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Zorahai
2022-01-31, 11:39 AM
This is an updated home-brew tradition that I made some time ago which is still a bit of a work in progress, but far enough along to where I feel like it can get some constructive criticism. Please know that this does borrow heavily from Brandes Stoddard’s own created tradition “Way of the Wild”, which I will link in this post for reference.

https://www.brandesstoddard.com/2019/01/dd-5e-way-of-the-wild-monastic-tradition/

Now, with this tradition I wanted to incorporate the 5 iconic Kung-fu animal styles that are usually displayed in various forms of media while also keeping it in theme with the D&D fantasy aspects. Likewise, the styles chosen were ones which I felt fit in most with other class’ sub-classes and the monk traditions as well. Essentially, I wanted to make this a balanced sub-class to play at home alongside the official material.



Way of the Beast

At 3rd level when you choose this tradition, you gain proficiency in animal handling if you don’t already have it. Your martial arts mix typical movements with techniques made to mimic those of various creatures. You also attain the ability to cast speak with animals as a ritual.

At 3rd level learn two of the following animal techniques with more becoming unlocked as you reach higher levels. Each style requires varied situations and Ki points. You gain one additional technique when you reach 6th, 11th, and 17th level.


Way of the Beast Techniques:

Dragon: You may spend 1 Ki point to deal an additional martial arts die of elemental damage for the next minute when you hit a creature with your Flurry of Blows attacks. Choose (acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder) which may be switched as a Bonus Action.

Eagle: As a reaction, you harness the swiftness of an eagle for the next minute. If you are missed with a melee attack, you can move at 1/2 speed away without triggering an opportunity attack or move the attacker to any unoccupied adjacent space.

Monkey: As a Bonus Action, you may spend 2 Ki points to increase your AC by +2 for 1 minute as long as you are not wearing armor nor wielding a shield and your jump length increases by + Dex modifier in feet.

Snake: You can make one unarmed attack as a reaction when missed by a melee attack.

Tiger: As a Bonus Action you may make an unarmed attack at the end of a Disengage or Dash action.



At 6th level each technique gains an additional ability when known:

Dragon: You gain a permanent resistance to one dragon type of damage (acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder). If one of these resistances is already possessed, it cannot be selected again.

Eagle: You now are able to make Long and High Jumps with your Dexterity modifier instead of Strength and Difficult Terrain no longer hinders your movement.

Monkey: When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 1 ki point to distract and confuse it, giving other attackers an opening. Your attack deals additional damage equal to your Martial Arts die, and the next melee attack roll made against that target by a creature other than you gains advantage if the attack is made before the start of your next turn.

Snake: When a creature adjacent to you casts a spell, you can use your reaction to make an unarmed strike against it. On a hit, you deal additional damage equal to your Wisdom modifier, and the creature must roll a Constitution saving throw as if concentrating on the spell. On a failed saving throw, the spell is lost.

Tiger: When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike and you have already hit that creature with two or more melee weapon attacks this turn, you can spend 1 Ki point to deal additional damage equal to your Martial Arts die. On a successful hit, the creature must make a successful Strength Saving Throw or be knocked prone.



At 17th level, as an action, you are able to summon a spectral avatar of a chosen creature related to your respective style(s) for 10 minutes. The summoned creature is friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creature, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands, it will defend itself from hostile creatures, but otherwise takes no actions. The DM has the creatures' statistics.

You must spend 8 ki points to be able to summon the creature and you can not summon it again until you take a short or long rest.

Dragon: Dragon Wyrmling (modified) Eagle: Giant Eagle (modified) Monkey: Gorilla (modified) Snake: Giant Constrictor Snake Tiger: Saber-Toothed Tiger

The modifications are intended to make each style’s avatar roughly equal in power


Here’s an example also of how a monk would work in the game

The 6th level monk knows Dragon, Monkey, and Eagle techniques.

Their turn begins:

Action: Attack 2 times

Bonus Action Options:

-Dragon: Activate Damage Buff (requires FoB)

-Monkey: Activate Advantage on Attacks

-Monk (Vanilla): Attack again with either Martial Arts or FoB, Patient Defense, or Step of the Wind

Reaction Options:

-Eagle: Movement Ability

-Opportunity Attack

JNAProductions
2022-01-31, 12:03 PM
Way Of The Beast
If you already have proficiency in Animal Handling, offer Expertise or another skill prof.

Dragon-is that 1 ki for each MA die of damage, or 1 ki to double your FoB damage for an entire minute?
Eagle-Neat!
Monkey-Feels dull. It's just a +Number.
Snake-Oki.
Tiger-Feels weak.

Level 6

Dragon-I'd let you change the resistance over a rest.
Eagle-I'm a little iffy on completely ignoring difficult terrain. Maybe 1 ki as a BA to ignore it for a minute?
Monkey-Looks good.
Snake-Cool.
Tiger-It's worded oddly, and feels weak. Clean up the wording and buff it a bit.

Level 17
Please post the modified stat blocks, to assess power.

Overall
Aren't you missing a level? And I like the concept here, but the implementation isn't really the best. It's a good start, but definitely needs work.

Zorahai
2022-01-31, 12:28 PM
Thanks for the suggestions and critiques! I'll definitely work on making the wording better. I also know that the Tiger Tech is a bit weaker than the others and am open to suggestions on how to improve it.



Dragon-is that 1 ki for each MA die of damage, or 1 ki to double your FoB damage for an entire minute?

For the Dragon Technique, it is spending 2 Ki points to do FoB and activate a damage buff for subsequent unarmed attacks (duration 1 minute). It's kinda like casting a version of "Shillelagh" on your unarmed attacks.



Aren't you missing a level? And I like the concept here, but the implementation isn't really the best. It's a good start, but definitely needs work.

I don't think I missed a level. On pg. 77 of the PHB, it shows Monastic Tradition features are gained on 3rd, 6th, 11th, and 17th, level (according to the chart).

JNAProductions
2022-01-31, 12:54 PM
Thanks for the suggestions and critiques! I'll definitely work on making the wording better. I also know that the Tiger Tech is a bit weaker than the others and am open to suggestions on how to improve it.

For the Dragon Technique, it is spending 2 Ki points to do FoB and activate a damage buff for subsequent unarmed attacks (duration 1 minute). It's kinda like casting a version of "Shillelagh" on your unarmed attacks.

I don't think I missed a level. On pg. 77 of the PHB, it shows Monastic Tradition features are gained on 3rd, 6th, 11th, and 17th, level (according to the chart).

Where's your level 11 feature?

And I'd consider the level 3 dragon too much. Doubling your FoB damage for a whole fight for one Ki is pretty damn strong.

Zorahai
2022-01-31, 02:23 PM
Where's your level 11 feature?

And I'd consider the level 3 dragon too much. Doubling your FoB damage for a whole fight for one Ki is pretty damn strong.

I originally thought that attaining an extra technique at 11th level would work for the tradition feature, but now that you mention it, it would be very underwhelming. I'll get to workshopping something for it.

For the Level 3 dragon its not doubling FoB damage. It's adding damage to all subsequent unarmed attacks for 1 minute. Granted, I can understand that it is a powerful ability so perhaps it may be best to just change the damage type from bludgeoning to the Dragon type. I intended the cost of Ki to help balance the use of it as it would be something that a player would have to go all in on using at early levels.

Thanks again for reading this.

JNAProductions
2022-01-31, 02:28 PM
I originally thought that attaining an extra technique at 11th level would work for the tradition feature, but now that you mention it, it would be very underwhelming. I'll get to workshopping something for it.

For the Level 3 dragon its not doubling FoB damage. It's adding damage to all subsequent unarmed attacks for 1 minute. Granted, I can understand that it is a powerful ability so perhaps it may be best to just change the damage type from bludgeoning to the Dragon type. I intended the cost of Ki to help balance the use of it as it would be something that a player would have to go all in on using at early levels.

Thanks again for reading this.

Wait, Dragon applies to ALL Unarmed Strikes?

So, you go from (at level three) doing 1d8+1d4+2*Dex Mod to doing 4d4+2*Dex Mod? I mean, that's not a huge jump, I guess. But check in at level five and eleven.

Level Five
Normal Monk: 2d8+1d6+3*Dex Mod, average of 12.5+3*Dex Mod
Dragon Monk: 6d6+3*Dex Mod, average of 21+3*Dex Mod

Level Eleven-I will assume Flurries now, since you have 11 Ki between rests
Normal Monk: 4d8+4*Dex Mod, average of 18+4*Dex Mod
Dragon Monk: 8d8+4*Dex Mod, average of 36+4*Dex Mod

Kane0
2022-01-31, 03:56 PM
Level 6
Eagle-I'm a little iffy on completely ignoring difficult terrain. Maybe 1 ki as a BA to ignore it for a minute?

Meh, of all the martial classes Monk feels pike it should be the least affected by DT given their focus on mobility even before the Mobile feat, magic items and other subclass features.

Zorahai
2022-01-31, 06:03 PM
Wait, Dragon applies to ALL Unarmed Strikes?

So, you go from (at level three) doing 1d8+1d4+2*Dex Mod to doing 4d4+2*Dex Mod? I mean, that's not a huge jump, I guess. But check in at level five and eleven.

Level Five
Normal Monk: 2d8+1d6+3*Dex Mod, average of 12.5+3*Dex Mod
Dragon Monk: 6d6+3*Dex Mod, average of 21+3*Dex Mod

Level Eleven-I will assume Flurries now, since you have 11 Ki between rests
Normal Monk: 4d8+4*Dex Mod, average of 18+4*Dex Mod
Dragon Monk: 8d8+4*Dex Mod, average of 36+4*Dex Mod

I originally envisioned the Dragon Technique to activate after the initial FoB. Thus, the equation would look more like this:

Turn 1: 1d8(weapon)+2d4(FoB)+2(Dex Mod) ->Dragon Tech Activated
Turn 2: 1d8(weapon)+2d4(MA + Dragon Damage)+2 (Dex Mod)

Now, in regards to the average damage amounts for the Dragon Technique, I am unsure as to how you calculated those averages (which I would like to learn so that I can edit this more accurately). However, I do not fully agree on the issue of the damage increase for the unarmed strikes. Monks at Tier 2 generally "plateau" in their damage compared to other classes and continue to do so. Granted, I know that monks can theoretically do an "infinite" with Stunning Strike but that is dependent on CON saves. Likewise, HAND monks have Quivering Palm which can drop to 0 immediately or do 10d10 at the cost of only 3 Ki points.

Essentially, I feel that monks tend to "fall behind" when it comes to damage but if the math dictates that it is not the case, then perhaps the Dragon Technique should change. Maybe merely changing the damage type of the unarmed attack at the cost of 1 Ki for a BA?

Kane0
2022-01-31, 08:37 PM
Level 3 Tiger technique, I think that should work with Step of the Wind

Breccia
2022-02-01, 12:16 AM
The level 3 Monkey Jump ability feels like it should be stronger. Normally a long jump is feet = Str score. Adding your Dex modifier is...fine, I guess, and +Dex mod could end up being better than "use Dex instead of Str". But you could boost it and nobody would complain. How about +5 feet, a full square? Or affecting high jumps? Or standing jumps? Or "spend a ki point to..." wait, that's Step of the Wind. Well, maybe Monkey could affect/augment that?

I don't think anyone would complain if you edged the effects up slightly.