Monk: Way of the Long Death
Control Tank & Temporary HP Build
The Character:
"The lurking lion stalks his prey like death stalks mortals." Shodosk meditated with his legs crossed, mantra echoing between the cold stone walls of his den. The sour smell of death filled his nostrils and he basked in its presence. Those were his deaths. The snakeskins coiled around the candles: his deaths. The untreated zebra hide he sat upon: his deaths. The horns of gazelles and antelopes tacked to the walls: his deaths. The rotting corpses piled in the corners ...
Buzzing flies clipped at his ears though he did not shoo them. Their presence annoyed others, or so Shodosk had been told, but to him they were the reward for a job well done. Flies did not come unless there was death: the death of a fruit, the death of a meal, the death of an animal, the death of a man. The flies knew him as their master, like a dog knows a man. Their relationship was symbiotic. His killings brought them sustenance, and their buzzing brought him concentration, white noise to fill his ears with peace. In their noisy silence he could recite his mantra and truly focus upon it. "The lurking lion stalks his prey like death stalks mortals."
Shodosk's nostrils flared at a bright smell that suddenly tickled the back of his skull: yellow life invading his dark corridors. All the monks were supposed to be at meditation during this hour. Either the intruder was one that sought his death, an honorable goal, or one that sought someone else's. Shodosk had caught the man's scent before the sound of footsteps reached his ears and knew him as a monastery monk, though that meant nothing. Should he wish to fight him, Shodosk did not mind. He did not fear death, and should his demise serve to further the monastery's research he would go gladly to the dark, as would his opponent. The gait grew closer and louder before finally culminating in a final slap of sandal on stone. The figure halted in the doorway, blocking the light that filtered in, casting a shadow over Shodosk.
"Lurk? The Cold One requires you to hunt once more. Will you abide?" the monk called.
Shodosk cracked one eye, its golden light piercing the darkness. "The lurking lion stalks his prey like death stalks mortals. Yes, I will abide."
Buzzing flies clipped at his ears though he did not shoo them. Their presence annoyed others, or so Shodosk had been told, but to him they were the reward for a job well done. Flies did not come unless there was death: the death of a fruit, the death of a meal, the death of an animal, the death of a man. The flies knew him as their master, like a dog knows a man. Their relationship was symbiotic. His killings brought them sustenance, and their buzzing brought him concentration, white noise to fill his ears with peace. In their noisy silence he could recite his mantra and truly focus upon it. "The lurking lion stalks his prey like death stalks mortals."
Shodosk's nostrils flared at a bright smell that suddenly tickled the back of his skull: yellow life invading his dark corridors. All the monks were supposed to be at meditation during this hour. Either the intruder was one that sought his death, an honorable goal, or one that sought someone else's. Shodosk had caught the man's scent before the sound of footsteps reached his ears and knew him as a monastery monk, though that meant nothing. Should he wish to fight him, Shodosk did not mind. He did not fear death, and should his demise serve to further the monastery's research he would go gladly to the dark, as would his opponent. The gait grew closer and louder before finally culminating in a final slap of sandal on stone. The figure halted in the doorway, blocking the light that filtered in, casting a shadow over Shodosk.
"Lurk? The Cold One requires you to hunt once more. Will you abide?" the monk called.
Shodosk cracked one eye, its golden light piercing the darkness. "The lurking lion stalks his prey like death stalks mortals. Yes, I will abide."
The Concept: Build, Character, Backgrounds
Like the Oath of the Crown Paladin and the Undying Patron Warlock, the Order of the Long Death Monk is not unpopular for being underpowered but for being under-read. So, with my blog that boasts a whole fifty readers I hope to change that. I find that this monk provides fantastic story and character opportunities alike with a unique focus on death without it being through the lens of a god or magic like a Death Cleric or Necromancer. This subclass views death as a singular entity, and does not concern itself with the afterlife or religion. It is for that reason that they do not fear death, and their abilities mimic this allowing for a battlefield control tank build which, when combined with the right race and feats, rivals the Path of the Zealot Barbarian in how difficult it is to be knocked unconscious.
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| A monk from the Order of the Long Death |
The character is a shifter monk belonging to the Order of the Long Death. The monks of the Long Death intensely study the effect of the process of death on living tissue. The ultimate objective is to discover the 'perfect death' - an objective that no member of the group really understands, let alone has been able to achieve. It is rumored that outside of the monasteries they wander relatively aimlessly, often disguised as beggars, attacking humanoids that they come across in an effort to inflict as painful a death as they can using only their bare hands. This may be true for some rogue members of the order, but this is not their usual behavior, though their usual behavior is far from normal. Their laboratories are full of decaying, dying, and dead animal and plant specimens that they study with detached interest; they frequently purchase rare specimens that they cannot obtain easily themselves from adventurers and merchants. But such studies are only part of the monks' daily life: they seek to understand death as it pertains especially to intelligent living beings. To this end, they exhume corpses from crypts and graveyards, and then they transport the corpses to their monastery. There they examine the cadavers in their well-stocked laboratories and observe them as they decompose. They also - and it is for this that they are most reviled and feared - purchase living slaves and put them to death, slowly, recording their observations and asking the perishing slaves questions about their fatal experience. In some of the civilized countries they dwell in, though, slaves are hard to come by, so the order has been obliged to obtain its living specimens by other means such as abducting them from outlying farmsteads and poorly-defended hamlets in the dead of night. This is the role of our character.
Shodosk Hadavu, or "Lurk" if going by his wandering name, serves as an abductor for the Order of the Long Death. Like most monks he is an orphan donated to the monastery as an infant and raised amongst its hermitage. His heritage is an odd one though his time spent in years of meditation have helped him to access the beast within, a mark of his faerianthropic heritage. He still struggles against his lionlike pride, but over all he is an honorable man who works willingly for the monastery that raised him, feeling he owes them a life debt for their generosity. It is for this reason that I've chosen the Criminal background as abducting innocents from their homes isn't necessarily legal, though the Hermit background works thematically as well. His alignment is Lawful Neutral. He abides by the rules of the order and does not question their commands of him but he also does not follow them out of malice or to see people hurt. He only kills when asked, by victim or by patron, and does not view death as an evil, but as a gift. Perhaps his character arc can involve coming to the realization that the taking of a life, even with permission, may lie more in the realm of evil than that of good.
The Race: Beasthide Shifter
Originally, the decision came down between the Ghostwise Halfling and the Wildhunt Shifter for the race of this build. As the reader might notice, I wound up choosing the Shifter, just not the same subrace of Wildhunt. Both make for fantastic monks, but I ultimately settled on the Shifter for their Shifting trait which grants temporary HP, a theme present in the Order of the Long Death subclass as well. This recurring features gave me something to construct the build around. I made the story for this character wholly intending for them to be a Wildhunt Shifter. The + to Wisdom and Dexterity seemed the perfect fit, and the whole "predator tracks their prey thing" really vibed with me and aligned with the Way of the Long Death's modus operandi, but upon further consideration I realized that the Beasthide Shifter provided far better subracial traits than the Wildhunt Shifter, even though they miss out on a boost to Wisdom in favor of Constitution.
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| A pack of werecats, our Shifter's heritage |
The Stat Spread (Standard Array):
DEX 16 (+3), CON 15 (+2), WIS 14 (+2), STR 12 (+1), CHA 10 (+0), INT 8 (-1)
Dexterity has been prioritized for damage and AC, as it is the primary stat of the monk. Constitution is second in terms of importance for both HP purposes, due to our intended tanking role, and the temporary HP boost granted by the Shifter race, but it will not receive any stat boosts. Wisdom follows for AC and the temporary HP boost granted by the Touch of Death feature, what will be providing a majority of the build's temporary HP. Wisdom will receive stat boosts secondary to Dexterity. The rest are dump stats ordered for flavor, though their assigned statistics can be interchanged as they will not come up much for this build.
The Class: Notable Features
Touch of Death: as will be discussed in the Play Style section of the post, this build will have two primary play styles: missile throwing and melee. This feature serves the latter, and more frequent of the play styles, and creates the framework for the temporary HP side of this build. Gaining temporary HP equal to the player's Wisdom modifier + their character level every time they down an opponent within 5ft. is extremely valuable for the tank. Assuming the Monk use their Shifting trait before combat, which they should, they will begin combat with temporary hit points equal to their level + their Constitution modifier + 1d6 thanks to their racial trait. This should be plenty to cushion them for the two to three blows they're going to take before killing an enemy (unless it's a mini-boss or boss). Once the foe is down, the Monk's temporary HP replenishes thanks to Touch of Death. Ideally, enemies will have to consistently push through layers and layers of renewed temporary HP before even being able to put a dent in our Monk. Pair this feature with Mastery of Death and it'd be a wonder if our Monk ever fell unconscious.
Hour of Reaping: the other play style of the build, missile throwing, is centered around this feature which grants our Monk a great degree of battlefield control. Spending an action to frighten all enemies out to 30 feet around the group where the only attacks they can make are ranged ones with disadvantage (due to the fright) allows the Monk to clear the battlefield and use their Deflect Missiles feature to catch all in-coming arrows and then activate return-to-sender mode. Using this play style interspersed with melee allows the monk to periodically thin the herd should the party become too overwhelmed: fight in melee, frighten away foes when it gets to be too much, watch the foes run back into the fray once their fear subsides, fight in melee, rinse and repeat. Those enemies that don't run mindlessly back in are stuck firing at range which our Monk can take care of via their large temporary HP pools and Deflect Missiles feature.
Mastery of Death: this feature is the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance feature on steroids and why I considered just for half-a-moment using the Half-Orc race for the build, though I ultimately decided against it due to its non-optimized stat boosts, etc. Via this feature, the Monk can spend a Ki point as a free action to drop to 1 HP instead of being knocked unconscious whenever they take damage. Since its a free action, and not a reaction, that means even if the Monk is surrounded by five foes and takes strikes from all of them in a single round they'll still likely remain standing, making the Cleric's job a little easier, and cementing their role as tank. This ability paired with Touch of Death is what makes this subclass rival the Zealot Barbarian's survivability in combat.
The Tough feat should be taken as soon as possible, while the Savage Attacker feat is up to the player's discretion. Prioritizing maximizing Dexterity and boosting Wisdom can come before taking the feat, or after.
Tough: the longevity of this character is an integral part of it's strength. Never having to use Ki points on the Mastery of Death feature is the ideal state of our Monk, as they're best saved for Deflect Missiles, and so to best prevent that we will take the Tough feat which grants an enormous boost to HP. The enemy should have to pound away through layers and layers of temporary HP as well as regular HP before pushing the Monk to rely on Mastery of Death, and this feat accomplishes that. Also, what kind of tank would our character be without stores and stores of health?
Savage Attacker: this is an odd one but ultimately beneficial to maximizing our temporary HP generation. Why? The faster we kill enemies, the quicker we generate temporary HP. So, what happens if we roll all 1s for damage? No problem. With the Savage Attacker feat we can choose to reroll any damage rolls we like, and if the reroll just so happens to be worse, we can use either total. There's no reason to not use this feature every time the Monk rolls for damage seeing as either rolled total can be used. This allows us to completely maximize our damage output which in turn maximizes our temporary HP generation which boosts our survivability. Tanks aren't just about how many hits they can take, but how many hits they can prevent the party from taking, so killing enemies quickly also serves toward that goal. If the enemies are dead, they can't hit the party.
While the feats listed above are idealized for this build, should the player wish for more options the following may also serve them well: Martial Adept (for the Disarming Attack and Parry maneuvers; being able to remove an enemy's method of dealing damage or at least making them waste an action to rearm themselves can be quite useful and the ability to reduce damage to oneself also serves the roll of preserving our temporary HP stores), Sentinel (while keeping enemies within 5ft. of the tank is counter intuitive to the Hour of Reaping feature's fear effect paired with the Deflect Missiles feature, keeping foes within melee-range before the strategy is employed can be quite useful), and Tavern Brawler (the +1 to Constitution using the standard array puts our character at an even number, bumping the modifier up, and gaining the ability to use a bonus action for a grapple attack has so many implications for a tank -- keeping enemies away from allies is the tank's primary role, after all).
As a bearer of lion's blood, Shodosk is prideful. He is a monk but he has not yet mastered his mantras and what they mean. He may blow up at the slightest insult, or find himself backed into a corner when issued a challenge: he must abide or take a hit to his pride. His lionlike qualities are not all detriments, though. He is not bloodthirsty, just as lions are not. The Way of the Long Death does not demand pointless death, and he only kills when asked by his prey, when forwarding the will of his organization, or when absolutely necessary.
He is fiercely loyal, and defensive of his allies. He will protect his friends like the king of the jungle protects his pride. He is bestially strong and intimidating, capable of handling himself in a fight. Lastly, he is brave. Being raised in a sequestered monastery was likely a childhood devoid of judgement seeing as many of his fellow monks were in the same camp as he: abandoned orphans, unwanted misfits or donated children. So, it's a safe bet he was never made to feel bad about his ancestry. Perhaps his bloodline was even encouraged as a personal strength. So, his bravery is one born of confidence as well as dogma. He has many advantages over his prey, and his training since youth has instilled in him a non-fear of death -- something many men feign but very few actually possess.
In terms of flavor for class abilities I like to imagine that his temporary HP comes from his protective instincts. Much like a mother who gains the ability to lift a car off of their infant, people are capable of things far greater than their bodies usually allow when fueled by adrenaline. The Mastery of Death feature would fall into the same vein, resisting death in order to remain present to protect his fellows. For Hour of Reaping, I like to imagine Shodosk unleashing a terrifying lion roar, or perhaps just exuding the energy of a predator. Even the bravest zebra might try to charge and trample a lion, but should that lion call their bluff, the prey will often fall short and accept their end. This is no different.
Tough: the longevity of this character is an integral part of it's strength. Never having to use Ki points on the Mastery of Death feature is the ideal state of our Monk, as they're best saved for Deflect Missiles, and so to best prevent that we will take the Tough feat which grants an enormous boost to HP. The enemy should have to pound away through layers and layers of temporary HP as well as regular HP before pushing the Monk to rely on Mastery of Death, and this feat accomplishes that. Also, what kind of tank would our character be without stores and stores of health?
Savage Attacker: this is an odd one but ultimately beneficial to maximizing our temporary HP generation. Why? The faster we kill enemies, the quicker we generate temporary HP. So, what happens if we roll all 1s for damage? No problem. With the Savage Attacker feat we can choose to reroll any damage rolls we like, and if the reroll just so happens to be worse, we can use either total. There's no reason to not use this feature every time the Monk rolls for damage seeing as either rolled total can be used. This allows us to completely maximize our damage output which in turn maximizes our temporary HP generation which boosts our survivability. Tanks aren't just about how many hits they can take, but how many hits they can prevent the party from taking, so killing enemies quickly also serves toward that goal. If the enemies are dead, they can't hit the party.While the feats listed above are idealized for this build, should the player wish for more options the following may also serve them well: Martial Adept (for the Disarming Attack and Parry maneuvers; being able to remove an enemy's method of dealing damage or at least making them waste an action to rearm themselves can be quite useful and the ability to reduce damage to oneself also serves the roll of preserving our temporary HP stores), Sentinel (while keeping enemies within 5ft. of the tank is counter intuitive to the Hour of Reaping feature's fear effect paired with the Deflect Missiles feature, keeping foes within melee-range before the strategy is employed can be quite useful), and Tavern Brawler (the +1 to Constitution using the standard array puts our character at an even number, bumping the modifier up, and gaining the ability to use a bonus action for a grapple attack has so many implications for a tank -- keeping enemies away from allies is the tank's primary role, after all).
Play Style: Defender of the Pride
Pre-Battle: the Monk is certainly a combat-oriented class, and as a non-spellcaster there is very little if any for this class to do in preparation for a fight save for taking a quick nap to regain spent Ki points and delivering some classic one-liners. Our Monk does have a high perception skill as a result of their Keen Senses racial trait and high Wisdom, so as a tank build it may serve them well to scout the field of play if at all possible and strategize ways for them to stay at the center of the fray. Other than that, prepare for some punching.
Early Battle: establish the tank's territory, otherwise known as the splash zone but for blood and guts and stuff, early on. Unless there's a very specific reason not to, the Monk should have a field of play all their own that their fellow adventurer's steer clear of. The tank can'd do its job if the party members wander into the way of danger. Start racking up that temporary HP early via Touch of Death and take out the little guys. By the time the lackeys are down the Monk should have taken very little actual damage, though they may have gone through a lot of temporary HP.
Mid-Late Battle: unfortunately, the enemies will eventually catch-on to the tank's strategy of "don't look at them, look at me!" and avoid them as a target, singling out the other members of the party. This is when the Monk jumps in as quote-unquote "Defender of the Pride." Gather the group together, or jump into their midst, and switch to full defensive mode via Hour of Reaping. Spend all the Monk's full actions keeping enemies terrified and therefore away from their nearby allies and should the enemies attempt a disadvantaged ranged attack rely on Deflect Missiles to punish them for even considering an attack.
Roleplay: "A lion's work hours are only when he's hungry; once he's satisfied, the predator and prey live peacefully together."
Shodosk is a man touched with the heritage of lions. Well, werelions (reflavored weretigers). As such, he struggles against an inner beast -- the perfect challenge for a monk to overcome and a great metaphor for the player to use as a storytelling device. This can serve as a literal interpretation of a man struggling against violent impulses, or the quote-unquote inner beast.
As a bearer of lion's blood, Shodosk is prideful. He is a monk but he has not yet mastered his mantras and what they mean. He may blow up at the slightest insult, or find himself backed into a corner when issued a challenge: he must abide or take a hit to his pride. His lionlike qualities are not all detriments, though. He is not bloodthirsty, just as lions are not. The Way of the Long Death does not demand pointless death, and he only kills when asked by his prey, when forwarding the will of his organization, or when absolutely necessary.
He is fiercely loyal, and defensive of his allies. He will protect his friends like the king of the jungle protects his pride. He is bestially strong and intimidating, capable of handling himself in a fight. Lastly, he is brave. Being raised in a sequestered monastery was likely a childhood devoid of judgement seeing as many of his fellow monks were in the same camp as he: abandoned orphans, unwanted misfits or donated children. So, it's a safe bet he was never made to feel bad about his ancestry. Perhaps his bloodline was even encouraged as a personal strength. So, his bravery is one born of confidence as well as dogma. He has many advantages over his prey, and his training since youth has instilled in him a non-fear of death -- something many men feign but very few actually possess.In terms of flavor for class abilities I like to imagine that his temporary HP comes from his protective instincts. Much like a mother who gains the ability to lift a car off of their infant, people are capable of things far greater than their bodies usually allow when fueled by adrenaline. The Mastery of Death feature would fall into the same vein, resisting death in order to remain present to protect his fellows. For Hour of Reaping, I like to imagine Shodosk unleashing a terrifying lion roar, or perhaps just exuding the energy of a predator. Even the bravest zebra might try to charge and trample a lion, but should that lion call their bluff, the prey will often fall short and accept their end. This is no different.
Conclusion:
Temporary HP is a mechanic that is often an afterthought, let alone the centerpiece of a build. This is a shame as there are a plethora of spells, class features and racial traits that take advantage of and maximize the mechanic's efficiency. Seeing an opportunity to showcase an underused buff and an underappreciated subclass at the same time was just too good an opportunity to pass up. The Long Death Monk's ability to combine DPS, tanking and battlefield control make it a uniquely powerful ally to have in a party and one that can fill the role of a combat jack-of-all-trades with the added benefit of almost never being knocked unconscious. As always, I wish those future Way of the Long Death Monks luck in their adventuring and that they have as much fun playing Shodosk as I had building him, or whatever character they choose to make with the race, stats and abilities of the build!
