Anyone have experience playing sun soul monks?

[samcifer]

Another possible replacement for my barbarian in our dresden files campaign would be someone who does radiant damage what with all the undead and fiends we've been facing, so I've been thinking about possibly playing a sun soul monk. Has anyone played one? How well do they do in campaigns featuring a fair number of fiends, undead and supernatural creatures?

[Man_Over_Game]

Another possible replacement for my barbarian in our dresden files campaign would be someone who does radiant damage what with all the undead and fiends we've been facing, so I've been thinking about possibly playing a sun soul monk. Has anyone played one? How well do they do in campaigns featuring a fair number of fiends, undead and supernatural creatures?

I tried one for a little while. The thing with Sun Souls is that they're really....boring? Even when you get the enhanced abilities, you simply have the option to deal a lot of damage by spending a lot of ki. It's probably the simplest Monk subclass.

I found that the best way to make the most of it, and to use it to its maximum efficiency, is to flank around the enemy, using your high damage and moderate range to harass the enemy. Monks naturally counter mages and ranged attackers, so the Monk will be able to shed off attacks and spells that would really hurt others, and the extra range prevents melee combatants from being able to do much to you. If someone happens to engage you, you can simply Bonus Action Dodge or Disengage.

You play like a really annoying bee, keeping enemy archers and mages from being able to do anything they want to. You don't want to play them like a normal ranged or melee character.

If I would change anything about the build, I would have started as a flying character. Not only does the flight really help maintain distance while being safe, but Monks inherently deal with the disadvantages of flying (Slowfall, high Dexterity to avoid being knocked prone, etc). Flight also adds an extra level of fun that really fleshes out the Sun Soul.

[MilkmanDanimal]

I like being able to punch beams of light at people, but the higher level abilities have a bit too much of the Four Elements "this costs way too much Ki to be worth it" thing; Burning Hands is never worth it, and, while being able to throw a radiant Fireball more or less is great, it's not until level 11 and costs three Ki points to do 8d6 damage, and, by that time, that's likely a bit underwhelming unless you're fighting something vulnerable to radiant damage.

I like the idea of it and the standard "laser beams" attack is great for flavor, but it's just kind of underwhelming in general.

[Foxhound438]

I tried one for a little while. The thing with Sun Souls is that they're really....boring? Even when you get the enhanced abilities, you simply have the option to deal a lot of damage by spending a lot of ki. It's probably the simplest Monk subclass.

I found that the best way to make the most of it, and to use it to its maximum efficiency, is to flank around the enemy, using your high damage and moderate range to harass the enemy. Monks naturally counter mages and ranged attackers, so the Monk will be able to shed off attacks and spells that would really hurt others, and the extra range prevents melee combatants from being able to do much to you. If someone happens to engage you, you can simply Bonus Action Dodge or Disengage.

You play like a really annoying bee, keeping enemy archers and mages from being able to do anything they want to. You don't want to play them like a normal ranged or melee character.

If I would change anything about the build, I would have started as a flying character. Not only does the flight really help maintain distance while being safe, but Monks inherently deal with the disadvantages of flying (Slowfall, high Dexterity to avoid being knocked prone, etc). Flight also adds an extra level of fun that really fleshes out the Sun Soul.

Agree with all of the above. Sun soul usually is just a vanilla monk that stands in a different spot for the most part. That said, if you like monks enough and like the image of it, it's still fine overall. Radiant damage has a few clear advantages against something like zombies, but more of the bigger threats don't have any specific weakness to radiant, aside from radiant not being reduced by resistance to mundane weapons (which other monks get around at 6th anyways). Personally I feel like you lose out too much in terms of the unique options that shadow or open hand offer right away. Though I feel kind of the same about Kensai, and people seem to love that one.

[Lunali]

While it seems kinda cool from a narrative perspective, its only real advantage is that it has easy access to radiant damage. While that's nice for the occasional mob that's weak to it, that doesn't even include all fiends or undead, most of the time it won't be any better than a magical weapon attack.

If you want a ranged monk, go with kensei, better range and your armed strikes count as magical. If you don't need the range, open hand or shadow would probably be better.

[Damon_Tor]

IMO, the core competency of the monk is in Stunning Strike, which won't work with the Sun Soul's special attack.

As far as I can tell, the Sun Soul simply takes the Monk and turns it into an infernal-pact warlock, albeit an inferior one.

[Grod_The_Giant]

While very little resists it, actually vulnerability to radiant damage is extremely rare-- I can only think of Shadows and Shadow Demons.

[JNAProductions]

While very little resists it, actually vulnerability to radiant damage is extremely rare-- I can only think of Shadows and Shadow Demons.

Zombies aren't Vulnerable (the game mechanic), but they are vulnerable-they can't take their Undead Fortitude save against Radiant damage.