Elemental Benders

[Yakk]

Way of the Bender

Bender monks have learned to extend their Ki to manipulate the elements of reality. Each Bender specializes in a specific element.

Elemental Disipline
Benders are spellcasters. They use their wisdom to determine their spell DCs and spell attack rolls. Starting at 3rd level, a Bender picks an elemental discipline and learns spells based off of that choice.

A Bender can cast each of the non-cantrip spells it knows once before completing long rest. In addition, by spending Ki equal to the spells level, they can cast it an additional time before completing a short rest.

If the spell gains benefits from being cast using a higher level slot, the Bender is always considered to be using a spell slot of 1/3 of their monk level (rounded up). This does not increase the Ki cost of the spell.

When a bender uses the Attack Action, Dodge or Dash action, they can cast a Bender spell that also require an Action as a bonus action.

All Bender spells require only S components, plus access to your element (even if only a small pot of water or raindrops in the air) on yourself or near the target. Fire benders typically carry flint and steel on rings and can strike sparks as part of casting a spell. You can treat this as you would a component pouch.

Earth:

An Earth Bender learns the Move Earth and Magic Stone Cantrips. Their magic stones count as monk weapons for them. They also gain Termorsense 20' and are resistant to bludgeoning damage.

In addition they learn a number of spells:

3rd: Shield, Earth Tremor, Maximillian's Earthen Grasp
6th: Wall of Sand, Erupting Earth, Stone Skin (self only)
11th: Stone Shape, Wall of Stone, Move Earth
17th: Transmute Rock, Investiture of Stone, Bones of the Earth

Air:

An Air Bender learns the Thunderclap and Gust Cantrips, and can cast Feather Fall and Levitation (self only) without expending any spell slots or ki. For each point of Ki the Bender spends, they can fly 10'; this movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.

In addition they learn a number of spells:

3rd: Catapult, Zephyr Strike, Thunderwave
6th: Dust Devil, Gust of Wind, Kinetic Jaunt
11th: Fly, Wind Wall, Steel Wind Strike
17th: Investiture of Wind, Whirlwind, Control Winds

Fire:

A Fire Bender learns the Fire Bolt, Control Flames and Campfire cantrips.

In addition they learn a number of spells:

3rd: Absorb Elements (fire only), Burning Hands, Searing Smite
6th: Scorching Ray, Ashardalon's Stride, Flame Blade
11th: Fireball, Wall of Fire, Elemental Weapon (fire)
17th: Delayed Blast Fireball, Fire Storm, Investiture of Flame

Water:

A Water Bender learns the Ray of Frost, Frostbite and Shape Water cantrips. All Water Benders can breathe water, and have a swim speed equal to their speed.

In addition they learn a number of spells:

3rd: Armor of Agathys, Fog Cloud, Ice Knife
6th: Rime's Binding Ice, Icingdeath's Frost, Freedom of the Waves
11th: Tidal Wave, Wall of Water, Control Water
17th: Investiture of Ice, Maelstrom, Cone of Cold

Elemental Attacks:

Starting at 3rd level, a Bender can use their element bolster their unarmed attacks on their foes. Assuming they have access to their element, they can make unarmed attacks using their wisdom modifier for attack and damage, instead of dexterity. In addition, their unarmed attacks done this way have additional benefits:

Earth: The first time on your turn you hit each creature with an unarmed attack they must make a save against the Benders Spell DC or be knocked prone.

Air: The art of air stresses distracting your opponents. Creatures that the Bender has hit with an unarmed attack are at disadvantage to hit the Bender until the end of the Bender's next turn.

Water: The Benders unarmed attacks have a reach of 15', and the Bender can choose to deal slashing damage with them.

Fire: Your unarmed attacks can deal fire damage. Creatures you hit with unarmed attacks that deal fire damage are set aflame. Creatures who are aflame take your martial arts die plus your wisdom bonus damage at the end of their turns. This fire can be put out as an action by the creature or anyone adjacent to it, or by exposure to sufficient water or wind.

Elemental Affinity:

Starting at 6th level your growing affinity to your element gives you these benefits

Earth: When you are connected to the earth you are very hard to harm. So long as you are touching the ground, and the surface is made of stone, dirt or sand, you cannot be moved against your will nor can you be knocked prone, and you have advantage on all saving throws.

Air: Your control of the air lets you protect yourself and allies. When you or an ally within 30' fails a dexterity saving throw or are hit by an attack, you can expend a reaction to add your wisdom bonus to the saving throw or the AC against the attack.

Water: Life flows from water. Whenever you spend Ki, you regain HP equal to a roll of your monk damage die plus the Ki spent damage.

In addition, you can convert aggression against you into a deadly response. If you are missed by an attack, you have advantage on your next attack on the attacker. If you pass a saving throw, the creature who caused that saving throw has disadvantage on the next saving throw you impose upon them.

Fire: You can channel your aggression into deadly blows. Your unarmed attacks score critical hits on a 19 or 20, and deal an extra set of monk damage dice as fire damage. You become resistant to both fire and cold damage.

Elemental Manifestation:

By 11th level you start manifesting properties of your element at all times.

Earth: After every long or short rest, you gain temporary HP equal to twice your monk level.

Air: At the start of your turn, roll 1d20. You can use this to replace a saving throw you make or an attack roll made on you until the start of your next turn.

Water: Once, as an action, you can transfer any amount of damage, curses, magical effects or conditions to yourself from a willing or incapacitated creature you touch. Any damage you transfer is halved. If the curse, magical effect or condition was applied via a saving throw failure, you can repeat that saving throw with advantage to shrug off the effect.

Fire: You are under the effects of the spell Fire Shield(warm) without concentration. You can activate it as a bonus action, and it lasts until you deactivate it as a bonus action or become incapacitated.

Elemental Mastery:

Benders who reach 17th level are true masters of their element.

Earth: As unbreakable as a mountain, you regain your temporary from HP Elemental Manifestation at the start of each of your turns.

Air: What they cannot hit cannot be defeated. You gain a fly speed equal to your movement speed. While you are flying, all attacks on you are at disadvantage and you have advantage on dexterity saving throws.

Water: Blood is Water, and Water is Life. When you are reduced to 0 HP, you cast mass heal. You can only do this once before completing a long rest.

Fire: Your aggression can be made manifest. As a bonus action you may transform into a Fire Elemental. You keep your own attributes, except you change creature type, replace your HP with its HP, gain +20 speed, the damage resistances/immunities/senses of the elemental and all of its abilities.

In this form, your fire elemental Touch attack deals 2 sets of monk damage dice as fire damage, and uses your wisdom bonus for attack and damage.

When killed or reduced to 0 HP, you revert from this form. Leftover damage is ignored, and any conditions on the elemental you wish to end also end.

You can do this once before completing a long or short rest.

[Greywander]

Way of the Bender

I've occasionally wondered about fixing up the 4e monk, but I think starting with a fresh subclass is probably the right choice.


A Bender can cast each of the non-cantrip spells it knows once before completing long rest. In addition, by spending Ki equal to the spells level, they can cast it an additional time before completing a short rest.

If the spell gains benefits from being cast using a higher level slot, the Bender is always considered to be using a spell slot of 1/3 of their monk level (rounded up). This does not increase the Ki cost of the spell.
That's a lot of free castings. And I guess you're out of luck if you want to cast even a low level spell three times in a row?

I feel like it would make a lot more sense to just set the ki cost for spells to be the same as the spell point cost. I realize this will eat up your ki pretty fast, so you might balance it out by picking one 1st or 2nd level spell for each element as a signature spell, giving prof. bonus free castings of just that one spell per long rest.


When a bender uses the Attack Action, Dodge or Dash action, they can cast a Bender spell that also require an Action as a bonus action.
This is especially odd considering that Dashing and Dodging can already be done as a bonus action by spending ki. Why not simply allow the monk to use Flurry after casting a spell?


Bender spells
I won't comment on these yet, as going over the spell list will be its own beast. I will make two suggestions:

Figure out a mechanical theme for each element, and mostly stick to that theme. E.g. defense for earth, damage for fire, support for water, control for air. It's okay to mix it up, but make sure each element has a clear identity instead of just being a random mishmash of elemental spells.
Move the Investiture spells into their own feature, probably at 11th level. Let them be cast once or twice per long rest, no ki required. That way they don't eat up your ki.


An Earth Bender [...] also gain Termorsense 20' and are resistant to bludgeoning damage.
Split this type of stuff off into a separate feature. The spellcasting feature should be only about spellcasting. I'd also consider moving these benefits to 6th level, as you've made 3rd level pretty busy already.


Elemental Attacks:

Assuming they have access to their element, they can make unarmed attacks using their wisdom modifier for attack and damage, instead of dexterity.
Astral Self monks have to spend ki to do this. Yes, they get a few more benefits on top, but your 3rd level features are way too overloaded. There is no reason for attacks to use WIS instead of STR or DEX on this particular subclass.


Earth: The first time on your turn you hit each creature with an unarmed attack they must make a save
What kind of save? This is a pretty important detail to leave out.

Given how overloaded your are on 3rd level features, I'd make these relatively minor effect. For example:

Earth. Your weapon attacks are unstoppable, ignoring the effects of reactions triggered by the attack.
Air. Your weapon attacks don't make physical contact with your target, and thus won't trigger effects that normally occur when a creature is hit with an attack, such as the salamander's Heated Body.
Water. Whenever you miss a target with a weapon attack, the target is surround by distracting droplets of water and can't make opportunity attacks until the start of your next turn.
Fire. You can change your weapon attacks to deal fire damage instead of bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage. When you strike a flammable object that isn't being worn or carried, you can set it on fire.


Earth: When you are connected to the earth you are very hard to harm. So long as you are touching the ground, and the surface is made of stone, dirt or sand, you cannot be moved against your will nor can you be knocked prone,
I like the requirement to be touching the ground, very fitting. So far, so good. If you're moving back some of the 3rd level features to here, then you might need to trim some things so it doesn't get too cluttered, but I like this.


and you have advantage on all saving throws.
I'm sorry, what? Permanent advantage, all the time? Monks already get Diamond Soul, they don't really need much more benefit for saves. This is hilariously overpowered.


Air: Your control of the air lets you protect yourself and allies. When you or an ally within 30' fails a dexterity saving throw or are hit by an attack, you can expend a reaction to add your wisdom bonus to the saving throw or the AC against the attack.
I might make this cost ki. This is a bit too strong for something you can use at-will, especially when you can use it on your allies in addition to yourself.


Water: Life flows from water. Whenever you spend Ki, you regain HP equal to a roll of your monk damage die plus the Ki spent damage.
This greatly favors the use of many 1 ki abilities, and you have more than a couple. I'd just make it a flat 2 * ki spent HP or something.


In addition, you can convert aggression against you into a deadly response. If you are missed by an attack, you have advantage on your next attack on the attacker. If you pass a saving throw, the creature who caused that saving throw has disadvantage on the next saving throw you impose upon them.
Not sure about this. I feel like you had a bunch of ideas and decided to just include them all. There's a lot of bloat in this subclass.

Actually, I think I'm going to stop there. I think you've got a good start, but this one wasn't ready for publishing. This subclass has too many/too busy features, and a lot of them are way too strong. Trim it down, tone it down. Be aggressive and remove anything that doesn't absolutely need to be there. Cutting content is hard, but it will make your homebrew better for it. Good luck!

PS. I'd either split this into four separate subclasses, or create some features that each element would have in common. Currently you're giving a different feature at each and every level based on the bender's element, so none of the elements are getting any of the same features. There's no reason to keep them as the same subclass if they don't share any features.

[kosh49]

The balance on the spell lists is all over the place.
At 3rd level everyone gets 3 1st level spells except earth who gets 2 1st level spell and 1 2nd level spell.
At 6th level there is one with 3 2nd level spells, two with 2 2nd level spells and 1 3rd level spell, and earth gets 2 3rd level spells and 1 4th level spell.
At 11th level there are two with 2 3rd level spells and 1 4th level spell, one with 2 3rd level spells and 1 5th level spell, and earth gets 1 4th level spell, 1 5th level spell, and 1 6th level spell.
At 17th level, they are all different: 2 5th and 1 6th, 1 5th and 2 6th, 1 5th, 1 6th, and 1 7th, and 1 6th and 2 7th.

Also bear in mind that the current W4E monk is somewhere between a 1/3 caster (that would top out at 4th level spells) and a half caster (that would top out at 5th level spells). One use of an Investiture spell (6th level) per long rest is probably OK, but they really should not have access to any other spells that are higher the 5th level.

The "ribbons" that go with the spellcasting are all over the place too. Fire gets 3 cantrips, but air gets 2 cantrips, a 1st level spell they can treat as a cantrip, a 2nd level spell they can treat as a cantrip, and the ability to spend ki to fly.

[Yakk]

4E monk is a design disaster.

The monk is already a half caster with short rest power points in the form of Ki, fueling monk abilities instead of spells, power budget wise.

4E monk then basically just adds new ways to inefficiently spend those Ki on spells. It adds flexbility (and not much of that).

In comparison, EK adds 1/3 casting, and does some attempts to fix the action economy of wanting to melee and cast at later levels (inadequately) with its level 7 feature. (That features big problem is, in my opinion, it doesn't stack with level 11+ fighter extra attack well).

Blade warlocks/paladins attempt to deal with it by smite mechanics. Moon druids via their self-heal. Rangers fail at it, which is one of the reasons why Rangers are lackluster.

The bladesinger's attempt at it combines extra attack with a cantrip. Bladesingers typically either (a) ignore their attack routine, or (b) use spells to buff it to high heaven, along with a possibly independent concentration effect.

The bladesinger does not combine combat spellcasting intermixed with melee attacks, which is my goal here. EK's feature is closer, but badly written.

---

From this end, I need to add a least 1/3 casting to the monk, and I need to ensure using non-monk abilities doesn't cripple the monk. I admit I went to far, but that is the design goal.

As for the cost, 1 Ki per spell level is about right. I could use a more complex table like the spell point rules do, but by limiting each spell to being cast once per short rest this way, I have already prevented mass spamming. The difference (a few points per spell) isn't all that important. Also, because I'm paying for these extra spells out of a pre-existing 1/2 spell caster power budget, a discount is appropriate to have it grant more power instead of less.

The extra use of each spell/day might be too much?

Auto scaling lower level spells deals with the EK blaster problem. Possibly the action economy patch (bonus action casting after an attack) plus auto scaling spell effects was overkill.

1-3: L 1 auto-upcast
4-6: L 2 auto-upcast
7-9: L 3 auto-upcast
10-12: L 4 auto-upcast
13-15: L 5 auto-upcast
16-18: L 6 auto-upcast
19+: L 7

this roughly matches 2/3 spell caster progression, which is what I'm aiming for to combine (1/2 base) plus (1/3 subclass).

Spells where picked based on level bands, not strict level. As each acts like a SLA not a known spell (you get a limited number of uses of each) and packaged they do not have to be spell for spell balanced against each other. Rather, they need to be better than the previous tier of spells you gain.

Cleanup is definitely needed.

[JNAProductions]

Nerfing is needed. This is OP as hell.

Edit: On computer now. Elaboration forthcoming.

I'll compare to Mercy Monk, since that's generally considered a pretty top-tier Monk subclass.

Mercy
Three:
Insight and Medicine Proficiencies. Nice, but nothing MAJOR.
Herbalism Kit Proficiency. Mostly a ribbon.
Spend one ki to heal for MA Die+Wis Mod. Can also (without extra Ki) heal by replacing a Flurry attack.
Spend one ki, once per turn, to add MA Die+Wis Mod necrotic damage to an attack.

Six:
When healing, can also heal a variety of nasty conditions.
When harming using your necrotic damage, can Poison a creature for a turn.

Eleven:
Flurrying lets you double heal, no extra ki needed, or harm for free.

Seventeen:
Revive a dead creature for 5 ki, with 4d10+Wis Mod HP and conditions mostly healed.

Earth Bender
Three:
Move Earth and Magic Stone. Not useless, but not super notable.
Tremorsense 20' is pretty nice.
Resistance to bludgeoning damage is stellar.
Shield is incredibly useful. Tremor is okay. Earthen Grasp is pretty useful.
Wis for Unarmed Attacks.
Free Proning, if they fail a [ABILITY SCORE NOT FOUND] save.

Six:
Wall Of Sand and Stone Skin are PHENOMENAL spells.Erupting Earth is good.
Immunity to forced movement is useful, immunity to proning even better, advantage on ALL SAVES is ridiculous.

Eleven:
Wall Of Stone is awesome. Stone Shape and Move Earth are a little more situational.
22-40 THP every rest is pretty useful. Not RIDICULOUS, but very useful.

Seventeen:
All the spells are pretty damn good.
And 34-40 THP every single round... That's insane.

Even just on the numbers, you get 12 spell slots of varying levels every shot rest, by level 17. A Warlock gets four per short rest plus four of higher levels per long rest. Yes, your list is much more restricted-but you're still an entire Monk on top of this, AND the other subclass features, which range from nice to bonkers.

Edit: An Earth Bender gets, for free, and as bonus actions oftentimes:
Two First
One Second
Two Third
Two Fourth
Two Fifth
Three Sixth
In slots. Per short rest. Convert that to Spell Points, and it is:
2*2=4
1*3=3
2*5=10
2*6=12
2*7=14
3*6=18
Total=61 spell points per short rest without touching your ki reserves.

That's right in between a 9th level and 10th level caster... But those casters get 57/64 spell points per LONG rest.
In a two short rest day, you'd get 183 spell points, before dipping into your ki. That's about 40% more than a 20th level caster.

Again-spell selection won't be as versatile, I get it. But my god-you're casting more than the Wizard.

[Yakk]

The intention is you get 1 free cast per LONG rest. Did I word it wrong?

Between short rests, you have to fuel them with Ki. And Ki is a limited resource; the trade off of 1 Ki per spell level is a good trade. You do not have nearly enough Ki to cast all of your spells in T4.

[Greywander]

I just had an idea. What if you made each element a separate subclass, with options for specific specialization within an element? For example, lightning bending, sand bending, metal bending, magma bending, blood bending, etc. You might have to invent some new spells to fill these out.

The way you have it now, each element gets a completely separate list of features anyway. Focusing on only one element at a time might make designing easier as well. Anyway, just a thought.

[Yakk]

That is tempting. I was going to try to rework it to be more unified, with some common features, but I don't know if that is worth it.

Then again, I think even getting the base 4 elements in there so that they FEEL like A:TLA benders would be a success.

Like, I know that not all water benders can heal; but when working on the water bender, adding healing to it makes it feel distinct. The "self heal" and "take damage from others into yourself" wasn't directly inspired by A:TLA, but felt right.

Fire: raw aggression/offence.
Water: healing, riposte.
Air: evasion, harass, mobility.
Earth: durability, strength.

The magnitudes are still way off, I do agree.

But lets look at the slots again.

Per LONG rest, the Earth Bender gets:
Two First
One Second
Two Third
Two Fourth
Two Fifth
Three Sixth
In slots. Per LONG rest. Convert that to Spell Points, and it is:
2*2=4
1*3=3
2*5=10
2*6=12
2*7=14
3*9=27
Total=70 spell points per LONG. Additional casting requires Ki.

So you are getting about a 1/2 caster's spell points worth of spells (level 10.5 spell points), with limited selection and (without using Ki) no repeating a spell. And free upcasting.

Probably could shave it down. Sigh; I do want that wide variety of effects, and I don't want them to have to optimize and only pick the best ones. I want the less-good ones to be things benders do.

I guess I could start stealing their Ki reserves. Like:

You have to spend Ki equal to the spell level *always*. You can use each spell at most once between short rests. In addition, once per long rest, you can use a spell twice between short rests.

This runs into the 4E sin of competing with baseline class features, but really strips down the power budget.

[Greywander]

I'm on my phone, so I won't go super in depth until I get home and have access to a proper keyboard. I think a good next step would be to strip this down to just the fundamentals and then gradually add things back in as needed.

For starters, decide whether benders are half casters or third casters, and give them access to higher level spells at the appropriate levels. Ki cost = spell level seems like a good baseline; it's more forgiving than using spell point costs and means you don't have to mess around with free castings. Instead of ever bender of a particular element getting the same spells, I'd have them pick a limited number of spells known from an expanded spell list. You can also handle specializations by simply putting those spells on the list, e.g. fire benders would have some lightning spells on their list.

At 3rd level, you could also give a minor bonus to each element. A good one to consider might be allowing them to use their elemental cantrip (e.g. Mold Earth) as a bonus action.

At 6th level, give them a bonus that focuses them in their party role. So something defensive for Earth, offensive for fire, etc. Or give features critical to the element's identity, like tremorsense.

At 11th level I'd give them access to their respective Investiture spell, at a reduced ki cost, say 3 ki. Normally these spells would be out of reach of a half caster, but they're considered subpar for their slot level. This is actually the same level full casters would get access to them. As signature abilities with a reduced ki cost, they should be much more appealing to actually use.

17th level would give the subclass capstone, and should be suitably strong, but not too busy. Focus on giving a few strong bonuses instead of many weaker bonuses.

Once you've done all that, look over the result and see how it looks. If it feels weak, you might sneak in another bonus somewhere, but it might not need it.

[Yakk]

I consider monks to already be half casters.

I also consider a subclass getting 1/3 casting, utility to help use that with their baseline class, to be decent (EK).

I also consider a full caster getting access to 1/2+ fighter and utility to use that with their baseline class to be strong (bladesinger).

Simply giving them access to spells and letting them spend Ki on them is the 4 elements monk trap; adding alternative ways to spend the monk's Ki without adding power is very marginal unless the alternative ways are quite wide in selection. (Ie, divine soul sorcerer adds the entire cleric list to the sorcerers; that is a huge set of additional options, and in effect adds a bunch of power. Even if you added *every* fire spell to monks, it wouldn't even be close to that; and divine soul sorcerers have subclass features that don't suck on top of it.)

Being able to spend Ki on a fireball is an upgrade, but it isn't that much of one if the Ki you spend on Fireball would better be spent punching and stunning.

Core to my goal is a subclass that punches while creating magical elemental effects in combat, probably on the same turn.

And while I'd be ok with a larger list, I want to keep each type of Bender restricted to their element. And honestly, the above list of spells is already running out of options.

Also, I do not want the ideal strategy to be to find the best spell and repeatedly spend ki on it. I want a variety of moves to be used.

I could just strip the "spend Ki on these abilities" entirely, or restrict it to some of the lower level ones. Like, at level X, you can spend 1 Ki to use your L 3 gained spells.

Hmm. I could set a 1 Ki cost to every bender spell? But make each spell be 1/LR. That both eats into the base monk power budget (justifying more here), and at some point I can unlock lower level spells as 1/SR instead of 1/LR.

And at 1/turn, it won't prevent the monk from using Ki on punching either.

[Greywander]

I consider monks to already be half casters.
How so? From what I can see, they're pure martials. Martials with a more mystical flavor, sure, but none of the base monk features involve spellcasting in any way. It's also easy to refluff a monk as more of a swashbuckling action hero, something completely un-mystical.


Simply giving them access to spells and letting them spend Ki on them is the 4 elements monk trap; adding alternative ways to spend the monk's Ki without adding power is very marginal unless the alternative ways are quite wide in selection. (Ie, divine soul sorcerer adds the entire cleric list to the sorcerers; that is a huge set of additional options, and in effect adds a bunch of power. Even if you added *every* fire spell to monks, it wouldn't even be close to that; and divine soul sorcerers have subclass features that don't suck on top of it.)

Being able to spend Ki on a fireball is an upgrade, but it isn't that much of one if the Ki you spend on Fireball would better be spent punching and stunning.
This is actually a really good point, one I'm slightly ashamed I missed. Monks already have plenty of things to use ki on, so if we give them more it will only end up one of three ways: (a) the new ki abilities are worse than the base monk, so you never use them, (b) the new ki abilities are better than the base monk, so you only use them, or (c) you use them both at the same time and blow through your ki even faster. Under ideal conditions, subclass ki features are roughly balanced with base monk ki features, so that neither is clearly superior to the other, but that only increases versatility, not power. Now, there's value in versatility, but a subclass should be giving more than that.

All that said, every monk subclass gives something new to spend ki on. So maybe it isn't a bad idea after all to tie spellcasting to spending ki. But it is something to keep in mind, and certainly shouldn't be the only benefit that they get.


Core to my goal is a subclass that punches while creating magical elemental effects in combat, probably on the same turn.
What if, once per turn, they could replace one Attack action attack with a spell? Alternatively, you might consider ditching spells entirely and come up with your own list of special effects they can create. Some of these could occur on a hit with a weapon attack, while others might replace the weapon attack entirely.

If you want the subclass to focus more on WIS rather than DEX, one way to do this is to lean more into the spellcasting/ki abilities. You'd still use DEX to attack, but your attacks are actually secondary to your ki abilities. It's more important that the enemy fail their save against some effect than it is that you hit with your attack.


And while I'd be ok with a larger list, I want to keep each type of Bender restricted to their element. And honestly, the above list of spells is already running out of options.
Just to be clear, what I was suggesting was that each element would have its own spell list, and those lists would include spells for some of the more specialized forms of bending within that element. So only the fire bending list would include lightning spells. You'd then choose a small number of spells known from that list. If your character learned lightning bending, then you'd just take a few lightning spells to represent that, and if they didn't, then you wouldn't. But you'd still need to be a fire bender to have the option of learning lightning spells.


Also, I do not want the ideal strategy to be to find the best spell and repeatedly spend ki on it. I want a variety of moves to be used.
That's fair. Hmm...

Okay, how about a new subsystem that creates combos with your ki abilities? Let's take all your spells and split them into, say, five "forms". Using a form will either increase or decrease the ki cost of other forms on your next turn by 1, encouraging you to flow with your moves in specific patterns. As long as you follow the flow, it becomes fairly inexpensive ki-wise, but breaking form can be costly. Maybe something like the following pattern?

Form 1: Decreases the cost of forms 2, 3, and 4, increases the cost of forms 1 and 5.
Form 2: Decreases the cost of forms 3, 4, and 5, increases the cost of forms 1 and 2.
Form 3: Decreases the cost of forms 1 and 4, increases the cost of forms 2, 3, and 5.
Form 4: Decreases the cost of forms 1, 2, and 5, increases the cost of forms 3 and 4.
Form 5: Decreases the cost of forms 1 and 3, increases the cost of forms 2, 4, and 5.

Note that this allows you to flow in order from 1 to 5 and back to 1, but can branch in several places. Every form increases the cost for itself, and usually the form that led into that form, though there's a few where you can bounce between two forms.

Hmm, this system is probably too complex to be worth it. Maybe as the basis for an entirely new class, but a little too busy for a subclass.


Hmm. I could set a 1 Ki cost to every bender spell? But make each spell be 1/LR. That both eats into the base monk power budget (justifying more here), and at some point I can unlock lower level spells as 1/SR instead of 1/LR.
Ooh, what if each spell starts with a relatively low base cost, and that cost increases by 1 ki each time you cast the spell, until you finish a long rest? So your first Fireball might cost a mere 3 ki, but the second is 4 ki, the third is 5 ki, etc. This will (a) encourage you to vary which spells you use, instead of spamming the same one over and over, and (b) allow you to still use the same spell more than once a day if you really need to.