Monk Basics

This is a nice tutorial article that gives you an in-depth look on each of the monk’s class features, as well as giving you tips on ideal races—including a sidebar on what race best matches which tradition—and multiclass options, and a sidebar with some ideas on naming your personal style.

New Feats

• Flurry Resounding: You can burn an action point to use flurry of blows again, even if you have already used it this turn.
• Internalize the Basic Kata: You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for melee basic attacks, as well as use flurry of blows on an opportunity attack.
• Master of the Fist: A multiclass feat that gives you training in either Athletics or Acrobatics, Unarmed Combatant, and ki focus proficiency.
• Piercing Palm: You can use Sneak Attack with a monk’s unarmed strike.
• Shielding Whirlwind Style: This is great for monks with a quarterstaff. You gain partial cover against ranged and area attacks for a turn after using flurry of blows, and also do not grant combat advantage for flanking.
• Slashing Kama Style: You can use a sickle, and when you use flurry of blows with one you deal ongoing damage instead of just plain old normal damage.

New Disciplines

• Deflect Arrow (level 2 encounter): An immediate interrupt that not only gives you superior cover against ranged weapon attacks for a turn, but allows allows you to shift as a free action each time you are missed.
• Wind Through the Willows (level 3): This seems like a much more elegant way to handle an attack that is supposed to represent you moving through a bunch of enemies and beating the shit out of them; instead of telling you to shift and make an attack against enemies you move next to, you instead affect a close blast and can shift into a square in the blast or directly next to it (hit or miss). As for the actual attack, it does decent damage for an area-effect, and also slows and prevents charging for a turn, and the movement part lets you swap places with an adjacent target.
• Water Gives Way (level 5): Another immediate interrupt that lets you deal damage against a target, slide it, and then knock it prone. The best part is that if the target charges you, you get a nice bonus to the attack and damage roll. The downer is that while you do not expend the power on a miss, you cannot try to use it again for the rest of the encounter (making it bad for delve runs, one-shots, or boss battles).
• Brilliant Counterstrike (level 7): The damage seems kind of low, but any enemy that attacks you for a turn takes automatic damage as a free action. The move portion lets you either end a grab or mark, and shift a couple squares.
• Stone Warrior Training (level 9): This is a really nice “training montage” power that lets you teach an ally how to better work with you. In game terms until your next rest, whenever you hit an enemy with an attack your ally gains a damage bonus equal to your Strength modifier.