Base Class: Monk
Monks who follow the Way of the Lightning Storm are able to channel the power of lightning into their own bodies. They have the ability to use this power to increase their speed and strength, giving themselves an advantage over their opponents.
Lightning Martial Arts
At 3rd level when you attack a creature with your flurry of blows technique you can perform one of the following actions. This must be chosen before any attack rolls.
- Quickened Strikes: You can increase the number of unarmed attacks to 3.
- Lightning Jab: If both unarmed attacks hit the creature must make constitution saving throw or be paralyzed until the end of your next turn.
- Thunder Blast: The damage type of your unarmed strikes become thunder damage. The creature must make a strength Saving throw or be pushed back 15ft.
Mantle of the Storm
At 6th level as a bonus action you can spend 2 Ki points to cloak yourself in lightning for 1 min or until you dispel it gaining you enhanced speed and reflexes.
- You gain a number of reactions equal to your wisdom modifier.
- Your speed increases by 10 ft.
- You gain the ability to run on vertical surfaces, however you cannot end your turn there.
Redirect Lightning
At 11th level you gain resistance to lightning damage. You can also spend 4 Ki points as an action to cast Lightning Bolt.
Armor of the Storm
At 17th level as a bonus action you can spend 4 Ki points to Activate an enhanced version of the Mantle of the Storm. You have all the abilities listed from the original ability plus a few additional ones.
- Your unarmed strikes deal an additional 2d8 Lightning damage
- When you take the dash action you move without provoking attacks of opportunity
- If a creature hits you with a melee attack you can use a reaction to make an unarmed strike against it
For some reason when I pick this subclass nothing shows up.
I really like this a lot. I agree that the level 3 paralyzed feels a tad OP and the level 17 armor of the storm could use a slight damage reduction, but overall, really nice idea.
I would suggest the following tweaks:
Level 3: Lightning Jab: creates a Dazed effect if both FoBs hit the same target (disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws until end of next turn).
Level 11: In addition to Redirect Lightning, Improved Lightning Jab: if successfully applying Lightning Jab (both FoB hit same target) can automatically apply Stunning Strike. This is around the same time that Mercy Monks can add Hand of Healing and Harm to Flurry of Blows resource free so feel it’s an appropriate power bump here.
Level 17: Armor of Storm. Reduce additional damage to 2d6.
But again, great concept.
My view on this is its op for monks and the sixth level ability is insanely op but overall with a tweak to the third and sixth level abilities this could be a really nice and really fun subclass like for instance maybe instead you can grapple an enemy or fly 15ft back instead of the paralysed condition and instead of your wisdom modifier maybe half your proficiency bonus rounded up.
You are aware the 2d8 is on top of the punch damage, right? So knocking it down to 1d8 is a nerf of the ability but not a downgrade from the normal punch. And sure not every enemy in the game uses melee, but monks do frequently get into those positions. Even if it doesn't proc every single fight that's still strong for the significant number of fights it does happen.
What the hell?! A free paralyze at level 3 is insane.
Seeing as how a monks unarmed attacks do 1d10 at this point, doing 1d8 is most definitely a downgrade, which would not make sense. If you really think that 2d8 is strong then maybe drop the dice down to a 2d6 (same dice as a greatsword). I feel as though that would be more fair as most great weapon users most likely have gwm at this point. Also remember that not every enemy uses melee weapons to attack so the reaction part might not even come in to play in some encounters.
It's not 2d8 though. With Quickened Strikes you're making 5 attacks on your turn for a total of 10d8 additional damage, and you can make up to 5 Reaction attacks for 10d8 more extra damage. This is 20d8 on top of a "normal" monk's damage. Then you can keep doing it for 9 more rounds. It nearly doubles the damage output of a typical level 17 monk.
Quivering Palm has several limitations:
So over 2 rounds, an Open Hand monk is doing 4 unarmed strikes + 10d10 necrotic from QP. In those same 2 rounds, you're doing at least 10 punches + 20d8 lightning (roughly 200 damage) and you can potentially double that with your crazy number of Reactions. At least with QP the target gets a save - the lightning monk can just outright kill the target with pure damage. And then it can keep going at that same level for 8 more rounds.
Bro, it's 2d8 on the 17th level, it's actually balanced if not weak, look at the way of the open hand 17th level feature and compare the two of them.
Just wanted to say that when I try and use this subclass none of the features show up on the character sheet and was curious if that was happening with anyone else
For the Mantle of the storm, the ability to run on vertical surfaces becomes useless when you reach level 9.
It is better to evolve the ability when you go up to level 9 or change it ... For example: movement in the void, or it does not provoke opportunity attacks or when you hit an opponent you can push it 5 feet for the electric shock.
And for the power to gain a number of reactions equal to your wisdom modifier. What is the use of having multiple reactions? To make multiple attacks of opportunity? I would recommend adding a power that allows you to use all these reactions (wait until level 17 to use the power is a little too much), if not they become useless if you don't specialize in opportunity attacks !
A part from these small details, this subclass seems to be very interesting ... I would like to add a power that exploits the movement of the type monk. For exemple: On each of your turns when you hit a different target and you move at least 15 feet, you can deal extra damage to the target equal to your Martial Arts die.
Love this subclass. Gonna nitpick first, then go into detail about why I love it.
Paralyzed is definitely too OP for Lightning Jab. I recommend replacing it with Incapacitated condition. It's a super useful condition to have and it does not overshadow Stunning Strike.
Armor of Storm's 2d8 Lightning damage too strong. Either make it 1d8. Or make it 2d8 but once per turn (so you get it once on your turn and then once on each enemy's turns if you use your reaction).
On to why I love this subclass - it fixes all the big issues I have playing a monk, and I've been playing one in a campaign for over a year now. The problem with monk is that I can either spend my ki point to do an average amount of damage with flurry (fighter is doing more all the time) and then get hit and die, or I can spend my ki point defensively while doing really little damage. And after the first combat, all the ki points are gone and the only thing I can do is approach the least powerful enemy and limply hit them.
With your subclass, you seem to have fixed all of these issues - by piggybacking on flurry of blows, you are creating a strong identity of the monk as an offensive / controlling powerhouse. Now when I spend my ki point on flurry, I can expect to do either above average damage or one of the other controlling effect. It's a better version of the open handed monk who only has the choice of control options.
And the Mantle and Armor of Storms fixes the issue with ki point starvation (especially from subclass features). Between those + improved flurry, I'll always have something viable to do when I'm in combat. I'm excited to play this if possible, and give my players option to play this when I DM!
Some changes and wordings I recommend after using this base on feedback from others:
Lightning Jab seems a tad OP Stunning strike as a base monk ability costs 1 ki point and merely stuns an opponent. Either it needs to be learned at a later level or it needs to have a higher ki cost, preferably both.