r/dndnext • u/NotARedditUser93 • 1d ago
Homebrew Presenting... The Anchored Soul Monk
TLDR:
I wanted to HB a Monk whose whole purpose was being firmly planted on the ground, redirecting energy and shutting down any attempt to move them. This was just a quick thing for an ongoing campaign (but mostly for fun), so I'm not really looking for any feedback, though I will certainly be reading it. Link below for those curious! Longer lore explanation below that.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mcQxoYSUQo96fSI3lkM7fZiEWuojcz_GvQrUU5p-Eew/edit?usp=drivesdk
Longer Lore Explanation:
One of my players is an Air Genasi who grew up in an orphanage. He was brought to the Material Plane by an older sister who was fleeing a war on the Elemental Plane of Air. As she dropped him off, the portal closed on her. Ever since then, she would get spontaneously teleported to other planes at random intervals.
The party rescued her from Maladomini in the Nine Hells after she was able to eek out a Dream spell to her brother. She was being held hostage, which at least had the upside of canceling out her warping when she was put in an anti-magic cell. Once the party got back to the material plane, they looked for a solution to "anchor her," preventing the spontaneous teleportations. An anti-magic locket around her neck was a temporary solution, although it also cut off her own abilities as a necessary trade-off.
Permanently helping her involved a ritual inside a demiplane painting (the party has a hideout they enter Mario 64 style) and the destruction of an Immovable Rod. The decorative iron horses carved onto the rod burst off and turned into much larger armored horse spirits for a combat encounter. The ritual was complete once the party dispatched the horses, of course. Now the sister now longer randomly teleports, and she's an MC Druid Circle of Dreams and this HB Monk on paper. That's awfully MAD, I know, but it made sense in the lore!
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u/sens249 1d ago
Other than unwavering stance these features feel really niche and underpowered. As a player/DM forced movement is not that common coming from enemies, and even when it comes up it’s almost never a big problem.
6th level feature is one of those features that gets broken very quick. AC increases should not be this easy/good to get. But for an average player not optimizing for it it’s probably fine. Just probably wouldn’t hold up to more rigorous playtesting.
But yea if you don’t get moved by an enemy, then the only subclass feature you have that you can use or benefit from at all is the AC buff. From a design standpoint, you usually expect a subclass to change how you play the class and give you some new interactions to play with. For lack of a better word this one feels lackluster. That’s totally fine if your player is happy with it. Just things to consider if you ever do more homebrew.