One of my player asked me to use this monk subclass for his character in my new campaign. is it overpowered? should I make some changes?
I had to translate this subclass from italian to english, so I apologize in advance for any typos or grammatical errors.
Monastic tradition: Way of Heavenly Discipline
Some monasteries see ki as divine energy, a manifestation of the breath of life that the gods gave to all living beings during the dawn of time. Those who follow the path of Heavenly Discipline learn to manifest this energy during combat, impregnating their blows with radiant force and creating an aegis of pure light capable of deflecting enemy blows.
Inner light
Starting from the 3rd level, you learn to dominate your own inner light: you gain the "Light" and "Dancing Lights" cantrips, you become proficient in the Religion skill and knows the Celestial language.
Celestial Aegis
At 3rd level, you learn to manifest a luminous armor capable of absorbing damage and empowering his attacks. By spending 1 ki point and using your bonus action, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your monk level + a Martial Arts die roll. While this feature is active you gain the following benefits:
- resistance to necrotic and radiant damage
- When one of your Flurry of Blows hits you can inflict extra Radiant damage equal to a Martial Arts die roll , this ability cannot be used more than once for every round
- Projects bright light within a range of 15 feet and dim light for another 15 feet.
The Aegis lasts 10 minutes, it can end earlier if you reach 0 hit points or if you use your bonus action to make it disappear. Once finished, you lose all armor benefits, including temporary hit points. you can use this feature a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier and must complete a long rest to restore those uses.
Punitive Flash
Starting at 6th level, when you are hit by a melee attack, you can use your reaction to unleash a wave of radiant force on the enemy. The attacker and any hostile creature within 10 feet of you must make a Dexterity saving throw. Whoever fails it suffers 2 Martial Arts die rolls of radiant damage, or half as much damage on a successful one, and become blinded until the end of your next turn, this privilege can only be used twice before taking a long or short rest.
For once after a long rest, this feature is activated automatically when the temporary hit points granted by the Celestial Aegis feature drop to 0, regardless of the number of uses available. if the feature is used this way, you can spend 2 ki point to make the saving throw at a disadvantage.
Radiant Soul
Starting at 11th level, your Celestial Aegis becomes extremely more powerful, the temporary hit points granted by that privilege become your monk level + two rolls of your Martial Art's die, and the extra radiant damage becomes 1 Martial Arts die rolls plus your wisdom modifier.
In addition, you have learned to protect your allies with radiant energy, each time you activate the Celestial Aegis feature you can spend 1 more ki point per peson and grant to a number of creatures no higher than your wisdom modifier a pool of temporary hit points equals to your monk level, these temporary hit points disappear after the Aegis ends.
Unstoppable Light
At 17th level, when you reach 0 hit points, you can instead decide to spend 3 ki points to stay at 1 hit point and instantly activate the Celestial Aegis feature, regardless of the number of uses left. Before you can use Unstoppable Light again you must complete a long rest.
This needs to be toned down for sure, let's compare it to some similar mechanics:
The Way of Mercy monk's Hand of Harm: This does the same extra damage (of a much more resisted damage type) as Celestial Aegis and costs 1 ki point each time you deal the damage. You can do this for free once a turn at level 11.
The spell false life: This grants 6.5 avg temp hp as a level 1 spell, 46.5 avg when cast at 9th level. At level 11 (assuming +4 wis mod), this subclass is spending one ki point for 45 temp hp plus all the other benefits. At level 20, it is gaining 75 temp hp as a bonus action and it can do this 20 times for a total of 1500 temp hp per short rest.
I'd probably make the following changes:
Celestial Aegis: Change temp hp gained to martial arts die + monk level. The extra radiant damage costs a ki point each time you use it.
Punitive Flash: Happens before the attack and forces it to be at disadvantage whether the attacker saves or not. Damage dealt on a failed save is equal to the number of temps you had left on your Aegis, and using it ends the Aegis. This makes it a bit of a gamble as if they still manage to hit, you can't absorb it with your temps. No automatic activation and forcing disadvantage should probably cost 3 ki or just be removed entirely.
Radiant Soul: You can now deal the extra radiant damage from CA once a turn without spending a ki point. No scaling to damage or temp hp because they already scale. Spend 1 ki point per ally to grant them monk level temp hp.
Unstoppable Light: Fine as it is, could maybe even add something like a full power Punative Flash on activation. Monk subs tend to have a pretty decent capstone ability.
This is a pretty hard nerf, probably hard enough that the player won't want to play it unless they were really into the concept. But when you look at other monk subclasses, they don't really offer much more than this.
I think you misunderstood, at level 20 you can use the celestial aegis only for 6 times before you need to take a long rest. but still, I understand your point.
For the rest of your suggested changes, I fully agree with you, I will make sure that the celestial aegis has fewer uses and that it does less damage.
I think you misunderstood, at level 20 you can use the celestial aegis only for 6 times before you need to take a long rest. but still, I understand your point.
Ah, I see that now. That's a bit weird though because abilities that cost ki are typically limited by your ki points and don't have additional restrictions on use.
Granted... I feel like Monk kind of needs a little help. Most Monk subclasses lean a bit low on the impact of their individual class features, which I believe is partly because monks have so many universal class features that are quite good (Unarmored Movement, Missile Catching, Slow Fall, Stunning Strike, etc.).
Still, I agree with scatterbraind as well. Right at level three getting 2 cantrips, a skill proficiency and a new language on its own is already pretty generous, even though the specific cantrips aren't exactly earth-shattering, but it's still a lot to get on top of a transformation that's honestly better than the 11th level transformation available to a Way of the Astral Self Monk, and which only gets stronger going forward.
Honestly it depends on your table. This is on par with some of the stronger subclasses from Tasha's but
It's not terribly overpowered or anything but there are some issues.
The Aegis is a significant amount of temp hp, and and some damage. At level 3 your HP is going to be like 15-20ish, this will give you about 5-6hp per use and will be useable 2-3 times. It's duration also means that it can be cast before combat and might last multiple combats. All of that for 1 ki point is a bit much, but not terrible.
The flash is too much
10ft range on a melee character. It has 2 charges per short rest to put it on par with warlock spell slots, plus one automatic use/LR. It weaponizes a reaction and on top of damage it blinds enemies in an AoE. Everything in 10ft can be blinded which is going to totally screw up the kind of things that are going to be in melee.
I'd probably remove the charges, have it use ki instead.
I think Scatterbraind is nerfing the proposal too harshly.
The 3rd level Celestial Aegis ability would be okay if it cost 2 Ki and last for 1 minute. By doubling the cost and reducing duration, you make the choice of whether to use it an important one. With that limitation, I don't think extra Radiant damage from Flurry of Blows is too much. A roll of martial arts die is only 1d4 until 4th level and 1d6 until 11th level. If you limit the duration, it's really only likely to be good for 1 combat. Honestly, Monks get crappy damage. Rolling of the martial arts die does not include any DEX or STR bonus. It's usable just once per round, not once per turn. (No added Radiant damage for opportunity attacks.) If you look at Ranger's spell Hunter's Mark, that stacks a 1d6 for every instance of damage from the Ranger, so a Ranger could trigger Hunter's Mark 3 or 4 times at level 5 (depending on subclass).
Punitive Flash at 6th level per Scatterbraind's idea is fine, except spending another 3 Ki to do 1 instance of damage and disadvantage of enemy attack roll is too steep since that proposal also causes the Monk to lose all temp hitpoints. At 6th level you only have 6 Ki. At most, Punitive Flash should cost 2 Ki.
I think adjusting Radiant Soul would be good so that it feeds into your theme better. This is supposed to be a Celestial-themed class. I would say you keep the same scaling of temp HP as 3rd level, but add the following: Aberrations, Fiends and Undead have disadvantage to attack rolls against the Monk and the Monk cannot be charmed or possessed by such creature types. If Other creatures trying to charm or possess the Monk, the Monk gets advantage on the saving throw while Celestial Aegis is active. (At high levels, a lot of your enemies are going to be Aberations, Fiends or Undead.) Temp hit points to party members would be 1 Ki per party member. Any party member granted temp hit points with this feature also gain advantage on saving throws against being charmed or possessed by Aberrations, Fiends or Undead for a full minute (regardless of whether Celestial Aegis stays active).
Since it's homebrew, err on the side of caution and be prepared to modify it as play goes on. If you start low and increase power over time, the player will feel happy to get buffed. If you start powerful and have to nerf it, they'll hate it. A homebrew character class is a big long term investment and almost impossible to know exactly how it will play out, so let the player know you're starting out medium and will buff if needed.
With that limitation, I don't think extra Radiant damage from Flurry of Blows is too much. A roll of martial arts die is only 1d4 until 4th level and 1d6 until 11th level.
I'm pretty sure at the time I was commenting that it was martial arts die + wisdom mod, which is what Way of Mercy deals so I compared it to that. I'm not sure if it has been edited since. If I misread it, I agree that it's not much.
I do think there's a good subclass here. It just needs some tweaks.
Since it's homebrew, err on the side of caution and be prepared to modify it as play goes on. If you start low and increase power over time, the player will feel happy to get buffed. If you start powerful and have to nerf it, they'll hate it. A homebrew character class is a big long term investment and almost impossible to know exactly how it will play out, so let the player know you're starting out medium and will buff if needed.
The thing is, if you nerf too harshly, the player might just abandon the idea of playing the subclass altogether. So it somewhat depends on the pre-existing relationship between the DM and the player.
I think you misunderstood, at level 20 you can use the celestial aegis only for 6 times before you need to take a long rest. but still, I understand your point.
For the rest of your suggested changes, I fully agree with you, I will make sure that the celestial aegis has fewer uses and that it does less damage.
Is the PC likely to have 6 fights between long rests?
It's all about maximizing damage and temporary hitpoints.
The temp hit points are going to drive you nuts at higher levels. At level 20, he gets an extra 100 temp hit points + (2d10)*5 martial arts rolls, remove the martial arts rolls or instead go by tiers of play 1d4, 1d6, 1d8 and 1d10 depending on what tier he is at.. If he saves it for a boss fight, he's not going down.
Remove punitive flash working when no Ki points left. Cut it damage down to 1 martial arts roll not 2.
Jesus, I'm not even keen to keep trying to balance it out, he went full hog. Cut it down to be inline with other monk classes. The class as written, might as well be what WotC will be releasing come Dec 2023 for the 4th splat book this year.
The only thing that stood out to me as a little extra was radiant and necrotic damage resistance at level 3. I could see someone getting that at level 6, but 3 that seems unbalanced.
It's all about maximizing damage and temporary hitpoints.
The temp hit points are going to drive you nuts at higher levels. At level 20, he gets an extra 100 temp hit points + (2d10)*5 martial arts rolls, remove the martial arts rolls or instead go by tiers of play 1d4, 1d6, 1d8 and 1d10 depending on what tier he is at.. If he saves it for a boss fight, he's not going down.
Remove punitive flash working when no Ki points left. Cut it damage down to 1 martial arts roll not 2.
Jesus, I'm not even keen to keep trying to balance it out, he went full hog. Cut it down to be inline with other monk classes. The class as written, might as well be what WotC will be releasing come Dec 2023 for the 4th splat book this year.
It's all about maximizing damage and temporary hitpoints.
The temp hit points are going to drive you nuts at higher levels. At level 20, he gets an extra 100 temp hit points + (2d10)*5 martial arts rolls, remove the martial arts rolls or instead go by tiers of play 1d4, 1d6, 1d8 and 1d10 depending on what tier he is at.. If he saves it for a boss fight, he's not going down.
Remove punitive flash working when no Ki points left. Cut it damage down to 1 martial arts roll not 2.
Jesus, I'm not even keen to keep trying to balance it out, he went full hog. Cut it down to be inline with other monk classes. The class as written, might as well be what WotC will be releasing come Dec 2023 for the 4th splat book this year.
Why 100 temp hit points + extra?
It only grants your level, so 20 + extra?
He'll have 5 uses of it, so minimum hit points are 200 at level. Essentially, the monky would get Paladins LoH's, just spend 5 Ki Points and 5 bonus actions to get the Paladins Lay on Hands. that's why I was like, this is a subclass better than a class feature when you factor in the bonus rolls. I would not let that hit my table.
>you can use this feature a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier
It's all about maximizing damage and temporary hitpoints.
The temp hit points are going to drive you nuts at higher levels. At level 20, he gets an extra 100 temp hit points + (2d10)*5 martial arts rolls, remove the martial arts rolls or instead go by tiers of play 1d4, 1d6, 1d8 and 1d10 depending on what tier he is at.. If he saves it for a boss fight, he's not going down.
Remove punitive flash working when no Ki points left. Cut it damage down to 1 martial arts roll not 2.
Jesus, I'm not even keen to keep trying to balance it out, he went full hog. Cut it down to be inline with other monk classes. The class as written, might as well be what WotC will be releasing come Dec 2023 for the 4th splat book this year.
Why 100 temp hit points + extra?
It only grants your level, so 20 + extra?
I think they were referring to 5 uses. As you implied earlier, it's not likely they will need to save one use per encounter. You could save all uses for a boss fight and activate it every time you run out of temps, making you extremely durable for that fight. And you still have 15 ki points left to do other things.
One of my player asked me to use this monk subclass for his character in my new campaign. is it overpowered? should I make some changes?
I had to translate this subclass from italian to english, so I apologize in advance for any typos or grammatical errors.
Monastic tradition: Way of Heavenly Discipline
Some monasteries see ki as divine energy, a manifestation of the breath of life that the gods gave to all living beings during the dawn of time. Those who follow the path of Heavenly Discipline learn to manifest this energy during combat, impregnating their blows with radiant force and creating an aegis of pure light capable of deflecting enemy blows.
Inner light
Starting from the 3rd level, you learn to dominate your own inner light: you gain the "Light" and "Dancing Lights" cantrips, you become proficient in the Religion skill and knows the Celestial language.
Celestial Aegis
At 3rd level, you learn to manifest a luminous armor capable of absorbing damage and empowering his attacks. By spending 1 ki point and using your bonus action, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your monk level + a Martial Arts die roll. While this feature is active you gain the following benefits:
- resistance to necrotic and radiant damage
- When one of your Flurry of Blows hits you can inflict extra Radiant damage equal to a Martial Arts die roll , this ability cannot be used more than once for every round
- Projects bright light within a range of 15 feet and dim light for another 15 feet.
The Aegis lasts 10 minutes, it can end earlier if you reach 0 hit points or if you use your bonus action to make it disappear. Once finished, you lose all armor benefits, including temporary hit points. you can use this feature a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier and must complete a long rest to restore those uses.
Punitive Flash
Starting at 6th level, when you are hit by a melee attack, you can use your reaction to unleash a wave of radiant force on the enemy. The attacker and any hostile creature within 10 feet of you must make a Dexterity saving throw. Whoever fails it suffers 2 Martial Arts die rolls of radiant damage, or half as much damage on a successful one, and become blinded until the end of your next turn, this privilege can only be used twice before taking a long or short rest.
For once after a long rest, this feature is activated automatically when the temporary hit points granted by the Celestial Aegis feature drop to 0, regardless of the number of uses available. if the feature is used this way, you can spend 2 ki point to make the saving throw at a disadvantage.
Radiant Soul
Starting at 11th level, your Celestial Aegis becomes extremely more powerful, the temporary hit points granted by that privilege become your monk level + two rolls of your Martial Art's die, and the extra radiant damage becomes 1 Martial Arts die rolls plus your wisdom modifier.
In addition, you have learned to protect your allies with radiant energy, each time you activate the Celestial Aegis feature you can spend 1 more ki point per peson and grant to a number of creatures no higher than your wisdom modifier a pool of temporary hit points equals to your monk level, these temporary hit points disappear after the Aegis ends.
Unstoppable Light
At 17th level, when you reach 0 hit points, you can instead decide to spend 3 ki points to stay at 1 hit point and instantly activate the Celestial Aegis feature, regardless of the number of uses left. Before you can use Unstoppable Light again you must complete a long rest.
I would allow this, I'd be careful though, some minor wording things, this might be a bit unrefined brew.
My homebrew content: Monsters, subclasses, Magic items, Feats, spells, races, backgrounds
Can you be more specific? What kind of minor wording?
This needs to be toned down for sure, let's compare it to some similar mechanics:
The Way of Mercy monk's Hand of Harm: This does the same extra damage (of a much more resisted damage type) as Celestial Aegis and costs 1 ki point each time you deal the damage. You can do this for free once a turn at level 11.
The spell false life: This grants 6.5 avg temp hp as a level 1 spell, 46.5 avg when cast at 9th level. At level 11 (assuming +4 wis mod), this subclass is spending one ki point for 45 temp hp plus all the other benefits. At level 20, it is gaining 75 temp hp as a bonus action and it can do this 20 times for a total of 1500 temp hp per short rest.
I'd probably make the following changes:
Celestial Aegis: Change temp hp gained to martial arts die + monk level. The extra radiant damage costs a ki point each time you use it.
Punitive Flash: Happens before the attack and forces it to be at disadvantage whether the attacker saves or not. Damage dealt on a failed save is equal to the number of temps you had left on your Aegis, and using it ends the Aegis. This makes it a bit of a gamble as if they still manage to hit, you can't absorb it with your temps. No automatic activation and forcing disadvantage should probably cost 3 ki or just be removed entirely.
Radiant Soul: You can now deal the extra radiant damage from CA once a turn without spending a ki point. No scaling to damage or temp hp because they already scale. Spend 1 ki point per ally to grant them monk level temp hp.
Unstoppable Light: Fine as it is, could maybe even add something like a full power Punative Flash on activation. Monk subs tend to have a pretty decent capstone ability.
This is a pretty hard nerf, probably hard enough that the player won't want to play it unless they were really into the concept. But when you look at other monk subclasses, they don't really offer much more than this.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Agree with Scatterbraind, above. This is way too powerful, especially the temporary hit points.
I think you misunderstood, at level 20 you can use the celestial aegis only for 6 times before you need to take a long rest. but still, I understand your point.
For the rest of your suggested changes, I fully agree with you, I will make sure that the celestial aegis has fewer uses and that it does less damage.
Ah, I see that now. That's a bit weird though because abilities that cost ki are typically limited by your ki points and don't have additional restrictions on use.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Yeah, this is way too good.
Granted... I feel like Monk kind of needs a little help. Most Monk subclasses lean a bit low on the impact of their individual class features, which I believe is partly because monks have so many universal class features that are quite good (Unarmored Movement, Missile Catching, Slow Fall, Stunning Strike, etc.).
Still, I agree with scatterbraind as well. Right at level three getting 2 cantrips, a skill proficiency and a new language on its own is already pretty generous, even though the specific cantrips aren't exactly earth-shattering, but it's still a lot to get on top of a transformation that's honestly better than the 11th level transformation available to a Way of the Astral Self Monk, and which only gets stronger going forward.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
A mistake from celestial aegis
radiates bright light in 15 feet, and dim light 15 Meters beyond that.
Stuff like that.
My homebrew content: Monsters, subclasses, Magic items, Feats, spells, races, backgrounds
Honestly it depends on your table. This is on par with some of the stronger subclasses from Tasha's but
It's not terribly overpowered or anything but there are some issues.
The Aegis is a significant amount of temp hp, and and some damage. At level 3 your HP is going to be like 15-20ish, this will give you about 5-6hp per use and will be useable 2-3 times. It's duration also means that it can be cast before combat and might last multiple combats. All of that for 1 ki point is a bit much, but not terrible.
The flash is too much
10ft range on a melee character. It has 2 charges per short rest to put it on par with warlock spell slots, plus one automatic use/LR. It weaponizes a reaction and on top of damage it blinds enemies in an AoE. Everything in 10ft can be blinded which is going to totally screw up the kind of things that are going to be in melee.
I'd probably remove the charges, have it use ki instead.
I think Scatterbraind is nerfing the proposal too harshly.
The 3rd level Celestial Aegis ability would be okay if it cost 2 Ki and last for 1 minute. By doubling the cost and reducing duration, you make the choice of whether to use it an important one. With that limitation, I don't think extra Radiant damage from Flurry of Blows is too much. A roll of martial arts die is only 1d4 until 4th level and 1d6 until 11th level. If you limit the duration, it's really only likely to be good for 1 combat. Honestly, Monks get crappy damage. Rolling of the martial arts die does not include any DEX or STR bonus. It's usable just once per round, not once per turn. (No added Radiant damage for opportunity attacks.) If you look at Ranger's spell Hunter's Mark, that stacks a 1d6 for every instance of damage from the Ranger, so a Ranger could trigger Hunter's Mark 3 or 4 times at level 5 (depending on subclass).
Punitive Flash at 6th level per Scatterbraind's idea is fine, except spending another 3 Ki to do 1 instance of damage and disadvantage of enemy attack roll is too steep since that proposal also causes the Monk to lose all temp hitpoints. At 6th level you only have 6 Ki. At most, Punitive Flash should cost 2 Ki.
I think adjusting Radiant Soul would be good so that it feeds into your theme better. This is supposed to be a Celestial-themed class. I would say you keep the same scaling of temp HP as 3rd level, but add the following: Aberrations, Fiends and Undead have disadvantage to attack rolls against the Monk and the Monk cannot be charmed or possessed by such creature types. If Other creatures trying to charm or possess the Monk, the Monk gets advantage on the saving throw while Celestial Aegis is active. (At high levels, a lot of your enemies are going to be Aberations, Fiends or Undead.) Temp hit points to party members would be 1 Ki per party member. Any party member granted temp hit points with this feature also gain advantage on saving throws against being charmed or possessed by Aberrations, Fiends or Undead for a full minute (regardless of whether Celestial Aegis stays active).
Since it's homebrew, err on the side of caution and be prepared to modify it as play goes on. If you start low and increase power over time, the player will feel happy to get buffed. If you start powerful and have to nerf it, they'll hate it. A homebrew character class is a big long term investment and almost impossible to know exactly how it will play out, so let the player know you're starting out medium and will buff if needed.
I'm pretty sure at the time I was commenting that it was martial arts die + wisdom mod, which is what Way of Mercy deals so I compared it to that. I'm not sure if it has been edited since. If I misread it, I agree that it's not much.
I do think there's a good subclass here. It just needs some tweaks.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
The thing is, if you nerf too harshly, the player might just abandon the idea of playing the subclass altogether. So it somewhat depends on the pre-existing relationship between the DM and the player.
Is the PC likely to have 6 fights between long rests?
It's all about maximizing damage and temporary hitpoints.
The temp hit points are going to drive you nuts at higher levels. At level 20, he gets an extra 100 temp hit points + (2d10)*5 martial arts rolls, remove the martial arts rolls or instead go by tiers of play 1d4, 1d6, 1d8 and 1d10 depending on what tier he is at.. If he saves it for a boss fight, he's not going down.
Remove punitive flash working when no Ki points left. Cut it damage down to 1 martial arts roll not 2.
Jesus, I'm not even keen to keep trying to balance it out, he went full hog. Cut it down to be inline with other monk classes. The class as written, might as well be what WotC will be releasing come Dec 2023 for the 4th splat book this year.
The only thing that stood out to me as a little extra was radiant and necrotic damage resistance at level 3. I could see someone getting that at level 6, but 3 that seems unbalanced.
Why 100 temp hit points + extra?
It only grants your level, so 20 + extra?
He'll have 5 uses of it, so minimum hit points are 200 at level. Essentially, the monky would get Paladins LoH's, just spend 5 Ki Points and 5 bonus actions to get the Paladins Lay on Hands. that's why I was like, this is a subclass better than a class feature when you factor in the bonus rolls. I would not let that hit my table.
>you can use this feature a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier
At level 20 he'll have Wisdom 20 with ASI's.
I think they were referring to 5 uses. As you implied earlier, it's not likely they will need to save one use per encounter. You could save all uses for a boss fight and activate it every time you run out of temps, making you extremely durable for that fight. And you still have 15 ki points left to do other things.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm