With the cost of four ki points, you can become invisible for 1 minute. During that time you are resistant to all damage but force damage. Alternatively, you can spend 8 ki points to cast Astral Projection. This allows you to travel the outer planes freely. Both of these options are interesting but the ki point cost is high. Perfect Self dramatically improves every aspect of a monk. Each time you roll for initiative and have no ki points remaining, you regain 4 ki points.
These features are designed to be added to existing class features unless noted otherwise. Dedicated weapon allows you to turn any weapon into a monk weapon. Following a short or long rest, you can make a weapon a monk weapon if the weapon meets these criteria:.
This gives you more options for spending ki points. If you spend 1 ki point or more as part of your action on your turn, you can make one attack with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon as a bonus action before the end of the turn.
This feature gives you the power to heal using ki points. By spending two points, you can roll a Martial Arts die and add that number plus your proficiency bonus to your hit points. Focused Aim lets you spend ki points to increase an attack roll following a miss. You can spend between one and three points to boost your attack roll by two for each point you spend. This could turn a miss into a hit. With most classes, the class features are the base but the subclass features are what really make a character sing.
There are seven subclasses — called monastery traditions — in total, but most of them come up short in what they were going for. In my view, the strength of the monk lies in its class features. There are some glaring holes the basic monk has, however. Additionally, you are going to struggle if you are fighting something that is only hurt by non-weapon damage. Many of these subclasses make an effort to address these flaws, but few do it adequately. That said, there is some fun to be had with some of these options.
We will review them each alphabetically. See our Complete Way of Mercy Guide. Mercy monks walk a fine line between life and death. This subclass focuses on healing the wounded and bringing a swift end to the suffering.
Based on the them, it should not surprise you this archetype involves a mixture of healing and damage dealing. See our Complete Drunken Master 5e Guide. There is a general consensus that Way of the Drunken Master is the best of the seven traditions. Using the unpredictable movements common with drunkards, this subclass is about using misdirection to hit and run. Remember the problems monks have with flyers and magical creatures? Way of the Four Elements attempts to address those by giving the monk access to spellcasting.
While spells are nice, they eat up ki that could be used on the more powerful monk effects. At level three, you obtain the Elemental Attument discipline and an additional elemental discipline of your choice. At levels 6, 11, and 17 you gain additional disciplines. Some of these disciplines allow your monk to cast spells without the components. You can also raise the level of a spell by spending ki points. Some strong options include:. This subclass was designed to fill some holes in the monk class by opening up some weapon options.
While Way of the Long Death does little to address some of the challenges with fighting at range monks deal with, it does give a valuable tank boost to a fairly squishy frontline fighter. The class is well-balanced, and mixes in a useful crowd control ability and a huge damage dealing option at level Good stuff right here.
Essentially, this operates as a standard monk on steroids. However, Quivering Palm is one of the most interesting features in the game, in my opinion. Way of the Shadow is one of the weaker subclasses available. It aims to be a Rogue-like monk, but it comes up short in matching the strength of a pure member of either class. Stealth is nice, but missing out on sneak attack damage makes it seem mostly wasted. Flavorwise, Way of the Sun Soul is cool.
It gives your monk the ability to blast Dragonball Z style energy attacks at range, which in theory should address some issues with the class. Unfortuntely, these blasts are underpowered unless you spend a lot of ki. While ranged attacks are useful, most of the time there are more efficient options than this. Roleplaying as a monk will come down to however you design your character. However, there are a few aspects of all monks that can play an important role in how you develop your character.
If your monastery was very combat-centric, your motivation for adventuring might be to prove yourself. The bonus to Hide is a competence bonus, and therefore won't stack with most other hiding equipment.
There are better options. Ring of Invisibility: Would be useful, except that there's a relatively narrow window between when it becomes reasonably affordable and when True Seeing starts becoming a serious issue.
Work on improving Hide, instead. Robe of Blending: A nice idea, but you can get the same bonus from shadow armor and a hat of disguise for cheaper, or a significantly better bonus for only a trace more expense.
Rope, silk: As a great halfling once said, "Rope! I knew I'd want it, if I hadn't got it! Silk instead of hemp is to cut down on weight. Like Shadow, a flat price. Staff of Size Alteration: Multiple useful spells, but nothing that you couldn't get from a wand.
You're paying extra for caster level that you might not need. Studded Leather Armor, Masterwork: Relatively cheap, and has no armor check penalty. Get it enchanted with various magical properties, including Shadow and Silent Moves. Tome of Clear Thought: Permanent bonuses are especially important for Intelligence, since a temporary bonus won't increase your skill points gained at each level.
This will. Tool, Masterwork: These are all subject to DM discretion. But ask if you can get a masterwork tool for all of the skills you use. You've got room for them in your Haversack.
It's not clear how long the bonus lasts, though. Since it's a competence bonus, it won't stack with a Circlet of Persuasion. The template itself still has its uses, since it can't be taken away or dispelled, doesn't require a body slot, and works in an antimagic field.
But if you don't already have the template, this is a great item to get. Crystal Mask of Insightful Detection : A decent-sized insight bonus to two different useful skills Dorjes XPH of any useful psionic powers Hidden blades CScoun : Complete Scoundrel provides rules for hidden blades, if you didn't already houserule or abstract over how to do them. Longspoon thieves' tools, masterwork CAdv : Lets you work from up to five feet away, thus hopefully avoiding many traps.
If you get the masterwork version, the only drawback is that they take a little longer to use. Probably not worth the GP price, unless you're very desperate. As if that wasn't enough, it's also extremely lightweight, and can automatically repair damage to itself. Yes, please. The only drawback is that it can't be used to make a chain shirt. Like the Chameleon power, it's a rare enhancement bonus. Third Eye: Conceal XPH : Continual Mind Blank is an obviously useful ability, since it protects you from magical information-gathering and other effects.
It comes at a very steep price, though. Get one if you're rich and don't have any easier way of getting Mind Blank or the equivalent. All of these builds are based on the assumption of point-buy, that being the equivalent of the elite array or the 4d6 drop lowest method. If your stats differ from this either via luck of the dice or a different point-buy value , scores can be adjusted. The Core-only thief: Spoiler. They're not too onerous, though, since most feats are only useful for combat, which we're trying to avoid, so there aren't very many we need to pick up in a core-only environment.
You'll be a little shorter on skill points than a straight rogue 9 total per level , but in return, you gain 19 levels of cleric spellcasting. In addition, you'll get your Wis mod which any cleric should be getting as high as possible added as a bonus to your AC. Able Learner is needed to make this build work, and Knowledge is a bonus domain from Cloistered Cleric; all other feats and domains are open to variation.
You could pick up mostly roguish feats, or take metamagic feats like a standard cleric though you probably still want Nymph's Kiss, if you're eligible, and Darkstalker. Prestige classes are not recommended for this build, since you'd lose spellcasting, skills, or both, but you're already filling two full party roles, so they shouldn't be necessary anyway.
In addition, your Hide also applies against most nonmagical means of detection, you can hide in plain sight and provide your own concealment, and you're all but impossible to find magically. This is of course an illustration of how much freedom a skillmonkey has in mixing and matching classes. The order of most of the levels can be shuffled around; this order gave what I considered the higher-priority abilities earlier, but that can vary based on circumstances.
Other skill users: High skills can always be defeated by other, similarly high skills. The skill to especially fear is Spot, since it can defeat both Hide and Sleight of Hand. Other thief-types can also have impressive Spot scores.
This doesn't mean that you can never get away with dealing with such opponents, but it does mean that you'll want to be very, very careful with them, planning things out in advance, and not hesitating to use expendable resources like elixirs and scrolls if needed. Bonus types: You obviously want items, spells, and other benefits which give bonuses to skills, but keep an eye on the bonus types. In general, two bonuses of the same type to the same thing don't stack: Only the better one applies.
This means that a bonus is useless to you if you already have something else that gives a larger bonus of the same type, and almost useless if you already have something that gives a bonus nearly as large. Most bonuses that apply directly to skills are competence bonuses, and most bonuses to ability scores are enhancement bonuses, so these bonus types are the least valuable since they're so likely to overlap. Insight, luck, and morale bonuses are less common, and thus more valuable, while the most valuable bonuses are the extremely rare ones like sacred or profane; circumstance bonuses, which contrary to the general rule always stack as long as they come from different circumstances; and bonuses for which no particular type is given, which always stack as long as they're from different sources.
Also, Swordsage gets 6 skill points per level, and has all the stealth skills hide, move silently , all the detection skills listen, spot, search and even social skills bluff , making it a solid skillmonkey class, particularly if you go heavy into Shadow Hand. In fact, you can be a very effective melee combatant and STILL be a very good skillmonkey, using your Dex for damage while in a Shadow Hand stance which should be always.
Island of Blades makes for very good synergy with flanking and precision damage. Even if you don't want to be a Swordsage forever, a two level dip nets you a LOT of useful things, including Island of Blades to make precision damage more effective, Dex to damage, Wis to AC even in light armor like Mithral Chain , and still has plenty of skill points to keep bases covered.
It is light armor, so Swordsages still get their Wis bonus to AC. It negates the need to tie up slots on feet and cloak to get stealth up. Boots of Speed or Levitation are far more useful, and there are MANY cloaks out there that are extremely valuable to a rogue.
Originally Posted by The Underlord. All hail great Shneekeythulhu! Ia Ia Shneeky fthagn. Quite possibly, the best rebuttal I have ever witnessed. This is a solid guide, and fills a lot of holes left by the current crop of guides at the Wizards forums.
You missed out one of my favourite core low-level skillmonkey items, though; the Goggles of Minute Seeing. I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen , is out as of December For updates, check my blog!
If I make a skillmonkey in the future, I'll certainly be referring to this. My characters: Spoiler. When the end comes i shall remember you. I sorry i fail Englimish Of course, by the time I finish this post, it will already be obsolete. C'est la vie. Could replace "Guide" with "Suggestions", "Strategies", "Stratagems", or some such, for the acronym.
Since Oriental Adventures was mentioned for Iajutsu Skill the Magic of Faerun Spellfire Wielder feat is really strong if you can get access to the book.
The Godsight feat from Lost Empires of Faerun could be useful or some of the Complete Mage bloodline feats with spell-like abilities could be useful depending on the campaign particularly social interaction and non-LA race campaigns.
Stolen from Bayar My PC likes hamburgers but prefers cheeseburgers. Pazuzu probably amused at a lowly Paladin having a Demon Lord grant him a Wish to command a Solar to grant a Wish for something like Summoning a Noble Djinni for more wishes of questionable purposes. Gate spell doesn't cause creature to forget. Originally Posted by monty. Couldn't a Chameleon take Open Minded every day as its bonus feat, netting it infinite skill points, rendering the skills-per-level pointless? I mean, it never says the points go away if the feat does, though it makes sense to rule that way.
Originally Posted by Vexxation. What's the benefit of the Open Minded feat? Five bonus skill points. What, therefore, is lost when you lose the feat? The argument that you don't lose the skill points when you lose the feat is comparable to the argument that you don't lose the untyped bonus to a skill when you lose the Skill Focus feat.
Last edited by Vexxation; at PM. Well, it's just that skill points are a relatively permanent thing; do you lose the skill points gained from Nymph's Kiss if that feat is lost? If so, do you just randomly pick skills to lose points from? But yeah, my point was that to rule in favor of infinite skills would be absurd.
And broken. I thought I remembered it being lost if the intimacy ended. Oh well, silly me. If you ever reformat the spell list, I would advise to sort it by spell levels. Quick Reconnoiter CAdv is also a good feat for the "scout" role.
The Shadow Hand weapon of legacy has some interesting abilities: one of them allows you to hide as an immediate action at the beginning of a fight. You may not have Complete Scoundrel, but perhaps you can mention the existence of skill tricks in passing. At epic levels, there's the Void Incarnate for ultimate sneakiness: you erase your presence from the universe. Last edited by namo; at PM. My old characters I don't game on this board anymore Avatar by Castaras " Even gods must learn to control their tempers, lest they set a bad example.
All you loose is 2 skill points and you gain all skills as class skills. People who think Tippy equals win. Originally Posted by Tyndmyr. Originally Posted by Sunken Valley. Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx. Originally Posted by Immabozo. Tippy, I knew, in the back of my mind, that you would have the answer. Cause you win. That's why. Originally Posted by Mithril Leaf. I finally surrender. Tippy, you do in fact equal win. You have claimed the position of being my idol.
Originally Posted by Someone who shall remain anonymous. This helps my Haberdash build as well, so thanks. Now that 3. No more rules means that once you figure out all of the uses for X, you know all of the uses. So I'm hoping each of the regulars takes the time to compile and post their guides and favorite builds. This is an excellent start. Spoiler: Other stuff I've done. Players would do well to simply read the skill rules thoroughly instead. Hide is not invisibility, nor anything like it, unless you are a shadowdancer with HiPS.
Unlike invisibility, you must hide behind something! And you cannot see an invisible creature with a DC 20 spot check. You only discover that he is around Um, yeeeeah DC 40 to find his 5' square, and even then you still have the same miss chance and flat-footedness. If he makes a hide check he adds it to those DCs, and he always has concealment so he can do this out in the open which, again, you can't normally do with hide.
Sleight of hand: Per the rules, what you described are unarmed disarm attacks. Sleight of hand may not be used for this. It is mostly used to pick pockets out-of-combat. Skillwise, rogues can do everything a bard can do and more, almost without exception. The bard's strength here is that he has skills and other things at the same time.
IMO getting a higher cha than you need for your spells is a waste. Are you really counting on the save DC of your low level spells? Elf: Also has spot, listen and search bonuses, highly valuable to a skillmonkey in a party "friggin' noisy, un-hidey party members always alerting the monsters, all I can do is scout for baddies and traps".
Also the only PHB dex bonus race with a 30' move speed. Handy for the many skills involving movement. Last edited by ericgrau; at PM. So you never have to interrupt a game to look up a rule again: My 3.
It does have one significant benefit, which is that it can be used to oppose trip attempts. See the rule in Complete Adventurer. As skill points will go up faster than the tripper's STR score, and you can "take 12 " with Skill Mastery and Savvy Rogue , you can become immune to tripping. Default Rules : Monks are nearly always built on Dexterity and Wisdom, but tortles may be the only race with the ability to overlook Dexterity on a Monk.
Telepathic Insight provides a powerful defense against saves which can often take you out of a fight entirely. The innate spellcasting is borderline useless. Setting-specific races are address below. Talk to your DM about what races are allowed in your game.
Shifting is activated as a Bonus Action so it can conflict with Martial Arts, but the benefits are frequently worth what you give up. Default Rules : Darkvision is great, but the Monk is heavily reliant on their Bonus Action for things like Martial Arts, so Shifting is a difficult proposition when the benefits do so little for the Monk.
You can move the Constitution increase around, but increasing Constitution is still the best way to use that increase. Default Rules : Constitution and a flexible increase work great, and the bonus AC will allow you to reach an AC of 21 totally unequipped. While the design intent for Dragonmarks was that they would offer some innate spellcasting for everyone, every dragonmark includes an expanded spell list which is arguably a more significant benefit than most of the provided racial traits.
Dragonmark traits replace some of your normal racial traits, as described in the entry for each Dragonmark. The natural armor looks tempting at first glance, but Unarmored Defense will be much more effective.
The bonus with the skill can be very helpful if it still applies if you go beyond the normal list of skills, and Vedalken provides protection from a huge number of saving throws thanks to Vedalken Dispassion. Default Rules : Vedalken Dispassion are the only interesting parts of the Vedalken. Daunting Roar provides a nice crowd control effect, and the DC is Constitution-based so it should be reasonably effective for many monks.
Wildemount elves share the core traits of PHB elves, but Wildemount adds two new subraces. See above for more information on other elf subraces. Wildemount halflings share the core traits of PHB halflings, but Wildemount adds a new subrace. See above for information on other halfling subraces.
Lineages are applied on top of a base race. Despite selecting a base race, you do not count as a member of your race for the purposes of any other effect, such as qualifying for feats or using magic items. I recommend looking for feats which provide an increase to one of your ability scores so that you can get increases to both Dexterity and Wisdom.
Without that capability the Dhampir is basically just two skills and fancy climb speed, which you can get from the Tabaxi.
Instead, this section will cover the options which I think work especially well for the class, or which might be tempting but poor choices. Racial feats are discussed in the Races section, above. Instead, this section will cover feats which I think work especially well for the class or which might be tempting but poor choices.
Monk weapons deal their base damage or your Martial Arts damage, whichever is greater, which makes weapons a very good choice for Monks. The best base damage you can get from a Monk weapon is 1d8 with Versatile , which will match your Martial Arts damage until level Monks use Dexterity with any Monk weapon, so the biggest differences between weapons are damage type and possibly a range increment.
However, the limitation on weapon traits means that in a practical sense there is a limited number of truly optimal weapons. Unfortunately you can only have one Dedicated Weapon at a time, but if you can get the proficiencies you can change weapons daily to get whatever suits your needs at the time. Your first and most obvious choice is a weapon that can exceed the damage of a spear.
I typically prefer a slashing weapon because your unarmed strikes are probably locked into bludgeoning damage. Second you should address the issue of ranged combat. I recommend getting a shortbow. If nothing else, you can use Extra Attack without worrying about the Loading property or how to draw darts fast enough.
I recommend the Whip because it gives you easy access to Reach. The damage die is small, but your Martial Arts die raises it to be in line with similar weapons, so the trade is less harsh. The ability to make hit-and-run attacks while remaining out of enemies reach is a great tactical option for the Monk, especially if you have a durable ally to discourage enemies from chasing you. For more on multiclassing, see my Practical Guide to Multiclassing. Stealth, Hiding and You! Ultimate Optimizer's Multiclassing Guide.
So you want to play an archer? Feats by Ability. Fiend Summoning for Beginners. Master of Reactions — A Mini-Guide. Ways to attack with your Reaction. The Grapplers Manual 2. Unknown January 22, at PM. Zenith January 22, at PM.
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