Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Beadle]

Monks actually aren't reliant on attack spam in 5th edition, a role which the Fighter has generally moved to take. Instead, they've got a ton of movement and tactical options based on expending precious ki points, and feel like they're particularly good at getting in the face of people who don't want their face gotten into.

My personal favorite is the Way of the Long Death Monk. At level 3, you get an ability which gives you temporary hit points based on your Wisdom modifier plus Monk level every time you kill something. And then at level 11, you get an ability that lets you expend one ki point to go from zero hit points to one hit point. In the right context, the Way of the Long Death Monk can out-tank anybody, and at the least it enables you to try some crazy stuff.

If you ever do DM a 5th edition campaign, I would suggest letting the Monk multiclass into Moon Druid and use unarmed strikes in animal form.

Monks are, along with Warlocks, my favourite 5e class.

My personal fave Monk sub-class is the Way of Mercy (which might be heavily driven by something I’m looking to do in my campaign), with the potential for that to be replaced by the Way of the Ascendant Dragon that’s currently in Unearthed Arcana for playtesting and totally isn’t in any way going to show up in any sort of Dragonlance book.

Your choice, the Way of the Long Death is really, really good too, but it has one of the most broken 17th level capstone abilities, allowing them to do up to 20d10 of necrotic damage (which not much in the game, outside of the undead, is resistant to). That’s just brutal. Granted, they get a Con save to potentially half the damage, but still...

And if you took a two-level dip into fighter to get Action Surge, you could then do it all again with your remaining Ki points in the same turn. So by Level 20, you have the potential to be dealing out up to 360 points of necrotic damage in a single turn. And given that monks tend to be high Dex, they’re often acting first in combat, so they could absolutely kill the fight before it starts. Then they can just sit down for a short rest, get all their Ki points back, and do it all again in the next fight.

Of course, I’m never going to play a game at that level, so I’m never going to see that! (I’ve never had a character above Level 4.)

[Sharpandpointies]

Happy birthday, Guy1!

[Sharpandpointies]

To my understanding, it's not like balanced on some knife's edge competitively or anything. But magic classes do feel like they're powerful but not the end all be all in the endgame.

That's a big improvement over 3.x, I will admit.

Monks actually aren't reliant on attack spam in 5th edition, a role which the Fighter has generally moved to take. Instead, they've got a ton of movement and tactical options based on expending precious ki points, and feel like they're particularly good at getting in the face of people who don't want their face gotten into.

My personal favorite is the Way of the Long Death Monk. At level 3, you get an ability which gives you temporary hit points based on your Wisdom modifier plus Monk level every time you kill something. And then at level 11, you get an ability that lets you expend one ki point to go from zero hit points to one hit point. In the right context, the Way of the Long Death Monk can out-tank anybody, and at the least it enables you to try some crazy stuff.

If you ever do DM a 5th edition campaign, I would suggest letting the Monk multiclass into Moon Druid and use unarmed strikes in animal form.

Interesting stuff. I'm glad to see Monks are getting some good possibilities.

...I'm afraid I'm not likely to ever be GMing D&D again. I just don't have the interest (and neither do my regular players). I have my two niches (Anima and Mass Effect/X150 system) for rules-based stuff, as well as a couple of other systems I've really settled upon. And while D&D is looking better and better as a system, I still enjoy the feeling of those two games I run and the particular rules systems they use.

In the old days, I tried dozens (literally) of games...these days, my gaming time is more limited. ^_^

Monks are, along with Warlocks, my favourite 5e class.

My personal fave Monk sub-class is the Way of Mercy (which might be heavily driven by something I’m looking to do in my campaign), with the potential for that to be replaced by the Way of the Ascendant Dragon that’s currently in Unearthed Arcana for playtesting and totally isn’t in any way going to show up in any sort of Dragonlance book.

Your choice, the Way of the Long Death is really, really good too, but it has one of the most broken 17th level capstone abilities, allowing them to do up to 20d10 of necrotic damage (which not much in the game, outside of the undead, is resistant to). That’s just brutal. Granted, they get a Con save to potentially half the damage, but still...

And if you took a two-level dip into fighter to get Action Surge, you could then do it all again with your remaining Ki points in the same turn. So by Level 20, you have the potential to be dealing out up to 360 points of necrotic damage in a single turn. And given that monks tend to be high Dex, they’re often acting first in combat, so they could absolutely kill the fight before it starts. Then they can just sit down for a short rest, get all their Ki points back, and do it all again in the next fight.

Nice to see there's still all kinds of methods to break the game. ^_^ Hallmark of a good crunchy ruleset (it's the players' responsibility not to go hog-wild and exploit every hole they find, and the GM's to come down on it if it happens...).

Of course, I’m never going to play a game at that level, so I’m never going to see that! (I’ve never had a character above Level 4.)

Often a problem with any RPG - the campaign folds/fails before one arrives at the 'high level' stuff. Sometimes one can find a game where 'everyone starts at high level', which is fun...but lacks the impact/history of actually taking a character all the way up.

I've only had one Anima game go from 'beginning characters' to level 9. Was hoping it would go all the way to 14 or 15, but nope.

[Sharpandpointies]

I see Wavemaninawe... ^_^

[Wavemaninawe]

I see Wavemaninawe... ^_^

Guilty as charged. <<.


I may not contribute anymore, but I still camp from time to time.
You guys are an engaging and entertaining lot. :-)

[Sharpandpointies]

Guilty as charged. <<.


I may not contribute anymore, but I still camp from time to time.
You guys are an engaging and entertaining lot. :-)

You like to point and laugh is what you're saying. ^_^

[Wavemaninawe]

Edit:

It should be obvious that Im out of the loop.
My stealth game is wack. -_-

[Wavemaninawe]

You like to point and laugh is what you're saying. ^_^

Well, yes.

But it is in a totally loving and dignified way. :-D

[Sharpandpointies]

Edit:

It should be obvious that Im out of the loop.
My stealth game is wack. -_-

I regularly check who's on; it's a habit. ^_^

Well, yes.

But it is in a totally loving and dignified way. :-D

.....

I actually can't think of a clever rejoinder to this, so I guess it stands! ^_^

[Iron_Twister]

A part of me in my writing was wondering how to justify high school delinquents being tougher than their peers that knows martial arts...Then I recalled that said delinquents are more or less street war veterans that in the backstory just a year ago fought off an entire invasion force.

So this isn't exactly the tried and true method of good old fisticuffs (in which it doesn't explain anything) and I'm somehow breathing a sigh of relief.

Then again, my character Kyoko takes a few weeks training under her sorta aloof insane hermit family friendly Heihachi Mishima like grandfather in the woods and suddenly her fighting abilities are shot up drastically.

...You can see I'm stuck on backstory hell.

[Sharpandpointies]

A part of me in my writing was wondering how to justify high school delinquents being tougher than their peers that knows martial arts...Then I recalled that said delinquents are more or less street war veterans that in the backstory just a year ago fought off an entire invasion force.

So this isn't exactly the tried and true method of good old fisticuffs (in which it doesn't explain anything) and I'm somehow breathing a sigh of relief.

Then again, my character Kyoko takes a few weeks training under her sorta aloof insane hermit family friendly Heihachi Mishima like grandfather in the woods and suddenly her fighting abilities are shot up drastically.

...You can see I'm stuck on backstory hell.

Sounds painful!

But realistically, unless one lives in a universe where martial arts (and only martial arts!) grant supernatural prowess, one gets what one trains for. And if one's training is 'well, I actually got out there and rumbled with people, actual fights', then...one is kinda training to fight. ^_^

[Iron_Twister]

Sounds painful!

But realistically, unless one lives in a universe where martial arts (and only martial arts!) grant supernatural prowess, one gets what one trains for. And if one's training is 'well, I actually got out there and rumbled with people, actual fights', then...one is kinda training to fight. ^_^

True. Then I recalled that chapter of the manga Holyland where Yuu shows a Karateka that looked down on him the hard way of the differences of a sparring match and a street fight and I'm thinking this isn't too far off on what I'm thinking in my story.

[Iron_Twister]

Compared to the other Mechwarrior openings, this is...Mildly disappointing. If it weren't for the Peter Cullen like voice, I'd not be too interested.

...Though frankly I'll wait for a sale anyway before trying it... >_>

[Sharpandpointies]

True. Then I recalled that chapter of the manga Holyland where Yuu shows a Karateka that looked down on him the hard way of the differences of a sparring match and a street fight and I'm thinking this isn't too far off on what I'm thinking in my story.

Holyland wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close in a lot of ways to grasping stuff about fighting, for my money.

Any time there are rules (even MMA has rules), it's different from a real fight. Any time two people who have trained in the school face off with each other, it's different from a random fight.

Not to say one CAN'T learn useful stuff training under controlled and semi-controlled conditions. But all things being equal, actually being in fights is easily as good training for them as 'getting trained how to fight in a controlled environment', if not better.

I'd rather fight someone who has been training in a 'realistic' fashion (ie, actual sparring, resistance training, and so forth) than someone who has been in a whole lot of real fights.

Ideally, one would want both - training in the technical aspects (not necessarily 'techniques', but even the basics have important technical details) and experience in actual fighting. ^_^

[Iron_Twister]

Holyland wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close in a lot of ways to grasping stuff about fighting, for my money.

Any time there are rules (even MMA has rules), it's different from a real fight. Any time two people who have trained in the school face off with each other, it's different from a random fight.

Not to say one CAN'T learn useful stuff training under controlled and semi-controlled conditions. But all things being equal, actually being in fights is easily as good training for them as 'getting trained how to fight in a controlled environment', if not better.

I'd rather fight someone who has been training in a 'realistic' fashion (ie, actual sparring, resistance training, and so forth) than someone who has been in a whole lot of real fights.

Ideally, one would want both - training in the technical aspects (not necessarily 'techniques', but even the basics have important technical details) and experience in actual fighting. ^_^

Nice. Keeping that in mind for sure.