Monk

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Class Features

Unarmored Defense

Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier.  

Martial Arts

At 1st level, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property.   You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield:  

• You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons.
• You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike or monk weapon. This die changes as you gain monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.
• When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action. For example, if you take the Attack action and attack with a quarterstaff, you can also make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, assuming you haven’t already taken a bonus action this turn.

 

Ki

Starting at 2nd level, your training allows you to harness the mystic energy of ki. Your access to this energy is represented by a number of ki points. Your monk level determines the number of points you have, as shown in the Ki Points column of the Monk table.   You can spend these points to fuel various ki features. You start knowing three such features: Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, and Step of the Wind. You learn more ki features as you gain levels in this class.   When you spend a ki point, it is unavailable until you finish a short or long rest, at the end of which you draw all of your expended ki back into yourself. You must spend at least 30 minutes of the rest meditating to regain your ki points.   Some of your ki features require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature’s effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:   Ki save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier   Flurry of Blows Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action.   Patient Defense You can spend 1 ki point to take the Dodge action as a bonus action on your turn.   Step of the Wind You can spend 1 ki point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn, and your jump distance is doubled for the turn.  

Unarmored Movement

Starting at 2nd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain monk levels, as shown in the Monk table.  

Monastic Tradition

When you reach 3rd level, you commit yourself to a monastic tradition: the Way of the Open Hand, detailed at the end of the class description or one from another source. Your tradition grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.  

Deflect Missiles

Starting at 3rd level, you can use your reaction to deflect or catch the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + your monk level.   If you reduce the damage to 0, you can catch the missile if it is small enough for you to hold in one hand and you have at least one hand free. If you catch a missile in this way, you can spend 1 ki point to make a ranged attack with the weapon or piece of ammunition you just caught, as part of the same reaction. You make this attack with proficiency, regardless of your weapon proficiencies, and the missile counts as a monk weapon for the attack, which has a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet.  

Ability Score Increase

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.   Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.  

Slow Fall

Beginning at 4th level, you can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level.  

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.  

Stunning Strike

Starting at 5th level, you can interfere with the flow of ki in an opponent’s body. When you hit another creature with a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a stunning strike. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn.  

Ki-Empowered Strikes

Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.  

Unarmored Movement Improvement

At 6th level, your Unarmored Speed speed bonus increases to 15 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield.  

Evasion

At 7th level, your instinctive agility lets you dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a blue dragon’s lightning breath or a fireball spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.  

Stillness of Mind

Starting at 7th level, you can use your action to end one effect on yourself that is causing you to be charmed or frightened.  

Unarmored Movement Improvement

At 9th level, you gain the ability to move along vertical surfaces and across liquids on your turn without falling during your move.  

Purity of Body

At 10th level, your mastery of the ki flowing through you makes you immune to disease and poison.  

Unarmored Movement Improvement

At 10th level, your Unarmored Speed speed bonus increases to 20 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield.  

Tongue of the Sun and Moon

Starting at 13th level, you learn to touch the ki of other minds so that you understand all spoken languages. Moreover, any creature that can understand a language can understand what you say.  

Diamond Soul

Beginning at 14th level, your mastery of ki grants you proficiency in all saving throws.   Additionally, whenever you make a saving throw and fail, you can spend 1 ki point to reroll it and take the second result.  

Unarmored Movement Improvement

At 14th level, your Unarmored Speed speed bonus increases to 25 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield.  

Timeless Body

At 15th level, your ki sustains you so that you suffer none of the frailty of old age, and you can’t be aged magically. You can still die of old age, however. In addition, you no longer need food or water.  

Empty Body

Beginning at 18th level, you can use your action to spend 4 ki points to become invisible for 1 minute. During that time, you also have resistance to all damage but force damage.   Additionally, you can spend 8 ki points to cast the astral projection spell, without needing material components. When you do so, you can’t take any other creatures with you.  

Unarmored Movement Improvement

At 18th level, your Unarmored Speed speed bonus increases to 30 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield.  

Perfect Self

At 20th level, when you roll for initiative and have no ki points remaining, you regain 4 ki points.

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Starting Equipment

• (a) a shortsword or (b) any simple weapon
• (a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
• 10 darts

 

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Subclass Options

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Monastic Tradition

These traditions of monastic pursuit are common in the monasteries scattered across the multiverse. Most monasteries practice one tradition exclusively, but a few honor the multiple traditions and instruct each monk according to his or her aptitude and interest. All of the traditions rely on the same basic techniques, diverging as the student grows more adept. Thus, a monk need choose a tradition only upon reaching 3rd level.  

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Way of Atonement

Monks of the Way of Atonement seek absolve themselves for their past transgressions, sins, and current indiscretions by giving up their possessions and atoning through peaceful and selfless service. Seeking not the zealot’s path, they believe that through calming and controlling their fervor, they can bolster the universal well-being of all mortal creatures. These monks seek to protect delicate balance struck by the presence of the pantheons. and strike out in malice only to defend those who can’t defend themselves.   Feared by those with wealth, and praised by those who lack it, these monks are easy to spot in their dusty burlap robes and bare feet. The Atoned sacrifice, not only in material possessions but, flesh to find their way to forgiveness and often carve or brand the markings of the gods on their skin in homage.   In exchange for the strength to seek perfect purity in an existence full of ambition and hubris, followers of this path endeavor to abstain from anger, envy, and corruption. Not so naïve as to believe that the gods' designs won’t require skirting the edges of temptation, and sometimes justify ends by their means, they willingly pay the price in flesh for their actions. As part of their atonement, they learn to encourage wicked and vile denizens of their world to repent using only a heavy, unadorned club that each refers to as their penance. To take this path, the acolyte must commit to the poorest lifestyle, renouncing all that they were before atonement.

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Way of Bone

The Way of Bone teaches that the body and soul must be flexible and enduring, weathering the ravages of time and surviving whatever harrowing forces the universe deigns to lay in our path. Monks of this discipline have control over their bones, using them for both offense and defense.

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Way of Dreams

Whilst some would seek enlightenment in this world, you have transcended such concerns to walk the path of dreams and nightmares. True wisdom can only be found in the world beyond our own, where ideas are reality, and stranger things than we can comprehend brush the edges of our sleeping minds with gossamer wings.

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Way of Empathy

Monks of the Way of Empathy follow the tradition instilled with compassion for all living beings. While their training includes martial practice as a form of self- discipline, their teachings also focus on a healing art of rare form, known as Empathy. Using these techniques, they learn to manipulate the ki to transfer malady and pain from another to themselves. Some members of this tradition dedicate themselves to the sick and the poor, while others find their calling side by side with soldiers, rehabilitating the fallen in battle. Their scars might telltale of thousands of warriors, without ever feeling the cold of steel against their own flesh.

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Way of Enlightenment

Monks that take on the Way of Enlightenment strive to free themselves from the earthly limitations that seek to corrupt them. To them, a truly perfect being is calm and serene, without experiencing the emotions that plague the common man, like greed, lust, or sloth.   As they start to realize the power of their ideals, monks of the Way of Enlightenment become beacons of optimism, and fantastic supports in battle. Their serene nature makes them and their allies unwavering, steadfast, and brave beyond measure.

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Way of Falling Leaves

As far as my trips normally go, this one was perhaps the most peaceful journey I've had the opportunity to make yet. The monastery was further into the wood than I had initially expected, sure, but getting there was almost entirely uneventful. I've made a few friends in the elves, so its location was fairly easy to acquire. Once I arrived at the gates of the monastery proper—a sprawling structure, but almost as much a part of the forest itself as the trees that grew around it - I introduced myself to the monks there and was promptly given a room, food, and water for as long as I decided to stay. Their teachings were open to all, although I politely declined the lessons for their elven fisticuffs. The next day, the bells rang out in a great clamor as I rushed to join what appeared to be the entire monastery gathering in the courtyard. As I watched them gaze high at the trees above, a single leaf fluttered gently to the ground. The 'first leaf', they said, of autumn.   -Beros Nim, The Timber Tome, page 101

The Way of Falling Leaves was first mastered by the wood elves. They watched as seasons came and went, and as the leaves on the trees they lived in faded and died, only to gently drift back to the earth as sustenance for the next generation. In that beauty and elegance they saw death and rebirth, and by emulating its form they merged it with their own martial arts into something new. Able to float gracefully on the wind before striking with all the intensity of a hurricane, their foes fall before them like autumn leaves.

Elven Secrets

Monks of the Way of Falling Leaves are an unusual lot. Both fascinated with extracting every drop of experience from life, and also mastering the best ways to end it in others. Their silent introspection is often punctuated only by the nigh inaudible rustle of each leaf touching ground for the first time. It's common knowledge that the first of their kind were the wood elves. Their supernatural grace, combined with a natural affinity for nature, lent them the edge to discover the elves' unique branch of martial arts.   Almost all Monks who study this tradition do so at elven monasteries, even those who aren't elvish themselves. Located deep within forests—and patterned with the luscious hues of autumn—these monasteries study nature in all its forms for both theoretical and practical applications. An appreciation of the wide world is seen as a sign of a pure soul, and those who are in tune with the trees are invariably in balance with the ki within themselves.

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Way of Flesh

The Way of the Flesh teaches of the body as something which changes based on need. The corporeal form is only a shell, and that shell must serve the needs of the soul. The abilities of these monks sometimes engender fear or revulsion in onlookers, but merely reflect the monk’s superior understanding of and mastery over their own forms.

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Way of God’s Hand

Mortal life is a creation of the divine powers, molded and shaped from the nothingness beyond. Thus, within all mortal creatures, there is the smallest spark of divinity. The true path to spiritual ascendancy comes from the pursuit of that infinite divine potency, and so the lessons of this journey have been passed down from incarnation to incarnation. You have devoted yourself to cultivating this divine spark, pushing your body beyond its mortal limitations. However, as a mortal, the freedom of choice you possess allows you to turn this spark towards whatever ends you wish, for celestials are just as susceptible to the might of the divine as the fiends below. Undead, deprived of the spark of divinity, are equally beneath you. No matter your adversary, any foe will find itself reduced to dust by your heavenly hand.

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Way of Gravitation

Monks of the Way of Gravitation harness the very power of gravity. They have meditated on this natural force to be able to tap their ki into it and alter gravitation around them. They often see gravity not only as a force of nature, but as an extension of their arts.

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Way of One Hundred Blows

Monks of the Way of One Hundred Blows have a specific aim for their martial practices — it's in the name. Speed, keeping enough force behind a blow, and supernatural focus unhinge these monks' ability to strike fast and strike repeatedly. The underlying discipline that accompanies focuses on perseverance, resolve, and acting without hesitation.

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Way of Renewal

The life force of Ki permeates all living creatures, and the monks of the Way of Renewal learn to harness it for healing. Their ancient techniques are able to restore broken bodies and worn spirits, blending martial technique and healing magic. Their flurries of blows bring both helping hands and punitive fists.

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Way of Shadow

Monks of the Way of Shadow follow a tradition that values stealth and subterfuge. These monks might be called ninjas or shadowdancers, and they serve as spies and assassins. Sometimes the members of a ninja monastery are family members, forming a clan sworn to secrecy about their arts and missions. Other monasteries are more like thieves’ guilds, hiring out their services to nobles, rich merchants, or anyone else who can pay their fees. Regardless of their methods, the heads of these monasteries expect the unquestioning obedience of their students.

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Way of the Ancient Oak

Monks of the Way of the Ancient Oak are known to be incredibly wise and compassionate people. They only anger when provoked, and prefer non-lethal solutions to problems when possible. Those who are experienced in the ways of the forest can call upon it for gifts - even at times, the gift of life.

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Way Of The Animal Shen

The Way of the Animal Shen teaches its students to look to the animal kingdom for inspiration in battle. By studying their movements one can learn great truths, and powerful fighting techniques. From the quick, sharp strikes of the crane, to the furious power of the tiger. A Monk of this tradition can achieve amazing feats of martial prowess by emulating these animals through stances. A monk that follows the Way of the Animal Shen is a constant student of every animal style, practicing daily. Each stance is a martial style that has been created by a master through history. These monks dedicate themselves to mastering all the shen in hopes of one day attaining the most powerful and prestigious stance of all, the Dragon Shen.

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Way of the Animus

The Way of the Animus is an example of the true potential of combining the spiritual aspects of ki with physical expression. Monks who follow this tradition are unmistakable from all others; limbs of raw spirit often numbering in the dozens manifesting on their bodies to indicate their mastery of the skill. They use these spirit arms often in lieu of their physical ones, or mix the two together to keep their enemies guessing. Fueled by their ki, they master devastating special skills that use their arms to their fullest extent, able to reach foes at great distances, subdue enemies much larger than them, and unleash crushing force against untold swarms of assailants.

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Way of the Black Star

The night sky has offered peace and solace in times of turmoil, exposing the insignificance of those who walk upon the earth, yet you do not call out for peace. Your meditations have taken you to the void where the Fallen Exile once shined, filling your spirit with a blackened and sorrowful power. This may have come to pass by the intervention of the Exile, spiritual enlightenment you have sought yourself, or the teachings of a master who has traveled this dark path. Regardless of your original intention, your ki has been corrupted by this unnatural void within the cosmic order, granting you the ability to draw it forth to form a deadly weapon of light and eerie blackness. Fueling your techniques with the anguish of your foes, you strive ever closer to understanding the secrets within the eternal black star that lies at the center of the cosmos.

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Way of The Blade Dancer

Way of the Blade Dancer combines the beauty of dances and deadliness of blades into one harmonious style of combat. You sculpt ki into numerous flying daggers that follows your dance into the battlefield.

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Way of the Bloodied Fist

Monks of the Way of the Bloodied Fist follow a tradition that teaches them to control their own life force, as well as the life force of their foes. By focusing their ki, they exert control over blood - a powerful tool that is not to be underestimated. Their monasteries practice in secret in dark caves and high mountains, out of the eye of the common people, and their members only leave for the rare missions ordered by only the most desperate.   Many monks of this tradition are covered in scars - some self-inflicted in their training, and others earned in battle. The monks often use their mystic energies to manipulate these scars, forming them into complex designs and symbols to represent their unique ki powers.

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Way of the Bo

Monks of the Bo are well known, not for the expertise in which they wield their weapon of choice, but rather the innate grace and fluidity of their movements. In the chaos of battle, a Way of the Bo monk strides confidentially into danger, making minute adjustments to their stance and Bo to deflect projectiles and blows. They can use the momentum of their strikes that miss to empower other strikes.

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Way of the Boar

Many people associate the act of joining a monestary with a very tranquil feeling. The idea that joining a monestary to find inner peace and let go of worldly ideals is a very common portryal of a monk monestary. However, the Monks of the Boar are far from this peaceful ideal. The Monks of the Boar are fearsome and relentless, the complete opposite of other monks. They find sollace in rage and domination and just like the boar, they are violent and fearless. They can often be seen training themselves by charging head first into hard wood and having other monks feel out their endurance by delivering strong headbutts to each other.

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Way of the Boulder

The Order of Boulder Monks is as old as the mountains themselves. Dwelling on high peaks and in deep caverns, monks of this tradition focus on becoming as large and immovable as the mountains that surround them. They seek to grow in girth, and use their weight to land devastating blows in combat. As a practitioner of the Way of the Boulder, you seek to become solid like a stone, imposing like a mountain peak, unmoving like bedrock, and fruitful like fertile soil. Stone monks are often stubborn and inflexible in their thinking, but once won over to your cause they will stand at your side as a stalwart defender.

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Way of the Caretaker

The caretaker employs their physical prowess in the service of others. They act on a moment's notice to meet each of their ward's needs, even putting themself in the way of potential harm. A caretaker may be the personal guard of a noble, a butler or maid recently retired from years of service, or an escort for hire by traders making perilous journeys. They are committed to their duties, striving to achieve the highest level of professional quality care

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Way of the Crimson Blade

Monks of the Way of the Crimson Blade have delved into the secrets of the blood martial arts. They use their talent in manipulating blood, to manifest blood blades that tear through their enemies’ defences and improve their bodies’ physical abilities. They also acquire the ability to sense living creatures, without requiring on their sense of sight.

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Way of the Crimson Soul

The way of the crimson soul teaches its practitioners to control the life force that flows within themselves and all other creatures. Masters of its teachings do not manipulate blood as much as their title would suggest; instead manipulating the positive and negative energies that give or imitate life.   The simplicity of this school is often underestimated as it only takes a touch from these monks in order to tear away a creature's constitution or reinforce it ten fold. The art of creating open, two way canals is difficult to master as as such it takes only weeks for a student to understand how to steal life, but it takes years in order to do the reverse. As a necessity, the teachings of the crimson soul always include wisdom and humbleness as their most important lesson as the power to steal life with a touch can become addicting to those with too much of an ego.

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Way of the Current

As a trickling stream is humble and subtle yet ever-moving, so are followers of the Way of the Current. Water flows in constant motion, and so does this meditative martial art, which slides from one stance to the next. Each movement is chosen with practiced deliberation, which allows its users to remain untouched and serene as the torrent of battle rages around them.

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Way of the Dragon Warrior

Monks of the Way of the Dragon Warrior have learned to harness their Ki to emulate the strength and ferocity of dragons. They have mastered a unique form of martial arts that combines that power with their martial training.

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Way of the Dreamer

The Ossended Host is an esoteric group of acolytes who worship the power of dreams and nightmares. Monks of this order spend night after night perfecting a form of meditation that can access a communal dream shared by all of their order. Within this dream, generations of monks have recorded legends, forgotton tomes, ancient histories, and much more. This wealth of knowledge is held within and maintained by the mysterious entity that leads the Ossended Host. No outsider has ever seen this being, but based on the serenity of the monks who follow them, how bad can they be?

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Way of the Drunken Master

The Way of the Drunken Master teaches its students to move with the jerky, unpredictable movements of a drunkard. A drunken master sways, tottering on unsteady feet, to present what seems like an incompetent combatant who proves frustrating to engage. The drunken master’s erratic stumbles conceal a carefully executed dance of blocks, parries, advances, attacks, and retreats. A drunken master often enjoys playing the fool to bring gladness to the despondent or to demonstrate humility to the arrogant, but when battle is joined, the drunken master can be a maddening, masterful foe.

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Way of the Dynamo

While many monastic traditions favor subtlety, steadiness, or a servant spirit, those already steeped with inner strength know that power begets power. Some follow the Way of the Dynamo to explore the depths of their strength, while others seek to become a force to keep threats at bay. Indeed, when a dynamo sets their might against you, expect to feel the overwhelming nature of their determination; as the earth might break and burst from the erupting volcano.

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Way of the Earthen Anchor

Way of the Earthen Anchor monks are strong and wise - but stubborn. They model their strength after their connection with the earth, which they find scared. A monk of this path deliberates before making their stand, but they are unparalleled in holding the line. Despite their stoicism, their connection with the earthen wellspring grants them incredible empathy, and they have been known to uproot themselves in times of dire need and sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

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Way of the Electric Veined

As a practitioner of this Monastic Tradition, you have learned to transform the ki inside your body into something you consider far deadlier— lightning. Way of the Electric Veined monks are a tempest, fast and decisive on the battlefield, ruthless with the damage they inflict against foes.

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Way of the Eternal Spirit

Monks of the Way of the Eternal Spirit learn to channel the energy of the positive plane, using the powers that it grants to defend their allies and come to the aid of those that need it most. Unlike the monks of most monastic traditions, monks of the way of the eternal spirit don’t typically live in monasteries or cloisters. Monks that follow this tradition are wanderers that travel through the lands, and sometimes even across planes, as they train and lend their aid to those they encounter. It is common for these monks to travel in small groups, where a single master leads and teaches one to three students.   Monks of this tradition are often easily identifiable by the intricate, magical tattoos that they adorn their bodies with. These tattoos are thought to improve their connection to the positive plane, so that they can more easily channel its energy. When a monk of this tradition harnesses their ki, their tattoos can change color or even begin to glow.

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Way of the Four Elements

You follow a monastic tradition that teaches you to harness the elements. When you focus your ki, you can align yourself with the forces of creation and bend the four elements to your will, using them as an extension of your body. Some members of this tradition dedicate themselves to a single element, but others weave the elements together.   Many monks of this tradition tattoo their bodies with representations of their ki powers, commonly imagined as coiling dragons, but also as phoenixes, fish, plants, mountains, and cresting waves.

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Way of the Frozen Fist

Monks of the Way of the Frozen Fist are taught the techniques of the freezing mountain, harnessing it's resilience and its affinity for the cold. They often train in unrelenting conditions to push their bodies and minds beyond their normal limits in an attempt to be prepared for any threat that comes their way.

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Way of the Fundamentals

Those that rigorously practice, studying the formations and fundamentals of combat can be found. Lessons include study of anatomy on how the body comes together, what it is able to do, hand to hand combat practice, and formidable weapon training. These monks find that anyone can pick up a sword, but being able to use your opponent’s movements against them is necessary.

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Way of the Ghost Walker

Monks of the Way of the Ghost Walker are solitary Wanderers. They may have have left their monasteries to seek out some great injus tice or ancient wrong doing. Ghost walkers are often feared by commoners, who consider them dark harbingers of doom. The truth if that most ghost walkers are not bringers of misfortune, but seekers of evil, and it is only by this circumstance do they always find themselves surrounded by trouble. Though not all monks who follow the Way of the Ghost Walker are vigilantes who seek justice, some can be just the opposite. Evil monks that were forced to leave their temples and now have sworn vengeance upon the world around them. In either case, ghost walker are dangerous warriors and mysterious spectres.

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Way of the Hurricane

A follower of the Hurricane moves faster than the eye can see, streaking from one target to the next in a dizzying blur. From a distance, their battles sound like a barrage of cannonfire, and they whip up torrential winds that send their enemies flying like leaves in a gale. The few who survive battles with its followers claim their opponent teleported behind them and punished their mistakes with a storm of brutal attacks.

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Way of the Iron Reaper

Way of the Iron Reaper. Feared. Respected. They wield the mighty spirit blades, artifacts from a lost time. Even the most fearsome cower when an Iron Reaper reaches for their hilt - for swift punishment nears.

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Way of the Kensei

Monks of the Way of the Kensei train relentlessly with their weapons, to the point where the weapon becomes an extension of the body. Founded on a mastery of sword fighting, the tradition has expanded to include many different weapons.   A kensei sees a weapon in much the same way a calligrapher or painter regards a pen or brush. Whatever the weapon, the kensei views it as a tool used to express the beauty and precision of the martial arts. That such mastery makes a kensei a peerless warrior is but a side effect of intense devotion, practice, and study.

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Way of the Long Death

Monks of the Way of the Long Death are obsessed with the meaning and mechanics of dying. They capture creatures and prepare elaborate experiments to capture, record, and understand the moments of their demise. They then use this knowledge to guide their understanding of martial arts, yielding a deadly fighting style.

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The Way of the Luchador

The luchador is an individualist, drawing their power from confidence, and eschewing the cloistered, ordered wisdom of monastic orders for raw chaos and charisma of public bouts of personal contest. Heels and heroes, luchadores make a literal larger-than-life show of combat, grappling and twirling one another into submission with the roar of a cheering (or jeering) crowd in their ears.   Some luchadores revel in their ring persona, and adopt it as a full-time identity, while others take great care in preserving a life outside the ring.

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Way of the Mystic Force

Monks who follow the way of the Mystic Force keep their minds in a strange, rarified state. These monks have a keen sense of the ki that surrounds all things, and their ability to manipulate it makes their tradition unique. These monks learn to manifest psionic powers through spiritual practice and a steadfast will.

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Way of the Noble Serpent

By lineage or accident of fate, spiritual enlightenment or inner turmoil, you’ve taken your first steps down the path of a servant of the Saint of Serpents, a Saint ruling over the The People of the Serpents within the The Red Desert . Residing in her palace of gold and turquoise, her imperial majesty sleeps in solitude for countless ages, traveling slowly between the planes. When her palace arrives upon a new world and she awakens, her reign of cruelty commences. Your style of martial arts has been taught to you by one of her handmaidens or was discovered in scrolls containing these forbidden techniques.

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Way of the Nomad

Ki flows through all things, and by manipulating this flow, monks who follow the Way of the Nomad are able to teleport and move through the spaces between worlds. Nomads are travelers, explorers, and mystics. They quest to unravel the mysteries of the multiverse and seek to uncover the underlying structure of all things.

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Way of the Open Hand

Monks of the Way of the Open Hand are the ultimate masters of martial arts combat, whether armed or unarmed. They learn techniques to push and trip their opponents, manipulate ki to heal damage to their bodies, and practice advanced meditation that can protect them from harm.

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Way of the Quiet Mind

Your Way is one of patience. Ki bleeds from every heart and every mind, left behind in the footprints of all living creatures, and by forsaking any distractions, by emptying your mind and truly listening, you become witness to things far beyond the perspective of any one being. Monks of the Quiet Mind concern themselves with the minds of others. In battle, they often appear motionless, even asleep, but their presence lies within the soul of every warrior, giving hope to their allies, and sapping the will from their foes. They are one with ki, and ki is with them.

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Way of the Raptor

Every martial artist wields their natural gifts to their full potential, and the Way of the Raptor's clawed monks refuse to waste their unique abilities. Invented by bestial humanoids with razor-sharp talons, practitioners of this tradition harry their enemies with rushes of vicious strikes that disembowel them in fountains of gore.  

Racial Restriction Creatures without claws or talons cannot perform the claw attacks integral to this tradition. Only aarakocra, kenku, lizardfolk, dragonborn, kobolds, and ikwiikwii can join the Way of the Raptor. In some settings, goblinoids, orcs, or tieflings have the necessary sharp talons, and are included.

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Way of the Rikishi

Followers of the way of the rikishi turn their bodies into living monuments, expanding their size and strength to the extreme. They can be stalwart defenders, knocking enemies down or away from allies, or launch an all-out assault against an opponent with a lightning speed.

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Way of the Rolling Stone

The Way of the Rolling stone teaches its students to wander their entire lives until there is somewhere worth staying: it might be a noble cause or a safe place to spend a harsh season. Eventually when the bad weather (or trouble) clears, the way of the rolling stone is to continue their journey.   They can be stoic, stubborn, or patient to the point of indolence, but when the time for action arises, they become an avalanche of fury, and an immovable object if they have decided to stand their ground.

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Way of the Sohei

Monks of the Way of the Sohei have a more religious bent to their training than other monks, and are able to call upon their religious devotion to manifest divine magic. Their divine ties are known to heighten their strength and speed in battle, protect them from harm, and bring retribution crashing down on their enemies.   Even more defining than their religious devotion, however, is the militant training that each Way of the Sohei monk undergoes to further help defend their monastery and their religion from incursions of any kind. They are taught a specific combat technique called ki frenzy that quickens and empowers their blows in combat.

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Way of the Soulknife

Never caught unarmed, the soulknife is the literal embodiment of using the power of the mind as a weapon. These pyschic warriors develop and do battle using both their physical body and the mind blade, a telekinetic field honed by the wielder's focus into a razor's edge. While the soulknife may not appear to be a traditional monk, the path that these psionically-gifted individuals take is so similar as to be identical. Whether called "psi" or "ki", a soulknife meditates, focuses, and develops the spirit, mind, and body in the same way that any other monk does.

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Way of the Spectral Step

Death is an inescable cycle that never allows any exceptions. In one way or another, we all die and when we do, depending on how we died, we may end up becoming ethereal beings, eternally wandering around in the Ethereal Plane hoping to reclaim something of our lives that we lost. That something, could just be your own corpse from the curious hands of a death obbsessed monastary of monks. The Monks of the Spectral Step are a very contraversial monastary among those who practice the methods of martial art specifically because of their method of learning how to control their mind. They are well known for stealing the corpses of the recently departed, in order to force them to become ghosts and therefore, so they can see and learn from these newly appointed spectral tutors. As such, those in the monastary have learned to imitate the effects of the spectral beings they seek to learn from, often influencing themselves to turn ethereal, or allowing themselves the ability to see spirits and other creatures that reside in the Ethereal Plane.

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Way of the Splintered Reflection

Monks of the Way of the Splintered Reflection seek to embrace and utilize their own divided minds. Whether they purposefully bifurcated their minds through training, are magically inhabited by another being, or live with one of various mental conditions, these monks learn to direct different parts of themselves toward synergistic goals.

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Way of the Storm Fist

Storm Fists are monks who are in tune with the natural energy of ki, and can manifest it as strikes of thunder and lightning that augment their blows. These monks are high-flying martial artists who strike with the ferocity of a raging storm.

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Way of the Sun Soul

Monks of the Way of the Sun Soul learn to channel their life energy into searing bolts of light. They teach that meditation can unlock the ability to unleash the indomitable light shed by the soul of every living creature.

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Way of the Sure Strike

The Way of the Sure Strike monks are calm cool, and collected. They take their time, ensuring that their attacks never fail to pose a threat. Even when surrounded, they are known to beat off attackers with their weapon at hand. Anyone who has seen a Way of the Sure Strike mark an opponent knows to get down under cover – or experience judicious consequence.

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Way of the Twin Dragons

Monks of the Twin Dragons are masters of fighting in tandem with a partner. However, their partner is a ki-based projection of themselves. This makes them dangerous to fight, and hard to keep track of, as the advantage created by their tandem style fighting means that every blind spot is struck and every opening is taken advantage of as four fists, two real, and two ethereal, strike joints nerves and weak points in a hundred different ways from a hundred different angles, pummeling an enemy into the ground.

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Way of the Unbreaking

Monks that fallow the Way of the Unbreaking hold themselves to the highest standard in every way possible. Their goal is total perfection, of the body, mind, and soul. Their beliefs, while harsh and sometimes unforgiving, mean that the monks of this tradition are immovable objects on the battlefield. Strength unwavering, fortitude impeccable, calm demeanor unerring, these are the tenants of the Way of the Unbreaking.

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Way of the Upside Down

The Way of the Upside Down teaches that the world has no right way up. Gravity is merely one way of looking at the world, and to fully achieve any form of enlightenment is only possible through perceiving existence through all available angles. As they grow in power, monks on this path develop unusual powers that allow them to traverse the world in ways contrariwise.

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Way of the Void

Monks that follow the traditions of the Way of the Void look to the spaces between the stars for inspiration in their techniques. Their training emphasizes emptiness of mind and body, and monks of this tradition spend long hours in fasting and meditation.

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Way of the Wild

These monks need no monastery but the plains, seas, and forests of the land. They seek enlightenment by being closer to nature, specifically finding solace in the instinctive and primal aspects of the beasts that live among it. Rejecting civilization nearly entirely, these monks often find homes with druid circles. Indeed, the first monks learned this ability from them. With their ki, they could create an approximation of the magics that druids wielded.

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Way of the Winding Path

Monks of the Way of the Winding Path are humble, astute, and stoic-- for they have learned to recognize the flow of causality that governs the mortal planes. Their fluid fighting form has been known to disorient and disrupt enemy ranks.

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Way of Thorns

You follow a monastic tradition that teaches you to harness the power of nature. Nature has become an extension of yourself, and you have learned to use it to great effect. By following this Way, you learn techniques to manipulate plants, allowing them to bend to your will and aid you both in combat and out of it.

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Way of Tranquility

Monks of the Way of Tranquility see violence as a last resort. They use diplomacy, mercy, and understanding to resolve conflicts. If pushed, though, they are capable warriors who can bring an end to the unjust or cruel folk who refuse to listen to reason. When adventuring, these monks make excellent diplomats. They are also skilled in blocking energy by using their ki, and can preserve their allies in the face of daunting foes.

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Way of Waves

Monks of the Way of Waves embody the sea itself. Created by the sea elves along the coast of Deva'lamirusandia, their goal is not only mastery of self, but perfect harmony with their longest love, the ocean.   Along with teaching the finer points of sailing and navigation, the techniques and forms of the Way of Waves attempt to emulate the motion of the sea, and the push and pull of its tides.