Mundus33
2017-05-01, 07:17 AM
I just sent this to my DM wanted to hear everyone's opinion. Since I'm no expert. All I can say now is that I never use Searing arc strike especially since my DM gave me magic handwraps +1d6 force damage when I hit. Really sorry for the long windedness of the explanation I put a lot of thought into this but if my thinking is wrong feel free to correct me.
Searing Strike 2.0 [At 6th level, you gain the ability to channel your ki into searing waves of energy. Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to cast the 1st level spell burning hands as a bonus action additionally you can alter the area of the spell from a 15ft cone to a 30 ft line.
You can spend additional ki points to cast burning hands at a higher level. Each additional ki point you spend increases the spell's level by 1. The maximum number of ki points (1 plus any additional points) that you can spend on the spell equals half your monk level (round down) minus 1.
Also if a monk increases the spell level of burning hands to level 5 your area of effect increases to a 100ft line or a 60ft cone.]
This brings the monks ability to cast in line with an eldritch knight at level 7 an eldritch knight can cast 4 1st level and 2 2nd levels at 7 a monk can cast 3 2nd levels and 1 1st level or 2 2nd levels and 3 1st levels or even 7 1st levels. now seven first level spells may seem like a lot but keep in mind that uses all my ki and I use ki to flurry, bon action dodge, bon action dash, stunning strike, and double my jump distance so its very unlikely I'll use all my ki for spells.
Not only that but an Eldritch knight can cast 6 spells 2 2nd and 4 1st and they get cantrips along with war magic which with melee cantrips effectively gets a spell on top of 2 attacks (booming blade/green flame blade). Also eldritch knights get many more spells known than I do. Things like shield, enlarge person, prot from good and evil, counterspell, dispel magic, prot from energy, remove curse. You get the idea the only spells my monk can cast are effectively a modified burning hands and a modified fireball.
I would use the warlock as a comparision since they get their spells back on a short rest but at level 7 they can cast 2 4th level spell per short rest so I think 3 2nd level and 1 1st level is a fair trade off with the added bonus of being able to cast a lot of 1st level spells at the cost of not casting 4th level spells. Now eventually I can cast a 9th level burning hands at level 20 but a 9th level burning hands really isn't as useful as having 10 spells known like eks and warlocks do and it would use 9 ki of the 20 I would have.
As far as the tertiary effect. I added it to effectively give me 2 more spells known casting a 5th level burning hands transforms it into a 7d6 lightning bolt(level 3 spell normally casting lightning bolt at level 5 would actually do 10d6) that does fire damage or a 7d6 cone of cold(level 5 spell normally. That would normally do 8d8 damage) that does fire damage. So I'm actually taking a damage penalty on both.
I feel that this is actually fairly well balanced since I get a better burning hands that is actually useful once I get the spirit bomb since its both a bonus action and can be cast in a line but its still technically worse than Searing Sunburst since it only costs 3 ki and has a slightly larger aoe. I also added in a minus 1 to how much ki I can spend to prevent me from being able to cast higher level spells a level early which keeps me in line with the eldritch knight and still weaker than the warlock and a pure caster like sorcerer since he can cast a level 4 fireball and quicken a level 2 burning hand or magic missile(aprox 12d6 damage) at level 7 and can cannibalize sorcerer points to gain slots back.
Searing Strike 2.0 [At 6th level, you gain the ability to channel your ki into searing waves of energy. Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to cast the 1st level spell burning hands as a bonus action additionally you can alter the area of the spell from a 15ft cone to a 30 ft line.
You can spend additional ki points to cast burning hands at a higher level. Each additional ki point you spend increases the spell's level by 1. The maximum number of ki points (1 plus any additional points) that you can spend on the spell equals half your monk level (round down) minus 1.
Also if a monk increases the spell level of burning hands to level 5 your area of effect increases to a 100ft line or a 60ft cone.]
This brings the monks ability to cast in line with an eldritch knight at level 7 an eldritch knight can cast 4 1st level and 2 2nd levels at 7 a monk can cast 3 2nd levels and 1 1st level or 2 2nd levels and 3 1st levels or even 7 1st levels. now seven first level spells may seem like a lot but keep in mind that uses all my ki and I use ki to flurry, bon action dodge, bon action dash, stunning strike, and double my jump distance so its very unlikely I'll use all my ki for spells.
Not only that but an Eldritch knight can cast 6 spells 2 2nd and 4 1st and they get cantrips along with war magic which with melee cantrips effectively gets a spell on top of 2 attacks (booming blade/green flame blade). Also eldritch knights get many more spells known than I do. Things like shield, enlarge person, prot from good and evil, counterspell, dispel magic, prot from energy, remove curse. You get the idea the only spells my monk can cast are effectively a modified burning hands and a modified fireball.
I would use the warlock as a comparision since they get their spells back on a short rest but at level 7 they can cast 2 4th level spell per short rest so I think 3 2nd level and 1 1st level is a fair trade off with the added bonus of being able to cast a lot of 1st level spells at the cost of not casting 4th level spells. Now eventually I can cast a 9th level burning hands at level 20 but a 9th level burning hands really isn't as useful as having 10 spells known like eks and warlocks do and it would use 9 ki of the 20 I would have.
As far as the tertiary effect. I added it to effectively give me 2 more spells known casting a 5th level burning hands transforms it into a 7d6 lightning bolt(level 3 spell normally casting lightning bolt at level 5 would actually do 10d6) that does fire damage or a 7d6 cone of cold(level 5 spell normally. That would normally do 8d8 damage) that does fire damage. So I'm actually taking a damage penalty on both.
I feel that this is actually fairly well balanced since I get a better burning hands that is actually useful once I get the spirit bomb since its both a bonus action and can be cast in a line but its still technically worse than Searing Sunburst since it only costs 3 ki and has a slightly larger aoe. I also added in a minus 1 to how much ki I can spend to prevent me from being able to cast higher level spells a level early which keeps me in line with the eldritch knight and still weaker than the warlock and a pure caster like sorcerer since he can cast a level 4 fireball and quicken a level 2 burning hand or magic missile(aprox 12d6 damage) at level 7 and can cannibalize sorcerer points to gain slots back.