JMAP94- DM idea- Barbarian Monk

[JMAP94]

so one of my players in my campaign wants to be a monk who has a deep seated rage inside of him that comes out when he is bloodied (which is why he became a monk in the first place to learn to control that rage). Now we're both trying to figure out how could we make that happen mechanically in the game in a balanced way, and I wanted to run it by the forum and see if you guys could come up with some ideas of your own or make critiques on what we have regarding game balance. here are a few homebrew options we were thinking of:


when he drops to 1/2 hitpoints, he becomes a path of the beserker barbarian (though with the same stats and hit points) and immediately enters a rage (all of his character levels convert to barbarian levels for the duration, so if he is a 4th level monk and 2nd level bard, he becomes a 6th level barbarian). Once the rage ends, he converts back to normal. This is probably my favorite idea, but I have no idea if its balanced. I mean, strength is a dumpstat for monk and he'd lose ac as he would be adding his con instead of wisdom, so he won't be able to benefit from some of the bonuses (were doing point buy), so on that end Im thinking this may be underpowered. But I'm mainly worried that it might make him "too versatile," giving him access to both the barbarian and monk abilities, with also considering the fact that we have another barbarian in our party (though i ran the idea by that guy, and he said he was okay with it), and on that end be overpowered. So does Op+Up = fair? Idk.
(side note: A possible "boost" i was thinking of is giving him an average between the hd of the barbarian and the class he is taking whenever he gains a level. (so whenever he takes a monk level he gets d10 hp, the avg between the monk's d8 and the barbarian's d12, but as im typing this i don't like this "boost" idea. Id also have the caveat that he does not gain any of the barbarian's spells (beast sense) and that he cannot take levels in barbarian class regularly so that he cannot "stack rages"

once he drops to half hit points, he "attacks recklessly" giving him advantage on melee attack rolls, but grants advantage on all attacks made against him (just like reckless attack for barbarian)

when he drops to half hitpoints he gains proficiency bonus to damage rolls, but attacks random targets in his melee range (he is allowed to make a will save to stop himself from attacking allies)

tell him to just multiclass into barbarian for one level, and lift the "attribute restrictions" for him.


I have some story elements planned for it but thats a whole different story

[Desteplo]

Don't homebrew if you don't have to
-just tell him to take 2-3 barbarian levels and he can choose the thematic timing of his rage (let him change his stats to accommodate or let him without a 13+ str
-it's a theme that fits within the system already. You don't need to mess with it

[Specter]

I wouldn't bother with that. 3 Barbarian levels (Bear or Wolf) are good if you're planning for a STR monk. Start point buy with ST15, DX13, CO13, IN9, WI14, CH8, then take Standard Human to round it to 16, 14 14, 10, 15, 9. Later on, grab Resilient (WIS) to round out your WIS and avoid charms and frightens and such.

[JMAP94]

I appreciate your guys suggestions. Though, I do want to ask, if you had to homebrew something balanced for it, what would you do?

[suplee215]

Give him a "blessing" similar to the Berseker Axe. Perhaps wait for the character to fall below half for the berseker axe to be able trigger. Blessings are supposed to mimic a magic item and this magic item seems perfect for what he wants.

[JMAP94]

I really like that idea! Its really balanced, it's flavorful, doesn't step too much on the other barbarians toes, I may tweak it a bit though to make sure he doesn't tk the entire party 1st level. Maybe if he's about to attack a friendly I'll let him make another save to make himself miss.

[DanInStreatham]

As a slight variation on some ideas already proposed, you could consider only 1 level of Barbarian, and being a Monk with no wisdom.

1st level Barbarian, for unarmoured defence based on Con then max Dex and Con, dumping Str and Wis (well, you may want some Wis if you have the rolls, as it obviously has advantages to have a good Wis).

Then you struggle through level 1 as a Dex Barbarian, but from there go all Monk, improving Con when you would improve Wis.

You end up with no stunning strike to speak of, and the ideal Monk path is shadows as there are (nearly) no saves attached to those abilities. But you do end up with a lot of hit points and 2 rages a day which provide resistance to damage (the str based damage boost is lost).

So it's hardly an optimised path but it appeals to me. It can represent a 'hard' school of martial arts, to contrast with the usually mystical Monk. You still get a lot of effective Monk class features, you exchange Wis prof for Con prof, which seems a fair trade, and if you have a little Wis (say 12 or 14) you can still force enemies to make saves or be stunned which is useful in some circumstances.