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@randyimel8523

2 ай бұрын

Have you done a shadow blade thief??

@DnDDeepDive

2 ай бұрын

@@randyimel8523 Thief no, but I've used it on an Assassin a couple of times...

@Legend-gu6yp

2 ай бұрын

The way I would build a sun sol monk is Take levels in swarm ranger its ability works with the ranged attacks. This gives you a way to push into spike growth, or moonbeam. A levistus teifling lets you combo armor of agathis and flames of plegathos which has synergy with the BA burning hands.

@garyboyles5762

2 ай бұрын

I love, love your look with the addition of wearing those sunglasses! Love your content, and love your product recommendations of all varieties. Looking forward to more candles!

Always got your back Colby! (And of course you are right about Sun Soul). I actually like Radiant Sun Bolt less than you do. Any monk, including a sun soul monk, can fire a shortbow which is just better than radiant sun bolt at any level even without archery feats. Sun Soul actually punishes you for using your feature.

@zTom_

2 ай бұрын

Man that sucks. That's one of the Monk classes that terribly deserve help from the DM to homebrew it a bit, to a point where it's actually functional 😅

@Chris_the_Nerd

2 ай бұрын

The only time I have ever made “good” use of Radiant Sun Bolt was on a multiclass with Stars Druid themed around doing radiant ranged attacks. So, basically just for flavor and unarmored AC.

@foldionepapyrus3441

2 ай бұрын

Not universally - you still get to add the dex modifier to the damage, which is radiant so less resisted, and the damage die does get larger than a shortbow eventually and matches it at 5th level. Plus that Bonus action make the attack twice more for 1 Ki if you used it with your main attack action isn't bad or replicable with the bow - in effect ranged flurry of blows, which is pretty cool. It certainly is weaker (at least on most targets as damage resistance could bring it back) when you get it, and you probably have better use for your limited Ki than the bonus action feature. But I'd not agree it punishes you for using it at all - as even while the shortbow is better you use it and can then use it twice more as the BA for 1 Ki.

@ACloud27

2 ай бұрын

Treantmonk in the house!

@alb8419

2 ай бұрын

​​​@@foldionepapyrus3441 Archery fighting style + sharpshooter alone would be better in terms of damage using a bow and at some point you are going to find a +something bow, which will reduce the penalty to hit from sharpshooter Not even considering the fact that you could find pretty easely a reliable way to get advantage and combine it with elven accuracy =more damage consuming no resources

The fact that even Colby needed the Ravenloft lineages and a flying races combined to make this build viable even at low levels is really telling for the Sun Soul subclass.

@RLKmedic0315

2 ай бұрын

The amount of cheesey crap he had to use is pretty telling. This video is one of his worst.

@alexpratt8533

2 ай бұрын

Only so much you can do with the trap subclasses like Sun Soul, Four Elements, and Battlerager. Not to mention his rule about most of his levels being in monk, which he acknowledges is a bad idea. There’s a reason that there isn’t a single Tier one monk DPR build that doesn’t use UA or third party content.

@Torthrodhel

2 ай бұрын

You don't really need that stuff though, it's just compensation gravy. You can build one without it, and if you're going in determined to do a build like this, you're not expecting top tier in the first place, you're going for flavour.

@Sirfinchyyy

2 ай бұрын

Help make monks great again!!

@demoniccheesepuff274

Ай бұрын

​@@Torthrodhel Sure, you *could* build a Sun Soul as is, but this isn't the Flavor Channel, this channel focuses on making strong builds based on a theme. Not using any cheesy options for Sun Soul just means being a below-average character, which isn't what this channel does.

I’m so intrigued to see how Colby tries to redeem the Sun Soul Monk

A note about magic items: There *are* some magic items that buff at least your attack rolls with spell attacks, which you could start using at level 6 because I think they all require you to be a spellcaster to attune. And while it feels really really bad to steal any of those magic items from any actual casters in your party, there's one really good option. If you're the only Druid in your party, bribe your DM for a Staff of the Woodlands. It can only be attuned by druids, is a +2 quarterstaff, that also gives you +2 to spell attack rolls. It also gives you extra Druid spells, to make up for the low number of Druid levels!

I clicked this immediately. I love the idea of sun soul but couldn't ever find something satisfying. I'm crying. Thank you Colby TuT

@grantstratton2239

2 ай бұрын

I'm having flashbacks to attempting to use the Sun Soul Monk provided in the remake of Baldur's Gate II, and it is so bad it's only good for challenge runs. 5e didn't get it any better.

I did a pure Sun Soul monk to level 18. The DM was nice and agreed that the radiant sun bolt satisfied the spell attack prerequisite for the Spell Sniper feat. This honestly felt necessary for me. 60 ft bolt attack, I took the produce flame cantrip and roleplayed it as the sun energy of the Sun Soul monk. Later on magic weapons were basically gauntlets.

This makes me really happy. Me and my best friend have had a running joke for a long time that Sun Soul is secretly the best subclass and we can’t let anyone know. And we don’t play it because it’s too broken

Never clicked so fast on a video I've been thinking about playing a sun soul for ages but could never make one work in a way I enjoy to play, Im excited to see how this goes!

@craigsmall1568

2 ай бұрын

amen

Missed opportunity to call a Dhampir Sun Soul monk "Soular Eclipse"

Not me getting an “Aveeno Positively Radiant” ad.😂😂

I play a sun soul monk myself at this point, but MultiClassed with Ancestral Barbarian and Circle of Stars Druid 😊 Really enjoy the flexibility and different options in fight! 😊 Race: Aasimar MoM Variant - Radiant Soul as Celestial Revelation Background: Ruined - Skilled Feat: Prof in Acrobatics, Jeweler's Tools and Insight (Tough is nice too!) Starter Class: Barbarian Lvl 2-4 Monk, Subclass Way of Sun Soul Lvl 5-6 Druid, Circle of Stars (Use Archer Constellation to Shapeshift) Lvl 7-8 Monk, Take Mobile Feat Lvl 9-10, Barbarian, Subclass Path of the Ancestral Guardian Lvl 11 Monk Lvl 12-13 Barbarian (Feat: PYF) (Character is designed for Level 13, Descent into Avernus Campaign) Look out for tasty items like Gloves of Ogre Strength, Dragonhide Belt, Bracers of Defense :D And you really want a longsword :D

@Torthrodhel

2 ай бұрын

Archer Constellation is a lovely match, I've thought about that too.

@johnbaumann377

2 ай бұрын

@@Torthrodhel yeah! It's a bit bonus action heavy, so you really want to think about when to do what, but in the end i love that build for its flexibility.

I love Fairy Druids. Played one (Circle of the Moon) up to level 6 or 7 one time. Flew my little 1-foot tall self into the middle of a group of Hobgoblins we were fighting, turned into a Brown Bear, and proceded to maul them!

I know we’ve only had the insignia of claws being one of the few monk magic items, but we do have claw of the wyrm rune, and wraps of unarmed prowess, introduced in bigby’s and Book of many things. Eldritch claw tattoo is also nice, blood fury tattoo is another nice one.

@mattwilcut8687

2 ай бұрын

Cloak of Enlargement

@Torthrodhel

2 ай бұрын

These aren't unarmed attacks when you're using the radiant sun bolt though, so would any of those actually work here? Unsure of the specific wording. I'm guessing they proc off unarmed strikes, right? In which case I'd say they don't increase anything you're doing with radiant sun bolts.

Sun soul monk is my favorite class and subclass. Played one for years; but yeah... power wise they arent so great. Luckily for me my table's games are very homebrew and over the years i edited monk and every subclass, especially sun soul, to be pretty powerful. At least compared to before. A lot of my edits actually mirrored the last monk playtest in onednd; which really validated my thoughts on the class. If anyone is curious these are the changes i made: Radiant sunbolt- Wisdom is the modifier used for the blast, the range is increased to 60 feet, and rather than a special attack you can instead replace any unarmed attack with a special ranged unarmed attack (for the purposes of stunning strikes and other monk features). Searing arc strike: Damage is changed to radiant, you can choose to fire it in a 15 ft cone or 30 ft line, and enemies that fail the save are blinded until the start of your next turn. Searing Sunburst: creatures take half damage on a failed save, save changed to dex save, added wisdom modifier to damage, and you can keep adding ki to increase its damage by a number equal to your proficiency bonus (so a max of 6 ki spent for 14d6 + wisdom damage) Sun shield: Now a bonus action you can do once per long rest, or by spending 3 ki if you are out of uses. It now lasts 10 minutes and grants a fly speed equal to your movement speed. In addition creatures that damage you while within the bright light you emit take radiant damage equal to your martial arts die + wisdom modifier. While this ability is active you can extinguish or reignite the light as a bonus action. For the base monk to go alongside this to make things simple essentially take the newest onednd monk, give it extra ki equal to their wisdom modifier, give 2 weapon masteries for monk weapons at 2nd level, and allow masteries you have to be applied to unarmed attacks. There are other changes ive made to the base monk, but they arent important compared to these in terms of damage and sustainability.

I think that great thematics for this character is to reflavor your sun bolts into arrows from an energy bow, since pixies have magical arrows anyway ;) Also, it's worth mentioning that since sun bolts are spell attacks, if you went celestial warlock you could add your charisma to their damage rolls.

@yocketegg7550

2 ай бұрын

I think the idea of a celestial warlock dip is really cool, but it might not work RAW as Radiant Soul specifies it works when you cast a spell. Good to bring up with your dm though

@foldionepapyrus3441

2 ай бұрын

@@yocketegg7550 I think RAW it would have to work, as Radiant Sun Bolt is a "ranged spell attack" that does radiant damage. It can hardly be a "spell attack" if you are not 'casting it'. And if your DM insists otherwise then clearly it is really a ranged weapon attack, so you could dip rouge for some sneak attack or something (though that is definitely not RAW).... Do have to say I'm not sure a 6 level investment in the warlock for that feature and becoming even more MAD is worth it - Monk already desperately need dexterity and wisdom (at least if you are not using armour - and if you are using armour what are you actually getting out of the monk??) and everyone would like some constitution, trying to get charisma in as well. I like the idea of being a bugbear instead - that surprise attack is nice, and it would be funny to start combat with a real light show that vaporises the first poor sap you hit...

@JoschiChr

2 ай бұрын

@@foldionepapyrus3441 You are not using the "Cast a spell" action.

@foldionepapyrus3441

2 ай бұрын

@@JoschiChr "Cast a spell" isn't really anything specific in 5E rules - as you can cast as a bonus, ritual, action, or reaction based on the spells casting time, as well as from an object etc. So something described as a "Ranged Spell attack" exactly the same as every 'real' spell with a ranged attack roll describes itself... It's a spell

@JoschiChr

2 ай бұрын

@@foldionepapyrus3441 It is something as specific as the dodge or dash action, as it is literaly listed amongst those.

This is one I'm looking forward to seeing. One of my favorite campaigns I played in had a Sun Soul Monk in the party. I remember him getting the level 11 ability and we were all just like "What...?" We at least were kind enough to him to make it half damage on a save so it had *something* even if it still by no means redeemed the ability.

Hey Colby, don't catch your KZread vids much, but always listen to your spotify episodes. Thank you for still putting those out.

A general buff my group gives to monks is their ki pool is monk level plus wis mod. For sun soul we nixed searing arc strike and replaced it with the level 11 feature. At level 11 we made a feature called blazing aura. At the cost of 5 ki PBTPD you gain the benefits of sun shield and a fly speed equal to your walking speed for ten minutes. At level 17 blazing aura adds your martial arts dice in radiant damage to your unarmed strikes and doubles the dice for radiant sun bolt.

Ok, i didn't watched the video yet, but... a decent sun soul? I DOUBT IT

@thebrothersslim6056

2 ай бұрын

Sun's out doubts out!!

Honestly, I love the outtakes as much as the builds. 😂🎶🎵

The Sun Soul Monk: D&D Build #164 Level 01: (see above) [monk 1 & race] Level 02: (see above) [monk 2] Level 03: (@17:44) [monk 3 & subclass] Level 04: (@22:48) [monk 4 & ASI] Level 05: (@23:18) [monk 5] Level 06: (@25:04) [druid 1] Level 07: (see above) [druid 2 & subclass] Level 08: (@33:40) [druid 3] Level 09: (@35:57) [druid 4 & ASI] Level 10: (see above) [druid 5] Level 11: (@39:44) [monk 6] Level 12: (@41:58) [druid 6] Level 13: (@43:14) [monk 7] Level 14: (see above) [druid 7] Level 15: (@45:36) [monk 8 & ASI] Level 16: (@46:08) [druid 8 & ASI] Level 17: (@46:25) [monk 9]

This is perfectly timed! A friend is starting a campaign set in a home brew "final fantasy 10 meets super Mario sunshine meets kingdom hearts". I plan to steal some of this but flavor him as a "beach lover" type! Thanks for the inspo! Much love, until next vid! 💜

A fun build. Wishing Dalin a speedy recovery!

My first character was a Sun Soul Monk. Rolled an 18 and had 20 Dex and we were playing Curse of Strahd. I was tearing through opponents in that campaign

Love what you do and how you do it. I hope you had a great time with your family.

Conservationist Colby, an expert in Monk wildlife, explains the importance of therapy pairing for rehabilitated Sun Souls. Much like a Lynx is paired with a cat, the Sun Soul Monk is paired with Shepherd Druid Levels to maintain function and stability, leading to a happier, more fulfilling life in the sanctuary.

Come for the super cool concepts and fun/powerful build, stay for the narrative. Those are some really cool backstory ideas for this character. Anybody who says Colby only cares about the numbers needs to pay more attention to his channel. Such a cool idea for the hag fairy.

@DnDDeepDive

Ай бұрын

Cheers!

my character in the campaign we’ve been running over 3 years now is an Open Hand Monk 7/Light Cleric 6 right now, and is basically an ersatz Sun Soul Monk that can do great burst damage. Extremely versatile, super fun to play.

Love Monks! My Kensei Monk/Samurai Fighter was a beast on the battlefield. So much fun to play.

Now I want to watch my favorite Disney movie since I was a kid with my kids. You, sir, spark joy and creativity with every video. Thank you for all you do.

@DnDDeepDive

2 ай бұрын

Thanks Joe!

>Deadly explosion >Look inside >Greatsword

Welcome back! Hope you had a great, relaxing week off!

One of the varients of teifling gives flying, plus the ability to wear medium armor! That wouldn't be as thematic but would be the "best" race.

@johannesstephanusroos4969

2 ай бұрын

You could be Dabura, instead of Goku

About DEX spell attacks: A mark of passage character has DEX as their spellcasting bonus, and a thief rogue can use magic items that refer to a spellcasting ability without usually having one. It can be argued that a mark of passage thief can cast such spells using DEX.

I've spent the last couple of years playing an Aarakocra Sun Soul/Gloomstalker multiclass in a Tomb of Annihilation campaign, and have had a blast and done plenty of damage, with one small DM allowance: Hunter's Mark works on Sun Bolts. It's a very similar concept to what you've laid out here--four attacks from the air per round with the extra d6 on each--but getting that extra-damaging third attack in round 1 really helps. I've gone fighter with the most recent two levels to get Action Surge, and that's been a nice boost as well.

So hyped for this. Been watching you for a long time now and I'm finally playing my first D&D game! Using my own variation of your psychic knife thrower, no damage spells for flavour 👌 Oh man a sun soul, we finally made it boys, I remember one of the first comments I made awhileeee back was asking how to best get the sun soul closer to a Goku type and we had a small chat about the circle of Stars! I still keep a scourge aasimar, light cleric/circle of stars/sun soul monk/ Frankensteined monster PC on my beyond account ❤ As always I will leave a small idea to tinker with. I give you "the migraine" a whispers bard, fey wonderer ranger and soul knife rogue to try and maximize the psychic damage 🫶

Can't wait to see how you make this one work Colby! Just wanted to clarify a comment I made on a recent video. I asked to see a team teleporting support build but forgot to say that I'd love to see you do it in 5e, not bg3. Hope you enjoyed your break and are doing well!

I'm excited for this one. Sun Soul Monk was my second character, and I enjoyed it, even though our campaign was short-lived.

I’ve waited TWO (2!) WEEKS for this! I’m glad you’re back!

D4: where Colby designs a vampire fairy wielding the power of the sun. Easily one of the best spins to introduce this site to people.

Tricksy is definitely the strongest option for the Summon Fey. I use this all the time with one of my current characters. Put the 5' cube of darkness over the enemy at a height where it starts at their chest and goes up from there. It will blind them (until you run into enemies who can see through magical darkness) without hiding them from you or your allies. Boom, Advantage on every attack for everyone attacking that enemy. Or if you have a squishy ally who's getting targeted by attacks, throw the Darkness over them for cover.

Its a small thing, but a caveat. The radiant bolt isnt just usable with both attacks from the monks extra attack feature during the attack action, but ALL attacks of any kind during the attack action can be replaced with the radiant sun bolt attacks. There are not many ways to really do anything with this, but it is unique, and there are ways to gain extra attacks during the attack action, or ways to do other types of attacks.

Seeing your editing self there is one sentence imprinted in my brain: Say the words! Nice Leatherbound Books 😃The build idea is full of story potential!

So happy to see this video! It's by far my favorite subclass conceptually, and clearly the worst mechanically ha ha! Super sad that it wasn't stronger, but I have no doubt that you did all you could for it. I just started a Pathfinder 2 game, and the Kineticist is everything the Sun Soul Monk and Way of 4 Elements Monk should have been, with a little Mercy Monk sprinkled in as well. Can't wait to see what The Dungeon Coach does with his "DBZ" Monk!

Wow, that Randall artwork is gnarly!

I've had a Sun Sol monk at my table. Here is the revised sun sol I gave them. I'll split the buffs in two categories: Universal Monk buffs and Sun Sol Buffs- Universal Buffs: - When monks get ki at level 2, they get their monk level + Wisdom modifier Ki points - If a monk uses the Step of the Wind, they gain the benefits of both dash and disengage. Sun Soul buffs: - the radiant sun bolt: when you get them Overcome resistance, and treat immunity as resistance to radiant damage. - 5th level stunning strike change: Proficiency bonus times per day, you can attempt to stun a creature you can see within range of your sun bolt. - The Searing Arch feature: creatures caught in the blast radius have their movement speed reduced by half regardless if they save. - The 11th level feature: Any creature not resistant or immune to radiant damage makes the con save with disadvantage. On a success, the creature still takes half damage. Also, the damage Dice were your monk martial art dice. So upcasting it had its perks (8d8 damage is more than sun beam a 6th level spell, so this really helped the martial caster gap. It's supposed to be the spirit bomb, damn it.) Sun Shield feature: Creatures that hit you with an attack are blinded, unless immune. (It's a capstone, there is no save). In addition the damage they take is two rolls of your martial arts die + your wisdom modifier + 5. The blindness can be saved against at the end of the attackers next turn and can only apply to a creature once every 3 rounds of combat. However, they still take the damage regardless. (This is overpowered? Open hand monks can Kill any creature on a failed save at this level. Just poof, dead. At this points wizards can auto duplicate themselves with simulacrum.)

@caosisaac

2 ай бұрын

Not bad changes, but personally not a fan of them myself. Feels kind of weird to me that searing arc strike just halves movement speed and even as a capstone having the ability to blind without a save permanently on essentially at all times, not to mention the increased damage, does feel a bit overtuned for a capstone. Here are the personal changes for the class my table uses. Not at all saying that mine is better, just a different comparison to see what you think. Sun soul is my all time favorite class despite its flaws and i love discussing homebrew over it. Radiant sunbolt- Wisdom is the modifier used for the blast, the range is increased to 60 feet, and rather than a special attack you can instead replace any unarmed attack with a special ranged unarmed attack (for the purposes of stunning strikes and other monk features). Searing arc strike: Damage is changed to radiant, you can choose to fire it in a 15 ft cone or 30 ft line, and enemies that fail the save are blinded until the start of your next turn. Searing Sunburst: creatures take half damage on a failed save, save changed to dex save, added wisdom modifier to damage, and you can keep adding ki to increase its damage by a number equal to your proficiency bonus (so a max of 6 ki spent for 14d6 + wisdom damage) Sun shield: Now a bonus action you can do once per long rest, or by spending 3 ki if you are out of uses. It now lasts 10 minutes and grants a fly speed equal to your movement speed. In addition creatures that damage you while within the bright light you emit take radiant damage equal to your martial arts die + wisdom modifier. While this ability is active you can extinguish or reignite the light as a bonus action. For the base monk to go alongside this to make things simple essentially take the newest onednd monk, give it extra ki equal to their wisdom modifier, give 2 weapon masteries for monk weapons at 2nd level, martial arts dice changed to 2d4 at 5th level and 2d6 at 17th level, and allow masteries you have to be applied to unarmed attacks. There are other changes ive made to the base monk, but they arent important compared to these in terms of damage and sustainability.

All I can say is: Ooo-de-lally oodle-ollie, golly! What - a - dayyyyy!

@ryadinstormblessed8308

2 ай бұрын

Damn, now I've had that song stuck in my head for the last 6 days! 😂

21:08 that's so true. I'm a bg3 player and I use my monks to hit-and-run or execute low hp enemies. My tank and or mages will carry the damages, and monk/rogue/druid/ranger will finish things off and run away.

On a non-Sunsoul Monk note, not only is Robin Hood one of my all time favorite Disney films, but it wasn't until my wife pointed out to me that i realized all of my favorite Disney movies have one thing in common. Phil Harris lol

The hexblood fairy is so smart. Definitely one of those "i wish i thought of that" moments. Only played sun soul once, but i loved the character. Aasimar sun soul with order of the ghost slayer bloodhunter and finished with some fighter levels(battlemaster) snagged fightining initiate early for unarmed fighting so my punches were doing a d8 and only used the bolts if i couldnt get to them. Conceptually he was this insane combination of Penance from marvel meets a psycho from borderlands and the radiant damage was just the pure force of his insanity.

Sun Soul is one of my favorite subclasses, because you punch with lasers. Ranged flurry of blows! I like to go with the new Aasimar (small, radiant consumption, +1 in 3 stats) and a two level dip into Bladesinger for the AC gimmick of stacking Dex+Wis+Int.

I've just started playing a Sun Soul Monk, so I was very excited when I saw this notification! I'm currently a Cleric (Twilight) 2/Monk 4, which is not a great combination of levels, but I wanted to get to that Twilight Sanctuary ASAP. Honestly, pairing maybe the weakest subclass with maybe the strongest subclass has still not been horrible. I've been using Faerie Fire as my main concentration spell (there are two Rogues in the party who really like that), so I don't think Hex will be a great fit for this character, unfortunately. Giving two Rogues (and the other three party members) advantage is probably making us do more damage as a group than Hex would anyway. This video has me considering Druid levels for the future, but I don't know what subclass I would do because Shepherd is kind of redundant with Twilight Domain, and I think I might get more out of Cleric levels at this point anyway. Per your closing statement, I might not take any more than 5 Monk levels, though.

Third ever character was a sun soul monk. Loved the flavor, had a hard time feeling like I contributed much to combat, as well as didn’t see the need to punch from a distance. Excited to see your angle on it!

@life-destiny1196

2 ай бұрын

My third-ever character was also a sun soul monk and I had the same takeaway. are you me?

@brendancarter5431

2 ай бұрын

@@life-destiny1196 👀👀

@foldionepapyrus3441

2 ай бұрын

Nice bit about the distance is you can keep yourself at near zero risk of harm while still contributing, or position yourself advantageously while still hitting the best target for the group - no pesky kobold getting past you to alert the whole nest and that badly beaten up target now doesn't get another go even if they were too far apart (which admittedly with the monks super power of mobility is somewhat unlikely).

Technically if you're above the enemy's head looking down on them, the horizontal requirement the swarm keeper move ability has could pull them towards you 15ft off the ground. DM dependent though. For druid i would go stars and give me another option for bonus action attacks with the archer constellation.

Oo dah lolly!!! 😂 nothing against the build but the song was absolutely my favorite part Colby! Bless you sir!

my favorite Disney movie is The Great Mouse Detective and you should totally give it a rewatch

I know Colby was going Fairy for the Flying speed, but I think the coolest race for the Sun Soul Monk is Warforged. Robots shooting beams are EPIC!!!

@jaspermooren5883

Ай бұрын

That's also cool, but I'd also love an Aarakocra, bring forth the power of Ra!

I haven't watched in close to 100 episodes, but this one I gotta see! I love the flavor of the sun soul monk, and have been yearning for a lenient enough dm to agree upon some buffs, or a good magic item or synergy build. Honestly a 2 ki discount on searing arc strike, a 2d6 bump in searing sunburst, and a blind effect on sun shield would be all the class needs to function as a pseudo caster and be an aoe dps on the battlefield.

Apparently the spell sniper feat works with the radiant sunbolt making it 60 feet. So thats a bonus. 😀

Another way you could go is to take swarmkeeper. The extra damage and other features you get from their Gathered Swarm doesn’t require a weapon attack, so it would work with your Radiant Sun attacks.

This gave me an idea for an astral self monk spores Druid build

I played a very similar character (kind of). Instead of lineage to get hex, I used black robed mage of high sorcery, and instead of druid I went with cleric. And I stopped at monk 3, playing him as more of a support/control. Later took monk to 5, but got to cleric 5 first.

Finding this channel has been genuinely so amazing, as someone who has the *exact* same opinion about the Monk as Colby and as someone who likes to play fun but still optimized builds Sidenote; it always breaks my heart watching the Mighty Nein because of the “dope Monk shit” and how excited and impressed they all are by Beauregard, and I miss feeling that wonder for the class. Understanding how weak Monk actually is is so disheartening when in reality they DO get a lot of cool stuff!

So I think a cool idea that you could do is combine the concepts of a Mizzmage( a caster that uses the Mizzium Apparatus item, and a Magic mouth programmer( a character they uses magic mouth( and sometimes programmed illusion) to make a spellcaster that can create magic inventions that rely on programming using the spell Magic mouth. Race: Vedalkin extra d4 to arcana rolls Level progression 1 Wizard 2 Druid 3: druid: stars dragon constellation 4:wizard: blood magic ( for free spell component by taking damage to yourself) 5:cleric knowlage ( double Prof to arcana rolls 6 wizard 7wizard( eldritch adept: finish vigor) to reduce the damage you take from free magic mouth caster to an average of 0. 8-17 wizard levels This combo gives you access to every outside of 37ish spells outside of background/ dunamancy. With the ability to never fail an arcana roll to cast them. New unlimited casting of magic mouth only limited by time. Access to death ward to allow you to cast any spell for free without dying by falling to 1 HP instead. Access to level 9 spells Would be a cool look at a powerful build that’s power is based on versatility not raw power.

@firesflame221

2 ай бұрын

Also this is a variant of the build put out by pack tactics, I like blood magic wizard as it allows you the self sustained combo is casting huge spells that cost lots of money for free at the cost of dropping to 1 HP, as well as being the best magic mouth programmer in the game. Where as his let’s you pick chronurgy wizard for The level 10 ability arcane abeyance. Both offer a massive amount of utility. I just like the massive ammount of creativity allows with magic mouth, which allows you to make a full computer if you have enough time and spell slots( for programmed illusion)

Yassss, almost a month without a DND video, hope the break was nice, but Tuesday commutes just got way better again

A missed opportunity to put in Spell Sniper, just to get the ignore cover feature from it :D :D And maybe the double range if the DM supports you. There was also some UA fighting style - Close Quarter Shooter - which does work with the Sun Bolt, but again with the DM's blessing, since it's UA :) I guess, these are the easiest options for helping the class, where the DM just needs to approve it

A couple of dips from Tasha's can really boost that sun attack. First you add on a level of Ranger to nab Favored Foe, nice bit of top-up damage. Then go three-deep into Swarmkeeper whose attack bonuses, unlike pretty much any other Ranger, aren't limited specifically to weapon attacks. You could use it to top up the damage even further but for an attack that's already not "doing numbers" in damage terms I like to look at utility and that 15ft shunt is a really awesome option, so I'd build on that. With that in mind, grabbing a level of Genie Warlock can make up the damage a bit more... and going three-deep could net you a Pact of the Talisman (hooray for even more lesser-trod paths) with the Rebuke of the Talisman to knock 'em about an extra 10ft even if they do manage to get past you. Plus if you took any of the three classes (I'm assuming you'll have the 3rd level Sun Soul Monk already) just one level further, that'll give you the feat opportunity for Crusher, which in combination with the Dao choice for Genie Pact, pushes your battlefield shuffling ability a consistent 5ft even further! When you really go for the shuffle, that's 10ft if something gets close (hold a whip and it doesn't even have to be THAT close) and then a further 20ft regardless... a 30ft push right back to the edge of your sun attack's range! Dipping a Barbarian level would gain you an Unarmored Defense entirely based around stats you're maxing anyway, and Rage while not adding to your non-Strength spell attacks, doesn't impede them either (for the other bonuses) since they might be spell attacks but aren't actually spells (and believe me, there would be a LOT more options to boost them up if they were - this is one of the very few actual benefits to them not being). Of course rounding off the build, you're gonna wanna go to 5 in Monk (or Ranger if you wanna trade speed for spell slots and/or chase the nice prone-upgrade later on for your shuffling ways) at some point to grab hold of Extra Attack. So yeah one way or another you have a pretty reasonable unconventional battlefield keepaway kiter with that awesome flavour. It may not have a majority of levels in Sun Soul Monk but it still feels like one at heart since it's entirely built around the attack they get.

I like the build. If I were to play it, I would likely go Circle of Wildfire and lean into the casting of Burning Hands with my Spirit out. Searing Arc Strike allows you to cast Burning Hands, so with 6 levels in Circle of Wildfire, you would be able to cast it through your Wildfire Spirit and add a D8 to the damage roll. It spends two KI instead of one, but 3D6+1D8 that does half damage on a successful save seems like it would out pace 2D8+10 that has to hit, especially as the enemy's AC gets higher and higher, even against a single target. Against multiple targets, it should easily outpace Flurry of Blows. You lose the Spirit Totem and some bonuses on your conjured creatures, but I think you gain a ton back in versatility with the Wildfire Spirit's teleport, bonus action attack (when you run out of KI points) and the bonuses to your fire damage and healing spells.

I'm surprised you didn't mention it, but spell sniper doubles the range of your radiant blast, which is huge. You have to have to be able to cast at least one spell to take it, but it's totally worth it.

I had this idea, Dm I put pending, to multi class radiant soul with paladin to allow you to smite from a distance. I mean, it’s radiant damage! Ranged smites could make for a strong combo, but that’s only a tiny dip into radiant soul, because it’s just so weak otherwise.

Sun Soul is the only monk i've actually played, and I love it. Mathematically it wasn't great, but it was just a ton of fun thematically.

I played an Aasimar Sun Soul monk in a one shot, which was pretty fun. The sun bolt was handy as we started behind bars without weapons. I got knocked out really quickly nit long after, though

Had a ton of fun playing a Gnome Sun Soul Monk in a Curse of Strahd game. Though, even with Radiant damage being exceptionally good in the campaign setting and the monk being unaffected by the utter lack of equipment, by the time the werewolves came around the monk was actively trying to get bitten. DM was game for that though, and until the monk tried to create a pack of the rest of the party he was a fairly decent combatant pinballing around the battlefield in hybrid form. The most cheerful adventurer in all of Ravenloft.

Have I ever wanted to play a sun soul monk? Absolutely, yes. I wanted to be Dragon Ball's Goku and other characters from the series. Just launching ki blast after ki blast. And then I actually read the subclass, and I didn't want to play it anymore until such time that it was fixed, which it hasn't been yet. Big sad. I actually didn't even noticed the difference in editing. Your skills have improved. You talking about moonbeam and grappling/moving targets into and out of the beam, I would kind of love to see another team-up build where you have one character specialized in grappling and moving targets, and another one doing the damage. Disney's Robin Hood is still my favourite animated classic movie. Aladdin would be my second favourite. Robin Williams killed it as the genie.

Could be fun in COS. Corrupted when transported to Barovia from the Feywild somehow. Maybe paired up with a paladin and cleric to pick up the slack!

As someone who lives in Austria and really likes watches. Maybe I should check the sponsor out ^-^ Also with stillness of mind I personally allow at my tables that you can always use stillness of mind, even if you are issued otherwise, making the feature a lot better. Sure it's still an action but it would be an action to kill of your friend

19:10 If you play a Mark of Passage human you get a racial casting of misty step using dexterity, this doesn’t answer your question directly but if you get an item that lets you cast a spell using YOUR spell casting modifier dex becomes a valid option.

Hey Colby, just found your channel recently & love everything so far! Not sure if you'll see this, but I've been trying to build a paladin that uses unarmored defense (definitely sub-optimal, I know) 😅 I'd love to see how you'd go about making that viable, if you happen to find time to try it out! And whether you do or not, thanks for always making me feel welcome.

@briannelson27

2 ай бұрын

Oddly, this could possibly be the highest saving throw combo. level 14 monk gives prof on all saving throws, and level 6 paladin gives the aura. prof +cha+stat. Super mad though

@noahghent8431

2 ай бұрын

@@briannelson27 Ooh, interesting point! I was also thinking of going monk at first, but I think it makes more sense to go with barbarian for unarmored defense to be at least a little less MAD

I needed to see what you did with this dumpster fire of a subclass.

As excited I am about the new 2024 monk- I love the challenge! Let’s hope there’s still time for a drunken master build! Colby, you can do it! 👊 🍺

We can thank our lucky, dare I say, "radiant" stars that the "Radiant Sun Bolt" subclass feature does NOT follow the same rules as the "Martial Arts" class feature sans the damage-die? This certainly would've offed the subclass even further as is. 😱 Conceptually, it's bursting with flavour (and the artwork is creepy too, I love it!) Mechanically...😬...Big oof, Bidoof! 😬 It truly is a shame of a subclass that had a mote of potential that sadly got snuffed. Good job, pappa Colby. Here's to hoping for no last-minute Monk nerfs in the next PHB.

Love the flavor of monks and particularly the sun soul but I absolutely agree about the mechanics. You should check out the fix for both on Bone Wizard’s channel

Colby, I'd love to see you build a plasmoid that fights by Osmosis

since i listen to your videos mostly I dont mind you making sound effects for winks :D

Keep making builds out of "bad" subclasses (at least till One DND or whatever comes out). I play at a (large) table of middle aged fathers who are pretty new to DND. As the "experienced" player (not DM) I am charged with making character build suggestions as we progress and have made them all powerful (your, treant and dungeon dude videos inspiring my knowledge base). Playing as something naturally weaker is fun for me because it helps me not be on the same power level, giving my friends more spotlight, forcing me to play more creatively, and in playing creatively exposing more interesting things to my friends that are possible in the nearly infinite sandbox that is DND.

@briannelson27

2 ай бұрын

I like to use my optimizer powers for skills sometimes. Played a butler to the noble barbarian. Scout rogue, knowledge cleric level dip to get skills and guidance. proficiency in so many skills and expertise in like 6 early on. took the skill master feat while being a half elf, for more. Combat was pretty basic with hand crossbow/rapier and shield action, but it was to support the rest of the party. Later you get expertise in even more skills, then at level 11 rogue you just...dont roll below 10, so most skill checks were 10+prof+stat+guidance

Saw a short somewhere about the lack of a 'dragon hunter' class or subclass. Thinking about it, the best I could come up with was a Gloomstalker-Totem Halfling. The idea was trying to resist everything the dragon does, including dex and wisdom saves, frightening and all the damages. Wonder if there's anything else I should consider, and where to go beyond 10th level (ranger7, barbs3)

I’m not sure if you’ve already used this for a build (knowing you, you probably have lmao), but the Order Cleric’s 6th level feature of allowing you to cast any enchantment spells with a 1 action casting time as a bonus action would be crazy if you paired it with a martial class with extra attack. Imagine dropping a Hold Person as a bonus action, then running up and scoring two crits against them! It’s definitely a higher level investment, but it would be so fun!

@DnDDeepDive

2 ай бұрын

Yeah, the Law & Disorder build tried to take good advantage of the feature, but I haven't done it in a melee build... I mean, to be fair, you get there a lot quicker by just getting quickened spell from a 3 level sorcerer dip (see the Critlander build) but it's still a fun feature.

I would homebrew the dragon hide belt from Fizban's (and make it crystal gem dragon scales as they are radiant focused!) to add to spell attack bonus for Monk DCs (similar to the items from Tasha's). That is, If i had a player who insisted on Sun Soul (I doubt but i recently had a player double down on Long Death lol)

The best sun soul monk is your own homebrew. Make radiant sun bolt available as a bonus action. Move 17th level feature to level 6. Give half damage on a save for 11th level feature, and give a radiant damage cone of cold like feature at 17.

Robin Hood and Little John running through the forest... classic!

For our current campaign, I wanted to play something besides a half-elf rogue, so I rolled a few times on a randomizer table until I got something interesting. Ended up with a bugbear Way of Shadows monk and he slaps. Be interested trying him as Sun Soul though. Named him "Heddwyn ap Macsen ap Fflamddwyn" because, A) everyone knows bugbears are Welsh, and B) my DM constantly butchered my name in the last campaign because it had a couple of accent marks in it (Scélérat - literally French for scoundrel)

I'dd love to see you work your magic using some Tal'dorei and / or Humblewood subclasses.

When I played Sun Soul, my DM allowed me to use the bonus action unarmed strike as a Ki blast, which made it feel a lot better. At that point, the whole power budget of the subclass was eaten up by "being a monk, but at range", but it actually allowed that to be a viable option lol.

yaaaaayyy Colby!!!🎉 perfect morning video with tea

It's not a total failure...you convinced me that Sun Soul is indeed worse than Way of the Four Elements! :D

Great video, Colby

@DnDDeepDive

2 ай бұрын

Maybe one day!

You can only cast burning hands as a bonus action after taking the attack action, so you can't burning hands and sunburst at the same time. At 6th level, you gain the ability to channel your ki into searing waves of energy. Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 2 ki points to cast the burning hands spell as a bonus action.

Ive been toying with a hexblood fairy idea lately! Funny coincidence! They are a spores druid to lean into the witchy nature magic theyve inherited from their hag mother

I remember voting in that poll for Sun Soul. Four Element might be bad, but it has features that can interact with other mechanics and you can build around it. Sun Soul barely has any connectivity with the rest of D&D.