Way of the Four Elements Monk 5e

By Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Like the original Beast Master Ranger, Way of the Four Elements is infamously terrible. Why it's so terrible comes down to two major issues: ki and actions.

Like Pact Magic, ki is a short rest refreshing resource that monks get an amount of equal to their level. It compares somewhat to Spell Points, but instead of getting a huge pool to play around with, you're capped at 3-8 in the mid-tiers.

They updated Monk in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything with Ki-Fueled Attack, which does majorly improve the usability of the action costed spells as you aren’t also forgoing a bonus action unarmed strike, but not by enough that I’d consider using this still. You’re still forgoing getting benefits from Extra Attack and Stunning Strike if you chose to get a Thunderwave off instead of attacking, which is too steep a cost for me most of the time.

3rd Level: Elemental Disciplines

I love the idea behind the Elemental Disciplines. As a core feature of monk, I'd be over the moon to see special abilities to do exciting splashy stuff with their ki that would separate each and every monk from one another. When it's all you get as a subclass, not something that, and you get two to start and one more at 6th, 11th, and 17th level, it's not nearly enough, and usually way over cost in terms of ki and actions for what you're getting. I'll dive into each to best explain where the problems lie, especially when compared to other abilities available around similar levels.

Something to keep in mind if you do decide to try out Way of the Four Elements is you can switch out Elemental Attunement at 6th level for a new option that gives you more than a cantrip in utility. There aren’t a lot of these worth their cost, but there are a handful to consider.

One other small note is as you progress, you have a maximum amount of ki you can spend on spells gained through Elemental Disciplines and can up-cast spells using them by one spell level for each extra ki spent to a maximum equal to your cap.

A 14th-level monk with Sweeping Cinder Strike could spend up to 5 ki casting it, and it would increase the level of the cast by 1 for each point spent beyond 2. All 5 ki would result in a 3rd-level Burning Hands. As with regular spells, you’re probably not going to want to spend bonus ki for the up-cast bonuses.

3rd Level Elemental Disciplines

Elemental Attunement is handed out to every single monk who chooses this archetype. It’s functionally a cosmetic ability and really should be a feature. It’s basically a Prestidigitation-like ability roughly on the same scale and power.
Fangs of the Fire Snake has a ton of potential to deal massive damage when used regularly. The problem with using it regularly is its cost. This is honestly a great damage bump once you have more than three ki to spend. It kind of replaces Flury of Blows; using both at the same time is fine, but normally two rounds of Fangs of the Fire Snake (6d10 bonus fire damage) is worth more than the Flurry of Blows single extra empowered attack at once. Once you get past 10th level, this will feel pretty great alongside Flurry of Blows as something you spam out round after round as the primary damage boon you get.
Fist of Four Thunders provides you a 1st level Thunderwave cast… at the cost of 2 ki points. Here starts the largest issue with the archetype: one cast of Thunderwave, a 1st level spell, isn’t worth over half your 3rd level resources. Full-casters can use it four times and still have cantrips and 2nd level spells to play with at this tier. This directly competes with all of your in-combat ki features, competes with Extra Attack for your action, and doesn’t play nicely with all of the other features you get. As you get higher level and can use this more, other characters are getting more uses of higher level effects, making this never feel good to use.
Fist of Unbroken Air basically is a Way of Four Elements exclusive spell that is like a shoving Chromatic Orb that costs 2 ki to use. Again, this is just way too expensive at 3rd level. You’re forgoing extra attacks for this, you’re forgoing two Step of the Winds or Patient Defenses. One casting of something close (ish) to Chromatic Orb for two uses of these features is a terrible deal that leaves you feeling out of things to do. I like it better than the other 1st level spell effects, as at least its unique to this option, but still wouldn’t recommend it.
Rush of the Gale Spirits casts Gust of Wind for 2 ki, which at least matches the spell level. It’s still half as many 2nd level spells as full-casters get at once, and is locked into Gust of Wind. It can have some cool moments but by no means is making a giant impact every fight. Once again, it’s competing with the monk stuff you want to be doing; if you have to pick between using two Stunning Strikes or one Gust of Wind, you’re rarely going to find Gust of Wind is good enough.
Shape the Flowing River definitely is one of the coolest features to get through Way of the Four Elements. It's cheap, just costing 1 ki, interacts with a massive amount of water, and lets you shape it into anything you’d like. It is a super fun tool to explore the world with, and if there was more like it here, I’d be all for Way of the Four Elements. The aquatic limitations definitely make it niche still, and not something you can really justify taking as your only Elemental Discipline alongside Elemental Attunement.
Sweeping Cinder Strike has the same problems as Rush of Gale Spirits and Fist of Four Thunders: cost for effect. 1st level spell costing you 2 ki points is a bad rate. An action that could be spent attacking and getting martial arts attack is a bad rate. At this point in the game, Burning Hands is sunsetting its utility. You can’t afford for your only Discipline to be Sweeping Cinder Strike when you’re about to watch all of your caster friends get way better area damage stuff like Fireball.
Water Whip does the inverse of Rush of Fist of Unbroken Air with a 30 ft. ranged pulling strike costing 2 ki. It’s a little better than the shove most of the time, as it can often act as a reasonable ranged engagement tool that you can immediately follow up with a Ki-Fueld Strike bonus action hit, but I’m still never excited to spend two of my tiny pool of ki doing one 1st level-ish level effect.

6th Level Elemental Disciplines

Clench of the North Wind lets you cast Hold Person for 3 ki points. Half your ki points for a save or die 2nd level spell at 6th level? OOF. Warlocks don’t even have it this bad with Pact Magic, as at least they also get tons of other features offering them a ton of different things to do. What’s worse is it requires concentration, something Monks aren’t great at managing or defending. All concentration effects tend to be worse on the classes that lack massive Constitutions or at least want to take War Caster; Monk is neither.
Gong of the Summit is 3 points for Shatter. Gust of Wind cost 2; why does this 2nd-level spell have to cost more? It’s barely dealing more damage than Sweeping Cinder Strike or matches it if you up-cast the Burning Hands. You’re forgoing up to three extra attacks with Flurry of Blows, up to three Stunning Strikes, or up to three bonus action dodges for this. That cost of flexibility feels terrible.

11th Level Elemental Disciplines

Flames of the Pheonix lets you spend 4 points for Fireball. If Fireball was any other 3rd level spell I’d probably be as against this as I am the rest, but when you’ve got seven points laying around after the Fireball, I’m a lot more interested. 8d6 in a 20 ft. radius sphere isn’t something new for the table, though. Full-casters have access to their 3rd level spells right now. Half-casters can use two 3rd level spells at this point. Both have a massive list of other spells available with spell slots and other features. Fireball is about as good as it gets, but still not close to good enough to make me compelled to take this subclass.
Mist Stance opens up Gaseous Form, but worse (as it can only target you) for 4 points. Very few people come to the table thinking to build around or towards Gaseous form. Sure, it's cool, but is it cool enough for a 4 ki point cost?
What I will say is it acting as a tool with a long duration and working out of combat will lead to it feeling better than a lot of the other spell options that you’d only want to use in a fight. This can be a tool that gives your ki something to do when not being spent breaking faces with your fists. Sure, wizards and sorcerers could have had for six levels up to this point with more total uses alongside other things, but if nobody in your party gets access to this kind of effect it is a neat, unique way to explore and infiltrate with.
Ride the Wind teaches you Fly, for 4 ki points, but only able to target yourself. I like Fly, I really do. Flight isn’t an 11th-level feature. It isn’t worth ⅓ of your resources. At least you get Slow Fall, giving you a 2 ki point costed parachute should you get shot down mid-air.

17th Level Elemental Disciplines

Breath of Winter costs you over a third of your ki to cast a 4th-level spell, Cone of Cold. Wizards, clerics, druids, bards, sorcerers, and warlocks have a 9th, 8th, 7th, and at least one 6th and 5th level spell slot at this point. All of that costs less than a third of their total resources and have a larger impact than a 4th-level Cone of Cold. The numbers don’t add up in monk’s favor.
Eternal Mountain Defense is concentration-dependent resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage. It costs you 5 ki, over a quarter of your total. You’re at a tier of play where magic is abundant. I struggle to justify casting Stoneskin at SEVENTH level. By 17th level I can’t imagine wanting to spend this many ki points on this menial of an effect.
River of Hungry Flame just is Wall of Fire for 4 ki. It’s worse than Breath of Winter, as you’re not even the kind of character that can easily set up and use the Wall of Fire efficiently. Wizards are getting Prismatic Wall at the same time you are getting access to their least used 4th level effect.
Wave of Rolling Earth… listen, you get the idea by now. Wall of Stone is over-costed and underpowered for the relative tier you’re playing in.

All Together

If the entire option were built like Fangs of the Fire Snake and Shape the Flowing River, and had more to do beyond giving you ways to spend ki, this could be something. I can’t get over how outright lazy the design is, and how short-rest ki recharge utterly gutted the efficiency out of all of these spells. Even the third-casters (Eldritch Knights and Arcane Tricksters) have better spell utility than this, as at least they aren’t forgoing their other core features to get access to spellcasting.

There are thousands of homebrew and 3rd party revisions of this, as the fantasy is crazy popular. I’d seriously talk to your DM about altering the option if you want to play it, or using a revised version from the internet. If you want to make the best out of this turd of an option, you’re probably going to want to build primarily around Fangs of the Fire Snake for damage and find ways to maximize the effectiveness of the cheapest unique effects offered. If you want to meaningfully play an Elementalist, you probably should look to the full-casters.

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