So Monk is the one class we didn’t get a prior UA for, which means all the changes are totally new. I’m still wrapping my head around it. Martial Arts die increase: good. Martial Arts die not affecting weapons: bad. Step of the Wind buff: good. Stunning Strike nerf: bad but reasonable?
I feel like they knew Monks needed help, but it doesn’t really seem like they made as much effort to fix that as I think they really needed to. Anything I might be missing that saves the Class here?
Yeah, high level abilities are always dicey to talk about due to no one ever really using them.
That said, I do think both the shadow monk and elemental have had a significant boost compared to 2014 phb. Also, they fixed the shadow monk being unable to see through their own darkness, which was always my biggest issue with it.
I guess I’m disappointed with them turning Four Elements, which was flavorful and interesting but seriously undertuned, into a pretty generic-looking Monk subclass that isn’t really doing anything new or unique, even if it is stronger. Just isn’t how I would have liked it to be handled, really. There are a lot of cool homebrew reworks of the subclass that are balanced and still interesting.