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D&D 5E My take on the Monk Kensai

gfrobbin84

First Post
#000000]I know I know there is a million of these but I feel most of the others out there are OP and/or overly complicated. So having wanted a weapon based monk for a while I decided to come up with one such option for my players in my upcoming campaign. Please let me know what you think and any modifications I should make.


Way of the Kensai

You have devoted your martial training to the mastery of one weapon above all others. This has allowed you to accomplish feats that most others only dream off with your chosen weapon but your skill in others has suffered.

Disciples Form:
At 3rd level you must pick one simple or martial melee weapon you gain proficiency in this chosen weapon(if you didn't already) but you now have a -1 to attack rolls with all other weapons. You now treat this as a monk weapon for all purposes. Also pick one fighting style from below.

Defense: While you are wielding your chosen weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Dueling: When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new
roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.

Dual Weapon Fighting: Wielding two versions of your chosen weapon, one in each hand, you can make attacks with your chosen weapon in place of the bonus unarmed attacks granted by your Martial Arts or Flurry of Blows class feature. Also you can use your chosen weapon to deflect missiles using your deflect missiles class feature but you can't catch or throw the missile back if you do.

Ki Weapon:

At 6th level you can meditate over your weapon during a short or long rest. Afterward as long as you have at least 1 ki point you can score a critical with your chosen weapon on a 19 or 20. Also at the end of a short or long rest where you meditated over your weapon you can invest your ki into your weapon increasing its effectiveness. At 6th level you can invest 1 ki point to give your weapon a +1 magical bonus until your next short rest provided it doesn't already have a magic bonus. At 11th level you can invest 3 ki points to give it a +2 bonus and at 16th you can invest 5 ki points to give it a +3 bonus. In the case of practitioners of the dual wield style this effects both of their weapons for no increase in ki points.

Perfect Defense:

At 11th level while wielding your chosen weapon and struck by a melee attack you can use your reaction to parry the attack and reduces it's damage the same as if it was a missile attack and you used your deflect missiles feature. If you reduce the damage to 0 or less you can redirect it to target another creature within 5 ft of you.

Perfect Form:

At 17th level while wielding your chosen weapon you can spend 4 ki points to make all your attacks that hit this turn into critical hits. You have to spend the ki points at the start of your turn before making any attacks.
 
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You know that you can just use a weapon, as a regular monk, right? It gets your improved unarmed damage and everything.

The monk in the current game I am running is a sword-monk, who uses a sword to hit things. It's quite effective.
 

gfrobbin84

First Post
hmm ok I had forgot that the damage already scaled on monk weapons but this does let you make any melee weapon into a monk weapon not just those listed for the class so you have more sword options then just the short sword.
 


"At 6th level you can invest 1 ki point to give your weapon a +1 magical bonus until your next short rest provided it doesn't already have a magic bonus. At 11th level you can invest 3 ki points to give it a +2 bonus and at 16th you can invest 5 ki points to give it a +3 bonus."

While I can certainly see uses for this ability ... I don't think it's helpful in the context of this class.

Why? Well, if this is a weapon-monk, then s/he will likely look to find a magic weapon. After all, it's their sole weapon. Other than no/low-magic campaigns, it will be unlikely for a mid-to-high level character, who only uses a single weapon, to not have found a magic weapon.

There is no particular guarantee that they will have found a magic weapon of exactly the right type that they picked at 3rd level though. I think that the bonuses there are to make sure that the character will be able to use their signature weapon without relying on a very lucky treasure roll or the DM specifically tailoring loot.
 

Azzy

ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ
Just a nitpick... But that should be "kensei", not "kensai". "Kensai" was a typo or error in the romanization of the Japanese word 剣聖 that ultimately stems from the 1e Oriental Adventures book. Amusingly, WotC got it right in 3e's Oriental Adventures, but then subsequently got it wrong in one 3.5's "Complete" splatbooks.

For those not in the know, 剣聖 is typically translated as "sword-saint", and was an appellation given to the renown swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.

The More You Know.jpg
 


gfrobbin84

First Post
Yeah they are pretty similar though I feel your level 6 ability is very op given bounded accuracy. I'm about to update the OP though with a new version based on feedback from here and giant in the playground forums.
 
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