Everything you need to know about the new monk for D&D 5e 2024 including rules and tactics
Wizards of the Coast have revealed the 2024 revised version of the monk and there’s some really big changes coming into play!
Of all the classes in D&D 5e 2014, the monk was the one that scored lowest and was the least used by players. This showed the general dissatisfaction with how the monk worked, necessitating such sweeping changes. Be prepared for revitalised subclasses, better unarmed strikes, higher damage, better resiliences and a load of other quality of life improvements.
Below I’ve gone through everything that’s changing for the new monk as well as how this might change the way you play and what tactics you can employ.
If you want to see the original reveal, you can check out the video below:
Why are we getting changes to the monk?
The monk has always felt weak compared to pretty much every other class. It’s fragile, lacks as much damage as its martial counterparts and didn’t seem to do enough as a quick, hit and run martial artist to make it have the clout it deserved.
To address all this, below are the main things the revised monk improves on:
- They deal more damage with each hit
- Big changes to unarmed strikes, including performing grapples or shoves instead of damage for any unarmed strike
- Monk’s focus (the new ki) gets better with scaled abilities that improve with your level and allow you to do more with your bonus action
- Monk’s focus abilities can be used in a weakened state without expending focus points putting a monk more on a par (and perhaps better) than a rogue’s cunning action and ensuring they remain useful even when without focus points
- Some handy extra resilience features
- Things like deflect missile get broader application giving them greater usage.
Below I’ve unpicked exactly what these changes are and how they work.
What changes have been made to the 2024 monk?
Loads of the features for a monk are changing and improving, and definitely for the better. I’ve summarised all the changes to each feature below. Anything not appearing below won’t be changing for the 2024 monk (or at least not in a substantial way).
Martial Arts – lv1
Martial arts gets a lot better for the 2024 monk! You get a lot more monk weapons with all simple weapons and any martial weapons with the light property being considered as monk weapons.
You can also make an unarmed strike as a bonus action without using focus points on flurry of blows (more on that in a bit).
Next, the martial arts monk die increases by one die amount so starts at a d6 at level 1, increasing up to a d12 from level 17. When you add up the number of attacks a monk can make, this becomes a reasonably substantial damage increase which was seriously needed as monks really didn’t stack up to other classes in the damage department.
Finally, you can now use dexterity instead of strength to grapple or shove a creature. This is especially important for the new unarmed strike rules which have changed for all classes (not just the monk) allowing unarmed strikes to cause grapples or shoves instead of damage. Of course, this makes a load of practical sense too because martial artists are great at knocking their opponents over and grappling them.
The important things here are that you don’t have to upgrade a monk’s strength to make them decent grapplers and shovers (which is nearly impossible with dexterity, wisdom and constitution proving hugely important to a monk already). You can also attempt these things on any unarmed strike you make giving you the chance to cause effects to all sorts of opponents and use only 1 of your up to 5 attacks, including those using your bonus action.
Monk’s focus – lv2
This is the new name for ki and includes the same options you’ll be familiar with in the ki feature, namely; flurry of blows, patient defense and step of the wind. Note that ki points also become focus points with this change too. Patient defense and step of the wind also get a bit of improving within this:
- Patient defense – You can now disengage without spending any focus points, but if you want to disengage and dodge using the same bonus action, you can do this at the cost of a focus point. This is a really important change as a big problem for monks was getting stuck in combat they really needed to be dodging out of. Yes you may have to forego some extra attack with your bonus action, but always being able to disengage on your bonus action for free is hugely important (and let’s be honest, the rogue’s been enjoying that benefit for ages)! Being able to add a dodge to that just helps enhance a monk’s durability too.
- Step of the wind – With a similar approach, step of the wind lets you dash as a bonus action without expending a focus point (like the rogue again). This makes running into combat really easy. On top of this, if you want to disengage and dash, you can do this as a bonus action, but it will cost you a focus point. You’ll also double your jump distance when you do this. In some respects, this is better than the rogue as it gives you the option to do multiple things with your bonus action multiple times and is nearly on par with their cunning action without focus points (you just can’t hide as a bonus action like the rogue can).
Flurry of blows doesn’t get a free version without focus points because they already get that in level 1 with an unarmed strike available as a bonus action (flurry of blows allows you to make 2 strikes as a bonus action).
Having free uses of monk’s focus (albeit at a weakened level) now means that monks don’t have quite such a heavy drop in performance when they run out of focus points.
Uncanny metabolism – lv2
You might be worried about running out of focus points, but don’t worry, your incredible gut has you covered! Now at level 2, once per long rest, you can recover all your focus points when you roll initiative and heal some hit points equal to your monk level plus a roll of your martial arts die. A small way to make you extra prepared for any battle.
Deflect Attacks – lv3
A slight name change to deflect missiles also hints (or outright states) a significant change to the way this feature works. As you’ve probably guessed, you can now deflect melee attacks as well as projectiles, which makes complete sense for a martial artist that should be able to deflect melee attacks more easily than an arrow (wax on, wax off anyone).
It works in pretty much the same way but with the stipulation that it works on bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage from any attack. If you manage to reduce the damage to 0, you can choose to use a focus point to deflect the attack. This means you can target a creature within 5ft for melee attacks of 60ft for ranged attacks.
Stunning strike – lv5
Stunning strike gets some slight balance changes that make it a little worse for the sake of balance (this is probably the only monk ability that has been made worse). It can now only be performed when using a monk weapon or an unarmed strike rather than just a melee weapon attack (presumably to tackle any multiclassing and applying it to greatswords).
If you successfully stun an opponent, the condition now ends at the beginning of your next turn rather than the end. Presumably this is because the intention is for you to get a turn to take advantage of their stunned state rather than the nearly 2 your monk could get if you stun your opponent on your first attack.
However, it’s not all bad. If the creature succeeds on their saving throw, their speed is halved and the next attack made against them is done with advantage. So stunning strike is less powerful, but also a little less save or suck and more sad or suck (OK, not the best wordplay, but you get what I mean)!
Empowered strike – lv5
You now get empowered strike a level earlier and instead of making your attack magical, it now causes force damage. It seems that the 2024 monk is moving away from a defined magical mysticism (though there’s still room for that through certain subclasses) and more into a broad martial artist with force damage and focus rather than ki points.
Heightened focus – lv10
This is where things get quite interesting for the 2024 monk. This is a brand new feature that helps your focus scale better with its use. It essentially makes your monk’s focus abilities better and more powerful with the following improvements:
- Flurry of blows – You gain another attack when using flurry of blows as a bonus action (meaning 3 attacks with your bonus action rather than 2).
- Patient defense – When you use patient defense, you get a number of temporary hit points equal to 2 rolls of your martial arts die (presumably this happens when using a focus point and not every time you disengage, though this isn’t entirely clear so far).
- Step of the Wind – You can move a buddy out of danger too by moving a willing creature with you until the end of your turn and they don’t provoke opportunity attacks.
Self Restoration – lv10
A welcome new resilience feature that allows you to end the charmed, frightened or poisoned condition on yourself at the end of your turn (limiting yourself to 1 turn with 3 of the most common conditions in the game). You can also avoid a level exhaustion caused by the lack of food or water.
Deflect Energy – lv13
Deflect attack gets enhanced by allowing you to reduce (and potentially deflect) damage from attacks of any damage type. Great for deflecting spells at wizards!
Perfect Focus – lv15
For those running out of focus points and wanting to be ready for any battle, you can now restore 4 focus points when you roll initiative and haven’t used uncanny metabolism (so long as you were below 4 focus points to start with). This seems to be a renaming, improvement and re-levelling of the previously level 20 feature “perfect self” which was certainly an underwhelming feature as the final improvement to the class. As you’ll see further down, level 20 is now much improved!
Superior Defense – lv18
At the beginning of your turn (so presumably, without expending an action, though this wasn’t clear) you can use 3 focus points to become resistant to all damage types except force for 1 minute or until you’re incapacitated. Essentially, this parallels a barbarian’s rage for an entire combat! The high use of focus points may limit some of your damage output, but you’ll have 18 of these anyway and a few ways to restore them.
Epic boon – lv19
Like all classes at lv19, you get an epic boon (kind of like a super feat). This will allow you to increase an ability score (even beyond the normal maximum of 20, allowing you to potentially go up to 30 in an ability score). You’ll also get an ability alongside that feat too.
To make things juicer, when you gain levels beyond lv20, you’ll get an epic boon each time making you even gnarlier (there are 12, presumably 1 geared towards each of the 12 classes, though any class can take any epic boon)!
Although you can take any epic boon, the recommended one for monks is called boon of irresistable defense which lets you ignore resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage and lets you add extra damage equal to the ability score you increased (strength or dexterity) when you roll a 20 to hit. This may be a rare occurrence, but with potentially 5 attacks per turn (with flurry of blows) plus a multitude of ways to gain advantage on strikes, this should happen on 25-50% of turns
Body and Mind – lv20
You can now increase your dexterity and wisdom by 4 scores each up to a maximum of 25 (exceeding the usual, previous ceiling of 20 and accommodating increases from your level 19 epic boon).
Monk 2024 subclasses
Like for the 2014 monk, you get to choose a subclass at level 3 known as a monastic tradition. You get 4 options in the 2024 PHB (The previous PHB has 3 so a bit of an upgrade). The warrior of shadow, elements and open hand are all here from the 2014 PHB in an updated form (though now known as warriors instead of ways). The warrior of mercy from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything also makes a return too.
Despite some fairly major changes to the main monk class, the subclasses change much less, though there are some solid quality of life improvements that have been thrown into these updated subclasses.
Warrior of Mercy
The warrior of mercy remains almost unchanged from the version in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything other than a small change to flurry of healing hands. This feature can now be used a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier (in line with other limited use abilities in the 2024 PHB).
Warrior of Shadow
The warrior of shadow gets a bunch of great quality of life improvements. For example, they retain the ability to cast darkness, but now can utilise it better as they can see in that darkness. This darkness can also fuel their shadow step teleport feature. This allows for some fun and interesting utility where this monks creates terrifying darkness striking from within it and in and out of it.
Improved shadow step at level 11 means you can use a focus point instead of being in a shadow to use your shadow step feature. These changes to shadow step are intended to prevent the frustration of often being unable to use the feature at all.
At level 17, cloak of shadows is a much improved version of opportunist, allowing you to turn invisible and become semi-incorporeal. This means you can pass through other creatures as if they were difficult terrain. You can also use flurry of blows without using focus points in this state (though cloak of shadows does require focus points).
Warrior of the Four Elements
Warrior of the four elements has been completely reworked. Primarily, the changes allow for more flexible and efficient use of your focus points allowing them to go further. You can now strike foes with your unarmed strikes from 10ft away using the elements to extend your reach. And this reach increases as you increase in levels.
You’ll also get a cantrips called elementalism which replaces the shape water, shape wind etc spells As a single spell for shaping all elements. The nice thing here is that it gives the four elements monk utility outside of combat through the way they can manipulate the elements. You can also change the damage type of your unarmed strikes into elemental damage (presumably like fire or cold). You can also force an enemy to take a saving throw or be moved across the battlefield (as if pushed by a gist of wind). This gives this monk a nice battlefield control ability.
You’ll also be able to cause a fireball like explosion using focus points, though the effects will be weaker than a fireball (though the damage does scale as you increase levels).
To show your mastery over elements like water and wind, you’ll get a fly and swim speed at level 11.
At level 17, you’ll get elemental epitome which grants a variety of effects including:
- Improved elemental attunement
- Resistance to a type of damage you can choose at the beginning of your turn (so you can adapt to the enemies in front of you)
- When you use step of the wind, your speed increases and you can cause damage as you run by your enemies
- Once per turn, you can also deal extra elemental damage
One of the big things with the class now is that you can always be choosing which element you’re using for your abilities and not being tied down to a single one. This truly makes this monk a warrior of four elements.
Warrior of the Open Hand
Open hand technique has been made a little worse by only blocking opportunity attacks rather than any reactions (no more blocking hellish rebuke). Also, as with some similar healing abilities, wholeness of body is now a bonus action rather than an action. Fleet step is a brand new ability that allows you to use step of the wind whenever you use a bonus action for anything other than step of the wind. This allows you to potentially do loads with your bonus action (dash, disengage and flurry of blows making you able to truly strike in and out of combat at will)!
Quivering palm is no longer as devastating, and won’t simply drop a creature to 0 hit points. But has been balanced so that it deals a load of damage on a success and a smaller load of damage on a fail. Similar to stunning strike, this is an ability that needed a bit of rebalancing to make it less devastating, but also preventing total failures of a key ability.
Tactics
Below are a few interesting, new ways you can approach playing as a monk with the 2024 update:
Hit and run: Monks no longer need to worry about running out of focus points (previously ki points) for their hit and run tactics. Feel free to disengage to your heart’s content and bounce in and out of combat alongside your rogue buddy. This is a huge improvement that allows you to trade out the extra damage from flurry of the blows for the safety of dodging away from your opponent.
Grapple master: Grappling is now a viable tactic for monks with grapples able to be made in place of damage for an unarmed strike. This offers an easy source of advantage for yourself and your allies. The handy thing here is that this makes monks much more of a team player rather than just hitting and jumping away from danger, you can actually help your friends out and team up on enemies. Consider using those many attacks at your command to shove 5 different enemies down with the 5 attacks you have by level 10 (if using flurry of blows) and then letting the rest of the party pummel them into the ground while they stagger back up from being prone.
Plastic cannon: Monks have always been notoriously fragile for a martial. That’s not necessarily changed overly much, but a few changes allowing them to deflect melee strikes and gain temporary hit points by using focus points means that monks are just that little bit less fragile. This means that dodging out of combat isn’t always necessary. Instead, you can stick around a little longer to flurry of blows your enemies into oblivion (or at least slap them into oblivion). At least your slaps will do a bit more damage making the risk that little bit more worthwhile.
The monk is probably the most changed class so far, and the changes are not only substantial, but make the monk a really exciting option. The monk should no longer be completely outclassed by the other classes (see what I did there)! They’re much more agile, powerful and generally more capable in combat.
What do you think of the changes to the monk? Let me know in the comments below.
Spotlight on the D&D 2024 revision
All the latest updates on what’s changing with the 2024 rules revision.
