D&D 5E Stillness of Mind

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'm considering making the Monk's 7th level Stillness of Mind feature a reaction instead of an action. But, they already get Evasion at 7th level, so maybe Stillness of Mind is supposed to be weak on purpose.

Any thoughts?

 

[Fanaelialae]

The change would certainly make it more useful. That said, the monk in my last campaign used Stillness of Mind to good effect by ending fear effects that were preventing him from closing with enemies.

Still, while it never came up, I did wonder how I'd handle it in the case of charm. Many charm effects either force you to use your action as the charmer dictates (dominate), or imply that you either aren't directly aware that you are charmed or perhaps the charm forces you not to mind that you're charmed. Using Stillness of Mind under those circumstances is debatable.

While making it a reaction does make it significantly more potent, it also circumvents the issues above. I suppose one downside is that this change prevents you from being able to shrug off any effects if you've already used your reaction on something else.

I'm torn on this one. On the one hand, this change makes adjudicating Stillness of Mind simpler IMO. On the other hand, the monk taking a moment to focus and clear his mind is fairly iconic of martial arts movies. I might give this change a try after some more consideration.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Making it a reaction essentially makes it an immunity for all intents and purposes, whereas the action it costs as written is, as mentioned above, redolent of the ability to focus and shake yourself free. In some respects that is almost more potent - the evil spell caster exults as the monk is bent to her terrible will...the laughter dies in her throat as she sees his eyes become unclouded. How did he shrug it off? Curses!
YMMV but it works fine as is for me.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Making it a reaction essentially makes it an immunity for all intents and purposes, whereas the action it costs as written is, as mentioned above, redolent of the ability to focus and shake yourself free. In some respects that is almost more potent - the evil spell caster exults as the monk is bent to her terrible will...the laughter dies in her throat as she sees his eyes become unclouded. How did he shrug it off? Curses!
YMMV but it works fine as is for me.

I'd be more okay with that fluff if the crunch was actually congruent with it. The things that bug me are twofold:

(1) Usually, you make a saving throw vs. fear at the end of your turn, not the beginning, so spending an action on Stillness of Mind has a nontrivial chance of being a purely wasted round. If your save vs. fear happened at the beginning of your turn it would be more attractive; a mulligan on fear, if you will.

(2) Many charm effects either outright disallow or at least strongly discourage spending your actions to end them. Let's say the spellcaster in your example had cast Hypnotic Pattern. In vanilla 5E, that means the monk is incapacitated, hence never gets a chance to break out of the hypnosis. Both mechanically and from a fluff perspective, that seems like the wrong outcome.

I've also considered making it a reaction but charging a ki point. Monks tend to have pretty busy reactions already (missile catch, slow fall, opportunity attacks, the 17th level Shadow Monk ability) so from a mechanical perspective that might be enough of a cost, but making Stillness of Mind ki-free does feel wrong from a flavor perspective. It should be a ki-based ability, even if it doesn't have to be for class balance.

Note also that the Paladin of Devotion gives freedom from charm (and later, fear) to not only himself but all of his buddies. Allowing a quasi-immunity to fear/charm for monks (with or without a ki cost) does not seeem out of line to my design instincts.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Re: timings of fear saves. Caster/monster uses its spell/effect on its turn. You make a save throw and fail so on your next turn you either use your movement to leg it out of sight (thus making an attack on the caster impossible and possibly triggering an OA), or risk it and suffer Disadvantage, then make a save again and hope for a save.
Ok.
But the monk can still his mind as his action on that turn (rather than move put of line of sight or risk Disadvantage) instead. He can stand there even though his mate Brave Sir Robin has hoofed it around the corner. So yeah it's as much of a 'wasted' turn as moving out of LOS would be, but you won't trigger an OA and can still use your bonus action to Dodge at the cost of a Ki point and use your reaction if applicable, and still be up in the bad guy's grille for the next round, and not suffer Disadvantage while you're doing it.

For charm effects its the specific beats general story. The specific monk ability to overcome the charm beats the general spell effect description.

 

[mellored]

I would just let them use it even if you don't have control of your character. Effectively turning a dominate into a stun. You failed a save and should be punished at least somewhat.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

For charm effects its the specific beats general story. The specific monk ability to overcome the charm beats the general spell effect description.

In what way? The specific monk ability specifically requires you to use your action; and you don't have an action while you're incapacitated by Hypnotic Pattern because you're, well, incapacitated. Are you saying that you allow the monk to use his action even while incapacitated and/or dominated? If so, no wonder you're satisfied with it! It's actually a pretty good ability under that ruling.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Yeah that's how I rule it. Otherwise, you can never use it versus charm. I may be seeing it wrong but I can't work out another way for it to work.