I love monks. There, I've said it.
I'm playing a monk in a new campaign which promises to reach 15th level.
Trouble is, while 5e monks are better than previous editions (1st to 3rd, I mean - 4e monks don't really bear to much comparison), I remain frustrated by some of the design decisions, in particular:
- The open hand monk 'tranquility' feature. A 1st level spell at 11th level? Who decided this was good and why?
- Timeless Body. Cool and flavourful, but totally useless. A bit like granting your character nice, clean teeth or a bigger... well, you know...
- Speaking all languages. Again, flavourful but to make that your whole reward for a very high level.
Can someone please explain these decisions to me?
Its very much got to do with how the west see martial arts. two out of those three examples are things that "great masters" achive. Look at all the monk abilities in general, most of them can be seen in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. ALso, speaking all languages is useful in a game that uses lots of different languages, and not just "Everything that talks, talks common" mindset.
Speaking all languages is brilliant. It means you can do this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBzgeNlekCc#t=13
Tranquility is hilariously flavorful and I thought it was awesome, same goes for TImeless body. Especially handy when transferring your PC to NPC-hood post campaign (and not needing food or water is nothing to sneeze at). But speaking every language is kinda amazing...
But I, too, could nitpick on my favorite classes if I wanted 
You can always m/c into some other class with L1/2/3 features you like better than what the high-end Monk gets. My monk is going to m/c Rogue1 for Expertise(Perception); he's supposed to be a Scout.
1) Monks get so many cool things that a couple of them being non-combat is totally fine with me. (A lot of us do in fact play in games where things like speaking all languages and not aging comes in handy.)
2) Other classes and sub-classes also have non-combat abilities that are wasted in some campaigns.
Personally I'm going Shadow Monk / Assassin. BAMF!!!
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