Monk homebrew subclass: Way of the Closed Fist (WiP)

[Souplex]

Not all martial arts have the pretense/fluff of self-discipline/inner peace. In the last century there has been a rise of "Make your opponent stop moving" martial arts such as Krav Maga.
Similarly not all Monks strive for inner peace, some are looking for the most effective way to punch things.

The goal of this subclass is to make a Monk who is more focused on damage and less focused on battlefield control/utility.

This is the idea phase, so I have abilities, but not the order they go in. Some abilities will override the basic Monk abilities such as Stillness of Mind, Tongue of Sun and Moon, and Empty Body that don't fit with the flavor of this subclass.

Closed Fist Technique: When using unarmed strikes increase your Martial Arts die by one size.

Chops and Jabs: You may have your unarmed strikes deal slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning damage. (If you don't specify it is assumed to be the last one you used, or bludgeoning if you haven't specified this session)

Storm of Blows: When you use Flurry of Blows you may now spend any amount of Ki. Make a number of unarmed strikes equal to Ki spent +1. These additional attacks must all target the same creature.

Level 11; Extra attack: Beginning at 11th level, you can Attack thrice, instead of twice, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Additionally, you increase the number of bonus attacks made with your Martial Arts,Flurry/Storm of Blows by 1.

Living Weapon: You may use this feature to spend a Short Rest attuning to a magic weapon. While attuned this way the magic of the weapon does not function and your unarmed strikes have all the magical properties of the weapon. This uses an attunement slot. You may only have one weapon attuned with this feature at a time.

Press the Advantage: When you hit with an unarmed attack that had advantage, roll the damage dice with advantage as well. (I know advantage is normally only for D20 rolls, but it's easier to explain this way, and I feel it works here.

Ultra Combo!: Your unarmed strikes deal bonus damage to a creature equal to the number of unarmed strikes you have hit the creature with this turn. (2nd hit +1, 3rd hit +2 etc.)

Striking Points: Add your Wisdom (Wis) modifier to your unarmed strike damage. (I feel like this and "Ultra Combo!" are too much together, but I'm not sure which one matches the flavor more. Maybe max out the damage bonus of "Ultra Combo!" at your Wis mod? Maybe you spend Ki to do the bonus?)

Quivering Palm: Exactly like in the book. (It fits the flavor, but it feels weird to take a feature from another subclass.)

That's all I've got for now. Let me know what works, what doesn't, what order things might go in, and your thoughts in general.
The goal is to keep the damage output on par with a Rogue who is well supported by their team. The Rogue requires teamwork to sneak attack every turn while the Monk requires Ki to sustain their damage output, so I think it sounds reasonable.

[Leuku]

The goal is to keep the damage output on par with a Rogue who is well supported by their team. The Rogue requires teamwork to sneak attack every turn while the Monk requires Ki to sustain their damage output, so I think it sounds reasonable.

Alrighty, first let's chart out the average Rogue's damage at levels 3, 5, 11, and 17. Rogue can be ranged or melee, wield shortbows or rapiers - expected average weapon damage die is between 1d6 and 1d8.

In general, we expect the Rogue to get its Sneak Attack virtually every round. A Rogue may consider Two-Weapon Fighting, though must juggle that with Cunning Action, and using TWF drops the Rogue's main hand weapon damage die by a bit (unless he gets the Dual Wielder feat, but that's a pretty significant investment for a class that doesn't really have much need for) as well as forces it into melee range, so the damage increase from TWF is not too significant due to the aforementioned complications.

In the following estimation, let's just assume that the player just wants to improve their Dex for each ability score level, maxing it out before 11th level. The Average DPR is calculated as the average value between 1d6 and 1d8, i.e. 4, plus average of Sneak Attack + Dex mod. We're not factoring in chance to hit because we are not assuming a significant difference in hit rate between the average Rogue and the average Monk. The Rogue coordinates with its allies to get Sneak Attacks off while the Monk relies on its limited Ki.



Rogue Level
Sneak Attack
Dexterity Mod
Average DPR


3
2d6
+3
14


5
3d6
+4
18.5


11
6d6
+5
30


17
9d6
+5
41.5




We are not factoring in Rogue subclasses, because the grand majority of Rogue subclass features offer no direct boost to average damage output. The few that do are mostly contained in the Assassin subclass, but they are highly circumstantial and difficult to pull off, hence why they offer a damage boost at all. The general idea we can conclude is that the Rogue does not need any subclass damage boosts (unlike the Ranger who does depend on its subclasses for its DPR), because the Rogue sufficiently derives its DPR needs from its base class feature Sneak Attack. Consequently, any subclass boost to damage is made incredibly circumstantial and restricted in order to be justified.

Now let's do the average Monk.

The Monk is similar in that it does not rely on its subclass features for its average DPR scaling. The base class features accomplish that job as well.

Now unfortunately for us, there are some complications. It's a bit difficult to assert that a Monk would use all of their Ki for Flurry of Blows only, but FoB is definitely going to be more popular than anything else, at least that is until Stunning Strike comes online. And the benefits of Stunning Strike certainly do augment the monk's chance to hit, and thus its average DPR, so we have some difficult decisions to make. I'm just going to throw out here that the average Monk uses half of their Ki rounded up for FoB, because it is a big factor in their damage output. Next, I'm going to just ignore Stunning Strike, which necessarily nerfs the Monk's average DPR a smidge.

So the formula we are using is: Attack Action + Average between Martial Arts Bonus Action Attack and FoB

Why average between Martial Arts Bonus Action and FoB? Because this Monk is basically alternating each round between the bonus action attack and FoB, and so the average damage per round is between those two values.



Monk Level

Martial Arts Die
Ki
Dexterity Mod
Average DPR


3
1d4
3
+3
13.75


5
1d6
5
+4
26.25


11
1d8
11
+5
33.25



17
1d10
17
+5
36.75




The Monk gets a significant boost at 5th level, due primarily to how often the Monk is able to deal their Dex modifier in damage. Truly, there is no better augment to DPR than stacking additional mod damage. While the Rogue's DPR scaling is a consistent, steady climb, the Monk's jumps dramatically at 5th, and then starts to plateau at higher levels. We can see that increasing the damage die size of one's weapons has the smallest effect on DPR, whereas increasing the number of attacks and applying mods additional times have the most significant.

We can keep in mind that in exchange for a lack of jump at 5th level, the Rogue gains the potent Uncanny Dodge feature. We might also keep in mind that a Rogue critting is going to be far more potent than a Monk critting. And we can argue that the Monk's damage boost at 5th level is conflated because he's really not going to be able to use FoB half of the time, but that becomes increasingly less true past 5th level when the Monk becomes less starved for Ki and more in overabundance.

So comparing base to base, Rogue and Monk are already on pretty even terms, in contradiction to your stated goal of trying, "to keep the damage output on par with a Rogue who is well supported by their team." Now let's look at your proposed Monk features.


Closed Fist Technique: When using unarmed strikes increase your Martial Arts die by one size.



Monk Level
Closed Fist Damage Die Increases
Average DPR


3
1d6
16.25


5
1d8
29.75


11
1d10
36.75


17
1d12
40.25



With Closed Fist Technique alone, we can see a 5th level Monk approach the average damage of an 11th level Rogue. The Rogue won't be able to catch up to the Monk until 17th level. Compared to the original Monk, though, it's merely a small damage upgrade compared to the kinds of features that are coming next.


Chops and Jabs: You may have your unarmed strikes deal slashing,
piercing, or bludgeoning damage. (If you don't specify it is assumed to
be the last one you used, or bludgeoning if you haven't specified this
session)

No significant effect on damage output.


Storm of Blows: When you use Flurry of Blows you may now spend any
amount of Ki. Make a number of unarmed strikes equal to Ki spent +1.
These additional attacks must all target the same creature.

Technically, this is an overall reduction in average damage over a period of time, because you get fewer total unarmed strikes than if you were to FoB over multiple rounds normally. 5 Ki Storm of Blows gets you 6 Unarmed Strikes, whereas 5 FoB over 5 rounds gets you 10 Unarmed Strikes.

But getting to NOVA like this verges on ridiculousness, especially when compared to the Fighter's Action Surge. Both Ki and Action Surge regenerate on a short rest, but whereas Action Surge only improves in terms of damage output by 1 attack at levels 5, 11, and 20, Storm of Blows improves at every single monk level.

An 11th level Fighter can do 6 attacks, 7 if TWF, in one round, once per short rest. An 11th level Monk can do 13 unarmed strikes in one round, once per short rest. And with Closed Fist Technique, such a Monk's base weapon damage die will be better than a TWF Fighter with the Dual Wielder feat.

So, assuming Closed Fist Technique is this subclass' 3rd level feature, you're already well over beating the Rogue in terms of consistent average damage on day one. Assuming Storm of Blows is the 6th level feature, you begin over beating the Fighter in terms of on-demand NOVA potential at an exponentially increasing rate. Most frightening is the ability to multiply how many opportunities you get to stack your Dex mod as damage. Not including the weapon damage die, every additional ki spent on Storm of Blows is a minimum +3, +4, or +5 increase in damage for one round.


Level 11; Extra attack: Beginning at 11th level, you can Attack thrice,
instead of twice, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Additionally, you increase the number of bonus attacks made with your
Martial Arts,Flurry/Storm of Blows by 1.



Monk Level
Closed Fist
Average# of Attacks per round
Average DPR
Storm of Blows Nova Round (consume all Ki)


11
1d10
5.5
57.75
168


17
1d12
5.5
63.25
253



So an 11th level Monk with this feature deals nearly twice the average DPR of a Rogue at the same level.

If we were to spend no ki on FoB whatsoever, then the 11th level Monk average DPR still amounts to 52.5.

Let's compare Storm of Blows to a 17th level Assassin Rogue who manages to land both their Assassinate and Death Strike features. On a crit, the Rogue's 9d6 Sneak Attack is doubled to 18d6. + Dex mod, that amounts to an average damage of: 68. Death Strike doubles this value to 136.

So an 11th level Closed Fist Monk can deal a better NOVA than a 17th level Assassin Rogue. Further, an Assassin Rogue is less likely to pull off both Assassinate and Death Strike between short rests, so the frequency with which a Closed Monk can NOVA is also better than the Assassin Rogue's.


Living Weapon: You may use this feature to spend a Short Rest attuning
to a magic weapon. While attuned this way the magic of the weapon does
not function and your unarmed strikes have all the magical properties of
the weapon. This uses an attunement slot. You may only have one weapon
attuned with this feature at a time.

Effect on DPR is undeterminable, due to circumstantial nature of magic equipment.


Press the Advantage: When you hit with an unarmed attack that had
advantage, roll the damage dice with advantage as well. (I know
advantage is normally only for D20 rolls, but it's easier to explain
this way, and I feel it works here.

Unlike chance to hit, damage has no chance of failure, so there is no difference in the benefit from advantage relative to any target number like AC.

So, "Advantage on unarmed strike damage" would effectively amount to an increase of 1 DPR per unarmed strike made. Which is largely forgettable compared to the damage boosts incurred by increasing the number of attacks. But with Storm of Blows, forgettable becomes memorable as we effectively add up to 23 damage to a NOVA round.


Ultra Combo!: Your unarmed strikes deal bonus damage to a creature equal
to the number of unarmed strikes you have hit the creature with this
turn. (2nd hit +1, 3rd hit +2 etc.)

Interestingly, Ultra Combo would generally have the same effect on damage as Press the Advantage does in the context of Storm of Blows.


Striking Points: Add your Wisdom (Wis) modifier to your unarmed strike
damage. (I feel like this and "Ultra Combo!" are too much together, but
I'm not sure which one matches the flavor more. Maybe max out the damage
bonus of "Ultra Combo!" at your Wis mod? Maybe you spend Ki to do the
bonus?)

The only thing more devastating than increasing the number of attacks is stacking damage mods. There are only three instances in official published material of mod stacking on weapon attacks: 1. Bladelock's 12th level Lifedrinker feature. 2. The PHB Ranger's 20th level capstone Foeslayer. 3. The Oathbreaker Paladin's 7th level Aura of Hate.

On the Bladelock, note that one will never get more than 2 attacks with their Pact Weapon, so this at worst stacks mods twice. The Ranger's capstone only works once per turn, and as lame as it is, it is still something WOTC determined warranted to be 20th level. Finally, the Oathbreaker's mod stacking comes in at the earliest, but the Villainous Class options in the DMG are intended for NPCs, not PCs, and you have to become evil in order to access it, and even then is still only limited to twice per round.

Your proposed monk can deal anywhere from 4 to 26 attacks within a round. Even if Striking Points were the only damage boost this entire Monk subclass gave, it would still be too much extra damage.

CONCLUSIONS: The only thing this monk subclass would need in order to be a "damage oriented Monk", and the only thing you could actually justify, is the Closed Fist Technique at 3rd level. Every single damage-oriented feature beyond that far exceeds every damage expectation metric.


Not all martial arts have the pretense/fluff of self-discipline/inner peace. In the last century there has been a rise of "Make your opponent stop moving" martial arts such as Krav Maga.

Krav Maga, as little as I understand it, strives to be as efficient as possible, compared to the fancier stuff like Taekwondo. In fact, I might argue that Taekwondo, with their ridiculous mid-air spinning kicks, deals far more direct damage than Krav Maga ever could, but in a street fight/mugging/survival situation Krav Maga clearly comes out on top as more useful and applicable. In fact, one could argue that Krav Maga is much more battlefield control, or more specifically "Opponent control", through incapacitation/submission/grappling techniques plus their emphasis on battlefield awareness and avoiding conflict (this latter is true anyways for virtually every martial art, but Krav Maga certainly makes bigger point of it). In this way, they are much more like Open-Hand Monks considering the nature of Open-Hand Techniques and Tranquility.

You may then consider expanding the Monk's ability to grapple and neutralize opponents, applying conditions like Blinded, Deafened, Grappled, Incapacitated, etc.


This is the idea phase, so I have abilities, but not the order they go in. Some abilities will override the basic Monk abilities such as Stillness of Mind, Tongue of Sun and Moon, and Empty Body that don't fit with the flavor of this subclass.

On a secondary note, you cannot justify replacing non-combat features with combat features, unless you remove combat features elsewhere. Classes are more than a mere answer to the question, "How do I deal damage?"

[Souplex]

BIIIIG SNIP
Thank you so much for the detailed mathematical analysis.
This is the idea phase, so a lot of this won't be in future drafts or the finished product.
Out the window right away:
Level 11 multiattack: Too much too fast, plus it makes turns take forever as you roll all the attacks without costing resources.

Striking points: You hit way too hard too many times. Might keep the name because Ultra Combo! while a fun name doesn't fit flavor-wise.

Needs tweaking but I feel it's still a good idea:
Storm of blows: Maybe the maximum Ki spent per storm is your Wisdom Modifier? Going beyond that maximum causes you to take D10 necrotic damage for each hit beyond the limit to represent pushing yourself beyond what is physically safe to do?

Press the Advantage: Maybe after an attack with advantage when you roll damage you don't like you can spend a Ki to re-roll. You can do this multiple times per attack, but you have to use the last result?

Ultra Combo!: Going to be referring to it as "Striking Points" in the future. You spend some Ki (Amount to be determined, maybe 1, maybe the maximum damage bonus you want up to your Wis?) before an attack, and for each attack after the first the damage increases by 1 up to the limit?

Closed Fist Technique: Going to keep it around for now to see how it shakes out with the tweaks. May stay, may go.

Sounds good as is:
Chops and Jabs: Mostly flavor, and allows you to occasionally exploit vulnerabilities or chop things that need chopping such as ropes.

Living Weapon: No longer will the Monk cry in the corner when magic weapons are looted.

Other notes: Maybe your GM is a pushover, but generally I don't get to take a short rest after every single combat. If we tried too much, our time-sensitive objective would fail, or the monsters from the next room of the dungeon would attack us. A lot of it was about figuring out the safe time.

[Leuku]

Needs tweaking but I feel it's still a good idea:
Storm of blows: Maybe the maximum Ki spent per storm is your Wisdom Modifier? Going beyond that maximum causes you to take D10 necrotic damage for each hit beyond the limit to represent pushing yourself beyond what is physically safe to do?

At 5th level, that represents 6-8 Unarmed Strikes within 1 round once per short rest. It is still beyond the bounds of expected number of attacks possible. Why even allow going beyond such a maximum when you're already going far beyond the limits of any class? We have to keep in mind that we're already increasing average DPR through Closed Fist technique - how much more damage-focused features does this subclass warrant? I repeat, classes are more than an answer to the question, "How do I deal damage?" While the Combat pillar is the easiest to design class features for, DnD still rests on a foundation of three total pillars: Combat, Exploration, Interaction. Classes are an answer to the questions, "How can I respond to any of the things life can throw at me? How does my ability to act and react improve over time?"

Unlike spell slots, Ki is too free of a resource to grant such a significant benefit.

If you must have a damage boost, consider a variant Colossus Slayer:

So long as you have at least 1 Ki remaining, once per turn when you hit with an unarmed strike you may deal an additional 1d8 damage.


Press the Advantage: Maybe after an attack with advantage when you roll damage you don't like you can spend a Ki to re-roll. You can do this multiple times per attack, but you have to use the last result?

Feels like a waste of Ki. Better to use it on Stunning Strike than damage reroll. Rerolls are best when you have multiple damage dice.


Ultra Combo!: Going to be referring to it as "Striking Points" in the future. You spend some Ki (Amount to be determined, maybe 1, maybe the maximum damage bonus you want up to your Wis?) before an attack, and for each attack after the first the damage increases by 1 up to the limit?

Of the 4 subclass features a Monk gets, only two of them, max, can provide a direct boost to damage. You must make the decision on which to keep.

That being said, an alternative design for this can be:

Once per turn, when you hit with an unarmed strike, you may expend 1 Ki to deal additional damage equal to two times the number of unarmed strikes you've hit with this turn against the same target.

This encourages a player to gamble with how many attacks they can hit with within a turn. And if they manage to pull it off with all 4 of their attacks, then it can work as a kind of "finishing move".


Other notes: Maybe your GM is a pushover, but generally I don't get to take a short rest after every single combat. If we tried too much, our time-sensitive objective would fail, or the monsters from the next room of the dungeon would attack us. A lot of it was about figuring out the safe time.

The general expectation is one short rest for every 2 to 3 encounters.

We are theorycrafting, which means we have to account for the maxima and the minima as much as we account for general expectations. It is not enough to cover the casual scenario; we have to cover the general extremes as well. It may be a mistake for a player to blow their entire class resources in a single encounter, but they are absolutely free to. Sometimes, doing so may even save 2 or more other party members from using any of their resources, so you may have a net gain in resource consumption.

In general, the answer to the question, "If a player can do something, will they do it?" is "Yes".

A player can consume all of their Ki for some insane Storm of Blows NOVA, so there will be a player who will. All of this doesn't matter if you don't intend anybody but your personal group of people to use your homebrew. But homebrew for public consumption demands relative comparative balance.