[Cosmos] Monk - Way of the Consuming Void (Patreon)

A new monk subclass for the Guide to the Cosmos compendium, which is coming along SUPER excitingly. The adventure outline feels fun and free, and starship stuff feels a lil more streamlined. I hope it turns out well. This monk design began life as the Way of the Void, but eventually developed into something entirely distinct. The original draft is a little less cool but cool enough to share. It can be found here!

Let's dive into this awesome monk:

The monk follows a typical design: a moderately strong 3rd-level feature that benefits the existing monk kit, a roleplay or utility-focused feature for 6th level, and a strong boost at 11th level and even stronger one at 17th level to coincide with the power spikes.

Way of the Consuming Void Monk

This monk is designed around grappling enemies - but don't fear! There's no need to assign stats into Strength because the Consuming Void Monk has a shiny new ability to use its Wisdom score instead. As a Void monk, you're going around the battlefield locking down creatures from escaping or getting too close to your allies.

Born From the Void. A non-combat ribbons. Suffocation is a tricky thing to play with in games and should be avoided, but this ribbon ability becomes more useful if you get thrown into space or water. . The fluctuate gravity cantrip has cute flavor (sorta like prestidigitation).

Gravitic Stasis. The main feature of the class. Together, the four benefits allow you to 1) grapple more than two creatures at a time, 2) rely on Wisdom instead of Strength to grapple, 3) rely on Wisdom for attacks, and 4) stay alive so your grappled targets don't just beat you down. Using Wisdom is a trait borrowed from Astral Self, though in this case you'll need to succeed on the grapple to gain this benefit. This build allows you the option of maximizing Wisdom before Dexterity.In terms of power, this ability can be strong in certain situations (primarily in crowd control), but pushes back against the hit-and-run style of a monk's primary features. Even though it's fun to imagine force choking 4 goblins, you're not dealing damage and you'll quickly get knocked down if you're not careful. The change  from grapple check to saving throw also has its uses - it guarantees you won't roll low (or high), traps enemies that would otherwise use Dexterity to escape your grapples, and could potentially force Legendary Resistances. Overall, monks like Open Hand or Mercy probably do more for your team than the Void, so Void isn't that powerful.The most fun use of this feature might be to grapple someone through a wall and have your friends wail on them from the other side.

Cosmic Mass. This is primarily a ribbon ability since movement or prone doesn't come up too often. Combined with Stellar Orbit, these are utility-focused features fitting for 6th level.

Stellar Orbit. This sounds overpowered on paper until you realize it's entirely dependent on your enemies targeting you with ranged weapons - which can be rare. Ultimately, this feature allows you to use Deflect Missiles even when your hands are full (with a grapple, say), and possibly deflect cannonballs. If you're lucky enough to have a grappled an enemy and your enemy is silly enough to attack you with a projectile (and you fully deflect it), then you get a free hit.

Event Horizon. 11th level is where martials get a power level increase. At this level, you can grapple larger enemies (to help your grapple focused build), and you get to do it as a reaction so you don't waste an attack for it. Both helpful. Lastly, you get to force choke your targets (more damage).

Supermassive Void. This is partially flavor (dim light), partially utility (slow enemies), offense (pull enemies from 30 feet away, deal damage, and maintain grapples for later damage), and defense (increased AC bonus). It has even better utility for dragging enemies around the battlefield! Strong enough for a capstone.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how fun and flavorful the monk could be. Based on my analysis, I don't expect it to be overpowered (it may possibly be underpowered tbh), but that's speculation from my part. What do you think?