Dungeons & Dragons Gives Monks a Power Boost in Upcoming Expansion

Dungeons & Dragons is giving their monks more versatility in its next expansion. Next month, Dungeons & Dragons will release Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, a new rules expansion book that adds new playable subclasses, new magic spells and items, and a ton of new rules that can be used to enhance a D&D campaign. One of the most anticipated features that will debut in the book are a set of new optional class features for each class. Originally introduced via public playtest in late 2019, these optional class features can be added to a player's character, giving them even more cool abilities.

Yesterday, Polygon posted a new preview of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which detailed two of the new optional class features. Both optional class features are designed to provide the monk class with more versatility, either by giving the monks better synchronization with certain races and backgrounds or by giving the monks more chances to use their core ability of making unarmed strikes/monk weapon attacks even when they spend their option not directly attacking.

The "Dedicated Weapon" feature gives the monk the ability to use a variety of weapons as monk weapons. A monk can focus their ki on a weapon to turn it into a monk weapon, which then gives them the ability to use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls and can provide additional benefits based on a monk's other abilities. The Dedicated Weapon does have some limitations - the weapon must be a simple or martial weapon that lacks the heavy or special properties, and a player needs to be proficient in it - but this allows for a player to create a dwarf monk that uses a warhammer as their monk weapon, for instance.

The other big new feature is the "Ki-Fueled Attack" which comes into play when a Monk reaches 3rd-level. The Ki-Fueled Attack allows a monk to make an unarmed attack or monk weapon attack with their bonus action if they've previously spent 1 or more ki point as their action. Previously, a monk could only use an unarmed attack as a bonus action IF they had taken the Attack action on their turn. This means that a monk can chain their attacks - a Way of the Four Elements monk can use their Fist of Unbroken Air to hit their opponent for 3d10 damage and knock them prone, and then rush forward and make an unarmed strike/weapon attack with advantage using their bonus action. It also means that a monk can continue to punch, kick, and fight even as they use their other abilities, bringing the class more in line with its traditional intent.

The preview did not include the Ki Features "Distant Eye" and "Quickened Healing," both of which were previously playtested last year. We'll see if those make it into Tasha's Cauldron of Everything or if they were cut during the final design process.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything will be released on November 17th. It's currently available to pre-order here on Amazon with a 40% discount.

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