Dungeons & Dragons 5.1E — Monk

[thoroughlyS]

Monk DPR falls off in T3/4. As they reach "I can flurry every round", their DPR stops growing with more Ki.

I meant to elaborate on this, but guess I forgot. My goal with this rework is to redefine the monk's main action routine on each turn. Ideally, the monk's turn is move, Attack action (attempt stunning strikes after 5th level), bonus action martial arts attack, move out. I don't want them relying on Flurry of Blows for reasonable damage. But I want to do this in a way that isn't just more attacks like the fighter. That's why I let them retry an attack at 14th, and why I give them basically permanent advantage with a bonus action minute long invisibility. taking their improved chance to hit into account, I want them to deal respectable damage. After looking at the numbers again, I can agree that they still underperform.

Stunning Strike:
You wording doesn't match the spoiler comments. Did you intend this be once per round? Your wording doesn't do that.

It makes it once per attack during your attack action, I think. Except bonus actions are a kind of action, so arguably it just blocks it from reactions? Or maybe not. It is unclear.


Also, note that Gloom 3/Fighter 2/Monk 6 becomes a better stunner than the Monk 11; it can alpha-strike 6 stuns on round 1.

The intention is that a monk can only attempt to stun when they make an attack as part of their main action, not with a bonus action or reaction. The phrase "your action" precludes bonus actions. Also, even in the printed game, a Gloom Stalker 3/Fighter 2/ Monk 5+ can make more stun attempts than a Monk 10+ (5 vs 4). The only difference is neither can make stun attempts with a bonus action using my rules.

Perfect Self
This becomes a bit non-linear in effect, sort of like damage reduction. Subclasses that spend 1 ki repeatedly get huge boosts to endurance, a similar subclass that spends it in bigger chunks gets less of a boost.

If this was in the base class, subclasses and the like would factor it in. But you'd have to audit every subclass.

I am intending to do that, but I also feel that the main benefit of this is free stuns and movement each turn. Another poster in my other thread said they felt like this was too much, and it seems like you agree. I like your idea for a free "temporary ki point" each turn...

Ki Sense
"until the end of your turn." sad face; between turns you have no ability to see them.

It is a "ping". Are you daredevil or something?

I wasn't sure how strong I wanted this to be, do you think it could be more like Empty Body (a minute duration)? Also Daredevil's power is always active and more like blindsight. This is more like the Byakugan from Naruto, I guess?

1) Make stunning strike 1/action or bonus action. This removes boost from 3rd attack in an action, and makes the monk attack (2 tries to land) and bonus (2 tries to land) interesting.

Also maybe make it trigger "for free" on a natural 20 (not a crit, as that makes expanded crit range a bit too synergystic) not counting towards that. A little bit of serindipity is fun.

I don't like that because my version of the monk has the potential to be very bonus action heavy, and I want to let the monk get their use out of the Attack action. Finding extra attacks was already an avenue monks could go for, so I don't feel bad about it still existing.

2) Some kind of targetted DPR boost at 11 and 17. My variant gave the monk a free Ki to spend on anything except healing on every one of their turns.

In theory subclass features fill in that gap, but classes without subclasses at 11/17 tend to get huge raw power boosts, and subclass features tend not to measure up.

I don't think answer should be "more ki" in the middle levels. The changes I introduce are done to make it more likely that a monk can reach a target and land a hit. This boosts DPR indirectly in a way that fits the theme of the monk. I am open to other suggestions for features though, especially because I'd like to replace the ASI at 10th.

3) To fix Step of the Wind, I waited until 11, where I let the monk take 2 different bonus action Ki abilities.

But Step of the Wind is horrible when you get it. Why wait so long to fix it?

4) One change I did was to make Str be a somewhat useful 3rd tier attribute by letting you add it to damage when you are unarmored (via MA). Your AC is Dex+Wis, and your damage is Dex+Str.

The main goal was to make the 8 strength monk less of a thing; modest investment in strength makes you hit harder. Dex is still stricktly better, as it adds to attacks, damage and AC.

I don't really like that. The monk already cares about two stats why give them a feature that only works if they bump a third?

5) My version of Perfect Self was 2 free Ki on your turn (to spend on anything, including healing now, upgrading the level 11 feature)

As I mentioned above, I like this a lot.

6) At 17, I added the ability to burn Ki to reroll attacks you make or attacks against you. Limited only by spending Ki. It fits the approaching perfection thing.

That is your level 14 feature here, but on steriods. Also, the ability to reroll to fish for 20s to stun is amusing if expensive. The free Ki from the level 11 feature, together with your large Ki pool, makes something that burns Ki like crazy fun to use.

Ok, so it seems like you agree with boosting accuracy, but you want them to be able to do it more than once a turn? I could see that...