Way of the Soulknife (Monk archetype)

[miburo]

The Soulknife is a class that has always had a really cool flavor but not really good mechanics to back it up throughout various D&D editions. The official UA for Mystic inclues a Soulknife archetype, but overall I find the Mystic class a little too confusing and the Soulknife not particularly great for what it should be.

Instead, I think the Monk makes a really good base (both crunch and fluff-wise) for a Soulknife. So I present to you here a monk archetype version. Most of my inspiration came from the 3.5E and Pathfinder soulknife classes and drawing parallels to the existing monk archetype (especially Shadow). I also did read through some homebrew versions including the ones from Middle Finger of Vecna. Please let me know what you think!

Way of the Soulknife (Monk Archetype) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DloNtyPy4OI0VCEAbeIXec2YhOOOxmw-3X9ysDcIndY)

[Ixidor92]

I like a lot of what I see here (totally agree that soulknife makes more sense as a monk option) the only thing that seems a little odd to me is the fact that with these rules, a soulknife cannot throw their mind blade until 11th level. In 3.5 that was one of the first abilities they got access to, and it doesn't seem as powerful as the other shape abilities. Maybe you could give it the range property at lvl 3, but it doesn't return afterwards so you need to shape a new one. And replace it with a better shape at lvl 11?

[miburo]

I like a lot of what I see here (totally agree that soulknife makes more sense as a monk option) the only thing that seems a little odd to me is the fact that with these rules, a soulknife cannot throw their mind blade until 11th level. In 3.5 that was one of the first abilities they got access to, and it doesn't seem as powerful as the other shape abilities. Maybe you could give it the range property at lvl 3, but it doesn't return afterwards so you need to shape a new one. And replace it with a better shape at lvl 11?

The only problem I have is that a ranged monk weapon attack is basically all the Way of the Sun Soul monk gets at 3rd level as an ability. Giving the soulknife this same power as well as the mind blade benefits seems overpowering. I'd consider bumping up the range of the throwing knife version to 30/90 feet at 11th level though to make it a little better.

[bunnynoah]

I really like this idea! I'm not good with class homebrew, but I'll keep this saved because Soulknives seem so cool in previous editions.

[Mortis_Elrod]

This is pretty good though I must point some things out.

1. The "mind blades count as magical " line is redundant. They do psychic damage. No such thing as magical or non magical psychic damage.

2. The twin blades is a bit wordy. You could cut it down to "you can summon 2 mindblades instead of one and you gain the two weapon fighting style while wielding them"

3. I agree that throwing the mindblades should come earlier, tack it on to the 6th level in place of the redundant sentence.

4. In place of thrown, have the option of a soul bow.

[miburo]

This is pretty good though I must point some things out.

1. The "mind blades count as magical " line is redundant. They do psychic damage. No such thing as magical or non magical psychic damage.

2. The twin blades is a bit wordy. You could cut it down to "you can summon 2 mindblades instead of one and you gain the two weapon fighting style while wielding them"

3. I agree that throwing the mindblades should come earlier, tack it on to the 6th level in place of the redundant sentence.

4. In place of thrown, have the option of a soul bow.

1. Huh. You're right. Removed.

2. That's fair enough. Rewritten.

3 + 4. I think a bow is too powerful; keep in mind that this would be a bow dealing 1d10 + dex + 0.5*wis damage at range, with possibility to use sharpshooter. I can see why having a throwing blade makes sense at lower levels, so I think what I'll do is move a less powerful version of the throwing to 6th level, and then replace this 11th level option with a defensive bonus when you use 1 blade only. That way dual vs. single blades is also a reasonable choice.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Well, if you look at the kensei monk, who can spend a bonus action to do an extra d4 on all ranged attacks. That's level 3. Then precise strike at level 6, and that only costs 1 ki point for a once per turn smite like effect. Add in sharpen the blade at level 11 ....

I think there's a precedent set and it wouldn't break anything is what I'm saying. Also he Soulbow is one of the few ways to make soul knives in 3.5 viable and it make sense to put them in again.

[miburo]

I do see that in the Kensai Monk's abilities, true. However, I don't see any soul bow stuff in the 3.5 soulknife (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Soulknife).

So I made a couple of changes. I added a Throw Blade ability at 6th level, and at most you can throw two in a round (throw one, use a bonus action, throw another) which is fine when coupled with damage boost from psychic strike. Also, I lowered the ki cost for psychic strike empowerment in order to better align with the kensai class abilities.

[Mortis_Elrod]

I do see that in the Kensai Monk's abilities, true. However, I don't see any soul bow stuff in the 3.5 soulknife (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Soulknife).

So I made a couple of changes. I added a Throw Blade ability at 6th level, and at most you can throw two in a round (throw one, use a bonus action, throw another) which is fine when coupled with damage boost from psychic strike. Also, I lowered the ki cost for psychic strike empowerment in order to better align with the kensai class abilities.

Sounds good to me. The Soulbow was a prestige class btw, wasn't part of the base. http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060403a&page=2

[miburo]

Question to all: Do you think it would be overpowered to add Detect Thoughts to the list of spell-like abilities granted at 6th level? I figure it rounds out the existing combat abilities with some non-combat flavor (not to mention adding a telepathy ability to the existing psionics abilities), but I'm not sure if it makes the subclass too useful...