| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This is my first post on here but ive looked through these forums for years and im hoping my first contribution is a good one.
Rwby unchained monk archetype
(its basically a hybrid class of gunslinger/swashbuckler with monk) i know its very focused and yet gets a lot of stuff, this is possible with many classes and it is very much MAD which i believe brings it into balance a bit more. I believe with this archtype you could build almost any rwby character to the table with minor dips or selection of feats. With the monk setup and preselection of stuff i see it having great customizable potential for anyone that wanted to play a preexisting character or one of their own creation. The lemmy weapon system can be found with a quick google search and is the most balanced weapon creation system i have seen. Open to criticism and advice and will answer any questions i can
heres my brief explanation of stuff.
Weapon- the core of rwby that sets it apart from most things, allows you to have the weapon you always wanted thats also a gun and you get to create, customize, and powergame with flavor!
Semblance- the quigong selection/ki power that they get would be able to select from any spell not ranged or it has to be touch/self (or just dm discretion) of equivalent level, that the quigong power would provide for that level, would allow for a WIDE range of character builds and the selection and times per day use would be a great way to bring martial characters some options without making them op like full casters.
Aura - ki with a different name for flavor.
Anime b$%+$$*~- with all the monks extra attacks, movement options, style strike nonsense, and "magic" f!$#ery, the monk more than allows for that within the game without creating any new possibly OP kind of ability.
Other- i used the gunmetal mystic (monk archetype), gunslinger, picaroon (swashbuckler archetype), all as inspiration
I stayed away from creating new abilities as ive seen how super powerful that can get when unchecked. Now i know as with pretty much any class it can be easily broken with the right feats/build, but, overall.
IS THIS DECENT WITHOUT BEING BROKEN
Lvl 9p1- Lose- stunning fist, gain panache/grit, based on charisma, pool that is only affected/refiled with kills/crits by Custom Weapon.
Lose- unarmed strike, gain quick clear deed and Custom Weapon (lemmys custom weapon system with double weapon as free option not counted towards the 3)
Lose- all weapon proficiencys, gain Custom Weapon proficiency and light armor.
Alter- Custom Weapon replaces any ability that says unarmed strike, fist, kick, or otherwise, but must be made with physical attack if it says attack must be made with fist *example elbow smash, or flying kick*
Alter- ki uses cha instead of wis
Alter- instead of gaining damage every 4 levels on unarmed, gain 1 weapon point every 2 leves (it takes 2 to level up dmg in same fashion with lemmy system but doesnt have to be damage, it can be reach, trip, extra ammo, faster reload, better crit, anything!)
Lose- No wis to ac, it works like the gunslinger nimble ability now
Lvl 3- Lose ki strike (magic), gain hunstman initiative deed (like gunslingers initiative) and quickdraw only with CW
Lvl 4 Lose- still mind, gain bonus feat
Alter- Instead of ki pool gain aura pool use cha instead of wis (works the same and still qualifys as ki pool for feats, just flavor)
Lvl 5 Lose- purity of body, gain precise strike deed (from swashbuckler) only the bonus is 1/2 level and works for ranged within 30 ft
Lvl 7 Lose- ki strike (cold iron/silver), gain targeted shot/strike deed
Lvl 8 treated as fighter -4 levels for feats
Lvl 10 Lose- ki strike (lawful), gain aurasorbtion (ki leech for aura)
Lvl 13 Lose- tongue of sun and moon, gain subtle blade deed
Lvl 16 Lose- ki strike (adamantium), gain dizzying defence deed
Lvl 17 Lose- timeless body, gain perfect thrust deed- flurry counts towards, feats do not nor style strikes, only on charge made with acrobatics check
Lvl 19 Lose- flawless mind, gain Cheat death deed
Lvl 20 (still figuring out their capstone ability)
Other notes: seriously, tell me your thoughts, wont hurt my feelings.
Every ability is based off of one of the same name or i just renamed an ability but it works the same
All monk stuff changes the "only while unarmed and unencumbered blah blah" to "only when weilding custom weapon and wearing light or no armor"
The weapon can transform but it takes a standard action and you can only have 2 presets for it (aside from dormant mode which is only a move action to go to or from) quickdraw can speed this up by one step
Maybe i should find a way to get the numbers to where they can do dual double weapons? I dont know that they could get much out of it unless uc monk allows the user to use dual wielding to great benifit? Maybe the numbers would work out if they tried doing it anyway and avoiding flurry?
I was also thinking with the lemmy system and allowing 2 forms to have the second end of duel form be half as many points (rounded down as always) and that way it gives a reason to have the "transformation sequence" or something? Up to dm on that one most likely
The lemmy weapon thing is really paramount to how the whole class works, but it allows for CRAZY damage to be put on stuff so i was thinking of a limit, probably set by dm at time of starting.
Another idea i had was just keeping the ac bonus as is with cha to it, but so many options are opened if they have armor for cool art and builds to come to play. So that could be altered at player/gm discretion based on personal prefference/powergamers powergaming.
Ive got some feats ive been working on for this class as well (every major class has feats for them) one in particular is my favorite but i really dont know how balanced unbalanced it could make things
Shooting strike - expend a shot to gain double the bonus to power attack as a swift action. (Negatives to attack bonus double as well) (i feel this one is ok because it requires ammo which can be a costly resource and it takes up the swift action slot like 40 other monk things want to do)
Thats the main one i want critiqued, the second is just a ninja talent basically in the form of a feat
Rifle jump - expend a shot as a swift action to gain a +20 on acrobatics check to jump... or since the monk already gets an ability like this, make rifle jump either like the ninja ability that cuts high jump dc in half, or make it giive dmg bonus to check like the swashbuckler derring do, roll max roll again, or do roll dmg for bonus times multiplier? Depending on level and weapon one version is better than the other. Maybe 2 seperate feats for them? Imp rifle jump gives dmg to check and regular cuts the dc in half? I know your not supposed to be abled to jump farther than you can move, which is where it scales with your movement speed bonus.
Another few are just various flavor stuff
Weapon eingeneer - plus (1 or 2 cant decide) weapon point buy (that cant be spent on dmg maybe? To sort of balance and protect from breakage) can be selected multiple times
Extra ki power - basically extra rogue talent but with ki powers
An interesting feat i came across while trying to build this was branch pounce. I thought that players never end up this high above creatures unless they are flying or...JUMPING maybe make jump pounce where they use acrobatics and jump for hight on the charge rather than just fall. I mean just imagine, the asthetic! And it kinda scales with your jumping ability