The Sun Soul is a 5e Monk subclass that, despite a cool idea - being able to throw bolts of sunlight from your hands - falls pretty flat mechanically. I figured I'd try to give it another lease on life with a GLOG adaptation for diregrizzlybear's 5e Conversion Project. I'm not sure how well I succeeded, but you be the judge.
Through careful and dedicated practice, meditation, internal discipline, hallucinogens, and devotion to the gods, you have cultivated your internal energies precisely. You can channel this energy in the form of powerful sunlight to burn and blind your foes. Not quite as fancy as enlightenment, but it's far more useful.
Equipment: A staff, a dagger, a yellow robe, a pipe, and a pouch of salvia.
Skills (1d3): 1. Wrestling, 2. Poetry, 3. Religion
You gain +1 AC per template of Sun Soul you possess.
A: Sun Bolt
B: Searing Arc
C: Sunburst
D: Radiant Shield
Sun Bolt: You can sheathe your hands in blindingly bright energy, casting light in a 5 foot radius. This energy can be used as a weapon with 1d6 damage, either in melee or ranged with a range of 30/90 feet, both with a bonus to hit equal to your number of templates in this class. On a critical hit, the target must Save or be blinded for 1d6 rounds.
Searing Arc: Once per encounter, after you've made an attack, you can launch a wave of light in a 15 foot cone in front of you. Every creature within this cone must Save or take 1d6 damage.
Sunburst: Once per day, you can hurl a burning orb at a point within 120 feet. All creatures within 20 feet of that point take 2d6 damage, Save for half, as the orb detonates.
Radiant Shield: You are shielded by an aura of light, which you can activate and deactivate at will. This aura can only be maintained for one hour in total per day. It casts light as a torch, and grants you a +2 bonus to AC. Additionally, when an enemy hits you with a melee attack, they must Save or take 1d4 damage.
Cool stuff, but a small rant from my side. Why does everything require a save? Save or 1d4 damage? Is that really needed?
ReplyDeleteIf someone doesn't want to burn themselves, they shouldn't attack a human sized ball of fire in melee. Throw some rocks at it or run away, like a normal person.
I would remove the saves on all of these abilities to be honest.
Maybe it's a design ideology thing. I don't like saves where you save for something that was both easily avoidable and isn't all that impactful. Saves, and rolls in general, should be a way of saying 'You messed up by doing that, but maybe luck is on your side, so roll the dice.' In my opinion.
That said, I never played GLOG :p
btw, I love these 5e conversion/adaptation things, I hope you do more of it. Converting these wordy, low information per word, boring tomes into something small and cool and evocative.
Reminds me of this blog, which I always love reading : https://udan-adan.blogspot.com/2020/09/condensation-in-action-9-carrion-crown.html