3:The need to use a weapon is not that bad and it fits the thematic of drawing your poisoned blood out and using it as a weapon. I do think that at lvl 6 when you get the poison touch that you should be able to use this with an unarmed strike.
The ability to change poison to acid is a great option, personally I prefer changing poison to necrotic but that's just me.
Its bad because it arbitrarily forces the
unarmed class to use weapons; lots of people play monk specifically because they want that fantasy of not using any weapons. There's nothing about "drawing your poisoned blood out and using it as a weapon" themes that require using, say, a quarterstaff, versus splashing an enemy with your blood after a palm strike. You want to use a weapon, sure, you should be able to do so. Being
forced to use a weapon? That sucks. The only monk subclass that should force you to use a weapon is if they remake Kensei.
Thematically, its an arbitrary restriction that's unnecessary and interferes the greater class fantasy. Mechanically, its worse for several reasons - one attack per turn to land the hit instead of taking advantage of monk's ability to make multiple attacks, easier on magic item support, doesn't synergize with popular feats like Tavern Brawler.
It'd be better if it really offered anything unique that made the restrictions worth the cost. This is effectively trading one flurry of blows for using a bit of sometimes-resisted damage. Mechanically, you're just not getting any real benefit from using the level 3 ability. We can talk all day about its vibes, but the simple fact of the matter is that we have a level with no real measurable impact on gameplay. Arguably negative impact, depending on what feats you took.
6: So this is not a combat ability and I feel like people are judging it like it is. Shaking hands with a new contact, hit them with a truth surum. Wandering down a castle hallway during a party, just pat the guard on the back and he is asleep.
Lets put aside the fact that D&D is primarily a game about dungeon exploration and combat, and the above are extremely niche situations that won't show up in many games, and definitely not the majority of sessions. Lets also put aside the fact that its weird for there to be a single level focusing on espionage in a subclass that has every other level be purely combat-focused.
The Monk does not have the skills to back any of this espionage up. By default, the monk is not stealthy. They're not good at deception. If the intent is for the monk to be a sneaky infiltrator type... Any attempt to use their blood-poison this way is going to be
obvious. At best, you're going to be leveraging raw stats versus raw stats, which is practically a 50-50 gamble. That's not good odds.
Also... patting the guard on the back? What kind of guard lets you get behind behind them? Trying to shake hands with a bloody hand? Worse, the poisons here only last for a
minute. That's a really-low duration for doing anything sneaky. They also inflict the poisoned condition, so its going to be a really obvious tell that something is wrong when you feel inexplicably woozy when this guy just touched you. Imagine it, you go to shake someone's hand, they take it, and then you hit them with the Poison + Charm conditions. Okay, they're charmed,
but they're also reeling from being physically poisoned. You effectively just roofied them with a touch. That's not subtle. Even if they don't connect it to you immediately, that they feel poisoned is absolutely a thing.
Now, lets turn this back towards the fact that this is a dungeon-explorer and combat game. How do we use these abilities in situations that 90% of the game is going to revolve around?
The Unconscious status effect is good in exploration, because you can use it to put guards outside the bandit camp to sleep. Sleep spell acomplishes this at ranged, and can hit multiple poeple at once. The monk here can only affect one person per turn, and needs to be right in their face - this gives the guards plenty of time to react and sound an alarm. Ironically, this is a time when being able to coat a weapon is better, because you could be using a freaking blowdart to hit the guards from stealth. But as is, you're too obvious when using it.
Truth Serum is actually useful for interrogating a captured enemy. I'm actually fine with this one. Its a bit niche, but it works great when it does come up. The problem is that it can't carry a level on its own, and the other two are weak.
Charmed condition could be argued that you're magically making someone drunk and interogating them, but I'm at a loss on how to use this in a way that Truth Serum isn't just flat out better at. It only lasts a minute, so convincing someone to do something for you doesn't last long before the Charm wears off. This is just flat out worse than getting the ability to use Wisdom on social checks, or a skill proficency.
17: With the damage being acid and not poison 3d12 + fear is not bad for a once a turn ability. It is a little weak for the level, wish it was a cone.
Ah, right, the acid. Its still really weak for a level 17 ability. It costs 2 focus to deal 3d12 and fear.
At Elements 17, you get elemental resistances, an upgrade to Stride of the Wind that deals damage (just shy of a ribbon at this level, tbh), and deal an extra die of damage once per turn, no cost. That means that your normal attack, with that extra die? That 2d12+DEX is effectively the same as the damage from the Hallucinigenic Breath attack, and has no cost. Elements doesn't have a fear rider, but in exchange it has a free elemental resistance of choice. I'd call trading fear for resistance is roughly equal, and that's on top of it being absolutely free.
Open Palm 17 effectively trades one attack and 4 focus to deal 10d12. Double the cost of Hallucinegic Breath, but over three tiems the damage, and all stacked all at once instead of over 2 turns. If we include the opportunity cost of giving up an attack, that means we're comparing 8d12 damage verus 2d12 and fear spread across 2 turns. Its double the cost, but doing mass amounts of damage to a single target is a major benefit. Is fear worth giving up all that extra damage?
Shadows 17 is 3 focus to turn half-incorporeal and invisible for a full minute, and flurry of blows costs nothing. In a 3 rounds of combat, this ability is effectively cost neutral. Its much harder to judge the movement benefit from traveling through enemies, but the advantage on attacks, disadvantage from being invisible (and just unable to be attacked by many!) is really, really good.
Mercy is hard to judge, give its a combat resurrection effect.
I'd say that the extra damage and fear is about equal to what Elements 17 gets, and maybe could be on par with Shadows 17. But both of those are effectively free of cost. Open hand is better at raw damage. At level 17, you're gearing up to take on CR 20+ monsters to fight, and a crappy AoE isn't going to help much. Not when Fireballs and Conjure Baragges are so cheap for everyone at this point of the game.
