You Might Be an Astral Self Monk | Monk Subclass Guide for DND 5e

Great Video man, you’re up there with Pointy Hat in terms of quality of video

This monk subclass is perfect for building an Isekai character!!

Nice video would be able to make a video on the Oath of the ancients

vampire race astral self monk KONO DIO DA!

Wait was that a jojo reference?

Yes, yes it was

I don't hate the monk. I just know its place.

I love this subclass because its so falvourful, the astral self can literally be anything you want and the arms can also cover your own arms if you dont want them floating behind you. ive got a character that spews blood out of their arms and it turns into blades, practically chainsaw man once i add the astral visage

5 months late, but like... can you add in more JoJo References? I don't think there's enough

If you wanna know why monk is bad look up Treantmonk video called Monks Suck.

I decided to sub class with Barbarian it’s fun

excellent description of what a monk should be doing.

I love your positivity and take on the monk class! So many doomsayers that I was a little discouraged about rolling one up.

Astral monk is the only monk i will use. Because jojo. I get to play a level 20 version and i am trying to keep it mostly monk.

Turtle monk in thumbnail is either Master Oogway or a Ninja turtle?

With Action Surge, it's actually 10 attacks plus

I might be a way of the ascended dragon monk but im not sure lol I might need some confirmation haha

So,

Jotaro's an Astral Self Monk with a two level Fighter Dip

Polnareff's an Echo Knight

Joseph's a monk/divination wizard variant human with the Lucky and Martial Adept feats at the cost of ABIs

What's Kakyoin, Avdol, and Iggy?

I need to watch jojo

Wait, if you multiclass into an Echo Knight, would you get a pair of shadow clones as well as your Stand?! If so, that has the potential to be busted as hell!

Ok but fellas. This may not be optimized...but what about....an astral self astral elf

I wonder if this would pair well with gunslinger

My first DnD character was an astral monk. Just a gnome with a silly hat who punched with his floating hands. Made him annoying by multiclassing into Cleric, trickster. Channel Divinity to make an illusion then summon arms. Most enemies thought the illusion was punching them.😂

I feel like monks (All martials for that matter) would greatly benefit from gaining access to martial techniques like the Battlemaster.

Monks is deffinitly the worst class in the game, not the Rangers, because their gameplay is HEAVILY contradictory with too much risk very few reward by wasting too many Ki in a short time while putting yourself in Frontline danger

Its why i love Baldurs Gate 3 Monks more especially Open Hand actually start dealing high damage without the need of Ki's, Four Elements constantly recovering Ki's, and the fact Monk Weapon isnt as strict as it is in the Tabletop

KENSEI MONK SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MARTIAL WEAPON FOCUSED CLASS

And Mercy Monk will forever be the ONLY good and viable Monk in 5E because all of its feature cost VERY LITTLE Ki, and is infact encourage you to keep using Ki because you get to do a lot of free actions

I'm never gonna stop loving just how God Damn ANIME Tashia's Calderon was of an addition;

Reminder to those who may not have it or may not remember, it added not only JJBA as a Monk Subclass but also Persona 5 as a Rogue Subclass, and Devil Fruit from One Piece as just a World Object you can throw into campaigns.

How did I miss this one?

Since we're talking about Za Warudo... I'm disappointed with the timestop spell in dnd. What do you mean "It ends instantly if you do anything to a different creature"?!!!

AND REMEMBER you can multiclass into an echo knight fighter for some extra ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAAAAA
and an early full body stand

There is nothing worse than jojo

Monks, Rogues and Warlocks were never meant to be frontline fighters, they were meant to harass enemies and lock one or two of them down when dealing with groups. I'll never understand how people don't see that, but I'm glad you brought it up. Also, great video. I'd love to see you do one on Cobalt Soul.

D4: D&D Deep Dive points out that Monks don't theorycraft well as two of the core abilities are stunning strike and the ability to walk to the moon and back every turn. Neither of those show up on damage calculators at all, really.

Add in that Ki is limited because its a short rest based resource, and typically, unless the table leader is running a warlock, wildshape-heavy(moon/spore) druid, monk or fighter, you're not likely to take that many short rests.

Also, if you're going to multiclass, consider going gloomstalker ranger as 3 levels will make your DM cry when they accidentally start a fight in a place with shadows.

I love this series so much.
Can you please do Soulknife Rogue next?

I also believe another reason why people hate monks is because people would associate it with anime
I love monks and they're my favorite class. Followed by rangers:D


I'm both a fan of DnD and anime and I never knew Matt Mercer is the english voice of Jotaro. Probably because I'm not a fan of critical role and don't play attention much to voice actors

i have a character who is a monk using way of the astral self right now, and watching your video opened my eyes to how little i have been using the abilities as intended

The problem I personally had with monks was that it felt like an entire miss on the fantasy they go for, that being of complete control of one's body. My friends and I use a homebrew of the monk that sticks more to the idea of a fighter with such control over their body that they never get tired. We do this by making the ki pool only as big as proficiency bonus, but making it replenishable with a bonus action, and since those are so important to monks, there's an opportunity cost without forcing you to do nothing at any point. The shift into a class around resource management rather than just running out of ki bullets/spell bullets/actual bullets, the thing offered by literally every other class in dnd, has made the monk feel incredibly unique.

Amazing stuff!

So happy to be keeping up with these as they come out, probably gonna be a hexblade when i get to play

Also, lets not forget that when it comes to anime: barbarians are the main character
Let me expand:
- they are not ususally really smart
- they survive injuries that nobody else could and get just scratches
- when they get angry they get a nonsense boost of powers and became a lot reckless to get more damage dealt on the enemy
- when raging, they gete even more difficult to kill, to the point when they are at zero hp and keep fighting, even when uncounscious (zealot)
-some subclasses gets 'auras' or effects that trigger when on rage, aka, became furios or enrage and get its nonsense power boost
- some subclasses get abilities or features that makes no sense but can make you fly, or go faster, even random magic boosts that you cannot repeat at will even if you want it
- they scream a lot and rush in on a front attack of rage, no plans, just go and hit
-they get incredible reflexes to dodge stuff even when they are not really fast

So yeah, barbarians are "anime main characters"

You just cant hate jojo-referencing, because hating jojo is a jojo-reference

its so weird you only have 10 k subs wtf i thought you wpould have blown up by this point .... what a shame

I've never watched JoJo, but even when this subclass was unearthed arcana, I understood the reference. So the fact that he went full-blown on this, I'm all here for

"Note to self: Make a spell that lets you throat-punch people with your ghost."
-Tasha

Thanks for the astral content.

No, I dislike monk because everything that is cool is behind an unwanted paywall called ki points, that usually are far to little to do cool shit with. And the other unwanted paywall is my parties not wanting to take short rests and me being just burned out to request them to begin with.

more please hopefully this helps

The love of Monk here is amazing and we love you for it

was that a jojo's reference?

The Monk is such a fun looking class, cant wait to play it