Example Character: Monk / Leader
The Leader Prestige Class — which will be part of the Legends of Prestige and Prowess compendium — is available for preview already, and as a part of that preview we’re doing some example characters to show off the flexibility and theming of the Leader. Example characters — and for the Leader there will be one of every base class — can illustrate the power, flexibility, and theming of a prestige class in ways that simply seeing the material often can’t.
Today we’ll be looking at a Monk / Leader multiclass character that we’ll call “The Sensei” for this post. The Sensei is level 9, and they’re an even ratio of 6 Monk levels and 3 Leader levels. That means they made it past Extra Attack and Stunning Strike, gaining their second monk subclass feature before starting the path of a Leader. This character is — at least at this level — still much more invested in martial arts than the leadership of others, but they never stop paying attention to the needs of their allies in combat. This particular character represents a monk who is also a teacher, seeking to support allies by instructing and inspiring them. So how will we build The Sensei to accomplish that theme?
To start, the Sensei has 6 levels of Monk. The Sensei likely has a Wisdom of 13 or just for being built as a Monk, so only the 11 Charisma requires any attention to meet the ability score prerequisites for Leader. The subclass choice for monk is mostly immaterial for the purposes of this example, but thematic choices include the Drunken Master from Xanathar’s Guide, the Way of Tranquility from Unearthed Arcana, or the Way of the Open Palm from the SRD or Player’s Handbook itself, though almost any monk archetype can be made to work with these character concept. Once the Sensei reaches 6th level, they can make that be their first Leader level, earning them a new skill and two stratagems of their choice. They choose:
Lead By Example
When you take damage, you can use your reaction to display bravery and tenacity in the face of danger. Choose up to a number of allies equal to your leader level that are within 60 feet of you. Those allies gain temporary hit points which disappear at the end of each of their next turns. The amount is equal to half the damage you took, but cannot exceed your level.
Positive/Negative Reinforcement
When an ally deals damage to a creature, so long as either the ally or the creature are within 60 feet of you, you can use your reaction to recognize your ally's accomplishment or add insult to the enemy's injury. You increase the damage that the creature took by 1d4 + your leader level. When you reach 3rd level, the die rolled increases to 1d6, and at 5th level it increases again to 1d8.
The Sensei will likely be making use of both their action and their bonus action on most turns in combat already just by being a monk. Because of this, the Sensei would do best to start with stratagems that can be used easily in the same round as both an Attack action and a Flurry of Blows bonus action, and so we’ve chosen two stratagems that use the Sensei’s reaction. Lead By Example works especially well with the self-healing provided by the Way of the Open Palm at 6th level, and for a Way of the Drunken Master that already wants enemies to attack it and miss starting at 6th level, it provides a good use of the reaction for when the enemies don’t miss at all. Its also an excellent choice for any melee character who doesn’t expect to have the highest AC quite yet and thus will get hit reliably. This old sensei will show you how to take an arrow! On rounds when the Sensei doesn’t take damage, they can instead make use of the reliable Positive/Negative Reinforcement to add some extra damage for the party, pointing out all the minor improvements to form and footwork their allies could be using.
The Sensei puts their next two levels into Leader, taking them to 9th level overall but only Leader level 3. They must select a skill and an option for Leadership Expertise, and while the skill choice isn’t critical to this example, let’s assume they chose History — the sensei is old and knows a lot about how the world used to be. They also select Formation Master, as the increasing monk levels the Sensei will take after this will grant them enough movespeed not to usually need Frontline Commander or Battlefield Conductor, and they lack enough reason to seek out or be able to make use of Versatile Communicator. This option helps build the theme of a wise combatant weaving between allies with the aged grace one expects from a martial arts and teaching master. For a 3rd stratagem, the Sensei selects an action-based option:
"Look Out!"
You can use an action to grant one ally the ability to immediately Dodge. Once you reach 5th level, the ally can also use their reaction at the start of their next turn to Disengage.
“Look Out!” can be used to great effect on any turn where the Sensei might not be able to use their action to attack enemies. The Sensei might have turns where they use their bonus action to Dash using their monk abilities but cannot get in range to use the Attack action — in those situations or situations like them, this stratagem can be invaluable for protecting allies who are in danger. The Sensei won’t reach 5th level in this example to gain the Disengage bonus, but they could pursue those levels as they gain experience if the player wanted to.
Other good stratagems that we declined to use in the Sensei’s build include Battle Cry and Hold the Line, both of which can be used on the same round as an Attack action, a Flurry of Blows bonus action, and even a reaction on catching an arrow or making an opportunity attack. We decided against those stratagems not because they won’t be useful for a Monk / Leader build, but because they don’t fit with the teacher theme as well. Command of Caution is thematic, but the action economy makes it more difficult to use than it is for other characters. Subtle Misdirection could also fit with the Sensei’s theming and action economy, but we decided against it for this example because it doesn’t work as well with Lead By Example’s strategy of taking hits.
Now the Sensei is level 9 overall, but only Monk level 6. For those 3 Leader levels, they lose out on Evasion, Stillness of Mind, and a slight improvement to Unarmored Movement, as well as 3 ki points and the power of some monk class features that are based on monk level. As a result, however, the Sensei can consistently support their allies by informing and warning them, constantly watching the battlefield even as they dodge, punch, and kick. It’s an excellent example of how the prestige classes in D&D Unleashed enable you to build characters with as much or as little support theming as fits your character idea!
