So according to the action economy, you can only have one bonus action per round.
Martial Arts states:
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
"Alright this seems pretty cool"
At second level, you get a Ki Pool, and the Flurry of Blows action states:
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.
"wait what?"
What is the point of this? If I already get to make one extra attack, why should I waste one of my prescious 2 ki points to get a 2nd unarmed strike. All it will do is 1d4+Wis (in my case 2), so on average (assuming I hit with it, which is a big assumption when most goons walk around with 14 to 15 armor) I get 3 or 4 extra damage. Even trash mob goblins have more than enough HP to make this an uneconomic use of my resources. I could see maybe if I was say a dragonborn who could use a breath weapon as an attack, but for any other race, this is pointless. IF flurry of blows could be dumped into like 3e/3.5e psionics where you could pump more points into it to add more effect, then I could see it being worth my time. As it stands now, I might as well wait for lvl 5 when I get the Extra Attack feature, which will give me the same ammount of attacks, but without the use of my prescious ki pool.
So I ask you again, oh wise sages of the internet, what use is this class feature?
martial arts lets you use your dex or str on unarmed attacks and damage rolls. not sure where you got the +wis from. also, i think flurry of blows will be more attractive at higher levels when I have +5 DEX and more Ki. As it is, at low levels, I agree that Flurry of Blows is not quite worth it yet.
Our monk (now level 4) has been using flurry all the time. The 3rd attack it provides has been very helpful, whether there are 3 foes or 1 tough foe. It's a lot of attacks, even with just a d4, the benefit is in the damage add. Plus, it's nice when you're having a hard time hitting a higher AC, because it gives you a 3rd chance. 
ShadowReaper5 wrote:
First of all, you might want to use your Dex, and make sure you got at least 16 (+3) in your dex. that +3 with your +2 from profiency give you a +5 to hit a target, if the target got 15 AC that mean 50% of the time (exatly like everybody else except archery fighting style who get +7) at level 1
The difference is you can hit 3 times, while everybody else can hit only once or twice. and you add your +3Dex 3 time on your damage instead of just once (or twice if you have two weapon fighting style)
Then use your ki when you knwo the target is almost dead when he got between 1-4 Hp left, that way you can kill it one turn sooner, and avoid one attack.
If you are really unlucky, you might want to try to get advantege on your strike, specially if you are going to use your Ki.
To get advantage you can; you can check this tread for some way to get advantage, some of those are for rogue, but monk can benefit from some of them too: http://community.wizards.com/forum/player-help/threads/4130026.
Some of my favorite for a monk in there are : attack a prone target, attack a target affected by guiding bolt, faeri fire, distracting strike,
If you want to cleave stuff with one hit, you should go barbarian or fighter with a greatweapon. Monk can do similar damages but with multiple hit in a single round
why should I waste one of my prescious 2 ki points to get a 2nd unarmed strike.
Noon wrote:
What else would you spend your ki on?
Dodge if your surrounded possibly, but otherwise, why NOt punch more.
At higher levels you have more options, but you also have more ki.
ShadowReaper5 wrote:
First off, thanks for the massive response guys. As a general reply, yes, I know that I should be using dex, and I am figuring it into my sheet, I just made a typo. Everyone seems to be in the general concensus that having an extra attack is worth spending the resource point to get, and you have made some convincing arguments to such. I guess just sitting here at level 2 with my 1d4+2 3 times a round I just don't feel the power that everyone is talking about. Maybe it's just a late game class.
my two main gripes can be summarized as follows:
1) a limit of two unarmed strikes does not bring the word "flurry" to mind.
2) I feel like I am very limited in the situations (at least when my ki pool is so low) where I would get great advantage from using flurry of blows rather than just using martial arts (never know when I will need to get an extra Dash in combat). Is there any actions in combat that would make this a great option to use? The only thing I can really find is the bullrush equivalent which lets you knock someone prone or push them. Anything else?
3) Everyone keeps saying "short rest, short rest", but that takes an hour, and when you are in the middle of a goblin infested cave or storming a bandit's lair, you don't have an hour to sit around and do nothing. Everything has some form of urgency, and we are always bouncing from one thing to the next without much of a breather.
Let me expand on my situation. In the last two sessions, I have nearly died (been dropped to 0 and started doing death saves) 3 times. I have been impaled with javelins at least twice, once I was one shot by a Bugbear who did 18 damage with one hit. Another time I was one shot during a suprise round. In a world where this **** happens regularly, I find myself less and less wanting to spend my "get the hell out of dodge" or " please don't hit me" resource on an average of 3 to 4 damage. Most of you brought up the argument of "3 to 4 damage is 3 to 4 damage closer to a dead enemy", and I agree with you. However, everything out there (even a simple goblin) is much more likely to kill me than I am to kill it. I am mortally teriffied of everything around, because most things do about half my hit points in one strike.
Take a quarterstaff (bo staff). Wielded with two hands, it does 1d8+DEX, which for my monk is 1d8+3. You still get unarmed attack(s) at 1d4+3 as a bonus action, and I tend to get a ton of finishing kills due to my high speed and multiple attacks. Also, I took human and the mobility feat so I play hit and run and don't suffer from OAs at all if I attack first. I'm going the ninja route with mine and he's a total blast to play.
At lower levels Flurry of Blows benefit is minor (1d4+modifier), however as you increase in level it becomes more and more beneficial.
You can also greatly improve Flurry of Blows capability by taking the Way of the Open Hand at 3rd level. The options it grants Flurry of Blows strikes make it a much more diverse ability.
For example; You can use your first flurry of blows strike to knock your target prone, then the second strike (now with advantage) to prevent that target from making reactions, now simply move away from the target after attacking without provoking an opportunity attack. Your melee allies also have advantage on that target, and the target has to spend half it's movement to get up from prone, in doing so might not have enough movement to get back into attacking range.
Alternatively, you can also push your target 15' with a flurry of blows strike. This opens up more options in your combat, now you can knock opponents off ledges, or push them into better positions for ally area attacks, etc.
Mixing up those three Flurry of Blows effects really increase it's usefulness.
ShadowReaper5 wrote:
ShadowReaper5 wrote:
shadowreaper5 quoth:i guess just sitting here at level 2 with my 1d4+2 3 times a round i just don't feel the power that everyone is talking about.
Honestly, I think the issue is less with Flurry of Blows, and more with the fact that low level gameplay is quite deadly. Flurry does what it intends, it gives you extra damage in situations where you need it. Think of Flurry of Blows as a bit of nova damage when you really can put it to use. That being said, if you are in encounters where you are getting mulched quite often, you may see better results by using your Ki to Dodge or Disengage instead.
Low level play is all about great positioning and using smart tactics. If you stand and throw down with a creature that can take you to 0 in a hit, you're gonna have a bad time.
Fenstrider wrote:
I just thought of a great trick with Flurry and Way of the Open Hand.
Got a high ledge nearby? Keep knocking an opponent back 15ft at a time and follow up to deliver the next hit. When they're close enough you punch 'em off the ledge. :D
Being able to move between any of your attacks is super fun.
I have a friend who played a monk in the Dragon Queen adventure (currently in progress no spoilers please). We fought kobolds a lot (sorry if that was a big spoiler). With his +4 dex bonus and kobold's 5hp, ever kit was a kill, regardless of his d4 roll. At level 2, where everyone could only do one attack (except for the occasional AoE from my wizard and the tempest cleric, and the two-weapon fighter) martial arts was great and flurry was better.
Killing one more kobold in the first round means one fewer attack coming at you per round for the length of the battle. That could be 3 or 4 attacks which could be the difference between a party member standing at the end of the fight or bleeding out! To be fair though, flury of blows scales in effectiveness more than the other 2nd level monk abilities, so the survival value of the other two might very well out weigh flurry at 2nd level, but flurry will be useful later. You CAN save your ki for other abilities, but it isn't really a major game flaw to GIVE you this extra ability should you need it.
ShadowReaper5 wrote:
ShadowReaper5 wrote:
It's an option, and very comparable to being able to Disengage, Dodge or Dash for the exact same price. If the choice seems obvious to you, I'm guessing it more your DM than the rules.
Seraphex wrote:
Corwyn77 wrote: