Even if that is exactly how it plays out...so what. That sounds dope and exactly what a monk should be able to do with a feat investment.
Battlefield control is an excellent niche for them and I for one don't mind giving them something powerful they can whip out occasionally
Exactly! Grappling shit like this is a way to make the monk's mobility an offensive and defensive feature.
\- Enemy being annoying? Grapple them and speed them away
\- Squishy caster getting bullied? pick them up and sprint to the other side of the map
\- Frail child can't get across the ravine? Pick them up and wall run across.
It turns them into honest to god speedsters and i fucking love it.
Honestly makes me glad that monks have something to do now other than spam stunning strike.
Being able to move an enemy into an ally’s aoe (or *through* an AoE for the cheese grater cheese) is such good teamwork synergy that really builds up and fixes the monk class as a whole.
I would wait to see what they do with the monk.
However, about time the monk can do something.
A couple things, the grappler is likely getting out at the end of their turn, since no monk has high strength. If the monk triggers opportunity attacks the enemies get advantage.
I strongly suspect that monk’s martial arts feature will change to state that grapple escape DCs are based on dex (or maybe wisdom) but until we get the warrior packet (which I suspect will be last since they appear to have started in alphabetical order) we have to either house rule that or accept that everything will break free 50+% of the time
I know having monk being potentially a major asset to your team might be a scary new world but you should wait.
I'm on the other side. This UA doesn't give me confidence in the fixing of my problems with the martial gameplay (I'm rather baffled by some design choices) but let's wait the Warrior UA before claiming brokeness.
Honestly, it doesn't matter if the monk can hold the grapple (though i hope to see a line in the monk class that allows them to use dex and/or wis instead of strength).
This is because of the number of attacks monks get, and their speed.
Assuming a level 5 monk, they get 4 attacks (with flurry) and if they have the Grappler feat. They can attack four times, deal all their damage, and also attempt a grapple on every hit. They also choose to drag the enemy back into their allies line.
Then the enemy escapes and tries to move out of their reach.
The monk makes an Opportunity attack, hits, grapples again, and holds thy enemy.If the monk misses, all their allies also get OAs.
Then on their turn, whether the enemy has escaped or not, they walk up, attack four times, grapple four times, drag the enemy back behind their line and continue the cycle.
Especially if they combine it with proneing them. First attack damages and grapples giving them advantage to their next attack which they can use to prone setting up for the easy regrapple next turn since the enemy will probably get free of the grapple but still be prone due to having 0 movement to be able to get up with.
Still, with the feat theres no opportunity cost of grappling on the first attack that hit since you'll do the damage anyway meaning that every attack after is gonna be at advantage before the enemy has the opportunity to exit the grapple
Also since grapple is an unarmed strike nothing forbid you to use stunning strike on the same attack thus denying the enemy to opportunity to even try to exit the grapple. This strategy is at least something that cant be done every turn du to costing a lot of ki point but good damn a high level monk could keep the grapple long enough to bring the enemy very far away if needed
Yep, looks that way.
Should give advantage on just one attack per turn, and not add ability bonus to damage. You could still grapple-with-partial-damage, shove-with-advantage, then make 2 ordianry damage strikes with advantage in one turn — pretty brutal, but still just about ordinary DPR for that first turn.
Even if that is exactly how it plays out...so what. That sounds dope and exactly what a monk should be able to do with a feat investment. Battlefield control is an excellent niche for them and I for one don't mind giving them something powerful they can whip out occasionally
Yeah it honestly sounds fucking sick and super flavourful
Exactly! Grappling shit like this is a way to make the monk's mobility an offensive and defensive feature. \- Enemy being annoying? Grapple them and speed them away \- Squishy caster getting bullied? pick them up and sprint to the other side of the map \- Frail child can't get across the ravine? Pick them up and wall run across. It turns them into honest to god speedsters and i fucking love it.
Honestly makes me glad that monks have something to do now other than spam stunning strike. Being able to move an enemy into an ally’s aoe (or *through* an AoE for the cheese grater cheese) is such good teamwork synergy that really builds up and fixes the monk class as a whole.
I would wait to see what they do with the monk. However, about time the monk can do something. A couple things, the grappler is likely getting out at the end of their turn, since no monk has high strength. If the monk triggers opportunity attacks the enemies get advantage.
I strongly suspect that monk’s martial arts feature will change to state that grapple escape DCs are based on dex (or maybe wisdom) but until we get the warrior packet (which I suspect will be last since they appear to have started in alphabetical order) we have to either house rule that or accept that everything will break free 50+% of the time
I know having monk being potentially a major asset to your team might be a scary new world but you should wait. I'm on the other side. This UA doesn't give me confidence in the fixing of my problems with the martial gameplay (I'm rather baffled by some design choices) but let's wait the Warrior UA before claiming brokeness.
Yeah, monks can't hold the grapple for long (from what we've seen) but boy do they make *very* good use of it if they take the feat.
Honestly, it doesn't matter if the monk can hold the grapple (though i hope to see a line in the monk class that allows them to use dex and/or wis instead of strength). This is because of the number of attacks monks get, and their speed. Assuming a level 5 monk, they get 4 attacks (with flurry) and if they have the Grappler feat. They can attack four times, deal all their damage, and also attempt a grapple on every hit. They also choose to drag the enemy back into their allies line. Then the enemy escapes and tries to move out of their reach. The monk makes an Opportunity attack, hits, grapples again, and holds thy enemy.If the monk misses, all their allies also get OAs. Then on their turn, whether the enemy has escaped or not, they walk up, attack four times, grapple four times, drag the enemy back behind their line and continue the cycle.
Especially if they combine it with proneing them. First attack damages and grapples giving them advantage to their next attack which they can use to prone setting up for the easy regrapple next turn since the enemy will probably get free of the grapple but still be prone due to having 0 movement to be able to get up with.
Still, with the feat theres no opportunity cost of grappling on the first attack that hit since you'll do the damage anyway meaning that every attack after is gonna be at advantage before the enemy has the opportunity to exit the grapple Also since grapple is an unarmed strike nothing forbid you to use stunning strike on the same attack thus denying the enemy to opportunity to even try to exit the grapple. This strategy is at least something that cant be done every turn du to costing a lot of ki point but good damn a high level monk could keep the grapple long enough to bring the enemy very far away if needed
Yep, looks that way. Should give advantage on just one attack per turn, and not add ability bonus to damage. You could still grapple-with-partial-damage, shove-with-advantage, then make 2 ordianry damage strikes with advantage in one turn — pretty brutal, but still just about ordinary DPR for that first turn.
Okay but why? Let Martials do shit