Quote Originally Posted by rbstr View Post
I think you're misguided if you think the Kensei isn't at least on par with Open Hand.
In general is feels like people just read the subclass entry and forget what the whole class is dishing up. This is particularly big in monk since the base class is where the real meat is anyway.
+2AC is great. Bow proficiency and extra damage with it is good. Ki-smite is pretty decent. +X weapon is OK. Rerolling a miss is really good. Open Hand's mid-level features aren't all that strong - The self-heal is decent but does take your whole action, Tranquility ends as soon as you try punching something.

Now, while it's strong enough, I get the disappointment in how the flavor of "Weapon master" turned into mechanics. I'm not particularly happy with the Kensei in that way. But making it stronger outright is not the way to deal with it.
Oh I definitely think it's at least on par with open hand- honestly I think open hand is weaker than 4 elements in mid levels (don't tell anyone I said that, I'll have torches and pitchforks outside my castle if word gets out that I don't agree with the status quo), but kensei's still not that impressive.