Brainstorming more Way of the Four Elements techniques

[Segev]

In another thread, somebody mentioned how they wished the Way of the Four Elements worked more directly with base monk features, and had the cool idea of Step of the Wind having an associated technique that let you cast shatter when you land, around your location, with you immune to the effects.

Way of the Four Elements is, along with the Battle Master, one of the few subclasses with an expandable subsystem of its own. Like spells, you can just keep adding options to pick up to improve on it, rather than having to scrap it and make a new subclass that does what you wished it did.

This is just brainstorming more ideas along the lines of working with monk features (and a few other random ones that came to me). No balance is promised at this stage, just ideas to give rough form. Balance commentary is welcome, as is others' brainstorming.


Element Bender. You learn the control flames, gust, mold earth, and shape water cantrips. You may cast them using only somatic components.

Earthen Stoicism. Some monks have rock and dust rise from the groud to hover around them as a barrier. Others become coated in a skin-tight layer of rock. However it manifests for you, as long as you are wearing no armor and not carrying a shield, you gain +2 to AC and Constitution saves when you use Patient Defense.

Flowing Redirection. Tapping the currents of ki within, you channel others' aggression to more effective uses. For you. When you use Patient Defense, and somebody suffers Disadvantage on an attack roll against you, if they miss, you may redirect their attack to another valid target within range or reach, using the HIGHER of the two dice they rolled as the attack roll.

Step of Thunder. Your legs have grown powerful enough to kick off of the very air itself. When you use Step of the Wind, you may, once during your movement, jump with no support other than the air beneath your feet. When you do so, you kick the air so hard that it thunders in a crack that can be heard for 100 feet.

Breakfall. When you use your Slow Fall ability to reduce the damage from a landing, you may choose, instead of landing softly, to land as hard as normal but force the earth to redirect the impact. Spend one point of ki when using your reaction to Slow Fall. You land hard, but reduce the damage the same way. Choose a creature or object within ten feet; the earth ripples and cracks and sends the jolt of your landing through them. They must make a Constitution save or suffer the amount of damage your slow fall negated, taking half if they succeed.

Ki Burn. When you use Stunning Strike, you not only interfere with the flow of ki in the target's body, you cause it to burn. The target takes an additional 1d6 fire damage from the attack, whether they succeed or fail at the Constitution save.

[Dienekes]

Stunning Fist is an easy one to add things onto.

Set things on fire when you punch them. Encase them in stone. Hit them with a wave so they get pushed back and trip. That sort of stuff.

[Segev]

Stunning Fist is an easy one to add things onto.

Set things on fire when you punch them. Encase them in stone. Hit them with a wave so they get pushed back and trip. That sort of stuff.

Agreed. Ki Burn is exactly more fire damage on a stunning strike (whether they make the save or not).

Not sure about petrification; I considered it, but that almost is kinder than stunning unless the duration's longer. And if the duration's longer, that's a HUGE increase in power. Hard to strike the balance, here. Need to be careful with pushing around, too, so it's not just "Open Hand, but better." But those are good ideas in terms of flavor! Thanks!

[DracoDei]

I have something that has been sitting on my "to get more complete and then post" list for several months.

To know if this is an appropriate thread for it I could use a link to the conversation that inspired this, and/or a detailed explanation of why working more closely with basic class features is especially desirable.

[Segev]

Th is is the post that started me thinking on this:

It was changed rather fast for something that isn't all that broken.

The biggest disappointment of 4E Monk is that they didn't tie unique spell like abilities to using all the unique features of the monk.

Step of the Wind, Patient Defense, Flurry of Blows, Slow Fall, Deflect Missiles, and Stunning Strike should all have spell options around them.

Something like... "When you use Step of the Wind, you may cast Shatter as a first level spell. The spell's target spot is where you are located when you take the Bonus Action to activate Step of the Wind. You are immune to the effects of this spell.

[AdAstra]

-An elemental barrier. Basically a lesser wall of stone, fire, water/ice, or wind that provides some cover and battlefield control. Possibly allowing the casting of the full versions later.

-An elemental dash. Some instant opportunity attack-free movement that deals damage to creatures you pass through, probably as a bonus action.

-A basic elemental ranged attack a la Sun Soul

-The minor elemental cantrips

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Yo.

This is just a spitball idea of the 4 element monk. I didn't think too hard on the number of ki it really takes to balance this.

Edit: I think the 4e monk needs an entire redesign as it's way too clunky as is.

4 Element Monk


3rd
Choose one cantrip from any spell list that deals Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability score for your 4 Element Monk spells and features.

Additionally, you may choose two of the following elemental paths.

Path of Earth: You may cast Earth Tremor as a first level spell as part of your bonus action to use Patient Defense. Allies are not affected by this spell.

Path of Fire: You may cast Burning Hands as a first level spell by expending one ki when you use your bonus action attack granted by your Martial Arts feature.

Path of Water: Whenever you use your Flurry of Blows feature, water envelopes your body which extends the reach of your unarmed attacks by 5'.

Path of Wind: You may cast Shatter as a first level spell as part of your bonus action to use Step of the Wind. You target a location you start or end your movement, you are immune to this effect.




6th

Gain an additional 4 Element path.

May use an additional ki (3 total?) to cast your elemental spell as a 2nd level spell or cast one of the following spells in its place.


Path of Earth: You may cast Spike Growth as a second level spell as part of your bonus action to use Patient Defense. The target point is centered on you. You and your allies are not affected by this spell.

Path of Fire: You may cast Scorching Ray as a second level spell by expending 3 ki when you use your bonus action attack granted by your Martial Arts feature.

Path of Water: Whenever you use your Flurry of Blows feature you may also cast Ice Knife as a second level spell.

Path of Wind: You may cast Warding Wind as a second level spell as part of your bonus action to use Step of the Wind.

11th

Gain your last 4 elemental path.

May use additional ki to cast any previous spell as a 3rd level spell.

Gain resistance to an elemental damage type of your choice. May change this out during a short or long rest.

===

All 4e monks would have the same abilities, yes, but they can choose which paths to take at different times.

[KragBrightscale]

Agreed, the current 4 element monk is a little underwhelming. I want to see more cool stuff:

Element based variations for each of the standard monk abilities.

Patient defense:
-water redirects attacks
-wind can move out of the way/dodge
-fire burns those who attack
-earth could raise a shield providing cover against attacks from a certain direction

Stunning fist:
-Water could use ice to freeze
-wind could push enemy a short distance
-Fire deals more damage
-earth maybe launch enemies into the air by raising the ground under them

And more.

Might need a whole rework of the class/subclass to get it to where I’d like though...

There also needs to be more elemental spells in general...

[OnceIWasABard]

The Class Feature Variants UA had the most important change applied to the base monk:

Ki-Fueled Strike
2nd-level monk feature (enhances Ki)
If you spend 1 ki or more as part of your action on your turn, you can then immediately make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.

Beyond that, RAW 4 Elements has 16 disciplines, but you only ever learn 4 (not counting the 1 ribbon discipline you get for free), which is far too low for what the subclass is trying to emulate.
Additionally, I'd like to see some more always-active out-of-combat disciplines. Like one to double/triple your jump, slow fall not needing a reaction and making you immune to fall damage, or gaining a swim/climb speed or water breathing.