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View Full Version : Monk Subclass: Way of the Hundred Lashes [PEACH]



Thanatos 51-50
2018-08-18, 10:27 AM
So, I've been trying to think of a way to make the whip a viable weapon because it's just... kind of sitting there, not seeing any use, and I feel bad for it. I understand that its never been viable, even in real world usage, but whips are cool, okay?
Way of the Kensai kind of tried to make monks more viable Martial weapon wielders, but I feel like the spirit of a warrior hyper-focused in one weapon kind of got lost along the way in allowing you to take multiple weapons as your Kensai weapon and even allowing you to gain further kensai weapon proficiencies, and even under Kensai weapon rules, a whip is inferior to the ol' Longsword and Longbow combo, and that's boring.

I wanted to try and solve both problems at once.

So this is what I've come up with:

WAY OF THE HUNDRED LASHES
The whips is traditionally emblematic of the dictatorial lawkeepers, slave drivers, and various other enemies of a free people, it is only a little surprising that, in the wake of an uprising or revolt, invariably there arises a new order, dedicated to wielding the weapons of their former oppressors.
Most monks of the Way of the Hundred Lashes arise from precisely such orders, their school's traditional choice of weaopn gifted to them only after years of grueling, bloody training in more traditional Martial Arts. They are taught the cruel history of the weapon, and warned that, should they fall victim to the lust for power such an arm represents, then they may soon find themselves at the bloody end of their own lash.

Striking Scorpion Stance
Upon dedicating yourself to this Martial Way at third level, you gain proficiency in the whip, and it is a monk weapon for you.
Additionally, while wielding a whip, wearing no armour and no shield, you may use an Action to attempt to trip an opponent within reach. The target may make a Dexterity saving throw against your ki save DC. On a failure, they become prone and take slashing damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Constrictor's Grip
When reaching sixth level your mastery of the whip increases. Upon making a successful attack roll with the whip, you may spend one ki point to attempt to initiate a grapple, using your Dexterity (Acrobatics) in place of Strength (Athletics) when doing so. At the beginning of your turn, you may choose to automatically deal damage equal to your Wisdom modifier to a creature grappled in this manner. In addition, you are considered to have struck the target this turn, allowing you to activate spells or abilities (Such as your Stunning Strike class feature) that normally require an attack roll or require you to touch a hostile creature (Such as the Inflict Wounds spell).
Additionally, whips gain the Light tag for you.
When reaching sixth level you mastery of the whip increases. Upon making a successful attack roll with the whip, you may spend one ki point to attempt to initiate a grapple, using your Dexterity (Acrobatics) in place of Strength (Athletics) when doing so. At the beginning of your turn against an opponent so grappled, you automatically deal slashing damage equal to your Wisdom modifier. While you have an opponent so grappled, you may also use an action to attempt to cut off their air supply. Your target makes a Constitution saving throw against your Ki Save DC, or becomes unconscious for one round.
Additionally, whips gain the Light property for you.

Monkey-Tail Forms
At eleventh level, your dexterity with the whip is such that it a natural extension of your own hands. You may use the whip to grab any handheld object within reach without difficulty, and have Advantage to all Acrobatics and Athletics check you make while wielding a whip, using the weapon's flexible nature to aid you in your movements.
When you make an attack using the whip you can attempt to either knock away or grab an item that the creature is holding using the whip. You can spend 1 ki point to make a conflicting skill check against the targeted creature, this check is Sleight of Hand (Dex) vs the opponent's Athletics (Str). If you succeed on the skill check you can either knock an item that is in the creature's hand 10 ft away or, if you have a free hand, you can pull the item towards yourself and grab it as a free action, if you fail the skill check then the creature keeps its grip on the item.

At eleventh level, your dexterity with the whip is such that it a natural extension of your own hands. You may use the whip to grab any handheld object within reach without difficulty, and have Advantage to all Acrobatics and Athletics check you make while wielding a whip, using the weapon's flexible nature to aid you in your movements.
Furthermore, you may spend one ki point to lift an object from another creature. This is not subtle, and requires a successful Sleight of hand roll to successfully execute. If they are holding the item in question, such as if it is an opponent's sword, or a thief handling a diamond, they may make a Strength saving throw against your Ki Save DC to negate this effect entirely. If you are successful, the object either moves to your hand if you have one free, or clatters to the ground at your feet.

Wall of Lashes
By seventeenth level, your whips are always in constant motion. Whenever you would spend a Reaction, you may make an additional attack with a wielded whip.
Furthermore, whenever a Monk ability specifies an Unarmed attack, you may substitute a whip attack, instead.
Finally, whenever a creature begins its turn within your reach, you may choose to have it make a Dexterity Saving Throw against your Ki Save DC or take damage equal to your Martial Arts die.

By seventeenth level, your whips are always in constant motion. Whenever you would spend a Reaction, you may make an additional attack with a wielded whip.
Furthermore, whenever a Monk ability specifies an Unarmed attack, you may substitute a whip attack, instead.

~~~
And now that I've written the word so many times, it feels like "whip" has lost all meaning.
Whip. Whip.

JNAProductions
2018-08-18, 01:11 PM
Striking Scorpion looks fine.

Constrictor's Grip does NOT. Stunned is far weaker than unconscious, and that costs Ki to activate. If you have ANY other melee bruisers in your party, they will just rip the KOed dude a new one with thier auto-crits.

Monkey-Tail might be a touch too good. Advantage on Whip Grapples is pretty nice.

Wall of Lashes is probably okay.

JDanton
2018-08-18, 06:53 PM
Okay, lets take this step by step! I'm gonna review the features briefly and suggest some reworks or alternatives, these are just suggestions.

First of all, the lore behind the tradition, its great! Nothing more to say really, I love the idea behind it, its thematically solid, has a lot of RP potential and is just all around cool.

Striking Scorpion Stance First off you can make whip proficiency a separate feature to avoid clutter. Second, I recommend allowing the monk to perform the trip as part of an attack, similarly to how the Open Hand technique feature, from the Way of the Open Hand tradition, functions.
Once per turn when you perform an attack with your whip you can attempt to trip the targeted creature. The creature must make a dexterity saving throw with a DC equal to your ki save DC, on a failed save they fall prone and take an additional damage die of damage. for example
This way the feature doesn't mess with your action economy and allows you to still use either; flurry of blows, step of the wind or patient defence, and the damage scales better.

Constrictor's grip The main issue with this feature is that between stunning strike and Striking Scorpion Stance you already have enough ways to stop peoples movements and leave them vulnerable, making a grapple attack just doesn't seem worth it when you have so many other options. As for the knocking people unconscious this is far too powerful as not only will every additional attack be at advantage but will auto-crit, so while the grapple is essentially useless in comparison to stunning strike, the knocking unconscious makes it redundant. I'd forget this ability entirely since its too close to the first feature anyway. I've got an idea but its a bit out there
Viper's Lash As an action you can spend a ki point to target one creature you can see within 30ft of you. You the proceed to self flagellate with your whip however you inflict the damage and the pain onto the target, the target creature must make a constitution saving throw equal your ki save DC, on a failed save the target takes 3d8 necrotic damage, on a successful save both you and the target take half damage. You can spend a number of additional ki points equal to your constitution modifier (minimum of 1) to increase the damage of this feature by 1d8 per ki point spent.
This is based around the idea of self-flagellation, the idea that you can find redemption and salvation by inflicting pain on yourself, it was typically used by devout Catholics, especially during times of great crisis like the plague. This feature adds some nice high risk high reward damage dealing which I may have to rebalance but I still think its a fun ability.

Monkey-Tail form First parts fine and fits thematically, using the whip to aid you acrobatics and escape and perform grapples is really cool and very useful. The second part is also fine but I'd tweak it a little and change the wording (I will only be proposing a tweaking of the second ability of the feature).
When you make an attack using the whip you can attempt to either knock away or grab an item that the creature is holding using the whip. You can spend 1 ki point to make a conflicting skill check against the targeted creature, this check is Sleight of Hand (Dex) vs the opponents athletics (Str). If you succeed on the skill check you can either knock an item that is in the creature's hand 10ft away or if you have a free hand you can pull the item towards yourself and grab it as a free action, if you fail the skill check then the creature keeps its grip on the item.
Just cleans it up and gives it a bit more utility, especially if you have your hands full. This feature feels very Indiana Jones and could be a lot of fun to play around with.

Wall of Lashes So double hits on opportunity attacks (and sentry attacks if you have the feat) is okay but very situational and feels underpowered for the capstone feature of the subclass, the using a whip instead of an unarmed strike is pretty good but all it really gains you is reach and slashing damage, also monks should still be punching things, even if they have whips they are still monks.
By seventeenth level, your whips are always in constant motion, whenever you are damaged by a creature within range you can use your reaction to attack the creature with your whip. Whenever you make an attack as part of a reaction you can make an additional attack with the whip
Still gives you the double hit on opportunity attacks but also gives you other reaction options so you can use the feature more constantly, honestly there are a lot of ways you can rework this feature, I played around with the idea of all If a creature starts its turn within range of you, while you are wielding a whip, they take slashing damage equal to your whip's damage die which was based around the idea that you're whipping your whip around in all directions, hitting everything around you. Take this suggestion with a grain of salt and just play around with this feature, be a bit crazy with it.

But yeah that all my advice and suggestions, goodluck!

Thanatos 51-50
2018-08-19, 02:32 AM
Okay, let's propose some reworks, then...

Striking Scorpion Stance
Remains unchanged, for now. Part of the intended "payment" for using this ability was to spend on the Action economy. I also wanted to give a whip combat option that didn't cost ki to use, making it an Action, as opposed to a ki cost to attempt an add-on to the attack, was supposed to represent it. It can still be used with Paitent Defense and Steap of the Wind, it just can't trigger Flurry of Blows or an Unarmed attack, but I do hear the concerns.
Maybe we can straight-up buff the ability by having it read something like... "...Whenever you make an Attack with your Whip, you may forgo the attack and damage rolls to..."? That way you're still technically taking the attack action, opening up Martial Arts and Flurry of Blows add-on attacks, as well as a normal attack or trying this twice once fifth level rolls around. (Four times, with our Wall of Lashes capstone).

Constrictor's Grip
Yeah, Unconsciousness is OP, I don't know what I was thinking, here's a rework:

"When reaching sixth level you mastery of the whip increases. Upon making a successful attack roll with the whip, you may spend one ki point to attempt to initiate a grapple, using your Dexterity (Acrobatics) in place of Strength (Athletics) when doing so. At the beginning of your turn against an opponent so grappled, you automatically deal slashing damage equal to your Wisdom modifier, in addition, you are considered to have struck the target this turn, allowing you to activate spells or abilities (Such as your Stunning Strike class feature) that normally require an attack roll or require you to touch a hostile creature (Such as the Inflict Wounds spell).
Additionally, the whip gains the Light tag for you"

Wording is a bit wonky, there, but you get the idea.

Potential alternate ability:

Viper's Borne Fangs
At sixth level, you have learned to channel your ki in a manner where you can crack your whips in the air, causing primordial fear to settle in the hearts of onlookers. As an action, you crack your lash in the empty air, and infuse the resultant sound with a wave of ki. Choose any number of creatures within thirty feet of a spot within your reach and spend a Ki point for each. All creatures targeted this way immediately make a Charisma saving through against your Ki Save DC, or become Frightened of you until the beginning of your next turn, and you have Advantage on your next attack roll against them.
Additionally, the whip gains the Light tag for you.

Monkey-Tail Forms
That tweak of the second part Jdanton suggested? Consider it done. I like it!

Wall of Lashes
(As a side note, feel free to suggest a better name for this feature. It feels like an odd duck not having an animal-themed name here)
This was worded as "Whenever you use a Reaction..." and "...additional attack..." very intentionally, I wanted to open up the possibility of attacking while also using Slow Fall or Deflect Missiles, as well as any Spell which triggers on a Reaction (Shield and Feather Fall being the only two that come to mind right now), for that odd Monk that wants to dip into Wizard.
I am adding the following to the end, though:
"Finally, whenever a creature begins its turn within your reach, you may choose to have it make a Dexterity Saving Throw against your Ki Save DC or take damage equal to your Martial Arts die."

Thanatos 51-50
2018-08-25, 04:39 AM
So, this is mostly a bump to see if anybody has further comments, but, in the interest of adding new content...
Have an image:
https://i.imgur.com/b3XB7Sm.png