High Strength Monk

[Guest 6801328]

I'd consider a sleight change to all monks: "When attacking with Strength, increase the monk's martial arts die by one size."

This ought to give all monks a choice to focus on AC or damage.

That's a clever idea.

Still, I like this concept for a sub-class so I'm going to keep working on it....

 

[Hawk Diesel]

This thread inspired me to try and see how I would go about making a strength based monk using only standard rules with UA. I found that a Tortle Barbarian (Path of the Bear Totem Warrior) 3 / Monk (Way of the Kensei) 17 makes for an interesting build. Kensei Weapons were (in order of taking them) Battleaxe, Longbow (only because they make you take a ranged weapon, though I think Javelin might work better), Whip, Longsword, and Warhammer. Using standard array and ASIs (didn't take any feats), had stats of Str 20, Dex 8, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 12. I'm actually now looking for a game I might be able to use this build in. For fun I went with the Haunted One background to explain the barbarian rage and using his monk training to calm the darkness inside him.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

I think the "traditional" solution is to offer an alternate class feature that lets them substitute Strength for Dexterity in the normal monk AC formula.

This is what I use with an additional line that all other Dex based abilities (see Way of the Sun Soul) are now governed by Wis instead of Dex.

Works without a hitch.

 

[hejtmane]

We used barbarian tavern brawler I allowed rage bonus to count on unarmed combat not like it breaks anything. Then added magic items like gloves etc totem warrior is the way to go imo

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[Guest 6801328]

This is what I use with an additional line that all other Dex based abilities (see Way of the Sun Soul) are now governed by Wis instead of Dex.

Works without a hitch.

That's an interesting solution, too, even though it doesn't quite solve the AC issue because AC already uses Wis. Without knowing if that raises and conflicts, on the surface I like it. It's elegant than subbing Strength for Dex, especially if applied to all Monks in your campaign, so that Dex monks have an equal incentive to boost Wisdom.

Maybe it should even be RAW.

In any event, I continue to fiddle with a sub-class because I think it's a cool opportunity, but I'm going to do so with the assumption that a pure Strength based Monk can work on its own. So the sub-class won't attempt to compensate for choosing a sub-optimal build. Does that make sense?

My attempts to come up with a Mighty Blow (a single attack that consumes bonus action, and therefore needs to compete with Flurry) has been failing badly, despite a complicated spreadsheet. But I'm working on some other ideas.

 

[Guest 6801328]

New idea for an ability I'm toying with to address AC and wanted to solicit feedback.

The concept I'm going for is that this "mountain" can improve his/her defenses by foregoing movement. So something along the lines of: "On any turn in which you move less than half of your movement rate, you...."

And then rather than just boost AC I thought it would be more flavorful to reduce damage, so either:
- "...have damage reduction against P/S/B damage equal to your Strength bonus", or
- "...have resistance to P/S/B damage"

Option B seems too powerful, but option A becomes too weak at high level (c.f. Heavy Armor Master)

Thoughts? Feedback? Criticism? Ad-hominem attacks?

 

[Tormyr]

New idea for an ability I'm toying with to address AC and wanted to solicit feedback.

The concept I'm going for is that this "mountain" can improve his/her defenses by foregoing movement. So something along the lines of: "On any turn in which you move less than half of your movement rate, you...."

And then rather than just boost AC I thought it would be more flavorful to reduce damage, so either:
- "...have damage reduction against P/S/B damage equal to your Strength bonus", or
- "...have resistance to P/S/B damage"

Option B seems too powerful, but option A becomes too weak at high level (c.f. Heavy Armor Master)

Thoughts? Feedback? Criticism? Ad-hominem attacks?

B probably isn't too powerful. It is the same as raging. The difference is raging has a limited number of uses. I think option B would work better with the spend of at least 1 ki point along with any other restriction (such as movement) you choose.

As for Ad-hominem attacks, you should at least try an MMA barbarian, but you won't for reasons. Something, something, something, hamsters and elderberries.

 

[Satyrn]

New idea for an ability I'm toying with to address AC and wanted to solicit feedback.

The concept I'm going for is that this "mountain" can improve his/her defenses by foregoing movement. So something along the lines of: "On any turn in which you move less than half of your movement rate, you...."

And then rather than just boost AC I thought it would be more flavorful to reduce damage, so either:
- "...have damage reduction against P/S/B damage equal to your Strength bonus", or
- "...have resistance to P/S/B damage"

Option B seems too powerful, but option A becomes too weak at high level (c.f. Heavy Armor Master)

Thoughts? Feedback? Criticism? Ad-hominem attacks?

I'm guessing that in play having this trigger with half movement wouldn't capture the feel of a stationary mountain enough. I think limiting it to a flat 10 feet would be better.

And I'd rather do resistance than damage reduction.

 

[Guest 6801328]

B probably isn't too powerful. It is the same as raging. The difference is raging has a limited number of uses. I think option B would work better with the spend of at least 1 ki point along with any other restriction (such as movement) you choose.

Ooh...how about "Use your bonus action and spend 1 Ki to enter (insert creative name) Stance. While in this stance you have resistance to B/S/P damage. Lasts 1 minute or until you voluntarily move more than 10' in one round."

 

[Tormyr]

Ooh...how about "Use your bonus action and spend 1 Ki to enter (insert creative name) Stance. While in this stance you have resistance to B/S/P damage. Lasts 1 minute or until you voluntarily move more than 10' in one round."

Yeah, that is probably pretty close. There is a roughly equal chance of having to burn a bunch of ki as the battlefield shifts and the monk has to chase it vs. holding the line and having 1 ki last the entire battle.

On the flip side, this is partially covered already by Patient Defense (or whichever is the ki + bonus action to Dodge).