Monk

Her fists a blur as they deflect an incoming hail of arrows, a half-elf springs over a barricade and throws herself into the massed ranks of hobgoblins on the other side. She whirls among them, knocking their blows aside and sending them reeling, until at last she stands alone.

Taking a deep breath, a human covered in tattoos settles into a battle stance. As the first charging orcs reach him, he exhales and a blast of fire roars from his mouth, engulfing his foes.

Moving with the silence of the night, a black-clad halfling steps into a shadow beneath an arch and emerges from another inky shadow on a balcony a stone’s throw away. She slides her blade free of its cloth- wrapped scabbard and peers through the open window at the tyrant prince, so vulnerable in the grip of sleep.

Whatever their discipline, monks are united in their ability to magically harness the energy that flows in their bodies. Whether channeled as a striking display of combat prowess or a subtler focus of defensive ability and speed, this energy infuses all that a monk does.

The Magic of Ki

Monks make careful study of a magical energy that most monastic traditions call ki. This energy is an element of the magic that suffuses the multiverse—specifically, the element that flows through living bodies. Monks harness this power within themselves to create magical effects and exceed their bodies' physical capabilities, and some of their special attacks can hinder the flow of ki in their opponents. Using this energy, monks channel uncanny speed and strength into their unarmed strikes. As they gain experience, their martial training and their mastery of ki gives them more power over their bodies and the bodies of their foes.

Training and Asceticism

Small walled cloisters dot the landscapes of the worlds of D&D, tiny refuges from the flow of ordinary life, where time seems to stand still. The monks who live there seek personal perfection through contemplation and rigorous training. Many entered the monastery as children, sent to live there when their parents died, when food couldn’t be found to support them, or in return for some kindness that the monks had performed for their families.

Some monks live entirely apart from the surrounding population, secluded from anything that might impede their spiritual progress. Others are sworn to isolation, emerging only to serve as spies or assassins at the command of their leader, a noble patron, or some other mortal or divine power.

The majority of monks don’t shun their neighbors, making frequent visits to nearby towns or villages and exchanging their service for food and other goods. As versatile warriors, monks often end up protecting their neighbors from monsters or tyrants.

For a monk, becoming an adventurer means leaving a structured, communal lifestyle to become a wanderer. This can be a harsh transition, and monks don’t undertake it lightly. Those who leave their cloisters take their work seriously, approaching their adventures as personal tests of their physical and spiritual growth. As a rule, monks care little for material wealth and are driven by a desire to accomplish a greater mission than merely slaying monsters and plundering their treasure.

Creating a Monk

As you make your monk character, think about your connection to the monastery where you learned your skills and spent your formative years. Were you an orphan or a child left on the monastery’s threshold? Did your parents promise you to the monastery in gratitude for a service performed by the monks? Did you enter this secluded life to hide from a crime you committed? Or did you choose the monastic life for yourself?

Consider why you left. Did the head of your monastery choose you for a particularly important mission beyond the cloister? Perhaps you were cast out because of some violation of the community’s rules. Did you dread leaving, or were you happy to go? Is there something you hope to accomplish outside the monastery? Are you eager to return to your home?

As a result of the structured life of a monastic community and the discipline required to harness ki, monks are almost always lawful in alignment.

The Monk

Level	Martial Arts	Ki Points	Unarmored Movement	Features
1st	1d4	—	—	Unarmored Defense (Monk), Martial Arts
2nd	1d4	2	+10 ft.	Ki, Unarmored Movement
3rd	1d4	3	+10 ft.	Monastic Tradition, Deflect Missiles
4th	1d4	4	+10 ft.	Ability Score Improvement, Slow Fall
5th	1d6	5	+10 ft.	Extra Attack, Stunning Strike
6th	1d6	6	+15 ft.	Ki-Empowered Strikes, Monastic Tradition feature
7th	1d6	7	+15 ft.	Evasion, Stillness of Mind
8th	1d6	8	+15 ft.	Ability Score Improvement
9th	1d6	9	+15 ft.	Unarmored Movement improvement
10th	1d6	10	+20 ft.	Purity of Body
11th	1d8	11	+20 ft.	Monastic Tradition feature
12th	1d8	12	+20 ft.	Ability Score Improvement
13th	1d8	13	+20 ft.	Tongue of Sun and Moon
14th	1d8	14	+25 ft.	Diamond Soul
15th	1d8	15	+25 ft.	Timeless Body
16th	1d8	16	+25 ft.	Ability Score Improvement
17th	1d10	17	+25 ft.	Monastic Tradition feature
18th	1d10	18	+30 ft.	Empty Body
19th	1d10	19	+30 ft.	Ability Score Improvement
20th	1d10	20	+30 ft.	Perfect Self

Quick Build

You can make a monk quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom. Second, choose the hermit background.

Class Features

As a monk, you gain the following class features.

HitPoints

Hit Dice: 1d8 per monk level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier

Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per monk level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: None

Weapons: Simple weapons, shortswords

Tools: Choose one type of artisan’s tools or one musical instrument

Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity

Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Athletics, History, Insight, Religion, and Stealth

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a shortsword or (b) any simple weapon
• (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
• 10 darts

Unarmored Defense

 Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier. 

Martial Arts

 At 1st level, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property. 
 You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield: 

• You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons. • You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike or monk weapon. This die changes as you gain monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table. • When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action. For example, if you take the Attack action and attack with a quarterstaff, you can also make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, assuming you haven’t already taken a bonus action this turn.

 Certain monasteries use specialized forms of the monk weapons. For example, you might use a club that is two lengths of wood connected by a short chain (called a nunchaku) or a sickle with a shorter, straighter blade (called a kama). Whatever name you use for a monk weapon, you can use the game statistics provided for the weapon in chapter 5. 

Ki

 Starting at 2nd level, your training allows you to harness the mystic energy of ki. Your access to this energy is represented by a number of ki points. Your monk level determines the number of points you have, as shown in the Ki Points column of the Monk table. 
 You can spend these points to fuel various ki features. You start knowing three such features: Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, and Step of the Wind. You learn more ki features as you gain levels in this class. 
 When you spend a ki point, it is unavailable until you finish a short or long rest, at the end of which you draw all of your expended ki back into yourself. You must spend at least 30 minutes of the rest meditating to regain your ki points. 
 Some of your ki features require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature’s effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows: 

 Ki save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Flurry of Blows

 Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action. 

Patient Defense

 You can spend 1 ki point to take the Dodge action as a bonus action on your turn. 

Step of the Wind

 You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and your jump distance is doubled for the turn. 

Unarmored Movement

 Starting at 2nd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table. 
 At 9th level, you gain the ability to move along vertical surfaces and across liquids on your turn without falling during the move. 

Monastic Tradition

 When you reach 3rd level, you commit yourself to a monastic tradition: the Way of the Open Hand, the Way of Shadow, or the Way of the Four Elements, all detailed at the end of the class description. Your tradition grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 17th level. 

Deflect Missiles

 Starting at 3rd level, you can use your reaction to deflect or catch the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + your monk level. 
 If you reduce the damage to 0, you can catch the missile if it is small enough for you to hold in one hand and you have at least one hand free. If you catch a missile in this way, you can spend 1 ki point to make a ranged attack with the weapon or piece of ammunition you just caught, as part of the same reaction. You make this attack with proficiency, regardless of your weapon proficiencies, and the missile counts as a monk weapon for the attack. The range of the monk’s ranged attack is 20/60 feet. 

Ability Score Improvement

 When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature. 

Slow Fall

 Beginning at 4th level, you can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level. 

Extra Attack

 Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. 

Stunning Strike

 Starting at 5th level, you can interfere with the flow of ki in an opponent’s body. When you hit another creature with a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a stunning strike. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn. 

Ki-Empowered Strikes

 Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. 

Evasion

 At 7th level, your instinctive agility lets you dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a blue dragon’s lightning breath or a fireball spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail. 

Stillness of Mind

 Starting at 7th level, you can use your action to end one effect on yourself that is causing you to be charmed or frightened. 

Purity of Body

 At 10th level, your mastery of the ki flowing through you makes you immune to disease and poison. 

Tongue of the Sun and Moon

 Starting at 13th level, you learn to touch the ki of other minds so that you understand all spoken languages. Moreover, any creature that can understand a language can understand what you say. 

Diamond Soul

 Beginning at 14th level, your mastery of ki grants you proficiency in all saving throws. 
 Additionally, whenever you make a saving throw and fail, you can spend 1 ki point to reroll it and take the second result. 

Timeless Body

 At 15th level, your ki sustains you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can’t be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water. 

Empty Body

 Beginning at 18th level, you can use your action to spend 4 ki points to become invisible for 1 minute. During that time, you also have resistance to all damage but force damage. 
 Additionally, you can spend 8 ki points to cast the astral projection spell, without needing material components. When you do so, you can’t take any other creatures with you. 

Perfect Self

 At 20th level, when you roll for initiative and have no ki points remaining, you regain 4 ki points. 

Monastic Traditions

Three traditions of monastic pursuit are common in the monasteries scattered across the multiverse. Most monasteries practice one tradition exclusively, but a few honor the three traditions and instruct each monk according to his or her aptitude and interest. All three traditions rely on the same basic techniques, diverging as the student grows more adept. Thus, a monk need choose a tradition only upon reaching 3rd level.

Monastic Orders

The worlds of D&D contain a multitude of monasteries and monastic traditions. In lands with an Asian cultural flavor, such as Shou Lung far to the east of the Forgotten Realms, these monasteries are associated with philosophical traditions and martial arts practice. The Iron Hand School, the Five Stars School, the Northern Fist School, and the Southern Star School of Shou Lung teach different approaches to the physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines of the monk. Some of these monasteries have spread to the western lands of Faerun, particularly in places with large Shou immigrant communities, such as Thesk and Westgate.

Other monastic traditions are associated with deities who teach the value of physical excellence and mental discipline. In the Forgotten Realms, the order of the Dark Moon is made up of monks dedicated to Shar (goddess of loss), who maintain secret communities in remote hills, back allies, and subterranean hideaways. Monasteries of Ilmater (god of endurance) are named after flowers, and their orders carry the names of great heroes of the faith; the Disciples of Saint Sollars the Twice-Martyred reside in the Monastery of the Yellow Rose near Damara. The monasteries of Eberron combine the study of martial arts with a life of scholarship. Most are devoted to the deities of the Sovereign Host. In the world of Dragonlance, most monks are devoted to Majere, god of meditation and thought. In Greyhawk, many monasteries are dedicated to Xan Yae, the goddess of twilight and the superiority of mind over matter, or to Zuoken, god of mental and physical mastery.

The evil monks of the Scarlet Brotherhood in the world of Greyhawk derive their fanatic zeal not from devotion to a god but from dedication to the principles of their nation and their race—the belief that the Suel strand of humanity are meant to rule the world.

Xanathar’s Guide to Monks

Do not mistake my silence for acceptance of your villainy. While you blustered and threatened, I’ve planned four different ways to snap your neck with my bare hands.

— Ember, grand master of flowers

I bet I could be a monk if I wanted. What? Why are you laughing?

— Xanathar

Monks walk a path of contradiction. They study their art as a wizard does, and like a wizard, they wear no armor and typically eschew weapons. Yet they are deadly combatants, their abilities on a par with those of a raging barbarian or a superbly trained fighter. Monks embrace this seeming contradiction, for it speaks to the core of all monastic study. By coming to know oneself completely, one learns much of the wider world.

A monk’s focus on inner mastery leads many such individuals to become detached from society, more concern with their personal experience than with happenings elsewhere. Adventuring monks are a rare breed of an already rare type of character, taking their quest for perfection beyond the walls of the monastery into the world at large.

Playing a monk character offers many intriguing opportunities to try something different. To distinguish your monk character even further, consider the options in the sections that follow.

Monastery

A monk studies in a monastery in preparation for a life of asceticism. Most of those who enter a monastery make it their home for the rest of their lives, with the exception of adventurers and others who have reason to leave. For those individuals, a monastery might serve as a refuge between excursions to the world or as a source of support in times of need.

What sort of place was your monastery, and where is it located? Did attending it contribute to your experience in an unusual or distinctive way?

Examples:

• Your monastery is carved out of a mountainside, where it looms over a treacherous pass.
• Your monastery is high in the branches of an immense tree in the Feywild.
• Your monastery was founded long ago by a cloud giant is inside a cloud castle that can be reached only by flying.
• Your monastery is build beside a volcanic system of hot springs, geysers, and sulfur pools. You regularly received visits from azer traders.
• Your monastery was founded by gnomes and is an underground labyrinth of tunnels and rooms.
• Your monastery was carved from an iceberg in the frozen reaches of the world.

Monastic Icon

Even in the monastic lifestyle, which eschews materialism and personal possessions, symbolism plays an important part in defining the identity of an order. Some monastic orders treat certain creatures with special regard, either because the creature is tied to the order’s history or because it serves as an example of a quality the monks seek to emulate.

If your character’s monastery had a special icon, you might wear a crude image of the creature somewhere inconspicuous on your clothing to serve as an identifying mark. Or perhaps you order’s icon does not have a physical form but is expressed through a gesture or a posture that you adopt, and which other monks might know how to interpret.

Examples:

• Monkey. Quick reflexes and the ability to travel through the treetops are two of the reasons why your order admires the monkey.
• Dragon Turtle. The monks of your seaside monastery venerate the dragon turtle, reciting ancient prayers and offering garlands of flowers to honor this living spirit of the sea.
• Ki-rin. Your monastery sees its main purpose as watching over and protecting the land in the manner of the ki-rin.
• Owlbear. The monks of your monastery revere a family of owlbears and have coexisted with them for generations.
• Hydra. Your order singles out the hydra for its ability to unleash several attacks simultaneously.
• Dragon. A dragon once laired within your monastery. Its influence remains long after its departure.

Master

During your studies, you were likely under the tutelage of a master who imparted to you the precepts of the order. Your master was the one most responsible for shaping your understanding of the martial arts and your attitude toward the world. What sort of person was your master, and how did your relationship with your master affect you?

Examples:

• Your master was a tyrant whom you had to defeat in single combat to complete your instruction.
• Your master was kindly and taught you to pursue the cause of peace.
• Your master was merciless in pushing you to your limits. You nearly lost an eye during one especially brutal practice session.
• Your master seemed goodhearted while tutoring you, but betrayed your monastery in the end.
• Your master was cold and distant. You suspect that the two of you might be related.
• Your master was kind and generous, never critical of your progress. Nevertheless, you feel you never fully lived up to the expectations placed on you.

Monks of the Sword Coast

The fat man straightened his black-and-gold vest, lowered his round head, and charged.

Danica waited until he was right in front of her, and to the onlookers it appeared as if the woman would be buried beneath mounds of flesh. At the last moment, she dipped her head under the fat man’s lunging arm, caught his hand, and casually stepped behind him as he lumbered past. A subtle twist of her wrist stopped him dead in his tracks, and before he even realized what was happening, Danica kicked the back of both his knees, dropping him to a kneel.

— R.A. Salvatore, Canticle

Some of the earliest monastic orders in Faerûn arose in the southern lands of Amn and Calimshan, their practices migrating north and east at the same time similar practices filtered westward from distant Kara-Tur.

The oldest orders have branched or fractured into smaller offshoots over time, such that there are now dozens of them. Most are no more than a few dozen members living in an isolated community in the wilderness. Some monastic communities have members numbering in the hundreds, with a presence closer to civilization, and often with correspondingly greater influence, for those orders concern themselves with worldly affairs.

As most monastic orders in Faerûn arose from human nations, the majority of monks in those communities tend to be human. Monasteries have long been sanctuaries for foundlings and outcasts of various sorts, so nonhuman monks are not unheard of.

Monastic Orders

The following orders can be found in various parts of the Forgotten Realms.

The Dark Moon

A monastic order devoted to Shar, the Dark Moon works openly in lands where her worship is accepted and in secret wilderness and underground hideaways where it isn’t. Its followers seek “knowledge and conversation with the shadow,” believing true wisdom is found in darkness and loss, both literally and spiritually. Its adherents most often follow the Way of Shadow, as described in the Monastic Tradition class feature in the Player’s Handbook.

The Hin Fist

A halfiing monastic order from Luiren, adherents of the Hin Fist turn their people’s natural confidence into a spiritual path for mastering themselves and their potential. A few Hin Fist masters have established monasteries in lands outside Luiren, where the teachings available only to halflings have been opened to students of other races who are willing to follow the path laid out by Yondalla. Hin Fist monks generally follow the Way of the Open Hand, as described in the Monastic Tradition class feature in the Player’s Handbook.

Order of the Yellow Rose

Also known as the Disciples of Saint Sollars the Twice-Martyred, the Order of the Yellow Rose is a solitary monastery of Ilmater worshipers in the Earthspur Mountains of Damara. It is known for loyalty to its allies and destruction to its enemies. Greatly respected on matters of truth and diplomacy, the monks work hard to survive in their remote sanctuary. The monks of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose use the remorhaz to test their disciples. Young monks must prove the power of their mind to overcome fear and pain by riding the beasts.

The faith of Ilmater fosters far more orders of monks that other gods. Other llmatari monastic orders include the Followers of the Unhindered Path, the Disciples of St. Morgan the Taciturn, and the Sisters of St. Jasper of the Rocks.

Monks of Ilmater often travel as wanderers, begging for alms, seeking enlightenment, and relieving the suffering of others. They tend to follow the Way of the Open Hand, as described in the Monastic Tradition class feature in the Player’s Handbook.

The Sun Souls

The Sun Soul monks follow a monastic tradition that they believe has its roots in the ancient empire of Netheril. In their philosophy, living things harbor a fragment of the sun’s mystic essence within them. Just as the body has a shadow, so too does the spirit have a light. That light is called the sun soul. Brothers and sisters of the Order of the Sun Soul train to tap into the “spiritual light within” and manifest it as supernatural feats of prowess and endurance. Members of this order follow the Way of the Sun Soul, which is described in the “Monastic Traditions” section below.

To get in touch with their internal light, Sun Soul monks follow a strict code of ascetic conduct called the Precepts of Incandescence. It emphasizes three pillars:

Seek physical perfection. To open the way for the sun soul to manifest, one should strive to make the body beautiful. Fitness, cleanliness, and well-honed physicality create a clearer window through which the light can shine.

Seek spiritual virtue. Recognize the light in others, not just the darkness. Grant and take each new chance to be virtuous.

Shine light into darkness. Share the soul’s light with the world. Light up dark places with your presence and banish shadow.

Due to the precepts’ similarity to the teachings of some faiths, the Order of the Sun Soul has long had associations with temples and the faithful of three particular deities: Sune, Selûne, and Lathander. The dictate to seek physical perfection and recognize hidden virtue has similarity to Sune’s teachings about physical and spiritual beauty. Followers of Selûne recognize their goddess’s exhortation to battle darkness and seek virtue. And of course, Lathander’s association with the sun links to the Sun Soul philosophy, but more critically for worshipers of Lathander, they see the idea of granting and taking new chances as similar to Lathander’s emphasis on new beginnings.

Long Death Monks

Followers of the Way of the Long Death worship the principle of death more so than any deity of death. These monks seek the secrets of life by studying death itself. It is the condition of being dead that concerns them most, and not what lies beyond; the afterlife holds little interest for them. Their monasteries are full of decaying, dying, and dead animal and plant specimens, which they study with detached interest. They frequently purchase rare specimens from adventurers and merchants that they can’t obtain easily themselves. But such studies are only part of the monks’ daily life: They seek to understand death as it pertains especially to intelligent living beings, and to this end they eagerly welcome the diseased and the dying so that they might watch and record their deaths. If such unfortunates seek release from pain through death, the monks provide it. They view death as a gift that they bestow on those who are ready for it. Their means of determining readiness vary from one sect (or even one monk) to another.

The monks suffer no moral qualms about these deeds, for death is the most natural thing in the world, from their perspective, and to expire in service to its principle is one of the most profoundly holy experiences a living being can hope to enjoy. It is for this reason that the monks themselves do not fear death.

Most of the order’s members are either scholars who share mutual fascination with death and dying or clergy who worship one of the deities concerned with death. Some of the monks consider themselves to be nothing less than visionaries whose work will pave the way for a better future for all Faerûn. When death is truly understood, it can be harnessed and used as a tool for the betterment of all, or so they rationalize to themselves.

Monks of this tradition follow the Way of the Long Death, which is described in the “Monastic Traditions” section below.

The Yielding Way

The monastic order of Eldath is the Disciples of the Yielding Way, sometimes known as the Brothers and Sisters of the Open Palm. These monks guard sacred sites where many priests dwell, and they travel the countryside gathering information for isolated groves and fastnesses. They don’t ever seek to provoke violence, but are quite deadly when defending themselves, their charges, and their holy sites.

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