D&D 5E Advice for the Skill Monkey Blues?

[Undrave]

Cool homebrew! One bit of feedback: change pike in starting equipment to "any martial weapon", otherwise you can't take a halberd (which makes more sense for a knight).

Well I felt like the Halberd was too strong as starting equipment, so I gated it to specific subclasses. But this is an older homebrew and I should to do another pass at it at some point.

Speaking of, I was inspired and made you a new Bard College. It's not really balanced at all but it could fit your gonzo game. (did not know what to do for that final ability so any suggestion is welcomed).
EDIT: Came up with a new one!
EDIT 2: I've reworded a few things and corrected some errors, and, since I had the room, I added a note about the basic rules of Temp HP, just in case!

College of Rebellion

No description.

homebrewery.naturalcrit.com

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I had to remind the DM that point blank ranged attacks get disadvantage (so I don't get f*ed even more as melee) and... I s* you not... he thought all casters get to cast an attack cantrip as a bonus action. Least likely scenario, honestly. I don't have all the books and don't know the group as well.
[...]
Nope we didn't do a session zero. Our "session zero" was that Level 9 Deadly combat and afterwards at the inn, one party member was like "I roll to make the bartender marry me" because "I want to start a harem" and cringe intensifies he succeeded, so now we have a level 1 commoner camp follower.

I tried starting in-character conversations with my party members... got maybe half a dozen lines out of them total.
[...]
An alcoholic workaholic misanthrope who doesn't like me (the commoner-seducer) because I told him not to set a pirate ship on fire in session 2 because it's worth 10,000gp.

oh, so the darkness isn't COMING. it's HERE.

you need to run FASTER.

 

[goldenskull]

Well I felt like the Halberd was too strong as starting equipment, so I gated it to specific subclasses. But this is an older homebrew and I should to do another pass at it at some point.

Speaking of, I was inspired and made you a new Bard College. It's not really balanced at all but it could fit your gonzo game. (did not know what to do for that final ability so any suggestion is welcomed).
EDIT: Came up with a new one!
EDIT 2: I've reworded a few things and corrected some errors, and, since I had the room, I added a note about the basic rules of Temp HP, just in case!

College of Rebellion

No description.

homebrewery.naturalcrit.com

Aight bro you got me hooked. I think I'm gonna get my D&D fix by homebrewing instead of prepping for a game I hate.

I can see it now. I want to make a monk that doesn't suck. That means fixing the MAD, increasing the AC, fixing the resource drain and boosting the late-game damage.

Extremely difficult balancing act, but I think the biggest problem is that every monk is forced into maxing Dex + Wis just to barely scrape by under the feet of other classes.

First step: at level 1 you get a style which determines your unarmed or monk weapon attribute as well as AC bonus and ability DC.

Tiger Style: Strength. Proficiency and expertise in Athletics.
Crane Style: Constitution. Proficiency and expertise in one type of artisan's tools.
Snake Style: Dexterity. Proficiency and expertise in Acrobatics.
Monkey Style: Intelligence. Proficiency and expertise in Investigation.
Dragon Style: Charisma. Proficiency and expertise in Intimidate.

 

[Undrave]

Aight bro you got me hooked. I think I'm gonna get my D&D fix by homebrewing instead of prepping for a game I hate.

I can see it now. I want to make a monk that doesn't suck. That means fixing the MAD, increasing the AC, fixing the resource drain and boosting the late-game damage.

Extremely difficult balancing act, but I think the biggest problem is that every monk is forced into maxing Dex + Wis just to barely scrape by under the feet of other classes.

First step: at level 1 you get a style which determines your unarmed or monk weapon attribute as well as AC bonus and ability DC.

Tiger Style: Strength. Proficiency and expertise in Athletics.
Crane Style: Constitution. Proficiency and expertise in one type of artisan's tools.
Snake Style: Dexterity. Proficiency and expertise in Acrobatics.
Monkey Style: Intelligence. Proficiency and expertise in Investigation.
Dragon Style: Charisma. Proficiency and expertise in Intimidate.

Alright! Keep us posted!

I don't know if I would put the Crane as the Constitution one... Feels more of a Dragon thing. I could see the Crane moving to Intelligence and then you put the Monkey in CHA and give it Bluff, since monkeys are tricky.

 

[mellored]

I can see it now. I want to make a monk that doesn't suck.

The new monk doesn't suck, possibly a little OP in the playtest.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/claim/source/ua

That means fixing the MAD,

Still MAD

Increasing the AC

At level 3, you can use your reaction to reduce damage from any attack, including melee. Often reducing it to 0. Better than an AC boost.

fixing the resource drain

Dash or Disengage as a bonus action without Ki. Use Ki when you want to do both.

and boosting the late-game damage.

Damage is up a die size. Flurry of blows goes to 3 extra attacks at 11.

 

[Stormonu]

If you want to go all out on Monk, I could use someone to playtest this...

 

[goldenskull]

Alright! Keep us posted!

Will do! I'll tag you when I eventually have something worth posting.

My thought process is to enable different styles of play based on different builds - the sketch I'm outlining allows 7.

Here are my vague thoughts for level 10 upgrades, for instance:
Strength monks are controllers who get advantage on Athletics rolls and ignore size limits on shove/grapple. Dex monk gets advantage to initiative and 2d6 bonus damage vs surprised - strikes first and hard. Con Monk is a beefcake tank with a protect/threat mechanic (haven't figured it out yet). Int monk... IDK disrupts spellcasters or can cast a few counterspells? Cha Monk has something like frightful presence.

The new monk doesn't suck, possibly a little OP in the playtest.

OP? reads latest UA Erm... I'm going to very respectfully disagree. This is like an inch in the right direction, then half an inch backwards. Still the worst class in 5e hands down.

Still MAD

Yep.

At level 3, you can use your reaction to reduce damage from any attack, including melee. Often reducing it to 0. Better than an AC boost.

Reaction limited. Which means an enemy that can't overwhelm the damage reduction will just ignore the monk to focus on more vulnerable party members. I.e. not good at tanking

Dash or Disengage as a bonus action without Ki. Use Ki when you want to do both.

Meh? Still "like the rogue but worse". Why not Hide too? Also who cares if you double your jump distance if you have to dump STR to get there?

Damage is up a die size. Flurry of blows goes to 3 extra attacks at 11.

Be still my beating heart.

If you want to go all out on Monk, I could use someone to playtest this...

OOO I'll check it out!

reads

Yeah it looks like you and I had much the same idea to use different styles to accommodate different builds. Do you want to DM about this? I'm happy to do DPR math and maybe we can give each other ideas?

Like for instance: I feel that RAW Diamond Body sucks. Too little and too late. Instead it should function like the Abjurer's 14th level Spell Resistance - gives adv to spell saves and resistance to spell damage.

Another: the secondary attribute should give +secondary mod to AC when you make an attack action. At 7th level, you can also apply the mod to all your saves instead of getting Still mind. At 10th level, you may add the mod to attack action damage rolls (not flurry) and you double the bonus if you give up the +AC & +Saves.

I think that ideally the monk should function like a cross between a rogue and a paladin. The challenge is making one that doesn't suck at early level but isn't SO GOOD early level that you're asking for everyone to make a 2-level dip.

 

[mellored]

Reaction limited. Which means an enemy that can't overwhelm the damage reduction will just ignore the monk to focus on more vulnerable party members. I.e. not good at tanking

If you want to tank, Action to Dodge, bonus action to Grapple, and drag them away (possibly though some spiked growth on the way).

Now they attack you with disadvantage, and you can negate the occasional hit you do take.

Meh? Still "like the rogue but worse". Why not Hide too? Also who cares if you double your jump distance if you have to dump STR to get there?

Maybe because a monk Dash is 33% further?

Also
Rogues reaction is half damage.
Monks reaction is more than that for most enemies.

But anyways, we're getting off topic.

 

[TwoSix]

Trying to be the voice of sanity when everyone else is nuts is not a fun place to be.

Much better to just lean in and out-crazy them.

 

[jmartkdr2]

If you decide to try to stay with the group, you could ask to change to a more "genre-appropriate" character, since you built your not understanding what kind of game it was going to be.

Then build Tatewaki Kuno.

/s