Monastic Tradition: Way of the Hunt

[Armed of Hadar]

Hey, thanks for the critique!

I think the wording sounds slightly odd for some reason, but I like this, especially as I love Eagle barbarians more than Bearbarians. I do not think the ignoring difficult terrain is out of theme with the monk either, and was a nice choice of benefit.

I'm glad, I was a little worried about that second benefit. Regarding the wording, I think it should fit now.

Since I have started coming to these forums, I have seen a lot of people do this trick where they want a somewhat minor flavor feature to grant proficiency/expertise. I honestly do not like that, mainly due to playing a ranger at a table and being entirely shoved out of the survival game -- which was a major point of my character -- due to a home-brewed fighter that got expertise in survival in a irrelevant feature for his goal (through a wording exactly like this feature). Comparing it to that experience, I think this feature is too strong since, while he only got expertise, you get expertise AND advantage. I think it would be better to drop the expertise statement entirely. The expertise is what makes this insanely powerful in my opinion, and dropping that seems wiser to me. As always, if someone already has proficiency, the player gets to choose another skill to get proficiency in (like I might choose intimidation under the idea that I can smell my enemies fear and now know how to utilize that). They can still get advantage on a survival check by spending a ki, and ki regenerates on a short rest so they do not have to be very stringent about it.

I suppose that's fair. I'm trying to find a happy medium in this utility, in which it has narrow applications but is good at performing them. I think your suggestion maintains that while making it overshadow over abilities less. Anyone wanting Expertise can always always MC Rogue and get it as well as Cunning Action.

No matter how I look at this feature, it is very powerful. But you know what, I am for the most part fine with it. It really gives a monk a good reason to actually use the dash bonus action for ki with their high speed, and just feels right for what you want to do.

I have a couple of things I do not like though. I really see this as forced movement, and it should be considered that. Therefore, in your spoiler you mentioned that it does provoke OAs. I think that is too strong. It already has a huge tactical advantage over Stunning Strike, but giving OAs makes its damage through the roof and makes it likely much stronger an effect than SS (this gives instant massive damage + re-position + burnt enemy reaction + the enemy must move its full movement to get back to where it started next turn, so essentially burnt enemy movement + it effects any size of a creature + it targets WIS instead of CON + now you have one thing for high wis targets and one thing for high con targets). I just think the movement should be considered forced movement -- meaning they cannot take OAs off that movement -- and that part of the spoiler text should be removed.

I also do not like the fact that you can combine a flushing strike and stunning strike, aka two save-or-suck effects targeting different saves, during one weapon hit (which is a subdivision of an attack action). I think you should have to use one or the other (aka, this should read more like you can use your stunning strike to instead perform a flushing strike).

I'm glad firstly that it's powerful, because IMO SS tends to outweigh 90% of ki's uses.

Regarding your concerns about OAs, I wrote this with Dissonant Whispers in mind, which moves enemies in the same way and thus triggers OAs. The way OAs work this edition, I felt like this can well create good damage, but that also requires that those who can take OAs will take them over other reactions. Monks alone have Slow Fall and Deflect Missile--Battlemasters get Riposte, Rogues have Uncanny Dodge, and there's more than a few archetypes and classes with access to Shield. I would guess that a Monk takes the OA, but at this level, I'm not sure others would be so willing even if they're able to make the attack. It seems to me like it's most useful in conjunction with the Step of the Wind, giving back the lost Martial Arts attack and moving an enemy to a more advantageous place. In the event the Monk's OA is used, too, the Monk won't have anything deterring the target from walking back. FS pressures a Monk who wants to really re-position to either work with teammates or save the reaction for later.

You make a good point about stacking FS and SS. I made that legal just on my sense that FS wouldn't be used if a Monk had the choice between a stunlock and a re-position. I think you're right, though, that this should be an alternative. I'll edit that.

This feature is also really powerful based on how flushing/stunning strike work, but sounds like a very fun and powerful capstone that fits well with the theme.

Also glad to hear, there was no precedent on this one and I was worried about balance.