Way of Unending Motion- Monk Archetype

[SilverStud]

So monks are definitely the parkour guys of the D&D worlds. They all get cool features like wall running, evasion, and so on. But who are the parkour artists of the monks? Well, we couldn't chase them down to ask, but apparently they follow the Way of Unending Motion.
Using a combination of perfectly efficient movement and ki, these kinetic sculptors control the flow of movement in the battle around them.

When you choose this Way at 3rd level, you gain the following benefits
Hardcore Parkour

You gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed.
You gain the ability to run across vertical surfaces, so long as you don't end your movement there. At 9th level, you can run across liquids.
Step of the Wind counts as Disengage AND Dash.


6th Level:
Improved Slow Fall
Starting at sixth level, your Slow Fall ability triggers automatically, without using your reaction.

11th Level:
Perfect Block
Having reached eleventh level, you begin to control the motion of others. When you use your Patient Defense feature AND when an enemy then hits you with a melee attack, you may spend ki and use your reaction to block it, taking no damage*. Ki cost is 2 for bludgeoning damage, 3 for slashing or piercing.
You may then pick ONE(after damage is rolled):
Steal their kinetic energy and.......

Make an unarmed strike against offending enemy, adding their damage to yours. Extra damage is force damage.
OR
Make a mighty leap X feet in any direction, where X is the damage the enemy rolled.
OR
Throw the enemy to the ground(prone)**. (Save DC 8+X, where X is the damage the enemy rolled, max 18)

*If you use this feature to nullify damage greater than twice your monk level, you take one level of exhaustion.
**Can not be used against Huge or Gargantuan enemies.

17th Level:
Magic to Force
Legends speak of great masters who found the truth of energy, how it is all the same. Beginning at 17th level, when you would take damage from a any spell (except psychic damage), you may use your reaction and spend 5+X ki, where X is the slot level used to cast the spell, and not take damage. If you do, you may move up to your speed and make an unarmed strike, dealing additional force damage equal to the nullified damage. You take one level of exhaustion after using this feature on spells of 5th level or greater.

So, before y'all start the clarion call "OP," I may point out that the first two features deal no damage. This archetype has to wait a long time for its fun damage spiking. I tried to build in some penalties to the 17th level feature, other than crazy ki cost, in the form of exhaustion levels.

Edit: Added caveats to the 11th level Feature(asterisks)
Added limit to save dc on 11th level feature(throw down)

[HolierEagle]

who are the parkour artists of the monks? Well, we couldn't chase them down to ask, but apparently they follow the Way of Unending Motion. ....

Make an unarmed strike against offending enemy, adding their damage to yours. Extra damage is force damage.
OR
Make a mighty leap X feet in any direction, where X is the damage the enemy rolled.
OR
Throw the enemy to the ground(prone). (Save DC 8+X, where X is the damage the enemy rolled)


I think it sounds great!! Firstly, i liked how you opened this lol
Anyway, id suggest maybe adding only half damage bonus to your attack.. also putting a cap on it, i think there is a limit to how much damage you could possible redirect, maybe twice your monk level or something. Same applied for the leap you can make, maybe half the damage dealt with a cap a twice your monk level.

Also, i think the Save DC should be something like 15- the damage the enemy rolled. again it's just so that there is a limit to what you can pull off, is a giant punches you in the face i think you would not be able to redirect all of that kinetic energy, maybe when there is a blanket cap on the amount of damage you can redirect and if the attack exceeds that, you take the remaining damage but are still able to executer the move unless you pass out.

[Stan]

Very cool on the whole.

I think just nullifying damage is a big deal. That alone would allow the monk the stop 4-5 attacks at 11th level. Depending on the opponent, that means 2-5 rounds in which the opponent does nothing and the monk beats up on them. Bouncing the damage back at them is too much.

Maybe change the cost to the attacker's proficiency bonus? Spend double that (or 2 more Ki, I don't know) to get one of the extra effects. The extra attack gets no special bonuses.

Magic to Force is a really big power but it comes late and they can do it ~2/short rest so it maybe mostly evens out. I'd reduce the bonus damage to the slot level of the spell.

[SilverStud]

Very cool on the whole.

I think just nullifying damage is a big deal. That alone would allow the monk the stop 4-5 attacks at 11th level. Depending on the opponent, that means 2-5 rounds in which the opponent does nothing and the monk beats up on them. Bouncing the damage back at them is too much.

Maybe change the cost to the attacker's proficiency bonus? Spend double that (or 2 more Ki, I don't know) to get one of the extra effects. The extra attack gets no special bonuses.

Magic to Force is a really big power but it comes late and they can do it ~2/short rest so it maybe mostly evens out. I'd reduce the bonus damage to the slot level of the spell.

What do you mean by that last bit? "reduce the bonus damage to the slot level of the spell."?

Here's my reasoning for why the bonus damage of the capstone should stay the same: exhaustion. Exhaustion only goes away one level at a time. So any time you block a big spell(a lot of which probably get thrown around at those levels), you take exhaustion. If you do it twice in a day, you have to take two days to recover from that. If you use it as many times as you can in a day (~4-5?), it'll take waaaaay long to recover.

So what if we make the extra damage on Perfect Block (option 1) cost a further 2 ki?

[Stan]

by "slot level of the spell" I had meant that, instead of adding the damage nullified to the attack, add the level of the spell (though slot level, so a 1st level spell cast with a 7th level slot would add 7). I has forgotten about exhaustion, which is a huge drawback. Though, by that level, the monk is likely to have a friend with greater restoration to remove it. Still, by that level, you should be able to pull off something insane now and then. Balancing perfect block is more important as it will see far more use. I think extra damage costing a bit more is a good idea.

In general, I'd say nullifying damage is worth about as much as the level of the effect nullified. Bouncing that same damage back is worth two things at that level. Also getting to do something is worth a bit more. I really like the concept of the archetype but it's going to take play testing to get the costs right.