Kensai [Monk Archetype] [PEACH!]

[Secret Wizard]

http://s22.postimg.org/6q1o2nk5d/Musashi_ts_pic.jpg



KENSAI


NITOJUTSU
At 3rd level, you learn how to weave off-hand attacks into you flurry of blows. This grants you the following abilities:


You become proficient with Longswords and may treat them as a Monk weapon.
Whenever a Monk class feature would allow you to make an unarmed strike, you may instead make an attack with a shortsword.
You may draw or stow a longsword and a shortsword whenever you may be able to draw or stow one weapon.
Whenever you are hit with a melee attack and aren't surprised, you may use your reaction to reduce this damage by an amount equal to a Martial Arts damage roll + your Dexterity modifier. If this reduces the damage of that attack to 0, you may spend 1 ki to make a retaliatory attack against that enemy, regardless of whether that enemy is within your reach.

IAIJUTSU
At 6th level, you hone your reflexes to supernatural levels. You have advantage in all initiative rolls.

HEIGHTENED AWARENESS
At 11th level, your focus becomes unbreakable. You gain a +5 bonus to your passive Insight and Perception skills and you have advantage on saves against stunning effects.

KIAI
At 17th level, you may spend 1 ki at the end of any of your turns in combat. If you do, you get an additional turn immediately after. You cannot use this ability again until you finish a short or long rest.

[Submortimer]

Since there are about a million of these (including my own) on the boards, I'll try to keep my criticism concise

• Kensai, as far as D&D is concerned, is about mastery over a single weapon: as presented, this subclass is not that.
• Nitojutsu's second ability is, more or less, pointless at any level above 3rd. The third ability is not specifically bad, except that there should not be any Ki regain mechanic.
• In all cases, replace "Martial Arts die" with "unarmed strike damage".
• Deadly Kiai and Masterful Iaijutsu are both pretty neat, even if Masterful Iaijutsu is just the top tier rogue ability.

All in all, not bad. It's not a Kensai, but it's neat. Also, from a real world perspective, Iaijutsu dosen't exactly mesh with two weapon fighting.

[Secret Wizard]

• Kensai, as far as D&D is concerned, is about mastery over a single weapon: as presented, this subclass is not that.
• Nitojutsu's second ability is, more or less, pointless at any level above 3rd. The third ability is not specifically bad, except that there should not be any Ki regain mechanic.

Thanks for the reply!

As the image shows, I was avoiding the typical D&D imagery and going for a more historical version. Truth be told, this should probably be a Fighter, but the remaining l legends of Musashi and the like merited the mystical abilities of a Monk.

Regarding Nitojutsu, it's specifically made to have two features that become obsolete with one that remains useful until the end of the game.
Also, I thought the ki regain was merited because a ki ability should not be weaker than a Battle Master manoeuvre. I have another idea to boost it (deal unarmed strike damage if you fully parry) but I do want to hear why You think it should not restore the spent ki.

[alexandraerin]

"Martial arts die" may be imprecise terminology, but it is closer to accurate than "unarmed strike damage". Monks don't have a feature called "unarmed strike damage", or a feature that exclusively modifies the damage of unarmed strikes. The feature that allows them to do more damage with unarmed strikes is called "Martial Arts" and its damage die applies equally to monk weapons and unarmed strikes.

If you look at the Monk progression table, you'll see that the damage is listed as a die, under the heading of Martial Arts.

[Secret Wizard]

Rechanged and changed the 11th level power.

[Secret Wizard]

Made some changes to simplify it a bit.

Considering redoing Master Iaijutsu into a new thing.

Any more comments?