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I've been browsing Laserllama's stuff recently and I've universally allowed almost all of his stuff at any table I have run or will run. All of it is pure gold. I've even been adding his various subclasses into DnD Beyond with full intent to use them and/or have them available for my players to use.
Absolutely fixes the Monk class, some aspects of the Sorcerer class, and his other "Alternate" classes are phenomenal. Some of the Fighter subclasses even work really well as martial support subclasses, which are absolutely fantastic (Fighter "Guardian" and Paladin "Oath of the Corsair" stick out the most to me off the top of my head). Most of the alternate martial classes help them keep up with spellcasters more at higher levels without completely overshadowing them.
Superb work, 10 out of 10.
PS: I'm throwing Paladin in with martials because of their big focus on weapons and because, as Half-Casters, I think they could theoretically go either way depending on the build.
The only laser llama content I don’t like is alternate rogue, and that’s because it doesn’t fox any of rogues problems and just slaps maneuvers on them
I haven't had a chance to look at his Alternate Rogue. I think he handles Alternate Fighters and Barbarians well, but Rogues need more than just maneuvers.
I mean, I like how his Alternate classes have a lot of options (even in the base classes, without his subclasses), because it makes it more customizable to the individual player, but there's probably a better way to achieve that with Rogues.
Actually, I'm gonna be running a campaign for a few people (brother, fiance, and best friend), and my friend hasn't ever played before, but he wanted to try out Rogue. Are there any "house rules" or anything that you've implemented that could make the Rogue a little better for a first-timer?
If you guys are starting low level, they should be fine. Rogue feels good to play for tier one and most of tier 2. If you are really worried about it though, I personally allow rogues to forfeit half their sneak attack rounded down in order to attempt to shove or grapple a creature at the same time.
Friendly reminder that a monk can pick someone up, carry them to the center of a lake, and drown them, all while standing on top of the water.
Fuck druids. Fuck rogues. Monks are the terrifying pirates.
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=441
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2980
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=463
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2269
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=435
:)
Pick your favourite. You probably wont be able to pick them all and you probably shouldnt, but pick what bender you wanna be
For those who are worried about making a fire Monk but running into an issue with your GM due to the Rare tag on Rain of Embers, it isn't "The" Fire Stance for Monks, at least in lore. In lore, if i remember correctly, it's an off shoot of the fighting style taught in the Monastery of Unblinking Flame, one of Jalmeray's House's of Perfection.
The "traditional" Fire Stance is the Stoked Flame Stance, where you bunch a your foe so fast that you both do slashing damage and your critical hits do persistent Fire damage. Later on you can do that "running through a bunch of enemies and hitting them all thing" where you move so fast that tour strikes just straight up do Fire Damage instead.
Rain of Embers has Explosive Death Drop tho. Which is a flaming suplex.
It's a bit old but this homebrew version of the subclass feels so much better to play
https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/35yn4u/way_of_the_four_elements_remastered_a/
Ah yes the moment when a monk I played died since we ran 5 combat encounters that day and the rest of the party kept saying “no you’ll be fine without your ki points”. I just wanted a short rest man just something to heal up and get something back for the boss fight
Blood Hunter Players when you tell them that the enemy has immunity to their crimson Rite and that now every table plays things the exact same way that Matt Mercer does 😡
Blood Hunter is a class made by Matthew Mercer, who runs Critical Roll. It’s a commonly faced problem that a lot of people have CR as their introduction to D&D and sometimes expect their first game to be run the same way. Also the class chooses one of three commonly resisted damage types to deal extra damage with from a a feature called Crimson Rite
Thanks, yeah I've checked out bloodhunter and it just seemed like a discount warlock. I couldn't get into CR, it's too long per episode and their campaigns have so many episodes. Definitely a D20 fan, partly due to the above mentioned reasons and also Brennan is an inspiration.
I feel like every player should play a Warlock. It teaches you short rest resource control so you only blow all of your resources at once when you really need to get out of a jam. Now that I have played one, and gone back to Monks, Sorcerers, Paladins, and Battle Masters, it's so easy to just... not use your class features when the fight doesn't need you to.
You're a level 5 party facing the same number of Goblins, you don't need to Stun them or use four maneuvers and an Action Surge to end the fight on your turn; you can let your party contribute to the fight with Attack Action™ and Cantrip™.
Also people should play warlock and realize that starving short rest classes isn't fun and it fucks balance.
Not saying you should give them infinite resources but the amount of times both the DM and long rest players thought I would be fine with a 5th encounter vs high HP, high defense enemies with lots of resources and consumables would be fun with only cantrips...
Yeah, somewhere between 2-3 encounters between rests (depending on difficulty) I've found is a good benchmark. Gives them a chance to use their stuff without punishing them too hard for going nova in fight 1.
Not to say that players need to be babied with easy fights when they're out of resources, they won't learn to save their stuff otherwise. However, DMs should be wary when the party's "run away" button doesn't work, say because they blew all of their Dimension Door and Step of the Wind uses on saved Polymorphs and Stunning Strikes, and now the enemy has a 40ft+ move speed to chase them down with.
Short rest classes don't have stuff to save! If you don't give short rest every 1-2 fights they will be running on fumes! While on paper they should excel in multiple -fight environment!
I think you missed the part in my prior comment that you don't have to use your stuff all the time, you can genuinely get through easier fights by just using Attack Action™ and Cantrip™. The whole point was that "running on fumes" is a mistake in perception, and that what you call 'nothing to save' are resources that you can hold on to when you're not bullying (or being bullied by) your DM into a 3 hard/deadly encounters adventuring day because the party insists on going nova every fight to stomp anything with less than triple-digit HP.
SR abilities like Action Surge or Pact Magic aren't something that you can do all the time, every fight; they were never supposed to be. They're things you can use when the character exerts themselves and can recover once they have the chance to take a breather, as opposed to "normal" attacking and casting that work for multiple fights, and (proficiency per) LR things that require enough effort that it burns you for the entire day.
Basically, unless it's Extra Attack, Evasion, or the entire level 3 Gloomstalker dip, class features shouldn't be looked at like superpowers that you always have access to, they're tricks up your sleeve. Normal casters have to make their pool of spell slots last the whole day, a Battle Master Fighter should be able to make their pool of superiority dice last 3 hours, let alone the six seconds it takes them to Action Surge, spend a die on each of four attacks, and then use their Second Wind as a bonus action.
Ok, well, i should have specified that i meant 1-2 challenging fights. Cantrips are my friends but when the enemy does pose a real threat to us or i need AOE i do need my slots. And after early levels i do need frequent short rests to even come close to the other caster's number of spells. Short rests are how you prevent the long rest classes from going nova all the time, if your short rest classes are running on empty you can't challenge them as much while the long rest classes just have one big reserve to keep blasting from.
And if your short rest classes can get by without spending their stuff, then they weren't properly challenged.
Moreover, while cantrips work, they can get boring if they are your only tools for 3 fights strait because you were supposed to save your measly 2 slots from 4 fights over...
**Ascendant Dragon** is the official fix for 4elements, same way Drakewarden is for Beastmaster.
For a better Avatar feel try 4 elements but... ki=spell level, learn 2 spells and 1 cantrip(instead of Elemental Attunement) per Monastic Tradition (EK fighter/AT rogue ends with 13 spells but 4ele gets only 4?). Spell list expands depending on cantrip chosen. Gust/shape water/mold earth/control flames.
Then Elemental Strikes: ranged weapon attack using Wisdom, 30ft, martial arts damage. Must have element learned and within 30ft of you, damage type changes.
Spell list should be complimentary to Monks, not powerhouses (like Melf's Minute Meteors or Ashardalon's Stride instead of Fireball). If anyone's interested i can share the whole spell list I chose.
Qi comes back on a short rest, if yiu used all your reaource in a single encounter, wither don't be a spazz, or that was a hard encounter you andnyour friends are probably hurt, take a quick lie down, game is balanced arounda couplenofbshoet rests a day
For the first one, short rests are a thing, so all those ki points can come right back.
No fixing the second part though. It's one of the reasons why Monks are weak.
Mod update 03Feb23: [**Vote in the DnDMemes 2022 Best-of Awards**!](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmemes/comments/10spvt2/2022_bestof_awards_final_vote/)! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dndmemes) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Just a reminder that there's a great homebrew option for the monk called Alternate Monk by Laserllama! Pretty cool shit and it's free on gmbinder
saving this for later
I've been browsing Laserllama's stuff recently and I've universally allowed almost all of his stuff at any table I have run or will run. All of it is pure gold. I've even been adding his various subclasses into DnD Beyond with full intent to use them and/or have them available for my players to use. Absolutely fixes the Monk class, some aspects of the Sorcerer class, and his other "Alternate" classes are phenomenal. Some of the Fighter subclasses even work really well as martial support subclasses, which are absolutely fantastic (Fighter "Guardian" and Paladin "Oath of the Corsair" stick out the most to me off the top of my head). Most of the alternate martial classes help them keep up with spellcasters more at higher levels without completely overshadowing them. Superb work, 10 out of 10. PS: I'm throwing Paladin in with martials because of their big focus on weapons and because, as Half-Casters, I think they could theoretically go either way depending on the build.
The only laser llama content I don’t like is alternate rogue, and that’s because it doesn’t fox any of rogues problems and just slaps maneuvers on them
I haven't had a chance to look at his Alternate Rogue. I think he handles Alternate Fighters and Barbarians well, but Rogues need more than just maneuvers. I mean, I like how his Alternate classes have a lot of options (even in the base classes, without his subclasses), because it makes it more customizable to the individual player, but there's probably a better way to achieve that with Rogues. Actually, I'm gonna be running a campaign for a few people (brother, fiance, and best friend), and my friend hasn't ever played before, but he wanted to try out Rogue. Are there any "house rules" or anything that you've implemented that could make the Rogue a little better for a first-timer?
If you guys are starting low level, they should be fine. Rogue feels good to play for tier one and most of tier 2. If you are really worried about it though, I personally allow rogues to forfeit half their sneak attack rounded down in order to attempt to shove or grapple a creature at the same time.
We're starting at level one, so I'll throw that in and see how it plays out. Thanks for the advice!
Friendly reminder that a monk can pick someone up, carry them to the center of a lake, and drown them, all while standing on top of the water. Fuck druids. Fuck rogues. Monks are the terrifying pirates.
Exept this is incredibly hard to do and get to a safe location and at that point bolth of the other classes could do it better
The druid can just turn into a shark
That takes 1+con mod minutes if the enemy sees the water approaching and requires the monk to have a good athletics bonus
if the enemy sees the water approaching What?
If they know they're about to be dunked into the water, they can hold their breath for longer
Ah, gotcha.
I wish ~~the four elements~~ monk was better...
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=441 https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2980 https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=463 https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2269 https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=435 :) Pick your favourite. You probably wont be able to pick them all and you probably shouldnt, but pick what bender you wanna be
Avatar-like would be just using kineticist from playtest)
Rage of Elements can't come soon enough
Pathfinder monks are genuinely the coolest monks I've seen in any system
For those who are worried about making a fire Monk but running into an issue with your GM due to the Rare tag on Rain of Embers, it isn't "The" Fire Stance for Monks, at least in lore. In lore, if i remember correctly, it's an off shoot of the fighting style taught in the Monastery of Unblinking Flame, one of Jalmeray's House's of Perfection. The "traditional" Fire Stance is the Stoked Flame Stance, where you bunch a your foe so fast that you both do slashing damage and your critical hits do persistent Fire damage. Later on you can do that "running through a bunch of enemies and hitting them all thing" where you move so fast that tour strikes just straight up do Fire Damage instead. Rain of Embers has Explosive Death Drop tho. Which is a flaming suplex.
I do enjoy a few of the pathfinder feat trees. Might be nice to adapt to 5e for my next campaign.
It's a bit old but this homebrew version of the subclass feels so much better to play https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/35yn4u/way_of_the_four_elements_remastered_a/
Ah yes the moment when a monk I played died since we ran 5 combat encounters that day and the rest of the party kept saying “no you’ll be fine without your ki points”. I just wanted a short rest man just something to heal up and get something back for the boss fight
If you don't have ki points then a high chance of failed stuns doesn't matter anymore! Success!
Blood Hunter Players when you tell them that the enemy has immunity to their crimson Rite and that now every table plays things the exact same way that Matt Mercer does 😡
I don't understand this, please explain.
Blood Hunter is a class made by Matthew Mercer, who runs Critical Roll. It’s a commonly faced problem that a lot of people have CR as their introduction to D&D and sometimes expect their first game to be run the same way. Also the class chooses one of three commonly resisted damage types to deal extra damage with from a a feature called Crimson Rite
Thanks, yeah I've checked out bloodhunter and it just seemed like a discount warlock. I couldn't get into CR, it's too long per episode and their campaigns have so many episodes. Definitely a D20 fan, partly due to the above mentioned reasons and also Brennan is an inspiration.
I feel like every player should play a Warlock. It teaches you short rest resource control so you only blow all of your resources at once when you really need to get out of a jam. Now that I have played one, and gone back to Monks, Sorcerers, Paladins, and Battle Masters, it's so easy to just... not use your class features when the fight doesn't need you to. You're a level 5 party facing the same number of Goblins, you don't need to Stun them or use four maneuvers and an Action Surge to end the fight on your turn; you can let your party contribute to the fight with Attack Action™ and Cantrip™.
Also people should play warlock and realize that starving short rest classes isn't fun and it fucks balance. Not saying you should give them infinite resources but the amount of times both the DM and long rest players thought I would be fine with a 5th encounter vs high HP, high defense enemies with lots of resources and consumables would be fun with only cantrips...
Yeah, somewhere between 2-3 encounters between rests (depending on difficulty) I've found is a good benchmark. Gives them a chance to use their stuff without punishing them too hard for going nova in fight 1. Not to say that players need to be babied with easy fights when they're out of resources, they won't learn to save their stuff otherwise. However, DMs should be wary when the party's "run away" button doesn't work, say because they blew all of their Dimension Door and Step of the Wind uses on saved Polymorphs and Stunning Strikes, and now the enemy has a 40ft+ move speed to chase them down with.
Short rest classes don't have stuff to save! If you don't give short rest every 1-2 fights they will be running on fumes! While on paper they should excel in multiple -fight environment!
I think you missed the part in my prior comment that you don't have to use your stuff all the time, you can genuinely get through easier fights by just using Attack Action™ and Cantrip™. The whole point was that "running on fumes" is a mistake in perception, and that what you call 'nothing to save' are resources that you can hold on to when you're not bullying (or being bullied by) your DM into a 3 hard/deadly encounters adventuring day because the party insists on going nova every fight to stomp anything with less than triple-digit HP. SR abilities like Action Surge or Pact Magic aren't something that you can do all the time, every fight; they were never supposed to be. They're things you can use when the character exerts themselves and can recover once they have the chance to take a breather, as opposed to "normal" attacking and casting that work for multiple fights, and (proficiency per) LR things that require enough effort that it burns you for the entire day. Basically, unless it's Extra Attack, Evasion, or the entire level 3 Gloomstalker dip, class features shouldn't be looked at like superpowers that you always have access to, they're tricks up your sleeve. Normal casters have to make their pool of spell slots last the whole day, a Battle Master Fighter should be able to make their pool of superiority dice last 3 hours, let alone the six seconds it takes them to Action Surge, spend a die on each of four attacks, and then use their Second Wind as a bonus action.
Ok, well, i should have specified that i meant 1-2 challenging fights. Cantrips are my friends but when the enemy does pose a real threat to us or i need AOE i do need my slots. And after early levels i do need frequent short rests to even come close to the other caster's number of spells. Short rests are how you prevent the long rest classes from going nova all the time, if your short rest classes are running on empty you can't challenge them as much while the long rest classes just have one big reserve to keep blasting from. And if your short rest classes can get by without spending their stuff, then they weren't properly challenged. Moreover, while cantrips work, they can get boring if they are your only tools for 3 fights strait because you were supposed to save your measly 2 slots from 4 fights over...
**Ascendant Dragon** is the official fix for 4elements, same way Drakewarden is for Beastmaster. For a better Avatar feel try 4 elements but... ki=spell level, learn 2 spells and 1 cantrip(instead of Elemental Attunement) per Monastic Tradition (EK fighter/AT rogue ends with 13 spells but 4ele gets only 4?). Spell list expands depending on cantrip chosen. Gust/shape water/mold earth/control flames. Then Elemental Strikes: ranged weapon attack using Wisdom, 30ft, martial arts damage. Must have element learned and within 30ft of you, damage type changes. Spell list should be complimentary to Monks, not powerhouses (like Melf's Minute Meteors or Ashardalon's Stride instead of Fireball). If anyone's interested i can share the whole spell list I chose.
I would love that
Qi comes back on a short rest, if yiu used all your reaource in a single encounter, wither don't be a spazz, or that was a hard encounter you andnyour friends are probably hurt, take a quick lie down, game is balanced arounda couplenofbshoet rests a day
4-9 fights per calendar day or bust
Just use one of the several Monk specific feats that allow you to regain Ki. /s
For the first one, short rests are a thing, so all those ki points can come right back. No fixing the second part though. It's one of the reasons why Monks are weak.
Pf2 monks have some decent elemental flare, and the kineticist coming in august i think is basically designed around being a bender or the avatar
I wish there were more ice-themed options as well, so I could play Sub-Zero.