The Monk of Many Paths (Martial Arts based Monk)

[theshadowcult]

Hi guys.
I used to play a martial artist monk in pathfinder, and wanted to do something similar in 5e, so i made this.
I used the dnd monk as a base and modified it as below. Let me know what you think! :D





Monk
As a monk, you gain the following Class Features.

Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per monk level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per monk level after 1st

Starting Proficiencies
You are proficient with the following items, in addition to any proficiency provided by your race or background.

Armour: none
Weapons: simple Weapons, short-swords
Tools: any one type of artisan's tools or any one musical instrument of your choice
Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Athletics, History, Insight, Religion, and Stealth

Starting Equipment
You start with the following items, plus anything provided by your background.

• (a) a Short-sword or (b) any simple weapon
• (a) a Dungeoneer's Pack or (b) an Explorer's Pack
• 10 darts

Alternatively, you may start with 5d4 gp to buy your own Equipment.

Table: The Monk



Level
Proficiency
Martial Arts
Ki Points
Features


1st
+2
1d4
-
Unarmoured Defence, Martial Arts


2nd
+2
1d4
2
Ki, Eb and Flow


3rd
+2
1d4
3
Martial Stances, Deflect Missiles


4th
+2
1d4
4
Ability Score Improvement, Slow Fall


5th
+3
1d6
5
Fall of the Mighty, Feinting Footwork


6th
+3
1d6
6
Ki-Empowerd Strikes, Martial Stance


7th
+3
1d6
7
Evasion, Stillness of mind


8th
+3
1d6
8
Ability Score Improvement


9th
+4
1d6
9
Suki


10th
+4
1d6
10
Purity of Body


11th
+4
1d8
11
Martial Stance


12th
+4
1d8
12
Ability Score Improvement


13th
+5
1d8
13
Tongue of the Sun and Moon


14th
+5
1d8
14
Diamond Soul


15th
+5
1d8
15
Timeless Body


16th
+5
1d8
16
Ability Score Improvement


17th
+6
1d10
17
Martial Stance


18th
+6
1d10
18
Empty Body


19th
+6
1d10
19
Ability Score Improvement


20th
+6
1d10
20
Perfect Self




Unarmored Defense
Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armour and not wielding a Shield, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier.

Martial Arts
Your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of Combat styles that use unarmed strikes.

You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed and you aren't wearing armour or wielding a Shield.

• You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the Attack and Damage Rolls of your unarmed strikes. As well as use Dexterity for Shove Attacks.

• You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike. Damage increased is noted on table above.

• When you take the Attack Action you may use a bonus action to make a shove action.

Ki
Starting at 2nd level, your Training allows you to harness the mystic energy of ki. Your access to this energy is represented by a number of ki points. Your monk level determines the number of points you have, as shown in the Ki Points column of the Monk table.

You can spend these points to fuel various ki features. You start knowing three such features: Flurry of Blows, Patient Defence, and Step of the Wind. You learn more ki features as you gain levels in this class.

When you spend a ki point, it is unavailable until you finish a short or Long Rest, at the end of which you draw all of your expended ki back into yourself. You must spend at least 30 minutes of the rest meditating to regain your ki points.

Some of your ki features require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature's effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:

Ki save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Flurry of Blows
Attacks of Opportunity do not cost your reaction and you can spend 1 ki point on your turn and for the round you can make a number of attacks of opportunity equal to your dexterity modifier.

Patient Defense
You can spend 1 ki point to take the Dodge action as a Bonus Action on Your Turn.

Step of the Wind
You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a Bonus Action on Your Turn, and your jump distance is doubled for the turn.

Eb and Flow
Starting at 2nd level, when ever you make an attack your move speed increases by 5 feet until the start of your next turn.



Martial Stance
When you reach 3rd level, you commit yourself to a martial stance combat style. Your Stances grant you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 17th level. Stance Styles are listed further below.
Choose one fighting style. You can use a bonus action to take the martial stance, it lasts until you choose to end it (no action) or you use a bonus action to choose a different stance. Choose an extra style at 6th, 11th, and 17th level. When you gain a new Martial Style you may also replace one of your chosen Martial Styles with another from the list.

These Stances are considered Ki Features and use your Ki save DC if applicable.



Deflect Missiles
Starting at 3rd level, you can use your reaction to deflect or catch the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon Attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the Attack is reduced by 1d 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your monk level.

If you reduce the damage to 0, you can catch the missile if it is small enough for you to hold in one hand and you have at least one hand free. If you catch a missile in this way, you can spend 1 ki point to make a ranged Attack (range 20 feet/60 feet) with the weapon or piece of ammunition you just caught, as part of the same reaction. You make this Attack with proficiency, regardless of your weapon proficiency, and the missile counts as a monk weapon for the Attack.

Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two Ability Scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Slow Fall
Beginning at 4th level, you can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any Falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level.

Fall of the Mighty
You twist and maneuver to reveal your enemies vitals and weakest points. You may make one attack when you take the Attack Action and increase it's damage as you increase in power. Increasing the attacks damage Dice to 2 at 5th level, 3 at 11th, and 4 at level 17.

Feinting Footwork
Whenever you grant an enemy an opportunity attack, they make a wisdom save, on a fail they must attack you with their opportunity attack.



Ki-Empowered Strikes
Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming Resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.

Stillness of Mind
Starting at 7th level, you can use your action to end one effect on yourself that is causing you to be Charmed or Frightened.

Evasion
At 7th level, your instinctive agility lets you dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a blue dragon's lightning breath or a Fireball spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.


Suki
At 9th level you may spend 1 ki point, and until the end of your next turn, when an attack from an enemy in your melee range misses you and you have at least two hands free, the attacking enemy grants you an Attack of Opportunity.

Purity of Body
At 10th level, your mastery of the ki flowing through you makes you immune to disease and poison.

Tongue of the Sun and Moon
Starting at 13th level, you learn to touch the ki of other minds so that you understand all spoken languages. Moreover, any creature that can understand a Language can understand what you say.

Diamond Soul
Beginning at 14th level, your mastery of ki grants you proficiency in all saving throws.

Additionally, whenever you make a saving throw and fail, you can spend 1 ki point to re-roll it and take the second result.

Timeless Body
At 15th level, your ki sustains you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can't be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water.

Empty Body
Beginning at 18th level, you can use your action to spend 4 ki points to become Invisible for 1 minute. During that time, you also have Resistance to all damage but force damage.

Additionally, you can spend 8 ki points to cast the Astral Projection spell, without needing material Components. When you do so, you can't take any other creatures with you.

Perfect Soul
At 20th level, when you roll for initiative, you regain 4 ki points.



Martial Art Path Stances:

Viper Style, While in this stance your unarmed strikes deal piercing damage instead of bludgeoning. Once per turn, when you hit an enemy while using Viper Style, you may move 5ft and provoke an aoo from the targit of your hit. When you take this stance feature you gain resistance to poison damage.



Fox Style, While in this stance, after you attack on your turn, you may use a bonus action to use a feint against the target of that attack. The target must make an intelligence save or it loses any dexterity bonus to ac against the next attack targeting it before the end of your next turn. When you take this stance feature you gain advantage on any saves from fear or demorilizaing affects from creatures of a larger size than you.



Wolf Style, While in this stance when you hit a prone creature, it's movement is reduced by 10ft for one round. When you do at least 10 damage with an opportunity attack, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a shove maneuver as well. While in this stance you gain Pack Tactics.



Tiger Style, While in this stance your unarmed strike deal slashing damage instead of bludgeoning. You may use both your strength and dexterity modifiers instead of only one when determining damage for your unarmed attacks. When you take this stance feature you gain a swim and climb speed of 20ft.



Monkey Style, While in this stance, when grappling an enemy, you can move into the enemy's space and end your turn there, you are not considered to be squeezing for being in another creatures space, and your grappled enemy is considered squeezing even if they wouldn't normally be. You may spend 1 ki point to direct any attack targeting you at your grappled enemy instead, it must still beat the new targets AC as normal. When you take this stance feature you gain the non attribute benefits of the Athlete feat.



Dragon Style, While in this stance you ignore difficult terrain when you use the dash or disengage actions. As an Action you can spend 2 ki points to bellow a concussive roar in a 15ft cone, dealing your Fall of the Mighty (Regular Unarmed Attack Damage if you are 3rd or 4th level) plus your monk level in damage. Enemies in the cone take half damage on a successful constitution save. When you take this stance feature you have have advantage on saves against sleep and paralysis affects.



Crane Style, While in this stance if there are two or more enemies within 5 feet of you, you gain a +1 to ac for each enemy. If an enemy misses you while in this stance, you may spend 1 ki point to deflect the attack to another creature adjacent to you and within reach of the attacker, the attack must beat the new target's ac as normal. When you take this stance feature (not sure of what passive benefit to give yet)


Panther Style, While in this stance you can Charge your foes, moving up to your walking speed and make one attack as an Action. You ignore difficult terrain while charging. In this stance you may charge through allies spaces without costing extra movement. If you charge at least 10 feet in a straight line directly at a target and then hit with your attack, you may pounce on your target and attempt a shove action as a bonus action, if the shove was a trip and is succesful you may maul your taret with your Fall of the Mighty feature. When you take this stance feature you have advantage on Stealth checks.



EDIT: not sure how Suki disappeared, but its back. Class updated.

[Composer99]

What I'm seeing is a tankier kind of monk.

I'm not really convinced this needed to be its own monk class variant, instead of a monk subclass. I don't really see the point of taking monk weapons out of Martial Arts or removing Stunning Fist, Unarmoured Movement, and Extra Attack.

New Core Features
Ebb and Flow is nice for simulating the monk who takes on a whole bunch of mooks at once (I'm reminded of Chirrut Imwe), to the point where in and of itself it's overpowered - you're basically getting +1 free AC anytime you're in melee (which is as often as you can manage to be). I don't think monks are really supposed to have ACs superior to the guys sporting plate mail and shields, but in any fight against groups of enemies, you can make it happen without any resource expenditure on your part.

That being said, because this feature replaces unarmoured movement, now it's harder for you to get into melee, meaning you might not get to benefit from this feature as often as you might like.

Also, so far as I am aware, 5e doesn't really define "adjacent". You should write "within 5 feet of you" instead.

Maybe if this feature cost ki, and was something you could activate as a bonus action, lasted until the start of your next turn, and was a subclass feature, it would be fine. That way, with unarmoured movement you can close to melee with the baddies, convince them to swarm you, dodge their attacks 'cause you're awesome like that. Then your buddies could drop a fireball on your position, clean out the enemies and leave you standing triumphant.

Fall of the Mighty is strictly overpowered since you've taken out Extra Attack and you can just use this feature whenever you want. With Extra Attacks, the additional damage you can inflict comes at the cost of having to roll to hit on each attack. With this feature, you just get the additional damage.

Just like Ebb and Flow, I think this would be better if it were a subclass feature and cost ki. Also, it should require that you choose between using this or benefiting from Extra Attack. The scaling should change for the triple damage dice from 7th to 11th level, to match cantrip scaling and the tiers of play.

Feinting Footwork is okay, I guess, because it eats up enemy reactions, at least in the context of having Ebb and Flow. Having it work all the time is IMO overdoing it at 5th level, although if you're getting it as your 11th-level subclass feature, say, it would be fine. Maybe give it a cost of 1 ki, or allow it to affect a creature only once (after they swing and miss, say, they realise you were faking them out, and won't fall for the same mistake again).

Also, in 5e it's "opportunity attacks". Not a big deal, but a bit jarring to read the older terminology.

You've got a feature called Suki in the table, but it's not described. What is it?

Overall, I would say these features would all be suitable as the basic features of a subclass for the PHB monk, and as long as they had a ki cost or other limit on their use, you could keep the stances.

Stances
I'm not sure the stances are well-balanced with one another. That's not necessarily a problem, except you can choose any one you want at 3rd level, so if any are more powerful than the others, there's no level requirement keeping them out of your hands.

If the stances are balanced with one another, you have a different problem, resembling the problem the battlemaster fighter has: when you get a stance at 11th and 17th level, your options aren't any better than the ones you had at 3rd level. It's not as much of a problem if you're getting other subclass features, but in this variant monk, you're not.

Stances should have a maximum duration: 1 minute, I would think, is fair. They should have some other limit on their use as well, whether that's ki or a short rest recharge. If all stances use the same DC (8 + your proficiency bonus + whatever ability modifier you as the designer deem appropriate), make a note of it before introducing each individual stance's description. Otherwise, each stance that requires a saving throw needs to give a DC.


Viper Style, While in this stance your unarmed strikes deal piercing damage instead of bludgeoning. Once per turn, when you hit an enemy while using Viper Style, you may take a 5ft step and provoke an aoo from the target of your hit.
When you take this stance feature you gain resistance to poison damage.


There's no "5-foot step" in 5e. Not to mention the whole point of the 5-foot step in 3.5/PF (and its successor, shifting in 4e) was not to provoke AoOs/opportunity attacks.

I would say, then, that this feature should allow you, when you hit a target with a melee weapon attack, to move up to 5 feet without provoking an opportunity attack from the creature you hit (while still provoking such attacks from other creatures).

Otherwise, this stance, and its passive/always-on effect, seem fine.



Fox Style, While in this stance, after you attack a target on your turn, you may use a bonus action to use a feint. The target must make an intelligence save or it loses any dexterity modifier bonus to ac against the next attack it recieves before the end of your next turn.
When you take this stance feature you gain advantage on any saves from fear or demoralising affects from creatures of a larger size than you.


This stance seems fine. I would reword it a bit, though:

While in this stance, after making a melee weapon attack against a creature within 5 feet of you, you may make a feinting manoeuvre against the same creature as a bonus action. The target must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw or it does not add its Dexterity modifier to its Armour Class on the first attack targeting it before the end of your next turn.

Actually, the ability in the second paragraph is a bit underpowered. I'd suggest just giving advantage on saving throws against being frightened.



Wolf Style, While in this stance when you hit a prone creature, it's movement is reduced by 10ft for one round. When you do at least 10 damage with an attack of opportunity, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a shove maneuver as well.
While in this stance you gain Pack Tactics.


The abilities in the first paragraph are all right. Since you're "gatekeeping" the free shove with ki and triggering it on an opportunity attack, you don't need the damage condition as well.

The ability in the second paragraph is not all right. Getting advantage on all attacks when an ally is within 5 feet of the same target all the time, without any restriction, is just too powerful.



Tiger Style, While in this stance your unarmed strike deal slashing damage instead of bludgeoning. You may use both your strength and dexterity modifiers instead of only one when determining damage for your unarmed attacks.
When you take this stance feature you gain a swim and climb speed of 20ft.


The adding Strength and Dexterity to damage rolls might be overpowered, although to benefit you're going from needing a high Dexterity and Wisdom and decent Constitution, to needing a high Strength, Dexterity and Wisdom and decent Constitution, so it's probably okay.

The ability in the second paragraph just... doesn't really evoke the idea of tigers in my mind, even if tigers are good climbers and swimmers.



Monkey Style, While in this stance, when grappling an enemy, you can move into the enemy's space and end your turn there, you are not considered to be squeezing for being in another creatures space, and your grappled enemy is considered squeezing even if they wouldn't normally be. You may spend 1 ki point to direct any attack targeting you at your grappled enemy instead, it must still beat the new targets AC as normal.
When you take this stance feature you gain the non attribute benefits of the Athlete feat.


This is pretty solid, although the redirect attack feature should eat your reaction instead of ki, at least IMO. I'm not fond of giving out partial feat benefits, though. This seems like a style where you should be getting a climb speed for your second paragraph ability.



Dragon Style, While in this stance you ignore difficult terrain when you use the dash or disengage actions. As an Action you can spend 3 ki points to bellow a concussive roar in a 15ft cone, dealing your Fall of the Mighty (Regular Unarmed Attack Damage if you are 3rd or 4th level) plus your monk level in damage. Enemies in the cone take half damage on a successful constitution save.
When you take this stance feature you have have advantage on saves against sleep and paralysis affects.


Honestly, I would just reduce the ki cost to 2 and let you use thunderwave, since you're basically doing a roar that deals (or should deal, since you don't specify it) thunder damage. Otherwise, I really think referring to your "Fall of the Mighty" damage is a bad idea: why would your magical roar use the damage inflicted by your stronger punch/kick? Doesn't make much sense to me. Since it's a straight-up area of effect attack, creatures in the cone should be affected, and not just enemies.



Crane Style, While in this stance you may take the defensive, granting a +2 to ac, but a -2 to your attacks. If an enemy misses you while in this stance, you may spend 1 ki point to deflect the attack to another creature adjacent to you and within reach of the attacker, the attack must beat the new target's ac as normal.
When you take this stance feature if you have not attacked this turn and you take the dodge action, you gain a +4 bonus to ac and can't make any attacks until the start of your next turn.


The redirect attacks ability is nice, although it should probably either eat your reaction or cost more ki. The rest of this style? Meh. It's basically superfluous courtesy of Ebb and Flow.



Panther Style, While in this stance you can Charge your foes, moving up to your walking speed and make one attack as an Attack Action. You ignore difficult terrain while charging. In this stance you may charge through allies spaces without costing extra movement. As a bonus action when you charge at least 10 feet in a straight line directly at a target you may pounce on your target and attempt a shove action, if the shove was a trip and is successful the target grants you a Attack of Opportunity.
When you take this stance feature you have advantage on Stealth checks.


So while in this stance you can basically get the Dash action for free when you take the Attack action? For the entire duration of the stance? And a shove/opportunity attack combo as a bonus action? It's not too overpowered, but it does need some toning down. Or, at least, the shove/opportunity attack combo needs to be behind a ki "paywall" or something.

[Lalliman]

Fall of the Mighty is strictly overpowered since you've taken out Extra Attack and you can just use this feature whenever you want. With Extra Attacks, the additional damage you can inflict comes at the cost of having to roll to hit on each attack. With this feature, you just get the additional damage.
I'd like to give this class a more thorough read when I have the time, but for now I have to say that - separate from anything else said - this is absolutely false. If the accuracy doesn't change, the damage output remains the same no matter how many attacks you split the damage into. If you make one attack per round that deals 100 damage with 50% accuracy, your DPR is 50. If you make five attacks per round that each deal 20 damage with 50% accuracy, your DPR is also 50. Additional attack rolls are not a cost; if anything they're a benefit because they're less swingy and less prone to overkilling.

Fall of the Mighty is in fact much worse than Extra Attack when you get it at 5th level. With Extra Attack you'll deal 2 x (1d6+4) = 15 damage with the Attack action. With Fall of the Mighty, you will deal 2d6+4 = 11 damage. The (weirdly-placed) improvement at 7th brings it up to 3d6+4 = 14.5. So it needs both dice just to catch up, and it's frankly still worse because it's swingier, more likely to overkill, and unable to affect multiple targets.

[theshadowcult]

What I'm seeing is a tankier kind of monk.

I'm not really convinced this needed to be its own monk class variant, instead of a monk subclass. I don't really see the point of taking monk weapons out of Martial Arts or removing Stunning Fist, Unarmoured Movement, and Extra Attack.


Too many features to make it just a subclass. Also the unarmoured movement on top of the features i list, makes it broken. As for weapons, simply because Kensai Exists. A DM can just allow monk weapons if they want, it doesnt change anything, it just isnt what i wanted. Also most importantly, this build was based on a monk i used in pathfinder, so most of the changes are thematic as well. I had hope that translated over at least a little but i guess not. The whole idea of the monk i played was moving around the battlefield distracting and countering multiple foes, while leading up to the actual target and releasing a single large blow at them. Before moving away next turn and doing it all over again on someone else.



New Core Features
Ebb and Flow is nice for simulating the monk who takes on a whole bunch of mooks at once (I'm reminded of Chirrut Imwe), to the point where in and of itself it's overpowered - you're basically getting +1 free AC anytime you're in melee (which is as often as you can manage to be). I don't think monks are really supposed to have ACs superior to the guys sporting plate mail and shields, but in any fight against groups of enemies, you can make it happen without any resource expenditure on your part.

That being said, because this feature replaces unarmoured movement, now it's harder for you to get into melee, meaning you might not get to benefit from this feature as often as you might like.

Also, so far as I am aware, 5e doesn't really define "adjacent". You should write "within 5 feet of you" instead.

Maybe if this feature cost ki, and was something you could activate as a bonus action, lasted until the start of your next turn, and was a subclass feature, it would be fine. That way, with unarmoured movement you can close to melee with the baddies, convince them to swarm you, dodge their attacks 'cause you're awesome like that. Then your buddies could drop a fireball on your position, clean out the enemies and leave you standing triumphant.

Changed. Though not how you wanted. A for Adjacent i figured that was simply an obvious thing, but i guess i can change things to 5 foot.



Fall of the Mighty is strictly overpowered since you've taken out Extra Attack and you can just use this feature whenever you want. With Extra Attacks, the additional damage you can inflict comes at the cost of having to roll to hit on each attack. With this feature, you just get the additional damage.

Just like Ebb and Flow, I think this would be better if it were a subclass feature and cost ki. Also, it should require that you choose between using this or benefiting from Extra Attack. The scaling should change for the triple damage dice from 7th to 11th level, to match cantrip scaling and the tiers of play.


I'm not sure what you read or are saying. It's overpowered because i took out extra attack? So it would be fine if you also got two attacks? what? The ability clearly says you can make ONE attack, and it must be in the Attack Action. Not you can do it when ever you want, for any attack? The damage at 7th is a typo, im not sure how i did that, but it IS supposed to be 11th level, it's meant to be like a cantrip, only also allowing damage modifiers and item bonuses and such if the DM grants them.



Feinting Footwork is okay, I guess, because it eats up enemy reactions, at least in the context of having Ebb and Flow. Having it work all the time is IMO overdoing it at 5th level, although if you're getting it as your 11th-level subclass feature, say, it would be fine. Maybe give it a cost of 1 ki, or allow it to affect a creature only once (after they swing and miss, say, they realise you were faking them out, and won't fall for the same mistake again).

Also, in 5e it's "opportunity attacks". Not a big deal, but a bit jarring to read the older terminology.

You've got a feature called Suki in the table, but it's not described. What is it?


You are right, its opportunity attacks in 5e. Will change that. The whole point of the ability is to stop the enemy from simply not attacking you, i dont like it being on a save, but with out this ability some of the other features do not work. Note getting extra opportunity attacks and being able to counter enemy attacks with them is used instead of flurry of blows. Without this features half the time your character would be attacking once a turn and nothing else.

Not sure how Suki vanished, i may have accidentally deleted it or something, but it is back up.




Stances
I'm not sure the stances are well-balanced with one another. That's not necessarily a problem, except you can choose any one you want at 3rd level, so if any are more powerful than the others, there's no level requirement keeping them out of your hands.

If the stances are balanced with one another, you have a different problem, resembling the problem the battlemaster fighter has: when you get a stance at 11th and 17th level, your options aren't any better than the ones you had at 3rd level. It's not as much of a problem if you're getting other subclass features, but in this variant monk, you're not.

Stances should have a maximum duration: 1 minute, I would think, is fair. They should have some other limit on their use as well, whether that's ki or a short rest recharge. If all stances use the same DC (8 + your proficiency bonus + whatever ability modifier you as the designer deem appropriate), make a note of it before introducing each individual stance's description. Otherwise, each stance that requires a saving throw needs to give a DC.


They are not meant to be balanced against each other, but i dont think the battlemaster abilities are a problem, unbalanced or even balanced against each other either. If battlemaster does have a problem, it would be the limited use of the dice, they should have more, if not twice as many. Just like the battlemaster maneuvers, the stances provide options, you get more options as you level. You are not meant to be the master of every path, so 4 seemed like a decent number to me. As for power level. It depends entirely on use and the DM, one may be broken in one DM's game, and completely useless in another's. I can't balance around that.

Why would you want stance durations? Not only would they be meaningless, but why? Why a limitation? They are not busted overpowered amazeballs and you can only use one at a time anyway... I guess you are right about the DC, again thought it was obvious but you are right i should mention that.



There's no "5-foot step" in 5e. Not to mention the whole point of the 5-foot step in 3.5/PF (and its successor, shifting in 4e) was not to provoke AoOs/opportunity attacks.


It wasn't meant to be the 4th edition 5 foot step feature, but simply you are able to move 5 feet. I will rewrite that.




Actually, the ability in the second paragraph is a bit underpowered. I'd suggest just giving advantage on saving throws against being frightened.


I reworded the feature, it should be a better read now. The monk gains proficiency in every save at 14th level, i was trying to give the feature thematic leeway, for any dm to make decisions on the fear or demoralise effects, rather than just saying frightened condition. It can be changed if needed.



The abilities in the first paragraph are all right. Since you're "gatekeeping" the free shove with ki and triggering it on an opportunity attack, you don't need the damage condition as well.

The ability in the second paragraph is not all right. Getting advantage on all attacks when an ally is within 5 feet of the same target all the time, without any restriction, is just too powerful.


I didn't want the shove to occur to often, the damage limitation can be removed by a DM easy enough if it doesnt occur often enough. As for pact tactics, you only get it while using the stance, not passively like other stances. Also for a fighter, or a rogue, or a paladin sure. THIS monk, only gets ONE attack on it's turn that isn't an opportunity attack, and i doubt the monk will have an ally within 5 feet of every enemy on the field.



The adding Strength and Dexterity to damage rolls might be overpowered, although to benefit you're going from needing a high Dexterity and Wisdom and decent Constitution, to needing a high Strength, Dexterity and Wisdom and decent Constitution, so it's probably okay.

The ability in the second paragraph just... doesn't really evoke the idea of tigers in my mind, even if tigers are good climbers and swimmers.


Should be fine, as you said, to abuse it you'd be MAD as hell. Even if you did have 20 strength and 20 Dexterity, it really wouldnt be a big deal. It isn't out damaging the paladin, rogue or ranger. Or even the Warlock with Hex to be honest. As for the swimming, that's fie if it doesn't feel like the right theme to you, it wont to everybody, but the theme are supposed to be about the body and the stances you train your body to accomplish. I feel like the tigers natural swimming and climbing fit perfectly.
What would you feel i appropriate then?




Honestly, I would just reduce the ki cost to 2 and let you use thunderwave, since you're basically doing a roar that deals (or should deal, since you don't specify it) thunder damage. Otherwise, I really think referring to your "Fall of the Mighty" damage is a bad idea: why would your magical roar use the damage inflicted by your stronger punch/kick? Doesn't make much sense to me. Since it's a straight-up area of effect attack, creatures in the cone should be affected, and not just enemies.


The idea was to use the Bludgeoning damage from your Fall of the Mighty attack, to give a stance that benefits that feature directly. As for magical, why can some dragons shoot lightning out their mouths? It's magic. I feel like the magic being a part of your body, it makes sense for the damage to use your features, rather than just let you use a spell.



The redirect attacks ability is nice, although it should probably either eat your reaction or cost more ki. The rest of this style? Meh. It's basically superfluous courtesy of Ebb and Flow.


Changed.



So while in this stance you can basically get the Dash action for free when you take the Attack action? For the entire duration of the stance? And a shove/opportunity attack combo as a bonus action? It's not too overpowered, but it does need some toning down. Or, at least, the shove/opportunity attack combo needs to be behind a ki "paywall" or something.

I don't quite see why you think this is overpowered? The stance, which cost a bonus action already to turn on, lets you take the dash action (without using that action word, so you cannot think you can do it as a bonus action with step of the wind) as your action, while letting you get in one basic attack. Then you can use your bonus action to apply a shove. If this was a normal monk, you get extra movement to make a similar distance, then 2 attacks, then two more attacks as a bonus action while making any one of them a shove per the default rules.


I'd like to give this class a more thorough read when I have the time, but for now I have to say that - separate from anything else said - this is absolutely false. If the accuracy doesn't change, the damage output remains the same no matter how many attacks you split the damage into. If you make one attack per round that deals 100 damage with 50% accuracy, your DPR is 50. If you make five attacks per round that each deal 20 damage with 50% accuracy, your DPR is also 50. Additional attack rolls are not a cost; if anything they're a benefit because they're less swingy and less prone to overkilling.

Fall of the Mighty is in fact much worse than Extra Attack when you get it at 5th level. With Extra Attack you'll deal 2 x (1d6+4) = 15 damage with the Attack action. With Fall of the Mighty, you will deal 2d6+4 = 11 damage. The (weirdly-placed) improvement at 7th brings it up to 3d6+4 = 14.5. So it needs both dice just to catch up, and it's frankly still worse because it's swingier, more likely to overkill, and unable to affect multiple targets.


This. The Fall of the Mighty ability is close to the same as two attacks, and even a tad bit weaker. I was actually thinking of improving it, but im not really sure how to without changing it thematically. Maybe give it a free grapple check too? Im not sure.





Either way, i've edited and updated the Class int eh first post.

[Composer99]

I'd like to give this class a more thorough read when I have the time, but for now I have to say that - separate from anything else said - this is absolutely false. If the accuracy doesn't change, the damage output remains the same no matter how many attacks you split the damage into. If you make one attack per round that deals 100 damage with 50% accuracy, your DPR is 50. If you make five attacks per round that each deal 20 damage with 50% accuracy, your DPR is also 50. Additional attack rolls are not a cost; if anything they're a benefit because they're less swingy and less prone to overkilling.

Fall of the Mighty is in fact much worse than Extra Attack when you get it at 5th level. With Extra Attack you'll deal 2 x (1d6+4) = 15 damage with the Attack action. With Fall of the Mighty, you will deal 2d6+4 = 11 damage. The (weirdly-placed) improvement at 7th brings it up to 3d6+4 = 14.5. So it needs both dice just to catch up, and it's frankly still worse because it's swingier, more likely to overkill, and unable to affect multiple targets.

I went back and crunched some numbers.

Assumptions:
AC of target is 14 (I went through the MM once and found that's about the average AC of all the monsters therein)
+3 ability mod to attacks and damage
+3 proficiency bonus

With those assumptions in mind, you do an average of 6.85 damage per hit with Fall of the Mighty:
- You miss 35% of the time
- You hit 60% of the time
- You crit 5% of the time
Average damage is 0*.35 + 10*.6 + 17*.05 or 6.85

With Extra Attack, I didn't have the probability chops to work out the probability of the following scenarios:
- 1 attack crits, 1 attack misses
- 1 attack crits, 1 attack is normal hit
But with the other scenarios (no hits, one normal hit, two normal hits, and two crits) I had reached an average damage of 7.85 per hit

So Lalliman is correct - thanks for pointing that out.

[theshadowcult]

I found Suki, it was tucked up next to Evasion, i must have overlooked it and didn't separate the features when i originally posted it.

Speaking of features, and the fact that Composer99 also missed Suki, i'mm guessing it wasn't noticed by readers, but i actually changed a few of the base Monk features too. Notably Martial Arts, Flurry of Blows and Perfect Self. I forget if i changed others.

[Lalliman]

Ok, I've read it through and I'll give some thoughts. I haven't thoroughly read the conversation with Composer because I want to give a candid impression. Excuse me if I repeat something unnecessarily. Also forgive me if I come across as harsh simply because I have a lot to say. I think you have a good start to something very interesting here, but it could be much better realised.

One little tip for next time before I get started: Mark the features that are unaltered from the vanilla class in a different colour, that'll make skimming much easier.

Now first of all, while I like the idea behind this class and I can see the rationale behind most of it, there's a certain lack of coherence within its features. It gets a speed boost for every attack it makes, but it only ever gets one attack per round. It has a highly specific focus on making people waste their opportunity attacks, but it can also Disengage as a bonus action. It only ever gets one attack per turn, but it can get up to five opportunity attacks per round. All these combinations are rather odd, both mechanically and thematically.

The second point is a more crippling contradiction: Even though this class is clearly intended as a defender type character, its defensive abilities are no better than those of the vanilla monk. Which is to say poor. Monks have poor HP, mainly due to having few stat points to invest in Con, and their AC is merely decent until high level. They have the powerful Patient Defence feature, but using it will cut down their offence and drain their valuable Ki. Aside from the their ability to avoid combat completely, which this version clearly doesn't want to do, their durability is closer to a wizard than a fighter. So if you want a defender-like monk, you'll need some kind of reliable defensive boost.

(This point is ignoring the powerful crane style, which boost defence but is an optional pick, and thus should not be required for the monk to fulfil his intended role.)

The third major issue is that the styles vary wildly not just in how powerful they are, but also in how flavourful they are and how well they synergise with the core features. You mentioned somewhere that the styles don't have to be strictly equal, just like the battle master's maneuvers, and I agree with that. But the difference in usefulness between the powerful Crane and the borderline-useless Viper is astronomical. Given that a 10th level character only has two styles, a few of them are basically guaranteed to never be taken, which is a shame. I'll talk more on this when I address the specific styles.

What I suggest you do overall is:

1. Define what archetype (in the literary definition) of character this class is. Is it a flailing Jackie Chan type martial artist (like the vanilla monk) or more of a poised boxer-like character? (Or some third option I haven't thought of?) Going forward, make sure that the features are consistent with that archetype. For example, if it's a Jackie Chan character it probably shouldn't be stuck with only one attack, and if it's a boxer character it probably shouldn't get the monk's various mobility features. If you want to allow both, then offer the player choices instead of combining both features into the core class.

2. Make the core class generic and versatile, removing highly-specific features like Eb and Flow and Feinting Footwork. The skeleton of the class should be a generic enough that it can choose any style and not have any contradictory or competing features.

3. Make sure that each style is not only comparable in power, but has a distinct flavour and purpose.

4. Lastly, I would suggest giving access to more styles earlier. Since changing styles is a big selling point of the class, it's a real shame that you only have one until 6th level, and the campaign is likely to end before you get a third.

Now on to some of the specific features.


Flurry of Blows
Attacks of Opportunity do not cost your reaction and you can spend 1 ki point on your turn and for the round you can make a number of attacks of opportunity equal to your dexterity modifier.
This is weirdly phrased. It implies that you can always make OAs without spending your reaction. Suggestion for rewording: You can spend 1 ki on your turn to gain the ability to make a number of opportunity attacks equal to your Dexterity modifier without using your reaction. This expires at the start of your next turn.

(That's if you want to keep it. I personally find it a weird feature because you don't really have use for that many opportunity attacks until you get Suki at level 9.)


Viper Style, While in this stance your unarmed strikes deal piercing damage instead of bludgeoning. Once per turn, when you hit an enemy while using Viper Style, you may move 5ft and provoke an aoo from the targit of your hit. When you take this stance feature you gain resistance to poison damage.
This style is extremely weak. There certainly is some merit in draining your opponent's opportunity attacks, but it's an uncommon tactic, and there already is a feature that does that (Feinting Footwork). I'm also not sure what's viper-like about inviting attacks. I would suggest removing Feinting Footwork from the core class and putting a variation of it in here, something like this:


Viper Style. Like the elusive viper, you can move swiftly across the battlefield, confusing your opponents. While in this stance, other creatures have disadvantage on opportunity attack rolls against you. When you provoke an opportunity attack from a creature, that creature can't forgo the attack unless they succeed at a Wisdom saving throw.

When you learn this stance, you gain resistance to poison damage. You can also choose for your unarmed strikes to deal piercing damage instead of bludgeoning.

This way, the highly-specific tactic of draining opportunity attacks is confined to a specific thematically-appropriate style. The style also gives you everything you need to be good at it, including proper resistance to the attacks you're triggering, which the original version didn't really have.

Having the stance give a passive bonus even when not in use was a great idea by the way, you should definitely keep that.


Fox Style, While in this stance, after you attack on your turn, you may use a bonus action to use a feint against the target of that attack. The target must make an intelligence save or it loses any dexterity bonus to ac against the next attack targeting it before the end of your next turn. When you take this stance feature you gain advantage on any saves from fear or demorilizaing affects from creatures of a larger size than you.
Removing the Dex bonus to AC is something that never happens in 5e. You could still opt to bring it back, it is a slightly more interesting mechanic than simply granting advantage. But be aware that this is unusual compared to the rest of the game.

That being said, this style is also very weak. You already have a bonus action shove, which has a similar benefit but lasts longer. The feint has its uses against creatures too large to shove, but it's just not enough to compete with the better styles. I suggest that you instead give the ability to take the Help action as a bonus action. That's basically the same thing without the failure chance.


Wolf Style, While in this stance when you hit a prone creature, it's movement is reduced by 10ft for one round. When you do at least 10 damage with an opportunity attack, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a shove maneuver as well. While in this stance you gain Pack Tactics.
In contrast to the last two, this one is savagely powerful. Pack Tactics alone is honestly better than even my revised versions of the previous two styles. I suggest you take out the first two points and make Pack Tactics the sole benefit of the stance. And maybe add a passive ribbon, like giving advantage on Perception checks relying on smell.

You could still use the other two points in another style if you really like them, though I find them both a bit too overly-specific.


Tiger Style, While in this stance your unarmed strike deal slashing damage instead of bludgeoning. You may use both your strength and dexterity modifiers instead of only one when determining damage for your unarmed attacks. When you take this stance feature you gain a swim and climb speed of 20ft.
Man, I wish I could use this to make a monk with good Str. But it's just not practical. The monk is so stat-starved to begin with that you'll only be able to afford a Str of 12 without cutting into your Dex, Wis or Con.

If you want to encourage the monk to raise Strength, you'll need more than this. Perhaps a feature that lets you use your Strength in place of your Wisdom for the purpose of Unarmored Defense and saving throw DCs. Such a feature should really be available at 1st level though.


Monkey Style, While in this stance, when grappling an enemy, you can move into the enemy's space and end your turn there, you are not considered to be squeezing for being in another creatures space, and your grappled enemy is considered squeezing even if they wouldn't normally be. You may spend 1 ki point to direct any attack targeting you at your grappled enemy instead, it must still beat the new targets AC as normal. When you take this stance feature you gain the non attribute benefits of the Athlete feat.
This one seems good. A very powerful effect, but limited by the need to grapple, which monks are not particularly good at. I am iffy about the fact that while grappling, you are utterly untargetable as long as you have Ki left. It should probably cost your reaction so you can only do it once per round.


Dragon Style, While in this stance you ignore difficult terrain when you use the dash or disengage actions. As an Action you can spend 2 ki points to bellow a concussive roar in a 15ft cone, dealing your Fall of the Mighty (Regular Unarmed Attack Damage if you are 3rd or 4th level) plus your monk level in damage. Enemies in the cone take half damage on a successful constitution save. When you take this stance feature you have have advantage on saves against sleep and paralysis affects.
This one's perfectly good, honestly. Only thing: do you still add your Dex mod to the FotM damage, or is it only the dice? You should also mention that it is (assumedly) thunder damage.


Crane Style, While in this stance if there are two or more enemies within 5 feet of you, you gain a +1 to ac for each enemy. If an enemy misses you while in this stance, you may spend 1 ki point to deflect the attack to another creature adjacent to you and within reach of the attacker, the attack must beat the new target's ac as normal. When you take this stance feature (not sure of what passive benefit to give yet)
This is good stuff, though once again it should cost your reaction. For the passive benefit, perhaps increase jump height, because you're a bird? Get advantage on acrobatics checks to balance, because you're standing on one leg all the time? Or both, because the second is really minor.


Panther Style, While in this stance you can Charge your foes, moving up to your walking speed and make one attack as an Action. You ignore difficult terrain while charging. In this stance you may charge through allies spaces without costing extra movement. If you charge at least 10 feet in a straight line directly at a target and then hit with your attack, you may pounce on your target and attempt a shove action as a bonus action, if the shove was a trip and is succesful you may maul your taret with your Fall of the Mighty feature. When you take this stance feature you have advantage on Stealth checks.
This one is a bit too specific for my liking, since it encourages doing the exact same move over and over again. The mechanical benefits are also a bit swingy, since it has a high chance to not really do anything, but occasionally, when you succeed on both rolls, you'll deal double your normal damage. But it's not bad, I can see it being fun, and it doesn't seem over- or underpowered. Though you should clarify whether you need a third roll to deal the FotM damage, or if that's automatic.

I would avoid giving permanent advantage on anything. Instead, consider A) giving advantage when moving at half speed, like the thief, or B) giving proficiency, or expertise if already proficient.

I spent way too long writing all that, so I hope it proves useful. I'm curious to see the end result of this project.

[Composer99]

Too many features to make it just a subclass. Also the unarmoured movement on top of the features i list, makes it broken. As for weapons, simply because Kensai Exists. A DM can just allow monk weapons if they want, it doesnt change anything, it just isnt what i wanted. Also most importantly, this build was based on a monk i used in pathfinder, so most of the changes are thematic as well. I had hope that translated over at least a little but i guess not. The whole idea of the monk i played was moving around the battlefield distracting and countering multiple foes, while leading up to the actual target and releasing a single large blow at them. Before moving away next turn and doing it all over again on someone else.

Let me put it this way:

The core monk lets you be one of three kinds of monk (or more, if you have Xanathar's).

This monk lets you be one kind of monk: theshadowcult's style of monk. Each stance plays slightly differently, but it's not as significant a change as having fully-fleshed out subclasses. A wolf stance monk punches with advantage, while a crane stance monk punches while being hard to punch back, but they just don't play as differently as, say, an open hand vs. shadow monk do.

If that's what you want with your monk remix, that's fine, I guess, although it strikes me as unsatisfactory.



They are not meant to be balanced against each other, but i dont think the battlemaster abilities are a problem, unbalanced or even balanced against each other either. If battlemaster does have a problem, it would be the limited use of the dice, they should have more, if not twice as many. Just like the battlemaster maneuvers, the stances provide options, you get more options as you level. You are not meant to be the master of every path, so 4 seemed like a decent number to me. As for power level. It depends entirely on use and the DM, one may be broken in one DM's game, and completely useless in another's. I can't balance around that.

Why would you want stance durations? Not only would they be meaningless, but why? Why a limitation? They are not busted overpowered amazeballs and you can only use one at a time anyway... I guess you are right about the DC, again thought it was obvious but you are right i should mention that.

Fundamentally, the problem with battlemaster manoeuvres is that you can pick any of them right off the bat, and you don't get any new ones to pick as you gain levels. That means by the time you get to high levels, you're picking through the leftovers of ones you didn't want: stuff that didn't really fit your concept, stuff you think is subpar, or what have you. Your fighter who, as early as 10th level (assuming a 14 or higher Constitution) can tell the DM, "No, I didn't die!" after falling 300 feet, doesn't have any combat abilities any more interesting or powerful than those available at 3rd level. The manoeuvres scale in power because you get more superiority dice as you gain levels, and they increase in die "size", but that scaling isn't a property of the manoeuvres themselves.

Several martial subclass' high level features suffer from a related problem: they're mechanically effective, but not at all exciting as abilities at that level. The berserker barbarian gets to counter-attack a creature within 5 feet of it that damages it at 14th level. Boring! Shadow monk gets to use its reaction to make a melee attack against a creature within 5 feet of it that got hit. That's a 17th-level monk subclass feature? Whoop-de-doo! Both of these features are fine, even excellent, in and of themselves - they're just completely uninteresting at the levels at which you receive them. They should really be something most fightery-types can do within the first 5 levels of play, if they expend some resources to earn them (such as a feat). (It also limits design space, again IMO - if the berserker barbarian has riposte at 14th level, because most subclasses try not to emulate other subclass features, it means what really should be a common ability for skilled combatants is restricted to a specific set of barbarians, at a level that is rarely seen in actual play; likewise with the shadow monk capstone.)

As I see it, the stances have the same general issue: A player would pick the best choices (whether according to number crunching or according to how they want to play) early on, and have choices they may well not really care for later on. I don't think that's a position you want to put players in.

Anyway, all that's probably more of a philosophical issue of class design than a concrete suggestion for how to improve this monk remix. Consider it or ignore it at your discretion. What follows is more concrete, and more of a concern.

Apropos of stance durations and limits on use, here's what you wrote for the stances:


Choose one fighting style. You can use a bonus action to take the martial stance, it lasts until you choose to end it (no action) or you use a bonus action to choose a different stance. Choose an extra style at 6th, 11th, and 17th level. When you gain a new Martial Style you may also replace one of your chosen Martial Styles with another from the list.

If you wanted, you can maintain a stance indefinitely - it lasts until you choose to end it or you swap it out for another stance. That means having the stance that, say, gives you Pack Tactics all the time, if that's what you want. Perpetual advantageon attack rolls is exactly what you get if there's no duration cap and no usage limit on these stances. I mean, technically you could be in a spot where you don't have an ally in place to allow you to benefit from Pack Tactics, but I think your fellow adventurers would be pretty quick to set things up.

Perpetual advantage on attack rolls without paying any price is a benefit, so far as I am aware, no other class in the game gets on its own. At least barbarians have to pay a price for getting to have advantage on their attacks whenever they want.

Similarly, if you know any other awesome stances, you could have any given stance up in perpetuity, unless you change a stance or drop it (but why would you?). Because that's how you've written the rule. (I guess being incapacitated would cause you to drop a stance.)

Every "martial" class has its combat-enhancement shtick, some better than others, but every such shtick has its limits. Rogues get sneak attack, capped at once per turn. Paladins get smites, which require expending spell slots. Barbarians get rages, which are capped per long rest, and Reckless Attack, which gives advantage to creatures attacking them. And so on. The problem with the stances, as written, is that they are effectively limitless combat-enhancement shticks.