Followers of the stone path find enlightened meditating amongst the bones of the world.Steadfast and strong, these disciples are home wherever they tread and stand as bulwarks against the evils that threaten the land.
-Disciple of Stone: At 3rd level, you can draw strength up from the soil and stone to enhance your body.You gain the following benefits:
-When you are hit by a melee or ranged attack, you may spend 1 Ki point as reaction to create a shield out of earth. This shield applies a bonus to your armor class equal to your constitution modifier, and may cause the attack to miss.This shield falls after the triggering attack is resolved, whether it still hits or misses. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier. You regain all uses of this ability after a long rest.
-Hammers, mauls, and picks are considered monk weapons for you.
-Ear to the Ground:At 6th level, you can use your connection to the earth to locate danger.You gain Tremorsense with a range equal to 10x your proficiency bonus.You can spend 2 Ki points to double this range for 1 minute as a bonus action.
-Golem’s Skin:At 11th level, the very stones jump to your defense.As a bonus action, you can assemble a protective suit of earthen armor for 1 minute.For the duration you gain the following benefits:
-Terran Scale:You gain resistance to all damage types, except psychic, for the 1 minute duration of this ability.
-Broken Steps:Any surface you move across while this ability is active is broken and made difficult terrain.The terrain returns to normal after ten minutes.
Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you spend 5 Ki points to use this ability again.
-Juggernaut:At 17th level, you are fully immersed in the power of the soil and stones.You gain the following benefits:
-Burrowing:You gain a burrowing speed equal to your base movement speed.Solid stone does not impede this movement.This movement does not leave a tunnel.
-Earthbound:You can not be pushed, pulled, or knocked prone unless you allow yourself to be.
-Volcanic Strike:You exercise the land’s wrath by superheating stone and hurling missiles of magma at your foes.When you take the attack action on your turn, you replace one of the attacks with a blast of lava in a 30ft line that is 5ft wide.Each creature in the line must make a dexterity saving throw against your Ki save DC, taking fire damage equal to 4 rolls of your martial arts die on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. While you have no uses available, you can spend 2 ki points to use this feature again.
Ooh this is pretty cool! I think I like most of what this has... there's a few points where the wording needs some touching up and a few minor quibbles, but for the most part I think this looks very fun.
Okay, for Disciple of Stone... how long does the summon shield feature last? Does it cost Ki? How many times a day can you use this feature? Overall it's a very powerful feature... a potential +5 to AC is pretty wild. The only other thing I can think of that does that is the Shield spell, which only lasts a single round and costs a spell slot to cast each time. I think if this was a reaction that cost 1 ki it would work pretty well.
Ear to the Ground, I think, would be better to just give it a set size (like 30 feet), then include some detail that it increases in size at later levels. Something like, "You gain tremorsense out to a distance of 30 feet. This range increases to 60 feet at level 11, and 120 feet at level 17"
I like Golem's Skin... I think I'd need some playtesting to see if it drastically over-powers the character to have resistance to so many damage types, but there's already a barbarian subclass that gets the same thing at a much lower level. I think the Broken Steps needs some more rules... do you leave a trail of difficult terrain? Does it remain difficult terrain permanently or does it return to normal after a time? I, personally, like the idea of it just persisting until the start of your next round. I think the only downside is that it seems like it could be hard to track... whenever you move in combat with this feature active, you have to carefully track every step you went over to keep track of where this difficult terrain is. As fun as this feature sounds, it unfortunately seems impractical at many tables and could slow the game down more than difficult terrain is already intended to.
For Earthbound I would probably simplify the feature to state, "you cannot be moved against your will, and are immune to the Prone condition"
Thank you so much for the critique! I found it very helpful and put my edits into the OP. I’m thinking the subclass needed reined in a bit and I’m hoping the above changes make it a bit more balanced.
Looks good! I think there's potential for the Golem's Skin feature to be challenging at some tables... like I said, tracking where you moved through a whole combat can be tricky for some players depending on how they play, and resistance to so many damage types could be hard to deal with... but it's not like Monks have great defense anyway. That's the main feature in this subclass that I think still needs some playtesting, even if it's just to confirm that it works fine the way it is.
Way of Stone
Followers of the stone path find enlightened meditating amongst the bones of the world. Steadfast and strong, these disciples are home wherever they tread and stand as bulwarks against the evils that threaten the land.
-Disciple of Stone: At 3rd level, you can draw strength up from the soil and stone to enhance your body. You gain the following benefits:
-When you are hit by a melee or ranged attack, you may spend 1 Ki point as reaction to create a shield out of earth. This shield applies a bonus to your armor class equal to your constitution modifier, and may cause the attack to miss. This shield falls after the triggering attack is resolved, whether it still hits or misses. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier. You regain all uses of this ability after a long rest.
-Hammers, mauls, and picks are considered monk weapons for you.
-Ear to the Ground: At 6th level, you can use your connection to the earth to locate danger. You gain Tremorsense with a range equal to 10x your proficiency bonus. You can spend 2 Ki points to double this range for 1 minute as a bonus action.
-Golem’s Skin: At 11th level, the very stones jump to your defense. As a bonus action, you can assemble a protective suit of earthen armor for 1 minute. For the duration you gain the following benefits:
-Terran Scale: You gain resistance to all damage types, except psychic, for the 1 minute duration of this ability.
-Broken Steps: Any surface you move across while this ability is active is broken and made difficult terrain. The terrain returns to normal after ten minutes.
Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you spend 5 Ki points to use this ability again.
-Juggernaut: At 17th level, you are fully immersed in the power of the soil and stones. You gain the following benefits:
-Burrowing: You gain a burrowing speed equal to your base movement speed. Solid stone does not impede this movement. This movement does not leave a tunnel.
-Earthbound: You can not be pushed, pulled, or knocked prone unless you allow yourself to be.
-Volcanic Strike: You exercise the land’s wrath by superheating stone and hurling missiles of magma at your foes. When you take the attack action on your turn, you replace one of the attacks with a blast of lava in a 30ft line that is 5ft wide. Each creature in the line must make a dexterity saving throw against your Ki save DC, taking fire damage equal to 4 rolls of your martial arts die on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. While you have no uses available, you can spend 2 ki points to use this feature again.
Ooh this is pretty cool! I think I like most of what this has... there's a few points where the wording needs some touching up and a few minor quibbles, but for the most part I think this looks very fun.
Okay, for Disciple of Stone... how long does the summon shield feature last? Does it cost Ki? How many times a day can you use this feature? Overall it's a very powerful feature... a potential +5 to AC is pretty wild. The only other thing I can think of that does that is the Shield spell, which only lasts a single round and costs a spell slot to cast each time. I think if this was a reaction that cost 1 ki it would work pretty well.
Ear to the Ground, I think, would be better to just give it a set size (like 30 feet), then include some detail that it increases in size at later levels. Something like, "You gain tremorsense out to a distance of 30 feet. This range increases to 60 feet at level 11, and 120 feet at level 17"
I like Golem's Skin... I think I'd need some playtesting to see if it drastically over-powers the character to have resistance to so many damage types, but there's already a barbarian subclass that gets the same thing at a much lower level. I think the Broken Steps needs some more rules... do you leave a trail of difficult terrain? Does it remain difficult terrain permanently or does it return to normal after a time? I, personally, like the idea of it just persisting until the start of your next round. I think the only downside is that it seems like it could be hard to track... whenever you move in combat with this feature active, you have to carefully track every step you went over to keep track of where this difficult terrain is. As fun as this feature sounds, it unfortunately seems impractical at many tables and could slow the game down more than difficult terrain is already intended to.
For Earthbound I would probably simplify the feature to state, "you cannot be moved against your will, and are immune to the Prone condition"
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
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Thank you so much for the critique! I found it very helpful and put my edits into the OP. I’m thinking the subclass needed reined in a bit and I’m hoping the above changes make it a bit more balanced.
Looks good! I think there's potential for the Golem's Skin feature to be challenging at some tables... like I said, tracking where you moved through a whole combat can be tricky for some players depending on how they play, and resistance to so many damage types could be hard to deal with... but it's not like Monks have great defense anyway. That's the main feature in this subclass that I think still needs some playtesting, even if it's just to confirm that it works fine the way it is.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium