Way of mercy or Way of astral self, A Monk comparison

# Preface

I just want to start out by saying that both of these subclasses are among the best you can choose for a monk and you really can't go wrong with either. I am a big monk fan and have played a monk in five separate campaigns, I've now played with both of these subclasses from LVL 15-18 to just get a feel for their full functionality and now I want to give my opinions of both. I will compare them based on survivability, combat, synergy with the base class and RP elements.

# Survivability

Survivability has always been a problem for monks as they don't have the immediate high ac of a fighter or paladin nor the sheer amount of health as a barbarian but by design are required to fight on the front line. For that reason I rate survivability highly when I'm choosing a monk subclass. Both way of mercy and way of the astral self are excellent in this regard though the way they survive combat is very different.

The way of the astral self monk survives combat mainly by avoiding getting hit in the first place. Using the astral self's extra 5 feet of reach it is able to attack and move away without having to disengage, it's then free to use its unarmored movement to outrun its pursuers only to dive in the next turn and repeat. Astral self's ability to deflect energy, missiles and evasion make it an uninviting target for ranged attacks as well. Expect your DM to use some battlefield control to try and lock you down so they can land a hit. Finally, at lvl 17 you gain +2 ac at the cost of 5 ki points for a respectable ac of 22.

The way of mercy monk on the other hand survives by imposing disadvantage via the poison condition as well as keeping its health topped off via the hands of healing feature. you can perform this healing for free by attaching it to flurry of blows as the cost of one (or two at lvl 11) of your unarmed strikes.

I'd say the way of the astral self has the slight edge in survivability if you use the strafing tactics I described. Though the way of mercy can act as a better defender by drawing more attacks away from your allies.

# Combat

Astral self is nearly entirely geared towards combat so it's not a surprise it's better in combat than the way of mercy monk. Though it may surprise you how close the competition is. the astral self monk gets several advantages which aid it in combat. The two largest of which are force damage with its astral arms, which is rarely resisted, and an extra 5 feet of reach. It also gets an AOE attack when it summons its arms, the ability to use wisdom for strength checks which allows you to grapple as a monk, extra martial arts die of damage at lvl 11 and a third attack at 17. All of this added together means you get about 5^(1/2) attacks (with flurry of blows) worth of damage per turn + a little extra at the start of combat.

Interestingly the way of Mercy has the potential to out damage Astral self between lvls 11-17. At lvl 11 way of mercy will get 4 attacks (with flurry of blows) + a martial arts die + Wis worth of damage thanks to the hands of harm feature. This means way of mercy will be functionally doing 5 attacks worth of damage at lvl 11 where astral self will only be able to do 4 attacks + a martial arts die at the same lvl. Though since way of mercy will likely be splitting its attacks to do healing instead, the astral self will still maintain a higher DPR. Way of Mercy also excels in combat healing. Hands of healing cures a nice selection of status conditions and at lvl 17 you can bring dead allies back to life mid combat for 5 ki points!

# Synergy

The way of mercy wins this round easily. All the way of mercy abilities can be used with flurry of blows meaning you can maintain a really nice action economy as well as ki efficiency. At lvl 17+ Astral self will use 5 ki at the start of combat for its capstone ability + any Ki maneuvers per turn. Way of mercy will usually only use one or two ki per turn unless someone dies, in which case you'll use an extra 5. Way of mercy monk can also use any remaining ki points on healing the team before getting them all back on a rest. Astral self's only synergy with the base class that I can find comes from the combination of Tongue of the sun and moon and Word of the spirit, the combination of which means you'll be able to speak to everything that can understand a language within 600 feet, which is kinda cool.

# RP

Neither of the subclasses have a lot in the RP department, both get masks in one form or another, astral self just has to use a ki point to put theirs on and can use it to yell or whisper as well as gain advantage on insight and intimidation. Way of mercy gets a couple free skills, insight and medicine, the first of which you want and the second is more flavor than function.

# Final thoughts

Of the two I found Way of mercy to be the easier of the two to play as well as more fun to RP, I picked a skull mask and had the stealth skill which I used to hide a lot out of combat. I chose a scythe as my monk weapon and went around scaring people. There were rumors about the grim reaper visiting people and my DM gave me inspiration during an interrogation to intimidate a guy. I had a lot more trouble coming up with a cool way to RP the astral self monk. Anyway I hope you liked my comparison and if you've read this far you're a cool in my books.

Edit: corrections and clarifications