I would love to hear some feedback, especially on stuff like the ki cost of skills and probably a different name to use to refer to the kenjutsu skills. If not I would at least like you to leave a vote so I can get a sense if people like it or not.
I've been using this subclass for a handful of sessions now (the version you've uploaded to DnD beyond), having started at level 5 and only hitting level 6 recently, there's certainly a lot I love about this subclass and definitely some edges to polish as well. Using what I've played so far I'll try to give feedback on 5.0 and just some other little notes about it in general.
So in no particular order:
5.0 Soul/ki weapon summoning - My issue with this one is purely a matter of flavour/aesthetic, I don't particularly feel that it fits the whole samurai vibe. Blade and body as one already has plenty to it to make use of as is anyways. If dropping that aspect of it meant getting wis modifier back onto all attacks then I'd be all for it.
Flurry of steel - Love this just as a simple re-flavouring of the classic monk move
Quickdraw defense - real fun, fits the theme, balanced really well with it cancelling dodge early on retaliation
5.0 Third eye - This is definitely an improvement, if a little situational, I'd recommend bumping it down to 1ki point
A wanderer isn't lost - This is one I've had a bit of time wrapping my head around. Can't say I don't like the idea of getting an extra proficiency in a skill however a lot of what it offers seems to be shortcuts to stuff that would play out naturally in campaigns, while that might be appealing to some, myself and DM's might find it a little disappointing that world building is condensed into bullet points for the sake of a class feature. To me this kind of thing suffers from the same issues as the favoured terrain/monsters do for rangers, its campaign specific and when its not needed might feel like a dead feature.
But to end on a more positive note I'm glad that you've done really well with this so far and are eager to improve it. Samurai subclass for monks is well needed, especially for sneakier ronin/shinobi type characters! I'm excited to see what changes will come and hope you'll be able to update the dnd beyond version soon!
Hello Folks,
About a year or so back I made a samurai subclass for monk because the official fighter/samurai and Kensei both felt lacking in that cool samurai flavor you see from movies/games/anime etc. As time went by and I thought back on it I decided I wanted to refine the subclass a bit and make it a bit more straightforward so here is what I came up with:
Way of Flashing steel 5.0
I would love to hear some feedback, especially on stuff like the ki cost of skills and probably a different name to use to refer to the kenjutsu skills. If not I would at least like you to leave a vote so I can get a sense if people like it or not.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/subclasses/101873-way-of-flashing-steel-samurai - Homebrew Monk subclass.
I've been using this subclass for a handful of sessions now (the version you've uploaded to DnD beyond), having started at level 5 and only hitting level 6 recently, there's certainly a lot I love about this subclass and definitely some edges to polish as well. Using what I've played so far I'll try to give feedback on 5.0 and just some other little notes about it in general.
So in no particular order:
5.0 Soul/ki weapon summoning - My issue with this one is purely a matter of flavour/aesthetic, I don't particularly feel that it fits the whole samurai vibe. Blade and body as one already has plenty to it to make use of as is anyways. If dropping that aspect of it meant getting wis modifier back onto all attacks then I'd be all for it.
Flurry of steel - Love this just as a simple re-flavouring of the classic monk move
Quickdraw defense - real fun, fits the theme, balanced really well with it cancelling dodge early on retaliation
5.0 Third eye - This is definitely an improvement, if a little situational, I'd recommend bumping it down to 1ki point
A wanderer isn't lost - This is one I've had a bit of time wrapping my head around. Can't say I don't like the idea of getting an extra proficiency in a skill however a lot of what it offers seems to be shortcuts to stuff that would play out naturally in campaigns, while that might be appealing to some, myself and DM's might find it a little disappointing that world building is condensed into bullet points for the sake of a class feature. To me this kind of thing suffers from the same issues as the favoured terrain/monsters do for rangers, its campaign specific and when its not needed might feel like a dead feature.
But to end on a more positive note I'm glad that you've done really well with this so far and are eager to improve it. Samurai subclass for monks is well needed, especially for sneakier ronin/shinobi type characters! I'm excited to see what changes will come and hope you'll be able to update the dnd beyond version soon!