Base Class: Monk
Monks of the Way of the Rising Palm have perfected the flow of motion to devastating effect. Their attacks transition fluidly into one another to overwhelm opponents, and they can manipulate their ki to soar through air and water.
Flow Like Water
Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, when you hit a creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, the next melee attack against you has disadvantage before the start of your next turn.
Soaring Strike
Starting at 6th level, you learn to hone your attacks into a powerful sequence of swift strikes. If two of your attacks hit the same creature as part of the attack action, you may spend 1 ki point to make an additional attack with advantage against that creature, as part of the same attack action.
Vessel of Motion
Beginning at 11th level, you can spend 1 ki point as a bonus action to gain a flying and swimming speed equal to your walking speed until the end of your turn. If you are flying as part of this feature when you end your turn, you fall.
Zenith Sequence
At 17th level, when you hit a creature with a melee attack for the fourth time on your turn, you regain 1 ki point and the attack is a critical hit. If you rolled a natural 20 as part of this attack, you deal an additional 4d10 radiant damage to the attack's target (which is not rolled twice as part of the critical hit).
Previous Versions
Name | Date Modified | Views | Adds | Version | Actions |
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5/5/2018 1:27:24 PM
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497
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25
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1.0
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Coming Soon
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This somehow manages to be the simplest monk homebrew I've seen and simultaneously one of the most fun-looking! I've had it in my library for a while and just now got around to viewing/reviewing and theory testing it and it really excels at simple elegance. The 3rd level feature alone is something that if it's played in a low-level one-shot, it can be unique and a bit of a game-changer for the monk and give it a special identity. Going up from there, each of the levels are solid, simple, worded well, and have a great feel to them.
My only real critique is that the movement at level 11 is a nice ribbon, but with Unarmored Movement, it makes the swim speed a bit redundant unless the monk is completely underwater, which is obviously possible and useful in that case. My suggestion would've been to keep the fly speed as a new movement option, and then add a ribbon that if the monk spends the ki point to fly, they also won't fall if they're climbing or water-running until the end of their next turn, as a fun little bonus for spending the ki point.
All-in-all, this is a really well-done subclass with some great features that really help this monk just be the best monk it can be. No flashy gimmicks, no liquor or spells or DBZ ki blasts, just good old Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon monk action.
Introducing version 2 of the Way of the Rising Palm!
The 3rd and 6th level features have been entirely reworked, and although thematically similar, are now entirely different in terms of the game mechanics.
Flow Like Water no longer grants any damage-oriented bonus. That part of it has now been moved to the level 6 feature. Instead, Flow Like Water now imposes Disadvantage on the first melee attack against you until your next turn. Effectively, it's soft-Dodge.
Soaring Fist has been renamed to Soaring Strikes, and now grants you an extra attack with advantage if you spend a ki point. While this is very powerful, it's also highly dependent on you managing to land the first two attacks. I spent a while tweaking this one, and would still love more feedback on terms of the balance of it. Is it balanced? Do I need to up its ki cost? If I did, would it need to be tweaked as well? Do I need to nerf it?
Ultimately, Way of the Rising Palm is there to offer a more damage-oriented monk subclass as opposed to control or tankiness. The core of my design philosophy is to give it a ki-spender that's at least equal in worth to Stunning Strike, which is where Soaring Strikes at level 6 comes in. This is an attempt to give monks an option where, at higher levels, they can dish out meaningful damage and are not just spamming stun to enable the rest of the group.
The level 10 and 17 features have not been changed.