Sun Wukong Fighter — D&D 5e Fighter Subclass
If you grew up watching Dragon Ball, you have already seen part of Sun Wukong’s legacy. The original Monkey King had a magical staff that could stretch incredible distances, rode through the sky on a cloud, created copies of himself, transformed into other creatures, stole treasures from the gods, and repeatedly found new ways to become immortal. Honestly, he already sounds like a D&D character whose player kept asking, “Can I do one more thing?”
The Sun Wukong Fighter is my homebrew Dungeons & Dragons Fighter subclass built around that fantasy. Instead of abandoning your favorite melee weapon whenever an enemy flies away or hides behind the battlefield, this Fighter gradually gains the reach, mobility, durability, and supernatural abilities needed to chase them down.
Sun Wukong Fighter at a Glance
Class: Fighter
Primary Ability: Strength or Dexterity
Combat Role: Damage and Mobility
Playstyle: Mobile melee Fighter with extreme reach
Complexity: Moderate
Theme: Sun Wukong, the legendary Monkey King
Signature Mechanic: Sacrificing attacks to create enormous extending strikes
Best At: Reaching enemies that normally avoid melee Fighters
Biggest Weakness: Many of your wildest supernatural abilities arrive late
Why I Created the Sun Wukong Fighter
Sun Wukong has so many abilities that choosing which ones belonged in a Fighter was probably harder than finding ideas in the first place.
He was born from stone, carried a magical extending staff, flew through the sky, transformed himself, created copies of himself, tricked gods, stole divine treasures, and had an almost ridiculous obsession with immortality.
But there was one gameplay problem that really pushed me toward making him a Fighter.
What happens when the enemy just refuses to stand next to the Fighter?
Dragons fly away. Spellcasters hide behind their allies. Monsters teleport around the battlefield. Eventually, the melee Fighter often has to put away the weapon they built their entire character around and pull out a bow.
I wanted this subclass to say:
No. Go hit the dragon with your sword anyway.
What Can the Sun Wukong Fighter Do?
The Sun Wukong Fighter starts as a mischievous trickster and gradually becomes something much more supernatural.
Here is what that progression looks like without giving away everything in the PDF.
Level 3 — Divine Trickster
Sun Wukong was never just a warrior.
Divine Trickster gives your Fighter tools for disguises, stealing, infiltration, and general Monkey King troublemaking.
It gives you something useful to do when hitting the problem is probably not the best first solution.
Level 7 — Extending Strike
This is the ability the subclass is really built around.
Extending Strike lets you sacrifice some of your normal attacks to create one incredibly long-reaching and much harder-hitting melee attack.
Enemies standing behind their allies—or flying where they thought you could not reach them—suddenly have a problem.
Level 10 — Stone-Born Immortality
Sun Wukong was born from stone, and now your Fighter starts feeling like it.
Stone-Born Immortality improves your survivability when you call upon Indomitable, briefly making you much harder to bring down.
You survived the spell.
Now survive everything standing behind it.
Level 15 — Flying Nimbus
Eventually, even the sky stops being safe.
Flying Nimbus dramatically improves your mobility and gives you the ability to take the fight into the air.
If the dragon refuses to come down...
Go get it.
Level 18 — Seventy-Two Transformations
This is where things get ridiculous.
Seventy-Two Transformations gives you completely new ways to use Action Surge, including creating another version of yourself or unleashing one of Sun Wukong’s legendary transformations.
I am deliberately not explaining much more than that here.
This is one of those abilities that is much more fun when you open the subclass and see exactly what it can do.
Want the exact mechanics, scaling, limitations, transformations, and clone rules?
Is the Sun Wukong Fighter for You?
You May Enjoy This Subclass If You Want To:
Fight at ridiculous distances while still using melee weapons
Trade several attacks for one huge strike
Chase flying enemies instead of switching to a bow
Mix combat with disguises, theft, and trickery
Become progressively more supernatural as you level
Eventually create copies of yourself and transform in ways normal Fighters definitely cannot
You May Prefer Another Subclass If You Want:
Heavy spellcasting throughout the campaign
Strong Persuasion or other dedicated social abilities
Most of your supernatural abilities at low levels
A very simple Fighter with few tactical decisions
A traditional frontline character who always stays beside the enemy
How Does the Sun Wukong Fighter Play?
Combat
I would play this character as a middle-line Fighter rather than automatically running directly into every enemy.
Your extended attacks let another durable character hold the frontline while you threaten creatures behind them. You can still move forward when necessary, but you have much more freedom to choose where you fight.
That becomes even more extreme once you can fly.
Exploration
The subclass gets some surprisingly useful tools outside combat.
Disguises and trickery can help you infiltrate restricted areas, steal important objects, get past guards, or create distractions while the rest of the party handles something else.
It is exactly the kind of trouble I would expect a Sun Wukong-inspired character to cause.
Social Interactions
This probably should not be your first choice if your goal is to become the party face.
The subclass does not give you major bonuses to Persuasion, Intimidation, or normal social encounters.
What it does give you are roleplaying opportunities.
Disguises, stealing, tricks, and an overconfident Monkey King personality can create plenty of memorable moments even when your character is not mechanically the best talker in the party.
Environmental Interactions
Once Flying Nimbus arrives, a lot of normal environmental problems become considerably easier.
Cliffs, pits, rooftops, dangerous terrain, and other movement-based obstacles become things you can simply go around—or over.
Until then, you are still a Fighter with Indomitable and strong survivability when something goes wrong.
Building a Sun Wukong Fighter
You do not need an unusual build to make this subclass work.
The biggest choice is whether your Fighter focuses on Strength or Dexterity.
Strength or Dexterity
Either can be your main ability depending on the weapons and fighting style you want to use.
I intentionally designed parts of the subclass to work with either because I did not want every Sun Wukong Fighter to look exactly the same.
Constitution
After your main attacking ability, I would prioritize Constitution.
You are still a Fighter, and no amount of supernatural Monkey King nonsense changes the usefulness of having more hit points.
Feats I Would Consider
Tough
Simple, but useful.
More hit points work well on a Fighter who is already becoming increasingly difficult to kill.
Polearm Master
Probably one of the most thematic options if you want to lean heavily into Sun Wukong’s staff-fighting style.
If your character is carrying their own version of the Monkey King’s famous weapon, this one is worth looking at.
Shield Master
If you want a more defensive Fighter, Shield Master is another option I would consider.
It fits better for someone who wants to stand closer to the frontline rather than constantly attacking from farther away.
Should You Multiclass?
Honestly, I would probably stay Fighter.
A lot of this subclass depends directly on Fighter abilities such as Extra Attack, Indomitable, and Action Surge. Every level you take somewhere else delays something the subclass is waiting for.
Barbarian
If I did multiclass, Barbarian would probably be my first choice.
Rage naturally supports a melee Fighter and can push the character toward even more raw combat power.
Just remember that some of the subclass’s later supernatural abilities do not mix perfectly with Rage.
Monk
Monk sounds perfect thematically.
Mechanically, I am much less convinced.
This subclass is heavily built around your weapons and Fighter progression, so I think the idea of a Fighter/Monk Sun Wukong sounds better than the actual combination probably plays.
Dungeon Master Notes
I do not think most of this subclass requires the DM to dramatically change how encounters are built.
There are, however, two things I would watch.
Watch Extending Strike With Magic Weapons
The stronger the Fighter’s weapon becomes, the more carefully I would look at anything that adds additional effects to an attack.
Extending Strike has rules specifically designed to prevent every bonus attached to a weapon from being multiplied into something absurd.
The complete wording is in the PDF.
Definitely Watch the Clone
This is the feature I would pay the most attention to.
A high-level Fighter already has multiple attacks, feats, magic weapons, and potentially a lot of extra damage attached to every turn.
Now imagine temporarily having another one.
The clone has restrictions specifically designed to prevent some obvious abuse, but I would still recommend that the DM and player read the complete feature together before it first appears in combat.
This ability can change considerably depending on what equipment the Fighter has collected during the campaign.
And, yes...
That is partially the point.
By this level, you are supposed to feel like the Monkey King.
Download the Sun Wukong Fighter
If extending weapons across the battlefield, chasing dragons through the sky, surviving like you were carved from stone, and eventually creating another version of yourself sounds like your kind of Fighter, the full subclass is available for free.
The PDF contains everything you actually need to play it, including the complete feature wording, exact scaling, limitations, clone rules, transformations, and other mechanical details I intentionally left out of this article.
The Sun Wukong Fighter is free to download and use at your D&D table.
If you enjoy my homebrew and want to help me continue creating new D&D subclasses, monsters, encounters, and other resources, you can optionally support my work.
You never have to donate to use my homebrew.
More D&D Homebrew
If you enjoyed the Sun Wukong Fighter, check out more of my D&D Fighter subclasses and other free homebrew.
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