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There are many ways to hone one’s mind and body inDungeons & Dragons. While most monk traditions follow a path to spiritual enlightenment that looks within, the Way of the Ascendant Dragon looks without. Followers of this path believe that worship and emulation of dragons allow them to achieve a wholeness with the Material Plane that only dragons can attain, and this aspiration can unlock great powers.
Followers of the Way of the Ascendant Dragon take on the fierce aspects of dragons, giving themselves and their party elemental damage resistance, or even letting them unfurl spectral wings to take flight. If you’re looking for a monk class that can achieve great heights, read on to begin following the Way of the Ascendant Dragon.
Way Of The Ascendent Dragon Monk Features
You may begin to follow the Way of the Ascendant Dragon starting at level three. At this level, you gain theDraconic DiscipleandBreath of the Dragonfeatures.
Draconic Discipleprovides you with three benefits. First isDraconic Presence, which lets you re-roll a failed Intimidation or Persuasion roll once per long rest by using your reaction. Second isDraconic Strike, which lets you change the damage type of your unarmed strikes to be acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. Third isTongue of the Dragons, which let you read, write, and speak Draconic as well as one other language of your choice.
Breath of the Dragonlets you replace one of your attacks with an exhalation of draconic energy in either a 20-foot cone or a 30-foot line (that’s five feet wide). Each creature in this area must make a Dexterity saving throw against your ki save DC or take damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die. Those that make their save take half as much damage. The damage can be either acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison.
This abilityincreases in damage after reaching level 11and gets even better with the Ascendant Aspect feature at level 17.
Wings Unfurledat level six improves your Step of the Wind feature to include spectral dragon wings that grant a flying speed equal to your walking speed.
Aspect of the Wyrmat level 11 lets you use your bonus action to create a 10-foot aura for one minute. Either allies within the aura gain resistance to your choice of acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage, or enemies within the aura must make a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for one minute.
Finally,Ascendant Aspectat level 17 provides several benefits.Augment Breathlets you improve your Breath of the Dragon feature by spending one ki point. This increases the AOE to either a 60-foot cone or a 90-foot line and increases the number of Martial Arts die rolled to four. You also gain 10 feet ofBlindsight, andExplosive Furyimproves your Aspect of the Wyrm ability by forcing creatures within the aura’s radius to take a Dexterity saving throw or take 3d10 acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison damage.
Best Species For A Way Of The Ascendant Dragon Monk
Followers of the Way of the Ascendant Dragon are similar to most other monks, so any species that works as a monk will do great here. Below area few species that make excellent monks.
Bugbear
Your breath attack might reach out to 30 feet, but you’re still going to deal more damage using Flurry of Blows, sofive extra feet of reach is still helpful. High Dexterity means you’re more likely to go earlier in the turn order, makingSurprise Attackmore effective.Stealth proficiency,charm resistance, andDarkvisionare all great perks.
Duergar
The poison resistance isn’t too useful since monks eventually gain immunity, butadvantage against being charmed and stunnedis still good.Enlarge/Reduceis a great spell for a monk to know as it can increase your damage, andInvisibilityprovides interesting sneaking options.
Goblin
Fury of the Smallcan really help your damage output.Darkvision,charm resistance, andhiding as a bonus actionare also nice to have, although your bonus action will typically be used up spending ki points.
Goliath
Monks don’t get nearly as many hit points as their melee-focused combat requires.Stone’s Endurancehelps with that.Cold resistanceandAthleticsproficiency are also good perks.
Hadozee
Dextrous Feetaren’t likely to be terribly useful since your bonus action is spoken for, but being able toGlidemeans raining death from above in certain situations. However, the real draw here isHadozee Dodge, which lets you use your reaction to reduce the damage you take.
Half-Orc
Monks make a lot of attacks, and that means they’re making critical hits more often than most classes.Savage Attacksmake those crits deal more damage, whileRelentless Endurancekeeps a monk fighting when their hit points hit zero.Darkvisionis also nice too.
Half-Elf
Monks in general want a lot of stats to be effective. Half-elves getthree stat boosts,Darkvision, and evenmore skillsto add to your burgeoning repertoire.
Human
If it’s stats you want, humans got it. you may alsogo variant human to get a featoff the jump.
Owlin
Monks struggle against flying things.Owlin can fly, making it easy to hit other flying things. Neither monks nor owlin like wearing armor, which also works in this species' favor.Darkvisionand stealth proficiency are nice to have.
Plasmoid
UsingAmorphousis hard to do while wearing armor or wielding weapons, but monks don’t like either of those, making them the perfect plasmoid class.Darkvision,resistance to acid and poison damage, andadvantage on grapple checksare also great pairings for any monk subclass.
Shifter
Shifters help with a monk’s poor HP pool by providinga bunch of temporary hitpointswhenever they shift.Extra armor,movement speed,askill proficiency,andDarkvisionare all good to have.
Tabaxi
Monks don’t use claws, butFeline Agilitymeans you never have to worry about being too far away to get into combat.Climbing speedhelps with those pesky flying critters a bit, andDarkvisionis always a boon.
Best Ability Scores For A Way Of The Ascendant Dragon Monk
Like other monks, followers of the Way of the Sun Soul wantDexterity,Wisdom, andConstitutionto be effective. Dexterity empowers your strikes, Wisdom helps with your armor class and your saves for Searing Arc Strike and Searing Sunburst, and Constitution provides all-important hit points.
Strength,Intelligence, andCharisma can be mostly ignored. You’re going to want your core three attributes boosted as high as you can, and these just don’t provide much benefit.
Being able to re-roll Intimidation and Persuasion rollsgives Way of the Ascendant Dragon monkssome potential as the party’s face, but you definitely don’t want to compromise your Dexterity or Wisdom for a slightly higher Charisma score.
If you’re using D&D’s point buy system,a good starting ability score spreadmight look something like this:
10(0)
16(+3)
14(+2)
8(-1)
Best Starting Equipment For A Way Of The Ascendant Dragon Monk
A monk’s body is their weapon, which means you’re not likely to require much in terms of equipment. you’re able to choose either a shortsword or another simple weapon, but most of your abilities require unarmed strikes to use, sodon’t expect to use either weapon much.
Yourunarmed attacks will eventually surpass a short sword’s damagestarting at level 11.
Adungeoneer’s packis a little more useful than an explorer’s pack, and10 dartscan help you engage flying targets.
Since your armor class is based on both your Dexterity and Wisdom modifiers while you’re not wearing armor,you don’t get any armor to start, and you’re not likely to ever need it.
Best Feats For A Way Of The Ascendant Dragon Monk
Most monkswant to maximize both their Dexterity and Wisdom before reaching level 20. This doesn’t leave much room for taking feats, so you’re not likely to need this section at all.
That said, if you somehow stumble across a free feat over the course of your campaign,here are a few good ones to consider.
Alert
Never get ambushed again. Alertprevents you from being surprised,can’t gain advantage against you if they attack while hidden, and youget an additional five to your initiative score. If you can combine this with the bugbear’s Surprise Attack, you’ve got a potent combo.
Athlete
Climbing speedequal to your movement speed can be very helpful if you don’t already fly or are a tabaxi.Getting up from pronewithout using half your movement can also be good too. Take theDexterity score increasehere.
Healer
If you want to lean even further into your role as a healer, the Healer feat gives youanother option to heal your friends. It’s generally not as good as your Hand of Healing ability, but more healing is certainly useful for longer dungeon dives.
Lucky
Nobody likes to fail their rolls.Lucky provides you with extra d20sto spend on your most important moments. you may also use Lucky d20s to prevent damage to your squishy monk.
Mobile
Mobility matters for melee classes. Anextra 10 feet of movementhelps get you into combat faster, whiledash actions that ignore difficult terrainkeep you free of crowd control effects.Avoiding attacks of opportunityis also nice.
Skill Expert
Complement your skillsby having more of them. You can alsogain expertisein a skill you already have.
Tough
Monks are squishy. Tough makes things less squishy by giving themtwo extra hitpoints per level.
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