Monk Feat Guide for D&D 2024 (5.5e)

Evaluating every feat for a monk and finding the best and worst options.

How it works

I’ve evaluated every feat based on how well I think it fits the monk class, scoring each feat out of 5. I’ve also provided some explanation for why I’ve given this score. All builds are different though, so use this as a guide, but not an absolute authority on what feats you should take and which you shouldn’t.

For example, great weapon master is an excellent feat, but is completely useless on a dextrous monk without proficiency in these types of weapons. I’ve based my assumptions around the idea that you have a build that fits the feat (as long as that build is sensible for a monk). My commentary on each feat should give more explanation here when necessary.

As D&D 2024 expands, so will the feat options. I’ll try to keep updating this guide as this happens. When a feat comes from a source outside of the Player’s Handbook, I’ve also used abbreviations to indicate which source it’s from. These abbreviations stand for:

• HoF: Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun
• ABoH: Astarion’s Book of Hungers
• LFL: Lorwyn First Light

Monk feats by score

If you just want an at a glance view of how well I’ve scored each feat for a monk, then I’ve included them all in the tables below for each feat type.

Origin feats by score

Score	Feats
5/5	Lucky, musician
4/5	Alert, magic initiate, spellfire spark, tavern brawler, tireless reveler, tough, vampire’s plaything
3/5	Lord’s Alliance agent, purple dragon rook, savage attacker, Shadowmoor hexer, skilled, vampire hunter
2/5	Child of the sun, crafter, Zhentarim ruffian
1/5	Cult of the Dragon initiate, Emerald Enclave fledgling, Harper agent, healer, tyro of the gauntlet

General feats by score

Score	Feats
5/5	Inspiring leader, mage slayer, skulker
4/5	Bloodlust, charger, purple dragon commandant, skulker, speedy, Zhentarim tactics
3/5	Bomber, chef, crusher, delicious pain, durable, fairy trickster, fey touched, genie magic, light bringer, love bites, mounted combatant, mythal touched, observant, piercer, polearm master, resilient, ritual caster, shadow touched, skill expert, slasher, street justice, weapon master
2/5	Athlete, cloying mists, defensive duelist, dragonscarred, grappler, lordly resolve, sentinel, street justice, telekinetic, telepathic, vampire touched
1/5	Actor, cold caster, crossbow expert, dual wielder, elemental adept, enclave magic, great weapon master, Harper teamwork, heavily armored, heavy armor master, keen mind, lightly armored, martial weapon training, medium armor master, moderately armored, order’s resilience, poisoner, putrefy, rebuke, sharpshooter, shield master, spellfire adept, spell sniper, treacherous allure, war caster, weapon master

Epic boon feats by score

Score	Feats
5/5	Boon of combat prowess, boon of desperate resilience, boon of dimensional travel, boon of fate, boon of fluid forms, boon of recovery, boon of the bright sun
4/5	Boon of fortune’s favour, boon of looming shadow, boon of speed, boon of the soul drinker, boon of the night spirit, boon of truesight
3/5	Boon of bloodshed, boon of energy resistance, boon of fortitude
2/5	Boon of bountiful health, boon of communication, boon of exquisite radiance, boon of poison mastery, boon of skill, boon of the furious storm
1/5	Boon of blazing dawn, boon of irresistible offense, boon of misty escape, boon of revelry, boon of spell recall, boon of terror

Monk origin feats

• Alert (4/5) – Always useful to go earlier in combat and being able to swap initiative with an ally makes for something quite tactical if the dithering wizard wants to fireball your foes before you charge into the fray. Monks are naturally good with initiative due to their high dexterity so this is a particularly good fit.
• Child of the sun (2/5) – LFL – Advantage against blinded for you and nearby allies is situationally decent. Faerie fire is OK, but the action setup is a pain and will reduce your damage output initially. Advantage can often be easily gained elsewhere.
• Crafter (2/5) – Maybe decent if you want to do a lot of crafting, or to buy cheaper gear, but considering the cheaper gear is non-magical, I just don’t feel you get enough from this and crafting isn’t of much value unless you’re making magical things (scrolls and items).
• Cult of the dragon initiate (1/5) – HoF – Causing frightened for a single turn to a single enemy isn’t that great for the whole action it requires, even with the bonus heroic inspiration. At least you’ll have the wisdom to back this up, but it’s too little gain for too much cost in action economy.
• Emerald enclave fledgling (1/5) – HoF – Speak with animals is OK if your DM’s willing to do something useful with your animal conversation. It does tend to be better on charismatic characters though, which monks are not. There are also much better ways to use your action in combat than using the help action, even if you can slightly move an ally out of danger and you into it.
• Harper agent (1/5) – HoF – Ranged help actions are OK, but your action is much better used with attacks. Everything else is a ribbon feature. Just not a good feat. Even if your playing a hobgoblin with their bonus action help, this still isn’t great on a monk who will still have better uses for their bonus action.
• Healer (1/5) – An action to do worse healing than a potion of healing. A potion of healing also only requires a bonus action rather than the action needed here.
• Lords alliance agent (3/5) – HoF – Inspiring strike might happen in 1 out of 3 average length encounters which isn’t a lot. Reassert honor is tricky for a monk as you need to stay next to allies and close to danger, but monks are typically at their best slipping in and out of combat.
• Lucky (5/5) – Giving yourself advantage and others disadvantage is powerful and really useful for anyone.
• Magic initiate (4/5) – Monks have the wisdom to backup some solid spellcasting, but won’t be able to repeat cast the levelled spell. It’s probably difficult to justify most level 1 spells over normal attacks for a monk so I’d probably go with some out of combat spells like minor illusion or mage hand if you’re missing that in the party.
• Musician (5/5) – Heroic inspiration for most or all allies is really useful and can be granted each short or long rest. That’s a lot of rerolls! This works great on any class.
• Purple dragon rook (3/5) – HoF – The skills aren’t the best on a monk. The heroic inspiration you grant is much less than the musician feat so I’d just take that. Technically this is an alright feat, but musician does a similar thing so much better.
• Savage attacker (3/5) – Decent enough extra damage and you should be making attacks most turns but it only works if you’re using a weapon, so be careful as many monks opt for unarmed combat.
• Shadowmoor hexer (3/5) – LFL – Hex is interesting on a monk. They get a lot of attacks even at low to mid levels. This means the bonus damage from hex is multiplied by those additional attacks. The drawback is they’re reliant on their bonus action to get those attacks so setting up hex means an initial sacrifice in damage for more damage later. Maybe best for really tough enemies and focus fire rather than having to switch targets every couple of turns. They also can’t repeat cast the spell.
• Skilled (3/5) – Monks have the ability to make a good backup scout or rogue, but lack the number of proficiencies to do this really well. But with a high dexterity and wisdom plus some extra skill proficiencies, this can be a solid option.
• Spellfire spark (4/5) – HoF – Your weapon/unarmed attacks will pretty much always be better than using a cantrip except in a few rare exceptions. The damage reduction however, is good for a monk for extra durability. It’s once per turn too, not just once per round so that damage reduction can stack up.
• Tavern brawler (4/5) – You don’t need the damage die increase for unarmed strikes, but pushing as part of an unarmed strike is basically a weapon mastery, plus you get to reroll ones for damage.
• Tireless reveler (4/5) – ABoH – Lots of heroic inspiration to bounce off one another. Especially good if you have easy ways of replenishing heroic inspiration, like the musician feat or someone else with tireless reveler. A bit more situational if you don’t have that.
• Tough (4/5) – Some decent extra resilience that’s good for everyone but especially good for a somewhat less resilient martial class.
• Tyro of the gauntlet (1/5) – HoF – Both really situational effects that I just don’t see you getting the benefit of very often.
• Vampire hunter (3/5) – ABoH – Technically 2 situational options, but being grappled or in restraints is reasonably common. Necrotic damage will depend on your campaign. Against lots of undead, you can get a fair bit of use from this, but other campaigns could see it a bit wasted.
• Vampire’s plaything (3/5) – ABoH – A free healing potion each long rest is really nice but dash and disengage as a bonus action are already options you have as a monk.
• Zhentarim ruffian (2/5) – HoF – The initiative boost is quite nice, especially if you have easy access to heroic inspiration (say if an ally has the musician feat). Exploit opening is like savage attacker but only for opportunity attacks. This makes it quite situational. Monks tend to use opportunity attacks less than other martials due to their hit and run tactics so this part suits them a little less.

Monk general feats

• Actor (1/5) – No good on a non-charismatic class. Leave this to your party faces.
• Athlete (2/5) – Monks can eventually run up walls, but they can only get so far before they need to find a horizontal surface or fall. So technically, a climb speed gives them a more reliable option, but it seems less important for a monk. The rest of these are just ribbon features.
• Bloodlust (4/5) – ABoH – Some decent mid-combat healing that doesn’t eat into your action economy plus better healing through your hit point dice. Your constitution should be decent anyway so the healing should be good and healing from an attack will be better than healing during a short rest, partly because the need for healing will be higher, but also because you get the constitution boost.
• Bomber (3/5) – ABoH – You probably won’t throw flasks or vials much but you may be throwing daggers as your best ranged option. This will give you some extra range (without the disadvantage).
• Charger (4/5) – Deal more damage or push when moving before an attack can be handy. Monks use hit and run tactics a lot and have things like bonus action disengaging making charging in and out of attacks much easier. They also tend to dash more than most making the extra movement handy.
• Chef (3/5) – A bit of extra healing on a short rest for the whole party and treats that grant a few temporary hit points. How good this is depends on the length of your adventuring days. I suspect this will feel more impactful at lower levels and less so at higher levels.
• Cloying mists (2/5) – ABoH – Not great for anyone (a single level 1 spell you can’t choose is significantly worse than similar feats like magic initiate, fey touched and shadow touched). At least fog cloud can be useful, but I would rather take magic initiate which is an origin feat.
• Cold caster (1/5) – HoF – It’s almost never going to be better casting a spell than making attacks for a monk and even then, you’ll be limited to ray of frost.
• Crossbow expert (1/5) – You’re usually better off using daggers for the few ranged attacks you’ll make as their damage scales with your martial arts die. I wouldn’t build for crossbow combat with a monk.
• Crusher (3/5) – Push is decent on one attack per turn and can help with hit and run tactics. Critical hits aren’t common enough to rely on regularly, but it’s a decent enough bonus when it occurs. Unarmed strikes cause bludgeoning damage making this a decent enough option.
• Defensive duelist (2/5) – This competes with deflect attack for your reaction and fulfills a similar role. Arguably, this can be better in certain situations against high damage attacks, especially those that just hit. Deflect attack does have its own set of strengths too though causing this to be more wasted on a monk, even if you are wielding a finesse weapon.
• Delicious pain (2/5) – ABoH – A round of resistance to common damage types in bludgeoning, piercing and slashing can be quite decent, but you’ll sacrifice deflect attack on the triggering damage and this doesn’t work on the triggering damage. With monks being quite evasive, there’s also a decent chance there won’t be any subsequent damage making this less useful on a monk.
• Dragonscarred (2/5) – HoF – A resistance is good and attempting to frighten with a bonus action can be handy, but this replaces flurry of blows in your action economy for potentially a single turn of the frightened condition. It’s not a lot, a monks bonus action is under high demand and this requires 2 feats to make work. Not worth it in my opinion, even if you have the wisdom to be good at this.
• Dual wielder (1/5) – This is pointless on a monk. Even if you grab nick weapon mastery, you already have bonus action attacks through flurry of blows without needing a feat and dual wielding to make that work.
• Durable (3/5) – The self healing is mainly what you want from this. You may need to juggle the demands on your bonus action though as this is in pretty much constant use on a monk.
• Elemental adept (1/5) – Not a great feat for anyone, but even worse on a monk who doesn’t cast spells.
• Enclave magic (1/5) – HoF – There’s some utility here and it pairs with speak with animals from the Emerald Enclave fledgling origin feat, but this is still 2 feats to accomplish what 1 should. Plus it’s better on characters with pets and those with a higher charisma. Monks lack both of these.
• Fairy trickster (3/5) – HoF – Monks do disengage more than most. Even so, disengaging into difficult terrain will likely be rare. Flustering strike is quite good though, which compensates. I’d just make sure you go with the dexterity increase.
• Fey touched (3/5) – Misty step is less important on a monk that is naturally quite slippery and manoeuvrable. It’s not pointless though. You’ll have a decent spellcasting ability, but no repeat casting of spells and an action economy under heavy demand. This is OK on a monk, but better on most other classes.
• Genie magic (3/5) – HoF – There’s a lot of flexibility here as you don’t have to pick a spell. The sorcerer list isn’t huge though, but you’ve got some AoE damage dealers like burning hands or thunderwave. Sleep is a pretty good control spell at this level too. It essentially means you’ve got an extra trick up your sleeve every now and again.
• Grappler (5/5) – Damage and grapple on an attack each turn, be better at attacking grappled creatures and drag grappled creatures around more easily. This is all really great on a class that’s built for unarmed combat.
• Great weapon master (1/5) – Monks aren’t proficient with heavy weapons making this feat obsolete.
• Harper teamwork (1/5) – HoF – There’s rarely a good reason to use help in combat rather than making an attack, even with the extra benefit here. Frightened and paralyzed saving throw successes are unlikely to be common enough to benefit much from either when it needs to affect multiple party members, plus you have to pick up a bad origin feat to grab this too. The exception here is maybe if you happen to be playing a hobgoblin, who can use the help action as a bonus action but even then, monks often won’t want to trade something like flurry of blows for the help action anyway.
• Heavily armored (1/5) – Monks shouldn’t wear armor so this is pointless.
• Heavy armor master (1/5) – Same here, pointless on an armorless monk.
• Inspiring leader (5/5) – The ability is excellent for anyone, but even better on a monk with a high wisdom.
• Keen mind (1/5) – Monks are a poor choice for knowledge skills and the study actions is very rarely useful in combat.
• Light bringer (3/5) – ABoH – The healing is nice, but bloodlust is better and light is only OK.
• Lightly armored (1/5) – You don’t want to be wearing armor or shields so shouldn’t take this.
• Lordly resolve (2/5) – HoF – An option for decent resilience/recovery against 3 types of conditions and possession is decent but you’ll need to use your bonus action to activate it. I’d say this is better on other classes especially as the origin feat you’ll need will work better on frontline martials than more slippery ones like a monk.
• Love bites (3/5) – ABoH – This could stop a creature attacking you for a turn which is interesting for a martial that wants to avoid being damaged. It works automatically on a hit too so no save required. Could be a good way to keep a nasty enemy off your back for a turn, it will take up a bonus action though which is a problem for monks.
• Mage slayer (5/5) – Great for breaking concentration on spellcasters and having basically a use of legendary resistance every rest.
• Martial weapon training (1/5) – You already have proficiency with the kinds of martial weapons you’ll want to use so this is pointless.
• Medium armor master (1/5) – Monks shouldn’t wear armor so don’t take this.
• Moderately armored (1/5) – Again, you don’t want to be wearing armor.
• Mounted combatant (3/5) – If you can regularly have access to a mount, then this could be decent. Many creatures are smaller than the likely large mount you’ll be riding.
• Mythal touched (3/5) – HoF – If you don’t mind some random effects, then this is alright and could be a bit of wild fun. Most effects should be positive.
• Observant 3/5) – Wisdom is a good ability score for a monk and the skill options are good for a scout too (which monks can be quite good at). Search can be useful in combat so making it a bonus action to find hiding enemies can be handy.
• Order’s resilience (1/5) – HoF – Quicker after being knocked prone feels like a ribbon effect. Advantage on strength saving throws is decent, but you also have to be next to an ally which is often not the case for a monk. This is a kind of situational feat that requires taking a very situational origin feat which isn’t great. I don’t think it’s worth it.
• Piercer (3/5) – Rerolling damage when using a piercing weapon is decent if that’s the kind of weapon you’re using. Improved criticals will be rarer, but the extra damage is welcome too.
• Poisoner (1/5) – 2-6 doses of poison for 50gp is alright if you have lots of money. The extra damage and short poisoned condition are decent but your bonus action is under so much demand already and easily doing more damage than this making this an expensive alternative to flurry of blows.
• Polearm master (3/5) – The bonus action attack is pointless for you as you’ll do more damage than that with your martial arts, but reaction attacks are handy. Monks do try and stay away from the action so may use this less than tankier martials, but that doesn’t mean the action stays away from them. Decent option if your monk likes to use a quarterstaff or spear.
• Purple dragon commandant (4/5) – HoF – Bonus action temporary hit points to dish out is pretty good and advantage when bloodied is especially good the more attacks you have. The temporary hit points can be applied ahead of combat to keep the strain off your action economy.
• Putrefy (1/5) – ABoH – Monks don’t tend to deal necrotic damage so this is pointless for them.
• Rebuke (1/5) – ABoH – Monks don’t tend to deal radiant damage so this is pointless for them.
• Resilient (3/5) – Constitution or wisdom are probably your best options here as you already have strength and dexterity proficiency and probably don’t want to be taking any other ability scores. Wisdom saving throws tend to be more common than constitution, but both are decent.
• Ritual caster (3/5) – If you want some out of combat spellcasting utility, then this can get you a few interesting spells this way.
• Sentinel (2/5) – Monks are often the ones trying to stay away from enemies rather than keep them in their reach. This may be different if they’re attacking a spellcaster but otherwise, this may be challenging to make work with monk tactics.
• Shadow touched (3/5) – Invisibility is great on a scout class and another spell can be handy too. You’ll only get one casting per long rest of each, but at least you have a decent spellcasting ability.
• Sharpshooter (1/5) – Monks tend not to make too many ranged weapon attacks so this isn’t a great option for them.
• Shield master (1/5) – Monks shouldn’t be using a shield so don’t bother with this.
• Skill expert (3/5) – Solid if you want to be an expert at a skill.
• Skulker (5/5) – You probably won’t be hiding during combat, making 2 thirds of this feat a little obsolete. Blindsight is situational, but very useful when the need arises. The warrior of shadow can really benefit from this with their darkness. Now they can be in darkness with their foe and attack with advantage and be attacked with disadvantage.
• Slasher (3/5) – Speed reduction is basically a weapon mastery effect each turn. Improved criticals is decent, but won’t happen loads. It’s decent enough for a martial class just about.
• Speedy (4/5) – Faster movement is useful for a class that values maneuverability. Disadvantage from opportunity attacks will make it easier for you move across the battlefield a little more safely while still using flurry of blows.
• Spellfire adept (1/5) – HoF – Monks don’t have spells and don’t tend to cause radiant damage anyway. Not the feat for a monk.
• Spell sniper (1/5) – Monks don’t cast spells so I wouldn’t bother with this.
• Street justice (3/5) – HoF – Monks make good grapplers and giving others advantage on those attacks rolls is handy. You’re not the most charismatic though so negotiating with hostiles isn’t as great for you.
• Telekinetic (2/5) – Mage hand makes great utility for anyone. A bonus action for a telekinetic shove is alright, but you’re better off using your flurry of blows for that.
• Telepathic (2/5) – Telepathy is decent, but will work better on a charisma class.
• Treacherous allure (1/5) – ABoH – I think the idea here is to charm someone and then attack them. It’s a lot of setup for advantage on a single attack though, which I don’t think is great.
• Vampire touched (2/5) – ABoH – Like fey touched but with worse spells, especially on a monk who’s already decent at running up walls. This is better climbing, but you also can’t repeat cast the spells.
• War caster (1/5) – Monks don’t cast spells so this is no good for them.
• Weapon master (3/5) – If you’re using weapons for your martial arts, this is a handy way to get extra effects from them.
• Zhentarim tactics (4/5) – HoF – Easy opportunity attacks is great to increase your monk’s damage output. Expertise in a changeable skill is good too, especially to help you with stealth and scouting skills. Perception and stealth both make good options here.

Monk epic boon feats

• Boon of blazing dawn (1/5) – ABoH – Monks at this level can already deal force damage with their attacks so you’re mostly just here for radiant immunity and a bit of sunlight which is all a bit too situational.
• Boon of bloodshed (3/5) – HoF – The advantage should happen a fair bit which is handy. Extra damage when bloodied is decent, but only a small amount once per turn.
• Boon of bountiful health (2/5) – HoF – The extra temporary hit points are not a lot at this level. It kind of works if you have a regular source of temporary hit points, but it doesn’t feel like enough. The improved healing is great for long adventuring days. A few feats (like bloodlust) will use your hit point dice making this quite good in conjunction with these, but not great without. Add an extra point to this score if you have a feat like bloodlust
• Boon of combat prowess (5/5) – An automatic hit once per round is really good for a class that is often trying to hit stuff.
• Boon of communication (2/5) – HoF – This is fine, but you’re better off taking it on a charisma class.
• Boon of desperate resilience (5/5) – HoF – Resistance to everything other than force is really good on a martial and you still have a decent number of hit points once bloodied. Combine this with the boon of recovery (if playing at levels beyond 20) to basically have your full hit points while in a state of being bloodied.
• Boon of dimensional travel (5/5) – Really easy to move around the battlefield to wherever you need to be and there’s no action economy cost either.
• Boon of energy resistance (3/5) – More damage resistances is useful for a martial and reaction attacks will be occasionally useful. This could be a bit situational as you only gain the benefits when facing the right enemies but you can change the resistances each long rest.
• Boon of exquisite radiance (2/5) – HoF – Monks rarely deal radiant damage and preventing creatures turning undead is hardly ever useful.
• Boon of fate (5/5) – Regular manipulation of d20 rolls is good for anyone and once per rest is definitely nice.
• Boon of fluid forms (5/5) – HoF – Most creatures you could transform into won’t be worth it as they’ll reduce your capabilities (other than some utility). However, a few creatures, like a froghemoth, are worth the transformation. If you pick your forms wisely, this can be really good and a bundle of extra hit points to survive with.
• Boon of fortitude (3/5) – Some decent extra resilience. Especially if you pair this with something like bloodlust, that will let you heal yourself more regularly. Not that it’s a huge amount.
• Boon of fortune’s favour (4/5) – HoF – Reroll a saving throw every round. Really great resilience feature.
• Boon of irresistible offense (1/5) – You can already make your attacks deal force damage which is almost never resisted anyway, making this largely redundant for you.
• Boon of looming shadows (4/5) – ABoH – The extra reach is nice for hit and run tactics, but the ability to dodge as a bonus action is largely redundant as monks can already do this while disengaging.
• Boon of misty escape (1/5) – ABoH – Just a terrible feat.
• Boon of poison mastery (2/5) – HoF – The resilience to poison attacks is nice as they are quite common, but monks will rarely make poison attacks.
• Boon of recovery (5/5) – Loads of extra resilience here. I think this is much better than the boon of fortitude as your hit points will be high enough to recover to more than 40HP, by quite a bit. The healing option is also really handy.
• Boon of revelry (1/5) – HoF – Not a great spell for anyone.
• Boon of skill (2/5) – You probably already have skills you specialise in and others will have the same. Even with proficiency, at this level, you probably won’t be the best at many of these things. Not sure proficiency in all skills is necessary but it can still be useful.
• Boon of speed (4/5) – More speed is great, escaping grapples is handy but situational. I like the boon of dimensional travel better as the speed is the same but teleportation will get you out of grapples and reach without disengaging. This does have the benefit of being used whenever you like on your turn rather than after you take the attack action though.
• Boon of spell recall (1/5) – Monks don’t cast spells so this is pointless.
• Boon of terror (1/5) – HoF – Immunity to the frightened condition is handy, but this relies on a good charisma, which monks don’t have.
• Boon of the bright sun (5/5) – HoF – Loads of extra temporary hit points for the whole party is just excellent.
• Boon of the furious storm (2/5) – HoF – Lightning and thunder damage isn’t common enough to take this for the resistances alone and you probably won’t deal enough lightning and thunder damage to make this worthwhile.
• Boon of the night spirit (4/5) – Shadows are a pretty good place for monks to be. Invisibility will give you at least advantage on an attack and some safety if timed right too. It also makes you better at stealth. The damage resistances are quite substantial. Just remember it’s all limited to being in shadows so works best on a monk dodging in and out of the shadows.
• Boon of the soul drinker (4/5) – HoF – A couple of decent resistances and some pretty big healing. Creatures dying around you shouldn’t be a problem. Good resilience boon.
• Boon of truesight (4/5) – Really good when you face something you can’t see or illusions but that won’t be all the time. It’s important someone can deal with this stuff and this is the most profound way to do it, just be aware you won’t use it loads.

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