10 Unique Ideas for your ASTRAL SELF Monk Character Build | D&D

so you want to play the astro self monk you want to tap into your key to conjure a visage of your true self but then you think how can i be a little bit more creative with it what if your higher self came from lycanthropy or a result of mechanical bioengineering how can we reflavor this subclass to awaken new ideas for your next month character hello acolytes welcome to the cleric corner my name is ryker and here we talk about all things dungeons and dragons tapping into our higher powers to create worlds more unique and stories more impactful in dungeons and dragons fifth edition astral south monks give you a variety of special spectral body parts as you level up all summoned with your key points you start with extra arms that let you use wisdom for all of your strength based roles and attacks being able to punch with those arms instead of your own as well as an extra five foot reach then you get to conjure a visage of a head that gives you super far dark vision advantage on insight and intimidation and telepathy or voice amplification then you conjure a spectral body that allows you to deflect elemental damage and hit harder lastly you can conjure the full effect of your higher self to gain all other benefits as well as a bonus to your armor class with an extra attack but now that we know the mechanics behind it let's give it a fresh coat of paint here are 10 concepts to make your next character more you and more unique let's start with the head there are many body parts to put inspiration in in this case what powerful heads would a monk be able to conjure my first thought was the hydra imagine a monk that can channel those heads into arms that attack each time the enemy hurts you and cuts one off another two takes its place maybe if your dm's very nice it's for flavor of course you'd still be able to attack the same amount of times as always perhaps you're a dragonborn that worships tiamat and your spectre arms are the heads of the dragon queen herself in many depictions the chimera also has multiple heads perhaps your extra arms you conjure is a spectral form of the scorpion tail that it has or maybe you have giant blood and channel the etin a two-headed giant and your spectral arms are just twice your size with giant sized arms take inspiration also from medusa or cerberus or other multi-headed creatures from folklore moving on to the arms we look at creatures with extra arms to take inspiration from and i don't know why i did this and i might add that with these creatures you could be these creatures and you channel key to start your forearmed fighting style or you can summon just a spectral version of it as you have connection with these creatures so there are a lot so rapid fire we have the gear line the thry-cream the forearm sequoian the merolith dobrim dire troll this one you can regrow your limbs at will star spawn mangler glabrezu or the dragoloth even make your extra limbs as a plasmoid or take from other media like the shulkin from mortal kombat or the gegenese a giant race from greek mythology or perhaps you're just a regular human or a similar race that can grow their arms physically pulling from spider-man when he got six arms perhaps you were blessed this way from the spider queen lolth herself your head could get pincers and your body get an exoskeleton if you're worried about your dm not allowing you to play any of these monstrous races check out my playlist of videos where i go over with flavoring official races into the ones that you want but speaking of exoskeletons there is also a lot you can do with that with the body you take normally discarded parts of your body and use them in unique fighting capabilities you could take the untie snake person or a lizard folk that uses their shedded skin peeled off their back to fight this is such a strange idea but i i love it many bugs shed their extra skeleton in a similar way or a crab person could keep around their shedded claws and i don't know if anyone's talked about this but like do dragons shed their skin they're like they're lizard-like right it makes sense but you could also have animated armor that sheds partly off your back your gauntlets or arm pads that come off of you as separate entities kind of acting like dr strange's cape but if you're just thinking visually for your body put on a spectral carapace or bistial hair which brings us to an idea that comes from genetic experimentation and splicing with the hybrid your extra arms are from surgical implantation taking a lot from simic hybrid from the ravnica setting attaching lobsters or octopus tentacles to your back and channel these extra limbs with your key you could have spider legs attached or maybe magical creatures like the chol or the choker the yuntai did these hybridizations well too so go talk to them but what if your animal parts come from more of a spectral realm you're channeling your higher self from an alternate reality where you are the animal in question or it is a spirit animal protector that you got when you came of age or go full frankenstein where your arms are a variety of different racial arms that you just attached to yourself but what if instead of splicing flesh to your skin you are splicing mechanical upgrades with the cyborg give yourself iron spider arms or edith glasses from iron man or in unfoldable armor give yourself nano technology to create these things or artificer engineering with pulleys and levers but use too much and it is easily broken or needs a recharge of battery your arms and vicious could also be holograms perhaps you're a double amputee and you have holographic arms to begin with and when you flick a switch your arms split into two taking from like general grievous need i say more along those same lines your visage could also come strictly from illusion magic with the illusion your spectral self could only be seen by the person you are attacking perhaps when they think that you are coming to punch them with your spectral self or your illusion self your actual self comes in with a right hook catching them off guard so in this case your illusion self is actually not doing the attacking at all they could think that you are hitting them with this higher self but in reality it's just you your higher body could be more like a mage armor of sorts to keep in the theme of magic as well also just be creative on what this illusion is perhaps you can change it every time that you summon it could be dark tentacles one moment and then the next it would be giant gorilla fists but instead of arcane magic or magic from within as ki often is what about divine magic with the vessel it isn't your higher self that you tap into it's a higher being you are a vessel for a god or celestial that can emerge from your body and bolster your power i would even take from real world religions with gods that have multiple arms like durga from hindu mythos or maurici if i got that right from buddhism or the six wings of a seraphim from christianity many different cultures have depictions of gods or angelic creatures with multiple arms so talk with your dm and see how you can bring them into your game or if you'd rather take an atheistic approach you could be sharing the vessel with a ghost a demon or an ancient ancestor have them merge with your person as a temporary ally od and d supplement demigods and heroes actually gives some insight in many different gods and could give you inspiration for your games i'll include a link below for you guys not sponsored but who says that your spectral arms have to be arms as long as it stays close to the person and attacks for you the mechanics work the same and it could be anything with the orbital make a spectral arm away from your body just the same as a spectral sword or mace perhaps it's an iron stone a small magical crystal that orbits around you or it's a willow wisp or simply a magical ball of force maybe even make it like a small helper like a bird or a fairy every time you summon it it tells you to listen but ends up being helpful so you ignore how annoying that is make your orbital out of elemental magic like fire water stone or cloud or make your arms just made out of these elements but continuing to ignore the extra arms flavor we look at the incredible perhaps your extra 5 foot reach and attacks come from elasticity and stretchy arms your other features just come as magical boons dark vision and deflection of energy could come from a pact you made with a patron or a magical gift that you received from a powerful wizard your empowered arms and intimidation could come from a powerful oath that you made to yourself just a reminder again that subclasses are just a list of features of how you interact with the magical world how those things visually manifest is completely up to you spectral arms are just an optional flavor that they give you so next we continue with another out there idea the lichen in this case your higher self is something more bestial you could be a werewolf a werecrow or anything else that makes sense as you make your transformations that increases in power you get bonuses to strength dark vision intimidation amplified voice and tougher skin all that you can fit with animalistic transformations instead of extra arms you're just quicker with the two that you have or you're aware spider and you don't have to worry about it this could also fit a vampiric transformation or even a fae transformation maybe i'll leave this one up to you what other transformations would you implement but i hope that with all of these i helped transform your thinking about this subclass let me know what ideas you've had and what other subclasses that you want to see in the comments below view the full playlist as we slowly fill it up right here but in the meantime go out there and spread the good word of d and make the world a better place both on and off your tables see you in the next one

Channel: The Cleric Corner

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Keywords: dnd, dungeon and dragons, d&d, theclericcorner, dmtips, dungeon master, ttrpg, d&d5e, dnd class, how to be a better dungeon master, dm advice, dnd character build, dnd character creation, how to create a character dnd, dnd character ideas, dnd astral self monk, dnd monk ideas, dnd monk, how to play a monk, dnd monk guide, dnd 5e monk, monk subclass dnd 5e, dnd monk feats, critical role monk, cobalt soul monk, dnd monastic tradition, dnd mercy monk, dnd monk fix

Id: ptrweItrKcA

Length: 9min 39sec (579 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 31 2022