So inspired by the thread I made about the kensai subclass, I decided to make my own homebrew subclass based on a big discussion of a mechanic: the "Devil's Choice" of agile parry as it was. The thought came to my mind about making a weapon based monk around this idea, using personal experience from martial arts as a framing device to how to make a class based around weapon play. This is my first excursion into the world of homebrew, so I know it's probably going to be blasted as too complicated, but I hope to fine tune it into something cool. Main inspiration has to be the Elemental monk revision floating on reddit though, seeing as that kind of choice is what i'm going for. will try and put design notes as I go.
Unlike other monastic traditions, Monks on the Path of the Scholar seek perfection of themselves through worldly material, be it a painter’s brush or cold steel. Through the study of ancient masters and teachers, the warriors of this path use stances and trained knowledge in order to become masters in their own right.
Weapon Focus: at 3rd level, choose one type of weapon. That weapon type is now favored to the player, and it becomes monk weapons for the purposes of martial arts. you gain proficiency using that weapon type.
Designate one favored weapon that the Monk currently owns. This weapon is his Kata Weapon, which must be used for the monk’s stances. If said Kata Weapon is lost, stolen or broken, the Monk can designate a new favored weapon as his Kata Weapon at the end of a Long Rest, as the Monk needs time to learn the weight, edge and characteristics of this new weapon.
A dart is always considered to be a kata weapon when chosen as a favored weapon, ignoring the need to practice to designate as such and counting as a single weapon in regards to stances.
So, like the kensei the monk can pick a martial weapon such as a long sword or a warhammer as his favored weapon, but with a small twist. I found it kinda odd how you could pick up a weapon off a hobgoblin and as long as it's what you chose you can use it perfectly, even if the sword you trained with was huge cross guard European long sword and the weapon you looted is a single edged rusted cleaver without a guard. With a kata weapon the idea is that while you can still use the pick up weapon, you won't be able to use it at full potential without training a little with it first.
The dart idea is that it's a shuriken the monk could use as per standard martial arts movie affair, and without it messing up the mechanics of the ranged stances.
Stances:
A Scholar monk has trained extensively with their chosen style, to the point they can recognize and use it even during the most intense combat. Stances represent the practiced forms a scholar has learned, and provide benefits depending on whether the kata weapon is ranged or melee.
A Scholar Monk can enter or change a stance during the start of his turn. Entering a stance does not interfere with drawing weapons, taking actions or moving. Each stance provides benefits as listed below, and last until the monk is unconscious, the battle ends or he changes stances. However, if a monk changes stance within the reach of an enemy’s melee weapon, that enemy may make a wisdom check (DC 8 + monk’s dex + proficiency) in order to make an attack of opportunity, as he sees an opening.
Basic idea here is that even at level 3, depending on ranged or melee, the monk has two choices of attacking. One defense, one offense. I had to specify that to enter a stance does not require a free action as to not interfere with drawing weapons and stuff, and to make the player plan ahead as to what they want to do. The Wisdom check is to make sure that the need to change could be dangerous when in close with the enemy, but I hope It isn't too much to discourage it. It's a wisdom check which seems most brutish enemies are not good at, and goes off the monk's best stat, dex, making it so it they have a good chance they can a mistake when they change stances.
Melee:
Stance of the Dragon’s Tooth: This stance allows the Monk to use his Kata Weapon to make an attack as his bonus action in place of an unarmed strike as part of his martial arts. By spending 1 Ki point, the Scholar Monk may make a flurry of blows with his kata weapon, but when doing so he suffers a -2 AC penalty until his next turn as he focuses on attacking before defense.
Stance of the Steel Gate: While performing this stance, the monk gains +2 to his AC, but may only make unarmed strikes as his attack action. If the monk performs patient defense while in this stance, he may make one weapon strike as a reaction should the enemy as a result of disadvantage.
So here's the main ideas that inspired me making this class: Attack, or defense?
dragon's tooth gives you the striking capabilities of a two weapon fighter with the appropriate fighting style. An extra attack as a bonus action using his kata instead of an unarmed strike. it hits hard and allows you to have the feel that you studied your sword well enough to act like an extension of your arm. The flurry idea is an extension of that, giving you a chance to hit one more time to burn through damage, but it makes you much easier to hit. Do it when the enemy has advantage on you and it stacks quite a bit more. He can do it more than a fighter can with an action surge, but unlike the fighter he is leaving himself much more open to a counter and considering the small amount of HP a monk has the choice becomes much bigger. A cleric standing behind the monk can heal him, but if the monk does it until he runs out of ki then the cleric will have a hard time keeping up with the damage he may take, so it will be a decision between flurrying or not.
Last night I did realize that it may be a bit much to have what equates to two weapon fighting with a two handed longsword, so I may tone it down just a tad.
Steel Gate is the opposite, giving you more defense at the cost of damage. since martial arts dice have a hard time keeping up with other classes damage output it's a fair trade for giving you more defense. it doesn't block off flurry at all, so you can still punch, and interacts with patient defense to give the feel of a counter attack option so you can at least strike with your sword once upon reaching a condition and spending a ki point.
Range:
Stance of the Hailstorm: while in this stance the monk may make an attack with their kata weapon as a bonus action if they attacked with it as an action. You may spend 1 ki point to do two attacks as a bonus action, but said bonus action can never have a bonus to accuracy beyond dex and proficiency.
Stance of the Protecting Wind: While in this stance the monk may spend their bonus action to prepare an attack. As a reaction, The monk may use the skill deflect missile for their allies when one of their allies within the kata weapon’s range gets hit with a ranged missile attack, or to impose disadvantage against a single melee weapon attack directed at their ally. Alternatively, the monk may forgo their action and spend 2 Ki points in order to use deflect missile on every ranged melee attack the enemy makes against their allies, or impose disadvantage on a single enemy’s attack action until the next turn.
A missile cannot be redirected in this way, unlike a regular deflect missile.
I'm just going to admit; I had these stances with the dart in mind. the image of a monk rocking up and throwing a carpton of shuriken is possibly one of my favorite things when thinking of for a weapon specialist. Having it be so you can toss four out at a time with steel rain seems like a swift monk thing to do, after all. The accuracy thing is so that people with a +1 shortbow couldn't be too overpowering, and it makes sense seeing as your just shooting so many things over the course of 10 seconds.
Protecting wind is also another fun image I had when trying to decide how a shuriken monk could be defensive. Being able to block some arrows for your party seemed like a great idea, and the class already has a mechanic to do it built in. imposing disadvantage on a melee attack could help allies, and has the image of an arrow or shuriken hitting a sword before it strikes. The cost to Ki is to make the defense even better, but it gets expensive when used every turn. it does give a suppressing fire feel to it too.
_______________
Idea 1:
Practiced meditation: A level 6 Scholar may,at the end of any long rest, his Kata Weapon with a low level of Ki. His Kata weapon counts as a magical weapon for purposes of overcoming reduction. This effect lasts until the end of his next long rest.
Weaponized prediction: When you attack with a favored weapon or unarmed strike, you may spend 1 ki point to maximize the damage of your attack. This may be used only once per turn.
________________
Advanced forms: Upon reaching level 6, the scholar monk has advanced enough to practice two new stances in combat. These stances apply to both range combat or melee combat. In addition, The wisdom check made by enemies have disadvantage when the scholar monk changes stances within melee range
Stance of the Planar Window: Even the most hardy of creatures have weak spots, and the scholar has learned to exploit them. While within this stance the Scholar’s kata weapons Ignore resistance entirely, and any immunities to said weapon becomes resistance. All the monk’s attacks in this stance have a +1 to hit and wound , and by spending 1 Ki Point the monk may add their wisdom modifier to all hit rolls for the rest of the turn.
Stance of the Mithril Butterfly: Scholar monks realized that where they cannot use strength, momentum can be chained into brutishly strong attacks. While in this stance a scholar monk can choose to add 1d4 damage to every strike, as long as they take no other actions, ( free, bonus or move) in between attacking. any bonuses to unarmed strikes can only be achieved directly after the main attack action. After they make an attack action the scholar may spend 1 Ki point to make an additional weapon attack as a bonus action. This attack maximise the damage rolls for the weapon’s damage die.
So, here is where I had trouble deciding what I wanted for level 6. I didn't want to completely copy the kensei abilities at this level, an I still wanted some choice on damage or accuracy. This may need more workshopping, but the idea is still in place. rather than automatic, The scholar has to choose to enter into a form that will make it so he can overcome resistance, and even if he already has a magical sword then the little bonuses to accuracy will still be there in case he just cannot hit what he's fighting. The bonus to hit replaces the dragon's tooth bonus to attack, but can be used to punch things a lot easier even without the extra sword cut. the damage is there to show that what he hits is really hit, but I may remove that, seeing as I thought of the Mithril butterfly soon after
So the mithril Butterfly (based on a historic sword technique that uses momentum to swing the sword ) is the one i'm really shaky on. It provides another damage die (a small one) to both weapon and unarmed as long as you keep attacking in that turn. if you move between people then that bonus is lost. I may add some interraction with the fast movement ki power, step of the wind, if only to make the die hit just a bit stronger, but first I wanna see how this is seen first.
Shared Systems: when the monk reaches level 11, As learning expands and knowledge turns into mastery, the scholar monk starts to expand his experience, moving from one stance to another more easily, and adding more weapons to his arsenal.
The favored weapon type the monk has learned at level 3 is now considered a Mastered Type. A Kata weapon from a Mastered weapon type becomes a +2 magical weapon as long as the scholar is holding it. In addition, the scholar no longer provokes attacks of opportunity when he changes stances while using a mastered weapon.
A Scholar monk may choose a new weapon to be a favored weapon, this time including weapons with the heavy quality. If his weapon has the heavy quality, he may never subtract from his hit roll through the use of feats, nor change the damage dice with martial arts (example: a greatsword’s 2d6 damage will never become 2d10, it is always 2d6.)
another area that I may be shaky in. I wanted to do something like sharpen the blade, but make it so the weapon you used through your adventures became a bit stronger. I didn't want to copy it word for word, as that ability is one I really liked when thinking about the kensei, so I wanted to keep it. Having it become a +2 magical weapon may be a bit much. Maybe if I changed to to when he enters a Stance, it gains the +2 effect, or something like that. I do want to show how powerful the monk has become with it before he goes into something else.
The second feature shows that the monk can use a brand new weapon because the style he uses is part of the same teaching school, has the same guards ect. Letting him pick up a greatsword or a glaive would bring that together, and making it so he cannot subtract from his hit roll makes it so he cannot cheese it with great weapon master at level 12. Same thing for longbow and sharp shooter. I may remove this feature or limit it more at a later time, but I wanted to see how it goes first.
Master of many forms: upon reaching level 17, the Scholar monk has mastered the use of their stances. When they enter either the Hailstorm, Protecting wind, Steel Gate Or Dragon Tooth stance, they may choose the attributes of either the Mithril Butterfly or the Planar window stances to add to that stance, creating a mastered stance. (do note, the hailstorm’s flurry can benefit from planar window’s bonuses in this instance)
Welp, here is the capstone. this allows you to mix advanced and starting stances, making them even stronger. I think being able to add extra damage to the starting classes would make a good capstone, and allow you to mix it up a little more while keeping in with the theme.
Alright, that's the write up for my first homebrew. Special thanks to Mephista for helping me with the starting theme, and I hope to have some feedback based on the idea of this class.
The idea is definitely interesting, but I feel the level 6 features are somewhat unbalanced.
I would probably suggest to Create features that would be an improved form of the level 3 stances, so, for example, taking out the -2AC from Dragon’s Tooth. Steel Gate could grant one weapon attack to be performed when using the stance, substituting one unharmed attack.
Hailstorm seems a bit strange. I understand where you come from by only allowing Dexter and proficiency to the second bonus attack, but it feels a bit off. I’d probably rather put a “half proficiency” bonus instead, as the possible bonuses from magic items are inherit in the item itself, and I find it a bit difficult to rationalise the character actions negating it. The improved form could be as simple as granting full proficiency bonus to all attacks. Protection wind is a beautiful idea and a wonderful use of deflect missiles with ranged weapon, kudos to you. The improved version might be something along the lines of the stance allowing, if the deflection is done on a missile, to make the original attack targent an enemy 5 feet from the original target of the attack, in a sort of ricochet shot.
These advanced stances, or something along those lines, sound like a decent addition to have at level 11.
Practiced Meditation and Weaponised Prediction seem adequate for level 6 features, but I’d probs lay give some other limitation to Weaponised Prediction, as the way it is now seems a bit OP. I’d suggest either increasing the cost to 2 Ki, or allowing only a few uses per short/long rest.
Shared systems is where I am unsure the most. While I see the sense of it, I’d probably suggest to integrate it into the advanced stances above (also considering my suggestion of moving them to lvl 11), by allowing to switch stance for free, and to spend sone thing along the lines of 2/3 Ki to boost what the stance already does (allowing additional damage to Dragon’s Tooth and Hailstorm equal to the unharmed strike dice and maybe all attacks of the Attack action to be done with the weapon for Steel Gate, Protrction Wind could allow to expand the ricochet attack to all ranged attacks deflected when using the already Ki-powered option of it). I am not personally a fan of allowing Heavy weapons to be used for a Monk, but that might be just some kind of personal preference :p
Mastery of many form, with the changes I suggest, would undoubtedly need reword as well, and I’d suggesting along the lines of allowing the use of Ki-powered additions to the stances without the need to spend Ki for a number of turns equal to the character’s natural WIS modifier (so max 5, as this would not count magic bonuses); this feature would anyway not allow to use Weaponised Prediction for free should it cost Ki instead of being a set amount of times per rest. I’d also set this feature as once per long rest, as it effectively heightens the stances powers greatly.
The idea for the class is good, and I hope you’ll take my sugg3stion as genuine interest in helping you on this one :)
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Hey guys; thanks for the feedback! I will work on this in the future for sure, but for right now school is eating up all my thought processes so I am not able to make any edits or changes. I will keep what you said in mind moving forward, however, and when I have free time again I will put it into practice for this!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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So inspired by the thread I made about the kensai subclass, I decided to make my own homebrew subclass based on a big discussion of a mechanic: the "Devil's Choice" of agile parry as it was. The thought came to my mind about making a weapon based monk around this idea, using personal experience from martial arts as a framing device to how to make a class based around weapon play. This is my first excursion into the world of homebrew, so I know it's probably going to be blasted as too complicated, but I hope to fine tune it into something cool. Main inspiration has to be the Elemental monk revision floating on reddit though, seeing as that kind of choice is what i'm going for. will try and put design notes as I go.
__________________________________________________________________________
Path of The Scholar:
Unlike other monastic traditions, Monks on the Path of the Scholar seek perfection of themselves through worldly material, be it a painter’s brush or cold steel. Through the study of ancient masters and teachers, the warriors of this path use stances and trained knowledge in order to become masters in their own right.
Weapon Focus: at 3rd level, choose one type of weapon. That weapon type is now favored to the player, and it becomes monk weapons for the purposes of martial arts. you gain proficiency using that weapon type.
Designate one favored weapon that the Monk currently owns. This weapon is his Kata Weapon, which must be used for the monk’s stances. If said Kata Weapon is lost, stolen or broken, the Monk can designate a new favored weapon as his Kata Weapon at the end of a Long Rest, as the Monk needs time to learn the weight, edge and characteristics of this new weapon.
A dart is always considered to be a kata weapon when chosen as a favored weapon, ignoring the need to practice to designate as such and counting as a single weapon in regards to stances.
So, like the kensei the monk can pick a martial weapon such as a long sword or a warhammer as his favored weapon, but with a small twist. I found it kinda odd how you could pick up a weapon off a hobgoblin and as long as it's what you chose you can use it perfectly, even if the sword you trained with was huge cross guard European long sword and the weapon you looted is a single edged rusted cleaver without a guard. With a kata weapon the idea is that while you can still use the pick up weapon, you won't be able to use it at full potential without training a little with it first.
The dart idea is that it's a shuriken the monk could use as per standard martial arts movie affair, and without it messing up the mechanics of the ranged stances.
Stances:
A Scholar monk has trained extensively with their chosen style, to the point they can recognize and use it even during the most intense combat. Stances represent the practiced forms a scholar has learned, and provide benefits depending on whether the kata weapon is ranged or melee.
A Scholar Monk can enter or change a stance during the start of his turn. Entering a stance does not interfere with drawing weapons, taking actions or moving. Each stance provides benefits as listed below, and last until the monk is unconscious, the battle ends or he changes stances. However, if a monk changes stance within the reach of an enemy’s melee weapon, that enemy may make a wisdom check (DC 8 + monk’s dex + proficiency) in order to make an attack of opportunity, as he sees an opening.
Basic idea here is that even at level 3, depending on ranged or melee, the monk has two choices of attacking. One defense, one offense. I had to specify that to enter a stance does not require a free action as to not interfere with drawing weapons and stuff, and to make the player plan ahead as to what they want to do. The Wisdom check is to make sure that the need to change could be dangerous when in close with the enemy, but I hope It isn't too much to discourage it. It's a wisdom check which seems most brutish enemies are not good at, and goes off the monk's best stat, dex, making it so it they have a good chance they can a mistake when they change stances.
Melee:
Stance of the Dragon’s Tooth: This stance allows the Monk to use his Kata Weapon to make an attack as his bonus action in place of an unarmed strike as part of his martial arts. By spending 1 Ki point, the Scholar Monk may make a flurry of blows with his kata weapon, but when doing so he suffers a -2 AC penalty until his next turn as he focuses on attacking before defense.
Stance of the Steel Gate: While performing this stance, the monk gains +2 to his AC, but may only make unarmed strikes as his attack action. If the monk performs patient defense while in this stance, he may make one weapon strike as a reaction should the enemy as a result of disadvantage.
So here's the main ideas that inspired me making this class: Attack, or defense?
dragon's tooth gives you the striking capabilities of a two weapon fighter with the appropriate fighting style. An extra attack as a bonus action using his kata instead of an unarmed strike. it hits hard and allows you to have the feel that you studied your sword well enough to act like an extension of your arm. The flurry idea is an extension of that, giving you a chance to hit one more time to burn through damage, but it makes you much easier to hit. Do it when the enemy has advantage on you and it stacks quite a bit more. He can do it more than a fighter can with an action surge, but unlike the fighter he is leaving himself much more open to a counter and considering the small amount of HP a monk has the choice becomes much bigger. A cleric standing behind the monk can heal him, but if the monk does it until he runs out of ki then the cleric will have a hard time keeping up with the damage he may take, so it will be a decision between flurrying or not.
Last night I did realize that it may be a bit much to have what equates to two weapon fighting with a two handed longsword, so I may tone it down just a tad.
Steel Gate is the opposite, giving you more defense at the cost of damage. since martial arts dice have a hard time keeping up with other classes damage output it's a fair trade for giving you more defense. it doesn't block off flurry at all, so you can still punch, and interacts with patient defense to give the feel of a counter attack option so you can at least strike with your sword once upon reaching a condition and spending a ki point.
Range:
Stance of the Hailstorm: while in this stance the monk may make an attack with their kata weapon as a bonus action if they attacked with it as an action. You may spend 1 ki point to do two attacks as a bonus action, but said bonus action can never have a bonus to accuracy beyond dex and proficiency.
Stance of the Protecting Wind: While in this stance the monk may spend their bonus action to prepare an attack. As a reaction, The monk may use the skill deflect missile for their allies when one of their allies within the kata weapon’s range gets hit with a ranged missile attack, or to impose disadvantage against a single melee weapon attack directed at their ally. Alternatively, the monk may forgo their action and spend 2 Ki points in order to use deflect missile on every ranged melee attack the enemy makes against their allies, or impose disadvantage on a single enemy’s attack action until the next turn.
A missile cannot be redirected in this way, unlike a regular deflect missile.
I'm just going to admit; I had these stances with the dart in mind. the image of a monk rocking up and throwing a carpton of shuriken is possibly one of my favorite things when thinking of for a weapon specialist. Having it be so you can toss four out at a time with steel rain seems like a swift monk thing to do, after all. The accuracy thing is so that people with a +1 shortbow couldn't be too overpowering, and it makes sense seeing as your just shooting so many things over the course of 10 seconds.
Protecting wind is also another fun image I had when trying to decide how a shuriken monk could be defensive. Being able to block some arrows for your party seemed like a great idea, and the class already has a mechanic to do it built in. imposing disadvantage on a melee attack could help allies, and has the image of an arrow or shuriken hitting a sword before it strikes. The cost to Ki is to make the defense even better, but it gets expensive when used every turn. it does give a suppressing fire feel to it too.
_______________
Idea 1:
Practiced meditation: A level 6 Scholar may,at the end of any long rest, his Kata Weapon with a low level of Ki. His Kata weapon counts as a magical weapon for purposes of overcoming reduction. This effect lasts until the end of his next long rest.
Weaponized prediction: When you attack with a favored weapon or unarmed strike, you may spend 1 ki point to maximize the damage of your attack. This may be used only once per turn.
________________
Advanced forms: Upon reaching level 6, the scholar monk has advanced enough to practice two new stances in combat. These stances apply to both range combat or melee combat. In addition, The wisdom check made by enemies have disadvantage when the scholar monk changes stances within melee range
Stance of the Planar Window: Even the most hardy of creatures have weak spots, and the scholar has learned to exploit them. While within this stance the Scholar’s kata weapons Ignore resistance entirely, and any immunities to said weapon becomes resistance. All the monk’s attacks in this stance have a +1 to hit and wound , and by spending 1 Ki Point the monk may add their wisdom modifier to all hit rolls for the rest of the turn.
Stance of the Mithril Butterfly: Scholar monks realized that where they cannot use strength, momentum can be chained into brutishly strong attacks. While in this stance a scholar monk can choose to add 1d4 damage to every strike, as long as they take no other actions, ( free, bonus or move) in between attacking. any bonuses to unarmed strikes can only be achieved directly after the main attack action. After they make an attack action the scholar may spend 1 Ki point to make an additional weapon attack as a bonus action. This attack maximise the damage rolls for the weapon’s damage die.
So, here is where I had trouble deciding what I wanted for level 6. I didn't want to completely copy the kensei abilities at this level, an I still wanted some choice on damage or accuracy. This may need more workshopping, but the idea is still in place. rather than automatic, The scholar has to choose to enter into a form that will make it so he can overcome resistance, and even if he already has a magical sword then the little bonuses to accuracy will still be there in case he just cannot hit what he's fighting. The bonus to hit replaces the dragon's tooth bonus to attack, but can be used to punch things a lot easier even without the extra sword cut. the damage is there to show that what he hits is really hit, but I may remove that, seeing as I thought of the Mithril butterfly soon after
So the mithril Butterfly (based on a historic sword technique that uses momentum to swing the sword ) is the one i'm really shaky on. It provides another damage die (a small one) to both weapon and unarmed as long as you keep attacking in that turn. if you move between people then that bonus is lost. I may add some interraction with the fast movement ki power, step of the wind, if only to make the die hit just a bit stronger, but first I wanna see how this is seen first.
Shared Systems: when the monk reaches level 11, As learning expands and knowledge turns into mastery, the scholar monk starts to expand his experience, moving from one stance to another more easily, and adding more weapons to his arsenal.
The favored weapon type the monk has learned at level 3 is now considered a Mastered Type. A Kata weapon from a Mastered weapon type becomes a +2 magical weapon as long as the scholar is holding it. In addition, the scholar no longer provokes attacks of opportunity when he changes stances while using a mastered weapon.
A Scholar monk may choose a new weapon to be a favored weapon, this time including weapons with the heavy quality. If his weapon has the heavy quality, he may never subtract from his hit roll through the use of feats, nor change the damage dice with martial arts (example: a greatsword’s 2d6 damage will never become 2d10, it is always 2d6.)
another area that I may be shaky in. I wanted to do something like sharpen the blade, but make it so the weapon you used through your adventures became a bit stronger. I didn't want to copy it word for word, as that ability is one I really liked when thinking about the kensei, so I wanted to keep it. Having it become a +2 magical weapon may be a bit much. Maybe if I changed to to when he enters a Stance, it gains the +2 effect, or something like that. I do want to show how powerful the monk has become with it before he goes into something else.
The second feature shows that the monk can use a brand new weapon because the style he uses is part of the same teaching school, has the same guards ect. Letting him pick up a greatsword or a glaive would bring that together, and making it so he cannot subtract from his hit roll makes it so he cannot cheese it with great weapon master at level 12. Same thing for longbow and sharp shooter. I may remove this feature or limit it more at a later time, but I wanted to see how it goes first.
Master of many forms: upon reaching level 17, the Scholar monk has mastered the use of their stances. When they enter either the Hailstorm, Protecting wind, Steel Gate Or Dragon Tooth stance, they may choose the attributes of either the Mithril Butterfly or the Planar window stances to add to that stance, creating a mastered stance. (do note, the hailstorm’s flurry can benefit from planar window’s bonuses in this instance)
Welp, here is the capstone. this allows you to mix advanced and starting stances, making them even stronger. I think being able to add extra damage to the starting classes would make a good capstone, and allow you to mix it up a little more while keeping in with the theme.
Alright, that's the write up for my first homebrew. Special thanks to Mephista for helping me with the starting theme, and I hope to have some feedback based on the idea of this class.
The idea is definitely interesting, but I feel the level 6 features are somewhat unbalanced.
I would probably suggest to Create features that would be an improved form of the level 3 stances, so, for example, taking out the -2AC from Dragon’s Tooth. Steel Gate could grant one weapon attack to be performed when using the stance, substituting one unharmed attack.
Hailstorm seems a bit strange. I understand where you come from by only allowing Dexter and proficiency to the second bonus attack, but it feels a bit off. I’d probably rather put a “half proficiency” bonus instead, as the possible bonuses from magic items are inherit in the item itself, and I find it a bit difficult to rationalise the character actions negating it. The improved form could be as simple as granting full proficiency bonus to all attacks. Protection wind is a beautiful idea and a wonderful use of deflect missiles with ranged weapon, kudos to you. The improved version might be something along the lines of the stance allowing, if the deflection is done on a missile, to make the original attack targent an enemy 5 feet from the original target of the attack, in a sort of ricochet shot.
These advanced stances, or something along those lines, sound like a decent addition to have at level 11.
Practiced Meditation and Weaponised Prediction seem adequate for level 6 features, but I’d probs lay give some other limitation to Weaponised Prediction, as the way it is now seems a bit OP. I’d suggest either increasing the cost to 2 Ki, or allowing only a few uses per short/long rest.
Shared systems is where I am unsure the most. While I see the sense of it, I’d probably suggest to integrate it into the advanced stances above (also considering my suggestion of moving them to lvl 11), by allowing to switch stance for free, and to spend sone thing along the lines of 2/3 Ki to boost what the stance already does (allowing additional damage to Dragon’s Tooth and Hailstorm equal to the unharmed strike dice and maybe all attacks of the Attack action to be done with the weapon for Steel Gate, Protrction Wind could allow to expand the ricochet attack to all ranged attacks deflected when using the already Ki-powered option of it). I am not personally a fan of allowing Heavy weapons to be used for a Monk, but that might be just some kind of personal preference :p
Mastery of many form, with the changes I suggest, would undoubtedly need reword as well, and I’d suggesting along the lines of allowing the use of Ki-powered additions to the stances without the need to spend Ki for a number of turns equal to the character’s natural WIS modifier (so max 5, as this would not count magic bonuses); this feature would anyway not allow to use Weaponised Prediction for free should it cost Ki instead of being a set amount of times per rest. I’d also set this feature as once per long rest, as it effectively heightens the stances powers greatly.
The idea for the class is good, and I hope you’ll take my sugg3stion as genuine interest in helping you on this one :)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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Hey guys; thanks for the feedback! I will work on this in the future for sure, but for right now school is eating up all my thought processes so I am not able to make any edits or changes. I will keep what you said in mind moving forward, however, and when I have free time again I will put it into practice for this!