5e Way of the Thunderfist Monk

[Legokeiki]

So, this is my first homebrew, so I figured I’d start with a subclass, so I took a couple hours and whipped this up. I’ve always wished 5e had more of a damage dealing monk path, so that is what I attempted to cater to.
Any criticism/critique/feedback is very welcome. :smallsmile:

Way of the Thunderfist

Monks of the Way of the Thunderfist focus their ki to strike fast and hard, falling on their enemies like a bolt of lightning.

Fists of Thunder

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain this feature. Once per turn, you may spend 1 ki point to infuse your fists with the power of a storm. For the rest of the turn, when you hit a creature with your unarmed strike, you deal additional thunder equal to your wisdom modifier.

Lightning Fast Assault

At level 6, you have the speed and ferocity of a lightning bolt. Allowing yo to strike your enemies in a rapid onslaught, before they have the chance to act. You gain the following features:

Whenever you deal thunder damage, you may change it to lightning damage, and vice versa.

You may add your proficiency bonus to initiative rolls.

On your first turn in combat, your movement speed is doubled, and you have advantage on any melee weapon attack you make.

Might of the Tempest

At 11th level, you embody the raw might of thunder, augmenting your physical form with both increased durability and strength. You gain the following features:

Your hit point maximum increases by one point times your character level. After this, it increases one point further each time you gain a level.

You gain resistance to lightning and thunder damage.

You may add both your strength and dexterity modifiers to the damage of your unarmed strike.

Wrath of the Raijin

At 17th level, you wield the power of thunder and lightning to an extent unmatched by mortals.

On your turn, you can use your action, bonus action, and 11 ki points to make a melee weapon attack against a creature you can see within 60 ft. When you do so, you leap across the battlefield to attack your target with a massive blow.

This attack deals lightning damage equal to your unarmed strike, multiplied by 10. This attack deals half damage on a miss. Additionally,
All creatures, including the target of the attack, within 30 feet of the target automatically take an amount of lightning damage equal to your unarmed strike, and must succeed on a dexterity save or be knocked prone.

If a creature has resistance to any of the damage dealt by this attack, the resistance is ignored. If a creature is immune to any damage from this attack, treat it as if it had resistance instead.


I do feel like a couple of the passive abilities might be too overpowered, but I am undecided on that. Let me know what you think! :smallbiggrin:




Latest Version


Way of the Thunderfist

Monks of the Way of the Thunderfist focus their ki to strike fast and hard, falling on their enemies like a bolt of lightning.

Fists of Thunder

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain this feature. Once per turn, you may spend 1 ki point to infuse your fists with the power of a storm.* For the rest of the turn, when you hit a creature with your unarmed strike, you deal additional thunder equal to your wisdom modifier.

Lightning Fast Assault

At level 6, you have the speed and ferocity of a lightning bolt, allowing you to strike your enemies in a rapid onslaught, before they have the chance to act. You gain the following features:

Whenever you deal thunder damage, you may change it to lightning damage, and vice versa.

You may add your proficiency bonus to initiative rolls.

On your first turn in combat, your movement speed is doubled, and you have advantage on any melee weapon attack or unarmed strike you make.

Might of the Tempest

At 11th level, you embody the raw might of thunder, augmenting your physical form with both increased durability and strength. You gain the following features:

After you take a long rest, you may gain resistance to either lightning or thunder damage, but not both. This lasts until you begin your next long rest.

You are always considered to be under the effect of Fists of Thunder.

Wrath of the Raijin

At 17th level, you wield the power of thunder and lightning to an extent unmatched by mortals.

On your turn, you can use your action, bonus action, and 7 ki points to make a melee weapon attack against a creature you can see within 60 ft. When you do so, you leap across the battlefield to attack your target with a massive blow.

This attack deals 10d10+ 5 times the sum of your wisdom modifier, dexterity modifier, and proficiency modifier. This attack deals half damage on a miss. Additionally, all creatures, including the target of the attack, within 30 feet of the target automatically take 6d6 thunder damage, and must succeed on a dexterity save or be knocked prone.

If a creature has resistance to any of the damage dealt by this attack, the resistance is ignored. If a creature is immune to any damage from this attack, treat it as if it had resistance instead.
You can use this feature once per short or long rest.

[Twizzly513]

Fists of Thunder

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain this feature. Once per turn, you may spend 1 ki point to infuse your fists with the power of a storm. For the rest of the turn, when you hit a creature with your unarmed strike, you deal additional thunder equal to your wisdom modifier.

I feel like this is a useful, balanced ability. Seems as good as the other options, and builds towards the thematic idea of the class. No complaints here.


Lightning Fast Assault

At level 6, you have the speed and ferocity of a lightning bolt. Allowing yo to strike your enemies in a rapid onslaught, before they have the chance to act. You gain the following features:

Whenever you deal thunder damage, you may change it to lightning damage, and vice versa.

You may add your proficiency bonus to initiative rolls.

On your first turn in combat, your movement speed is doubled, and you have advantage on any melee weapon attack you make.

The choice between thunder and lightning makes sense, but it allows a character to avoid damage resistances/immunities easily, so be careful there. Proficiency in initiative is a good bonus, and the first turn of combat ability allows for a character, even a surprised one, to quickly take control of a situation. It's quite good, but not OP in my opinion.


Might of the Tempest

At 11th level, you embody the raw might of thunder, augmenting your physical form with both increased durability and strength. You gain the following features:

Your hit point maximum increases by one point times your character level. After this, it increases one point further each time you gain a level.

You gain resistance to lightning and thunder damage.

You may add both your strength and dexterity modifiers to the damage of your unarmed strike.

This one seems to have a few flaws. The main one is that this ability trumps many other monk abilities here. With such good abilities at lower levels, it becomes harder to overlook. Resistance to two damage types (a moderately common one, and an uncommon one, but still) is very good all on its own. It also gives the monk more HP per level, which is also very good. That's a minimum of 11 HP extra. It also keys off of character level instead of monk level, which should probably switch in case someone decides to multiclass if it stays. In addition, this allows monks to add their Strength modifier to damage rolls, which seems odd. Many monks dump Str, but even if they don't it's almost never high on the list. It makes the monk even more MAD than it already is, and at 11th level it feels wrong to just add it in.

How I'd fix it is too lower the amount of HP gained, maybe to half of your monk level. Monks are meant to be a little squishy for a reason, and giving health to a striker seems situationally more useful than giving HP other times. Then I'd choose between lightning and thunder. I'd make this choice for the whole class, as well. Giving the class two damage types is cool, but it ends up being a little too good in my experience. Here's the thing: Having resistance to a damage type and dealing that damage type is fine because if you go up against, say, a blue dragon, they don't take your lightning damage, but you'll take less of theirs, so it balances out. Letting them get both damage types and both resistances removes any takeaway, meaning you get, effectively, more than twice the amount of usefulness from it. After that, I'd change the adding Str mod to adding a bonus to attack and damage rolls, off the top of my head something like half of your proficiency bonus; rounded up probably, to add a little more striker to the class after the loss of the change in damages. That way a monk doesn't need to get Strength to be useful, they get damage, a little more HP to help in melee, and a thematic resistance and damage type.

[
B]Wrath of the Raijin[/B]

At 17th level, you wield the power of thunder and lightning to an extent unmatched by mortals.

On your turn, you can use your action, bonus action, and 11 ki points to make a melee weapon attack against a creature you can see within 60 ft. When you do so, you leap across the battlefield to attack your target with a massive blow.

This attack deals lightning damage equal to your unarmed strike, multiplied by 10. This attack deals half damage on a miss. Additionally,
All creatures, including the target of the attack, within 30 feet of the target automatically take an amount of lightning damage equal to your unarmed strike, and must succeed on a dexterity save or be knocked prone.

If a creature has resistance to any of the damage dealt by this attack, the resistance is ignored. If a creature is immune to any damage from this attack, treat it as if it had resistance instead.

A proper capstone. I understand making it such a hefty ki point cost, but I wouldn't solve the problem of using it more than once with that. I would simply have ti cost maybe 5-7 ki points, and add in that it can only be used once per long rest.


I do feel like a couple of the passive abilities might be too overpowered, but I am undecided on that. Let me know what you think! :smallbiggrin:

Some of them were a bit, but overall, remarkable homebrew! I like the idea and the space it fills. I hope I've been helpful.:smallbiggrin:

[Lalliman]

After that, I'd change the adding Str mod to adding a bonus to attack and damage rolls, off the top of my head something like half of your proficiency bonus; rounded up probably, to add a little more striker to the class after the loss of the change in damages.
I agree with all feedback here, except this point. Attack bonuses shouldn't be handed out willy-nilly, both because of bounded accuracy and because it raises the question of why this particular monk is more accurate with their attacks than literally any other combatant.

Adding half proficiency to damage is fine though, or you could enlarge the damage die by a step for a smaller benefit.

If you still want to reward this monk for raising Strength, you'll have to do that right away from low level. And you'll have to give greater benefit than just a damage bonus, because the monk really doesn't have any spare stat points lying around.


On your first turn in combat, your movement speed is doubled, and you have advantage on any melee weapon attack you make.
As a side note, I want to comment on this. While it's mechanically fine, the speed bonus is thematically kind of weird, because it calls into question what combat is and when it starts or ends. Most of the existing features that take effect at the start of combat are ones that are only applicable in combat to begin with, e.g. the revised ranger getting advantage on attacks in the first round, or the fighter regaining a superiority die when initiative is rolled. But increased speed is a benefit that exists outside the bounds of combat, which creates some strange possibilities.

Like, if I'm a thunder monk and I want to get somewhere quickly, I can point to a random person, declare that I'm going to fight him, then run away at double speed while yelling "just a prank bro!" from the distance. Then repeat every six seconds to maintain my speed boost. Or even better, if you have a whole party of thunder monks, you can travel around at super speed by repeatedly declaring combat against each other.

Of course, this is a stupid exploit that no one would use. But the point is that it's kind of a dissociated mechanic that doesn't make sense in-universe when you think about it. Maybe that doesn't bother you, but I think it's worth bringing up.

It should also be noted that 'melee weapon attacks' technically doesn't include unarmed strikes.

[Legokeiki]

Here's the updated version

Way of the Thunderfist

Monks of the Way of the Thunderfist focus their ki to strike fast and hard, falling on their enemies like a bolt of lightning.

Fists of Thunder

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain this feature. Once per turn, you may spend 1 ki point to infuse your fists with the power of a storm.* For the rest of the turn, when you hit a creature with your unarmed strike, you deal additional thunder equal to your wisdom modifier.

Lightning Fast Assault

At level 6, you have the speed and ferocity of a lightning bolt, allowing you to strike your enemies in a rapid onslaught, before they have the chance to act. You gain the following features:

Whenever you deal thunder damage, you may change it to lightning damage, and vice versa.

You may add your proficiency bonus to initiative rolls.

On your first turn in combat, your movement speed is doubled, and you have advantage on any melee weapon attack or unarmed strike you make.

Might of the Tempest

At 11th level, you embody the raw might of thunder, augmenting your physical form with both increased durability and strength. You gain the following features:

After you take a long rest, you may gain resistance to either lightning or thunder damage, but not both. This lasts until you begin your next long rest.

You may add half your proficiency modifier (rounded up) to the damage of your unarmed strike.

Wrath of the Raijin

At 17th level, you wield the power of thunder and lightning to an extent unmatched by mortals.

On your turn, you can use your action, bonus action, and 7 ki points to make a melee weapon attack against a creature you can see within 60 ft. When you do so, you leap across the battlefield to attack your target with a massive blow.

This attack deals lightning damage equal to your unarmed strike, multiplied by 10. This attack deals half damage on a miss. Additionally,
All creatures, including the target of the attack, within 30 feet of the target automatically take an amount of lightning damage equal to your unarmed strike, and must succeed on a dexterity save or be knocked prone.

If a creature has resistance to any of the damage dealt by this attack, the resistance is ignored. If a creature is immune to any damage from this attack, treat it as if it had resistance instead.
You can use this feature once per long rest.

[clash]

Fist of Thunder
This is good and very flavorful

Lightning Fast Assault
I would change this to "You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn't taken a turn in the combat yet." as the assassin ability.
This ability gives you another damage type, a significant initiative bonus and double speed on the first turn. This seems fine beside the other level 6 monk features. I think thematically I might change it to wisdom mod to initiative but that is just being nitpicky.

Might of the Tempest
Resistance seems fine. Rather than having 2 separate features add damage to your unarmed strikes why not just say you are always under the effects of "Fists of Thunder". It would also prevent the damage achieved by stacking fists of thunder with this for unarmed strikes that can deal up to 1d10 + 5 dex + 5 wis + 6 prof ~ 21.5 dmg per strike.

Overall it would be nice to see some utility in the first three features rather than all combat buffs, because let's face it we want another comabt buff for the 4th feature.



At 17th level, you wield the power of thunder and lightning to an extent unmatched by mortals.

On your turn, you can use your action, bonus action, and 7 ki points to make a melee weapon attack against a creature you can see within 60 ft. When you do so, you leap across the battlefield to attack your target with a massive blow.

This attack deals lightning damage equal to your unarmed strike, multiplied by 10. This attack deals half damage on a miss. Additionally,
All creatures, including the target of the attack, within 30 feet of the target automatically take an amount of lightning damage equal to your unarmed strike, and must succeed on a dexterity save or be knocked prone.

If a creature has resistance to any of the damage dealt by this attack, the resistance is ignored. If a creature is immune to any damage from this attack, treat it as if it had resistance instead.
You can use this feature once per short or long rest.

"damage equal to your unarmed strike"
This part is ambiguous as it isnt clear if it is 10*unarmed strike damage die ie 10*1d10 or 10*unarmed strike total damage ie 10*(1d10 + 5 dex + almost definitely 3-5 wis as nothign prevents stacking + 6 prof) for a whopping average of 215 damage on a failed save or 107.5 damage on a successful save making this ability far easier to use than quivering palm and deal about twice as much damage on a successful save.

Assuming you meant the first option, the problem here is "multiplied by 10"
1d10*10 has an equal chance of being 10 damage as 100 damage. An ability that swingy is not going to be fun.
I would instead set it to 10d10 which by comparison has a 1 in 10 billion chance of only being 10 damage.

[Legokeiki]

It would also prevent the damage achieved by stacking fists of thunder with this for unarmed strikes that can deal up to 1d10 + 5 dex + 5 wis + 6 prof ~ 21.5 dmg per strike.

The intent is for this build to do more damage than your average monk, and note that it’s only HALF proficiency mod, decreasing the total avg. to 18.5 at level 17. With flurry of blows that’s 74 DPR. In comparison, a lvl 17 rogue deals 52 DPR. Removing the proficiency bonus bumps it down to 62 DPR, so yeah, it does need to be nerfed. I do feel like it removes much of the utility Fists of Thunder gives though.

[Legokeiki]

Edited in top post. Not sure about the prof. Mod in Wrath of Raijin. Just feel like it’s a bit short on damage. Also changed wrath of Raijin to once per long rest.

[Thunderfist12]

Great subclass! The name looks a bit familiar but I can't remember where I've seen it before...