The Way of Shifting Vectors

[Revanmal]

Hello-hello.

I'm posting a new Monk subclass I'm working on here in hopes for feedback. Its focus is battlefield control and high mobility, with a secondary force damage focus.

Way of Shifting Vectors

The Way of Shifting Vectors is a path which manipulates gravitic forces to move the practitioner and their enemies across the battlefield. Any surface forms a springboard for their acrobatic exploits, and every strike is imbued with a powerful secondary blow that forces enemies into unfavorable positions.

Save DC = 8 + Wisdom Modifier + Proficiency Bonus

Vector Glyph (3rd) – Place a directional glyph on a flat surface you can see within 20 feet as an Action. Anyone who enters the space of this Glyph is propelled 15 feet in the direction the glyph points, including upwards and downwards on vertical surfaces. A glyph cannot be placed such that it would force a creature into the surface it is placed upon. A creature can make a Dexterity saving throw to step off the affected space when it is placed or avoid activating the glyph when moving over it. The Vector Glyph’s propelled movement provokes Opportunity Attacks as normal. If struck by an Opportunity Attack, movement is canceled. The glyph lasts up to one minute, and using this ability again will cause previously placed Vector Glyphs to vanish. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier. If you move through an enemy creature’s space, you are instead stopped adjacent to them, and any enemy moved by this ability is stopped adjacent to another creature if they would be forced into that creature’s space. At 6th level, you can place two Vector Glyphs as part of the same Action, but the second Glyph must be within your initial range or within 15 feet of another glyph. The number of Glyphs possible increases by 1 at 11th and 17th level.

Strike Glyph (3rd) – Spend 1 ki point at the beginning of your turn to imbue your attacks with magical force until the beginning of your next turn. Every successful melee attack you make against a creature places a weaker Vector Glyph called a Strike Glyph on their body. These last up to one minute, and you can have a maximum number of Strike Glyphs active equal to twice your prof. bonus. Using a bonus action or reaction, you can activate one or more Strike Glyphs of your choosing, moving the affected creature five feet in a direction of your choice and inflicting 1d4 force damage for every Strike Glyph activated. A successful Str save will negate all movement from the glyphs for that round, but damage is not reduced.

Flying Strike (6th) – You have grown adept at attacking on the fly and absorbing impacts when using your abilities. If you enter an enemy’s space while moving using your Way of the Shifting Vectors abilities, you may make an attack against them. If the attack is successful, you deal damage as normal and may choose to attempt to Push them away with a Wisdom check vs their Strength save. If your attack is unsuccessful, the movement continues without interruption.

Gravitic Pulse (11th) - As an action, you target one creature within 30 feet. That creature lets out a pulse of gravitic power, pulling all other creatures in a 15 ft radius toward itself until they are adjacent to the target or as close as possible. All creatures within the radius take 10d6 force damage. A Strength saving throw will halve the force damage and negate the movement. This ability recharges on a short or long rest.

Vector Circle (17th) – As an action, you place a ring of magic that inhibits movement out of it. This circle has a radius of fifteen feet, and you must be within the circle when it is placed. Any creature that reaches the edge of the circle is immediately forced directly toward the center of the circle fifteen feet unless they succeed on a Str save. This movement will trigger Opportunity Attacks as normal movement does. The magical effect of this ring is a cylinder that extends 20 feet into the air. It is possible to fly or jump over the ring’s effect, or force your way out with a Strength check. The Vector Circle lasts a number of rounds equal to your Prof. bonus. You can dispel this circle as a bonus action. This ability recharges on a long rest.

[Loek]

First off, this very much reminds me of the warframe "Vauban" with his minelayer "vector pads" and later on "Bastille" ability.

Vector Glyph (3rd)
An interesting ability. Can be used to control enemies, boost friends or just be a complete troll. Also can be used to boost people up, substituting for a jump style ability.
The main issue with this one is it's legibility. I had to reread the ability several times to get a good grasp of what it did and did not do.
A small secondary issue is the "what if two glyphs point into each other, creating an infinite loop?"

My suggestion: Break this up into several paragraphs. One about the base functionality (distance, what it does, DC to avoid and the fact it can't be used to crush people), one about the "what if you run into something/past something" bits and the final one about amount of times it can be used and the growth over the levels.
Beyond this, I think I'd be tempted to go with a lower amount of uses, but have them refresh on a short rest, to give this a more utilitarian feel that doesn't need to be hoarded.


Strike Glyph (3rd)
A fun ability, that's very much limited by it only lasting for a single turn (the initial thing anyhow).
I do worry about the amount of information to keep track of though. Which one has how many of them and how old are they?


Flying Strike (6th)
This might be a case of wording, but does this only work when YOU are the one flying around? (If so, there's only one ability that does that, isn't there? So why speak of multiple abilities?)
Or does it also function when THEY come flying into your space?
Also, the movement as normal (on a missed strike) is to stop, as per the Glyph ability. So it feels like there's a disconnect between the current version of this class and this abilities description.


Gravitic Pulse (11th)
This one looks cool, but maybe a little powerful. I think it'd be best if you swap this with Vector circle, making this the cap stone of the sub class.
That said, the low range to cast makes it interesting, but yeah.

[Revanmal]

First off, this very much reminds me of the warframe "Vauban" with his minelayer "vector pads" and later on "Bastille" ability.

Never played Warframe, but that does have a similar feel upon looking him up.


Vector Glyph (3rd)
An interesting ability. Can be used to control enemies, boost friends or just be a complete troll. Also can be used to boost people up, substituting for a jump style ability.
The main issue with this one is it's legibility. I had to reread the ability several times to get a good grasp of what it did and did not do.
A small secondary issue is the "what if two glyphs point into each other, creating an infinite loop?"

It definitely could use some cleanup. To fix the possible infinite loop, the best course of action seems to be to simply rule that a creature can only be effected by a given Glyph once per round.


My suggestion: Break this up into several paragraphs. One about the base functionality (distance, what it does, DC to avoid and the fact it can't be used to crush people), one about the "what if you run into something/past something" bits and the final one about amount of times it can be used and the growth over the levels.
Beyond this, I think I'd be tempted to go with a lower amount of uses, but have them refresh on a short rest, to give this a more utilitarian feel that doesn't need to be hoarded.

Cleanup will definitely occur. I'll take your suggestions in separating out its parts to make them more legible.


Strike Glyph (3rd)
A fun ability, that's very much limited by it only lasting for a single turn (the initial thing anyhow).
I do worry about the amount of information to keep track of though. Which one has how many of them and how old are they?

It could indeed be a lot to keep track of. I mostly play digitally, so implementing a little counter on an enemy token wouldn't be hard, but on tabletop it could get confusing. IRL, I'd use a little abacus to keep track, but I hardly expect anyone to have one. Definitely food for thought.


Flying Strike (6th)
This might be a case of wording, but does this only work when YOU are the one flying around? (If so, there's only one ability that does that, isn't there? So why speak of multiple abilities?)
Or does it also function when THEY come flying into your space?
Also, the movement as normal (on a missed strike) is to stop, as per the Glyph ability. So it feels like there's a disconnect between the current version of this class and this abilities description.

This does only work when YOU fly around. How this was originally written, it was possible to loop way too many strikes with the Vector Ring by getting the enemy between you and the Ring, knocking the enemy into you over and over with that and the Strike Glyphs. It could probably use some cleanup on the language. The movement from Vector Glyph is you stop if you are dealt damage. If you miss with this, you just keep going or stop depending on if the enemy was close to the Vector Glyph.


Gravitic Pulse (11th)
This one looks cool, but maybe a little powerful. I think it'd be best if you swap this with Vector circle, making this the cap stone of the sub class.
That said, the low range to cast makes it interesting, but yeah.

I was going back and forth on which of the two, Pulse or Circle, would be the capstone. If this is the capstone at 17th level, I'd probably boost it even further in power, though. At that level, you're dealing with way more damaging effects.

Thanks so much for the feedback.

[Loek]

This does only work when YOU fly around. How this was originally written, it was possible to loop way too many strikes with the Vector Ring by getting the enemy between you and the Ring, knocking the enemy into you over and over with that and the Strike Glyphs. It could probably use some cleanup on the language. The movement from Vector Glyph is you stop if you are dealt damage. If you miss with this, you just keep going or stop depending on if the enemy was close to the Vector Glyph.

The sentence that made me say that you stop before an enemy space was "if you move through an enemy creature’s space, you are instead stopped adjacent to them"

So that, combined with similar wording for enemies going into other creatures spaces, make it seem like you stop in 2 circumstances:

When the moved creature gets hit with an attack of opportunity
When the moved creature would move into the space of an enemy

[Revanmal]

The sentence that made me say that you stop before an enemy space was "if you move through an enemy creature’s space, you are instead stopped adjacent to them"

So that, combined with similar wording for enemies going into other creatures spaces, make it seem like you stop in 2 circumstances:

When the moved creature gets hit with an attack of opportunity
When the moved creature would move into the space of an enemy


I see, I missed that. The intention was would be if you would end your movement in another creature's space, you would stop. You could, however, use the glyph to move past them.