Sun Soul Monk Discussion

[Segev]

I don't know what the general consensus is on the Sun Soul monk, but to me, it seems like a rather weak subclass. Yes, getting a ranged attack you can (essentially) Flurry with is nice, but that's more or less all it gets, and it's not even particularly GOOD as a ranged attack.

That said, as written, it does get one of the three bullet points' benefits from Spell Sniper, since, as a spell attack, it would ignore cover. It does scale in damage with level, using the MA die, and it's Dexterity-based, meaning that your probably-already-dex-based fighting style benefits from it. It locks you out of "strength monk," but if we're honest, very few monks are likely going that direction, and those that are may very well do it via magic items later in their career, having focused on dex early on.

Now, some discussion points: would you, as a DM, permit a Sun Soul monk who took Spell Sniper to also double the range of their Radiant Sun Bolts (from 30 to 60 feet)? They're not spells, so the RAW say "no," but I'm asking more as a house rule and balance issue.

With the advant of the Astral Self monk, would it be unreasonable to allow a Radiant Sun Bolt to run off of Wisdom instead of Dexterity, if a monk preferred to build for Wisdom first?

As a further point of discussion, if your Sun Soul Monk does take Spell Sniper, and picks up eldritch blast as his cantrip, is he ever going to be better off using his Radiant Sun Bolt over eldritch blast? I think so, actually; by level 5, the Sun Soul monk can Radiant Blast up to 4 times per round, at least while his ki lasts, but only gets 2 eldritch blasts. At level 11, he gets 3 eldritch blasts, but his damage die has gotten to d8 for the Radiant Sun Bolt and so 4 of those for 1 ki vs. three eldritch blasts for free is still going to be in favor of the Radiant Sun Bolts.

So that's at least reasonably balanced, and if you DID go for that build, you'd have eldritch blast to fall back on when you ran out of ki.

Any other thoughts, house rules, or tricks with the Sun Soul monk people care to share or discuss? Any criticisms of it I've missed?

[Asmotherion]

It's not that bad. Overall I think it's average in power and a good way to make a kamehameha monk without dipping warlock for EB.

[Psyren]

The Radiant Sun Bolt is okay on paper (ranged flurry is better than most bonus action attacks) but 30ft is extremely short for a ranged class. It really should have been 60ft instead of 30ft so it's not starting out so far behind a shortbow. The other big problem is that it's a spell attack, so no Sharpshooter, which means you start falling behind other ranged buids.

The bigger problem though is that their other features are pretty lousy. Searing Arc Strike is almost never worth the ki (and why is it still fire instead of radiant?), and Searing Sunburst and Sun Shield are beyond awful. These drawbacks combine to make Sun Soul one of the worst monk subclasses despite starting out reasonably well.

I honestly don't know whether this, 4E or Drunken Master are the worst subclass for monk but it's down there.

[HPisBS]

I'd say those are all fine changes. I'd actually buff it more.

My added changes would be:

Level 3
- "You gain a new attack option that you can use with the Attack action and as a bonus action…." (meaning you could use it for 2, 3, or 4 attacks per turn. And the 3rd one would be free, like with Martial Arts.)
- "You know the Light cantrip."

Level 6
- " Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, You can spend 2 ki points to cast the burning hands spell as a bonus action….

(Level 11 now combines with both earlier features better, since either can always be used with a bonus action.)

Level 17
- " … Alternatively, you may spend 1 ki point as part of this reaction to deal this radiant damage every time you are hit by a melee attack until the start of your next turn."


Edit: I'd also consider inserting a line into the lvl 11 feature adding save-for-half whenever you spend at least 1 ki point on a Searing Sunburst. But that could be venturing into over-tuned territory at that point, idk.

[Sorinth]

Sun Soul Monk never struck me as a ranged monk, it's more that they gain a little versatility to deal with the things monks usually struggle with, namely crowds and flying enemies. So most of the time you would still be doing normal melee monk stuff like running in and punching but when you have to deal with a crowd you have options, when you have to deal with a flying creature that isn't getting into range you aren't just sitting around doing nothing.

I don't think allowing Spell Sniper to work or using Wis instead of Dex would really break anything.

[Psyren]

Sun Soul Monk never struck me as a ranged monk, it's more that they gain a little versatility to deal with the things monks usually struggle with, namely crowds and flying enemies. So most of the time you would still be doing normal melee monk stuff like running in and punching but when you have to deal with a crowd you have options, when you have to deal with a flying creature that isn't getting into range you aren't just sitting around doing nothing.

To be clear, no monk has to "sit around and do nothing" though, the class is proficient with shortbows baseline.

I'd argue that if you want a true switch-hitter monk, Kensei blows SS away.

[Sorinth]

To be clear, no monk has to "sit around and do nothing" though, the class is proficient with shortbows baseline.

I'd argue that if you want a true switch-hitter monk, Kensei blows SS away.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying they are good, I'm just saying they have some versatility that helps them in situations that most monks struggle with.

I'm not sure I've actually seen a Monk ever use a shorbow in actual play even though yes it makes sense from an optimization perspective to have. They pretty much universally stick to throwing stars and the like when wanting a ranged option because that's the theme for most monks.

[Segev]

I have a monk who actually resorted to javelins and bows, though he also multiclassed a level of rogue and a level of ranger by level 10.

[Kane0]

Yeah Sun Soul could use a good clean up so its features sync up better, and probably a minor buff on top of that. Here's what i currently have in the playtest stage:

Level 3: Radiant Sun Bolt
You can choose to make a ranged spell attack using your unarmed strike, which uses your Dexterity or Wisdom modifier for attack and damage rolls, whichever is higher, and has a range of 30 feet.
At 6th level this range increases to 60 feet, at 11th level 90 feet and 17th level 120 feet.

Level 6: Searing Arc Strike
As a bonus action you can spend 2 Ki to cast The Burning Hands spell or 3 Ki to cast the Aganazzar's Scorcher spell. The damage dealt from these spells are half Radiant damage and half Fire damage.
You can spend additional ki points to cast these spells at a higher level spell. Each additional Ki point you spend increases the spell's level by 1, to a maximum spell level equal to your proficiency bonus.

Level 11: Searing Sunburst
As an action you can hurl a fiery orb at a point you choose within 120 feet. Each creature within a 20-foot-radius sphere of that point takes 1d6 Fire and 1d6 Radiant damage and is Blinded until the start of your next turn, or half damage and no Blindness if they make a successful Constitution saving throw.
You can increase the sphere's damage by spending ki points. Each point you spend, up to a maximum equal to your proficiency bonus, increases both the Fire and Radiant damage each by 1d6.

Level 17: Sun Shield
You shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet, which you can extinguish or restore as a bonus action.
If a creature hits you with a melee attack while this light shines you can use your reaction to deal Radiant damage to the creature equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die.

Its still mostly just damage though, so I wonder if all this couldnt just be rolled into a 4E rework as additional options

[Segev]

Its still mostly just damage though, so I wonder if all this couldnt just be rolled into a 4E rework as additional options

Overall interesting buffs, and I like the thought behind considering just making these 4-elements options instead of its own subclass.

I wonder if a ribbon of being immune to blindness at 6th level would be fitting. Sure, the core idea is about not being blinded by your own radiant energy, but also you just are able to see even if mutilated or lacking eyes due to your attunement with the very concept of light. "See with your ki" or something like that.

[HPisBS]

Overall interesting buffs, and I like the thought behind considering just making these 4-elements options instead of its own subclass.

I wonder if a ribbon of being immune to blindness at 6th level would be fitting. Sure, the core idea is about not being blinded by your own radiant energy, but also you just are able to see even if mutilated or lacking eyes due to your attunement with the very concept of light. "See with your ki" or something like that.

A fun idea, but how would it work, technically? Blindsight with no range? That definitely sounds like than than just a ribbon. lol


A thought I'd had was to lean in to the whole DBZ fantasy by providing some flight.


Dancing Sky Art
Starting at 11th level, whenever you spend at least 1 ki point on your turn, you can channel radiant ki into your feet, causing the soles of your feet to glow as you can step on air almost as if it were solid ground. You gain a flying speed equal to half of your walking speed. This flying speed lasts until the end of your next turn.

... But then, Ascendant Dragon happened. So now, this seems much less novel.


Edit: It'd probably be best to not straight up plagiarize Dragon Ball's flying technique name, so maybe something like "Sky Step," instead.

[Kane0]

Or pull an Icarus and call it 'Reach for the sun'

[Segev]

A fun idea, but how would it work, technically? Blindsight with no range? That definitely sounds like than than just a ribbon. lol

Nah. Just "cannot be blinded."

[HPisBS]

Nah. Just "cannot be blinded."

So get black bagged by High Chancellor Sutler's secret police. → No effect?

Enemy mage uses Darkness. → Free geek-the-mage real estate?

Pull a Daredevil / Kenshi and fight with a blindfold on. → All good?

[Segev]

So get black bagged by High Chancellor Sutler's secret police. → No effect?

Enemy mage uses Darkness. → Free geek-the-mage real estate?

Pull a Daredevil / Kenshi and fight with a blindfold on. → All good?

Hm, point. Would need refinement, which also would need more consideration as to where I would even want to draw the line.

[Witty Username]

Level 11: Searing Sunburst
As an action you can hurl a fiery orb at a point you choose within 120 feet. Each creature within a 20-foot-radius sphere of that point takes 1d6 Fire and 1d6 Radiant damage and is Blinded until the start of your next turn, or half damage and no Blindness if they make a successful Constitution saving throw.
You can increase the sphere's damage by spending ki points. Each point you spend, up to a maximum equal to your proficiency bonus, increases both the Fire and Radiant damage each by 1d6.


If this wasn't monk, no resource blinding would be a concern, since it is monk, it should be fine.

[Kane0]

If this wasn't monk, no resource blinding would be a concern, since it is monk, it should be fine.

Even so, its an at will 20' radius of it so could be limited to when you spend Ki if you want to be on the safe side

[Dalinar]

Sun Soul needs all the help it can get--having played one for maybe a dozen sessions or so in T1, I had a pretty miserable time (well, it's DnD so it was still fun, but man I felt useless).

My fixes involved a rather thorough rework to Monk as well as SS, but if I were just focusing on this one subclass:

1. RSB as a bonus action, as a WIS attack, and *maybe* let it work with Stunning Strike (might be too much?)

2. Searing Arc Strike: -1 Ki cost seems fair, I don't know when you'd use this as it is. But ki economy problems are hardly limited to Sun Soul, so idk.

3. Searing Sunburst: fine as it is if RSB is a WIS attack, as you'll be bumping the save DC. Otherwise maybe tack on a d6 or something?

4. Honestly I'd completely remove Sun Shield, it's insultingly bad as a level 17 ability. Maybe replace it with a giant kamehameha laser you can dump a bunch of ki into? But that's redundant with Searing Sunburst.

[Pex]

Maybe it's my age, but when I first read of Sun Soul monk I wasn't thinking Dragonball Z. I was thinking Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter.

I know absolutely nothing about Dragonball Z. I had to look up "kamehameha".

:smallbiggrin:

[quindraco]

SSM needs a lot of work. My recommendations:


RSB: Can now replace any unarmed strike and counts as an unarmed strike for all other Monk class rules. Can use Wis modifier rather than Dex modifier. Like Sacred Flame, RSB ignores cover bonuses. On a fundamental level, you want to make sure this feature is better than simply giving the SSM a cantrip, especially Magic Stone.
SAS: The SSM can simply cast Burning Hands as an Action or Bonus Action, changing the damage type to Radiant. The SSM learns Faerie Fire in addition to Burning Hands and can cast it the same way (note that Faerie Fire has no built-in benefits from being upcast).
Searing Sunburst: This is fine. Give the SSM resistance to radiant damage along with it.
Sun Shield: Replace the benefits of emitting light with ones modeled after Investiture of Flame, Fire Shield, and Armor of Agathys:

Immunity to Radiant and Resistance to Necrotic damage.
Hurting targets that hit the SSM no longer consumes the SSM's reaction - instead it just happens.
Any creature that moves within 5 feet of you for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there takes 1 roll of your martial arts die in Radiant damage.

[Tanarii]

I don't know what the general consensus is on the Sun Soul monk, but to me, it seems like a rather weak subclass. Yes, getting a ranged attack you can (essentially) Flurry with is nice, but that's more or less all it gets, and it's not even particularly GOOD as a ranged attack.The ability to close to 30ft to make attacks then retreat is utterly amazing for a monk if you've got a kiting group. Probably not as good as an actual long ranged attacker class with SS though, and personally IMX kiting scenarios are always white room scenarios anyway. :smallamused:



As a further point of discussion, if your Sun Soul Monk does take Spell Sniper, and picks up eldritch blast as his cantrip, is he ever going to be better off using his Radiant Sun Bolt over eldritch blast?
Spell Sniper doesn't change the attack stat, and Cha is a Monk's dump stat, so they're unlikely to pick anything but a Wis-based attack-roll cantrip anyway. But assuming for some reason they do (e.g. a +2 Cha race so put your 12 in Cha), they're the hit difference once they start raising Dex probably means they'll only use it when they need the extra range.

[HPisBS]

Maybe it's my age, but when I first read of Sun Soul monk I wasn't thinking Dragonball Z. I was thinking Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter.

I know absolutely nothing about Dragonball Z. I had to look up "kamehameha".

:smallbiggrin:

I'm gonna assume that's an age thing... even though DBZ got big back in the 90s lol. (Apparently, Toonami [on Cartoon Network] started airing re-runs of it in 1998.)


SSM needs a lot of work. My recommendations:


RSB: Can now replace any unarmed strike and counts as an unarmed strike for all other Monk class rules. Can use Wis modifier rather than Dex modifier. Like Sacred Flame, RSB ignores cover bonuses. On a fundamental level, you want to make sure this feature is better than simply giving the SSM a cantrip, especially Magic Stone.
SAS: The SSM can simply cast Burning Hands as an Action or Bonus Action, changing the damage type to Radiant. The SSM learns Faerie Fire in addition to Burning Hands and can cast it the same way (note that Faerie Fire has no built-in benefits from being upcast).
Searing Sunburst: This is fine. Give the SSM resistance to radiant damage along with it.
Sun Shield: Replace the benefits of emitting light with ones modeled after Investiture of Flame, Fire Shield, and Armor of Agathys:

Immunity to Radiant and Resistance to Necrotic damage.
Hurting targets that hit the SSM no longer consumes the SSM's reaction - instead it just happens.
Any creature that moves within 5 feet of you for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there takes 1 roll of your martial arts die in Radiant damage.



Just letting Sun Bolts replace any unarmed strike locks you out of using them whenever you do something other than the attack action -- like the lvl 11 Sunburst. Ki-Fueled Attack from Tasha's mitigates that, but it'd still be better to explicitly allow a single attack as a ki-free bonus action.

Faerie Fire is an interesting choice; it'd be a step towards making SS more of a mirror to Shadow Monks. Even so, I think a more appropriate lvl 6 buff would be to add a Blinding Strike rider to Sun Bolts (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24565404&postcount=3). (Adding extra top-tier-for-the-level spells on top of that seems like going overboard.)

I feel like it'd be better to leave the standard Sun Shield as an option (but add radiant resistance to it), then add a cheap ki-costing reaction option. Or two options. Maybe a 1-ki reaction could make infinite counters until the end of your next turn, while another 1 ki could upgrade radiant resistance to immunity, etc. Either emulate the AS Monk, or the AM Sorc with it.

[CapnWildefyr]

Sun Shield: Replace the benefits of emitting light with ones modeled after Investiture of Flame, Fire Shield, and Armor of Agathys:

Immunity to Radiant and Resistance to Necrotic damage.
Hurting targets that hit the SSM no longer consumes the SSM's reaction - instead it just happens.
Any creature that moves within 5 feet of you for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there takes 1 roll of your martial arts die in Radiant damage.


Like you, I find the Lvl 17 benefit insulting. I mean, use your reaction to do like 1hp damage once? Really? I mean, you only get one reaction per round, and at high level, you're not likely to be facing 1 orc at a time.

Fiends and undead should take 1 roll of your UA damage (radiant) per round of contact, no effort needed. Use your reaction, spend 1 ki to get a 30' radius blast of your MA damage [radiant]. At this point, you're what, 17th level, competing against blender combinations from spellcasters, give a monk some props. Or spend ki to treat the area like it's inside a magic circle of protection. (This idea needs to be thought through so it's not treading on other classes but the idea is make the aura do something useful, it's an area of radiant energy.)

Compared to the regular monk who can do 10d10 every other round for several rounds with quivering palm, 1hp once/round is really lame. (Sorry I am away from books, if I got the exact damage wrong for QP, but you get the idea. Massive vs inconsequential.)

[Amechra]

I wonder...

Would it be at all overpowered if you smashed Way of the Four Elements and Way of the Sun Soul together into a single subclass?

[Gignere]

Maybe it's my age, but when I first read of Sun Soul monk I wasn't thinking Dragonball Z. I was thinking Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter.

I know absolutely nothing about Dragonball Z. I had to look up "kamehameha".

:smallbiggrin:

DBZ is basically concurrent with Street Fighter age wise, but it never got as popular in the States unless you were into anime.

[Psyren]

Searing Sunburst: This is fine.

It's really not. It targets the worst save to target in the game, does a quarter of the damage of a fireball 6 levels after fireball first comes online (and you can spend a bunch of ki to get it equal to a base fireball), and a successful save negates the damage entirely instead of reducing it. I'd at least buff the damage.

[HPisBS]

It's really not. It targets the worst save to target in the game, does a quarter of the damage of a fireball 6 levels after fireball first comes online (and you can spend a bunch of ki to get it equal to a base fireball), and a successful save negates the damage entirely instead of reducing it. I'd at least buff the damage.

Add save-for-half whenever you spend > 1 ki on it.

[Hytheter]

Spell Sniper doesn't change the attack stat, and Cha is a Monk's dump stat, so they're unlikely to pick anything but a Wis-based attack-roll cantrip anyway. But assuming for some reason they do (e.g. a +2 Cha race so put your 12 in Cha), they're the hit difference once they start raising Dex probably means they'll only use it when they need the extra range.

Even if you somehow reached +5 charisma you still wouldn't have Agonizing Blast, without which EB's flat d10s are easily outperformed by RSB's dX+dex.

[Frogreaver]

DBZ is basically concurrent with Street Fighter age wise, but it never got as popular in the States unless you were into anime.

I always thought it was because alot of kids at that time didn't have cartoon network.

[Segev]

Even if you somehow reached +5 charisma you still wouldn't have Agonizing Blast, without which EB's flat d10s are easily outperformed by RSB's dX+dex.

Yes and no. You're paying 1 ki and your bonus action for two of the radiant sun bolts. If you spend the same 1 action and no expendable resources on an eldritch blast and on RSB, you get 3d10 force vs. 2d8+10 radiant, assuming 20 dexterity by level 11. 16.5 force vs 19 radiant on average, so I take that back: even with ju your two freebies, you're outdoing what you could do with EB.

Of course, a warlock using BE and AB together is getting 3d10+15, for 31.5 average, for one action. With better range.

[Hytheter]

Yes and no. You're paying 1 ki and your bonus action for two of the radiant sun bolts. If you spend the same 1 action and no expendable resources on an eldritch blast and on RSB, you get 3d10 force vs. 2d8+10 radiant, assuming 20 dexterity by level 11. 16.5 force vs 19 radiant on average, so I take that back: even with ju your two freebies, you're outdoing what you could do with EB.

Of course, a warlock using BE and AB together is getting 3d10+15, for 31.5 average, for one action. With better range.

Yep, I forgot to say but I was assuming Ki-less. And indeed, a plain old warlock does the blasty thing much better - if that's all you want out of Sun Soul then you're barking up the wrong tree.

[Tanarii]

Yes and no. You're paying 1 ki and your bonus action for two of the radiant sun bolts. If you spend the same 1 action and no expendable resources on an eldritch blast and on RSB, you get 3d10 force vs. 2d8+10 radiant, assuming 20 dexterity by level 11. 16.5 force vs 19 radiant on average, so I take that back: even with ju your two freebies, you're outdoing what you could do with EB.
No multiply that by a .4 hit rate with optimized Cha 8 and .65 with optimized Dex 20, and you get 6.6 force vs 12.35 radiant. So you're doing about double what you'd get with EB.

[Jerrykhor]

It's really not. It targets the worst save to target in the game, does a quarter of the damage of a fireball 6 levels after fireball first comes online (and you can spend a bunch of ki to get it equal to a base fireball), and a successful save negates the damage entirely instead of reducing it. I'd at least buff the damage.

Also, it doesn't go around cover. The only thing its better than Fireball is the damage type.

[Gale]

The subclass seems pretty terrible overall.

Radiant Sun Bolt isn't great. It's incompatible with Stunning Strike which makes it a very undesirable option in combat. Even if you did want to use it, the damage output is rather pitiful unless you spend a ki point and your bonus action to fire off more. But still, you likely won't be outdoing any other class when it comes to damage. A Cleric who simply uses Toll the Dead and Spiritual Weapon will match you here, and that's without them concentration on a spell.

Searing Arc Strike is literally just Burning Hands, except at 6th level. Burning Hands is mediocre spell, and I would wager it would be difficult to hit more than a couple enemies with it at once. It's kind of neat that you can cast it a bonus action but it costs 2 ki points to do it. It's hard to imagine it would ever be worth the ki points when you could be using them on Stunning Strike or Flurry of Blows.

Searing Sunburst is ostensibly Fireball, except it does Radiant damage. That's almost awesome, but unlike Fireball enemies take no damage if they succeed on the saving throw, which is decisively not awesome. Additionally, it targets Constitution instead of Dexterity, which is generally the strongest save monsters have. Spending 3 ki points to throw out a Fireball might have been cool, even if you are getting it 6 levels later than a Wizard does. But they had to go and make it so bad that it's almost never worth using.

Sun Shield is genuinely one of the weakest things you could be doing with you reaction, especially at 17th level. It's only marginally better than Hellish Rebuke, a 1st level spell. I really don't think I need to go into detail about why this is bad.

Personally, I think Sun Soul is a contender for the worst subclass in the game. I would find myself struggling to find any situations where I wanted to use any of the class features. I will say that Radiant Sun Bolt is decent at lower levels when you don't have Stunning Strike, as it can bypass resistance to nonmagical BPS, and it's helpful against zombies. But otherwise I genuinely think you would be better off with any other subclass.

[Segev]

For Radiant Sun Bolt alone, how much would it fix the problems with it to rewrite it to say, "When you make an unarmed strike, you may choose to change its damage type to radiant. If you do, it gains the Thrown (30 ft./60 ft.) tag?"

This would keep its existing utility, as you can now use it in place of any normal attack, as well as spend 1 ki for Flurry of Blows. It would increase its range by adding a 60 ft. long range (disadvantage to hit, but comparable to a lot of thrown weapons). It also now can be used with Martial Arts's bonus action attack and with Ki-Fueled Attack's bonus action attack. It also is compatible with Stunning Strike...kind-of. Would it make sense to reword it as a melee attack made at range, to let stunning strike work with it? That would also make some multiclass features (e.g. barbarian rage damage) apply to it.

Could make it 30 ft. reach instead of thrown (30/60), though that would again reduce the range to only 30 feet. Not sure it wouldn't have other negative effects, too, like how it would complicate OAs. You wouldn't be able to OA somebody walking away from you, but could OA somebody who went from within 30 feet to outside of it, which is a bit weird.

Is this a worthwhile enough improvement that refining it further is worth the effort?

[HPisBS]

For Radiant Sun Bolt alone, how much would it fix the problems with it to rewrite it to say, "When you make an unarmed strike, you may choose to change its damage type to radiant. If you do, it gains the Thrown (30 ft./60 ft.) tag?"

This would keep its existing utility, as you can now use it in place of any normal attack, as well as spend 1 ki for Flurry of Blows. It would increase its range by adding a 60 ft. long range (disadvantage to hit, but comparable to a lot of thrown weapons). It also now can be used with Martial Arts's bonus action attack and with Ki-Fueled Attack's bonus action attack. It also is compatible with Stunning Strike...kind-of. Would it make sense to reword it as a melee attack made at range, to let stunning strike work with it? That would also make some multiclass features (e.g. barbarian rage damage) apply to it.

Could make it 30 ft. reach instead of thrown (30/60), though that would again reduce the range to only 30 feet. Not sure it wouldn't have other negative effects, too, like how it would complicate OAs. You wouldn't be able to OA somebody walking away from you, but could OA somebody who went from within 30 feet to outside of it, which is a bit weird.

Is this a worthwhile enough improvement that refining it further is worth the effort?

"When you make an unarmed strike, you may choose to change its damage type to radiant. If you do, it gains the Thrown (30 ft./60 ft.) tag property" is a pretty solid change.

I've always liked adding a Blinding Strike option to Sun Bolts at lvl 6 (ever since clash 1st proposed it a couple of years ago) (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24565404&postcount=3) as a sort of pseudo Stunning Strike. That'd be a bit weaker than an actual stun, but it'd still get you most of the benefits while feeling way more thematic.

[Kane0]

I've always liked adding a Blinding Strike option to Sun Bolts at lvl 6 (ever since clash 1st proposed it a couple of years ago) (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24565404&postcount=3) as a sort of pseudo Stunning Strike. That'd be a bit weaker than an actual stun, but it'd still get you most of the benefits while feeling way more thematic.

Better balancing too, given youre doing it at range.