Playing a Monk and about to move on to 3rd Level, what are people thoughts on best
archetype?
Also people thoughts on other Best class at the moment?
Way of the Open Hand. Level 3 and Level 6 features are decent, Level 17 feature is straight up crazy. Also light on KI-consumption.
There's no overall "best".
Open Hand is most straightforward and doesn't require much additional Ki if you are anyway using Flurry of Blows a lot.
Shadows is the ninja, ideal for sneaky types, probably best if you multiclass with assassin for flavour and assassinate ability or warlock for devil's sight, or both. Very mobile too with that teleport (no AoO).
Four Elements is most versatile and has a whole heap of utility. It's the subclass for imaginative play. It will be quite Ki-hungry however.
What kind of Monk do you want to be?
The archetypes are very different in concept. Which fits with your character best?
What sort of thing do you want them to be able to do?
Stunning Attack (5th level): This single power obsoletes almost everything else in the monks arsenal. At the bargain price of 1 ki point, you can potentially stun and incapacitate a single foe until the end of their next turn. Combined with Flurry of Blows, you can potentially stun up to 4 combatants/round (it requires a melee weapon attack, and by RAW - unarmed strike is a melee weapon), 5 combatants if you include potential Opportunity Attacks.
Stunned foes cannot move, take actions, bonus actions, or reactions, and grant advantage to all attackers. This is an incredibly powerful ability, and is OP for its cost, when compared alongside all other monk features.
Yes, it is situational (most things are) - but it is very useful in a large number of situations, to the point where it could easily act as the default tactic of any monk.
This one power effectively relegates all other monk abilities to secondary, fall-back options in the event that their default tactic is ineffective. I do not think this was intentional, but nothing else comes close to the power of stunning attack.
With stunning attack in mind, the Open Hand Monk is mechanically superior to the other two traditions, in a majority of situations.
- Their Open Hand technique is triggered by Flurry of Blows, a monk ability which combines perfectly with Stunning Attack to potentially stun-prone or stun-push a single target. In addition, monks can reliably make two (or three) stunning attack attempts each turn thanks to their Martial Arts or Flurry of Blows features (these are mutually exclusive). Extra Attacks increases the number of stunning attacks attempts by 1 for a total of three (or four) stunning attacks each turn. Stunning Attack can also be used when making an Opportunity Attack, further increasing its usefulness.
During situations where a monks stunning attack is ineffective, or suboptimal - Open Hand monks are at a serious disadvantage as many of their other tradition features would be equally ineffective (depending on situation). A ranged or flying opponent for example, all but shuts down the OH monk completely (forcing them to rely on ranged weapons, or magical assistance).
In comparison: The other two traditions must balance their use of stunning attack with their other tradition features. In most circumstances, it would be mechanically optimal to default to stunning attack. However both of these traditions have alternative options for use in different situations, granting them increased flexibility over the OH monk. The increased versatility of these traditions does come at the cost of reduced synergy (with stunning attacks), and increased ki expenditure (requiring more careful resource management).
Many people are praising the Four Winds monk for their flexibility, and have shown an extreme fondness for the water whip discipline.
I have yet to hear a peep about the Shadow monk however. This is not to say they are mechanically inferior. I am more inclined to believe the shadow ninja is a very common trope, and the shadow monk performs exactly as expected, and advertised (meaning it fills the tropes niche perfectly).
Quivering Palm only costing 3 ki points absolutely shocked me the first time I saw it.
This got me looking at the monk sub-classes again.
Shadow monks are cool, but their abilities are a little less dramatic
They get Minor Illusion, and then spend 2 ki for Darkness, Darkvision, pass without trace, or silence spells
Shadow step bonus action teleport (without spending ki) if you are in at least dim light, gain advantage on next melee attack before end of turn
Cloak of Shadows is action for invisible in dim light
Opportunist is a reaction attack if someone else attacks an enemy next to you
Elemental monks get really cool spell-like abilities for Ki, but you only get 5 total
Quick note, looking at Water whip, am I correct in reading that unlike fist of unbroken air water whip is a bonus action attack? That thing is brutally powerful if it is
Open hand is nice, but the coolest roleplay thing has to come with Quivering Palm. Hit them with an unarmed strike, spend 3 Ki. This sets up the Quivering which lasts a number of days equal to your monk level (17-20 days). Use your action, at any point, to end them. As long as you are on the same plane of existance they make a con check. They fail, they die. They succeed they take 10d10 necrotic damage.
Fighting evil cultist, monk hits him with quivering palm, cultist escapes down a secret path before the fight ends, Make pops the palm and the cultist dies. You could even wait, let them escape and track them to their secret base, wait for the perfect moment then pop it and kill them in the middle of their big ceremony. It's just such a cool story ability 
Captain_Kobold wrote:
Chaosmancer wrote:
I was planning on going with Way of the Shadow, but I am probably going to go with Open Hand since its abilites are more in the character's control; in my experience whenever you need darkness it's not around.
Kalani wrote:
I was considering trying an armored monk. Wushu mountain dwarf axe style.
Yes, that is what I meant.
Thoughts_My_Aim wrote:
Miladoon wrote:
Way of the Shadow if you ask me, that Shadow Step is just 
awesome.
Forgember wrote:
Luke-Lightning wrote:
Luke-Lightning wrote:
I was thinking of a Drow Rogue/Monk/Warlock idea, but by the time it could do it's cool stuff, would be really behind the curve.
1eejit wrote:
Yag007 wrote:
Keep in mind that this combo is shut down by a level 3 cleric for example. Creatures with true sight also completely shut this down, not to mention that you actually screw over your own allies in the process. It's a nifty trick.
Kalani wrote:
Miladoon wrote:
I can't see where the monk gets to add +damage to their unarmed strikes. NM, found it.
Noctaem wrote:
You still get to add your strength to your unarmed damage. The difference between 1 point and 1d4 averages to only 1.5 points. In return you're getting less MAD, and probably using a weapon superior to the monk weapons.
Downside is at higher levels, when the difference is greater as your MA unarmed damage increases. At some point, the character may wish to lay down their armour and military weapons. They will still get almost all the benefits of their fighter levels for example.
I think it might be of primary importance to actually define what you actually want from an "armoured monk" in terms of game mechanics. Apart from a couple of brawler-type characters, the heavily-armoured unarmed fighter is not a common concept.
Is there a specific game ability that the character requires to achieve your concept, or could for example Battlemaster or Paladin be refluffed to fit for example?
1eejit wrote:
Captain_Kobold wrote:
Miladoon wrote:
To the comment about stunning attack being over powered. Don't forget that stunning attack does require a saving throw and is easy to beat. I know from experience. Alao in every previous edition, Stunning Attack is given at 1at level. 5e waits untill 5th.
Quivering Palm is good. Too good in fact. You can spam it over and over on anything until it finally loses a saving throw. And then it dies. Even if it's some sort of god. As a DM, I'm not sure I'd allow it as written since spammable save or die abilities are the best way to ruin a great story. I'm thinking of making targets that succeed in their saving throw immune to it for the next day or so. At the very least.
KarlB wrote: