Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="kbrakke" data-source="post: 6940519" data-attributes="member: 6781797">The class is fine if you goal is to do spell like things or be a monk, however to do both it's hugely draining. If you can reliably take short rests after every deadly fight it is probably workable. However over a prolonged adventuring day they have to make the choice between using their spells or being a monk, and frankly stunning fist is so good that it's usually better for survival to just always use that.I had a player that wanted to be a stone bender. We started with the way of the 4 elements as the chassis and I made a few changes. These changes came after several months of playing to the point where I am satisfied with it, around the time she was level fourteen or so. #1 change was give them more disciplines, in the book I think you get 5 at most + the cantrip, not really amazing as far as versatility or really feeling like a master of elements. I upped that to 7 and added an on-theme cantrip for each element. Part of my problem with it was that it's hard to be a bender without Ki, so the cantrip alleviated it.The other major thing I did was let the character use unarmed strike or flurry of blows after casting a spell. This way they can feel like the martial arts and elemental bending are working together. Frankly giving the player an extra ~6 - 15 damage and a chance to spend more ki isn't unbalanced and it plays in to the fiction of being an elemental monk. If you want to try the base class, just go in to it knowing you will be able to be a bender or a monk for any given fight unless you short rest a lot. If you can make quick edits to it, giving an extra two disciplines, reducing the ki cost by 1, and letting using a discipline trigger martial arts/flurry of blows really help the class feel better.If you have the ability to make even more changes the linked fixes are pretty good, and for me personally I made up my own archetypes for the elements with some extra abilities. For earth I gave limited tremmorsense with the ability to spend ki to extend it for some time, and the ability to pass through earth like an earth elemental by spending ki. Also because I really like it I will share an extra discipline I made.Split the Stream’s Flow (13[SUP]th[/SUP] Level Required). When you or an ally within 60 feet of you is the target of a ranged attack or is subject to an effect that allows them to make a dexterity saving throw, you can spend 5 ki points and use your reaction to interpose a 5 foot wide stone wall between them and the effect. If the effect is a ranged attack the attack misses. If the effect is a spell that allows for a dexterity saving throw, any creature behind the wall takes no damage on a successful saving throw and half damage on an unsuccessful one. This wall lasts until the beginning of your turn and provides complete cover.The imagery of course being the monk pulling up a small wall of stone to use as cover.</blockquote>

Verification