Monastic Tradition: Way of the Empty Bottle

[Halflens]

Hey everyone!

First time posting here, so sorry if I'm missing something. Anyway.

I recently got into 5e with some friends, and we realized the monk needed some sort of drunken archetype. in a brief burst of inspiration I came out with this. It turned out being essentially a defense-focused tradition, centered around the unpredictability of the movements of a drunken monk, making it harder to hit.

I have never done something like this before, so I'm really looking forward for tips and all. I'l be taking notes.

Way of the Empty Bottle

Misstep Stance
Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you gain the ability to consume a pint of alcohol as a bonus action, to gain the benefit of this stance. When in this stance, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage to a single attack roll against you.
This stance lasts for 1 minute. lt ends early if you are knocked unconscious.
Once you have used this stance twice, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.
At levels 6, 11 and 17 you gain an additional use of this stance. Moreover, at the same levels you gain an additional reaction while in this stance, that can be used only in the aforementioned way.

Strenght of Spirit
At 6th level, the monk can expend one use of Misstep Stance as a bonus action to get a new saving throw on an ongoing effect for which he failed a previous save.

Dance of the Drunken Devil
At 11th level, if an attack misses the monk because of Misstep Stance, you can expend your reaction to make a single melee attack against an enemy within reach.

Salamander's Spite
At 17th level, you can use the Sweeping Cinder Strike tecnique, as per the Way of the Four Elements. Moreover, you can expend one use of Misstep Stance to increase the level of the spell by 2 while you cast it. This doesn't count against the maximum level you can achieve by expending Ki points.

So, here it is. Couldn't resist adding the flamespitting technique How does it look and how can I make it viable?

 

[DrSaering]

I think the uses of Misstep Stance should regenerate on both a short rest and a long rest, as it's a key feature of the subclass, and that's consistent with how Bladesong works, from SCAG, rather than gaining additional uses. That's more preference, though, since I see you're kind of following Rage more.

I really like the idea of the drunken master being like a silly Jackie Chan version of the super serious Bladesong, but this seems kind of confusing, and also maybe somewhat underpowered. I see it gains additional reactions, but it has to use at least one to cause disadvantage, and then another one to use Dance of the Drunken Devil? Also, given Monks can already impose disadvantage on everything as a bonus action, I think it should get more.

I'd definitely say it should have improvised weapon proficiency, since I can't see allowing this and not wanting to actively encourage people to get a ladder or a table and not want any trouble. Misstep Stance should definitely have some more benefits, and variety. Maybe a static defense bonus that increases the more the Monk drinks while already in the stance? It might make sense for them to gain some taunt-like ability, since to me, part of the fun of a drunken master is annoying more serious characters with their antics.

 

[Halflens]

Thank you for the feedback! Generally talking yes, I was going toward a "rages-per-day" type of thing, in order to give him more charges for stuff like Salamander's spite. Another option would be probably 2/short rest. This would limitate the empowering of salamander's spite though (and expending all 5 uses of the day and possible ki points it would be around 18d6 of damage. After that, anyway, you're out of everything).

Dance of the drunken devil is another tricky one. After thinking about it, it could incorporate proficiency in improvised weapons, and make the counterattack part of the reaction, at a cost.

Moreover, as it is now, Strenght of spirit looks kind of powerful to me. Maybe shifting it at 11th level and putting DDD at 6th could be better.

For the "taunting effect", I can't really think of a way to make it viable. I find it already generally annoying

So, in regard to the stuff previously said, could it be:

Dance of the Drunken Devil
At 6th level, You become proficient with improvised weapons. Moreover, if an attack misses the monk because of Misstep Stance, you can expend 1 Ki Point to make a single attack against an enemy within reach. This attack counts as part of the same reaction. This attack must be unarmed or with improvised weapons. You can make only 1 attack per reaction this way.

Strenght of Spirit
At 11th level, the monk can expend one use of Misstep Stance as a bonus action to get a new saving throw on an ongoing effect for which he failed a previous save.