D&D Monk 5e Guide

Published on June 25, 2020, Last modified on June 1st, 2023

In this post, we will be examining the monk’s class features and how you can optimize your monk through choosing your race, background, ability scores, subclass, and feats.

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Monk 5e Guide Rating Scheme

This guide is meant as a deep dive into the DnD 5e monk. For a quick overview of other 5e classes, check out our Guide to DnD 5e Classes.

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good that option will be for your monk. This color coding isn’t a hard and fast rule; there are plenty of sub-optimized options out there that will be viable to your party and will be fun to play.

  • Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
  • Orange is an OK option
  • Green is a good option
  • Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
  • Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

D&D 5e Monk Overview

Level Proficiency Bonus Martial Arts Ki Points Unarmored Movement Features
1st +2 1d4 Unarmored Defense, Martial Arts
2nd +2 1d4 2 +10 ft. Ki, Unarmored Movement
3rd +2 1d4 3 +10 ft. Monastic Tradition, Deflect Missiles
4th +2 1d4 4 +10 ft. Ability Score Improvement, Slow Fall
5th +3 1d6 5 +10 ft. Extra Attack, Stunning Strike
6th +3 1d6 6 +15 ft. Ki-­Empowered Strikes, Monastic Tradition feature
7th +3 1d6 7 +15 ft. Evasion, Stillness of Mind
8th +3 1d6 8 +15 ft. Ability Score Improvement
9th +4 1d6 9 +15 ft. Unarmored Movement improvement
10th +4 1d6 10 +20 ft. Purity of Body
11th +4 1d8 11 +20 ft. Monastic Tradition feature
12th +4 1d8 12 +20 ft. Ability Score Improvement
13th +5 1d8 13 +20 ft. Tongue of the Sun and Moon
14th +5 1d8 14 +25 ft. Diamond Soul
15th +5 1d8 15 +25 ft. Timeless Body
16th +5 1d8 16 +25 ft. Ability Score Improvement
17th +6 1d10 17 +25 ft. Monastic Tradition feature
18th +6 1d10 18 +30 ft. Empty Body
19th +6 1d10 19 +30 ft. Ability Score Improvement
20th +6 1d10 20 +30 ft. Perfect Self

Playstyle

Monks are a very unique and fun class to play. Some say they are underpowered, but it’s hard to deny that playing a ninja is awesome.

Monks are great support characters as they have the ability to move through combat with relative ease, going where the fighting is thickest or getting out of difficult situations. They also have some really cool out-of-combat features that make them great candidates to be the stealthy infiltrator of the party.

Overall, a monk isn’t going to be the class you choose if you are planning on being the strongest character in the party. They do, however, offer a very unique playstyle and can be an indispensable asset to the party if played correctly.

Strengths

Monks are a DEX-based class, which makes it easy to ensure your monk is good at what they are supposed to be good at. By focusing primarily on DEX, you can ensure your character:

  • Is hard to hit
  • Does a fair amount of damage
  • Can sneak around like a ninja

Despite being a martial class, they also tend to have fun, varied gameplay because of their Ki features. One Ki feature, Stunning Strike, is particularly potent as it allows you to apply the Stunned condition to opponents, making monk’s one of the more dangerous classes in one-on-one combat.

Weaknesses

Monks are a marital class that doesn’t have a lot of hit points or a particularly high AC. This makes them susceptible to getting knocked out when in close quarters combat (which is where they will likely be). They also deal an underwhelming amount of damage compared to other melee characters like fighters, barbarians, and paladins.

Monks have class features that really come in handy at a distance as it allows them to catch projectiles and avoid anything requiring a DEX save quite easily. But in order to be effective in combat, most monks need to get up close.

There are monk archetypes that allow the class to become more deadly at range, but they still won’t be as effective as a ranger or rogue with projectiles.

Best Races for Monk

Standard Races

Dragonborn: Monks need DEX to be effective.
  • Chromatic: Monks typically struggle with survivability in melee, so a free passive elemental resistance + an activated immunity can go a long way to help them stay up. This, combined with the extra burst damage from the Breath Weapon makes the chromatic dragonborn a solid choice for a monk.
Dwarf: CON is helpful but not a priority. The fact that dwarves don't get access to +2 DEX will really harm a monk build.
  • Hill: WIS and hit points, but no DEX unfortunately.
  • Mountain: STR doesn’t do anything for monks since they use DEX for attack and damage rolls instead.
Elf: Proficiency in Perception is great; Perception is the best skill in D&D 5e. In addition, the DEX score increase of 2 pairs perfectly with the Monk's game plan.
  • Aereni Wood: Perfect ASI array and very synergistic passive race features.
  • Pallid: Monks are interested in both DEX and WIS, which this subrace provides. The free spells are decent options to help with utility.
  • Shadar-kai: DEX and CON are both great ability scores for monks. The bonus resistance and the teleportation ability will help with battlefield mobility and survivability.
Gnome: INT is useless for a monk.
Half-Elf: CHA is bad but you can increase DEX and WIS by 1. Proficiency in two skills is also a nice bonus.
Half-Orc: Monks need DEX or WIS to be effective.
Halfling: +2 DEX and +1 WIS is the ideal starting array for Monks. Lucky will help you as much as Fighters because of all the melee attacks you'll be making and Halfling Nimbless will allow you to move freely around the battlefield.
Human:
  • Mark of Finding: Monks will love that extra hunter’s mark damage but the subrace lack the all-important DEX bonus and monks can't cast the other spells of the mark.
  • Mark of Passage: Mark of Passage builds on the monk’s maneuverability by giving them a free casting of misty step and synergizes with the need for DEX.
  • Standard: Standard humans are pretty great for monks since they look for DEX, CON, and WIS when creating a character.
  • Variant: You can increase your DEX, WIS, and CON scores as you see fit. Also, having a feat at 1st-level is really powerful, especially because monks usually want to take ASI over feats when they level up.
Tiefling: Look for subraces with DEX or use the Feral variant.
  • Bloodline of Dispater: Only +1 DEX, but decent for sneaking.
  • Bloodline of Glasya: Only +1 DEX, but decent for sneaking.
  • Variant – Feral: +2 DEX is exactly what a monk is looking for, though INT is useless.
  • Variant – Winged: Flight is amazing, though monks fight up close so it will only be useful for utility.

Non-Standard Races

Aarakocra: With the exception of Kensei monks, most monks don't have a ton of ranged options which makes the Aarakocra's flight significantly less attractive
Aasimar: It will be very hard to be an effective monk without a +2 DEX racial bonus.
Air Genasi: Monks may not be using shocking grasp that often, but both feather fall and levitate will make you more useful both in and out of combat. The extra movement speed, Darkvision, and damage resistance are all additional benefits.
Astral Elf: Your high WIS makes sacred flame an option and gives your monk an effective ranged option. When combined with additional mobility granted from starlight step, this makes astral elves an effective base for monks.
Auto Gnome: Monk's already get Unarmored Defensive, which makes the auto gnome's armor redundant. Beyond that, monk's will enjoy the ability to add d4 to their flurry of attacks, as well as the extra survivability the auto gnome's Construct creature type offers.
Bugbear: Nothing here for a monk, there are plenty of races that give a +2 DEX bonus.
  • Updated: Monks get a ton of attacks, so they will be able to take advantage of the new bugbear Surprise Attack mechanics. Monks naturally like DEX, which synergizes well by boosting your initiative and allowing you to make use of the Sneaky trait.
Centaur: Nothing here for a monk.
  • Updated: Nothing here for a monk.
Changeling: Monks just need +2 DEX or +2 WIS too badly for a Changeling to be a good choice.
  • Updated: Free choice of ASIs doesn't really help the monk much here since they don't have anything to synergize with the changeling's traits, though they can at least pickup +2 DEX.
Deep Gnome: Apart from advantage on saves against some spells, the main thing deep gnomes offer monks is out-of-combat utility. Disguise self, improved Darkvision, and advantage on Stealth checks all can help with things monks usually aren't awesome at.
Duergar: Unfortunately, RAW your monk's unarmed attacked don't get the extra 1d4 damage from being enlarged. Other than that, monks would appreciate the extra survivability duergars provide.
Earth Genasi: You can already use your bonus action to evade damage and bypass difficult terrain, so earth genasi don't have much that monks are looking for.
Eladrin: Unfortunately, monks need their bonus action too much and are simultaneously squishy when in large groups and have terrible ranged options, which will make it difficult to Fey Step with any regularity. Monk's also get Step of the Wind, which can allow them to disengage for at the cost of a bonus action and a ki point, which overlaps with Fey Step's ability to get you out of trouble. Even though getting multiple misty steps per long rest may seem appealing, there are better options out there for a monk.
Fairy: Monk's typically want to be up close and personal in order to use their martial arts. A Way of the Kensei monk could make decent use of the flight but would be restricted without access to a longbow.
Firbolg: The +2 to WIS is effective, but monks really rely on DEX for all of their class abilities.
  • Updated: With the freedom to choose +2 DEX, the firbolg becomes a more attractive choice for a monk. The spells and effects here are nice, especially invisibility, as monks typically can't get access to that.
Fire Genasi: Monks will enjoy the AoE melee option and a long-range cantrip, as well as the survivability buff from the fire resistance. Unfortunately, if you use flame blade you can't use Flurry of Blows because you're technically making a spell attack, rather than using the Attack action.
Genasi:
  • Air: Air genasi do get some DEX, but levitate will only be useful to use on your enemies or out of combat because monks need to be in melee range.
  • Water: The water genasi provides CON and WIS, but without DEX the monk will be at a serious disadvantage.
Giff: Nothing here for a monk.
Gith: INT is useless for a monk.
  • Githzerai: WIS is important for monks, and the githzerai comes with WIS and some solid defensive options. The issue is that DEX is even more important, and that’s sorely missed here.
Goblin: DEX and CON are a great start for a monk build as they need a high AC and hit points to survive in melee range. Nimble Escape works well with this class, but may not get much use as monks have many powerful options for their Bonus Action.
  • Updated: Monks can already Disengage with Step of the Wind, though Fury of the Small will add some damage to the many attacks monks can take per round.
Goliath: DEX and WIS are paramount for the effectiveness of a monk, so missing both here hurts. STR can be useful for a Grapple/Shove build, but that won’t be enough to make up for the poor stat distribution.
  • Updated: Monks can be quite difficult to keep alive at low levels due to mediocre hit dice and AC. For low level campaigns, Stone's Endurance is a great way to make up for this before you get higher DEX and access to some of your better class features.
Hadozee: A lot of the Hadozee's features are duplicated with the monk's class features. Slow Fall makes Glide redundant and the monk's Unarmored Movement allows them to run up walls by 9th level, so they don't need a climbing speed. The damage reduction of Hadozee Dodge is okay, but not worth picking this race over.
Harengon: The Perception proficiency will complement your high WIS modifier, and the extra movement options will allow you to flow around the battlefield like water. The Lucky Footwork ability will also give your Evasion ability a buff and help save you from even taking half damage.
Hobgoblin: Monks need DEX or WIS to be effective.
  • Updated: Hobgoblins just don't make sense for monks since most monks need their bonus action nearly every turn in combat. Still, Fortune from the Many is useful to have as a failsafe for saving throws.
Kalashtar: WIS is useful to the monk and the kalashtar’s traits offer even more defensive options. Grab a good amount of DEX and CON and the kalashtar makes a fine monk.
Kender: Monks have the ability and WIS needed to make Taunt effective, though the bonus action will interfere with their Flurry of Blows.
Kenku: Both ability score bonuses are right in the monk’s wheelhouse, and the racial traits just add a nice stealth spin to the whole class. On top of that, a mostly silent monk seems like some pretty cool flavor.
Kobold: DEX is the best stat for the monk, but a lack of WIS and CON can be deadly considering their low hit dice. With Ki abilities and Extra Attacks, that can add up to a whole lot of attack rolls with advantage.
  • Updated: Monks need their bonus action for a variety of things in combat, so Draconic Cry may not always be the best use of it.
Leonin: The bonus to CON can help with your meager durability and the Daunting Roar is an excellent ability to have if you get surrounded. Your natural weapons unfortunately don't add anything to your Martial Arts ability.
Lineage:
  • Dhampir: Extra movement can help monk's navigate the battlefield. Monks are typically pretty multi-ability dependent, so they may not have a lot of ASIs for their CON after they pump their DEX and WIS. Regardless, the Vampiric Bite will be a solid feature to enable self-healing.
  • Hexblood: A free bit of utility from disguise self and the Eerie Token effects. The best feature here is definitely hex, which can result in a ton of extra damage because of the monk's multitude of attacks.
Lizardfolk: CON and WIS work well for monks. This class already comes with Unarmored Defense, with the base AC being lower but uses both your DEX and WIS modifier. This means that Natural Armor will be better until both your DEX and WIS are high enough.
Loxodon: Like with the barbarian, the monk’s Unarmored Defense does not stack with Natural Armor, and Unarmored Defense is just better. At least monks benefit from both CON and WIS.
Minotaur: Monks need DEX and WIS, preferably both.
Orc: Monks need DEX and WIS for everything, not STR.
Plasmoid: A prime candidate for monks, plasmoids can offer a ton of utility and combat effectiveness. The bonus to escape grapples, resistance against poison and acid, and advantage against poison can all help with survivability. The ability to squeeze through 1 inch gaps as long as your not wearing or carrying anything is almost purpose built for monks, who have Unarmored Defense and primarily use their fists to attack. Unfortunately, your pseudopod can't deliver any attacks, but the plasmoid race is still a very worthwhile choice for monks.
Satyr: Small DEX bonus but no WIS or CON can hurt the multi-ability dependent monk. The Magic Resistance and extra speed are great, but the unarmed weapon will be outshone by your fists of death.
Shadar-kai: Monks need their bonus action for Flurry of Blows and other Ki-powered abilities, but they normally struggle with ranged options and survivability, both of which can be solved by the shadar-kai's Blessing of the Raven Queen.
Shifter:
  • Wildhunt Shifter: Perfect ASI spread for monks, though nothing offered by the wildhunt shifter in terms of subrace features is of much interest.
Simic Hybrid: DEX is your best choice for the ability score and CON is useful, but monks are typically looking for a race that can give them access to both DEX and WIS. Monks typically fight unarmored and in melee range, making Carapace a nice addition.
Tabaxi: DEX is the best stat for the monk, and the tabaxi’s movement options synergize with the monk’s class features to make them one of the most agile people in a fight. CHA however is usually a dump stat for monks, who need to focus on DEX, WIS, and CON, leaving no room for the other stats.
Thri-kreen: Monks already have unarmored defense, but the ability to get advantage on Stealth checks is a nice boost. When it comes to Secondary Arms, it surprisingly doesn't make a huge difference. Monks can already attack as a bonus action using Martial Arts, and don't need to be wielding a weapon to make the offhand attack effective.
Tortle: A STR brawler/grappler could work as a tortle monk, but really only at low levels. At higher levels the monk’s Unarmored Defense will begin to outclass Natural Armor.
Triton: Monks need DEX and WIS, preferably both.
Vedalken: WIS is the saving grace, but monks really want to see DEX. Monks do come with some good defensive options so Vedalken Dispassion makes them even more durable. Once you get the monk’s Stillness of Mind you have proficiency and advantage on a bunch of saving throws.
Warforged: There is some overlap here with the monk’s class features at higher levels. Still, monk’s do well with higher AC and can focus on increasing WIS.
Water Genasi: Not much here for monks beyond the resistance to acid and some situational aquatic abilities.
Yuan-ti Pureblood: Monks need DEX or WIS to be effective.

Ability Scores

Ability Score Increases (ASI) at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level.

Monks rely on multiple abilities, meaning you need to dump some stats. The best thing to do is to focus on DEX, WIS, and then CON, in that order.

STR: Take some STR if you’d like to shove or grapple enemies, both of which can be quite good for monks.

DEX: Monks use DEX for everything. Attack rolls and damage rolls are calculated using DEX, and monks also want decent AC due to their average hit points. Deflect Missiles is also affected by DEX and helps to keep you alive.

CON: Don’t ignore CON. Letting your hit points fall behind as you level up because of a low CON score is a surefire way to be very vulnerable at higher levels.

INT: You probably need to dump INT to ensure a decent amount of DEX, WIS, and CON.

WIS: Unarmored Defense lets WIS contribute more to AC. Some of your ki abilities also rely on WIS.

CHA: You probably need to dump CHA to ensure a decent amount of DEX, WIS, and CON.

Monk Class Progression

1st Level

Hit Points: A d8 hit dice is pretty deadly considering that monks engage in melee combat. Luckily they sport a sizeable AC due to Unarmored Defense.

Saves: DEX saves happen all the time and monks will be great at succeeding at those. STR saves are typically less important but do come up more often than something like an INT save.

Weapon/Armour Proficiencies: Monks don’t get any options for armor or shields, but they don’t really want them anyway due to Unarmored Defense. Many of the monk weapons aren’t great either but being able to use DEX instead of STR bonuses should help some.

SkillsOnly two skills and the list to choose from is pretty subpar.

  • Acrobatics (DEX): Sadly Acrobatics is quite an underutilized skill. Many situations use Athletics instead or there is already a rule in place such as for jumping distance. Some DMs like to be more lenient and let you use Acrobatics for skill checks if you ask.
  • Athletics (STR): Good for grapples and moving around difficult environments, especially if you don’t completely neglect STR.
  • History (INT): Can be nice if you enjoy lore and roleplaying, but you will make your DM work extra hard! Unfortunately your INT score won’t be high enough to take advantage of this skill.
  • Insight (WIS): Monks typically have a good WIS score to take advantage of Insight. It’s a pity that this isn’t Perception though, since Perception is just better most of the time.
  • Religion (INT): Same as History but sometimes more useful if your campaign includes gods. Unfortunately your INT score won’t be high enough to take advantage of this skill.
  • Stealth (DEX): Since Monks have high DEX and don’t wear any noisy heavy armor they are a great option for sneaking around or scouting. Although if you have a Rogue in the party your usefulness in that regard becomes next to zero.

Unarmored Defense: Once you hit 20 in both DEX and WIS you’ll manage to get 20 AC. Not too shabby for a character without armor but that won’t be until level 19 if you don’t take any feats.

Martial Arts: This is the key feature that makes the monk actually work as a class. It gives you an unarmed strike as a bonus action as long as you use your action to attack with an unarmed strike or monk weapon, which will be the case most often.  Most importantly, STR can be dumped in favor of DEX and an extra attack as a bonus action helps keep damage more consistent with other classes.

2nd Level

Ki: Ki features some fantastic options for combat that can use your bonus action to maximize action economy.

  • Flurry of Blows: You can either do Flurry of Blows for a total of three attacks or the extra attack from Martial Arts for two, not both. Still, Flurry of Blows is a solid way to get in more damage.
  • Patient Defense: The Dodge action is a great way to avoid taking damage.
  • Step of the Wind: Step of the Wind grants some good in-combat mobility options.

Unarmored Movement: Increased speed is another reason to leave armor for your party members. Walking on water and vertical surfaces is also situationally useful.

Dedicated Weapon: Unfortunately, this doesn’t offer monks a very large boost. Yes, you can choose from a wider array of weapons and yes some ranged weapons can work, but at the end of the day the change will be small. For example, you can now wield a greatclub at do 1d8 damage, instead of the typical 1d6 you’d get from other monk-appropriate weapons. You can also use a shortbow, but it won’t matter much because you have to be up close to use Flurry of Blows and Stunning Strike.

3rd Level

Deflect Missles: Super cool if you manage to catch the missile and hurl it back at your foe. Obviously Deflect Missiles won’t work with spells, so its usefulness is limited.

Ki Fueled Attack: The monk’s basic class features allow you to use Ki Fueled Attack off of a Stunning Strike, which will net a ton of extra bonus action attacks over the course of even a single adventuring day. Subclasses like Four Elements, Shadow, Sun Soul, Kensei, and Mercy can also activate this ability off of their features.

Monastic Tradition: At 3rd level, monks get to choose their Monastic Tradition.

Way of Mercy

Way of Mercy monks gain access to healing features as well as the ability to channel necromantic forces against their enemies.

  • 3rd level
    • Implements of Mercy: Insight is a decent skill but Medicine is rather useless due to the plentiful healing options available in 5e. The herbalism kit doesn’t do much, either.
    • Hand of Healing: The healing from this ability doesn’t equate to a 1st-level cure wounds until 11th level, which makes it pretty meager. That said, using it as part of a Flurry of Blows to get an extra attack plus small amount of healing makes this worthwhile. As this ability is touch, you’ll be healing yourself most of the time.
    • Hand of Harm: This one is a bit of a toss up until 6th level, when it gets a major buff. It’s a better damage type than your Flurry of Blows, but it uses your WIS modifier rather than DEX. If your WIS is as high as DEX, it’s worth it to get the guaranteed damage because you can activate it on a hit.
  • 6th level
    • Physician’s Touch: Bake in lesser restoration to your Hand of Healing, which can be helpful when you or a party member is suffering from a condition. The best use for this will still be using it on yourself (or another nearby ally) as part of your Flurry of Blows. The second feature, automatically imposing the poisoned condition when you use Hand of Harm, is a huge buff to the feature as you can all but guarantee disadvantage on an enemy’s attacks when you land a hit.
  • 11th level
    • Flurry of Healing and Harm: This provides a meager increase in ki point efficiency for your Hand of Healing and Hand of Harm features. Unfortunately, unless you really need healing, this feature is largely useless because of the gamble you have to make waiting for Flurry of Blows to use Hand of Harm. If you land a hit during your normal attacks, will you forgo using your Hand of Harm so that you can use it for free as part of your Flurry of Blows? What if both your Flurry attacks miss? This uncertainty takes a lot of the benefit out of this ability.
  • 17th level
    • Hand of Ultimate Mercy: a 24-hour revivify, plus healing and lesser restoration. It’s a solid effect, but comes too late in the game to make a huge difference. At this point, bards and clerics will have access to resurrection and paladins and artificers will have raise dead. If you’ve gotten this far in your campaign without reviving magic, I commend you, but it’s unlikely.

Way of Shadow

As the name implies, Way of Shadow allows the monk to assume more of a stealth role. In that respect, this subclass is a ton of fun. Unfortunately, rogues can do most of it better.

  • 3rd level
    • Shadow Arts:
      • Darkness: Great to confuse, avoid, or escape.
      • Darkvision: Darkvision comes in handy so often, plus this spell lasts for 8 hours.
      • Minor Illusion: You get this amazing cantrip for free. So much utility!
      • Pass Without Trace: Makes sneaking for your whole party so much easier.
      • Silence: Your anti-magic ability since verbal components are a part of many spells.
  • 6th level
    • Shadow Step: Teleportation! Sadly it only works in dim light or darkness and advantage on a single attack won’t do all that much considering you have Flurry of Blows.
  • 11th level
    • Cloak of Shadows: Free invisibility but also limited to dim light and darkness.
  • 17th level
    • Opportunist: It’s like an opportunity attack that doesn’t require the enemy to be moving past you. Helps you pile on more damage per round.

Way of the Ascendant Dragon

Channel the awesome power of dragons into your ki and monk abilities!

  • 3rd level
    • Draconic Disciple: Being able to reroll Persuasion and Intimidation checks will certainly help monks in social situations, as they rarely stack into CHA. Changing your unarmed strike’s damage on the fly to an elemental damage is helpful for working around resistances, and draconic is one of the most likely languages to come up during a campaign. Altogether three small features that provide a surprising amount of value.
    • Breath of the Dragon: A close approximation to the dragonborn’s breath weapon, instead you now get to choose between a 20ft cone or 30ft line. The damage lags behind the breath weapon quite substantially, but you’re able to replace one of your attacks with the breath weapon and use it your prof. times per long rest, which makes up for that.
  • 6th level
    • Wings Unfurled: 1 ki point to Disengage/Dash as a bonus action plus gain a flying speed for your turn is certainly added value, but often will flight speed that only lasts for one turn won’t matter much if you can already avoid opportunity attacks. That said, getting access to flight is always useful both inside and outside combat, even if it’s only 30ft (60ft if you Dash) at a time.
  • 11th level
    • Aspect of the Wyrm: An aura that doesn’t initially use ki as a resource? Monks rejoice! while only 20ft in diameter, the frighten effect and resistance are both solid options in combat.
  • 17th level
    • Ascendant Aspect: This is quite the capstone. Not only do you get a ki-powered buff to your breath weapon, but you passively gain blindsight and get a free buff to your Aspect of the Wyrm. All of these features are solid value that you’ll need for the final stretch of your campaign.

Way of the Astral Self

Augment with your body with your astral self, a spiritual force that transcends planes

  • 3rd level
    • Arms of the Astral Self: This is a solid ability for 1 ki point. Not only do you get some burst damage when it activates, but you get 10min of extended reach with unarmed attack and an upgraded damage type on unarmed attacks. When compared to Flurry of Blows, the damage is middling because you don’t get to apply modifiers, but if you can hit more than one creature, it definitely becomes worth it. Because using your WIS modifier in place of STR or DEX is optional, you don’t need to spend extra resources buffing your WIS, which may be best as DEX is usually the best choice for monks to stack initially.
  • 6th level
    • Visage of the Astral Self: Upgraded darkvision, advantage on Insight and Intimidation checks, and some pseudo telepathy aren’t all that exciting when compared to other monk subclass features at 6th level.
  • 11th level
    • Body of the Astral Self: You can now reduce damage for certain common elemental damage types and get to deal some extra damage when you hit with Arms of the Astral Self. Honestly, nothing particularly exciting here as the Deflect Energy is strictly worse than a rogue’s Uncanny Dodge and the Empowered Arms only deal an extra 4 damage per turn. Oh, AND you have to have your Arms and Visage summoned, which costs a bonus action and 2 ki points.
  • 17th level
    • Awakened Astral Self: A relatively heavy investment of ki points but it has a solid return. The bonus to AC is a wonderful addition for monks, who often have survivability issues, and gaining a full extra attack is wicked, especially because at the point, your arms will be dealing 1d10 damage, on top of putting out force damage with a 10ft reach.

Way of the Drunken Master

Surprisingly, Way of the Drunken Master excels at mobility and is a great option if you like to move around the battlefield.

  • 3rd level
    • Bonus Proficiencies: Performance isn’t a skill that one usually hopes to be proficient in, but perhaps it does make sense flavor-wise given the drunken nature of this subclass. The brewer’s supplies proficiency also falls into this category.
    • Drunken Technique: Somehow in your drunken stupor you can combine Flurry of Blows with the Disengage action and heightened mobility. Great for weaving in and out of combat.
  • 6th level
    • Tipsy Sway:
      • Leap to Your Feet: Only really good if you get knocked prone and need to hightail it out of there. Otherwise, after being knocked prone half your movement should usually suffice.
      • Redirect Attack: This feature feels awesome to use, but only comes in handy when you’re near more than one enemy. Even still, it’s really effective at increasing damage output per turn.
  • 11th level
    • Drunkard’s Luck: Negating disadvantage on a saving throw could potentially save your skin. The same could be true to a lesser extent for ability checks and attack rolls.
  • 17th level
    • Intoxicated Frenzy: Combined with Drunken Technique you’re in for a wild ride. Your party members will stare in awe as you sprint around the battlefield punching anything that moves.

Way of the Four Elements

Perhaps the most versatile and unique Monastic Tradition, allowing you to cast spells. Unfortunately using the elemental disciplines is quite expensive in terms of ki points, meaning more often than not you'll still end up using Flurry of Blows.

  • Cantrip
    • Elemental Attunement: Not as useful as Minor Illusion or Prestidigitation, but you get this automatically.
    • Fangs of the Fire Snake: The damage isn’t great, but 10 feet of range and fire damage could come in handy.
    • Fist of the Four Thunders: Thunderwave is a fairly good spell for a melee character who is pretty squishy, since it has a chance to push them away.
    • Fist of Unbroken Air: Knocking an enemy prone won’t help you directly since you already attacked for the turn, but it can set up some nice damage for your Rogue’s Sneak Attack.
    • Rush of the Gale Spirits: If you want to push enemies, use Fist of the Four Thunders because it does damage as well.
    • Shape of the Flowing River: If you are near water or ice, Shape of the Flowing River is amazing. If you are literally anywhere else, it sucks.
    • Sweeping Cinder Strike: Burning Hands isn’t usually the best spell, but as a Monk you’ll take what you can get.
    • Water Whip: Another way to move your enemies and knock them prone.
  • 6th level
    • Clench of the North Wind: Hold Person can turn the tide of a fight by taking out the scariest humanoid opponent.
    • Gong of the Summit: Destroying armor and weapons your opponents have is pretty funny, since you will then proceed to show them that fists are better anyways.
  • 11th level
    • Flames of the Phoenix: Fireball is always awesome. At higher levels you will have to spend quite a few ki points for the damage to remain significant, making this expensive.
    • Mist Stance: Enhances your ability to get in and out of places you shouldn’t be.
    • Ride the Wind: Flight is usually a massive combat advantage, but most of the Monk’s abilities are only useful when in melee distance.
  • 17th level
    • Breath of Winter: If you took Flames of the Phoenix, you already have a solid AoE option. If not, this is worth considering.
    • Eternal Mountain Defense: Coupled with a good AC, Eternal Mountain Defense will make your Monk capable of tanking quite well.
    • River of Hungry Flame: Wall spells are strong. They let you split up the fight, escape, or prevent escape.
    • Wave of Rolling Earth: Same as River of Hungry Flame. You can also use this to make a bridge or ramp.

Way of the Kensei

Way of the Kensei offers an interesting take on the 5e monk class, but access to more weapons doesn't make the subclass particularly good. It's cool, but your fists will do just fine.

  • 3rd level
    • Kensei Weapons: There are some good options, but very few.
      • Melee
        • Battleaxe: The best damage available for any of the melee weapons (1d10).
        • Longsword: Same as battleaxe.
        • Warhammer: Same as battleaxe.
        • Whip: Poor damage, but the damage die does scale with your level and it gives you reach.
      • Ranged
        • Longbow: Better than crossbows since they don’t have the loading property.
        • Crossbows: The problem with crossbows is that they have the loading property, which can only be mitigated by the Crossbow Mastery feat. Monks are better off taking other feats or using ASI instead.
    • Agile Parry: Monks critically need the bonus AC that Agile Parry grants. Remember that you must make an unarmed strike as one of your attacks to use this.
    • Kensei’s Shot: Necessary to make your ranged attacks viable, it takes up your bonus action but the damage applies to both strikes. Also, if you are in ranged distance, you likely don’t need to make that extra unarmed strike.
    • Way of the Brush: Useless.
  • 6th level
    • One with the Blade:
      • Magic Kensei Weapons: Similar to the class feature Ki-Empowered Strikes. Really great if your weapon isn’t magical.
      • Deft Strike: By the time you reach 6th level, you will have access to a lot of Ki points that can recharge on a short rest. This is a great way to sneak extra damage in when you need it.
  • 11th level
    • Sharpen the Blade: Sharpen the Blade is fantastic if you want to mainly stick with your weapon as a source of damage. Otherwise, save your ki for Flurry of Blows.
  • 17th level
    • Unerring Accuracy: More reliable damage output with your Kensei weapon of choice.

Way of the Long Death

Way of the Long Death assumes a more robust role for the monk. Take this Monastic Tradition if you want to be similar to a tank character.

  • 3rd level
    • Touch of Death: Temporary hit points keep you in the fight and are especially good at early levels when your AC and regular hit points are still quite low. The fact that you can use this every time a creature near you is hit to 0 hit points is very powerful.
  • 6th level
    • Hour of Reaping: Very similar to the Fear spell. Great for crowd control and getting out of a sticky situation.
  • 11th level
    • Mastery of Death: Makes you near unkillable as long as you have ki points left to burn.
  • 17th level
    • Touch of the Long Death: Good as a burst of damage if you know you won’t be needing any more ki points and choose to spend a fair few. If you don’t have many ki points left or want to save them, just use your fists.

Way of the Open Hand

Way of the Open Hand is what would be considered the classic approach to the monk class. It allows for the typical playstyle of the class but can't really do anything special.

  • 3rd level
    • Open Hand Technique: Adds a little spice to your Flurry of Blows. Knocking enemies prone, pushing them away, or blocking their reactions are all useful options to both you and your party.
  • 6th level
    • Wholeness of Body: It’s great to be able to heal yourself without your party members having to waste their spell slots or other resources. Scales fairly well.
  • 11th level
    • Tranquility: Tranquility is hardly, if ever, useful. Sometimes you really don’t want to be hit, but at that point you’ve likely already attacked and therefore the effect of Tranquility has already ended.
  • 17th level
    • Quivering Palm: Instant killing is insanely good, especially since it only costs 3 ki so you can do it multiple times. Even on a failed save 10d10 damage is quite a lot.

Way of the Sun Soul

Way of the Sun Soul is relatively unexciting, and the damage largely depends on how much ki you are willing to part with. If you're willing to live with these downsides, the Way of the Sun Soul monk is viable as a hybrid melee and ranged character.

  • 3rd level
    • Radiant Sun Bolt: Ranged attack with a relatively weak damage die unless you spend ki.
  • 6th level
    • Searing Arc Strike: Casting Burning Hands as a bonus action can add lots of damage. Probably best used in combination with your ranged attack (Radiant Sun Bolt) so that you can catch as many enemies as possible in the cone.
  • 11th level
    • Searing Sunburst: Again, weak damage die unless you spend a HEFTY amount of ki points.
  • 17th level
    • Sun Shield: If your enemies want to focus on you Sun Shield will make them pay for it.

4th Level

Slow Fall: This isn’t useful that often, but you’ll be happy to have it when it does.

Quickened Healing: This is strictly worse than cure wounds until 11th level but can work with Ki-Fueled Attack so you can at least get an attack off in the same turn you heal. It’s better than nothing, but won’t be super impactful.

5th Level

Extra Attack: At 5th level you’ll become a punching machine! Your choice of Martial Arts (three attacks) or Flurry of Blows (four attacks).

Stunning Strike: Only one ki point to attempt to stun your opponent is a bargain. This is by far the monk’s most powerful ability.

Focused Aim: Bit of a gamble if you haven’t already figured out your enemy’s AC, but for the most part, turning a miss into a hit is the best use of ki points. Not only can you do your attack damage, but you also have the opportunity to use Stunning Strike .

6th Level

Ki-Empowered Strikes: Resistance to nonmagical attacks and damage is an annoying problem when you want to rely on your fists. Ki-Empowered Strikes solves this problem.

7th Level

Evasion: Absolutely amazing ability that can drastically improve survivability when things like fireball and Breath Weapons are being thrown around.

Stillness of Mind: Getting out of a debilitating condition can be crucial to your party’s success.

10th Level

Purity of Body: Depending on your campaign, Disease and Poison can be a constant threat.

13th Level

Tongue of the Sun and Moon: While this may be good for raw communication, any speech-based ability check will be tough since your CHA is likely very low.

14th Level

Diamond Soul: Saving throws no longer scare you. Proficiency and the ability to reroll in ALL saving throws is insane.

15th Level

Timeless Body: Timeless Body is impossible to give a rank to. Depending on your campaign it’s either the most important class feature or a waste of space.

18th Level

Empty Body: Greater invisibility, without concentration, for one minute at the cost of 4 ki points. This is amazing by itself, but granting resistance to all damage except force is simply stunning. This ability will be used every combat when able. Also, the ability to cast astral projection for 8 ki points is an interesting benefit. It may not come up all that much, but it’s a nice-to-have bonus of this already amazing ability.

20th Level

Perfect Self: Makes using up your ki points without knowing what is coming next way less of a gamble.

Best Feats for Monk

  • Actor: Nothing here for a monk.
  • Agent of Order: Pumping your attack's damage and potentially restraining your target is a great look for the monk, who could follow up the Stasis Strike with extra attacks and their Flurry of Blows with advantage. The ability score increase is an added bonus.
  • Alert: Being up higher in the initiative order isn't a big deal for monks because they don't have any burst damage abilities and don't have the survivability to charge into battle first.
  • Athlete: You get an ASI to Dexterity and some minor movement buffs that may make your monk feel more "ninja-like," but nothing amazing.
  • Baleful Scion: Monks will always appreciate a bit more self-healing, especially when it can be activated in the same action as their attacks.
  • Chef: Monks have a lot of bonus actions they would probably rather use. However, it's an excellent fit for Way of Mercy monks and adds a lot of spice to that playstyle.
  • Cohort of Chaos: Unfortunately, this is too unpredictable to be a efficient use of a feat.
  • Crossbow Expert: Sadly, monks cannot use crossbows. The other benefits of this feat might apply better to Way of the Kensei, which would give them a pretty good advantage.
  • Crusher: If there was ever a perfect feat for Monks, this is it. Because your unarmed strikes are bludgeoning damage and a good variety of monk weapons, you can almost always trigger this feat. Any subclass is excellent, but I think Way of the Drunken Master fits best since they already offer a lot of battlefield manipulation.
  • Defensive Duelist: This feat isn't terrible if your build already includes a finesse weapon. Your other option for reactions is catching missiles, so it works. However, it does lock you into using shortswords or choosing the Way of the Kensei.
  • Divinely Favored: Monks have decent Wisdom, so the spells they pick up can be effective in combat, rather than simply taking support spells. Sacred flame can give you a good offensive ranged option and hex could be incredible with all the attacks you get per turn.
  • Dual Wielder: Monks in 5e typically rely on their unarmed strikes and don't gain as much benefit from dual wielding. Their Martial Arts feature also usually outshines the benefits of Dual Wielder.
  • Durable: Nothing particularly exciting here for a monk.
  • Eldritch Adept: Since most monks cannot cast spells, they’re unable to pick this feat. While Way of the Four Elements monks can cast spells, we don’t think any noteworthy invocations would make it worth it over other feats.
  • Elemental Adept: This feat doesn't provide any value to monks. Seeing as Way of the Four Elements monks get access to fireball, wall of fire, and burning hands, they may want to pick this up if they are going for a firebender build from Avatar the Last Airbender.
  • Elven Accuracy: Similar to fighters, Dex-based Monks can get some good use out of this. However, they will struggle to get consistent advantage rolls.
  • Ember of the Fire Giant: Seeing as you can boost Wisdom or Constitution, the ASIs in this feat are actually quite solid, even if you can’t boost Dexterity. Also, the survivability boost, AoE, and debuff it provides goes well with the monks playstyle.
  • Fade Away: Being able to turn invisible as a reaction isn't a bad tool for monks, who notoriously struggle with survivability. This also allows you to use your increased speed to great effect as no one will be able to take opportunity attacks on you.
  • Fey Teleportation: Both of these stats do nothing for monks. I’d also argue that monks are already mobile enough not to need misty step, so I’d pass on this feat. Grabbing something like Crusher or Mobile would go a long way in damage or mobility, far past just one spell per day from this feat.
  • Fey Touched: Misty step is an amazing spell for a monk, allowing them to traverse the battlefield with ease or get out of dodge if they're hurt. The ASI will obviously go to WIS. The 1st-level spell will more often than not be hunter's mark because it will add a d6 onto every one of your insane amount of melee attacks. Hunter's mark also doesn't really need any upcasting to increase the benefits, nor does it matter if you have a bad spellcasting modifier.
  • Fighting Initiate: Most monks can probably benefit from a few of these, especially Way of the Kensei monks who can use a wider array of weapons. The unarmed Fighting Style does increase damage, but at that point you could just use a weapon like a quarterstaff.
  • Fury of the Frost Giant: Seeing as you can boost Wisdom or Constitution, the ASIs in this feat are actually quite solid, even if you can’t boost Dexterity. Also, the resistance to cold damage and reaction are pretty decent to help improve your combat versatility. Monks have some reaction-based abilities, but they aren't common enough that they would interfere with using Frigid Retaliation.
  • Gift of the Chromatic Dragon: This would be awesome for monks except for the fact that unarmed strikes won't activate the bonus damage. It gets slightly better if you use Tasha's Ki-Fueled Attack optional rule, but you'll still have to burn resources to make this feat more effective.
  • Gift of the Gem Dragon: Boost Wisdom and get an awesome defensive reaction that can help you avoid hits, reposition enemies, and move around the battlefield.
  • Gift of the Metallic Dragon: Monks, who are notoriously squishy, will appreciate the AC boost. Cure wounds is also a decent way to heal downed allies or grab some extra hit points out of combat.
  • Grappler: While monks would seemingly be a fit for grappling because they are experts at martial arts, they need Dexterity to be effective and grappling only works with Strength. Skip this feat.
  • Great Weapon Master: Monks absolutely cannot use this feat without losing out on the entirety of their Martial Arts features. They also can’t equip Heavy weapons outside of taking the Weapon Master feat, but it’s still not worth it. Kensei monks cannot pick Heavy weapons for their kensei weapon, making it a useless option as well.
  • Guile of the Cloud Giant: This is a really cool boost for a monk who wants to flit around the battlefield, striking enemies then disappearing before they can react. Unfortunately, there's no Wisdom or Dexterity boost, but this can help your hit points if you have an odd Constitution modifier after character creation.
  • Gunner: Most monk subclasses don’t stick to ranged damage, making this feat pretty subpar. The only subclass this would work with is the Way of the Kensei, but they’re still pretty melee-focused.
  • Healer: Monks need access to survivability boosts more than the ability to heal teammates.
  • Heavily Armored: Monks rely on Dexterity and Wisdom for their Armor Class through Unarmored Defense, so this feat is not useful.
  • Heavy Armor Master: Monks don't get proficiency with heavy armor.
  • Inspiring Leader: Monks are MAD enough already without having to invest in Charisma. This is a skip.
  • Keen Mind: Nothing here for a monk.
  • Keenness of the Stone Giant: While the ASIs are great, monks need their bonus action for Martial Arts or Ki moves and usually want to be in close range, making this feat a bit clunky.
  • Lightly Armored: Monks don’t have access to light armor, but their kit benefits from a lack of armor anyway. Like barbarians, Unarmored Defense is the better option in most situations.
  • Linguist: Druids won't get much out of the languages or Intelligence boost.
  • Lucky: Lucky is a feat that is useful to any character but martials can make especially good use of it. Monks won't need to spend their rerolls on saving throws as often because of Evasion and Diamond Soul. This means you'll have more to spend making sure your attacks land.
  • Mage Slayer: While most monks can benefit from this feat, I wouldn't say it's all that. Monks get a lot of reactions to use, and most of them are pretty helpful in most scenarios. If you want tons of options at all times, this is for you.
  • Magic Initiate: In a similar vein to barbarians, monks don’t benefit as much from this feat, but that doesn’t make it useless. The most significant benefit is picking up hex for an extra 1d6 for all of your attacks or shillelagh for those using weapons.
  • Martial Adept: While monks would love having access to the Battle Master's maneuvers, only getting one dice and it being a d6 drastically limits the effectiveness of this feat.
  • Medium Armor Master: Monks don't get proficiency in medium armor.
  • Metamagic Adept: Monks cannot gain spellcasting or Pact Magic, so they can’t pick this feat up. They do gain the ability to cast some spells through Way of the Four Elements, but it’s not traditional spellcasting as required by this feat.
  • Mobile: Many people like Mobile on a monk, but monks already have great movement speed and have Step of the Wind to Disengage safely. However, Mobile adds even more movement and helps you save ki points to move anywhere you want during battle.
  • Mounted Combatant: It would be quite the sight to see a mounted monk punching people on horseback. Unfortunately, monks will lose some of their much needed mobility if they fight on a mount in combat. Skip.
  • Observant: Oddly enough, this isn’t terrible for monks. You get additional AC with higher WIS through Unarmored Defense, which also factors into your Ki save DC. Plus, it can serve some purpose in social and exploration scenarios.
  • Orcish Fury: Nothing here for a monk.
  • Outlands Envoy: One free casting of misty step and an ASI isn't enough to make monks want to take this feat.
  • Piercer: This works really well for the weapon-focused subclasses or for monks that want to use a short sword as their primary weapon. Way of the Kensei monk is the best subclass for this, as you can use melee and ranged weapons without losing your monk weapon benefits.
  • Planar Wanderer: Even with the tailorable damage resistance, this feat just isn't worth it for a monk.
  • Poisoner: Monks won’t benefit from this at all, outside of flavor. Also, they can’t wipe poison on their hands
  • Polearm Master: While this feat may be flavorful for quarterstaff-wielding monks, the features aren’t particularly optimized for the monk class. This is because monks usually want to keep their bonus attack for unarmed strikes to trigger specific class abilities. Way of the Kinsei monks will want to pick this up if they plan on using polearms as weapons but cannot use a glaive or halberd because they have are heavy weapons.
  • Resilient: Though they don't have to concentrate on spells, monks could do well from picking up Resilient (CON). This can help increase their hit points while also offering them a bonus to resist effects that target CON, like poison, disease, and necromancy.
  • Revanent Blade: Most monks don't get martial weapon proficiencies, but the Way of the Kensei monk could make good use of this weapon and feat combo.
  • Righteous Heritor: The monk's Deflect Missiles and Slow Fall are both niche ways to mitigate damage, whereas Soothe Pain can be applied every combat. The reaction offered by this feat provides a huge amount of damage mitigation each long rest, for both you and your allies, which monks are all too happy to pick up.
  • Ritual Caster: Not a bad feat to increase your monk's versatility. You will likely already meet the Wisdom requirements and can get access to find familiar which could potentially give you advantage on most of your attacks. Plus, you can expand your repertoire by finding spell scrolls and books during your adventures.
  • Rune Shaper: Seeing as monks pump Wisdom, this is an awesome feat to stretch the versatility of your martial arts master. Need ranged options? Grab chromatic orb. Need defense? Armor of Agathys. Want to control the battlefield? Entangle or fog cloud. Want some AoE? Burning hands or thunderwave.
  • Savage Attacker: Skip this feat.
  • Scion of the Outer Planes: If your monk has stacked into Wisdom, this can give you a solid defensive buff and some ranged capabilities, both of which are tempting for monks.
  • Second Chance: With the Dexterity boost, this can increase your AC and make you harder to hit, something that monks struggle with. Plus, with this ability, Deflect Missiles, and Evasion, you'll have ways to mitigate damage on direct melee attacks, ranged attacks, and area of effects attacks.
  • Sentinel: If you want to keep your enemies locked down and reduce their mobility, Sentinel comes in handy. Usually characters will Sentinel can get focused on in combat, which the monk's mediocre hit die might struggle with.
  • Shadow Touched: This feat is primarily dependent on playstyle. Since monks can’t ever upcast these spells, they turn into one-trick ponies. Way of Shadow can get a little more flexibility out of this, but it’s not a must-have.
  • Sharpshooter: Most monks can ignore this feat, but those who pick up the Way of the Kensei can benefit from this, as they must choose a ranged weapon for one of their kensei weapons.
  • Shield Master: Monks lose their Unarmored Defense if they equip a shield, making them (and this feat) terrible for them.
  • Skill Expert: Being so multi-ability dependent (MAD) makes utility feats difficult to rationalize for monks. That said, Skill Expert allows you to pump either DEX or WIS, while also picking up an expertise in a vital skill, like Stealth or Perception. If you want to have a more well rounded monk out of combat, this isn't the worst pickup.
  • Skulker: The only monk subclass made for a stealthy playstyle is the Way of Shadow. While they can’t use ranged weapons, they can still benefit from the feat for ultimate stealth. Way of the Kensei monks can also use ranged weapons, but they aren’t always looking for a sneaky playstyle.
  • Slasher: Monks can use this pretty well, just like fighters. However, I think Kensei monks will find the most use out of it.
  • Soul of the Storm Giant: A great way to boost your monk's survivability and Wisdom or Constitution modifier at the same time.
  • Spell Sniper: Most monks can't cast spells and the Way of Four Element monk doesn't have any spells that require ranged attack rolls.
  • Squat Nimbleness: Monks are much better off going with Mobile, even though Squat Nimbleness provides an ASI.
  • Strike of the Giants: If you have a respectable Constitution modifier, the Hill Strike ability will be amazing cause all your subsequent attacks have advantage. Unfortunately, the 4th-level hill giant feat isn't particularly good for monks, so if you're looking to build your character around these feats, I'd go for Fire Strike. Also, to meet the requirements of this feat, you'll have to pick up a martial weapon proficiency somehow, like by choosing the Way of the Kensei subclass, or take the giant foundling background.
  • Tavern Brawler: While grappling as a bonus action could work well for monks, they aren't stacked into STR and have two many other bonus action abilities to worry about this feat.
  • Telekinetic: Monks don’t get a lot out of this feat. None of the subclasses really benefit from mage hand, and monks already have a use for their bonus actions. The WIS ASI is decent, but there are better feats out there that also provide this.
  • Telepathic: Nothing here for a monk.
  • Tough: Monks struggle with survivability in combat because of their low hit dice and lack of armor. Also, monks are quite multi-ability dependant (MAD), so they need to focus on DEX and WIS before CON. Tough can bring your hit points up to a reasonable level.
  • Vigor of the Hill Giant: None of the effect really produce enough value to monks to make this feat worthwhile, even with the +1 to Wisdom. Focus on something that will either boost your damage or defense.
  • War Caster: Monks can’t cast spells without spending Ki points, so there’s no point in picking up this feat.
  • Weapon Master: Gaining a weapon proficiency won't make non-monk weapons work with Martial Arts, which makes this useless.

Sources Used in This Guide

  • BR: Basic Rules
  • GotG: Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
  • SotDQ: Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
  • ERLW: Eberron: Rising from the Last War
  • EEPC: Elemental Evil Player’s Companion
  • EGtW: Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
  • FToD: Fizban's Treasury of Dragon
  • GGtR: Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica
  • MotM: Monsters of the Multiverse
  • MToF: Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
  • MOoT: Mythic Odyessys of Theros
  • PAitM: Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse
  • PHB: Player's Handbook
  • SAiS: Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
  • SCoC: Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
  • SCAG: Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
  • TCoE: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
  • TTP: The Tortle Package
  • WBtW: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight
  • VRGtR: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
  • VGtM: Volo's Guide to Monsters
  • XGtE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Roland Drews

Roland Drews is a content creator and editor at Arcane Eye. When he isn't watching basketball or noodling on his guitar, you can find Roland reading, writing, or playing D&D. He currently lives in Bonn, Germany with his girlfriend Jess.

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