DnD fan ports Kensei Monk to 2024 rules and finally fixes its one massive flaw

The 2024 DnD Players Handbook has a bunch of great character options, but it can’t compete with the sheer variety on offer in base 5e. Plenty of the game’s subclasses were left on the cutting room floor, presumably to be added to the new DnD ruleset in a later expansion.

But a fan has done the work for Wizards of the Coast, porting across one of the unused DnD Monk subclasses, the Way of the Kensei Monk, and making it available for free.

This DnD Monk is a bit of an unusual beast; it takes the unarmed combat DnD class and adds weapons. Perhaps that inherently conflicted concept is why the Way of the Kensei is one of the more flawed subclasses in 5e.

It has nothing on the hated Way of the Four Elements subclass, don’t get me wrong, but still, it’s pretty medium. So how well has creator AdAstraPerMusica, who posted their kitbashed Kensei on Reddit, shored things up?

One of the biggest problems with the Way of the Kensei Monk in 5e is that it has features that actively discourage you from using your weapons. The Agile Parry effect gives you +2 AC when you make an unarmed attack as part of the Attack action, meaning you typically won’t be hitting people with your weapon at all until you get an extra attack at 5th level, and even then just once per turn.

So that’s immediately where I’m looking, hoping to see a change, and sure enough, this 2024 version fixes the problem. Now any unarmed strike you make – including bonus actions – triggers the AC buff. Big tick there.

What else is new? Well as you might expect, the weapon monk gets to use DnD weapon masteries, but only for one ranged and one martial weapon. The DnD Fighter can’t be completely upstaged, after all. Those weapons lose the heavy property, so you don’t have to put points into strength to use them.

A few other class features have been buffed, but the other main change is that Sharpen the Blade has been taken out altogether and replaced with a new ability, Cut in Half. In 5e, Sharpen the Blade lets you spend ki/focus to give an ordinary weapon a bonus to attack and damage rolls. Because it doesn’t work on magic weapons, AdAstra suggests that it’s often useless when you pick it up at 11th level.

The replacement feature, Cut in Half, feels like a move from a Shonen anime. It’s still a focus sink, but rather than a straightforward buff, it’s a special attack that lets you move in a straight line and deal a bunch of damage to all enemies in your path. I really like that it gives you more mobility options – one of the main draws of the Monk, at least for me, is zipping about the field of battle like a ninja.

Overall, this seems like a really neat take on a subclass that’s still missing from the Player’s Handbook, and one where no changes would be needed to slot it into pretty much any game.

Are you playing any homebrew classes in your 2024 campaigns? Let me know over at the Wargamer Discord. You should also check out our guides to every DnD race, and the best DnD character sheets for 5e and 2024.