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JDanton
2018-09-18, 11:04 AM
The Way of the Sun Soul monk subclass is thematically awesome and definitely has its uses, but I'm sure I'm not the only one that was somewhat disappointed by the class features and found them to be a tad underpowered and in need of tweaking. I know that a lot of people have probably done their own reworks of this subclass but I'd like to throw my hat in the ring and create a viable variant of the subclass for anyone who finds the original lacking. I'd love to hear your guys' feedback and any suggestions or ideas you have.

Way of the Sun Soul (Remastered)

[B]Radiant Soul
At 3rd level, you become wreathed in a luminous, magical aura. You shed bright sunlight up to a 30-foot radius and dim light up to an additional 30ft. You can control how bright this light is and how far it spreads or fully extinguish or restore this light as a bonus action, the radius of the dim light is always the same as the bright.

Radiant Sun Bolt
Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can hurl searing bolts of magical radiance.

You gain a new attack option that you can use with the Attack action. This special attack is a ranged spell attack with a range of 30 feet and counts as an unarmed strike, allowing you to use your Flurry of Blows to attack with Radiant Sun Bolt twice as a bonus action.. Its damage is radiant, and its damage die is the same as your marital arts die, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.

Searing Arc Strike
At 6th level, you gain the ability to channel your ki into searing waves of energy. Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 2 ki points to cast Searing Arc Strike, each creature in a 15ft cone must make a dexterity save or take 3d6 radiant damage, they take half as much on a success. This feature is considered a 1st level spell.

You can spend additional ki points to cast Searing Arc Strike at a higher level, for every level past 1 this feature deals an additional 1d6 damage. Each additional ki point you spend increases the spell's level by 1. The maximum number of ki points (2 plus any additional points) that you can spend on the spell equals half your monk level (round down).

Blinding Bolt
Starting at 6th level, you can cause your Radiant Sun Bolt to explode on impact, blinding enemies. When you hit another creature with a Radiant Sun Bolt attack, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a blinding bolt. The target must succeed on a constitution saving throw or be blinded until the end of your next turn.

Searing Sunburst
At 11th level, you gain the ability to create an orb of light that erupts into a devastating explosion. As an action, you magically create an orb and hurl it at a point you choose within 150 feet, where it erupts into a sphere of radiant light for a brief but deadly instant.

Each creature in that 20-foot-radius sphere must make on a Constitution saving throw. A target takes 2d6 radiant damage on a failed save and half on a success. A creature doesn't need to make the save if the creature is behind total cover that is opaque.

You can increase the sphere's damage by spending ki points. Each point you spend, up to a maximum of 3, increases the damage by 2d6.

Ascension (Still under construction, suggestions and feedback needed)
At 17th level, you can temporarily empower your Radiant Soul to reach an ascended state. For 1 minute, while the light from your Radiant Soul feature is active you gain the following benefits;
- Sun Shield: If a creature hits you with a melee attack it takes damage equal to 5+ your wisdom modifier (minimum of 1).
- Solar Flair: Your Radiant Sun Bolts deal additional damage equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum of 1).
- Undying Flame: If you are reduced to 0 hit points while this effect is active you instead drop to 1 hit point and regain hit points equal to half your hit point maximum, you immediately drop ascension.

Once you have used this feature, you can't do so until you finish a long rest.

Thundersteel
2018-09-18, 12:36 PM
I was initially very confused by what the Sun Soul was even supposed to be, and then I realized "Oh, it's the DBZ monk. Awesome."

And then I immediately wanted to play one.

Sun Shield is a super milquetoast ability RAW, especially for a capstone power, but on the flipside, games rarely get up to that level in the first place.

I feel like the easiest way to buff up the Sun Soul from day one would be changes to Radiant Sun Bolt, which is the "core" ability of the class. I sort of like the idea of being able to spend Ki points to increase the range, and that 6th level blinding ability might fit more smoothly in as an aspect of Radiant Sun Bolt.

JDanton
2018-09-18, 01:09 PM
I don't really have much of an issue with the Radiant Sun Bolt, it basically allows you to be as dangerous at range as you are in melee which, given how mobile and slippery monks are, would make the monk incredibly difficult to kill as its one weakness is that it has to go into melee to be effective. I considered upping the range to 60ft at higher levels but given the monks high mobility it really doesn't seem necessary and would make the subclass a bit too easy to play as you could avoid melee forever, I think its fine and balanced as it is. The only problem I have with Radiant Sun Bolt is that you can't stunning strike with it, which is one of the best tools in your arsenal, thus why I developed the blinding bolt, which serves a similar function and is very thematic.

clash
2018-09-18, 03:31 PM
I have always thought Radiant sun Bolt could be much smoother implemented by stating "This special attack is a ranged spell attack with a range of 30 feet and counts as an unarmed strike"

That aside blinding bolt is a useful addition, I might build it into the level 3 feature and have it simply give advantage on all attacks against target, similiar to fearie fire.

The old version of sun shield sucked but your version of Sun Shield is definitely too far and is open to abuse, especially the last point during a game of mack o mole. If you want to keep it the same then give it a ki cost to activate. If you want to keep it free then I would suggest, remove the extra damage on the bolts or make it once per turn. And have that if the explosion happens you cant activate the ability again until after a long rest.

JDanton
2018-09-18, 04:09 PM
I have always thought Radiant sun Bolt could be much smoother implemented by stating "This special attack is a ranged spell attack with a range of 30 feet and counts as an unarmed strike"

That aside blinding bolt is a useful addition, I might build it into the level 3 feature and have it simply give advantage on all attacks against target, similiar to fearie fire.

The old version of sun shield sucked but your version of Sun Shield is definitely too far and is open to abuse, especially the last point during a game of mack o mole. If you want to keep it the same then give it a ki cost to activate. If you want to keep it free then I would suggest, remove the extra damage on the bolts or make it once per turn. And have that if the explosion happens you cant activate the ability again until after a long rest.

I know the sun shield is broken ;P I was just throwing ideas at the wall but I like your suggestions and I'll definitely consider cleaning up the wording of the Radiant Sun Bolt. As for implementing Blinding Bolt at level 3, my idea was to give the monk a ranged equivalent of their stunning strike feature that they get at level 5 but also making it unique and thematic, thus why they are blinded, which gives everyone attacking them advantage and them disadvantage, as opposed to stunning them, which I think is quite balanced and fun, also passively giving all attacks advantage against targets would be severely broken since a monk can target at least 4 enemies a turn with flurry of blows. That said I am looking into ways of improving the Radiant Sun Bolts without unbalancing the feature since I feel that its plenty powerful if you take the base monk's kit into consideration (It allows you to fight as well at range as in melee and exploit your insane movement to stay out of combat), I'm thinking more out of combat uses to give the subclass utility, like being able to light fires or mark targets, making them easier to track. I'll take your points under advisement and rework the changes, thanks for the input!!

JDanton
2018-09-19, 04:44 AM
Made a few changes based on the feedback, would like to know what people think.

jamiecross
2018-09-19, 01:51 PM
Needs more ducks.

JDanton
2018-09-19, 02:04 PM
Needs more ducks.

Agreed, I will add more ducks immediately, I'm just worried that adding too many ducks will make the subclass dramatically overpowered.

jamiecross
2018-09-19, 02:09 PM
Agreed, I will add more ducks immediately, I'm just worried that adding too many ducks will make the subclass dramatically overpowered.

But...how?! Ducks are not that overpowered. They are just a little quackers. Nothing that harmful about a simple little ducky.

JDanton
2018-09-20, 06:12 AM
More changes, trying some new, more radical changes to try and improve the Sun Shield feature. Any suggestions or feedback is appreciated!