Mittens:
Having fun with Mits. And Kensai is cool. But I'm finding that the propensity for narrow hallway combat is making the "spend a bonus action to gain d4 extra damage on your 1 attack" feel like it's going to be all mits ever does. (Granted, I wasn't expecting the gun-fu concept to be hamstringed with "you must be in a wide open room in order to do the -fu part" when I originally took the first step down this path.)
Which brings me to other idea: Way of the Four Elements has this as an option...
Fangs of the Fire Snake
When you use the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to cause tendrils of flame to stretch out from your fists and feet. Your reach with your unarmed strikes increases by 10 feet for that action, as well as the rest of the turn. A hit with such an attack deals fire damage instead of bludgeoning damage, and if you spend 1 ki point when the attack hits, it also deals an extra 1d10 fire damage.
Mits is stuck behind frontliner. Spends ki point to start punching with fire. Punch, ki-point flurry of blows, punch, punch.
Compare to: shoot + d4.
So my question is... Exactly how many more narrow hall combats can we expect? 'cause if Mits isn't going to be a frontliner, Kensai's "+2 AC" and monk's "punch as a bonus action" features are gunna collect dust.
Other option i've read for gaining multiple reach attacks is using a whip + Ki-Fueled Attack.
While I can't speak for hallway zone life?
A big reason I shilled for Kensei is because it would have been entirely mandatory for Gunslinger Monk Mittens, until Tasha's optional rules came along to allow you to declare a single (not heavy, not special) gun a monk weapon.
ALSO! 1d4 Whips are obsolete for Mittens, because you have a 1d10 pistol that works in melee range.
That said? Because of your desires, and due to Tasha's and GUNS easing up the reasons you would "Need" kensei? Then my current runner up Not kensei suggestion to mittens would be Astral Self. Because that is the most economical "Punch past your ally in a hallway" path. But we will get back to that.
The big deal about Kensei aside from "more than one weapon to add as a monk weapon!", is that the initial perks
do not cost ki points. They are free to use at will.
Meanwhile, the example of elemental path fire fists is a huge ki point hog for... reach that only lasts a single turn. For only your fists. For still baby 1d4 punch damage early on. And tempts you to spend even more ki points so the damage is bigger. Instead of spending it on bonus action dodge, the new tashas extra damage, etc.
Even though they are short rest recharge, for a long time you will have hardly any ki points to play with. 1 per monk level. So you would hardly be able to solve your problems at all with elemental path.
In turn, your attraction to whips earlier is another reason I shilled for Kensei.
Whips are not monk weapons, and Tashas optional rules only lets you pick ONE extra monk weapon, not two. So while you could do Whip monk without kensei thanks to Tashas? Without Kensei, Mittens would have to give up her Gun if she wanted to make whip her monk weapon instead.
Also even with a whip? In a campaign where guns do not exist? You would still be sad in the hallways because only the whip has reach, not your punches/flurry.
This leads us to Astral Self. The initial unlock at lv3 is what would actually give you what you want for crowded hallway punching.
Arms of the Astral Self
3rd-level Way of the Astral Self feature
Your mastery of your ki allows you to summon a portion of your astral self. As a bonus action, you can spend 1 ki point to summon the arms of your astral self. When you do so, each creature of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of you must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take force damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die.
For 10 minutes these spectral arms hover near your shoulders or surround your arms (your choice). You determine the arms’ appearance, and they vanish early if you are incapacitated or die. While the spectral arms are present, you gain the following benefits:
*You can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier when making Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
*You can use the spectral arms to make unarmed strikes.
*When you make an unarmed strike with the arms on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
*The unarmed strikes you make with the arms can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls, and their damage type is force.
Lasts ten minutes (usually the entire fight).
Makes your unarmed attacks have 5ft reach, and count as force damage.
This means your flurry of blows also has reach. Because those are listed as "make more monk unarmed strikes"
Monk Gun means you can shoot with a 1d10 gun from behind an ally, then ghost punch past someone.
Monk whip means 1d4 whip can reach 1 tile past an ally, good job? And then ghost punch past someone.
So.
TL;DR:
A: Kensei is mandatory if you want BOTH a Gun to count as a monk weapon, AND A whip to count as a monk weapon. Because whip can't chain into monk unarmed/flurry of blows unless it counts as monk weapon, and Tasha's optional rules only lets you pick ONE weapon as "This now counts as a monk weapon".
Also, only the whip would have reach. So your punches still would not make it past allies in a hallway crowd.
B: Astral Self >> whips, with or without a Gun, for a monk who wants to punch people in a crowded hallway than ki hogs like elemental.
As then Tashas optional rules for Gun=monk weapon, so you can still do cool monks stuff with your gun. While Astral self's starting power is bonus action 1 ki point for TEN MINUTES of "floating ghost hands with 5 ft reach that count as force damage (oh and can use WIS for strength checks and saves in this mode)" so even your flurry of blows has reach. This, BETTER THAN WHIP INTO FLURRY. Where only the whip would have reach, and flurry would not.
Monk whip with flurry. Only the 1d4 whip has reach, your unarmed the flurry punches do not. So only the whip would reach past allies.
Monk with astral fists. Your 1d4 ghost fists have reach. So your unarmed/flurry of blows can now reach past allies. After you shoot your 1d10 gun past your allies.
...Also, you have a GUN, that works in melee range without penalty. Which makes whip obsolete.
C: elemental ki fire fists is a resource hog you will get to use like, twice, that only lasts a single turn, and then have no ki points to dodge or do other cool things with. (And all the coolest stuff like "Wow! Monk can learn fireball!" is delayed until lv 11 anyways).
For your current demands of wanting to be able to unarmed/flurry past allies in a crowd better? Astral Path.
A pistol makes whip for reach on your weapon attack obsolete, and if you really wanted a whip you would need to give up guns working with monk stuff unless you took Kensei.
Also astral self (eventually, at level 11+) starts stacking damage extras to your ghost unarmed. But until then the primary perk is a dirt cheap 1 ki point per encounter "flurry has reach now holy @##%"
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:55, Tue 14 Sept 2021.
