#Homebrew Subclass: Monk (Harmony)

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waxen drum
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this all looks really good and def like something i'd love to play, the only thing i'd comment on is this feature:

`At 11th level, you have learned to unleash the full potential of balanced forces. As an action, you can spend 4 ki points to create an aura of harmony around you in a 20-foot radius for 1 minute. While the aura is active, the following effects apply:

You and friendly creatures within the aura have advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed.

When a creature within the aura (including you) hits with an attack, it can choose to deal either radiant or necrotic damage instead of the attack’s normal damage type.`

personally, monks are so focused on ki points + utilizing them for the best possible result due to limited amounts, that i would never spend 4 ki points for these results as they would never compare to me using those 4 ki points to stunning strike. i would either lower the cost or make it do something more useful (i.e. add damage instead of just changing damage type; but even then unless it was a significant amount of added damage i would not spend 4 ki points to use this)

hushed mason
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Overall awesome vibe and options for a monk (i really love this class).

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As guy before me suggest would to reduce ki cost at least by 1 for lvl 11 feature but even still it's a freaking awesome kit as giving entire party 2 options of damage types can come clutch in rare instances.

crystal fog
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@waxen drum i personally think the monk doesn't really need an additional damage dice for the 11th level feature but i hear you and @hushed mason and i will definitely change the ability cost to wisdom mod per long rest instead, aside from that personally i think monk should start out with a d6 dice for their martial dice which should end with a d12 at level 15 as i think that would just fix any kind of damage scaling issue, and thank you both for taking the time to review and sharing your thoughts with me Pandauwu

waxen drum
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or just a flat + like +2

crystal fog
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i see, well i just don't see that working with this subclass to be honest personally, i think it just makes things a bit more toward unbalanced 🤔 but i guess i will see, my players are really excited to help me playtest my homebrew subclasses and hey i would also appreciate if you get to play this subclass in a game and let me know your own first hand experience with it haha giggle

hushed mason
crystal fog
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haha sounds great buddy and all the best to you Pandauwu

waxen drum
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lmao i'd love to test it out personally, idk if you have ads open for a game/if i can play at that time/day :p but it definitely looks fun

slim sphinx
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Okay awesome flavor first of all

  • 3rd, honestly, awesome feature. Only thing I'd say is, most DMs already mention when an enemy is bloodied/below50%. So unless your DM doesn't ever do that, that part of the feature might never come into play.

I'm not sure how you could change it to keep the same flavor tho. Maybe you can learn what saves they're proficient in or if they have any damage resistances or vulnerabilities? Idk, but worth to think about.

And maybe allow them to use this feature as a bonus action instead at higher levels? 11 could work, 17 feels kinda late for it.

  • 6th is rlly cool. I was afraid for a sec it would look too much like the mercy monk, but this feels very different.

  • 11th is also good, only thing I might add is the lv1 feature I mentioned, allow them to use it as a bonus action

  • 17th, The first feature seems way too strong, you're basically getting a better version of the monk capstone feature they get at lv20, but wayyyy stronger and 3 levels earlier. Probably just take it out completely.
    If you want to keep something in with ki-points, allow them to use their ki-powered features without expending any ki-points in the first round of combat?

Perfect Eq is a cool tranformation feature, the resistance and healing seem balanced for sure. I would suggest to change up the dual strike part tho. Monks already get a lot of attacks, and with this you could potentially do 4 extra attacks (if you use flurry of blows)? That's probably too much xD
Adding an extra roll of your martial arts die in radiant or necro on your unarmed strikes might be better? But even that it's basically doubling your damage dice, so it's still a lot imo. So maybe even limit it to only your attack action if it's not already meant to be for attack action only already?

fickle niche
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So it's a support monk?

crystal fog
# slim sphinx Okay awesome flavor first of all - 3rd, honestly, awesome feature. Only thing I...

i don't do the bloodied or have seen other DMs that let the players know about how a creature is faring so i think it works, aside from that when creating homebrew i make an idea of a character and then work on how it will reflect in the gameplay, for the level 3rd ability i think its perfectly good how it is because of what the subclass is about, and aside from that the feature is more unique to the subclass and doesn't take away the features from other subclasses. Also regarding the ability to sense the hp on a creature is not just for combat but to also help check fellow players or even NPCs so the monk can try and help if one or the other is dangerously close to succumbing to death.

for 11th level once again i feel that the ability's action use is alright and doesn't really need to change to bonus action, although i can suggest an alternative way of being able to use it against a creature that you use your flurry of blows on.

for level 17th yeah it is a strong feature because it is intended to, but nowhere near close to literally every other class who reaches this point, the only thing it does is ensure that the monk doesn't need to feel they have to short rest like a warlock everytime there is battle just because they ran out of ki in the last one, ki is everything to a monk and at level 17 you are supposed to be fight heavy hitters and those monsters that gives the rest of the forgotton realms nightmares, aside from that the monk capstone is straight up bad with the bard capstone ability so that's why i opted for this change because to me it seemed a natural progression for the monk, aside from that any game that reaches to level 20 is very very rare and at most people only get to games as high as level 15 to 17 so the reason for the capstone shift and making it a better one as well.

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regarding the dual strikes it gives you 3 attacks when a monk takes their attack action

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Attack action - Extra attack - 2 attacks + 1 attack from dual strikes

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so that's only 3 attacks with just their attack action and not four which for someone who would invest all their levels into monk i think is justified PandaJustRight

crystal fog
slim sphinx
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If you don't do bloodied 3rd is fine, even if your dm does use it, it's a nice little ribbon feature

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After lv5 it costs you 2 attacks to do it tho, so thats why i suggested the ability to switch it to a bonus action. The higher your level the more the "cost" of that ability

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I disagree completely with 17th xD

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But thats fine hahahah

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I doubt it'll come up in most games anyways, they dont usually go on for long enough to reach that level

waxen drum
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tbh i think that is very fair for level 17. even other monk subclasses get ridiculous things at that level. getting half your ki points back is not game breaking at all and just really nice (and as you said, unless you're in a dungeon crawl or something, it's not gonna come up that often)

crystal fog
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Also thank you for taking the time to view my homebrew and sharing your thoughts with me about it 👏

slim sphinx
waxen drum
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yea but then open hand has this

Quivering Palm
PHB p79
You gain the ability to set up lethal vibrations in someone's body. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 3 ki points to start these imperceptible vibrations, which last for a number of days equal to your monk level. The vibrations are harmless unless you use your action to end them. To do so, you and the target must be on the same plane of existence. When you use this action, the creature must make a Constitution saving throw. If it fails, it is reduced to 0 hit points. If it succeeds, it takes 10d10 necrotic damage.

You can have only one creature under the effect of this feature at a time. You can choose to end the vibrations harmlessly without using an action.

slim sphinx
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Just making the comparisons to explain the point btw Cole, it's different enough to really not be an issue

crystal fog
slim sphinx
crystal fog
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Yeah lol

slim sphinx
crystal fog
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I personally feel that both the capstone features for a lot classes were quite useless

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Bard and Monk being worst in those

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So i personally tried to make a better capstone ability and shift it to their last subclass level

slim sphinx
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I like mercy monk

crystal fog
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and then have an optional capstone feature that is more in line with how a level 20 capstone feature should be for the class

slim sphinx
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But most monks are just booty honestly xD

crystal fog
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Lol 🤣

slim sphinx
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Don't get me wrong I do like the ki regen as the lv17 capstone

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It's just the way 5e is rn, it makes a joke of the lv20 feature

waxen drum
slim sphinx
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Which already is a joke tbh but still lmao

waxen drum
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i would edit the level 20 feature (how do the two combine? do you get half your ki + 4?)

slim sphinx
waxen drum
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oh i mean. when u can spend 3 ki points to potentially instakill something or do 10d10 on a save i don't think you need to get something else

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that's like a finger of death + disintegrate for 3 ki points

slim sphinx
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It's fkin wild

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And no real downside to it either

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Only plus is that it targets con, which is a great save for most high cr creatures

crystal fog
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Aside from that, at that point a wizard can feeblemind or worse to other creatures 😂

slim sphinx
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But even then being able to 1shot an ancient dragon?

crystal fog
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Imagine using a meteor shower against dinosaurs 😂

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I have seen that happen lol 😂

slim sphinx
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Did they roll with disadvantage because of ptsd of a past life?KEKW

crystal fog
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I was in a ToA game once and we were actually dropped in the island and we had to find the dungeon where we were supposed to go lol

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And we were all level 17 characters the wizard was banned from using wish spell

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so we got lost in the jungle and after everyone failed their survival check the wizard meteor swarm the whole jungle lol 🤣

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He essentially wiped the whole jungle and everything in it with one spell lol

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So yeah that was the fun little story and from that i learned that i need to have some better options for martials too in my games lol

waxen drum
crystal fog
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Martials are strong but Spellcasters are straight up nightmares at higher level

waxen drum
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yea, but if you're up against more enemies than just me, you're fucked :p plus pwk only works if you have 100 hp or less. the monk's thing can take something from 300+ hp to 0

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and the monk can do that on 5 targets

crystal fog
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Yeah but if there is one thing that Spellcasters have is a whole lot of options and depending on the threat they fight they can easily change tactics

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and i have been horrified one too many times seeing that in action lol 😂

waxen drum
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ofc, casters always have more options. but that monk feature easily steps it up to holds its own with casters

crystal fog
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Oh yeah that feature does help a lot lol

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Which is why i feel it is a good feature

waxen drum
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it is! i love monks so much >.> they're just great overall

crystal fog
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Yeah i really love the vibe of it and i really wanted to make a more yin yang monk because it's something i haven't seen at all lol

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She is the one i used for reference to how the harmony monk looks and fights like 👏

waxen drum
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i'm glad you did, monks really need more options subclass-wise imo and this one is great. do druid next, they have no subclasses LMAO

crystal fog
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Lol 🤣

waxen drum
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druid has moon druid which is great mechanically but has no flavour at all, and then a few others that have rly nice flavour but not much utility when compared to moon

crystal fog
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Personally i don't really know what a new druid subclass would need exactly considering they seem like the most subclass complete class 🤔

waxen drum
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honestly? it is a crime that there's no storm-themed druid

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the class that's nature themed has nothing for storms.... but sorc and cleric do

crystal fog
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Oh i actually made something closer to that but for barbarians lol

waxen drum
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barb actually has a storm related subclass LMAO

crystal fog
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I will add that in here as well i guess lol

waxen drum
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everything has storms except the class themed around nature

crystal fog
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Yeah but my bard is more about the wrath of nature lol

waxen drum
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the storm herald barb is kinda that but it is... pretty meh imo... barbs have a few amazing subclasses and then a lot of just. weird

crystal fog
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yeah lol

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also just posted it lol

fickle niche
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Okay, so here are my thoughts:

As a support monk, its core features should be at 3rd level. Instead of 6th level, which is far into the game with this subclass.

The current third level feature, << Yin-Yang Strike >>, is half-niche, half-useless depending on your table; the ability to bypass bludgeoning for radiant or necrotic comes up once in a while, but because a lot of tables have the DM tell players when a creature is "bloodied", it may not come up much. Aside from that, the ability to punch in radiant or necrotic is not necessarily support oriented, rather focused on yourself.

Harmonious Ki has a strong effect, but Patient Defense and Step of the Wind will now have to compete with Flurry of Blows and Stunning Strike for the limited ki points, now at 6 per short rest. It's also somewhat clunky; you need two bonus actions to transfer hit points to allies, which means they've already likely taken the damage of the first round by themselves and dampening the impact of those temporary hit points. It can be bypassed by precasting before a round, but now that's ki you need to devote before you even know what will happen in combat; 3-4 uses of it on the party eat up half of your reserves.

Balance of Forces is costly; five levels later, you get five ki points, only to need to use four of them to create a lesser Aura of Protection. The radiant and necrotic damage is, again, niche, though can come in clutch now that you're at higher levels where monsters may now get more resistances and immunities, and radiant/necrotic may help bypass those attacks. The ability to resist charm and frighten is also helpful in certain fights. It's a backpocket tool, not one you'll use in all fights but one that's good to carry around when it comes up.

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Perfect Equilibrium says "fuck support, I'll do it myself"...or at least it's supposed to be. The first part is great; half of your ki points back on initiative helps sustain during long adventuring days when your group can't even take a short rest. The second part is a transformation state that has...mixed effectiveness.

  • Radiant and Necrotic resistance is strong, but situational.
  • Dual Strike, per reading, gives an extra unarmed strike on each unarmed strike hit in an attack action. Based on a strict reading, this is recursive; you get two unarmed strikes in an attack action. If you hit with both attacks, you technically procced Dual Strike twice, so you get two more unarmed strikes and you're still in the same attack action. If those hit, you technically hit with an unarmed strike in the same attack action, so you get two more unarmed strikes in the same attack action. So on and so forth. Unless this is intended (and honestly, it's 17th level, exploding dice in the form of Jojo barrages aren't the worst thing to happen), I'd suggest rewording this for clarity.
  • Harmony of Healing isn't strong enough healing at 17th level, you're looking at creatures with around 20 damage per hit, this isn't going to sustain you through anything.
fickle niche
crystal fog
# fickle niche Okay, so here are my thoughts: As a support monk, its __core features should be...

First of all thank you for taking the time and giving me feedback regarding the subclass, also let me correct some points about it firstly it's not a completely support oriented subclass but some of it's features do help with that, but the main focus here is not gameplay but to achieve a subclass based on Yin-Yang/ balance which is what the subclass is for, the way it translates into gameplay also reflects that

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There is no one core feature for the subclass but each feature is what makes the class what it is

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Regarding the 3rd level yin-yang strikes i don't understand how this ability is useless, considering the fact that the most common enemy types in the game are humanoid and undead and especially those that come into play in a game, this ability is very useful

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As i previously mentioned to Yazikan message in here, i have played in a lot of games myself, and including my own i have many DMs don't tell people about the HP of a creature or if they are bloodied or not

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Secondly the best part of sensing the hp is about how it can be used to approach a battle, or scenarios where you have to be careful of not doing too much damage to a target, i can understand that it can be a bit situational but if i see a player playing a cleric or paladin and then i never introduce fiends or undead in my game then it definitely would be my fault

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When i see a player pick a class i always make sure that even the most situational things they have in their sheet does come into play often enough so they don't feel it was a useless ability

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Maybe it's a bit of work on my end but i'm always happy with the end result PandaJustRight

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Regarding the 6th level ability i see, maybe i need to write the ability a bit more clearer but the intended effect of the ability is that once the monk activates either patient defense or step of the wind then as part of that bonus action they can transfer those temp hp or choose to keep it to themselves

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Or they can use just their bonus action later in the combat to a different creature if that's what they want to do.

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Regarding Balance of Forces i already said above during Yazikan's feedback as well that i will change the ability use to wisdom modifier per long rest instead.

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Regarding The Dual strike ability, the intent was to allow the monk to attack three times while under the transformation and while attacking a creature with unarmed strike

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I will be revising it in the new version with the monk being able to attack four times whenever they take an attack action, instead of their normal two attacks