Some Kensei Experiences

★Early Experience: I started with a lot of AC thanks to very high Dexterity and good Wis, and at the first subclass level, even more AC is largely all you get besides extra damage or reach from weapons. (I'll get to the specifics of weapons later. Also, such high AC was good because she had *no Constitution.*) Taja's stats are atypical, so most Monks will simply have *pretty good* AC when using the feature, which still seems pretty nice to me (having played many other classes with much more middling AC), especially combined with the extra defenses and mobility of the class chassis. Of course, it's definitely odd, for a weapon-focused class, that the very first ability encourages you not to use it. When we thought the bonus unarmed attack counted for activating, this wasn't a problem, and afterwards I didn't feel the damage decrease - but I think only getting one attack with my Kensei weapon each round contributed to me not really feeling like they mattered. What mattered was the many, many attacks I dodged just using my basic gameplay loop, not even reactions, and that helped with feeling like a skilled, disciplined warrior. I'm pretty sure Fungus’ bonus action change would also help with the weapons themselves contributing - heck, having the rule just be "if the last attack you took in a turn was unarmed, you get +2 AC" would seem a lot smoother to me combined with the above. Agile Parry has definitely been impactful in my experience, and the above would help with the thematic feel of the subclass.

Oh, and you're mildly encouraged to get a longbow or other ranged weapon with one of your starting choices, by giving you a range-focused alternative to that juggernaut bonus action attack all Monks have. It was nice to have this as a backup for a few fights, giving her solid ranged damage when even *her* mobility wouldn't cut it for whatever reason, without having the fancy tricks to really be cutting into the concept of a Zen Archer or undermining Way of the Kensei itself. Since the +1d4 to ranged damage is also easy to not use (and thrown weapons can be used with it), I think it's a nice little addition that allows a Way of the Kensei follower to play general "Weapon Master" in addition to the usual flashy martial focus. I certainly found it useful, and not centralizing even when that bow became +1 and none of my other weapons did.
•Later Experience: I confess that in addition to having lopsidedly high stats, I also took a 3-level multiclass in Protection Cleric for RP reasons, so I spent a *long* time with just the Lv 6 features. Hey, I said I had a lot of experience, didn't say it was perfectly straightforward experience! ^_^; And my experience with the new stuff wasn't especially cool. Magic Strikes is fine and helpful, if rote, but if anything needs a replacement it's probably Deft Strike, a *deathly* boring feature. When I wasn't forgetting I had it at all (which was a majority of the time), I wasn't using it because I had so many better things to be doing with my Ki than +~4-5 damage. You can theoretically use it to "nova" on top of Flurry of Blows, which is...fun? Or you can spam Stunning Strike with those points, which has far more impact. More importantly, the wording suggests you can use it when you know an attack is going to be a critical hit for 2 extra damage dice instead of 1, and I did use that a few times, but a mini Smite is still such a boring use of weapon master skills! I'm sure something more interesting and flavorful can be figured out, even if extra damage is still involved.

This is also the point where I had two martial Kensei weapons, and the topic of switching weapons started to come up. With one martial and one ranged, this was natural and the time needed was appropriate. With two martial weapons, trying to switch between higher damage and reach (from my shiny new chain whip) was awkward at best, and I usually stuck to one or the other in combat as a result. I recently learned that you can technically put a weapon away at the end of your turn and pull out another at the start of the next with object interactions, and my GM allows switching to another weapon as a bonus action, but both of these things clash really hard with a Kensei Monk's needs. I found myself wishing for an in-class way to switch between weapons fluently even without interesting weapon properties, and I think that would go down very nicely with the more tactical weapons from Warrior's Codex. Ranged attacks from the longbow remained a very useful tool even with my variety of melee damage enhancers, especially on huge maps.
•Most Recent Experience: Took a long time, but I did eventually get a fourth Kensei weapon, some sort of sword. Sharpen the Blade feels like a really potent ability at Lv 14, let alone 11, but it *is* problematic in a few ways. Most people agree that the outright restriction on any magic weapons is really dumb, my GM houseruled it on the spot to simply ignore the weapon's + value, but it also gets in the way of the Kensei's emphasis on weapons as a "right tool for the job" kind of thing. Enhancing a weapon for a tough situation definitely fits that, but a "job" can often be shorter than the duration of one good fight when changing combat conditions is involved, and being pigeonholed into one weapon out of four for that time is simply kind of boring. Allowing the + to transfer to another weapon for some cost - whether that's a bonus action, going a turn without the + and delaying the duration as a result, or even another Ki point - would keep the versatility flowing and slightly lessen the pressure to get/find +X weapons with the tiny arsenal you have.

I haven't played long enough to get to the subclass capstone, but it seems fun to me. Subjective whether constant advantage on one attack a turn is powerful enough to serve the role, but I can imagine myself getting a lot of enjoyment turning misses into hits (or crits). :3c