First time making a magic item for D&d 5e

[Ookiigaijin]

This is my first time making a magic item and my first time posting on a forum. The idea is that I am making a magic item or set of items for a monk that is a scroll of secret arcane techniques. Inspiration is drawn from various posts that I have read and the elemental monk in the PHB. I would appreciate all feedback from anyone who wants to provide it. Would like to know opinions on strength, rarity, and adjustments you would make. Thank you in advance for any comments that you make.

The post is long and I don't know how to make the little spoiler boxes as this is my first post.

Tl;Dr - look at my secret techniques for a monk and tell me if you think they are overpowered or need adjustment. (Did I create a magic item or a new arcane monk subclass?) ;)



Techniques of the Spell Fist

Wondrous Item, Rare (requires attunement by a monk)

This ancient set of scrolls bear diagrams and descriptions of secret martial arts techniques of the Order of the Shining Hand. The scroll case is a lacquered box adorned with the familiar symbol of Azuth, the god of the arcane, whom members of the order revere. The scrolls appear to be hand drawn on parchment.



Attuning to the scrolls involves special exercises and practicing the techniques over the course of an hour, which can be done during part of a short or long rest. Only one person can be attuned to this item at one time, and your attunement ends automatically after 24 hours, although you can re-attune at any time by repeating the exercises. If you are attuned to the scroll continuously for a year, you gain the knowledge of the techniques permanently, but will also lose one attunement slot permanently.



While you are attuned to this item, you gain the following benefits:

As a bonus action, you can spend 2 Ki to activate one of the following magically infused stances. All unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of resistances. The duration for this stance is up to 1 minute and requires concentration to maintain.



Beginning at monk level 5, a monk can spend additional ki to increase the elemental damage added to unarmed strikes by 1d6 and the duration by 1 minute. The maximum number of ki you can spend in this way, including the base ki cost, is determined by your monk level, and is as follows: a total of 3 ki can be spent at levels 5 - 8, 4 ki at levels 9 - 12, 5 ki at levels 13 - 16, and 6 ki at levels 17 – 20.

Use of these techniques is very taxing on a monk’s spirit. A technique can only be used once per short or long rest without negative effect. For each additional use between rests, the user will gain one point of exhaustion. Any rest will reduce exhaustion by 1 point, as long as the monk meditates to regenerate ki. A long rest will remove all exhaustion points if a monk has not attuned to the scrolls during that long rest.



Fire Elemental’s Fury: When choosing this stance, your hands and feet are enveloped in mystical flames, shedding bright light for 10 feet and dim light for another 10 feet. The following effects are applicable.

· All unarmed strikes deal martial arts die + 1d6 fire damage and any target hit with your strikes take fire damage equal to your wisdom modifier at the beginning of their next turn.

· When using Step of the Wind, you leave a path of fire that is five feet wide by five feet tall along your traveled path. This fire burns until the beginning of your next turn. Any creature entering the burning area for the first time on its turn must succeed a dexterity saving throw versus your ki save DC or take 1d6 fire damage.

· When using Patient Defense, you gain resistance to fire damage and any attack that hits you will reflect 1d6 fire damage to the attacker.

Bone Chilling Dance: When choosing this stance, your hands and feet are enveloped in a diamond like magical frost, and all creatures within 15 feet of you notice a drop in temperature. The following effects are applicable.

· All unarmed strikes deal martial arts die + 1d6 ice damage and any target hit with your strikes has their movement speed reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.

· When using Step of the Wind, you leave a path of ice that is five feet wide along your traveled path. This ice persists until the beginning of your next turn and the ground counts as difficult terrain. Any creature entering the frozen area for the first time on its turn must succeed a dexterity saving throw versus your ki save DC or fall prone.

· When using Patient Defense, you gain resistance to ice damage and any attacker that hits you will have to make a Constitution saving throw versus your ki save DC. On a failure, it has disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.

Tempest’s Squall: When choosing this stance, a swirling tempest of clouds coalesces around your entire body, rumbling with storm energy. The following effects are applicable.

· All unarmed strikes gain a range of 15 feet and deal martial arts die + 1d6 lightning damage. A hit target makes a constitution saving throw versus your ki save DC. On a failure, the target is stunned until the beginning of its next turn.

· When using Step of the Wind, the winds of the tempest around you give lift to your step, giving you a fly speed equal to your movement plus unarmored movement bonus, if applicable. If you do not land at the end of your turn, you must take the Step of the Wind bonus action again to maintain flight, or you will fall.

· When the Patient Defense bonus action is taken, the winds around you swirl even stronger and faster. Whenever an enemy strike hits you, a thunder clap of energy explodes out from you, striking all within 5 feet of you. All hit creatures must make a constitution saving throw versus your ki save DC. On a failure, the target takes 1d6 thunder damage and is pushed 10 feet away from you. On a success, the target only takes half damage and is not moved.

Earth’s Embrace: When choosing this stance, your entire body takes on the look and feel of rough cut stone. The following effects are applicable.

· You gain a +1 bonus to AC.

· When Step of the Wind is used, you gain the ability to travel through the ground as if moving through normal terrain, causing a 10 foot wide swath of difficult terrain along your travel path. If you attack from below ground, you have advantage on your first attack. If you end your turn below ground, you must take the Step of the Wind action again or you will be expelled at the nearest unoccupied space to where you ended your turn.

· When Patient Defense is used, your stone skin hardens and roots itself to the ground. You gain resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, and psychic damage. You also cannot be, frightened, grappled, knocked prone or moved against your will. This lasts until the beginning of your next turn.

Celestial’s Radiance: When choosing this stance, your hands and feet are engulfed in a nearly blinding light, shedding bright light for 40 feet and dim light for another 40 feet. The following effects are applicable.

· All unarmed strikes gain a range of 30 feet and deal martial arts die + 1d6 radiant damage. A hit target makes a constitution saving throw versus your ki save DC. On a failure, the target is blinded until the beginning of its next turn.

· When using Step of the Wind, you gain the ability to heal any touched creature for 1d6 hit points by running by them. You must move within 5 feet of the target.

· When using Patient Defense, you gain resistance to radiant damage and any attack that hits you will reflect 1d6 radiant damage to the attacker.

Death’s Shroud: When choosing this stance, your entire body appears to be engulfed in shadow, causing the area around you to become dim light. The following effects are applicable.

· All unarmed trikes deal martial arts die + 1d6 necrotic damage. On a hit, you gain a number of temporary HP equal to half of the necrotic damage done, rounded up. This stacks with all unarmed damage done during the attack action. These temporary HP last until the beginning of your next turn.

· When using Step of the Wind, you gain the ability to teleport to an unoccupied space within the distance of your movement + unarmored movement, if applicable. If you make an attack after this movement, you have advantage on your first attack.

· When using Patient Defense, you gain resistance to necrotic damage and any attacker that hits you must make a Wisdom save versus your ki save DC, or become frightened until the end of its next turn. While frightened, a creature can only take the dash action and move away from you by the safest available route, unless there is nowhere to move.

EDIT: I figured out how to do the spoiler thing, so I tried to shorten the wall of text a bit.

[Quoz]

This isn't a magic item, it's a subclass.

Not to be too blunt, keep your magic items short and specific. For a monk, you are probably looking at something that gives more ki (monks already have way more options than they can reliably spend on, especially at low levels) or increases AC or martial arts damage. Optionally make it provide a lesser benefit to non monks in the form of unarmored defense boost or improved unarmed strike. But if you can't fit it in three bullet points, think about what you really want and try again.

[KorvinStarmast]

This is my first time making a magic item and my first time posting on a forum.
Welcome. :smallcool:

The idea is that I am making a magic item or set of items for a monk that is a scroll of secret arcane techniques. Inspiration is drawn from various posts that I have read and the elemental monk in the PHB.
Do you have a copy of the Dungeon Masters Guide?

Techniques of the Spell Fist

Wondrous Item, Rare (requires attunement by a monk)

This ancient set of scrolls bear diagrams and descriptions of secret martial arts techniques of the Order of the Shining Hand. The scroll case is a lacquered box adorned with the familiar symbol of Azuth, the god of the arcane, whom members of the order revere. The scrolls appear to be hand drawn on parchment.

Attuning to the scrolls involves special exercises and practicing the techniques over the course of an hour, which can be done during part of a short or long rest. Only one person can be attuned to this item at one time, and your attunement ends automatically after 24 hours, although you can re-attune at any time by repeating the exercises. If you are attuned to the scroll continuously for a year, you gain the knowledge of the techniques permanently, but will also lose one attunement slot permanently.

I snipped your item, because it is waaaay too complicated for a Rare Item. Let me show you what a Very Rare item looks like. (More powerful than your proposed item, in theory).


Manual of Gainful Exercise
Wondrous item, very rare
This book describes fitness exercises, and its words are charged with magic. If you spend 48 hours over a period of 6 days or fewer studying the book’s contents and practicing its guidelines, your Strength score increases by 2, as does your maximum for that score. The manual then loses its magic, but regains it in a century.

For an item in the mode that you'd like ... for this edition ...


Techniques of the Ascetic's Way(Scroll)
Wondrous Item, Very Rare
Attunement Feature: only a monk can activate this scroll by spending a single ki point while reading it. Without the ki point expenditure, it is incomrehensible to anyone. Spending a short rest to attune to this item reveals that you have to spend a ki point to understand it.

This long scroll illustrates meditations and exercises; the figures and writings are charged with magic. If you spend 48 hours over a period of 6 days or fewer studying the scroll's contents and practicing its positions, your Wisdom score increases by 2, as does your maximum for that score. The scrolls then lose their magic, but they then regains it in a century.

Since this is monk only, you could maybe reduce it's rarity to Rare since no other class can use it.
The effect of increasing your wisdom is significant:
AC goes up 1
your Ki DC increases by 1.
Your wisdom saves go up by one.
All wisdom ability checks get a boost.


Here's another one

Techniques of the Stone Fist(Scroll)
Wondrous Item, Very Rare
Attunement Feature:
Only a monk can activate it by spending a single ki point while reading it. Without the ki point expenditure, it is incomprehensible to anyone. Spending a short rest to attune to this item reveals that you have to spend a ki point to understand it.
This long scroll illustrates meditation and exercises; the figures and writings are charged with magic. If you spend 48 hours over a period of 6 days or fewer studying the scroll's contents and practicing its positions, your Dexterity score increases by 2, as does your maximum for that score. The scrolls then lose their magic, but they then regains them in a century.

Since this is monk only, you could reduce it's rarity to Rare since no other class can use it.
The effect of increasing your Dexterity is substantial:
AC goes up 1,
To hit and damage increase by one.
Your dex saves go up by one.
All dex ability checks get a boost.

[Ookiigaijin]

I do not have a DMG. I am a noob who has been playing D&D for only a year. This is the only book I have not actually looked at, but I do have other resources that have examples of magic items. Would it be make more sense if each element scroll was it's own item, instead of all six elements?

[Specter]

First order of business is to summarize and simplify all this. Players sometimes forget their class abilities, let alone a Player's Handbook II like this.

[KorvinStarmast]

Would it be make more sense if each element scroll was it's own item, instead of all six elements? Yes. To get an idea of magic items, try a look at the SRD and browse through the magic items, comparing the rarities therein.

http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/SRD-OGL_V5.1.pdf

Enjoy. Magic items start on page 206.

[Ookiigaijin]

Aside from the length of the description which, I will admit, is waaaaaay to long, how would you rate the abilities that each elemental technique does? Would they fit into a rare qualified item? If I were to remove a lot of the fluff in the opening description and the ability to power it up with more ki, and gave it so many uses per day, would this be an appropriate item for a monk? I want to create some kind of fighting style that affects the SotW and PD abilities, and not just the damage. A fighting style is so much more then how one punches faces. And thank you each for your feedback.:smallsmile:

[Specter]

Aside from the length of the description which, I will admit, is waaaaaay to long, how would you rate the abilities that each elemental technique does? Would they fit into a rare qualified item? If I were to remove a lot of the fluff in the opening description and the ability to power it up with more ki, and gave it so many uses per day, would this be an appropriate item for a monk? I want to create some kind of fighting style that affects the SotW and PD abilities, and not just the damage. A fighting style is so much more then how one punches faces. And thank you each for your feedback.:smallsmile:

Probably rare, but rarity is only important if you are letting players pick items from a list. Otherwise, analyze if it will break your game, and if not, fire away.

[nickl_2000]

Attuning to the scrolls involves special exercises and practicing the techniques over the course of an hour, which can be done during part of a short or long rest. Only one person can be attuned to this item at one time, and your attunement ends automatically after 24 hours, although you can re-attune at any time by repeating the exercises. If you are attuned to the scroll continuously for a year, you gain the knowledge of the techniques permanently, but will also lose one attunement slot permanently.



Alright, so this entire paragraph is either stating how attunement works (not needed) or over complicating how it needs to work. Simple make it a Wonderous item scroll with attunement and drop all of this. It will simplify your text considerably and make it less confusing.




While you are attuned to this item, you gain the following benefits:

As a bonus action, you can spend 2 Ki to activate one of the following magically infused stances. All unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of resistances. The duration for this stance is up to 1 minute and requires concentration to maintain.


This isn't needed either. Monks get this ability at level 6 already and really shouldn't be seeing a rare or very rare item before that. Again, you can drop it.




Beginning at monk level 5, a monk can spend additional ki to increase the elemental damage added to unarmed strikes by 1d6 and the duration by 1 minute. The maximum number of ki you can spend in this way, including the base ki cost, is determined by your monk level, and is as follows: a total of 3 ki can be spent at levels 5 - 8, 4 ki at levels 9 - 12, 5 ki at levels 13 - 16, and 6 ki at levels 17 – 20.



Don't bother with the beginning at level 5 part. Just don't give the item before that and you don't need it. Consider this phrasing instead

A monk can spend 3 ki to attune themselves with the elements for 1 minute. The monk does 1d6 additional damage of an elemental type you choose when activating this ability. At level 9, 4 ki can be spent for to increase the damage to 2d6, at level 13, 5 ki for 3d6, at level 17, 6 ki for 4d6. This can only be used once per short rest


Still this seems over powered to me, but that can be adjusted as necessary.



Use of these techniques is very taxing on a monk’s spirit. A technique can only be used once per short or long rest without negative effect. For each additional use between rests, the user will gain one point of exhaustion. Any rest will reduce exhaustion by 1 point, as long as the monk meditates to regenerate ki. A long rest will remove all exhaustion points if a monk has not attuned to the scrolls during that long rest.


Drop this to simplify it and make it usable once per short rest per my description above.




Alright, I've got to run get the baby since he is crying. I will try and get the the rest later.

[Ookiigaijin]

Still this seems over powered to me, but that can be adjusted as necessary.

What if spending extra ki just jumped the die size by 1, ie 3 ki for d6, 4 ki for d8, 5 ki for d10, 6 ki for d12? Or does this gimp it too much for the cost? This would be in addition to the normal unarmed strike damage and would apply to all landed unarmed strikes, meaning potentially 4 hits of martial arts die + elemental die damage, if FoB is used.

Or maybe change the levels where the ki increase can happen at level 11 for 2d6 and level 17 for 3d6.

[Ookiigaijin]

Alright. I have adjusted this based on suggestions and here is an example of one. I split this into multiple items that cover just one element each, instead of one item that covers 6 elements. Is this simplified enough?

Techniques of the Spell Fist, Bone Chilling Dance
Wondrous Item, Rare (requires attunement by a monk)

This ancient scroll bear diagrams and descriptions of secret martial arts techniques of the Order of the Shining Hand. The scroll case is a lacquered box adorned with the symbol of Azuth, the god of the arcane, whom members of the order revere. The scroll appears to be hand drawn on parchment.

While you are attuned to this item, you gain the following benefits:
As a bonus action, you can spend 2 Ki to activate this magically infused technique. The duration for this technique is up to 1 minute and requires concentration to maintain. This technique can be used 2 times per short or long rest. The power and duration of this technique can be increased by using more ki. At monk level 9, a total of 3 ki can be spent to increase the elemental damage to 2d6 and increase the duration to 2 minutes. At monk level 13, the totals increase to 4 ki, 3d6 elemental damage, and 3 minutes.

Bone Chilling Dance: When choosing this technique, your hands and feet are enveloped in a diamond like magical frost, and all creatures within 15 feet of you notice a drop in temperature. The following effects are applicable.

All unarmed strikes deal martial arts die + 1d6 ice damage and any target hit with your strikes has their movement speed reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.

When using Step of the Wind, you leave a path of ice that is five feet wide along your traveled path. This ice persists until the beginning of your next turn and the ground counts as difficult terrain. Any creature entering the frozen area for the first time on its turn must succeed a dexterity saving throw versus your ki save DC or fall prone.

When using Patient Defense, you gain resistance to ice damage and any attacker that hits you will have to make a Constitution saving throw versus your ki save DC. On a failure, it has disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.

[Cynthaer]

Just FYI, in this post I'm going to give a lot of advice based on general 5e design principles for magic items. You obviously don't have to do any of these things, but you should at least be aware of how official 5e magic items work so you can consciously decide to ignore a particular bit.

(I started writing this on Friday, so I'm leaving these bits in for reference, but they're redundant since you've already broken up the item and dropped the attunement stuff.)


Would it be make more sense if each element scroll was it's own item, instead of all six elements?

Definitely.

Basically, I like the core idea here: Themed elemental bonuses to the three basic ki features. This is solid. We want to keep this.

What we don't want is all the extra crap that's distracting from this. Every new decision the player has to make or resource they have to track is a distraction. That doesn't mean we can't use those, just that we want to avoid them if possible.

Note 1: Split this into six items.

This immediately shrinks the amount of text the player must read and comprehend by ~80%, and it eliminates the need to reevaluate all six choices every time they choose a stance to activate.

Note 2: Throw out the 24-hour attunement nonsense.

Throw out the "permanent attunement" clause too. We already have a perfectly good mechanic for managing magic item attunement—it's called Attunement.

I think you're going for a whole "you have to keep practicing to stay in tune with these techniques" feel, but that's already part of the Monk class. Don't try to "simulate" super-detailed things; the 5e mechanics work best when you keep things fast and loose.

Note 3: Don't add new uses for existing resources.

In this case, don't make activating the stance use ki. At best, it adds hard-to-calculate decisions that feel bad to the player (do I spend some ki to make my other ki features a little better, or just use it for more activations of my normal ki features?). I shouldn't need a spreadsheet to determine how many ki features I should expect to use in order to get a good ROI on my magic item activation.

Look at something like a Wand of Magic Missile. It doesn't just add Magic Missile to your (prepared) spell list and then make you use your own spell slots; instead it comes with its own charges and its own recharge mechanism.

Note 4: Magic items generally don't scale with level.

That's how race and class features work, not magic items. Magic items are straightforward and do what they say, and they don't change with your class level.

Compare the complexity of this:


As a bonus action, you can spend 2 Ki to activate this magically infused technique. The duration for this technique is up to 1 minute and requires concentration to maintain. This technique can be used 2 times per short or long rest. The power and duration of this technique can be increased by using more ki. At monk level 9, a total of 3 ki can be spent to increase the elemental damage to 2d6 and increase the duration to 2 minutes. At monk level 13, the totals increase to 4 ki, 3d6 elemental damage, and 3 minutes.

...with this:


The scroll has 3 charges. While attuned to it, you can use a bonus action to expend 1 charge and activate the technique for up to 1 minute. The scroll regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.

The charge-activated version matches the standard design of just about every similar magic item—X charges, expend 1 charge to activate, regain 1dX charges at dawn. Wherever possible, make your magic item work like other magic items, and you'll reduce the mental load on your players by an order of magnitute.

Note 4b: Pick one target power level.

I said 3 charges above, but obviously you should change the number of charges based on how powerful the activated effect is and how powerful you want the item to be. I know it's tempting to design something that can keep up with other items throughout the game, so the recipient will want to keep using your item from level 5-20, but that's your ego talking.

There is real value in items that are great at level 5 but drop off later (or level 10, 15, etc). Hell, most characters never get higher than level 10 anyway! So ask who you want this item to be for—a level 5, 9, 13, or 17 monk—and set the power and rarity appropriately.

As for what level I'd recommend? Hard to say. I suspect this item is actually pretty overpowered for level 5 right now—adding 1d6 to every strike on your Flurry of Blows is a lot of extra dice! Maybe this should either be 1 charge with the current ability, to add some serious nova potential to your monk, or 3 charges but bringing the bonus damage down to 1d4. Or if you want this to be a little more "utility" and a little less "DAMAGE (plus some other stuff)", how about 5 charges and +1 damage?

(If you're targeting a higher level, then obviously the bonus damage should be higher.)

Note 5: X/day items are equippable; scrolls are one time use.

Scrolls and books are things that your character reads for either a one-time effect (spell scrolls) or a permanent passive bonus (generally +2 to an attribute). On the other hand, things that give you an activatable power are always equippable. In your case, it's purely a flavor distinction, since you can just stick the scroll into the "equip" slot until you attune to something else, just like any other magic item, but I thought I'd mention it because it helps to keep things intuitive.

Personally, I'd make this item a belt, but that's an aesthetic thing.


Aside from that stuff, I think that having three separate effects for your three ki features is still pretty complex, but it's fun enough that I don't mind. In fact, making sure we can deal with that complexity is the reason I focus so much on eliminating any other complexity in the item. These are fundamentally cool, flavorful, and tactically interesting effects, so I want them to shine. :)

[Ookiigaijin]

First off, Cynthaer, thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate it.




As for what level I'd recommend? Hard to say. I suspect this item is actually pretty overpowered for level 5 right now—adding 1d6 to every strike on your Flurry of Blows is a lot of extra dice! Maybe this should either be 1 charge with the current ability, to add some serious nova potential to your monk, or 3 charges but bringing the bonus damage down to 1d4. Or if you want this to be a little more "utility" and a little less "DAMAGE (plus some other stuff)", how about 5 charges and +1.

I think I'm going to cut it down to a once per day charge, and leave it with the d6 elemental damage. I want it to have more charges, but I personally hate rolling the d4, not sure about others feeling. I was hoping to avoid it. The more I look at these, I can see that they may be very powerful for a second tier PC. I was thinking these would be made available around level 6-7.

Something that just popped into my head. Should I make the PD effects require a reaction to trigger? Right now, they are free, action wise. I intended for these abilities to stack with the dodge action, making it harder for them to happen in the first place, with disadvantage and all. But sometimes they get lucky and hit a monk. Should it be limited to one use per round?

[Cynthaer]

First off, Cynthaer, thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate it.

To be quite honest, it's a pleasure discussing it with someone who actually cares about the details. :)


I think I'm going to cut it down to a once per day charge, and leave it with the d6 elemental damage. I want it to have more charges, but I personally hate rolling the d4, not sure about others feeling. I was hoping to avoid it. The more I look at these, I can see that they may be very powerful for a second tier PC. I was thinking these would be made available around level 6-7.

Frankly, I'm not 100% certain that it shouldn't be once per day and 1d4 elemental damage—consider that adding 1d6 to every successful attack on a level 6 monk is comparable to making every attack auto-crit for a full minute.

Actually—and this section is entirely me typing as I think through this—this might raise another small issue. During the minute that this is active, the monk's ki points are worth drastically more than in any other fight. That's not a balance issue, but sometimes this sort of thing can create a "feel bad" situation, where the player is incentivized to blow all their ki in one battle even if maybe they'd be better off rationing like usual.

On the other hand, ki points regenerate on a short rest, and this item is (under the current design) made for novas anyway. So if we assume the "standard" 6-8 encounter/2 short rest day, and the item is 1 charge per day, then it only affects ki rationing in one of the three encounter clusters. And that's fine, because the whole point of a nova is that you blow all your resources in one go.

So yeah, I think it's fine that players will want to dump all their ki while this is active. Should be fun.


Something that just popped into my head. Should I make the PD effects require a reaction to trigger? Right now, they are free, action wise. I intended for these abilities to stack with the dodge action, making it harder for them to happen in the first place, with disadvantage and all. But sometimes they get lucky and hit a monk. Should it be limited to one use per round?

You know, I didn't look quite close enough to notice, but you're right. I think these should definitely be reaction abilities. They have more in common with things like Parry, Riposte, and the Protection fighting style than with something like Armor of Agathys.

In addition, let me propose one more change to the Patient Defense features:

Let the monk trigger it when an opponent misses, not when an opponent hits.

This might mean taking the effect's power down a notch, but I think this will play much better. Right now it's all this cool text about a fancy ability that is specifically antisynergistic with the Dodge action that sets it up.

I know you intended to use this as a balancing mechanism, but there's a design lesson that one of the Magic: the Gathering designers mentioned somewhere a while ago that applies here. When designing a card, don't give it two antisynergistic abilities and hope they'll each shore up the other's weakness. It just doesn't feel that good in actual gameplay. Instead, make them synergistic and balance the power accordingly, because that feels great for the player!

Side note: I've never played as or with a monk in an actual game, so I don't know what the normal ki usage patterns look like. But I believe Patient Defense is the least-used ki feature in general—in which case, maybe the Patient Defense buff could even be an always-on passive ability? I could see that popping up when they need defense in random battles throughout the day, and then activating the item when it's time to zoom around the battlefield with Step of the Wind and punch people a hundred times a round.

This is pure spitballing here; I don't think this question could be confidently answered without actual real-life playtesting. Just had the thought and figured I'd mention it.