D&D 5E Sun Soul Monk

[estralita]

I've seen people asking about some SCAG archetypes here, so I'd like to ask the people of this board about another one: the Sun Soul Monk. I've asked and looked around in other places, and the result was inconclusive.

A few specific questions:

1: How good is the archetype?What are it's strengths and weaknesses
2. How does it compare to the other Monk Archetypes?
3. How do you use the Sun Soul Monk? How does it play differently?

I would especially like some feedback in terms of how it plays in an actual game, instead of theory. But I understand the book is fairly new, and experience might be limited.

Thank you everybody for your time!

 

[Al2O3]

I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet, but the thing that will probably make it an excellent fit for what I want is the combination of decent or good magic attacks in both melee and range without relying on items. Do the main strength I can see compared to other monks is the ranged attack.

Would love to hear other responses.

 

[Xeviat]

The damage of the ranged attacks just doesn't seem to add up for me. But I haven't seen one in play, so I can't really tell.

 

[pukunui]

I haven't seen one in play yet, but I'm keen to give it a try myself!

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I'm currently playing one, and it's a lot of fun. Though given my character background, I've asked my DM to switch the radiant damage to necrotic.

In terms of power it's comparable to the other builds I would say, though admittedly I haven't played the other archetypes.

 

[Mephista]

The monk is primarily a warrior class, and Sun Soul is adding on magic-casting properties to it. So, its a bit weaker than the Open Palm, and not as useful as the Shadow monk. As with all gish options, its got flexibility as its main selling point, and not pure DPR.

All in all, I'd say it does pretty well.

 

[Avenger_jr]

Sun Soul gives a solution to the lack of Ranged Options available to a monk. Sacrificing the great melee versatility offered by the open hand monk, and the flavorful stealth options given by the Way of.Shadows, the Sun Soul instead gains a ranged spell attack that keys off of their monk martial arts damage die. They can use this ranged spell attack to attack as a bonus action as well, very similarly to their normal martial arts, which allows them to use.this as their primary method of attack if they so wished. The cost of this is the inability to 'flurry' with the ranged attack, and not gaining an ability that allows them to do.

Their later abilities give them a spell as well as an at-will spell like ability that allows then to do some area of effect damage, something that the core monk lacked. While this damage is not impressive on its own, especially when compared to Fireball, they can use it every turn without spending ki or spell slots, and can still choose to spend ki to increase the damage.

Overall I am fond of the Sun Soul as it is very flashy and full of a unique flavor that brings about a new way to play the monk.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

The cost of this is the inability to 'flurry' with the ranged attack, and not gaining an ability that allows them to do.

Actually, in the final paragraph of their ranged ability it specifically states they may use a ki point to make two additional attacks, allowing for Flurry of Blows. In addition, the wording states that it is used as part of the attack action, which would qualify the ability to be used with the Extra Attack option, as well as use them interchangeably with their unarmed strike or other melee attacks.

I just like the class because it allows you to hadoken, Kamehameha, Destructo Disc, or to describe it like that gattling gun style blast Vegeta does. That flavor alone is enough for me.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

It pretty much plays like Dragon Ball without flying. Slap a pair of Winged Boots, and you have the full D&DBZ experience. Works best with Extra Attack and Mobile. Punch once, get your free Disengage, move away and blast. Sure, its damage doesn't scale as well as cantrips, but the 10th level ability makes up for it with at-will AoE damage.

 

[derickmoore25]

My game has a monk of the bird race I can't spell correctly it allows him to do a lot while staying out of AoO range