Base Class: Monk
Way of the Monkey king monks studies of the almighty monkey king, learning to inherit his power, such as creating clones of themselves, and summoning a nimbus. Monks who follow the Monkey king usually tend to more chaotic alignments, being highly mischievous and cheeky.
Monkey Abilities
When choosing this monastic tradition at level 3, you become known for using a pole as your weapon of choice. When you use martial arts, and are wielding a quarterstaff, you can use your quarterstaff instead of your fists. This skill scales with martial arts, so, d8 at level 5, d10 at level 11, and d12 at level 17. You may also use a ki point to extend you staff up to 15ft, but have disadvantage on attack roles with it.
You also become proficient in slight of hand, acrobatics or persuasion
Summon Nimbus
At 6th level you can, as an action, use 2 ki points to call a flying nimbus that you can ride on. The nimbus can hold three medium sized creatures, or one heavy. Its speed is 50ft flying. The nimbus disappears after one hour or when commanded. You can only summon one nimbus at a time.
Transform
At 11th level, you, or someone else, can ingest you hair to have the polymorph spell cast on them. The hair must be infused with 2 ki points to work. If you infuse three ki points into a hair and drop it on the ground, it becomes a clone of you that last 2 hours.
Avatar of the monkey king
At 17th level, you can use 10 ki points to transform into the monkey king's avatar. This last ten minuets, while in this form, you can do the following:
- Increase your strength score to 29 an speed to 80ft
- Create up to your level in clones, still requiring to provide a hair
- Your appearance changes to that of a monkey wearing a golden headpiece, you keep your size (e.g. medium -> medium)
- You gain one extra attack with you quarterstaff
- Any enemy you hit with your staff becomes stunned
- You may extend your staff at will
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Posted May 18, 2019Hey, friend. Love the idea. I really do. It's great to see genuine interest in the monkey king and trying to stay true to the legend, but this subclass could use some balancing.
Don't be discouraged. This can be really great with a little more work. Here are some tips:
1. The idea of buffing quarterstaff usage is a little flimsy. For one thing, it's already a monk weapon, so you can always use it for your base attack. I think what you were trying to say was that when you use an unarmed attack, you can substitute with a weapon attack. That detail's a little unclear, but that's just a wording problem, and easily fixed. But the real problem is that this bonus basically just becomes a weaker "Way of the Kensei" feature. You might instead offer bonuses to attacks made with all manner of pole weapons, such as spears, halberds and glaives, giving proficiency in them and allowing the monk to use the dexterity modifier instead of strength. Yes, I know Ryu Jingu Bang was a staff, but these pole weapons would still fit the monkey king's style that you're going for here.
2. OK, that nimbus is busted. You've essentially given your monk a fly spell, but better. 3 medium creatures for 2 ki? That needs to be nerfed, or spellcasters will never need the "fly" spell. Maybe make it 3 ki and say that only the monk can ride it. Personally, I'd recommend restricting this subclass to medium or smaller creatures, but that's just me. But Nimbus can't be gamebreaking.
3. Polymorph might not be a good idea. Perhaps mimicking the druid's wild shape might work, though. I don't think it should work on others, though.
4. There's a problem with the clones: this tells us nothing about them. What's their HP, damage and abilities? Does the monk control them as a bonus action? They certainly can't just be perfect copies of the original, or they'd be SUPER broken.
5. I like the idea of the divine form, but not the effects. For one thing, do these effects take actions or bonus actions? Does a target you hit get a chance to resist being stunned? Because if they don't, it's virtually impossible for this guy to ever lose a fight. Plus, with 80 feet of movement and a flying cloud, why would he ever need a 15 foot staff with disadvantage? Perhaps make the Dexterity higher, instead, if you go with the dex bonus for the pole weapons. Now, one of he powers of the monkey king was growing in size, so perhaps he can use an action to become Huge while in divine form, extending his reach and movement?
It's a great concept, so don't give up on it. It just has some balance issues.