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. Several sourcebooks since the launch of 5th edition have expanded the number of Monastic Traditions. Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (2015) introduced two new traditions: the Way of the Long Death and the Way of the Sun Soul. Xanathar's Guide to Everything (2017) reprinted the Way of the Sun Soul and introduced two more traditions: The Way of the Drunken Master and the Way of the Kensei. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (2020) introduced two more traditions: Way of Mercy and Way of Astral Self. 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 expanded Monastic Tradition options list includes: the Way of the Long Death, allowing monks to use ki to manipulate life and death itself, the Way of the Sun Soul, which allows monks to channel their life energy into attacks, 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 In the book The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games (2014), Michael Tresca wrote that while the original monk was a cleric path, the monk (as standardized in Oriental Adventures) "is one of the few classes that have no anchor in Western lore. Crusading knights encountered the assassins, but the monk is a particularly Eastern phenomenon. As a result, the monk's roots were sometimes conflated, such that one set of lead miniatures had Franciscan-style monks posed in martial arts stances". Tresca also highlighted that the monk "was inspired by the fictional martial art Sinanju [...] [which] bestowed abilities upon its practitioners that bordered on the fantastic, including