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Unearthed Arcana: Barbarian and Monk
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<blockquote data-quote="Leatherhead" data-source="post: 7787656" data-attributes="member: 53176"><p>Let me put these new forum formatting tools to the test for a bit:</p><p></p><p><strong><em><u>Path of the Wild Soul </u></em></strong></p><p>Because when <em> I </em>smash stuff, it's not a sign of potential anger issues, it's just artistic expression!</p><p></p><p>Seriously, where is my living arcane bomb that everyone was implying to be here? No Elemental Chaos, no Demonic/Other Realm possession, not even a simple magic mutation caused by some wizard tying the weave into a knot around them. This is just some body-builder who is way too into magic mushrooms.</p><p></p><p><strong>Lingering Magic</strong></p><p>The ribbon is a ribbon. Fainting glowing yourself could be a cool party trick at least.</p><p></p><p><strong>Wild Surge</strong></p><p>Why are people so intent on forgetting the lessons learned from the old 3.x Frenzied Berserker? Uncontrollably killing your party whenever you Rage is just not a good design direction to begin with. It would be like having a Rogue subclass that is mechanically required to be a kleptomaniac.</p><p></p><p>Some of those abilities seem like they are worthy of being a core mechanic in their own right, but as a whole, this mechanic needs to be scrapped.</p><p></p><p><strong>Magic Reserves </strong></p><p>Ranges from Highly exploitable (dance around in a Healing Spirit for a bit to restock everyone's spell slots, and give them a huge Temp HP buffer for free!) to highly useless (here is 5 temp HP for the Warlock, sorry that you don't have low level spell slots to replenish anymore!).</p><p></p><p>It's not that the idea of a Barbarian who protects as much as they smash is a strange thing. The Ancestral Guardian has something along the same lines. Again, it's just the mechanic being bad.</p><p></p><p><strong>Arcane Rebuke</strong></p><p>I'm gong to start off by saying I like this one. Not only conceptually, but also mechanically. It's a "soft counter" to the Barbarians main weakness (spells, of course) that doesn't just totally negate the weakness. I honestly wish there were more abilities and mechanics like this in the game. My only complaint with this being that it doesn't scale at all. Something like tying the damage to the save DC would be appropriate and fun here. Or it could just scale with level, whatever.</p><p></p><p><strong>Chaotic Fury</strong></p><p>That thing you do that can just randomly kill your party? Now you can randomly do it every turn you rage instead of just the first! If you are scrapping Wild Surge (and you should) this is obviously going to have to go too.</p><p></p><p></p><p><u>Thoughts</u></p><p>The concept is silly and there is like one good ability. I wouldn't be sad if this was dropped. But I would be if this somehow made it into a book without a total overhaul instead of something that wasn't a "joke character" subclass.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><em><u>Way of the Astral Self</u></em></strong></p><p>Why yes, that is a Jojo's reference.</p><p></p><p><strong>Arms of the Astral Self</strong></p><p>Do you like punching things? What a silly question, you are a Monk, you love punching things! How about punching things that aren't standing right next to you? Sounds good? Well hold on, it's about to get better, you can punch stuff for Radiant or Necrotic damage at the low cost of 2 Ki for an entire 10 minutes, which is the best ROI on Ki you can get for low levels.</p><p>Unfortunately, right off the bat we have a major conflict that crimps on this Monk's intended style.</p><p><u>Bonus Action Scarcity</u>. Counterintuitively, It takes a bonus action to summon your Arms, so you can't do the thing where you use your bonus action to attack more with your arms on the turn you summon them. Talk about a let down.</p><p></p><p><strong>Visage of the Astral Self</strong></p><p>You can spend 1 Ki point to get Devil's Sight or have Advantage in social situations. Having on-the-fly options are good. However, having to spend Ki to make it work drags it down a lot, as most comparable abilities are "always on."</p><p></p><p><strong>Awakening of the Astral Self</strong></p><p>This makes your Visage a full on Combat power. A really weird progression for an ability, but it works. Mostly, it's just some extra punching damage and a rather sizable flat damage reduction against elemental damage. It's nothing extremely special, but your Arms have been scaling all this time so it's kind of a double-dip.</p><p></p><p><strong>Complete Astral Self</strong></p><p>You become a Perpetual Punching Powerhouse.</p><p>Now<em> this</em> is a capstone. You are punching people up to 6 times a round (with one of them getting extra damage on top of it). But more importantly you are gaining Ki back every time a creature gets knocked out. Friend, Enemy, summoned creatures, that one guy you don't particularity care about. You essentially have no reason to not be in this form every time a combat starts up.</p><p></p><p><u>Thoughts</u></p><p>This is a fun looking subclass. And though it doesn't seem to start out powerful, it definitively ends up powerful. It's mechanically sound, evocative and fitting flavor (even if there is clearly a meme tied into it), and most importantly, unlike the above subclass, it works.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Also: I need to get myself a new avatar...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Leatherhead, post: 7787656, member: 53176"] Let me put these new forum formatting tools to the test for a bit: [B][I][U]Path of the Wild Soul [/U][/I][/B] Because when [I] I [/I]smash stuff, it's not a sign of potential anger issues, it's just artistic expression! Seriously, where is my living arcane bomb that everyone was implying to be here? No Elemental Chaos, no Demonic/Other Realm possession, not even a simple magic mutation caused by some wizard tying the weave into a knot around them. This is just some body-builder who is way too into magic mushrooms. [B]Lingering Magic[/B] The ribbon is a ribbon. Fainting glowing yourself could be a cool party trick at least. [B]Wild Surge[/B] Why are people so intent on forgetting the lessons learned from the old 3.x Frenzied Berserker? Uncontrollably killing your party whenever you Rage is just not a good design direction to begin with. It would be like having a Rogue subclass that is mechanically required to be a kleptomaniac. Some of those abilities seem like they are worthy of being a core mechanic in their own right, but as a whole, this mechanic needs to be scrapped. [B]Magic Reserves [/B] Ranges from Highly exploitable (dance around in a Healing Spirit for a bit to restock everyone's spell slots, and give them a huge Temp HP buffer for free!) to highly useless (here is 5 temp HP for the Warlock, sorry that you don't have low level spell slots to replenish anymore!). It's not that the idea of a Barbarian who protects as much as they smash is a strange thing. The Ancestral Guardian has something along the same lines. Again, it's just the mechanic being bad. [B]Arcane Rebuke[/B] I'm gong to start off by saying I like this one. Not only conceptually, but also mechanically. It's a "soft counter" to the Barbarians main weakness (spells, of course) that doesn't just totally negate the weakness. I honestly wish there were more abilities and mechanics like this in the game. My only complaint with this being that it doesn't scale at all. Something like tying the damage to the save DC would be appropriate and fun here. Or it could just scale with level, whatever. [B]Chaotic Fury[/B] That thing you do that can just randomly kill your party? Now you can randomly do it every turn you rage instead of just the first! If you are scrapping Wild Surge (and you should) this is obviously going to have to go too. [U]Thoughts[/U] The concept is silly and there is like one good ability. I wouldn't be sad if this was dropped. But I would be if this somehow made it into a book without a total overhaul instead of something that wasn't a "joke character" subclass. [B][I][U]Way of the Astral Self[/U][/I][/B] Why yes, that is a Jojo's reference. [B]Arms of the Astral Self[/B] Do you like punching things? What a silly question, you are a Monk, you love punching things! How about punching things that aren't standing right next to you? Sounds good? Well hold on, it's about to get better, you can punch stuff for Radiant or Necrotic damage at the low cost of 2 Ki for an entire 10 minutes, which is the best ROI on Ki you can get for low levels. Unfortunately, right off the bat we have a major conflict that crimps on this Monk's intended style. [U]Bonus Action Scarcity[/U]. Counterintuitively, It takes a bonus action to summon your Arms, so you can't do the thing where you use your bonus action to attack more with your arms on the turn you summon them. Talk about a let down. [B]Visage of the Astral Self[/B] You can spend 1 Ki point to get Devil's Sight or have Advantage in social situations. Having on-the-fly options are good. However, having to spend Ki to make it work drags it down a lot, as most comparable abilities are "always on." [B]Awakening of the Astral Self[/B] This makes your Visage a full on Combat power. A really weird progression for an ability, but it works. Mostly, it's just some extra punching damage and a rather sizable flat damage reduction against elemental damage. It's nothing extremely special, but your Arms have been scaling all this time so it's kind of a double-dip. [B]Complete Astral Self[/B] You become a Perpetual Punching Powerhouse. Now[I] this[/I] is a capstone. You are punching people up to 6 times a round (with one of them getting extra damage on top of it). But more importantly you are gaining Ki back every time a creature gets knocked out. Friend, Enemy, summoned creatures, that one guy you don't particularity care about. You essentially have no reason to not be in this form every time a combat starts up. [U]Thoughts[/U] This is a fun looking subclass. And though it doesn't seem to start out powerful, it definitively ends up powerful. It's mechanically sound, evocative and fitting flavor (even if there is clearly a meme tied into it), and most importantly, unlike the above subclass, it works. Also: I need to get myself a new avatar... [/QUOTE]
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