The Ascendant Dragon Monk - D&D:Optimized #65

well hello my fine feathered friends how's it  going welcome to dnd optimized part of the d4   network this is the show where each week we  take a deep dive into one sometimes two specific   character builds for dungeons and dragons 5e  and we crunch numbers about them we theory craft   about them and basically try to create a character  that is both really fun to play in game but also   powerful so if you enjoy creating characters for  d almost as much as playing the actual game itself   then welcome home this is where you belong and  i am really really happy that you're here so   thanks for being here uh my name is colby i'll be  your host before we jump in just a quick reminder   if you enjoy the content or think you might enjoy  the content please go ahead and give me a like   down there in the corner it really does  help for the youtube algorithms and even   more importantly i would love it if you would  consider subscribing to the channel so that   you can watch all the rest of the stuff  that we do here on the d4 network but anyway   enough of that let's get started on the episode so  before i jump into the build i want to talk about   single target damage versus multi-target damage  generally speaking in dungeons and dragons   abilities and spells that do damage to multiple  enemies while they may potentially do a lot more   overall damage do less damage per enemy than a  single target damage spell or ability right there   are a few exceptions but they are few this makes  sense of course because if spells and attacks that   did damage to multiple targets did more damage per  target than spells and attacks that did damage to   single targets well there would never be a reason  to focus on single target damage abilities right   now if you had to choose between doing  say a lot of damage to one target or   middling damage but to two or three targets  or four targets or five targets or whatever   which would be the better choice most of the time  tactically speaking you're going to be better off   doing a lot of damage to a single target because  in that way you are more likely to eliminate an   enemy thus removing them from the fight right thus  preventing them from hurting your party in any way   winning the battle of action economy if a single  target focus would remove an enemy completely   but a multi-target focus would keep all of your  enemies wounded but still alive and fighting   you're probably better off with a single target  focus there are of course exceptions to this the   biggest one is if you could eliminate one or more  targets with your multi-target damage this will   probably only happen in one of two scenarios one  when you're up against lots of enemies that are   relatively weak as opposed to one or two or  three enemies that are particularly strong   right so they don't have a lot of hit points and  just some kind of simple efficient area of effect   damage would wipe those targets out or two it  might also happen if you have the ability to   throw down some really powerful burst or nova area  of effect damage letting you at the expenditure   of limited resources do a high amount of area  of effect damage that would let you eliminate   multiple enemies in a single round or at least  get them so near death that your friends can   very easily finish them off quickly i've actually  only done one such build on my channel to date   the evoker wizard check it out there i think  it ended up being a fairly useful and powerful   build because even though you might not  always be better off with multiple target   damage in your combat encounters there will be  plenty of instances where having a character   that can do a lot of strong multiple target  damage will really help your party i mean   any sorcerer or wizard can throw out a fireball  and wipe out a bunch of cobalts right but not any   sorcerer or wizard could do enough area damage to  wipe out a bunch of like moderately tanky enemies   and having the ability to do that when you need  it would be a pretty big boon to any party i think   and this leads us to the ascendant dragon monk the  subject of today's build when the ascendant dragon   monk first came out in the unearthed arcana i went  on record there saying i was a little underwhelmed   but that of course the first thing that i would  do when the subclass became official content is   you know do a build for one because monks are my  favorite class in the game as many of you know   even though i feel they are generally a little  underpowered now last week fizband's treasury of   dragons came out along with the ascendant dragon  monk officially and wizards of the coast nerfed it   uh as we discussed in our sliding into my dms  episode last week i'm gonna get through my cards   real quick today i don't know why that surprises  me but it does a little bit i mean i feel like   they've been moving in the right direction with  the monk recently with the mercy monk and things   that came out in tasha's cauldron of everything  which i think is quite good but regardless the   question is is the ascendant dragon monk  salvageable yeah i think so but i think if   you're going to make it work you've really got to  lean in to the things they're giving you that are   unique to the subclass this is going to mean in my  opinion creating a character who is focused on the   thing that i've been talking about doing multiple  target area of effect damage in a burst or nova   capacity so as to be able to eliminate multiple  targets in a nova round so you can turn the tide   of a battle in your party's favor i'm actually  pretty pleased with the way things turned out   for the ascendant dragon so let's jump into the  build i proudly present episode 65 the ascendant   dragon monk and check out the awesome artwork by  my friend randall hampton he always does fantastic   work and i love it when he's able to put together  some concept art for the character that i build   this one is as good as the rest of them and  looks just like this ascendant dragon monk   should look i think so if you want to follow  randall i'll put links to how to do so in the   video description be sure to check him out thanks  randall and let's jump into the build alright   at level one we are actually going to start  monk for our class but maybe we shouldn't   let's discuss something important here that might  cause you to want to start with a different class   i am building this character to do as much damage  against multiple targets in a single round of   combat as i can while still being primarily a monk  the thing about nova builds of course is that you   need to figure out what you're doing outside of  your nova round you could just be a monk and try   to punch things or hit them with a weapon if you  wanted the problem is because our multi-target   damage is going to be affected by our wisdom stat  and our constitution stat even which i'll get into   in a second we are not going to be bumping our  dexterity or our strength so in between our nova   round damage is going to be pretty paltry on this  character if you're just hitting stuff there are   some solutions to work around that one would be  to find a way to pick up the chaleli kantrip so we   can use our wisdom modifier for our attacks with  a quarter staff or a club we could get that by   taking a level of druid or nature cleric even or  taking a couple levels of ranger and getting the   druidic warrior fighting style or by sacrificing a  feat to pick up the magic initiate feat if it were   me i think i'd probably just do a level of druid  personally we'd get some other spells too which   might be nice to give us some utility and support  options on the other hand we could start with a   level of fighter here we are actually taking some  fighter levels later anyways spoiler alert so   this wouldn't hurt quite as much starting fighter  would let us grab for example the archery fighting   style which means we would have a plus two to hit  with ranged weapons which means we could say take   a long bow and at the very least not suffer  too much with our modest dexterity score when   we're making attacks outside of our nova round  i don't love this personally because some of the   cool monk features like stunning strike require  a melee weapon attack but you might decide that   stunning strike is too unreliable and you want to  save your key points for aoe damage area of effect   so this is an okay backup for when you're not  doing that aoe damage for our purposes here today   i'm not going to take either of those options i'm  trying to build a character that maximizes their   aoe damage at the expense of everything else i  don't claim you should do this but as always i   like to explore the possible right from a numbers  perspective with a certain character concept or   goal in mind if i were playing this character  in an actual game i think i probably would start   with a level in druid and grab chile you do what  you feel is best so yes we are a monk level one   and as for our race we are actually going all  in on fizbands today baby because you guessed it   we're taking one of the new draconic races  one of the new dragonborn now to be honest i   don't actually think it matters that much which  dragonborn you pick there's a chromatic option   a gem dragon option and a metallic option unless  you're going to be playing this character at level   15 and beyond we are primarily here for the breath  weapon attack which i'll get into in a second   but each of them gets one i will say that  the chromatic dragon breath attack is a line   which is usually a little tougher to hit multiple  enemies with than a cone that the gem and metallic   dragon get so i'd almost definitely go with gem  or metallic but aside from that you know the   major differences are gem dragonborn get to send  telepathic messages and occasionally fly which   is great and i think that the selection of damage  types for the gem dragon breath is a little better   but i think if it were me i would probably go  metallic because first of all i like good dragons   i want a lightning based breath attack later on  spoiler alert and also i really love the metallic   breath weapon feature that you get at level  five the first thing we do once we've chosen   our dragonborn race is choose a draconic ancestry  assuming we went metal i would go bronze which is   associated with lightning because as i said  in my storm sorcerer tempest cleric video   i like lightning you might prefer another type  and that's fine until late game anyway for this   character anyway we're going to have resistance  to the damage type associated with that metallic   ancestry so we would get resistance to lightning  damage which is nice let's talk about their two   breath weapons first right at level one we're  told that when you take the attack action you   can replace one of your attacks right now we only  have one of course with a breath weapon attack   it's a 15 foot cone unless you want chromatic  of course in which case it's a 5 foot wide line   that's 30 feet long and each creature in the  area has to make a dexterity saving throw based   on our constitution modifier or take 1d10 damage  half if they save this is a pretty unique thing   to see in dnd instead of requiring our action it  just requires one of our attacks when we take the   attack action that's very interesting now the  fact that the dc is based on our constitution   does bum me out a little bit i understand why  they did it by using a stat that pretty much   every character wants they made it a little easier  to ensure that almost every class kind of benefits   from this feature on the other hand making  it based on a like non-caster or attack based   stat kind of also guarantees that most characters  aren't going to get the dc for this breath attack   as high as it can go as we almost always with  maybe the exception of like a tank focused build   are going to want to max some other stat before  we max our constitution right i wish there were   a little more flexibility here on which stat we  use for the dc on this but it's fine we'll be okay   and you get to do this proficiency bonus times  per day and the damage does scale as we level   also for metallic dragons when you hit level 5  instead of doing a damage based attack as your   breath weapon we can do either an enervating  breath which forces a constitution safe or an   enemy is incapacitated any enemy that's in the  area of effect is incapacitated until the start   of our next turn yikes or repulsion breath which  requires a strength save or they are pushed 20   feet away and knocked prone now constitution and  strength tend to be pretty high saving throws for   most enemies in dnd but either of those are pretty  potent especially incapacitated in a 15 foot cone   is kind of unheard of i think in dnd at least as  a level 1 racial feature granted it doesn't last   that long it is a con save but being able to  potentially incapacitate multiple targets for   a round is really something enemies that failed  their savings throw would lose concentration on   spells and won't be able to take actions or  reactions right potentially very strong anyway   as for our abilities i assume as always that we  are doing the point by method and so i would say   take a 15 in your constitution and take a plus  one there so you've got a 16 to start take a 15   in your wisdom as well and take your plus 2 there  and then a 14 dexterity as for equipment arguably   one downside about being a monk is that a lot of  your class benefits require you to be unarmored   and not using a shield on the flip side the nice  thing about being a monk is that you don't really   need a lot of equipment to start the game with at  least so i would take the gold buy option here and   just get a long sword and then whatever else  you might need maybe a quarter staff for level   one as well if you're actually playing the game at  level one or of course if you are getting chelely   you're gonna want one then as a level one monk we  get the unarmored defense feature if you're not   wearing any armor or not using a shield then your  armor class equals 10 plus your dexterity modifier   plus your wisdom modifier this is kind of okay  if you're going to get both your decks and your   whiz like really high eventually though it  does mean we're not getting to take advantage   of shields or magical armor there are magical  solutions though like bracers of defense for   example so i generally don't mind so much the fact  that we can't use magical armor now unfortunately   for this build as i've said we're not going to be  bumping our dexterity at all in the interest of   more area of effect damage so our ac is going to  be pretty crummy without things like bracers of   defense especially and especially as we get into  late game and our and our ac kind of stops scaling   right now it's a 15 which isn't great it's not  terrible i would probably just say you know what   screw it start as a level one fighter and let's  get some medium armor except at level one as a   monk we also get the martial arts feature which  tells us that as long as we're not wearing armor   or using a shield or using weapons that aren't  monk weapons against the quarter staff for now   which is considered a monk weapon you can  use dexterity instead of strength when making   attacks and use a martial arts die which is a  d4 for now but it scales as we level for unarmed   strikes and for monk weapons if we want also  we can make an unarmed strike as a bonus action   when we take the attack action okay here's the  reality for the purposes of this build again i'm   not going to care about really any of those  things very much i don't anticipate making a   ton of unarmed strikes with our bonus action for  example at least not turning our nova round you   on the other hand might care very much about  doing those things particularly during your   non-nova rounds but if you don't you might want  to consider starting fighter like i say and just   throwing on a shield and medium armor you wouldn't  get the movement speed bonuses that we're about to   pick up and that's kind of a big deal i think  for this build but you might value your ac   over everything else and you could do  it personally i like my monks to be   well stereotypical monks and i really do want  that move speed bonus so i'm going naked okay   fine i'll wear a ghee you do what you want to do  at level two we get key points so from now on we   get one key point per monk level so we've got two  for now and we use those key points for famously   everything because of that i personally  don't think one key point per level is enough   but at least they reset on a short rest for now  we can use those key points to do three things   flurry of blows which tells us that for a key  point if we take the attack action we can make two   unarmed strikes instead of the usual one we get by  default great if you're building a single target   weapon focused attack monk we're not you also  get the patient defense ability for one key   point we can take the dodge action as a bonus  action not bad taking the dodge action gives   disadvantage to enemies on all incoming attacks  and advantage on dexterity saving throws for us   until our next turn and then there's step of  the wind that lets us disengage or dash as a   bonus action for one key point and we can double  our jump distance keep this one in mind for later   also as a level two monk we get unarmored movement  so if we're not wearing armor or using a shield   we get a plus 10 to our movement speed for a 40  movement speed total right now again you might   not decide this is super important i think for  this character positioning yourself on your turn   is going to be very important for our nova round  and i'm going to want to get that extra move speed   finally we do get thanks to tasha's cauldron  of everything the dedicated weapon feature here   as a level 2 monk which tells us that we can make  any non-heavy non-special weapon a monk weapon so   i ditched the quarter staff unless you have  shirley of course and use that long sword now   with two hands because long swords are versatile  and there's no prohibition against using two hands   to make a weapon attack we could have done it with  a quarter staff too for that matter but anyway   now we can get a d10 on your attacks when you are  using your long sword outside of your nova rounds   using your dexterity score for hit and damage  at level three we get deflect missiles so as a   reaction with deflect missiles we can reduce  damage from a ranged attack when we're hit   with one it's a d10 plus our dexterity modifier  plus our monk level not bad honestly now you can   spend a key point to redirect that attack back  at an enemy which is amazingly cool visually but   i think i'd personally probably save that key  in most situations especially on this character   with our low-ish dexterity the damage we do from  redirecting it won't be particularly reliable   and then of course at level three monks get their  subclass their monastic tradition and obviously we   are going with the way of the ascendant dragon  here's what we read about the ascendant dragon   monk the dragon god bahamut is known to travel  the material plane in the guise of a young monk   and legend says that he founded the first  monastery of the way of the ascendant dragon   in the skies the fundamental teaching of this  tradition holds that by emulating dragons   a monk becomes a more integrated part of the  world and its magic by altering their spirit   to resonate with draconic might monks who follow  this tradition augment their prowess in battle   bolster their allies and can even soar through  the air on draconic wings but all this power is in   service of the greater goal achieving a spiritual  unity with the essence of the material plane thematically they could not have created a  character more perfectly designed to make me   happy my favorite class combined with my favorite  fantastical creature it's a match made in heaven   they might have fallen a little bit short on the  mechanical aspect but we're gonna make it work   dang it alright so first up we need to decide how  we unlocked the power of dragons within ourselves   you can figure it out for yourself or roll  on a table that has some cool options like a   dragon taking an active role in shaping your inner  energy to long stretches spent meditating around   an ancient dragon's lair cool flavor stuff and  then we get the draconic disciple feature which   gives us a few little kind of utility and flavor  options for the most part including re-rolling   failed intimidation or persuasion checks as a  reaction which will probably just fail again   anyway due to our crummy charisma score but hey  we also learned the draconic language or another   language of our choice and we get draconic  strike which lets us change the damage type of   our unarmed strike to an elemental damage type  if we want like fire cold poison acid etc that   could come in handy if you run into resistance  to a certain damage type and especially before   our unarmed strikes become magical it won't help  us much in our nova round but it might give us   a little edge depending on the enemies that  we're fighting at earlier levels here but then   there is the breath of the dragon and here of  course is the thing that we are most interested in   so when you take the attack action we are told  you can replace one of those attacks with a   20-foot cone of elemental damage sound familiar  the big difference between this and our racial   breath attack is that the cone here is bigger  the damage is smaller the dc for the save that   the enemies have to make is based on our wisdom  modifier instead of constitution but it's still   a dexterity save and we can choose the damage  type each time we use it acid cold fire lightning   poison okay i like the area a 15 foot cone is only  potentially going to hit six medium or smaller   creatures a 20 foot cone could potentially hit  10 that's significant i like the wisdom-based dc   we benefit a lot from a high wisdom score the  damage is poopy two rolls of our martial arts die   at this point that's 2d4 damage or five on average  still the ratio is only 1d10 at this point that's   5.5 and it's a smaller area actually so for now  you know use whichever one is going to get you   the most damage based on the number of targets you  can hit one sort of nice thing here is that you   can do this proficiency bonus times per day like  our racial breath weapon but you can spend two   key points to do it again if you're out of uses so  at least it's reusable if at the cost of our one   resource that we have to spend on everything that  we do the damage will get to three rolls of our   martial arts die eventually and our martial arts  day like i've said does scale with monk levels so   if we're going to lean into this which we are  we are really encouraged to persevere with monk   levels which we will at level four then we get  slow fall one of my favorite flavor abilities in   game that i wish i got to use more with slow  fall you use your reaction when you fall to   reduce your damage by five times your monk level  meaning that at this level we would likely fall   50 to 60 feet before taking any damage which is  so cool don't you dare ever walk downstairs again   and then of course at level 4 we get  our first ability score increase or feet   i've mentioned that i wasn't planning on doing a  lot with the unarmed strike bonus action for this   build right definitely if you have nothing better  to do with your bonus action punch and kick away   for this character who's focused on area damage  and with a high wisdom score our bigger concern   i think is getting as many enemies into our area  of effect damage as possible one of the best ways   to do that i think is via the telekinetic feet  so that's what we're taking here at level four   nice bonus telekinetic is a half feet so we get to  bump our wisdom score by one meaning that we have   an 18 wisdom now which is awesome and then with  telekinetic you learn the mechan cantrip you can   make it invisible and cast it without components  all nice for utility and flavor more importantly   for us as a bonus action you can move one  creature within 30 feet of you five feet toward   or away from you barring a strength saving throw  based on your wisdom modified difficulty check   with a cone of 20 for your area of effect or even  15 on the ratio sometimes often times i think that   5 feet is going to make all the difference between  just getting one more enemy inside the area of   effect of your breath weapon also sometimes you  might have like a perfect shot on a few enemies   but you've got one ally who's a melee ally right  and they're kind of in the way and you're going   to want to nudge them just a little bit out of the  way so they don't get caught in the blast zone and   a creature can fail their save willingly and just  be moved if they want to be moved right this feat   is just perfect for what we're trying to do here  i think at level five we get a ton of stuff first   up our martial arts die goes from a d4 to a d6  that's nice our breath attack now does 2d6 damage   second up our dragon breath breath  weapon scales up to a 2d 10 even nicer   third up we get that metallic breath weapon  that i talked about at the beginning so you   could potentially incapacitate or shove multiple  enemies instead of damaging them if you wanted   assuming they failed their saving throw fourth  up we get stunning strike that most controversial   of monk abilities that everyone seems to  either think is really overpowered or fairly   meh for us it's mostly meh because it requires you  to hit with a melee weapon attack now if we took   druid or found another way to get shuli this is a  lot better otherwise hitting with a melee weapon   attack isn't necessarily a foregone conclusion  for us but if we do we can spend a key point to   force a constitution saving throw and that's  the main reason that people in the meh camp cry has anyone ever cried meh seems like that would  sort of defeat the purpose of the word but if   they fail their constitution saving throw the  enemy is stunned until the end of your next turn   which is really powerful i can even see  potential here where you say stun a target with   one attack and then with your second attack breath  weapon and then the stunned creature at least   would auto fail their saving throw because that's  what stunned targets do among other things but   we have a better use for that second attack  because yes at level five fifth up i suppose   we get the extra attack feature and this is  where things really start to feel pretty fun   and unique for this character i think so in case  you hadn't noticed both the breath weapon we get   from our racial ability and the one we get from  our monk ability tell us that when we take the   attack action we can replace one of our attacks  with the breath weapon so far as i can tell   there's no reason why if we had two attacks and  we do now with extra attack we couldn't replace   one of them with a dragon breath weapon and the  other one with the ascendant dragon breath weapon   so we take the attack action but instead of  actually punching or kicking anything we are   in a 15-foot cone of lightning and then in a 20-foot cone of flame or cold or whatever  now damage aside this is conceptually one of the   coolest things and i love it with all of my heart  that's pretty much the story of the monk for me in   a nutshell i suppose but anyway this is what we've  been building towards being able to do two area of   effect spell like damage attacks in a single turn  without having to use action surge or metamagic   is pretty dang unique in dnd so let's see where  we can take it from here at level six with extra   attack secure and a few key points under our  belt i think we need to take a slight detour   to maximize this nova round so our meditative  dragon inspired monk has decided that their mind   and their spirit have been fairly well honed but  they need to spend a little more time improving   the vessel el cuerpo the body so we're going  to take some fighter levels now so as a fighter   level one we get second wind which lets us once  per short rest as a bonus action heal ourselves   for a d10 plus our fighter level nice little  survivability feature and then we get a fighting   style and you know what i'm going to just say pick  your favorite here it's going to depend largely on   kind of how you've built your character up to this  point if you went with chaleli i'd probably grab   dueling for plus two damage to one-handed weapon  attacks if you decided to just wear armor and   forego the movement and like martial arts benefits  i'd consider defense i think for plus one to my ac   superior technique actually would be a good  one i think to give you access to a variety   of maneuvers that aren't necessarily dependent on  making a weapon attack i think if it were me and i   didn't take a druid level to start i'd probably  go with the archery fighting style here that way   we could grab a long bow we'd have a much better  chance to hit at least with a plus two to hit that   we get from the archery fighting style when we're  in between our nova rounds you know now having   that 14 dexterity would be the equivalent of an  18 dexterity at least when it comes to trying to   hit a target and that feels a lot better granted  we wouldn't be able to use stunning strike at all   if we're making ranged weapon attacks but if  you didn't take shalalee between our low-ish   hit chance and the enemy making a con save against  a stunning strike let's be honest you're not   getting much out of stunning strike anyway okay  so time for our first damage report at level six   my assumption here is that during your nova round  you're going to use a bonus action first off to   telekinetically bump either an enemy into  the area of your cones or bump an ally   out of the area of your cones so you can hit as  many enemies as possible then you take the attack   action replacing one of your attacks with your  dragonborn breath weapon and the other attack   with your ascendant dragon monk breath weapon you  have 40 feet of move speed so getting yourself   into the best position to hit as many enemies  as possible should be pretty manageable most of   the time i'd hope to that end i'm going to assume  for number crunching purposes that we've got three   enemies inside of our blast zone that might be too  generous obviously you're not going to get this   all of the time of course there probably will  be times when you can get more than that right   i have to pick a number and the number i pick is  three you can adjust accordingly if the number   changes so at this level that would be 2d 10  for your racial breath weapon against your dc of   14 times 3 enemies and 2d6 for your monk breath  weapon against your dc of 15 times 3 enemies for   a total of 6 d10 and 66 damage so against an enemy  with a plus zero to their dexterity saving throw   you would do a total on average of 45 damage  in this nova round and against enemies with   a plus two to their dexterity saving throws it  would be 42 damage on average one nice thing about   calculating versus saving throws versus enemy  armor class is that it's rare for enemies to have   a really high dexterity saving throw the average  plus to dexterity saving throw for cr creatures   in the monster manual at least is just a plus  two which is why i used that number but you can   see what it looks like all the way up to a plus  15 to save in the spreadsheet that i put in the   video description so check that out also the nice  thing here is the consistency of the damage even   if the damage isn't crazy high because even if the  enemies make their saving throw they still take   half damage right missed weapon attacks don't do  half damage now 45 damage for a nova round is not   amazing against a single target it would be pretty  good at this level but divide it up between three   it's really not it's less than a single fireball  would do that said we do have the added bonus of   being able to do this three times per day right  now without spending any additional resources   and after that we can do at least our monk breath  attack if we wanted a couple more times per short   rest with our key points and sure a wizard or a  sorcerer could do three fireballs per long rest   at this level for more damage but fireballs  are notoriously at their relative strongest   right when you get the spell and we are  about to get way better just give me one   more level because at level 7 we would be  a fighter level 2 and we get action surge   so now during our nova round we could dragon  breath monk breath action surge dragon breath   monk breath so long as we had the uses of  those breath attacks to do that right and   again numbers aside the cool factor here is off  the charts i mean heck you could even do like   lightning attack then cold attack then lightning  attack then fire attack or something right if   you wanted to just for the sheer spectacle of it  you could also like make your breath attacks and   move in between those breath attacks if say a  target or two dies and you want to turn around or   move over slightly to get a new target into  into the cone right i don't know have fun with   it it's really cool and it's twice the damage now  during your nova round as last level and compared   to other nova damage builds that i've done now we  are at the top of the class for total damage done   so that feels really cool let's keep going back  to monk i think at level eight we're a monk six we   really want to get more key points and we really  want to get to monk 11 as quickly as possible so   at level 8 we are a monk six and we get key  empowered strikes on the off chance that we are   like regularly punching and kicking things our  unarmed strikes are now magical for the purposes   of overcoming resistance to non-magical weapon  attacks and magical bludgeoning damage is less   likely to be resisted than any of the elemental  damage types that we were getting from our   ascendant dragon monk feature but you might run  into it once in a while we also get plus five to   our move speed as long as again we're not using a  shield or armor so that's a total of plus 15 for   a grand total of 45 move speed now very useful  for maneuvering to line up our breath attacks   as effectively as possible and then we get our  level 6 ascendant dragon ability wings unfurled   let's talk about this so wings unfurl tells us  that proficiency bonus times per day when we use   step of the wind and remember that's spending a  key point to dash or disengage as a bonus action   we can fly but and wizards of the coast has  taken some criticism for this and i think fairly   we can only fly during this this turn as the wings  vanish at the end of the turn it admittedly feels   a little weak compared to other subclasses that  get similar features that said i still think there   will be times when we can make good use of this  ability especially with this build i've talked   about how important positioning is here and there  will be times that due to weather difficult to   rain other enemies terrain obstacles etc it would  be difficult to position ourselves in just the   right way to get as many enemies as possible  in the area of effect of our breath attack   now i can definitely see the use in say dashing  as a bonus action or disengaging because an enemy   is all up in our business spending a key point and  then sprouting dragon wings launching into the air   and strafing our hapless foes with several blasts  of our dragon breath attacks before settling back   down again somewhere that's advantageous for us  it's not something that you're going to need every   round thankfully since we often want to be using  our bonus action for a telekinetic shove right and   we can only sprout these wings proficiency  bonus times per day but when we do need it   it will be really cool and really fun to have not  to mention of course the occasional utility that   we'll get of being able to you know get to hard to  reach places across chasms on top of roofs etc etc   as long as we can get there all in one turn  before our wings disappear at the end of those   six seconds right at level nine we would be  a monk seven we get the evasion ability which   is really nice when we have to make a dexterity  save to take half damage against something like   traps or a spell or our arch nemesis ascendant  dragon dragon who also has lots of breath attacks   we take half damage if we fail the dexterity  saving throw and no damage if we succeed   fabulous and then we also get stillness of mine  which tells us that we can use our action to end a   fear or charm effect on ourselves i love how we're  getting all of these abilities to counter things   that dragons typically do right dex saves for all  those breath attacks and an ability to end fear   for dragon fear right okay so for our  damage report at level 9 we are looking   much stronger now on our nova round we're going  to again i think either telekinetically shove   one enemy or ally with our bonus action or dash  or disengage and then fly with our bonus action   whatever you have to do to get the most enemies  you can in your blast zone but then as an action   we're going to take the attack action and make  both of our attacks with our breath weapons   right then action surge and make both again the  damage dice have not increased since our last   check but our dc has gone up by one thanks to our  proficiency bonus increase and speaking of which   with a proficiency bonus of four now at level  nine we could do all of this twice per day if   we wanted assuming that you got at least one short  rest in between to reset action search and that's   nice so against a group of enemies with a plus  zero to their dexterity saving throw we would   do on average 92 damage total during our nova  round and against a group of enemies with a plus   three to their dexterity saving throws it would  be 83 damage total compared to other nova builds   at level 9 now we have fallen just a little bit  behind the average but we can do our full routine   twice per day now which is more than a lot of  those builds can do and then we can add our monk   breath at least several more times if we wanted  to spend the key for some continued area of effect   damage plus we can jump out of 10 story buildings  anytime we want to and not take any damage so   at level 10 we are a monk eight we get another  ability score increase for feet you could argue   that we'd be better off bumping our constitution  over wisdom for our nova round at least because   the damage from the racial breath weapon is more  but considering that wisdom also bumps our armor   class and even our attacks if we took shalalee  as well as the stunning strike dc and other monk   features that we'll be getting later i think i'd  go wisdom first personally and so i'm going to cap   wisdom here and we're at a 20 wisdom which  feels nice at level 11 we'd be among nine and   our dragonborn breath weapon at character level  11 goes to 3d10 another d10 is very welcome   we also get an unarmored movement improvement  we can now move up vertical surfaces and across   liquid on our turn which is another favorite  ability that we probably don't get to use enough   and might not be all that useful in game but when  you get to use it it'll be really cool at level 12   we're among 10. we get purity of body which tells  us that we are now immune to disease and poison   you know this will be really nice when you need  it no question particularly to the poison disease   probably isn't going to come up all that often  in most campaigns but then we do get another   five feet of move speed bonus so that's a  total of 50 move speed now which is fantastic   at level 13 we're a monk 11 and our martial arts  die goes to a 1d8 just in time for our breath of   the dragon feature to use three martial arts dice  instead of two going then from a 2d6 to 3d8 it's a   pretty nice increase especially when we're using  it twice on our nova round right we also at this   level get the aspect of the worm feature from  ascendant dragon monk and that's going to give   us another potential use of our bonus action now  probably during our non-nova rounds and it can be   situationally really nice so as a bonus action  we can create an aura of draconic power it lasts   for one minute it radiates only 10 feet from us  so it's not a really big range but during that   minute we can potentially do two things first up  frightful presence when you first create the aura   and as a bonus action on subsequent turns you  can force an enemy within your aura to make a   wisdom save the dc of which is based on your own  wisdom which is one of the reasons why i wanted to   max wisdom first or they are frightened of  you for one minute now they do get to repeat   the save at the end of each turn but as long as  they keep failing that saving throw they could   again potentially be feared for an entire minute  and if they make their saving throw you could   just repeat it again on your next turn as a bonus  action if they don't make their saving throw you   can frighten somebody else meaning you could  potentially have multiple enemies feared for   a minute each throughout the course of an entire  combat encounter this is a decently powerful fear   ability and frightened is a pretty strong debuff  it causes them to have disadvantage on their   attacks and ability checks while they can see you  and they're unable to move closer to you now sure   there are a lot of enemies that are immune to fear  but there are a lot more enemies that aren't and   sure you have to use your bonus action every time  to do it but it lasts for an entire minute on each   enemy that you hit with it i think it's a good  ability alternatively instead of doing frightful   presence you could gain resistance with your aura  so you could choose an elemental damage type and   it grants you and your allies within the aura  resistance to that damage type for one minute and   again when i say elemental damage type i'm talking  fire cold acid poison lightning right this is the   lesser use of our aura i think i mean if i could  use it as a reaction that would be nice if the   aura were larger that would be nice but being in  a place where you know ahead of time that you're   going to be taking damage of a certain type and  wanting everyone to huddle close together so as to   make a really nice target for a potential area of  effect spell or breath attack that's gonna do that   damage type that you're trying to be resistant  to feels a little counterintuitive to me still   once in a while it'll be useful i imagine  primarily using our aura for fear now we can   only use our aura once per day for free but after  we can use it again for three key points that's   expensive but we do have 11 key points per short  rest now so it's not inconceivable that we would   have this available two or three times per day  especially on this character whose damage isn't   going to be amazing outside of our nova rounds i  can see this actually becoming like the primary   use of our key points we blow some stuff up and  then go into controller debuff mode primarily   and i think it would be a viable character and one  that frankly i'd probably like to have in my party   so for the damage report at level 13 we have had  some nice additional bumps since last check our   dragon breath has gone up to 3d10 our monk breath  to 3d8 our wisdom and proficiency bonus have both   increased to say nothing of the defensive control  and utility features that we've gained i'm feeling   pretty good about my dragon monk and during our  nova round against a group of enemies with a plus   zero to their dexterity saving throw we would do  on average 161 damage total and against plus four   to their saving throws it would be 142 damage  total on average so we're a little closer to   the middle of the pack now compared to other nova  damage builds and again we can do this multiple   times per day which feels great at level 14 we  would be a monk 12 and we get another ability   score increase or feat i would say we ought to  bump our constitution now to 18. i wish we could   have gotten our constitution higher sooner both  for the extra tankiness and bump to our con save   but also of course because it improves the dc  of our racial breath attack but i stand by the   decision to focus wisdom first at level 15 at this  point in our character's career i think they take   a step back from focusing on either their mind  or their body and instead turn their focus toward   the greatest of all dragons the god of justice  and good the great bahamut himself perhaps we seek   greater enlightenment or we were instructed  by the bronze dragon who first helped us   unlock our draconic power to pay homage to him  whatever your reasons we're going to take a couple   levels of cleric here so yes at level 15 we're  cleric one and first up we get to pick some spells   i would say pick your favorites there are some  decent cleric cantrips and spells to choose from   i'm not really going to assume that we're using  any one spell in particular during our nova round   but maybe i'll just mention that told the dead  could be an okay option if you don't have chilelli   or the archery fighting style and are looking for  damage between your nova rounds bless is of course   one of the best buff spells in the game and will  make your whole team appreciate you if nobody else   on your team is using it currently and it will  actually even give you a much better chance to   hit so that could come in handy as well you  know actually the one spell that i might try   to make use of during the nova round here is bane  i've never really talked much about bane before   it's basically the anti-bless right you target  up to three enemies within 30 feet and you try to   curse them if they fail a charisma save which is  probably the lowest saving throw for most enemies   in dnd then they have to subtract a d4 from all  future attacks and saving throws for a minute   or until you lose your concentration of  course this will actually be great for   our breath attacks of course but even the fear  that you're gonna be throwing out probably the   stunning strike that you might be using so yeah  it's a pretty decent spell for us now am i going   to assume that your target has bane on them when  i crunch the numbers nah admittedly there will be   plenty of times i think where the fight starts  and you just don't have a great opportunity to   like unleash your breath bombs because the  enemies are too spread out or too far away   and so taking a round to throw out bane on a bunch  of enemies so that they do less damage and are   more likely to fail their upcoming saving throws  would be a pretty decent option but because it   costs an action and the enemy gets to save against  it even though most enemies will fail that safe i   just have a hard time assuming that you're going  to be using this like every time before your nova   round and the reality is your party might benefit  more from bless anyway still i'd keep it in my   back pocket as an option at level one clerics  of course get their subclass their divine domain   and i want to go tempest as i'm sure many of  you probably predicted long ago some of you   might be wondering why we waited this long to take  it we'll discuss in a minute but yes we're gonna   be a tempest cleric for one main reason wrath of  the storm is not that reason though that's the   ability that we get at level one uh it is a decent  ability when an enemy within five feet of you hits   you with an attack you can use your reaction  to do 2d8 lightning or thunder damage to them   barring a dexterity saving throw okay fine it's a  decent ability at level one at level 15 that kind   of sucks but anyway you can use it your wisdom  modifier times per day but at level 16 we would   be a cleric two and we get channel divinity so all  clerics get channel divinity they can use it once   per short rest to turn undead which forces undead  to make a wisdom save or spend their turn running   away from you basically for one minute but tempest  clerics can also use their channel divinity for   destructive wrath and that's why we're here  of course destructive wrath tells us that   when we roll lightning or thunder damage we can  use destructive wrath to deal max damage instead   of rolling this is why we're here this is why  we wanted to go with the bronze dragon for our   metallic dragon ancestry because the damage we do  with our racial breath weapon is still a little   better than with our monk breath weapon it's 3d  10 for the ratio versus 3d8 for the monk right now   it's not a huge difference of course and so if you  took a different ancestry because you would rather   have a different damage type resistance or you  just think silver dragons are cooler or whatever   i don't think it's a huge deal because remember  you can choose the elemental damage type you do   with your monk breath weapon every time you use it  so you could choose lightning when you wanted to   couple it with destructive wrath now why  did we wait this long to get this ability   the truth is it's going to add right now about  14.5 damage on average to one use of our draconic   breath on our nova round right and we can  do our channel divinity once per short rest   by comparison b-lining to monk 11 added 13 damage  to our nova round so almost as much but of course   we can use our monk breath weapon a lot more than  just on our nova round and getting more key points   is always important as a monk not to mention  the ability score increases that we wanted to   increase our wisdom and our constitution and pick  up the telekinetic feat i could see an argument   for going say monk 5 then fighter 2 then cleric  2. our level 9 damage report would have been   a smidge better but i think our character would  have been a lot worse outside of our nova round   anyway at this point it's a nice little bump  for us not to mention the increased support and   utility that we get from cleric and then finally  for us at level 17 we would be a monk 13 i think   it's it's hard to know what to do for the like  last level at least the last level that i report   on if the game were ending here truly i think i  probably would go like cleric three four second   level cleric spells or maybe even fighter three  for a fun fighter subclass ooh purple dragonite but assuming that we're going to go all the way  to 20 with this character i probably go back to   monk here so that i can at least pick up diamond  soul which is a really nice ability that we get at   monk 14 which would be next level anyway  for now we just get tongue of the sun and   moon not a great feature mechanically but it  could be useful outside of combat occasionally   you can basically communicate with any  creature that can speak a language and   do remember that our dragonborn breath weapon goes  up to a 4d10 now so that happens at the same time   as we get our final proficiency bonus bump so we  could potentially do with a proficiency bonus of 6   our full nova round 3 times per day assuming  short rests in between right and that feels nice   so for our final damage report then we have again  had some nice bumps our constitution and thus the   dc for our dragonborn breath attack has gone  up we've added destructive wrath which means   that one of our dragon breath attacks will hit for  40 flat damage on every target instead of 22 on   average so against a group of enemies with a plus  zero to their dexterity saving throws we would do   249 total damage on average and against a group  of enemies with a plus five to their dexterity   saving throws it would be 215 total damage on  average so still comfortably in like the middle   of the pack compared to other nova damage builds  but doable multiple times per day potentially   and you get all the fun flavor of being a dragon  empowered dragonborn monk so final thoughts you   know what i feel a lot better about the ascendant  dragon monk now than i did right after i read   the you know updated description of them when  fizbands became official last week i'll admit i am   still a little annoyed with wizards of the coast  if i'm being honest for not making this subclass   a little more easy to play for making it a little  underpowered in my opinion but again i still think   we can make a decently powerful character here  and more importantly a really fun character to   play i think and now of course you don't have  to build your ascendant dragon monk this way   you could try to make a more traditional  monk that punches and kicks things a lot   you know that tries to take advantage of  stunning strike and then just has an aoe   attack that they can pull out once in a while for  me though that aoe attack that you get from the   ascendant dragon monk is just not enough damage  to really be worth using it almost ever unless   we really try to lean into it and build around  it right and and create this burst damage area of   effect focused character the fact that the breath  attack you get as an ascendant dragon monk and the   one that you get from the new dragonborn races are  both usable to replace an attack on your action   is so very unique that i think if you're going  to build an ascendant dragon monk at all it makes   the most sense at least from a purely mechanics  perspective to try and get the most out of what   makes this subclass unique if you primarily want  to be punching and kicking and stunning things   i think you should go mercy monk and i've got a  pretty decent build for one there i think if you   want to act like a dragon however who can fly over  their enemies raining down fire and lightning and   striking fear into their hearts with the awesome  draconic might that is within you that's when   you play the way of the ascendant dragon and so  that's the episode today i hope you guys enjoyed   it i love you you're fantastic and i thank you so  much for watching for all of your support you know   check out the rest of the content in the channel  if you don't already i think there's lots of good   stuff there but yeah like subscribe consider  joining all of those things until next time i   hope you have a fantastic day a fantastic week and  that you get to play lots of dnd so take care bye   no don't say that never mind  winning the battle of um oh boy um action economy to pay  homage homage homage homage home age that's not a difficult word homage

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 59,134

Keywords: D&D Optimized, dnd, dungeons & dragons, ascendant dragon, monk, tempest cleric, burst damage, nova damage, character build, guide, how to, 5e

Id: j4mD08URWkU

Length: 56min 30sec (3390 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 02 2021