The warrior of the elements monk in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons harnesses the power of nature’s elements 𒆙to enhance their combat prowess. With the ability to imbue their strikes with elemental energy, this subcla🐽ss offers a unique twist on the traditional monk, combining agility with devastating elemental attacks.

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In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, this subclass has been refined, making it more versatile and powerful to the point that it is a new subclass. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the key features of the warrior of the elements monk, from🤡 optimal ability score placements to the best feats and tactics for mastering elemental combat.

Warrior Of The Elements Highlights

Dungeons & Dragons image showing a monk.
Warrior of the Elements by Katerina Ladon.

The Warrior of the Elements fulfills everyone’s fantasy of becoming the Avatar, mastering the elements with swift precision. When we say elements, we specifically mean fire, cold, acid, lighting, and thunder, but you can still influence the four basic elements slightly thanks to the Elementalism cantrip.

The way you channel these elements is by spending a single Focus Point, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a basic resource for all monks, which imbues your unarmed strikes with the chosen element. Not only do those strikes deal that type of damage now, but you also gain 10 ft extra range, as you shoot out bolts of fire o🐲🥂r create lightning whips.

At level six, you gain the ability to cast ranged explosions as far as 120 ft, making this subclass one of the better choices Monks have for ranged combat. The best part, however, is that at level 11 you gain fly and swim speed while ꦯattuned ꦯto the elements, making you a versatile character in and out of combat.

Differences In The 2024 Player's Handbook

Dungeons & Dragons image showing a Dragonborn Monk.
A Martial Artist by Joshua Raphael

While the 2014 version of the monk class also had a subclass about mastering the elements, that old iteration couldn’t be more different than what was added in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. In the way of the four elements subclass, monks just learned a few spells, the vast majority of them alre💧ady p꧒resent in the book as spells for wizards or sorcerers.

The warrior of the elements is built to feel like an actual monk subclass since it interacts heavily with its unarmed strikes and mobility. You could h🅷ave a Warrior Of The Elements Monk and a Way Of The Four Elements Monk in the same campaign, and they would feel like two completely separate characters.

Best Species Options

Dungeons & Dragons image showing elves prancing around.
Elf species image by Mike Pape.

Since species no longer govern your starting Ability Scores, you can choose whatever species you like and still be a perfectly viable elemental warrior. There are, however, a few choices that expand your elemental prowess or simply fit what you’re doing as a monk attuned to nature.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Goliath species has several abilities that combine well with your elemental powers since their giant ancestry is already adding fire or cold damage to their attacks. You can either roleplay these abilities or your class-given ones as part of the same source, giving you a more well-rounded character.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Forest gnomes offer an added connection to nature, one that works beyond the elements. Through them, you can gain the Minor Illusion cantrip, which is easy to roleplay as if created through elemental connections, and the Speak with Animals spell, letting you connect with the animal kingdom as well as the elemental realm.

A better overall choice, especially at early levels, is going as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a high elf. Their elven lineage gives them a wizard cantrip, one you can change after every long rest, meaning you can match your favorite element with things like Firebolt or Acid Splash.

Best Stat Placements

Dungeons & Dragons image showing two adventurers bartering with a hag.
Hag by Linda Lithen

Like all monks, your main stats to focus on are Dexterity and Wisdom, since they both contribute to your unarmored defense. The warrior of the elements, however, lacks any real practical use for Wisdom beyond that, so be sure to keep Dexterity as the real main stat.

Constitution should be the third stat you focus on since everyone needs hit points to survive. Beyond that, the other Ability Scores aren’t a priority, but monks overall have little to no use for Strength, so if you need a dump stat, be sur♌e it is that one.

Best Elements To Focus On

Dungeons & Dragons image showing a Sorcerer using wild magic.
The Sorcerer Delina by Winsu Tan.

Whenever you prepare yourself to strike with an elemental attunement, you should always consider the damage resistances and vulnerabilities your target might have. If you change the damage type to fire, for example, and hit an imp, you’ll be doing no damage to it due to its immunity to fire damage.

If you don’t know if a target has any resistance, the best elemental damage to use out of all is thunder since it is the least resisted. It is also ideal to use if you’re trying to deal non-lethal damage since ꧃it is easier to♐ justify someone surviving a little thundering shock than a splash of acid to the face.

Best Starting Equipment

Dungeons & Dragons image showing a monk.
Warrior of the Open Hand by Katerina Ladon.

Most monks can get by without needing any equipment, but that is particularly true with warriors of the elements. You can only empower your unarmed strikes after all, so carrying any sort of weapon would💛 get in the way of you setting your enemies on fire.

If you’re already starting at level three, but your Dungeon Master only lets you get the starting equipment for monks, you’re better off getting the 50 gold pieces instead o🐬f all the other items. You won’t be using them anyway, and you can go and buy an expl𒊎orer’s pack later on.

Best Feats And Backgrounds

Dungeons & Dragons image showing the Sailor background.
Sailor background image by Noor Rahman

Among the many backgrounds on offer, you want something that lets you raise your Dexterity and your Wisdom, while also giving you a worthwhile feat. We recommend the sailor background since the tavern brawler origin feat works very well with basically all monks.

The main benefit of the origin feat is the ability to reroll unarmed damage when the die lands on a one, but only once per roll. Still, if you hit three times with unarmed strikes on a turn, you can reroll all of them should they land on one, which in general will improve your overall damage.

The feat states that you “can” deal 1D4 damage instead of the normal damage for your un🌺ar𒊎med strikes, not that you “have” to, meaning that you can ignore this part of the feat and use your monk damage die instead.

The feat also lets you push enemies away from you without a save, but once per turn. This is something warriors of the elements can already do, just with a strength saving throw, so combining both abilities can let you be a master of shoving enemies into traps or cliffs.

For general feats, you should look into the grappler feat, letting you grab an enemy and deal damage with your unarmed strikes. Since the reach of your unarmed strikes is improved by your elemental attunement, you may be able to grapple enemies from afar, however, your D🅘ungeon Master has the final say on how that wor𝓰ks exactly.

Best Multiclassing Options

Dungeons & Dragons image showing a barbarian, a ranger and a monk fighting gnolls.
Art by Craig J Spearing

As a warrior of the elements, you want to avoid multiclassing into most spellcasting classes unless you have a particular build in mind since the whole subclass is built around being an empowered version of a martial character. This makes 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:options like Fighter enticing since each level you put into Fighter can give you benefits like extra actions or self-sustain.

If you just want the biggest improvement for monks without deviating too much from the class, then a single level into ranger will do. This will give you access to Hunter’s Mark, adding a D6 to every single attack roll you make, which is plenty when you’re dealing with mon🌟ks and their unarmed strikes.

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