I really like the Way of Mercy conceptually, but the addition of the Grung' Poisonous Skin racial trait might have made it a little much. An unarmed strike, unless the monk is wearing gloves, would constitute "direct contact with your skin." Thus, after each unarmed strike, the target must make a DC 12 Con save or be poisoned. This is in addition to the save any creature within 5 feet of you has to make from Noxious Aura at Level 6.
When you use Poisonous Skin's on a weapon for the DC 12 chance at 2d6 poison damage, there is no additional action or bonus action required. Hands of Harm does not require a bonus action either, which means it can be used the same turn as Flurry of Blows. As a result, a Grung Monk has insane single-turn nova damage potential for the cost of just 2 ki.
Consider the following turn from a level 6 point buy Grung with Ability scores = 10/18/14/10/16/8 (10/15/13/10/15/8 start + racial + 1 ASI):
2 Spear (Versatile) Attacks (2d8 + 8 + 4d6 poison (Con DC 12)) + Flurry of Blows (2d6 + 8) + Hands of Harm (3d6 necrotic) = 9d6 + 2d8 + 16 damage. 27 minimum, 51 mean, 86 max at level 6 and the only part that doesn't scale with your Martial Arts die is the 4d6 poison damage.
It is pretty powerful, when used in certain ways, yes!
It would very much be up to the DM to decide if an unarmed attack qualified sufficiently as skin contact to require a save or be poisoned. Unarmed attacks aren't just a punch to the face, the are kicks, elbows, knee attacks etc.
It's also worth noting that the poison damage is 2d4, not 2d6. 😊
If the enemy is wearing armor, skin contact would be not as easy. If they are in full plate armor, there would be zero skin contact. If it is a wizard in robes, higher possibility, IMO.
If I were the DM, if the attack hits more than 5 over the target’s AC, there would be skin contact. Or something similar to that.
The save is already easy enough to make that I wouldn't see a need to penalize the player. It's a cool moment for them if it hits, irrelevant if they don't.
The save is already easy enough to make that I wouldn't see a need to penalize the player. It's a cool moment for them if it hits, irrelevant if they don't.
It's an easy save, but if it's a monk making 3 or 4 attacks per round, there's going to be a fair number of failures.
I tried making a topic about adjudicating the Grung cause there are so many intricacies to their mechanics, but rules lawyers...nuff said.
If I were to DM not all contact equals making a Con. save. Prolonged direct skin contact only. I'd also make the save 8+prof.+con. and have it scale by level similar to breath weapon.
I mean, is it rules lawyering to just point out you've basically rebalanced the entire mechanic with your idea? That's your prerogative but it'd be weird to expect the idea to spread
My rebalancing of the mechanic was never mentioned. Heck, didnt even get that far!
It ended with the rules lawyers arguing the fact it doesnt implicitly state you can crawl on walls so they were stating Grung cant wall crawl. Their climb speed is just free climbing with no checks. Chris Lindsey himself stated during his campaigns and streams they can stick to most surfaces other than a ceiling.
The text written on the page nowadays is superseded by the words from the devs mouths. If that weren't the case Sage Advice wouldn't exist. Its was frustrating LITERALLY watching Chris Lindsey DM grung then have rules lawyers say "no you cant".
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I really like the Way of Mercy conceptually, but the addition of the Grung' Poisonous Skin racial trait might have made it a little much. An unarmed strike, unless the monk is wearing gloves, would constitute "direct contact with your skin." Thus, after each unarmed strike, the target must make a DC 12 Con save or be poisoned. This is in addition to the save any creature within 5 feet of you has to make from Noxious Aura at Level 6.
When you use Poisonous Skin's on a weapon for the DC 12 chance at 2d6 poison damage, there is no additional action or bonus action required. Hands of Harm does not require a bonus action either, which means it can be used the same turn as Flurry of Blows. As a result, a Grung Monk has insane single-turn nova damage potential for the cost of just 2 ki.
Consider the following turn from a level 6 point buy Grung with Ability scores = 10/18/14/10/16/8 (10/15/13/10/15/8 start + racial + 1 ASI):
2 Spear (Versatile) Attacks (2d8 + 8 + 4d6 poison (Con DC 12)) + Flurry of Blows (2d6 + 8) + Hands of Harm (3d6 necrotic) = 9d6 + 2d8 + 16 damage. 27 minimum, 51 mean, 86 max at level 6 and the only part that doesn't scale with your Martial Arts die is the 4d6 poison damage.
It is pretty powerful, when used in certain ways, yes!
It would very much be up to the DM to decide if an unarmed attack qualified sufficiently as skin contact to require a save or be poisoned. Unarmed attacks aren't just a punch to the face, the are kicks, elbows, knee attacks etc.
It's also worth noting that the poison damage is 2d4, not 2d6. 😊
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If the enemy is wearing armor, skin contact would be not as easy. If they are in full plate armor, there would be zero skin contact. If it is a wizard in robes, higher possibility, IMO.
If I were the DM, if the attack hits more than 5 over the target’s AC, there would be skin contact. Or something similar to that.
I feel like skin contact requires a sustained touch to your target rather than a quick jab.
The save is already easy enough to make that I wouldn't see a need to penalize the player. It's a cool moment for them if it hits, irrelevant if they don't.
It's an easy save, but if it's a monk making 3 or 4 attacks per round, there's going to be a fair number of failures.
I tried making a topic about adjudicating the Grung cause there are so many intricacies to their mechanics, but rules lawyers...nuff said.
If I were to DM not all contact equals making a Con. save. Prolonged direct skin contact only. I'd also make the save 8+prof.+con. and have it scale by level similar to breath weapon.
>but rules lawyers
I mean, is it rules lawyering to just point out you've basically rebalanced the entire mechanic with your idea? That's your prerogative but it'd be weird to expect the idea to spread
My rebalancing of the mechanic was never mentioned. Heck, didnt even get that far!
It ended with the rules lawyers arguing the fact it doesnt implicitly state you can crawl on walls so they were stating Grung cant wall crawl. Their climb speed is just free climbing with no checks. Chris Lindsey himself stated during his campaigns and streams they can stick to most surfaces other than a ceiling.
The text written on the page nowadays is superseded by the words from the devs mouths. If that weren't the case Sage Advice wouldn't exist. Its was frustrating LITERALLY watching Chris Lindsey DM grung then have rules lawyers say "no you cant".