Way of the Sands

A Dragonborn priest flexes his fingers, causing the ground to become supernaturally sticky. The charging guards are stopped in their tracks. A Gnome smashes his mechanical trinket with a hammer, tiny cogs and springs fly everywhere. In the blink of an eye the trinket is good as new. Walking through a corridor a robed human is impaled on a falling pendulum from the ceiling. Time stops and reverses. He is alive and unharmed, with the knowledge of the trap that awaits. A Goliath channels his ki, becoming a grey blur as he charges down the goblins who thought they were at a safe distance. A Wood Elf concentrates as she makes a tearing motion in the air, an ethereal crack appears nearby. A small feathered reptile wanders out.

You follow a monastic tradition that teaches you to manipulate time. When you focus your ki, you have a limited ability to alter the course of creatures and objects, altering their ki's time flow in many ways.

Way of the Sand Monks, sometimes referred to as 'Time Priests' use extreme meditation to control their thoughts, their perception of time and eventually reality.

Time manipulation is not something to dabble in. Vast amounts of discipline is required to shift it. Objects are easier to manipulate than creatures or magical objects because of the creature's own ki and the nature of magic. Some forms of time control appear to be precognition to observers, when in reality a Monk is sending their soul forward in time, into the Sands.

Disciple of the Sands

When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you learn magical disciplines that manipulate space and time. A discipline requires you to spend ki points each time you use it. You know the Time Manipulation discipline and one other Sand discipline of your choice, which are detailed in the “The Sands of Time” section below. You learn one additional discipline of your choice at 6th, 11th, and 17th level. Whenever you learn a new discipline, you can also replace one discipline that you already know with a different discipline. Casting Spells. Some Sand disciplines allow you to cast spells. See chapter 10 for the general rules of spellcasting. To cast one of these spells, you use its casting time and other rules, but you don’t need to provide material components for it.

The Sands of Time

Time Manipulation. You can use your action to manipulate time and objects within the nearby area, causing one of the following effects of your choice:

• You can reverse the physical condition of non-magical objects fitting in a 1 foot cube up to a minute before. It returns to its original condition after a minute. Removing a piece of it, such as drinking it, prevents this. (Light a matchstick, then reverse it to it's original state)
• For up to 1 minute you can move an object fitting into a 1ft cube to a previous position in time.
• For 1 minute You add 1d4 to a single ability check or saving throw you roll you make. You can't use the Time Manipulation feature until this effect ends.

Molasses. You can spend 2 ki points to effect a ten foot cube within 60ft. This cube is difficult terrain. Creatures must make a Dex save once per turn or have their speed halved. Flying creatures, or creatures that don't make contact with the floor are unaffected. When you reach level 11 in this class the range is increased to 150ft, it has a 40ft radius and a height of 20ft, effecting flight. In addition, creatures in this area have disadvantage on attack rolls, while attacks coming from outside it have advantage. It costs 4 ki points when cast at this level.

Hands of Lightspeed. When you take the Attack action on your turn you can spend a point of ki to surround yourself with an aura of ki. You don't provoke attacks of opportunity from enemies. Every time one of your attacks hit you can make an additional attack against the target at the cost of a ki point. You can't add your modifier to damage from this additional attack.

Mass Time Manipulation. As an action, you can spend 1 ki point to choose an area no larger than 30 feet on a side within 120 feet of you. You can reverse it's condition back to a time you have seen before. However, magical items or effects are not restored, as well as living creatures. objects taken from it are not returned to it. If an object is missing the spell either fails or it returns to a more recent time, after the object was removed.

Slow Falling Sands. You can spend 1 ki point to cast Feather Fall.

Enfeebling Bolt. As an action, you can spend 2 ki points and choose a creature within 30 feet of you. You cause a jolt in a target's life-span, temorarily aging them past their average life-span. That creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 3d10 Necrotic damage, and half on a successful save.

Still Sand. (6th level required) You can spend 3 ki points to cast Hold Person. At level 17 in this class you can cast Hold Monster for the cost of 6 ki points.

Lunge Forward. (6th Level Required). You can spend 3 ki points to cast Find Traps. You get a brief vision of the trap being triggered by you.

Subtle Weapon. (6th Level Required). You can spend 3 ki points to cast Magic Weapon.

Prehistoric Fissure. (11th Level Required) You can spend 4 ki points to cast Conjure Animals. The beasts you summon are Dinosaurs. You must be on the material plane to cast this. An ethereal fissure opens drawing perhistoric beasts into your space and time. When you reach level 17 in this class you can summon a Dinosaur with a CR of 5 or lower for the cost of 6 ki. You may only cast it once per long rest. In addition you temporarily lose your Time Manipulation ability until you regain use of this spell, if you still have it.

Dinosaurs

There are only a few Dinosaurs in the Monster Manual, and some of them are too strong to be summoned, limiting your choice. Sometimes it's best to have the DM take a beast from the MM and treat it as a prehistoric creature. Giant Insects can be used, as they give a prehistoric vibe, where everything was larger and more brutal. We all know the Velociraptor, the Triceratops and the Tyranosaurus Rex. However, it's not necessary to know the names for all of them. The DM can take a beast from the MM and describe it as tiny, small, medium or large and generally describe Saurian traits. Scaley or feathered hides, long snouts, clawed arms, etc. A weasel is a good choice for a tiny, quick dinosaur. Since some dinosaurs are distantly related to birds, you could remove the flying speed and give a bird a land speed. On a different note, the Dinosaurs are allied to the caster due to his Time Manipulation ability. Opening and controlling this rift takes a large amount of energy and so this ability is only once a day, as well as draining the Monks most basic power.

Speed of Sound. (11th Level Required). You can spend 4 ki points to cast Haste on yourself.

Glacial Wave. (11th Level Required). You can spend 4 ki points to cast Slow. You can target an additional creature at level 13 for an extra ki point, and another at level 17 in this class.

Time Slip. (11th Level Required). You can spend 4 ki points to cast Dimension Door.

A Glitch in Time. (17th Level Required). You can spend 5 ki points to cast Modify Memory.

Loop. (17th Level Required). You can spend 6 ki points to cast Swift Quiver.