D&D 5E Way of the Mountain

[Guest 6801328]

The Crusher feat in Tasha's (which seems perfect for monks, except that the +1 ASI is only for Str or Con) got me thinking about Strength monks. The three Monk abilities (unless I'm missing some) that depend on Dexterity are:

• Unarmored Movement Defense
• Deflect Missiles
• Evasion

Of those, Unarmored Movement Defense is the most critical. (Deflect Missiles and Evasion still have plenty of benefit for lower Dex.)

So I tried to come up with a flavorful defensive ability that was more creative than just swapping Str for Dex.

Way of the Mountain

Skin of Stone
Starting at 3rd level, your rigorous training toughens your flesh to withstand blows. Bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage you take from non-magical weapons is reduced by your Strength modifier (min 1).

(Need a Name)
Also at 3rd level, when calculating the DC for saving throws against your abilities, you may use Strength instead of Wisdom.

Rockfall
Your strikes land with the force of falling boulders. Starting at 6th level, when you use your Stunning Strike ability on a critical hit, the target makes its saving throw with disadvantage.

Roots of the Mountain
Beginning at 11th level, when you make a Strength ability check contested by another creature, or make a Strength saving throw to avoid being moved against your will or knocked prone, you have advantage on the roll.

Avalanche
At 17th level you can shake the earth with your mighty leaps. When you use your Step of the Wind ability you may spend an additional number of Ki points, up to your Strength modifier (min 1). During that turn, you can use your action to jump at least 10’, creating a shock wave when you land that affects all creatures within a radius of 5’ per additional Ki point spent. Affected creatures must succeed at a Strength saving throw, or be knocked prone and take 1d6 force damage per Ki point spent. Those who save take half damage and are not knocked prone.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Rockfall may be a bit much. I thought about just making it that when calculating DCs for saving throws against your abilities you may substitute Strength for Wisdom (simplifying the language in Avalanche as a bonus) but if so then it needs a little something extra beyond that, especially since it would be completely worthless to builds that had Wisdom >= Strength.

Ideas?

 

[NotAYakk]

The Crusher feat in Tasha's (which seems perfect for monks, except that the +1 ASI is only for Str or Con) got me thinking about Strength monks. The three Monk abilities (unless I'm missing some) that depend on Dexterity are:

• Unarmored Movement
• Deflect Missiles
• Evasion

Unarmored Movement? I think you mean Unarmored Defence.

Evasion doesn't depend that much on dex; it basically removes -half damage off all dex-saving throws, win or lose.

Deflect Missiles dex-dependence falls off at higher levels. The throw does require dex, unless (amusingly) the attacker threw a finesse weapon (like a dart) or a melee weapon. Then you can use strength.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Unarmored Movement? I think you mean Unarmored Defence.

Oops, yes. Thank you.

Evasion doesn't depend that much on dex; it basically removes -half damage off all dex-saving throws, win or lose.

Deflect Missiles dex-dependence falls off at higher levels. The throw does require dex, unless (amusingly) the attacker threw a versatile weapon (like a dart). Then you can use strength.

Yup. I didn't want to get too long-winded about the reasoning, but that's pretty much the sub-text.

 

[humble minion]

Yeah, Rockfall looks over the top to me. There's very few ways in general of increasing ability DCs even by 1 or 2, and for something as frequently usable and powerful as Stunning Strike to get its DC upped by your major ability modifier at a relatively low level looks significantly overdone for me.

You might consider making the subclass dual-ability dependent, with some of its defensive abilities keying off Constitution. The ability to user your Con modifier in place of your Dex modifier when calculating AC would be a possibility. It can be a balancing factor if you've got powerful abilities to make them dependent off different stats - a PC is unlikely to have high Str AND high Con, especially if they've also (as you'd assume for a monk) sunk points into Wis as well.

 

[DND_Reborn]

@Elfcrusher

Over all, I like it and think the concept has a lot of merit. In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing something like this expanded to replace Way of the Four Elements and have much of this represent Earth. Sort of like the different animal totems for Path of the Totem Warrior, where you could continue to advance in the same elemental "way" or choose other elemental features.

I'll watch to see what else you might do with it.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Stunning strike is probably too powerful of an ability as is. It is well balanced enough against multiple enemies, but in party on one big enemy fights it already forces me to worry about whether the single enemy is going to spend the whole fight stun-locked or whether a major enemy is going to use up all their legendary resistances against a single round of monk attacks. It does not need a DC boost.

 

[Guest 6801328]

In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing something like this expanded to replace Way of the Four Elements and have much of this represent Earth.

Oh! I like that idea. I might have to see what I can come up with for Water, Air, and Fire. Hmm.....

An obvious idea that didn't make the cut, probably for 11th level, was to make Stoneskin castable once per long rest, or with some number (4?) Ki points.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Yeah, Rockfall looks over the top to me. There's very few ways in general of increasing ability DCs even by 1 or 2, and for something as frequently usable and powerful as Stunning Strike to get its DC upped by your major ability modifier at a relatively low level looks significantly overdone for me.

Yes, agreed. I changed it, although in a temporary way, I think.

You might consider making the subclass dual-ability dependent, with some of its defensive abilities keying off Constitution. The ability to user your Con modifier in place of your Dex modifier when calculating AC would be a possibility. It can be a balancing factor if you've got powerful abilities to make them dependent off different stats - a PC is unlikely to have high Str AND high Con, especially if they've also (as you'd assume for a monk) sunk points into Wis as well.

I thought about using Con, but this subclass is already dependent upon Str, Dex, and Wis, so adding another....

 

[DND_Reborn]

Oh! I like that idea. I might have to see what I can come up with for Water, Air, and Fire. Hmm.....

An obvious idea that didn't make the cut, probably for 11th level, was to make Stoneskin castable once per long rest, or with some number (4?) Ki points.

Thanks. I like it as well, but personally one of the things I like with what you did was steer clear of spell-like abilities. I would be interested if the other elements could do the same thing.

For one thing, I would also try to base the other elements on other ability scores. Something like this, which keeps it away from DEX and WIS, maybe?

Earth = STR
Air = INT
Fire = CHA
Water = CON