Dungeons and Dragons 5E - Homebrew Subclass: Path of the Asura
WARNING! What follows is a homebrew Monk Archetype still in developement. For now, I’d only consider it an Enemy NPC class. I’d be happy about any sort of feedback and critique, tips on balancing it out further and etc. Apologies for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, I shall fix those in the near future.
Amidst a sea of blood and carved up bodies, a single man sits on top of a small hilltop of corpses. His legs crossed and eyes closed, his tranquility seems out of place in this horrifying scene. Survivors of the bloodbath come crawling out of their hiding place, men and women clad in heavy armour and brandishing chipped swords and blood-soaked axes. They are out to avenge their comrades.
The tranquil man opens his eyes and they glow with the fury of hell itself. Muscles creak and bones click as the man stands up to face his foes. The skin of his arms darkens to a charred black and the light of his eyes turns into hungering flames as he unleashes the build up fury in a terrifying roar, before he launches himself at his opponents – no longer a man, but a horrific, charred black creature of destruction, from whose back sprout giant arms seemingly made of flame.
You follow a monastic tradition that has its origins in the seemingly mindless destructive force of the great Archdemon Asura himself. When you focus your ki, you call upon the fury of your heart to harden your skin, to become strong enough to shatter armour with a single strike and grow stronger with every beating you take, furthering your rage to tremendous heights. Additionally, you can also channel your ki into bursts of destructive demonic energy, augment your own body into that of an unstoppable machine of disaster and eventually, when the fury consumes you, become an avatar of Asura himself.
Monks of this tradition believe, that destruction is not a calamity you must fear, but a necessary for the world to change and further develop. As such, they follow in the footsteps of the Archdemon Asura, seeing him less as a malefic force of evil, but as the Avatar of Change himself and strife to follow his example. To do so, they learn to control their anger, their wrath and fury and use it to channel their innate ki.
Aspect of Wrath
When you choose this monastic tradition at 3rd level, you develop the ability to channel your ki to augment your body to superhuman levels. As a bonus action, you may turn yourself into an Aspect of Wrath, giving you the following abilities:
Destructive Fists. Your unarmed attacks deal additional fire damage equal to your wisdom modifier.
Charred Skin. While in your Wrath Form, your AC equals to 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier + your Constitution modifier.
Voice of the Demon. Your very presence strikes fear in the hearts of enemies. You may take a bonus action to unleash a terrifying roar to reduce your foes to whimpering piles of despair. They must succeed on a Wisdom Saving Throw against your Ki save DC or be frightened until the end of your next turn.
Never-ending Fury. For every creature you kill while in this form, you regain 1 ki point.
Your Wrath Form gains additional abilities at 6th, 11th and 17th level.
For every turn you remain in this form, you must spend 1 ki point to sustain it. When your ki points come to 0, you return to your normal self and you gain one level of exhaustion. While in your wrath form, you are unable to regenerate health in any way, be it by the way of a healing potion, a cure wounds spell or any other kind of magical effect.
Arms of Vajra
At 6th level, you, may spend 3 ki points to sprout four arms of destructive energy from your back. When you use your Flurry of Blows ability, you may now make six unarmed strikes as a bonus action, instead of two.
Force of Destruction
At 11th level, you gain the ability to emit beams and barrages of destructive energy.
Force Barrage. You may spend 3 ki points to unleash a barrage of energy projectiles from your hands. Make a ranged spell attack for each projectile against a single creature, dealing force damage in the process. The number of projectiles equals to your wisdom modifier plus your proficiency bonus. The damage die for each projectile is a d6.
Destructive Wave. You may spend 4 ki points to emit demonic energy from your body in a 30 ft. radius. All creatures in that space must succeed on a Dexterity Saving throw against your Ki DC or take 4d12 force damage and are knocked prone. If they succeed, the damage is halved and they remain upright.
Demon Breath. You may spend 5 ki points to emit a 5ft. Wide and 60 ft. long beam of demonic energy from your mouth that pierces through your enemies defences and leaves them weakened. Every creature in the line of fire must make a Dexterity Saving throw against your Ki DC or take 5d10 force damage. Additionally, they have disadvantage on all saving and attack roles until the end of your next turn. If they succeed, the damage is halved and are not weakened.
Hell To Your Doorstep
At 17th level, you may spend 7 ki points to bring forth Hell to your enemies. You summon up a sphere of malevolent energies, 20 ft. in radius and centred on you. The ground in that sphere is considered difficult terrain, as the negative energies crack and ripple the earth around you. Every creature that enters this sphere must make a Dexterity Saving Throw or be impaled by spikes of destructive energy that jut out of the space around it. On a failure, the creature takes 3d10 points of necrotic damage and has it's speed reduced to 0. It must succeed on a Strength or Dexterity Check against your Ki Save to free itself. If it succeeds its initial saving throw, it takes half damage and isn't impaled.
At each start of your turn, you must spend 1 ki point to sustain the sphere. If you don't, the sphere collapses, leaving you with one level of Exhaustion.
CREDITS: Path of the Asura Monk Archetype created by lord-tathamet
I do not own any rights to Dungeons & Dragons, or a related Wizards of the Coast production or content.
