You have chosen Monk as your class. You want to be a badass martial artist in the likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, or Tony Jaa. Then you hit Level 4. You decide to skip increasing your ability scores because you think it’s just flat and boring. You want to be more unique. You want to have more flare and oomph. You choose to have a feat instead.

But what are the best feats for your Monk?

Here, we have scoured the rule books so that we can list down the best 10 feats your Monk can take.

Let’s get to it.

10. Alert

How Good It Is

Here’s a simple question. Do you want to be first or last in line? Of course, you want to be first. Here’s another question. Are you willing to wake up one or two hours earlier for you to arrive earlier? In the context of your Monk, are you willing to invest in a feat that doesn’t give you a boost in ability scores but allows you to have a passive +5 to your initiative roll all the time? If your answer is no, then you don’t deserve to be first.

You have to remember that even in chess, the white pieces immediately get an advantage. That’s because being first has the power to dictate the flow of battle. Remember, your DM is out there to kill you. He wants his monsters to go first so that he can lay down the pain before your team can react. Beat him to it. If you have the Alert feat, you have a pretty high chance of always going first. And since you’re a Monk and your class grants you boosts to speed, use that to your advantage and zoom to the enemy backline and dispatch the artillery, especially the mages. Then, quickly bolt out. Your team will have the upper hand thanks to you and your quick thinking, and your DM will want to ban that feat.

What Alert Is Useful For:

• Best feat for assassins or strikers for them to quickly kill enemy backline
• You can NEVER be ambushed
• Invisible enemies have no power over you

9. Chef

According to some wise philosopher, there are only two good things in life: food and s*x. But since you’re not a Bard, better be good at food.

How Good It Is

Do you like Chinese food? Of course, you do! In the history of the world, China has the richest history in food culture, and your Monk is not only a sifu but a cooking master! Aside from letting your Monk use a frying pan as a monk weapon, the feat increases your Wisdom score. So, this is good because it makes your ki abilities much more powerful. Not only that, it has healing benefits during short and long rests as you create signature dishes to satisfy the dying hunger of your party.

What Chef Is Useful For:

• Flavor
• Extra healing
• Entertainment

8. Crusher

Make your Monk cry “WAAAOOOOOOHHHH!!!”

How Good It Is

This feat is very solid for a Monk. Hands down. This is because Monk’s regularly do bludgeoning damage and since they can also do multiple attacks during their turns, the better this feat is maximized. 

The first benefit of this feat is you can push your targets after you punch them. This is really good for hit-and-run tactics since the distance you created forfeits the need to Disengage. The second and really powerful benefit is the fact that you can do multiple attacks per round, you have a higher chance to score a critical hit. And once this feat scores a critical, all your allies have Advantage on the target you just punched!

What Crusher Is Useful For:

• Battlefield control after every punch and kick
• Really good debuff for your team to abuse

7. Fighting Initiate

Even though you’re a master of martial arts, you still have to learn your fighting style from a Fighter. The irony.

How Good It Is

This will only be good depending on your choice of Fighting Style. The first good one is Blind Fighting. Imagine your Monk deliberately blinding himself by covering his eyes with a blindfold. You stretch out your hand and beckon your enemies to attack you. That’s some Daredevil stuff! Another good choice is Unarmed Fighting because it immediately boosts your fist’s damage to that of a longsword at Level 1 instead of the original d4 of your Martial Arts die. 

What Fighting Initiate Is Useful For

• Improve your fighting style because Monks don’t have one (which is strange)

6. Martial Adept

Still wanting to learn some Fighter moves? You should have gone full Fighter from the start!

How Good It Is

The feat gives you one Superiority Die and two Maneuvers which kind of sucks. That’s why you have to carefully choose maneuvers to maximize your one single die. Here are the three good ones: Parry and Disarming Attack. Parry reduces incoming damage should you get hit, while Disarming Attack immediately removes your enemy’s source of damage.

What Martial Adept Is Useful For

• To expand your fighting abilities

5. Lucky

Lightning does not strike twice in the same place, but since you have the Lucky feat you can make it strike the same place three times.

How Good It Is

If you literally can control luck, then that is really powerful. The feat grants you an overpowered ability to reroll any d20 rolls (including your enemy’s) three times per day. To maximize this power, you must only use it under two scenarios: either you roll a natural 1 or your enemy rolls a critical against you.

What Lucky Is Useful For

• Rerolling unwanted dice results

4. Mobile

If you want to constantly dart in and out of combat, then pick this feat.

How Good It Is

This makes your Monk not just fast but really fast. Remember that your class has a passive bonus to speed every level, this means you can quickly reach the backline and destroy enemy artillery. The feat also grants you protection from enemy Opportunity Attacks should you run back to your team.

What Mobile Is Useful For:

• Skirmish, hit-and-run tactics

3. Polearm Master

This is a really solid choice for a feat. Period.

How Good It Is

If you are wielding a spear or quarterstaff, then you will really fully maximize the power of this feat. Remember Opportunity Attacks? Remember that they only trigger if an enemy moves out of your melee threat range without using Disengage? This feat offers you a reverse Opportunity Attack, that is when enemies ENTER your melee threat range. That means you have a chance to dispatch them first before they can even land their hits against you.

What Polearm Master Is Useful For:

• Interrupt your enemies momentum should they approach you

2. Tavern Brawler

If you think about it, this feat fits thematically with Drunken Masters. Thematically. Not mechanically.

How Good It Is

There’s only one reason why you’re getting this feat: the ability to grapple as a bonus action. If you have a high Strength score or is using the Way of the Astral Self, a good combo using this feat is to Shove your target as your Attack action, then once they’re prone, use your bonus action to grapple them and pin them down for your team to gang up (since all melee attacks against a prone target have advantage).

What Tavern Brawler Is Useful For:

• Get this instead of getting the Grappler feat if you want to play a grappler

1. Weapon Master

How Good It Is

This feat is actually underwhelming on its own. But if you get the optional Monk feature called Dedicated Weapon and convert a good one-handed weapon into a monk weapon, like a longsword or a warhammer, you can get a solid boost to your damage at early levels. Just be sure to retrain this one at higher levels.

What Weapon Master Is Useful For:

• Early boost to damage at lower levels

Closing

So, what do you think? Do you agree with the ones listed here or do you have a different opinion?

Let us know in the comments!

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