D&D 5E How broken is Long Death Monk at 11th level or higher?

[Paul Farquhar]

I'd house rule it that massive damage can still kill, ie drop to negative max hp, very unlikely in play but would prevent extreme case abuses.

Narratively, this is clearly a supernatural ability, so I don't see an issue with getting up and reinflating after being crushed by a massive boulder, or similar.

And monks are so bad, they need all the help they can get.

 

[ECMO3]

Monks are usually flat out of ki after about 3 rounds of combat, I don't see what "abuse" you are thinking of.

It is pretty difficult to spend 11 ki in 3 rounds of combat. Not impossible but pretty difficult.

I have found once you get to 8th level Monks rarely out of ki. 8 ki is more than one per round, every round, and that is assuming you are doing 6 combats a day with 2 short rests, fewer combats or more short rests and you have a crapton of ki.

 

[ECMO3]

Yep, Zealot Barb gets this in a much better form.

I am not sure of that.

The Barbarian has to be able to Rage, if his Rage drops he does too, so anything that incapacitates him is going to down him on his next turn. The Monk can keep using ki while paralyzed or incapacitated or even petrified.

 

[Clint_L]

The thing is, the barbarian can keep fighting through it without any loss of their considerable offence. A monk using all their ki just to stay alive is a monk you can ignore.

 

[ECMO3]

The thing is, the barbarian can keep fighting through it without any loss of their considerable offence. A monk using all their ki just to stay alive is a monk you can ignore.

If you are ignoring him then he isn't using any ki at all to stay alive.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It is pretty difficult to spend 11 ki in 3 rounds of combat.

Flurry + 4 stunning strikes = 5 ki per round. And that is before the monk starts doing anything interesting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If you are ignoring him then he isn't using any ki at all to stay alive.

If the monk is ignorable, they may as well have never left the monastery. The ability to not die, on it's own, is virtually worthless.

 

[Clint_L]

If you are ignoring him then he isn't using any ki at all to stay alive.

I feel like you really want this ability to be better than it is. This isn't like you. Your whole MO is figuring out ingenious ways to use rules to get ridiculous results. I keep waiting for you to post some incredible exploit that Mastery of Death makes possible.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The monk could jump off a 5 mile high mountain and walk away, but that qualifies as a single moment of awesome, not a game-breaking exploit. In combat they could be murderised by a dozen housecats.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I feel like you really want this ability to be better than it is. This isn't like you. Your whole MO is figuring out ingenious ways to use rules to get ridiculous results. I keep waiting for you to post some incredible exploit that Mastery of Death makes possible.

You might try some shenanigans with wildshape or polymorph, but I can't see many DMs waving that through.