Be me

Check Dragon Magazine.

Flavor doesn't mean shit for dicks if the mechanics suck ass.

Most choices are valid W4E is usually just the worst in the bunch.

If you want to go blasting, consider Sun Soul monk as a better alternative. You don't need to use ki points to make ranged attacks so it's much better.

Shadow Monks are good in a party without a rogue.

Open Palm is the best monk at "monk"ing

Drunken Master is really good mobility-wise, which is usually key as a monk

Kensei is gets weapons. Enough said.

W4E gets the flavor of elemental casting, but the techniques themselves are lackluster and eat at your Ki like nothing.

Way of the open hand is by far the most powerful monk. Especially in late game. Seriously. The instakill ability they get as a capstone farrrrrr surpasses all the fluff shit any of the other pathways get.

Honestly four elements is probably my least favorite because it plays the least on what a monk is. Note that what a monk is to me is heavily based on kung fu movies I watched growing up. When I personally play monk it's less Mortal Kombat and more Bruce Lee, which open hand does best but drunken master works really well too. Of course there's the obligatory ninja role for shadow and the devotion to your weapon with kensei, which I'm not a huge fan of because like, why be a monk if you ain't gone punch? But it can be really fun if you take it to the extreme, i.e. weapon of a loved one, cursed weapon, inherited/traditional weapon. Then there's tranquility and sun soul which both give you that sweet praise the sun, lawful good, beat you up and show you god type of monk, as well as the classic untouchable Dodgey McDodgerson monk with tranquility specifically. Lastly you've got long death for the spooky/edgy monks that take the approach of just getting stabbed and not giving a shit, a la Thích Quảng Đức. Pairs well with vampires, drow, revenant and other things that are dark and mysterious.

I just can't find much to do with four elements other than some kind of Avatar: The Last Airbender character, a genasi or a hippie. The latter seems kind of cool if you pick your spells right but it doesn't really capitalize on the character cornerstone of being a monk like the other traditions do.
In closing, I think you should play whatever kind of monk makes you happy, but maybe consider if the same character with a different spin and a different class might make you happier.

OHM is by far the most effective. Shadow monk has some neat options but gives up a huge amount of tempo control.

OHM is a Monk that does Monk things.
Shadow Monk is like a rogue that does way less, but gets to be highly mobile.
Elements Monk is like a shitty spellcaster.
Don't really know about Sun Monk other than KAMEHAMEHA.

It's my opinion that a Monk's job is to tie up enemies, generate advantage for the heavy-hitters, and pretty much just prevent the enemy from moving freely on the battlefield while being exceptionally good at getting them to waste attacks on you.
You will never do damage like a Fighter, or barbarian, much less a Paladin, and your special attacks one-for-one cannot compare with the action efficiency of traditional spells. Instead the Monk relies on sustainable, annoying action-eaters like the knockdowns and pushes, and once you get it, Stunning Fist.

Any time you give a 'real' martial advantage from a knockdown or a stun, or push a hostile target into a more useful position for your team, you're doing your job.
Don't make the stupid mistake of thinking that Flurry does anything but make you an 'okay' secondary DPS.

>I just can't find much to do with four elements other than some kind of Avatar: The Last Airbender character
Fans of this show is literally who this subclass was made to appeal to.

Four elements blows nutsack, user.

Sun Soul basically has supplementary ranged and AoE options. They're not amazing (can cast burning hands for 2 ki and raising the level by 1 ki per level at level 6 / throw a fireball of radiant damage for no ki at 11, 2d6 base damage, but can use up to 3 ki to upgrade it to 8d6)

So they're not horrible, because radiant fireballs against undead can be devastating even at those later levels. But they're not amazing either.

Wot4E is actually the worst Monk archetype.

Spellcasting is good, but in this case it's far too limited and costly, eating up into the monk's ki budget for dubious benefit.

In that regard, Way of Shadow gains better magical utility.

The best combat archetypes are Kensei and Long Death.

The worst stuff with Monk subclasses is any of those 'Emulate a spell' abilities.

Wizards really messed up on how often they thought short rests would happen...
Poor Monk and Warlock.

I forgot to mention, the burning hands one is actually a bonus action with the same requirements as flurry of blows (right after the attack action), so it's much better than just having it as an action.

The fireball has range of 150 feet, and has them make Constitution saves. So it's not a fireball, but the damage maximum and range clearly show it was designed around the fireball. Also it goes through any non-opaque cover.

It's crazy. Reading online it's like there's a hole in the collective memory shaped like 4e. Nobody ever dares to mention it, even though it usually had the solution to many of the problems currently discussed.
Memes won, and they won hard

I've seen people say that hit dice a new and inventive idea in 5e

It is the most baffling thing I've ever seen, and I've seen people defend the balance in 3e core

>I've seen people say that hit dice a new and inventive idea in 5e

I mean, Hit Dice sorta are new...in that they are what people kept saying Healing Surges were during 4e (Extra healing between fights, rather than a cap on total healing) rather than something that actually existed.

that's what makes it baffling

It's basically just saying "when a 3e clone does it it's ok"

They also balanced the game around a ludicrous number of fights per day, making classes that rely on long rests even more powerful

Healing hit die are a straight rip-off of Reserve Points from Iron Heroes, except worse, because in 5e they are rolled so a level 1 Bard with 10 HP can't choose to heal 5HP now and then 5 HP later.

And Iron Heroe's RP mechanic was itself lifted out of 3e's Unearthed Arcana

I almost forgot.

Long death has a good survivability, and while the capstone doesn't compare to Open Palm, their level 11 feature is really good.

Master of Death is the best monk archetype ability, hands down. Just never die as long as you have Ki remaining.

4e for most people was called pathfinder

See there's a funny thing with mechanical viability

Flavor can only carry you so far before it becomes meaningless. Wot4E monks get so few uses of their spells, and their spells are so underpowered that rather than carrying the flavor of an elemental martial artist, it instead carries the flavor of a wizard who's not very good at being a wizard. The sun soul monk is a better choice than four elements monk if you want to playa firebender even if it doesn't fit perfectly damage-type wise

Grab Monastic Training for Psionic Warrior, then Tashalatora.

Go Psionic Monk, amp up on unarmed/touch attack powers, and maybe grab Quicken Power with Permanent Focus later on. Or Psionic Fist with permanent focus. With infinite psionic focus to expend, you can make every fist attack you make deal an extra 2d6 damage. Plus, you know, the whole 'being more than just a facepuncher' benefit for being a Manifester.

...

I'm gonna kick your ass.

To become a wizard.

I guess this shows that presentation matters.
People were used to HOW a class leveled up and got features being linked to whether or not they were a spellcaster. So to idiots, if power progression looks the same, then all the classes are the same.

ok, thats cool

That's why in 2018 we are reinventing the wheel with babby's first deeandee.