Monk - Way of the Soul Knife (revamped) - more Psionics

Well, I should note that both Sun Soul and Way of the Four Elements can cast Fireball as well; I don't really have an issue with that for 3 psi/ki points. Fireball is a great spell, but at 9th level (or 11th level due to some of the monk subclasses scaling a bit weird) it is not outrageous that they can cast it - they are giving up a lot of their Ki points to do that. I am personally on the boat that Monks *should* be half casters; the important thing to me with monks is giving them things that are compelling to do with their ki and are not stunning strike (again, that's just my view), and so fireball, well, that's something compelling. And if they get that... they are giving up Fly from telekinesis, which is a really good spell too. 3rd level spells are just really good.

KibblesTasty

Hello! I hope these kinds of comments are helpful, because it is not my intent to criticize the work just because I get a kick out of it, I am trying to help the design process by thinking through the design. In the newest version posted on reddit in the psion document, the monk does look very good. I do wonder if suggesting to swap out the discipline is wise, since spells like fireball are available to the Psycho kinetics discipline, for example. Utility spells are nice, but the ability to trade 3 ki points for a fireball at monk lv9 seems like a combat option that may outcompete 3 ki points spent any other way for damage. Now, an occasional fireball from a martial artist is *fine*, but they can judiciously cast two fireballs per short rest without exhausting their ki supplies. Perhaps there is an argument that it is fine still, but considering how unusual of a possibility it is for a monk to get short rest spells that can be quite potent, so I thought it was worth mentioning it. My initial gut reaction wants to restrict the casting to Lv2 spells to be closer to the Way of the Shadow, but what is your opinion on the matter? Thank you, and once again, my intent is to be sincere about the inquiry, but I realize that written words easily communicate the wrong intent, so I always hope it doesn't come through poorly

I really love the Soul Blade concept, but this Archetype might be a bit too generous in both the number and power of its features , for example : Soul Rend allows you to destroy stone, clay and iron golems ( who have Cha 1) with just one flurry of blows.. The jump and levitate features are redundant with access to Telekinesis and the discipline itself adds way too many extra options. I suggest taking out the discipline entirely , maybe make another Archetype that uses a discipline without the Soul Blade feature.

Aron Smith