Dungeons & Dragons Reveals Redesigned Monk Class

Dungeons & Dragons has revealed additional details about the new rules for the Monk class, which has been extensively rebuilt and reworked. Today, Wizards of the Coast published a new video and article on the Monk, detailing the upgrades that will appear in the Monk’s class abilities in the new 2024 Player’s Handbook coming out later this year. While other classes have received quality-of-life changes or more modest boosts, the Monk has received significant upgrades to bring it in line with other martial classes and to improve its intended versatility. 

The Monk has received a power boost starting at 1st Level, with the Monk’s Martial Arts dice increasing in size from a d4 to a d6. Monk weapon classifications have also been simplified, with all simple weapons and all martial weapons with the light property now qualifying as monk weapons. Other core features like Patient Defense and Step of the Wind have also received upgrades, with players now able to activate both features without using a Focus Point (which were called Ki Points in the 2014 Player’s Handbook). However, spending a Focus Point on Patient Defense will now let a player both Disengage and Dodge as a Bonus Action, while Step of the Wind will let a player both Disengage and Dash as a Bonus Action. 

Deflect Missiles has also received an upgrade and was renamed Deflect Attacks. At lower levels, players can reduce the amount of damage from any attack with Slashing, Bludgeoning, or Piercing damage instead of only ranged attacks. At 13th level, players can reduce oncoming damage of any type using this feature. 

The Monk’s Stunning Strike and Empowered Strike (formerly Ki-Empowered Strikes) have also received adjustments. Stunning Strike now lasts until the start of the Monk’s next turn, but a target that passes the saving throw still is impacted with a lowered speed and the next attack made against it having advantage. Empowered Strikes now deal Force damage instead of simply being counted as magic attacks. 

A new feature, Heightened Focus, improves several core Monk abilities at 10th level, granting Flurry of Blows an additional attack (for a total of three per Bonus Action), adding a pool of Temporary Hit Points when Patient Defense is used, and allowing the Monk to carry a willing creature of Larger or smaller with them when they use Step of the Wind. 

The Monk also has several new abilities designed to give players more access to Focus Points throughout an encounter. The second level ability Uncanny Metabolism refreshes a player’s pool of Focus Points once per day, while also providing a small dose of hit points. Perfect Focus, at 15th Level, guarantees that a player will have four Focus Points whenever they roll initiative at the start of an encounter.

Two of the Monk’s subclasses also got substantial revisions. The Warrior of the Elements grants players a 10-foot reach with their Unarmed Strikes, with players choosing from multiple types of elemental damage. At higher levels, the Warrior of the Elements can also deal area of effect bursts of damage, gain a fly and swim speed, and also gain resistances to different kinds of elemental damage. The Warrior of Shadows has also been upgraded with a way to see in the fields of darkness they create and improving the subclass’s Shadow Step ability at higher levels. The Warrior of Mercy and the Warrior of the Open Hand have also received quality-of-life improvements. 

You can check out all of the announced changes to Dungeons & Dragons here. The new Player’s Handbook comes out on September 17th.