Variant Kensei: Sword saints of old
A little overhaul for DnD 5e
Introduction
The Kensei monk is definitely a contender for one of the most often overlooked subclasses in 5th edition, and honestly it is difficult to see why when you look purely at it's mechanics. The Kensei monk is actually pretty good, its core features make it an excellent melee fighter. Except...
Monks already were excellent melee fighters. That was their entire thing, except that they used fists, and the kensei flavours itself as the weapons based monk. Yet in reality the kensei does not use weapons nearly as often as the name of the subclass would imply.
and let's be honest, when you look at the alternatives such as being able to shoot beams of light, performing kill bill esque instakill moves, becoming nigh unkillable, blundering around as a drunken master or becoming a sneaky ninja, the kensei falls flat. What should be a whirlwind of blades and death is a whirlwind of fists, with the odd sword slash thrown in here and there, because doing more would not be the best for your AC. The Way of the Kensei as it is does not usually fit with the ideas players would have when making such a character. The Samurai fighter would be a better choice for a character who wants to be a true sword saint, but then you sacrifice the mobility and fun from the monk.
This set of alterations fixes the flavour of the class through a few alternative features, which are slightly more powerful than the original subclass but put a heavier focus on melee combat with your weapon, and less on the kensei's ranged abilities and unarmed attacks. I thought this to be necessary in order to give incentive for people to have a second look at the kensei.
The Problems with the base Kensei:
- Agile Parry is dependent on making at least 1 unarmed strike with your attack action, which means you cannot actually use your weapons nearly as much as you may want to, especially as your other abilities, such as flurry of blows and martial arts, still only use unarmed strikes. even with the extra attacks granted by the monk, to maintain the bonus ac you still only attack with your weapon once out of the potential maximum of four attacks per round. all for what essentially amounts to a shield.
- This would be fine, if the flavour text of the kensei didn't make it sound like you would be mainly using your weapon, and if the stylish use of weapons wasn't supposed to be the biggest draw of the class. the difference between the flavour of the class and the nature of its mechanics is frankly egregious.
- Sharpen the blade allows you to make your kensei weapons have a +3 bonus to hit/damage for a minute, if you have the ki. this is seperate from any pre-existing magical bonuses already on the weapon, meaning that having a +6 magic longsword for a minute is both entirely possible and ridiculously overpowered when you factor in pre-existing enchantments and proficiency bonuses. while this does kind of cancel out the problems with agile parry, balancing a very weak ability with a broken one does not strike me as a very good design philosophy.
- The class seems to be at odds with itself as to whether or not to focus on ranged kensei weaponry or melee kensei weaponry. old versions of the archetype discourage the use of such weapons, but it seems that the use of archery has been added almost as if to draw attention away from the frankly shoddy melee weapon mechanics.
- The mechanics of the other classes fit their flavour so much better by comparison, and the overwhelming thing that I have seen about the kensei is that "I would reccomend it, if everything else wasn't just so much cooler." The kensei needs a serious style injection to the mechanics for it to be as popular as the other monastic traditions.
Variant Kensei Features
Path of the Kensei (Variant)
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your special martial arts training leads you to master the use of certain weapons. This path also includes instruction in the deft strokes of calligraphy or painting. You gain the following benefits:
- Kensei Weapons. Choose two types of weapons to be your kensei weapons: either 2 melee weapons or 1 melee weapon and one ranged weapon. Each of these weapons can be any simple or martial weapon that lacks the heavy and special properties. The longbow is also a valid choice. You gain proficiency with these weapons if you don't already have it. Weapons of the chosen types are monk weapons for you. Many of this tradition's features work only with your kensei weapons. When you reach 6th, 11th, and 17th level in this class, you can choose another type of weapon – either melee or ranged – to be a kensei weapon for you, following the criteria above.
- Kensei Strike. if you use your bonus action to utilise the Martial Arts monk feature while wielding one of your chosen kensei melee weapons, you can choose to perform a melee weapon strike instead of an unarmed strike. if your weapon has the versatile feature, you always use the smaller damage die when dealing damage with attacks from feature.
- Agile Defence. while wielding a kensei melee weapon, when targeted by a melee weapon attack, you can spend your reaction to temporarily increase your armour class by 2 until the end of the attacker's turn, potentially causing the attack(s) to miss. Furthermore, as long as you are wielding a monk melee weapon you do not require a free hand to use the Deflect Missiles monk feature, though instead of catching the missile you deflect it with your weapon. "Throwing back" projectiles is mechanically the same, except instead of catching and throwing the projectile at your assailant, you reflect it back at them with your weapon.
- Way of the Brush. You gain proficiency with your choice of calligrapher's supplies or painter's supplies.
One with the Blade (Original)
At 6th level, you extend your ki into your kensei weapons, granting you the following benefits.
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Magic Kensei Weapons. Your attacks with your kensei weapons count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
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Deft Strike. When you hit a target with a kensei weapon, you can spend 1 ki point to cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target equal to your Martial Arts die. You can use this feature only once on each of your turns.
Strike of a Thousand Winds (Replacement)
Replaces Sharpen the Blade
At 11th level, you learn an ancient and powerful technique. You can spend 7 ki points to cast Steel Wind Strike with an equipped kensei weapon as the material component. (The weapon does not need to be drawn to do this, but does need to be on your person and accessible.) additionally, you can spend 2 ki points to cast Zephyr Strike. Wisdom is your spellcasting modifier for these spells. When you spend ki points on casting Steel wind strike, you do not regain them until you finish your next long rest.
Unerring Accuracy (original)
At 17th level, your mastery of weapons grants you extraordinary accuracy. If you miss with an attack roll using a monk weapon (including kensei weapons) on your turn, you can reroll it. You can use this feature only once on each of your turns.
Disclaimer
All of this is playtest material, and is subject to balance changes.
Class Review:
- The Overhaul of the level 3 abilities now fits the flavour of the subclass description a lot more. The new version of Agile Parry, now called Agile Defence, now acts in a similar way to the Defensive Duellist feat and the battlemaster parries, and the addition of using your weapon to deflect missiles is a good touch for flavour if nothing else.
- In addition, martial arts now allows you to make more than 2 melee weapon strikes per turn (now to a maximum of 3.) flurry of blows still requires unarmed strikes though; it seemed too powerful to allow the use of it for such an ability. the result is that this version of the kensei can strike with their weapon a lot more and actually feels like a weapons based monk, rather than a monk with a weapon as a gimmick.
- Sharpen the blade has been completely replaced by allowing the kensei to use one of the most underutilised but coolest spells in the entire game. why the ranger of all classes gets this spell and precious few other classes baffles me, and the spell is a perfect fit for the anime-esque swordsman you can be with this version of the kensei. I have made it cost a large amount of ki that you do not get back until a long rest, because otherwise having such a spell castable on a short rest basis is a bit too overpowered.
- While ranged kensei weapons haven't been removed entirely, a lot of their abilities have been removed or replaced, simply because I believed that the melee kensei abilities should have been the main focus of the archetype. Deft strike is still usable with ranged weaponry, and ranged kensei weapons still benefit from being considered magical under One With the Blade
- With these reworks I go for a "if it isn't broken don't fix it" kind of policy, so a lot of the features I haven't already covered have either been tweaked only slightly or remain unchanged. the changes I have made have made the kensei a lot more fun while maintaining its viability and improving its balance. instead of going from very weak to very strong, the class now is strong across the board in line with the other monastic traditions. I still will continue to make balance changes with time if I believe it to be too powerful.