Henshin Mystic Overhaul

[HastyPudding]

An idea to fix, in my opinion, the most broken and weakest tree in the game.

Flaw 1 : Henshin suffers from not being able to utilize spell focus and evocation DC's for their ki abilities, leading to weak damage, if ki abilities even hit at all.
Solution 1 : Arcane Archer can now utilize enchantment focus items and feats for some of their abilities. I figure it wouldn't be difficult for henshin to gain the same with evocation and enchantment DC's. They cannot pick spell focus feats unless they multiclass, but I've given them up to +3 to evocation/enchantment DC's in the cores. According to my basic calculations, a henshin under this new build could reach a stable and respectable 70ish DC for their abilities with a little effort, possibly more if the push for it. This is roughly the equivalent of your standard sorcerer's evocation or conjuration DC's.

Flaw 2 : Henshin suffers from what I like to call 'paladin syndrome', meaning they require too many stats to be effective and juggling them often means too much sacrifice for little gain. This leads to dumping strength and having only average damage and worthless ki abilities or dumping wisdom and having low damage and weak ki abilities. It's a no-win situation.
Solution 2 : Added wisdom to hit and damage in the cores. This provides them with the high wisdom required for good ki dc's and allows them to focus more on wisdom and less on strength. This also provides multiclass options with clerics, favored souls, and druids.

Flaw 3 : Henshin's unique abilities look interesting on paper, but in testing they're actually quite weak due to low DC's and lack of focus. They also cannot utilize metamagics or spell focus feats.
Solution 3 : I've boosted the fire and force damage in the tree to scale better with spellpower. Also, a couple abilities have been completely changed.

*Edited additions/changes in red*

Core 1 : Riddle of Fire
- Change fire resistance bypass from flat -2 to -5%
- *ADDITION* : You may now use your wisdom modifier to hit with quarterstaves

Core 2 : Ki Bolt
- Change fire resistance bypass from flat -2 to -5%
- Ki Bolt now scales with 250% spellpower
- Change the DC for Ki Bolt to (DC = 20 + monk level + wisdom modifier + evocation spell bonuses)
- *ADDITION* : You may now use your wisdom modifier for damage with quarterstaves
- *ADDITION* : +1 to the DC's of your evocation and enchantment spells and ki abilities
- *ADDITION* : +10% critical damage with fire and force spells and ki abilities

Cure 3 : Sounding Staff
- Change fire resistance bypass from flat -2 to -5%

Core 4 : Incinerating Wave
- Change fire resistance bypass from flat -2 to -5%
- Incinerating Wave ki cost reduced from 20 to 15
- Incinerating Wave now scales with 250% spellpower
- Incinerating Wave damage changed from 5d6+1 fire and force damage to 1d6 fire and force damage per monk level
- Change the DC for Incinerating Wave to (DC = 20 + monk level + wisdom modifier + evocation spell bonuses)
- *ADDITION* : +1 to the DC's of your evocation and enchantment spells and ki abilities
- *ADDITION* : +10% critical damage with fire and force spells and ki abilities

Core 5 : Cauldron of Flame
- Change fire resistance bypass from flat -2 to -5%
- Cauldron of Flame completely changed:
Activate to produce intense flames around you for 10 seconds. Each second, nearby enemies take 1d6 fire and force damage per monk level. This damage scales with 175% spellpower. A successful reflex save reduces damage by half. (DC = 20 + monk level + wisdom modifier + evocation spell bonuses) (Activation cost: 30 ki, cooldown: 75 seconds)

Capstone : Serenity
- Increase wisdom bonus from 2 to 4
- Increase passive ki regeneration bonus from 1 to 2
- Change fire resistance bypass from flat -2 to -5%
- *ADDITION* : +2 to the DC's of your evocation and enchantment spells and ki abilities


Tier 1
Elemental Words
- All Elemental Words are removed completely from all tiers

Henshin Staff Training
- No Changes for all tiers. This is pretty much bread and butter for a staff build.

*NEW* Riddle of Invulnerability : 2 AP / 1 rank
- Every time you use a monk finishing move you gain a temporary bonus to your magical resistance rating equal to your wisdom score that lasts for 5 seconds.

Mystic Training
- AP cost reduced from 2 to 1 per rank

Negotiator
- No Changes; every tree needs its fluff and this passive fits thematically with henshin mystic

Animal Forms
- No Changes


Tier 2
*NEW* Riddle of Interaction : 1 AP / 3 ranks
- Activate to deceive an enemy into thinking you are an ally for 20/30/40 seconds. Will save negates. This is effectively a charm monster spell. (DC = 20 + monk level + wisdom modifier + enchantment spell bonuses) (Activation cost: 20 ki, cooldown: 1 minute)

Quick Strike
- Cooldown reduced to 18/15/12 seconds to match that of thief acrobat

Elemental Ki Strikes
- Removed, as this is redundant and doesn't need to be in all three monk trees

*NEW* Dichotomy : Multi-selector : 2 AP / 1 rank
Mystic Energy
- While in ocean stance, you also gain +10 magical resistance rating
Mystic Prowess
- While in sun stance, you also gain +10 melee power

Contemplation
- No Changes


Tier 3
*NEW* Riddle of Awareness: 2 AP / 3 ranks
- Rank 1 : Your attacks when wielding weapons or while unarmed have the ghost touch property
- Rank 2 : You are now immune to blindness effects and spells
- Rank 3 : You gain a +25 bonus to AC against flanking attacks made by enemies

Lighting the Candle
- Ki generation penalty removed
- *ADDITION* : Fire and force damage now scale with 100% spellpower

Embrace the Void
- Meditation uses increased from 1/2/3 to 2/4/6
- This ability is not explicit on how much extra ki is regenerated while meditating, so I'm putting this at +4/+7/+10 passive ki regeneration while you meditate.

Ability Score
- No Changes


Tier 4
*NEW* Riddle of Confusion : 2 AP / 1 rank
- Activate to cloud the minds of nearby opponents for 10 seconds, causing them to attack both friends and foes, as per the confusion spell. Will save negates. (DC = 20 + monk level + wisdom modifier + enchantment spell bonuses) (Acitvation cost: 20 ki, cooldown: 25 seconds)

*NEW* Fire and Force : 1 AP / 3 ranks
- You gain +4/+8/+12 fire and force spellpower

Focus
- No longer requires you to be meditating, but still costs 1 use of meditation
- You can now move while using Focus, and the area buff now moves with you
- Cooldown has been added: 90 seconds

Ability Score
- No Changes


Tier 5
Staff Specialization
- No Changes

*NEW* Riddle of Equilibrium : 1 AP / 3 ranks
- Permanently gain +1/+2/+3 passive ki regeneration and +4/+7/+10 concentration

*NEW* Multi-selector
Mystic Magic : 1 AP / 3 ranks
- Permanently gain +1/+2/+3 to your evocation and enchantment spells and ki abilities
Mystic Combat : 1 AP / 3 ranks
- You gain +4/+7/+10 melee power and you generate an additional 1/1/2 ki on critical hits.

Void Strike
- No longer requires elemental words
- Cooldown increased from 3 seconds to 10 seconds
- *ADDITION* : force damage now scales with 100% spellpower

Balance in Dawn
- Bug fixed to not give negative levels to party members when using 'Every Light Casts a Shadow'

[FuzzyDuck81]

Some nice suggestions here, i like it.

[HastyPudding]

Some nice suggestions here, i like it.

Thank you. I kind of took it towards the way they did arcane archer, which almost does as much elemental damage as physical damage if you spec for it. I always saw henshin as a caster/melee hybrid, but instead of spells they had unique ki abilities or abilities that mimicked actual spells like in PnP.

[Sunnie]

Looks good.

[HastyPudding]

I just occurred to me that, in addition to spell focus feats, henshin also can't use metamagics. This would reduce their spellpower by 75 ~ 300.

Editing OP.