Unarmored
Poor Monk. Nobody told him that unarmored defense allows you to wear more than a diaper. Happily, the choice to go sans iron underpants is equally straightforward for well-informed shoppers like you and me.
If you’re a monk, then the question of armor is a dull-as-dirt optimization problem. So much so that, when I went to google “5e monk guides” to make sure I wasn’t missing something, the top result offered a single line in the “monk armor” category. I’ll quote the section in full:
Monks need armor even less than Wizards.
TLDR: You lose access to martial arts, fast movement, and your Wisdom modifier to AC when you try to impersonate Fighter. So unless you’re up to some extraordinarily niche multiclassing shenanigans, there’s not much reason to try and make it work.
That leaves us with a lingering question: If the mechanics are uninteresting, what is there left to talk about today? Well unclog your imagination pipe and get your old pal Fieri Dragon on the phone, because the answer takes us straight to Flavortown.
You see, there’s a reason that the phrase “dope monk shit” has its own t-shirt. There are few character concepts with a better catalogue of backflips, wall-running, parkour, and over-the-top combat maneuvers. Maybe it’s the Exalted player in me, but nothing makes me a happier gamer than a well-described monk stunt. That’s why, If I’m piloting a monk, you better believe I’ma describe myself standing atop errant sword strikes like Pai Mei. Your low-level mook just missed? Great! I’ll have you know that I didn’t even spill my tea. And even if I did get tagged by your big bad, just you wait until my next turn! I’m planning the world’s most elaborate kip-up to make up for my lost hit points.
So for today’s discussion, let’s talk unarmored defense flavor! An enemy has just biffed an attack against you. What dope monk shit did you do to make ’em miss? Give us your best defensive stunt work down in the comments!
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I think my favourite was the time I had my monk tap the Axe with one finger, gently knocking it just far enough to the side that it just missed.
That finger parry is on point. Love the minimal effort for maximum effect shtick.
Monks do need armor, just not the worn kind. Rings of deflection, wands full of mage armor/barkskin and other things that let you block with your face and not lose class features. Same deal with weaponry – they more often than not need some amulets to boost their unarmed attacks.
That’s not armor. That’s defensive magic items. Completely different thing! >_>
This is the same logic my cleric/monk multiclass uses to justify her ecclesitheurge features so it checks out
Today’s comic on loan from the other handbook.
Look now, it’s the same world. Just different continuities. Of course the same changing room exists!
Personally I’m partial to those fancy “barely moves at all” kinds of dodges where the blow juuust misses by a hair because the dodgee has that much control over their battle and the situation so they don’t need to move any further.
Another technique I favor is to kinda go “hu-hu-hu-hah” while moving my (the players not the PC’s) head and shoulders a bit from side to side, one “hu” and head move for each miss. The idea being to give a quick impression of dodging rather than a full description.
This is good for a large number of attacks at once, especially from several minions, where going with a full description for each would just make the whole combat drag on and take too long.
I like me a good hu hu hah, but it’s always obnoxious when the third minion of four hits. I guess I was just out of rhythm for that one attack?
Miss? My monks are manly and use chest hair as fighter uses mail.
But do they use chest hair to strangle their foes, like a White-Haired-Witch?
No but it does wonders on intimidating lesser beings, like elves.
But to be honest if I wpild play a monk. It would be Remo Williams “The Destroyer” inspired. Ex city guard believed to have died, trained by an venerable martial arts master and absolute womanizer… If you haven’t read thr books highly recomend looking used book stores and flea markets. good stuff.
That’s barbarian unarmored defense. My go-to there is, “I block with chest!”
Not unarmored defense, but Monks ability to run across liquid. One of my players was once trapped between two iron grates, over a vat of acid. With Mind Flayers on both side. She survived for several rounds, by running back and forth atop the acid, stunning the Mind Flayers on either side with her strikes, before clinging onto the grate for when her turn ended. Carrying the bard on her back the entire time.
As for unarmored defense, I do love Barbarians version, because it allows me to describe all the cool ways they take the attack head on, and just straight up doesn´t care.
Come to think of it, would those two stack? I have no experience on multiclassing in 5th so I don’t have an idea what carries over and how.
In 5e when it´s from a class then you use whatever you gained first. I think that if you also got it from your race, then you can chose between that and the one from your class.
Not the one you gain first, but the higher that may apply. E.g. if you are a monk/barbarian, then it depends on whether your wis or con is higher; unless you are wearing light or medium armour (in which case it’s barbarian unarmored vs normal ac from armor) or heavy armor (in which case it’s the ac coming from the armor).
If you are a Tortle monk barbarian, then you don’t benefit fromarmor bonuses at all (except for shields), so without a shield it’s 17, or 10+dex+wis, or 10+dex+con (whichever is highest); or if you wield a shield, then 17+shield bonus or 10+dex+con+shield bonus, whichever highest (you don’t benefit from monk unarmoured ac if you use a shield)
It has been clarified in the Sage Advice.
Scratch that, I forgot the extra specification at multiclassing rules, that you can’t gain it again, so yeah, for that specific rule whichever you get first. (But if you do get other sources of calculating your ac, for example someone casts Mage Armor on you, then you choose, and why wouldn’t you choose the higher)
Right, meant to write that you use highest when it comes to between Racial and Class AC, but it appears I messed that up and went with the previous draft, before I looked the rule up again.
Had the same thought as you, with forgetting the specific rule for multi classing, and only remembered it after looking it up.
Running across acid would be better than swimming through it, but it still sounds painful!
It very likely is. IIRC I decided against dealing minor damage from it, because it was a really, really cool movement, and because she was dealing with enough stuff already.
Not exactly monk, but this reminded me of that one time, when someone threw a fireball at our Pathfinder 1e party. Some made the save, some didn’t. My bard/rogue had a dex save higher than the actual DC, so the only reason I’ve rolled was to see if I need to burn a hero point to cancel a nat 1. (We were at a level where I already had evasion.)
Since he also had a high charisma, the description was thus:
Some of the party members stood and got burnt. Some tried to dodge roll with more or less success. Me? I stood grinning, arms akimbo, the fireball blew up behind me, and the wind made my hair billow charmingly, as I Did Not Look At The Explosion.
It felt really epic.
I hope the rest of the party bowed to your character in respect after that.
Interestingly, I don’t… because I have “Integrated Armor” from the original Warforged material that has since become UA… so my AC is, as of our last level up very recently, TWENTY-SEVEN BITCHES!!!
There may or may not have been some minor min/max shenanigans to achieve this AC that is higher than most boss monsters in the game…
that being said, the easiest way to describe not getting hit as a monk is to watch almost any classic martial arts flick where the monk “moves like water” or some such, and deflects that incoming attack with their monk trained hands. “Here, let me guide that incoming attack for you… right past me, like it never happened.”
And once you get to a high enough level, you just say they never hit you at all. Woosh, woosh, woosh… dodging that shit like Neo dodges bullets in The Matrix (SPOILERS! And yes, I know one of them does hit him at the end, but even a monk with an AC of 27 “can” be hit still.)
I have a Warforged artificer in my campaign, who has gained an AC of 25. With the ability to cast shield, bringing it to 30 for a round. We just had an encounter where both he and the fighter were mind controlled, leading to several rounds of the two trying, and failing, to hurt each other.
Nothing quite like seeing the metal man, just casually walk down the hallway, tanking whatever the enemy throw at him.
Not Monkishness, but I’m building a cat-theif for a Morrowind game, full on Alfiq (the housecat Khajiit) so it won’t be sick capoeira breakdance dodges, no, no, no. Two words:
Cuteness Deflection.
You attempt to hit the Khajiit and as you look in their direction to strike, their eyes grow huge and sparkle with all the lights around them. The mew softly. At the last moment, you can’t do it and swing wildly away! No one would dare hit the cute kitty before you!
I’ve got a gladiator-turned-wizard who casts an improved mage armor spell and an improved cat’s grace spell on herself each morning. She’s rocking an AC of -2, -6 when using her bulette-plate shield (that’s AC:22 or 26 for you ascending armor class folks!)
I will have to borrow some of these fluff moves when she gets missed.
Not related to the actual question proposed, but my father often uses Unarmored Defense and similar mechanics as an excuse to play a nudist character.
Here’s some homebrew your dad might like:
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?45529-Nude-Bard-Sublime-Chord-Heartwarder-Vow-of-Poverty-Build
Not a monk, but I ran a swashbuclker built around the Dodging Dance deed, which let me move at half speed and use acrobatics to avoid attacks of opportunity, then take my own attacks of opportunity against them. So she’d jump into the thickest knot of mooks and sashay back and forth through them, stabbing any fool who tried to take a shot at her. And if there was a railing or table, you bet I used my maxed out acrobatics to jump up on it.
Foe attempts a powerful smash attack (misses).
-) Monk slips beneath the upraised arm…
-) …steps into the foe’s space (but NOT to initiate a grapple)
-) …and moves through that square to come out the other side (thus maintaining his foe’s original facing while never breaking contact with threatened squares while making all appropriate rolls to avoid AoO)
-) …emerging behind the foe and making the Monk’s next attack a furious elbow strike to the C2 cervical vertebra. (No allowance for called shots in that campaign: the baddie was likely going down in 1-2 more rounds, the odds were with me, and the mental image of an elbow drop to the back of the neck was for style purposes only.)
I love unarmored defense. The ‘micro dodge’ where the monk adjusts position slightly and the attack missing by a hair has been covered. But I’d say that unarmored defense, especially in the case of martial arts is more than just dodging.
In fact, it’s mostly *parrying* an opponent’s limbs *instead* of their weapon, although you can obviously grab the haft of a weapon and knock that aside.
Also, pulling some of Aang’s moves from AtLA is the best here. Like how he shadow dances with some enemies, constantly staying behind them as they try to reposition to hit him. That is *also* Unarmored Defense. Bonus points if you have Agni Kai playing in the background.
Not me, but hubby’s character in a Marvel Superheroes campaign. His “monk” chased after one of the BBEGs up the ladder of a water tower. Got to the top of the tower, faced the BBEG and said, “Honor requires I give you the opportunity to surrender”. BBEG proceeds to shot at him, which he dodges. He then bowed, said, “Honor is satisfied” proceeded to dodge every bullet to reach the BBEG and beat the living crap out of him. He shows up with said bad guy over his shoulder to find the rest of the group getting ready to bug out because they had gotten them crap beaten out of them. He was the only one to get any experience out of that particular battle.
Hell. Yes. All the props.
Not quite a Monk, but in Pathfinder 1E I homebrewed up a Monk-adjacent prestige class that came in two flavours: a Blue Mage-type that could absorb enemy spells, and a grappler-type that could redirect enemy melee attacks. Dodging without armour feels great, but what’s even better is subsequently redirecting the force of the blow so the enemy punches himself in his own face. Classic.
Ah, unarmoured defence. Because what’s the point of clearing a dungeon if you can’t do so in evening wear? And to answer the question, I’ve always been fond of casually strolling around the battlefield, not seeming to actually dodge, just happening to be where the attacks weren’t.
I agree on that one, especially if you’re going for the “wise and ancient mystic at one with the universe” monk archetype. Though I’ve also got a love for the opposite approach, the Matrix-agent-dodge move-too-fast-to-see routine. Especially if you’re running more the “paragon of physical perfection and self-mastery” archetype for your monk.
I’ve played two major Monks: “The guy from your martial arts class who has anger issues and is going to use what he learned to start fights”, and “Ravnican Boros Goblin Samurai Jack”. The former just wore nondescript plain-clothes. The latter wore a Samurai Jack robe but with a red trim because Boros.
The medium-term Monk I DMed for never really described his clothing, but he described almost all of his moves as Street Fighter kick moves, so I pictured him in Ryu cosplay.
The funny thing aboot Monks is that their default flavor is supposed to be monastic, but I have never seen a monastic Monk. I’m actually planning for my next character to be a Loxodon Astral Monk (Peak Hinduism imagery) that is actually monastic.
One of my favorite PrCs from 3.5 was Fist of the Forest, and they adapted its core feature into Barbarians in 5e: Constitution was added to Dexterity when calculating Armor Class. Since you could get Constitution incredibly high, you could end up with an incredibly beefy character, with ridiculous AC and HP. In the final boss fight of one campaign, I had over 50 AC, over 400 HP, and immunity to critical hits; effectively stats on par with a demigod.
Usually, I’d just describe it as someone trying to hit me, my skin being tough, and then I look down at them condescendingly or with a “my turn” attitude. Why do cool flips and parries when you can just take the hit and wipe the dirt off your skin? Better to just brush off the attack in an intimidating fashion and make the enemy FEEL weak before proving it.
Shame that with 5e’s rules it’s harder to just not get hit and HP is just more grounded.
Hmmm, Monk seems a bit paler than usual. Me thinks this shopping trip is an attempt to hold off the bleaching.
Among the defense stuns you can try i think one of the best is to just point behind your opponent abd scream top of the lungs:
“Look! It’s the Kukla!” 😛
This works great until the GM says “ok, next it’s the Kukla’s turn”
Which works great until the player says: “OK, gonna use shaping rules” 😛
I have a monk in a campaign with a stand mechanic (yes, this is a jojo reference) and her stand gave her the ability to sharpen things, which she just learned in a psuedo-timeskip can apply to her reflexes (Dex) and wits (Int and Wis), meaning she’s doing cool monk shit, sure, but that’s while a living heaven’s wheel behind her is going absolutely fucking nuts
I’m going to elect to not quite answer the question.
A while back I ran a monk that was IC a wizard* based on character image….except they’d lost access to all of their magic because their astral body had gotten misaligned with their physical body and unbeknownst to them had grown so large it was essentially blocking their spellcasting ability. So from that point on they went about partially manifesting their astral body. Mainly their arms.
Yes, I made a punch wizard.
As for how their unarmored defense worked out, well they’d either block with their big astral arms or have the astral arms move push off the ground or such to evade attacks.
*The GM granted my request to have their monk features work off Int rather than Wis. They also let me have a force damage fire bolt (from high elf) to fit the character’s whole deal.
My tiefling monk/cleric multiclass Imperia Demethorne is set up to use Wis for most everything, including rolling sense motive to “parry” attacks by predicting them ahead of time if I don’t trust my AC alone to do it. She simply reads you so well she knows which way to dodge before you even attack!
She can also figure out by your movements what you had for lunch a week ago and your lucky numbers probably.
She is also a juxtaposition of eastern and western monk stereotypes so she’s doing all this in a habit. How she manages not to trip on it is a mystery she does not divulge.
The trick is to never let your feet be in a position to trip you in the first place!
https://giphy.com/gifs/sally-field-flying-nun-sister-bertrill-bRFN1t6C13Jp6
HOLY FUCK MY AXE TALKED
Also she literally does start hovering at level 20 thanks to Deific Obedience so that tracks
In Pathfinder 1E, I created a Monk-adjacent prestige class that came in two flavors: a Blue Mage-type that could absorb enemy spells and a grappler-type that could redirect enemy melee attacks. Dodging without amour feels great, but redirecting the force of the blow so the enemy punches himself in the face feels even better. Classic.