5/9/2019 The Homebrewery - NaturalCrit Monk - Base Class No money changed hands here Duncehack Edition This is a passion project. I want to keep it that way. I also want to avoid legal issues for self-evident reasons. So who are you? No UA? Just some tosser with an over inflated sense of self Too much changes between UA and official release. importance. The fewer corrections I have the do between UA changes, You can send hate mail here to the better. [email protected] Obligatory Natural Crit Plug What is the Duncehack? http://www.naturalcrit.com/ It emerged from a place of frustration. There's quite a Someone else made a thing that lets me make homebrews number of areas where 5e could be improved but... it's not without having to post them on pastebin or something. They going to happen for various reasons. deserve a lot of credit for that. The Duncehack is my attempt to fix these problems I have. Plan is to go through the whole game - all of it - and homebrew it into the game I think is should have been. Obligatory /tg/ Plug Feel free to disagree with me, but ultimately I think there's The feedback I got from various Anons on this helped me no harm in putting my thoughts out there, at the very least if build it into something that wasn't bad and stupid. even one DM decides to adopt these rules, then my job is I love you all in a way only abused spouse can possibly done. understand. Special thanks to the anon who helped me out with the Storm Herald, I wouldn't have realised how much work it No DM Guild? No OGL Release? needed to be on par with the other archetypes had you not I chafe under binding contracts and both of these are exactly explained its failings, so thank you very much. that. The DM Guild gives you more room to mess with established rules, but basically demands that all be under the No Images? service of flagship settings. Needed to get it under 8mb so I could upload it literally The SRD on the other hand gives more room for anywhere. interesting settings but clamps down extremely hard on what established rules you're allowed to use. Their biggest So what in Monk needs fixing? contention is that they don't want someone to sell a I don't know why, but the fact your martial arts doesn't end in sourcebook that removes the need for core books. d12 really annoys me. Irrationally, unendingly so. Dunno why. Translation: they don't want Pathfinder to happen all over It's probably fine and doesn't actually need fixing, but I'm again. going to do it anyway. More to the point, both assume money will change hands. I Also the capstone is awful in the way the Sorcerer one is. don't want money, I just want Wizards to fix their game. Other than that, the big elephant in the room is that they can't quite remove the MAD from the class. Essay next page. Groundrules Groundrules for the Duncehack are as follows: No Nerfs: the goal is to bring weaker archetypes on the What if I think these are too much? level of the stronger ones. I barely did anything though! Fine, here's couple of tweaks: Remove Traps: incentives built into classes and archetypes should provide an active payoff, rather than be 1d10 hit die. the suboptimal choice. Scale Martial Arts to 1d12. The die type increases are at 5th, 9th, 13th, 17th. Frontload Agency, Backend Power: Generally speaking, Remove Ki point cost from Deflect Missiles. people like having more options to do things, rather than more raw power. As a design rule: things that feel like core class features, or are defining class mechanics, should happen in the first ten levels, sheer numeric increases in power should come after that.

MONK | DUNCEHACK https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/print/ryrtMx-DtE?dialog=true 1/6 1 5/9/2019 The Homebrewery - NaturalCrit An argument can be made that 'it's a reaction feature, so What's Wrong with Monks? you can use it when you're needing your bonus action for The one big issues with monks in every edition of the game, other things', but it costs Ki - and by the time you have the including 5e, has always been suriving the first 5 levels, and feature, you have 3 whole points to spend. Ki might come multiple attribute dependancy. back on a Short Rest, but each point is just so damn valuable. 5e is not anywhere near as bad on this subject, but Monks You could make the argument that 'oh it's not an issue later remain perhaps the most ASI hungry of the classes, and when you have more Ki points', to which I'd point out late many of the features meant to keep them safe in a melee take game survivability isn't an issue with Monks, it's early game a couple levels to come online. While this isn't necessarily a survivability that's the problem. bad thing, they're designed to be up with the Fighters and Paladins (who are likely in heavy armour) and Barbarians ASI Hungry (who have rage). Quick comparison: If you aren't getting 20 in both Constitution and Strength Frontline Fighter with Caster HP as a Barbarian, you're not necessarily doing it wrong, Survivability is a big issue with Monks, especially in the early because while Constitution is extemely efficient as a stat, game where they don't have the ASIs for extra Con. there's builds and archetypes (Polearm Master Zealot springs Barbarians get HP and AC from their features, but for extra to mind) that can make use of particular feats, and Rage is a HP Monks need Con, leading to a mild Multiple Attribute massive boost for effective hit points. Constitution for a Dependancy (I say mild because you don't need to max Con Barbarian is entirely a defensive stat and can be made up for necessarily), on a class that's already ASI hungry. in other ways. Every saving throw that matters and every Barbarians can also get around early game issues with weapon attack is based off Strength. survivability just by sticking heavier armour on until their If you aren't getting 20 in both Dexterity and Wisdom as a Unarmoured Defence catches up. Monk, you are doing it wrong. Every weapon attack is based Rogues get away with being d8 hit die because they have of Dexterity. Every saving throw is based on Wisdom. For hide as a bonus action. Clerics get away with it because the Monk to work properly however, you really need those frontline domains tend to have heavy armour, shields and a Stunning Strikes to work, but for Stunning Strike to work, whole spell list of get-out-of-trouble abilities. Blade Warlocks you have to first land the hit in the first place. have access to warlock stuff, Bards have shenanigans, Druids You could make the argument that a Monk can just 'go full have the fact they can turn into a bear. damage' and use their Ki points on Flurry of Blows, ignoring Monks have patient defense. Problem is, anyone who's the need for Wisdom. played a monk can tell you that they've already burnt their Ki Problem with that thinking: What about your AC? on stunning the big threats in the first couple of rounds, This isn't so bad as such, there's few feats that a Monk which for the Ki investment is a much better utility for the would care about (Mobile comes to mind) and 'fixing' the party - a stunned wizard can't fireball. Problem is, that comes Wisdom/Dexterity reliance is... not easy. at the direct cost of the feature they're meant to be exploiting So instead the better solution would be to take a swing at for personal safety. D&D is a team game, and if the choice is the issues pulling Monks toward Constitution. between your character's safety and party safety, well, guess (Side note, I also think Monks should get an ASI at 19th, which one wins out? but that's just me. This smooths out in the later levels, where ki is more abundant.

Safety options are skewed You can use 1 ki point for Patient Defense to reduce the number of attacks that hit you. So far so good, and the superior option when dealing with hordes. You can also spend 1 ki point to use a Stunning Strike, the victim of which cannot attack, and everything that attacks it has advantage on the attack. Great to putting down big dudes. But you can also spend 1 ki point to spend a reaction reduce the damage of a singular ranged attack and hopefully get a free attack out of it. Great for... When do you actually use this feature? If you're getting nailed by archers, you're likely also getting tied up by frontline enemies, meaning that if you're trying to stay safe, you're spending your Ki on Patient Defence. If you're not being tied up by frontline and can charge straight at the archer, you're better off hitting Step of the Wind and getting into melee range, which is the safest place to be against a ranged combatant in 5e anyway. You might be able to make an argument that 'it's an extra attack' - except that only applies if you reduce the damage to 0.

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Monk Level Proficiency Bonus Features Martial Arts Ki Points Unarmoured Movement 1st +2 Unarmored Defense, Martial Arts 1d4 - +0 ft. 2nd +2 Ki, Unarmored Movement 1d4 2 +10 ft. 3rd +2 Deflect Missiles, Monastic Tradition 1d4 3 +10 ft. 4th +2 Ability Score Improvement, Slow Fall 1d4 4 +10 ft. 5th +3 Extra Attack, Stunning Strike 1d6 5 +10 ft. 6th +3 Ki-Empowered Strikes, Monastic Tradition feature 1d6 6 +15 ft. 7th +3 Evasion, Stillness of Mind 1d6 7 +15 ft. 8th +3 Ability Score Improvement 1d6 8 +15 ft. 9th +4 Steel Flesh 1d8 9 +15 ft. 10th +4 Purity of Body 1d8 10 +20 ft. 11th +4 Monastic Tradition feature 1d8 11 +20 ft. 12th +4 Ability Score Improvement 1d8 12 +20 ft. 13th +5 Tongue of the Sun and Moon 1d10 13 +20 ft. 14th +5 Diamond Soul 1d10 14 +25 ft. 15th +5 Timeless Body, Unending Discipline 1d10 15 +25 ft. 16th +5 Ability Score Improvement 1d10 17 +25 ft. 17th +6 Monastic Tradition feature 1d12 17 +25 ft. 18th +6 Empty Body 1d12 18 +30 ft. 19th +6 Ability Score Improvement 1d12 19 +30 ft. 20th +6 Perfect Soul 1d12 20 +30 ft.

Equipment Class Features You start with the following equipment, in addition to the As a Monk, you gain the following class features equipment granted by your background: (a) any two weapons given by your monk proficiency or (b) Hit Points shortsword and shield Hit Dice: 1d10 per Monk level (a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier artisan's tool or musical instrument you are proficient in Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution (a) any simple weapon or (b) 10 darts modifier per Monk level after 1st

Proficiencies Armor: Shields Weapons: simple weapons, shortswords 1d10 Hit Die? Tools: Any one type of artisan's tools or any one musical To ease off Constitution Multiple Attribute instrument of your choice Dependancy, which is a big issue with the class. Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Athletics, History, Shields? Monks don't use- Insight, Religion, and Stealth. Stop. Look up 'Shaolin Sword and Shield' on Youtube. There's entire Martial Arts, plural, surrounding the use of shields. Extra equipment line? For flavour.

MONK | DUNCEHACK https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/print/ryrtMx-DtE?dialog=true 3/6 3 5/9/2019 The Homebrewery - NaturalCrit Unarmored Defense Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom Optional: modifier. You may benefit from this feature while using a Fighting Style Access shield. I get the logic, Paladins and Rangers get Fighting Styles but Monks and Barbarians don't? Martial Arts I'll list this here as an optional rule simply Your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat because I can see this one being a huge source of styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which diagreement. If you're wondering why 1st level: Because you are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don't don't have Ki to not die yet. have the two-handed or heavy property. You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren't wearing armor. Fighting Style At 1st level, you gain a fighting style of your choice You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack as per the list shown in the Fighter class. and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons. You may base your Shove and Grapple actions What about Two Weapon Fighting? on Dexterity. Uhh... specific wording is a pain. So Monk weapons can always replace their You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your damage with their Martial Arts die, right? unarmed strike or monk weapon. This die changes as you When you attack with a monk weapon, you can gain monk levels, at 5th level it becomes a d6, at 9th it make an unarmed attack in your bonus action. This becomes d8, at 13th it becomes a d10 and at 17th it unarmed attack adds your Dexterity Modifier. becomes a d12. This is laid out specifically as an action, therefore it's not two weapon fighting. When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or If you're two weapon fighting, you can either a monk weapon while you are not using a shield on your make your offhand attack or your martial arts turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action. attack. Two weapon fighting however isn't mentioned If you wield your Monk weapon in two hands, all your by the feature. So if you're two weapon fighting attacks are treated as if they have the reach property. you don't get your Dex modifier to the offhand - If you are two weapon fighting with Monk weapons, you even though you can still replace the offhand critically strike on a 19 or a 20. weapon die with the martial arts die. Yeah... If you are fighting with a one handed Monk weapon, and This is why I did the extra crit in the Martial Arts with an empty off-hand, creatures that fail your shove feature. actions suffer damage equal to your martial arts die.

If you are fighting completely unarmed, you can move through spaces occupied by other creatures and opponents have disadvantage on attacks of opportunity against you. Unarmored Movement Starting at 2nd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table. Martial Arts At 9th level, you gain the ability to move along vertical For it not to scale to d12 irrationally annoyed me. surfaces and across liquids on your turn without falling during the move. Preventing Shield using monks from using the free Unarmed Attack? Don't want Shield use to drown out other monk weapons. Added lines about weapon types? To make weapons meaningful past the first few levels. At 5th (or 9th for 2h-quarterstaff), the martial arts die catches overtakes the weapon dice.

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4 https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/print/ryrtMx-DtE?dialog=true 4/6 5/9/2019 The Homebrewery - NaturalCrit Ki Starting at 2nd level, your training allows you to harness the Deflect Missiles changes mystic energy of ki. Your access to this energy is represented Removed the Ki point cost. It's already situational by a number of ki points. Your monk level determines the as it requires you to completely nullify the damage number of points you have, as shown in the Ki Points column to make the reaction attack. of the Monk table. Put the line in about shields, I don't want it to You can spend these points to fuel various ki features. You eclipse other weapon loadouts for damage and start knowing three such features: Flurry of Blows, Patient utility. Defense, and Step of the Wind. You learn more ki features as you gain levels in this class. When you spend a ki point, it is unavailable until you finish a short or long rest, at the end of which you draw all of your expended ki back into yourself. You must spend at least 30 minutes of the rest meditating to regain your ki points. Ability Score Improvement Some of your ki features require your target to make a At 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th levels you gain +2 to one saving throw to resist the feature's effects. The saving throw ability score, or +1 to two ability scores. You cannot raise an DC is calculated as follows: ability score above 20 this way. Ki save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Flurry of Blows Optional: Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you Extra Ability Score Improvement can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus I've seen rather impassioned arguments about how action. Monks should at least have one extra ASI If you are wielding a shield, this feature only gives one compared to other classes. I understand the unarmed strike instead. rationale, they are martials after all. I suspect the main reason for the argument is that the class is so Patient Defense damn ASI hungry - you need 20 Dex and 20 Wis to You can spend 1 ki point to take the Dodge action as a bonus do their job, and you need to have a half decent action on your turn. Con score to not explode the moment you're hit in the early game. Step of the Wind So if you think this to be the case and want to You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash add an ASI, I'd say 10th level is the best place to stick it. Poison immunity is nice, but disease action as a bonus action on your turn, and your jump distance immunity is a ribbon. is doubled for the turn. Monastic Tradition When you reach 3rd level, you commit yourself to a monastic tradition, chosen from the list of available traditions. Your tradition grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, Slow Fall 11th, and 17th level. Beginning at 4th level, you can use your reaction when you The list is: Open Hand, Shadows, Four Elements, Long fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal Death, Sun Soul, Drunken Master, and Kensei. to five times your monk level. Deflect Missiles Extra Attack Starting at 3rd level, you can use your reaction to deflect or Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, catch the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + your monk Stunning Strike level. Starting at 5th level, you can interfere with the flow of ki in an If you reduce the damage to 0, you can catch the missile if opponent's body. When you hit another creature with a melee it is small enough for you to hold in one hand and you have at weapon attack, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a least one hand free. If you catch a missile in this way, you can stunning strike. The target must succeed on a Constitution make a ranged attack (range 20/60 feet) with the weapon or saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn. piece of ammunition you just caught, as part of the same reaction. You make this attack with proficiency, regardless of your weapon proficiencies, and the missile counts as a monk Ki-Empowered Strikes weapon for the attack. Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes and monk The roll becomes 1d12 instead if you are wielding a shield, weapons count as magical for the purpose of overcoming however you cannot use your reaction to throw the missile. resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

MONK | DUNCEHACK https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/print/ryrtMx-DtE?dialog=true 5/6 5 5/9/2019 The Homebrewery - NaturalCrit Evasion Diamond Soul At 7th level, your instinctive agility lets you dodge out of the Beginning at 14th level, your mastery of ki grants you way of certain area effects, such as a blue dragon's lightning proficiency in all saving throws. breath or a fireball spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only Unending Discipline half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on At 15th level, when you roll for initiative and have no ki points the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail. remaining, you regain a number of ki points equal to your Wisdom Modifier (minimum 1). Stillness of Mind Starting at 7th level, you can use your action to end one effect on yourself that is causing you to be charmed or frightened. Unending Discipline Adamantine Flesh This was the old Perfect Soul (It's a good name, wanted to keep it for the capstone). At 9th level, whenever you make a saving throw and fail, you Made this more comparable to things like the can spend 1 ki point to reroll it and take the second result. PHB Battlemaster 15th level feature... because it is directly comparable.

Moving half of Diamond Soul here? Moving global saving throws is a bit much, but extra safety needs to be staggered into the class at a lower level. Timeless Body At 15th level, your ki sustains you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can't be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water. Purity of Body At 10th level, your mastery of the ki flowing through you Empty Body makes you immune to disease and poison. Beginning at 18th level, you can use your action to spend 4 ki points to become invisible for 1 minute. During that time, you also have resistance to all damage but force damage. Tongue of the Sun and Moon Additionally, you can spend 8 ki points to cast the astral Starting at 13th level, you learn to touch the ki of other minds projection spell, without needing material components. When so that you understand all spoken languages. Moreover, any you do so, you can't take any other creatures with you. creature that can understand a language can understand what you say. Perfect Soul At 20th level, you are the living paragon of discipline and Steel Focus focus. Your Dexterity and Wisdom scores increase by 4. Your Starting at 13th level, whenever you spend Ki on an effect maximum for those scores is now 24. that would force a saving throw (Such as Stunning Strike), you can spend the Ki point cost again to impose disadvantage on the roll. Perfect Soul I'm going to get a lot of disagreement for this one. I personally see Monks as a mirror to Barbarians. Why? Barbarians fight harder, Monks fight faster. This exists solely to ease off Wisdom reliance a Barbarians can take a hit, Monks don't get hit. I step or two, but at a cost within the class. Basically could go on. you can have your 'full damage dex build but these three feats' and still be effective, but you're going to burn through your Ki rapidly (meaning that Wisdom helps you maintain you ki, which is thematically appropriate), and you're losing out on a chunk of AC. It also gives an option for Stunning Strike to be usable against high level creatures.

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