Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 vanadium322 Apr 28, 2015 17:46:54	So I'm playing an Way of the Four Elements monk largely for thematic and RP reasons, but my DM has agreed that some of the elemental monk powers are lackluster, and is open to discussing how to "fix" them.  One that I'd love to use (for those same thematic reasons) is Fangs of the Fire Snake, which seems sorta cool at first, but ultimately is too much of a ki sink to actually be any good.  How would you fix it?   Our initial thought was to make it such that you didn't need to spend another ki point beyond the first for the extra d10 fire damage; you'd spend 1 initially to turn on the reach, then on your first hit, decide whether to spend another ki to add 1d10 fire damage to that hit and all further ones this same round.  The thing is, that's still 2 ki points spent, for probably a 2 or 3 d10 damage (depending on how many hits), and often the reach aspect of the power won't really matter... still seems "meh" compared to things like Water Whip.   Anyone got any better ideas?
#2 jaappleton Apr 28, 2015 18:32:09	Make it only cost a bonus action to manifest, and 1 ki per 1d10 damage. Keeping in mind that kind refreshes on a short rest, I'm comparing it to a Paladins Smite ability, which does 2d8 but uses a spell slot.
#3 vanadium322 Apr 28, 2015 19:04:52	jaappleton wrote:
#4 supreme_slayer Apr 28, 2015 20:08:55	Water Whip and Fang of the Fire Snake are both perfectly balanced to me. The problem is that most of the other abilities suck hard in comparison, and you get so little of them.
(Reply to #4) vanadium322	supreme_slayer wrote:
#6 supreme_slayer Apr 28, 2015 22:56:00	vanadium322 wrote:
(Reply to #5) Bloodscythe	vanadium322 wrote:
#8 durntaur Apr 29, 2015 8:58:47	supreme_slayer wrote:
#9 durntaur Apr 29, 2015 8:55:16	Bloodscythe wrote:
#10 supreme_slayer Apr 29, 2015 9:09:54	durntaur wrote:
#11 durntaur Apr 29, 2015 9:28:10	supreme_slayer wrote:
#12 supreme_slayer Apr 29, 2015 9:41:22	durntaur wrote:
(Reply to #12) vanadium322	I'm starting to wonder if a better direction to go with this would be to rework the power to shift the reach to the secondary part rather than the primary.  Something like this:   When taking the attack action, you may spend 1 ki to add 1d6 additional fire damage to all attacks you make that round.  In addition, you may spend 1 attitional ki to increase your reach to10' and increase the fire damage to 1d10 per attack.   --OR--   As a bonus action, you can imbue your attacks with flame by spending 2 ki.  For as long as you maintain concentration (up to 1 minute), your attacks deal 1d6 extra fire damage on a hit.  When you take the attack action while imbued with flame in this way, you may spend 1 ki to increase your reach to 10' and the bonus damage to 1d10 until the end of your current turn.   That latter one prevents a big sudden nova (since you can't flurry the round you turn it on), but if the enemy doesn't disrupt you, you can nova pretty well the next round and possibly further rounds thereafter.  My gut tells me it's cool, but probably too good... though it's pretty easy to get your concentration broken when up close, so that may balance it.  Hmm.  Thoughts?
#14 intently Apr 30, 2015 11:08:59	vanadium322 wrote:
#15 Bloodscythe Apr 30, 2015 15:37:58	It grants a reach of 15 for all unarmed strikes for your turn.  That's not bad at all.  For 1 Ki point.  The added fire damage is secondary to what the ability is doing for you.  It's giving you a reach beyond any other melee weapon or ability in the game.  It helps with hit and run tactics, doesn't require you to get close to anything so you wouldn't need to disengage or risk an OA to move away after striking, and if you hit, you can boost the damage slightly if you want for 1 more Ki.   And it's a fire attack.  It can ignite anything flammable so there's also that.  For 1 Ki, it's certainly as good if not better than a 1 Ki bonus action to dodge, disengage or dash.