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    Post Way of the Bounding Wind: Crane Monk

    This page on the Homebrewery

    Based on the crane monk, particularly the crane stance from pathfinder 2e, but also the general stereotypes of how the form is typically shown (especially high mobility, many thrown weapons, and wailing around for defense).

    I definitely feel the subclass as written is underpowered, but at least it does offer some range options without needing the Mobile feat and some defensive utility.

    Fluff
    Monks of the Way of the Bounding Wind are known for sailing through the air, bouncing off targets, and spinning with blinding speed for both offense and defense. Creatures with innate flying ability commonly learn the basic techniques to make better use of their innate abilities, but the greatest masters of the form are those who trained to be able to enter the air in the first place. Whatever their reason for learning the way of the bounding wind, adherents are famed for the difficulty of pinning them down in combat.


    Swift Charge
    At 3rd level, your movements are strong and swift. When you take the attack action, you can expend 1 ki point to gain the benefits of the Step of the Wind feature (no action required).

    Additionally, as an action, you can spend 1 ki point to cast the Jump or Longstrider spells.

    Flurry of Darts
    Starting at 3rd level, the wind and motion don't impede your attacks. Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on attacks made using thrown weapons, and when you use your Flurry of Blows feature, you can attack using a thrown monk weapon instead of making an unarmed strike.

    Windblown Force
    By 6th level, the wind follows you, at your beck and call. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can push the creature up to 5 feet and are pushed 5 feet from the creature. If you expend 1 ki point when you use this feature, both you and the target are pushed 15 feet.

    Blocking Wings
    Starting at 11th level, you can ward off physical strikes as easily as arrows. You can use your reaction to deflect the blow when you are hit by a melee weapon attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + your monk level.

    If you reduce the damage to 0, you can expend 1 ki point to make an unarmed strike against the attacking creature as a part of the reaction.

    Windblown Defenses
    When you reach 11th level, you can respond to your surroundings with terrible speed. You can take a reaction twice per round, and regain both reactions at the start of your turn.

    Freed From the Earth
    By 17th level, your speed and lightness allows you to step directly into the air, severing your bonds to the earth below for a short while. As an action, you can expend 2 ki points to gain a fly speed equal to your movement speed for 10 minutes. During your turn you can expend 1 ki point to gain a flight speed equal to your movement speed until the end of your turn (no action required). At the end of your turn, you fall.
    Last edited by sandmote; 2021-11-26 at 01:44 PM.

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    Default Re: Way of the Bounding Wind: Crane Monk

    Quote Originally Posted by sandmote View Post
    Windblown Force
    By 6th level, the wind follows you, at your beck and call. When you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can push the creature up to 5 feet and are pushed 5 feet from the creature. If you expend 1 ki point when you use this feature, both you and the target are pushed 15 feet.
    Interesting way of disengaging.

    Blocking Wings
    Starting at 11th level, you can ward off physical strikes as easily as arrows. You can use your reaction to deflect the blow when you are hit by a melee weapon attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + your monk level.

    If you reduce the damage to 0, you can expend 1 ki point to make an unarmed strike against the attacking creature as a part of the reaction.
    Is that as good as it sounds in 5e? Regardless of the answer, I like that.

    Freed From the Earth
    By 17th level, your speed and lightness allows you to step directly into the air. During your turn you can expend 1 ki point to gain a flight speed equal to your movement speed until the end of your turn (no action required). At the end of your turn, you fall.
    I don't know. I know 5e's been, khm, streamlined quite significantly, but that's the equivalent of a very low level spell or a cheap feat in 3.5. (Feel free not to mind me, though. As should be obvious, I'm not exactly an expert on things 5e.)

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    Default Re: Way of the Bounding Wind: Crane Monk

    Quote Originally Posted by Metastachydium View Post
    Is that as good as it sounds in 5e? Regardless of the answer, I like that.
    There a 3rd level monk class feature called Deflect Missiles that works mostly the same way. The main difference is in the attack added to the reaction: Deflect Missiles lets you attack anyone in a close range while Blocking Wings only allows you to hit the same creature that attacked you. I do think that Blocking Wings is stronger though, just because nearly all creatures can make melee attacks and relatively few carry ranged weapons.


    Quote Originally Posted by Metastachydium View Post
    I don't know. I know 5e's been, khm, streamlined quite significantly, but that's the equivalent of a very low level spell or a cheap feat in 3.5. (Feel free not to mind me, though. As should be obvious, I'm not exactly an expert on things 5e.)
    Yeah, okay, that's weaker than I intended. It's even weaker for a monk, since they can already run up vertical surfaces and along liquids by this level. I feel like have a "acrobatic/crane form monk" that never gets flight would be really weird, but the basic monk chassis kind of interferes with making it useful.

    Would 10 minutes of flight for ~2 ki points work better?

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    Default Re: Way of the Bounding Wind: Crane Monk

    Quote Originally Posted by sandmote View Post
    There a 3rd level monk class feature called Deflect Missiles that works mostly the same way. The main difference is in the attack added to the reaction: Deflect Missiles lets you attack anyone in a close range while Blocking Wings only allows you to hit the same creature that attacked you. I do think that Blocking Wings is stronger though, just because nearly all creatures can make melee attacks and relatively few carry ranged weapons.
    3.5e monks gat Deflect Arrow for free as well. Also, yes, that's a pretty handy ability.

    Yeah, okay, that's weaker than I intended. It's even weaker for a monk, since they can already run up vertical surfaces and along liquids by this level. I feel like have a "acrobatic/crane form monk" that never gets flight would be really weird, but the basic monk chassis kind of interferes with making it useful.

    Would 10 minutes of flight for ~2 ki points work better?
    Definitely, so far as I can tell. I don't know if it is 17th level good, but it's decent utility and should last just fine through any sane-sized encounter a couple of times.

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    Default Re: Way of the Bounding Wind: Crane Monk

    Okay, I've updated the 17th level feature.

    Quote Originally Posted by Metastachydium View Post
    3.5e monks gat Deflect Arrow for free as well. Also, yes, that's a pretty handy ability.
    I always forget because its listed under the "Bonus Feat,"
    section.

    For the sake of clarity, the 5e version provides damage reduction instead of automatically taking no damage, and if you reduce the damage to 0 you can also gain the benefits of the 3.5e Snatch Arrows feat. So the 11th level feature here is taken directly from that.

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    Default Re: Way of the Bounding Wind: Crane Monk

    Looks pretty good, though level 17 is pretty late to get flight considering step of the wind at level 2 and movement on most surfaces at level 9 let alone needing a whole action to do it (the ki cost is negligible at that level).

    Perhaps just allow it to give permanent, passive flight as long as you land touch ground again at the end of your turn? That would work nicely with swift charge and is basically the same as the eagle totem barbarian.
    Last edited by Kane0; 2021-11-28 at 02:35 AM.

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