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Jtl
2019-12-03, 04:57 PM
I’m in the middle of reworking a bunch of 5e subclasses. I’m planning on doing almost all of them except the ones I think are already great to bring them to a generally higher power level. Let me know what you think of this one.

Way of the Sun Soul

Radiant Sun Bolt
Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can hurl searing bolts of magical radiance.

You gain a new attack option that you can use with the Attack action. This special attack is a melee weapon attack with a range of 30 feet. You are proficient with it, and you can add your Dexterity or you wisdom modifier to its attack and damage rolls (your choice). Its damage is radiant, and its damage die is a d4. This die changes as you gain monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.
You can replace your bonus action unarmed strike with this attack, and use this attack when you use flurry of blows.

If you hit a creature twice with a radiant sun bolt on the same turn, they must succeed on a constitution saving throw or become blinded until the end of their next turn.

When you gain the Extra Attack feature, this special attack can be used for any of the attacks you make as part of the Attack action. Also, when you gain the stunning strike feature, you can use a ki point to attempt to stun a creature as normal when you hit them with a radiant sun bolt.

Photokinesis
At 6th level, you gain the ability to manipulate light to strengthen your attacks or hinder your foes. You can spend 2 ki points to cast fearie fire as an action. You can also spend 2 ki points as an action to cast divine favor on yourself, targeting either a weapon or your unarmed strikes and radiant sun bolts

Searing Sunburst
At 11th level, you gain the ability to create an orb of light that erupts into an explosion. As an action, you magically create an orb and hurl it at a point you choose within 150 feet, where it erupts into a sphere of radiant light for a brief instant.
Each creature in that 20-foot-radius sphere must make a Constitution saving throw. Roll your martial arts die twice. Creatures take damage equal to the amount rolled on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature doesn't need to make the save if the creature is behind total cover that is opaque. Whenever you use this feature, you may select one target to blast with extra-radiant light. Before you hurl the orb, choose one creature that will be in the explosion’s 20 ft radius. If that creature fails on its constitution saving throw, it is blinded until the end of its next turn

You can increase the sphere's damage by spending ki points. Each point you spend, up to a maximum of 3, allows you to roll 2 additional martial arts dice and add it to the damage total.


Luminous Soul Manifestation
At 17th level, you gain a flying speed equal to 30 ft. You can also shed bright light from your body in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. This light is sunlight. You can extinguish or restore the light as a bonus action. While this light shines, you can select one creature as a bonus action to become the light’s enemy. Whenever the creature starts it’s turn in the area of bright light, it takes 5 radiant damage. Whenever the creature ends its turn within the bright light, it must succeed on a constitution saving throw or become blinded until the end of its next turn. You can cause the light to target a different creature as a bonus action, but if your current target is blinded by this feature when you switch targets, the blindness effect on it immediately ends.

P. G. Macer
2019-12-04, 06:07 PM
I’m new to the forum, but I’m pretty sure you’ll get more responses with a 5th Edition tag on this post.

As someone who’s wanted to play a sun soul monk for a while but has hesitated (among other things) because of mediocre features, I like most of this.

I realize that you made Radiant Sun Bolt a melee weapon attack so that it was compatible with Stunning Strike. While I think being able to Stunning Strike on a RSB is a good thing to aim for, I worry that this change makes it a little too good, for a few reasons. The first and likely least significant is that it means you can use it at an enemy right next to you without disadvantage. This in turn means there is next to no reason to use regular unarmed strikes barring fighting skeletons or other bludgeoning-vulnerable foes. Radiant Sun Bolt is meant to complement your unarmed strikes, not replace it.

Secondly, it could easily be misinterpreted as giving you an absurdly huge radius for opportunity attacks, as the PHB says for OAs, "You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that can see moves out of your reach. To make an opportunity attack, you use your reaction to make one melee attack against the provoking creature” (pg. 195, emphasis added). I personally don’t think it works because RSB is written here as only being able to be done as part of the Attack action, while you’re taking a reaction in an Op Attack, not an action. But I see this as a potential source of confusion.

I think the blinding effect on RSB is unnecessary and a bit strong for 3rd level, especially as after 5th level it involves spending no resources.

Lastly, and most importantly for RSB and stunning strike, being able to Stunning Strike at a distance but otherwise normally is immensely powerful, as there is far less risk involved at a distance, not to mention ki saved from not having to disengage using Step of the Wind should the enemy succeed on the CON saves.

Content-wise, Photokinesis is mostly good, but there a few wordage issues. Namely Divine, favor already works on all weapons attacks not just attacks with a weapon (yes, there is a difference; yes, it is confusing), and after a PHB errata unarmed strikes already count as weapon attacks, as does your Radiant Sun Bolt in its current state. Also, purely for flavor, consider allowing Faerie Fire to be a different color like yellow, gold, and/or white.

I mostly like the changes you made to Searing Sunburst, except for when the monk’s Martial Arts Die becomes a d10 in Tier 4, because an 8d10 blinding radiant fireball on a non-caster is way too much. Consider changing it back to d6s, but allow a maximum ki point expenditure of 4 instead of three, which simulates a 5th-level Fireball.

Luminous Soul Manifestation feels a little dissonant with the rest of the subclass. The flight feels like it’s stepping on the Four Elements Monk’s toes too much, and this is on a subclass that already steps on the 4E monk’s toes a lot.
Honestly I’d just buff the vanilla Sun Shield’s damage by having it deal radiant equal to 5 + your Wisdom score intend of modifier. Barring magic items and Epic Boons, that means a max damage of 25, which isn’t outrageous for Tier 4.

All in all, I think you’re on a good path!