SRD5:Monk

	This article is about Monk, 5th edition class.
	For other uses of Monk, see Monk (disambiguation).

This material from the 5th edition (2014) SRD v5.1 is published under the OGL and CC-BY

Monk is a class for 5th ed. and is part of the SRD.

Class Features

As a Monk, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 18 per Monk level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 18 + your Constitution modifier

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, 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) explorer's pack
• 10 darts.

Monk Overview Table

The Monk

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

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.

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, such as the Way of the Open Hand. Your tradition grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.

Monastic Tradtions

This section exceeds the text of the SRD

(22 official and unofficial Monastic Traditions.)

Monastic Tradition	Features	Summary	Source
Way of the Astral Self	Arms of the Astral Self, Visage of the Astral Self, Body of the Astral Self, Awakened Astral Self	Manifest parts of their spirit body.	Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
Way of the Divine Path	Spellcasting, Destroy the Unholy, Empowered Healing, Banishment	These monks follow a religious path	Rlyehable
Way of the Ascendant Dragon	Draconic Disciple, Breath of the Dragon, Wings Unfurled, Aspect of the Wyrm, Ascendant Aspect	This tradition is inspired by dragons	Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
Way of the Drunken Master	Bonus Proficiencies, Drunken Technique, Tipsy Sway, Drunkard’s Luck, Intoxicated Frenzy	This tradition uses deception and agility to surprise the opponent.	Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Way of the Four Elements	Elemental Disciplines, Disciple of the Elements	These monks focus their ki to manifest the four elements.	Player's Handbook (5e)
Way of the Kensei	Path of the Kensei, One with the Blade, Sharpen the Blade, Unerring Accuracy	These monks are one with their weapon.	Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Way of the Long Death	Touch of Death, Hour of Reaping, Mastery of Death, Touch of the Long Death	These monks focus on the transition from life to death	Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
Way of Mercy	Implements of Mercy, Hand of Healing, Hand of Harm, Physician's Touch, Flurry of Healing and Harm, Hand of Ultimate Mercy	This class focuses on aiding others	Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
Way of the Open Hand	Open Hand Technique, Wholeness of Body, Tranquility, Quivering Palm	Ultimate masters of martial arts combat, armed or unarmed	SRD-CC v5.1, SRD-OGL v5.1
Way of Shadow	Shadow Arts, Shadow Step, Cloak of Shadows, Opportunist	Monks of this tradition are ninjas and assassins.	Player's Handbook (5e)
Way of the Sun Soul	Radiant Sun Bolt, Searing Arc Strike, Searing Sunburst, Sun Shield	These monks transform their ki into light	Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
Way of Tranquility	Path of Tranquility, Healing Hands, Emissary of Peace, Douse the Flames of War, Anger of a Gentle Soul	This subclass focuses on peace.	UA Monk
Way of Enlightenment		User of ancient summoning techniques, adherent of The Mana	Max7238
Way of the Abundant Step		Faster than the eye can see, using ki to unlock the secrets of speed. A Pathfinder adaptation.	Max7238
Way of the Arcane Fist		Cast spells with your fists, using Ki instead of spell slots. Simple enough.	Zhenra-Khal
Way of the Crane		Monks of the Way of the Crane focus on the more mental and mystical side of martial arts.	Iskerbabble
Way of the Force		Monks who focus on the ebb and flow of the universal life force, and combine it with the power of glowing swords and fancy spins.	Eiji-kun
Way of the Gentle Hand		A monastic tradition that focuses on nonviolence above all else, acting as a martyr and diplomat.	Zhenra-Khal
Way of the Old Blood		Through accessing your Stangnant blood you’ll gain access to the abilities granted by the stagnant waters.	Daomon
Way of the Turtle		Monks of The Way of the Turtle focus on the body, and how Ki can push it to unthinkable heights.	Iskerbabble
Way of the Unseen Hand		Utilize telekinesis to punch people from across the room.	Zhenra-Khal
Way of the Vengeful Wave		Studying your foes' techniques to avoid their attacks and punish them using the might of water.	Memnon

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, which has a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 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.

End of the SRD5 material

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Optional Class Features

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything added the following GM optional class features:

Dedicated Weapon

2nd level monk feature
You can choose an additional weapon to be a Monk Weapon^{(unofficial summation)}

Ki-Fueled Attack

3rd level monk feature
Use ki to make a bonus action to make an additional attack.^{(unofficial summation)}

Quickened Healing

4th level monk feature
Spend ki to regain hit points.^{(unofficial summation)}

Focused Aim

5th level monk feature
When you miss an attack spend ki to increase to-hit roll.^{(unofficial summation)}

Sources

• Wizards RPG Team (6 May 2015). SRD-OGL v5.1. (5e 2014) Wizards of the Coast.

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