Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Monk

#10 Ritual Caster

If you’re aiming to find perfection and round out your character, the Ritual Caster feat should not be missed. The Ritual Caster feat allows the player to learn two ritual spells of their choice. While giving the monk spells might seem like a weird choice, it’s the nature of ritual spells that makes them so useful to the monk.

Ritual spells are unique in the fact that they are spells that can be cast without expending a spell slot. This makes them perfect for buff spells that can enhance your character and stay active until your next Long Rest. Grab Ritual Caster, grab spells like Longstrider or Enhanced Leap and now your monk can enhance their physicality before a fight. 

#9 Durable

In a game like Baldur’s Gate 3, combat is unavoidable. There are so many dangers around every corner that you’ll spend a lot of the game fighting. And as a martial class, the monk will be in the thick of it most of the time. This makes the Durable incredibly useful for continuing when you’re not ready for a Long Rest.

The Durable feat allows characters to regain full hit points when taking a Short Rest. It also increases your Constitution by 1 to a maximum of 20. With two Short Rests per Long Rest, the Durable feat goes a long way to keeping your monk fit for fighting. Baldur’s Gate 3 is abundant with healing potions and spells, but regaining all your HP after a fight means you can save them for later or when you need them. 

#8 Tough

As I mentioned for the last feat, the monk is a martial class. Designed to fight up close and personal, the monk works better when they’re close enough to dish out their flurry of attacks. Which is why their measly d8 health dice is so disappointing. Yes, the monk gets abilities to help evade damage, but after a certain point in the game, it’s more about surviving attacks than dodging them. This is where the Tough feat comes in.

The Tough feat increases your hit point maximum by 2 for every level you’ve gained. This feat is all about padding your health bar. By level 12, anyone with this feat will have an extra 24 hit points added to their health pool. For a martial class with low-hit dice, this feat is very useful for keeping you alive.   

#7 Tavern Brawler

Sometimes all you need is to hit a little harder. And that’s where this feat comes in. The Tavern Brawler feat makes it so when you make an unarmed attack, use an improvised weapon, or throw something your Strength Modifier is added twice to the damage and Attack Rolls. Your unarmed attacks are already devastating as a monk, but this feat makes them incredibly dangerous for whoever is within your reach.

The elephant in the room regarding this feat is that it implies a focus on strength. Monk features like Dexterous Attacks allow the monk’s damage to scale off of their Dexterity instead of Strength. This is great for the monk because it lets them keep their damage and defenses up at the same time since a character’s DEX goes into their AC. 

There are players, myself included, that enjoy the benefits of having high strength, however. And strength-based monks are incredibly viable. You might need some extra items to up your AC, but a strength monk with Tavern Brawler feat will be dishing out some serious hurt.

#6 Skilled

Nobodies perfect. But when following the path of the monk, you always strive for perfection. And with the monk’s attribute focuses they make surprisingly good skill monkeys with a little help. The Skilled feat allows the character to gain Proficiency in 3 skills of their choice. 

Monks are already useful outside of combat with their high Dexterity and Wisdom, and this feat makes them even better. It will also create some wiggle room when experimenting with team compositions. If your monk has four or five skills they’re amazing at, it means you don’t need to choose companions that overlap with those skills. 

#5 Lucky

Lucky is one of those feats that can fit in just about any build. It adds some versatility and utility to a class that will always be helpful. Besides, even the most trained martial artist can do with a little luck from time to time.

The Lucky feat gives the character 3 lucky points that can be used to gain Advantage on Attack Rolls, Ability Checks, or Saving Throws, or to make an enemy reroll their Attack Roll. With the stat focus of the monk, you’ll likely be the one rolling a lot of the out-of-combat checks. Lucky can act as a great way to cover your bases in the likely case of a bad roll or two.

#4 Martial Adept

Monks are technical fighters. Much like the Battle Master fighters, monks have a lot of tricks they can pull out to aid them in a fight. Take a subclass like Way of the Open Hand and you’ll be given even more tricks to spend your Ki on. Martial Adept is an excellent way to introduce some of the Battle Master’s techniques to the monk.

The Martial Adept feat allows the character to learn two maneuvers from the Battle Master subclass and gain a Superiority Dice to fuel them. You also regain the Superiority dice after a Short or Long Rest. If you’ve ever wanted to add a little more versatility or customizability to your build this is the way to do it. There are a lot of interesting maneuvers to choose from that can fit whatever type of playstyle you have. Take a look through them and see which ones help you out. 

#3 Alert

Strike first, and you might be able to avoid a fight. Or at the very least take someone out of combat before it starts. Alert is a simple feat that is useful on any character you could play because nothing beats going first.

The Alert feat gives you a +5 bonus to Initiative and can’t be surprised. This feat mixed with a high Dexterity means you’ll most likely be going first in any combat you’re a part of. Not being surprised also means you can still defend yourself if you somehow fail your perception checks for an ambush.

#2 Mobile

One of the best features the monk gets throughout their levels is their Unarmored Movement. Being able to blitz enemies and punch them in the face is always satisfying. This feat takes that and improves it tenfold.

The Mobile feat increases your base speed and makes it so difficult terrain doesn’t affect you when you Dash. You also don’t provoke Opportunity Attacks from your target after making a melee attack. Adding even more speed onto the monk is already fun, but the real fun comes from not provoking Opportunity Attacks from whoever you attack in melee. With this feat the monk becomes a hit-and-run monster, dropping damage on enemies and running away so they can’t return the favor.

#1 Sentinel

The Sentinel feat is an incredibly powerful feat that fits well with the monk’s playstyle. Not only does it allow you to control the flow of combat, but it also creates some great utility for your other melee-focused companions.

The Sentinel feat allows a player to attack an enemy in melee range whenever they attack an ally using a Reaction. You also gain Advantage on Opportunity Attacks and when you hit a creature with an Opportunity Attack it can no longer move for the rest of its turn. This feat turns the monk into more of a protector, able to strike at enemies who attack their allies. Not only that, wiping out their movement for the rest of the round means they can’t get out of range of any spells your casters may be preparing.

Pair this with a feat like Mobile and you can safely remove your monk from the situation to hound another enemy that might need your attention without fear of taking any damage. The sheer utility of this feat makes it one of the best feats for the monk in Baldur’s Gate 3.