The number of good words in this paragraph is absolutely insane. You then have advantage on the first melee attack you make before the end of the turn.īonus action. When you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action you can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. Have you ever worried that the monk just doesn’t have enough movement options? Say no more!Īt 6th level, you gain the ability to step from one shadow into another. Spending ki on these, in the right situations, is very much worth losing potential Flurry of Blows. Overall, all of these spells have uses that make them valuable. Unfortunately, they can normally just leave the spell zone and then cast, but… That might be harder to do if you place this spell just right. Use this to isolate the casters and chase after them. You can toss this on the enemy’s backline and watch them scramble to run out of it. Silence is slightly less situational than Darkvision. Cast this – you’re a monk, Concentration isn’t that important to you. Pass without Trace is a +10 bonus to stealth. Obviously, it’d be easier to just have natural darkvision, so you don’t have to spend your ki points on this… But, if you don’t, then this spell is a sneaky class’s good friend. If your character doesn’t have Darkvision, then using 2 ki to see in the dark is usually worth it. It lets you more easily sneak, since you won’t need a torch to see things. Normally, though, it’s better to just conceal enemies and force them to move.ĭarkvision is an essentially permanent buff, which is good. If you manage to stumble on an artifact that lets you see in magical darkness, then this spell becomes incredibly good you could put it on your backpack and sneak around without a care in the world. Alternatively, you can put it on yourself to gain some concealment before sneaking around, though you might have trouble seeing for a bit. Since Darkvision can’t see through it, you can just toss it on archers in the backline and force a retreat… Or maybe they’ll run right into you. Though making a Halfling silently run around might be easy to disbelieve.ĭarkness is a great spell for most parties. You do have to keep in mind that the image must be a 5-foot cube, but that covers a lot of objects… And some races. If you are inventive, you could make this cantrip work to its limit use illusory footsteps to distract a guard, or scare a guard with a lion’s roar. The cantrip, Minor Illusion, is a cute one.
So this gives you 5 total spells, one of them becoming a cantrip.
Additionally, you gain the Minor Illusion cantrip if you don’t already know it. As an action, you can spend 2 ki points to cast Darkness, Darkvision, Pass without Trace, or Silence, without providing material components. Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can use your ki to duplicate the effects of certain spells. Shadow ArtsĪt level 3, you start your journey to becoming a utility master.
The Shadow’s utility is all in movement and concealment they have a lot of ways to avoid getting seen, and a lot of utility in the forms of spell-like Ki casting. What the Way of the Shadow does handle well is getting the monk into the fight without taking damage. Unfortunately, unlike the Rogue class, the Way of the Shadow gets neither additional benefits from attacking from stealth, nor additional skill ranks to be more equivalent to a rogue. Followers of this tradition take some advice from the Rogue class, rather than the Fighter or Ranger ones. The Way of the Shadow is a stealthy monk that prefers the move into combat while completely obscured. Conclusion – Our Take on the Shadow Monk 5E.