This is mostly just for entertainment, or a thought experiment, or possibly homebrew ideas for fixing some subclasses which have flaws in the context of the new PHB/UA (as far as we have currently seen it). Feel free to add your own. Keep in mind the concept is less of a complete rework, and more of an update/fix. So the subclass should be trying to create similar gameplay in the 2024 world. If the sub has major flaws/issues try to fix em while still serving a similar purpose. That said I got no control over what yall create, so do what you feel.
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your special martial arts training leads you to master the use of certain weapons. This path also includes instruction in the deft strokes of calligraphy or painting. You gain the following benefits:
Kensei Weapons. Choose two types of weapons to be your kensei weapons: one melee weapon and one ranged weapon. Each of these weapons can be any simple or martial weapon that lacks the heavy and special properties. The longbow is also a valid choice. You gain proficiency with these weapons and a Mastery for which it meets prerequisites if you don't already have it. Weapons of the chosen types are monk weapons for you. Many of this tradition's features work only with your kensei weapons. When you reach 6th, 11th, and 17th level in this class, you can choose another type of weapon – either melee or ranged – to be a kensei weapon for you, following the criteria above.
Agile Parry. If you make an unarmed strike as part of the Attack action on your turn and are holding a kensei weapon, you can use it to defend yourself if it is a melee weapon. You gain a +2 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn, while the weapon is in your hand and you aren’t incapacitated.
Kensei's Shot. You can use a bonus action on your turn to make your ranged attacks with a kensei weapon more deadly. When you do so, any target you hit with a ranged attack using a kensei weapon takes an extra 1d6 damage of the weapon’s type. this becomes 2d6 at 10 You retain this benefit until the end of the current turn.
Way of the Brush. You gain proficiency with your choice of calligrapher's supplies or painter's supplies.
One with the Blade
At 6th level, you extend your ki into your kensei weapons, granting you the following benefits.
Magic Kensei Weapons. Your attacks with your kensei weapons count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Deft Strike. When you hit a target with a kensei weapon, you can spend 1 ki point to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target equal to your Martial Arts die. You can use this feature only once on each of your turns.
Kensei Strike. You can use a bonus action on your turn to gain advantage on melee attacks until the end of your turn. Hits with your kensei weapons do critical damage.
Sharpen the Blade
At 11th level, you gain the ability to augment your weapons further with your ki. As a bonus action, you can expend 1 ki points to grant one kensei weapon you touch a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls when you attack with it. At level 15, it increases to +3 This bonus lasts for 1 minute or until you use this feature again. This feature has no effect on a magic weapon that already has a greater or equal bonus to attack and damage rolls.
Unerring Accuracy
At 17th level, your mastery of weapons grants you extraordinary accuracy. If you miss with an attack roll using a monk weapon on your turn, you can reroll it. You can use this feature only once on each of your turns. Your criticals do +3 damage
changes in orange
Why I made these changes
1. in world with weapon mastery, the weapon focused monk needs mastery.
2. with the minimal unarmed damage increasing, and heightened discipline increasing the value of BA, kensei shot needed a base boost, and a lvl 10 boost.
3.Added melee kensei functionality similar to kensei shot because I felt it was missing, damage wise, this is slightly better than using your BA if you don't already have advantage, slightly worse if you do. You can better exlpoit critical dice with this, but you can better exploit dice riders with FOB. keep in mind unarmed attacks are getting more magic items, so kensei melee needs a bump,
4. in keeping with reducing ki costs, (Crawford said this is a goal for monks) I reduced the cost, and made it scale with level. I made its benefit possibly apply to more magic weapons.
5. A small boost in a world where advantage is more common and missing is less likely. +3 isnt a lot by this level, but synergizes with Kensei strike, as well as some benefit when you have advantage/reroll.
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Performance skill if you don't already have it. Your martial arts technique mixes combat training with the precision of a dancer and the antics of a jester. You also gain proficiency with brewer's supplies if you don't already have it.
Drunken Technique
At 3rd level, you learn how to twist and turn quickly as part of your Flurry of Blows. Whenever you use Flurry of Blows, you can use patient defense, and your walking speed increases by 10 feet until the end of the current turn.
Tipsy Sway
Starting at 6th level, you can move in sudden, swaying ways. You gain the following benefits.
Leap to Your Feet. When you're prone, you can stand up by spending 5 feet of movement, rather than half your speed.
Reactive move. Whenever you use a reaction you gain 5feet of movement to move as a part of that reaction
Redirect Attack. When a creature misses you with a melee attack roll, you can spend 1 ki point once per round to cause that attack to hit one creature of your choice, other than the attacker, that you can see within 5 feet of you.
Drunkard's Luck
Starting at 11th level, you always seem to get a lucky bounce at the right moment. When you make an ability check, an attack roll, or a saving throw and have disadvantage, or an opponent has advantage on a roll against you. you can spend 1 ki points to cancel the disadvantage or advantage for that roll.
Intoxicated Frenzy
At 17th level, you gain the ability to make an overwhelming number of attacks against a group of enemies. When you use your Flurry of Blows, you can make up to three additional attacks with it (up to a total of five Flurry of Blows attacks), provided that each Flurry of Blows attack targets a different creature this turn.
If at the end of your turn you only hit one enemy, that enemy takes +2 damage for every time you hit them.
1. changed the level 3 because disengage is cool, but imo not enough for the class to be as evasive as a drunken master would be. PD is also disengage when using no Ki now. So essentially you can spend 1 ki to get disadvantage, less powerful than shadow imo.
2. Reactive move makes the drunken monk seem more agile/reactibe, and allows you to play around more with falling prone tactically. Pop back up when you deflect attacks or make an OP attack, seems very drunken fighting to me.
3. Redirect attack needed a change because it now competes with deflect attacks, and deflect attacks is mostly better, it negates damage, and can do damage, while the other just does dmg on miss. Both together create this tension where you feel cheated if you use redirect then get hit, and if wait to see if you need to deflect, you probably won't redirect. by making it its own reaction, it doesnt clash, and its still balanced by Ki.
4.drunkards luck is too limited in scope, making it useful when enemies have advantage increases use case while still being about keeping it neutral. As well as lowering ki as per new monk design reduced ki use.
5. Made the level good at multiple targets, and half as useful on single targets, so your capstone doesnt feel useless versus big bosses.
I like it. One thing I would say is I would be completely fine removing the Heavy and Two Handed property restrictions for Kensei weapons. But that’s just me.
And with FoB no longer requiring the Attack Action I could see removing that qualifier for Agile Parry just have it work with any unarmed strike
I like it. One thing I would say is I would be completely fine removing the Heavy and Two Handed property restrictions for Kensei weapons. But that’s just me.
And with FoB no longer requiring the Attack Action I could see removing that qualifier for Agile Parry just have it work with any unarmed strike
yeah, I wouldn't mind, but I wasn't trying to make a big swings here. I'm guessing they didnt want monk to get Pam/gwm so I just let it sit, but I wouldn't mind
Kensei's Shot makes ranged attacks better than attacking in melee. Kensei's Strike makes using bonus strikes pointless, because you're doing effectively double damage on your regular attacks and with better accuracy to boot. Unerring Accuracy tacks on extra free damage to this obviously-unbalanced ability.
Tacking on Patient Defense to Drunken Technique is entirely pointless and just wants to let the Monk uses multiple bonus actions for free to be overpowered. Reactive Move is pointless, you want the Monk to get a powerful reaction that doesn't even use their reaction, and you want the subclass's capstone to have a needless addition that invalidates the point of the capstone.
A good subclass isn't one that is obviously and cartoonishly overpowered that gets free additions, not because the subclass has any need for them but just because certain people want the Monk to get to do everything all at once for no cost.
kensei shot gives up BA, which is +2 to +3 attacks. 1d6 on two attacks doesnt equal 2*(MA+MOD) and 2d6 * 2 doesnt equal 3(MA+MOD.
Kensei strike, doubling the dice and giving advantage is mathematically similar to doing 4-5 UA attacks. Its not actually much stronger the difference is, you are more focused on your kensei melee. at 4 its 34.12 vs 33.1 and at 10 its 42.5 vs 40.95. if you have advantage. FOB is better.
Unerring accuracy adds +6 damage (if you do kensei strike) at level 17, thats hardly OP for a level 17 ability. And if you use strike(or any other source of advantage), you aren't getting much from the advantage part of the feature.
compare this to other level 17 features, its tame.
drunken fist level 3 is underpowered, PD give the option to spend more Ki to impose disadvantage, which shadow can also do for 1 ki. (for 10 minutes) The subclass is supposed to be hard to hit/evasive. Its not really doing much with disengage alone.
reactive move, if it uses a reaction makes the drunken monk less evasive/countering because it gives up deflect attacks possibility for whats usually going to be less damage than deflect attacks, and less defense. Basically the level 6 needs to change, or it actually makes the drunken monk worse at its fantasy.
the capstone I added a moderate damage boost to single targets, yes. but its still less than the damage you get from attacking multiple targets. (3d12+15 = 21.5 versus 10)The problem with a multi target only skill at high levels is you often face big bosses, where the other targets are eliminated, or were never there, and then the capstone is useless.
this stuff isn't designed to be OP, its designed to be on par with the PHB subs that its competing with. But feel free to make your own suggestions, its not all about my ideas in this thread.
"This reaction needs a pointless addition because a reaction the base class gets is obviously overpowered!" is not the good argument you think it is.
If Deflect Attacks survives the playtest then there is literally no reason to take any Monk subclass that gets any sort of reaction feature. Not that you think anyone playing Monk should want to do anything except Flurry of Blows/Stunning Strike/Deflect Attacks. Varied and versatile features? Who needs them? Damage, damage, and more damage! Free benefits for zero cost!
Though I note that somehow getting safe movement following a Flurry of Blows somehow isn't useful but getting safe movement after a reaction is. That's logical.
the threads premise is that the UA/PHB is as it currently stands. This thread is about making the subclasses work in that context.
the movement after a reaction is just movement, its not 'safe'. This is more about simulating the reactive/mobile/unpredictable fantasy of a drunken fighting style than a power increase.
Getting disengage with FOB is useful, its just not useful enough for a subclass whose primary identity is being unpredictable and evasive, especially next to shadow, who gets disengage/advantage/disadvantage by being in shadows, and elements who can attack from 15 feet away, while pushing 10 feet away. (better at ending farther from enemies). This just makes it a competitive choice for an evasive monk subclass.
but like I said feel free to make your own and post it
I dunno if I would keep Agile Parry as it was personally; it's a weird thing to use mechanically, and the updated Deflect Attack is basically what people always wanted Agile Parry to be. Since gaining weapon masteries is a more significant feature than simply having access to better weapons, there's not as much need for Agile Parry in general. I would maybe change it to something more situational like:
Agile Parry
If you reduce a melee attack to 0 damage using your Deflect Attack ability, the first melee weapon attack you make against your attacker before the end of your next turn has advantage. You must be holding one of your mastered weapons to gain this benefit.
Maybe that's a more significant change than you had in mind, but it feels like Agile Parry as it was is no longer needed. But I think this kind of defence into offence mechanism could be a lot of fun.
Or if you want it to still be a little similar, maybe something like:
Agile Parry
After using Deflect Attack, you have +2 to AC until the start of your next turn. You must be holding one of your mastered weapons to gain this benefit.
This one is now burning your reaction instead of the weird "trade an attack" mechanic, but still gaining +2 AC, however it's in response to already being hit so it's more about preventing subsequent attacks (better for multiattacks and groups).
Definitely think it needs to be tied to Deflect Attack somehow.
Regarding Drunken Master's Redirect Attack, I'd personally prefer it to be kept; it doesn't conflict with Deflect Attack as such because it triggers when an enemy misses you, and while Deflect Attack can deal damage, Redirect Attack always does (because the redirected attack hits automatically). Deflect Attack is great normally, but Redirect Attack is IMO better for when you're using Patient Defence (more likely to be missed) and facing multiple enemies (which is good for Patient Defence generally).
That said, I do like the idea of Reactive Move, but I'd take that in addition rather than instead of – if you're determined to go with it being the only feature, I'd maybe expand it to not trigger opportunity attacks.
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Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can hurl searing bolts of magical radiance.
You can throw radiant energy with your unarmed attacks. Your UA gain the thrown property to a range of 30 feet. Thrown energy does radiant damage
Searing Arc Strike
At 6th level, you gain the ability to channel your ki into searing waves of energy. As a Bonus Action you can spend 1 ki to make a Searing ARC strike. It is a 15 foot cone, Enemies must make a dexterity saving throw or take 3d8 damage or half that on a successful save.
you can increase the damage by 1d8 for each extra ki you spend, up to a maximum of half your monk level.
Searing Sunburst
At 11th level, you gain the ability to create an orb of light that erupts into a devastating explosion. As an action, you magically create an orb and hurl it at a point you choose within 150 feet, where it erupts into a sphere of radiant light for a brief but deadly instant.
Each creature in that 20-foot-radius sphere must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 2d8 radiant damage. A creature doesn't need to make the save if the creature is behind total cover that is opaque.
You can increase the sphere's damage by spending ki points. Each point you spend, up to a maximum of 2, increases the damage by 3d6.
Sun Shield
At 17th level, you become wreathed in a luminous, magical aura. You shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. You can extinguish or restore the light as a bonus action.
If a creature hits you with a melee attack while this light shines, once per turn you can deal radiant damage to the creature. The radiant damage equals 5 + your Wisdom modifier.
I don't love this, but making it a more interesting sub class would require a major rework/redesign.
mostly just correcting for the changes to MA dice, and the new value proposition of FOB due to MA and heightened discipline. Its probably still undertuned, and ki starved, but slightly less so.
At 3rd level, your mastery of your ki allows you to summon a portion of your astral self. When you roll initiative or ss a bonus action, you can spend 1 ki point to summon the arms of your astral self. When you do so, each creature of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of you must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take force damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die.
For 10 minutes, these spectral arms hover near your shoulders or surround your arms (your choice). You determine the arms' appearance, and they vanish early if you are incapacitated or die.
While the spectral arms are present, you gain the following benefits:
You can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier when making Strength checks and Strength saving throws and your grapple/Shove DC.
You can use the spectral arms to make unarmed strikes.
When you make an unarmed strike with the arms on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
The unarmed strikes you make with the arms can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls, and their damage type is force.
you can use these arms as you would use hands
Visage of the Astral Self
When you reach 6th level, you can summon the visage of your astral self. As a bonus action, or as part of the bonus action you take to activate Arms of the Astral Self, you can spend 1 ki point to summon this visage for 10 minutes. It vanishes early if you are incapacitated or die.
The spectral visage covers your face like a helmet or mask. You determine its appearance.
While the spectral visage is present, you gain the following benefits.
Astral Sight. You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
Wisdom of the Spirit. You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Charisma (Intimidation) checks.
Word of the Spirit. When you speak, you can direct your words to a creature of your choice that you can see within 60 feet of you, making it so only that creature can hear you. Alternatively, you can amplify your voice so that all creatures within 600 feet can hear you.
Body of the Astral Self
Starting at 11th level, when you have both your astral arms and visage summoned, you can cause the body of your astral self to appear (no action required). This spectral body covers your physical form like a suit of armor, connecting with the arms and visage. You determine its appearance.
While the spectral body is present, you gain the following benefits.
Deflect Energy. When you take acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, or thunder damage, you can use your reaction to deflect it. When you do so, the damage you take is reduced by 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier+monk level. (minimum reduction of 1).You gain 1 ki whenever you you use this reaction
Empowered Arms. Once on each of your turns when you hit a target with the Arms of the Astral Self, you can deal extra damage to the target equal to your Martial Arts die.
Awakened Astral Self
Starting at 17th level, your connection to your astral self is complete, allowing you to unleash its full potential. As a bonus action, you can spend 5 ki points to summon the arms, visage, and body of your astral self and awaken it for 10 minutes. This awakening ends early if you are incapacitated or die.
While your astral self is awakened, you gain the following benefits.
Armor of the Spirit. You gain a +2 bonus to Armor Class.
Astral Barrage. Whenever you use the Extra Attack feature to attack twice, you can instead attack three times if all the attacks are made with your astral arms.
1. Arms: Fixing up this feature to be as quick as elemental attunment (though you miss out on damage). Apply wisdom to grapple/shove like it used to when it was athletics based, and formalizing slight flavor ribbons for using the arms for things other than unarmed attacks. might have slight ooc uses
2:Body: giving it a separate use case from deflect attacks/energy, and increasing its mitigation to match. Returns ki instead of spending Ki, but gives up chanve for attack. Only works on specific energy types though. You will probably use this one over deflect if given the option, (unless in a nova burn down) which is good since its less likely to occur.
My complaint with Kensei was always that I wanted to use my kensei weapon...not make unarmed attacks. I want my features to use my weapon. I don't play monks, generally, because I am not interested in unarmed combat. I'm a sword guy. I want a blade in my hand and I want to stabby stab with it.
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I dunno if I would keep Agile Parry as it was personally; it's a weird thing to use mechanically, and the updated Deflect Attack is basically what people always wanted Agile Parry to be. Since gaining weapon masteries is a more significant feature than simply having access to better weapons, there's not as much need for Agile Parry in general. I would maybe change it to something more situational like:
Agile Parry
If you reduce a melee attack to 0 damage using your Deflect Attack ability, the first melee weapon attack you make against your attacker before the end of your next turn has advantage. You must be holding one of your mastered weapons to gain this benefit.
Maybe that's a more significant change than you had in mind, but it feels like Agile Parry as it was is no longer needed. But I think this kind of defence into offence mechanism could be a lot of fun.
Or if you want it to still be a little similar, maybe something like:
Agile Parry
After using Deflect Attack, you have +2 to AC until the start of your next turn. You must be holding one of your mastered weapons to gain this benefit.
This one is now burning your reaction instead of the weird "trade an attack" mechanic, but still gaining +2 AC, however it's in response to already being hit so it's more about preventing subsequent attacks (better for multiattacks and groups).
Definitely think it needs to be tied to Deflect Attack somehow.
Regarding Drunken Master's Redirect Attack, I'd personally prefer it to be kept; it doesn't conflict with Deflect Attack as such because it triggers when an enemy misses you, and while Deflect Attack can deal damage, Redirect Attack always does (because the redirected attack hits automatically). Deflect Attack is great normally, but Redirect Attack is IMO better for when you're using Patient Defence (more likely to be missed) and facing multiple enemies (which is good for Patient Defence generally).
That said, I do like the idea of Reactive Move, but I'd take that in addition rather than instead of – if you're determined to go with it being the only feature, I'd maybe expand it to not trigger opportunity attacks.
I kinda hear you on agile parry, I think the idea was to give you a benefit to mixing up unarmed/kensei weapon rounds. Tying it to deflect would kind of nerf the ability in exchange for not having to use unarmed attacks in your attack action. I just didnt think mixing it up was that big a problem, and I liked that it works better if you didn't use my kensei strike, a small tradeoff. But I'm not really opposed to your suggestion really.
The conflict I'm trying to solve on redirect attack is more of, if you can only do one per round, deflect attack is probably better. I get that redirect is a guaranteed hit, but deflect is negate+60% chance of dmg. In the old world you would redirect as soon as someone misses, but now, you will probably be holding on waiting to see if something hits, then trying to get redirect on last hit, only sometimes monsters attack the other guy.
And since this is their only real non evasive feature before 17, I don't think them doing it every round if they get the opportunity(which won't always occur) is bad. But if it had some other benefit, that made it more worth giving up 1 hits worth of damage, I think they can compete. perhaps advantage on the enemy hit until end of your next turn. Or maybe something different, but right now I think people will waste opportunities hoping to prevent damage.
but just my thoughts, I contemplated leaving it as a reaction, might work well with the 5 foot reaction step.
I'd give all Sorcerers a bonus spell list, not just the two who already have it.
This. All sorcerers should have that kind of list. The fact that everyone considers the two subclasses that get it to be far and away the most powerful is telling.
I'd consider doing the same thing for Warlock as well, and add that all Warlocks get one bonus casting per long rest from the subclass list, going to 2 castings starting at level 5. That should mitigate the fear of running out of spells without the fear that 3 spells per short rest will make other casters superfluous.
I'd give all Sorcerers a bonus spell list, not just the two who already have it.
I don't necessarily mind sorcs not all getting bonus spells, but I wish the one that didnt get spells had more going on with features. The idea of getting unique things other casters don't isnt bad to me, just the execution. But I hear many want spells.
Arcane Shot remains as is, with the following changes: number of uses scales with Proficiency Bonus, contingent upon taking levels in the subclass. And, the Arcane Shot options scale at 15th level, instead of 18th level.
At Level 7: Elemental Arrows. You can imbue your Arrows (or bolts) with your choice of an elemental damage type: fire, cold, Lightning, acid, or thunder.
Also at Level 7: Infinite Quiver. Your quiver replaces any expended ammunition immediately after it's been used, so that your quiver will always be full.
At Level 11: Curving Shot. (Same as it is currently, but moved from level 7 to level 11).
At Level 15: Ever-Ready Shot. When you roll initiative, if you do not have all of your Arcane Shots available, you can regain up to 2 uses.
Additional Arcane Shot Option: Improved Elemental Arrow. The creature hit by your arrow takes an additional 2d6 of the damage type chosen (4d6 at level 15). The creature makes a Con save: on a failed save, they suffer the following effects, based upon the arrow's element: Fire/Acid- creature takes 1d6 fire/acid damage at the start of its next turn. Cold- creature falls prone. Lightning- creature cannot use Reaction for one round. Thunder- creature is knocked back 10 ft in a straight line away from the archer.Archer.
Maybe this is too much, I dunno. But I know that in its current incarnation, the AA needs improvement. Most people agree that only 2 Arcane Shots per short or long rest is not enough. Most martial classes/subclasses get some kind of magical damage type option around level 6. I thought elemental was topical for the AA. Newer Ranger subclasses get a list of additional spells known, and new subclasses have been getting 1 free casting from those lists. Skirmisher just seemed like something a ranged-focused subclass should have. Infinite Quiver just makes sense- makes the Archer more Arcane-y, and will be a big Boon for tables that track ammo. Curving Shot is fine, still a reasonably powerful feature for 11th level. Ever-ready needed to have the "no uses left" contingency removed, and I buffed it to 2 Shots restored just because I felt like it, I suppose. The Improved Elemental Arrow option was inspired by BG3. All of this was just spitballed in my head in the wee hours of the morning, so if you find it outrageously bad... please be kind.
Arcane Shot remains as is, with the following changes: number of uses scales with Proficiency Bonus, contingent upon taking levels in the subclass. And, the Arcane Shot options scale at 15th level, instead of 18th level.
At Level 7: Elemental Arrows. You can imbue your Arrows (or bolts) with your choice of an elemental damage type: fire, cold, Lightning, acid, or thunder.
Also at Level 7: Infinite Quiver. Your quiver replaces any expended ammunition immediately after it's been used, so that your quiver will always be full.
At Level 11: Curving Shot. (Same as it is currently, but moved from level 7 to level 11).
At Level 15: Ever-Ready Shot. When you roll initiative, if you do not have all of your Arcane Shots available, you can regain up to 2 uses.
Additional Arcane Shot Option: Improved Elemental Arrow. The creature hit by your arrow takes an additional 2d6 of the damage type chosen (4d6 at level 15). The creature makes a Con save: on a failed save, they suffer the following effects, based upon the arrow's element: Fire/Acid- creature takes 1d6 fire/acid damage at the start of its next turn. Cold- creature falls prone. Lightning- creature cannot use Reaction for one round. Thunder- creature is knocked back 10 ft in a straight line away from the archer.Archer.
Maybe this is too much, I dunno. But I know that in its current incarnation, the AA needs improvement. Most people agree that only 2 Arcane Shots per short or long rest is not enough. Most martial classes/subclasses get some kind of magical damage type option around level 6. I thought elemental was topical for the AA. Newer Ranger subclasses get a list of additional spells known, and new subclasses have been getting 1 free casting from those lists. Skirmisher just seemed like something a ranged-focused subclass should have. Infinite Quiver just makes sense- makes the Archer more Arcane-y, and will be a big Boon for tables that track ammo. Curving Shot is fine, still a reasonably powerful feature for 11th level. Ever-ready needed to have the "no uses left" contingency removed, and I buffed it to 2 Shots restored just because I felt like it, I suppose. The Improved Elemental Arrow option was inspired by BG3. All of this was just spitballed in my head in the wee hours of the morning, so if you find it outrageously bad... please be kind.
I agree AA needs an update. I personally was trying to be more tame, and just update the features to solve problems with fitting in in UAs, So I wouldn't move a subclass to A whole new main class. but its a free thread
Why did you choose Flaming sphere at 5? doesnt seem very Arcane Archery? Also, isn't giving free spells+ better version of what fighter had a lot for a sub class?
Improved elemental arrow is kind of a lot, they already have weapon mastery, various spells which effect attacks. Some with the same riders. Also this is essentially 4 magic arrow options for one option slot. And I think they don't want to give out anti reaction things any more because monsters will make more use of reactions. I don't exactly hate it... I'm just not sure how its fits in with
I think if you are increasing the Amount of Arrows to PB, you don't also need to regain 2 arrows on initiative imo
that said its not bad, my main thing Is I wouldn't remove something from fighter, especially when it offered a different playstyle for fighter.
My complaint with Kensei was always that I wanted to use my kensei weapon...not make unarmed attacks. I want my features to use my weapon. I don't play monks, generally, because I am not interested in unarmed combat. I'm a sword guy. I want a blade in my hand and I want to stabby stab with it.
One thing I did with my own attempt to fix Kensei (Way of the Keen Edge) was to add a "Rapid Strikes" feature that lets you use a held weapon's damage type for unarmed strikes – mechanically it rarely makes an actual difference, as your damage is the same, but it's amazing how much better it feels to play as you're now sort of using your weapon for all attacks, even if some are still less damaging and they're not technically weapon attacks (to maintain roughly the same balance).
I like to imagine them as quicker strikes as part of a combo of moves, just feels more fun to make them work that way, and it's very occasionally useful when a target is resistant to bludgeoning damage but not slashing or piercing. The one larger mechanical benefit it has is that it lets the sub-class build around the Piercer or Slasher feat, whereas normally I would try to take Crusher on a Monk, but we don't know what's happening with those in OneD&D (I assume they'll still be usable, but I also hope they'll become core feats).
Of all the changes in that sub-class, it's one of the least significant mechanical changes, yet it's probably the one that made the biggest difference to how it felt to play, for me at least. But sometimes it's the minor things that are the best; as an another example, I give Druid players druidcraft for free in my campaigns, and that does seem to help the players be more "druidic" more of the time without sacrificing one of their two cantrip choices for it.
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Skirmisher: I would let you move away as part of your Uncanny Dodge reaction once you hit 5th level, in addition to moving as a reaction if an enemy ends their turn next to you. That would allow you to get the option of moving after only eating a single attack (which you were probably going to use UD on anyway) rather than only being able to move away after an enemy pours their entire attack routine into you.
Survivalist: You should get two proficiencies of your choice if you already have Nature / Survival. That way someone building towards Scout won't have to choose between being bad at these at low levels or picking two wasted skills.
Superior Mobility: This should actually grant climb and move speeds rather than merely enhancing ones you already have. In addition, this is probably where I'd throw in a Cunning Strike enhancement - letting you use Withdraw either for free (no die cost), alongside another Cunning Strike option, or both.
Ambush Master: No change.
Sudden Strike: I would let you use the second sneak attack against the same target if you accept a half damage penalty on the second one. Otherwise unchanged.
Skirmisher: I would let you move away as part of your Uncanny Dodge reaction once you hit 5th level, in addition to moving as a reaction if an enemy ends their turn next to you. That would allow you to get the option of moving after only eating a single attack (which you were probably going to use UD on anyway) rather than only being able to move away after an enemy pours their entire attack routine into you.
Survivalist: You should get two proficiencies of your choice if you already have Nature / Survival. That way someone building towards Scout won't have to choose between being bad at these at low levels or picking two wasted skills.
Superior Mobility: This should actually grant climb and move speeds rather than merely enhancing ones you already have. In addition, this is probably where I'd throw in a Cunning Strike enhancement - letting you use Withdraw either for free (no die cost), alongside another Cunning Strike option (which i or both.
Ambush Master: No change.
Sudden Strike: I would let you use the second sneak attack against the same target if it deals half damage. Otherwise unchanged.
mostly makes sense to me
my only concern is while the skirmisher seems a bit ehhh to me in standard, the move 15 feet away after taking half damage with no resource seems really strong. Not sure if its too strong, trying to think of points of comparison.
the ones I can think of with half movement are tied to a resource.
barbarian with rage BA
fighter tactical shift BA
bard inspiring movement. Reaction
inspiring movement is the closest, it uses a resource though, and is also ends turn.
perhaps if it was an either or proposition. you can choose to take half damage, or move half you movement.
but maybe its fine, just feels like it would become almost impossible to melee pressure a ranged rogue at all.
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This is mostly just for entertainment, or a thought experiment, or possibly homebrew ideas for fixing some subclasses which have flaws in the context of the new PHB/UA (as far as we have currently seen it). Feel free to add your own. Keep in mind the concept is less of a complete rework, and more of an update/fix. So the subclass should be trying to create similar gameplay in the 2024 world. If the sub has major flaws/issues try to fix em while still serving a similar purpose. That said I got no control over what yall create, so do what you feel.
I'll be posting my ideas, mostly for monk.
Kensei
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your special martial arts training leads you to master the use of certain weapons. This path also includes instruction in the deft strokes of calligraphy or painting. You gain the following benefits:
One with the Blade
At 6th level, you extend your ki into your kensei weapons, granting you the following benefits.
Sharpen the Blade
At 11th level, you gain the ability to augment your weapons further with your ki. As a bonus action, you can expend 1 ki points to grant one kensei weapon you touch a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls when you attack with it. At level 15, it increases to +3 This bonus lasts for 1 minute or until you use this feature again. This feature has no effect on a magic weapon that already has a greater or equal bonus to attack and damage rolls.
Unerring Accuracy
At 17th level, your mastery of weapons grants you extraordinary accuracy. If you miss with an attack roll using a monk weapon on your turn, you can reroll it. You can use this feature only once on each of your turns. Your criticals do +3 damage
changes in orange
Why I made these changes
1. in world with weapon mastery, the weapon focused monk needs mastery.
2. with the minimal unarmed damage increasing, and heightened discipline increasing the value of BA, kensei shot needed a base boost, and a lvl 10 boost.
3.Added melee kensei functionality similar to kensei shot because I felt it was missing, damage wise, this is slightly better than using your BA if you don't already have advantage, slightly worse if you do. You can better exlpoit critical dice with this, but you can better exploit dice riders with FOB. keep in mind unarmed attacks are getting more magic items, so kensei melee needs a bump,
4. in keeping with reducing ki costs, (Crawford said this is a goal for monks) I reduced the cost, and made it scale with level. I made its benefit possibly apply to more magic weapons.
5. A small boost in a world where advantage is more common and missing is less likely. +3 isnt a lot by this level, but synergizes with Kensei strike, as well as some benefit when you have advantage/reroll.
Drunken Fist.
Bonus Proficiencies
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Performance skill if you don't already have it. Your martial arts technique mixes combat training with the precision of a dancer and the antics of a jester. You also gain proficiency with brewer's supplies if you don't already have it.
Drunken Technique
At 3rd level, you learn how to twist and turn quickly as part of your Flurry of Blows. Whenever you use Flurry of Blows, you can use patient defense, and your walking speed increases by 10 feet until the end of the current turn.
Tipsy Sway
Starting at 6th level, you can move in sudden, swaying ways. You gain the following benefits.
Drunkard's Luck
Starting at 11th level, you always seem to get a lucky bounce at the right moment. When you make an ability check, an attack roll, or a saving throw and have disadvantage, or an opponent has advantage on a roll against you. you can spend 1 ki points to cancel the disadvantage or advantage for that roll.
Intoxicated Frenzy
At 17th level, you gain the ability to make an overwhelming number of attacks against a group of enemies. When you use your Flurry of Blows, you can make up to three additional attacks with it (up to a total of five Flurry of Blows attacks), provided that each Flurry of Blows attack targets a different creature this turn.
If at the end of your turn you only hit one enemy, that enemy takes +2 damage for every time you hit them.
1. changed the level 3 because disengage is cool, but imo not enough for the class to be as evasive as a drunken master would be. PD is also disengage when using no Ki now. So essentially you can spend 1 ki to get disadvantage, less powerful than shadow imo.
2. Reactive move makes the drunken monk seem more agile/reactibe, and allows you to play around more with falling prone tactically. Pop back up when you deflect attacks or make an OP attack, seems very drunken fighting to me.
3. Redirect attack needed a change because it now competes with deflect attacks, and deflect attacks is mostly better, it negates damage, and can do damage, while the other just does dmg on miss. Both together create this tension where you feel cheated if you use redirect then get hit, and if wait to see if you need to deflect, you probably won't redirect. by making it its own reaction, it doesnt clash, and its still balanced by Ki.
4.drunkards luck is too limited in scope, making it useful when enemies have advantage increases use case while still being about keeping it neutral. As well as lowering ki as per new monk design reduced ki use.
5. Made the level good at multiple targets, and half as useful on single targets, so your capstone doesnt feel useless versus big bosses.
I like it. One thing I would say is I would be completely fine removing the Heavy and Two Handed property restrictions for Kensei weapons. But that’s just me.
And with FoB no longer requiring the Attack Action I could see removing that qualifier for Agile Parry just have it work with any unarmed strike
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yeah, I wouldn't mind, but I wasn't trying to make a big swings here. I'm guessing they didnt want monk to get Pam/gwm so I just let it sit, but I wouldn't mind
kensei shot gives up BA, which is +2 to +3 attacks. 1d6 on two attacks doesnt equal 2*(MA+MOD) and 2d6 * 2 doesnt equal 3(MA+MOD.
Kensei strike, doubling the dice and giving advantage is mathematically similar to doing 4-5 UA attacks. Its not actually much stronger the difference is, you are more focused on your kensei melee. at 4 its 34.12 vs 33.1 and at 10 its 42.5 vs 40.95. if you have advantage. FOB is better.
Unerring accuracy adds +6 damage (if you do kensei strike) at level 17, thats hardly OP for a level 17 ability. And if you use strike(or any other source of advantage), you aren't getting much from the advantage part of the feature.
compare this to other level 17 features, its tame.
drunken fist level 3 is underpowered, PD give the option to spend more Ki to impose disadvantage, which shadow can also do for 1 ki. (for 10 minutes) The subclass is supposed to be hard to hit/evasive. Its not really doing much with disengage alone.
reactive move, if it uses a reaction makes the drunken monk less evasive/countering because it gives up deflect attacks possibility for whats usually going to be less damage than deflect attacks, and less defense. Basically the level 6 needs to change, or it actually makes the drunken monk worse at its fantasy.
the capstone I added a moderate damage boost to single targets, yes. but its still less than the damage you get from attacking multiple targets. (3d12+15 = 21.5 versus 10)The problem with a multi target only skill at high levels is you often face big bosses, where the other targets are eliminated, or were never there, and then the capstone is useless.
this stuff isn't designed to be OP, its designed to be on par with the PHB subs that its competing with. But feel free to make your own suggestions, its not all about my ideas in this thread.
the threads premise is that the UA/PHB is as it currently stands. This thread is about making the subclasses work in that context.
the movement after a reaction is just movement, its not 'safe'. This is more about simulating the reactive/mobile/unpredictable fantasy of a drunken fighting style than a power increase.
Getting disengage with FOB is useful, its just not useful enough for a subclass whose primary identity is being unpredictable and evasive, especially next to shadow, who gets disengage/advantage/disadvantage by being in shadows, and elements who can attack from 15 feet away, while pushing 10 feet away. (better at ending farther from enemies). This just makes it a competitive choice for an evasive monk subclass.
but like I said feel free to make your own and post it
I dunno if I would keep Agile Parry as it was personally; it's a weird thing to use mechanically, and the updated Deflect Attack is basically what people always wanted Agile Parry to be. Since gaining weapon masteries is a more significant feature than simply having access to better weapons, there's not as much need for Agile Parry in general. I would maybe change it to something more situational like:
Maybe that's a more significant change than you had in mind, but it feels like Agile Parry as it was is no longer needed. But I think this kind of defence into offence mechanism could be a lot of fun.
Or if you want it to still be a little similar, maybe something like:
This one is now burning your reaction instead of the weird "trade an attack" mechanic, but still gaining +2 AC, however it's in response to already being hit so it's more about preventing subsequent attacks (better for multiattacks and groups).
Definitely think it needs to be tied to Deflect Attack somehow.
Regarding Drunken Master's Redirect Attack, I'd personally prefer it to be kept; it doesn't conflict with Deflect Attack as such because it triggers when an enemy misses you, and while Deflect Attack can deal damage, Redirect Attack always does (because the redirected attack hits automatically). Deflect Attack is great normally, but Redirect Attack is IMO better for when you're using Patient Defence (more likely to be missed) and facing multiple enemies (which is good for Patient Defence generally).
That said, I do like the idea of Reactive Move, but I'd take that in addition rather than instead of – if you're determined to go with it being the only feature, I'd maybe expand it to not trigger opportunity attacks.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Sun Soul
Radiant Sun Bolt
Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can hurl searing bolts of magical radiance.
You can throw radiant energy with your unarmed attacks. Your UA gain the thrown property to a range of 30 feet. Thrown energy does radiant damage
Searing Arc Strike
At 6th level, you gain the ability to channel your ki into searing waves of energy. As a Bonus Action you can spend 1 ki to make a Searing ARC strike. It is a 15 foot cone, Enemies must make a dexterity saving throw or take 3d8 damage or half that on a successful save.
you can increase the damage by 1d8 for each extra ki you spend, up to a maximum of half your monk level.
Searing Sunburst
At 11th level, you gain the ability to create an orb of light that erupts into a devastating explosion. As an action, you magically create an orb and hurl it at a point you choose within 150 feet, where it erupts into a sphere of radiant light for a brief but deadly instant.
Each creature in that 20-foot-radius sphere must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 2d8 radiant damage. A creature doesn't need to make the save if the creature is behind total cover that is opaque.
You can increase the sphere's damage by spending ki points. Each point you spend, up to a maximum of 2, increases the damage by 3d6.
Sun Shield
At 17th level, you become wreathed in a luminous, magical aura. You shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. You can extinguish or restore the light as a bonus action.
If a creature hits you with a melee attack while this light shines, once per turn you can deal radiant damage to the creature. The radiant damage equals 5 + your Wisdom modifier.
I don't love this, but making it a more interesting sub class would require a major rework/redesign.
mostly just correcting for the changes to MA dice, and the new value proposition of FOB due to MA and heightened discipline. Its probably still undertuned, and ki starved, but slightly less so.
Arms of the Astral Self
At 3rd level, your mastery of your ki allows you to summon a portion of your astral self. When you roll initiative or ss a bonus action, you can spend 1 ki point to summon the arms of your astral self. When you do so, each creature of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of you must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take force damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die.
For 10 minutes, these spectral arms hover near your shoulders or surround your arms (your choice). You determine the arms' appearance, and they vanish early if you are incapacitated or die.
While the spectral arms are present, you gain the following benefits:
Visage of the Astral Self
When you reach 6th level, you can summon the visage of your astral self. As a bonus action, or as part of the bonus action you take to activate Arms of the Astral Self, you can spend 1 ki point to summon this visage for 10 minutes. It vanishes early if you are incapacitated or die.
The spectral visage covers your face like a helmet or mask. You determine its appearance.
While the spectral visage is present, you gain the following benefits.
Astral Sight. You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
Wisdom of the Spirit. You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Charisma (Intimidation) checks.
Word of the Spirit. When you speak, you can direct your words to a creature of your choice that you can see within 60 feet of you, making it so only that creature can hear you. Alternatively, you can amplify your voice so that all creatures within 600 feet can hear you.
Body of the Astral Self
Starting at 11th level, when you have both your astral arms and visage summoned, you can cause the body of your astral self to appear (no action required). This spectral body covers your physical form like a suit of armor, connecting with the arms and visage. You determine its appearance.
While the spectral body is present, you gain the following benefits.
Deflect Energy. When you take acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, or thunder damage, you can use your reaction to deflect it. When you do so, the damage you take is reduced by 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier+monk level. (minimum reduction of 1).You gain 1 ki whenever you you use this reaction
Empowered Arms. Once on each of your turns when you hit a target with the Arms of the Astral Self, you can deal extra damage to the target equal to your Martial Arts die.
Awakened Astral Self
Starting at 17th level, your connection to your astral self is complete, allowing you to unleash its full potential. As a bonus action, you can spend 5 ki points to summon the arms, visage, and body of your astral self and awaken it for 10 minutes. This awakening ends early if you are incapacitated or die.
While your astral self is awakened, you gain the following benefits.
Armor of the Spirit. You gain a +2 bonus to Armor Class.
Astral Barrage. Whenever you use the Extra Attack feature to attack twice, you can instead attack three times if all the attacks are made with your astral arms.
1. Arms: Fixing up this feature to be as quick as elemental attunment (though you miss out on damage). Apply wisdom to grapple/shove like it used to when it was athletics based, and formalizing slight flavor ribbons for using the arms for things other than unarmed attacks. might have slight ooc uses
2:Body: giving it a separate use case from deflect attacks/energy, and increasing its mitigation to match. Returns ki instead of spending Ki, but gives up chanve for attack. Only works on specific energy types though. You will probably use this one over deflect if given the option, (unless in a nova burn down) which is good since its less likely to occur.
thats it, pretty similar
My complaint with Kensei was always that I wanted to use my kensei weapon...not make unarmed attacks. I want my features to use my weapon. I don't play monks, generally, because I am not interested in unarmed combat. I'm a sword guy. I want a blade in my hand and I want to stabby stab with it.
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Tasha
I'd give all Sorcerers a bonus spell list, not just the two who already have it.
I kinda hear you on agile parry, I think the idea was to give you a benefit to mixing up unarmed/kensei weapon rounds. Tying it to deflect would kind of nerf the ability in exchange for not having to use unarmed attacks in your attack action. I just didnt think mixing it up was that big a problem, and I liked that it works better if you didn't use my kensei strike, a small tradeoff. But I'm not really opposed to your suggestion really.
The conflict I'm trying to solve on redirect attack is more of, if you can only do one per round, deflect attack is probably better. I get that redirect is a guaranteed hit, but deflect is negate+60% chance of dmg. In the old world you would redirect as soon as someone misses, but now, you will probably be holding on waiting to see if something hits, then trying to get redirect on last hit, only sometimes monsters attack the other guy.
And since this is their only real non evasive feature before 17, I don't think them doing it every round if they get the opportunity(which won't always occur) is bad. But if it had some other benefit, that made it more worth giving up 1 hits worth of damage, I think they can compete. perhaps advantage on the enemy hit until end of your next turn. Or maybe something different, but right now I think people will waste opportunities hoping to prevent damage.
but just my thoughts, I contemplated leaving it as a reaction, might work well with the 5 foot reaction step.
This. All sorcerers should have that kind of list. The fact that everyone considers the two subclasses that get it to be far and away the most powerful is telling.
I'd consider doing the same thing for Warlock as well, and add that all Warlocks get one bonus casting per long rest from the subclass list, going to 2 castings starting at level 5. That should mitigate the fear of running out of spells without the fear that 3 spells per short rest will make other casters superfluous.
I don't necessarily mind sorcs not all getting bonus spells, but I wish the one that didnt get spells had more going on with features. The idea of getting unique things other casters don't isnt bad to me, just the execution. But I hear many want spells.
Arcane Archer, a RANGER subclass
Expands to include use of light & heavy crossbows (but not hand crossbows)
At level 3:
-Arcane Archer Lore. Same as it is currently. Additionally, you learn Skirmisher, which allows you to Disengage as a bonus action.
-Arcane Archer Magic. Learn the following spells. Once per long rest, can cast one spell from the list without using a spell slot.
Level 3: Absorb Elements, Level 5: Flaming Sphere, Level 9: Blink, Level 13: Dimension Door, Level 17: Scrying
Arcane Shot remains as is, with the following changes: number of uses scales with Proficiency Bonus, contingent upon taking levels in the subclass. And, the Arcane Shot options scale at 15th level, instead of 18th level.
At Level 7: Elemental Arrows. You can imbue your Arrows (or bolts) with your choice of an elemental damage type: fire, cold, Lightning, acid, or thunder.
Also at Level 7: Infinite Quiver. Your quiver replaces any expended ammunition immediately after it's been used, so that your quiver will always be full.
At Level 11: Curving Shot. (Same as it is currently, but moved from level 7 to level 11).
At Level 15: Ever-Ready Shot. When you roll initiative, if you do not have all of your Arcane Shots available, you can regain up to 2 uses.
Additional Arcane Shot Option: Improved Elemental Arrow. The creature hit by your arrow takes an additional 2d6 of the damage type chosen (4d6 at level 15). The creature makes a Con save: on a failed save, they suffer the following effects, based upon the arrow's element: Fire/Acid- creature takes 1d6 fire/acid damage at the start of its next turn. Cold- creature falls prone. Lightning- creature cannot use Reaction for one round. Thunder- creature is knocked back 10 ft in a straight line away from the archer.Archer.
Maybe this is too much, I dunno. But I know that in its current incarnation, the AA needs improvement. Most people agree that only 2 Arcane Shots per short or long rest is not enough. Most martial classes/subclasses get some kind of magical damage type option around level 6. I thought elemental was topical for the AA. Newer Ranger subclasses get a list of additional spells known, and new subclasses have been getting 1 free casting from those lists. Skirmisher just seemed like something a ranged-focused subclass should have. Infinite Quiver just makes sense- makes the Archer more Arcane-y, and will be a big Boon for tables that track ammo. Curving Shot is fine, still a reasonably powerful feature for 11th level. Ever-ready needed to have the "no uses left" contingency removed, and I buffed it to 2 Shots restored just because I felt like it, I suppose. The Improved Elemental Arrow option was inspired by BG3. All of this was just spitballed in my head in the wee hours of the morning, so if you find it outrageously bad... please be kind.
I agree AA needs an update. I personally was trying to be more tame, and just update the features to solve problems with fitting in in UAs, So I wouldn't move a subclass to A whole new main class. but its a free thread
Why did you choose Flaming sphere at 5? doesnt seem very Arcane Archery? Also, isn't giving free spells+ better version of what fighter had a lot for a sub class?
Improved elemental arrow is kind of a lot, they already have weapon mastery, various spells which effect attacks. Some with the same riders. Also this is essentially 4 magic arrow options for one option slot. And I think they don't want to give out anti reaction things any more because monsters will make more use of reactions. I don't exactly hate it... I'm just not sure how its fits in with
I think if you are increasing the Amount of Arrows to PB, you don't also need to regain 2 arrows on initiative imo
that said its not bad, my main thing Is I wouldn't remove something from fighter, especially when it offered a different playstyle for fighter.
One thing I did with my own attempt to fix Kensei (Way of the Keen Edge) was to add a "Rapid Strikes" feature that lets you use a held weapon's damage type for unarmed strikes – mechanically it rarely makes an actual difference, as your damage is the same, but it's amazing how much better it feels to play as you're now sort of using your weapon for all attacks, even if some are still less damaging and they're not technically weapon attacks (to maintain roughly the same balance).
I like to imagine them as quicker strikes as part of a combo of moves, just feels more fun to make them work that way, and it's very occasionally useful when a target is resistant to bludgeoning damage but not slashing or piercing. The one larger mechanical benefit it has is that it lets the sub-class build around the Piercer or Slasher feat, whereas normally I would try to take Crusher on a Monk, but we don't know what's happening with those in OneD&D (I assume they'll still be usable, but I also hope they'll become core feats).
Of all the changes in that sub-class, it's one of the least significant mechanical changes, yet it's probably the one that made the biggest difference to how it felt to play, for me at least. But sometimes it's the minor things that are the best; as an another example, I give Druid players druidcraft for free in my campaigns, and that does seem to help the players be more "druidic" more of the time without sacrificing one of their two cantrip choices for it.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Scout Rogue
Skirmisher: I would let you move away as part of your Uncanny Dodge reaction once you hit 5th level, in addition to moving as a reaction if an enemy ends their turn next to you. That would allow you to get the option of moving after only eating a single attack (which you were probably going to use UD on anyway) rather than only being able to move away after an enemy pours their entire attack routine into you.
Survivalist: You should get two proficiencies of your choice if you already have Nature / Survival. That way someone building towards Scout won't have to choose between being bad at these at low levels or picking two wasted skills.
Superior Mobility: This should actually grant climb and move speeds rather than merely enhancing ones you already have. In addition, this is probably where I'd throw in a Cunning Strike enhancement - letting you use Withdraw either for free (no die cost), alongside another Cunning Strike option, or both.
Ambush Master: No change.
Sudden Strike: I would let you use the second sneak attack against the same target if you accept a half damage penalty on the second one. Otherwise unchanged.
mostly makes sense to me
my only concern is while the skirmisher seems a bit ehhh to me in standard, the move 15 feet away after taking half damage with no resource seems really strong. Not sure if its too strong, trying to think of points of comparison.
the ones I can think of with half movement are tied to a resource.
barbarian with rage BA
fighter tactical shift BA
bard inspiring movement. Reaction
inspiring movement is the closest, it uses a resource though, and is also ends turn.
perhaps if it was an either or proposition. you can choose to take half damage, or move half you movement.
but maybe its fine, just feels like it would become almost impossible to melee pressure a ranged rogue at all.