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Amechra
2018-11-07, 02:02 AM
I found the Kensei to be way too busy in Xanathar's - I feel that "ranged Monk" and "weaponmaster Monk" could each be their own subclass. So I decided to write up a version of the latter subclass, just to see if I can make something nice and light.

Way of the Blademaster (Take Two)

3 - Widened Expertise
You gain proficiency with a martial melee weapon without the heavy tag. You also gain proficiency in Insight if you don't already have it - if you do, you instead gain proficiency in another martial melee weapon without the heavy tag. Weapons you are proficient in due to this feature are monk weapons for you.

3 - Dance of Steel
Whenever you take the Attack action, you may make an attack with a monk weapon as a bonus action. In addition, you may replace one of the unarmed attacks granted by Flurry of Blows with an attack with a monk weapon.

6 - Mastery of War
As long as you aren't surprised, you may make a Wisdom (Insight) check in place of your normal initiative roll. In addition, whenever a creature fails a save against your Stunning Strike, you may choose to destroy a non-magical weapon or shield they are wielding.

11 - Prince of Blades
Whenever you hit a creature with a monk weapon, you may spend 1 ki point to deal additional damage equal to your martial arts die to either that creature or another creature within 5ft of you.

17 - Glory in Carnage
Whenever you score a critical hit or drop a creature to 0 hit points, you may roll your martial arts die and add your Wisdom modifier. If you do, you regain that many hit-points.

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The original version:

Way of the Blademaster (Take One)

3 - Widened Expertise
You are proficient with two martial melee weapons without the heavy or two-handed tags. These weapons are monk weapons for you.

3 - Binding of Steel
You learn the esoteric art of binding a weapon to you. At the end of a long or short rest, you may spend two ki points to empower a monk weapon you own. Until the next time you rest, you may treat that weapon as if it were an unarmed strike for the purposes of Monk class features, and may spend one ki point to summon it to your hand.

6 - Mastery of War
As long as you aren't surprised, you may make a Wisdom (Insight) check in place of your normal initiative roll. In addition, your Unarmored Defense becomes 11 + Dexterity + Wisdom as long as you are wielding your bound weapon.

11 - Prince of Weapons
You may spend two ki points to make an attack with your bound weapon especially precise. If you do, you cancel any Disadvantage that attack might have had, and may reroll 1s and 2s on the weapon damage dice. In addition, your target has Disadvantage on any save or check they must make due to your attack.

17 - Demon-Cutting Prowess
You may choose to have your bound weapon deal Force damage instead of its normal type. Whenever you hit a creature with your bound weapon, you may destroy a non-magical weapon or shield they are wielding.

theVoidWatches
2018-11-07, 09:42 AM
Binding of Steel seems weak - there's not actually any core monk features that work with unarmed strikes but not monk weapons, with the exception of your bonus action attack or attacks. That's a decent start, but you have to expend 2 ki points every rest to do so, which (at the level you get it) leaves you with only 1, and is non-trivial at any level - summoning it to your hand then requiring an expenditure of ki is just sad. I say fold this into Widened Expertise - specify that your chosen weapons count as unarmed strikes there, and drop the summonable bit (the rest of the subclass is lacking in the magical flavor that it implies.

Am I reading Prince of Weapons correctly, that it lets you reroll damage and without disadvantage, but without actually giving you advantage? I would split that into two - 1 Ki point when making at attack gives you advantage on the attack, and 1 Ki point on hit lets you reroll 1s and 2s and gives disadvantage on Stunning Strike/Concentration checks.

Demon-Cutting prowess feels weird. Dealing force damage instead of whatever the normal damage type is pretty pointless, at this point - your unarmed strikes deal magical damage since level 6, and if you're making your weapons count as unarmed strikes they will too, so using force damage doesn't get you past resistances. Destroying nonmagical weapons and shields is cool but it feels like it should come earlier, as that's a really cool feature that I think should be available earlier. Having no save for that and no Ki cost makes it too strong in my opinion, though. You could also say that you destroy instead of dealing damage.

Vogie
2018-11-08, 03:03 PM
3 - Widened Expertise
You are proficient with two martial melee weapons without the heavy or two-handed tags. These weapons are monk weapons for you.

All of the martial melee weapons with the two-handed tag are heavy. And to be fair, all other monks are also melee-oriented, save Sun Soul. But, this one would be the only Lance-wielding monk, so there's that...


3 - Binding of Steel
You learn the esoteric art of binding a weapon to you. At the end of a long or short rest, you may spend two ki points to empower a monk weapon you own. Until the next time you rest, you may treat that weapon as if it were an unarmed strike for the purposes of Monk class features, and may spend one ki point to summon it to your hand.

Monk weapons are already treated as unarmed strikes, except for the free bonus action attacks, Ki-Empowered Strikes, and flurry of blows. If you want those to be used with a weapon, just write that.


6 - Mastery of War
As long as you aren't surprised, you may make a Wisdom (Insight) check in place of your normal initiative roll. In addition, your Unarmored Defense becomes 11 + Dexterity + Wisdom as long as you are wielding your bound weapon.

... This is mostly just +1 AC. Monks already have high Dexterity (as they're using it for damage in addition to having proficiency with it as a class feature) so their initiative is already high. While it's nice to use Insight, since you could theoretically have expertise in it, you didn't actually give that. There isn't anything else in this subclass to encourage the monk to stack wisdom.

This'd be different if you gave a Shillelagh effect, a la Hexblade, at 3rd level. That would probably set this subclass apart, as you would actually fundamentally build differently than most monks. It also works with your theme, as it shows you using your mental skill rather than speed or strength.


11 - Prince of Weapons
You may spend two ki points to make an attack with your bound weapon especially precise. If you do, you cancel any Disadvantage that attack might have had, and may reroll 1s and 2s on the weapon damage dice. In addition, your target has Disadvantage on any save or check they must make due to your attack.

This is a slightly more offensive version of the Drunken master's Drunkard's Luck feature, which is fine. You'd want to clarify that:

If you can keep rolling 1s and 2s until you get something higher, or if you get the first reroll
If the imposition of disadvantage on the target requires the advantage to hit, or not




17 - Demon-Cutting Prowess
You may choose to have your bound weapon deal Force damage instead of its normal type. Whenever you hit a creature with your bound weapon, you may destroy a non-magical weapon or shield they are wielding.

Like void said, you have a really weak ability and a really strong ability there, but what frustrates me is, on top of that, neither of them have anything to do with demons. If you want some features that are interesting, take a look at the UA Weapon feats (Blade mastery kind of was incorporated as the RAW Kensai monk's Agile Parry, for example), and you could probably use something like the Fell handed or flail mastery feat as a jumping off point for this.

Amechra
2018-12-01, 02:43 PM
Alright! With the feedback from this thread (and my coworker) in mind, I've basically rewritten the subclass from scratch. I'm not exactly happy in Glory in Carnage at the moment, so I'm open to alternate suggestions there.

jiriku
2018-12-05, 07:52 PM
I'd suggest something to connect back to the Insight theme you have happening. For example, maybe all creatures with lower initiative than yours have disadvantage when attacking you.

Vogie
2018-12-06, 08:23 AM
I'd suggest something to connect back to the Insight theme you have happening. For example, maybe all creatures with lower initiative than yours have disadvantage when attacking you.

I like that idea, but permanent disadvantage is too strong.

But something like -1 to attack and damage rolls, or just -2 to attack rolls could work

cesius
2018-12-06, 08:31 PM
3 - Widened Expertise
You gain proficiency with a martial melee weapon without the heavy tag. You also gain proficiency in Insight if you don't already have it - if you do, you instead gain proficiency in another martial melee weapon without the heavy tag. Weapons you are proficient in due to this feature are monk weapons for you.

Groovy, fits well. I imagine the Insight is to give that "analyze the foe" feel?



3 - Dance of Steel
Whenever you take the Attack action, you may make an attack with a monk weapon as a bonus action. In addition, you may replace one of the unarmed attacks granted by Flurry of Blows with an attack with a monk weapon.


Is the intent that this should be for melee attacks only? Currently it allows for ranged attacks with monk weapons with the thrown keyword. I ask because you stated a desire to have a cleaner split with ranged monk.



6 - Mastery of War
As long as you aren't surprised, you may make a Wisdom (Insight) check in place of your normal initiative roll. In addition, whenever a creature fails a save against your Stunning Strike, you may choose to destroy a non-magical weapon or shield they are wielding.

First part: I get the idea behind the mechanics, but darn that may be a bit too in light of it getting proficiency bonus. Second part: I'd make it a separate, new use of Ki for weapon breaking rather than stacking a second effect on Stunning Strike. This frees up some design space for the other side of it. I think the problem I'm having here is I don't really see a monk meshing with 'master of war' and that may be influencing my thinking regarding what would be appropriate for a sixth level ability. I can definitely see them as a master of combat as an extension of martial arts. just not tactical/strategic 'war'.



11 - Prince of Blades
Whenever you hit a creature with a monk weapon, you may spend 1 ki point to deal additional damage equal to your martial arts die to either that creature or another creature within 5ft of you.

Add on that they get to ignore slashing resistance and it sounds like a nice level 11 perk.



17 - Glory in Carnage
Whenever you score a critical hit or drop a creature to 0 hit points, you may roll your martial arts die and add your Wisdom modifier. If you do, you regain that many hit-points.


I'm not a fan of the name (again, my personal seeing of monk at play), but I like the effect. Maybe instead of having it proc on crit it procs when you spend Ki?