Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Slit518 May 29, 2015 20:14:40	Hello everyone.  Here is my crack at a tattoo powered monk.  Unlike the other Monk sub-classes, the Way of the Ink path depends on tattoos embuded with the magical energy of the arcane or the divine.  I've been working on this one pretty hard, trying to deliver a lot of options for the tattoos.  Right now, I am giving a sneak peek at what I have thus far.  Let me know what you think! The Intermediate and the Advanced tattoos are not a part of the display, as they are not complete.  I will hopefully be adding them to the list later so you can all view those options as well.   Way of the Magic Ink Monks of the Way of the Magic Ink use tattoos with special, magical inks, imbued with Arcane or Divine power.  These tattoos grant the Monk various abilities, sort of making it a Jack-of-all-Trades amongst the other Monk ways. Ink to Body Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you choose a tattoo from a list of basic tattoos.  Just as a Wizard would inscribe words of power on a scroll, you inscribe magical ink to flesh.  The tattoo becomes one with your body, and the power it possesses becomes one with you as well. You may also spend 1 Ki point to replicate the limited use of a basic tattoo power. You may also get a tattoo of power in place of a statistical increase at the appropriate levels (4/8/12/16/19). Ink to Mind At 6th level, the tattoo is one with your mind, your hand guides itself as you ink yourself up with your next masterpiece.  You can now ink intermediate tattoos. You may also spend 2 Ki points to replicate the limited use of an intermediate tattoo power. Ink to Spirit At 11th level, the tattoos become one with your soul.  They are the essence of your being, your purpose is to display the beautiful canvas that is your body, and the art that decorates it.  You can alter a basic tattoo, doubling it's original effects, or you can add a new tattoo of basic, intermediate or advanced design. You may also spend 3 Ki points to replicate the limited use of an advanced tattoo power. Yin & Yang At 17th level, the opposition of flesh & ink, day & night, black & white, they are but one.  You find balance and harmony among your mortal body and the world beyond, you express this through what you classify as your grand masterpiece.  You combine larger sets or smaller sets into one grand tattoo, totaling a 6 point value. Advanced Tattoo - 3 points Intermediate Tattoo - 2 points Enhanced Basic Tattoo - 2 points Enhance Pre-existing Basic Tattoo - 1 point Basic Tattoo - 1 point *You can not have the same tattoo twice, however, you can have more than one tattoo with similar effects. Basic Tattoos Tiger; Bear - strong and feared by many, you are the predator and others are your prey - +1 Strength Snake; Seahorse - no binds can hold you, you’re flexible and can bend in any direction - +1 Dexterity Oxen/Cow/Bull; Stag - hardy like the hides of giants, you can withstand the harshest of conditions and keep moving onward - +1 Constitution Rat; Fox - you are cunning & smart, no problem is too big for you to solve - +1 Intelligence Monkey; Hawk/Eagle/Falcon - your inquisitive nature and ability to learn from your mistakes make you wise indeed - +1 Wisdom Eastern Dragon; Swan - you have the sway and charisma to turn tides in your favor, you are the favorite amongst the animal kingdom, or a swan among ugly ducklings - +1 Charisma Rabbit - you are lucky in all things - once a long rest roll any roll at advantage Horse - free & fast, the world is your trail, you can run like no other - +10 ft of movement Goat - you are tough and stubborn, no obstacle stands in your way - any time you make an Athletics check, add half of your proficiency bonus rounded down Rooster - late to bed, early to rise? is that what they say? either way, the motto early to rise sticks with you, literally - once a short rest roll your initiative roll at advantage Dog - loyal to your friends, you never like to let them down - once a long rest grant advantage to any ally’s roll within 10 feet of you Wolf - you are hungry like the wolf, you like to travel in groups - once every short rest, as long as you are within 5 feet of an ally, you can gain advantage on an attack roll against a creature Boar - a symbol of fortune and prosperity, a pig in slop is most happy, a piggy bank is where one stores their treasure, you too will see prosperity - you get 10% more back on items sold to merchants Cat - you have quick wits and a 6th sense, you know when danger is about and can do most of what it takes to avoid it - once every short rest you can take advantage on any saving throws you are proficient in Wren/Bird - this symbol represents independence and freedom - choose a type of difficult terrain, it no longer costs you extra speed, you also gain advantage on Athletics and Acrobatics checks for getting out of binds Salmon/Fish - you are like the fish, wet, slippery, and good in the water - swimming no longer costs you extra speed, you roll advantage on any checks involving swimming Butterfly - you are social, light on what you say, but you words can potentially way heavy - once a short rest you can roll advantage on any social checks Sun - you burn as bright as the sun - gain a number of Ki Points equal to half of your Wisdom modifier rounded down Moon - the moon is a symbol of night, of lesser illumination - you have advantage on Stealth checks while it is night time or you are in an area of total darkness Tribal - the tribal tattoo has some deep, cultural meaning, perhaps to your homeland of origin, or perhaps to where you reside now - you have advantage on any Insight and Perception checks in the area of your homeland Lettering - you tattoo a meaningful scripture or phrase onto your body - any time you speak to someone in their native language, add half your proficiency bonus rounded down to any checks you may have to make
#2 rampant May 29, 2015 20:39:01	If I understand this correctly you can't actually use this sub-class without burning your feats/ability ups, those effects seem rather inferior to the feats you're sacrificing, and the standard ability up Is +2 vs. the +1 the tats give, So honeslty why would anyone take this?   I think you're drastically overcomplicationg this, Why not have the sub-class simply let you pick tattoos off  a list like the classic tattoed monk?
#3 durntaur May 30, 2015 2:19:37	When I saw the thread title my interest was piqued. I love the idea of tattoos in magical ink as a source/store of power, but this execution seems underwhelming. I agree, it's unnecessarily complicated and it conflicts with ASI/feat choices in order to utilize its features.
#4 Slit518 May 30, 2015 8:24:04	Both of you may have been missing something.  A Monk gets a new magical tattoo at their archetype levels, so at levels 3, 6, 11 and 17.  I was just showing the Basic tattoos and powers, as I did not yet finish the Intermediate tattoos and Advanced tattoos for the monk.   Also, it is an option for a monk to get a new tattoo in place of a stat upgrade or a feat as well.  Though at the basic level it may not seem worth it, the tattoo may be worth it when they get access to Intermediate and Advanced tattoos at levels 6 and 11.
#5 LuisCarlos17f May 30, 2015 7:58:55	My suggestion for a tattooed monk, is to use the game mechanic about soulmeld from "magic of incarnum", and maybe to recover the feat to craft magic tatoos.
#6 Slit518 May 30, 2015 8:33:12	LuisCarlos17f wrote:
#7 rampant May 30, 2015 13:53:12	Luis not everything can be done with the incarnum system, it is great for certain  things but tattoed monks are one of the things I think it would be bad at, the tatts are supposed to be more rigid than soulmelding. The incarnum system is great for low to moderate rigidity powers, especially in the at-will arena, it does not do encounter or daily powers very well, and high rigidity powers such that are traditionally associated with the magic tattoes in DnD is another failure point for the incarnum system.     Slit518, if you're dead set on this method than I suggest a few tweaks. For starters remove the feat/stat trade option and simply create a feat for extra tatts, one of the problems wiht the current model is that if you use the feat option the power of the tat you can pick is level bounded so using the option early is stupid, and as  a general rule feats should not be permanently better or worse depending on when you take them, they can scale certainly though, but the feat can't be permanently better or worse depending on when you take it. For example toughness gets you +2 Hp per level and then +2 Hp every level after you take it. What you've got righ now is like if toughness only gave you HP for levels you already had and didn't add to future HP meaning that the feat is permanently better or worse depending on what level you take it at.   Also I don't see where levels 6 or 17 get you any new tats, 17 has some sort of wierd merge thing going on but with only a basic and an advanced tat it seem like you're forcing them to burn feats/ability ups to use 17 to it's fullest.   Next up you've got the limited uses, I would remove that entry entirely from the abilities and move it to the tats, if you can scrube a tat you can use it's power, and the powers can have active components that cost KI, and maybe some of the basic tats might end up being ki hogs. Also none o fthe basic tats have nothing labled as limited use. They've got rest limited powers but that doesn't look like quite the same thing.
#8 Slit518 May 30, 2015 14:44:34	rampant wrote:
#9 rampant May 30, 2015 16:19:15	Yes 6 and 11 let you scribe better tats, but 6 doens't actually say it grants a new tat. So the most you could have before 17 without wasting feats is an enhanced basic, or a basic + an advanced, so maximum of four points when the ability lets you fuse six and that seems dickish to force them to loose out on an aspect of an ability of their sub-class without wasting feats. Unless the fusion doens't actually do anything in which case why are you wasting a sub-class ability on it?   Part of the problem is you're trying to put too much of this class in the abilities rather than in the tats themselves. Also you have far too many basic tats, and the ability booster tats are just unnecessarry.   As for the tats I would advise removing the bits about using Ki to re-use the tat powers in the ability descriptions and just set it up so that if the tat has an active power that it's worth some number of Ki points that you must spend to use it. Passive abilities should probably not need ki to use.   Look the Extra tat costs a feat, so you'd be best off making sure that it is as good as a feat, especially given how skimpy the tat count is without it, All I'm saying is that you need to make sure that you can use it to get a tat worth a feat, and that you get a power up that's on the same tier regardless of what level you are when you take the feat, right now you get a different power up depending on your level and it doesn't scale. All I'm saying is that you'd probably be better off standardizing the benefit.
#10 Slit518 May 30, 2015 16:42:16	Whoops!  I did forget to say it grants a tattoo.  I figured it would be self explanatory, but I shouldn't assume.   At 17th level, you can use those 6 points to forge a tattoo that grants all of the other tattoo's powers into it.  This is a whole new fresh tattoo, granting additional powers aside from the other tattoos.
#11 rampant May 30, 2015 17:40:25	Yes well explaining that in the ability would help.   Listen are you at all familiar with the previous incarnations of the tattoed monk?
#12 Slit518 May 30, 2015 18:02:43	rampant wrote:
#13 rampant May 30, 2015 19:50:08	Basically it didn't make this huge mess with intermediate or enhanced tattooes it just handed you a tat every other level and you picked off a list, now some had requirements but it was a lot cleaner and simpler.   like this   http://dndtools.pw/classes/tattooed-monk/
#14 Slit518 May 30, 2015 19:57:39	rampant wrote:
#15 durntaur May 30, 2015 22:25:06	Slit518 wrote:
#16 rampant May 31, 2015 1:17:52	More precisely: Style conventions are a thing, be wary of violating them.   The big issue You've got here is that people are used to the Tattoed monk being a fairly simple class and you've managed to grossly complicate it for no discernable reason or advantage.
#17 Slit518 May 31, 2015 9:27:28	durntaur wrote: