1) Why wouldn't the Ranger and Fighter be using a shield if defense is the main concern?
2) The 5e monk using PD is giving up both MA and Flurry to do so, so the goblin(s) stay up longer. Killing goblins faster is a form of defense too, as Dead is the best status condition in the game.
1) Why wouldn't the Ranger and Fighter be using a shield if defense is the main concern?
2) The 5e monk using PD is giving up both MA and Flurry to do so, so the goblin(s) stay up longer. Killing goblins faster is a form of defense too, as Dead is the best status condition in the game.
Taking the Defense Fighting Style is giving up Dueling to do so with the same effect as PD, using a shield rather than two-weapon fighting is has the same effect PD. Using spell slots for healing rather than Smite or Hunter's Mark or other offensive options has the same effect as using PD.
The Ranger wouldn't use a shield b/c they are usually archers so cannot use a shield. Fighter I didn't change from the original post. But since the Barb and Paladin handily outshine either of them regardless its a bit moot to the overall point.
I guess, but they are giving up their offensive potential to do it. And even then with only 2 ki the patient defense covers 8 rounds assuming 2 short rests and 4 encounters. Any fight that lasts more than 2 rounds their defense is now AC 16 with a goblin hit rate of 40%.
All the classes give up offensive potential for defense / healing. The Paladin is giving up SMITES for Cure Wounds, the Ranger is giving up Hunter's Mark for Good Berry. The Fighter, and Paladin are giving up an offensive fighting style for defensive ones. Using a shield rather than using a two-handed weapon or two-weapon fighting is a big drop in your offensive capability - as is choosing not to use Reckless attack.
Most average fights last 1-2 rounds, and BBEG fights last 3-4 rounds at level 2 because no one has the hit points / staying power for more than that at those levels. So it seems entirely plausible to me that Patient Defense will be available as an option for the large majority of combat rounds. And remember the monk has massive maneuverability as they are built for hit-and-run so much of the time can simply move out of combat range rather than stand there getting pummeled like the Paladin, Barb or Fighter without spending a ki point.
1) Why wouldn't the Ranger and Fighter be using a shield if defense is the main concern?
2) The 5e monk using PD is giving up both MA and Flurry to do so, so the goblin(s) stay up longer. Killing goblins faster is a form of defense too, as Dead is the best status condition in the game.
Taking the Defense Fighting Style is giving up Dueling to do so with the same effect as PD, using a shield rather than two-weapon fighting is has the same effect PD. Using spell slots for healing rather than Smite or Hunter's Mark or other offensive options has the same effect as using PD.
The Ranger wouldn't use a shield b/c they are usually archers so cannot use a shield. Fighter I didn't change from the original post. But since the Barb and Paladin handily outshine either of them regardless its a bit moot to the overall point.
Defense + Shield is overkill; I would go Dueling + Shield or Defense + a two-hander. Both options put you ahead of the monk both offensively and defensively.
I guess, but they are giving up their offensive potential to do it. And even then with only 2 ki the patient defense covers 8 rounds assuming 2 short rests and 4 encounters. Any fight that lasts more than 2 rounds their defense is now AC 16 with a goblin hit rate of 40%.
All the classes give up offensive potential for defense / healing. The Paladin is giving up SMITES for Cure Wounds, the Ranger is giving up Hunter's Mark for Good Berry. The Fighter, and Paladin are giving up an offensive fighting style for defensive ones. Using a shield rather than using a two-handed weapon or two-weapon fighting is a big drop in your offensive capability - as is choosing not to use Reckless attack.
Most average fights last 1-2 rounds, and BBEG fights last 3-4 rounds at level 2 because no one has the hit points / staying power for more than that at those levels. So it seems entirely plausible to me that Patient Defense will be available as an option for the large majority of combat rounds. And remember the monk has massive maneuverability as they are built for hit-and-run so much of the time can simply move out of combat range rather than stand there getting pummeled like the Paladin, Barb or Fighter without spending a ki point.
A shield isn't a "big drop" for those classes, a longsword/battleaxe/warhammer is d8 one-handed (d10 with the new Flex property!) which is the best the monk can do with both hands. And since the monk in your example is giving up Martial Arts/Flurry for PD then that becomes a wash. And that's before we get to Fighting Style, Hunter's Mark or Rage, all of which work with a shield too. On top of all that, these classes have equal starting AC before the shield thanks to Scale or Chain.
I'm not denying that PD isn't strong; it is. But that strength comes with a notable drawback.
Fighter with Shield: 1d8 main attack, no BA attack, no GWM, no PAM
Fighter without a Shield (version 1): 2d6 main attack + GWM Fighter without a Shield (version 2): 1d10 main attack + PAM 1d4 BA attack
Both Fighters without a Shield will be doing significantly more damage than the Fighter with a shield. Using a shield is a significant drop in DPR for any martial.
As I showed earlier PD is a much bigger benefit to defense than wearing a shield. So to be balanced this comes with a bigger drop in DPR. You see, monks get the flexibility to choose turn by turn whether they want to go full offense, full defense, or conserve resources.
The problem with monk is that their baseline damage doesn't scale well into higher levels (like all two-weapon fighting) and that DMs assume monks want to use their fists so don't give them magic weapons that equal the magic weapons given to other martials. A monk with a Flametongue Shortsword is competitive in terms of DPR with a ranger, or fighter with a Flametongue shortsword. Sadly people think Monk is exclusively an unarmed fighter (despite the fact that loads of oriental martial artists use weapons), so the DM ends up kneecapping them.
Monk just needs at least 1/3 of their class features to contribute to the fundamentals of combat, rather than being niche situational features.
Both Fighters without a Shield will be doing significantly more damage than the Fighter with a shield. Using a shield is a significant drop in DPR for any martial.
And they're both still ahead of a PD-spamming monk. If the latter is acceptable, why isn't the former?
Both Fighters without a Shield will be doing significantly more damage than the Fighter with a shield. Using a shield is a significant drop in DPR for any martial.
And they're both still ahead of a PD-spamming monk. If the latter is acceptable, why isn't the former?
That is a problem of Monk DPR which I already acknowledged, not a problem with Monk defense. But a PD-spamming monk shouldn't be outperforming the defensive fighter in terms of offence b/c it also more resilient than the defensive-oriented Fighter. What about the concept of "you trade lower DPR for higher Defense" are you still not understanding?
Builds and choices that prioritize Defense have lower Offense, this is as it should be otherwise everyone would always play Defensive builds. Monks get to choose round by round whether they want to prioritize defense or offense, where as most other classes have to make permanent choices for their whole career about whether to play offensively or defensively. The problem with Monk is that when they choose offense their DPR is not competitive with other classes when they choose offense. Whereas a monk that chooses defense is competitive with other classes in terms of defense. This coupled with the fact that 5e preferences offensive play over defensive play b/c of action economy importance means that the monk is weaker than other classes.
If it helps I can assign arbitrary rankings to illustrate my point:
Barbarian that builds for Defense = A tier defense - weakness of to Wis save effects holds this back from S tier Barbarian that builds for DPR = S tier offense Fighter that builds for Defense = B tier defense - lack of healing and damage resistance holds them back here Fighter that builds for DPR = A tier offense - lack of sources of advantage holds you back here. Paladin that builds for Defense = S tier defense Paladin that builds for DPR = S tier offense Monk that builds/chooses for Defense = A tier - lack of healing holds you back here vs the Paladin. Monk that builds/chooses for DPR = C/B tier offense (B tier from level 1-10, C tier from level 11+) Ranger that builds for Defense = A/B tier defense - mediocre Wis saves, and limited armour proficiencies hold you back, if they get Absorb Elements this damage resistance bumps them to A tier defense without it they are at parity with fighter. Ranger that builds for DPR = A tier - in 5e they are S tier but with the nerf to SS in One D&D they are dropped to A tier with Hunter's mark doing a lot of the work here.
We all know that the Monk class needs some help and we are all eagerly awaiting the monk UA to see which direction WoTC will take the monk. In the meantime, I have a monk in a party that I am DM for, so I felt that I had to do some homebrewing without waiting any longer for the UA. I spent several hours (many more than I want to admit to) on YouTube, D&D chat groups, etc. gathering what homebrewers and others have done with the class. I fell into the same trap that most people do, which is just throwing the kitchen sink at the problem with tons of new abilities. So I pared things way back. In deciding what to add and what to throw out, I stuck to the principle of “Monkness”. So what defines monkness; what differentiates a monk from the other classes? I think that there are four pillars: Martial Arts, Unarmored Movement, Unarmored Defense, and Ki. So I tried to make sure that everything I added or improved fit into one of these categories, and that all of the four pillars were represented.
I rejected the idea of increasing the monk’s Hit Dice to 1d10. I rejected the idea of making Wisdom less important to make the monk less MAD. I rejected the idea of giving monks armor without penalties. I rejected the idea of a strength based monk. These ideas and others have often been suggested, but I don’t think that they fit into one of the four pillars. Sure, you can play a strength based monk and you get all the monk abilities, but there is nothing added here to offer additional support to a strength based monk. Many want to play an armored monk, but two of the pillars only function when you are without armor and without a shield. Sure, you can play an armored monk if you want to, but you will lose the benefit of all the Unarmored Defense and Unarmored Movement abilities. You are better off playing a fighter at that point IMHO, but I won’t nix your armored monk if that is what you want to play. There is always multiclassing or even new monk subclasses that could support that sort of thing for those who want these monk variants. But I don’t want to put anything into the base monk class that doesn’t support the four pillars of the traditional monk. So again, I have beefed up the four pillars of the traditional monk…That was my focus.
Here is a summary of the changes: At 1st level, monks get an improved Martial Weapons Die and Weapons Mastery for monk weapons. At 2nd level, monks get more ki (add your proficiency bonus of ki). Flurry of Blows now scales by giving you your proficiency number of unarmed strikes. You can use Breath of the Wind to replenish ki. You can use ki to cast any spells that you obtain. Unarmored Movement now includes all the benefits of the Athlete and Mobile feats. This actually makes Unarmored Movement worthwhile while delivering abilities that bring the monk genre to life. At 3rd level, you have Monk’s Riposte and Flying Kick Attack. Both are ki based Battle Master type abilities. Also at 3rd, you get the Ki based Flashback Lesson that gives you tools and skills to use out of combat. At 5th level, you get an improvement to Unarmored Defense: Martial Arts Dodge (matching the rogue’s Uncanny Dodge). I think that this makes the Monk a more rounded and useful class that adheres to the classic monk genre.
Many think that Stunning Strike is too powerful and that it winds up making the monk “a one trick pony” so that the monk does nothing else round after round of combat. Perhaps Stunning Strike needs to be nerfed into “Dazing Strike” at 5th level and then restored as Stunning Strike with a cost of 2 or 3 ki at 11th level. I would be fine with that, but I left it as is for now.
If anyone is interested, here is the whole package:
Monks: Changes and additions (If not mentioned, a monk ability is unchanged)
1st Level
Martial Arts die is upgraded: Level 1 = 1d6, Level 5 = 1d8, Level 11 = 2d6, Level 17 = 3d6.
Monks get Weapon Mastery for their monk weapons. They can also assign an eligible Weapon Mastery to their unarmed attacks and change it to another eligible mastery after a long rest. A monk’s unarmed attacks are considered to be light, bludgeoning, and finesse for the purpose of filling the prerequisites for assigning Weapon Properties.
When using a martial arts die for a weapon with the versatile property and in two hands, add +1 to the damage total.
Monks use all the Optional Class Features.
2nd Level
Unarmored Movement does the following starting at 2nd level:
Your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.
When you are prone, standing up uses only 5 feet of your movement.
Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement.
You can make a running long jump or a running high jump after moving only 5 feet on foot, rather than 10 feet. You use dexterity (instead of strength) to determine the maximum distance of your Long Jumps or High Jumps.
Subject to DM approval, you may use dexterity in place of strength for some (but not all) strength checks.
When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn’t cost you extra movement on that turn.
When you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not.
You get ki points equal to your monk level plus your proficiency bonus:
Ki points = Monk Level + Proficiency Bonus
Ki Spell Casting: If a monk gains the ability to cast a spell, the monk can cast (or upcast) the spell using ki.
Ki points are the same as sorcery points for the purposes of calculating spell slots. Cantrips are free. 1st level spells cost 2 ki, 2nd level spells cost 3 ki, 3rd level spells cost 5 ki, 4th level spells cost 6 ki, 5th level spells cost 7 ki.
Spells cast with ki do not require material components unless they are components that are consumed by the spell.
Flurry of Blows (Improved)
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make an additional number of unarmed strikes equal to your proficiency bonus as a bonus action.
Breath of the Wind: During your turn in combat when you have fewer than 2 ki points, you focus on your breathing and revitalize your ki. As a bonus action, you regain ki points equal to your Wisdom Bonus (minimum 1). You can also use this feature out of combat if you have fewer than 2 ki points. You can use Breath of the Wind once per day and It recharges after a long rest.
Step of the Wind now has zero ki cost: You can take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and your jump distance is doubled for the turn.
3rd Level
Martial Arts Additions
Monk’s Riposte: When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and expend one ki point to make a melee weapon attack against the creature.
Flying Kick Attack: When you make a melee weapon attack on your turn, you can expend one ki point to increase your reach for that attack by 10 feet (15’ total without a reach weapon).
Ki Feature Addition
Flashback Lesson: Beginning at 3rd level, you can tap into your ki to focus on a task. During 1 minute of meditation, you spend one ki point as you think back on a previous lesson that you had concerning a skill or tool.
Select one skill or tool of your choice in which you do not already have expertise. You gain proficiency in this skill or tool. If you are already proficient, you gain expertise.
This Flashback Lesson improvement lasts for 1 hour. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus and it recharges on a long rest.
Wisdom Focused Attack
Choose one attack before you make it. Spend 1 ki to use your wisdom to focus your attack. If the attack hits, add your wisdom modifier to the damage (minimum 1).
4th Level
Quickened Healing (improved) costs only 1 ki point.
As an action, you can spend 1 ki point and roll a Martial Arts die. You regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled plus your proficiency bonus or your Wisdom Bonus, whichever is greater.
Slow Fall (Improved)
You can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level (no ki cost).
Alternatively, you can expend 2 ki and cast Feather Fall as per the spell whenever someone falls within 60 feet of you. No spell components are necessary.
5th Level
5th level Unarmored Defense Improvement, Martial Arts Dodge: Starting at 5th level, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.
6th Level
Martial Arts Die Improvement: Add your wisdom modifier (in addition to your dexterity modifier) to the die roll.
7th Level
7th Level - Stillness of Mind is clarified: If you start your turn under the Charmed or Frightened condition, you can choose to end one of those conditions. If you do so, you may not take your action on your turn. (You could still use your Bonus Action for something else).
15th Level
Timeless Body is improved: At 15th level, your ki sustains you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can’t be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water. Lastly, whenever you finish a short rest, your exhaustion level, if any, is decreased by 1.
18th Level
18th Level - Empty Body requires only a bonus action instead of your action.
We all know that the Monk class needs some help and we are all eagerly awaiting the monk UA to see which direction WoTC will take the monk. In the meantime, I have a monk in a party that I am DM for, so I felt that I had to do some homebrewing without waiting any longer for the UA. I spent several hours (many more than I want to admit to) on YouTube, D&D chat groups, etc. gathering what homebrewers and others have done with the class. I fell into the same trap that most people do, which is just throwing the kitchen sink at the problem with tons of new abilities. So I pared things way back. In deciding what to add and what to throw out, I stuck to the principle of “Monkness”. So what defines monkness; what differentiates a monk from the other classes? I think that there are four pillars: Martial Arts, Unarmored Movement, Unarmored Defense, and Ki. So I tried to make sure that everything I added or improved fit into one of these categories, and that all of the four pillars were represented.
I rejected the idea of increasing the monk’s Hit Dice to 1d10. I rejected the idea of making Wisdom less important to make the monk less MAD. I rejected the idea of giving monks armor without penalties. I rejected the idea of a strength based monk. These ideas and others have often been suggested, but I don’t think that they fit into one of the four pillars. Sure, you can play a strength based monk and you get all the monk abilities, but there is nothing added here to offer additional support to a strength based monk. Many want to play an armored monk, but two of the pillars only function when you are without armor and without a shield. Sure, you can play an armored monk if you want to, but you will lose the benefit of all the Unarmored Defense and Unarmored Movement abilities. You are better off playing a fighter at that point IMHO, but I won’t nix your armored monk if that is what you want to play. There is always multiclassing or even new monk subclasses that could support that sort of thing for those who want these monk variants. But I don’t want to put anything into the base monk class that doesn’t support the four pillars of the traditional monk. So again, I have beefed up the four pillars of the traditional monk…That was my focus.
Here is a summary of the changes: At 1st level, monks get an improved Martial Weapons Die and Weapons Mastery for monk weapons. At 2nd level, monks get more ki (add your proficiency bonus of ki). Flurry of Blows now scales by giving you your proficiency number of unarmed strikes. You can use Breath of the Wind to replenish ki. You can use ki to cast any spells that you obtain. Unarmored Movement now includes all the benefits of the Athlete and Mobile feats. This actually makes Unarmored Movement worthwhile while delivering abilities that bring the monk genre to life. At 3rd level, you have Monk’s Riposte and Flying Kick Attack. Both are ki based Battle Master type abilities. Also at 3rd, you get the Ki based Flashback Lesson that gives you tools and skills to use out of combat. At 5th level, you get an improvement to Unarmored Defense: Martial Arts Dodge (matching the rogue’s Uncanny Dodge). I think that this makes the Monk a more rounded and useful class that adheres to the classic monk genre.
Many think that Stunning Strike is too powerful and that it winds up making the monk “a one trick pony” so that the monk does nothing else round after round of combat. Perhaps Stunning Strike needs to be nerfed into “Dazing Strike” at 5th level and then restored as Stunning Strike with a cost of 2 or 3 ki at 11th level. I would be fine with that, but I left it as is for now.
If anyone is interested, here is the whole package:
Monks: Changes and additions (If not mentioned, a monk ability is unchanged)
1st Level
Martial Arts die is upgraded: Level 1 = 1d6, Level 5 = 1d8, Level 11 = 2d6, Level 17 = 3d6.
Monks get Weapon Mastery for their monk weapons. They can also assign an eligible Weapon Mastery to their unarmed attacks and change it to another eligible mastery after a long rest. A monk’s unarmed attacks are considered to be light, bludgeoning, and finesse for the purpose of filling the prerequisites for assigning Weapon Properties.
When using a martial arts die for a weapon with the versatile property and in two hands, add +1 to the damage total.
Monks use all the Optional Class Features.
2nd Level
Unarmored Movement does the following starting at 2nd level:
Your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.
When you are prone, standing up uses only 5 feet of your movement.
Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement.
You can make a running long jump or a running high jump after moving only 5 feet on foot, rather than 10 feet. You use dexterity (instead of strength) to determine the maximum distance of your Long Jumps or High Jumps.
Subject to DM approval, you may use dexterity in place of strength for some (but not all) strength checks.
When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn’t cost you extra movement on that turn.
When you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not.
You get ki points equal to your monk level plus your proficiency bonus:
Ki points = Monk Level + Proficiency Bonus
Ki Spell Casting: If a monk gains the ability to cast a spell, the monk can cast (or upcast) the spell using ki.
Ki points are the same as sorcery points for the purposes of calculating spell slots. Cantrips are free. 1st level spells cost 2 ki, 2nd level spells cost 3 ki, 3rd level spells cost 5 ki, 4th level spells cost 6 ki, 5th level spells cost 7 ki.
Spells cast with ki do not require material components unless they are components that are consumed by the spell.
Flurry of Blows (Improved)
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make an additional number of unarmed strikes equal to your proficiency bonus as a bonus action.
Breath of the Wind: During your turn in combat when you have fewer than 2 ki points, you focus on your breathing and revitalize your ki. As a bonus action, you regain ki points equal to your Wisdom Bonus (minimum 1). You can also use this feature out of combat if you have fewer than 2 ki points. You can use Breath of the Wind once per day and It recharges after a long rest.
Step of the Wind now has zero ki cost: You can take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and your jump distance is doubled for the turn.
3rd Level
Martial Arts Additions
Monk’s Riposte: When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and expend one ki point to make a melee weapon attack against the creature.
Flying Kick Attack: When you make a melee weapon attack on your turn, you can expend one ki point to increase your reach for that attack by 10 feet (15’ total without a reach weapon).
Ki Feature Addition
Flashback Lesson: Beginning at 3rd level, you can tap into your ki to focus on a task. During 1 minute of meditation, you spend one ki point as you think back on a previous lesson that you had concerning a skill or tool.
Select one skill or tool of your choice in which you do not already have expertise. You gain proficiency in this skill or tool. If you are already proficient, you gain expertise.
This Flashback Lesson improvement lasts for 1 hour. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus and it recharges on a long rest.
Wisdom Focused Attack
Choose one attack before you make it. Spend 1 ki to use your wisdom to focus your attack. If the attack hits, add your wisdom modifier to the damage (minimum 1).
4th Level
Quickened Healing (improved) costs only 1 ki point.
As an action, you can spend 1 ki point and roll a Martial Arts die. You regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled plus your proficiency bonus or your Wisdom Bonus, whichever is greater.
Slow Fall (Improved)
You can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level (no ki cost).
Alternatively, you can expend 2 ki and cast Feather Fall as per the spell whenever someone falls within 60 feet of you. No spell components are necessary.
5th Level
5th level Unarmored Defense Improvement, Martial Arts Dodge: Starting at 5th level, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.
6th Level
Martial Arts Die Improvement: Add your wisdom modifier (in addition to your dexterity modifier) to the die roll.
7th Level
7th Level - Stillness of Mind is clarified: If you start your turn under the Charmed or Frightened condition, you can choose to end one of those conditions. If you do so, you may not take your action on your turn. (You could still use your Bonus Action for something else).
15th Level
Timeless Body is improved: At 15th level, your ki sustains you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can’t be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water. Lastly, whenever you finish a short rest, your exhaustion level, if any, is decreased by 1.
18th Level
18th Level - Empty Body requires only a bonus action instead of your action.
Your variation is interesting, but I think you went too far on the offensive side, I mean, 2d6 at level 11 and 3d6 at level 17? This together with the level 6 upgrade and the flurry of blows upgrade... It's too much, even if only one of them is left, I don't think they should go...
in martial arts dice you shouldn't get to 1d12/2d6 that fast, if you end up wanting to roll 3 dice for EVERY HIT, maybe 1d8 at level 5, 2d4 at level 8, 1d10 at level 11, 1d12 at level 15, 2d6 at level 18, and finally 3d4 at level 20. (Still I think the maximum and only at the last levels should be 2d6.)
And if you want to improve flurry of blows, from level 11, on the turn you use it, just add 1 blow to the attack made with your other hand (which is currently signaled using your bonus action.)
I think some buffs you added to the unarmored move should be available as a buff to it at a higher level, otherwise it would be easy to take advantage of everything with few level drops, tempting low-level multiclasses on the monk.
I like your ki/spirit recovery, more for the fact that you linked it to wisdom. A less constant alternative would be to roll your martial arts dice for this recovery.
For Quickened Healing (improved), I would add bonus only regarding constitution, if you keep your body healthy you heal slightly more efficiently.
We all know that the Monk class needs some help and we are all eagerly awaiting the monk UA to see which direction WoTC will take the monk. In the meantime, I have a monk in a party that I am DM for, so I felt that I had to do some homebrewing without waiting any longer for the UA. I spent several hours (many more than I want to admit to) on YouTube, D&D chat groups, etc. gathering what homebrewers and others have done with the class. I fell into the same trap that most people do, which is just throwing the kitchen sink at the problem with tons of new abilities. So I pared things way back. In deciding what to add and what to throw out, I stuck to the principle of “Monkness”. So what defines monkness; what differentiates a monk from the other classes? I think that there are four pillars: Martial Arts, Unarmored Movement, Unarmored Defense, and Ki. So I tried to make sure that everything I added or improved fit into one of these categories, and that all of the four pillars were represented.
I rejected the idea of increasing the monk’s Hit Dice to 1d10. I rejected the idea of making Wisdom less important to make the monk less MAD. I rejected the idea of giving monks armor without penalties. I rejected the idea of a strength based monk. These ideas and others have often been suggested, but I don’t think that they fit into one of the four pillars. Sure, you can play a strength based monk and you get all the monk abilities, but there is nothing added here to offer additional support to a strength based monk. Many want to play an armored monk, but two of the pillars only function when you are without armor and without a shield. Sure, you can play an armored monk if you want to, but you will lose the benefit of all the Unarmored Defense and Unarmored Movement abilities. You are better off playing a fighter at that point IMHO, but I won’t nix your armored monk if that is what you want to play. There is always multiclassing or even new monk subclasses that could support that sort of thing for those who want these monk variants. But I don’t want to put anything into the base monk class that doesn’t support the four pillars of the traditional monk. So again, I have beefed up the four pillars of the traditional monk…That was my focus.
Here is a summary of the changes: At 1st level, monks get an improved Martial Weapons Die and Weapons Mastery for monk weapons. At 2nd level, monks get more ki (add your proficiency bonus of ki). Flurry of Blows now scales by giving you your proficiency number of unarmed strikes. You can use Breath of the Wind to replenish ki. You can use ki to cast any spells that you obtain. Unarmored Movement now includes all the benefits of the Athlete and Mobile feats. This actually makes Unarmored Movement worthwhile while delivering abilities that bring the monk genre to life. At 3rd level, you have Monk’s Riposte and Flying Kick Attack. Both are ki based Battle Master type abilities. Also at 3rd, you get the Ki based Flashback Lesson that gives you tools and skills to use out of combat. At 5th level, you get an improvement to Unarmored Defense: Martial Arts Dodge (matching the rogue’s Uncanny Dodge). I think that this makes the Monk a more rounded and useful class that adheres to the classic monk genre.
Many think that Stunning Strike is too powerful and that it winds up making the monk “a one trick pony” so that the monk does nothing else round after round of combat. Perhaps Stunning Strike needs to be nerfed into “Dazing Strike” at 5th level and then restored as Stunning Strike with a cost of 2 or 3 ki at 11th level. I would be fine with that, but I left it as is for now.
If anyone is interested, here is the whole package:
Monks: Changes and additions (If not mentioned, a monk ability is unchanged)
1st Level
Martial Arts die is upgraded: Level 1 = 1d6, Level 5 = 1d8, Level 11 = 2d6, Level 17 = 3d6.
Monks get Weapon Mastery for their monk weapons. They can also assign an eligible Weapon Mastery to their unarmed attacks and change it to another eligible mastery after a long rest. A monk’s unarmed attacks are considered to be light, bludgeoning, and finesse for the purpose of filling the prerequisites for assigning Weapon Properties.
When using a martial arts die for a weapon with the versatile property and in two hands, add +1 to the damage total.
Monks use all the Optional Class Features.
2nd Level
Unarmored Movement does the following starting at 2nd level:
Your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.
When you are prone, standing up uses only 5 feet of your movement.
Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement.
You can make a running long jump or a running high jump after moving only 5 feet on foot, rather than 10 feet. You use dexterity (instead of strength) to determine the maximum distance of your Long Jumps or High Jumps.
Subject to DM approval, you may use dexterity in place of strength for some (but not all) strength checks.
When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn’t cost you extra movement on that turn.
When you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not.
You get ki points equal to your monk level plus your proficiency bonus:
Ki points = Monk Level + Proficiency Bonus
Ki Spell Casting: If a monk gains the ability to cast a spell, the monk can cast (or upcast) the spell using ki.
Ki points are the same as sorcery points for the purposes of calculating spell slots. Cantrips are free. 1st level spells cost 2 ki, 2nd level spells cost 3 ki, 3rd level spells cost 5 ki, 4th level spells cost 6 ki, 5th level spells cost 7 ki.
Spells cast with ki do not require material components unless they are components that are consumed by the spell.
Flurry of Blows (Improved)
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make an additional number of unarmed strikes equal to your proficiency bonus as a bonus action.
Breath of the Wind: During your turn in combat when you have fewer than 2 ki points, you focus on your breathing and revitalize your ki. As a bonus action, you regain ki points equal to your Wisdom Bonus (minimum 1). You can also use this feature out of combat if you have fewer than 2 ki points. You can use Breath of the Wind once per day and It recharges after a long rest.
Step of the Wind now has zero ki cost: You can take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and your jump distance is doubled for the turn.
3rd Level
Martial Arts Additions
Monk’s Riposte: When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and expend one ki point to make a melee weapon attack against the creature.
Flying Kick Attack: When you make a melee weapon attack on your turn, you can expend one ki point to increase your reach for that attack by 10 feet (15’ total without a reach weapon).
Ki Feature Addition
Flashback Lesson: Beginning at 3rd level, you can tap into your ki to focus on a task. During 1 minute of meditation, you spend one ki point as you think back on a previous lesson that you had concerning a skill or tool.
Select one skill or tool of your choice in which you do not already have expertise. You gain proficiency in this skill or tool. If you are already proficient, you gain expertise.
This Flashback Lesson improvement lasts for 1 hour. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus and it recharges on a long rest.
Wisdom Focused Attack
Choose one attack before you make it. Spend 1 ki to use your wisdom to focus your attack. If the attack hits, add your wisdom modifier to the damage (minimum 1).
4th Level
Quickened Healing (improved) costs only 1 ki point.
As an action, you can spend 1 ki point and roll a Martial Arts die. You regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled plus your proficiency bonus or your Wisdom Bonus, whichever is greater.
Slow Fall (Improved)
You can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level (no ki cost).
Alternatively, you can expend 2 ki and cast Feather Fall as per the spell whenever someone falls within 60 feet of you. No spell components are necessary.
5th Level
5th level Unarmored Defense Improvement, Martial Arts Dodge: Starting at 5th level, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.
6th Level
Martial Arts Die Improvement: Add your wisdom modifier (in addition to your dexterity modifier) to the die roll.
7th Level
7th Level - Stillness of Mind is clarified: If you start your turn under the Charmed or Frightened condition, you can choose to end one of those conditions. If you do so, you may not take your action on your turn. (You could still use your Bonus Action for something else).
15th Level
Timeless Body is improved: At 15th level, your ki sustains you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can’t be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water. Lastly, whenever you finish a short rest, your exhaustion level, if any, is decreased by 1.
18th Level
18th Level - Empty Body requires only a bonus action instead of your action.
Interesting ideas. Some I like, some seem to be a bit too much. Don’t care for the Ki spellcasting (but that’s just me). And I think FoB should be based on when the martial arts die increases not PB. I would probably start at level 11 for 3 and 4 at level 17. Think 5 might be too much. 6 definitely. That’s 8 attacks a round (at 17th level 8d10+40, 84 forgot the die increase so 24d6+40, 124 on average) plus stunning strike and subclass abilities.
We all know that the Monk class needs some help and we are all eagerly awaiting the monk UA to see which direction WoTC will take the monk. In the meantime, I have a monk in a party that I am DM for, so I felt that I had to do some homebrewing without waiting any longer for the UA. I spent several hours (many more than I want to admit to) on YouTube, D&D chat groups, etc. gathering what homebrewers and others have done with the class. I fell into the same trap that most people do, which is just throwing the kitchen sink at the problem with tons of new abilities. So I pared things way back. In deciding what to add and what to throw out, I stuck to the principle of “Monkness”. So what defines monkness; what differentiates a monk from the other classes? I think that there are four pillars: Martial Arts, Unarmored Movement, Unarmored Defense, and Ki. So I tried to make sure that everything I added or improved fit into one of these categories, and that all of the four pillars were represented.
I rejected the idea of increasing the monk’s Hit Dice to 1d10. I rejected the idea of making Wisdom less important to make the monk less MAD. I rejected the idea of giving monks armor without penalties. I rejected the idea of a strength based monk. These ideas and others have often been suggested, but I don’t think that they fit into one of the four pillars. Sure, you can play a strength based monk and you get all the monk abilities, but there is nothing added here to offer additional support to a strength based monk. Many want to play an armored monk, but two of the pillars only function when you are without armor and without a shield. Sure, you can play an armored monk if you want to, but you will lose the benefit of all the Unarmored Defense and Unarmored Movement abilities. You are better off playing a fighter at that point IMHO, but I won’t nix your armored monk if that is what you want to play. There is always multiclassing or even new monk subclasses that could support that sort of thing for those who want these monk variants. But I don’t want to put anything into the base monk class that doesn’t support the four pillars of the traditional monk. So again, I have beefed up the four pillars of the traditional monk…That was my focus.
Here is a summary of the changes: At 1st level, monks get an improved Martial Weapons Die and Weapons Mastery for monk weapons. At 2nd level, monks get more ki (add your proficiency bonus of ki). Flurry of Blows now scales by giving you your proficiency number of unarmed strikes. You can use Breath of the Wind to replenish ki. You can use ki to cast any spells that you obtain. Unarmored Movement now includes all the benefits of the Athlete and Mobile feats. This actually makes Unarmored Movement worthwhile while delivering abilities that bring the monk genre to life. At 3rd level, you have Monk’s Riposte and Flying Kick Attack. Both are ki based Battle Master type abilities. Also at 3rd, you get the Ki based Flashback Lesson that gives you tools and skills to use out of combat. At 5th level, you get an improvement to Unarmored Defense: Martial Arts Dodge (matching the rogue’s Uncanny Dodge). I think that this makes the Monk a more rounded and useful class that adheres to the classic monk genre.
Many think that Stunning Strike is too powerful and that it winds up making the monk “a one trick pony” so that the monk does nothing else round after round of combat. Perhaps Stunning Strike needs to be nerfed into “Dazing Strike” at 5th level and then restored as Stunning Strike with a cost of 2 or 3 ki at 11th level. I would be fine with that, but I left it as is for now.
If anyone is interested, here is the whole package:
Monks: Changes and additions (If not mentioned, a monk ability is unchanged)
1st Level
Martial Arts die is upgraded: Level 1 = 1d6, Level 5 = 1d8, Level 11 = 2d6, Level 17 = 3d6.
Monks get Weapon Mastery for their monk weapons. They can also assign an eligible Weapon Mastery to their unarmed attacks and change it to another eligible mastery after a long rest. A monk’s unarmed attacks are considered to be light, bludgeoning, and finesse for the purpose of filling the prerequisites for assigning Weapon Properties.
When using a martial arts die for a weapon with the versatile property and in two hands, add +1 to the damage total.
Monks use all the Optional Class Features.
2nd Level
Unarmored Movement does the following starting at 2nd level:
Your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.
When you are prone, standing up uses only 5 feet of your movement.
Climbing doesn't cost you extra movement.
You can make a running long jump or a running high jump after moving only 5 feet on foot, rather than 10 feet. You use dexterity (instead of strength) to determine the maximum distance of your Long Jumps or High Jumps.
Subject to DM approval, you may use dexterity in place of strength for some (but not all) strength checks.
When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn’t cost you extra movement on that turn.
When you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not.
You get ki points equal to your monk level plus your proficiency bonus:
Ki points = Monk Level + Proficiency Bonus
Ki Spell Casting: If a monk gains the ability to cast a spell, the monk can cast (or upcast) the spell using ki.
Ki points are the same as sorcery points for the purposes of calculating spell slots. Cantrips are free. 1st level spells cost 2 ki, 2nd level spells cost 3 ki, 3rd level spells cost 5 ki, 4th level spells cost 6 ki, 5th level spells cost 7 ki.
Spells cast with ki do not require material components unless they are components that are consumed by the spell.
Flurry of Blows (Improved)
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make an additional number of unarmed strikes equal to your proficiency bonus as a bonus action.
Breath of the Wind: During your turn in combat when you have fewer than 2 ki points, you focus on your breathing and revitalize your ki. As a bonus action, you regain ki points equal to your Wisdom Bonus (minimum 1). You can also use this feature out of combat if you have fewer than 2 ki points. You can use Breath of the Wind once per day and It recharges after a long rest.
Step of the Wind now has zero ki cost: You can take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and your jump distance is doubled for the turn.
3rd Level
Martial Arts Additions
Monk’s Riposte: When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and expend one ki point to make a melee weapon attack against the creature.
Flying Kick Attack: When you make a melee weapon attack on your turn, you can expend one ki point to increase your reach for that attack by 10 feet (15’ total without a reach weapon).
Ki Feature Addition
Flashback Lesson: Beginning at 3rd level, you can tap into your ki to focus on a task. During 1 minute of meditation, you spend one ki point as you think back on a previous lesson that you had concerning a skill or tool.
Select one skill or tool of your choice in which you do not already have expertise. You gain proficiency in this skill or tool. If you are already proficient, you gain expertise.
This Flashback Lesson improvement lasts for 1 hour. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus and it recharges on a long rest.
Wisdom Focused Attack
Choose one attack before you make it. Spend 1 ki to use your wisdom to focus your attack. If the attack hits, add your wisdom modifier to the damage (minimum 1).
4th Level
Quickened Healing (improved) costs only 1 ki point.
As an action, you can spend 1 ki point and roll a Martial Arts die. You regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled plus your proficiency bonus or your Wisdom Bonus, whichever is greater.
Slow Fall (Improved)
You can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level (no ki cost).
Alternatively, you can expend 2 ki and cast Feather Fall as per the spell whenever someone falls within 60 feet of you. No spell components are necessary.
5th Level
5th level Unarmored Defense Improvement, Martial Arts Dodge: Starting at 5th level, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.
6th Level
Martial Arts Die Improvement: Add your wisdom modifier (in addition to your dexterity modifier) to the die roll.
7th Level
7th Level - Stillness of Mind is clarified: If you start your turn under the Charmed or Frightened condition, you can choose to end one of those conditions. If you do so, you may not take your action on your turn. (You could still use your Bonus Action for something else).
15th Level
Timeless Body is improved: At 15th level, your ki sustains you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can’t be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water. Lastly, whenever you finish a short rest, your exhaustion level, if any, is decreased by 1.
18th Level
18th Level - Empty Body requires only a bonus action instead of your action.
Interesting ideas. Some I like, some seem to be a bit too much. Don’t care for the Ki spellcasting (but that’s just me). And I think FoB should be based on when the martial arts die increases not PB. I would probably start at level 11 for 3 and 4 at level 17. Think 5 might be too much. 6 definitely. That’s 8 attacks a round (at 17th level 8d10+40, 84 forgot the die increase so 24d6+40, 124 on average) plus stunning strike and subclass abilities.
Good points, thanks! I think I will take your advice on FoB and make the increase with the martial arts die increases. Also, since FoB is increasing, I'm going to reduce the martial arts die to 1d10 at 11th and 1d12 at 17th to compensate somewhat. My campaigns rarely get into the really high levels anyway.
Ki spellcasting I'll keep because it really doesn't do much in my campaign. We are just talking spells gained through feats that give one or two spells. My monk player isn't interested in more than that. I could see it being a problem if the monk decided to go spell heavy. But then again...ki is a pretty limited resource even after my boosts.
1) Why wouldn't the Ranger and Fighter be using a shield if defense is the main concern?
2) The 5e monk using PD is giving up both MA and Flurry to do so, so the goblin(s) stay up longer. Killing goblins faster is a form of defense too, as Dead is the best status condition in the game.
Taking the Defense Fighting Style is giving up Dueling to do so with the same effect as PD, using a shield rather than two-weapon fighting is has the same effect PD. Using spell slots for healing rather than Smite or Hunter's Mark or other offensive options has the same effect as using PD.
The Ranger wouldn't use a shield b/c they are usually archers so cannot use a shield. Fighter I didn't change from the original post. But since the Barb and Paladin handily outshine either of them regardless its a bit moot to the overall point.
All the classes give up offensive potential for defense / healing. The Paladin is giving up SMITES for Cure Wounds, the Ranger is giving up Hunter's Mark for Good Berry. The Fighter, and Paladin are giving up an offensive fighting style for defensive ones. Using a shield rather than using a two-handed weapon or two-weapon fighting is a big drop in your offensive capability - as is choosing not to use Reckless attack.
Most average fights last 1-2 rounds, and BBEG fights last 3-4 rounds at level 2 because no one has the hit points / staying power for more than that at those levels. So it seems entirely plausible to me that Patient Defense will be available as an option for the large majority of combat rounds. And remember the monk has massive maneuverability as they are built for hit-and-run so much of the time can simply move out of combat range rather than stand there getting pummeled like the Paladin, Barb or Fighter without spending a ki point.
Defense + Shield is overkill; I would go Dueling + Shield or Defense + a two-hander. Both options put you ahead of the monk both offensively and defensively.
A shield isn't a "big drop" for those classes, a longsword/battleaxe/warhammer is d8 one-handed (d10 with the new Flex property!) which is the best the monk can do with both hands. And since the monk in your example is giving up Martial Arts/Flurry for PD then that becomes a wash. And that's before we get to Fighting Style, Hunter's Mark or Rage, all of which work with a shield too. On top of all that, these classes have equal starting AC before the shield thanks to Scale or Chain.
I'm not denying that PD isn't strong; it is. But that strength comes with a notable drawback.
Fighter with Shield: 1d8 main attack, no BA attack, no GWM, no PAM
Fighter without a Shield (version 1): 2d6 main attack + GWM
Fighter without a Shield (version 2): 1d10 main attack + PAM 1d4 BA attack
Both Fighters without a Shield will be doing significantly more damage than the Fighter with a shield. Using a shield is a significant drop in DPR for any martial.
As I showed earlier PD is a much bigger benefit to defense than wearing a shield. So to be balanced this comes with a bigger drop in DPR. You see, monks get the flexibility to choose turn by turn whether they want to go full offense, full defense, or conserve resources.
The problem with monk is that their baseline damage doesn't scale well into higher levels (like all two-weapon fighting) and that DMs assume monks want to use their fists so don't give them magic weapons that equal the magic weapons given to other martials. A monk with a Flametongue Shortsword is competitive in terms of DPR with a ranger, or fighter with a Flametongue shortsword. Sadly people think Monk is exclusively an unarmed fighter (despite the fact that loads of oriental martial artists use weapons), so the DM ends up kneecapping them.
Monk just needs at least 1/3 of their class features to contribute to the fundamentals of combat, rather than being niche situational features.
And they're both still ahead of a PD-spamming monk. If the latter is acceptable, why isn't the former?
That is a problem of Monk DPR which I already acknowledged, not a problem with Monk defense. But a PD-spamming monk shouldn't be outperforming the defensive fighter in terms of offence b/c it also more resilient than the defensive-oriented Fighter. What about the concept of "you trade lower DPR for higher Defense" are you still not understanding?
Builds and choices that prioritize Defense have lower Offense, this is as it should be otherwise everyone would always play Defensive builds. Monks get to choose round by round whether they want to prioritize defense or offense, where as most other classes have to make permanent choices for their whole career about whether to play offensively or defensively. The problem with Monk is that when they choose offense their DPR is not competitive with other classes when they choose offense. Whereas a monk that chooses defense is competitive with other classes in terms of defense. This coupled with the fact that 5e preferences offensive play over defensive play b/c of action economy importance means that the monk is weaker than other classes.
If it helps I can assign arbitrary rankings to illustrate my point:
Barbarian that builds for Defense = A tier defense - weakness of to Wis save effects holds this back from S tier
Barbarian that builds for DPR = S tier offense
Fighter that builds for Defense = B tier defense - lack of healing and damage resistance holds them back here
Fighter that builds for DPR = A tier offense - lack of sources of advantage holds you back here.
Paladin that builds for Defense = S tier defense
Paladin that builds for DPR = S tier offense
Monk that builds/chooses for Defense = A tier - lack of healing holds you back here vs the Paladin.
Monk that builds/chooses for DPR = C/B tier offense (B tier from level 1-10, C tier from level 11+)
Ranger that builds for Defense = A/B tier defense - mediocre Wis saves, and limited armour proficiencies hold you back, if they get Absorb Elements this damage resistance bumps them to A tier defense without it they are at parity with fighter.
Ranger that builds for DPR = A tier - in 5e they are S tier but with the nerf to SS in One D&D they are dropped to A tier with Hunter's mark doing a lot of the work here.
TL:DR the problem with monk is DPR not defense.
We all know that the Monk class needs some help and we are all eagerly awaiting the monk UA to see which direction WoTC will take the monk. In the meantime, I have a monk in a party that I am DM for, so I felt that I had to do some homebrewing without waiting any longer for the UA. I spent several hours (many more than I want to admit to) on YouTube, D&D chat groups, etc. gathering what homebrewers and others have done with the class. I fell into the same trap that most people do, which is just throwing the kitchen sink at the problem with tons of new abilities. So I pared things way back. In deciding what to add and what to throw out, I stuck to the principle of “Monkness”. So what defines monkness; what differentiates a monk from the other classes? I think that there are four pillars: Martial Arts, Unarmored Movement, Unarmored Defense, and Ki. So I tried to make sure that everything I added or improved fit into one of these categories, and that all of the four pillars were represented.
I rejected the idea of increasing the monk’s Hit Dice to 1d10. I rejected the idea of making Wisdom less important to make the monk less MAD. I rejected the idea of giving monks armor without penalties. I rejected the idea of a strength based monk. These ideas and others have often been suggested, but I don’t think that they fit into one of the four pillars. Sure, you can play a strength based monk and you get all the monk abilities, but there is nothing added here to offer additional support to a strength based monk. Many want to play an armored monk, but two of the pillars only function when you are without armor and without a shield. Sure, you can play an armored monk if you want to, but you will lose the benefit of all the Unarmored Defense and Unarmored Movement abilities. You are better off playing a fighter at that point IMHO, but I won’t nix your armored monk if that is what you want to play. There is always multiclassing or even new monk subclasses that could support that sort of thing for those who want these monk variants. But I don’t want to put anything into the base monk class that doesn’t support the four pillars of the traditional monk. So again, I have beefed up the four pillars of the traditional monk…That was my focus.
Here is a summary of the changes: At 1st level, monks get an improved Martial Weapons Die and Weapons Mastery for monk weapons. At 2nd level, monks get more ki (add your proficiency bonus of ki). Flurry of Blows now scales by giving you your proficiency number of unarmed strikes. You can use Breath of the Wind to replenish ki. You can use ki to cast any spells that you obtain. Unarmored Movement now includes all the benefits of the Athlete and Mobile feats. This actually makes Unarmored Movement worthwhile while delivering abilities that bring the monk genre to life. At 3rd level, you have Monk’s Riposte and Flying Kick Attack. Both are ki based Battle Master type abilities. Also at 3rd, you get the Ki based Flashback Lesson that gives you tools and skills to use out of combat. At 5th level, you get an improvement to Unarmored Defense: Martial Arts Dodge (matching the rogue’s Uncanny Dodge). I think that this makes the Monk a more rounded and useful class that adheres to the classic monk genre.
Many think that Stunning Strike is too powerful and that it winds up making the monk “a one trick pony” so that the monk does nothing else round after round of combat. Perhaps Stunning Strike needs to be nerfed into “Dazing Strike” at 5th level and then restored as Stunning Strike with a cost of 2 or 3 ki at 11th level. I would be fine with that, but I left it as is for now.
If anyone is interested, here is the whole package:
Monks: Changes and additions (If not mentioned, a monk ability is unchanged)
1st Level
2nd Level
3rd Level
4th Level
5th Level
6th Level
7th Level
15th Level
18th Level
Nathair Sgiathach is my co-pilot
Your variation is interesting, but I think you went too far on the offensive side, I mean, 2d6 at level 11 and 3d6 at level 17? This together with the level 6 upgrade and the flurry of blows upgrade... It's too much, even if only one of them is left, I don't think they should go...
in martial arts dice you shouldn't get to 1d12/2d6 that fast, if you end up wanting to roll 3 dice for EVERY HIT, maybe 1d8 at level 5, 2d4 at level 8, 1d10 at level 11, 1d12 at level 15, 2d6 at level 18, and finally 3d4 at level 20. (Still I think the maximum and only at the last levels should be 2d6.)
And if you want to improve flurry of blows, from level 11, on the turn you use it, just add 1 blow to the attack made with your other hand (which is currently signaled using your bonus action.)
I think some buffs you added to the unarmored move should be available as a buff to it at a higher level, otherwise it would be easy to take advantage of everything with few level drops, tempting low-level multiclasses on the monk.
I like your ki/spirit recovery, more for the fact that you linked it to wisdom. A less constant alternative would be to roll your martial arts dice for this recovery.
For Quickened Healing (improved), I would add bonus only regarding constitution, if you keep your body healthy you heal slightly more efficiently.
Interesting ideas. Some I like, some seem to be a bit too much. Don’t care for the Ki spellcasting (but that’s just me). And I think FoB should be based on when the martial arts die increases not PB. I would probably start at level 11 for 3 and 4 at level 17. Think 5 might be too much. 6 definitely. That’s 8 attacks a round (at 17th level
8d10+40, 84forgot the die increase so 24d6+40, 124 on average) plus stunning strike and subclass abilities.EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Good points, thanks! I think I will take your advice on FoB and make the increase with the martial arts die increases. Also, since FoB is increasing, I'm going to reduce the martial arts die to 1d10 at 11th and 1d12 at 17th to compensate somewhat. My campaigns rarely get into the really high levels anyway.
Ki spellcasting I'll keep because it really doesn't do much in my campaign. We are just talking spells gained through feats that give one or two spells. My monk player isn't interested in more than that. I could see it being a problem if the monk decided to go spell heavy. But then again...ki is a pretty limited resource even after my boosts.
Nathair Sgiathach is my co-pilot
I appreciate the feedback from everybody. I have already made some changes. Please tell me what you think is good and what you think is bad; and why.
Nathair Sgiathach is my co-pilot