The original monk character class was created by Brian Blume, inspired by the fictional martial arts of the Destroyer series of novels. The monk was introduced in 1975's Blackmoor supplement.
''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 1st edition
The monk was a main character class in the first editionPlayers Handbook. The monk was presented as one of the five core classes in the original Players Handbook. In 1981, Philip Meyers argued that "the monk is the weakest of the character classes" in an article published in Dragon Magazine #53. Meyers offered an extensive unofficial revision to the class, expanding and strengthening many of its game abilities. In 1985, the next official revision of the monk appeared as a character class in the first edition Oriental Adventures rulebook, by Gary Gygax and David Cook. This version retained most of the class as presented in the first edition Players Handbook, but replaced the abstract hand-to-hand attacks with a more specific rules system to emulate different styles of martial arts. According to a reviewer for White Dwarf, this version of the monk was "altered to fit into an Eastern pattern", and was "at last in the proper context".
Basic ''Dungeons & Dragons''
The monk was available as a character class known as a "mystic" in the game's "Basic" edition, introduced in the Dungeons & Dragons Master Set.
''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd edition
The monk was dropped as one of the standard character classes available in the second edition. The Complete Priest's Handbook did, however, allow for clerics to take on some aspects of the monk class via the monk kit. This version of the monk retained clerical spellcasting and gained unarmed combat skills. The monk was reintroduced as a second edition class of the priest group in Faiths & Avatars and . This version of the monk is a fully playable character class, but differs significantly from previous incarnations of the monk. This version of the monk gains priestly spells and retains skill with unarmed attacks and unarmored defenses, but no other abilities attributed to earlier versions of the monk. With the release of The Complete Psionics Handbook, many of the psionic or psionic-like abilities of the 1st edition monk became available in 2nd edition, though the 2nd edition monk was not given these abilities. The monk was also reintroduced in The Scarlet Brotherhood for the Greyhawk setting, along with the Assassin class. This version is a direct update of the first edition class, and has no clerical powers.
''Dungeons & Dragons'' 3rd edition
With the release of the third edition rules, the monk was reintroduced as a class.
''Dungeons & Dragons'' 4th edition
A preview version of the class was published online in the 375th issue of Dragon, released in May 2009. As published in Player's Handbook III, the Monk uses the Psionic power source, but may use ki focuses to add enhancements to his unarmed attacks. The monk class now makes it possible for them to use weapons effectively, even allowing them to be used as implements for some powers. In the absence of proficiency with high-damage weapons, however, the monk is still primarily an unarmed class.
''Dungeons & Dragons'' 5th edition
The monk has been included as a character class in the 5th edition Player's Handbook. It features three Monastic Traditions a Monk can choose from: the Way of the Open Hand, the Way of Shadow and the Way of the Four Elements. In the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, two new traditions are introduced: The Way of the Long Death and the Way of the Sun Soul. Later, in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, two more traditions are added: The Way of the Drunken Master and the Way of the Kensei. The Way of the Open Hand are the master of martial arts, allowing monks to manipulate ki in combat. Way of the Shadow monks are sneaky and stealthy, allowing monks to use ki to hide themselves. Way of the Four Elements monks are masters of harnessing the elements through ki. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide adds the Way of the Long Death, allowing monks to use ki to manipulate life and death itself, and the Way of the Sun Soul, which allows monks to channel their life energy into attacks. Finally, Xanathar's Guide to Everything introduces the Way of the Drunken Master, improving mobility, luck and speed in the heat of battle with the unpredictability of the drunkard, and the Way of the Kensei, which grants monks mastery over ki-empowered weapon usage.
Reception
Screen Rant rated the monk class as the 2nd to least powerful class of the base 12 character classes in the 5th edition. The Gamer rated the 5th edition monk subclass Way Of The Sun Soul as the most awesome subclass out of the 32 new character options in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Gus Wezerek, for FiveThirtyEight, reported that of the 5th edition "class and race combinations per 100,000 characters that players created on D&D Beyond from" August 15 to September 15, 2017, monks were 9th in player creations at 7,892 total. Human was the most common racial combination followed by elf and then aarakocra.
