So I've been mulling about the idea of making a homebrew subclass for the Monk based on a character concept I had for my now retired monk character, who was originally conceptualised as a grappler type of martial artist. The link is here.
One of the abilities in there is a nod to something my character spent training (3 years, in downtime between adventure hooks), but the rest were conceptualised to have a traditional Kung-fu, Ju-Jutsu and Aikido feel rather than a modern feel, i was wondering what peoples thoughts are on it. Does it seem balanced? Does it look fun? Any improvements? I'll probably play this at some point to get a feel for it myself, but extra opinions always help.
The subclass concept and overall design is not bad, and I particularly like the grapple attempt as a Reaction on a failed melee attack, well done on that one.
For the rest, aside from a general reword possibly needed to make this more in line with the usual way things are written in official subclasses, I see a couple of potential problems:
"You can attempt a grapple as part Flurry of Blows" this sounds EXTREMELY powerful, considering the class is geared around the grappling mechanic, an optimized character could make a total of 3 attacks AND a grapple attempt at level 3 breaking the action economy of most other classes (as if monk didn't do that already :P); I would suggest to either modify that and having it sacrifice one of the attacks from FoB, or change it completely and making it another Ki option (something like "spending 1 ki you can make a grapple attempt against a target within 5 feet of you as a bonus action);
Three Dragons Devastation Wave seems somewhat out of style with the rest of the subclass, as it has basically nothing to do with grappling... not sure how I would change it, but maybe making it something related to forcefully pushing (very hard and with the help of Ki) a creature you grapple could work better (it gets pushed a lot, creatures in the line of push movement get damage, if it hits a wall that's very bad news for it, something along these lines).
Overall I like it though, so I am looking foward to your opinion on my feedback and possible changes :)
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Hey, Thanks for the input, I appreciate the feedback and your advice is very helpful! :)
Rewording the class features to be more in the style of the official source-books is definitely something I want to do, i mostly wanted to get my thoughts on paper for a first draft :) lets look at what you said:
"You can attempt a grapple as part Flurry of Blows" this sounds EXTREMELY powerful, considering the class is geared around the grappling mechanic, an optimized character could make a total of 3 attacks AND a grapple attempt at level 3 breaking the action economy of most other classes (as if monk didn't do that already :P); I would suggest to either modify that and having it sacrifice one of the attacks from FoB, or change it completely and making it another Ki option (something like "spending 1 ki you can make a grapple attempt against a target within 5 feet of you as a bonus action);
Yeah you're right about that being a bit overpowered RAW, my intention was to have it the grapple replace an attack from FoB, I'll reword it to make it clearer!
Next one!:
Three Dragons Devastation Wave seems somewhat out of style with the rest of the subclass, as it has basically nothing to do with grappling... not sure how I would change it, but maybe making it something related to forcefully pushing (very hard and with the help of Ki) a creature you grapple could work better (it gets pushed a lot, creatures in the line of push movement get damage, if it hits a wall that's very bad news for it, something along these lines).
I like the Three Dragons Devastation Wave a lot and It has some sentimental value to me, but you're right, it doesn't really gel as a whole with the rest of the subclass. (I may make another subclass based around it though...). As far as replacements for this feature, manipulating grappled creatures seems like a good call, perhaps maybe something around disarming opponents could work better? that might be a flavourful touch, the implementation will need some thought though :)
I like the Three Dragons Devastation Wave a lot and It has some sentimental value to me, but you're right, it doesn't really gel as a whole with the rest of the subclass. (I may make another subclass based around it though...). As far as replacements for this feature, manipulating grappled creatures seems like a good call, perhaps maybe something around disarming opponents could work better? that might be a flavourful touch, the implementation will need some thought though :)
It is most definitely an interesting feature, and by all means it should be used in a subclass, I just feel this would not be the right one ;) [EDIT] also, forgot to say, it should probably be the capstone feature of any subclass you would use it in, since it is extremely powerful to be anywhere below level 15.
As to what to put in its place... how about a supplex-type attack? Something along the lines of granting the possibility to perform a special attack on a grappled target, smashing them on the ground with incredible force, so much so that they not only take damage [Unarmed dice+proficiency (no ability mod) imho could work well] but they also have to passa CON save or be stunned until the end of their next turn. If you want to "pump it up" a bit you could also add a "shockwave" if the character spends 1 Ki, dealing Proficiency bonus damage to all enemies within 5/10 feet. Something like this might be more in line with the subclass and still be "flashy" ;)
Hey! I've updated the abilities, what do you think of these ones? Any help at all is appreciated, I'll probably do rewording next. The class can be found here.
Hey! I've updated the abilities, what do you think of these ones? Any help at all is appreciated, I'll probably do rewording next. The class can be found here.
I'm having a bit of a hard time reading this on mobile (hopefully itsi a known issue that the text does not auto-resize on mobile), but I think the subclass is more organic and cohesive, well done :)
As you said a little rewording might be necessary, but itsi definitely a good job!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Hey there,
So I've been mulling about the idea of making a homebrew subclass for the Monk based on a character concept I had for my now retired monk character, who was originally conceptualised as a grappler type of martial artist. The link is here.
One of the abilities in there is a nod to something my character spent training (3 years, in downtime between adventure hooks), but the rest were conceptualised to have a traditional Kung-fu, Ju-Jutsu and Aikido feel rather than a modern feel, i was wondering what peoples thoughts are on it. Does it seem balanced? Does it look fun? Any improvements? I'll probably play this at some point to get a feel for it myself, but extra opinions always help.
Thanks in advance!
Hi TriWalt! o/
The subclass concept and overall design is not bad, and I particularly like the grapple attempt as a Reaction on a failed melee attack, well done on that one.
For the rest, aside from a general reword possibly needed to make this more in line with the usual way things are written in official subclasses, I see a couple of potential problems:
Overall I like it though, so I am looking foward to your opinion on my feedback and possible changes :)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Hey, Thanks for the input, I appreciate the feedback and your advice is very helpful! :)
Rewording the class features to be more in the style of the official source-books is definitely something I want to do, i mostly wanted to get my thoughts on paper for a first draft :) lets look at what you said:
Yeah you're right about that being a bit overpowered RAW, my intention was to have it the grapple replace an attack from FoB, I'll reword it to make it clearer!
Next one!:
I like the Three Dragons Devastation Wave a lot and It has some sentimental value to me, but you're right, it doesn't really gel as a whole with the rest of the subclass. (I may make another subclass based around it though...). As far as replacements for this feature, manipulating grappled creatures seems like a good call, perhaps maybe something around disarming opponents could work better? that might be a flavourful touch, the implementation will need some thought though :)
It is most definitely an interesting feature, and by all means it should be used in a subclass, I just feel this would not be the right one ;)
[EDIT] also, forgot to say, it should probably be the capstone feature of any subclass you would use it in, since it is extremely powerful to be anywhere below level 15.
As to what to put in its place... how about a supplex-type attack? Something along the lines of granting the possibility to perform a special attack on a grappled target, smashing them on the ground with incredible force, so much so that they not only take damage [Unarmed dice+proficiency (no ability mod) imho could work well] but they also have to passa CON save or be stunned until the end of their next turn.
If you want to "pump it up" a bit you could also add a "shockwave" if the character spends 1 Ki, dealing Proficiency bonus damage to all enemies within 5/10 feet.
Something like this might be more in line with the subclass and still be "flashy" ;)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Hey! I've updated the abilities, what do you think of these ones? Any help at all is appreciated, I'll probably do rewording next. The class can be found here.
I'm having a bit of a hard time reading this on mobile (hopefully itsi a known issue that the text does not auto-resize on mobile), but I think the subclass is more organic and cohesive, well done :)
As you said a little rewording might be necessary, but itsi definitely a good job!
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Thanks a lot for your help! :) I noticed the mobile thing, I'm not sure what's causing that! :o thanks, i look forward to testing it soon too! :)