Way of the Stone Tower (armored monk subclass)

[Greywander]

After analyzing what an armored monk would look like here, I quickly typed up a monk subclass focused on being armored. Actually, I decided that, while granting armor proficiencies and allowing your monk features to work in armor, it probably wasn't a good idea to require armor for any of your other features. So I didn't. The end result is a very defensively-focused monk that also happens to be able to wear armor, but doesn't have to.

Way of the Stone Tower

As I said, I typed this up pretty quickly, so this probably isn't very balanced. Do keep in mind, though, that the tower stance directly competes with the monk's natural high speed, and also that the monk doesn't have a lot of HP. Let me know what you think of the idea.

[Old Harry MTX]

When you say that you can use Unarmored Defense while wearing an armor means that you add the effects together or you consider the highest AC between armor+shield and the feature? You should clarify it a bit.

Tower Stance resemble to me the old 3.x Dwarven Defender PC, I like it. Anyway, I would change the general feeling of the class, focusing on giving defensive bonus to the near allies, maybe spending ki points.

Also, the ability to use the shield as a weapon is flavorful, why don't move it at a lower level?

[rlc]

Yeah, unarmored defense while wearing armor doesn't make any sense, and it's something that seems to be said with a lot of these types of armored monks.
I'd probably just say that you can use your martial arts class feature while wearing armor and shields, and can also add your wisdom modifier to your ac while wearing armor. The unarmored movement part is up to you, but i figure there should be a trade off for getting 25+ ac.

[Greywander]

The Unarmored Defense thing is mostly so that it can be used with shields. As always, when you have two different AC calculations, you can only choose one, so you would either get your AC calculation from your armor or from Unarmored Defense. Shields don't use an AC calculation, and instead just add to whatever AC you already have, but Unarmored Defense has a clause that disallows it from working with a shield, hence the need to override that clause to allow it. The way the ability is worded, you could use your Unarmored Defense AC while wearing armor, but I don't know why you'd bother wearing armor in that case. There is the niche case of finding a magical armor with some special ability, like a damage resistance or something.

So, to clarify, yes, you can use Unarmored Defense while wearing armor, but it's mostly just to allow it to work with shields. Nothing in the ability lets you stack armor AC with Unarmored Defense AC, you have to choose one or the other. Another thing to note is that giving the ability to wear armor (just armor, not shields) is mostly a ribbon, as monks have roughly the same AC with just Unarmored Defense. It does open up some extra options, though, like multiclassing, or a heavy armor STR monk.

As for using the shield as a weapon, I considered putting it lower, but I felt like it would eliminate the need for any other weapon, and I wasn't sure I wanted that. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to put it at a lower level, probably as early as 3rd level.

I played with a couple of ideas for using ki. One idea was an ability that gave all attacks against you advantage, but also gave you a crazy amount of temp HP (e.g. equal to your max HP, or 3 or 4 times you monk level). I also considered more abilities that would help protect your allies, but I didn't want to step on the paladin's toes. Maybe I'll go back and reconsider that.

[rlc]

Shield as a monk weapon is a ribbon, really. You'd get the same damage from just using your unarmed strike, but it's a cool visual

[Amechra]

My gut feeling is that the armor proficiencies are a trap. Basically, I can see the thought process being "I get new armor proficiencies! That must be better than my unarmored defense, otherwise the class wouldn't grant it!" And the fact remains that slapping armor on a Monk only improves your AC in a very niche set of circumstances.

I'd honestly toss in something equivalent to the Defense fighting style, just to make wearing armor actually worth it.