Best Feats for Four Elements Monk 5e
by B Landrum
Look. We have all seen and heard the same thing. This is one of the worst subclasses in 5e. I am not here to sway your opinion, but suggest you give it a fair try before casting judgement. I thoroughly enjoyed playing a Way of the Four Elements Monk.
One of the reasons that they are much maligned is that people try to play any Monk like a fighter on the front lines. I beg to differ. Regardless of how many times you would wade up to the front and survive, that is not meant to be how you best play the class. If you play them as hit-and-run or keep away survivalists, you will frustrate your enemies and show that you have much to offer the party.
Of all the level 1 classes, there is an argument for monk being the worst. Low damage output. Middling health, Poor trait requirements, poor skill selection, and low starting gold/equipment to boot. Racial traits take on a huge impact on low level monks. The tendency is to take a race that gains DEX and WIS to start and run with it. This is a great option to assist the strong desire to get your AC as high as possible as fast as possible, with the goal of AC 16 at level 1 (Wood Elf being the most natural fit). If you want to be a more effective mid-range early, I say that there are better early options. Take a race that starts with a cantrip and maybe even spell-like abilities to start being effective right out of the gate. The assumption being that if you are going to keep yourself on the theme of air, earth, fire or water abilities. Some good options: Dragonborn (Blue, Brass or Bronze to get the 30 ft range line attack), High Elf (INT based cantrip for free), Genasi (all are natural fit if you intend to specialize in one element, but the two best are Fire and Water because you get a cantrip and a related element spell that are oddly CON based), Half-Elf (Mark of the Storm from Eberron is the best Half-Elf even if you miss out on the extra spells they can learn), Tiefling (base or one that gains you the Hellfire/Burning Hands option; I would take this one if you intend on taking their Racial Feat of Flames of Phlegethos for the extra fire effect), or Triton (three elemental spells, but the stat gain is the worst for this build), or the good old Variant Human (the starting feat will set you up right and your stat gain can be customized for your desires). If your DM allows Eberron Dragonmarks, make sure you talk to them first about it with this class. The reason why I say this is because you are "casting" the Four Element spells that you gain access to. If your DM is nice, they may let you re-skin one of the Spells of the Mark as a Four Elements Ki spell (even if not, the Half-Elf still gets Gust and Gust of Wind). For low-level game play style, I found myself taking the dodge action routinely and/or throwing darts from range, especially if you did not get a racial cantrip. I do this because I have been taken to zero hit points way too often because tanks were not doing their jobs and soaking attacks, or casters making poor life decisions. A lot. When monks do get their Ki at second level, the impulse is to spend it routinely to take Flurry of Blows. You will run out of Ki on round 2 (granted you regain after a short rest). Monk does itself no favors when all of the level two Ki abilities are during your turn or until your next turn. This is why I found myself using Bonus Action Dodge, I still get to attack and it lasts until my next turn. The increase to your movement will help you stay away from enemies (NOT run to them, no matter how much it seems like the best option).
At third level, this is finally where they start to show some survival traits by being able to catch arrows (or anything catchable). For the subclass abilities, this should be proof that they are meant to be either hit-and-run, or utility based instead of pure combat. Mercy gains a healing ability (Hand of Harm is great, but only once a turn? Come on). Shadow gains utility spells. Ascendant Dragon gains a long range breath weapon. Astral self gains a force-based reach attack.Cobalt Soul gains an underrated counterattack (with which you can stun lock the victim later. Drunken Master gains a bonus disengage for hit-and-run superiority. Four Elements gains short-ranged elemental attacks and huge target manipulation movement. Kensei is as close to a front line attacker as you can hope for, and they still get the most bang for the buck when you select blowgun and whip (range and reach) or a weapon that Monk's don't normally gain access to. Long Death gains you temporary hit points IF you drop something to zero hit points yourself (I have never held so many attacks in my life as this subclass). Open Hand gains additional Monk-ness, but all the abilities are manipulating your enemy, not killing them (you become an OUTSTANDING set-up man for your fighter/barbarian/rogues to get the kill). Sun Soul gains a ranged [spell] attack. How many of those are front line abilities? Maybe three or four. How many gained reach or ranged ability? Four or five (depending on if you use a melee weapon as kensei versus a range weapon. Unless you multiclass as a dex-based fighter, I would stay away from the front lines of combat, unless it is to randomly strike someone that is engaged with your fighter or paladin.
Diving into the Way of the Four Elements, the early options are great. If you are treating this subclass like a certain arrow-headed glow-boy, you should probably multiclass as a Druid of the Land and just take elemental spells (and stop reading here). When you take the subclass, you need to decide if you are going to focus on one element, or if you are just going to take the best of what is available. If you do decide to focus, Fire has the most options for you followed by Water or Air. Earth/Thunder focused players are going to have a bad time. Know that you will run out of Ki really quickly if you use these abilities in combat routinely. If you want to best start out as a bad spell caster and want to keep the enemy away from you, go with Fist of Unbroken Air. Great damage at medium range, a 20 foot push, and it can knock them prone (this has the makings of one of the best options available if they fail the save). Either keep the pseudo-cantrip that is Elemental Attunement, or swap it out with Shape the Flowing River for out of combat use (especially if you are not in a desert setting). If you want combat instead of utility, then grab an area effect ability. Options at third level are Fist of Four Thunders (Thunderwave), Rush of the Gale Spirits (Gust of Wind), or Sweeping Cinder Strike (Burning Hands). At level six, you only gain two new options that are worthy. Either Clench of the North Wind (Hold Person; I would avoid this since you gained the ability to stun an opponent at level five), or Gong of the Summit (Shatter). At this point, I would have Fist of Unbroken Air, Shape of Flowing Water, and Gong of the Summit (if you find that opponents are running away routinely, stick close to the fighter, and take Water Whip instead of Gong to pull them to you/him). At level 11, this is where most of the Monk subclass abilities shine. Many become very difficult to kill (Open Fist and and Long Death come to mind). Instead we get Flames of the Phoenix (Fireball), (Ride the Wind (Fly), and Mist Stance (Gaseous Form). All are great, but this is late in the game for this (casters were doing all three of these at level five). Since Monks gained wall walking at level nine, I would either take Mist Stance (evasion and bypassing doors and cages) or Ride the Wind (especially if you know what you can access at level 17) and swap out Gong of the Summit with Fireball. At level 17, your Wizard can learn Wish. We get Breath of Winter (Cone of Cold), Eternal Mountain Defense (Stoneskin), River of Hungry Flame (Wall of Fire), and Wave of Rolling Earth (Wall of Stone). If you want to maximize combat effectiveness, use Ride the Wind and Breath of Winter to decimate battlefields. Just realize that Wizards have been doing that since they were level 11. And they get Wish.
In a standard campaign, they are outmatched against most classes face-to-face. If you approach the battlefield asymmetrically, a Four Element Monk can survive against almost anything. Partially from boring your opponents to death, partially from outsmarting them, but always from keeping them at bay. Control the gap between you and your opponent. Too far, and casters win. Too close and the martials will eviscerate you. Mobs will own you, but you can escape better than just about anyone. These guys are best suited for a low magic setting, or a setting where your DM is keeping firm track of your supplies. In a low magic setting, your full casters may struggle to get material components and new spells. You have the benefit of not needing to deal with either, but you gain the penalty of monitoring your Ki in a much more violent manner. In a high magic setting, casters will pretty much beat out anything and you should look elsewhere. I found myself asking the party for routine short rests. If you have a Warlock in the party, they will be easy to sway to your side. I found that as long as you are okay with other players getting the kill, then you can make any Monk work for you. Four Elements also work great as caster defenders. to prevent the enemy hoard from getting too close to your glass cannons. It is okay to not go first (actually ask your DM about either holding initiative to be last, or just holding action if you do go early). Let others go so that you can conserve your precious Ki. Use them conservatively, unless you know that you are about to get a rest.
For the purposes of this Feat list, I will be going "by the book" instead of any homebrew options on how people deal with the Ki or a modified list of available spells (or both). If your table uses homebrew options for this subclass, then you might have better options available to you. Generic Monk Feats will NOT be the best options for this character, as they don't generally improve your ability to cast spells or stay away from the bad guys so that you can cast spells. They will still be briefly discussed just in case you really want to take them anyway. Most Monks will either focus on maxing out their DEX and WIS to be at AC 20. There is nothing wrong with this move. It just means that you are going to have limited Ability Feats to choose from to improve your stance. As a Four Element Monk, I avoided the standard Monk faire of: Alert (leave it to the Rogues and Fighters; conserve your Ki), Athlete (all great abilities, but is all physical in nature; you already have a top speed that is robust), Charger (this is the opposite of what you want to do; stay out of melee range), Defensive Duelist (would be better if it was more than a single attack for the AC boost), Martial Adept (again, great for melee Monks but not you), and Mobile (it is really hard to say no to this one, but since you will likely only have less than three feats, this has to be thrown away).
Best Feats for Way of the Four Elements Monk 5e
Crusher: Not only does this work with your Martial Arts unarmed attacks, but it also works with Water Whip and Fist of Unbroken Air, and it makes your party's attacks occasionally have advantage.
Elemental Adept (fire; distant tie for second place between ice and thunder): There are plenty of options for fire damage in this class that are spell-based. This does not work with the 3rd level abilities, so you can wait to get this until either 8th or 12th level for fire (if you take Fireball).
Fey Touched (WIS): Improves your spell caster modifier, gains you a defensive spell as well as another spell. I would suggest Hex over Hunter's Mark since Mark specifies a weapon attack while Hex says attack for the bonus damage. If you want a nice effect on multiple enemies, Sleep or Bane. If you want to boost your party go with Bless or Heroism. If you are looking for straight up utility there are several options (Beast Bond, Command, Detect Evil and Good, Detect Magic, Identify, and Speak with Animals)
Magic Initiate (Druid; distant second for Cleric): Not only does Druid have almost all of the base elemental cantrips to improve your elemental capabilities and stay on theme, but they are also WIS based. Cleric has better damaging cantrips, but they do not fall within the base thematic elements that you are trying to fit into. For the 1st level spell, the same applies. If you are going for a particular element for your focus, they are all available. If you are going to be a fire specialist, then you might want to try and get access to Fire Bolt. Just be aware that you will have to use a different ability score as your casting modifier (INT or CHA) making it less likely to hit for that slight increase in damage and range compared to Produce Flame which uses the WIS modifier. If you went after Wizard Initiate, this is one of the options where you can get Find Familiar.
Metamagic Adept (Careful, Distant, Quickened, Subtle, Transmuted): Take your pick of those. Since you only get 2 sorcery points, that limits some options.. Quickened and Transmuted will get you the most bang for your buck. Careful uses your CHA modifier so make sure that you have a high enough CHA to get some effective use.
Ritual Caster (Druid or Cleric): Normally I would say Druid to stay on theme, but the options they can have that are elemental based are limited (Commune with Nature, Meld into Stone, Skywrite, Water Breathing and Water Walk). Cleric gets Meld into Stone and Water Walk among others. If you don't care about staying on theme, then Wizard can have the most overall options and net you Find Familiar.
Shadow Touched (WIS): Like Fey Touched, this provides you with more spellcasting options. Although, the options besides Invisibility are not the most on theme options (maybe Silent Image to disguise the party as a large boulder).
Spell Sniper: Only take this if you took a Magic Initiate feat before this. The ability to gain an attack roll based cantrip makes this worth it, and would greatly improve the Magic Initiate feat. None of the Four Element spell options that are integrated into the subclass require a Spell Attack roll for attacking, so this would be expensive for that. Ask your DM if he says it would impact the low level Four Element abilities, extending their range (it should be "no" but maybe they are feeling generous.)
Telekinetic (WIS): You can fashion the Mage Hand cantrip gained as the swirling wind lifting objects or shoving the creature option. Increasing your WIS helps your overall spell casting capability.
Tough: Generic max HP increase keeps you alive when you run out of Ki.
War Caster: Of the spells that you have that you must concentrate on, the big ones are Fly or Wall of Fire. Both of those are pretty significant (after 11th level). Unless you gained a spell through racial/species benefit or another feat listed above, you are not going to have a spell you use to make an opportunity attack with. You can probably skip this in favor of Druid Initiate combo'd with Spell Sniper.
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