Monk - Way of the Sword Archetype (PEACH)

[Strudel110]

Way of the Sword
Monks who follow the way of the sword are taught to focus their entire being into a sword strike. Often monks who choose this path do so for vengeance, to honed their killing intent against those who wronged them. Others simply excel at swordsmanship and want to become more skilled, or even a legendary swordsman.

3rd
Sword Style
Starting at third level you must choose a type of sword you wish to specialize in. You may choose any one-handed sword, you become proficient with it and treat it as a monk weapon. At 11th level, you may use your flurry of blows to make monk weapon attacks instead of unarmed strikes.

6th
Advanced Techniques
Starting at 6th level, you learn maneuvers that are fueled by special dice called superiority dice. (PHB 74.)
You learn three maneuvers that enhance your attacks. You can only use one maneuver per attack.
You learn two additional maneuvers at 11th and 17th levels, each time you learn new maneuvers you can also replace one you already know with another.

Superiority dice
You have four superiority dice which are d10s. they are expended when used, and regained after finishing a short or long rest. you gain additional dice at 11th and 17th levels.

Saving Throws
The DC for your maneuvers is as follows

DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your wisdom modifier

11th
Fearsome Boast
Starting at 11th level you can demoralize opponents with a boast or threat. when a creature within 60 ft. of you makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a damage roll you can use your reaction to spend 2 ki points to roll a maneuver die and subtract the roll from the result. The creature is immune if it can't hear you, or if it is immune to being charmed.

17th
Killing Intent
Starting at 17th level you may spend 3 ki points to stop fooling around, and focus your killing intent as a bonus action. You choose an opponent to mark for death, and until the creature dies or you end the effect yourself, you add a damage die to any monk weapon attacks you make against them, and you roll two additional damage die when determining the extra damage from a critical.

Weapons
A variety of weapons (not all suitable for this archetype)


Name
Cost
Damage
Weight
Properties


Hook Sword
10gp
1d6 Slashing
2.5lb.
Special


Jian
25gp
1d8 Piercing
2lb.
Finesse


Dao
10gp
1d8 Slashing
3lb.
--


Dadao
50gp
2d6 Slashing
6lb.
Heavy, two-handed


Katana
20gp
1d6 Slashing
3lb.
Versatile(1d8) Finesse


Wakazashi
10gp
1d6 Slashing
2lb.
Light, Finesse


Nagamaki
20gp
1d10 Slashing
6lb.
Heavy, Reach, Two-handed


Wooden Katana
10gp
1d6 Bludgeoning
3lb.
Versatile(1d8) Finesse



Hook swords : swords with a curved hook for a tip, a crescent blade guarding the hilt, and often a point at the pommel. When dual-wielding them you can connect two of them to give the weapons reach as a bonus action, they count as a single weapon when attached. Unhooking them is a free action.
Jian : A thin straight sword primarily for thrusting.
Dao : Curved single-edged sword with a heavy cutting edge.
Dadao : A huge version of the dao.
Katana : A single-edged sword with a curved blade. Can be used in one hand, or two.
Wakazashi : A short blade often paired with a katana.
Nagamaki : A strange fusion of sword and polearm. resembles a katana with a longer blade, and a hilt two and a half times as long.
Wooden Katana : Primarily a training aid, but in the hands of a master it is deadly.
Butterfly Sword : Short swords with very wide blades, best used in a pair. same stats as wakazashi.

edit 3

[Chadamantium]

Looks cool though may be stepping on the toes of the battlemaster a bit. Also on masterful retribution, I'd replace opportunity attack with free attack. Opportunity attacks use your reaction which you only get one of.

[Mith]

This triggers on every missed attack, so if a foe is two weapon fighting and misses with both weapons, you could spend 6 ki points two to make two attacks.

I can't really give feedback on the mechanics, but I did see this grammar error at the end of Masterful Retribution.

[Strudel110]

Looks cool though may be stepping on the toes of the battlemaster a bit. Also on masterful retribution, I'd replace opportunity attack with free attack. Opportunity attacks use your reaction which you only get one of.
Yeah that works better. It definitely does, after all I took their maneuvers, but I wanted to make a fusion archetype kinda like the eldritch knight or arcane trickster. I didn't want to jack spellcasting though (way of four elements got that covered) and there aren't a lot of good options for weapon based monks.


I can't really give feedback on the mechanics, but I did see this grammar error at the end of Masterful Retribution.
fix'd

[Leuku]

11th
Fearsome Boast
Starting at 11th level you can demoralize opponents with a boast or threat. when a creature within 60 ft. of you makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a damage roll you can use your reaction to spend 2 ki points to roll a maneuver die (it is not expended) and subtract the roll from the result. The creature is immune if it can't hear you, or if it is immune to being charmed.

I think the maneuver die should be expended. The maneuver die is 1d10, so on average you are allowed to subtract 5.5 points from an enemy's attack, ability check, or damage roll, which is a massive penalty. It's virtually guaranteeing a miss or a failed check. Considering that a monk's Ki points recover per short rest, and at 11th level have 11 ki points, i.e. 5 uses of Fearsome Boast per short rest, I argue there should be more restriction on the number of uses.


17th
Masterful Retribution
Starting at 17th level when an enemy misses an attack aimed at you may spend 3 ki points to make a free attack if you are able. This triggers on every missed attack, so if a foe is two weapon fighting and misses with both weapons, you could spend 6 ki points to make two attacks.

This is too weak of a capstone feature. 3 ki for one attack? The monk is better off spending 1 ki on their turn and a bonus action to make 2 attacks. And if you're an Open Hand monk, you can instead trigger Quivering Palm for 3 ki, which deals an average of 50ish damage to "infinity" damage, based on whether the target saves or not.

Average 10 damage for 3 ki.

20 damage for 1 ki using flurry of blows.

And if Open Hand, 50 - "infinity" damage for 3 ki.

You may be interested in my Path of the Weapons Master monk. The link is contained within my signature. It, too, has a hook sword.

[Strudel110]

This is too weak of a capstone feature. 3 ki for one attack? The monk is better off spending 1 ki on their turn and a bonus action to make 2 attacks. And if you're an Open Hand monk, you can instead trigger Quivering Palm for 3 ki, which deals an average of 50ish damage to "infinity" damage, based on whether the target saves or not.

Average 10 damage for 3 ki.

20 damage for 1 ki using flurry of blows.

And if Open Hand, 50 - "infinity" damage for 3 ki.

You may be interested in my Path of the Weapons Master monk. The link is contained within my signature. It, too, has a hook sword.

Okay yeah I took a look your weapon master, it's pretty awesome. It made me rethink my Way of the Sword, I think it's a bit better now.

[Leuku]

3rd
Sword Style
Starting at third level you must choose a type of sword you wish to specialize in. You become proficient with it and treat it as a monk weapon. Additionally when using flurry of blows you may substitute weapon attacks for unarmed strikes.

Woah woah woah! If you recall my Weapons Master monk, you would see that my monk only got to to this at certain levels. At 6th level, my monk could make a monk weapon attack instead of an unarmed strike for their Martial Arts bonus action attack. Only at 11th may the monk make Flurry of Blows with monk weapons. This was a very carefully calculated decision.

The monk is the king of multiple attacks in early game. By 5th level, the monk gets to do a limited number of times per short rest what a fighter gets to do at 11th level unlimited. To compensate for the greater number of attacks, the monk's damage output is very finely controlled by the Monk Damage Die and the weapons the monk gets to consider Monk Weapons.

The largest damage die a normal monk ever gets from a weapon is 1d8. The monk can never exceed 1d8 for its main Attack until 17th level. And the monk must use its martial arts damage die for the Martial Arts Bonus Action attack and Flurry of Blows.

So at 2nd level, a monk wielding a Quarterstaff twohanded gets to do 1d8 + Dex mod + 2 x (1d4 + dex mod) two times per short rest.

Now look carefully at the weapons you created below.



Weapons


Name
Cost
Damage
Weight
Properties


Hook Sword
10gp
1d6 Slashing
2.5lb.
Special


Jian
25gp
1d8 Piercing
2lb.
Finesse


Dao
10gp
1d8 Slashing
3lb.
--



Dadao

50gp
2d6 Slashing

6lb.
Heavy, two-handed


Katana
20gp
1d6 Slashing
3lb.
Versatile(1d8) Finesse


Wakazashi
10gp
1d6 Slashing
2lb.
Light, Finesse


Nagamaki
20gp
1d10 Slashing
6lb.
Heavy, Reach, Two-handed


Wooden Katana
10gp
1d6 Bludgeoning
3lb.
Versatile(1d8) Finesse


Hook swords : swords with a curved hook for a tip, a crescent blade guarding the hilt, and often a point at the pommel. When dual-wielding them you can connect two of them to give the weapons reach as a bonus action, they count as a single weapon when attached. Unhooking them is a free action.
Jian : A thin straight sword primarily for thrusting.
Dao : Curved single-edged sword with a heavy cutting edge.
Dadao : A huge version of the dao.
Katana : A single-edged sword with a curved blade. Can be used in one hand, or two.
Wakazashi : A short blade often paired with a katana.
Nagamaki : A strange fusion of sword and polearm. resembles a katana with a longer blade, and a hilt two and a half times as long.
Wooden Katana : Primarily a training aid, but in the hands of a master it is deadly.
Butterfly Sword : Short swords with very wide blades, best used in a pair. same stats as wakazashi.

At 3rd level, you just gave a Dadao-wielding monk the ability to do 3 x (2d6 + dex) 3 times per short rest.

Compare that to a Fighter who at 3rd level can do 2 x (2d6 + str) once per short rest using Action Surge.

At 5th level, a Dadao Monk could do 4 x (2d6 + dex) 5 times per short rest, while a 5th level Fighter could do 3 x (2d6 + Str) once per short rest.

I designed my weapons very carefully. I never exceeded the 1d8 damage die size and always kept the monk's damage potential at certain thresholds in line with the fighter's damage potential.

Monks are not big hitters, unless they're using a technique like Quivering Palm. Monks are fast hitters. So increasing the damage per hit of a monk is to dramatically increase the monk's power.


17th
Killing Intent
Starting at 17th level you may spend 3 ki points to stop fooling around, and focus your killing intent. You choose an opponent to mark for death, and until the creature dies or you end the effect yourself, your weapon attacks against them score a critical hit on 18-20 and you roll two additional damage die when determining the extra damage from a critical, additionally if you kill the mark with a critical hit you regain 1 ki point and 1 superiority die.

I would drop the 1 ki point and 1 superiority die thing. Getting too cluttered. All monks already have the ability to regain Ki at 20th level, so giving the monk a way to regen ki before then is weakening the capstone. Rather than giving the monk expanded critical, you could just allow the monk to add 1 extra die of damage to their monk weapon attacks. It's simpler and less reliant on luck. Of course that's only if you fix the damage potential of your unique monk weapons.

Lastly, what sort of action does Killing Intent require?

[Strudel110]

Woah woah woah! If you recall my Weapons Master monk, you would see that my monk only got to to this at certain levels. At 6th level, my monk could make a monk weapon attack instead of an unarmed strike for their Martial Arts bonus action attack. Only at 11th may the monk make Flurry of Blows with monk weapons. This was a very carefully calculated decision...
Woah yeah I did not think that one through, I definitely need to push that back. As for the weapons, there was supposed to be a condition that only one handed swords were allowed, but I forgot. I wanted to throw in the dadao and some other stuff for completion's sake but they definitely shouldn't be eligible, considering how important damage die are in 5E.
I didn't add in your weapon attack as a bonus action, because I like the odd kick/punch/headbutt in my swordfights, and because I'd like to avoid treading on your weapon master monk. Once I decided to clean up the class features I realized that I was gonna need flurry of blows to work with swords though.


I would drop the 1 ki point and 1 superiority die thing. Getting too cluttered. All monks already have the ability to regain Ki at 20th level, so giving the monk a way to regen ki before then is weakening the capstone. Rather than giving the monk expanded critical, you could just allow the monk to add 1 extra die of damage to their monk weapon attacks. It's simpler and less reliant on luck. Of course that's only if you fix the damage potential of your unique monk weapons.

Lastly, what sort of action does Killing Intent require?
Yeah I actually feel like that's a bit better. It's a bonus action. I honestly appreciate the critique, I'm pretty new to the system, and its way different from 3E.