Single Strike Monk Path - One Punch Man

[Tempest Critic]

Hey D&D fans.
I've been working on a few archetypes for 5e that help add some complexity to the Martial classes. Personally i feel a little underwhelmed when playing a Barbarian or Fighter. On the spellcaster's turns they have so many interesting and useful options - but on my turn i can pretty much just...attack. Sure i do competitive damage. But there's more to gaming than just numbers.

This first one is inspired by Japanese swordsmanship: Masterful martial artists that could finish a fight with a single swift and precise blow. Or, for those of you who are Anime fans, using an unarmed variant that still uses 1d10 for Singular Strike attacks to achieve a 'One punch Man' monk.

This is the very first draft, and still being play tested. Any helpful feedback or critique is very much appreciated.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzi-rVu5z2olekVPdjZaZ1hnZ0k/view

This is also a very deliberate shift away from much of the streamlined design philosophy of 5e. So before you post that this is departure and needs to re think its design; i am already aware, and intent on its direction. I feel like we have enough of the streamlined 5e design philosophy, and wanted to add some options for players who like more complex playstyles where you have to keep track of more things. I've always viewed the Players handbook as 'more of a guideline' and don't see any reason why the game can't cater to players who want a complicated play style experience.

This is the first in a series or Martial Archetypes, and one of the simpler ones.
If you want to know more about my ideas on game design and discuss them with me or others, or want to see some of the other Homebrew Archetypes i'm working on; you can visit this shamefully promoted space of mine: its this new thing i heard of called blogging. I'm going to jump on the wagon while not many people have them.
http://tempestcritic.blogspot.com.au/

[Amnoriath]

There is a difference between complexity and needless book keeping. Complexity means there are a variety of conditions and/or techniques a player could utilize different results yours though comes close to the latter as you are having to worry about 5 different levels of damage for 6 different situations right from the get go. Overall even if we could side step the fact it has huge levels of damage output not seen in any other character this character gets all of its interesting and varied abilities at level 3 and everything pretty much just makes the Singular Strike even more powerful. You then have Stillness which is at will healing which then goes to your damage pool not to mention never have to worry about short rest ever again since it recovers ki as well. This is an absolute no-no in 5e with hit die.

[JNAProductions]

Did you intend to give this archetype unlimited out of combat healing, and unlimited ki-restoration? (Even at level 20, it's only two minutes to fully restore your Ki Pool.)

Because that ALONE is too much.

[Tempest Critic]

The out of combat healing and ki regeneration was unintended.
It definitely breaks when not fighting and needs to be tied to combat.

The idea being, that ki points are not a fixed number of uses, but a manageable resource, which allows the monk to have more sustained usefulness in combat. At the cost of the more powerful Ki uses from the other paths; such as stunning strike.

As to the damage output: it's still being tested so it might need to be toned down or up. But the Single Strike monk does NO damage, until it does a lot of damage (assuming it doesn't wait too long). The aim is to basically be delaying all of the damage you would have normally been doing, and then unleash it all at once.

The later levels do probably need to be more interesting and less straight damage upgrades.

[Sicarius Victis]

Uh, Stunning Strike is a core Monk feature, not a subclass one. Very few high-powered Ki combat options are lost from taking this subclass, and most of that is basically covered by their massive-yet-needlessly-complex damage boosts.

[Amnoriath]

What I think the real issue here is how front loaded this thing is. You have more things here to jot down at level 3 than a prepared full-caster does at an equivalent level just from this sub-class alone. While you say you want complexity the point even worse than the Battlemaster you gave everything this sub-class is about at its first level and spend the rest of its levels basically just improving damage except the Battlemaster at least gives a couple more uses. You need to simplify it not just to reduce complexity but to ensure there is overall growth in your concept.

This is how I would start eliminate all of the damage pool increasing abilities except for Patience and change it to monk level+wis. modifier as well as not making an attack at all for the turn because currently you gain weapon+wis. mod. for performing a Stunning Strike. Eliminate the weapon proficiencies because all they do is slightly increase damage and deviates your concept. Eliminate the Waza techniques because right now they have no consistent quality to them to make a category out of. As to replace them incorporate ways of increasing your damage pool with riders on your Singular strike when they meet certain conditions like for instance.

Cool Name
When you would regain hit points during combat you add them to your damage pool.
Rising Punch: When you would get over a condition afflicting you on your next turn if you would be successful in delivering a singular strike you gain temporary hit points equal to the base damage of the strike for 1 minute.
Your character would gain more of these as they gain sub-class levels. As for the Waza techniques you could look at riders to current actions already given and gain more of those as they gain levels.