I'm trying to get criticism and balance ideas from others regarding the mechanics of a new Monk Subclass I've working on (yes it's based on Haki from One Piece, but it wors well for a psionic based monk class). Mostly I need criticism on how it works, whether or not some of the features are overpowered for their positions, and/or the Ki Point Cost some of these abilities may require to activate (denoted in the feature by X?).
Monk: Way of Flowing Ambition
The Way of Flowing Ambition is a martial from that makes use of the users inner force of will and latent psionic power. It is used and developed by the ancestors of the Illieri family as a way to pass on teaching and memories from one user to the next. Practitioners of this art begin by unlocking the ability to sense the world around them in ways they never could before. Advanced users can learn to exert their psionic will for offense or defense.
Will to Know: Sense
Starting at 3 Level you can spend 1 Ki Point to Cast the Spell Detect Thoughts as a bonus action. Wisdom is your Spellcasting Ability for this Spell. A hostile creature that fails it's saving throw against this spell (cast by this feature) has disadvantage on attack rolls against you for the duration of the spell.
Will to Do: Flow
Starting at 3 Level, as a bonus action, you can spend 1 Ki Points to wrap your body and weapons in your invisible psionic will. Unarmed attacks and attacked made with weapons you are proficient with are treated as magical for the purpose of damage reduction. This benefits last for 1 Minute.
Will to Be: Presence
Starting at 3 Level you can spend 1 Ki Points to cast one of the following spells as a bonus action: Animal Friendship, Cause Fear, Command. Wisdom is your Spellcasting ability for these spells. These Spells are cast as 1st Level Spells.
Will to Do: Adamant
Starting at 6 level you may also spend an additional Ki Point when you enhance your yourself or your weaponry to encase your unarmed attacks and weapons you are wielding with a more potent layer of hardened psionic energy, turning these weapons black in color. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom modifier (min. 1) or until you are no longer in contact with the weapon and can target no more than two specific weapons at a time. These weapons are treated as being made of adamantine for the duration.
Will to Be: Presence (Improvement)
Starting at 6 Level you can cast any of the spells from your Will to Be: Presence feature as 3rd level spells. Doing so costs 2 Ki Points instead of 1.
Will to Do: Unbreakable
Starting at 11 Level, as a bonus action, you can Spend 4 Ki Points to encase your body in armor made of hardened will. This armor is colored black and lasts for up to 1 minute. While donning this layer of psionic armor you have resistance against non-magical bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage and any Critical hit that hits you is instead treated as a normal hit. Your movement speed is reduced by 20 feet for the duration.
Will to Be: Paragon
Starting at 11 Level you may spend 3 Ki Points to cast Shatter, or Sleep as a 5th Level Spell. Wisdom is you Spellcasting Ability for these spells. In addition, any spells you could cast with your Will to Be: Presence feature can also be cast as 5th level spell. Doing so costs 3 Ki Points.
Three Wills Awakened
Starting at 17 Level, once per long rest as a bonus action, you can spend 5 Ki Points to awaken the power of your supreme will. For 1 hour you gain the following benefits:
Your unarmed attacks and attacks made with weapon you are proficient with deal additional force damage equal to your Martial Arts die + your Wisdom Modifier.
Spells you could cast with your Will to Be: Presence or Will to Be: Paragon can be cast as 7th level spells. Doing so costs 3 Ki Points.
I like the idea of a psionic monk, but I have a few feedback:
Will to know: sense: With which ability is this spell casted? I would imagine it's either WIS to fit monk, or INT to fit the psionic part.
Will to do: flow: why is this charisma based, psionic things tend to be intelligence, and monk is wisdom and dexterity based, so it doesn't fit the monk nor the psionic part in my opinion.
Will to be: presence: same, why charisma?
Three wills awakened: this allows you to cast 9th level spell, even a full caster can do so only once per long rest, so I would suggest having this cost a lot of ki point, I ain't a huge monk player, but I think I remember they get 1 ki point per level, so I would say this should cost at least 11ki or 15ki point to make sure it's only once per rest.
I like the idea of a psionic monk, but I have a few feedback:
Will to know: sense: With which ability is this spell casted? I would imagine it's either WIS to fit monk, or INT to fit the psionic part.
Will to do: flow: why is this charisma based, psionic things tend to be intelligence, and monk is wisdom and dexterity based, so it doesn't fit the monk nor the psionic part in my opinion.
Will to be: presence: same, why charisma?
Three wills awakened: this allows you to cast 9th level spell, even a full caster can do so only once per long rest, so I would suggest having this cost a lot of ki point, I ain't a huge monk player, but I think I remember they get 1 ki point per level, so I would say this should cost at least 11ki or 15ki point to make sure it's only once per rest.
The answers of 1-3 are Charisma. Wisdom and intilleigence are the statistics imparing knowledge, but Charisma is the stat of one ability to influence others. As the Concept of Flowing Ambition is to use one will or ambition in a similar manner it's spellcasting stat will be Charisma, although much like the Astral Monk t may be Charisma/Wisdom based on the player's choice.
As 4 Four you make a valid point, though I can simply at a feature caveat that reduces the abilities of the user to cast said spell only once per long rest. Edits will be made accordingly.
I'd strongly recommend sticking to WIS for spellcasting. Monks already need DEX and WIS and can't afford to dump CON. If they abandon WIS for CHA, they lose AC and lower the DC of all other ki saves including Stunning Strike. This kills the monk.
My other initial impression is that level 3 needs a lot more. Just an option to cast one very situational spell is not really enough to get a feel for the subclass. You could go several sessions not using it at all, while your teammates are using their subclass features left and right. Compare it with existing monk subclasses to see how they all introduce the main features of the class right away and then upgrade or intensify the themes set at level 3. I see what you're trying to do with Haki, but you're going to need to break that progression a bit to better fit D&D feature progression.
Also, I'm not sure if you were aware, but monk unarmed strikes already count as magical at level 6. So your level 6 feature really only covers weapons. Also you need to specify the type of the CHA damage.
Most of the class' features start with will, I assume this refers to willpower, holder edition used to define wisdom as "a combination of experience, perception, common sense, intuition, and willpower " so yes, I definitely think it could fit or your class, also, charisma is used to influence other in a social manner, yes, but when it comes to spellcasting, it often shows the fact this power is inherent to you (like dragon using charisma to cast a spell).
Overall: No monk should be reliant on anything other than WIS or DEX. Switch out CHA for WIS in all cases.
Level 3 (Detect Thoughts): This is super underwhelming. Shadow Monks gets several spells to cast at this level, as well as a cantrip known. There could very well be more spells for you to add here and it wouldn't be OP.
Level 6 (Magical attacks): As others mentioned, unarmed strikes are already magical at level 6 for monks. Between that and the bonus being CHA, I don't see why anyone would spend ki on this. I think perhaps a decent option that fits in with the psionic abilities is maybe tacking on 2 ki to force disadvantage on an attempted Stunning Strike?
Level 11 (Psionic armor): This seems pretty good for this level. Since not a ton of other monk subclasses have to spend ki on their abilities, I'd say just limiting this to once per short rest is fine.
Level 11 (Adamantine weapons): Expanded crits are good. First impression is this is fair, but other classes actually get this feature much earlier. Could potentially move this up to level six, only count it as unarmed strikes getting the bonus to crit range, and call it a day. Probably only need to spend 1 ki to activate it each turn, I think?
Level 11 (Spells): Again, take out CHA. It's worthless to an already ASI starved class. Additionally, these could all be on that spell list at first level and it wouldn't break the subclass. Giving three 1st-level spells this late in the game is very underpowered, though coupled with the other level 11 benefits maybe not so bad. If you keep them here, I recommend they be only 1 ki each, or possibly allow them to be used a number of times each rest.
Level 17 (Awakened): Two 9th-level spells, one of which is 9th-level plus the additional benefit of picking which targets you want to affect. That's more than any other class in the game gets, even wizards. And technically, since it is ki-based, you can use them several times a day! Just crazy powerful as an ability. This needs to be reworked entirely. The force-damage thing is a good launching point, but Astral Self monks get force damage at level three, and force damage is the least commonly resisted/immune damage type in the game, so the added benefits aren't much better than it just being force damage. I'd boot Foresight from the mix (not sure how it fits the psionic theme anyways) and make the Sleep spell a little weaker. Perhaps something like a 7th level version, same "ignore some creatures" benefit, but at high ki cost so it is limited to once a rest. Something like allowing unarmed strikes to straight up ignore all resistances and immunities doesn't seem OP for high level play either.
Overall: No monk should be reliant on anything other than WIS or DEX. Switch out CHA for WIS in all cases.
Level 3 (Detect Thoughts): This is super underwhelming. Shadow Monks gets several spells to cast at this level, as well as a cantrip known. There could very well be more spells for you to add here and it wouldn't be OP.
Level 6 (Magical attacks): As others mentioned, unarmed strikes are already magical at level 6 for monks. Between that and the bonus being CHA, I don't see why anyone would spend ki on this. I think perhaps a decent option that fits in with the psionic abilities is maybe tacking on 2 ki to force disadvantage on an attempted Stunning Strike?
Level 11 (Psionic armor): This seems pretty good for this level. Since not a ton of other monk subclasses have to spend ki on their abilities, I'd say just limiting this to once per short rest is fine.
Level 11 (Adamantine weapons): Expanded crits are good. First impression is this is fair, but other classes actually get this feature much earlier. Could potentially move this up to level six, only count it as unarmed strikes getting the bonus to crit range, and call it a day. Probably only need to spend 1 ki to activate it each turn, I think?
Level 11 (Spells): Again, take out CHA. It's worthless to an already ASI starved class. Additionally, these could all be on that spell list at first level and it wouldn't break the subclass. Giving three 1st-level spells this late in the game is very underpowered, though coupled with the other level 11 benefits maybe not so bad. If you keep them here, I recommend they be only 1 ki each, or possibly allow them to be used a number of times each rest.
Level 17 (Awakened): Two 9th-level spells, one of which is 9th-level plus the additional benefit of picking which targets you want to affect. That's more than any other class in the game gets, even wizards. And technically, since it is ki-based, you can use them several times a day! Just crazy powerful as an ability. This needs to be reworked entirely. The force-damage thing is a good launching point, but Astral Self monks get force damage at level three, and force damage is the least commonly resisted/immune damage type in the game, so the added benefits aren't much better than it just being force damage. I'd boot Foresight from the mix (not sure how it fits the psionic theme anyways) and make the Sleep spell a little weaker. Perhaps something like a 7th level version, same "ignore some creatures" benefit, but at high ki cost so it is limited to once a rest. Something like allowing unarmed strikes to straight up ignore all resistances and immunities doesn't seem OP for high level play either.
Criticism was accepted and taken, adjustments and edits have been made accordingly.
I'm trying to get criticism and balance ideas from others regarding the mechanics of a new Monk Subclass I've working on (yes it's based on Haki from One Piece, but it wors well for a psionic based monk class). Mostly I need criticism on how it works, whether or not some of the features are overpowered for their positions, and/or the Ki Point Cost some of these abilities may require to activate (denoted in the feature by X?).
Monk: Way of Flowing Ambition
The Way of Flowing Ambition is a martial from that makes use of the users inner force of will and latent psionic power. It is used and developed by the ancestors of the Illieri family as a way to pass on teaching and memories from one user to the next. Practitioners of this art begin by unlocking the ability to sense the world around them in ways they never could before. Advanced users can learn to exert their psionic will for offense or defense.
Will to Know: Sense
Starting at 3 Level you can spend 1 Ki Point to Cast the Spell Detect Thoughts as a bonus action. Wisdom is your Spellcasting Ability for this Spell. A hostile creature that fails it's saving throw against this spell (cast by this feature) has disadvantage on attack rolls against you for the duration of the spell.
Will to Do: Flow
Starting at 3 Level, as a bonus action, you can spend 1 Ki Points to wrap your body and weapons in your invisible psionic will. Unarmed attacks and attacked made with weapons you are proficient with are treated as magical for the purpose of damage reduction. This benefits last for 1 Minute.
Will to Be: Presence
Starting at 3 Level you can spend 1 Ki Points to cast one of the following spells as a bonus action: Animal Friendship, Cause Fear, Command. Wisdom is your Spellcasting ability for these spells. These Spells are cast as 1st Level Spells.
Will to Do: Adamant
Starting at 6 level you may also spend an additional Ki Point when you enhance your yourself or your weaponry to encase your unarmed attacks and weapons you are wielding with a more potent layer of hardened psionic energy, turning these weapons black in color. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom modifier (min. 1) or until you are no longer in contact with the weapon and can target no more than two specific weapons at a time. These weapons are treated as being made of adamantine for the duration.
Will to Be: Presence (Improvement)
Starting at 6 Level you can cast any of the spells from your Will to Be: Presence feature as 3rd level spells. Doing so costs 2 Ki Points instead of 1.
Will to Do: Unbreakable
Starting at 11 Level, as a bonus action, you can Spend 4 Ki Points to encase your body in armor made of hardened will. This armor is colored black and lasts for up to 1 minute. While donning this layer of psionic armor you have resistance against non-magical bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage and any Critical hit that hits you is instead treated as a normal hit. Your movement speed is reduced by 20 feet for the duration.
Will to Be: Paragon
Starting at 11 Level you may spend 3 Ki Points to cast Shatter, or Sleep as a 5th Level Spell. Wisdom is you Spellcasting Ability for these spells. In addition, any spells you could cast with your Will to Be: Presence feature can also be cast as 5th level spell. Doing so costs 3 Ki Points.
Three Wills Awakened
Starting at 17 Level, once per long rest as a bonus action, you can spend 5 Ki Points to awaken the power of your supreme will. For 1 hour you gain the following benefits:
I like the idea of a psionic monk, but I have a few feedback:
Feel free to check out my hombrew: Magic Items, Spells, Monsters, Species, Feats, Subclassses, and Backgrounds. More detail in my Homebrew Compendium.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or ways to improve my homebrew, tell me, I'm always looking to improve!
Map commission Here.
The answers of 1-3 are Charisma. Wisdom and intilleigence are the statistics imparing knowledge, but Charisma is the stat of one ability to influence others. As the Concept of Flowing Ambition is to use one will or ambition in a similar manner it's spellcasting stat will be Charisma, although much like the Astral Monk t may be Charisma/Wisdom based on the player's choice.
As 4 Four you make a valid point, though I can simply at a feature caveat that reduces the abilities of the user to cast said spell only once per long rest. Edits will be made accordingly.
I'd strongly recommend sticking to WIS for spellcasting. Monks already need DEX and WIS and can't afford to dump CON. If they abandon WIS for CHA, they lose AC and lower the DC of all other ki saves including Stunning Strike. This kills the monk.
My other initial impression is that level 3 needs a lot more. Just an option to cast one very situational spell is not really enough to get a feel for the subclass. You could go several sessions not using it at all, while your teammates are using their subclass features left and right. Compare it with existing monk subclasses to see how they all introduce the main features of the class right away and then upgrade or intensify the themes set at level 3. I see what you're trying to do with Haki, but you're going to need to break that progression a bit to better fit D&D feature progression.
Also, I'm not sure if you were aware, but monk unarmed strikes already count as magical at level 6. So your level 6 feature really only covers weapons. Also you need to specify the type of the CHA damage.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Most of the class' features start with will, I assume this refers to willpower, holder edition used to define wisdom as "a combination of experience, perception, common sense, intuition, and willpower " so yes, I definitely think it could fit or your class, also, charisma is used to influence other in a social manner, yes, but when it comes to spellcasting, it often shows the fact this power is inherent to you (like dragon using charisma to cast a spell).
Feel free to check out my hombrew: Magic Items, Spells, Monsters, Species, Feats, Subclassses, and Backgrounds. More detail in my Homebrew Compendium.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or ways to improve my homebrew, tell me, I'm always looking to improve!
Map commission Here.
Overall: No monk should be reliant on anything other than WIS or DEX. Switch out CHA for WIS in all cases.
Level 3 (Detect Thoughts): This is super underwhelming. Shadow Monks gets several spells to cast at this level, as well as a cantrip known. There could very well be more spells for you to add here and it wouldn't be OP.
Level 6 (Magical attacks): As others mentioned, unarmed strikes are already magical at level 6 for monks. Between that and the bonus being CHA, I don't see why anyone would spend ki on this. I think perhaps a decent option that fits in with the psionic abilities is maybe tacking on 2 ki to force disadvantage on an attempted Stunning Strike?
Level 11 (Psionic armor): This seems pretty good for this level. Since not a ton of other monk subclasses have to spend ki on their abilities, I'd say just limiting this to once per short rest is fine.
Level 11 (Adamantine weapons): Expanded crits are good. First impression is this is fair, but other classes actually get this feature much earlier. Could potentially move this up to level six, only count it as unarmed strikes getting the bonus to crit range, and call it a day. Probably only need to spend 1 ki to activate it each turn, I think?
Level 11 (Spells): Again, take out CHA. It's worthless to an already ASI starved class. Additionally, these could all be on that spell list at first level and it wouldn't break the subclass. Giving three 1st-level spells this late in the game is very underpowered, though coupled with the other level 11 benefits maybe not so bad. If you keep them here, I recommend they be only 1 ki each, or possibly allow them to be used a number of times each rest.
Level 17 (Awakened): Two 9th-level spells, one of which is 9th-level plus the additional benefit of picking which targets you want to affect. That's more than any other class in the game gets, even wizards. And technically, since it is ki-based, you can use them several times a day! Just crazy powerful as an ability. This needs to be reworked entirely. The force-damage thing is a good launching point, but Astral Self monks get force damage at level three, and force damage is the least commonly resisted/immune damage type in the game, so the added benefits aren't much better than it just being force damage. I'd boot Foresight from the mix (not sure how it fits the psionic theme anyways) and make the Sleep spell a little weaker. Perhaps something like a 7th level version, same "ignore some creatures" benefit, but at high ki cost so it is limited to once a rest. Something like allowing unarmed strikes to straight up ignore all resistances and immunities doesn't seem OP for high level play either.
Criticism was accepted and taken, adjustments and edits have been made accordingly.
I hate to do this but... Bump