Monk Subclass Homebrew: The Way of the Scornful Fist

[DaFlipp]

So, I've been pondering a unique subclass for an evil monk character I want to play in the future. I was wondering if the following monk subclass was especially over- or under-powered. My group is pretty lenient about custom stuff but I still figured it wouldn't hurt to get some outside opinions before I pin my hopes on this.

The Way of the Scornful Fist
Not all monks spend years meditating on the deeper mysteries of the inner spirit. Some choose instead to meditate on ways to humiliate their foes and grind them under their heel.

It is, perhaps, not a *common* train of meditative thought, but those who follow this path seem to be quite happy with their life choices. Almost unsettlingly so.

Scornful Strikes
At 3rd level, the monk learns how to capitalize on and enhance a foe’s pain with a few well-chosen remarks. The monk learns the cantrip vicious mockery if they do not already know it. Moreover, they can cast it as a bonus action on any one target they have already damaged with an unarmed or weapon attack that turn. Use Wisdom as the monk’s spellcasting ability for the spell save difficulty.

While They’re Down
At 6th level, the monk learns how best to strike fear into the hearts of those at their mercy. If the monk deals damage to a creature who is stunned, paralyzed, restrained, or prone, they may spend 2 ki points and force the target to roll a Wisdom saving throw. Those who fail are Frightened of the monk until the end of the monk’s next turn.

Furthermore, any time the monk damages a foe Frightened in this manner, they may also deal an additional 1d4 psychic damage.

Effortless Scorn
At 11th level, the monk becomes even more adept damaging a foe’s psyche. The monk may now cast vicious mockery as part of the same bonus action in which they utilize Flurry of Blows.

Additionally, if they damage multiple creatures in that round, they can have vicious mockery affect all the damaged creatures. Doing this requires the monk to spend 1 additional ki point, however.

Lasting Derision
At 17th level, the monk finds ways to make sure their cruelty and scorn has a lingering effect on their foes. Any creature affected by the vicious mockery cantrip has disadvantages on all attack rolls before the end of the monk’s next turn, rather than just the next attack roll.

Additionally, creatures affected by While They’re Down have a harder time recovering from its affects. The Frightened status now lasts 1 minute. The affected creature can attempt an additional Wisdom save at the end of each turn after the first in which they’ve been affected.

[kosh49]

I think this is generally pretty good, but the level 11 ability is a bit much. Cantrip damage scaling is given instead of increasing the number of targets the cantrip affects. While there are multiple ways to add one additional target, more than that feels too strong. As written the ability could let a monk hit up to 3 extra targets with vicious mockery, so I would reduce that. I would rephrase it as follows:

Effortless Scorn
At 11th level, the monk becomes even more adept damaging a foe’s psyche. The monk may now cast vicious mockery as part of the same bonus action in which they utilize Flurry of Blows. The target of vicious mockery must still be a creature they damaged with an unarmed or weapon attack that turn prior to casting vicious mockery.

Additionally, if they damage multiple creatures in any turn prior to casting vicious mockery, they can spend 1 ki point to have vicious mockery affect one additional creature they damaged with an unarmed or weapon attack that turn.

[Damon_Tor]

It seems very strong to me. By 11th level this monk can be dealing 4d8+20+8d4 damage per turn with a fairly minimal expenditure of resources against a single opponent.

The fear effect on a hit seems quite redundant with Stunning Strike, except that you have it enabling bonus damage the subclass really doesn't need. The free cantrip is enough bonus damage, and without the extra damage the fear effect is pretty pointless. IMO, scrap the level 6 feature entirely, come up with something new to replace it, maybe something more mobility/durability related, or something useful on the exploration or social axis.

By itself the free cantrip is fine, but it really is all the bonus damage the subclass should have access to.

[DaFlipp]

Apparently I forgot to keep checking this for replies after the first couple days, thanks to the folks who chimed in!

Hmm, I liked the concept of While They're Down, but I agree that it might not be the best-implemented. I just liked the idea of looping the Frightened condition in somehow, and having it only click on in situations where it felt like overkill both felt like a good limiting factor and like something that fits the "cruel for cruelty's sake" dynamic of the subclass.

I didn't think the multi-vicious mockerying would be overkill since the each enemy still gets a save, I was just looking for a way to make the subclass more capable against groups, but I'll consider other options for that too.

[DaFlipp]

Would this be more reasonable? I changed the 6th level ability to not be damage-focused (and added an appropriate purely-social ability), though I wasn't sure if it should cost 1 ki point or 2. I'm leaning towards 1 mostly because frightened is pretty much all-around a less powerful status than Stunned, which monks can easily inflict with 2 ki points.

I still had some potential multi-targeting involved with Effortless Scorn, but now it'll only let you target those who've been frightened by the new ability, which hard-locks it at targeting two enemies max until level 17 when the duration increases. And even then, it's only going to work if the frightened characters stay clustered together. It's not really intended to be a major tactical benefit so much as just a fun way to twist the knife in any stricken foes foolish enough to not flee when they had the chance.


Scornful Strikes (unchanged)
At 3rd level, the monk learns how to capitalize on and enhance a foe's pain with a few well-chosen remarks. The monk learns the cantrip vicious mockery if they do not already know it. Moreover, they can cast it as a bonus action on any target they have already damaged with an unarmed or weapon attack. Use Wisdom as the monk’s spellcasting ability for the spell save difficulty.

You'll Regret That
At 6th level, the monk learns how best to strike fear into the hearts of those who dare oppose them. Any time a foe within 30 feet targets the monk with an attack or spell, the monk may spend 1 ki point and use their reaction to force that foe to make a Wisdom save. On a failure, that foe is frightened of the monk until the end of its next turn.

Enhanced Coersion
At 6th level, the monk also learns how to infuse their words and body language with ki, enabling them to coerce and bully others into obeying their will. Any time the monk makes a Charisma (Intimidation) roll, they can spend 1 ki point to gain advantage on the roll.

Effortless Scorn
At 11th level, the monk becomes even more adept at damaging a foe’s psyche. The monk may now cast vicious mockery as part of the same bonus action in which they utilize Flurry of Blows.

Additionally, any time the monk casts vicious mockery on a target within 15 feet of a creature currently affected by the frightened status of You’ll Regret That, they can choose to target the frightened creature as well. Doing this costs 1 ki point.

Lasting Derision
At 17th level, the monk finds ways to make sure their cruelty and scorn has a lingering effect on their foes. Any creature affected by the vicious mockery cantrip has disadvantages on all attack rolls before the end of the monk’s next turn, rather than just the next attack roll.

Additionally, creatures affected by You’ll Regret That have a harder time recovering from its effects. The frightened status now lasts 1 minute. The affected creature can attempt an additional Wisdom save at the end of each turn.

[kosh49]

This is much better, I think it is ready for use.