The Way of Mercy Monk: D&D 5e Subclass Review

Featured Way of Mercy Monk image credit to Wizards of the Coast’s D&D 5e Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
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The Way of the Mercy Monk was introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. It only gets a few features, but they get upgraded as you level up and become pretty strong.

This review will take a deep dive into the Mercy features. I’ll assess how these work with the core Monk class features, then look at feats, races, and multiclass options, and finally combine all these into some build concepts.

As always, these are just my thoughts. If you have any other ideas about the Mercy Monk, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

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3rd-Level Way of Mercy Monks

When you take The Way of the Mercy at level three, you gain 3 features. Two of these are your core features that will get upgraded as you level up.

Implements of Mercy

• You gain proficiency in Insight, Medicine and the Herbalism Kit (allows you to create potions of healing).
• You get a mask which is a pure ribbon feature and feels like a bit of missed opportunity. Anyone can just roleplay wearing a mask.
• If you’re going to wear a mask, go for an interesting option. The mask from Scream, V for Vendetta, or The Mask would be fun. You can spend your time humming Cuban Pete and driving your fellow players mad… chick chicky boom. Drop in a level of Bard for proficiency with maracas.

Extra proficiencies are always nice – Monks don’t get a lot.

This is the only subclass ability you get that doesn’t cost ki points. You run out of ki, and you’re a Monk with a Mask.

Hand of Healing

As an action, you can touch a creature, spend one ki point and restore a Martial Arts die plus Wisdom mod hit points.

• This starts at 1d4+2 (or 3), and eventually reaches up to 1d10+5 healing
• This compares quite favorably to the new Quickened Healing feature that all Monks get. Quickened Healing costs two ki for Martial arts die plus prof bonus healing. Hand of Healing is essentially half the price in ki.
• This can be used to heal undead minions or constructs. Those creatures are usually excluded from healing effects (I’m guessing this was an oversight).
• It still feels a little expensive to use a ki point on, however…

When you use Flurry of Blows, you can replace one of the unarmed strikes with the healing effect without spending the ki for the healing.

• You still need to spend the ki for the Flurry of Blows
• This halves the potential damage of your Flurry of Blows but does provide the healing effect instead
• You will need to be close to both an ally who’s harmed and an enemy that needs harm.

Overall, as per usual, healers can’t keep up with the damage being dealt during combat. It’s usually best to use healing outside of combat. Healing in combat is best when a party member is at zero hitpoints making death saves. In that case, this feature becomes a useful way to get someone back on their feet. It puts the Monk’s mobility to use, too. This is a valuable resource to use up spare ki points you have left before short resting.

Hand of Harm

Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend one ki point to deal extra necrotic damage of one Martial Arts die plus Wisdom mod.

• It has the same scaling effect as Hand of Harm
• If you save it for critical hits it will double the Martial Arts die
• It’s not a lot of extra damage for your ki point. It’s slightly more damage than the Deft Strike ability the Kensei gets at level six, however you are restricted to only one use per turn

Both Hands (Hand of Healing and Hand of Harm) require you to make unarmed strikes. At level three, your Martial Arts die (and therefore unarmed strike damage) is 1d4. At this level, you could be using a 1d8 versatile quarterstaff or spear for your main attack (or a 1d10 versatile long sword, battleaxe, or warhammer if you have proficiency and use the Dedicated Weapon feature). You can leave Hand of Harm for your bonus action attack(s) or find a way to increase your unarmed strike damage die (via the Unarmed Fighting Style of the Fighter, either via a one-level multiclass or using the Fighting Initiate feat) to be able to trigger Hand of Harm using your main attacks without losing much in the way of damage output.

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6th-Level Mercy Monk: Physician’s Touch

Improvements to both Hands. I think my right hand will be my Hand of Healing and my left hand my Hand of Harm.

Hands of Healing now cures one disease or ends one of these conditions: frightened, charmed, paralyzed, poisoned, or stunned.

• This is like the Lesser Restoration spell, with more (and more debilitating) conditions treated – this one ends charmed, frightened and stunned in addition (and lacks blinded and deafened)
• This is absolutely worth spending your ki point on, especially in conjunction with Flurry of Blows

Hand of Harm now subjects a creature to the poisoned condition until the end of your next turn (they get disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks)

• This has no saving throw, and is a very nice debuff to apply
• Again, this makes the ki point more worth it
• Roughly 20% of the creatures in the game are immune to the poisoned condition – this may be more or less prevalent depending on your campaign setting

Using Physician’s Touch

You have to weigh this ability up against Stunning Strike. Stunning Strike requires a con save, so you often end up spending a ki point for no effect at all. On the flip side, stunned is far more debilitating than poisoned (target is incapacitated, can take no actions or reactions, can’t move, auto-fails Str and Dex saves, and everyone else has advantage on attacks against you). Hand of Hard does do some damage as well.

If you’re fighting a creature with a very high Constitution mod, then Hand of Harm will be more reliable – unless, of course, that creature is immune to the poisoned condition. Immunity to the stunned condition is very rare.

There’s no reason I can see why you can’t use a single hit to trigger both – try to stun a creature, and if that fails, then use Hand of Harm to at least do some extra damage and leave it poisoned.

I think which option you go for will depend on your play style. It’s preferable to spend my turns stunning targets if possible; I think its effects are much more impactful than those of Hand of Harm.

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11th-Level Mercy Monks: Flurry of Healing and Harm

Improvements to both Hands again.

Replace both of your Flurry of Blows attacks with Hand of Healing to double the amount of healing for the ki point, at the cost of doing no damage with your bonus action at all (and a ki point).

You inherently use Hand of Harm within the ki cost of your Flurry of Blows, so there is no extra ki for the Hand of Harm effects anymore. This makes Hand of Harm cheaper if you’re in the habit of using Flurry of Blows. You can still only use Hand of Harm once per turn total.

This makes it more worthwhile to use Flurry of Blows, which normally gives you an extra unarmed strike attack during your bonus action. Assuming one of the attacks hits and the target is not immune to the poisoned condition or necrotic damage – you can also apply the damage boost and inflict the poisoned condition.

This is not a particularly impactful eleventh-level ability.

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17th-Level Mercy Monks: Hand of Ultimate Mercy

On the other Hand… once per long rest, touch a creature that has died within the last twenty-four hours, expend five ki points, and return them to life with 4d10 + Wisdom mod hit points, removing all the five conditions ended by Hand of Healing on the way.

This is better than the third level Revivify spell because you have a longer window to use it (one day vs. one minute), and it has no material cost (300gp of diamonds). The fifth level Raise Dead spell has a longer window (ten days) but a very expensive material cost (500gp) and leaves its target with a big penalty to attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. The penalty gradually fades over a few long rests. These two spells are usually available to a party at fifth and seventh levels, so getting a cheaper version at level seventeen is not very impactful.

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Mercy Monk Subclass Summary

This Monk is great for beginners and players who have no idea how to play a Monk. If you already know how to get the most out of a Monk, then the features are solid. I find this Monk a little boring, and it would be nowhere near the top of my list if I were rolling up a Monk next week.

You basically only get two features, which keep upgrading with your levels. Both require ki to use at all levels, and when you run out of ki, you’re a Monk with a Mask. Chick chicky boom.

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Mercy Monk Feat Options

My favorite feat for Monks is Mobile (allowing you to avoid opportunity attacks from a single enemy you have attacked). This opens up a resource-free hit-and-run play style that nicely suits the Monk’s high movement speed and average AC.

For the Mercy Monk, you should strongly consider the Fighting Initiate feat for the Unarmed Fighting Style. You probably want to either take this or a level in Fighter to increase your unarmed weapon attacks to a d8 rather than a d4. This means you can use your unarmed strikes for main attacks as well, giving yourself more opportunities to use Hand of Harm. Eventually, at level eleven, the Martial Arts weapon die will catch up, at which point (actually level twelve, at ASI point) you can swap out the Fighting Style for another one (I like Blind Fighting). It’s worth noting that this feat only helps your base unarmed strike damage; it will not increase your healing or damage from either Hand – these are tied to the Martial Arts die, and you’ll have to wait for that.

A good feat for all Monks is Crusher, especially one that is relying on unarmed strikes. The extra 5ft knockback once per turn is useful, as is the advantage gained from a critical hit, which can help you and the whole party until the start of your next turn. Given that you can use Crusher to Disengage, you may want to take this instead of Mobile.

If you want to do more damage, you can also use Fey Touched and choose Hex as your spell. The once-a-day Misty Step is nice too. If you have a level of Cleric, you can also cast Hex with your Cleric spell slots. Hex will add a d6 of necrotic damage to each of your attacks vs. the hexed target, lasts an hour, has a 90ft range, uses your concentration, and takes a bonus action to cast (or move to a new target). Given you will likely be using Flurry of Blows a lot, the extra damage from this stacks nicely with your multiple attacks; however, any healing you do during Flurry of Blows will now cost you even more potential damage (do your healing outside of combat).

Race Options for Mercy Monks

Variant Human and Custom Lineage give you that free feat, and given how feat-starved Monks can be, this can be a great way to get started as a Monk. It’s pretty boring so bang on the theme here.

Bugbears are always great for a Monk with their extra reach.

Tabaxi (Volo’s Guide to Monsters) and Shifters (Eberron: Rising from the Last War) are fantastic Monk options.

Multiclassing for a Mercy Monk

I like dropping a level of Cleric onto my Monk – most Monks don’t have anything to do with their concentration, and it can help to give you a few more ways to contribute. I think the Peace Domain synergizes particularly nicely with the theme of the Mercy Monk.

One level of Rogue is a nice option; you get extra proficiencies, Expertise, and a little bit of Sneak Attack. This can allow your Monk to act as the party Rogue if needed.

A level of Fighter is great for the Unarmed Fighting style.

Build Ideas

My favorite build for a Mercy Monk is a Custom Lineage with Fighting Initiate (Unarmed Fighting), taking one level of Peace Domain Cleric at level two, and then Monk the rest of the way. Maybe add Crusher or Fey Touched later to help boost your damage a bit.

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Summary of the Way of Mercy Monk

The Mercy Monk is a strong option. Many of its features are useful, and it can do a bit more damage than your average Monk. It doesn’t stand out for me as a particularly fun Monk to play; it makes a decent backup healer/condition remover in a party.

This wraps up my review of the Way of the Mercy! Cast Message in the comments section below to let me know your experiences and thoughts on the Mercy Monk. You can read my other subclass reviews on Flutes Loot by following this link! You can read all Flutes Loot content about Monks right here. Have a lovely day and an even better adventure this weekend.