The only brand-new subclass in this UA, or at least it would be brand new if it weren't in the previous Arcane Subclass UA, the Tattooed Warrior is a cool concept: a Monk who gains powers from the various tattoos or other markings on their body.
The problem I had with the previous version, though, was that I found it committed some of the sins of the Way of Four Elements Monk from 2014 (the Warrior of Elements is far better, and the 2024 subclass I actually have the strongest character concept for,) namely that activating anything in the class required the expenditure of Focus Points at the expense of other Monk features.
But let's look at this fresh.
Level 3:
Magic Tattoos:
You gain magic tattoos from other features in this subclass. Damage and injury doesn't impair the function, and the tattoos can also take the forms of brands, scarification, birthmarks, patterns on scales, etc. If their effects have a DC, you derive it from your Wisdom, like most Monk features with DCs. If the tattoo gives you a spell, your spellcasting ability is Wisdom.
On a Long Rest, you can swap one of your tattoos, changing it out with another choice from the same list.
Basic stuff: the key is that you're not "upgrading" your old tattoos with the swapping mechanic. Instead, you're going to be able to swap with tattoos of the same power.
As a note, my concern going forward is if the choices presented break up too many things that could be a single feature - choice is fine and fun, as long as it's not giving you a fraction of what another subclass would be getting automatically.
Beast Tattoos:
You get two animal tattoos, choosing from the following options:
Bat: You know Dancing Lights and gain Blindsight out to 10 feet.
Thematically, I love Blindsight on a Monk.
Butterfly: You know the Light cantrip, and you can use Dexterity instead of Strength for calculating your High Jump distance.
I wonder if this could also work with Long Jumps? Also, I feel like Moth would be the better animal for this, given their association with light.
Crane: You know Guidance. When you miss a creature with an attack from Flurry of Blows, you have advantage on your next attack roll against the target before the end of your next turn.
Hm, a bit of concern: the others have been more utility, while this is a damage output feature.
Horse: You know Message, and when you expend 1 Focus Point to use Step of the Wind (getting Disengage along with your Dash) your speed increases by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.
The good news is that this is attached to an existing use of a Focus Point rather than costing one independently. I don't know if I'd really bother with this because Monks are already pretty fast, and that 10 feet is kind of proportionately devalued. Then again, if you want to get the absolute hell away from a monster, this can be good.
Tortoise: You know Spare the Dying, and when you expend 1 FP to use Patient Defense, you also get a +1 bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn.
Ok, so, spending the FP on Patient Defense gets you the Dodge effect (on top of a free Disengage). The extra AC will make the dodge somewhat more effective. I'm not really inspired by this one.
Overall, I feel like you've basically got to take Crane, though at least the second choice is a bit more open. But how does this compare with the Mercy, Shadow, Elements, or Open Hand Monk's 3rd level features? I'd say it's not, like, profoundly less powerful, but I do think we might be hitting that "paying for the ability to choose" thing that worried me.
Level 6:
Celestial Tattoo gives you a new tattoo category, with three options, from which you choose one.
Comet: When you take the Search action (which covers most Wisdom skills, like Perception or Insight) you can expend 1 FP to roll your Martial Arts die and add the number to the check.
Uh oh. Yeah, I know FP is easier to get back than Ki Points were in 2014, but this concerns me.
Eclipse: When you take the Hide action, you can expend 1 FP to roll your Martial Arts die and add the number to the Dexterity (Stealth) check.
Yeah, this is a theme. Here, though, it's limited to a single skill.
Sunburst: When you take the Study action (i.e., most Intelligence checks) you can expend 1 FP to roll your Martial Arts die and add the number to the Intelligence check.
You get it.
Yeah, I think I hate these. You can't even choose to roll these after you've seen your initial roll, so sucks for you if you already rolled a natural 19 or something.
As a tentative redesign, I might make it first that you get to see what you roll on the d20 before you commit the FP to boosting it. I would then probably also add in something like a Soulknife's Psi-Empowered Knack protection where the FP is only expended if this makes the check a success.
But I still kind of don't like this. De-couple this from FP, maybe? I get that they want to give them a not-necessarily-combat ability. Couldn't we have one that boosts Influence actions? And what if this was just, like Wis times per long rest?
Level 11:
Nature Tattoo:
We get another tattoo list, this time themed on natural phenomena.
Sea Storm: You gain resistance to one of the following: Cold, Lightning, or Thunder damage. When you finish a short or long rest or use your Uncanny Metabolism feature, you can change this choice.
Volcano: Same idea except it's Acid, Fire, and Poison.
I think you could just give all three all the time, just picking between one tattoo or the other. I don't think this is overpowered, in part because this subclass still hasn't gotten anything really powerful enough for me to want to play it. This is literally all you get at this level - effectively just one damage resistance at a time, with the privilege of being able to change which one if you can predict what kind of damage you're going to take.
Level 17:
Monster Tattoo:
Our last tattoo, we can pick out one themed on a classic D&D monster.
Beholder: At the start of your turn, you can expend 1 FP to gain a Fly speed equal to your speed for 10 minutes and can hover. Additionally, as a magic action, you can expend 1 FP to make four eye ray attacks with a range of 120 feet. You make a ranged spell attack for each ray (remember Wisdom is your spellcasting ability,) dealing damage equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die plus your Wisdom modifier on each hit.
Ok, finally something cool. While spending the FP on the eye rays isn't as FP-efficient as attacking and then making a Flurry of Blows, as you'll be able to make 5 attacks after level 10 that way, it's more efficient than taking the Attack Action in action economy terms. You could potentially make 7 attacks in a turn if you spend an FP on this and Flurry of Blows, though just make sure you start at range and then close before your bonus action. The fly speed is fine, too.
Chromatic Dragon: When you take the attack action, you can expend 1 FP to replace one of your attacks with an exhalation of magical energy in a 30-foot cone. Creatures in the cone must make a Dex save, taking your choice of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Poison damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die plus your Wisdom modifier, or half as much on a success.
I get that Beholders have to fly to get around, but it feels cheap that the dragon tattoo doesn't also do that. The damage here isn't enormous - at level 20, assuming you maxed your Wisdom, we're talking 2d12+7, or around 20. But the fact that it's only replacing one attack does help, and a 30-foot cone is decent. Beholder seems better to me.
Displacer Beast: When you expend an FP to use Flurry of Blows or Step of the Wind, you can expend 1 FP to cast Mirror Image as part of that same bonus action.
Mirror Image is better than it was in 2014, as it now only goes off if the attacker would have hit you, making it far better for high-AC characters. That said, waiting until level 17 for a 2nd level spell?
Troll: At the start of each of your turns, you regain HP equal to 5 plus your Wisdom modifier if you are bloodied and have at least 1 HP. Any severed body part regrows after you finish a short or long rest.
Interestingly, this is a feature that will be very good in a lengthy dungeon crawl that really drains the party's health and resources. In combat, though, damage comes so fast that I don't know if will be all that impactful. Also, very few genuine game mechanics will sever a limb, so the regrowth is kind of a fun ribbon, but that's it.
Personally, I think that some of these might work better if moved earlier. Let me get these monster tattoos at level... 6 or something. Sure, you might need to nerf one or two of them, but they're at least interesting.
Overall Thoughts:
Yes, my early concern feels validated. I think that when you look at all these features one after another, they look like a lot of cool things to have, but when you consider that you only get one from each list (ok, two from the first) it feels like the actual experience of playing this subclass will be constantly feeling like you should be getting more.
I think the tattoos could have cooler effects, but I also think it might be better to model this more like the Battle Master, where you just have one big pool of tattoos to choose from, and try to balance the options there.
I also feel like there's some obvious thing missing here, like the ability to summon forth or even transform into the shape of your tattoos, which the Monster Tattoos start to hint at
I know this was already a big redesign, but I think this version probably deserves to be scrapped too.
No comments:
Post a Comment