The Way of The Eldritch Fist  is an interesting idea that turns the scrapper built monk and gives them more of a scout type boon to where they could jump ahead of the party and see what lurks in the shadows. I'm not quite sure how I would improve this subclass more except maybe expanding the ki pool size.

As in my post about the Way of the Grim Reaper, I recommend this subclass be a spellcasting subclass.

I really like Arcane Strike Technique, I think a different name would help. If I was writing this, I would remove the options for force, radiant, and necrotic as those are very potent damage types.

You should not be worried about the ki point pool, you should actually be worried about your ki point cost. You allow a 17th level monk to cast psychic scream, a 9th level spell, up to 8 times per day!!

On a more mechanical level, it appears you don’t support this subclass in DDB’s character sheet, which is the purpose of the subclass builder. You also have non SRD content everywhere and a link to a website blatantly showing off non SRD content.

Given the fact I currently don't have access to a more advanced account, I'm doing what I have to put my subclasses together. Also at the time I was not aware the tool tip built in linking system.  However the Arcane strike is meant to do elemental type damage which why its listed as such. its a throw back to the elemental fist feat I used alot as a monk.  The ki cost is arrange as such based on when a full spellcaster(ei Wizard) would have access to those spells. in a real combat scenario they wouldn't cast it more than once. Look at the  spread of abilities, this subclass allows the Monk be a nearly self-sufficient scout and threat assessor.

Throughout 5e, "elemental type damage" has referred to acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder and occasionally poison damage. This is shown in [Tooltip Not Found], elemental weapon, elemental bane and absorb elements.

While the spells might be more arranged to scale with level, the ki cost does not. The ki cost is an essential part of the balance of any subclass for the monk. To elaborate on the psychic scream example, a 17th level wizard can cast psychic scream once per long rest. This monk can cast it up to 8 times per short rest. It might be impractical to cast it 8 times, but dealing 14d6 damage to 10 creatures for the cost of 2 ki points would come up more than once, probably three or four. In comparison, Way of the Open Hand's 17th level ability, costing 3 ki points, takes one action to administer and one action to activate, deals 10d10 damage to one creature. Quivering Palm deals an average of 55 damage, while psychic scream (adding up every creature's damage) deals an average of 490 damage.

Looking at the spread of abilities, I see both a lot of possibility in character creation and a lot of frustration at the table. To elaborate on my Way of the Grim Reaper comments, Way of the Four Elements, one of the three PHB subclasses, gave players a lot of different ways to use ki points but when receiving feedback on the subclass, D&D found that players were frustrated by this! Players felt like their ki points didn't go far enough and that they were being asked to choose between things like flurry of blows (a central part of the class) and these cool tricks they had acquired. 

Your subclass has much the same problem. But, as the majority of these abilities deal with spellcasting, the easiest solution to this problem is to make it a spellcasting subclass like the Eldritch Knight or the Arcane Trickster. Sure, you might have less powerful magic, but you will definitely have more balance.

I never leave out Radiant or necrotic damage as there are planes that solely consist of those types of energy. In my own testing of this subclass I found the only draw back was the need to rest every 2nd or 3rd fight simply due to running out of Ki points as I saw a patterns and combos to use in each fight rather just spamming a like brainless one trick pony. Also I just gave both monk subclasses a clean up and minor overhaul. The one I have to seriously test out is my Shadow Monarch, It's been tested up to level 3 in my current campaign.  Having 6 Shadow for an army has been interesting so far.

Quote from HaseoYamazaki >>

In my own testing of this subclass I found the only draw back was the need to rest every 2nd or 3rd fight simply due to running out of Ki points as I saw a patterns and combos to use in each fight rather just spamming a like brainless one trick pony. 

 Not to harp on this, but I really do believe that adding spellcasting will relieve this burden on your ki pool. Instead of using the same pool for multiple abilities, you can throw more punches and cast more spells.

A note about playtesting, there are a lot of factors you need to consider and watch when playtesting: Is my DM throwing more powerful monsters at us than they would otherwise? Are other players playtesting homebrew or using additional feats? How do the other players feel about your character? Do they feel overshadowed by you?

This last point is important. Balance is as much a feeling as it is a number. If the people you’re playing with don’t feel like you’re stealing the show and they’re having fun, then you’re fine.

When you asked for feedback, I used my experiences at the table to think through the abilities and how players and DMs I know would feel about them. It’s pretty OP in my opinion but if your table’s happy with it and that’s all you need, that’s great.

Stupid computer crash, now I have to start all over.

Firs thing was you need to rewrite your OP, it says this "interesting idea that turns the scrapper built monk and gives them more of a scout type boon to where they could jump ahead of the party" while the subclass says this "Monks of this order have learned to tap into the arcane arts through the use of their Ki coupled with apt study of such magics" Neither of which captures what this monk is actually about.

Which is utterly wreck everything.

When I compare subclasses, I try and look at the baseline first. Open Hand monk for the monks. Which allows for status effects when they flurry, the best of which are generally either knocking an enemy prone, or removing their reactions. But, in terms of pure damage, this thing takes the cake.

At level three the Eldritch fist can add 2d6, element doesn't really matter for reasons I'll get into, to every single blow. For a full minute (one combat) for a single ki, with no concentration. The element doesn't matter, because first of all you will likely default to force damage since only about 3 creatures in the game have defenses against it, and second of all because it seems to be a free action to change it as needed, with no cost. Which means you will likely only change it when you need to switch for vulnerabilities, and double all the damage I'm about to be talking about.

Because there is so much damage.

At level 3, if we take a snapshot of a single turn, Open hand spends one ki to flurry, Eldritch fist spends a ki to activate.
Open Hand-> 1d8+mod/1d4+mod/1d4+mod for an average of about 8+mod*3
Eldritch -> 1d8+2d6+mod, for an average of 11+mod

Now, Open hand is dealing more damage, because of modifier stacks, and gets to knock an enemy prone on a save, but after that they need to spend a new ki to do anything else, meanwhile, the Eldritch fist can keep attacking, dealing 1d8+2d6+mod/1d4+2d6+mod on the second turn for an average of 24+mod*2 which is insane.

lv 5 for the Fist? 1d8+2d6+mod/1d8+2d6+mod/3d6+mod every turn after the first. That is an average of 32+mod*2 damage or the equivalent of a fireball every turn, in exchange for a single ki point and bonus action. For a paladin to match this, as paladins are generally considered on of the strongest single spike classes in the game, they would need to hit twice with a greatsword (4d6+mod*2) and burn a first and second level spell slot into smiting (5d8) to get the same sort of average damage.

That is a nova strike using two long rest resources, from one of the best single damage classes in the game, and I'm comparing it to the use of a single point of ki, which recovers on a short rest. I'm not even using Flurry of Blows.

Just for giggles, let's max this one ability out, at 18th level.
Paladin strikes for maximum burn, two greatsword attacks, improved divine smite, and two 4th level spells (because 5th level doesn't net more damage) 4d6+12d8+mod*2, for an average of 61+mod*2

Eldritch fist, one turn to set up, 1 ki for activate, 1 ki for flurry. 4d12+20d6+mod*4, or an average of 96+mod*4

Even if the paladin used two fifth level slots to cast Holy Weapon and Banishing smite, breaking the rules of concentration, they would only add an additional 4d8+5d10 and only barely eke past the Monk raising up to an average of 106+mod*2. That is 2 4th, 2 5th, breaking the rules of the game, and only 10 points of damage more than the monk pulled out in a single turn for two ki.

And the Eldritch fist isn't even trying yet. Because I've only been looking at their 3rd level ability.

At 6th they get some spells to cast. Enlarge/Reduce is quirky, and Enhance Ability could be neat. But Longstrider and Haste open up tons of things.

First of all, I have no idea why we are casting 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level spells for the same cost. Secondly, I have no idea why we are tripling the duration of these spells when we first get them. Just last level the wizard got haste, now the monk is getting haste with a 3 minute concentration? And longstrider has no concentration, so we can just assume that the monk has it.

So, now your AC is increased by 2, your movement speed is double+20 (longstrider) giving a 6th level monk 110 movement speed, and they can make another attack.

So, our 18th level uber turn? For another 2 ki and haste (because you can haste as an action and bonus action your fist) we get an additional 1d12+5d6+mod, raising our average by 23+mod points, once more surpassing the paladin, who could blow up their holy weapon for another 4d8 as a bonus action, to keep up.


Now, I'm almost glad that is as far as we can go with making them deal damage, because the rest of this is a mess. Like, I don't want to be rude, but you have True Strike, the worst cantrip in the game, cost 4 points to cast and Arcane Eye which is one of the ultimate scouting tools of the wizard cost the same amount. And, I'm kind of scared what you might mean with making them follow the rules of Arcane Enhancement. Are you letting true strike work a number of rounds equal to 1/2 level? That is five rounds of advantage against a single target. Not worth 4 ki when I can spend half that for Haste five levels ago, but not how the spell is intended either. Of course, 5 hours of true seeing (a 6th level spell that just became available) is worth spending 4 ki on. Heck, that ability alone is more powerful than anything else gained at 11th level and I would flag. Frankly, at 11th level, no one is going to have their monk spend ki on detecting magic or evil, but spending 4 ki to get 5 hours of Arcane Eye? The monk regains that ki before the spell expires so it is essentially a completely free "map out the dungeon" ability, followed by another 4 ki to have truesight for anything invisible or hidden doors you might have missed while mapping.

Now, I'm going to disagree with Caelius that Psychic Scream is the problem at this point. Yeah, 6 points to force 10 creatures to save versus your stunning strike and 14d6 psychic damage is really tempting, but it is the other combos we've already established that are causing massive problems. Psychic Scream as your first action could cause 140d6 of damage across the board, but I'd probably still take Haste at a third of the cost, lasting the next 9 minutes and increasing my speed to... what, count mobile and longstrider which is 9 hours, 150 ft a turn without dashing? At that point, why bother with teleportation of 60 ft as a bonus action. Why am I bothering with 6 ki for Hex, which only adds a  d6 of damage when I can instead add an entire second attack for 1d12+5d6+mod?


But I think the biggest thing that makes me scratch my head was something in your last post " I saw a patterns and combos to use in each fight rather just spamming a like brainless one trick pony. "

Because, that isn't how people treat class abilities. They don't seek out various combos, they generally find the one that works, and they don't need to look very far in this class to find it. Arcane Strike, Haste. More damage than any other vanilla class in the game, unless you start counting all the dice that an aoe throws down.

Then just Psychic scream.



Now, there are a few parts that I can give advice on. Arcane Strike should be way nerfed. Add an extra monk die of damage to each attack, at most. And you are stuck with whatever element you summon when you cast it. This seems really harsh, but monks are multi-strike, they get a potential 4 attacks at level 5, which translates into an extra 4d6 at that level. Same as Hex gives a warlock at level 17. Over time, it will add up, and it should never be the most powerful ability the monk has.

For the spells, I'm not entirely sure how to fix this. On one hand, you need to pull something closer to the 4 element monk. Higher level spells should cost more ki. Now, maybe not as much as 4E monk has, they end up a little too costly, but you also can't let something as powerful as Haste cost only 2 points while Hex costs 6, and doesn't come online until the end game. Additionally, just get rid of some of these spells. The out of body experience from meditating? Open Hand does that with Astral Projection, this monk does not need Arcane Eye. You want a big, late game AOE for you monk? Don't make it a 9th level spell. Go with something smaller and leave the 9th level spells to actual full casters. I mean, the 4E monk does 6 ki for Cone of Cold at 17th level, and that is a 5th level spell compared to your 9th level.

Quote from Chaosmancer7 >>

Stupid computer crash, now I have to start all over.

Firs thing was you need to rewrite your OP, it says this "interesting idea that turns the scrapper built monk and gives them more of a scout type boon to where they could jump ahead of the party" while the subclass says this "Monks of this order have learned to tap into the arcane arts through the use of their Ki coupled with apt study of such magics" Neither of which captures what this monk is actually about.

Which is utterly wreck everything.

When I compare subclasses, I try and look at the baseline first. Open Hand monk for the monks. Which allows for status effects when they flurry, the best of which are generally either knocking an enemy prone, or removing their reactions. But, in terms of pure damage, this thing takes the cake.

At level three the Eldritch fist can add 2d6, element doesn't really matter for reasons I'll get into, to every single blow. For a full minute (one combat) for a single ki, with no concentration. The element doesn't matter, because first of all you will likely default to force damage since only about 3 creatures in the game have defenses against it, and second of all because it seems to be a free action to change it as needed, with no cost. Which means you will likely only change it when you need to switch for vulnerabilities, and double all the damage I'm about to be talking about.

Because there is so much damage.

At level 3, if we take a snapshot of a single turn, Open hand spends one ki to flurry, Eldritch fist spends a ki to activate.
Open Hand-> 1d8+mod/1d4+mod/1d4+mod for an average of about 8+mod*3
Eldritch -> 1d8+2d6+mod, for an average of 11+mod

Now, Open hand is dealing more damage, because of modifier stacks, and gets to knock an enemy prone on a save, but after that they need to spend a new ki to do anything else, meanwhile, the Eldritch fist can keep attacking, dealing 1d8+2d6+mod/1d4+2d6+mod on the second turn for an average of 24+mod*2 which is insane.

lv 5 for the Fist? 1d8+2d6+mod/1d8+2d6+mod/3d6+mod every turn after the first. That is an average of 32+mod*2 damage or the equivalent of a fireball every turn, in exchange for a single ki point and bonus action. For a paladin to match this, as paladins are generally considered on of the strongest single spike classes in the game, they would need to hit twice with a greatsword (4d6+mod*2) and burn a first and second level spell slot into smiting (5d8) to get the same sort of average damage.

That is a nova strike using two long rest resources, from one of the best single damage classes in the game, and I'm comparing it to the use of a single point of ki, which recovers on a short rest. I'm not even using Flurry of Blows.

Just for giggles, let's max this one ability out, at 18th level.
Paladin strikes for maximum burn, two greatsword attacks, improved divine smite, and two 4th level spells (because 5th level doesn't net more damage) 4d6+12d8+mod*2, for an average of 61+mod*2

Eldritch fist, one turn to set up, 1 ki for activate, 1 ki for flurry. 4d12+20d6+mod*4, or an average of 96+mod*4

Even if the paladin used two fifth level slots to cast Holy Weapon and Banishing smite, breaking the rules of concentration, they would only add an additional 4d8+5d10 and only barely eke past the Monk raising up to an average of 106+mod*2. That is 2 4th, 2 5th, breaking the rules of the game, and only 10 points of damage more than the monk pulled out in a single turn for two ki.

And the Eldritch fist isn't even trying yet. Because I've only been looking at their 3rd level ability.

At 6th they get some spells to cast. Enlarge/Reduce is quirky, and Enhance Ability could be neat. But Longstrider and Haste open up tons of things.

First of all, I have no idea why we are casting 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level spells for the same cost. Secondly, I have no idea why we are tripling the duration of these spells when we first get them. Just last level the wizard got haste, now the monk is getting haste with a 3 minute concentration? And longstrider has no concentration, so we can just assume that the monk has it.

So, now your AC is increased by 2, your movement speed is double+20 (longstrider) giving a 6th level monk 110 movement speed, and they can make another attack.

So, our 18th level uber turn? For another 2 ki and haste (because you can haste as an action and bonus action your fist) we get an additional 1d12+5d6+mod, raising our average by 23+mod points, once more surpassing the paladin, who could blow up their holy weapon for another 4d8 as a bonus action, to keep up.


Now, I'm almost glad that is as far as we can go with making them deal damage, because the rest of this is a mess. Like, I don't want to be rude, but you have True Strike, the worst cantrip in the game, cost 4 points to cast and Arcane Eye which is one of the ultimate scouting tools of the wizard cost the same amount. And, I'm kind of scared what you might mean with making them follow the rules of Arcane Enhancement. Are you letting true strike work a number of rounds equal to 1/2 level? That is five rounds of advantage against a single target. Not worth 4 ki when I can spend half that for Haste five levels ago, but not how the spell is intended either. Of course, 5 hours of true seeing (a 6th level spell that just became available) is worth spending 4 ki on. Heck, that ability alone is more powerful than anything else gained at 11th level and I would flag. Frankly, at 11th level, no one is going to have their monk spend ki on detecting magic or evil, but spending 4 ki to get 5 hours of Arcane Eye? The monk regains that ki before the spell expires so it is essentially a completely free "map out the dungeon" ability, followed by another 4 ki to have truesight for anything invisible or hidden doors you might have missed while mapping.

Now, I'm going to disagree with Caelius that Psychic Scream is the problem at this point. Yeah, 6 points to force 10 creatures to save versus your stunning strike and 14d6 psychic damage is really tempting, but it is the other combos we've already established that are causing massive problems. Psychic Scream as your first action could cause 140d6 of damage across the board, but I'd probably still take Haste at a third of the cost, lasting the next 9 minutes and increasing my speed to... what, count mobile and longstrider which is 9 hours, 150 ft a turn without dashing? At that point, why bother with teleportation of 60 ft as a bonus action. Why am I bothering with 6 ki for Hex, which only adds a  d6 of damage when I can instead add an entire second attack for 1d12+5d6+mod?


But I think the biggest thing that makes me scratch my head was something in your last post " I saw a patterns and combos to use in each fight rather just spamming a like brainless one trick pony. "

Because, that isn't how people treat class abilities. They don't seek out various combos, they generally find the one that works, and they don't need to look very far in this class to find it. Arcane Strike, Haste. More damage than any other vanilla class in the game, unless you start counting all the dice that an aoe throws down.

Then just Psychic scream.



Now, there are a few parts that I can give advice on. Arcane Strike should be way nerfed. Add an extra monk die of damage to each attack, at most. And you are stuck with whatever element you summon when you cast it. This seems really harsh, but monks are multi-strike, they get a potential 4 attacks at level 5, which translates into an extra 4d6 at that level. Same as Hex gives a warlock at level 17. Over time, it will add up, and it should never be the most powerful ability the monk has.

For the spells, I'm not entirely sure how to fix this. On one hand, you need to pull something closer to the 4 element monk. Higher level spells should cost more ki. Now, maybe not as much as 4E monk has, they end up a little too costly, but you also can't let something as powerful as Haste cost only 2 points while Hex costs 6, and doesn't come online until the end game. Additionally, just get rid of some of these spells. The out of body experience from meditating? Open Hand does that with Astral Projection, this monk does not need Arcane Eye. You want a big, late game AOE for you monk? Don't make it a 9th level spell. Go with something smaller and leave the 9th level spells to actual full casters. I mean, the 4E monk does 6 ki for Cone of Cold at 17th level, and that is a 5th level spell compared to your 9th level.

  Haste only last one minute which tells me you failed to read the details of the abilities correctly. none of the spells go beyond their initial spell level. Also many of the spells available in the subclass have a concentration requirement. True strike is included as a back up measure when the monk is confident about hitting the target. Look at the names and descriptions of the features before jumping all over the with half-baked logic. As for the Arcane Strike feature, its scaled to match most evocation cantrips but is instead treated like additional weapon damage.  If you have played in any of my many campaigns you'll see that the monsters are just as scary in the setup as a subclass like this. I give players alot of challenges to equal the perks and upgrades they get. I also roll 4d6's on the ability scores and drop the lowest.

The thing is, if you're going to change the power scale by that much for one sub-class, then you would probably be scaling up the power scale of a lot of other sub-classes as well to keep them viable in comparison.  Is your intention to ignore the already existing subclasses and just write your own?  If so, then yes, maybe this is viable b/c all the options will be comparable in combat.  If not, then you're likely to have a lot of unhappy players due to this one person's PC being the insta-kill guy all the time.  Or everybody plays the same 2 or 3 subclasses you created that are OP compared to the rest.  Yes, that technically works, but then you're taking a lot of effective choices away from your players as a DM.

Quote from Astromancer >>

To elaborate on my Way of the Grim Reaper comments, Way of the Four Elements, one of the three PHB subclasses, gave players a lot of different ways to use ki points but when receiving feedback on the subclass, D&D found that players were frustrated by this! Players felt like their ki points didn't go far enough and that they were being asked to choose between things like flurry of blows (a central part of the class) and these cool tricks they had acquired. 

Your subclass has much the same problem. But, as the majority of these abilities deal with spellcasting, the easiest solution to this problem is to make it a spellcasting subclass like the Eldritch Knight or the Arcane Trickster. Sure, you might have less powerful magic, but you will definitely have more balance.

 I'm curious Astromancer, since I was not around for the playtest of the 4E Monk, was the frustration of the players more that they had too many choices, too few choices, or too few synergistic choices?  

While at casual glance, the 4E Monk looks cool, reading it carefully reveals that you only get 1 elemental ability per tier.  That's quite limiting.  Also, from most of what I've read on various message boards and reviews, the 4E Monk spells are just copy and pasted from the PHB spells for the most part.  That is, none of them have an mechanics to work well with the hit-hard-move-away type of role that the base Monk is designed for.

Quote from HaseoYamazaki >>

Quote from Chaosmancer7 >>

*SNIP*

  [Tooltip Not Found] is included as a back up measure when the monk is confident about hitting the target. Look at the names and descriptions of the features before jumping all over the with half-baked logic. As for the Arcane Strike feature, its scaled to match most evocation cantrips but is instead treated like additional weapon damage.  If you have played in any of my many campaigns you'll see that the monsters are just as scary in the setup as a subclass like this. I give players alot of challenges to equal the perks and upgrades they get. I also roll 4d6's on the ability scores and drop the lowest.

 

Not sure which ability is under [Tooltip Not Found] but I'm not sure it really matters.

Which names and descriptions do you feel I didn't read close enough? I read what each spell listed does, double checking what I remembered just in case, and read what you posted under each ability. If you have specific things you feel I misunderstood, let me know, but none of it was "half-baked" logic, and if that is your response to criticism, then I have to wonder why you ask for advice and criticism in the first place.

As to this "If you have played in any of my many campaigns you'll see that the monsters are just as scary in the setup as a subclass like this. I give players alot of challenges to equal the perks and upgrades they get. I also roll 4d6's on the ability scores and drop the lowest." I have two responses.

1) Obviously I've never played in your campaigns, and trying to establish your credentials as running "many" games doesn't help anything.

2) I don't care how you do ability scores, that changes nothing about the subclass in anyway. I do 4d6, drop the lowest, with rerolls if more than 2 scores are below 8 and the option to use the Standard Array if you don't like your rolls. It doesn't change how the abilities work in any way whatsoever, and I wonder why you think it does.

3) If you are balancing your subclass based on how you have homebrewed your campaign, then it is vital that you mention that. I have no idea how your campaigns are balanced, and so I can't give you proper feedback without that information.

Which names and descriptions do you feel I didn't read close enough? I read what each spell listed does, double checking what I remembered just in case, and read what you posted under each ability. If you have specific things you feel I misunderstood, let me know, but none of it was "half-baked" logic, and if that is your response to criticism, then I have to wonder why you ask for advice and criticism in the first place.

The actual class features for one, they explain why the spells were chosen for that feature.

If you are balancing your subclass based on how you have homebrewed your campaign, then it is vital that you mention that. I have no idea how your campaigns are balanced, and so I can't give you proper feedback without that information.

The only subclass not being used my current campaigns is my Arcane Gunner subclass for the Wizard mainly b/c its not been chosen by my players. As for my response, its equally measured against the clear condescension people want to dish out blindly as though it were a holiday gift.

Quote from Song_of_Blues >>

Quote from Astromancer >>

To elaborate on my Way of the Grim Reaper comments, Way of the Four Elements, one of the three PHB subclasses, gave players a lot of different ways to use ki points but when receiving feedback on the subclass, D&D found that players were frustrated by this! Players felt like their ki points didn't go far enough and that they were being asked to choose between things like flurry of blows (a central part of the class) and these cool tricks they had acquired. 

Your subclass has much the same problem. But, as the majority of these abilities deal with spellcasting, the easiest solution to this problem is to make it a spellcasting subclass like the Eldritch Knight or the Arcane Trickster. Sure, you might have less powerful magic, but you will definitely have more balance.

 I'm curious Astromancer, since I was not around for the playtest of the 4E Monk, was the frustration of the players more that they had too many choices, too few choices, or too few synergistic choices?  

While at casual glance, the 4E Monk looks cool, reading it carefully reveals that you only get 1 elemental ability per tier.  That's quite limiting.  Also, from most of what I've read on various message boards and reviews, the 4E Monk spells are just copy and pasted from the PHB spells for the most part.  That is, none of them have an mechanics to work well with the hit-hard-move-away type of role that the base Monk is designed for.

 
Astromancer might have more info, but the biggest thing I've heard is cost vs effect

4E abilities are very costly, but for the levels you get them, the abilities are usually behind the curve. So you spend a lot of points on abilities that are meh, and can't use more common monk abilities. For example, it takes 3 points at 6th level to cast Shatter, a second level spell that wasn't all that great three levels ago, and it costs half your pool to even cast it. 

Quote from HaseoYamazaki >>

Which names and descriptions do you feel I didn't read close enough? I read what each spell listed does, double checking what I remembered just in case, and read what you posted under each ability. If you have specific things you feel I misunderstood, let me know, but none of it was "half-baked" logic, and if that is your response to criticism, then I have to wonder why you ask for advice and criticism in the first place.

 

The actual class features for one, they explain why the spells were chosen for that feature.

If you are balancing your subclass based on how you have homebrewed your campaign, then it is vital that you mention that. I have no idea how your campaigns are balanced, and so I can't give you proper feedback without that information.

 

The only subclass not being used my current campaigns is my Arcane Gunner subclass for the Wizard mainly b/c its not been chosen by my players. As for my response, its equally measured against the clear condescension people want to dish out blindly as though it were a holiday gift.

 

Okay, I'm trying to be polite man, but you are kind of pushing things here. You say this "The actual class features for one, they explain why the spells were chosen for that feature." and yet here is a copy and paste of the level 6 class feature, exactly as I view it.

Arcane Enhancement

At 6th level,  you can cast Enhance Ability,  Longstrider, Enlarge/Reduce, Haste, on yourself as a move action for 2 Ki points each.  The duration is a number of hours/minutes equal to half your monk level ( minimum 1 hour/minute).  You can only cast the spells at their initial levels unless they improve with character level.


So, what aspect of this tells me why you gave Haste at triple length to the class for 2 ki points? What part of it explains why you felt such a powerful ability should be so cheap.

Again, I read your class abilities. Repeatedly. If you don't want to defend your choices, fine, but you asked the internet for advice, and I tried to do that.

As for this "The only subclass not being used my current campaigns is my Arcane Gunner subclass for the Wizard mainly b/c its not been chosen by my players. " Once more, I don't know how your campaign is balanced. Telling me "I'm currently running this at my table" doesn't tell me anything. This would be highly unbalanced in my games. I've been letting someone play a Bloodhunter, who can add a single d6 of elemental damage at the cost of part of their maximum hp. They are by far the biggest damage dealer in the party and one of the best I've ever seen at my tables, and your Arcane strike is twice as powerful and has a much much lower cost to use. That appears to be an issue, and if it isn't, 'd like to know how you are adjusting monsters to make that much damage output not unbalancing.

Quote from Chaosmancer7 >>

Quote from Song_of_Blues >>

Quote from Astromancer >>

To elaborate on my Way of the Grim Reaper comments, Way of the Four Elements, one of the three PHB subclasses, gave players a lot of different ways to use ki points but when receiving feedback on the subclass, D&D found that players were frustrated by this! Players felt like their ki points didn't go far enough and that they were being asked to choose between things like flurry of blows (a central part of the class) and these cool tricks they had acquired. 

 I'm curious Astromancer, since I was not around for the playtest of the 4E Monk, was the frustration of the players more that they had too many choices, too few choices, or too few synergistic choices?  

 
Astromancer might have more info, but the biggest thing I've heard is cost vs effect

4E abilities are very costly, but for the levels you get them, the abilities are usually behind the curve. So you spend a lot of points on abilities that are meh, and can't use more common monk abilities. For example, it takes 3 points at 6th level to cast Shatter, a second level spell that wasn't all that great three levels ago, and it costs half your pool to even cast it. 

 I was referring to the 5e Way of the Four Elements. This story, which I might be misremembering, comes curtesy of Mike Mearls on Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour when he was building a monk subclass. MMHFH is a fabulous introduction into homebrewing official sounding and looking content for 5e. I learned a lot from watching it.

Ok, now that the flu and its crappy meds are out of my system finally I can make some changes.  Here's an updated version of the subclass. Way of The Eldritch Fist