D&D 5E The Kensei Base Class

[Ashkelon]

In 5e, most martial characters hit a plateau quite earlier in their careers. For the most part, they stop gaining new capabilities around level 7. Sure, they get more features, but those features are mostly bigger numbers, more attacks, and the like. A spellcaster on the other hand continues to gain new capabilities every few levels through their spells. The kinds of tasks a spellcaster can accomplish at level 15 are significantly more impressive than the ones the spellcaster can accomplish at level 5. On the other hand, the martial warriors are doing the same exact thing they were doing at level 15 as they were at level 5. No new options or abilities have opened up to them allowing them to perform mythic feats of martial skill that one would expect from a warrior who is capable of going toe to toe with demons, dragons, and demigods.

I wanted to see what a martial warrior whose skill and ability revolved around more than the most basic of combat abilities would look like. Taking inspiration from the 3e Tome of Battle, I have decided to create a kensei base class for 5e. Check it out and feel free to give feedback.

Here

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

On the other hand, the martial warriors are doing the same exact thing they were doing at level 15 as they were at level 5. No new options or abilities have opened up to them allowing them to perform mythic feats of martial skill that one would expect from a warrior who is capable of going toe to toe with demons, dragons, and demigods.

Running up 100' vertical cliffs doesn't count? Resisting everything a beholder can throw at you (i.e. Diamond Soul) doesn't count? Immunity to hunger, thirst, and poison doesn't count? Taking a dozen full breath weapon blasts from Tiamat straight to the face without keeling over dead doesn't count? (Evasion + Long Death Mastery of Death.)

At level 18, turning Invisible and nigh-Invulnerable (resistant to everything except Force) doesn't count?

Or are monks excluded from consideration as martials?

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Running up 100' vertical cliffs doesn't count? Resisting everything a beholder can throw at you (i.e. Diamond Soul) doesn't count? Immunity to hunger, thirst, and poison doesn't count? Taking a dozen full breath weapon blasts from Tiamat straight to the face without keeling over dead doesn't count? (Evasion + Long Death Mastery of Death.)

At level 18, turning Invisible and nigh-Invulnerable (resistant to everything except Force) doesn't count?

Or are monks excluded from consideration as martials?

To be fair, monks are explicitly magical: They channel Ki rather than relying on pure martial skill, technique and determination.

 

[Ashkelon]

Running up 100' vertical cliffs doesn't count? Resisting everything a beholder can throw at you (i.e. Diamond Soul) doesn't count? Immunity to hunger, thirst, and poison doesn't count? Taking a dozen full breath weapon blasts from Tiamat straight to the face without keeling over dead doesn't count? (Evasion + Long Death Mastery of Death.)

At level 18, turning Invisible and nigh-Invulnerable (resistant to everything except Force) doesn't count?

Or are monks excluded from consideration as martials?

The monk starts of seemingly martial, but quickly developed supernatural abilities. At level 5 they gain a supernatural stunning attack for example. At level 18 they can become invisible which is clearly not martial. All of the subclasses for the monk also possess obviously supernatural capabilities such as quivering palms, shadow teleportation, or control of elemental powers.

On top of that, the high level abilities monks do get are not based around defeating foes through strength of arms. Timeless body is a neat ability, but doesn't really seem very thematic for a master of martial combat. In fact many monk abilities seem downright silly given the concept for a martial master. Tongue of Sun and Moon? Empty Body? Purity of Body? They all seem like a bastardized western misconception of a cheesy king fu martial artist more than anything you would expect a warrior who is devoted to defeating foes through skill at arms.

The monk also suffers from the obvious flaw in that it is primarily restricted to unarmed attacks based on dexterity. It is thus a little too narrow in its approach to combat to truly be considered a martial character.

I feel that the purely martial characters are those that defeat foes through strength of arms and mastery of weapons without relying on supernatural abilities. As such, I would not really consider the monk to be a fully martial character.

That is not to say that the monk doesn't share many of the same flaws as other martial characters however. It is largely fighting enemies the exact same way it does at level 20 as it does at level 5. The wizard has upgraded from Burning Hands to Meteor and from Prestidigitation to Wish. The monk has upgraded from flurry of blows and stunning fist to more flurry of blows and stunning fist.

 

[cbwjm]

Looks like an interesting class. I've only skimmed over it, I like the idea of the stances and the manoeuvres. You've divided the manoeuvres by subclass, is the kensei only able to select from their subclass list or can they choose any of them?

 

[Ashkelon]

Looks like an interesting class. I've only skimmed over it, I like the idea of the stances and the manoeuvres. You've divided the manoeuvres by subclass, is the kensei only able to select from their subclass list or can they choose any of them?

The maneuver division is primarily flavor, in much the same way that spell schools are mostly flavor. Each school's maneuvers follow a specific theme, but nothing prevents you from choosing maneuvers from a variety of schools.

I did have maneuver prerequisites in a previous version but found that it didn't really add much to the class.