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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Way of the Cobalt Soul - revises class features



JDanton
2018-08-25, 08:25 PM
Disclaimer; The Way of the Cobalt Soul monk subclass was created by Matthew Mercer as part of the Taldorei Campaign setting, the subclass and all content related to it belong solely to the creator. This thread is not for hating on the subclass, I am merely diagnosing some of the problems that I and my players have found with the subclass and proposing solutions in the hopes of making it more balanced and fun to play.

Okay, so basically I'm running a game using elements of the Taldorei Campaign setting and includes one of my players as a monk of the Way of the Cobalt Soul and its quickly become apparent to me that the monk is becoming progressively less powerful than his fellow party members as the game has moved on, mostly due to the power balance of the subclass, which despite having a lot of thematically cool abilities is phenomenally underpowered, even with the most recent update of the Tradition. Both inside and out of combat the monk is struggling to find a role or be useful, the only viable choice for him in combat is to stunning strike and its frustrating both him and the other players. His tradition is too tightly linked with the story and his character arc to change it and I can't wait until the original creator updates the subclass again and so I've taken matters into my own hands and attempted to tweak some of the class features, only tweak not fully rework, since I love the class and the thematic elements of it, these tweaks are just to make the features more viable and fun (especially at lower levels). I'm posting my edits here in case anyone has any suggestions or criticisms or wants to use my tweaks in their own game, if they too find the base subclass underwhelming, if you're fine with it the way it is then feel free to explain why you like it the way it is, this is an open discussion.

Mystical Erudition Completely unchanged, no problems with this at all and any tweaks would just complicate it, extra skill proficiencies is just good.


Extract Aspects Beginning at 3rd level when choosing this tradition, you can strike multiple pressure points to extract crucial information about your foe. Whenever you hit a single creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, you learn its damage vulnerabilities, resistances and immunities and gain advantage on intelligence checks to recall information about the creature. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier (minimum of 1) per long rest.

Optional extra feature: When a creature is targeted by this feature, it must make an intelligence saving throw with a DC equal to your ki save DC. On a failed save the target takes 1d10 psychic damage as the information is ripped from their body, if the save is successful the target takes no damage. The damage increases by 1d10 when you reach 6th, 11th and 17th level.

(These changes are just to clear up and uncomplicate as it was fairly frustrating to use. Most of the Aspects that the feature allowed you to reveal are completely useless and change nothing about how the battle is fought and picking the wrong aspects leads to you wasting the feature entirely, which would be fine if this was just a thematic ribbon but it is the only combat ability that the monk gets at level 3 and i the signature ability of the class. My changes give you more use but limit what you can learn to the damage vulnerabilities, resistances and weaknesses which are easily the most important aspects, giving advantage in intelligence checks to recall additional details about the creature is a lot cleaner than randomly choosing aspects and hoping they pay off, also it synergises quite well with Mystical Erudition. The psychic damage is just there because up until this point none of our features help you directly in combat and psychic damage is just very thematic and fitting for the subclass.)

Extort truth Basically the same as before but with this addition; A creature effected by Extort Truth is unable to hide their intent when attacking making them easy to read and counter. When a creature attacks you while under the effect of Extort Truth they do so at disadvantage.

(I initially had a lot of issues with this feature since it could be negated by not talking but I forgot to factor in the advantage on charisma checks against the target, so they are more susceptible to persuasion or intimidation, kind of like being effected by friends which makes interrogation a lot easier, although its still a fairly circumstantial ability, which is why i added some combat functionality to it)

Mind of Mercury Starting at 6th level, you’ve honed your awareness and reflexes through mental aptitude and pattern recognition. You can take a number of additional reactions each round equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1) You can only use one reaction per trigger. In addition, whenever you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check, you can spend 1 ki point to gain advantage on the roll.

(Paying for extra reactions for ki points may sound great until you realize that the monk can only use its reaction to deflect missiles or make opportunity attacks and the chances of more than one of these being triggered per round is incredibly low. This restriction makes feats like sentinel or polearm master mandatory and if you aren't a variant human then chances are you won't get them till the late game which is a pain as this is your only real combat ability until level 11. So I removed the ki cost to free up the feature and make it more universally useful, most monks will only have a +3 intelligence at most and 3 extra reactions isn't exactly game breaking. I wouldn't recommend using this version of the feature if you're character has a reaction based feat as it may become a bit too powerful but its up to you)


Preternatural counter No changes, just a good feature that synergizes really well with Mind of Mercury. I honestly think it would have made more sense if you got Preternatural counter first and then Mind of Mercury but that's just down to preference, I'm not going to change anything about this since it works the same way when you reach level 11, it just would have been nicer to have this feature earlier.


Debilitating Barrage The only change I would possibly suggest is maybe making the trigger successfully landing two attacks instead of three, its undoubtedly a powerful feature and a great capstone but no more so than the instant kill move of the Way of the Open Palm and Long Death which only require one hit, three hits requires that you use your bonus action and then spend three ki points, the ki cost is enough. But seriously this feature is amazing and works especially well with my revised Extract Aspects.


So what do you guys think?! Any thoughts, questions or suggestions?!