Nightcrawler Monk subclass

[Beechgnome]

So one of my players wanted to play Nightcrawler and asked for help in making it happen. Mystic Nomads seemed a bit too fiddly for his desires so I thought I'd port the basic Nightcrawler abilities to a monk subclass.

Naturally, he'll be a tiefling, and I think we'll tweak the infernal spells to give him spider climb instead of darkness, and possibly create a homebrew tiefling feat to give him a prehensile tail.

But I thought I'd post the Nightcrawler subclass to get feedback. My suspicion is it is a bit overpowered, but maybe not. Monks are pretty awesome, generally.


Way of the Nightcrawler

Bonus proficiencies

You gain proficiency in rapiers, and treat them as monk weapons. (This is mostly for flavor)

Nightcrawler Step

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to slip in and out of harm's way through hidden dimensional portals. Whenever you spend a Ki point to Disengage or Dash as a bonus action using your Step of the Wind feature, you may choose to teleport a distance up to your remaining movement left to an unoccupied space you can see.

Whenever you teleport you leave behind a 5' radius cloud of smoke that lightly obscures the area and dissipates in 1 round. It also smells of brimstone.

Travelling Companion

At 6th level, when you use any of your Nightcrawler abilities to teleport, you can take one person within reach with you as part of your movement. If the person is unwilling, they may make a Wisdom saving throw against your Monk ability Save DC. You may take an additional person at 11th level and again at 17th level.

Reflexive Teleport

At 11th level you can vanish in a puff of smoke in response to danger. When you are attacked or forced to make a Dexterity saving throw, you can choose to teleport out of harm's way as a reaction. You do so before determining if the attack hits or if the saving throw is successful. When you do so you can move up to your speed to an unoccupied space you can see.

Once you have used this feature you cannot use it again until you have finished a short or long rest.

Devil's Flurry

At 17th level, when you choose the Attack action and spend a Ki point to make a Flurry of Blows, you can spend additional Ki points to teleport multiple times during the Attack. You may teleport up to half your movement a number of times equal to the Ki you spend. Teleporting in this way does not promote opportunity attacks.

[Mortis_Elrod]

it doesn't seem overpowered to me. Seems rather lacking actually. Capstone does't add all that much, and teleporting doesn't trigger OAs anyway. You did however port the basic kit of Nightcrawler to a monk subclass so, job done in that regard. I wouldn't do this over being a Nomad though.

[Beechgnome]

If teleporting doesn't allow OA, then I guess it should just be Dash action Step of the Wind.

The idea with the capstone was to let you basically bamf around the field of battle, making four attacks with flurry, potentially against four different foes (and likely using stunning strike once).

But part of the capstone is also the ability to target three foes with the 6th level ability, potentially letting you drag three bad guys at once if they fail their saves, so maybe I underpowered the 17th level ability.

We'll be playing it out soon so I'll see if, at 11th level, it really is underpowered.

[Theodoxus]

About the only thing lacking is teleport distance. Yes, Kurt is limited to line of sight - but that's about it; though teleporting longer distances is also more taxing. I'd say, for the 3rd level ability, you can increase your distance teleported by spending more ki. For 1 ki, you move your base movement. For 2, it's 2x your base, 3 ki, = 3x, etc.

Would probably add a special clause, that if you spend half or more of your ki to teleport, you gain a temporary level of exhaustion that is restored upon a short rest. This way, you can make as many short hops as you have ki for, but longer ones have a chance of tiring you out.

[Beechgnome]

About the only thing lacking is teleport distance. Yes, Kurt is limited to line of sight - but that's about it; though teleporting longer distances is also more taxing. I'd say, for the 3rd level ability, you can increase your distance teleported by spending more ki. For 1 ki, you move your base movement. For 2, it's 2x your base, 3 ki, = 3x, etc.

Would probably add a special clause, that if you spend half or more of your ki to teleport, you gain a temporary level of exhaustion that is restored upon a short rest. This way, you can make as many short hops as you have ki for, but longer ones have a chance of tiring you out.

I like this a lot. It is similar to the Nomad's Step of a Dozen Paces, but with a Nightcrawler feel.

[Mortis_Elrod]

If teleporting doesn't allow OA, then I guess it should just be Dash action Step of the Wind.

The idea with the capstone was to let you basically bamf around the field of battle, making four attacks with flurry, potentially against four different foes (and likely using stunning strike once).

But part of the capstone is also the ability to target three foes with the 6th level ability, potentially letting you drag three bad guys at once if they fail their saves, so maybe I underpowered the 17th level ability.

We'll be playing it out soon so I'll see if, at 11th level, it really is underpowered.

If you want a capstone like that have you looked at the horizon walker ranger? 11th level feature is Distant Strike, which you may want to modify to fit with flury of blows. Here's the UA (https://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/2017_01_UA_RangerRogue_0117JCMM.pdf)

[Lombra]

I am playing a shadow monk tiefling and just realized how close it is to the nightcrawler feel. Wow. We played a few sessions in the feywild where everything is dimly lit and shadow stepping everywhere was a blast.

[Talionis]

When you teleport someone unwilling, it seems like it should be something other than a Wisdom save. Dex to avoid, Strength if it's like a grapple, Con save to force your body in place. Not a big deal.

You could allow the teleport to disorient or stun if you are looking to add a little something. Stunning is a Monk ability already but it might be nice to position and stun at a ki discounted price.