All Official Monk Subclass, Ranked

Summary

• Monk subclasses vary; some focus on elemental magic, others on stealth or melee combat with different special abilities.
• The warrior of mercy subclass adds healing abilities; while the way of the ascendant dragon introduces lore and roleplay elements.
• Way of the sun soul turns monks into ranged attackers; while the way of the kensei offers more weapon options for melee combat.

Monks are great if you want to play a speedy melee character that makes a lot of attacks in a single turn. You may appreciate the challenge of playing a close-range combat character without a melee weapon or few to no armor proficiencies. The game has evolved, and the monk is one of the most versatile and complex characters in the Dungeons & Dragons universe.

Not all monasteries or subclasses meet the same standard of quality depending on your preferred playstyle, and your backstory might differ depending on which one you pick. But when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons, some subclasses produce better monks than others.

Updated February 20, 2025 by Jack Filsinger: With the release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook, some subclasses have changed for monks. We’ve updated this list to include new rules for the warrior of elements, mercy, open hand, and shadow subclasses, and updated some of the artwork to reflect the new handbook. Now, you have everything you need to pick the best monk subclass in 5E for you and your table!.

10

Warrior Of The Elements

The warrior of the elements subclass provides new monks with the ability to infuse their damage with elemental magic. As opposed to just relying on bludgeoning or force damage, elemental monks can imbue their unarmed strikes with acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage. At higher levels, you can cause elemental explosions, cast Elementalism, and gain resistance to certain types of elemental damage.

This subclass is great for both melee combat, as most monks are, and creating AoE against enemies. Plus, you never know when you’re going to come across a monster with a specific elemental vulnerability. Exploiting this by transforming the damage of your unarmed strikes can prove invaluable.

9

Warrior Of Shadow

Shadow monks are meant to attack from the edges of darkness, sneaking up and surprising their enemies much in the same way a rogue would. The key difference between a rogue and a shadow monk though comes in the form of their teleportation abilities. Early on in your level progression, you gain access to Shadow Step, which allows you to teleport with your bonus action in dim light or darkness.

This not only allows shadow monks to make great use of the battlefield, but it also allows them (in certain cases) to dart in for melee damage only to teleport away, preventing opportunity attacks. This incentivizes close-quarters combat and makes it easy to avoid taking a lot of damage in the middle of the fray.

8

Way Of The Astral Self

Way of the astral self is one of your best possible monk subclasses because it uniquely allows the monk to have an astral projection. This turns their Ki into another version of themselves, astrally projecting to help them fight in battle. This subclass focuses on melee combat features and strategy, giving monk characters a chance to experience close combat along with some defensive action.

You can reduce the damage of several elemental energy types and gain advantages such as normal sight in darkness and projecting your voice to a huge range or to a specific person. You can summon your astral self to stand as a distraction or help you fight. Awakened Astral Self is a handy ability that stacks with the Haste spell, giving you access to a third multiattack and a +2 AC bonus.

7

Warrior Of Mercy

The warrior of mercy can act as a second cleric or paladin in your party, thanks to their handy ability to heal. At level three, you can use your Hand of Healing ability to use a focus point to restore a number of hit points equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die (adding your Wisdom modifier as well). You gain other healing abilities as you level up, including the ability to cure players of conditions.

That doesn’t mean you’ll be sacrificing damage, though. This monk is still excellent at close-quarters combat and can deal necrotic damage with certain features, which you can exploit and target creatures who may be vulnerable to such damage.

6

Way Of The Ascendant Dragon

For players who are interested in lore and roleplay, it doesn’t get much better than the way of the ascendant dragon. Roll a six-sided die to determine how you were inspired to tie your Ki powers to draconic powers. Maybe a dragon personally took an active role in shaping your inner energy, or you studied at a monastery that traces its origins to a dragon’s instruction, just to give some noted examples.

As early as level three, you’ll have spells like Draconic Disciple, which uses draconic Ki to give your unarmed strikes the essence of a dragon’s breath and magnify your presence for combat or interrogation. At higher levels, you’ll get a flight speed and the ability to give you and your friends resistance to a damage type of your choice.

5

Way Of The Sun Soul

One of the monk’s most prominent weaknesses is that it is almost exclusively a melee class. The way of the sun soul gets around this is by turning monks into ranged blasters. However, removing such a major weakness would unbalance the class, so the way of the sun soul prevents monks from becoming overpowered by also being costly in terms of Ki.

The Radiant Sun Bolt ability does almost the same damage as punching and lets you use your extra attacks and a Flurry of Blows equivalent to make these ranged magic attacks. Your other abilities give you casting options that aren’t necessarily bad but aren’t as useful as other monk subclasses that incorporate magic and cost enough Ki that you’ll probably just go back to punching.

4

Way Of The Kensei

The way of the kensei is another subclass that aims to ‘correct’ one of the fundamental balancing features of the monk class: monk weapons. This subclass allows you to choose two types of weapons to be your Kensei weapons, making your choices count as monk weapons and gaining any additional properties from that feature.

Of these options, the best ones are the longsword equivalent (1d10 versatile damage), the whip (which has a nice reach), and the longbow. The remaining abilities are underwhelming, offering less damage for more Ki points than you can get using basic monk abilities like Flurry of Blows.

3

Way Of The Open Hand

The entire idea behind the design of the way of the open Hand can be described as ‘monk, but more.’ Your Flurry of Blows attacks can apply effects and conditions to enemies like Addle, Push, or Topple. Self-healing, while not the best use of an Action in combat, can be used to top off your hit points between fights.

Your 17th-level ability, Quivering Palm, while extremely useful as a potential insta-kill in battle, can also be a great long-term tool. This ability lets you create imperceptible vibrations that can attack foes days after initial combat.

2

Way Of The Long Death

Monks are some of the squishier front-line fighters, and the way of the long death helps you be a little tougher without sacrificing basic monk abilities. Gaining temporary hit points whenever you deal a final blow will make you more effective at defense, especially when fighting crowds.

Your seventeenth-level ability, Touch of the Long Death, can be used to deal a large amount of damage at once, but it’s an inefficient use of Ki points. Still, the rest of the class is solid, and Touch of the Long Death can be useful for boss battles.

1

Way Of The Drunken Master

This subclass lets you run around with the quick, jerky movements of a drunkard, throwing your opponents off their game with bluster and speed. Many of the subclass’ abilities help you make hit-and-run attacks, granting a free disengage with every Flurry of Blows, and the ability to reduce movement requirements for getting up from prone.

Others increase your ability to fight multiple enemies at once. Overall, this subclass works well, augmenting and improving your base monk abilities. Perhaps one of the best subclass abilities, however, is the ability to spend 2 Ki points to eliminate disadvantage, which can be deadly on a saving throw. A cheap way to eliminate it ties together an already great subclass.