Is Deflect Attacks over powered

With my now level 10 Monk, I can attest it is quite useful, indeed at lower levels especially. But I think most agree that is when Monks are kinda at their weakest, no? Some combats it was hard to hurt me. But it wasn't hard for the DM to just throw an additional enemy my way, and my reaction was already spent. I've been knocked out (or just about) a good handful of times now. And my AC is a bit higher since we rolled stats. 

Plus using it means no Opportunity Attacks, allowing nearby enemies to roam more freely and harm other targets. That costs your group some. Conversely, if you spend your reaction on a AoO or anything else, you can't make use of Deflect Attacks. So not so OP I'd say.

Quote from jl8e >>

Quote from silicontraveler>>

Reaction usage isn't a resource, that's part of action economy. By resource I mean something they can't do infinitely without a rest. They don't have to spend focus on the ability, they can just soak damage without redirecting and it costs nothing.

Its an ability that can really mess up normal monster behavior. If the monk is lvl 15 and I have a monster that is in melee with a fighter and a barbarian, I could normally have it take one swing at each so that both players are involved. However if I change that to a barbarian and a monk, now that monster HAS to take both attacks at the monk just to be more than a pincushion, because the monk is deflecting like 20 damage off the attack every round indefinitely.

Sure, the other option is to ignore the monk, but then you've conceded that the ability is so good it isn't even worth trying to attack the monk occasionally.

So it's about as good as the Barbarian's Rage damage reduction. If you swing twice on the barb, or twice on the monk, they take about the same damage overall. They just do it differently.

(Also, anything that's fighting level 15 characters and is only doing about 20 on a hit on 2 attacks total isn't really supposed to be a noticeable threat.)

I have definitely had encounters where the monk felt impossible to damage unless I throw multiple mobs at them, and if I do, the monk player is asking why he is being targeted by multiple monsters every encounter.

 If an intelligent monster is fighting somebody who blocks every attack it makes, it's going to call for backup, so they can take this unarmored enemy down fast.  And if there are so few monsters that there's nobody to pivot to the monk without leaving an enemy open, then you aren't making your encounters sufficiently challenging. 

(Similarly, part of your problem with your level 15 example is your insistence on having the attacker split fire. Unless the attacker has some kind of defensive ability that requires them to tag each opponent every round, it makes more sense to focus on one opponent, trying to get one out of their face as quickly as possible.)

Your monk player doth protest too much. If they can completely no-sell one opponent, they should expect to get more opponents. Part of the fun of having abilities is getting to use them. A monk should have no qualms about taking on at least two opponents solo, because with deflect and their base AC, they're just not in that much danger, and they get to show off. Similarly, the barbarian doesn't get any fun out of being able to tank a lot of damage if you don't hit them with damage to tank.

 

Agree completely on targeting Monks - come at me bro! Make us use our abilities 100%. Also, you should feel challenged some when you're targeted, and the party should help try to solve that since you've taken one for the team by drawing aggro.

Kind of like Spiderman in Endgame "I got this! I got this! Okay I don't got this..."

You should! Monk is a really powerful and disruptive class. As long as your goal isn't to be the absolute top of the damage-per-round competition, they are epic. If you want a class that the boss monsters will see as invincible little cockroaches that keep messing everything up in a fight and always seem to be where they need to be, yeah that's a monk.

Quote from jl8e >>

Quote from silicontraveler>>

Reaction usage isn't a resource, that's part of action economy. By resource I mean something they can't do infinitely without a rest. They don't have to spend focus on the ability, they can just soak damage without redirecting and it costs nothing.

Its an ability that can really mess up normal monster behavior. If the monk is lvl 15 and I have a monster that is in melee with a fighter and a barbarian, I could normally have it take one swing at each so that both players are involved. However if I change that to a barbarian and a monk, now that monster HAS to take both attacks at the monk just to be more than a pincushion, because the monk is deflecting like 20 damage off the attack every round indefinitely.

Sure, the other option is to ignore the monk, but then you've conceded that the ability is so good it isn't even worth trying to attack the monk occasionally.

So it's about as good as the Barbarian's Rage damage reduction. If you swing twice on the barb, or twice on the monk, they take about the same damage overall. They just do it differently.

(Also, anything that's fighting level 15 characters and is only doing about 20 on a hit on 2 attacks total isn't really supposed to be a noticeable threat.)

I have definitely had encounters where the monk felt impossible to damage unless I throw multiple mobs at them, and if I do, the monk player is asking why he is being targeted by multiple monsters every encounter.

 If an intelligent monster is fighting somebody who blocks every attack it makes, it's going to call for backup, so they can take this unarmored enemy down fast.  And if there are so few monsters that there's nobody to pivot to the monk without leaving an enemy open, then you aren't making your encounters sufficiently challenging. 

(Similarly, part of your problem with your level 15 example is your insistence on having the attacker split fire. Unless the attacker has some kind of defensive ability that requires them to tag each opponent every round, it makes more sense to focus on one opponent, trying to get one out of their face as quickly as possible.)

Your monk player doth protest too much. If they can completely no-sell one opponent, they should expect to get more opponents. Part of the fun of having abilities is getting to use them. A monk should have no qualms about taking on at least two opponents solo, because with deflect and their base AC, they're just not in that much danger, and they get to show off. Similarly, the barbarian doesn't get any fun out of being able to tank a lot of damage if you don't hit them with damage to tank.

 

You don't necessarily have to create more enemies for the monk; you simply need to increase the number of the enemy's attacks. If the enemy becomes too strong because of the additional attack, reduce its damage die or its damage bonus.

If, on the other hand, you don't want deflect attacks to be used, give enemy attacks magical properties.