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Grod_The_Giant
2018-10-02, 02:43 PM
Way of the Iron Hand

Iron Stance: At 3rd level, you gain proficiency in light and medium armor, and with shields. While wearing armor or a shield, you gain the following benefits:

You may use your Martial Arts and Unarmored Movement abilities
You may use your Strength modifier in place of Wisdom when determining the save DC of Monk abilities such as Stunning Strike.
You may use your shield as a melee weapon dealing 1d6 bludgeoning damage and the throwing property, with a 10ft range. It counts as a Monk weapon.
When wearing armor or using a shield, you may spend 1 ki as a bonus action to gain resistance to all slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage for 1 round.


Special Option: Weight Training: Upon gaining this subclass, you may spend 1 week of downtime performing intensive training to switch your Strength and Dexterity scores, not including racial bonuses. For example, if an Elf Monk with a Strength of 12 and a Dex of 17 used this feature, they would wind up with 15 Strength and 14 Dex.

Steel Fist: Beginning at 6th level, when you strike a foe with an unarmed strike while wearing armor, or with a melee weapon attack using your shield, you may push them 5ft. If you do, you may choose to immediately move 5ft to remain adjacent to them.

In addition, strikes with your shield count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Mithril Heart: Beginning at 11th level, when you are wearing armor or using a shield and are damaged by a melee weapon attack, you may spend 1 ki as a reaction to reduce the damage by 1d10+level+Str. If you reduce the damage to zero, the attacker must make a Str save or drop their weapon. You may catch it if you have a free hand.

Adamantine Soul: Beginning at 17th level, when a creature misses you with a melee attack, you may make an unarmed strike against them as a reaction. You may also make an unarmed strike against your attacker as part of your Mithril Heart reaction ability.

Man_Over_Game
2018-10-02, 02:54 PM
While I like the idea of using alternative stats for classes, the issue I see with this is that the Monk uses Dexterity and Wisdom for the first few levels, and requires them to be a certain value before you can multiclass.

Also, with the fact that the shield can be thrown, it's possible with how it's written to throw the shield, move 5 feet, and then not be adjacent to the target. I'm not sure if this is intentional.

The other thing is, the fact that I can reduce any melee attack by 21 + 1d10 (average 26) and then punch someone and move as a reaction, and reduce all non-attack damage by 5 at level 11, it's all a bit overboard. I get that it's trying to duplicate the Deflect Missiles effect, but they stack a little bit too well.

The main thing is that the entire build relies on enemies attacking you, and doesn't offer much proactive options other than pushing people with your fists. Perhaps some method that allows you to treat your shield as a Reach weapon if you throw it as part of an Attack of Opportunity, or something along those lines. At the moment, this is a 3x3 piece of difficult terrain that I just need to avoid.

Grod_The_Giant
2018-10-03, 03:11 PM
While I like the idea of using alternative stats for classes, the issue I see with this is that the Monk uses Dexterity and Wisdom for the first few levels, and requires them to be a certain value before you can multiclass.
I'm aware of the issue, but...there's not really much that can be done about it when subclasses don't start until 3rd, short of grossly gamist "you may swap your Dex and Str scores" type garbage. It's part of the reason that I didn't give heavy armor, though-- you need a small Dex investment to make medium armor work, and you'll need a small Dex investment to survive the first two levels.


Also, with the fact that the shield can be thrown, it's possible with how it's written to throw the shield, move 5 feet, and then not be adjacent to the target. I'm not sure if this is intentional.
Fair-- I'll specify melee attack.


The other thing is, the fact that I can reduce any melee attack by 21 + 1d10 (average 26) and then punch someone and move as a reaction, and reduce all non-attack damage by 5 at level 11, it's all a bit overboard. I get that it's trying to duplicate the Deflect Missiles effect, but they stack a little bit too well.
...yeah, point. How 'bout 1 ki as a bonus action to gain Resistance to all damage for a round? And for the 11th... hmm.


The main thing is that the entire build relies on enemies attacking you, and doesn't offer much proactive options other than pushing people with your fists. Perhaps some method that allows you to treat your shield as a Reach weapon if you throw it as part of an Attack of Opportunity, or something along those lines. At the moment, this is a 3x3 piece of difficult terrain that I just need to avoid.
Apart from, you know, having the Monk's crazy mobility to position yourself wherever would be most useful and reach vulnerable targets, and the defenses to stand and fight, and Stunning Fist to lock people down, and Steel Fist to shove people around and control the battlefield, and the Str-plus-unarmed power to grapple like a crazy person... no, they don't get that much.