New Monk Tradition: Adept

[WaywardWaffle]

This started as mostly for fun, but as it panned out I realized this could be a great addition to the Monk class. I should note I took HEAVY inspiration from the Shadowrun Adept class.

[h=3]Adept[/h]
Level 3: Adept Augmentation: When you pick the Adept tradition at 3rd level the Monk can consume ki to augment their physical abilities in a large variety of ways as a bonus action, must concentrate on effect up to 1 minute. Can only have one effect active at a time.

• Powerful Strike: +2 per Ki consumed to damage roll
  
• Sense Weak Point: +1 per Ki consumed to attack roll
  
• Riposte: any time the monk is attacked in melee they can make a single unarmed attack against the triggering creature, each attack consumes 1 ki. You cannot add flurry of blows on top of these attacks.
  
• Nerve Crash: Attack roll against target, damage is STR modifier x Ki used, on a hit target has -5 per Ki used movement speed until the start of your next turn, and the target has disadvantage on their next attack roll. You cannot add flurry of blows on top of this attack.
  
• Magic Resistance: bonus to spell saves equal to number of Ki consumed
  
• Stanky Legs: movement up by 5ft per number of Ki used
  
• Quick Reflexes: +1 AC per number of Ki used
  
• Reinforced Flesh: DR +1 per Ki consumed against one energy type of your choice

Level 6: The Monk can spend one minute consuming Ki to augment their body, granting one of the following effects for ten minutes.

1 Ki:

• Darkvision up to 60ft, if they already have Darkvision their range is extended by 60ft
  
• Water breathing

2 Ki:

• Ability to walk on walls and ceilings
  
• Proficiency in one skill of your choice

3 Ki:

• You cannot be detected by any magical means
  
• HP Regen equal to half of your total hit dice number per round, up to half of your maximum HP

4 Ki:

• True Sight
  
• Any creature that comes within 5ft of you must succeed on a wisdom save or become charmed by you for 1 minute

5 Ki:

• Your movement does not provoke opportunity attacks
  
• You can walk through walls.

You can only have one benefit active at a time and can only use this ability again after a short or long rest. You do not need to concentrate on the abilities granted by this feature.


Level 11: Offensive Augmentation: Once you reach level 11 you can use Adept Augmentation on hostile creatures to instead lower their stats by the specified amount until the end of your next turn. Creatures targeted by this feature get a Constitution save to negate the effect. All Augmentations used in this way have a range of 30ft and can only target 1 creature.

Level 17: Juggernaut: You can have as many Augmentations active as you want. Your concentration affects all of them, if you lose concentration you lose every effect you currently have active.


There are a few problems that I'm having some serious trouble hammering out. The first is KI BALANCE. Most monk traditions don't use all that much ki except for specific abilities, but this tradition just blitzes through Ki like crazy and I'm not sure of a way to balance it, +1 Ki per level sounds okay at first but that could also be too much, some kind of # extra Ki points at specific levels could put certain stretches of levels at a disadvantage over other classes. On the other hand needing to seriously focus on balancing and conserving Ki could be an important and fun mechanic for the class, BUT constantly feeling starved of ki might not be very fun at all.
Secondly the Juggernaut ability may just flat out be too strong, but that goes hand in hand with the you balance your ki carefully idea above. If I limited i to 1 or 2 extra augmentations active at a time that could balance it but lose the effect of feeling like a true master of Ki augmentation.
Finally, I'm worried some abilities are leagues stronger than other ones, and that for the level 6 ability the powers should be rearranged to cost different Ki's (I compared them roughly to spell level for similar abilities, but with the limit on Ki being so much lower than spell slots that might not be a good comparison)

Any problems you may find, or even better solutions, as you read through this would be GREATLY appreciated in being pointed out.

 

[Fragsie]

Rather than adding in extra ki, why not give the adept some mechanic to allow her to recover ki that she has previously spent? Perhaps something keying off the fighter's second wind like:

Introspective Focus
Beginning when you choose this tradition you learn new meditative techniques that allow you to refocus your mind and body quickly in moments of stress or fatigue. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to regain half of your expended ki points (rounded down).
Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

I've never seen a monk in action at high level to have a decent idea of how unbalancing this could be at high levels, you may want to use a scaling value instead of a flat half?

I like the feel of the class very much and it feels like a valid and appealing option for a monk character