We are about to start a new campaign in the comming weeks. I have been working with my players to build their backstories, and fit them all into the story. We had some free time the other day after a sudo session zero, so some of the players wanted to run a couple of quick incounters against some random stuff from the monster manual. one of the player is using a monk. (per my sugestion, because i always thought they where cool and he wasn't sure what he wanted to play) We both got to see just how "cool" they where. The changed the missil deflection ability to cover all attacks not just ranged, as long as it is bludg, pierc, or slash. With the party starting at level 3, it is going to be difficult to ballance because most creatures of resonable CR only use the standard physical damage types. I was woundering if any of my fellow DMs have incountered this problem, and might have any suggestions to help ballance the playing field. My worry is if i don't keep it in check, my other players won't have as much fun as the op monk, and if i check it too hard the monk wont have as much fun ether.
TLDR The rule for monks old Missle deflection reaction has changed to cover all forms of physical attacks and the 3 physical damage types. Has anyone else had this problem in their games and if so how did you keep it in check to ballance it for early levels?
No, not really. This is nothing more then a way to get "healing". The PC needs to roll well, the damage needs to be low and you only have 3 Ki points to start with. If you use one point for FOB, that leaves you with 2, then you use a 2nd point for the redirect. Now you have 1 point left. If you use it for FOB again, then no more redirects.
If you save Ki points for redirects, you are not doing FOB so minimal damage during your turn.
AS for limiting damage to the monk, why is that a problem? you can adjust which creature goes where.
...you can take a Reaction to reduce the attack’s total damage against you. The reduction equals 1d10 plus your Dexterity modifier and Monk level.
If you reduce the damage to 0, you can expend 1 Focus Point to redirect some of the attack’s force. ...
The time Deflect Missiles is OP is when you have one enemy making one attack each round against the Monk, as soon as there is 2-3 attacks targeting the Monk it is totally fine. There are certainly situations where the Monk will feel OP - e.g. fighting a Bulette - but other times when they won't. Blocking one attack per round is definitely less powerful than a Barbarian's Rage which at low levels halves basically all damage they take. Just make sure you use a lot of different types of combats / combatants for your enemies, so that each character gets the opportunity to feel OP here and there in the combat.
Youd do realize that a 3rd level heavy armor fighter will likely have 16-18 AC and 30 health, compared to a monk's 15-16 AC and 20-23 health, right? Deflect attacks is necessary for a monk to survive.
I’m pretty certain that the words “monks are OP” has never been typed anywhere on the internet ever before, they’re usually considered the weakest of the martial classes and before the 5.5 refresh were very close to being unplayable
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
We are about to start a new campaign in the comming weeks. I have been working with my players to build their backstories, and fit them all into the story. We had some free time the other day after a sudo session zero, so some of the players wanted to run a couple of quick incounters against some random stuff from the monster manual. one of the player is using a monk. (per my sugestion, because i always thought they where cool and he wasn't sure what he wanted to play) We both got to see just how "cool" they where. The changed the missil deflection ability to cover all attacks not just ranged, as long as it is bludg, pierc, or slash. With the party starting at level 3, it is going to be difficult to ballance because most creatures of resonable CR only use the standard physical damage types. I was woundering if any of my fellow DMs have incountered this problem, and might have any suggestions to help ballance the playing field. My worry is if i don't keep it in check, my other players won't have as much fun as the op monk, and if i check it too hard the monk wont have as much fun ether.
TLDR The rule for monks old Missle deflection reaction has changed to cover all forms of physical attacks and the 3 physical damage types. Has anyone else had this problem in their games and if so how did you keep it in check to ballance it for early levels?
No, not really. This is nothing more then a way to get "healing". The PC needs to roll well, the damage needs to be low and you only have 3 Ki points to start with. If you use one point for FOB, that leaves you with 2, then you use a 2nd point for the redirect. Now you have 1 point left. If you use it for FOB again, then no more redirects.
If you save Ki points for redirects, you are not doing FOB so minimal damage during your turn.
AS for limiting damage to the monk, why is that a problem? you can adjust which creature goes where.
The time Deflect Missiles is OP is when you have one enemy making one attack each round against the Monk, as soon as there is 2-3 attacks targeting the Monk it is totally fine. There are certainly situations where the Monk will feel OP - e.g. fighting a Bulette - but other times when they won't. Blocking one attack per round is definitely less powerful than a Barbarian's Rage which at low levels halves basically all damage they take. Just make sure you use a lot of different types of combats / combatants for your enemies, so that each character gets the opportunity to feel OP here and there in the combat.
Youd do realize that a 3rd level heavy armor fighter will likely have 16-18 AC and 30 health, compared to a monk's 15-16 AC and 20-23 health, right? Deflect attacks is necessary for a monk to survive.
I’m pretty certain that the words “monks are OP” has never been typed anywhere on the internet ever before, they’re usually considered the weakest of the martial classes and before the 5.5 refresh were very close to being unplayable