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Revised Monk

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DarkAbyssKeeper

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A revised version of the monk for those who wish the monk felt more like a martial artist.

The monk's key feature is their ability to dish out multiple attacks in a round... which they are quickly out-classed at by fighters.

Stunning strike feels great when it works, but flurry of blows and stunning strike just soak up ki points with no interesting choices to be made.

This revision aims to fix that by making Flurry of Blows a core class feature and providing more options for using ki points or bonus actions. This gives the monk competitive damage and choices to make during combat. This revision has got as far as it can without playtesting, so I'm releasing it out into the wild.

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Roy T January 12, 2021 4:06 pm UTC

PURCHASER

This class revision is really well thought out, great job. Long response incoming, this revision is fantastic so I think it merits a good bit of analysis.

I think the flurry of blows change is incredible both mechanically and flavor wise, you're right it makes much more sense for monks to be dishing out a ton of lower damage attacks. I think that Kensei should be able to use monk weapons for the flurry but other than that I think that having flurry be unarmed strikes only just feels better for most monks. It's a clever balance trade off, more attacks but you lose access to things like magic weapons with special effects.

My only two balance worries are the ability to use patient defense as a bonus action with no Ki cost and the lasting effects of slowing and silencing strike.

Patient defense being an unlimited resource, especially after the flurry of blows change that completely frees up a monk's bonus action, is incredibly strong. You have no opportunity cost when deciding...See more to use patient defense every turn unless you want to attack again which costs Ki every time or if you need to cover more distance with step of the wind which is situational. You can run into melee range and continue to deal you damage and then just spam patient defense each turn and give disadvantage to enemies to hit you and get advantage on dex saves basically the entire fight without having to worry about resources.

I would consider maybe giving the monk a limited number of free uses before having to use Ki to use patient defense, maybe equal to proficiency bonus or wisdom modifier? That way choosing what to do with your bonus action becomes less of an obvious choice each turn. That may complicate things a bit but being able to get a dodge action every turn while still doing constant damage is too powerful.

Even if you required the monk to spend Ki points to use any of the level 2 Ki options just like RAW it’d still be a much stronger option now that the monk’s bonus action isn’t monopolized by a single unarmed strike. Because of the flurry of blows change you won’t be missing out on free damage anymore by using one of level 2 options which is a significant change on its own even without making patient defense and step of the wind free.

Slowing and silencing strikes are great ideas. Since they target other saves monks aren’t useless against enemies with high constitution anymore. Slow and silence are also weaker debuffs than stun which is good but I think that having the effect last until the save is succeeded is too strong. I think the fix to this would be make the effect last only 1 minute since there is no time cap on the effect as written, and to make the silence and slow effects require concentration to keep up. The concentration requirement is the big one because it gives the target a way to remove the debuff by breaking the monk’s concentration instead of just hoping to make the save.

Now that you have so many options for effects on unarmed strikes you probably should limit it to 1 stun/silence/slow attempt per turn as well. This is especially important because monk can attack several more times per turn now. Otherwise, the monk would be able to spam dump Ki to force the target to keep rolling saves up to 5 or 6 times at high level. Even with the resource cost, being able to force that many saves for such debilitating debuffs all in one round is just a lot, especially since you can get longer effects with the new slow and silence strike options AND can target other types of saves other than just constitution.

Finally I want to briefly mention stillness of mind. Due to the possibility of exploitation, I think you should remove the part where you can gain Ki and make it so that you can remove the effects as a bonus action rather than an action. Wisdom modifier of Ki points back as an action is very strong in combat and you shouldn’t be rewarded for being charmed / frightened. That plus you can have a teammate possibly target you with a staff of charming or something so you can get your resources back. You’re right that basically losing a turn to removing the effect feels awful so I think turning it into a bonus action is fair.

I think everything else works very well. Nerfing the damage reduction from deflect missiles but adding a melee counter makes much more sense flavor wise as a monk counter and is still balanced well, I love the counterattack option you added too. Adding an option like feather-fall to the slow fall feature by allowing monks to target teammates is a strong support utility option. Iron soul makes monks less squishy early on which is perfect. This revision is fantastic, I think it just needs a few tweaks and it would be a perfect change to monk.

Stephen H January 13, 2021 9:15 am UTC

CREATOR

This is a fantastic analysis and matches a few things I've experienced from playtest as well. The latest version (which this comment prompted me to finish and upload) addresses most of these issues.
- Concentration for slowing and silencing strike is a fairly reasonable restriction to prevent a possibly indefinite effect (decided against a hard duration though, between saves and concentration it seemed redundant.)
- Was still finding the action economy on stillness of mind was irksome even with a reward attached. It now requires a ki point and a reaction, allowing the monk to shrug off the effect but still costing a resource.
- Taken patient defense back to bonus action /and/ a ki point, matching complete the form. Leaving Step of the Wind as is, because the mobility is not as troublesome as being unhittable.
- Not putting any limits on number of attempts at ki strikes. Forcing the same save over and over is usually a trap at lower levels and at higher levels gives the monk something to...See more

Roy T January 14, 2021 12:33 am UTC

PURCHASER

Thank you for considering my points! I've thought about it more and I think you're right about not putting any limits on the Ki strikes. Also the stillness of mind as a reaction change is a really good idea and I think it'll feel much better in use that way.

I've played a lot of RAW monk and I love the concept but it constantly falls short mechanically so I really appreciate the work you put into this revision. This feels mechanically perfect now and I can't wait to try it out in a game, I'll be sure to update you with feedback on how it all goes when I get the chance to use it! Thanks again!

Walter D January 08, 2021 6:35 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Ki Empowered Strikes looks a bit overpowered. "You can use this ki empowerment to interfere with the flow of ki in an opponent's body, granting you the following options which you may use one of each time you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon". I understand that i would be able to slow, stun and silence a creature in one turn, or am i misunderstanding something?

Stephen H January 08, 2021 7:28 pm UTC

CREATOR

Assuming you hit with 3 strikes, spend 3 ki, and your target fails a wisdom, intelligence and constitution save. Sure.

It doesn't sound like the most efficient ki use, though.

Utkarsh G September 07, 2020 3:59 am UTC

PURCHASER

Love the revision to Flurry of Blows and expanded options for control. Some concern that number of strikes will be broken when combo'd with Hex / Hunter's Mark, but honestly it's still not as broken as some sharpshooter / Great weapon master builds. And a bit surprised that Unarmoured Defense was removed entirely. Still, other changes are elegant. And I really like Iron Soul as a precursor to Diamond Soul.

Stephen H September 07, 2020 2:49 pm UTC

CREATOR

... Unarmoured Defense was not supposed to be removed. Update incoming. XD

The number of strikes shouldn't be substantially different from the base monk until higher levels. I'll look at fixing that if I or anyone else testing it finds it over-tuned.

Utkarsh G September 07, 2020 7:24 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Yeah, I'd say leave the number of strikes as is for now. Unarmed attacks can't get the benefit of great weapon master or sharpshooter bonus, so Hex / Hunter's Mark leaves the door open for one type of optimization.

Whenever I've tried to fix flurry of blows, I have kept it as a Bonus Action because I find that most of 5e is pretty elegantly designed that bonus damage comes in via bonus actions. But then I find that I need to move around patient defense & step of the wind and it just ends up being a huge hassle. So, I much prefer your design when I read it because it preserves (and enables!) all the other uses of Bonus Action by the monk. If only I had your revised monk to use when I built my Shadow Monk (RIP Shadowstep, bonus action, never used).

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