Sorry for thread necro, kinda fishing for ideas from people on how to resolve. My campaign has gotten pretty high level and I find myself as DM to be spending far more time trying to balance boss fights around specifically monk stunning strike than anything in the game (and much more consistently fudging rolls for dramatic moments to not get stunned than anything else).
Due to a combination of the power of stun condition and the ease with which the monk applies it (a monk at 12th level has 12 charges and can attempt to stun 12 times per short rest (which is effectively as many as she wants in a boss fight unless I do something significant to stop short resting). This makes it hard to balance big boss battles.
Basically the only RAW solution is to have whatever they are fighting have legendary resistance or a bunch of threatening minions or healers. Otherwise it's is not unlikely that you have a major fight with an archmage or beholder or lich or dragon and have the cool boss battle be monk high rolls initiative and stuns the boss for 5 turns until they die. (and the stun would probably block most legendary and lair actions too).
I find it's a terrible balance design for so much power to be in stunning as it's a giant all or nothing, but I don't want to change how the monk works (she has been playing it for 7 levels now). Just trying to find creative and cool solutions that keep the monk feeling powerful but not trivializing boss fights which should be an epic moment.
Sorry for thread necro, kinda fishing for ideas from people on how to resolve. My campaign has gotten pretty high level and I find myself as DM to be spending far more time trying to balance boss fights around specifically monk stunning strike than anything in the game (and much more consistently fudging rolls for dramatic moments to not get stunned than anything else).
Due to a combination of the power of stun condition and the ease with which the monk applies it (a monk at 12th level has 12 charges and can attempt to stun 12 times per short rest (which is effectively as many as she wants in a boss fight unless I do something significant to stop short resting). This makes it hard to balance big boss battles.
Basically the only RAW solution is to have whatever they are fighting have legendary resistance or a bunch of threatening minions or healers. Otherwise it's is not unlikely that you have a major fight with an archmage or beholder or lich or dragon and have the cool boss battle be monk high rolls initiative and stuns the boss for 5 turns until they die. (and the stun would probably block most legendary and lair actions too).
I find it's a terrible balance design for so much power to be in stunning as it's a giant all or nothing, but I don't want to change how the monk works (she has been playing it for 7 levels now). Just trying to find creative and cool solutions that keep the monk feeling powerful but not trivializing boss fights which should be an epic moment.
Limit short rests. Maximum of 2 per Long rest.
It's a very common house rule, along with shortening the duration to 5 minutes (so they're less jarring narratively).
Also, dont have Boss fights directly after the party short rests. Make your Monk PC ration those Ki points for the important fights.
For my games, I've increased the damage on Monks unarmed strike by 1 dice step (d4 becomes d6 becomes d8 becomes d10 becomes 2d6, and the capstone at 20th turns it into 2d8 - because it rhymes with earlier editions) but increased the cost of Stunning fist to 2 Ki points, and limited it to 1/turn.
Monks now deal slightly higher and more consistent damage, can still stun things, but need to be a bit more careful where and when they spam one.
The increased damage makes things like Flurry of Blows more tempting as well (gaining 2 attacks at the higher damage for 1 Ki points, as opposed to spending 2 Ki points on a Stun). It keeps the flavor and gameplay intact, while making Stuns slightly rarer, but giving Monks a boost elsewhere (upping DPR by 3-5 points) to compensate.