Way of Pride could have been REALLY improved as a tank monk is simply by giving them resistance to damage at half health at lvl 3. Make them the Barbarian Monk (the Bonk!).
I feel like the way of pride would’ve been the perfect time to give a feature like troll regeneration. Maybe even a ribbon feature that says you can use a disguise kit as if it was a medicine kit with the idea of covering up bruises with make up.
Started a new campaign a couple days ago, and we’re doing drakkenheim. So far it’s looking fun, and I’m enjoying the parts our DM is letting us read of the book. I’ve been avoiding watching or listening to your campaign specifically to avoid spoilers because the DM has been saying for almost a year that he wanted to do this one. It’s finally happening!
With the potion fighter guy, it does allow you to get resistance and bonus damage while in heavy armor, while rage does not. I like the flavor of it in general, and if I’m not trying to min max I would be interested in playing one.
I would for sure play one if the DMs style is similar to one of my friends is(or I guess if he was running the game lmao) well a lot of solid information on quests is frontloaded like a video game, which can be a little immersion breaking but also helps mitigate the difficulty of his encounters in a way where if the party got destroyed, its because we didn't prepare in advance for the known obstacles.
I think the Leaden Crown monk should get some sort of bonus effect if a target dies before their pressure points can be detonated. Perhaps the target could explode and damage other nearby enemies. I like the idea of building pressure points causing stacking status effects as the total rises, so there’s a benefit even if you don’t detonate them in time.
It should just be you regain hit points equal to the roll, or you gain temporary hit points equal to half the amount of the roll and have advantage on all attacks so long as you have them.
@@jacobsonmg No, that doesn't work, because it competes with Flurry of Blows for your bonus action at the same ki cost, which will usually deal much more damage than 1 or 2 pressure points. It's not really worth using Psychic Crush until you've amassed at least 5-6 pressure points. Which is admittedly not too unreasonable for a class that can execute up to 4 attacks per turn faster than any other class. However it does mean you usually won't really use Psychic Crush on anything but a boss or miniboss.
I think the living crucible would really benefit from making "a concoction with multiple compounds (maybe up to PB)" so that a sip at the beginning of the combat would bring you all the buffs simultaneously. All the limitations would still apply (limited times of us per LR, self-buffs only, you only learn new compounds when leveling up, etc.), but the choices of compounds could be reset every night and grant players more liberty with the potion they choose to make.
I really agree- this should be the 7th leve Living Crucible feature. I do think that in respect of the Level 3 feature, Monty and Kelly were a bit harsh, as it does something many of the fighter subclasses completely fail to do: Give you options that help out of combat. If you plan ahead and give yourself decent(+2) wis, Int, Dex or Cha scores, pick the appropriate skill proficiencies, quite possibly with a race/ancestry that gives you extra picks, you can have a fighter that by level 5 has a +5 bonus and advantage to a suite of useful skill appropriate for a range of scenarios, from Hiests, to RP, to wilderness surivival. What might have helped the design further would be to increase the durations, or even not count them against your daily uses. I agree strongly with Monty's comment that alot of the higher level features should have just been baked into the 3rd level ability, leaving room for more exciting features at highger level
Am I the only one that thinks the "damage increase" is so small as to not be worth a potion? Because when I heard Monty say taking that one over the Temp HP one, I honestly wondered if I'd missed something. Con+ 2x level in temp HP would be amazing at low levels, meanwhile 1d4 is 1d4.
@@LupineShadowOmega I agree, Liquid Courage is incredibly good. I think Monty, as he says, is always looking for the damage bonuses as it implies a more proactive style of play. And you know, if you're hasted and at least level 5, you're going to get 2-3 extra die of damage on most turns and 5d4 if you use action surge. So there is a point.
@@robmongar7933 Fair point. For some reason I thought it had a once per turn rider like certain Barb and Ranger abilities. So better, but still not sure if it is worth it.
To fix the Pressure Points thing maybe: What if every points you stack on an enemy gives you a damage bonus on the next attacks, instead of using a b.a to consume all the points and do damage? So for example you hit an enemy with an attack, do 1d6 dmg and put one point on the enemy, next attack is doing 1d6 + 1d4, etc And maybe if you manage to stack a certain amount of points on an enemy, they explode on their own. But that way, the bonus given by the points are helping you all the way, not just at the end when you consume them
Like for every pressure point on them you deal an additional d4 of damage and at a certain number like 4 or6 pressure points stacked they explode on their own. Or like them just being for every pressure point the have you get a +1 to the attack and damage rolls up till a certain number has been applied like again 4 or 6 and then they blow up
Monk discourse is wild. I actually have been playing catch up with Ghostfire's podcast and it is a regular conversation that the usual cast believe that Monk is far better than almost everyone else in the 5e community believes. I wonder if that is why these subclasses were so underwhelming coming from their publishing arm. Great episode bois
I think movement is undervalued in determining damage output. Like, I guess this is DM / campaign dependant, but I’ve seen enough situations to think the monk hate is a little overblown. Not that I disagree w all the criticism, but movement seems to factor in zero to the white board math. Still, I wave the ki point expenditure for disengage because monks, who have honed their body to be a weapon, are not as good at dodging as a rogue? Nah. Doesn’t work for me
@@basementmadetapes I mean.. the second part of your comment kinda goes against your point, the fact that you need to use a house rule to let monks move around is proof that they're not actually all that good at it.
@@basementmadetapes ...at the expense of their resource that lets them keep doing more damage, something every other class doesn't do. You're saying that's something you recognize and change in your own games... That is literally an admission of "Monks are underpowered, I think they deserve a buff." and congrats to you for seeing that. Monks can sometimes pull ahead of other classes, but they all pull ahead of the monk by default. Monks also seem really cool when you are playing them, but when you look at the numbers it just doesn't stack up. They literally just need some numbers tweaked to be on-par with the other classes, but they'll never get that when people overvalue the base class just because they like the flavor of playing one (even though that doesn't need to change at all).
@@SaturninePlaces sure. And I don’t disagree it needs an overhaul. But by letting them disengage w a bonus action, it does free up ki points which can add to the actual fight instead. Because I’m not disputing the lack of power, I’m just saying it can be overblown.
I'm playing a Way of Pride monk, but I chose it purely for RP reasons and he was never intended to be optimized. A fat tabaxi who works his day job as a spice merchant and chef after assuming a false identity as nobility from a distant land. No regrets! The temp HP definitely kept him alive in a recent fight swarmed by enemies. At level 5, each turn was attack-attack-patient defense(+tempHP), and he survived the attrition, barely, tanking for the party decently.
I think Way of Pride would have been cool if at each level it had different abilities for being above or below half health. When above half, they are themed around boasting/taunting. When below half, they are themed around being enraged/bruised ego. Like the ribbon feature to get a Cha skill is fine, that's on point thematically. Have the 3rd level split be +1 Martial Art Die/Your Monk level in Temp HP at the start of your turn for the Above/Below split. 6th level... Advantage during Flurry of Blows/Resist non-psychic damage from anyone you hit with Flurry of Blows until start of next turn for Above/Below split? 11th level: If your Stunning Strike doesn't succeed you cause the target to have disadvantage on all attack rolls on their next turn/the current Ever Prideful ability but with the additional ability to use 2 Ki points to ignore a Death Saving Throw while in that state. for Above/Below split. 17th level: Immune to psychic damage + deal an additional martial arts die of psychic damage when you take the Attack action/gain an additional turn immediately after you drop below 50% HP for the first time in combat for one round and recover your proficiency bonus worth of Ki points (additional turn occurs after the turn of the creature who dropped you below 50% HP is completed) for the Above/Below split. idk spitballing off of the top of my head. Having to keep in mind where that 50% point is mechanically annoying in some ways, but I think it can work on one subclass as a different playstyle sort of thing.
For the leaden crown monk. Remove the Str save to resist the pressure point damage. The char has already had to hit to get the effect and has to pay a bonus action to activate. Remove the save.
I think one of the issues is the ghostfire crew have talked about how they believe the monk to already be a pretty strong class and i wonder of that causes them to power down their subclasses
I'd like to combine Bulwark Fighter with 3 levels of Bear Totem Barbarian. Those Temporary Hit Points seem like they would stack very nicely with all of those resistances. That seems like it'd be a pretty good tank.
Just a single level into Barbarian is enough. If you go 3 and 3 like that, you will be a pretty tanky rock that the enemy will ignore as you don't do anything beside being hard to kill. Atleast with the 5 and 1 you can attack twice and have 5 THP vs 3 THP. Not a big difference but whatever you also lost a possible feat for the level 6 fighter... not all campains go for the higher levels, so if you need 3 and 3 to start cooking you are gonna have a hard time not feeling useless in mlst encounters. The opposite is actually better in my opinion, like 5 in the Bear Totem Barbarian and a level dip into fighter for a fighting style and a bit of healing, the level 5 barb also give more movement to run to their faces and smaking them... though I like the Barbarian Rogue a lot more.
@@Ruiso7 I think you're over complicating it. I was thinking Fighter 5/Barbarian 3. Taking the Barbarian levels at my leisure. Edit: Also, why on Earth would I go 3 and 3? That makes zero sense. I'm getting the core 5 levels of fighter and THEN grabbing a few levels of Barbarian. When I'm done with Barbarian I'd go back to Fighter the rest of the way most likely.
Thanks for ranking these. I've liked all the ideas that went into making the subclasses and ranking them. I really liked the Living Crucible. I think you could come up with a dozen more compounds and make it even more fun. The one comment I wanted to make on the Way of Pride monk is that many of the abilities of the standard Monk chassis prevent a monk from getting down to half hit points by avoiding taking damage in the first place, like Unarmored Movement, Patient Defense, Step of the Wind, Deflect Missile, Slow Fall, Evasion, Purity of Body, and Diamond Soul, so to build a subclass around having taken a lot of damage does seem like a trap. If you're playing a monk right, you'll rarely if ever use the abilities.
Way of the leaden crown monk can make a certain amount of sense lorewise: the monk is a very unassuming butler or assistant whose abilities can be easily hidden until necessary to use. All of the psionic spells have specific uses in subterfuge (like hold person for nonlethal capture, shatter for distraction, mage hand for almost everything). Also, none leave behind that much evidence (unless you need it to, like shatter). If you view the pressure point ability in this vein, it can used as way to deal damage after a stealth attack or as you’re running away. Remember, it restrains your target if they fail.
I often wonder why big non-official products seem to really try to not allow any of their subclasses to be better than the average official ones. (ie they're rarely as good as a good official sublass). Since they aren't allowed in most other campaigns by default, they could let their new subclasses be A or even S tier level and if one of their players wanted to play an average or below official subclass the DM could easily allow them an extra magic weapon or something so they don't feel left behind. Maybe the idea is that their non-offical stuff is more likely to be allowed at most tables if they don't seem to be too OP? I think the Dungeon Dudes walked this line perfectly, (with good, solid A tier stuff) and from what i understand Matt Mercer often does the opposite and goes right for S or S+ stuff. Or maybe its just a natural resction to not seem like the cliche of a crazy, super OP homebrew. I still love all the concepts of every subclass in this series.
37:18 you two bring up a lot of good points. What i love this subclass for, is the bodyguard to the evil mage advisor npc. Give him some help, like you suggested. No save on the damage of psychic crush, i would even go further as an enemy to the pc's, give him a sword that says "this is a monk weapon, attacks with this weapon count as unarmed attacks" and let psychic crush stack pressure points on multiple targets. Give him a 2 level fighter dip for action surge, now you have that silent protective swordsman, who can dash through a group of enemies, attack everyone, sheathe his sword and everyone just erupts in blood. Great subclass for an enemy and if one of the players is playing that subclass, defeating him grants them that ability, to stack pressure points with a weapon of their choice, on multiple enemies. I love the idea of the "you are already dead" monk.
I would change "give him a sword" to give him like wrist wraps or gauntlets, that allow your weapon to count as unarmed strikes and monk weapons. That way, when he's beaten, your party's monk can use their weapon of choice to use the most flavorful class ability however they like
I feel like the Bulwark Fighter’s Temp HP pool was undervalued. Basically the benefits of Twilight Sanctuary without the need for a cleric, and on a class with a d10 hit dice. With the tough feat and a good con score you’ll give a barbarian a run for their money
I have been very impressed with the subclasses in Grim Hallow. Most of the home-brewed classes I see are all S tier, but in this book, you get some S tier subclasses, but a lot of them are balanced.
@@asturias0267 Think of mutation warrior as the king of situational benefits, you get access to a small selection of mutagens that give you a +2 armor bonus and +4 in either str, dex or con and a -2 in either int, wis or cha depending on which ability you chose to raise it takes an action to drink the mutagen, it lasts for 10 min per fighter lvl (and later on 1 hour per lvl) and wears off if resting and you get 1 mutagen per rest so you got to make your decision count because of the possibility of being locked out of your other mutagens at the wrong time or needing to do diplomacy with a -2 to charisma because you took the strengh mutagen too soon It's a really engaging and surprisingly powerful subclass
With the living crucible fighter the compound that allows you to ignore the heavy property gives me the idea that you could definitely be dual wielding great axes for a little bit, and if you have the two weapon fighting style that’s a lot of damage.
They’d still be two handed weapons no? The heavy property just gives small size creatures disadvantage on attacks. It would be really neat if they could ignore Two-Handed too.
TL:DR - Playtested AH Monk with UA 8 Monk and it was closer in line with the rest of the classes but wasn'toverpowered at all. But definitely extremely flavorful and mechanically sound. -------------- I playtested your Arcane Hand Monk with the UA 8 Playtest Monk at level 10 so I went straight Monk for the One Shot. We played against a Red Dragon's lair with plenty of Wyrmlings so Evasion on my Monk was a life-saver. I truly felt like a Monk-Tank. But in regards to the amount of damage I could do: I took Magic Initiate as a first level feat with the Warlock Spell list: Eldritch Blast and Mind Sliver and Hex (now using my Wisdom modifier because of M.I. in One DND playtest). I also took Weapon Mastery at level 4 for the Nick property so I could use a dagger. And I took a Dex ASI at level 8. Wood Half Elf For spells I took: 1st level Absorb Elements Silvery Barbs Shield Tasha's Mind Whip 2nd level Blur Hold Person Disguise Self Str 8, Dex 20, Con 16, Wis 16, Int 10, Cha 8. I had a Dragonhide belt +2 and an Eldritch Claw tattoo. So I had a Ki Save DC 17. A regular turn would look like this: Run up to the enemy First attack - Unarmed strike +10 to hit - on hit Stunning Strike dmg 1d8+6 (or 2d8+9 on a Save) 2nd Attack - Booming Blade +9 to hit - dmg 2d8+6 (+2d8 if they move) 3rd attack - Second dagger Nick property +9 to hit 1d8 Bonus action Flurry of blows +10 to hit (1d8+6 each or 3d8+18 if all hit) Without concentrating on a spell and a best case scenario of all attacks landing (which never happened), I could do: 7d8+30 to 8d8+33 without taking into account Booming Blade activating. If everything were to hit (which it didn't) Average damage would look like: 61.5 to 69 dmg per round. This didn't take into account our free use of Hex (which would usually add 10 to 12dmg every turn in the One Shot) In general the average damage I was doing per turn was actually closer to 40 to 44 damage. Which at 10lvl, using all your resources every turn to reach max potential, is it really that powerful when compared to a Gloomstalker Ranger with Sharpshooter and that first round extra attack, or a Battlemaster Fighter or a Paladin's Smite, or even a Barbarian with Great Weapon Master? The reality is I felt on par with all the other classes but I wasn't outshinning or outdamaging any of them nor was I as versatile as the spellcasters (The Sorlock in the party still outdamaged me with just Eldritch Blast). But I finally felt good playing the Monk. Like it finally made sense that this was the power level it should'ce been at. So I think your Monks aren't OP at all. They just brought the Monk closer to the line.
I'm running a campaign where one of my players is playing the playtest monk w/ the D-Dudes Way of the Arcane Hand subclass. It's SO GOOD. He stands toe to toe w/ the other party members (a horizon ranger, giant barb, and psi fighter). Monks really do deserve better stuff!
Oh I love seeing a party like that because those subclasses are all good…in combat. Bring on the Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma saves and see them collapse! Muhahaha!
Something to consider for the Crush ability on the pressure points and it being a strength save, a creature being Stunned means that they automatically fail the save. There's definitely a chance to waste the points but there's also a shot that it's guaranteed. Under even more ideal circumstances, Hold Person or Hold Monster mean they're Paralyzed! More like a B with that stuff in mind.
i had a living crucieable in one of my campaigns. With some DM coop, the subclass is amazing fun. Just leting the players know what spells or features the bad guys know let's the player feel like "i have the tool for this" and it feel amazing. By the middle of the campaign both the wizard and the bard were actively going out of their way to gain intel so the fighter could prep. that kind of party dinamic is S tier fun, and should put the Living Crucible somewhere higher.
I REALLY liked the potion fighter on first read, and you guys nailed it. If you did a barbarian with a dark vision race you have almost everything this has. Enhance ability potion is basically the only thing this has over a kalashtar bear barb. Would have been cool if you could mix a couple potions or something. Wouldn’t have hurt to let the subclass swap potions on a long rest so you could be a better monster hunter
Here's a Monk subclass I've just finished developing. Some of my wording could probably be improved but constructive feedback totally welcomed. 🤓 Monk subclass: Way of the Guardian The monks who take on this path have chosen to be gallant protectors. These monks have found something to safeguard; a just cause, a sacred place, an important being or idea, and live for its sake. They typically don’t seek out violence, but they are always there to meet it. They find the adage ‘the best defense is a good offense’ a logical fallacy, and that ‘the best defense makes the best defense’, and that nothing works better than a shield. Combining an indomitable will, a solid defense, and unending fortitude, they put their lives on the line to protect what’s important to them. 3rd level Devout Protector- gain proficiency with shields, also wielding a shield now counts toward your unarmored defense and does not count against your unarmored movement Enhanced Patient Defense- when you use Ki to utilize your Patient Defense ability, you can use an additional reaction during the next round of combat. Additionally, you gain advantage on all Str, Dex, Wis saving throws till the start of your next turn. Shield Toss: As an action, Spend 1ki to make a ranged attack with your shield (20/60) that magically returns to you. It does 1d8 bludgeoning +str/dex mod (you choose) Instinctual deflection: When you are subject to an area of effect dexterity saving throw, you may add your shields AC to the roll. Can cast spells: -Resistance -Shield of Faith for 1ki -Shield for 1ki 6th Level Enhanced Deflect Missiles- while you are wielding a shield you can now also use your reaction to deflect, but not catch, a ranged weapon attack targeting an ally within 5ft of you. Bond of Defense- By spending an hour with a shield you can magically bond with it. Once you have bonded with a shield you cannot be separated from it against your will. As an action you can infuse your Ki into your shield to increase its AC. For each Ki point infused increase the shields AC by one for one hour. You can only bond with one shield at a time. I’ve got your back- If an ally within 5ft of you is the target of a weapon or spell attack, you can use your reaction to swap places with them forcing the attack to target you instead. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier and regains on a short/long rest. Stunning Shield Strike: This attack can utilize stunning stunning strike for the additional Ki point, and now also counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. Spells known: -Warding Bond: 2ki. -Protection from Energy: 3ki. -Beacon of Hope: 3ki 11th level Thoughtful Defense- If you used Patient Defense on your last turn and have not taken the attack action on your current turn, you do not need to spend any Ki to use it again this turn. Aura of Ultimate Defense- These monks have mastered the art of knowing the exact moment to dodge and counter attack. If you are in Patient Defense, and an enemy within 30ft of you targets you or an ally within 5ft of you for a spell or attack, you can use your reaction to use one roll of your martial arts die to add to the AC or saving throw of the target. Additionally, you may move up to half your speed. You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier. Enhanced Shield Toss-When you make a ranged attack with your shield, you can make an additional ranged attack with advantage as a bonus action against another target using the first target for the locus of the attack, essentially bouncing the shield to the second target. Spells known: -Otilukes resilient sphere for 5ki -Antilife shell for 6ki -Wall of Force for 6ki 17th level Perfect defense- Patient Defense no longer costs you ki and grants you advantage on all saving throws till the start of your next turn. “I can do this all day”- Add +2 your Constitution and your Con bonus to your Unarmored Defense. Spells known: -Globe of Invulnerability for 7ki -antimagic field 8ki
I like that the monk basically had the Fist of the North Star ability. To fix it: the pressure points could transferable, you stock up all these points, your target dies, then you can transfer the pressure point dmg to another creature and they have disadvantage on the Str save.
22:04 One of the crucible fighter compounds gives you resistance to all damage from spells. It doesn't specify any elements, it's *all* spell damage, but it's there.
i find these videos to be super helpful! i make my own stuff as a hobby with plans on my own book some day to help out my podcast and i use you guys as a guide for all of it. Thanks for what you do :)
Way of Pride sounds like a fun subclass conceptually, the only change I’d make is to swap out “Way” for “Path” and then make it a barbarian subclass. Playing an egomaniacal meathead that magically becomes stronger as they take more hits sounds *exactly* like what I want my damage sponge to be doing. My wafer-thin runny punchy tactical striker, not so much.
I feel like the Way of Pride is very much a Roleplay heavy subclass meant to play those anime characters who try their hardest, still get defeated, but then just through sheer force of will keep battling while unconscious. It's a pretty prolific anime trope, and I can see that trope in this subclass, but I definitely agree that it's so hyper niche that it's not great for the average player. If you go with the smart mouthed street brawler that can technically be a Monk route with this subclass is how it... shines? Glistens? Sparkles? I don't know what it does, but I feel like being hyper talkative throughout the average combat, and then going completely silent for the 11th level feature would be a good indication of the danger to your allies, along with the player's description of the character's physicality changing when that feature is in use. "You see my eyes glaze over, I begin to hyperventilate, and my shoulders sort of slump down, almost zombie-like. Yet I remain standing, and even throw more punches."
As a DM who did a campaign with a bulwark warrior subclass, I struggled to do meaningful damage to that character and there was no shortage of powerful monsters given in the grimhallow setting. It really is a great subclass and was an absolute linchpin in keeping the party alive
Yeah, for something like the Way of Pride to be attractive, you'd need the features that trigger below half health to be genuinely really strong. Something like "below half health all your attacks have advantage" or "below half health you crit on a roll of 17 or higher" and it actually becomes tempting to live on that edge.
You just need to give the witcher something like : Monologue / Dialogue. 3rd level. When the dm asks for initiative, you may launch into a dramatic speech or conversation. Your enemies may roll a Cha saves to end this effect. When activated, and whenever the save is failed, you may consume a compound. You may end this effect once you have consumed the compounds you require, and play returns to initiative order.
The theme of the living cauldron is super cool but I can see why it was ranked the way it was...Personally I think going crazy with expanding the compounds, and maybe making the drinking of compounds reset or partially reset on a short rest would be my fix. Tying it to the short rest, or at least letting one of these compound consumption "slots" recharge on the short rest would pace it on par with other fighters that regain resources on a short rest (battle masters) and certain spell casting classes like wizard (with arcane recovery) or warlock which feels good for the vibe. I think beyond elemental damage resistance, other specialized effects, like being able to touch incorporeal creatures, see into the ethereal realm, gain the effects of detect good and evil, comprehend languages, a breath weapon, or maybe even something crazy like giving you ooze like characteristics where weapons dissolve on contact with you, or one that makes you sticky so that an enemy's weapon might get stuck to you could be fun. If a compound ability is too powerful, maybe make a level requirement for it...I think the compounds are rife with opportunity in combat, and if expanded could give this fighter subclass options in both exploration and RP without outshining utility casters and skill monkeys.
The 11th level feature is the trappiest of traps. You pop back up make your attacks and then the flimsiest of attacks can put you down, if not permanently, than at least requiring a lot more resources than a simple heal check or low level spell.
I'm considering making a homebrew with two new subclasses per class (including artificer), two new races (Nymph and Dryad), several new feats, new backgrounds, new spells, tons of new plant, beast, and elemental based monsters, and new magic items. I'm calling it Grimble's Field Guide. Everything has a nature bent. Here's what I have so far. Artificer: None. Barbarian: Path of the Earth Shaker, Path of Stone Skin. Bard: College of the Wild Cleric: Decay Domain, Growth/Fertility Domain Druid: Circle of Plants, Circle of the Seas Fighter: Guardian of the Wood Monk: Way of Air, Way of Water Paladin: Oath of the Freedom, Oath of the Green Ranger: Conclave of the Lion Rogue: None Sorcerer: Elemental Bloodline, Fey Bloodline Warlock: Draconic Pact, Pact with the Greenman Wizard: Naturalist Wizard Could everyone here suggest others?
The thing about the grim hollow subclasses is that they are built for that setting, and the monsters found in the setting specific monster grimoire The bulwark is great because you're often going after a singular beast or pack of creatures almost all of whom are melee based. The living crucible is made to tailor your front line to tackle the specific threat in the area.
I'm actually playing a Living Crucible Fighter in Dungeons of Drakkenheim. Many of these compounds have and will play a part in dealing with the dangers therein. Don't sleep on Fleshknit Phosphate btw, it can be used out of combat as a very potent healing ability. It heals you your proficiency bonus per round for a minute. Great for situations where you can't safely take a short rest.
A monk subclass where you are getting temp hit points at the end of your turn. The start of your turn any temp hit points you still have get added to the damage of your first hit
Yeah, the way of pride should either give you the final feature as the base, ramp up the extra damage once you go under half (maybe you get a super bless that gives you like idk, a plus 5 to attack rolls and saving throws and a plus 10 to damage), or give you something good in exchange for half your health like resistance to all damage, way more temporary hit points like Kelly and Monty said when you use ki points, or where if you actually do die, you get back half your hit points once per long rest or something. Actually, you know what, give it the base features when you go under full health, and then give it everything else I said when you go beneath half health. Give monk a real s class ffs.
The Living Crucible allows you to basically rage in heavy armor. Face it we are going to go heavy Constitution and allow us to do this at 3rd level 4 times a day. If you wanted to, you could do that and get damage resistance from spells twice a day. By 10th level you should have 20 Constitution and be able to use 8 compounds. That sounds pretty good to me. Being that you are proficient in alchemy, you should be able to brew up elemental resistance potions.
You could improve the Bulwark Warrior by giving it a charge ability that lets it barrel through enemies For example: *Mobile Fortress* At 7th level, You can dash as a bonus action a number of times per short rest equal to your Constitution modifier. When you dash using this feature, you can move through space occupied by a creature as if it were empty. At 10th level, when you move through an occupied space using this ability, you can push the creature occupying the space 5 feet in a direction of your choice. If a creature is pushed in this way, they cannot be displaced by this ability again until the start of your next turn.
The thing about subclass difference and balance is, its not only a monk thing, but there are features that are seen as "overpowered" even though if you see them in perspective with all the other classes and their subclasses you end up with: Yeah, that feature is powerful, but the fighter still has action surge. It's not like you 're taking anything away from other classes, you just give the underpowered classes something strong of their own.
Another note on Ever Prideful being a death sentence. Since you can't speak, you can't even tell your allies to heal you. So hopefully you thought to set up a sign language that the others notice. As for it being a 'get away and heal' ability, if you have to run away and take a healing potion than you honestly might as well spent your turn unconscious waiting for an ally to cast healing word.
Bulwark seems like it would actually be best to use with a mounted combatant, with the Squire of Solamnia background and also a dip in Totem Barbarian. That way, you can rush to the back line, using the mount's speed and then tell the biggest threat, "Can't touch this. Can't ignore this."
The Alchemist one can work really well with some tweaking. 1. Instead of the draughts that basically mimic Enhance Ability. Create ones that absorb Energy. Draught of Absorption: Acid, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, and Thunder. All of these work basically the same. For one minute you can absorb up to 5 times your proficiency bonus damage of the type you ingest per round. Once absorbed, your next attack that hits deals the amount and type of damage you absorbed. 2. Instead of being able to instantly take one alchemical thing per long rest, have combine chemicals. When making one of your chemicals, you can combine up to your proficiency bonus effects in one dose. So, let's say you're fighting 3. The 18th level ability should be part of the first level ability. 4. The 18th level ability should be lasting compound. All of your compounds now last until the end of your next long rest.
I enjoyed this video. I rather like these best. I dont GM too often but when I do, all monks use a d10. The first issue is that they are front line fighters with backline hitdice. I have more like saving throws, wis and dex, but the hitdice is the most important.
Leaden Crown- I think you really underestimated how good the Shatter ability would be at around level 4ish. Dealing with hordes of minions is a monk weakness, and I think in practice adding this ability for 2 Ki points is going to really help with that problem. It also deal Thunder damage, on top of having access to Force damage with regular attacks. This gives the Leaden crown monk the two least resisted damage types before the regular monk even has the ability to ignore DR with their fists. Also, I wouldn't underplay the 10ft range on unarmed strikes. in many cases this is like getting mobility for free, since you can move up (5ft less movement used) strikes and then retreat (another 5ft less used). Psychic Crush can also be used from range AND it may restrain the target. Perfect for preventing an enemy from running, especially as if an enemy is running, it probably isnt a big brute with high Strength (those guys normally like to die fighting). Overall, I would rate the Leaden Crown as a A.
Quickened Healing makes the Way of Pride interesting as it gives you functionally free hits you can take. You take a hit and fail a death save then you Quickened Heal and you’re back to having HP again and thus no failed death saves. You could use this to eat monster reactions. But you need to duck behind your allies because one hit is still going to put you at 0 again.
Bullwork warrior would work incredibly well with the two feats I have, Deadly Defense, and Reactive. Deadly Defense: +1 to DEX or CON You can use the dodge action as a bonus action. When you attack while dodging, you can add your proficiency bonus to all damage. Reactive: You can take additional reactions equal to your proficiency bonus per round.
In my campaign to balance Monks but not overpower them. We do 3 tweaks to bring them up to an acceptable on par power level with other classes. 1st- Monk is a martial class change Hit dice from d8 to d10 2nd- Ki points are too anemic. They should scale with level and experience, keep the Ki as per table but add Wis bonus and Proficiency bonus. So 2nd level should start at 2+Wis+ Proficiency. So about 6-7 Ki points at 2nd level. 3rd- open hand martial arts damage starts at d6 and progresses to d12 following the table just one die higher than listed. It’s a simple fix that doesn’t overpower any other class and does not change any subclass.
Unless I’m missing something, a level 10 or higher monk in your party would love to play with a living crucible fighter. The only restriction they said for other people to drink your compounds is that they become poisoned, but monks are immune to poison at that point.
Was waiting for this episode:) drugged up fighter felt super satisfying when I was reading the book, but it clearly wasn’t as satisfying as Pathfinder’s Mutation Warrior. It is one of the cases where you regret picking a subclass at lvl 3 instead of 1
An easy way to fix the half health thing is just give the monk a way to tank their HP to half. Like whenever they spend a ki point, they can choose to drop to half their max hp and gain temp hp equal to the difference. If they're already below half hp, they just just gain some temp hp. Then give them an ability to regain hp based on remaining temp hp during a rest or even with like 10min of meditation or something.
If the living crucible fighter class had a feature that let you choose to increase the durations of the compounds that might really kick it up. Understanding that getting something like 8 hours of damage resistance would be wild but if it was maybe some kind of tier system: durations 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, 24 hours. And at 7th level all compounds increase by 1 tier to a max of 24 hours. Then 13th it goes up again. And maybe a feature that lets you take a compound when you roll initiative (maybe that one doesnt benefit from the extended duration) and then baseline just increase the times per day to PB + CON. Throw in a 1 per day regain half this number of uses. I think these kind of changes really are gonna make the class feel like they can prepare more with durations increasing. As i wrote this i re.reviewed the durations maybe they all start at 10 minutes and go up from there. The way kelly said it "1 minute is 1 combat" that can almost be said about the 10 minute duration too, and a skill challenge would fit into that as well. Maybe there are times at a table where you fight twice in 5 minutes because of things but i would say thats out of the ordinary than anything. An hour buff could get you 2 fights if you are pushing your group to move quick. And if the fight you just had was rough then your party might be asking for a short rest to use hit dice and that 1 hour buff will be gone. So its still 1 fight if thats the case. I rambled too much. I really like the idea of this crucible though
Make the "cash in" of psychic crush a reaction. I think that solves the issue with the skill, at a minimum you're getting 3-4 (in high level play), or you can push for 6-8 next turn.
The problem with tanking in 5e is that, no matter what your build is, your GM can always decide to have monsters attack other party members. Moreover, characters next to the fighter are presumably other melee warriors, who don't need help tanking hits as much as ranged characters. So, you could stick to a ranged ally - but then in order to contribute damage you're probably using a bow and forgoing a shield. It's very difficult to make this work using the 5e combat system.
I think the way of pride monk should be renamed the way of pain or path of thorns. And be given a way that your not so much a of a spung for the party but a reflector of damage. The more you get hurt the more pain you dish out. Just soaking all the agro, and being able to go " I didn't hear no bell"
The Bulwark Fighter is my favorite subclass because it's unique in the sense of temp HP being easily given out. It's not like the Samurai Fighter where you're very limited in the temp HP you get (3x per long rest) , and while it is very defense focused youre still a fighter that can dish out good damage anyways. The only downsides are that the taunt feature is limited to enemies within 5 ft of you,but I think that can be fairly easily remedied by being a bugbear with the Polearm master feat, and it costs a reaction which is something you only get to use once. Overall though I love the subclass because there's really not a lot of options for straight classes fighters that want to tank damage.
First! Edit: one thing I was thinking about lately- the youtuber Pointy hat has tons of homebrew subclasses and subraces and alternative races. Was wondering if you could make a tier list of his builds
The Eldritch Domain Cleric in that book has the best Eldritch Blast synergy in the whole game as it can make Eldritch Blast as a cleric cantrip and at level 8 they can add the wisdom mod to its cantrip and if you also have high Charisma you can get Agonizing Blast on it to also add your Charisma mod. So in theory at level 20 you will be shooting 4 Eldritch blasts that deal 1D10+5+5 each... you also get a level 20 cleric with a bunch of other stuff.
The criticism for the Crucible not having more broadly applicable concoctions or not having more longer lasting ones feels a bit unfair. Yes, its more likely that a party will find themselves stumbling into trouble than having foreknowledge of what they'll be fighting but that's not a mark against this subclass. I think their spellcaster bias is showing here. A Fighter with options is always a good subclass in my opinion. If foreknowledge is needed to get the most of them, then that should encourage them to get it and a DM should be willing to facilitate that sometimes. A player who more proactive in the game and narrative because the mechanics of their subclass encourages them to be is great design imo.
So DM fun things to try, the Pride monk makes a great villains generL. The twmp hp isn't overpowering for pcs but the 1/2 hp more damage add that fun trope of the closer to death they get the stronger they become. It's a good way to drain some resources before the bbeg
Way of the leaden crown would be useful if they gave a passive debuff on saving throws to every enemy within, say, 10ft of range. And have that debuff be their martial arts die. Would scale with leveling and be potentially really amazing or a situational nice thing that helps them and allies. Maybe have it replace a feature somewhere, but I agree that sometimes new subclasses are a bit afraid to really push for stronger things
Idea for a new series (not that you guys don't have enough of those already): How about reviewing homebrew subclasses submitted by the channel's community? But if sending and vetting the entries is too much of a hassle, how about reviewing the best (or worst) homebrew subclasses on D&D Beyond? Or maybe r/DNDhomebrew or The Homebrewery?
I want to say that the Way of Pride Monk is supposed to be a "get knocked down, come back even stronger" type of character, but it doesn't quite hit that stride.
I think a cool fix for the way of pride’s temp hp could be if you are below half your hit point maximum, you regain hit points instead of gaining temporary hit points
I played the way of the Leaden Crown in a One Shot and it was honestly pretty great. I totally understand the criticisms but the way I thought about it was first round 4 pressure points, second round 6 and explode them, or in a boss encounter, you can wait till 3rd round and explode it with 10d8 of force damage.
I know you guys are posting through every subclass available in this book but I'm gonna keep suggesting you check out the class and subclasses in Steinhardt's Guide to the Eldritch Hunt.
I think your ideas to fix those Monks are good. And I feel like Monks by all writers suffer from 2 things. 1. A subclass will make or break and it's extremely hard because of their mechanics to find the Goldilocks zone for what feels good and isn't too strong. 2. Because of the fear of 1, the minor adjustments used to fix them accomplish this but downplay something else and you don't notice this until it's hindsight. Like "wow it's great and it's not too much" until someone fairly goes "well....."
I feel like Psychic Crush (Leaden Crown Monk) could be saved by a single sentance tagged on at the end. "If the average damage from the accumulated pressure points would kill the target, you may trigger them immediately as a reaction, killing the target instantly."
I was really excited for these, but I can't say I'm impressed with the other Grim Hollow subclasses so far. I like the idea of the Bulwark Warrior, but most of their features are seriously lacklustre. I wouldn't give it more than a C in its current state. Protective Taunt sounds okay in theory. You get the option to take an attack for an ally, but it doesn't stand up to similar features at this level from other archetypes or classes that would just make your allies less likely to be hit. I'd rather have Thunder Gauntlets, Ancestral Protectors, or just Goading Attack. Living Shield feels like it was imported from an MMO, although I do like that it's basically an area version of Goading Attack. It sounds cool at first, but the best course of action for a taunted enemy could still be to attack your allies, even at disadvantage, because you're not enough of a threat to bother with (you're basically a vanilla Fighter if they just ignore you). Aggressive Defence also appears to work at first, but what are the chances of you actually having any temporary hit points left when it comes to your turn? Living Shield does nothing to help with this either. This should just grant a fixed bonus to damage (possibly only against taunted targets) to make you more of a threat. The bonus could be based on the number of creatures who failed their save against Living Shield, or the number of creatures currently affected by it. Regardless, adding upto your Fighter level to your overall damage is kinda underwhelming, at any level. It would make more sense to add a bonus to damage as long as you have any temporary hit points. Side Note: This technically lets you spend temporary hit points from any source; Twilight Sanctuary anyone? I understand the idea, but Halt the Assault just feels completely wrong and out of place at this level. It's basically the Interception fighting style, but it requires temporary hit points! Is this ever a better choice than the reaction from Protective Taunt? Why not just have you take the damage instead? What if you actually had the Interception or Protection fighting styles?
Under your tanking guidelines, I think subclasses should generally be aiming for a mid-A to a high-B. Generally powerful, but exceptional in the right circumstances.
The Living Crucible is such a cool idea, but where it fials for me is that the buffs you get are the same, not matter which level you are. They should get a buff at Level 7 and another at 15. It doesn't even have to be "big", but making the Adrenal Injection increase the movement-speed by another 5 feet (10 could be too much I think) and quadrupeling and quintupling the jumping-distance would be to cool, just as one example how these could get better at higher levels. And this just begs for the dungeon-master to make more Compounds, like an elemental Compound to gain resistance to a damage-type, or a Slayer-Compound where you do additional damage to a creature-type, or a ... I think you get the point, this idea has potential, but it's not used well enough here in my oppinion.
I was thinking along similar lines as you guys for the Pride Monk. Maybe the it should be called "You haven't even seen my final form" monk. The lvl 18 feature should probably be how they work all the time. I was also thinking that if the temp HP gain was monk level, but if you are fewer than half HP, allow the monk to choose to heal half monk level in HP (up to half) rather than topping off the temp hp - their choice. Just a few suggestions for improvement. You'd be fairly hard to kill, at least until you ran out of ki.
I just recently changed my monk's subclass from Leaden Crown to Arcane Hand. I definitely enjoyed Leaden Crown but not having to use ki points for my spells has been a major game changer.
I really like the idea of pressure points. But it would feel bad not to get the big attack at the end. What about just a little rework. Have the pressure points apply debuffs to the target while you wait to do a finish move. Like a minus 1 for every pressure point to saving throws or to attack or apply extra damage for every pressure point whenever the target takes damage or maybe ongoing damage every turn.
A small boost to AOE range around 10 or 15 would have greatly aided the bulwark. 15 or 18 also should have allowed additional reactions for taking hits
Really love your critiques, but would love them more if you’d stare exactly how you’d modify a subclass at your table to make it more viable. I think that makes a lot of sense in a game where the DM can just change anything on the fly.
My take on a "the more hurt you are the harder you hit" ability would go something like this... "For every two hit points you are missing you get a +1 to the damage of your attacks to a maximum of [insert parameter here]" Depending on how powerful you want it to be and which class you want to give it to the parameter can be changed like Wis mod for monk, Con mod for barbarian, or even class level if you wanna be really nutty.
HA! 😂 “Oh my God are you okay?!” Should be the tagline for the bulwark fighter.
Always bring Braum!
Genuinely the 18th level feature to "upgrade" your class features with the pride monk should be how they work in the first place.
Way of Pride could have been REALLY improved as a tank monk is simply by giving them resistance to damage at half health at lvl 3. Make them the Barbarian Monk (the Bonk!).
I feel like the way of pride would’ve been the perfect time to give a feature like troll regeneration. Maybe even a ribbon feature that says you can use a disguise kit as if it was a medicine kit with the idea of covering up bruises with make up.
The last feature should have been true from level 3, then the subclass needed a better final feature.
@@CBCB8282 Having a real hard time reading that partner.
Just got to the end of the video where they said this XD
I didn’t hear no bell!
Sorry I fixed it @@adamxei9073
Started a new campaign a couple days ago, and we’re doing drakkenheim. So far it’s looking fun, and I’m enjoying the parts our DM is letting us read of the book.
I’ve been avoiding watching or listening to your campaign specifically to avoid spoilers because the DM has been saying for almost a year that he wanted to do this one. It’s finally happening!
Start uploading session diaries to your channel? Or maybe a live game?
Good luck in the cursed city!
With the potion fighter guy, it does allow you to get resistance and bonus damage while in heavy armor, while rage does not. I like the flavor of it in general, and if I’m not trying to min max I would be interested in playing one.
I would for sure play one if the DMs style is similar to one of my friends is(or I guess if he was running the game lmao) well a lot of solid information on quests is frontloaded like a video game, which can be a little immersion breaking but also helps mitigate the difficulty of his encounters in a way where if the party got destroyed, its because we didn't prepare in advance for the known obstacles.
I think the Leaden Crown monk should get some sort of bonus effect if a target dies before their pressure points can be detonated.
Perhaps the target could explode and damage other nearby enemies. I like the idea of building pressure points causing stacking status effects as the total rises, so there’s a benefit even if you don’t detonate them in time.
Totally agree. Let every pressure point deal an extra d6 so it starts ramping up really quickly
It should just be you regain hit points equal to the roll, or you gain temporary hit points equal to half the amount of the roll and have advantage on all attacks so long as you have them.
It's a real concern. The strat may be just build 1 or 2 pressure points.
Still, getting the Five-Point-Palm Exploding Heart Technique is pretty cool.
@@jacobsonmg No, that doesn't work, because it competes with Flurry of Blows for your bonus action at the same ki cost, which will usually deal much more damage than 1 or 2 pressure points. It's not really worth using Psychic Crush until you've amassed at least 5-6 pressure points. Which is admittedly not too unreasonable for a class that can execute up to 4 attacks per turn faster than any other class. However it does mean you usually won't really use Psychic Crush on anything but a boss or miniboss.
I think the living crucible would really benefit from making "a concoction with multiple compounds (maybe up to PB)" so that a sip at the beginning of the combat would bring you all the buffs simultaneously. All the limitations would still apply (limited times of us per LR, self-buffs only, you only learn new compounds when leveling up, etc.), but the choices of compounds could be reset every night and grant players more liberty with the potion they choose to make.
It would probably help the subclass a bit.
I really agree- this should be the 7th leve Living Crucible feature.
I do think that in respect of the Level 3 feature, Monty and Kelly were a bit harsh, as it does something many of the fighter subclasses completely fail to do:
Give you options that help out of combat. If you plan ahead and give yourself decent(+2) wis, Int, Dex or Cha scores, pick the appropriate skill proficiencies, quite possibly with a race/ancestry that gives you extra picks, you can have a fighter that by level 5 has a +5 bonus and advantage to a suite of useful skill appropriate for a range of scenarios, from Hiests, to RP, to wilderness surivival.
What might have helped the design further would be to increase the durations, or even not count them against your daily uses.
I agree strongly with Monty's comment that alot of the higher level features should have just been baked into the 3rd level ability, leaving room for more exciting features at highger level
Am I the only one that thinks the "damage increase" is so small as to not be worth a potion? Because when I heard Monty say taking that one over the Temp HP one, I honestly wondered if I'd missed something. Con+ 2x level in temp HP would be amazing at low levels, meanwhile 1d4 is 1d4.
@@LupineShadowOmega I agree, Liquid Courage is incredibly good. I think Monty, as he says, is always looking for the damage bonuses as it implies a more proactive style of play. And you know, if you're hasted and at least level 5, you're going to get 2-3 extra die of damage on most turns and 5d4 if you use action surge. So there is a point.
@@robmongar7933 Fair point. For some reason I thought it had a once per turn rider like certain Barb and Ranger abilities. So better, but still not sure if it is worth it.
To fix the Pressure Points thing maybe: What if every points you stack on an enemy gives you a damage bonus on the next attacks, instead of using a b.a to consume all the points and do damage?
So for example you hit an enemy with an attack, do 1d6 dmg and put one point on the enemy, next attack is doing 1d6 + 1d4, etc
And maybe if you manage to stack a certain amount of points on an enemy, they explode on their own. But that way, the bonus given by the points are helping you all the way, not just at the end when you consume them
Like for every pressure point on them you deal an additional d4 of damage and at a certain number like 4 or6 pressure points stacked they explode on their own. Or like them just being for every pressure point the have you get a +1 to the attack and damage rolls up till a certain number has been applied like again 4 or 6 and then they blow up
Yeah I like the idea that each one gives a +1 to attack and damage rolls and the 5th explodes for an extra 5d6 damage.
And why require another hit to detonate them? If the enemy disengages you lose all that investment. I like your suggestion.
Monk discourse is wild. I actually have been playing catch up with Ghostfire's podcast and it is a regular conversation that the usual cast believe that Monk is far better than almost everyone else in the 5e community believes. I wonder if that is why these subclasses were so underwhelming coming from their publishing arm. Great episode bois
I think movement is undervalued in determining damage output. Like, I guess this is DM / campaign dependant, but I’ve seen enough situations to think the monk hate is a little overblown. Not that I disagree w all the criticism, but movement seems to factor in zero to the white board math.
Still, I wave the ki point expenditure for disengage because monks, who have honed their body to be a weapon, are not as good at dodging as a rogue? Nah. Doesn’t work for me
@@basementmadetapes I mean.. the second part of your comment kinda goes against your point, the fact that you need to use a house rule to let monks move around is proof that they're not actually all that good at it.
@@TheCorsair444 a criticism of a thing in part is not a negation of it in whole. They are still stupid fast.
@@basementmadetapes ...at the expense of their resource that lets them keep doing more damage, something every other class doesn't do. You're saying that's something you recognize and change in your own games... That is literally an admission of "Monks are underpowered, I think they deserve a buff." and congrats to you for seeing that.
Monks can sometimes pull ahead of other classes, but they all pull ahead of the monk by default. Monks also seem really cool when you are playing them, but when you look at the numbers it just doesn't stack up. They literally just need some numbers tweaked to be on-par with the other classes, but they'll never get that when people overvalue the base class just because they like the flavor of playing one (even though that doesn't need to change at all).
@@SaturninePlaces sure. And I don’t disagree it needs an overhaul. But by letting them disengage w a bonus action, it does free up ki points which can add to the actual fight instead. Because I’m not disputing the lack of power, I’m just saying it can be overblown.
I'm playing a Way of Pride monk, but I chose it purely for RP reasons and he was never intended to be optimized. A fat tabaxi who works his day job as a spice merchant and chef after assuming a false identity as nobility from a distant land. No regrets! The temp HP definitely kept him alive in a recent fight swarmed by enemies. At level 5, each turn was attack-attack-patient defense(+tempHP), and he survived the attrition, barely, tanking for the party decently.
The temp.makes a huge difference in tier 1 and partially into tier 2 but your gonna feel that massive fall off
I think Way of Pride would have been cool if at each level it had different abilities for being above or below half health. When above half, they are themed around boasting/taunting. When below half, they are themed around being enraged/bruised ego.
Like the ribbon feature to get a Cha skill is fine, that's on point thematically. Have the 3rd level split be +1 Martial Art Die/Your Monk level in Temp HP at the start of your turn for the Above/Below split.
6th level... Advantage during Flurry of Blows/Resist non-psychic damage from anyone you hit with Flurry of Blows until start of next turn for Above/Below split?
11th level: If your Stunning Strike doesn't succeed you cause the target to have disadvantage on all attack rolls on their next turn/the current Ever Prideful ability but with the additional ability to use 2 Ki points to ignore a Death Saving Throw while in that state. for Above/Below split.
17th level: Immune to psychic damage + deal an additional martial arts die of psychic damage when you take the Attack action/gain an additional turn immediately after you drop below 50% HP for the first time in combat for one round and recover your proficiency bonus worth of Ki points (additional turn occurs after the turn of the creature who dropped you below 50% HP is completed) for the Above/Below split.
idk spitballing off of the top of my head. Having to keep in mind where that 50% point is mechanically annoying in some ways, but I think it can work on one subclass as a different playstyle sort of thing.
For the leaden crown monk. Remove the Str save to resist the pressure point damage. The char has already had to hit to get the effect and has to pay a bonus action to activate. Remove the save.
I'd make it a reaction after applying a pressure point. It even makes more sense for the visual of the attack.
I think one of the issues is the ghostfire crew have talked about how they believe the monk to already be a pretty strong class and i wonder of that causes them to power down their subclasses
I mean that's WoTC's problem too. I feel like BG3 has effectively shown how a slightly upscaled monk isn't the end of the world.
I'd like to combine Bulwark Fighter with 3 levels of Bear Totem Barbarian. Those Temporary Hit Points seem like they would stack very nicely with all of those resistances. That seems like it'd be a pretty good tank.
Just a single level into Barbarian is enough. If you go 3 and 3 like that, you will be a pretty tanky rock that the enemy will ignore as you don't do anything beside being hard to kill. Atleast with the 5 and 1 you can attack twice and have 5 THP vs 3 THP. Not a big difference but whatever you also lost a possible feat for the level 6 fighter... not all campains go for the higher levels, so if you need 3 and 3 to start cooking you are gonna have a hard time not feeling useless in mlst encounters. The opposite is actually better in my opinion, like 5 in the Bear Totem Barbarian and a level dip into fighter for a fighting style and a bit of healing, the level 5 barb also give more movement to run to their faces and smaking them... though I like the Barbarian Rogue a lot more.
@@Ruiso7 I think you're over complicating it. I was thinking Fighter 5/Barbarian 3. Taking the Barbarian levels at my leisure.
Edit: Also, why on Earth would I go 3 and 3? That makes zero sense. I'm getting the core 5 levels of fighter and THEN grabbing a few levels of Barbarian. When I'm done with Barbarian I'd go back to Fighter the rest of the way most likely.
Thanks for ranking these. I've liked all the ideas that went into making the subclasses and ranking them. I really liked the Living Crucible. I think you could come up with a dozen more compounds and make it even more fun. The one comment I wanted to make on the Way of Pride monk is that many of the abilities of the standard Monk chassis prevent a monk from getting down to half hit points by avoiding taking damage in the first place, like Unarmored Movement, Patient Defense, Step of the Wind, Deflect Missile, Slow Fall, Evasion, Purity of Body, and Diamond Soul, so to build a subclass around having taken a lot of damage does seem like a trap. If you're playing a monk right, you'll rarely if ever use the abilities.
If i dm'd for someone playing the living crucible i would let them homebrew their own (within reason) if they put the effort into researching them.
Way of the leaden crown monk can make a certain amount of sense lorewise: the monk is a very unassuming butler or assistant whose abilities can be easily hidden until necessary to use. All of the psionic spells have specific uses in subterfuge (like hold person for nonlethal capture, shatter for distraction, mage hand for almost everything). Also, none leave behind that much evidence (unless you need it to, like shatter).
If you view the pressure point ability in this vein, it can used as way to deal damage after a stealth attack or as you’re running away. Remember, it restrains your target if they fail.
Pride Monk: "I get temp HP every time I spend a ki point, peasants"
Artillerists and Twilight Clerics: "Get over yourself bro"
Yep. I love twilight domain.
Comparing a fine balanced subclass to op ones?
@@michalgrugel2326
Twilight cleric is over powered, but the artillerist is definitely not.
@@michalgrugel2326 I want to play an OP monk class.
I often wonder why big non-official products seem to really try to not allow any of their subclasses to be better than the average official ones. (ie they're rarely as good as a good official sublass). Since they aren't allowed in most other campaigns by default, they could let their new subclasses be A or even S tier level and if one of their players wanted to play an average or below official subclass the DM could easily allow them an extra magic weapon or something so they don't feel left behind.
Maybe the idea is that their non-offical stuff is more likely to be allowed at most tables if they don't seem to be too OP?
I think the Dungeon Dudes walked this line perfectly, (with good, solid A tier stuff) and from what i understand Matt Mercer often does the opposite and goes right for S or S+ stuff.
Or maybe its just a natural resction to not seem like the cliche of a crazy, super OP homebrew.
I still love all the concepts of every subclass in this series.
37:18 you two bring up a lot of good points. What i love this subclass for, is the bodyguard to the evil mage advisor npc. Give him some help, like you suggested. No save on the damage of psychic crush, i would even go further as an enemy to the pc's, give him a sword that says "this is a monk weapon, attacks with this weapon count as unarmed attacks" and let psychic crush stack pressure points on multiple targets. Give him a 2 level fighter dip for action surge, now you have that silent protective swordsman, who can dash through a group of enemies, attack everyone, sheathe his sword and everyone just erupts in blood. Great subclass for an enemy and if one of the players is playing that subclass, defeating him grants them that ability, to stack pressure points with a weapon of their choice, on multiple enemies. I love the idea of the "you are already dead" monk.
I would change "give him a sword" to give him like wrist wraps or gauntlets, that allow your weapon to count as unarmed strikes and monk weapons. That way, when he's beaten, your party's monk can use their weapon of choice to use the most flavorful class ability however they like
I feel like the Bulwark Fighter’s Temp HP pool was undervalued. Basically the benefits of Twilight Sanctuary without the need for a cleric, and on a class with a d10 hit dice. With the tough feat and a good con score you’ll give a barbarian a run for their money
yah basically if you last for 9 rounds which yes is a lot of rounds it doubles your hit points, assuming you loose all your temp hit points
I have been very impressed with the subclasses in Grim Hallow. Most of the home-brewed classes I see are all S tier, but in this book, you get some S tier subclasses, but a lot of them are balanced.
The living crucible fighter concept sounds soooo cool.......it could probably have been called "the dope fiend" fighter 😊
It feels like the alchemist artificer.
The Roid Fighter?
Geralt
Pathfinder's mutation warrior sounds similar, but I've never tried the class out myself.
@@asturias0267
Think of mutation warrior as the king of situational benefits, you get access to a small selection of mutagens that give you a +2 armor bonus and +4 in either str, dex or con and a -2 in either int, wis or cha depending on which ability you chose to raise
it takes an action to drink the mutagen, it lasts for 10 min per fighter lvl (and later on 1 hour per lvl) and wears off if resting and you get 1 mutagen per rest so you got to make your decision count because of the possibility of being locked out of your other mutagens at the wrong time or needing to do diplomacy with a -2 to charisma because you took the strengh mutagen too soon
It's a really engaging and surprisingly powerful subclass
With the living crucible fighter the compound that allows you to ignore the heavy property gives me the idea that you could definitely be dual wielding great axes for a little bit, and if you have the two weapon fighting style that’s a lot of damage.
They’d still be two handed weapons no? The heavy property just gives small size creatures disadvantage on attacks. It would be really neat if they could ignore Two-Handed too.
@@wuvination6939 crap I forgot two handed was a property.
As much fun as I had playing a Goliath Bulwark Fighter, you are right about the problem with ranged attacks from enemies.
TL:DR - Playtested AH Monk with UA 8 Monk and it was closer in line with the rest of the classes but wasn'toverpowered at all. But definitely extremely flavorful and mechanically sound.
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I playtested your Arcane Hand Monk with the UA 8 Playtest Monk at level 10 so I went straight Monk for the One Shot. We played against a Red Dragon's lair with plenty of Wyrmlings so Evasion on my Monk was a life-saver. I truly felt like a Monk-Tank. But in regards to the amount of damage I could do:
I took Magic Initiate as a first level feat with the Warlock Spell list:
Eldritch Blast and Mind Sliver and Hex (now using my Wisdom modifier because of M.I. in One DND playtest).
I also took Weapon Mastery at level 4 for the Nick property so I could use a dagger. And I took a Dex ASI at level 8. Wood Half Elf
For spells I took:
1st level
Absorb Elements
Silvery Barbs
Shield
Tasha's Mind Whip
2nd level
Blur
Hold Person
Disguise Self
Str 8, Dex 20, Con 16, Wis 16, Int 10, Cha 8.
I had a Dragonhide belt +2 and an Eldritch Claw tattoo. So I had a Ki Save DC 17.
A regular turn would look like this:
Run up to the enemy
First attack - Unarmed strike +10 to hit - on hit Stunning Strike dmg 1d8+6 (or 2d8+9 on a Save)
2nd Attack - Booming Blade +9 to hit - dmg 2d8+6 (+2d8 if they move)
3rd attack - Second dagger Nick property +9 to hit 1d8
Bonus action Flurry of blows +10 to hit (1d8+6 each or 3d8+18 if all hit)
Without concentrating on a spell and a best case scenario of all attacks landing (which never happened), I could do:
7d8+30 to 8d8+33 without taking into account Booming Blade activating.
If everything were to hit (which it didn't) Average damage would look like: 61.5 to 69 dmg per round.
This didn't take into account our free use of Hex (which would usually add 10 to 12dmg every turn in the One Shot)
In general the average damage I was doing per turn was actually closer to 40 to 44 damage. Which at 10lvl, using all your resources every turn to reach max potential, is it really that powerful when compared to a Gloomstalker Ranger with Sharpshooter and that first round extra attack, or a Battlemaster Fighter or a Paladin's Smite, or even a Barbarian with Great Weapon Master?
The reality is I felt on par with all the other classes but I wasn't outshinning or outdamaging any of them nor was I as versatile as the spellcasters (The Sorlock in the party still outdamaged me with just Eldritch Blast). But I finally felt good playing the Monk. Like it finally made sense that this was the power level it should'ce been at.
So I think your Monks aren't OP at all. They just brought the Monk closer to the line.
I'm running a campaign where one of my players is playing the playtest monk w/ the D-Dudes Way of the Arcane Hand subclass.
It's SO GOOD. He stands toe to toe w/ the other party members (a horizon ranger, giant barb, and psi fighter). Monks really do deserve better stuff!
Oh I love seeing a party like that because those subclasses are all good…in combat. Bring on the Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma saves and see them collapse! Muhahaha!
Something to consider for the Crush ability on the pressure points and it being a strength save, a creature being Stunned means that they automatically fail the save. There's definitely a chance to waste the points but there's also a shot that it's guaranteed. Under even more ideal circumstances, Hold Person or Hold Monster mean they're Paralyzed!
More like a B with that stuff in mind.
i had a living crucieable in one of my campaigns. With some DM coop, the subclass is amazing fun.
Just leting the players know what spells or features the bad guys know let's the player feel like "i have the tool for this" and it feel amazing. By the middle of the campaign both the wizard and the bard were actively going out of their way to gain intel so the fighter could prep. that kind of party dinamic is S tier fun, and should put the Living Crucible somewhere higher.
Love you guys. This was informative, hilarious, and heartfelt.
12:20 Monty mentioned multiclassing, and somewhere I have to believe that Colby perked up to accept the challenge. 🤓
I REALLY liked the potion fighter on first read, and you guys nailed it. If you did a barbarian with a dark vision race you have almost everything this has. Enhance ability potion is basically the only thing this has over a kalashtar bear barb.
Would have been cool if you could mix a couple potions or something. Wouldn’t have hurt to let the subclass swap potions on a long rest so you could be a better monster hunter
Or just play Blood Hunter Mutant
Here's a Monk subclass I've just finished developing. Some of my wording could probably be improved but constructive feedback totally welcomed. 🤓
Monk subclass: Way of the Guardian
The monks who take on this path have chosen to be gallant protectors. These monks have found something to safeguard; a just cause, a sacred place, an important being or idea, and live for its sake. They typically don’t seek out violence, but they are always there to meet it. They find the adage ‘the best defense is a good offense’ a logical fallacy, and that ‘the best defense makes the best defense’, and that nothing works better than a shield. Combining an indomitable will, a solid defense, and unending fortitude, they put their lives on the line to protect what’s important to them.
3rd level
Devout Protector- gain proficiency with shields, also wielding a shield now counts toward your unarmored defense and does not count against your unarmored movement
Enhanced Patient Defense- when you use Ki to utilize your Patient Defense ability, you can use an additional reaction during the next round of combat. Additionally, you gain advantage on all Str, Dex, Wis saving throws till the start of your next turn.
Shield Toss: As an action, Spend 1ki to make a ranged attack with your shield (20/60) that magically returns to you. It does 1d8 bludgeoning +str/dex mod (you choose)
Instinctual deflection: When you are subject to an area of effect dexterity saving throw, you may add your shields AC to the roll.
Can cast spells:
-Resistance
-Shield of Faith for 1ki
-Shield for 1ki
6th Level
Enhanced Deflect Missiles- while you are wielding a shield you can now also use your reaction to deflect, but not catch, a ranged weapon attack targeting an ally within 5ft of you.
Bond of Defense- By spending an hour with a shield you can magically bond with it. Once you have bonded with a shield you cannot be separated from it against your will. As an action you can infuse your Ki into your shield to increase its AC. For each Ki point infused increase the shields AC by one for one hour. You can only bond with one shield at a time.
I’ve got your back- If an ally within 5ft of you is the target of a weapon or spell attack, you can use your reaction to swap places with them forcing the attack to target you instead. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier and regains on a short/long rest.
Stunning Shield Strike: This attack can utilize stunning stunning strike for the additional Ki point, and now also counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Spells known:
-Warding Bond: 2ki.
-Protection from Energy: 3ki.
-Beacon of Hope: 3ki
11th level
Thoughtful Defense- If you used Patient Defense on your last turn and have not taken the attack action on your current turn, you do not need to spend any Ki to use it again this turn.
Aura of Ultimate Defense- These monks have mastered the art of knowing the exact moment to dodge and counter attack. If you are in Patient Defense, and an enemy within 30ft of you targets you or an ally within 5ft of you for a spell or attack, you can use your reaction to use one roll of your martial arts die to add to the AC or saving throw of the target. Additionally, you may move up to half your speed. You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier.
Enhanced Shield Toss-When you make a ranged attack with your shield, you can make an additional ranged attack with advantage as a bonus action against another target using the first target for the locus of the attack, essentially bouncing the shield to the second target.
Spells known:
-Otilukes resilient sphere for 5ki
-Antilife shell for 6ki
-Wall of Force for 6ki
17th level
Perfect defense- Patient Defense no longer costs you ki and grants you advantage on all saving throws till the start of your next turn.
“I can do this all day”- Add +2 your Constitution and your Con bonus to your Unarmored Defense.
Spells known:
-Globe of Invulnerability for 7ki
-antimagic field 8ki
I like that the monk basically had the Fist of the North Star ability.
To fix it: the pressure points could transferable, you stock up all these points, your target dies, then you can transfer the pressure point dmg to another creature and they have disadvantage on the Str save.
22:04 One of the crucible fighter compounds gives you resistance to all damage from spells. It doesn't specify any elements, it's *all* spell damage, but it's there.
i find these videos to be super helpful! i make my own stuff as a hobby with plans on my own book some day to help out my podcast and i use you guys as a guide for all of it. Thanks for what you do :)
Way of Pride sounds like a fun subclass conceptually, the only change I’d make is to swap out “Way” for “Path” and then make it a barbarian subclass.
Playing an egomaniacal meathead that magically becomes stronger as they take more hits sounds *exactly* like what I want my damage sponge to be doing. My wafer-thin runny punchy tactical striker, not so much.
I feel like the Way of Pride is very much a Roleplay heavy subclass meant to play those anime characters who try their hardest, still get defeated, but then just through sheer force of will keep battling while unconscious. It's a pretty prolific anime trope, and I can see that trope in this subclass, but I definitely agree that it's so hyper niche that it's not great for the average player.
If you go with the smart mouthed street brawler that can technically be a Monk route with this subclass is how it... shines? Glistens? Sparkles? I don't know what it does, but I feel like being hyper talkative throughout the average combat, and then going completely silent for the 11th level feature would be a good indication of the danger to your allies, along with the player's description of the character's physicality changing when that feature is in use.
"You see my eyes glaze over, I begin to hyperventilate, and my shoulders sort of slump down, almost zombie-like. Yet I remain standing, and even throw more punches."
As a DM who did a campaign with a bulwark warrior subclass, I struggled to do meaningful damage to that character and there was no shortage of powerful monsters given in the grimhallow setting.
It really is a great subclass and was an absolute linchpin in keeping the party alive
Yeah, for something like the Way of Pride to be attractive, you'd need the features that trigger below half health to be genuinely really strong. Something like "below half health all your attacks have advantage" or "below half health you crit on a roll of 17 or higher" and it actually becomes tempting to live on that edge.
You just need to give the witcher something like : Monologue / Dialogue. 3rd level. When the dm asks for initiative, you may launch into a dramatic speech or conversation.
Your enemies may roll a Cha saves to end this effect. When activated, and whenever the save is failed, you may consume a compound. You may end this effect once you have consumed the compounds you require, and play returns to initiative order.
The theme of the living cauldron is super cool but I can see why it was ranked the way it was...Personally I think going crazy with expanding the compounds, and maybe making the drinking of compounds reset or partially reset on a short rest would be my fix. Tying it to the short rest, or at least letting one of these compound consumption "slots" recharge on the short rest would pace it on par with other fighters that regain resources on a short rest (battle masters) and certain spell casting classes like wizard (with arcane recovery) or warlock which feels good for the vibe. I think beyond elemental damage resistance, other specialized effects, like being able to touch incorporeal creatures, see into the ethereal realm, gain the effects of detect good and evil, comprehend languages, a breath weapon, or maybe even something crazy like giving you ooze like characteristics where weapons dissolve on contact with you, or one that makes you sticky so that an enemy's weapon might get stuck to you could be fun. If a compound ability is too powerful, maybe make a level requirement for it...I think the compounds are rife with opportunity in combat, and if expanded could give this fighter subclass options in both exploration and RP without outshining utility casters and skill monkeys.
The 11th level feature is the trappiest of traps. You pop back up make your attacks and then the flimsiest of attacks can put you down, if not permanently, than at least requiring a lot more resources than a simple heal check or low level spell.
Just wondering if you guys have heard of Steinhardt’s guide to the eldritch hunt and maybe you could you review all the subclasses in there?
I'm considering making a homebrew with two new subclasses per class (including artificer), two new races (Nymph and Dryad), several new feats, new backgrounds, new spells, tons of new plant, beast, and elemental based monsters, and new magic items. I'm calling it Grimble's Field Guide. Everything has a nature bent. Here's what I have so far.
Artificer: None.
Barbarian: Path of the Earth Shaker, Path of Stone Skin.
Bard: College of the Wild
Cleric: Decay Domain, Growth/Fertility Domain
Druid: Circle of Plants, Circle of the Seas
Fighter: Guardian of the Wood
Monk: Way of Air, Way of Water
Paladin: Oath of the Freedom, Oath of the Green
Ranger: Conclave of the Lion
Rogue: None
Sorcerer: Elemental Bloodline, Fey Bloodline
Warlock: Draconic Pact, Pact with the Greenman
Wizard: Naturalist Wizard
Could everyone here suggest others?
The thing about the grim hollow subclasses is that they are built for that setting, and the monsters found in the setting specific monster grimoire
The bulwark is great because you're often going after a singular beast or pack of creatures almost all of whom are melee based.
The living crucible is made to tailor your front line to tackle the specific threat in the area.
I'm actually playing a Living Crucible Fighter in Dungeons of Drakkenheim. Many of these compounds have and will play a part in dealing with the dangers therein. Don't sleep on Fleshknit Phosphate btw, it can be used out of combat as a very potent healing ability. It heals you your proficiency bonus per round for a minute. Great for situations where you can't safely take a short rest.
Love the grim hollow book so far. I would love to see you do Technomancer's textbook next
A monk subclass where you are getting temp hit points at the end of your turn. The start of your turn any temp hit points you still have get added to the damage of your first hit
It might have to be worded specially so that you cant break it with a twilight cleric on the team so you can deal 1d6 + 10 every round
loving all of these creative subclasses, especially thematically even through the mechanics might not be so effective
Way of Pride also reminds me a lot of Zealot Barbarian, between what is essentially a worse Brutal Critical and Rage Beyond Death
Yeah, the way of pride should either give you the final feature as the base, ramp up the extra damage once you go under half (maybe you get a super bless that gives you like idk, a plus 5 to attack rolls and saving throws and a plus 10 to damage), or give you something good in exchange for half your health like resistance to all damage, way more temporary hit points like Kelly and Monty said when you use ki points, or where if you actually do die, you get back half your hit points once per long rest or something.
Actually, you know what, give it the base features when you go under full health, and then give it everything else I said when you go beneath half health. Give monk a real s class ffs.
The Living Crucible allows you to basically rage in heavy armor. Face it we are going to go heavy Constitution and allow us to do this at 3rd level 4 times a day. If you wanted to, you could do that and get damage resistance from spells twice a day. By 10th level you should have 20 Constitution and be able to use 8 compounds. That sounds pretty good to me. Being that you are proficient in alchemy, you should be able to brew up elemental resistance potions.
You could improve the Bulwark Warrior by giving it a charge ability that lets it barrel through enemies
For example:
*Mobile Fortress*
At 7th level, You can dash as a bonus action a number of times per short rest equal to your Constitution modifier. When you dash using this feature, you can move through space occupied by a creature as if it were empty.
At 10th level, when you move through an occupied space using this ability, you can push the creature occupying the space 5 feet in a direction of your choice. If a creature is pushed in this way, they cannot be displaced by this ability again until the start of your next turn.
Psychic monk: would like them to be able to activate psychic crush as a reaction.
The thing about subclass difference and balance is, its not only a monk thing, but there are features that are seen as "overpowered" even though if you see them in perspective with all the other classes and their subclasses you end up with: Yeah, that feature is powerful, but the fighter still has action surge. It's not like you 're taking anything away from other classes, you just give the underpowered classes something strong of their own.
Another note on Ever Prideful being a death sentence. Since you can't speak, you can't even tell your allies to heal you. So hopefully you thought to set up a sign language that the others notice.
As for it being a 'get away and heal' ability, if you have to run away and take a healing potion than you honestly might as well spent your turn unconscious waiting for an ally to cast healing word.
The way of the laden hand monk features would actually make for a very interesting monster if tuned properly.
Bulwark seems like it would actually be best to use with a mounted combatant, with the Squire of Solamnia background and also a dip in Totem Barbarian. That way, you can rush to the back line, using the mount's speed and then tell the biggest threat, "Can't touch this. Can't ignore this."
The Alchemist one can work really well with some tweaking.
1. Instead of the draughts that basically mimic Enhance Ability. Create ones that absorb Energy.
Draught of Absorption: Acid, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, and Thunder. All of these work basically the same.
For one minute you can absorb up to 5 times your proficiency bonus damage of the type you ingest per round. Once absorbed, your next attack that hits deals the amount and type of damage you absorbed.
2. Instead of being able to instantly take one alchemical thing per long rest, have combine chemicals.
When making one of your chemicals, you can combine up to your proficiency bonus effects in one dose. So, let's say you're fighting
3. The 18th level ability should be part of the first level ability.
4. The 18th level ability should be lasting compound. All of your compounds now last until the end of your next long rest.
I enjoyed this video. I rather like these best. I dont GM too often but when I do, all monks use a d10. The first issue is that they are front line fighters with backline hitdice. I have more like saving throws, wis and dex, but the hitdice is the most important.
Leaden Crown- I think you really underestimated how good the Shatter ability would be at around level 4ish. Dealing with hordes of minions is a monk weakness, and I think in practice adding this ability for 2 Ki points is going to really help with that problem. It also deal Thunder damage, on top of having access to Force damage with regular attacks. This gives the Leaden crown monk the two least resisted damage types before the regular monk even has the ability to ignore DR with their fists.
Also, I wouldn't underplay the 10ft range on unarmed strikes. in many cases this is like getting mobility for free, since you can move up (5ft less movement used) strikes and then retreat (another 5ft less used).
Psychic Crush can also be used from range AND it may restrain the target. Perfect for preventing an enemy from running, especially as if an enemy is running, it probably isnt a big brute with high Strength (those guys normally like to die fighting).
Overall, I would rate the Leaden Crown as a A.
Quickened Healing makes the Way of Pride interesting as it gives you functionally free hits you can take. You take a hit and fail a death save then you Quickened Heal and you’re back to having HP again and thus no failed death saves. You could use this to eat monster reactions. But you need to duck behind your allies because one hit is still going to put you at 0 again.
Bullwork warrior would work incredibly well with the two feats I have, Deadly Defense, and Reactive.
Deadly Defense:
+1 to DEX or CON
You can use the dodge action as a bonus action.
When you attack while dodging, you can add your proficiency bonus to all damage.
Reactive:
You can take additional reactions equal to your proficiency bonus per round.
In my campaign to balance Monks but not overpower them. We do 3 tweaks to bring them up to an acceptable on par power level with other classes.
1st- Monk is a martial class change Hit dice from d8 to d10
2nd- Ki points are too anemic. They should scale with level and experience, keep the Ki as per table but add Wis bonus and Proficiency bonus. So 2nd level should start at 2+Wis+ Proficiency. So about 6-7 Ki points at 2nd level.
3rd- open hand martial arts damage starts at d6 and progresses to d12 following the table just one die higher than listed.
It’s a simple fix that doesn’t overpower any other class and does not change any subclass.
Unless I’m missing something, a level 10 or higher monk in your party would love to play with a living crucible fighter. The only restriction they said for other people to drink your compounds is that they become poisoned, but monks are immune to poison at that point.
Was waiting for this episode:) drugged up fighter felt super satisfying when I was reading the book, but it clearly wasn’t as satisfying as Pathfinder’s Mutation Warrior. It is one of the cases where you regret picking a subclass at lvl 3 instead of 1
An easy way to fix the half health thing is just give the monk a way to tank their HP to half. Like whenever they spend a ki point, they can choose to drop to half their max hp and gain temp hp equal to the difference. If they're already below half hp, they just just gain some temp hp. Then give them an ability to regain hp based on remaining temp hp during a rest or even with like 10min of meditation or something.
If the living crucible fighter class had a feature that let you choose to increase the durations of the compounds that might really kick it up. Understanding that getting something like 8 hours of damage resistance would be wild but if it was maybe some kind of tier system: durations 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, 24 hours. And at 7th level all compounds increase by 1 tier to a max of 24 hours. Then 13th it goes up again. And maybe a feature that lets you take a compound when you roll initiative (maybe that one doesnt benefit from the extended duration) and then baseline just increase the times per day to PB + CON. Throw in a 1 per day regain half this number of uses.
I think these kind of changes really are gonna make the class feel like they can prepare more with durations increasing. As i wrote this i re.reviewed the durations maybe they all start at 10 minutes and go up from there.
The way kelly said it "1 minute is 1 combat" that can almost be said about the 10 minute duration too, and a skill challenge would fit into that as well. Maybe there are times at a table where you fight twice in 5 minutes because of things but i would say thats out of the ordinary than anything.
An hour buff could get you 2 fights if you are pushing your group to move quick. And if the fight you just had was rough then your party might be asking for a short rest to use hit dice and that 1 hour buff will be gone. So its still 1 fight if thats the case.
I rambled too much. I really like the idea of this crucible though
Make the "cash in" of psychic crush a reaction. I think that solves the issue with the skill, at a minimum you're getting 3-4 (in high level play), or you can push for 6-8 next turn.
The problem with tanking in 5e is that, no matter what your build is, your GM can always decide to have monsters attack other party members.
Moreover, characters next to the fighter are presumably other melee warriors, who don't need help tanking hits as much as ranged characters. So, you could stick to a ranged ally - but then in order to contribute damage you're probably using a bow and forgoing a shield. It's very difficult to make this work using the 5e combat system.
I think the way of pride monk should be renamed the way of pain or path of thorns. And be given a way that your not so much a of a spung for the party but a reflector of damage. The more you get hurt the more pain you dish out. Just soaking all the agro, and being able to go
" I didn't hear no bell"
The Bulwark Fighter is my favorite subclass because it's unique in the sense of temp HP being easily given out. It's not like the Samurai Fighter where you're very limited in the temp HP you get (3x per long rest) , and while it is very defense focused youre still a fighter that can dish out good damage anyways. The only downsides are that the taunt feature is limited to enemies within 5 ft of you,but I think that can be fairly easily remedied by being a bugbear with the Polearm master feat, and it costs a reaction which is something you only get to use once. Overall though I love the subclass because there's really not a lot of options for straight classes fighters that want to tank damage.
First!
Edit: one thing I was thinking about lately- the youtuber Pointy hat has tons of homebrew subclasses and subraces and alternative races. Was wondering if you could make a tier list of his builds
The Eldritch Domain Cleric in that book has the best Eldritch Blast synergy in the whole game as it can make Eldritch Blast as a cleric cantrip and at level 8 they can add the wisdom mod to its cantrip and if you also have high Charisma you can get Agonizing Blast on it to also add your Charisma mod.
So in theory at level 20 you will be shooting 4 Eldritch blasts that deal 1D10+5+5 each... you also get a level 20 cleric with a bunch of other stuff.
The criticism for the Crucible not having more broadly applicable concoctions or not having more longer lasting ones feels a bit unfair. Yes, its more likely that a party will find themselves stumbling into trouble than having foreknowledge of what they'll be fighting but that's not a mark against this subclass. I think their spellcaster bias is showing here.
A Fighter with options is always a good subclass in my opinion. If foreknowledge is needed to get the most of them, then that should encourage them to get it and a DM should be willing to facilitate that sometimes. A player who more proactive in the game and narrative because the mechanics of their subclass encourages them to be is great design imo.
So DM fun things to try, the Pride monk makes a great villains generL. The twmp hp isn't overpowering for pcs but the 1/2 hp more damage add that fun trope of the closer to death they get the stronger they become. It's a good way to drain some resources before the bbeg
Way of the leaden crown would be useful if they gave a passive debuff on saving throws to every enemy within, say, 10ft of range. And have that debuff be their martial arts die. Would scale with leveling and be potentially really amazing or a situational nice thing that helps them and allies. Maybe have it replace a feature somewhere, but I agree that sometimes new subclasses are a bit afraid to really push for stronger things
Idea for a new series (not that you guys don't have enough of those already):
How about reviewing homebrew subclasses submitted by the channel's community? But if sending and vetting the entries is too much of a hassle, how about reviewing the best (or worst) homebrew subclasses on D&D Beyond? Or maybe r/DNDhomebrew or The Homebrewery?
I think the Leaden Crown pressure point ability would benefit by being able to activate the pressure points at range, and possibly as a reaction.
The pride way monk sounds like an awesome class for a villain npc
I want to say that the Way of Pride Monk is supposed to be a "get knocked down, come back even stronger" type of character, but it doesn't quite hit that stride.
Can't wait to hear what you both think of the rogue subclasses
I think a cool fix for the way of pride’s temp hp could be if you are below half your hit point maximum, you regain hit points instead of gaining temporary hit points
i love your way of the arcane hand its powerful but well designed
I played the way of the Leaden Crown in a One Shot and it was honestly pretty great. I totally understand the criticisms but the way I thought about it was first round 4 pressure points, second round 6 and explode them, or in a boss encounter, you can wait till 3rd round and explode it with 10d8 of force damage.
That and the push made it very fun
I know you guys are posting through every subclass available in this book but I'm gonna keep suggesting you check out the class and subclasses in Steinhardt's Guide to the Eldritch Hunt.
I think your ideas to fix those Monks are good. And I feel like Monks by all writers suffer from 2 things.
1. A subclass will make or break and it's extremely hard because of their mechanics to find the Goldilocks zone for what feels good and isn't too strong.
2. Because of the fear of 1, the minor adjustments used to fix them accomplish this but downplay something else and you don't notice this until it's hindsight. Like "wow it's great and it's not too much" until someone fairly goes "well....."
I feel like Psychic Crush (Leaden Crown Monk) could be saved by a single sentance tagged on at the end.
"If the average damage from the accumulated pressure points would kill the target, you may trigger them immediately as a reaction, killing the target instantly."
I was really excited for these, but I can't say I'm impressed with the other Grim Hollow subclasses so far.
I like the idea of the Bulwark Warrior, but most of their features are seriously lacklustre. I wouldn't give it more than a C in its current state.
Protective Taunt sounds okay in theory. You get the option to take an attack for an ally, but it doesn't stand up to similar features at this level from other archetypes or classes that would just make your allies less likely to be hit. I'd rather have Thunder Gauntlets, Ancestral Protectors, or just Goading Attack.
Living Shield feels like it was imported from an MMO, although I do like that it's basically an area version of Goading Attack. It sounds cool at first, but the best course of action for a taunted enemy could still be to attack your allies, even at disadvantage, because you're not enough of a threat to bother with (you're basically a vanilla Fighter if they just ignore you).
Aggressive Defence also appears to work at first, but what are the chances of you actually having any temporary hit points left when it comes to your turn? Living Shield does nothing to help with this either. This should just grant a fixed bonus to damage (possibly only against taunted targets) to make you more of a threat. The bonus could be based on the number of creatures who failed their save against Living Shield, or the number of creatures currently affected by it.
Regardless, adding upto your Fighter level to your overall damage is kinda underwhelming, at any level. It would make more sense to add a bonus to damage as long as you have any temporary hit points.
Side Note: This technically lets you spend temporary hit points from any source; Twilight Sanctuary anyone?
I understand the idea, but Halt the Assault just feels completely wrong and out of place at this level. It's basically the Interception fighting style, but it requires temporary hit points! Is this ever a better choice than the reaction from Protective Taunt? Why not just have you take the damage instead? What if you actually had the Interception or Protection fighting styles?
been playing the bulwar warrior for some sessions now, working great so far
Under your tanking guidelines, I think subclasses should generally be aiming for a mid-A to a high-B. Generally powerful, but exceptional in the right circumstances.
The Living Crucible is such a cool idea, but where it fials for me is that the buffs you get are the same, not matter which level you are. They should get a buff at Level 7 and another at 15.
It doesn't even have to be "big", but making the Adrenal Injection increase the movement-speed by another 5 feet (10 could be too much I think) and quadrupeling and quintupling the jumping-distance would be to cool, just as one example how these could get better at higher levels.
And this just begs for the dungeon-master to make more Compounds, like an elemental Compound to gain resistance to a damage-type, or a Slayer-Compound where you do additional damage to a creature-type, or a ...
I think you get the point, this idea has potential, but it's not used well enough here in my oppinion.
I was thinking along similar lines as you guys for the Pride Monk. Maybe the it should be called "You haven't even seen my final form" monk. The lvl 18 feature should probably be how they work all the time. I was also thinking that if the temp HP gain was monk level, but if you are fewer than half HP, allow the monk to choose to heal half monk level in HP (up to half) rather than topping off the temp hp - their choice. Just a few suggestions for improvement. You'd be fairly hard to kill, at least until you ran out of ki.
I just recently changed my monk's subclass from Leaden Crown to Arcane Hand. I definitely enjoyed Leaden Crown but not having to use ki points for my spells has been a major game changer.
I really like the idea of pressure points. But it would feel bad not to get the big attack at the end. What about just a little rework. Have the pressure points apply debuffs to the target while you wait to do a finish move. Like a minus 1 for every pressure point to saving throws or to attack or apply extra damage for every pressure point whenever the target takes damage or maybe ongoing damage every turn.
If bulwark had range and damage options it would push it to s so it having those weaknesses is a good thing making it an A
A small boost to AOE range around 10 or 15 would have greatly aided the bulwark. 15 or 18 also should have allowed additional reactions for taking hits
Really love your critiques, but would love them more if you’d stare exactly how you’d modify a subclass at your table to make it more viable. I think that makes a lot of sense in a game where the DM can just change anything on the fly.
My take on a "the more hurt you are the harder you hit" ability would go something like this...
"For every two hit points you are missing you get a +1 to the damage of your attacks to a maximum of [insert parameter here]"
Depending on how powerful you want it to be and which class you want to give it to the parameter can be changed like Wis mod for monk, Con mod for barbarian, or even class level if you wanna be really nutty.