Its clear that a number of of them had been made to fill in the gaps for subclasses not OGL-pleasant like the Sun Domain or Spellblade, but otherwise most feel unique sufficient to have a singular place on the earth. Way of Light is healthier than Sun Soul (the other radiant injury mild-based mostly subclass) in that its injury-dealing effects add onto unarmed strikes relatively than being a weak substitute, and their 6th degree means is less damaging than an attack/flurry but makes up for that with a good multi-target debuff. Their 17th level capstone lets them automatically gentle up close by opponents with out needing to Flurry them, and whereas in shiny gentle they can change their unarmed damage type to radiant and once per flip spend a Ki point to force a foe who strikes them to reroll their attack. At sixth stage they can spend a reaction to make a melee counterattack towards an adjoining enemy who misses them.
The license as a whole can be stupid good (Decksweeper and Daisy Cutter are two of the most effective CQB weapons within the games; Hyperdense Armour is among the best HP-tanking programs; Catalytic Hammer enables some very interesting melee builds, though not generally for the Tort). Their Channel Divinity choices are both bonus actions, either granting the option to restrain a struck goal in melee or finish a wide variety of Conditions on a close by pleasant target. Their bonus spells are a grab-bag of quite unrelated choices such as Heat Metal, Blight, Silence, and Scrying. Gaining temporary hit points with leveled spells helps their staying power, and having a wider array of spell schools to choose from can be good. At 11th level they add their Constitution modifier to the harm of unarmed strike and monk weapon attacks, and at 17th level as soon as per lengthy rest they regain half their maximum hit factors and Ki factors once they drop to 0 hit points, and turn into immune to any prompt-death impact that doesnt deal damage. At sixth stage they’ll spend 2 Ki points to do a blinding AoE burst of light that also deals radiant injury, and at 11th degree they deal bonus radiant damage when using unarmed strikes towards opponents lit up from their Flurry.
But going on with mechanics, at 3rd degree they will use Flurry of Blows with out having to Attack first, they usually acquire a free use of Dash and benefit on their subsequent attack roll when doing so. This course of usually involves isolation, indoctrination, threats, rewards and the usage of propaganda to take away free will. At eleventh level they could make 1 further attack with Flurry of Blows and regain 1 ki level if 3 of their flurries hit, and at seventeenth degree they’ll take away one mobility-based Condition (like grappled) at no cost firstly of their turn, and gain a flying velocity and free use of Dash and Disengage for 1 turn whenever they use Step of the Wind. As a fight-heavy subclass it nonetheless lags behind different options as it primarily entails dealing harm, whereas one thing like Open Hand can impose varied debuffs and Astral Self can substitute force injury and grant attain. As for the brand new subclasses covered to this point, theres a mixture that are both cool and sensible, but in addition some that fall wanting present official options. This submit is getting lengthy, so Ill cover the remainder of the subclasses in the subsequent one. The one weapon within the core e book that actually benefits from their core power is the Manticore’s Arc Projector.