mr_stibbons
2021-08-05, 04:04 PM
I've been spending a lot of time mulling over the monk class recently. I love the flavour, but can't shake the feeling that monks end up both very underpowered and very samey. This is my attempt to power up and add some variety to the monk.
Increase hit die to d10
Unarmoured defence-as is
Flurry of blows-
At first level when you take the attack action while unarmed or wielding a single non-heavy weapon, you may make an additional attack with an unarmed strike. These unarmed strike does not add any ability modifier to the damage roll. At 5th level, make two additional attacks with unarmed strikes . At 11th level, make 3 attacks.
first big change-rather than being able to spend a ki for an extra punch starting at level, you gain attacks to your flurry as you level, but don’t add dex to extra strike damage. Also, this no longer costs a bonus action. This is based off my own solutions for fixing two weapon fighting and trades damage at low levels for better scaling and freedom of your bonus action. This is less powerful at level 1, but some of that is being made up for by the new martial arts styles. It also opens up some more creative ways to optimize monks, like picking up hex or other uses for your bonus action, to keep in line with other heavily optimized martial classes.
Martial arts-At first level when you attack with an unarmed strike or a non-heavy weapon, and aren’t wearing armour or a shield, you make use dex instead of strength for the attack and damage roll, and may replace their damage die with your marital arts die, as shown in the martial arts column(which has not changed).
In addition, choose one marital arts style from the list below, and gain it’s benefits.
-Tiger’s claw- when you hit an enemy with a flurry of blows attack, add 2 to the damage roll. When you roll initiative, add your wisdom modifier to the final result.
-Vipers-fang- the first time you hit a creature with a flurry of blows attack on your turn, choose one of the following effects-
-it has disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes
-it’s movement speed is reduced by 10ft
-reduce the result of the next saving throw it makes by 1d4
-Flowing river-+1 ac, opportunity attacks targeting you are made at disadvantage.
-Diamond mind-when you or a creature within 5ft of you is hit with an attack, you may use your reaction to reduce the damage by a roll of your martial arts die+ your wisdom modifer+your monk level
-Patient spider-When you make a grapple or shove attempt, you may use your wisdom modifier in place of your strength modifier. when a creature within 5ft of you misses you with a melee attack, you may make a grapple attack against them.
-Dragons claw-you may spend a reaction to use your wisdom modifier in place of any other ability score when making a saving throw.
You may reroll damage rolls of 1 or 2 on any damage die you roll
This one of the main reasons I wanted to do this rework-making all monks less samey. Base monks, without meaningful choice of weapons and no choices in their features until your subclass, which are not particularly powerful, all feel the same. Now, you get your choice of a powered up fighting style to make your monk behave differently from other monks, just like a fighter can use their choice of weapons and subclass to differentiate themselves. These are a bit more powerful than regular fighting styles because each monk is using basically the same “weapon” and because monks already have a long list of lv1 features that mostly just get them up to par with a fighter’s starting gear, and adding another ability to the list would be a bit clunky. Generally these should skew monks in a more defensive direction.
At this point, the vast majority of monk subclasses have an explicit supernatural aspect to them instead of directly mimicking an existing fighting style. I personally feel that there's no flavour issue with separating the mundane combat techniques from the supernatural subclass.
Note that I've removed the language about monk weapons in favour of "non-heavy" weapons, basically incorporating Tasha's Dedicated Weapon optional rule into the core rules.
Unarmored movement-as is
Ki- Ki progression as is, patient defence and step of the wind as is (though these no longer compete with extra attacks, making them more potent). Replace flurry of blows with Focused aim-when you miss with an attack, you may spend 1 ki to re-roll the hit roll. You must use the result of the new die
buying extra attacks is now removed, instead deft strike got moved to replace it. I would expect monks at this level are making more use of patient defence and step of the wind early in their career, doing less damage but being more survivable. Deft strike is technically more efficient than flurry was at low levels in terms of expected damage per ki spent, but only when you miss your weapon attack.
Monastic Tradtion-as is
Ki-fuelled attack-Basline.
Of all the Tasha's features, I feel like Ki-fuelled attack is the most necessary, working as a subclass specific patch. Focused Aim has been moved to be part of the base Ki feature, and I don't feel that the final healing feature was really relevant, and am leaving it optional
Additional marital arts style-At third level you may chose a second known martial arts style. Using a bonus action, you may switch between your known martial arts styles
Deflect missiles has been converted into the more broadly useful Diamond mind style, and as compensation your monk gets a degree of flexibility. I just like the concept of marital artists learning different styles of fighting for different situations, to add a bit more customization to your monk. I'm a little concerned this is too many decisions at level 3, but am not sure there's a good level to move this too. I'd like you to have your second style fairly early.
Extra attack-as is
Stunning strike-Once per turn, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a stunning strike. The target must succeed on a constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.
stunning strike is the most controversial ability in the monk kit, and since I am trying to tune the class up, it is going to take a bit of a hit. Only being able to make stun attempts once per turn prevents forcing the bbeg to make 3-4 saves in a row until he’s out of legendaries or fails. Also encourages you to spend your ki on other things by preventing you from spamming stuns.
Ki-empowered strikes and subclass feature-as is
Evasion and Stillness of mind-as is
Unarmored movement improvement-as is
Improved martial arts styles- at 9th level your martial arts styles improve. You gain the listed abilities when benefiting from the corresponding martial arts style
Tiger’s claw-when you take the attack action, you may spend one ki. If you do, add your dex modifier to the damage dealt by your flurry of blows attacks.
Viper’s fang- when you hit an enemy, spend 1 ki. That enemy must make a dexterity saving throw or take additional damage equal to one roll of your martial arts die and be blinded until end of turn.
Flowing river-when you use the patient defence action, you may also double your movement speed
Diamond mind-when you use your reaction to reduce damage granted by this style, you may spend 1 ki to make an unarmed attack against the triggering monster. If the monster made a ranged attack, you deflect the missile or magic, and may treat your unarmed strike as a thrown weapon with range of 60ft for this reaction attack. If this attack hits, reduce the damage inflicted by the triggering attack by half the damage dealt in addition to the normal damage reduction.
Patient spider-spend 1 ki when making a grapple or shove attempt to gain advantage and ignore size restrictions when making a grapple or shove attempt
Dragon heart-when you hit a target with a melee attack, you may spend 1 ki to deal extra radiant, fire, lightning or cold damage. This damage is equal to two rolls of your marital arts die.
Ninth level for monks was pretty sparse, and I liked the idea of the marital arts styles having Ki fuelled special moves too much not to include them. This provides a level of further differentiation to the martial arts styles corresponding somewhat to the various weapon specialization feats.
Subclass feature-move to level 10 so flurry scaling occurs at tier breakpoint
Purity of body-as is-at level 11
Generally, marital classes are supposed to be gaining a serious damage boost at level 11. The monk subclasses mostly don't provide this, but sometimes they do. I've added level 11 scaling to flurry of blows to provide this a bit more consistently, but that can make your level 11 powerspike pretty massive for some subclasses. To smooth this out, I've swapped the subclass feature and the less splashy purity of body feature.
Personal style
At 13th level, you have created a personalized marital arts style fusing the techniques of your existing styles. You gain the benefits of both known martial arts styles at all times.
The culmination of this thread of the marital styles, this is a fluff progression I really like, even if it’s not super good. Nothing says “martial arts master” like having your own custom style made up of the best bits of a bunch of other styles.
Tounge of the sun and moon-as is, unless someone has a better idea.
Diamond soul-as is
Masterful form-At 15th level if your total for a dexterity check is less than your dexterity score, you can use your score in place of the total
Timeless body-as is
Timeless body is a very cool and flavourful ribbon, but it is a ribbon that shouldn’t be taking up a level by itself. I’ve added a utility feature fo help this feel like a real level
Trance of perfection- at 18th level, you may spend 4 ki points to enter a precognitive trancelike state for 1 minute. While in this state, you have advantage on attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks, and score critical hits on a roll of 19 or 20. All attack rolls that target you in this state have disadvantage.
Empty body is mechanically fine, but the flavour always felt off to me-it’s such a specific supernatural effect, that didn’t really fit on many subclasses. Trance of perfection is a more generic effect, basically a 1 minute foresight, which is intended to be a sidegrade, trading damage resistance for advantage on saves, expanded crit ranges, and not being shut down by true sight/blindsight.
Perfect Self-at the start of any of your turns, if you have no Ki remaining you gain 2 Ki points.
Increase hit die to d10
Unarmoured defence-as is
Flurry of blows-
At first level when you take the attack action while unarmed or wielding a single non-heavy weapon, you may make an additional attack with an unarmed strike. These unarmed strike does not add any ability modifier to the damage roll. At 5th level, make two additional attacks with unarmed strikes . At 11th level, make 3 attacks.
first big change-rather than being able to spend a ki for an extra punch starting at level, you gain attacks to your flurry as you level, but don’t add dex to extra strike damage. Also, this no longer costs a bonus action. This is based off my own solutions for fixing two weapon fighting and trades damage at low levels for better scaling and freedom of your bonus action. This is less powerful at level 1, but some of that is being made up for by the new martial arts styles. It also opens up some more creative ways to optimize monks, like picking up hex or other uses for your bonus action, to keep in line with other heavily optimized martial classes.
Martial arts-At first level when you attack with an unarmed strike or a non-heavy weapon, and aren’t wearing armour or a shield, you make use dex instead of strength for the attack and damage roll, and may replace their damage die with your marital arts die, as shown in the martial arts column(which has not changed).
In addition, choose one marital arts style from the list below, and gain it’s benefits.
-Tiger’s claw- when you hit an enemy with a flurry of blows attack, add 2 to the damage roll. When you roll initiative, add your wisdom modifier to the final result.
-Vipers-fang- the first time you hit a creature with a flurry of blows attack on your turn, choose one of the following effects-
-it has disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes
-it’s movement speed is reduced by 10ft
-reduce the result of the next saving throw it makes by 1d4
-Flowing river-+1 ac, opportunity attacks targeting you are made at disadvantage.
-Diamond mind-when you or a creature within 5ft of you is hit with an attack, you may use your reaction to reduce the damage by a roll of your martial arts die+ your wisdom modifer+your monk level
-Patient spider-When you make a grapple or shove attempt, you may use your wisdom modifier in place of your strength modifier. when a creature within 5ft of you misses you with a melee attack, you may make a grapple attack against them.
-Dragons claw-you may spend a reaction to use your wisdom modifier in place of any other ability score when making a saving throw.
You may reroll damage rolls of 1 or 2 on any damage die you roll
This one of the main reasons I wanted to do this rework-making all monks less samey. Base monks, without meaningful choice of weapons and no choices in their features until your subclass, which are not particularly powerful, all feel the same. Now, you get your choice of a powered up fighting style to make your monk behave differently from other monks, just like a fighter can use their choice of weapons and subclass to differentiate themselves. These are a bit more powerful than regular fighting styles because each monk is using basically the same “weapon” and because monks already have a long list of lv1 features that mostly just get them up to par with a fighter’s starting gear, and adding another ability to the list would be a bit clunky. Generally these should skew monks in a more defensive direction.
At this point, the vast majority of monk subclasses have an explicit supernatural aspect to them instead of directly mimicking an existing fighting style. I personally feel that there's no flavour issue with separating the mundane combat techniques from the supernatural subclass.
Note that I've removed the language about monk weapons in favour of "non-heavy" weapons, basically incorporating Tasha's Dedicated Weapon optional rule into the core rules.
Unarmored movement-as is
Ki- Ki progression as is, patient defence and step of the wind as is (though these no longer compete with extra attacks, making them more potent). Replace flurry of blows with Focused aim-when you miss with an attack, you may spend 1 ki to re-roll the hit roll. You must use the result of the new die
buying extra attacks is now removed, instead deft strike got moved to replace it. I would expect monks at this level are making more use of patient defence and step of the wind early in their career, doing less damage but being more survivable. Deft strike is technically more efficient than flurry was at low levels in terms of expected damage per ki spent, but only when you miss your weapon attack.
Monastic Tradtion-as is
Ki-fuelled attack-Basline.
Of all the Tasha's features, I feel like Ki-fuelled attack is the most necessary, working as a subclass specific patch. Focused Aim has been moved to be part of the base Ki feature, and I don't feel that the final healing feature was really relevant, and am leaving it optional
Additional marital arts style-At third level you may chose a second known martial arts style. Using a bonus action, you may switch between your known martial arts styles
Deflect missiles has been converted into the more broadly useful Diamond mind style, and as compensation your monk gets a degree of flexibility. I just like the concept of marital artists learning different styles of fighting for different situations, to add a bit more customization to your monk. I'm a little concerned this is too many decisions at level 3, but am not sure there's a good level to move this too. I'd like you to have your second style fairly early.
Extra attack-as is
Stunning strike-Once per turn, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a stunning strike. The target must succeed on a constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.
stunning strike is the most controversial ability in the monk kit, and since I am trying to tune the class up, it is going to take a bit of a hit. Only being able to make stun attempts once per turn prevents forcing the bbeg to make 3-4 saves in a row until he’s out of legendaries or fails. Also encourages you to spend your ki on other things by preventing you from spamming stuns.
Ki-empowered strikes and subclass feature-as is
Evasion and Stillness of mind-as is
Unarmored movement improvement-as is
Improved martial arts styles- at 9th level your martial arts styles improve. You gain the listed abilities when benefiting from the corresponding martial arts style
Tiger’s claw-when you take the attack action, you may spend one ki. If you do, add your dex modifier to the damage dealt by your flurry of blows attacks.
Viper’s fang- when you hit an enemy, spend 1 ki. That enemy must make a dexterity saving throw or take additional damage equal to one roll of your martial arts die and be blinded until end of turn.
Flowing river-when you use the patient defence action, you may also double your movement speed
Diamond mind-when you use your reaction to reduce damage granted by this style, you may spend 1 ki to make an unarmed attack against the triggering monster. If the monster made a ranged attack, you deflect the missile or magic, and may treat your unarmed strike as a thrown weapon with range of 60ft for this reaction attack. If this attack hits, reduce the damage inflicted by the triggering attack by half the damage dealt in addition to the normal damage reduction.
Patient spider-spend 1 ki when making a grapple or shove attempt to gain advantage and ignore size restrictions when making a grapple or shove attempt
Dragon heart-when you hit a target with a melee attack, you may spend 1 ki to deal extra radiant, fire, lightning or cold damage. This damage is equal to two rolls of your marital arts die.
Ninth level for monks was pretty sparse, and I liked the idea of the marital arts styles having Ki fuelled special moves too much not to include them. This provides a level of further differentiation to the martial arts styles corresponding somewhat to the various weapon specialization feats.
Subclass feature-move to level 10 so flurry scaling occurs at tier breakpoint
Purity of body-as is-at level 11
Generally, marital classes are supposed to be gaining a serious damage boost at level 11. The monk subclasses mostly don't provide this, but sometimes they do. I've added level 11 scaling to flurry of blows to provide this a bit more consistently, but that can make your level 11 powerspike pretty massive for some subclasses. To smooth this out, I've swapped the subclass feature and the less splashy purity of body feature.
Personal style
At 13th level, you have created a personalized marital arts style fusing the techniques of your existing styles. You gain the benefits of both known martial arts styles at all times.
The culmination of this thread of the marital styles, this is a fluff progression I really like, even if it’s not super good. Nothing says “martial arts master” like having your own custom style made up of the best bits of a bunch of other styles.
Tounge of the sun and moon-as is, unless someone has a better idea.
Diamond soul-as is
Masterful form-At 15th level if your total for a dexterity check is less than your dexterity score, you can use your score in place of the total
Timeless body-as is
Timeless body is a very cool and flavourful ribbon, but it is a ribbon that shouldn’t be taking up a level by itself. I’ve added a utility feature fo help this feel like a real level
Trance of perfection- at 18th level, you may spend 4 ki points to enter a precognitive trancelike state for 1 minute. While in this state, you have advantage on attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks, and score critical hits on a roll of 19 or 20. All attack rolls that target you in this state have disadvantage.
Empty body is mechanically fine, but the flavour always felt off to me-it’s such a specific supernatural effect, that didn’t really fit on many subclasses. Trance of perfection is a more generic effect, basically a 1 minute foresight, which is intended to be a sidegrade, trading damage resistance for advantage on saves, expanded crit ranges, and not being shut down by true sight/blindsight.
Perfect Self-at the start of any of your turns, if you have no Ki remaining you gain 2 Ki points.