soooo, i let my party use homebrew, aaand my level 5 monk nearly one-shot a t-rex
Hes a swiftstride shifter, way of the exploding fist, with boots of speed, and he runs 220 feet a round with step of the wind, and deal an average of 60 damage with only two attacks and his exploding fist, WHAT DO I DOOO?
1) Take a lesson away from this: neverallow homebrew into your game without carefully reading it, and considering it for balance.
2) Own up to the fact that it's a mistake, to your group - "guys, I didn't think this through, and now the game balance is all out of whack. I'm going to have to make some adjustments to this sub-class, or our game is just going to be hopelessly unbalanced". This may be tricky, and you may get a lot of push-back from your Monk Player. It is easier to not give someone something in the first place, than to take it away.
In your shoes I'd point out that with the current set up, no one else gets to have fun with combat. Seriously, the Monk runs in, kills everything, and no one else gets to join in.
It's was a mistake. Own it, discuss it, adjust it, move on.
Trying to balance the Monk with in game world circumstances ( for some reason, all they ever fight isTerrasques, or they only ever fight underwater now ), really strains the verisimilitude of your game world.
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Do you have a lot of experience with 5e? Have you done something like this before? Did you read over the homebrew before approving it? If not, why?
In my games, if there is ever any homebrew, I either make it myself and just give it to my players, or am heavily involved in the creation process. I would never think to allow a player to create something and just trust them and never look at it. After all, I'm of the opinion that it is my responsibility as DM to have a basic understanding of the characters' abilities so I can know what to expect and plan accordingly.
I would recommend starting a new game and allowing only published content at the start. Homebrew can be included over time. As Ved said, just say you can't DM the game effectively anymore and you need to start over with something new. Maybe give them one last session as a send off or something?
I'd take the monk out of the fight and have some flying mobs that other players will have to find a way to bring them down to the monk so he can have at them. Also gives the magic users more to do if he's just demolishing stuff. Other mobs like spiders and phase spiders and things that can run along the walls and ceiling outof the monks reach will give other players the ability to do something.
I understand that impulse - my first impulse was also to fix the combat encounters in order to balance the lopsided circumstances of the Party, but I think that fall under the category of straining the verisimilitude of your game to match the broken party.
Are they only going to fight flying mobs, now? All the time? Forever? Or are there now cave spiders everywhere in the world? Why? How do you explain that "in world"? Or - is the Monk always going to be taken out of the fight, and why would the Player stay with the game if you're cutting them out? And if you're not doing one of those for each and every combat encounter, are you just accepting a certain amount of combat encounters which are just unfair for the rest of the Party? If so, what percentage of broken combat encounters is acceptable?
Breaking the plausibility of the narrative to match a broken Party balance doesn't fix anything permanently. Only fixing the Party balance does.
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Am I missing something? I see d6 from bonus action attack (requires dash action) + 3d4 on failed save and up to 2 d6 for spending ki. That maxes out at 40-45 depending on their Dex spending half their ki. If they want to pull that trick again they need to run away taking an aoo or use the turn to disengage and attack the following.
Edit: compared to 4 hits using flurry of blows. Max damage of 24-44 depending on the monks Dex, without the need for shenanigans and only using 1 ki instead of 2. Real damage should average much lower for either option, not sure how exploding would scale.
Also just realized Prof is +3 at that level so Max exploding is 46-51 using over half their ki
If I was giving advice other than disallow Homebrew, I'd use more weaker opponents, the subclass has no aoe till the capstone, I'd also use a combination of terrain and minions to make the straight line dash harder to set up(never line the boss up with a hallway when the fight is in a 40ft square room). I'd probably tweak the lvl 11 skill to be more expensive since it breaks the classes biggest weakness, spitballing requires 1ki per opponent whose square you pass instead of the optional ki to stun(I might keep the you can spend a ki on a stun attempt as well).
Also, if you stick to one bonus action per turn, if they step of the wind, they don't have a bonus action available to attack. So they're limited just to movement plus action to dash. Further:
1. Boots of speed take the bonus action to activate. No step of the wind on the same turn, no bonus action attack on the same turn. 2. For later turns - same thing. If they're going to bonus action attack, no step of the wind, they're limited to max 180-feet movement (as a 5th level swiftstride monk with the boots activated). 3. Their proficiency bonus is only +3 so they're limited to that, and they only have 5 ki points available at most, so they only get this trick once per long rest. (They burn a point every time they step of the wind, too.)
That means at best they get an extra 9d6 to damage as written, which is a bit high. (Total of 10d6 plus 3d4?) I'd say two things: the extra damage is all thunder damage, so it's all d4s, not martial arts dice; and then the target should get a DEX save for half-damage against ALL the additional damage, not just the 3d4. That way your 5thlevel monk is getting 1d6+STR attack, plus 3d4 (up to a max of 12d4 with that goofy ability). That means on average they get an extra 30 points of damage BUT the target gets a DEX save to take half. Not unreasonable for a once-a-day nova.
Take the boots away from them. magic items are a gift not a requirement. you can do it in character too have a high lvl mage dispel them, or have them stolen. idk that might get rid of that massive movement.
This is the danger of using user made anything in games: it stands a decent chance of being severely broken. Full Stop! Heck, the CoffeeLock is just a potentially broken application of RAW. You allowed it to be used and it blew up in your face. I can absolutely guarantee the player KNEW it would happen, and was giddy at the opportunity to use this bad@$$ tomfoolery in the game.
Well he did, and now you get to look at that player and say without inflection: "Happy now?", then you remove that PC from the game and if the player is still worth playing with instruct them to build another PC-this time without shenanigans. It really isn't hard to be the hand that giveth and taketh away.
I don't know what you're all talking about, there is no way he is one shotting a T-rex. You have seriously misunderstood what the Homebrew actually says
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soooo, i let my party use homebrew, aaand my level 5 monk nearly one-shot a t-rex
Hes a swiftstride shifter, way of the exploding fist, with boots of speed, and he runs 220 feet a round with step of the wind, and deal an average of 60 damage with only two attacks and his exploding fist, WHAT DO I DOOO?
https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/2424-way-of-the-exploding-fist
1) Take a lesson away from this: never allow homebrew into your game without carefully reading it, and considering it for balance.
2) Own up to the fact that it's a mistake, to your group - "guys, I didn't think this through, and now the game balance is all out of whack. I'm going to have to make some adjustments to this sub-class, or our game is just going to be hopelessly unbalanced". This may be tricky, and you may get a lot of push-back from your Monk Player. It is easier to not give someone something in the first place, than to take it away.
In your shoes I'd point out that with the current set up, no one else gets to have fun with combat. Seriously, the Monk runs in, kills everything, and no one else gets to join in.
It's was a mistake. Own it, discuss it, adjust it, move on.
Trying to balance the Monk with in game world circumstances ( for some reason, all they ever fight is Terrasques, or they only ever fight underwater now ), really strains the verisimilitude of your game world.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I would echo everything Vedexent said.
However, I can't help but be a little curious.
Do you have a lot of experience with 5e?
Have you done something like this before?
Did you read over the homebrew before approving it? If not, why?
In my games, if there is ever any homebrew, I either make it myself and just give it to my players, or am heavily involved in the creation process. I would never think to allow a player to create something and just trust them and never look at it. After all, I'm of the opinion that it is my responsibility as DM to have a basic understanding of the characters' abilities so I can know what to expect and plan accordingly.
I would recommend starting a new game and allowing only published content at the start. Homebrew can be included over time. As Ved said, just say you can't DM the game effectively anymore and you need to start over with something new. Maybe give them one last session as a send off or something?
I have done stuff like this before, but not with this particular player, and he is a bit of a metagamer
I'd take the monk out of the fight and have some flying mobs that other players will have to find a way to bring them down to the monk so he can have at them. Also gives the magic users more to do if he's just demolishing stuff. Other mobs like spiders and phase spiders and things that can run along the walls and ceiling outof the monks reach will give other players the ability to do something.
I understand that impulse - my first impulse was also to fix the combat encounters in order to balance the lopsided circumstances of the Party, but I think that fall under the category of straining the verisimilitude of your game to match the broken party.
Are they only going to fight flying mobs, now? All the time? Forever? Or are there now cave spiders everywhere in the world? Why? How do you explain that "in world"? Or - is the Monk always going to be taken out of the fight, and why would the Player stay with the game if you're cutting them out? And if you're not doing one of those for each and every combat encounter, are you just accepting a certain amount of combat encounters which are just unfair for the rest of the Party? If so, what percentage of broken combat encounters is acceptable?
Breaking the plausibility of the narrative to match a broken Party balance doesn't fix anything permanently. Only fixing the Party balance does.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Am I missing something? I see d6 from bonus action attack (requires dash action) + 3d4 on failed save and up to 2 d6 for spending ki. That maxes out at 40-45 depending on their Dex spending half their ki. If they want to pull that trick again they need to run away taking an aoo or use the turn to disengage and attack the following.
Edit: compared to 4 hits using flurry of blows. Max damage of 24-44 depending on the monks Dex, without the need for shenanigans and only using 1 ki instead of 2. Real damage should average much lower for either option, not sure how exploding would scale.
Also just realized Prof is +3 at that level so Max exploding is 46-51 using over half their ki
If I was giving advice other than disallow Homebrew, I'd use more weaker opponents, the subclass has no aoe till the capstone, I'd also use a combination of terrain and minions to make the straight line dash harder to set up(never line the boss up with a hallway when the fight is in a 40ft square room). I'd probably tweak the lvl 11 skill to be more expensive since it breaks the classes biggest weakness, spitballing requires 1ki per opponent whose square you pass instead of the optional ki to stun(I might keep the you can spend a ki on a stun attempt as well).
ok thanks dude
make your own homebrew monsters or just increase all monsters stats by 20, that should teach them a somthing.
Also, if you stick to one bonus action per turn, if they step of the wind, they don't have a bonus action available to attack. So they're limited just to movement plus action to dash. Further:
1. Boots of speed take the bonus action to activate. No step of the wind on the same turn, no bonus action attack on the same turn.
2. For later turns - same thing. If they're going to bonus action attack, no step of the wind, they're limited to max 180-feet movement (as a 5th level swiftstride monk with the boots activated).
3. Their proficiency bonus is only +3 so they're limited to that, and they only have 5 ki points available at most, so they only get this trick once per long rest. (They burn a point every time they step of the wind, too.)
That means at best they get an extra 9d6 to damage as written, which is a bit high. (Total of 10d6 plus 3d4?) I'd say two things: the extra damage is all thunder damage, so it's all d4s, not martial arts dice; and then the target should get a DEX save for half-damage against ALL the additional damage, not just the 3d4. That way your 5thlevel monk is getting 1d6+STR attack, plus 3d4 (up to a max of 12d4 with that goofy ability). That means on average they get an extra 30 points of damage BUT the target gets a DEX save to take half. Not unreasonable for a once-a-day nova.
Take the boots away from them. magic items are a gift not a requirement. you can do it in character too have a high lvl mage dispel them, or have them stolen. idk that might get rid of that massive movement.
This is the danger of using user made anything in games: it stands a decent chance of being severely broken. Full Stop! Heck, the CoffeeLock is just a potentially broken application of RAW. You allowed it to be used and it blew up in your face. I can absolutely guarantee the player KNEW it would happen, and was giddy at the opportunity to use this bad@$$ tomfoolery in the game.
Well he did, and now you get to look at that player and say without inflection: "Happy now?", then you remove that PC from the game and if the player is still worth playing with instruct them to build another PC-this time without shenanigans. It really isn't hard to be the hand that giveth and taketh away.
I don't know what you're all talking about, there is no way he is one shotting a T-rex. You have seriously misunderstood what the Homebrew actually says