Advice on homebrewing Monk Spellcasting

[JohnDoe]

I have players asking about modifying the monk as a spellcaster. Out of curiosity I wanted to break down the Monk's Spellcasting ability to get a general sense of where it should be.

Confident:
1. Spell Points
2. Spell Slot Progression
(I'll explain briefly)


Not Confident:
1. # of spells known
2. Spells as a bonus action
3. Increasing spell slot level.
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Confident:
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1. Spell Points:
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I started with converting the Monk's Ki into Spell Points
---Dungeon Master's Guide
---Page 288

Sun Soul Monk:

SS allows you to cast burning hands up to 9th level -- *as a bonus action.*

@20
Spell points for 2x 9th burning hands = 26
Spell points for 6x 3rd level fireball = 30
+lvl 1 burning hands = 32

Way Of The Four Elements

Cast up to 5th level spells as an action

5x 3rd level fireball = 25 spell points.
That's about the best you're going to get. Most will end up 20-25 spell points.

The spell points are close to that of the Warlock (28), which makes sense considering the monk recovers Ki after a 30 minute rest (short rest is at least 60), similar to the warlock.
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2. Spell Slot Progression
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Sun Soul:

Burning Hands:
Maximum Ki = 1/2 Monk lvl rounded down
Spell Slot Maximum:
6th lvl = 2nd Level Slot
8th lvl = 3rd
10th lvl = 4th
[...]
20th = 9th

Fireball @ 11
(Between EK13 & Paladin9)

Way of The Four Elements:

3rd level (fireball) @ 11, otherwise Paladin Progression.
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Not Confident:

1. Spells known
Four. Don't know how else to do it.

A skill like RSB essentially allows Flurry of Blows to be used for 1ki.
2d10+2x5dex = 21 avg
A Cantrip will scale to 4d10 for 22.
A Cantrip might work for a 1 Ki bonus action.

With the 3/6/11/17 progression of the archetype I'm not sure how else to offer very varied progression.

2. Spells as a bonus action

The Sun Soul Monk can cast up to lvl 9 burning hands as a bonus action.

The Way of The Four Elements monk can cast up to level 5 spells as an action.

3. Increasing Spell level with Ki

The Sun Soul Monk can cast up to lvl 9 burning hands as a bonus action, and only increase fireball to a standard lvl 3 fireball as an action.

The Way of The Four Elements monk can increase Burning hands and Fireball to level 5 spells as an action.

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Does anyone have any mechanical explanations as to how these are balanced?

The SS monk's bonus action scales very quickly, compared to the WOTFE monk's action.

[Addaran]

Most though out and well done analysis i've seen is that one. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1pdYIcfHauwNDM2My1XeWFYSDA/view

At the end, they mention all the mechanic and balance stuff regarding spells and monk.

I'd keep the ki points as ki points, not spell points. If you remove the ki points, the player loses the normal use of ki and if the player gets both ki and spell points, that doesn't fallow the shadow/elemental monk's design.

[JohnDoe]

I think a large part of the discontent with the WOTFE monk is the fact that they're using their actions to cast.

Other monks often gain bonus actions and effects on top of their unarmed strikes.

WOTFE Monks gain Fangs of the Fire Snake, which allows them to to spend 1ki to increase their range by 10 feet, and potentially spend a Ki point for an additional d10 damage die on top of their strikes.

Yes, you might be spending 2 Ki for that extra d10, but it's on top of a full attack action.

I'm not sure if you can spend an additional Ki point for each strike.
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That remastering seems a bit far fetched. I understand that he 'feels' like Monks spend too much Ki, but he's neglecting the fact that they regain their Ki pool with only 30 minutes of meditation.

Lowering the Ki required to 1 is the equivalent of 40 spell points --- There's a reason Ki starts at 2 --- first level spells are 2 spell points. 1 Ki, like FoB is almost exactly the same average damage as a cantrip, so it's completely viable that 1ki allow for 40 spell points. 1st level spells being cast practically at will requires some deeper comparison with the Warlock.

The SS is the only archetype that has a 3rd level spell for 3 Ki--- and that's the maximum Ki that can be spent. That pushes spell points into the low 30's

This is putting the Monk
(upwards of 32-40 spell points per 30m rest)

beyond the Warlock
(28/SP per 60m rest) in many ways.

Although the spells that 'matter' namely 5th level spells end up working out to 28 like the warlock... Although theit Class features set them apart in terms of being melee focused or class focused, so I'd have to look into those to determine whether or not the Monk should be coming anywhere close to the Warlock's casting abilities.