I wanted to save Shadow for last, but... Oh boy this is gonna be a long one (mostly because I have to dive into spells for comparisson and also include comments about other subclasses that were included)... Let's start with the no-caster caster monk: Way of the Four Elements / Warrior of the Elements
Note: This is not a competition between all available 5e's Elemental Disciplines together against OneDnD's Elemental Attunement; it's every individual discipline against the new feature unlocked at its respective level, this is important because it explains why the new version evaluation is the way it is.
Level 3
5e version: You learn magical disciplines that harness the power of the four elements. You know the Elemental Attunement discipline and one other elemental discipline of your choice. You learn one additional elemental discipline of your choice at 6th, 11th, and 17th level. Whenever you learn a new elemental discipline, you can also replace one elemental discipline that your already know with a different discipline
Elemental Attunment: No ki cost. Can cause the following effects:
Create a harmless, instantaneous sensory effect related to air, earth, fire, or water, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, a spray of light mist, or a gentle rumbling of stone.
Instanteneously light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.
Chill or warm up to 1 pound of nonliving material for up to 1 hour.
Cause earh, fire, waterm, or mist that can fit within a 1-foot cube to shape itself into a crude form you designate for 1 minute.
Spell Disciplines: Can only be upcasted from level 5 onwards and only up to the equivalent of a level 5 spell. Available at this level:
Fist of Four Thunders: 2 ki for Thunderwave (1st level spell)
Rush of the Gale Spirits: 2 ki for Gust of Wind (2nd level spell)
Sweeping Cinder Strike: 2 ki for Burning Hands (1st level spell)
Spell-like Disciplines: Not spells, upcasting works differently for these. All available at this level:
Fangs of the Fire Snake: When you use the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point, your reach with your unarmed strikes increases by 10 feet for that action, as well as the rest of the turn. All hits deal fire damage, and can spend 1 additional ki point when the attack hits to deal an extra 1d10 damage. (No upcasting)
Unbroken Air: As an action, you can spend 2 ki points and choose a creature within 30 feet of you. That creature must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 3d10 bludgeoning damage, and you can push the creature up to 20 feet away from you and knock it prone. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage, and you don't push it or knock it prone. (Can be upcasted with no limit: 1d10 extra damage for each additional ki point spent)
Shape the Flowing River: As an action you can spend 1 ki point to choose an area of ice or water no larger than 30 feet on a side within 120 feet of you. You can chage water to ice within the area and vice versa, and you can reshape ice in the area in any manner you choose. You can raise or lower the ice's elevation, create or fill a trench, erect or flatten a wall, or form a pillar. The extent of any such changes can't exceed half the area's largest dimension. You can't shape the ice to trap or injure a creature in the area. (No upcasting, but all effects are permanent)
Water Whip: As an action, you can spend 2 ki points and choose a creature within 30 feet of you. That creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 3d10 bludgeoning damage, and you can either knock it prone or pull it up to 25 feet closer to your. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage, and you don't pull it or knock it prone. (Can be upcasted with no limit: 1d10 extra damage for each additional ki point spent)
Why separate it like this? Because it makes it easier to see how limited in choice you are. Elemental Disciplines work like the Spell Known system but worse, you can't change them until you reach your next subclass feature (instead of at each level), so if you didn't choose right at level 3, it's too late and you have to wait until level 6 to change your pick. Also Elemental Attunment is a mandatoy discipline for some reason, you can't swap it with another at later levels because at level 6, 11 and 17 the feature tells you that Elemental Attunement is included in the disciplines you know at that point (why not make it a separate feature instead of a discipline is beyond me). So asside from our "cantrip", we have to pick between a single spell from a short list (two level 1 spells and one level 2 spell) or one spell-like discipline from a list of four (personally Water Whip is my favourite, although Unbroken Air is just the push version of Water Whip, so it's a close second, Fangs of the Fire Snake extended reach is more usable and I will admit that I missed it at first sight that you could build an ice fortress with this if you have the ice/water and the time to do so), if you ever make a 4 elements monk, be sure to not regret your pick at each subclass level.
OneDnD version (UA6): Elemental Attunement:
You know the Elementalism cantrip.
In addition, at the start of each of your turns, you can spend 1 Discipline Point (no action required) to imbue yourself with elemental energy. The energy lasts for 10 minutes or until you have the Incapacitated condition. You gain the following benefits:
Elemental Strikes: Your Unarmed Strikes can deal Acid, Cold, Fire, or Lightning damage rather than its normal damage type. When you deal one of these types with your Unarmed Strikes, you can force the target to make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you can move the target up to 10 feet forward or away from you.
Reach: Your reach for your Unarmed Strikes increases by 10 feet, as elemental energy extends from you.
You may have guessed it already, but Elemental Attunement mixes some of the previous Elemental Disciplines by lowering amazingly the DP cost and giving them extended duration along with the Ascendant Dragon's Draconic Strikes (minus poison damage). First, the Elementalism cantrip replaces completely the previous "Elemental Attunement", which was also a combination of fragments of other cantrips (Druidcraft, Prestidigitation) and other small effects. Second, Fangs of the Fire Snake, Unbroken Air and Water Whip (top 3 choices with Water Whip being arguably the best) were unified into Elemental Strikes and Reach, in exchange the damage is lowered slightly until level 11, the strikes can't be "upcasted" for more damage, the forced move distance is shortened (only in a single activation), it is no longer possible to knock a target prone and it is now exclusively a Strenght saving throw. The only downside that matters here is the prone removal, I'm fine with everything else, besides, to have all those 3 features before, a 4 elements monk needs to be at least level 11, the rest of Disciplines available at this level are definitely not worth the opportunity cost (only 1 Discipline at level 3). I'd rather have a slighly weaker version of all 3 worthy disciplines combined with a lower cost and more chances to use them than a single-use, fully-upcasted Water Whip at level 20 (even if it can deal 21d10 damage), so OneDnD wins here.
Level 6
5e version: Spell Disciplines available at this level:
Clench of the North Wind: 2 ki for Hold Person (2nd level spell)
Gong of the Summit: 3 ki for Shatter (2nd level spell)
Hold Person may be a somewhat good option to have, but none of the spells are really worth your disciplines known spot, you will more likely pick another spell-like discipline.
OneDnD version (UA6): Environmental Burst: As a Magic action, you can spend 2 Discipline Points to cause environmental energy to burst in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point within 120 feet of yourself. Choose a damage type: Acid, Cold, Fire or Lightning. Each creature in the spehre must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes damage of the chosen type equal to 3 rolls of your Martial Arts die. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage. Before or after you take this action, you can make one Unarmed Strike as a bonus action.
If this were an Ascendant Dragon monk, I'd say that this is roughly equal to the previous breath weapon you got at level 3 (since Environmental Burst deals higher damage from the beginning at the cost of a whole action and with no "free uses"), or if this were a Sun Soul monk, I'd say this is way better than Searing Arc Strike just on the basis of this at least dealing half damage on a successful Dex save instead of no damage on a Con save. But we are talking about the 4 elements monk, which doesn't have access to Fireball (Flames of the Phoenix) until level 11 (as one of its four disciplines known), it's way less costly than Fireball (2 DP vs 4 Ki), can deal other damage types not only fire, and still let's you make an Unarmed Strike as a bonus action (possibly to move a target into the AoE). The only advantage Fireball has over Env. Burst is that it can be upcasted at later levels up to a 5th level spell. Environmental Burst wins this against all other 3 monks (especially the 4 elements), so OneDnD wins here again.
Level 11
5e version: Spell Disciplines available at this level:
Flames of the Phoenix: 4 ki points for Fireball (3rd level spell)
Mist Stance: 4 ki for Gaseous Form (self) (3rd level spell)
Ride the Wind: 4 ki for Fly (self) (3rd level spell)
Mist Stance is the most interesting choice, followed by Ride the Wind. Flames of the Phonix arrives little too late to be of any real impact, besides you only have 2 castings of each of this spells per short rest, it better be worth the ki investment, and that's why it's a pick between Mist Stance, Ride the Wind or another spell-like discipline.
OneDnD version (UA6): Stride of the Elements: When you use your Step of the Wind, you gain a Fly Speed and Swim Speed equal to your Speed for 10 minutes.
So a non-concentration, non-counterspell-able Fly (with added Swim speed) that last 10 minutes even if incapacitated (oversight probably, WotC usually wants such features to be interrupted with that condition, especially on non-casters); sorry Ascendant Dragon, I was supposed to trash 4 elements, but I didn't know there'd be so much collateral damage! Only Mist Stance can pose a challenge here, mostly due to the exploration aspect of it, however Stride of the Elements covers both exploration AND combat, it's not an easy comparisson since both features do completely different things, at least Stride does not require concentration... Anyways, since Stride of the Elements can be used together with your Elemental Strikes to pull targets up to 40 feet into the air, I think it's fair to say that OneDnd version wins here as well.
Level 17
5e version: Spell Disciplines available at this level:
Breath of Winter: 6 ki for Cone of Cold (5th level spell)
Eternal Mountain Defense: 5 ki for Stoneskin (self) (4th level spell)
River of Hungry Flame: 5 ki points for Wall of Fire (4th level spell)
Wave or Rolling Earth: 6 ki points for Wall of Stone (5th level spell)
As if to compensate for the lack of any other feature aside from discipline casting, we get 4 new options from which to pick only 1 (or 2 if you swap one of your previous disciplines). Aside from Stoneskin, all other options are "fine", if I went with the ice fortress idea at level 3, then I'd definitely pick Cone of Cold, otherwise I'd pick Wall of Fire for consistent damage (it lasts longer than Cone of Cold and can be casted more times). But let's not forget about how this single 5th (or 4th) level spell is what WotC considered an appropiate level 17 feature. Also, 5th level spell?, so 4 elements is not supposed to be a 1/3 caster, but a 1/2 one? Since when?
OneDnD version (UA6): Elemental Epitome: When you use the Elemental Attunement feature, you also gain the following benefits:
Damage Resistance: You gain resistance to one of the following damage types of your choice: Acid, Cold, Fire, or Lightning. At the start of each of your turns, you can change this choice.
Destructive Stride: When you use your Step of the Wind, your Speed increases by 20 feet until the end of your 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. The damage is the same type you chose for this feature's damage resistance. A creature can take this damage only once per turn.
Empowered Strikes: Once on each of your turns, you can deal extra damage to a target equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die when you hit it with an Unarmed Strike. The damage type is the same type you chose for this feature's damage resistance.
So a combination of Ascendant Dragon's Aspect of the Wyrm (that one's short range might as well be a self protection feature, and this one can change the damage type), Ashardalon's Stride (a level 3 spell introduced in Tasha's, almost the same, but Destructive Stride deals higher damage which can be of different types, but it doesn't ignite objects and only lasts until the end of your turn, unlike Ashardalon's which lasts 1 minute with concentration) and Astral Self's Empowered Strikes (almost the same, only difference is the damage type). 2 level 11 features of other monks + 1 level 3 spell, them being imbebbed into 1 single feature is nice and all, but it's not as impactful as one would expect. It's not bad, it's clearly better than 4 elements here, but it's not good enough to be the capstone ability, it does feel like it belongs to level 11.
UA8 Monk update:
Environmental Burst: The last sentence that grants an unarmed strike as a bonus action before or after the burst is now redundant due to the new additional unarmed strike from Martial Arts being completely independant from the Attack action (Flurry of Blows can be used as a completely separate bonus action as well).
Stride of the Elements: Changes to Step of the Wind affect this directly. Presumably, Stride will trigger using any version of SotW (using DP or not, focusing on this last one), so Elements monk basically has permanent (or ,at least, always-repeatable) fly and swim speed. Heightened Discipline allows a willing creature (ally or charmed creatures count, I guess?) to go with you for the turn when you use SotW; keep in mind people, that only the monk has 10 minutes of fly and swim speed, so, once your turn is over, that creature will fall to its death if you didn't land them safely.
Elemental Epitome: Only Destructive Stride got changed, and it's basically the same changes as Stride of the Elements, the free version of SotW should trigger Destructive Stride on every turn.
I don't think a resource effectiveness comparisson here is necessary, but if you need to know OneDnd version wins in this aspect in every single step, even considering that the new version has an explicit or implicit need of DP use on all of its features. Update: The UA8 monk version basically incentivizes DP expenditure, since you have free access to some features (mainly SotW) and your DP can get recharged on iniciative easier now.
And we finish with an overwhelming victory for OneDnD's version, though, honestly, the bar was not high (heck, it was at best a bump in the road). I will admit that Shape the Flowing River and Mist Stance may have had interesting uses, but the Warrior of the Elements monk is more than playable. Maybe not as good as Shadow, but way better than Hand.
I do think it’s a fantastic addition to the monk class and really redeems what the subclass was in 5e. It’s interesting to see how the elemental disciplines also compare to the features given in one dnd. I wasn’t planning on playtesting monk but I think I will now. Idk how well it’ll stand up though with college of dance bard.
I like this new version. But I think it could use something. I'm not sure if I care about the flying, but might like some elemental defense type feature or move the elemental damage from Elemental Epitome to this point, if not earlier.
Most Martial classes have some type of 1/3 caster. Elemental was always hoped to be that but has been woefully underpowered.
I'm wondering what are they worried about in brining this subclass in line with others? I would grant them access to only fire/water/ice/lightning/earth type spells and go up at a rate similar to an Eldritch Knight.
Most Martial classes have some type of 1/3 caster. Elemental was always hoped to be that but has been woefully underpowered.
I'm wondering what are they worried about in brining this subclass in line with others? I would grant them access to only fire/water/ice/lightning/earth type spells and go up at a rate similar to an Eldritch Knight.
I don’t think I would want a 1/3 caster monk like Fighter’s Eldritch Knight or Rogue’s Arcane Trickster. But that’s just my opinion. And I think limiting them to fire, lightning, cold, etc might be difficult to organize especially since they are moving to three spell lists and moving away from even limited spell schools. Plus not all damage/elemental types are equally represented in the spell lists.
I like what they did with Elements in this UA. I think I would like the 11th level feature to have the elemental damage from Elemental Epitome here and then Elemental Epitome upgrade it to two rolls of the martial arts die.
Hmm, if I had to change things, I'd like to make it so that Destructive Stride was applied on top of Stride of the Elements, so that it lasted for the whole 10 minutes, instead of you having to use Step of the Wind every single turn to activate it. It feels like you are wasting Stride of the Elements duration by activating it over and over again.
Also, since Elements is already combining features from 4 Elements, Astral Self and Ascendant Dragon, I would bring Ascendant Dragon's Explosive Fury to the level 17 feature, triggering only on the activation of Elemental Attunement. I would like the UA Ascendant Dragon's version, but hey, I'd be fine with the official version as well, since activating Elemental Attunment is waaaaay better than Aspect of the Wyrm, be it in cost, action economy or utility (basically every aspect of it).
Hmm, if I had to change things, I'd like to make it so that Destructive Stride was applied on top of Stride of the Elements, so that it lasted for the whole 10 minutes, instead of you having to use Step of the Wind every single turn to activate it. It feels like you are wasting Stride of the Elements duration by activating it over and over again.
Also, since Elements is already combining features from 4 Elements, Astral Self and Ascendant Dragon, I would bring Ascendant Dragon's Explosive Fury to the level 17 feature, triggering only on the activation of Elemental Attunement. I would like the UA Ascendant Dragon's version, but hey, I'd be fine with the official version as well, since activating Elemental Attunment is waaaaay better than Aspect of the Wyrm, be it in cost, action economy or utility (basically every aspect of it).
That is a good point about Destructive Stride. A 10 minute duration wouldn't be OP considering that it is basically Ashardalon's Stride, a 3rd level spell that does 1d6 damage and duration of 1 minute. This is a 17th level feature so the d12 damage and 10 minute duration I don't think oversteps power-wise.
I'm not seeing them as taking elements from Astral Self and Ascendant Dragon, so much. Elemental Attunement combines aspects of Fangs of the Fire Snake, Fist of Unbroken Air, and Water Whip. Elemental Burst takes from Sun Soul monk, I think. Either way, something like Explosive Fury would make for a nice addition to Elemental Epitome. Especially if they took Empowered Strikes away and brought that forward some levels, like part of the 11th level feature in addition to Stride of the Elements.
Right, I forgot I threw Sun Soul's Searing Sun Burst into the mix at level 6 as well :P
Ascendant Dragon appeared 3 times in Elements: Elemental Strikes, Stride of the Elements and Epitome's Damage Resistance. Ironically, 4 Elements appears 3 times as well, Elementalism, Elemental Attunement and Elemental Burst. Astral Self appeared at least once in Empowered Strikes (I also kinda feel like Elemental Attunement's reach and duration were drawn from Astral Arms).
I wonder if the other subclasses will also mix things from the rest (this is assuming new subclasses get revealed instead of revision of the current 3).
Right, I forgot I threw Sun Soul's Searing Sun Burst into the mix at level 6 as well :P
Ascendant Dragon appeared 3 times in Elements: Elemental Strikes, Stride of the Elements and Epitome's Damage Resistance. Ironically, 4 Elements appears 3 times as well, Elementalism, Elemental Attunement and Elemental Burst. Astral Self appeared at least once in Empowered Strikes (I also kinda feel like Elemental Attunement's reach and duration were drawn from Astral Arms).
I wonder if the other subclasses will also mix things from the rest (this is assuming new subclasses get revealed instead of revision of the current 3).
The reach was Fangs of the Fire snake. The push/pull was Fist of Unbroken Air and Water Whip. But possibly the duration from Astral.
Looks promising: The Environmental Burst "roll 3x marital die " for damage for elemental explosion seems okay, as it starts with d8 and later is d12 if you make it to 17th level.
The Elemental Epitome: every enemy you pass within 5ft takes a martial die (d12). At 17th level? You guys are fighting monsters and godlike beings with 200 hit points more or less. That at least should be your martial die + your level in damage.
Looks promising: The Environmental Burst "roll 3x marital die " for damage for elemental explosion seems okay, as it starts with d8 and later is d12 if you make it to 17th level.
The Elemental Epitome: every enemy you pass within 5ft takes a martial die (d12). At 17th level? You guys are fighting monsters and godlike beings with 200 hit points more or less. That at least should be your martial die + your level in damage.
The problem with Environmental Burst is that it's the same damage calculation as the Ascendant Dragon's Breath of the Dragon, which is also a feature that doesn't require your entire action like Environmental Burst, only replacing one of your regular attacks. You also don't get PB number of point-free uses per day, nor do you have the option to boost it to four rolls of your Martial Arts die.
The other aspect of Elemental Epitome, the damage resistance, is granted by Ascendant Dragon's 11th-level feature - and even extends to nearby allies, making Elemental Epitome a very weak feature.
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I wanted to save Shadow for last, but... Oh boy this is gonna be a long one (mostly because I have to dive into spells for comparisson and also include comments about other subclasses that were included)... Let's start with the no-caster caster monk: Way of the Four Elements / Warrior of the Elements
Note: This is not a competition between all available 5e's Elemental Disciplines together against OneDnD's Elemental Attunement; it's every individual discipline against the new feature unlocked at its respective level, this is important because it explains why the new version evaluation is the way it is.
Why separate it like this? Because it makes it easier to see how limited in choice you are. Elemental Disciplines work like the Spell Known system but worse, you can't change them until you reach your next subclass feature (instead of at each level), so if you didn't choose right at level 3, it's too late and you have to wait until level 6 to change your pick. Also Elemental Attunment is a mandatoy discipline for some reason, you can't swap it with another at later levels because at level 6, 11 and 17 the feature tells you that Elemental Attunement is included in the disciplines you know at that point (why not make it a separate feature instead of a discipline is beyond me). So asside from our "cantrip", we have to pick between a single spell from a short list (two level 1 spells and one level 2 spell) or one spell-like discipline from a list of four (personally Water Whip is my favourite, although Unbroken Air is just the push version of Water Whip, so it's a close second, Fangs of the Fire Snake extended reach is more usable and I will admit that I missed it at first sight that you could build an ice fortress with this if you have the ice/water and the time to do so), if you ever make a 4 elements monk, be sure to not regret your pick at each subclass level.
You may have guessed it already, but Elemental Attunement mixes some of the previous Elemental Disciplines by lowering amazingly the DP cost and giving them extended duration along with the Ascendant Dragon's Draconic Strikes (minus poison damage). First, the Elementalism cantrip replaces completely the previous "Elemental Attunement", which was also a combination of fragments of other cantrips (Druidcraft, Prestidigitation) and other small effects. Second, Fangs of the Fire Snake, Unbroken Air and Water Whip (top 3 choices with Water Whip being arguably the best) were unified into Elemental Strikes and Reach, in exchange the damage is lowered slightly until level 11, the strikes can't be "upcasted" for more damage, the forced move distance is shortened (only in a single activation), it is no longer possible to knock a target prone and it is now exclusively a Strenght saving throw. The only downside that matters here is the prone removal, I'm fine with everything else, besides, to have all those 3 features before, a 4 elements monk needs to be at least level 11, the rest of Disciplines available at this level are definitely not worth the opportunity cost (only 1 Discipline at level 3). I'd rather have a slighly weaker version of all 3 worthy disciplines combined with a lower cost and more chances to use them than a single-use, fully-upcasted Water Whip at level 20 (even if it can deal 21d10 damage), so OneDnD wins here.
Level 6
Hold Person may be a somewhat good option to have, but none of the spells are really worth your disciplines known spot, you will more likely pick another spell-like discipline.
If this were an Ascendant Dragon monk, I'd say that this is roughly equal to the previous breath weapon you got at level 3 (since Environmental Burst deals higher damage from the beginning at the cost of a whole action and with no "free uses"), or if this were a Sun Soul monk, I'd say this is way better than Searing Arc Strike just on the basis of this at least dealing half damage on a successful Dex save instead of no damage on a Con save. But we are talking about the 4 elements monk, which doesn't have access to Fireball (Flames of the Phoenix) until level 11 (as one of its four disciplines known), it's way less costly than Fireball (2 DP vs 4 Ki), can deal other damage types not only fire, and still let's you make an Unarmed Strike as a bonus action (possibly to move a target into the AoE). The only advantage Fireball has over Env. Burst is that it can be upcasted at later levels up to a 5th level spell. Environmental Burst wins this against all other 3 monks (especially the 4 elements), so OneDnD wins here again.
Mist Stance is the most interesting choice, followed by Ride the Wind. Flames of the Phonix arrives little too late to be of any real impact, besides you only have 2 castings of each of this spells per short rest, it better be worth the ki investment, and that's why it's a pick between Mist Stance, Ride the Wind or another spell-like discipline.
So a non-concentration, non-counterspell-able Fly (with added Swim speed) that last 10 minutes even if incapacitated (oversight probably, WotC usually wants such features to be interrupted with that condition, especially on non-casters); sorry Ascendant Dragon, I was supposed to trash 4 elements, but I didn't know there'd be so much collateral damage! Only Mist Stance can pose a challenge here, mostly due to the exploration aspect of it, however Stride of the Elements covers both exploration AND combat, it's not an easy comparisson since both features do completely different things, at least Stride does not require concentration... Anyways, since Stride of the Elements can be used together with your Elemental Strikes to pull targets up to 40 feet into the air, I think it's fair to say that OneDnd version wins here as well.
As if to compensate for the lack of any other feature aside from discipline casting, we get 4 new options from which to pick only 1 (or 2 if you swap one of your previous disciplines). Aside from Stoneskin, all other options are "fine", if I went with the ice fortress idea at level 3, then I'd definitely pick Cone of Cold, otherwise I'd pick Wall of Fire for consistent damage (it lasts longer than Cone of Cold and can be casted more times). But let's not forget about how this single 5th (or 4th) level spell is what WotC considered an appropiate level 17 feature. Also, 5th level spell?, so 4 elements is not supposed to be a 1/3 caster, but a 1/2 one? Since when?
So a combination of Ascendant Dragon's Aspect of the Wyrm (that one's short range might as well be a self protection feature, and this one can change the damage type), Ashardalon's Stride (a level 3 spell introduced in Tasha's, almost the same, but Destructive Stride deals higher damage which can be of different types, but it doesn't ignite objects and only lasts until the end of your turn, unlike Ashardalon's which lasts 1 minute with concentration) and Astral Self's Empowered Strikes (almost the same, only difference is the damage type). 2 level 11 features of other monks + 1 level 3 spell, them being imbebbed into 1 single feature is nice and all, but it's not as impactful as one would expect. It's not bad, it's clearly better than 4 elements here, but it's not good enough to be the capstone ability, it does feel like it belongs to level 11.
I don't think a resource effectiveness comparisson here is necessary, but if you need to know OneDnd version wins in this aspect in every single step, even considering that the new version has an explicit or implicit need of DP use on all of its features. Update: The UA8 monk version basically incentivizes DP expenditure, since you have free access to some features (mainly SotW) and your DP can get recharged on iniciative easier now.
And we finish with an overwhelming victory for OneDnD's version, though, honestly, the bar was not high (heck, it was at best a bump in the road). I will admit that Shape the Flowing River and Mist Stance may have had interesting uses, but the Warrior of the Elements monk is more than playable. Maybe not as good as Shadow, but way better than Hand.
I do think it’s a fantastic addition to the monk class and really redeems what the subclass was in 5e. It’s interesting to see how the elemental disciplines also compare to the features given in one dnd. I wasn’t planning on playtesting monk but I think I will now. Idk how well it’ll stand up though with college of dance bard.
I like this new version. But I think it could use something. I'm not sure if I care about the flying, but might like some elemental defense type feature or move the elemental damage from Elemental Epitome to this point, if not earlier.
But it is a great update so far.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Most Martial classes have some type of 1/3 caster. Elemental was always hoped to be that but has been woefully underpowered.
I'm wondering what are they worried about in brining this subclass in line with others? I would grant them access to only fire/water/ice/lightning/earth type spells and go up at a rate similar to an Eldritch Knight.
D&D since 1984
I don’t think I would want a 1/3 caster monk like Fighter’s Eldritch Knight or Rogue’s Arcane Trickster. But that’s just my opinion. And I think limiting them to fire, lightning, cold, etc might be difficult to organize especially since they are moving to three spell lists and moving away from even limited spell schools. Plus not all damage/elemental types are equally represented in the spell lists.
I like what they did with Elements in this UA. I think I would like the 11th level feature to have the elemental damage from Elemental Epitome here and then Elemental Epitome upgrade it to two rolls of the martial arts die.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Hmm, if I had to change things, I'd like to make it so that Destructive Stride was applied on top of Stride of the Elements, so that it lasted for the whole 10 minutes, instead of you having to use Step of the Wind every single turn to activate it. It feels like you are wasting Stride of the Elements duration by activating it over and over again.
Also, since Elements is already combining features from 4 Elements, Astral Self and Ascendant Dragon, I would bring Ascendant Dragon's Explosive Fury to the level 17 feature, triggering only on the activation of Elemental Attunement. I would like the UA Ascendant Dragon's version, but hey, I'd be fine with the official version as well, since activating Elemental Attunment is waaaaay better than Aspect of the Wyrm, be it in cost, action economy or utility (basically every aspect of it).
That is a good point about Destructive Stride. A 10 minute duration wouldn't be OP considering that it is basically Ashardalon's Stride, a 3rd level spell that does 1d6 damage and duration of 1 minute. This is a 17th level feature so the d12 damage and 10 minute duration I don't think oversteps power-wise.
I'm not seeing them as taking elements from Astral Self and Ascendant Dragon, so much. Elemental Attunement combines aspects of Fangs of the Fire Snake, Fist of Unbroken Air, and Water Whip. Elemental Burst takes from Sun Soul monk, I think. Either way, something like Explosive Fury would make for a nice addition to Elemental Epitome. Especially if they took Empowered Strikes away and brought that forward some levels, like part of the 11th level feature in addition to Stride of the Elements.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Right, I forgot I threw Sun Soul's Searing Sun Burst into the mix at level 6 as well :P
Ascendant Dragon appeared 3 times in Elements: Elemental Strikes, Stride of the Elements and Epitome's Damage Resistance. Ironically, 4 Elements appears 3 times as well, Elementalism, Elemental Attunement and Elemental Burst. Astral Self appeared at least once in Empowered Strikes (I also kinda feel like Elemental Attunement's reach and duration were drawn from Astral Arms).
I wonder if the other subclasses will also mix things from the rest (this is assuming new subclasses get revealed instead of revision of the current 3).
The reach was Fangs of the Fire snake. The push/pull was Fist of Unbroken Air and Water Whip. But possibly the duration from Astral.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Minor update adding UA8 monk changes.
Looks promising: The Environmental Burst "roll 3x marital die " for damage for elemental explosion seems okay, as it starts with d8 and later is d12 if you make it to 17th level.
The Elemental Epitome: every enemy you pass within 5ft takes a martial die (d12). At 17th level? You guys are fighting monsters and godlike beings with 200 hit points more or less. That at least should be your martial die + your level in damage.
The problem with Environmental Burst is that it's the same damage calculation as the Ascendant Dragon's Breath of the Dragon, which is also a feature that doesn't require your entire action like Environmental Burst, only replacing one of your regular attacks. You also don't get PB number of point-free uses per day, nor do you have the option to boost it to four rolls of your Martial Arts die.
The other aspect of Elemental Epitome, the damage resistance, is granted by Ascendant Dragon's 11th-level feature - and even extends to nearby allies, making Elemental Epitome a very weak feature.