XaiJu
laserllama
laserllama

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New Class! The Alternate Monk v1.0.0

Hey all! 

I've been working diligently trying to "fix" the monk class in a way that fits with the design philosophy of 5e (simple mechanics for an evocative archetype). The monk, with its (frankly) wild number of class features and niche thematic archetype was a bit of a challenge. I decided I wanted the Alternate Monk to do a few things different than the monk class as presented in the Player's Handbook:

Reduce the MADness of the Class: To play an effective PHB monk you need high Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution. I decided that I wanted my Alternate Monk to be able to focus solely on Dexterity and Wisdom, so I changed a few things. 

- The class now has a d10 hit die (like most other martial classes). You can afford to have a lower Constitution score and get by just fine.

- Quickened Healing Technique (I'll explain Techniques in a bit). This allows you to spend 2 ki as a bonus action to heal for your Marital Arts die + WIS.

Defined Combat Role: The monk in the PHB is very fast, but unless you land stunning strikes, you can't keep up with the other martial classes. I've decided to make my Alternate Monk a "martial controller" who imposes status effects fairly easily; prone, grappled, reduced movement etc. So I've done a few things:

- Increased size of your Martial Arts die. Starts as a d6 and scales to a d12. Doing 1d4 damage on hit just doesn't feel that great and this puts you in line with other martial builds as long as you hit the majority of attacks.

- Ability to use Dexterity (Athletics) checks to make grapple and shove attacks. Duh.

- Mystic Techniques! I've moved a ton of features into Techniques, and you get to pick which ones you've learned. I've added quite a few in the vein of Stunning Strike, so you can customize your monk to be a grappler, mage slayer, or harrier. 

Changes from the Player's Handbook Monk Class:

New Class! The Alternate Monk v1.0.0

Comments

Thinking of making it so Patient Defense and Step of the Wind cost 0 ki to use as well!

laserllama

Glad you like it! I tend to give martial classes a bit of leeway on their high level abilities, especially anything after 17th level. That’s when full spellcasters get access to 9th level spells which can do some pretty wild stuff. I could definitely see limiting it to once per turn though! It also takes 20% of your ki to use, two actions, and a failed CON save to get the insta-kill as well.

laserllama

This looks great! Love the customizability and excited to try out the Wu Jen. Only concern is the level 17 open hand feature seems pretty powerful to be able to do it on more than one attack in a turn.


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