Hold: Difficult to justify unless you can somehow guarantee that you’ll score a critical success after several attempts.
  • Wind Jump: An absolutely essential option for nearly any monk. This is the Monk’s only built-in flight option.
  • Winding Flow: Situational, but extra movement never hurts, and if you’re heavily reliant on position (possibly for flanking) or you like to hit enemies then withdraw, this can make doing so considerably more effective.

12th Level

  • Diamond Soul: Situational by design.
  • Disrupt Ki: Enfeebled 1 is a really minor debuff since the penalty is small and it only applies to Strength-based rolls and DC’s, but you’re primarily using this for the ongoing damage. I’m not sure that the math justifies spending two Actions to do this when you could just make another Strike, but in prolonged fights or against enemies with vulnerability to Negative damage this can yield an impressive amount of damage (assuming that the target doesn’t get lucky on the Flat Check to end the effect at the end of their turn).
  • Dodging Roll: Basic Reflex Saves are very common, and while the Monk’s saving throws are excellent, you still take damage from things like breath weapons and fireballs even if your Succeed on the save. The ability to move a tiny bit and add some temporary damage resistance will save you a lot of damage throughout your character’s career.

    If you took Prevailing Position, you might skip this or retraint Prevailing Position. They’re both good, but they overlap too much to justify having both.

  • Focused Shot: Situational, but if you’re build for Monastic Archer Stance this is definitely worth considering. Cover and Concealment are more problematic while fighting at range than they are while fighting in melee, and this makes those challenges considerably less problematic.
  • Improved Knockback: Whirling Throw is still a much better option, though admittedly you need to Grapple the target first to use it. Still, Shove is a very situational option.
  • Meditative Focus: If you’re relying on Focus Points in any significant way, you need this. The rules for Refocus are written specifically so that you can’t Refocus multiple times in succession: After you regain a Focus Point by any means, you must spend a Focus Point again before you can Refocus. So: If you have a Focus Pool larger than one point, you almost certainly need this feat.
  • Overwhelming Breath: If physical damage resistance is a problem often enough that you need this, your GM is trying very hard to make martial characters less effective. You should not need this feat. If you do take this, it combines well with Ki Strike.
  • Stance Savant: Another action early in a fight might make a big difference, and if you’re using stances like Mountain Stance or Ironblood Stance you want those up and running at the beginning of combat to protect yourself before your first turn.

14th Level

  • Form Lock: Hillarious, but too situational. I love the idea of wresting a creature until it returns to its natural form, but how often do you expect to face shapeshifters?
  • Ironblood Surge: Remove the Action tax to benefit from Iron Sweep’s Parry trait, and increase the damage resistance from Ironblood Stance by a few points. Of course, if you’re not Strength-based the base damage resistance from Ironblood Stance will match or exceed your Strength modifier, which dramatically devalues this feat.
  • Mountain Quake: Possibly +1 AC and an AOE crowd control effect which you can use repeatedly. Forcing enemies to spend an action to stand is absolutely worth the feat and the action, and you get a little bit of damage as a bonus.
  • Shadow’s Web: See Focus Spells, below.
  • Tangled Forest Rake: Situational.
  • Timeless Body: Damage resistance is always tempting.
  • Tongue of Sun and Moon: Spellcasters have been able to address language barriers for a long time by this point in your career, and your dumped Charisma makes you a poor candidate for a Face.
  • Whirling Blade Stance: The only characters that would need this are monks built to use melee weapons. This adds the ability to use those weapons to make ranged attacks. However, with a 10-foot range increment you might as well just Stride to reach your target. For the cost of such as high-level feat, you might also consider getting an enhanced Shuriken with a Returning Rune as a backup weapon.
  • Wild Winds Gust: If you are using Wild Winds Stance, this is an absolutely spectacular way to handle crowds of enemies. If you can hit at least three targets, this should be your go-to option. The fact that there’s no cooldown of any kind makes this even better.

16th Level

  • Enlightened Presence: Nearly all Will saves are against mental effects, so this is a significant defensive bonus for your party.
  • Flinging Blow: Too situational. The Shove Action will suffice in nearly any case where this is useful. Perhaps the only redeeming point is the additional damage from the pushed creature hitting something else, but by this level you’ll deal more damage in total by making another Strike.
  • Master of Many Styles: Using multiple stances is hard and rarely effective, so this feat is situational and only worthwhile in builds that have found a way to capitalize on multiple stances somehow.
  • Medusa’s Wrath: See Focus Spells, below.
  • One-Millimeter Punch: Too situational. Use the Shove Action instead.
  • Quivering Palm: The Monk’s only Save-or-die option, and it can still Stun the target even if they don’t die.
  • Shattering Strike: Situational. Typically you’ll want to find other ways past a target’s resistances like weapons made of special metals, or using class features like Mystic Strikes, Metal Strikes, and Adamantine Strikes.

18th Level

  • Diamond Fists: More damage never hurts. This is especially useful if your Unarmed Attacks have the Agile trait, and if you like to stand still and make numerous Strikes in a single turn. The extra damage scales as you make multiple attacks, so the more you focus on attacking, the more effective Forceful becomes. It’s exceptionally rare to be able to combine both Agile and Forceful, so this is a uniquely powerful option for the Monk.
  • Empty Body: Being Etheral is extremely powerful.
  • Ki Center: You can use thise once per minute as a Free Action, and it’s easy to overlook just how amazing that is. Once per minute means that you can use it at least once per combat. Using this as a Free Action means that you can cast the Focus Spell to activate the stance as a Free Action rather than the 1 Action it typically takes to cast Clinging Shadows Stance or Wild Winds Stance. Since this doesn’t consume a Focus Point, you’re not left without your favorite Stance even if you can’t Refocus, and you can spend your Focus Points on other Focus Spells without worry. For a Ki Monk this is an absolute game changer.
  • Ki Form: Go Super Saiyan for 1 minute. Your hair changes color and glows, an aura of light surrounds you, and you can fly. This is the most anime thing I’ve ever seen on a monk having played across three editions of D&D and two editions of Pathfinder. Jokes aside, this is pretty good. Flight, a small bonus to damage on your Strikes, and the corona deals some automatic damage. You get to choose the damage type when you cast the spell, and between lawful, negative, and positive you’re basically guaranteed to have a way to get around damage resistances.
  • Meditative Wellspring: Essential if you’re relying heavily on Focus Spells, but for other monks it’s not worth such a high-level feat slot.
  • Swift River: Essentially a permanent Freedom of Movement effect.
  • Triangle Shot: Good, but not essential. It’s easy to compare this to making a Flurry of Blows followed by an additional Strike. You get three attacks in either case, but there are some differences. With Flurry+Strike, only the two flurry attacks combine their damage for the purpose of resistances, and the third attack takes the maximum Multiple Attack Penalty. Since bows don’t have Agile, that -10 penalty is a big problem. With Triangle Shot, you get three attacks all at a -2 penalty, and you combine the damage from all three for the purpose of resistances. So you’re more likely to hit with all three attacks, and you’ll have less trouble with resistances, but all three attacks need to target the same creature (which usually isn’t a problem unless the creature dies before the final attack).

    Those benefits may feel somewhat minor, especially for a feat at this level, but if you manage to hit with all three attacks (which is easier without a -10 Multiple Attack Penalty), you apply a big pile of persistent bleed damage. Taken as a whole, this should be your go-to option when you need to focus damage on a single target.

20th Level

  • Deadly Strikes: A numerical improvement to your damage output, but it’s not tactically impactful. It doesn’t let you do anything that you couldn’t already do, and as nice as Deadly is this just isn’t enough for a 20th-level feat.
  • Enduring Quickness: In many cases you’ll find yourself in melee and unable to use this without provoking Reactions from melee-focused enemies. In other situations, you’re already fast enough that your regular Stride actions will nearly always be sufficient. Winding Flow provides a similar benefit, and it’s available at 10th level.
  • Fuse Stance: Conceptually fantastic, but limited by the current selection of stances. Crane Stance and Mountain stance both limit you to a single type of Strike, but other stances can be easily combined. Ironblood is generally an easy option for a second stance because it’s literally always useful and doesn’t require you to change your tactics in any way to make it effective.
  • Impossible Technique: This is insanely good. You’re good at every type of Saving Throw, and being able to reroll one save every round makes you incredibly difficult to kill. If you’re not facing enemies which rely on abilities which trigger Saving Throws (spellcasters, enemies with breath weapons, etc.) you can force rerolls on attacks, essentially giving you a significant boost your AC.

General Feats

  • Canny Acument: This can raise either your weakest save or your Perception to master, but not until 17th level, making it a great option for a hihg-level General Feat.
  • Toughness: More hit points are always a good idea, but as soon as Paizo publishes more interesting General Feats you’ll likely find that you can’t justify Toughness.
  • Untrained Improvisation: Intelligence is a dump stat for many monks, which means that you likely won’t have many trained skills. Monks are also MAD, which means that you’ll have several high ability scores. That means that you can do a lot with skills in which you’re untrained despite lacking the +2 bonus from being Trained. You’ll still be limited to actions which you can make untrained, but you’ll be very good at them.

Weapons

  • Bo Staff: The Temple Sword will deal just as much damage and only takes on hand, but the Bo Staff’s properties are more useful. If you don’t need a free hand for things like grappling, the Bo Staff is the way to go.
  • Kama: Trip is a really good weapon trait, but the Kama doesn’t have the Finesse trait, so you’ll want to be Strength-based if you plan to use it.
  • Nunchaku: Basically a Sai with a bigger damage die, and it trades Agile and Versatile for Backswing.
  • Sai: Functionally similar to the Nunchaku.
  • Shuriken: The only thrown weapon that doesn’t need Quick Draw or Returning to be useful. The damage die is small, but if you’re using weapons you’ll still want to carry some shurikens. They’ll still apply your Strength bonus, making them a fantastic option despite their low damage die. The Shuriken is also the only Thrown weapon with the reload property, which appears to override the normal Action required to draw a weapon, allowing you to draw and throw a Shuriken as a single action. When you get into magic weapons, get a Returning property rune as soon as possible so that you can throw a single shuriken repeatedly rather than needing to buy a pile of them.
  • Temple Sword: The best weapon damage die available as a monk weapon, but the traits aren’t great.

Armor

  • Unarmored: Literally your only choice. Gaining armor proficiency from feats, even from multiclass archetype feats, isn’t as effective because your proficiency won’t increase beyond Trained (or Expert if you get a second Champion archetype feat).
  • Shield: A shield can be a great option for the Monk. Flurry of Blows is your go-to attack option in most builds, and subsequent attacks will suffer a significant Multiple Attack Penalty (Agile helps a bit), so you might find that your Action is better spent to Raise a Shield rather than making another Strike. If you go this route, consider taking the Shield Block feat.

Monk Focus Spells – Ki Spells

1st-Level Spells

  • Ki Rush: Very situational.
  • Ki Strike: A fine go-to option to boost your damage, but it will eat your Focus Points very quickly so save it for when your target is disadvantaged somehow (Flat-Footed, etc.) and you’re not going to do anything that turn except hit things so that you can maximize the damage you get for your Focus Point.

2nd-Level Spells

  • Wholeness of body: If you take exactly one Focus Spell as a monk, make it this one. Given enough time to repeatedly use this and Refocus, you can always return to full hit points, recover from poisons, and recover from diseases. Even in combat, this costs a single Action and restores an impressive number of hit points, making it a great way to recover hit points in the middle of a fight.

3rd-Level Spells

  • Ki Blast: One of very few ways that the Monk can easily handle large groups of enemies. The damage scaling is good, especially if you use at least two Actions, and leaving an extra action means that you can afford to spend it to Stride and position yourself to hit as many targets as possible. The 3-Action option only deals 1d6 more damage than the 2-Action option, so only use it if you can make the 60-foot cone at least as effective as moving to a better position and using the 30-foot cone.

4th-Level Spells

  • Abundant Step: Teleportation is always good, but this is limited both by your speed and your line of sight. You can still use it to bypass many obstacles like high cliffs or dungeon bars and the like, and you can use to easily reach squishy enemies like spellcasters which are often protected by more martially-inclined enemies.
  • Clinging Shadows Stance: This has a ton of great things going for it. Negative damage is rarely resisted (except by undead), so despite the small damage die this is a great way to get around damage resistances. The Grapple and Reach traits allow you to grapple enemies while potentially remaining outside of the target’s reach, allowing you to hurt them without them being able to respond. The +2 Circumstance bonus to the DC to to Escape your grapple is a mathematically significant bonus which will help you to maintain your position of superiority.
  • Wild Winds Stance: For a Ki Monk, this is often your go-to option in combat. It’s also the most effective option or the Monk to fight at range for an extended period. However, due to the Stance rules, it has some risky limitations. If you’re unable to Refocus between fights, you may find yourself unable to use this. If combat ends (and therefore your Stance ends) BS a new combat begins shortly thereafter (an ambush, a poorly-chosen door, etc.), you may find yourself without your favorite stance. Make sure that you can still fight at least passably well without relying on this stance. Also remember that since these are ranged attacks, you’ll want to build around Dexterity rather than Strength, though you’ll still want at least 14 Strength to get some damage out of the Propulsive trait.

    Wild Winds Stance gives your Unarmed Attacks the Propulsive property, which allows you to apply half of your Strength Bonus to damage, so if you plan to use this consistently you should probably stop improving your Strength at either 14 or 18.

    This is a core option for Ki Monks, but it’s not essential for other monks. If you need a convenient ranged options, some shurikens will suffice.

5th-Level Spells

  • Wind Jump: By this level you can easily by Master in Acrobatics (level+6), granting you a total bonus of +15 before consider your Dexterity modifier. With the Assurance skill feat that’s a guaranteed result of 25 at this level, so you’ll need to roll to hit the DC of 30. If you have at least 18 Dexterity (easy by this level, assuming you started with no less than 16 Dexterity), you have a better-than-even chance on a roll, and your odds of success improve if you can find persistent bonuses from items and as you gain more levels. Flight is an absolutely essential tactic at high levels, so being able to fly consistently without relying on allied spellcasters or items is an important option.

7th-Level Spells

  • Shadow’s Web: Despite the description, the primary effects of Shadow’s Web are a 30-foot burst of negative damage and the Enfeebled condition. The damage isn’t spectacular compared to regular spells, but it’s a focus spell which deals AOE damage for a class which has nearly no options for handling crowds. The Enfeebled condition doesn’t last long, but it’ll weaken martial enemies briefly. You can stun and immobilize enemies which critical fail their save, but relying on critical failures on saves rarely works out how you’d like it to.

8th-Level Spells

  • Medusa’s Wrath: Save-or-suck as a Focus Spell. The ongoing effect has the Incapacitation trait, so it’s not going to work on powerful enemies, but against the vast majority of enemies this is a great way quickly eliminate them. The target does need to fail at least one saving throw to be permanently petrified, but at the bare minimum they’ll be Slowed for two rounds, losing a total of three Actions. That alone is a massive tactival advantage, even if the target has no realistic chance of becoming petrified, so even if the target is high enough in level that the Incapacitation trait makes it unlikely that you’ll petrify the target this is still a fantastic debuff.
  • Quivering Palm: Even with the unusual mechanics, this is still a save-or-die effect, and those are always good. The target is still stunned even if they succeed (though not if they criticall succeed), which can still be very helpful.

9th-Level Spells

  • Empty Body: Being Ethereal is extremely useful both as an escape mechanism and as a way to safely infiltrate and scout dangerous places.
  • Ki Form:

Magic Items

Weapon Property Runes

  • Grievous: Most monks make attacks in the Brawling group, and the Critical Specialization for Brawling weapons makes targets Slowed 1 if they fail a save. Applying a -4 penalty dramatically improves the odds of the target failing, and by high levels the 700gp cost is easily affordable.
  • Speed: If standing still and making a bunch of Strikes is a regular option for you, Speed adds one more Strike. You’ll still suffer the Multiple Attack Penalty normally, but if you’re using Flurry of Blows and making a total of 3 additional Strikes, you’re likely to hit with some of them despite the -10 penalty (-8 with Agile). This gets even more appealing if your attacks are Forceful.
  • Ghost Touch: Dirt cheap compared to other property runes, and without it you’re severely disadvantaged against incorporeal enemies.

Other Magic Items

  • Bracers of Armor: Slightly cheaper than the equivalent effects from enhancing a suit of Explorer’s Clothing, but you can’t transfer runes and you can’t buy it piecemeal over time, so enhancing Explorer’s Clothing may work out to be cheaper if you’re fortunate enough to loot the runes that you want.
  • Handwraps of Mighty Fists: Essential for any monk who is not primarily relying on weapons.

Archetypes

Multiclassing into spellcasting classes works in a somewhat unique way for the Monk due to how Ki Spells work. When you choose your first Ki Spell, you get to choose if your spellcasting is Divine or Occult, and you become Trained with spells of that type and your proficency improves as you gain levels. Choosing a class which matches that type of spellcasting (Such as Cleric or Sorcerer for Divine, Bard or Sorcerer for Occult) allows you to capitalize on that improving proficiency, keeping your offensive spells effective despite not taking additional Multiclass Archetype Feats to progress your spellcasting benefits.

  • Alchemist: Mutagens have a lot to offer martial classes like the Monk. Unfortunately, your Advanced Alchemy level stays at 1 unless you invest a large number of feats, and you may be able to get similar benefits from Monk Class Feats. If you do pursue Alchemist, I strongly recommend the Juggernaut Mutagen.
  • Barbarian: Rage is a great option for the Monk, but since the damage bonus is halved with Agile weapons/attacks, your options for attacks and stances are severely limited. If you’re going for stances over weapons, you’ll want to stick to Dragon Tail, Falling Stone, and Iron Sweep.
  • Bard: When you get your first Ki Spell you can choose to be an Occult spellcaster, so you’ll get the scaling Occult proficiency, but your Bard spells will still be Charisma-based so they won’t be as effective offensively as Cleric spells would be.
  • Champion: The Fighter will typically provide more useful options than the Champion, though you may get some benefit from the Champion’s Focus Spells.
  • Cleric: If you have one or more Ki Spells, you get the scaling proficiency as you gain levels, plus Ki Monks will already have Wisdom high enough to back them up. An offensive cantrip can be absolutely fantastic improvements to your ability to fight at range, especially when options like shurikens or Wild Winds Stance are ineffective or unavailable. I recommend taking Divine Lance and Shield if no other options seem appealing. You can also gain access to a number of great Focus Spells to complement any Ki Spells which you might learn if you go beyond Cleric Devotion.
  • Druid: If you want spellcasting, the Cleric is a much better option.
  • Fighter: Fighter grants you proficiency in Simple and Martial weapons, but you’ll never use it because the proficiency never improves unless you waste another feat. The real appeal is the Fighter’s class feats. Feats which work while you have a free hand lik Combat Grab are great additions to the Monk’s capabilities. Fighters also have several Stance feats, but until we get some options for archer monks they’re not very interesting.
  • Ranger: Most of the Ranger’s best options are based on their Prey mechanic, and while you’ll often have spare Actions thanks to Flurry of Blows, Prey creates a constant Action tax early in an encounter which competes for space with initiating a stance, and the beginning of an encounter is when your Actions are the most important.s
  • Rogue: Many monk stances give you Unarmed Strikes which have the Finesse trait, so they can be use with Sneak Attack. You’ll need to take the Sneak Attacker feat, but with Flurry of Blows you’ll have more opportunities to apply the bonus damage than many other characters.
  • Sorcerer: You can choose a bloodline which provides Divine spellcasting, but the spells will still be Charisma-based, and Charisma is typically a dump stat for the Monk.
  • Wizard: If you want spellcasting, Cleric is a much better option.