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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next A Sigh On A Hurricane [Monk Subclass]



Amechra
2019-10-18, 10:44 PM
Way of the Steel Lotus

At the monastery of the Steel Lotus, they teach that weapons are an extension of their wielders, and that enlightenment is achieved when a warrior's control over their weapons is as natural as breathing. As a result, they integrate weaponplay into their meditations, which has produced a fighting style that is as beautiful as it is deadly.

3 :- The Faintest Sigh
You gain proficiency with calligrapher's tools if you don't have it already. In addition, you may make full use of Deflect Missiles even if you are wielding weapons in both hands, effortlessly deflecting or hurling the missile with a single action.

3 :- Dance of the Lotus
When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn, you can make a single attack with a light monk weapon as a bonus action. If you are holding a light monk weapon in each hand, you may spend 1 ki point to make attacks with each weapon instead.

6 :- Undeniable Prowess
You may incorporate weapon drills and sparring into your meditations for the purposes of regaining ki points. In addition, you may spend an action and 1 ki point to demonstrate your prowess to another creature within 60ft. That creature must be able to see you, and you must be able to move freely. If you do, that creature must make a Wisdom save against your ki save DC. If they fail, they are charmed by you for one hour, or until they witness you taking damage. A creature charmed this way is utterly convinced of your martial superiority, and that you would be able to kill them with minimal effort.

11 :- A Thousand Blossoms
If you attack at least two creatures when taking the Attack action, you may make an additional attack against a third creature.

17 :- Carving Up Sunbeams
Whenever you make an attack as a reaction while you're wielding a light monk weapon in each hand, you may spend 1 ki point to make an attack with each weapon instead.



There you go. A hardcore two-weapon fighting Monk. That 6th level feature is there mostly because it makes me giggle - you show someone that you're a real, ultimate badass and then they do what you want. Of course, they snap out of it if they see someone else hurt you, because clearly you aren't as invincible as they thought.

Is it a little too combat focused? Maybe.

The_Snark
2019-10-18, 11:36 PM
17 :- Carving Up Sunbeams
Whenever you make an attack as a reaction while you're wielding a light monk weapon in each hand, you may spend 1 ki point to make an attack with each weapon instead.

I might be missing something, since I've never really bothered with two-weapon fighting, but how is this meant to be triggered? As far as I know monks don't natively get a way to make attacks as reactions (except Deflect Missiles, I suppose). Is it just meant for use with readied actions and attacks of opportunity, or is there something else I'm missing...?

Amechra
2019-10-18, 11:43 PM
I might be missing something, since I've never really bothered with two-weapon fighting, but how is this meant to be triggered? As far as I know monks don't natively get a way to make attacks as reactions (except Deflect Missiles, I suppose). Is it just meant for use with readied actions and attacks of opportunity, or is there something else I'm missing...?

It's mostly for readied actions and attacks of opportunity, but I also wanted it to trigger if you got a reaction attack from a feat (like Mage Slayer or Sentinel).

The_Snark
2019-10-19, 12:01 AM
Gotcha.

It seems maybe a little weak on the whole; the level 3 features basically boil down to "you can use two-weapon fighting with your class features", but it doesn't seem like that offers any advantage over the usual monk fighting style? I guess you can get d6 damage dice by dual-wielding shortswords, which is a bit more than the d4 you'd normally have for your bonus attack at level 3... But that feels like a pretty marginal improvement, especially since a standard monk will upgrade to d6 just two levels later.

The level 6 feature is amusing, but doesn't seem particularly powerful (though I suppose that depends on how GMs play the charm effect). The level 11 feature is nice. The level 17 feature seems a bit eh for a subclass's capstone ability, but maybe it's just that the GMs I've played with are shy about provoking opportunity attacks? I'm not sure.

Amechra
2019-10-25, 11:53 AM
Gotcha.

It seems maybe a little weak on the whole; the level 3 features basically boil down to "you can use two-weapon fighting with your class features", but it doesn't seem like that offers any advantage over the usual monk fighting style? I guess you can get d6 damage dice by dual-wielding shortswords, which is a bit more than the d4 you'd normally have for your bonus attack at level 3... But that feels like a pretty marginal improvement, especially since a standard monk will upgrade to d6 just two levels later.

The level 6 feature is amusing, but doesn't seem particularly powerful (though I suppose that depends on how GMs play the charm effect). The level 11 feature is nice. The level 17 feature seems a bit eh for a subclass's capstone ability, but maybe it's just that the GMs I've played with are shy about provoking opportunity attacks? I'm not sure.

Hmm... What if I drop the clause requiring the monk weapons to be light? In any case, the real benefit is that you can "flurry" with magical weapons, which are a bit easier to come across than ways to buff your unarmed strikes.

The 6th level feature has the secret hack of trivializing fights against a single boss monster (if that creature isn't immune to being Charmed, of course), since Charmed creatures can't do hostile things to you directly. And the 17th level feature works with any reaction attack - a Battlemaster would get two attacks out of you, picking up Mage Slayer at some point would give you two attacks if that got triggered, etc, etc. Is it fantastically powerful? Not really, but I always have a little trouble making the capstone features for Monk subclasses.