Hi everyone, first time actually posting in the homebrew section. I made a Homebrew-version of the 2024s "Warrior of Elements" and would love to hear what you guys think about it: ########################################################################################################################
Warrior of the Elements (Custom)
3RD LEVEL: MANIPULATE ELEMENTS
You know the Elementalism spell. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for it.
3RD LEVEL: ELEMENTAL ATTUNEMENT (Novice)
At the start of your turn, you can spend 1 Focus Point to imbue yourself with elemental energy. The energy lasts for 10 minutes or until you have the Incapacitated condition. You gain the following benefits while the feature is active:
Elemental Strikes. Whenever you hit with your Unarmed Strike, you can cause it to deal your choice of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning or Thunder damage rather than its normal damage type. When you deal one of these types with it, you can also force the target to make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you can move the target up to 10 feet toward or away from you, as elemental energy swirls around it.
Reach. When you make an Unarmed Strike, your reach is 10 feet greater than normal, as elemental energy extends from you.
6TH LEVEL: ENVIRONMENTAL BLAST
As a Magic Action, you can spend 3 Focus Points to cause environmental energy to burst in either:
a 15-foot-radius emanationoriginating from you
a 30 foot cone originating from you
a 60 foot line that is 10 feet wide originating from you
When you do so,choose a damage type: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning or Thunder. Each creature in the area that isnt you must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes damage of the chosen type equal to three rolls of your Martial Arts die. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage.
6TH LEVEL: ELEMENTAL ATTUNEMENT (Adept)
Your Elemental Attunement gains the following additional features:
When you use the dash action (or dash as a bonus action), you gain flying- and swimming speed equal to half your speed, rounded down, until the end of your next turn.
Whenever you expend one or more Focus Pointson your Monk features other than your Environmental Blast, you can reduce the Focus-Point-cost of your next Environmental Blastby the same amount of Focus Points. If you end your turn without having spent at least one Focus point, the cost of your Environmental Blast resets to normal.
11TH LEVEL: ELEMENTAL ATTUNEMENT (Expert)
Your additional flying- and swimming speed when you dash during Elemental Attunement increases, becoming equal to your speed, instead of half of it.
You can now unleash a stronger Environmental Blast by expending additional Focus Points. You can spend up to 4 Focus Points total on your Blast, and deal damage equal to the same number of rolls of your Martial Arts Die.
17TH LEVEL: ELEMENTAL ATTUNEMENT (Master)
When you activate your Elemental Attunement, choose a damage type out of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning or Thunder. You can change your choice at the beginning of each of your turns as long as Elemental Attunement is still active. You gain the following benefits:
Damage Resistance. You gain Resistance to the chosen damage type.
Elemental Balance. The Flying- and Swimming speed you gain from dashing while Elemental Attunment is active now lasts until the end of your elemental Attunement.
Destructive Stride. When you use your Step of the Wind, your Speed increases by 20 feet until the end of the turn. For that duration, any creature of your choice takes damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die when you enter a space within 5 feet of it, of the chosen damage type.
Empowered Strikes.Whenever you deal damage of the chosen type as part of an action, bonus action or reaction, you can add your proficiency modifier to the damage value.
You can now expend up to 5 Focus Points when using your Environmental Blast, dealing damage equal to the same number of rolls of your Martial Arts Die.
For clarification, the main problems i wanted to address with this homebrew were the following:
The Warrior of the Elements (WotE) Subclass has very steep features, effectively changing how it is played at every level that advances the subclass. Specifically, level 11 is an insane level of sudden change, effectively making the character going from having no flight, to flying the entirety of combat from that point on.
WotE gives you a magic damage burst feature (Environmental Burst at lvl 6) at a level were you can barely afford it, and makes it fall off in terms of usefulness by the time you CAN afford it, making you mostly rely on basic monk features and your lvl-based abilities for all levels between 3 and 11.
My personal issue with the WotE is mostly that it feels like being presented with a big red herring, namely the level 6 feature. Level 3 and 6 are the most important milestones for any subclass (or rather, the first 2 levels you gain subclass features are), because most campaigns will not go all the way into the lategame of lvl 17 and beyond. Throughout most of the game, you will rely on your base features (the ones you got when you picked the subclass, lvl 3 in this case), and the ones that come right after that.
And exactly there is what bothers me, because Environmental burst is a feature that SOUNDS badass as hell. Shotting giant blast of elemtnal energy to destroy multiple enemies at once? Hell, that sounds positively awesome! ... Unless, of course, its contained in a feature that
-costs 1/3 of your Max ressources when you get it
-is competing for ressources with both stunning strike and flurry of blows, two of the most defining features of monks, and easily the ones you use the most throught the game
-Scales in damage so poorly that you typically need to hit AT LEAST 3 opponents with it at the same time, while avoiding to hit allies, so that it is worth using an action for (which you could have used to punch twice, and with zero cost)
-basically falls of lategame, because even with a scaling martial arts die, 2 monk punches can reach comparable damage (and again, are free)
-Is only useful against crowds lategame, crowds that the nukers in your party are way better equipped to deal with, while the monk zips around stunning and displacing the big evil threat.
So what i wanted to achieve was a way to actually integrate a useful mechanic for firing burst into the subclass, which isnt done instead of being a classical monk, but enabled by it. A subclass that actually makes you feel good about fireblasting an army of goblins or a legion of the undead, and not because "its the one time my subclass feature wasnt completely useless".
And this is what i came up with. I might have to tweak with balance a bit yet, and for that, too, feedback would be great. Thanks for reading my rant, happy to hear what you guys think.
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Hi everyone, first time actually posting in the homebrew section.
I made a Homebrew-version of the 2024s "Warrior of Elements" and would love to hear what you guys think about it:
########################################################################################################################
Warrior of the Elements (Custom)
3RD LEVEL: MANIPULATE ELEMENTS
You know the Elementalism spell. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for it.
3RD LEVEL: ELEMENTAL ATTUNEMENT (Novice)
At the start of your turn, you can spend 1 Focus Point to imbue yourself with elemental energy. The energy lasts for 10 minutes or until you have the Incapacitated condition. You gain the following benefits while the feature is active:
Elemental Strikes. Whenever you hit with your Unarmed Strike, you can cause it to deal your choice of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning or Thunder damage rather than its normal damage type. When you deal one of these types with it, you can also force the target to make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you can move the target up to 10 feet toward or away from you, as elemental energy swirls around it.
Reach. When you make an Unarmed Strike, your reach is 10 feet greater than normal, as elemental energy extends from you.
6TH LEVEL: ENVIRONMENTAL BLAST
As a Magic Action, you can spend 3 Focus Points to cause environmental energy to burst in either:
a 15-foot-radius emanation originating from you
a 30 foot cone originating from you
a 60 foot line that is 10 feet wide originating from you
When you do so, choose a damage type: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning or Thunder. Each creature in the area that isnt you must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes damage of the chosen type equal to three rolls of your Martial Arts die. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage.
6TH LEVEL: ELEMENTAL ATTUNEMENT (Adept)
Your Elemental Attunement gains the following additional features:
When you use the dash action (or dash as a bonus action), you gain flying- and swimming speed equal to half your speed, rounded down, until the end of your next turn.
Whenever you expend one or more Focus Points on your Monk features other than your Environmental Blast, you can reduce the Focus-Point-cost of your next Environmental Blast by the same amount of Focus Points. If you end your turn without having spent at least one Focus point, the cost of your Environmental Blast resets to normal.
11TH LEVEL: ELEMENTAL ATTUNEMENT (Expert)
Your additional flying- and swimming speed when you dash during Elemental Attunement increases, becoming equal to your speed, instead of half of it.
You can now unleash a stronger Environmental Blast by expending additional Focus Points. You can spend up to 4 Focus Points total on your Blast, and deal damage equal to the same number of rolls of your Martial Arts Die.
17TH LEVEL: ELEMENTAL ATTUNEMENT (Master)
When you activate your Elemental Attunement, choose a damage type out of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning or Thunder. You can change your choice at the beginning of each of your turns as long as Elemental Attunement is still active. You gain the following benefits:
Damage Resistance. You gain Resistance to the chosen damage type.
Elemental Balance. The Flying- and Swimming speed you gain from dashing while Elemental Attunment is active now lasts until the end of your elemental Attunement.
Destructive Stride. When you use your Step of the Wind, your Speed increases by 20 feet until the end of the turn. For that duration, any creature of your choice takes damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die when you enter a space within 5 feet of it, of the chosen damage type.
Empowered Strikes. Whenever you deal damage of the chosen type as part of an action, bonus action or reaction, you can add your proficiency modifier to the damage value.
You can now expend up to 5 Focus Points when using your Environmental Blast, dealing damage equal to the same number of rolls of your Martial Arts Die.
###############################################################################################################
For clarification, the main problems i wanted to address with this homebrew were the following:
The Warrior of the Elements (WotE) Subclass has very steep features, effectively changing how it is played at every level that advances the subclass. Specifically, level 11 is an insane level of sudden change, effectively making the character going from having no flight, to flying the entirety of combat from that point on.
WotE gives you a magic damage burst feature (Environmental Burst at lvl 6) at a level were you can barely afford it, and makes it fall off in terms of usefulness by the time you CAN afford it, making you mostly rely on basic monk features and your lvl-based abilities for all levels between 3 and 11.
My personal issue with the WotE is mostly that it feels like being presented with a big red herring, namely the level 6 feature. Level 3 and 6 are the most important milestones for any subclass (or rather, the first 2 levels you gain subclass features are), because most campaigns will not go all the way into the lategame of lvl 17 and beyond. Throughout most of the game, you will rely on your base features (the ones you got when you picked the subclass, lvl 3 in this case), and the ones that come right after that.
And exactly there is what bothers me, because Environmental burst is a feature that SOUNDS badass as hell. Shotting giant blast of elemtnal energy to destroy multiple enemies at once? Hell, that sounds positively awesome!
... Unless, of course, its contained in a feature that
-costs 1/3 of your Max ressources when you get it
-is competing for ressources with both stunning strike and flurry of blows, two of the most defining features of monks, and easily the ones you use the most throught the game
-Scales in damage so poorly that you typically need to hit AT LEAST 3 opponents with it at the same time, while avoiding to hit allies, so that it is worth using an action for (which you could have used to punch twice, and with zero cost)
-basically falls of lategame, because even with a scaling martial arts die, 2 monk punches can reach comparable damage (and again, are free)
-Is only useful against crowds lategame, crowds that the nukers in your party are way better equipped to deal with, while the monk zips around stunning and displacing the big evil threat.
So what i wanted to achieve was a way to actually integrate a useful mechanic for firing burst into the subclass, which isnt done instead of being a classical monk, but enabled by it. A subclass that actually makes you feel good about fireblasting an army of goblins or a legion of the undead, and not because "its the one time my subclass feature wasnt completely useless".
And this is what i came up with. I might have to tweak with balance a bit yet, and for that, too, feedback would be great.
Thanks for reading my rant, happy to hear what you guys think.