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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next I Watch Too Much Anime! (Way of the Eight Gates Monk Tradition) PEACH



StarvingGamer
2017-07-11, 03:21 AM
Way of the Eight Gates - Monk Monastic Tradition (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HJbtPsY-r-)

I'm on vacation and being self-indulgent I know this is probably suuuper bust but still feedback would be welcome!

Way of the Eight Gates
Monks of the Way of the Eight Gates train to tear down the the mind's protective limiters on physical exertion using ki. By opening each of their inner gates, they can push their bodies to limits far beyond mere mortals. This is not without a cost, however, as these monks quickly learn just how taxing it can be to have their muscles working at their true maximum. That being said, there is none better than a monk of the eight gates when facing insurmountable odds, as long as their allies stick around to help put them back together again.

Gate of Opening
By the time you reach 3rd level, you can momentarily push beyond your body's natural capabilities. When you make an ability check that uses your Strength or Dexterity modifier and, you can spend 1 ki points to reroll it and take the second result.
You can use this feature two times. You regain all expended uses of it when you finish a short or long rest.

Gate of Rest
At 3rd level, your control over your body's natural healing processes allow you to momentarily invigorate yourself. As a bonus action, you can spend 2 ki points to grant yourself temporary hit points for one minute equal to 1d8 plus your Wisdom modifier.
Starting at 11th level, the temporary hit points granted by this feature increase to 2d8 plus your Wisdom modifier. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

Gate of Life
Starting at 6th level, you can push yourself beyond your limits to unleash a devastating aerial assault. Using your action, you can spend 3 ki points to make four unarmed strikes against a single creature. If the target is large or smaller, after the fourth unarmed strike it is launched 10 feet straight up for every unarmed strike attack roll that hit as part of this action. Any fall damage taken as a result of this movement is doubled.
After using this feature, you suffer one level of exhaustion, and you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

Gate of Pain
When you are 6th level, you have learned to enhance your speed and power at great personal cost. As a bonus action, you can spend 4 ki points to enter a state gaining the following benefits:

You ignore the effects of exhaustion.
Your speed increases by 10 feet.
You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls for your unarmed strikes.
Your Flurry of Blows costs 0 ki points.
This state lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious. You can also end this state on your turn as a bonus action. After using this feature, you suffer two levels of exhaustion and take 1d6 damage for every turn you were in this state. This damage cannot be prevented or reduced in any way.
You cannot use this feature in conjunction with your Gate of Closing or Gate of Death features. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.

Gate of Joy
At 11th level, you can unleash a combination of punches that ignite the air with sheer friction. Using your action, you can spend 5 ki points to make six unarmed strikes against a single creature. Each unarmed strike that hits does an additional 1d6 fire damage to the target.
If at least one unarmed strike attack roll hits, each creature in a 15-foot cone behind the target must make a Dexterity saving throw. Each creature takes 1d6 fire damage for each unarmed strike attack roll that hit on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful save.
After using this feature, you suffer two levels of exhaustion, and you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

Gate of Closing
Starting at 11th level, you have trained yourself to reach near-superhuman levels of strength. As a bonus action, you can spend 6 ki points to enter a state gaining the following benefits:

You ignore the effects of exhaustion.
Ability checks that use your Strength or Dexterity modifier are rolled with advantage.
Your speed increases by 20 feet.
You gain a +4 bonus to attack and damage rolls for your unarmed strikes.
Your Flurry of Blows costs 0 ki points.
Your Step of the Wind costs 0 ki points.
This state lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if you are knocked unconscious. You can also end this state on your turn as a bonus action. After using this feature, you suffer three levels of exhaustion and take 1d10 damage for every turn you were in this state. This damage cannot be prevented or reduced in any way.
You cannot use this feature in conjunction with your Gate of Pain or Gate of Death features. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.

Gate of Wonder
By the time you reach 17th level, you can put your body at immense risk to generate awe-inspiring force. Using your action, you can spend 7 ki to erupt a column of air pressure from your hands in a 15-foot-wide line targeting a point up to 60 feet away. Each creature in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature is pushed to within 5 feet of the target point. On a successful save, the creature isn't pushed.
After this movement, the target point explodes into an enormous shockwave. Each creature in a 30-foot radius must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 8d10 thunder damage and is pushed 3d6 x 10 feet away from the center of the blast, falling prone at the end of this movement. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn't pushed.
In addition, unsecured objects that are completely within the area of effect are automatically pushed 3d6 x 10 feet away from the target point by the shockwave's effect, and the shockwave emits a thunderous boom audible out to one mile.
After using this feature, you suffer three levels of exhaustion. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.

Gate of Death
When you are 17th level, you can burn out your soul to gain the power of a god. As a bonus action, you can spend 8 ki points to enter a state gaining the following benefits:

You ignore the effects of conditions.
Your Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores change to 30.
Your speed increases by 30 feet, and you gain a fly speed equal to your walk speed.
You gain a bonus to all rolls equal to your monk level.
Your monk features no longer require ki.
You no longer have to wait between rests to reuse the features granted by this monastic tradition.
This state lasts for 1 minute. After using this feature, you suffer six levels of exhaustion and die. This death cannot be prevented in any way and your soul is permanently destroyed, making you ineligible for resurrection.
You cannot use this feature in conjunction with your Gate of Pain or Gate of Closing features.

Surrealistik
2017-07-11, 03:25 AM
Incredibly overpowered. Gate of Death is insane.

EDIT: Just saw the part where it 'destroys your soul'. I still think it's too binary; hate the way it allows you to trivialize say the BBEG fight and go out in a blaze of glory, leaving the rest of your party as cheerleaders in awe of your OPness.

StarvingGamer
2017-07-11, 03:31 AM
Incredibly overpowered. Gate of Death is insane.

OK but, hear me out, you die using it 😉

TBH I initially was considering leaving it out and only having 7 gates as features but, I figured why not have the option to kill yourself?

Surrealistik
2017-07-11, 03:32 AM
OK but, hear me out, you die using it 😉

Yeah, just saw that limitation, even so:


EDIT: Just saw the part where it 'destroys your soul'. I still think it's too binary; hate the way it allows you to trivialize say the BBEG fight and go out in a blaze of glory, leaving the rest of your party as cheerleaders in awe of your OPness.

Sariel Vailo
2017-07-11, 03:35 AM
If you like this just play the naruto d20. Hkw about we make a new unarmed techniquebthe 1000 years of death.

StarvingGamer
2017-07-11, 03:38 AM
Yeah, just saw that limitation, even so:

Sure. I'm well aware that feature is beyond totally bananas and not practical. Of this entire brew that bit is 100% there as a goof and not to be taken seriously. It's not about ever using it, it's about knowing you could.

StarvingGamer
2017-07-11, 03:40 AM
If you like this just play the naruto d20. Hkw about we make a new unarmed techniquebthe 1000 years of death.

But my group plays D&D and what's the point of dumb brews if you can't make your friends read them and roll their eyes at you?

Also that would be a solid choice of a feature for a prankster ninja archetype but that's not what this is let's try to stay focused. 👍🏼

Lalliman
2017-07-11, 04:21 AM
Anime Bullsh*t™ is my guilty pleasure, so I like the flavour, but man is it hard to assess. It's the berserker on steroids, gaining short-term power in return for long-term detriment, so even if you do the math on how much damage it can do / take, it'll still be really hard to draw conclusions from that. I think it could be very powerful in a campaign with lots of downtime, but meh in one that follows the six-encounters-a-day-every-day formula.

What I don't really like is the per-rest restrictions on the gates, simply because they already have other limiting factors. All gates have a ki cost to use, and most inflict exhaustion, so do you really need per-rest restrictions? Maybe that allows some exploit that I'm not seeing, I dunno.

Gate of Death seems manageable for a DM who knows that you have it. If the campaign gets to that level, the DM could design the final boss fight with that in mind, creating a fight of overwhelming difficulty, and perhaps forcing the monk to to fight the BBEG's army / pet tarrasque while the rest of the party fight the BBEG himself, or vice versa. It definitely leads to more interesting gameplay situations than the similar True Sacrifice ability that Pathfinder's Monk of the Healing Hand (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk/archetypes/paizo-monk-archetypes/monk-of-the-healing-hand) has.

You should really remove the "bonus to all rolls equal to your monk level" benefit though. That's what pushes it from really powerful to utterly game-breaking, and it's not even necessary because all your combat-relevant bonuses will already be really high. (An attack bonus of +16 is plenty high in 5e, no need to raise it to +36.)

StarvingGamer
2017-07-11, 11:55 AM
Anime Bullsh*t™ is my guilty pleasure, so I like the flavour, but man is it hard to assess. It's the berserker on steroids, gaining short-term power in return for long-term detriment, so even if you do the math on how much damage it can do / take, it'll still be really hard to draw conclusions from that. I think it could be very powerful in a campaign with lots of downtime, but meh in one that follows the six-encounters-a-day-every-day formula.

What I don't really like is the per-rest restrictions on the gates, simply because they already have other limiting factors. All gates have a ki cost to use, and most inflict exhaustion, so do you really need per-rest restrictions? Maybe that allows some exploit that I'm not seeing, I dunno.

Gate of Death seems manageable for a DM who knows that you have it. If the campaign gets to that level, the DM could design the final boss fight with that in mind, creating a fight of overwhelming difficulty, and perhaps forcing the monk to to fight the BBEG's army / pet tarrasque while the rest of the party fight the BBEG himself, or vice versa. It definitely leads to more interesting gameplay situations than the similar True Sacrifice ability that Pathfinder's Monk of the Healing Hand (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk/archetypes/paizo-monk-archetypes/monk-of-the-healing-hand) has.

You should really remove the "bonus to all rolls equal to your monk level" benefit though. That's what pushes it from really powerful to utterly game-breaking, and it's not even necessary because all your combat-relevant bonuses will already be really high. (An attack bonus of +16 is plenty high in 5e, no need to raise it to +36.)

Thanks for the input. I can't really explain why but for some reason I feel like not having the per-rest limit wouldn't be right? I think mostly I want the player to have to think extra hard about popping their powers. Like not only will they be debuffing themselves for the foreseeable future, they wouldn't even be able to call on that technique again if they really needed to.

You're right about the +monk level to rolls I think, mostly? I was just throwing features at the wall and the +level to rolls was in long before I thought about boosting ability scores to 30. If I was a smarter person I'd do some mock fights vs a Tarrasque or a Tiamat and see how they stack up. That feature will change I just need to decide if I nix it entirely or... maybe you get +WIS to all your rolls?

Logosloki
2017-07-12, 07:54 AM
You need to make it a prerequisite that a person must do a nice guy pose (in meatspace, not just in game) before they gate of death. Now that you have done this though I really need a Kurama sorcerous path or warlock pact. Keep up the anime bull, it's a great read even if it is impractical.

Sariel Vailo
2017-07-12, 11:56 AM
Pre req spandex outfit.

JNAProductions
2017-07-12, 12:20 PM
Gate of Death is really OP, even if it kills you.

You ignore literally any condition, meaning there's no way to stop you with status effects.

Your Con shoots up to 30, meaning you have somewhere over 300 HP, so HP damage ain't gonna stop you. (And AC of 20+Wis mod, so 25 probably.)

And you add your Monk level (at least 17) to ALL rolls.

So, your unarmed strikes, of which you get 4 per turn (for free now, since Flurry costs no ki) hit on a 2 (+33 to hit means nothing printed is hit on anything but a 2+. Even with crazy shenanigans, you're still hitting really well) for 1d10+27 damage each.

Let's put this in perspective. Tiamat has AC 25 (you hit on 2s), 615 HP (just under 19 hits to kill her, though she does have 30 HP Regen) and she's hitting you on 6s (+19 to hit) with two claws and one tail attack, for 24 and 28 respectively. She flies at 120', but you're nearly as fast as her, and can use your +27 to +33 Athletics check to Climb Onto A Larger Creature (minimum result of 28-she needs an 18 to avoid that, and a 19 to get you off once you're on). She can Legendary Action a Bite (hits on a 6) for 46 damage, which is probably her best use, since it doesn't really on a physical save which you WILL pass.

So, turn one. You trigger Gate of Death as a bonus action, attack her and use your first attack to climb on (assuming no Athletics proficiency, you succeed 98.5% WITHOUT a reroll, which you can get for free with Gate of Opening) and the second to punch her (hits 399/400 times, but hey, let's assume it misses. This will be your only miss.)

Tiamat can either try to escape the grapple (.75% chance before rerolls) once per turn or attack you, dealing an average of 57 points of damage (and after your turn, 34.5 damage on average from a bite) which means she can actually kill you before you kill her. Unless you, you know, Dodge as a bonus action, which you can do for free.

Oh, I missed Gate Of Joy. She's immune to fire, but that's okay. 6 Unarmed attacks are pretty good. So, on each subsequent turn (you have 9 left) you attack 6 times, hit 5.985 on average, for 194.5125 damage, then Dodge as a bonus action for free.

Tiamat then attacks, at disadvantage because you Dodged, dealing now (counting 2 claws, a bite, and a tail) 68.625 damage on average, and healing for 30 HP.

You Gate Of Joy again. 194.5125 damage. Then Dodge.

Tiamat. 68.625, heals for 30.

Now, you are at (17*10+17*5+3=258 HP base, assuming no Hill Dwarf or Tough feat) 26.25 HP. You cannot survive one more round. Tiamat is at (615+60-194.5125*2) 285.975 HP.

You strike again. She's down to 91.4625 HP. Then Dodge, before she pastes you. Or she would, but...

Here's the thing-you don't fall unconscious. That's a condition. Meaning you can fight at 0 HP. She hits with half her attacks, and the first one drops you to 0. The second inflicts a single failed death saving throw.

You then attack back. Gate Of Joy WILL KILL HER. Now, if Tiamat gets REALLY lucky, she might be able to kill you, with some crits or something (though what with being at a Disadvantage, she probably won't). But on average, you will, at level 17, kill Tiamat. Solo.

That's a bit borked.

StarvingGamer
2017-07-12, 02:49 PM
Gate of Death is really OP, even if it kills you.

You ignore literally any condition, meaning there's no way to stop you with status effects.

Your Con shoots up to 30, meaning you have somewhere over 300 HP, so HP damage ain't gonna stop you. (And AC of 20+Wis mod, so 25 probably.)

And you add your Monk level (at least 17) to ALL rolls.

So, your unarmed strikes, of which you get 4 per turn (for free now, since Flurry costs no ki) hit on a 2 (+33 to hit means nothing printed is hit on anything but a 2+. Even with crazy shenanigans, you're still hitting really well) for 1d10+27 damage each.

Let's put this in perspective. Tiamat has AC 25 (you hit on 2s), 615 HP (just under 19 hits to kill her, though she does have 30 HP Regen) and she's hitting you on 6s (+19 to hit) with two claws and one tail attack, for 24 and 28 respectively. She flies at 120', but you're nearly as fast as her, and can use your +27 to +33 Athletics check to Climb Onto A Larger Creature (minimum result of 28-she needs an 18 to avoid that, and a 19 to get you off once you're on). She can Legendary Action a Bite (hits on a 6) for 46 damage, which is probably her best use, since it doesn't really on a physical save which you WILL pass.

So, turn one. You trigger Gate of Death as a bonus action, attack her and use your first attack to climb on (assuming no Athletics proficiency, you succeed 98.5% WITHOUT a reroll, which you can get for free with Gate of Opening) and the second to punch her (hits 399/400 times, but hey, let's assume it misses. This will be your only miss.)

Tiamat can either try to escape the grapple (.75% chance before rerolls) once per turn or attack you, dealing an average of 57 points of damage (and after your turn, 34.5 damage on average from a bite) which means she can actually kill you before you kill her. Unless you, you know, Dodge as a bonus action, which you can do for free.

Oh, I missed Gate Of Joy. She's immune to fire, but that's okay. 6 Unarmed attacks are pretty good. So, on each subsequent turn (you have 9 left) you attack 6 times, hit 5.985 on average, for 194.5125 damage, then Dodge as a bonus action for free.

Tiamat then attacks, at disadvantage because you Dodged, dealing now (counting 2 claws, a bite, and a tail) 68.625 damage on average, and healing for 30 HP.

You Gate Of Joy again. 194.5125 damage. Then Dodge.

Tiamat. 68.625, heals for 30.

Now, you are at (17*10+17*5+3=258 HP base, assuming no Hill Dwarf or Tough feat) 26.25 HP. You cannot survive one more round. Tiamat is at (615+60-194.5125*2) 285.975 HP.

You strike again. She's down to 91.4625 HP. Then Dodge, before she pastes you. Or she would, but...

Here's the thing-you don't fall unconscious. That's a condition. Meaning you can fight at 0 HP. She hits with half her attacks, and the first one drops you to 0. The second inflicts a single failed death saving throw.

You then attack back. Gate Of Joy WILL KILL HER. Now, if Tiamat gets REALLY lucky, she might be able to kill you, with some crits or something (though what with being at a Disadvantage, she probably won't). But on average, you will, at level 17, kill Tiamat. Solo.

That's a bit borked.

Well, to be clear, it's just supposed to be a fun thematic ribbon. If you've played a campaign long enough to hit 17 then I don't know how willing you'd be to just throw that character away unless it's in a sufficiently dramatic moment in which case why not? And it's definitely a thing a DM could plan for and design around.

That being said, this is also a spaghetti-on-the-wall midnight-fever-dream sort of feature that I have made no attempt to test and tune yet. Once I have time I'll probably revisit it.