Monk half caster

[clash]

Here is my take on changing the monk to a half caster. This has a lot of multiclassing benefits, and makes them a long rest class without a new type of resource to track. I didnt bother adding martial arts die size to the table but it increases as normal. Let me know what you think.

Monk Rework

					—Spell Slots per Spell Level—
Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Spells Known	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1st	+2	Unarmored Defense, Martial Arts	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+2	Spellcasting, Stunning Strike	2	2	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	Monastic Tradition, Unarmored Movement	2	3	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement	3	3	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	Extra Attack	3	4	2	—	—	—
6th	+3	Ki Empowered Strikes, Monastic Tradition	4	4	2	—	—	—
7th	+3	Evasion	4	4	3	—	—	—
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement	5	4	3	—	—	—
9th	+4	Unarmored movement improvement	5	4	3	2	—	—
10th	+4	Stillness of Mind	6	4	3	2	—	—
11th	+4	Monastic Tradition	6	4	3	3	—	—
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement	7	4	3	3	—	—
13th	+5	Tongue of the Sun and Moon	7	4	3	3	1	—
14th	+5	Diamond Soul	8	4	3	3	1	—
15th	+5	Timeless Body	8	4	3	3	2	—
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	9	4	3	3	2	—
17th	+6	—	9	4	3	3	3	1
18th	+6	Monastic Tradition	10	4	3	3	3	1
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	10	4	3	3	3	2
20th	+6	Perfect Self	11	4	3	3	3	2

Spoiler: Altered Abilities

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Unarmored Movement:
In addition to regular benefits you can disengage as a bonus action.
Stunning Strike:
Starting at 2nd level, you can interfere with the flow of ki in an opponent's body. When you hit another creature with a melee weapon attack. you can expend a spell slot of to attempt a stunning strike. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn. If you expend a spell slot higher than 1st, the target takes an additional 1d6 damage for each slot above 1st to a maximum of 3d6.
Diamond Soul:
Beginning at 14th level, your mastery of the body grants you proficiency in all saving throws.
Perfect Self:
Not sure what to do here, as I dont really like their existing capstone. For a straight transformation though: At 20th level, when you roll for initiative and have no spell slots remaining, you regain 1 spell slot of 3rd level or lower.

Spoiler: New Spells

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Deflect Arrows
Level: 1
Casting Time: Special
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 round
Reaction trigger: You are hit by a ranged weapon attack.

You focus your energies into deflecting projectiles at the last second. Until the start of your next turn, you reduce the damage of all ranged weapon attacks by 2d10, including against the triggering attack. If you reduce the damage of the triggering attack to 0 and the fired ammunition is small enough to hold in one hand and you have one hand free, you can catch the projectile optionally make a ranged weapon attack with the piece of ammunition as part of the same reaction. You make this attack with proficiency, regardless of your weapon proficiencies.


Flurry of Blows
Level: 2
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute (concentration)

You focus your inner power allowing you to unleash blows at lightning speed. Until the spell ends, whenever you take the attack action you can make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action.

Empty Body:
Level: 5
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute

You become invisible and gain resistance to all damage.

Spoiler: Monk Spell List

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1st level spell
Expedius Retreat
Feather Fall
Deflect Arrows
Detect Poison and Disease
Detect Good and Evil
Jump
Longstrider
Zephyr Strike

2nd level
Flurry of blows
Blur
Calm Emotions
Darkvision
Invisibility
Mirror Image
Enhance Ability
Protection From Poison

3rd Level
Life Transference
Magic Circle
Nondetection
Protection from Energy
Spirit Guardians
Tounges

4th level
Banishment
Stone Skin
Greater Invisibility

5th Level
Empty Body
Commune
Far Step
Mislead
Passwall

Spoiler: Way of the Open Hand

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3 Mind and Body:
You learn the following spells at the levels indicated and they count as monk spells for you but do not count against your number of monk spells known.
3: Comprehend Languages, Zephyr Strike
5: Enhance Ability, Flurry of Blows
9: Nondetection, Revify
13: Diamond Soul, Freedom of Movement
17: Destructive Wave, Skill Empowerment
3 Wholeness of Body:
As written
6 Open Hand Technique
When you take the bonus action attacks provided from the flurry of blows spells... the rest as written.
11 Tranquility
As written
17 Quivering Palm:
You gain the ability lo set up lethal vibrations in someone's body. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike. you can expend a spell slot of third level or higher to start these imperceptible vibrations. which last for a number of days equal to your monk level. The vibrations are harmless unless you use your action lo end them. To do so. you and the target must be on the same plane of existence. When you use this action. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw. If it fails. it is reduced to O hit points. If it succeeds, it takes 10d10 necrotic damage. You can have only one creature under the effect of this feature at a time. You can choose to end the vibrations harmlessly without using an action.

Spoiler: Way of Shadow

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3 Shadow arts:
You learn the Minor illusion cantrip, and you learn the following spells at the levels indicated. They count as monk spells for you but do not count against your number of monk spells known.
3: Cause Fear, Silent Image
5: Pass without Trace, Darkness
9: Enemies Abound, Hunger of Hadar
13: Dimension Door, Shadow of Moil
17: Negative Energy Flood, Dense Macabre
3 Eyes of the night:
You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
6 Shadow Step:
As written
11 Cloak of Shadows:
As written
17 Opportunist:
As written

Spoiler: Way of the Four Elements

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3 Disciple of the Elements
You gain the following cantrips: Control Flames, Mold Earth, Gust, Shape Water and you learn the following spells at the levels indicated. They count as monk spells for you but do not count against your number of monk spells known.
3: Burning Hands, Earth Tremor, Thunderwave, Ice Knife
5: Scorching Ray, Gust of Wind, Maximilian’s Earthen Grasp, Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm
9: Fireball, Fly, Sleet Storm, Wall of Sand
13: Ice Storm, Storm Sphere, Wall of Fire, Stone Shape
17: Cone of Cold, Immolation, Control Winds, Wall of Stone
6 Elemental Fury
Immediately after casting a spell gained from Disciple of the Elements you can make an unarmed strike as a bonus action.
11 Fist of Thunder
You shroud your fists in the elements and harness them. Whenever you make an unarmed strike you can choose lighting, thunder, fire or cold as the damage type instead of bludgeoning.
17 Primoridal Mastery
You can cast one of Investiture of Flame, Investiture of Ice, Investiture of Stone, Investiture of Wind without expending a spell slot. Once you have done so you cant do it again until you finish a long rest.

[Lalliman]

I can't really assess the power without seeing the subclasses, but I like this a lot. Even with me not being the biggest fan of Vancian casting, I like seeing the monk made consistent with the other classes, instead of using its own janky resource system. The fact that Stunning Strike is now more expensive and less spammable is a great benefit too.

Some notes that jump out to me:

1. Flurry of Blows really should be a bonus action spell, like Zephyr Strike and all the smite spells.

2. Deflect Arrows is in the spell list, but isn't elaborated.

3. I'm kind of worried about the absence of an easily-usable Disengage option, especially given the reliance on concentration spells. Your Con save will probably be terrible at around +2, so not getting hit will be of prime importance. And yet you have no real way to make that happen. You have Zephyr Strike, but that can't be used in conjunction with Flurry of Blows. So I'm not quite sure yet what my approach to playing this would be in practice.

[clash]

I can't really assess the power without seeing the subclasses, but I like this a lot. Even with me not being the biggest fan of Vancian casting, I like seeing the monk made consistent with the other classes, instead of using its own janky resource system. The fact that Stunning Strike is now more expensive and less spammable is a great benefit too.

I am glad you like the idea. I have added the subclasses if you would like to take a look at those as well.

1. Flurry of Blows really should be a bonus action spell, like Zephyr Strike and all the smite spells.

Fixed this

2. Deflect Arrows is in the spell list, but isn't elaborated.

Yep missed this, I have added the description.

3. I'm kind of worried about the absence of an easily-usable Disengage option, especially given the reliance on concentration spells. Your Con save will probably be terrible at around +2, so not getting hit will be of prime importance. And yet you have no real way to make that happen. You have Zephyr Strike, but that can't be used in conjunction with Flurry of Blows. So I'm not quite sure yet what my approach to playing this would be in practice.

I'm not sure what to do here. I feel like adding something like expeditious retreat for disengage would be the wrong solution as you dont want to be concentrating on disengage. Maybe just flat out give it to monks as a bonus action as part of unarmored movement?

[Lalliman]

I'm still mulling over my thoughts about FoBs and Disengaging, but in the meanwhile:

Open Hand gives Flurry of Blows as a bonus spell four levels later than you can get it normally.

Open Hand lists Diamond Soul as a spell.

Wouldn't Gust and Shape Water be better for Four Elements than Lightning Lure and Ray of Frost? They're clearly intended as the air and water versions of Control Flames and Mold Earth, and they're more useful to a monk than offensive cantrips that are generally worse than your physical attacks.

Looking further down, I guess they work with Elemental Fury. But if that's what you're going for, it's a bit strange that there is no offensive fire or earth option. You could maybe turn Elemental Fury around by making it like War Magic: you can make an unarmed strike as a bonus action whenever you use your action to cast a Four Elements spell. That would lower the opportunity cost of using them, which is quite needed for the lower level spells like Burning Hands.

[clash]

Updated to include disengage as a bonus action as part of unarmored movement
Changed 4 elements cantrips to provide a bit of additional utility
Allow unarmed strike as bonus action after casting 4 elements spell

[MagneticKitty]

I like this a lot. For the most part seems less cumbersome.

But why is deflect arrows special instead of a reaction?
Also originally:
catching the arrow free (defensive)
Throwing it back points (offensive)

Seems like a bit of a nerf to burn a precious spell slot to catch the stray arrow if you're not throwing it. You lose a lot of defensive potential Especially if you only get an arrow shot at you once in a while.
Might be better to make arrows and bolts monk weapons (monk damage) with a thrown range of darts and leave the ability to catch them free. Then you're not losing defensive feature? I dunno.

[clash]

I like this a lot. For the most part seems less cumbersome.

But why is deflect arrows special instead of a reaction?
Also originally:
catching the arrow free (defensive)
Throwing it back points (offensive)

Seems like a bit of a nerf to burn a precious spell slot to catch the stray arrow if you're not throwing it. You lose a lot of defensive potential Especially if you only get an arrow shot at you once in a while.
Might be better to make arrows and bolts monk weapons (monk damage) with a thrown range of darts and leave the ability to catch them free. Then you're not losing defensive feature? I dunno.

I dont think spells specify reaction as a casting time(See shield spell) rather they specify a reaction trigger as I have done.
The free version allowed you to catch one arrow as a reaction. The spell allows you to reduce damage from all arrows for an entire round which scales nicer as you increase in levels and creatures have multiattack and the like while the offesive potential remains the same as the original version. Do you think the increase is defense is too irrelevant to be worth a spell slot?

[demonslayerelf]

1- Not a fan, Ki has always been the monk's thing, it fits more as it's own thing than "That thing the punch-paladin calls magic". Disregarding that...

2- This is the punch-paladin trying to be a ranger or Nomad from the Mystic UA. With FoB and Stunning Strike, it gets to be the best Nova in the game, with paladin-level spell slots to work off of, and 4 attacks, each of which they can drop a stun and extra damage on. The paladin is powerful with 2 attacks, but now this has 4, and stuns with no damage sacrifice(It's slightly less than the paladins, but it just makes this monk twice the nova).

3- There is now a build of Bard which is the most dangerous man in the world, since they can do Empty Body(Resistance to all damage and INVISIBILITY) and Tenser's Transformation with magical secrets. This is why(At least, part of the reason), why the Monk wasn't a spellcaster in the first place.

4- The other reasons; STONE SKIN. MIRROR IMAGE. BLUR. These are powerful defensive spells, Monk carries it's own defenses(Unarmored Defense, for instance). Now monks are hard to hit(High AC(Relatively, at least), hard to hurt(Tons of damage-resistance), and hard to find(Invisibility spells, especially Empty Body, since that doesn't break on an attack). And after all that, they still get pretty good hit points. Not great, but good(d8's are nice, average 4.5 and whatnot)

5- Guardian of Nature. Advantage on all attack rolls, and a 36%(Which lowers to 33% at 16th level) damage buff to all unarmed attacks, not including said advantage(Which is naturally followed by more hitting and critting, increasing damage further). And a movement speed buff, because MONK.

6- ALSO, because of the way half-casting works, Monks don't get to FoB until 5th level. Meaning their damage is stunted until 5th level, at which point it (Roughly)TRIPLES(2d4+8/10/etc. becomes 4d6+16/20/etc.+Stunning Strike)

7- Also, the class is inconsistent about Stunning Strike. Is it level 2, or level 5? Incredibly minor detail, but one you need to fix.

[clash]

Thanks for the excellent feedback. I will try to address these one at a time.

1- Not a fan, Ki has always been the monk's thing, it fits more as it's own thing than "That thing the punch-paladin calls magic". Disregarding that...

Not everyone will agree with the premise of the change. I am okay with that.

2- This is the punch-paladin trying to be a ranger or Nomad from the Mystic UA. With FoB and Stunning Strike, it gets to be the best Nova in the game, with paladin-level spell slots to work off of, and 4 attacks, each of which they can drop a stun and extra damage on. The paladin is powerful with 2 attacks, but now this has 4, and stuns with no damage sacrifice(It's slightly less than the paladins, but it just makes this monk twice the nova).

This is one I really wasn't sure of. I means stunning is actually more expensive in this model as 1st level spell > than 1 ki but you get it earlier. The thing I wasnt sure of was how to scale by spell slots. The scaling damage is much slower than paladin so the nova damage works out to the same even with four attacks(3d8 * 4 vs 5d8 * 2) or lower if the paladin has a bonus action attack and costs twice the number of spell slots. The Monk does get stunning on top of that though. Let me know if you have nay other ideas for scaling stunning strike.

3- There is now a build of Bard which is the most dangerous man in the world, since they can do Empty Body(Resistance to all damage and INVISIBILITY) and Tenser's Transformation with magical secrets. This is why(At least, part of the reason), why the Monk wasn't a spellcaster in the first place.

I mean sure if the Bard wants to spend 2 magical secrets, 2 actions in combat, 2 spell slots and his concentration so that he can be an invisible barbarian I say go ahead. There was probably much more effective spells he could have cast.

4- The other reasons; STONE SKIN. MIRROR IMAGE. BLUR. These are powerful defensive spells, Monk carries it's own defenses(Unarmored Defense, for instance). Now monks are hard to hit(High AC(Relatively, at least), hard to hurt(Tons of damage-resistance), and hard to find(Invisibility spells, especially Empty Body, since that doesn't break on an attack). And after all that, they still get pretty good hit points. Not great, but good(d8's are nice, average 4.5 and whatnot)

Stone Skin is range touch and can already be cast on the monk from another caster. Blur is identical to patient defense except it takes an action for a minute rather than a bonus action each turn and takes concentration. Other than the no concentration I am pretty sure mirror image has been shown to be inferior to blur so I am not really concerned there. Empty body is identical to the ability they already get just one level earlier and again is more expensive for them to use (5th level spell slot > 4 ki) so none of these spells really increase a monks defense in my opinion.

5- Guardian of Nature. Advantage on all attack rolls, and a 36%(Which lowers to 33% at 16th level) damage buff to all unarmed attacks, not including said advantage(Which is naturally followed by more hitting and critting, increasing damage further). And a movement speed buff, because MONK.

This I agree is a problem. Removing it from the list.

6- ALSO, because of the way half-casting works, Monks don't get to FoB until 5th level. Meaning their damage is stunted until 5th level, at which point it (Roughly)TRIPLES(2d4+8/10/etc. becomes 4d6+16/20/etc.+Stunning Strike)

Monks damage before level 5 is still competitive with twf and the twf fighting style and they have the additional option of stunning strike sooner which increases control early so in my mind it balanced out. It is also closer to doubling at level 5 than tripling (13/15 becomes 30/34) and only for 2 encounters in the day out of an average of 6. The rest of the time (13/15 becomes 22.5/25.5) which on average works out to (13/15 becomes 25/28) which is right in line with doubling damage at level 5 for martials.

7- Also, the class is inconsistent about Stunning Strike. Is it level 2, or level 5? Incredibly minor detail, but one you need to fix.

Yep missed that, fixing this.

[demonslayerelf]

This is one I really wasn't sure of. I means stunning is actually more expensive in this model as 1st level spell > than 1 ki but you get it earlier. The thing I wasnt sure of was how to scale by spell slots. The scaling damage is much slower than paladin so the nova damage works out to the same even with four attacks(3d8 * 4 vs 5d8 * 2) or lower if the paladin has a bonus action attack and costs twice the number of spell slots. The Monk does get stunning on top of that though. Let me know if you have nay other ideas for scaling stunning strike.

The Nova Monk still wins because they also get 4 stun attempts on top of the bonus damage(Which is still higher than Pally by 2d8, not much, but still higher. Pally using bonus action attacks does beat it out, but that stops them from using a Smite Spell, which might also win on damage, but doesn't get the stun beat on any level.
Other words: Losing out by one spell slot for close-to-higher damage but one of the best conditions in the game does not make them even.).

I mean sure if the Bard wants to spend 2 magical secrets, 2 actions in combat, 2 spell slots and his concentration so that he can be an invisible barbarian I say go ahead. There was probably much more effective spells he could have cast.

Ye old valour bard that's invisible, resistant to all damage, and can hit for 6d12+10 damage, with maybe also a Spiritual Weapon up. Situationally, there might be better spells(Like Damage control, instead of one-man-army-DPS). Not many, though.

Stone Skin is range touch and can already be cast on the monk from another caster.

And it's already incredibly powerful, giving it to Monk themselves is even more so.

Blur is identical to patient defense except it takes an action for a minute rather than a bonus action each turn and takes concentration.

Oh yeah, it's like that other thing they get, but it lasts for 10 times as long and takes one action and a 2nd level spell as opposed to 10 ki points and bonus actions. It's tooootally not changing anything.

Other than the no concentration I am pretty sure mirror image has been shown to be inferior to blur so I am not really concerned there.

Sure, but it's not concentration and gives a 75% chance to avoid a hit(Regardless of attack or damage), then another 65% chance, then another 50% chance, and lasts for a minute.

Empty body is identical to the ability they already get just one level earlier and again is more expensive for them to use (5th level spell slot > 4 ki) so none of these spells really increase a monks defense in my opinion.

You're not wrong about this one, but that's more because WoTC has no clue how to balance Ki costs.

Monks damage before level 5 is still competitive with twf and the twf fighting style and they have the additional option of stunning strike sooner which increases control early so in my mind it balanced out. It is also closer to doubling at level 5 than tripling (13/15 becomes 30/34) and only for 2 encounters in the day out of an average of 6. The rest of the time (13/15 becomes 22.5/25.5) which on average works out to (13/15 becomes 25/28) which is right in line with doubling damage at level 5 for martials.

You're not wrong(Except for the fact that Stun is MUCH BETTER than bonus 2d8 damage), but it lacks the cleaner progression it has now, and the damage is much higher a lot of the time, compared to current monk. Effectively 2 2nd level spell slots for 20 ki points of FoB, and even then those 2's compete with other spells monks would want to cast. Really no.

[clash]

The Nova Monk still wins because they also get 4 stun attempts on top of the bonus damage(Which is still higher than Pally by 2d8, not much, but still higher. Pally using bonus action attacks does beat it out, but that stops them from using a Smite Spell, which might also win on damage, but doesn't get the stun beat on any level.
Other words: Losing out by one spell slot for close-to-higher damage but one of the best conditions in the game does not make them even.).

I ahve updated this to scale the damage slower do you have any other suggestions for scaling the ability by spell slots instead of damage?

Ye old valour bard that's invisible, resistant to all damage, and can hit for 6d12+10 damage, with maybe also a Spiritual Weapon up. Situationally, there might be better spells(Like Damage control, instead of one-man-army-DPS). Not many, though.

And has done nothing for the first 2 rounds of combat and it is half over before he deals any damage when he could have cast mass suggestion on the first round to devastating effect.

And (Stoneskin is) already incredibly powerful, giving it to Monk themselves is even more so.

Except the monk gets it 6 levels after full casters can be using it on him and in order to see benefit from it he needs to be getting hit which forces concentration saves. Still much more powerful when the full caster is the one casting it. I am not seeing an issue with this one.

Sure, but it's not concentration and gives a 75% chance to avoid a hit(Regardless of attack or damage), then another 65% chance, then another 50% chance, and lasts for a minute.

Except most things have mutliattack by the time you get this so realistically it helps against for one or 2 creatures attacking you and then the spell is over. Again not seeing an issue.

Oh yeah, it's like that other thing they get, but it lasts for 10 times as long and takes one action and a 2nd level spell as opposed to 10 ki points and bonus actions. It's tooootally not changing anything.
You're not wrong(Except for the fact that Stun is MUCH BETTER than bonus 2d8 damage), but it lacks the cleaner progression it has now, and the damage is much higher a lot of the time, compared to current monk. Effectively 2 2nd level spell slots for 20 ki points of FoB, and even then those 2's compete with other spells monks would want to cast. Really no.

I think the big issue here is you are assuming combat lasts 10 rounds. In my personal experience (and the impression I got from reading forums) is that combat is typically 3-5 rounds. That means an average of 4 turns of flurry of blows or free dodge for the equivalent cost of 3 ki and because it is concentration you can lose it early so I think it evens out.