Monastic Tradition: Way of the Mountain

[Trandir]

Rework in progress.

Way of the Mountain

Hardened Body

When you choose this tradition at 3rd level you learn to defend facing blows directly with a body as hard as solid rock. Your Unarmored Defense feature now uses your Strength modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier.

Mountain Technique

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can use your ki to allow you to break almost everything. When you are making an unarmed strike you can expend 1 ki point to make the attack deal 1d6 additional damage and ignore bludgeoning resistance. Additionally you can spend 1 ki point to gain advantage in a Strength check made to break an object.




Boulder Toss
At 6th level, you become able to propel rocks and heavy objects making them effective weapons. You can treat every object heavier than 20 lb and lighter than 50 lb and no larger than 1 cubic foot as a ranged monk weapon with range of 50/100 that deals 1d12 bludgeoning damage.
Additionally when you make an attack with a monk weapon against a creature you can spend 2 ki points to have the attack deal an extra 2d6 force damage to that creature. Additionally, it must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away from you and knocked prone.


Mountain Stance
From 11th level you become able to enter a stance that favors power over speed. As a bonus action and by spending 2 ki points you can enter the Boulder Stance. While in this stance once per turn you can make one of your attacks deals additional damage equal to your martial arts die. Additionally you can use Deflect Missiles also to reduce the damage you would take from melee attacks, you can add your Strength modifier to the damage prevented. While in this stance all your speeds are halved.


Mountain Wrath
From 17th level you can use your ki to maximize the impact power of your strikes.
When you roll damage for an attack you you can spend 1 ki point to deal maximum damage instead of rolling.

As an Action you can hit the ground with an unarmed strike and spend any number of ki point to create a shockwave. Every creature in a 30 feet radius originating from you must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save a creature takes 1d12 force damage per ki point spent and is pushed 30 feet away from you. On a successful save the creature takes half as much damage and isn't pushed.

[Trandir]

I am not good with monks but I tried.
How good or how bad is this?
And what should be changed?

[Composer99]

Monks whose body favors tenacious stances and heavy strikes more than nimble evasion and rapid blows are often trained in the Way of the Boulder. They are also known to utilize unreasonably heavy objects infused with their ki. With this technique they can match in precision lighter weapons but they far surpass them in power.

Overall, I'd have to say this is overtuned at lower levels - there's just a bit too much going on. There's some clunky wording here and there, as well.


Symbol of Strength

Also at 3rd level, you may choose any object you can lift, but heavier than your Strength score × 5 lb., and infuse it with your ki over the course of a 1-hour ritual. After that it becomes your Symbol of Strength, and it is a monk weapon for you. You can ignore your Symbol's weight. It deals 1d12 bludgeoning damage and has the Two-Handed property. You can only have one Symbol at a time and if you repeat the ritual you will sever the connection with the older one that will return to his normal state. If you can't concentrate, like during a Barbarian's Rage, you can't use your Symbol.

Barbarians don't use concentration to rage, so I'm really not sure what restriction that last sentence is supposed to

Language nitpick: "that will return to his normal state", apart from the odd choice of pronoun, is redundant.

Other language nitpick: I assume this feature is meant to come second in the order of features?

Between this and Hardened Body, I think there's a bit too much going on at 3rd level. To be honest, I'd consider ditching the Symbol of Strength and just let this monk toss boulders.


Hardened Body

When you choose this tradition at 3rd level you learn to defend facing blows directly with a body as hard as iron. Your Unarmored Defense trait now uses your Strength modifier rather than your Dexterity modifier. You can add your Strength modifier to the damage reduced by Deflect Missiles. Additionally you can use your ki to radically change your body structure. By meditating 8 hours you are able to swap your Strength ability score with your Dexterity ability score. After this meditation you suffer five levels of exhaustion.

I can't say I'm a fan of this feature. I mean, I guess it's nice to have a class-specific downtime activity, but IMO either the monk can just suffer having their Strength and Dexterity scores the wrong way round for two levels, or you can make this a stance they can activate a few times between long rests.


Empowered Symbol

Starting at 6th level, your Symbol counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. If your Symbol is on the same plane of existence as you, you can spend 1 ki point to perform a 1-minute ritual causing it to appear in front of you.

This is fine, if you decide to keep the Symbol of Strength.


Power Throw

At 6th level, you become strong enough to throw your Symbol. Your Symbol gains the thrown property. It has a normal range equal to your Strength modifier × 10 feet and a long range equal to your Strength modifier × 20 feet, if your Strength modifier is 0 or less you can't throw your Symbol. When you throw your Symbol against a creature you can spend 2 ki points to have the attack deal an extra 2d6 force damage to that creature. Additionally, the Symbol is teleported back into your hands and the creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away from you and knocked prone.

So, if you take my recommendation and cut Symbol of Strength from the subclass, this feature can become boulder tossing, though you can use it to toss any heavy object targeting a creature or other object. I would suggest changing the range to 60 ft/120 ft, instead of some annoying calculation, you are proficient with the toss (because it's otherwise an improvised weapon), and it does 2d6 bludgeoning damage, becoming 2d8 at 11th level and 2d10 at 17th level. I would suggest this takes your action, but counts as taking the Attack action on your turn for the purpose of determining what bonus actions you can take (so as not to bollix up your dpr too much). Spending ki to do force damage is fine.


Boulder Stance

From 11th level you become able to enter a stance that favors power over speed. As a bonus action and by spending 1 ki point you can enter the Boulder Stance. While in this stance your Symbol deals additional damage equal to your martial arts die. Additionally you can use Deflect Missiles also to reduce the damage you would take from melee attacks. While in this stance all your speeds are halved. At the beginning of your turn you have to use a bonus action and spend a ki point to remain in this stance. You can exit this stance during your turn without using any action.

This isn't a stance, since you're spending your bonus action and ki every turn. Barbarian's rage counts as a stance, since the barbarian uses a bonus action to enter it once and it lasts for a minute.

Also, while the early levels are overpowered, this feature is pretty weaksauce - at least, it is if you're spending 1 ki on it every single turn.

If you're ditching the Symbol, I would say this feature should change to:
- Use a bonus action and 2 ki to enter (it's a higher cost but you're getting a full combat's worth out of it)
- Duration of 1 minute or until you are incapacitated or killed, or leave the stance early (on your turn as a bonus action is fine)
- While in the stance, you can use Deflect Missiles as per the current feature
- Once per turn, when you hit with an attack made using an unarmed strike, monk weapon, or thrown object (as per Boulder Toss), the attack deals additional damage equal to the roll of a Martial Arts die


Ki Conduit

From 17th level you can infuse your Symbol with even more ki. As a bonus action you can spend 1 ki point to infuse in your Symbol. Your Symbol can store a number of ki points equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).

When you roll damage for an attack you make with your Symbol you can spend 1 stored ki point to deal maximum damage instead of rolling.

As an Action you can hit the ground with your Symbol and spend all the stored ki to create a shockwave. Every creature in a 30 feet radius originating from you must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save a creature takes 1d12 thunder damage per ki point spent and is pushed 30 feet away from you. On a successful save the creature takes half as much damage and isn't pushed.

The name might be sort of kind of accurate, but it doesn't really reflect what you're using the ki for. I'd consider renaming it.

Even if I wasn't suggesting ditching the Symbol, this feature is clunky. I'd dispense with storing ki and instead just spend it - 1 ki point to deal maximum damage, and a number of ki points, up to a number equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1 ki point) to do the shockwave thing.

If you ditch the Symbol, you can still use this feature, albeit in a modified form: the spending 1 ki to deal maximum damage can apply to any attack you make, and the shockwave is an action you can take, one that does not require you to be holding an object. (You can if you want, or you can just punch the ground That Hard, Dammit.) Also, IMO the saving throw should be a Strength saving throw. Finally, you should specify that the saving throw DC is your ki save DC, for the sake of clarity.

[Trandir]

Hello there
Yes, this could use some work but this is the place for that.


Overall, I'd have to say this is overtuned at lower levels - there's just a bit too much going on. There's some clunky wording here and there, as well.


Maybe but that's what happens when you create a Str based monk (theoretically) leaving the first 2 levels untouched.



Barbarians don't use concentration to rage, so I'm really not sure what restriction that last sentence is supposed to



They don't but they can't concentrate while raging.

If you are able to cast spells, you can’t cast them or concentrate on them while raging.





Language nitpick: "that will return to his normal state", apart from the odd choice of pronoun, is redundant.


Yep, more wording mess. Thanks.




Other language nitpick: I assume this feature is meant to come second in the order of features?


Hardened Body should come before Symbol of Strength yes.



Between this and Hardened Body, I think there's a bit too much going on at 3rd level. To be honest, I'd consider ditching the Symbol of Strength and just let this monk toss boulders.


While that's a possibility indeed this would leave the 3rd level with nothing. You'd get the Str mod added to Deflect Missiles calculations.
If I were to ditch the Symbol then what should I put in his place?




I can't say I'm a fan of this feature. I mean, I guess it's nice to have a class-specific downtime activity, but IMO either the monk can just suffer having their Strength and Dexterity scores the wrong way round for two levels, or you can make this a stance they can activate a few times between long rests.


They can survive the first levels with a little less AC true but IMO pretend that would be a design flaw. A stance works mechanically but you'd lose the theme, you are not a strong monk you are a super monk who gets the benefit of strength on demand.




This is fine, if you decide to keep the Symbol of Strength.


So far that doesn't seem a good idea tho.




So, if you take my recommendation and cut Symbol of Strength from the subclass, this feature can become boulder tossing, though you can use it to toss any heavy object targeting a creature or other object. I would suggest changing the range to 60 ft/120 ft, instead of some annoying calculation, you are proficient with the toss (because it's otherwise an improvised weapon), and it does 2d6 bludgeoning damage, becoming 2d8 at 11th level and 2d10 at 17th level. I would suggest this takes your action, but counts as taking the Attack action on your turn for the purpose of determining what bonus actions you can take (so as not to bollix up your dpr too much). Spending ki to do force damage is fine.


But you don't always have a boulder to toss and now you can throw PCs over large gaps.
The fixed range is a good idea. And while I am writing I am thinking of a way to "salvage" at least part of the subclass.




This isn't a stance, since you're spending your bonus action and ki every turn. Barbarian's rage counts as a stance, since the barbarian uses a bonus action to enter it once and it lasts for a minute.


That's debatable but it's also just the name of the feature.




Also, while the early levels are overpowered, this feature is pretty weaksauce - at least, it is if you're spending 1 ki on it every single turn.

If you're ditching the Symbol, I would say this feature should change to:
- Use a bonus action and 2 ki to enter (it's a higher cost but you're getting a full combat's worth out of it)
- Duration of 1 minute or until you are incapacitated or killed, or leave the stance early (on your turn as a bonus action is fine)
- While in the stance, you can use Deflect Missiles as per the current feature
- Once per turn, when you hit with an attack made using an unarmed strike, monk weapon, or thrown object (as per Boulder Toss), the attack deals additional damage equal to the roll of a Martial Arts die


If you take away the extra die from all attacks and reduce it to work only once per turn this works pretty well.




The name might be sort of kind of accurate, but it doesn't really reflect what you're using the ki for. I'd consider renaming it.


You put the ki in the object and then use that ki to do stuff. What did I messed up?




Even if I wasn't suggesting ditching the Symbol, this feature is clunky. I'd dispense with storing ki and instead just spend it - 1 ki point to deal maximum damage, and a number of ki points, up to a number equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1 ki point) to do the shockwave thing.

If you ditch the Symbol, you can still use this feature, albeit in a modified form: the spending 1 ki to deal maximum damage can apply to any attack you make, and the shockwave is an action you can take, one that does not require you to be holding an object. (You can if you want, or you can just punch the ground That Hard, Dammit.) Also, IMO the saving throw should be a Strength saving throw. Finally, you should specify that the saving throw DC is your ki save DC, for the sake of clarity.

Yea the capstone needs a good rework.

But about your advice yes I'll cut the symbol, then the 1 ki to maximize is fine and so is the shockwave one, Thunderwave is Con save so I used that as a reference (admittedly if that only pushed the creature a Str save would fit better), and no I shouldn't the other monk subclasses never specify it when the feature uses ki so I won't either.



Anyway thanks for the comments, advice and time you put into them.
Now is time for a major rework

[Trandir]

Well rework done but it still needs some refining. Any advice?