Monk: Way of the Sramana

[Reklaw007]

The DM and I worked on this for the past few weeks. Hope to get some feedback. I am currently 4th level playtesting.

Way of the Sramana
Monks that follow the Way of the Sramana are wanderers, who make a vow to never use weapons. Through ascetic meditation and esoteric, long forgotten practices, these monks gain an uncanny attunement to the forces outside the prime material. When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you lose your proficiency with all weapons and gain proficiency with the navigators tools.

Planar Channeling - starting at 3rd level you can augment your unarmed attacks with planar energy. As a Bonus Action, you may spend 1 Ki to add an extra 1D4 Planar Damage on successful unarmed attacks during the Attack Action. The duration of this feature is up to 1 minute of concentration. You choose the type of Planar Damage, which lasts the entire duration, as you activate this feature. At higher levels you may spend more Ki to increase the extra Planar Damage. 6th level - 2 Ki - 1d6. 11th level - 3 Ki - 1D8. 17th level - 4 Ki - 1d10. Additionally, during the duration of this feature, whenever you hit a creature with an attack granted by Flurry of Blows, you may choose to force the target to make a specified saving throw, against your Ki save DC, to impose the associated Planar Condition. Each associated condition lasts until the end of your next turn. You may use each chosen Planar Condition a number of times equal to your Intelligence Modifier, minimum 1. This number replenished after a long rest.
Planar Damage types/Conditions/saves. - At 3d level you choose 1 type of Planar Damage. You choose 1 more at 6th, 11th and 17th levels.
Acid - AC minus 2 - Dexterity save
Cold - Petrified - Strength save
Fire - Charmed - Charisma save
Force - Restrained - Strength save
Lightning - Incapacitated - Dexterity save
Necrotic - Can't regain hit points - Constitution save
Poison - Poisoned - Constitution save
Psychic - Frightened - Intelligence save
Radiant - Blinded - Wisdom save
Thunder - Stunned - Constitution save

•When you gain the Stunning Strike feature at 5th level, it works with unarmed attacks instead of weapon attacks during the Attack Action. Alternatively, you may choose to gain Misty Step, which replaces the Stunning Strike feature. You cast Misty Step by spending 2 Ki and may use it a number of times equal to your Intelligence Modifier minus 1 and a minimum of 1, which replenished after a long rest.

Sramana Step- Starting at 6th level, you can step between the planes at a moment's notice. When another creature hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to teleport to an unoccupied space you can see within 15 feet of the space you started from, making the attack miss. You may use this feature a number of times equal to half your Intelligence Modifier, rounded up, minimum 1. This number replenished after a long rest.

Sramana Sight- Starting at 11th level you can use your Ki to extend your senses. You may spend 3 Ki to cast Clairvoyance. When you do you may spend an additional 3 Ki to use the Hearing and Seeing options simultaneously or to use See Invisibility with the Seeing option. You can use this feature a number of times equal to half your Intelligence Modifier, rounded up, minimum 1. This number replenished after a long rest.

Sramana Shift- Starting at 17th level you can focus on a single strike to permanently banish a creature. You may spend 7 Ki to cast Plane Shift as a melee spell attack. On a hit, the creature must make a Charisma saving throw. If it succeeds, it is not teleported, instead the shift energies release in the current plane of existence and it takes 10D10 Planar Damage. If the Planar Channeling feature is currently active, you must choose that type of Planar Damage, otherwise it may be of any type, either way it does not cause it's associated condition. If it fails, the creature is teleported to a random location on a different plane of existence you specify. A creature so teleported must find it's own way back to your plane of existence. A willing creature may choose to automatically fail the save. You can use this feature a number of times equal to half your Intelligence Modifier, rounded down, minimum 1. This number replenished after a long rest.

[Lalliman]

There’s some cool ideas here, but it’s got some problems.

For one, the different elements are not equal at all. Thunder seems like obviously the best, having a damage type that is rarely resisted and the most debilitating condition. Lightning, psychic and radiant are good too because they work more easily on big powerful enemies. Meanwhile poison is terrible: it has a much worse damage type and condition than thunder, with the same save. Acid is a pretty hard sell too: the damage type is good and the save is more likely to be failed by big powerful enemies, but the condition is incredibly minor compared to the others. And I’m really not sure what to make of fire. How useful is it to charm someone for one round in the middle of combat? It's highly DM-dependant, but my guess is 'not very'. Given that it also has an easily-resistible damage type, I’d probably avoid that one.

Secondly, swapping Stunning Strike for Misty Step is a terrible trade. Like, gimping yourself to the moon terrible. Stunning Strike makes up a disproportionately large chunk of the monk’s power, so you better get something really good in return. You could reduce the ki cost to 1 and remove the long rest limit and it would probably still be a bad trade.

And then there’s the fact that it’s Intelligence-based. This is a problem because the monk is already so stat-starved that they can barely max out their primary stats. (A high level monk who wants Dex 20, Wis 20 has to finish with a piddly 14 Con.) Now, I can understand why it’s Int-based, so I won’t tell you to just not do it. But you have to take into account that when you say “half your Intelligence modifier” on a monk, that’s basically guaranteed to mean “one”.

Those points aside, the balance of the class is admittedly not bad (assuming you disregard the option to get Misty Step instead of Stunning Strike). Planar Channelling is really good, probably better than Open Hand Technique and Shadow Arts, but I wouldn't consider it overpowered mainly because the core monk is only lukewarm anyways. Step is a nice panic button, Sight is expensive but useful, and Shift is somewhere in the wide ballpark that is high-level balance.

So all in all it's perfectly usable. It just doesn't really play as advertised, because half the options that the subclass offers (bad elements, Misty Step, raising your Intelligence) really shouldn't be used.

[Reklaw007]

Thanks for the constructive criticism. I agree on some parts for sure. I've been trying to figure out how to make all the conditions more equal. It's tough for sure. Also, I made everything intelligence based because.. well.. I rolled really well when I made my character, so I will actually be able to max my wis, dex and int while still having a 16 con. I understand that isn't the normal here lol.

Also, trading stunning strike for misty step in my opinion is awesome. I don't want to be a stun spammer, seems amazingly boring to me and also makes no sense to have thunder stunned(sounds like a great band name lol) if I have the Stunning Strike feature anyway.

And fire charmed works for my character and DM likes the flavor and different ways to deal with combat.

Like I said, I'm currently playtesting it and my DM seems happy so far.

Thanks again!

[Lalliman]

Also, trading stunning strike for misty step in my opinion is awesome. I don't want to be a stun spammer, seems amazingly boring to me and also makes no sense to have thunder stunned(sounds like a great band name lol) if I have the Stunning Strike feature anyway.
Well you aren't at 5th level yet, right? I wonder what you'll think of this once you use it. I love the idea of a teleporting monk too, but I just think you're going to accomplish absolutely nothing as a direct result. Not only because you don't have the all-powerful Stunning Strike, but also because you're spending your scarce, valuable ki on teleporting. Like, I would only swap Stunning Strike for Misty Step if the Misty Step is at will for free. I don't think that would be overpowered with how much mobility the monk already has, and how bonus action dependant they are. (Compare Shadow Step.) And I don't want to be a stun spammer either, I think it's dumb that so much of the monk's power is tied up in Stunning Strike. But that doesn't mean I'm going to gimp myself that hard.

It is admittedly true that Planar Channelling basically gives you Stunning Strike a few times a day, so it does kind of work out in your specific case. But it should be noted that players under normal circumstances will only get to use it two, maybe three times a day. Also, even assuming that you can use it five times a day, I would still choose the ability to Stunning Strike for 1 ki over the ability to Misty Step for 2.


And fire charmed works for my character and DM likes the flavor and different ways to deal with combat.
I like the flavour too, I understand why you chose that. But that makes me wonder, how does your DM handle the charmed condition? Because mind you, the charmed condition does not make people obey you. It only makes them unable to attack you, and gives you advantage on Charisma checks against them. So telling them to attack the other enemies, or even to stop attacking your allies, doesn't just work, you'd have to make a Persuasion check for it, if it's possible at all. This is where the DM-dependency comes in. Does he think it's reasonable to convince this particular NPC to attack his allies? How high will the DC be? Will he rule that yelling "attack those guys" is enough, or will he require you to spend an action to persuade the NPC to do what you want? This condition could range anywhere from great to "does nothing" depending on how lenient your DM is.

[Reklaw007]

Misty Step at will for free? I have to say, my DM had a hearty laugh at that one.

So you'd rather not stun spam either.. So we agree, to make the monk more interesting to play, that would be a power to trade out.

And yes, the fire charmed will work in certain situations, which is kinda what this whole build it about. Picking the best planar type for the situation. Which doesn't necessarily mean dpr.

[Lalliman]

Misty Step at will for free? I have to say, my DM had a hearty laugh at that one.
If that's his knee-jerk reaction, I'd like to see him react to Shadow Step.

[Reklaw007]

He's familiar with shadow step, which is situational and can be handled with a torch.

[Lalliman]

He's familiar with shadow step, which is situational and can be handled with a torch.
It's also longer range, provides advantage on your next melee attack, and doesn't come in place of something so potent as Stunning Strike. If you apply reasonable medieval lighting it should in my experience be usable in about 80% of situations. But an at-will teleport does admittedly make the monk unable to be tied down, so I understand the aversion. I still think you will only very rarely find it worthwhile at 2 ki.

Edit: Before we go in circles, I'll just finish this by saying: Just keep play testing and you'll find out whether it's sufficient for your purposes. It's not like I have the final say on this.