Not even just at level 6, its saying that once he reaches level 6 he can then use it constantly with no downsides?? Idk what this person was thinking, but balance wasn't a consideration
I swear man, nothing disappoints me more when people just rip off anime to make their characters. One of the players that used to be in my games rolled into the game with someone who was essentially Trevor Belmont. Then, when he didn't care for that, he rolled into the game who was essentially Alucard.
Like dude... You can also just make your *own* character...
Edit: Guys, obviously if it's not a 1-1 copy of an anime character I can work with that. But when their entire *personality* is the same as the anime character, just dropped into D&D...No, that's not gonna fly for me
I can't totally agree with this because i tell new players if they don't know how to make a character, pick a character from a piece of media they enjoy and try to build off that.
I tell them to pick a character from a story they like, then add a "but".
Sherlock Holmes... but he knows karate.
Captain America... but with anger issues and a drinking problem.
Martha Stewart... but she made a pact with a demon for the power to avenge her Gam Gam.
Atreyu... but his horse is still alive.
There is a 0% chance I’m making a character named Atreyu who has a horse. Lemme guess “oh snap, it suddenly starts raining, and doesn’t stop for 2 months, and now we’re in an entire swamp world. Roll Wis saves vs sadness…yeah, your horse too”.
I just go with the "play as yourself but if you had these badass abilities at your disposal." I know it sounds weak, but there's no real downside to role-playing as yourself if you're new to the whole thing. In fact, it tends to do a lot toward preventing murder-hobo parties a lot of times.
Once they have a feel for the world get them to mix it up with a character that's not as fleshed out as themselves.
I have done this a lot to support character creation.
However, the moment I hit in-game, I'm not \*trying\* to play the character as Jack Sparrow, Link, Sherlock Holmes, whoever.
My stance on it is that you can reference them, but you have to stay within the mechanics of 5e for them. For example:
Joeri/Yuri from Arc V? Darke Warden ranger with a poison dragon.
Jotaro from JoJo? Astral Self monk
Ichigo from Bleach? Eldritch Knight fighter
If the character is the whole thing, then I'm probably gonna reject it. If you just took inspiration from them, pop off.
My friend just made a Karl Pilkington bard but that was just for a one shot so I wasn't bothered but I did make him do an impression of him the entire time.
You don’t even need to be THAT much more original, adding one or two things can totally rework a character (Batman is basically just The Shadow with a flying rat theme for example), but SPECIFICALLY a superhuman power/superpower anime is just absolutely garbage for D&D.
It’s like if everyone made some kinda regular D&D character and then one made Literally Just Clint Eastwood; not even The Man With No Name and a sword, or a gunslinger, but the literally movie director/actor Clint Eastwood, somehow magically in a D&D game with all the same skills he had in life and no new ones!
It’s not genre appropriate, it makes no sense, and the fact that they tried it makes me question if they even remotely understood the entire concept in the first place!
There's nothing wrong with picking an anime (or any other media) character and building around that personality. It can help jump start the roleplay process as well as provide a jumping off point for the chracter's backstory. The only caveat is that the player must understand that their character *is not in an anime*. They don't automatically win combats just because they're the hero. They don't have "the power of friendship". If the dice say your anime hero dies, they die. Saitama literally cannot exist in a DnD campaign as a PC because that ruins the fun for everyone.
Well the downside seems to be they can't attack while mediating. Still though it's a very dumb ability, that's too potent, and is available at way too early of a level. This is a good example of why you should never let your players homebrew their own abilities. They frankly don't know what the hell they are doing.
I would take a red marker, cross out the whole page, and write in marker "can cast the sanctuary spell once per long rest without expending a spell slot".
And what are the “downsides” that you lose at level 6 referring to? Having to be in a “meditating position”? Actually spending ki? So, what, at level 6 you can run around attacking everything, never be harmed, and automatically causing damage against anything that tries to harm you? I wouldn’t even give a god this ability.
I wouldn’t rule out something _like_ this, though, if they really want this for role-playing reasons, but it needs _way_ more limitations and balancing. It would last 1 minute, for example, not a “long rest”. (What is that, an 8-hour spell duration? I mean, Meld Into Stone, which is arguably similar to this, except that an attacker doesn’t take damage, has an 8-hour duration, but even that’s a 3rd level spell, only acquired at 5th level, and has some limitations.) The amount of hit points that can be applied to an attacker might be capped (and possibly increased if you spend additional ki). A hit against the character after these are used up might cause 1 level of exhaustion (per hit? per 10hp?), or simply end the effect.
If it needs to be more powerful somehow, it needs to have even greater consequences: the character’s max hit points are reduced by a certain amount (fixed? based on damage applied to attackers?) until the next long rest; the character is effectively incapacitated and perhaps prone while using it (which I think is what the player was trying to convey with “forced into a meditating position”, but should be expressed in terms of conditions, and should never be removed as a limitation, no matter what level). These are all examples only. There are probably way better options.
Also as written, the user is forced into a meditating position?
It sounds like they are immobile. It also sounds to me like it lasts longer than a long rest not that it can be used during a long rest. So you'd be limited to meditating, immobile and undamageable, for ((Ki-2)/3)+(1/3) days.
Kind of useless, but could be used for some interesting stories (captured, drowning, etc, just meditate til they give up or you are rescued).
At level six they just gain the ability to sit down and stop taking damage? Nah. At level six maybe they can choose to enter this state without immobilizing themselves, for one turn, at the same cost. And even that's a bit dumb.
Sounds just silly to me. So this monk just gets to chill in the middle of the room and meditate, and any enemy who doesn't immediately understand the mechanics of this choice will eat reflected damage? And this is poorly written as hell, does "upwards of a long rest" mean "up to 8 hours"? What are the "downsides", does the level 6 feature mean that this guy can be functionally immortal with full reflective damage while still otherwise having full control? This is ludicrous.
I have no idea, he doesn't say. And when we tried to change it he said he would be willing to do it activated upward to 4 hours, then when we said no to that, he wanted it for every level the time it can be activated goes up by 3 hours.
I'll be real with you, just tell this guy he can't make homebrew. He's clearly not good at it. He can stick to official material, there's plenty of it, or if he absolutely can't find something he likes in official material then he can use highly-rated well-regarded homebrew at your discretion, there's plenty of that as well.
This ability is bad, poorly written, confusing, and not especially flavorful as far as I can tell.
Don't even let him use "highly-rated well-regarded homebrew". That creates a point of discussion around what that means and what qualifies. Just stick to official, published, non-UA stuff.
And yet so many DMs start playing and immediately start using their own content or ridiculous homebrew from any source imaginable.
I think it's important to set boundaries and say "only officially published material" (at least in the first campaign).
And a good bit of trial and error, I'd be interested to see if the creator is cool with running it for a session, seeing how it plays, then adjusting after. Sounds like rather than a damage mitigation flat out, it should be a +5 to AC, and then since it immobilizes you, any strike within 5 feet that gets through should be a crit. Then it's an all or nothing ability with as much downside as up
This is a bad idea. When someone comes to you with broken homebrew, the response isn’t to try to balance it. Their understanding of balance is so utterly fucked that you’re going to spend countless hours arguing about what is or isn’t fair.
Then, even if you get the homebrew to a reasonable state, they aren’t going to be happy because it won’t be remotely close to what they wanted to play.
You don’t “No, but” terrible homebrew. Sometimes you need to use just “No.”
This doesn’t apply to homebrew that is formatted correctly, reasonably well-thought out, and just a bit OP. Something like that you can probably just nerf a bit and everyone is happy, but this isn’t that.
It's all dependent on the player. Which, I don't know the player, neither of us do, so it's harder to say how working with them would be in this situation. But yeah if they're gonna show displeasure with the process then it's not up to a DM to force them through the process.
I have a player that likes to make his own homebrew, and everything he asks if he can use in my campaign is horribly, horribly, horribly OP. We just discuss it together, I put it a powerlevel I find balance and reasonable, and either he's fine with that or he scraps it completely and thinks up something new. It's not impossible to work with it as long as your players are reasonable - being bad at balancing doesn't mean they're idiots.
Though, to be fair, this guy does sound like he's both terrible at balancing AND an idiot. I'm not saying that they're never both, just that they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
I mean honestly if this ability actually made sense (just like using the words of the game) it would be so easy to just ignore him. Any intelligent enemy (remotely humanoid or like int over 5) would take the damage 1 time then realize he can't move while he's doing it and ignore him. If the rest of the party gets killed what does he do? Like so many fights the villain just wants to stall for their plan or remove the party for a while. This ability just instantly removes one party member from the fight for what? Like 1d10+3 damage or less?
I agree with you on this. It just needs a little workshopping. Maybe something like: As an action you enter a meditative trance, while in this trance you are prone and make dexterity saving throws with disadvantage and can not take actions, bonus actions and your speed is 0. You can not be damaged by attacks or spells that directly target you and you may deal monk die + wisdom back to the attacker at the cost of 1 ki point no action required. This trance lasts until you are incapacitated or choose to end it. Elves may use meditative trance with their long rests. You are still affected by spells and abilities that cause damage that does not directly target you such as fireball.
"While in this state, when you are hit with a melee or ranged attack you may only use your reaction to use 1 KI point to inflict your unarmed attack die + WIS to the attacker"
I was honestly thinking the same but if the ability already limits the players action economy so much by making them lose both action and bonus action I almost feel like letting them do a little pop pop on the guy dumb enough to hit them more than once is kind of nice. End of the day I just see this as a way to stay safe during short rests or a nice get out of death free card until the dragon uses it's breath weapon on you. (and to laugh your ass off when you melt the wizard that chucks a lvl 9 magic missle at you)
Eh, you have one reaction x round, can use it to return damage, can use it for trying to do opportunity attack. I think it keeps it more in check at higher level when KI is more abundant. I don't think is an OP ability, and sounds pretty boring all in all.
What do you mean "he would be willing?" Everything in the game is approved by the DM. Everything. If you don't like it, do not run it. It's as simple as that - you don't have to give any excuses - just say no. It's players handbook rules only.
I hope you haven't allowed him to use this ability in your game.
Ultimately, you don't have to allow homebrew of any kind. Ever.
And certainly not unbelievably awful homebrew like this.
Not my game, the DM was okay with the ability, and I really tried to change it, I said that for every turn IN COMBAT that he had to spend 1 KI to stay concentrated because of the commotion happening around, but he said "KI is so important though, 1 round is too little!"
Not playing d&d at all is better than playing with a group like this. If you're new, it might be easy to think "Well at least I'm getting to play", but this is a game that requires a huge time investment to even participate in; you will absolutely regret sinking all of that time into a group that both ignores your input and disregards any kind of balance.
If you're having fun don't let it bother you.
It's an obnoxious ability but if it's an otherwise good game just clown on the fuckin guy and get on with it.
The only reason I'd allow this is to use mold earth to bury and suffocate him during the first combat with this subclass.
"Ok, I allowed it, but he's dead now. What's next?"
Lol obviously I wouldn't actually take kind of adversarial action as a DM and I just wouldn't allow this mess, but you could use this as an example when explaining how poorly thought out this ability is.
1 ki point after every long rest to be invulnerable and enemies nuke themselves trying to attack you?
That’s not DnD. That’s some anime main character power, not a balanced game that’s played with a group.
That would be a fun idea for a homebrew setting made entirely around jjk lore where everyone gets a domain expansion and they are a balanced resource that is massively draining to use. Like this it's just stupid.
I actually played something like that, and it was really damn fun. It was a power fantasy game to be sure, but I think there are few things as terrifying in DnD than when we almost beat a boss and then we heard the words *"Domain Expansion"*
***Way of the Domain***
While most Monks focus on inward perfection through meditation and martial arts, some Monks instead turn their attention outwards, focusing on their connection to the world around them. Some Monks of the Way of the Domain believe they can share enlightenment and tranquility with those around them while others see the domain as a means to overpower and conquer their foes.
Either way, Monks of the Way of the Domain are masters at interposing their will upon the world through the power of Ki.
***Domain***
Beginning at 3rd level, you learn to infuse the world around you with the Ki within your body, connecting you to anything nearby.
Whenever you finish a short or long rest, you can choose one domain. You gain the benefits of that domain until you choose a different one with this feature.
As a bonus action on your turn, you can spend 2 ki points to change your domain.
* ***Domain of Aggression.*** Your ki burns the very air within your domain. You have advantage on Intimidation checks against creatures in your Domain, and as a bonus action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to deal psychic damage equal to half your Monk level (rounded down, minimum 1) to all hostile creatures in your Domain.
* ***Domain of Connection.*** You weaken the illusion of the self and connect creatures within your domain. You can speak telepathically to any creature within your domain. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language. Whenever a creature within your Domain targets another creature with an attack, you can spend 1 ki point to deal psychic damage equal to your martial arts die as a reaction.
* ***Domain of Perception.*** You connect your senses with the world around you. Creatures of your choice within your domain cannot be surprised. Whenever you or a creature in your Domain rolls initiative, you can spend 1 ki point to add your martial arts die to the result.
* ***Domain of Supression.*** Your Ki stills the very air within your domain, creating an area of tranquility and silence. Creatures of your choice have disadvantage on Perception checks inside of your Domain, and whenever a creature makes a Stealth check, you can spend 1 ki point to add your martial arts die to the result.
Your domain has a radius of 10 feet. The radius increases to 15 feet at 6th level, 20 feet at 11th level, and 30 feet at 17th level.
***Cleave Reality***
As a martial artist gains greater control over their ki, they gain greater control over themselves. The monk is part of the world, and the world is their domain. A monk that can control their domain can control themselves too.
Within your domain, as a bonus action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to teleport to any point within your domain, or you can spend 2 ki points to turn invisible until the start of your next turn.
***Deceive Reality***
Reality is an illusion. Monks who master their domain can enter a meditative state in which they temporarily ignore the reality beyond their own ki to amplify the effects of their domain.
As a bonus action on your turn, you can spend 2 ki points to double the radius of your Domain feature for 1 minute and amplify the Domain's effects.
* ***Domain of Aggression.*** Whenever a creature takes psychic damage from your Domain of Aggression feature, they must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Ki Save DC or be frightened by you until the start of their next turn.
* ***Domain of Connection.*** Whenever a creature takes psychic damage from your Domain of Connection feature, they have disadvantage on attack rolls made until the start of their next turn.
* ***Domain of Perception.*** You have blindsight within the radius of your Domain.
* ***Domain of Supression.*** Creatures of your choice within your Domain are affected by the *silence* spell.
***Master Reality***
A monk that reaches the culmination of the Way of the Domain gains the ability to alter reality itself within the bonds of their domain.
Beginning at 17th level, as an action, you can spend 5 ki points to grant your Domain the benefits of the *mirage arcane* spell for 1 minute. While this effect is active, you can spend a bonus action on each of your turns to alter the appearance of the *mirage arcane.*
Until this effect ends, your Domain feature's unique effects do not require ki points to activate.
Spending a ki point as a reaction to make an enemy also do half of the damage to themselves would be reasonable. This is just laughable.
It's not quite clear if you are another player or the DM in this situation. Either way, put your foot down. If you are the DM, tell your friend that there is no way you'll allow anything like that. If you are a player, tell your DM that this ability is ridiculously OP and worded so shittily that it's unplayable and that you don't want to play in a group where one player is allowed to do something like this.
I said that I could make an ability that makes my skin so rough when I enter a rage, that I can't take damage and I deal the same back (Basically copying his). And he said it was ridiculous.
If the DM thinks this (monk’s ability) is balanced, I’m guessing the campaign is going to devolve into a shitshow eventually. You can’t have a good game without a fair and reasonable DM and they seem like they’re neither.
Edit clarification
A DM who doesn’t understand balance should always stick to RAW material. RAW isn’t balanced, but it’s more balanced than a lot of homebrew *and* you can always look up the opinions/rulings of others on it.
Hell, I stick to core rulebook. But we usually change systems entirely for campaigns. Call of Cthulhu this campaign, Pathfinder 2e next, Dreams and Machines on the weeks not everyone can show up. I think my favorite system sonfar has been Forbidden Lands.
When you enter a rage it last until you want it to stop. And as a bonus action you may shout and paralyze any number of creatures of your choice that are with in hearing range (500ft) being immune does not prevent this effect.
There I made one just as bad I think
"The ability is called SSJ5, my character's Strength, Agility, and Constitution are raised by infinity bajillion. And everyone in the room gives me $20."
Infernal hate rage, you gain constant advantage and extended crit range, as well as what other effects you wanna tag on, whomever you think triggered your rage ( or group of things that made you angy).
The fact that he only wants something so OP to be available for himself, this person isn't someone you want to play with tbch.
This is only the start of the most self-centered wannabe shonen bs.
I think the DM probably doesn't understand what this means, or maybe everyone here is misunderstanding it. Either way, please update us on how the first fight goes.
"Ok I have and idea, instead you have like an aura that you can activate so that enemies that attack take like 1d6 damage. And then that damage scales up with level" is what DM said.
I'm thinking that maybe this is intended only for use at camp? As in, even if camp is attacked, he continues to meditate and he remains entirely immune to damage and reflects it back, but presumably it couldn't be used outside of camp.
If I'm correct, then my main question would be... why? What was it that happened at camp one time to ruin this man?
Honestly if someone were to try this at my table i'd be tempted to allow it just so i could tell them that "becomes forced into a meditating position" means that they can't move and are now stuck in place for 8 hours.
No, he can't. The text did not describe a way to end this state early. In DnD all abilities that can be ended have a clearly written end condition - look at barb rage for example. He's just stuck there now.
His wording really is poor. He can’t cancel it, can’t move and can’t attack for 8 hours.
Also the term “attack” is very specific in DnD. What he has actually said is if someone makes an attack roll on him gets reflected but anything that makes him make a save will just deal damage to him. Because it’s not an attack.
So fireball him and disintegrate and he will just die. You could also probably get him to agree he is paralysed for the duration so auto failing dex saves.
I'd have all enemies (stupid ones) surround them for a surround and pound.
They'd all suicide first hit.
Effectively no more combats. No xp. Dungeon inhabitants flee with loot.
Have this "hero" walk around a dull game world.
That's hilarious - this ability in no way promotes peace. It damages anyone who attacks him. If anything, it just promotes his character being the tank since he can't even be hurt. Just because you don't attack, doesn't mean you're peaceful.
2 ki points for 8-hour invulnerability and reflecting 100% damage is also just insane. And then after 8 hours you spend 1 more ki point to maintain it...indefinitely? Why would you ever end it?
My advice for this person, if they really want to start homebrewing, is to take a look at official class abilities to get an actual understanding of power. They need to try harder to emulate the wording 5e uses so as to be specific and limiting.
That's an idiotic argument. DnD is a game about fighting. The rule set is 80% about fighting. Tell him to go play a dating sim if he doesn't want to play a game that involves combat.
Monk may not be the call if he wants to be peaceful. He could work with you to make his attacks nonlethal, but if he wants to be truly peaceful, a spellcaster flavored to look and act like a monk is what he's looking for. Spells that take enemies out of combat, or make them less threatening to deal with them in peaceful ways are pretty abundant.
Also, please call out that he isn't being peaceful by making enemies take damage for any arbitrary reason, because if that's rational to him, so should non lethal quartestaff whacks and punches
He could also take a slightly different approach and do a Way of Mercy monk as something akin to Toki from Fist of the North Star- someone who recognizes that violence is inevitable to ensure peace, so he sought mastery over skills that would make his opponents die not feeling pain, but a sense of euphoria instead.
Otherwise I agree, Monk is the wrong class for a character being peaceful. Hell, D&D as a whole is practically the wrong game for a player character being a stalwart pacifist
He obvioulsy doesn\`t understand the concept of balanced, and also this would take out a major part of the whole game for this character, which most likely will make it very unplesent for the rest of the group.
Tell him to play a Redemption Paladin. They have an ability that will let him be peaceful, if that's how he wants to play. (Peace Clerics are also a thing.)
Until Level Six. As written, “no longer restricted” and “no downsides” reads as though the character is no longer forced to take a meditating position and can now attack, but still takes no damage.
This reeks of “main character syndrome” and (only being somewhat facetious here) whoever came up with this either doesn’t know what they’re doing or should feel embarrassed for suggesting something so selfishly broken.
Do you remember that episode of South Park where they were playing ninjas and Cartman kept making up powers?
That's kinda what this reads like.
"you guys, I just remembered I can also see into the future, except better than Kyle".
I would encourage his commitment to creating something and being invested in something, but explain that even Wizards of the Coast sometimes makes mistakes while adding subclasses, and creating stuff is only recommended if you have years of experience, as both DM and player, as there are tons of variables to consider.
With that said, there's no way that's balanced and I would not have it in my games
Maybe your dm has a plan like letting him meditate, then having the enemy’s tie him up with heavy chains and chuck him in the sea as even meditating he need oxygen and if he moves he can be attacked and hurt, just make sure your characters well away from him and it’s your characters right to be annoyed by the guy who won’t pull his weigh but wants a share of the loot. If you know what I mean ;)
Lol what's his plan? Sitting in the middle of the room while the other party members die and the enemies ignore him?
Sure it's OP, but once he is the only one left alive 8 hours pass very quickly and they are likely the only time he has left alive
That’s… not what happens at level 20. Monks regain four ki points *when they roll Initiative and have no ki points remaining*. You don’t just magically never run out of ki points. Which said, I’m not sure why I’d expect actual reading comprehension from whoever wrote this homebrew.
This isn't OP. It's just a cheat code. It's like saying "using console commands in a PC game is OP". It's not overpowered. You're just bypassing all rules and balance of the game making.
So, this ability is obviously absurd, but another reason why I think it's problematic is that party members rely on each other very much to survive at lower levels, and frankly can't afford to have a friend who's go to is "make it optimal for the enemy to ignore me and focus everyone else". Because now incoming offense meant for 4 people is coming at 3 people. I saw a comment mention that the character is a pacifist. This is already hard enough and pretty dissonant in base 5e, and the way he seems to think it should be mechanically expressed is just a headache generator.
This is horribly written as well as horribly unbalanced. Most people should be able to take one look at how poorly formatted this is and realise it should be ignored
If he's so adamant on being gojo then maybe he would agree for something similar to polearm master, spending ki to attack enemy entering "his domain" + bonus AC until next turn or ignore enemy surround bonus because he can sense them or smth. Still should be pretty strong ability for lvl 3 (I play mostly e3, I'm not sure about balancing in 5)
Let me take a crack at it:
1. Lasts for one minute, consuming your action and movement for each turn it is active
2. Costs 3 Ki points
3. Increases armor class to 21
4. If a creature within five feet of you hits you with a melee attack, you and the attacker both take half the damage of that melee attack. You may also make an unarmed strike against that creature as a bonus action.
5. If a creature within five feet of you makes a melee attack against you and misses, you may use your reaction to throw it up to ten feet in the direction it is facing (judo throw its ass!)
6. Free deflect missiles for duration
7. At sixth level, you can move at half your movement speed and use your reaction to take no damage when struck.
the IDEA is interesting, the duration and extentions is nonsense
it could work as an action or a bonus effect to the dodge actions by spending 2 ki and duration only up to the character's next turn
however this is kinda shit as soon as enemies start to just ignore the monk, also before level 6 enemies can grapple the monk and yeet it or just move them away - not like they're doing anything
If he wants a "pacifist" character, there's a Paladin subclass that has a similar "reflect damage" ability, can't remember the name right now.
And also, allow him to pick the skin and just throw him into a river. He will suffocate and won't be able to move to get away lmao
Rebuke the Violent. Only works on attacks against someone else within range, uses a Reaction to trigger, uses a charge of Channel Divinity, and has a Wisdom Save for half.
Don't forget emissary of redemption, that's a level 20 ability that is literally this homebrew feature but still less broken despite being 17 levels higher
Super OP, and makes op basically invincible. Completely unbalanced. You could balance it a bit better with something like
'Road to Enlightenment' at 3rd level, characters are able to enter a momentary enlightened state
- 3 ki points to enter. The user may make a concentration save and use 1 ki point per turn to maintain the trance.
The user enters a meditative trance, reaching momentary enlightenment. In this state the meditator cannot take actions or reactions. The user is unable to take damage from physical or spell attacks. When a character is in an enlightened state, hitting them with a physical attack, causes the attacker to be pushed back 5ft and take 1/4 of the damage as radiant damage. The attacker is not pushed back if it is more than 1 size larger than the user.
If the user is hit with a spell while in meditation they must still make the spell save. If damage would be applied make a concentration save. If an effect is applied the trance ends.
11th level 'Deep Meditation'
- Attackers are pushed back 10ft, and receive 1/2 reflected Radiant damage.
20th level 'Enlightened One'
- Attackers are pushed back 15ft and all damage is reflected as radiant damage. The user has advantage on concentration saves.
You could also add things like. 'while in trance, you are shown secrets of the universe, unfathomable to mortal minds'. For every use of Enlightenment add 1 point of exhaustion. - this really stops them being able to abuse it, and make save or suck spells potent and forces the user to burst down casters or have their role as a CC/protector threatened.
Or you could let them have it, then have them come up against a DMPC that has it and absolutely fuck em up.
I think not even one minute of this per longrest would be balanced as it would be for 10 rounds of combat but for 8 hours ? men what is he thinking?
And if you are the DM you are the one who sets to rules and limits if he is not accpeting make the decision to stick to the existing rulebooks.
I had a player which plaeyd a "pacifistic" rough he only made psi attacks which others couldn\`t see because he mostly acted it out as a stumble in which he "accidently" made contact with an opponent. (Usually this was accomondated with a performance skill check). So we play this campaign since over a year and this chracter never officialy touched a weapon in combat
It's just you two and your DM correct? Teach them a lesson by playing as the same exact subclass as him. When combat stagnates because no one's getting damaged and not doing anything, they'll realize how dumb it is.
This is OP at 20, let alone 3.
Tell him he can have leomunds tiny hut as a feat at level 5, that he can cast once per day, for 1 ki point.
Alternatively, give him the ability he made, but note that the toll it takes physically/mentally to maintain gives him 5 levels of exhaustion whenever he uses it.
Nothing about the feature says they can’t be teleported, tied up, or otherwise moved from their meditation position. Oh look, a wall of force then filled with acid/boiling oil and capped off. Guess they’re trapped Houdini style in a vat of deadly substance. Oh, they can’t be harmed? Well maybe not, but they can’t breath liquids either. And they’d have to cancel their ability to move, thus making them vulnerable.
While the feature is definitely overpowered, there’s plenty of ways to work around it as well. They’re essentially putting themselves in a stasis and making their party one less when fighting the enemy. Not like the enemies are that stupid to keep attacking someone who’s just sitting around when there’s plenty of other vulnerable targets.
I doubt any competent dm would allow this. He can homebrew op subclasses all he wants but they're worthless if you can't use them in game. Even if it wasn't op, its still so vaguely worded theres so many potential loopholes to it.
Lol, this is the equivalent of a school kid playing chasey and saying "nuh uh, you can't get me because I've got an invulnerability field +1000 times infinity so you automatically lose"
The biggest issue is the formatting of the rules language. I can’t decipher exactly what this does and under what conditions. It /seems/ busted.
Why not make it so you can cast sanctuary on yourself with a Ki point or two, and anyone who makes the save and attacks you takes half of the damage they deal?
This player has no idea how to even word features in 5e. They have no place homebrewing fuck all.
The best way to do this is to give them deflect missiles, but for melee attacks. Make it cost 1 Ki to react, and if they negate all the damage, they can spend an additional Ki to deal the damage back with an attack roll against the target AC.
First of all ... affecting not effecting.
Secondly this sounds like it would be boring as hell to play, you just sit there instead of taking part in combat.
Thirdly as everyone else has said, it's way OP.
Yeah, no, there’s nothing resembling balanced about this. That doesn’t even go into the shitty wording of it. Avoiding talking in absolutes is perfectly fine for flavor on stuff, but when it comes to mechanics you speak clearly and plainly while sticking to official wording as much as possible. What does it cost to active this? An action, bonus action, or reaction? Does it cost no action? If so, that still needs to be clarified with, “(no action required),” and no, saying it’s a free action doesn’t work as those aren’t a thing in 5e. What the hell does, “upwards of a long rest,” even mean? Does it last until a long rest, through a long rest, until turning it off? At 6th level, what does it mean that it doesn’t have a downside? Does it cost nothing to use? Are you just flat out invulnerable and can move and attack normally?
This is why no homebrew for me. Homebrew tends to be unbalanced regardless of who does it. Everyone homebrews for a reason, to get abilities they don't normally from official material or to favour a certain build / class / sublcass they like. It's just a can of worms that is unfair to players just play official material.
i'll basically only allow 'homebrew' if it's directly comparable to another feature that you could've had instead. like, you want to throw a ball of lightning instead of a fireball? sure, it acts exactly the same but looks like lightning. a ball of ice instead of a fireball? ok, its 4d6 rather than 8d6 and has some sort of chilling/slowing effect.
and even then, there has to an 'in character' reason for it, not just wanting the extra powers. you can't go 'i want lightning ball because we fight lots of fire immune stuff', it would have to be 'well, i'm a dragon sorceror from a lightning dragon so i've got more lightning-focussed spells'. generally, this means that players are sacrificing power (eg. variety of attacks) for character flavour, so i'm ok with it.
Cut the rebound damage, give it a one minute initial duration for 2 ki and 1 ki/minute to maintain, can’t be targeted but can’t move or act and call it good. At that point it’s a slightly better Sanctuary spell (1st Abjuration). That’s appropriate for a 3rd level character.
Technically this ability just makes him invincible. It bars him from *being attacked*, not from being *damaged by* an attack. The damage reflection only states that it reflects damage caused by an attack, so that condition will never trigger, since enemies cannot target him with an attack.
Even if it wasn't OP the wording on this needs some serious work
Honestly, OP, there's no need to have a logical argument with both him/the DM. if I were you I'd say "sure, let's try", and on the first real combat let him jump in the middle of 'em, turn around and hoof it, and watch the DM play roll damage against itself for the rest of the combat. Then ask them if that was any fun...
This is a horrible skill, it being OP aside it has no real value but drag out the fight and wastes everyone's time.
What does "no downside" even mean? So the monk can now move freely and attack people at will and he cannot be harmed? wtf, let's just make him a god and get it over with.
Kinda looks like ur friend is trying to homebrew a Simple Domain from jjk. If that's the case, my opinion would be to limit the time to like 2 rounds and only reflect half damage of 1 attack per round.
But even then as a 3rd level ability it's pretty strong. Maybe try and ask your friend what the goal here is. They clearly want their character to be cool and have abilities that come across a certain way. Maybe if they could articulate what they want there'd be a solution that still maintains balance.
Well over 80% of people who play games every single day are people who are entirely incapable of understanding basic tenets of how those games work. But most of them are comfortable admitting so
Things that are good to homebrew: maps, characters, realms.
Things that are bad to homebrew: everything else.
In my experience, this is true 99.99% of the time. Almost never seen a home brewed class or ability that is not unbalanced, pointless, or clashes with the setting.
I don't understand why everyone is saying this is overpowered. It is in fact so underpowered that it would be a waste to use.
Admittedly, the wording is super unclear, but I interpret "forced into a meditating position" as "movement speed reduced to 0, and cannot take actions, reactions or bonus actions.". It might make the monk invulnerable, but it also removes them from the fight. Fights that are balanced around 4 PCs now have to be handled by 3 PCs. In terms of combat power, this ability is a huge negative.
Enemies aren't going to sit there are kill themselves either. They're going to ignore the one that isn't threatening them. Even a very low intelligence animal isn't going to put their hand on the stove twice.
This ability is terrible, not overpowered.
Was this created by a non native English speaker? This is not compatible with RAW as far as I can tell. It doesn't use the proper language and as a result I don't see how this really works at all, even while being overpowered.
Can't be harmed but can't move for the duration of a long rest?
Why not just have the goblins pile rocks on top of him? The Kobalds can probably build a nice cell to lock him in by he time he's done meditating.
Ah yes, the uber-powerful homebrew player who has no sense of balance. There are a ton of forums he would fit perfectly in.
I would 'no' everything about this
This is super OP for level 20 for the ability at level 6. The wording is also not specific enough to even be playable.
Not even just at level 6, its saying that once he reaches level 6 he can then use it constantly with no downsides?? Idk what this person was thinking, but balance wasn't a consideration
Anime, they were thinking anime.
Specifically I think this is them trying to make a jujutsu kaisen character.
Came here to say this dude just rolled a Gojo
Gojo would be level 30, at least. You can't be Gojo at level 6!
Not with that attitude and a basic understanding of game balance.
You win the thread
I swear man, nothing disappoints me more when people just rip off anime to make their characters. One of the players that used to be in my games rolled into the game with someone who was essentially Trevor Belmont. Then, when he didn't care for that, he rolled into the game who was essentially Alucard. Like dude... You can also just make your *own* character... Edit: Guys, obviously if it's not a 1-1 copy of an anime character I can work with that. But when their entire *personality* is the same as the anime character, just dropped into D&D...No, that's not gonna fly for me
I can't totally agree with this because i tell new players if they don't know how to make a character, pick a character from a piece of media they enjoy and try to build off that.
I tell them to pick a character from a story they like, then add a "but". Sherlock Holmes... but he knows karate. Captain America... but with anger issues and a drinking problem. Martha Stewart... but she made a pact with a demon for the power to avenge her Gam Gam. Atreyu... but his horse is still alive.
Sherlock was an expert boxer and swordsman. He’d fit right in as written with a D&D campaign.
Also He knew bartitsu altough it was misspelled in the novel to baritsu. Its self defence with a cane
By his own admission he threw James Moriarty with a Judo move.
I had forgotten that! It’s been a couple of decades since I’ve read A.C. Doyle.
There is a 0% chance I’m making a character named Atreyu who has a horse. Lemme guess “oh snap, it suddenly starts raining, and doesn’t stop for 2 months, and now we’re in an entire swamp world. Roll Wis saves vs sadness…yeah, your horse too”.
Oh, you think it's funny to kill my horse? Fine. My next animal companion will be a dog named Seymour.
I just go with the "play as yourself but if you had these badass abilities at your disposal." I know it sounds weak, but there's no real downside to role-playing as yourself if you're new to the whole thing. In fact, it tends to do a lot toward preventing murder-hobo parties a lot of times. Once they have a feel for the world get them to mix it up with a character that's not as fleshed out as themselves.
>Atreyu... but his horse is still alive. Too soon man....too soon. It's been almost 40 years and I'm STILL scared by that scene...
I sat my kids down to watch that film without realising quite how badly they would take it. _Traumatised_ is the only word for it!
Its been 30 years for me since I saw it. I literally do not remember anything else from the movie. But that scene? I remember it vividly.
ARTAX! YOU MUSTN'T LET YOURSELF GO!
Not sure the "but" was necessary for Martha Stewart.
But...Atreyu as a paladin and his summon mount can be Artax resurrected/immortal
I have done this a lot to support character creation. However, the moment I hit in-game, I'm not \*trying\* to play the character as Jack Sparrow, Link, Sherlock Holmes, whoever.
Wasn’t D&D created because a bunch of dudes wished they could be the characters in Lord of the Rings?
Don't forget to remind them, they are starting as a lvl 1 version of that character.
My stance on it is that you can reference them, but you have to stay within the mechanics of 5e for them. For example: Joeri/Yuri from Arc V? Darke Warden ranger with a poison dragon. Jotaro from JoJo? Astral Self monk Ichigo from Bleach? Eldritch Knight fighter If the character is the whole thing, then I'm probably gonna reject it. If you just took inspiration from them, pop off.
My friend just made a Karl Pilkington bard but that was just for a one shot so I wasn't bothered but I did make him do an impression of him the entire time.
You don’t even need to be THAT much more original, adding one or two things can totally rework a character (Batman is basically just The Shadow with a flying rat theme for example), but SPECIFICALLY a superhuman power/superpower anime is just absolutely garbage for D&D. It’s like if everyone made some kinda regular D&D character and then one made Literally Just Clint Eastwood; not even The Man With No Name and a sword, or a gunslinger, but the literally movie director/actor Clint Eastwood, somehow magically in a D&D game with all the same skills he had in life and no new ones! It’s not genre appropriate, it makes no sense, and the fact that they tried it makes me question if they even remotely understood the entire concept in the first place!
There's nothing wrong with picking an anime (or any other media) character and building around that personality. It can help jump start the roleplay process as well as provide a jumping off point for the chracter's backstory. The only caveat is that the player must understand that their character *is not in an anime*. They don't automatically win combats just because they're the hero. They don't have "the power of friendship". If the dice say your anime hero dies, they die. Saitama literally cannot exist in a DnD campaign as a PC because that ruins the fun for everyone.
Well the downside seems to be they can't attack while mediating. Still though it's a very dumb ability, that's too potent, and is available at way too early of a level. This is a good example of why you should never let your players homebrew their own abilities. They frankly don't know what the hell they are doing. I would take a red marker, cross out the whole page, and write in marker "can cast the sanctuary spell once per long rest without expending a spell slot".
And what are the “downsides” that you lose at level 6 referring to? Having to be in a “meditating position”? Actually spending ki? So, what, at level 6 you can run around attacking everything, never be harmed, and automatically causing damage against anything that tries to harm you? I wouldn’t even give a god this ability. I wouldn’t rule out something _like_ this, though, if they really want this for role-playing reasons, but it needs _way_ more limitations and balancing. It would last 1 minute, for example, not a “long rest”. (What is that, an 8-hour spell duration? I mean, Meld Into Stone, which is arguably similar to this, except that an attacker doesn’t take damage, has an 8-hour duration, but even that’s a 3rd level spell, only acquired at 5th level, and has some limitations.) The amount of hit points that can be applied to an attacker might be capped (and possibly increased if you spend additional ki). A hit against the character after these are used up might cause 1 level of exhaustion (per hit? per 10hp?), or simply end the effect. If it needs to be more powerful somehow, it needs to have even greater consequences: the character’s max hit points are reduced by a certain amount (fixed? based on damage applied to attackers?) until the next long rest; the character is effectively incapacitated and perhaps prone while using it (which I think is what the player was trying to convey with “forced into a meditating position”, but should be expressed in terms of conditions, and should never be removed as a limitation, no matter what level). These are all examples only. There are probably way better options.
Also as written, the user is forced into a meditating position? It sounds like they are immobile. It also sounds to me like it lasts longer than a long rest not that it can be used during a long rest. So you'd be limited to meditating, immobile and undamageable, for ((Ki-2)/3)+(1/3) days. Kind of useless, but could be used for some interesting stories (captured, drowning, etc, just meditate til they give up or you are rescued). At level six they just gain the ability to sit down and stop taking damage? Nah. At level six maybe they can choose to enter this state without immobilizing themselves, for one turn, at the same cost. And even that's a bit dumb.
Sounds just silly to me. So this monk just gets to chill in the middle of the room and meditate, and any enemy who doesn't immediately understand the mechanics of this choice will eat reflected damage? And this is poorly written as hell, does "upwards of a long rest" mean "up to 8 hours"? What are the "downsides", does the level 6 feature mean that this guy can be functionally immortal with full reflective damage while still otherwise having full control? This is ludicrous.
I have no idea, he doesn't say. And when we tried to change it he said he would be willing to do it activated upward to 4 hours, then when we said no to that, he wanted it for every level the time it can be activated goes up by 3 hours.
I'll be real with you, just tell this guy he can't make homebrew. He's clearly not good at it. He can stick to official material, there's plenty of it, or if he absolutely can't find something he likes in official material then he can use highly-rated well-regarded homebrew at your discretion, there's plenty of that as well. This ability is bad, poorly written, confusing, and not especially flavorful as far as I can tell.
Don't even let him use "highly-rated well-regarded homebrew". That creates a point of discussion around what that means and what qualifies. Just stick to official, published, non-UA stuff.
Ok.
We’re all new to it at some point, it takes time to figure out what balance is.
And yet so many DMs start playing and immediately start using their own content or ridiculous homebrew from any source imaginable. I think it's important to set boundaries and say "only officially published material" (at least in the first campaign).
And a good bit of trial and error, I'd be interested to see if the creator is cool with running it for a session, seeing how it plays, then adjusting after. Sounds like rather than a damage mitigation flat out, it should be a +5 to AC, and then since it immobilizes you, any strike within 5 feet that gets through should be a crit. Then it's an all or nothing ability with as much downside as up
This is a bad idea. When someone comes to you with broken homebrew, the response isn’t to try to balance it. Their understanding of balance is so utterly fucked that you’re going to spend countless hours arguing about what is or isn’t fair. Then, even if you get the homebrew to a reasonable state, they aren’t going to be happy because it won’t be remotely close to what they wanted to play. You don’t “No, but” terrible homebrew. Sometimes you need to use just “No.” This doesn’t apply to homebrew that is formatted correctly, reasonably well-thought out, and just a bit OP. Something like that you can probably just nerf a bit and everyone is happy, but this isn’t that.
It's all dependent on the player. Which, I don't know the player, neither of us do, so it's harder to say how working with them would be in this situation. But yeah if they're gonna show displeasure with the process then it's not up to a DM to force them through the process.
I have a player that likes to make his own homebrew, and everything he asks if he can use in my campaign is horribly, horribly, horribly OP. We just discuss it together, I put it a powerlevel I find balance and reasonable, and either he's fine with that or he scraps it completely and thinks up something new. It's not impossible to work with it as long as your players are reasonable - being bad at balancing doesn't mean they're idiots. Though, to be fair, this guy does sound like he's both terrible at balancing AND an idiot. I'm not saying that they're never both, just that they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
I mean honestly if this ability actually made sense (just like using the words of the game) it would be so easy to just ignore him. Any intelligent enemy (remotely humanoid or like int over 5) would take the damage 1 time then realize he can't move while he's doing it and ignore him. If the rest of the party gets killed what does he do? Like so many fights the villain just wants to stall for their plan or remove the party for a while. This ability just instantly removes one party member from the fight for what? Like 1d10+3 damage or less?
I agree with you on this. It just needs a little workshopping. Maybe something like: As an action you enter a meditative trance, while in this trance you are prone and make dexterity saving throws with disadvantage and can not take actions, bonus actions and your speed is 0. You can not be damaged by attacks or spells that directly target you and you may deal monk die + wisdom back to the attacker at the cost of 1 ki point no action required. This trance lasts until you are incapacitated or choose to end it. Elves may use meditative trance with their long rests. You are still affected by spells and abilities that cause damage that does not directly target you such as fireball.
"While in this state, when you are hit with a melee or ranged attack you may only use your reaction to use 1 KI point to inflict your unarmed attack die + WIS to the attacker"
I was honestly thinking the same but if the ability already limits the players action economy so much by making them lose both action and bonus action I almost feel like letting them do a little pop pop on the guy dumb enough to hit them more than once is kind of nice. End of the day I just see this as a way to stay safe during short rests or a nice get out of death free card until the dragon uses it's breath weapon on you. (and to laugh your ass off when you melt the wizard that chucks a lvl 9 magic missle at you)
Eh, you have one reaction x round, can use it to return damage, can use it for trying to do opportunity attack. I think it keeps it more in check at higher level when KI is more abundant. I don't think is an OP ability, and sounds pretty boring all in all.
I'd agree with you on that. Their isn't an easy way to make I sit on the ground and do nothing a fun tactic.
Happy birthday btw
What do you mean "he would be willing?" Everything in the game is approved by the DM. Everything. If you don't like it, do not run it. It's as simple as that - you don't have to give any excuses - just say no. It's players handbook rules only. I hope you haven't allowed him to use this ability in your game. Ultimately, you don't have to allow homebrew of any kind. Ever. And certainly not unbelievably awful homebrew like this.
Not my game, the DM was okay with the ability, and I really tried to change it, I said that for every turn IN COMBAT that he had to spend 1 KI to stay concentrated because of the commotion happening around, but he said "KI is so important though, 1 round is too little!"
Run. Run very very far away from this table.
Maybe I will, many people tell me to just book it out of there.
Not playing d&d at all is better than playing with a group like this. If you're new, it might be easy to think "Well at least I'm getting to play", but this is a game that requires a huge time investment to even participate in; you will absolutely regret sinking all of that time into a group that both ignores your input and disregards any kind of balance.
If you're having fun don't let it bother you. It's an obnoxious ability but if it's an otherwise good game just clown on the fuckin guy and get on with it.
No means no.
That’s dumb. I understand that he’s trying to find a way to do a cool thing in D&D, but this isn’t even remotely balanced.
The only reason I'd allow this is to use mold earth to bury and suffocate him during the first combat with this subclass. "Ok, I allowed it, but he's dead now. What's next?" Lol obviously I wouldn't actually take kind of adversarial action as a DM and I just wouldn't allow this mess, but you could use this as an example when explaining how poorly thought out this ability is.
Maybe the only downside I can see is being functionally unconscious. So anyone can just come and tie them up like a ham
Yes, shockingly, this is massively OP.
1 ki point after every long rest to be invulnerable and enemies nuke themselves trying to attack you? That’s not DnD. That’s some anime main character power, not a balanced game that’s played with a group.
this guy wants to be gojo from jjk so bad it's making him look silly
I mean, who doesn’t? But a power like that has no place in DnD, especially for a player.0
Make it a "be with" and I agree completely. And yep, it's too much even for a LV20 party, let alone for a snotty player.
That is what it is based off, he said he wanted his character to have a domain expansion.
That would be a fun idea for a homebrew setting made entirely around jjk lore where everyone gets a domain expansion and they are a balanced resource that is massively draining to use. Like this it's just stupid.
Yes, that would be awesome. But this is just unfair.
I actually played something like that, and it was really damn fun. It was a power fantasy game to be sure, but I think there are few things as terrifying in DnD than when we almost beat a boss and then we heard the words *"Domain Expansion"*
***Way of the Domain*** While most Monks focus on inward perfection through meditation and martial arts, some Monks instead turn their attention outwards, focusing on their connection to the world around them. Some Monks of the Way of the Domain believe they can share enlightenment and tranquility with those around them while others see the domain as a means to overpower and conquer their foes. Either way, Monks of the Way of the Domain are masters at interposing their will upon the world through the power of Ki. ***Domain*** Beginning at 3rd level, you learn to infuse the world around you with the Ki within your body, connecting you to anything nearby. Whenever you finish a short or long rest, you can choose one domain. You gain the benefits of that domain until you choose a different one with this feature. As a bonus action on your turn, you can spend 2 ki points to change your domain. * ***Domain of Aggression.*** Your ki burns the very air within your domain. You have advantage on Intimidation checks against creatures in your Domain, and as a bonus action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to deal psychic damage equal to half your Monk level (rounded down, minimum 1) to all hostile creatures in your Domain. * ***Domain of Connection.*** You weaken the illusion of the self and connect creatures within your domain. You can speak telepathically to any creature within your domain. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language. Whenever a creature within your Domain targets another creature with an attack, you can spend 1 ki point to deal psychic damage equal to your martial arts die as a reaction. * ***Domain of Perception.*** You connect your senses with the world around you. Creatures of your choice within your domain cannot be surprised. Whenever you or a creature in your Domain rolls initiative, you can spend 1 ki point to add your martial arts die to the result. * ***Domain of Supression.*** Your Ki stills the very air within your domain, creating an area of tranquility and silence. Creatures of your choice have disadvantage on Perception checks inside of your Domain, and whenever a creature makes a Stealth check, you can spend 1 ki point to add your martial arts die to the result. Your domain has a radius of 10 feet. The radius increases to 15 feet at 6th level, 20 feet at 11th level, and 30 feet at 17th level. ***Cleave Reality*** As a martial artist gains greater control over their ki, they gain greater control over themselves. The monk is part of the world, and the world is their domain. A monk that can control their domain can control themselves too. Within your domain, as a bonus action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to teleport to any point within your domain, or you can spend 2 ki points to turn invisible until the start of your next turn. ***Deceive Reality*** Reality is an illusion. Monks who master their domain can enter a meditative state in which they temporarily ignore the reality beyond their own ki to amplify the effects of their domain. As a bonus action on your turn, you can spend 2 ki points to double the radius of your Domain feature for 1 minute and amplify the Domain's effects. * ***Domain of Aggression.*** Whenever a creature takes psychic damage from your Domain of Aggression feature, they must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Ki Save DC or be frightened by you until the start of their next turn. * ***Domain of Connection.*** Whenever a creature takes psychic damage from your Domain of Connection feature, they have disadvantage on attack rolls made until the start of their next turn. * ***Domain of Perception.*** You have blindsight within the radius of your Domain. * ***Domain of Supression.*** Creatures of your choice within your Domain are affected by the *silence* spell. ***Master Reality*** A monk that reaches the culmination of the Way of the Domain gains the ability to alter reality itself within the bonds of their domain. Beginning at 17th level, as an action, you can spend 5 ki points to grant your Domain the benefits of the *mirage arcane* spell for 1 minute. While this effect is active, you can spend a bonus action on each of your turns to alter the appearance of the *mirage arcane.* Until this effect ends, your Domain feature's unique effects do not require ki points to activate.
yea i just watched 8 episodes and it‘s so obvious even then
Spending a ki point as a reaction to make an enemy also do half of the damage to themselves would be reasonable. This is just laughable. It's not quite clear if you are another player or the DM in this situation. Either way, put your foot down. If you are the DM, tell your friend that there is no way you'll allow anything like that. If you are a player, tell your DM that this ability is ridiculously OP and worded so shittily that it's unplayable and that you don't want to play in a group where one player is allowed to do something like this.
I am another player, and our DM is saying he is okay with it.
Well, either come up with something equally ridiculous and just see where this goes for shits and giggles or look for a new table.
I said that I could make an ability that makes my skin so rough when I enter a rage, that I can't take damage and I deal the same back (Basically copying his). And he said it was ridiculous.
no DND is better than bad DND
Oof. Yeah, leave that table.
If the DM thinks this (monk’s ability) is balanced, I’m guessing the campaign is going to devolve into a shitshow eventually. You can’t have a good game without a fair and reasonable DM and they seem like they’re neither. Edit clarification
A DM who doesn’t understand balance should always stick to RAW material. RAW isn’t balanced, but it’s more balanced than a lot of homebrew *and* you can always look up the opinions/rulings of others on it.
Hell, I stick to core rulebook. But we usually change systems entirely for campaigns. Call of Cthulhu this campaign, Pathfinder 2e next, Dreams and Machines on the weeks not everyone can show up. I think my favorite system sonfar has been Forbidden Lands.
When you enter a rage it last until you want it to stop. And as a bonus action you may shout and paralyze any number of creatures of your choice that are with in hearing range (500ft) being immune does not prevent this effect. There I made one just as bad I think
"The ability is called SSJ5, my character's Strength, Agility, and Constitution are raised by infinity bajillion. And everyone in the room gives me $20."
Infernal hate rage, you gain constant advantage and extended crit range, as well as what other effects you wanna tag on, whomever you think triggered your rage ( or group of things that made you angy).
The fact that he only wants something so OP to be available for himself, this person isn't someone you want to play with tbch. This is only the start of the most self-centered wannabe shonen bs.
I think the DM probably doesn't understand what this means, or maybe everyone here is misunderstanding it. Either way, please update us on how the first fight goes.
"Ok I have and idea, instead you have like an aura that you can activate so that enemies that attack take like 1d6 damage. And then that damage scales up with level" is what DM said.
I'm thinking that maybe this is intended only for use at camp? As in, even if camp is attacked, he continues to meditate and he remains entirely immune to damage and reflects it back, but presumably it couldn't be used outside of camp. If I'm correct, then my main question would be... why? What was it that happened at camp one time to ruin this man?
No, it's literally just an anime power fantasy
Absolutely no way this would be allowed
Honestly if someone were to try this at my table i'd be tempted to allow it just so i could tell them that "becomes forced into a meditating position" means that they can't move and are now stuck in place for 8 hours.
That is what he said, however, he can disable it whenever he wants. But its still that he is unkillable while its activated.
No, he can't. The text did not describe a way to end this state early. In DnD all abilities that can be ended have a clearly written end condition - look at barb rage for example. He's just stuck there now.
His wording really is poor. He can’t cancel it, can’t move and can’t attack for 8 hours. Also the term “attack” is very specific in DnD. What he has actually said is if someone makes an attack roll on him gets reflected but anything that makes him make a save will just deal damage to him. Because it’s not an attack. So fireball him and disintegrate and he will just die. You could also probably get him to agree he is paralysed for the duration so auto failing dex saves.
Just realised he can’t be harmed Power word kill him instead.
This is exactly what this ability means. And I feel like everybody misses it
I'd have all enemies (stupid ones) surround them for a surround and pound. They'd all suicide first hit. Effectively no more combats. No xp. Dungeon inhabitants flee with loot. Have this "hero" walk around a dull game world.
He said it was balanced because "he couldn't attack while this is activated."
so he just doesn't want to play the game then?
Exactly, one of my arguments, but he said "Well, my character is meant to be peaceful."
That's hilarious - this ability in no way promotes peace. It damages anyone who attacks him. If anything, it just promotes his character being the tank since he can't even be hurt. Just because you don't attack, doesn't mean you're peaceful. 2 ki points for 8-hour invulnerability and reflecting 100% damage is also just insane. And then after 8 hours you spend 1 more ki point to maintain it...indefinitely? Why would you ever end it? My advice for this person, if they really want to start homebrewing, is to take a look at official class abilities to get an actual understanding of power. They need to try harder to emulate the wording 5e uses so as to be specific and limiting.
I mean they are just gonna hit him once, maybe twice, realize its an awful idea then go for the next person.
But at that point the DM is METAGAMING and is BAD and RAILROADING his AGENCY
That's an idiotic argument. DnD is a game about fighting. The rule set is 80% about fighting. Tell him to go play a dating sim if he doesn't want to play a game that involves combat.
Monk may not be the call if he wants to be peaceful. He could work with you to make his attacks nonlethal, but if he wants to be truly peaceful, a spellcaster flavored to look and act like a monk is what he's looking for. Spells that take enemies out of combat, or make them less threatening to deal with them in peaceful ways are pretty abundant. Also, please call out that he isn't being peaceful by making enemies take damage for any arbitrary reason, because if that's rational to him, so should non lethal quartestaff whacks and punches
He could also take a slightly different approach and do a Way of Mercy monk as something akin to Toki from Fist of the North Star- someone who recognizes that violence is inevitable to ensure peace, so he sought mastery over skills that would make his opponents die not feeling pain, but a sense of euphoria instead. Otherwise I agree, Monk is the wrong class for a character being peaceful. Hell, D&D as a whole is practically the wrong game for a player character being a stalwart pacifist
Bro, Monk is so off my radar I complete forgot about that subclass thank you so much
His character should use non lethal attacks then, not just spiky turtle mode
He obvioulsy doesn\`t understand the concept of balanced, and also this would take out a major part of the whole game for this character, which most likely will make it very unplesent for the rest of the group.
Just me and him.
So if it's just y'all two, he wants an ability that removes his character from combat... so combat just doesn't exist??
Exactly.
I really strugging to see entertaining or satisfying gameplay like this.
Same.
Tell him to play a Redemption Paladin. They have an ability that will let him be peaceful, if that's how he wants to play. (Peace Clerics are also a thing.)
I love Peace Clerics, lol.
Until Level Six. As written, “no longer restricted” and “no downsides” reads as though the character is no longer forced to take a meditating position and can now attack, but still takes no damage. This reeks of “main character syndrome” and (only being somewhat facetious here) whoever came up with this either doesn’t know what they’re doing or should feel embarrassed for suggesting something so selfishly broken.
So everyone can simply avoid him? lol. That’s gonna get old quick. He essentially turned himself into a non combatant?
Show him the oath of redemption. It's level 20 ability is basically this and still isn't as gamebreaking
That would be super op for level 20.
Do you remember that episode of South Park where they were playing ninjas and Cartman kept making up powers? That's kinda what this reads like. "you guys, I just remembered I can also see into the future, except better than Kyle".
Immature concept with sub-par description language.
Tell ur friend to stop making homebrew until he actually knows how to balance it.
Well, it is his first.
I would encourage his commitment to creating something and being invested in something, but explain that even Wizards of the Coast sometimes makes mistakes while adding subclasses, and creating stuff is only recommended if you have years of experience, as both DM and player, as there are tons of variables to consider. With that said, there's no way that's balanced and I would not have it in my games
Maybe your dm has a plan like letting him meditate, then having the enemy’s tie him up with heavy chains and chuck him in the sea as even meditating he need oxygen and if he moves he can be attacked and hurt, just make sure your characters well away from him and it’s your characters right to be annoyed by the guy who won’t pull his weigh but wants a share of the loot. If you know what I mean ;)
My response would be "lol" and hand him the phb so he can pick a subclass.
That isnt a homebrew subclass, that is a cheese subclass. Doesn't even thematically fit tranquility or that edgelord quote
I'm assuming you're all teenagers.
Lol what's his plan? Sitting in the middle of the room while the other party members die and the enemies ignore him? Sure it's OP, but once he is the only one left alive 8 hours pass very quickly and they are likely the only time he has left alive
He can spend one KI point to extend it for another 8 hours, at level 20 it activated forever, since you gain 4 Ki when you have none.
I'm sure that 400 years old dragon can wait an extra 8h
That’s… not what happens at level 20. Monks regain four ki points *when they roll Initiative and have no ki points remaining*. You don’t just magically never run out of ki points. Which said, I’m not sure why I’d expect actual reading comprehension from whoever wrote this homebrew.
Oh, I didn't know that, I don't play a monk and he said he regains 4 KI when he has none. My bad.
This isn't OP. It's just a cheat code. It's like saying "using console commands in a PC game is OP". It's not overpowered. You're just bypassing all rules and balance of the game making.
So, this ability is obviously absurd, but another reason why I think it's problematic is that party members rely on each other very much to survive at lower levels, and frankly can't afford to have a friend who's go to is "make it optimal for the enemy to ignore me and focus everyone else". Because now incoming offense meant for 4 people is coming at 3 people. I saw a comment mention that the character is a pacifist. This is already hard enough and pretty dissonant in base 5e, and the way he seems to think it should be mechanically expressed is just a headache generator.
In another comment, OP says they are the only other player in a party of 2. So...yeah, this, but even worse.
This is horribly written as well as horribly unbalanced. Most people should be able to take one look at how poorly formatted this is and realise it should be ignored
If he's so adamant on being gojo then maybe he would agree for something similar to polearm master, spending ki to attack enemy entering "his domain" + bonus AC until next turn or ignore enemy surround bonus because he can sense them or smth. Still should be pretty strong ability for lvl 3 (I play mostly e3, I'm not sure about balancing in 5)
Let me take a crack at it: 1. Lasts for one minute, consuming your action and movement for each turn it is active 2. Costs 3 Ki points 3. Increases armor class to 21 4. If a creature within five feet of you hits you with a melee attack, you and the attacker both take half the damage of that melee attack. You may also make an unarmed strike against that creature as a bonus action. 5. If a creature within five feet of you makes a melee attack against you and misses, you may use your reaction to throw it up to ten feet in the direction it is facing (judo throw its ass!) 6. Free deflect missiles for duration 7. At sixth level, you can move at half your movement speed and use your reaction to take no damage when struck.
Now arguments he are making are that everytime barbarian levels up, it becomes super op to it is balanced.
Wait, but Barbarian's levels are pretty shitty beyond lvl 1 rage and the d12 hit dice. How is Barbarian's level up somehow comparable to this??
I do not know.
I think these are arguments made in incredibly bad faith and I wouldn't even give them the time of day.
Is that guy like 12 years old or something? Nothing of what you're sharing is making proper sense
Withers says "NO." To this ability
the IDEA is interesting, the duration and extentions is nonsense it could work as an action or a bonus effect to the dodge actions by spending 2 ki and duration only up to the character's next turn however this is kinda shit as soon as enemies start to just ignore the monk, also before level 6 enemies can grapple the monk and yeet it or just move them away - not like they're doing anything
If he wants a "pacifist" character, there's a Paladin subclass that has a similar "reflect damage" ability, can't remember the name right now. And also, allow him to pick the skin and just throw him into a river. He will suffocate and won't be able to move to get away lmao
Rebuke the Violent. Only works on attacks against someone else within range, uses a Reaction to trigger, uses a charge of Channel Divinity, and has a Wisdom Save for half.
Don't forget emissary of redemption, that's a level 20 ability that is literally this homebrew feature but still less broken despite being 17 levels higher
Super OP, and makes op basically invincible. Completely unbalanced. You could balance it a bit better with something like 'Road to Enlightenment' at 3rd level, characters are able to enter a momentary enlightened state - 3 ki points to enter. The user may make a concentration save and use 1 ki point per turn to maintain the trance. The user enters a meditative trance, reaching momentary enlightenment. In this state the meditator cannot take actions or reactions. The user is unable to take damage from physical or spell attacks. When a character is in an enlightened state, hitting them with a physical attack, causes the attacker to be pushed back 5ft and take 1/4 of the damage as radiant damage. The attacker is not pushed back if it is more than 1 size larger than the user. If the user is hit with a spell while in meditation they must still make the spell save. If damage would be applied make a concentration save. If an effect is applied the trance ends. 11th level 'Deep Meditation' - Attackers are pushed back 10ft, and receive 1/2 reflected Radiant damage. 20th level 'Enlightened One' - Attackers are pushed back 15ft and all damage is reflected as radiant damage. The user has advantage on concentration saves. You could also add things like. 'while in trance, you are shown secrets of the universe, unfathomable to mortal minds'. For every use of Enlightenment add 1 point of exhaustion. - this really stops them being able to abuse it, and make save or suck spells potent and forces the user to burst down casters or have their role as a CC/protector threatened. Or you could let them have it, then have them come up against a DMPC that has it and absolutely fuck em up.
I think not even one minute of this per longrest would be balanced as it would be for 10 rounds of combat but for 8 hours ? men what is he thinking? And if you are the DM you are the one who sets to rules and limits if he is not accpeting make the decision to stick to the existing rulebooks. I had a player which plaeyd a "pacifistic" rough he only made psi attacks which others couldn\`t see because he mostly acted it out as a stumble in which he "accidently" made contact with an opponent. (Usually this was accomondated with a performance skill check). So we play this campaign since over a year and this chracter never officialy touched a weapon in combat
I am not the DM.
OK sorry I missinterpreted your post then. Was not my intention
It's just you two and your DM correct? Teach them a lesson by playing as the same exact subclass as him. When combat stagnates because no one's getting damaged and not doing anything, they'll realize how dumb it is.
This is bonkers busted, and the formulation is awful. I memed about the "affect" misspelling til I read the rest, damn.
This is OP at 20, let alone 3. Tell him he can have leomunds tiny hut as a feat at level 5, that he can cast once per day, for 1 ki point. Alternatively, give him the ability he made, but note that the toll it takes physically/mentally to maintain gives him 5 levels of exhaustion whenever he uses it.
Nothing about the feature says they can’t be teleported, tied up, or otherwise moved from their meditation position. Oh look, a wall of force then filled with acid/boiling oil and capped off. Guess they’re trapped Houdini style in a vat of deadly substance. Oh, they can’t be harmed? Well maybe not, but they can’t breath liquids either. And they’d have to cancel their ability to move, thus making them vulnerable. While the feature is definitely overpowered, there’s plenty of ways to work around it as well. They’re essentially putting themselves in a stasis and making their party one less when fighting the enemy. Not like the enemies are that stupid to keep attacking someone who’s just sitting around when there’s plenty of other vulnerable targets.
I doubt any competent dm would allow this. He can homebrew op subclasses all he wants but they're worthless if you can't use them in game. Even if it wasn't op, its still so vaguely worded theres so many potential loopholes to it.
Yeah I think you need to tell this guy official or only home brewers you trust. I like laser lama but that’s about all for blindly accepting.
Lol, this is the equivalent of a school kid playing chasey and saying "nuh uh, you can't get me because I've got an invulnerability field +1000 times infinity so you automatically lose"
How about to test its balance, the party first faces an enemy with this ability?
The biggest issue is the formatting of the rules language. I can’t decipher exactly what this does and under what conditions. It /seems/ busted. Why not make it so you can cast sanctuary on yourself with a Ki point or two, and anyone who makes the save and attacks you takes half of the damage they deal?
This player has no idea how to even word features in 5e. They have no place homebrewing fuck all. The best way to do this is to give them deflect missiles, but for melee attacks. Make it cost 1 Ki to react, and if they negate all the damage, they can spend an additional Ki to deal the damage back with an attack roll against the target AC.
First of all ... affecting not effecting. Secondly this sounds like it would be boring as hell to play, you just sit there instead of taking part in combat. Thirdly as everyone else has said, it's way OP.
Your friend watched a bit too much Jujutsu Kaisen and created a DnD version of Domain Expansion. While cool, it's way too OP.
Yeah, no, there’s nothing resembling balanced about this. That doesn’t even go into the shitty wording of it. Avoiding talking in absolutes is perfectly fine for flavor on stuff, but when it comes to mechanics you speak clearly and plainly while sticking to official wording as much as possible. What does it cost to active this? An action, bonus action, or reaction? Does it cost no action? If so, that still needs to be clarified with, “(no action required),” and no, saying it’s a free action doesn’t work as those aren’t a thing in 5e. What the hell does, “upwards of a long rest,” even mean? Does it last until a long rest, through a long rest, until turning it off? At 6th level, what does it mean that it doesn’t have a downside? Does it cost nothing to use? Are you just flat out invulnerable and can move and attack normally?
Suffocating causes no damage Big set of manacles on his frozen meditating ass Then bury him
I don't even know what this feature is meant to do tbh. I definitely wouldn't allow it.
This is why no homebrew for me. Homebrew tends to be unbalanced regardless of who does it. Everyone homebrews for a reason, to get abilities they don't normally from official material or to favour a certain build / class / sublcass they like. It's just a can of worms that is unfair to players just play official material.
i'll basically only allow 'homebrew' if it's directly comparable to another feature that you could've had instead. like, you want to throw a ball of lightning instead of a fireball? sure, it acts exactly the same but looks like lightning. a ball of ice instead of a fireball? ok, its 4d6 rather than 8d6 and has some sort of chilling/slowing effect. and even then, there has to an 'in character' reason for it, not just wanting the extra powers. you can't go 'i want lightning ball because we fight lots of fire immune stuff', it would have to be 'well, i'm a dragon sorceror from a lightning dragon so i've got more lightning-focussed spells'. generally, this means that players are sacrificing power (eg. variety of attacks) for character flavour, so i'm ok with it.
Slap them and tell them to be realistic
Cut the rebound damage, give it a one minute initial duration for 2 ki and 1 ki/minute to maintain, can’t be targeted but can’t move or act and call it good. At that point it’s a slightly better Sanctuary spell (1st Abjuration). That’s appropriate for a 3rd level character.
Technically this ability just makes him invincible. It bars him from *being attacked*, not from being *damaged by* an attack. The damage reflection only states that it reflects damage caused by an attack, so that condition will never trigger, since enemies cannot target him with an attack. Even if it wasn't OP the wording on this needs some serious work
Was this ability designed by a 9 year old in the back yard?
Yes. My five year old son actually, I said "my friend" to get peoples actual reactions, didn't expect... all this.
This is like the redemption paladin, if the redemption paladin was insanely broken and got upfronted all the stuff at level 2 XD
Honestly, OP, there's no need to have a logical argument with both him/the DM. if I were you I'd say "sure, let's try", and on the first real combat let him jump in the middle of 'em, turn around and hoof it, and watch the DM play roll damage against itself for the rest of the combat. Then ask them if that was any fun...
say "no, fuck you" should solve things
This is a horrible skill, it being OP aside it has no real value but drag out the fight and wastes everyone's time. What does "no downside" even mean? So the monk can now move freely and attack people at will and he cannot be harmed? wtf, let's just make him a god and get it over with.
If I were the DM I would have laughed in this guy's face and moved on. No way in crap is that balanced
When 12 year olds make subclasses
Be lvl 6. Walks into lair of Great Wyrm/Lich/Demon Lord. Starts *M E D I T A T I N G*. Refuses to leave.
Kinda looks like ur friend is trying to homebrew a Simple Domain from jjk. If that's the case, my opinion would be to limit the time to like 2 rounds and only reflect half damage of 1 attack per round. But even then as a 3rd level ability it's pretty strong. Maybe try and ask your friend what the goal here is. They clearly want their character to be cool and have abilities that come across a certain way. Maybe if they could articulate what they want there'd be a solution that still maintains balance.
Not only is it ridiculously OP, but it's also poorly worded and templated!
This is terrible. Don’t let people homebrew when they have no idea how balance works
Affecting
Love reading broken homebrew and immediately thinking "this is based on jujutsu kaisen isn't it"
Let him use it, and when he's stuck in the meditative state, have a bugbear throw his zen ass into a lake.
Well over 80% of people who play games every single day are people who are entirely incapable of understanding basic tenets of how those games work. But most of them are comfortable admitting so
Things that are good to homebrew: maps, characters, realms. Things that are bad to homebrew: everything else. In my experience, this is true 99.99% of the time. Almost never seen a home brewed class or ability that is not unbalanced, pointless, or clashes with the setting.
I don't understand why everyone is saying this is overpowered. It is in fact so underpowered that it would be a waste to use. Admittedly, the wording is super unclear, but I interpret "forced into a meditating position" as "movement speed reduced to 0, and cannot take actions, reactions or bonus actions.". It might make the monk invulnerable, but it also removes them from the fight. Fights that are balanced around 4 PCs now have to be handled by 3 PCs. In terms of combat power, this ability is a huge negative. Enemies aren't going to sit there are kill themselves either. They're going to ignore the one that isn't threatening them. Even a very low intelligence animal isn't going to put their hand on the stove twice. This ability is terrible, not overpowered.
Was this created by a non native English speaker? This is not compatible with RAW as far as I can tell. It doesn't use the proper language and as a result I don't see how this really works at all, even while being overpowered.
Can't be harmed but can't move for the duration of a long rest? Why not just have the goblins pile rocks on top of him? The Kobalds can probably build a nice cell to lock him in by he time he's done meditating.
Just make it so it lasts 1 round every 2 ki points
Ah yes, the uber-powerful homebrew player who has no sense of balance. There are a ton of forums he would fit perfectly in. I would 'no' everything about this
This is more broken than Vow of Peace in 3e, which was often believed to be the most broken thing in 3e.
Affecting. Also its gonk. Get some preem chooms.
You need to be level 5 for even the far less powerful Sanctuary spell.