Kensei Monk Build Guide – The Weapons Master – 2024 Update

For all D&D guides on Nat1gaming, they only use the main sourcebooks (2024 Player’s Handbook, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) as well as Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (mostly for Silvery Barbs) as those tend to be the most commonly used books at tables. Always be sure that if you’re following a guide that you’re adhering to your tables rules about what sourcebooks you are allowed to follow. Furthermore, be sure that you’re using the most current edition of the rules, especially as some 2024 Player’s Handbook rules are updates on Tasha’s or Xanathar’s rulings.

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For the purposes of this guide, it will be assumed that you would not be multiclassing. While multiclassing can be excellent for many of these, this is for those who want to play the build all the way through in the same class. Guides that use multiclassing will be separate from these.

With an emphasis on using weapons, the Kensei monk are for those who want all the bells and whistles of the standard monk while having more versatility in which weapons you use, especially if you’re interested in picking up their Weapon Mastery (something this guide doesn’t do, but you absolutely could dependent on what you’ve found). Furthermore, with a litany of reasonably strong abilities, you have the makings of a very solid class!

Path of the Kensei (Level 3) – B Tier – Getting a better range of Monk weapons to utilize (which means better damage) is always nice, and the option to give up some damage for a higher AC is interesting as well. The ranged damage boost sucks and the proficiency is purely flavor, but the first two abilities (especially the weapon proficiencies) are solid.

One with the Blade (Level 6) – D+ Tier – Non-magical weapon resistance doesn’t exist anymore, so the first part of this ability is irrelevant (if your DM homebrewed it so you can deal force damage or something, then this rating would be higher) and spending a focus point to get a little more damage is functionally akin to the base Flurry of Blows so this ability isn’t that bad. This is unexciting and doesn’t scale that well as you’d never use this past level 9 (if you were even using it prior), but it’s there.

Sharpen the Blade (Level 11) – F Tier – This doesn’t work on magic weapons. Why does this not work on magic weapons? Even if it did, would you trade six unarmed strikes for this? I wouldn’t. Maybe this would have some utility against high AC targets, but you should be using a magic weapon at this point.

Unerring Accuracy (Level 17) – A Tier – With how many attacks you get, you are almost certainly going to miss with at least one, and in that scenario, this is functionally an additional attack.

Not seeing the exact build you want in this guide? Check out this guide instead!

Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)

Attributes:

Class: Monk

Class Features: Unarmored Defense, Martial Arts

Skill Proficiencies: Acrobatics and Insight

Background: Criminal

Starting Equipment: Spear, 5 Daggers, Artisan’s Tools, Explorer’s Pack, and 11 gp + 50 gp from background

Species: Goliath

A great species for martial characters and you have the excellent benefit from Hill Giant ancestry to knock someone down so you can grapple them afterwards to keep them down.

Attributes

A great stat distribution for any Monk as you need high Dexterity for good damage and AC, high Constitution to stay alive, and a decent Wisdom score as Monks care about that.

Proficiencies: Acrobatics and Insight

This is going to be the standard proficiencies for Monks, especially if you’re taking the Criminal background.

Background: Criminal

The best background for Monks as it gives you good stat distributions, the best feat for Monks in Alert, and solid skill proficiencies with Sleight of Hand and Stealth.

Starting Equipment – Spear, 5 Daggers, Artisan’s Tools, Explorer’s Pack, and 11 gp + 50 gp from background

Standard starting equipment for a Monk, not that you get much to begin with.

Class – Monk

For Monk you get two abilities to work with immediately – Unarmored Defense and Martial Arts.

Unarmored Defense is simple, if you’re not wearing armor your AC is 10 + DEX + WIS which will give you a reasonable AC to work with, but not as high as a martial character would probably like.

Martial Arts is the classic feature of Monks that are really multiple abilities in one. First, you get to use Dexterity instead of Strength for unarmed attacks. Second, your unarmed strikes or monk weapon get to deal an inherent d6 of damage that will scale up as you gain levels. Finally, you can use your bonus action to make an unarmed strike. Overall an excellent feature that lets Monks deal solid damage.

Level 2

Class Features: Monk’s Focus, Unarmored Movement, Uncanny Metabolism

Level 2 for Monk brings not one, not two, but three new features!

Monk’s Focus is yet another standout ability of the monk which is extremely similar to the fifth edition, Ki, but with a few updated features. First off you get Flurry of Blows which means you can make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action if you spend a Focus point. Second, you get Patient Defense which lets you Dodge as a bonus action, but if you spend a Focus point, you can Dodge and Disengage as the same bonus action. Finally, you get Step of the Wind which means you can Dash as a bonus action, or if you spend a focus point, Dash and Disengage as the same bonus action. Overall, these abilities are very good, and although they are somewhat limited by your Focus points, they are pretty powerful.

Your next ability is Unarmored Movement which gives you an additional 10 feet of movement speed if you aren’t wearing armor or a shield. Definitely a great ability to help you weave in and out of combat.

Finally, you get Uncanny Metabolism which, once a day, lets you refresh your Focus points and gain some health when you enter a combat. This is a very strong ability and much needed for Monks to not feel like they are useless after the first fight or two.

Level 3

Class: Kensei

Class Features: Path of the Kensei, Deflect Attacks

Level 3 brings your subclass, Kensei, with a new subclass feature as well as a new Monk feature.

Path of the Kensei brings a lot of new features up front: you get weapon proficiencies in any weapon that doesn’t have the heavy or special properties, you can trade your weapon attack for an unarmed strike for +2 AC, your ranged attacks can deal a smidgen more damage if you eat your bonus action, and you get proficiency in calligrapher’s or painter’s supplies as a little flavor bonus. While that is a massive amount of abilities, the only ones that matter that much are the weapon proficiencies and the +2 AC ability where the others are pretty meaningless. Still, those first two abilities are quite good.

Your classic Monk feature, Deflect Attacks, is much more exciting by comparison. You can trade your reaction to reduce the damage dealt to you by an attack by 1d10 + DEX + your Monk level which will be really high impact in the earlier levels. Then if you reduce this damage to 0, you can spend a Focus point to redirect the attack which is both a great and super thematic ability. Definitely one of the Monks better features as well as a really good use of your reaction.

Level 4

Feat: Grappler (DEX)

Class Features: Slow Fall

Level 4 brings your first feat, and for every Monk, you have to pick up Grappler. Grappler simply does too much for Monks as you can combine a grapple attempt and an unarmed strike, you have an easier time hitting your grappled target, and you get no movement penalties with grappling makes this an incredible feat. Whether you’re particularly interested in grappling or not, it’s simply too good now to not utilize.

Monk also gets a class feature this level with Slow Fall. As the name implies, this ability helps you slow your fall if you have something nearby you can brace against. Realistically this isn’t the best ability, but it is a cool ability and can prevent tragedy in the lower levels.

Level 5

Class Features: Extra Attack, Stunning Strike, Martial Arts Die to 1d8

Easily the most exciting feature for martial characters, level 5 brings your Extra Attack! Being able to get another full attack in is always welcome, even if it feels like Monk has plenty of attacks to go around.

Second, you gain access to the redesigned Stunning Strike! This iteration of Stunning Strike only gives you one attempt per turn to stun them until the beginning of your next turn, but now even if they pass their save, they lose a bunch of speed and your next attack is at advantage! This is still quite a strong ability and getting value out of it no matter what is really nice.

Level 6

Class Features: One with the Blade, New Weapon Proficiency, Empowered Strikes, +15 feet Unarmored Movement

Level 6 brings your next subclass ability and your next base class ability!

One with the Blade gives you two abilities and one of them doesn’t exactly jive with the new rules. So attacks being considered magical for overcoming resistance doesn’t exist anymore in the new rules, so it’s entirely up to the DM on how to handle this ability. You could just lose this ability, or conversely, just say that your kensei weapons ignore damage resistances. Personally, I would opt for the latter over the former as, while a strong ability, it isn’t broken (and functionally would just be Empowered Strikes for your weapon). The second half of this ability is you can spend a ki point to deal extra damage on one attack per turn, which isn’t that helpful, but available to you if you think you need a little more juice to put an enemy down.

Empowered Strikes is a simple ability to let you ignore all damage resistances with your unarmed strikes which is definitely nice!

Level 7

Class Features: Evasion

A classic and great ability, if you have a DEX saving throw and you pass it from an effect where you’d normally take half-damage, you take no damage, and if you fail, you take only half damage instead of full! This is a great ability you’re going to get a lot of mileage out of it.

Level 8

Feat: Dexterity to 20

Class Features: None

While you would love to take a feat at this point, maxing out your Dexterity is just too good to not do at this point. Max attack, damage, and AC is hard to ignore.

Level 9

Class Features: Unarmored Movement Improvement

Now you can pretend you’re in the Matrix by running up walls and running across water on your turn. This is excellent for travel, less needed for combat, super cool regardless.

Level 10

Class Features: Heightened Focus, Self Restoration, +20 feet Unarmored Movement

You get one and a half abilities with level 10, Heightened Focus and Self Restoration.

Heightened Focus is the half ability as it’s not an ability itself, but upgrades to your base Focus abilities. First, your Flurry of Blows now go up to 3 unarmed attacks which is awesome, your Patient Defense gives you temporary health to help you stay alive even better, and Step of the Wind lets you bring an ally along with you. All great upgrades and very welcome.

Your second ability is Self Restoration which is similar to the old Timeless Body ability from 5e, but also lets you end charmed, frightened, and the poisoned condition on yourself which makes failing those saving throws way less crippling.

Level 11

Class Features: Sharpen the Blade, New Weapon Proficiency, Martial Arts Die to 1d10

You get your penultimate subclass ability – Sharpen the Blade.

Essentially you can convert focus points into attack and damage bonuses for 1 minute which is quite strong, even if the focus point cost is a bit high. Nothing wrong with easier attacks and more damage.

Level 12

Feat: Inspiring Leader (WIS)

Class Features: None

This was a tough call between increasing Wisdom or increasing Constitution, but Inspiring Leader just wins out by a bit. This feat is just so good as you’re not only giving yourself more health to work with (which increasing Constitution was going to do for you anyway) on top of giving your allies more health as well! That said, if you already have an ally with Inspiring Leader, then you can opt for a different WIS feat like Fey-Touched.

Level 13

Class Features: Deflect Energy

You get an upgrade at this level to Deflect Attacks with Deflect Energy. While this only really works against elemental damage that makes an attack roll, just having more options to deflect is good, even if you’re pretty limited by how often you can use this specific part of Deflect Attacks.

Level 14

Class Features: Disciplined Survivor, +25 feet Unarmored Movement

This is a renaming of the 5e Diamond Soul feature, but it does the same thing. Having proficiency in all saving throws is already excellent, but spending a Focus point to have a reroll on a saving throw is extremely strong. The only shame about this ability is that it doesn’t come earlier as it’s easily one of the strongest Monk features.

Level 15

Class Features: Perfect Focus

Yet another ability to help sustain the Monk’s marginally limited Focus pool by always having 4 Focus points when you roll initiative rather than dealing with 0-3. While 4 is not even one third of your total pool, 4 focus points is a surprising amount for a single combat and will likely be just the right amount for your average encounter.

Level 16

Feat: Constitution to 18

Class Features: None

You could opt for increasing Wisdom instead at this point for higher AC and better Stunning Strikes, I think the slightly more health from more Constitution is a little more worthwhile at this point.

Level 17

Class Features: Unerring Accuracy, New Weapon Proficiency, Martial Arts Die to 1d12

Your final subclass ability is Unerring Accuracy and this one is a real good one. Once per turn, you get to reroll an attack you miss. This is going to function like an Extra Attack considering how many attacks you naturally get making this a very nice capstone ability.

Level 18

Class Features: Superior Defense, +30 feet Unarmored Movement

Superior Defense is pretty good for your ability to survive a combat as getting resistance to nearly every damage type is obviously good, especially for a class who has the lowest health and AC out of the martial characters.

Level 19

Epic Boon: Epic Boon of Combat Prowess (DEX)

Level 19 always means one thing – getting your Epic Boon!

For martial characters, you’re going to be hard pressed to not take Epic Boon of Combat Prowess. Functionally getting another attack per turn is very much worth the Epic Boon slot, even if it’s just for an additional unarmed strike, especially when that unarmed strike can mean a grapple attempt or knocking the enemy prone with your Hill Giant lineage ability.

Level 20

Class Feature: Body and Mind

Level 20 brings your capstone ability – Body and Mind. No frills, just +4 to DEX and WIS. Awesome.