Shadow Monk Build Guide – The Fight in the Dark – 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.

Any spell, class, feature, or other game item that is linkable on this website is covered by the 5th edition Open Games License and will be in the Player’s Handbook, but not everything in the Player’s Handbook will be linked to. All other materials that aren’t linked to are from other sourcebooks or aren’t allowed to be linked to per the 5th Edition Open Games License, so please refer to the appropriate sourcebooks for that information.

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 a bunch of improvements with this iteration, Shadow Monk is looking better than ever. With abilities all focused on being in dim light or Darkness, you can have some problems if you’re fighting in daylight, but when you aren’t, you will be an absolute menace between blinding your enemies, teleporting around, and absolutely beating on them. If you like Monks and want to play a bit edgier of a personality, this is an excellent choice.

Shadow Arts (Level 3) – B Tier – While casting Darkness can be a hindrance for your team, you being able to see in it is extremely powerful, especially for just 1 focus point. If your team is able to capitalize on this in any way though (Devil’s Sight, Blindsense, etc.) then this gets even stronger.

Shadow Step (Level 6) – B+ Tier – You are limited in when you can use this, but when you can, it is very powerful as it’s a really good teleport and free advantage on an attack!

Improved Shadow Step (Level 11) – B+ Tier – While teleportation isn’t super vital on a class as mobile as this, only needing a single focus point in order to teleport whenever you want is very nice.

Cloak of Shadows (Level 17) – A Tier – This is functionally a Greater Invisibility that you can only use in dim light or darkness which is a bit unfortunate (synergizes well with Shadow Arts though), but also lets you get your Flurry of Blows for free. Not too expensive, pretty easy to set up, and this is quite powerful.

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, when you attack with a monk weapon or unarmed strike, 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: Warrior of Shadow

Class Features: Shadow Arts, Deflect Attacks

Level 3 brings your subclass, Warrior of Shadow, with a new subclass feature as well as a new Monk feature.

You get Shadow Arts to start out with that gives you a bit of magic, Minor Illusion and Darkness to be precise. Furthermore, the Darkness you cast you can see into which is an extremely powerful feature as your attacks will have advantage where all opposing attacks will have disadvantage, an extremely potent ability at level 3 all the way to level 20!

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

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: Shadow Step, Empowered Strikes, Martial Arts Die to 1d8, +15 feet Unarmored Movement

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

Shadow Step gives you a solid teleportation option when you’re in dim light or darkness giving you a lot of maneuverability options which is always very welcome on martial characters who may not have the best movement (although Monks already have the best movement out of all the martial classes).

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: Improved Shadow Step, Martial Arts Die to 1d10

You get your penultimate subclass ability – Improved Shadow Step.

Shadow Step was already good, but now you don’t even need dim light or darkness to use it and you get a free unarmed strike right after you use it! While the free unarmed strike is nice, that does heavily incentivize you to teleport next to an enemy which you may want to do anyway, but that’s definitely not something you always want to do. That said, this does make Shadow Step the ultimate pursuit ability if you’re far from the enemy you’re trying to bonk.

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 to Deflect Attacks at this level 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: Cloak of Shadows, Martial Arts Die to 1d12

Level 17 brings your subclass capstone ability – Cloak of Shadows! If you’re in dim light or darkness, you can spend some focus points for a nearly unbreakable Invisibility on top of getting free Flurry of Blows just to make this feature even better. The Invisibility can be a bit overkill if you already have your enemies stuck in Darkness, but if you don’t, this will be invaluable to you in tougher combats while not even costing you that much Focus.

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.