Discussion:Ki-Empowered Strike Reflavoring

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WiserVisor (talk) 23:02, 5 August 2019 (MDT)

I have been working on a class variant for the official Monk class that just takes away the mystic quality of the Monk, making the class more like a pure martial artist instead of a martial artist that can speak all languages and be able to astral project. One of the class features I want to keep from the Monk is their Ki-Empowered Strikes, which allows their unarmed attacks to be treated as magical to overcome resistances and immunities. Since my variant class doesn’t use ki or any mystical power, I’m not sure how to re-flavor this feature while keeping it the same mechanically as the Monk’s feature. How would a martial artist (even an almost super naturally skilled one) be able to punch a ghost or a fire elemental?

I have a couple of ideas, but I’m not totally sure if either of them would work on a mechanical level. My first idea was to make the martial artist’s unarmed strikes deal Force damage, due to their incredible speed and strength. The pure power that they put into their precise punches generates enough energy to even affect an elemental. However, Force damage is considerably better than magical bludgeoning damage, so I have a feeling that would make the feature too strong.

My second idea was that the unarmed strikes could deal Thunder damage. The martial artist’s kicks create sonic booms with their speed, which harms incorporeal enemies. When I looked into creatures that are resistant/immune to Thunder damage, though, it appeared that Thunder damage was actually notably weaker than magical bludgeoning damage!

I’m writing this post in hopes of someone introducing an idea that could fix my dilemma, the important factors being:


It’s mechanically balanced with the Monk’s Ki-Empowered Strike, preferably still just changing the damage type.

It can be explained in-game without any mystical abilities. Just incredible martial prowess.


I would be very grateful to anyone that can come up with a satisfying solution. I’ve been wracking my brain on this for several weeks now, and I’ve gotten nowhere. Thanks in advance!

  ~BigShotFancyMan   talk   10:51, 6 September 2019 (MDT)

I think this is a great task to take on since a monk is a spiritual individual and their ki being part of that. Have you started a page that can be referenced?

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