D&D 5e Monk Subclasses Ranked Worst to Best
By Prince Phantom
I need to come clean with you guys. The title of this article is a lie. There is exactly one decent subclass for Monk. The rest of them are all the worst. Sadly, my need for everything to match and be organized overrides my need for honesty.
There is no class that needs more help from its subclasses than Monk, which makes it an even bigger crime that basically all of these fail in that function entirely. This isn’t a ranking of the best of the best, it’s the okay-est of the worst.
10: Way of the Sun Soul
Way of the Sun Soul is the worst subclass in the game, bar none. You get absolutely nothing that’s even worth using here. The ranged Ki blasts, while letting you live your Dragon Ball fantasy, are also exactly as effective as whenever a character from that show spams Ki blasts. That of course meaning that it does basically no damage.
Burning Hands is a bad spell that is certainly much worse at 6th level, and the “Fireball” that we get at 11th level is so much worse. It costs a whole 3 Ki to be even somewhat worth using (though Fireball itself is not a spell I often look to cast at 11th level), and it deals no damage on a successful CON save (the worst to target), unlike Fireball which always deals half damage at least. It’s fitting that this subclass also owns the worst capstone in the entire game. We do deserve a Monk subclass that lets us live out our Dragon Ball fantasies, but this ain’t it chief.
9: Way of the Four Elements
Boy, look at all these cool spells I get! I get spell slots to use them with like the Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster right? RIGHT? Every Monk subclass has the issue of requiring the same Ki points that your base class requires for many of those features, but none have it as bad as this.
Way of the Four Elements is only above Sun Soul because spells are still spells, and there’s the potential for one of them to come in handy occasionally, whereas nothing the Sun Soul provides that I could ever find a use for.
8: Way of the Drunken Master
I sure do love a subclass whose features directly contradict each other. 3rd level wants us to escape from melee and play hit-and-run, and 6th level wants us to be surrounded. Negating disadvantage will almost never come up, and the capstone requires us to spread our damage out over many enemies, and the math clearly shows that focus fire is the best way to win combat. Despite all I’ve said, Way of the Drunken Master is at least light on Ki, so it’s got that going for it.
7: Way of the Astral Self
It’s not enough for the Monk to disappoint Dragon Ball fans, it also has to make JoJo’s fans feel bad?! At least with Way of the Astral Self, you have to think about it for a bit before you see how terrible it is. There’s a lot of enhancements to our unarmed strikes here, but we are missing out on damage if we don’t use a weapon for our attack action, and these arms conflict with that.
Level 6 is just a ribbon feature, and 11th level is a tiny damage bump on top of another ribbon. The absolute worst part is that the subclass that gives you two extra arms doesn’t let you make any more attacks than normal until LEVEL 17. Not to mention that this all costs Ki, which again, you don’t have enough of to fuel everything you need it to fuel.
6: Way of the Open Hand
“But their capstone can one shot Tiamat!” I hear you cry in disbelief. First off, no, Tiamat is never failing that Con save even without legendary resistance, so what does the rest of Way of the Open Hand give us since most of you will never see that capstone in actual play anyway?
Well, our 3rd level feature requires us to use Flurry of Blows, so when we run out of Ki we no longer have a subclass. At 6th level we get the Fighter’s Second Wind, but as an action rather than a bonus action so that’s much worse. Then we get Sanctuary on ourselves… as long as we don’t even think about doing harm to someone. At least most of this subclass doesn’t cost us extra Ki, but it still basically stops functioning if we run out.
5: Way of the Long Death
Hey look, we finally found a feature in these subclasses that I don’t hate entirely! Hour of Reaping is a huge AoE fear effect… but it has friendly fire. Ugh, never mind I hate this one too. The other features in Way of the Long Death are average and at least don’t use much Ki, but when your best feature is that you can survive at 1HP for longer than most, then maybe you should have just played a build that doesn’t go down constantly.
4: Way of the Kensei
Way of the Kensai lost a bit of its luster (the little bit it had) once Tasha’s introduced Dedicated Weapon, as before then, this was the only way a Monk could use martial weapons without multiclassing. That does provide a slight damage bump, but now that’s no longer unique to this subclass, so what else do we get?
At level 3, very little. Agile Parry is fine but forces us to nerf our damage to use it, and Kensei’s Shot adds so little damage compared to a bonus action attack through Crossbow Expert or even Ki-fueled Attack that you’ll basically never find a time when it is the best thing to use.
All 6th level does for most people is give you a way to waste Ki, as most can find a magic weapon by then. 11th level is again a problem, as most will be able to find at least a +1 weapon by this point. This subclass feels like it was designed with the implication that you would never find a magic weapon, and I don’t know any tables that play like that.
3: Way of Shadow
The only reason Way of Shadow makes it this high is the spellcasting. Pass Without Trace is the best second level spell in the game, Darkness and Silence have their uses, and Darkvision is also a spell that exists. The ability to teleport between areas of darkness is also neat, but both areas having to be dark does limit this in many environments.
Cloak of Shadows is basically just Invisibility at will, but only in darkness. Opportunist is one of the lamest capstones ever, but you probably won’t live that long anyway. The biggest problem is that the spells cost us Ki, but at least it’s worth the cost for once. Make sure your party adventures at night for this one.
2: Way of the Ascendant Dragon
AoE damage is not something the Monk usually excels in, and Way of the Ascendant Dragon does not change that. Everything here just deals too little with not enough uses before it starts costing Ki. Also, why don’t we get flight, but instead a stupid jump?
Let the Monk fly, the Genie Warlock gets flight at 6th level! Most spellcasters get flight at 5th! Many races get flight at level 1! Some of the higher level abilities are neat, and the fact that you can still do a lot without spending any Ki does make this a decent option, but it will still be the weakest member of any party.
1: Way of Mercy
Finally, a Monk that isn’t 100% certified garbage. Don’t get too excited though, Way of Mercy still isn’t perfect. Having a healing option that can get someone off of 0 hp while not really costing you much in terms of actions is very nice, and being able to bump up your damage when necessary is something the Monk is begging for. This is a little Ki expensive when we first get it, but these features gradually become less expensive as we level up, to the point where we hardly ever have to spend any Ki at all on them.
The biggest point in this subclass’s favor is the ability to reliably poison targets. Yes, many creatures are immune to the poisoned condition, but many also are not. Being able to basically apply poison at will can seriously debilitate those foes and have a real impact on combat. Just make sure you aren’t playing in a campaign with only poison-immune creatures, and you can have a bit of fun with this one.
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