The Monk Retrained Ascend to new heights with this homebrewed rework to the monk class for D&D 5th Edition!

 

 

The Monk Retrained

The monk has always been a strange class. Released first in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as a wuxia-inspired martial class, it suffered immensely in 3e for its dependency on too many abilities, poor scaling, and overall weak features, earning it a firm spot as the worst class in the game.

With its release in the game’s 5th Edition, it seemed for a time that the monk had avoided the same fate, if only because the ranger from the Player’s Handbook was even worse. However, as new content was released, notably many optional features from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything that significantly benefited the latter class, it’s become apparent that the monk continues to suffer from many of the same issues as before, and finds itself once more at the bottom of the pile.

What’s wrong with the monk?

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Over time, several major issues with the class have stood out:

Weakness in combat

Designed as a fragile yet mobile and hard-hitting class, the monk is certainly fragile, but definitely not hard-hitting: with a d8 hit die, severe range limitations, and mediocre AC, the monk is more exposed than nearly any other class, but the class’s weak Martial Arts die scaling and lack of nova hinder its damage contribution. With only one major source of utility, the monk thereby often finds itself with limited options besides Stunning Strike.

Resource starvation

As a resource for a martial class, ki was meant to unlock diverse bursts of power and flavor. Instead, it has acted as a limiter, gating access to features other classes get for free. This compounds the game’s problem with short rests: because the monk is constantly taxed for ki to use even its most basic moves, and won’t always be free to replenish its reserves, the class frequently runs out, and ends up feeling even more limited.

Awkward design

Attempts to cut down on the class’s multiple ability dependency from 3e have still wound up creating the most MAD martial class in the game, forcing it to choose between basic combat effectiveness and survivability. Stunning Strike is head and shoulders above most other ki options, and so frequently ends up being spammed in combat, a nightmare for any DM trying to set up a challenging encounter using a single, powerful monster. Even the class’s weapon usage is oddly limited, an issue only papered over by an optional feature from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

A way forward

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With the above in mind, any future monk rework should likely aim for the following:

Fewer limitations

Above all else, a reworked monk should feel like it has agency. The monk is meant to be a versatile martial class, and oughtn’t feel tied down by strange build considerations or taxes to features necessary for them to function.

More power

Time and experience have shown the monk could benefit significantly from key boosts to its baseline power, along with better scaling. The class would do a lot better with more starting survivability, and better damage output later on.

More options

As the amalgamation of every trope surrounding martial arts, the monk has immense untapped potential for customization, and a wider range of options in and out of combat. There are many martial arts-related power fantasies that have yet to be explored, and martial arts as a mechanic itself ought to be developed a lot more.

Key changes

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The following are the broad lines of the proposed changes, detailed further below:

• The class’s hit die is increased to a d10 and its Martial Arts die scales faster, up to a d12.
• Unarmored Defense is gone, instead the monk gets to deflect attacks with Martial Arts.
• Stunning Strike is gone, instead the monk gets access to a selection of combat stances, each with persistent bonuses and a special technique.
• The monk’s bonus action scales up to become its main mode of attack, allowing the class to use its action more freely.
• Only subclasses use resources, and the player chooses the ability their features scale with.

PART 1 | INTRODUCTION

 

 

The Monk

Class Features

As a monk, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

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• Hit Dice: 1d10 per monk level
• Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
• Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per monk level after 1st

Starting Proficiencies

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• Armor: None
• Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons, improvised weapons
• Tools: Choose one type of artisan’s tools or one musical instrument
• Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity
• Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Athletics, History, Insight, Religion, and Stealth

Starting Equipment

You start with the following items, plus anything provided by your background.

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

Combat Stance

1st-level monk feature

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You reinforce yourself with stances that shape how you fight. You learn two combat stances of your choice, and choose one of these as your active stance. You benefit from your active stance while not wearing armor or wielding a shield, component pouch, or spellcasting focus.

Your active stance grants you a secret technique, which you can use your action to activate.

You can use your action or bonus action to change your active stance, choosing from another combat stance you know.

You learn additional combat stances when you reach certain levels in this class: one more at 5th level, and again at 9th, 13th level, and 17th level.

When you finish a short or long rest, you can choose a combat stance you know and replace it with another combat stance of your choice that you do not know.

Power Points

You have a number of power points equal to twice your monk level, and regain all expended power points when you finish a long rest.

PART 2 | CORE CLASS

 

 

Hybrid Stance

When you would change your active stance, you can instead spend 1 power point to gain the benefit of an additional stance you know for 1 minute, or until you use this feature again.

Martial Arts

1st-level monk feature

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Your practice of martial arts has enhanced your fighting prowess. You gain the following benefits while you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield, component pouch, or spellcasting focus.

• Choose Strength, Dexterity, or Wisdom as your monk ability. You use your monk ability for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes.
• Your AC is 10 + your monk ability modifier (your choice).
• You can roll a d6 in place of the normal damage of your weapon attacks. This die changes as you reach certain levels in this class, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.
• When you are hit by an attack, you can use your reaction to roll your Martial Arts die and add it to your AC until the start of your next turn, potentially turning the hit into a miss.

Monastic Way

2nd-level monk feature

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You commit to a spiritual tradition. Your choice grants you features at 2nd level and again at 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.

The saving throw DC and attack modifier of your Monastic Way’s features are calculated as follows:

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• Monk save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your monk ability modifier
• Monk attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your monk ability modifier

Nimble Movement

3rd-level monk feature

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You can rapidly traverse any surface. While you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield, your speed increases by 10 feet, and you can move along vertical surfaces and across liquids on your turn without falling during the move. This speed increases as you gain levels in this class, as shown in the Nimble Movement column of the Monk table.

Additionally, when you land from a fall, you can use your reaction to reduce the fall’s damage to 0.

Ability Score Improvement

4th-level monk feature

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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.

Empowered Strikes

5th-level monk feature

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Your body is energized with spiritual power. You can use your bonus action to make an unarmed strike. The number of unarmed strikes you can make with this bonus action increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to two at 11th level, and three at 17th level.

Additionally, attacks that use your Martial Arts die count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical damage, and gain a +1 bonus to their attack and damage rolls. This bonus increases when you reach certain levels in this class, increasing to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 17th level.

If the attack already has a bonus to its attack and damage rolls, this feature replaces the bonus unless it is greater, in which case it does not gain this feature’s benefit.

Tongue of the Sun and Moon

7th-level monk feature

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You learn to touch other minds. You understand all spoken languages, and can choose your speech to be understood by any creature that can understand a language.

Purity

11th-level monk feature

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You become perfectly self-sufficient. You cease to age by any means, suffer none of the effects of old age, and do not need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. To gain the benefits of a long rest, you can meditate for 4 hours, during which you can see and hear as normal.

Additionally, the spiritual energy flowing through you makes you immune to disease and poison.

Impenetrable Defense

15th-level monk feature

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Your self-control grants you extraordinary resilience. When you succeed on a saving throw, you take no damage from the effect that subjected you to it.

Additionally, when you fail a saving throw, you can use your reaction to roll your Martial Arts die and add it to the result, potentially turning the failure into a success.

Perfect Self

20th-level monk feature

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You master yourself, gaining limitless access to spiritual power. At the start of each of your turns, you regain one expended power point.

Additionally, you can cast the Astral Projection spell without any components.

PART 2 | CORE CLASS

 

 

Combat Stances

Bear Stance

You become strong as the bear. Your speed isn’t reduced when grappling a creature.
Secret Technique - Bear Hug: You make an unarmed strike. On a hit, the target is grappled if it is no more than one size larger than you. Until the start of your next turn, the target is also restrained while it is grappled.

Cobra Stance

You become venomous as the cobra. Creatures you hit with a weapon attack have their speed halved until the start of your next turn.
Secret Technique - Cobra Fang: You make an unarmed strike. On a hit, the target suffers the attack’s normal effects, and has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of your next turn.

Crane Stance

You become light as the crane. Your jump distance is unlimited, though clearing one foot on a jump still costs one foot of movement as normal.
Secret Technique - Crane Wing: You Dodge. When you use your reaction before the start of your next turn, you can move up to half your speed before or after taking the reaction without provoking opportunity attacks.

Giant Stance

You become far-reaching as the giant. The range of your weapon attacks is increased by 5 feet.
Secret Technique - Giant Push: You make an unarmed strike. On a hit, the target is pushed a number of feet away up to five times your proficiency bonus.

Kraken Stance

You become slick as the kraken. You can move through the space of any creature.
Secret Technique - Kraken Lash: You make an unarmed strike against a target a number of feet away up to five times your proficiency bonus. On a hit, the target is pulled any number of feet you choose towards you.

Leopard Stance

You become fast as the leopard. When you make a weapon attack, you can move 5 feet before or after the attack. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.
Secret Technique - Leopard Fist: You Dash. Before the end of your turn, you can make one unarmed strike when you move, inflicting its normal effects on a hit.

Mantis Stance

You become cautious as the mantis. When you use the reaction from your Martial Arts feature to make an attack miss, you can make an unarmed strike against the creature who attacked you regardless of distance as part of the reaction, inflicting its normal effects on a hit.
Secret Technique - Mantis Hook: You can take an additional reaction before the start of your next turn.

Monkey Stance

You become mischievous as the monkey. You have a climbing speed equal to your speed.
Secret Technique - Monkey Climb: You make an unarmed strike. On a hit, you latch onto the target, gaining three-quarters cover from all sides and moving with the target until the start of your next turn. Moving more than 5 feet from the target ends this effect.

Peafowl Stance

You become dazzling as the peafowl. Hostile creatures within 5 feet of you have disadvantage on attacks against creatures other than you.
Secret Technique - Peafowl Plumage: You touch a willing creature, roll your Martial Arts die, and add your monk level. You and the target gain temporary hit points equal to the amount until the start of your next turn.

Shark Stance

You become frenzied as the shark. You have a swimming speed equal to your speed.
Secret Technique - Shark Tooth: You make an unarmed strike. On a hit, the target suffers the attack’s normal effects, and creatures you choose that can see or hear you can use their reaction to move up to half their speed towards the target.

Tiger Stance

You become ferocious as the tiger. The first time you miss with a weapon attack, you can make the same attack with disadvantage against another creature within 5 feet of the target.
Secret Technique - Tiger Claw: You make an unarmed strike. On a hit, the target suffers the attack’s normal effects, and takes magical slashing damage equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die at the start of each of its turns until it takes an action to stanch the bleeding.

Wolf Stance

You become cunning as the wolf. You have blindsight out to a range of 5 feet.
Secret Technique - Wolf Bite: You make an unarmed strike. On a hit, the target suffers the attack’s normal effects and is knocked prone.

PART 3 | STANCES

 

 

Monastic Ways

Ascendant Dragon

The Way of the Ascendant Dragon was a monk subclass that looked promising in its Unearthed Arcana release, much less so in its subsequent official release in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. With many features made costlier to use, less accessible, or just flat-out neutered, the result was a monastic tradition that fell short of expectations, particularly given the monk’s status as one of the worst classes, if not the worst class following the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

The main intent behind the following changes is to adjust the Ascendant Dragon monk’s power, allowing the subclass to scale much better. Spending more resources increases both the range and power of several features, and with resource expenditure made exclusive to subclasses, the Ascendant Dragon monk should be able to access these features more readily.

Draconic Disciple

2nd-level Ascendant Dragon feature

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You are imbued with the mighty presence and elemental affinity of dragons. You gain proficiency in the Intimidation and Persuasion skills, and learn to speak, read, and write Draconic.

Additionally, when you damage a target with an unarmed strike, you can change the damage type to acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder (your choice).

Breath of the Dragon

2nd-level Ascendant Dragon feature

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You can exhale a destructive wave of energy, like those created by the dragons you emulate. You can use your action to spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus and exhale draconic energy in either a cone whose range equals ten times the number of power points spent, or a 5-foot wide line whose length equals fifteen times the number of power points spent (your choice).

Choose a damage type: acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking damage of the chosen type equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die for each power point spent on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Wings Unfurled

6th-level Ascendant Dragon feature

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You take to the air with wings of draconic power. When you move or fall on your turn, you can spend 1 power point to unfurl spectral draconic wings that vanish at the start of your next turn. While the wings exist, you have a flying speed equal to your speed.

Aspect of the Wyrm

10th-level Ascendant Dragon feature

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The power of your draconic spirit radiates from you, warding your allies and inspiring fear in your enemies. You can use your action to spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus and create an aura of draconic power that radiates from you for 1 minute, to a number of feet equal to ten times the number of power points spent. For the duration, you gain the following benefits.

• Frightful Presence: Creatures you choose within the aura must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of you for its duration. An affected creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
• Resistance: Choose a damage type when you activate this aura: acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder. You and your allies within the aura have resistance to that damage.

Dragonsight

14th-level Ascendant Dragon feature

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You learn to see in the same way as dragons. When you use your Wings Unfurled feature, you gain blindsight out to 60 feet while the wings exist.

Ascendant Aspect

18th-level Ascendant Dragon feature

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Your draconic spirit reaches its peak. When you activate your Aspect of the Wyrm, you can use your Breath of the Dragon feature as a bonus action on the same turn. If you do so, the power points spent to create the aura also fuel the wave of energy, and its damage is doubled.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Astral Self

While a solid subclass, the Way of the Astral Self mainly benefits the monk by offering fixes to many of the core class’s issues, notably by making it scale better with Wisdom. A rework to the monk would require this flavorful subclass to do something other than act as a crutch to a currently dysfunctional framework, particularly if Wisdom were no longer essential to the core class, though still a viable option.

To this effect, the intent behind the following changes is to give the Astral Self monk a generous helping of utility, including the ability to essentially ignore physical obstacles. A reworked subclass capstone aims to both round out an already versatile subclass, and cater to the memes and references that have emerged around its flavor.

Astral Awakening

2nd-level Astral Self feature

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You train to progressively unlock parts of your astral self. You choose the appearance and position along your body of these spectral body parts.

Additionally, at the start of each of your turns, you can awaken any unlocked portions of your astral self you choose for 1 minute, spending 1 power point for each portion you wish to awaken. You can choose to end this awakening early (no action required).

Arms of the Astral Self

2nd-level Astral Self feature

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You unlock the arms of your astral self. While they are awakened, you gain the following benefits.

• When you damage a target with an unarmed strike, you can change the damage type to force or psychic.
• You add 30 to your Strength score when calculating your carrying capacity.
• Your reach increases by 15 feet.
• Your arms and the objects they are holding can pass through solid objects, ignoring all cover. If these effects end while an object you are holding occupies the same space as a solid object or creature, it is immediately shunted to the nearest unoccupied space.

Visage of the Astral Self

6th-level Astral Self feature

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You unlock the visage of your astral self. While it is awakened, you gain the following benefits.

• You can see normally in dim light and darkness, both magical and nonmagical, and through solid objects to a distance of 120 feet.
• When you awaken your astral visage, choose a skill or tool. You are proficient in the chosen skill or tool if you weren’t already, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with the skill or tool. While your astral visage is awakened, you can use your action to choose another skill or tool to gain this benefit instead.
• When you speak, you can direct your words to a creature of your choice that you can see within 120 feet of you, making it so only that creature can hear you. Alternatively, you can amplify your voice so that all creatures within 600 feet can hear you.

Body of the Astral Self

10th-level Astral Self feature

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You unlock the body of your astral self. While it is awakened, you can move through solid objects and creatures in any direction, and the space of other creatures does not count as difficult terrain to you.

If this effect ends while you occupy the same spot as a solid object or creature, you are immediately shunted to the nearest unoccupied space and take force damage equal to twice the number of feet you are moved.

Legs of the Astral Self

14th-level Astral Self feature

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You unlock the legs of your astral self. While they are awakened, you gain the following benefits.

• Your speed increases by 60 feet.
• Your jump distance is unlimited.
• Moving one foot in any direction always costs you one foot of movement, and your speed cannot be reduced by any means.

Awakened Astral Self

18th-level Astral Self feature

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Your connection to your astral self is complete. While all portions of your astral self are awakened, you can spend 4 power points at the end of your turn to take an additional turn. You cannot use this feature if your current turn was already an additional turn taken by spending power points.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Cobalt Soul

Fun, flavorful, and nicely balanced, the Way of the Cobalt Soul could easily be official material. Doing so would certainly help contribute to a roster of monk subclasses currently lacking in mental specializations. The following changes aim mainly to expand on an already solid feature list, with few changes to its key theme and mechanics.

Mystical Erudition

2nd-level Cobalt Soul feature

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Your devotion to knowledge has granted you memory and reasoning beyond your own. Choose one of the following skills: Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, and Religion. You gain proficiency in the chosen skill, and your proficiency is doubled for any ability check you make with the skill.

As an action, you can replace this chosen skill with another from this feature’s selection. You can use this action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Analysis

2nd-level Cobalt Soul feature

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You can siphon crucial information out of a foe. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 1 power point to analyze it for 1 minute. When you analyze the creature and each time you hit it with an unarmed strike within the duration, you can choose to impose disadvantage on the creature’s attack rolls and ability checks against you until the start of your next turn, or learn one of the following (your choice).

• The target’s damage immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities.
• The target’s condition immunities.
• The target’s skill proficiencies.
• The target’s saving throw proficiencies.
• The target’s senses.
• The target’s speeds.
• The target’s armor class.
• The target’s hit point maximum.
• One of the target’s ability scores (your choice).
• One of the target’s traits.
• One of the target’s actions.

If the creature isn’t hostile to you or its speed is 0, you can use this feature by touching the target instead.

Extort Truth

6th-level Cobalt Soul feature

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You can render the minds of creatures more malleable. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 1 power point to have the creature make a Charisma saving throw.

On a failed save, the creature is charmed by creatures you choose for 10 minutes, and cannot deliberately tell a lie. You know whether the creature succeeded or failed on the saving throw, and the effect ends immediately if the creature takes damage.

An affected creature is aware of the effect and can thus avoid answering questions to which it would normally respond with a lie. Such a creature can be evasive in its answers as long as the effect lasts.

If the creature isn’t hostile to you or its speed is 0, you can use this feature by touching the target instead.

Mind of Mercury

10th-level Cobalt Soul feature

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Your powers of analysis grant you instant pattern recognition. When a creature you’ve analyzed has triggered your reaction, you can spend 1 power point to regain the use of your reaction. You cannot use this feature against the same target until the start of your next turn.

Read Memory

14th-level Cobalt Soul feature

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You can pore through a creature’s mind as if it were a library. When a creature fails its saving throw against your Extort Truth feature, you can link minds with it for the duration. You can also choose to end this effect early (no action required), and the effect ends immediately if you or the creature are incapacitated.

While your minds are linked, you can use your action on each of your turns to query the creature’s mind. You then access an accurate thought or memory from the creature’s mind associated with the query, memorizing it in full. On each of the creature’s turns, it can use its action to query your own mind in the same way. You and the target are aware of each other’s queries, and which information is being shared.

Debilitating Barrage

18th-level Cobalt Soul feature

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You can tamper with the physical and mental properties of creatures. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 3 power points and choose one of the following.

• The creature suffers vulnerability to a damage type of your choice. If the creature is immune to this damage type, its immunity becomes resistance instead.
• The creature loses immunity to a condition of your choice.

This effect ends when the creature takes damage of the type you chose, suffers the condition you chose, or when you use this feature against it again.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Drunken Master

A generally serviceable subclass, the Drunken Master is well-liked for its hit-and-run playstyle and accessibility. The following changes don’t aim to alter this much, so much as give the subclass more scaling and later-level options.

Proficient Drunk

2nd-level Drunken Master feature

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You are well-versed in drunken displays. You gain proficiency in the Acrobatics and Performance skills, and brewer’s supplies.

Drunken Frenzy

2nd-level Drunken Master feature

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You can respond to overwhelming numbers of foes with a flurry of blows. When you take the Attack action to make an unarmed strike, you can spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus. For each power point spent, you make an additional unarmed strike. Each attack must target a different creature.

When you use this feature, you can choose to gain the benefits of the Disengage action.

Tipsy Sway

6th-level Drunken Master feature

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You can move in sudden, swaying ways. You gain the following benefits.

• Leap to Your Feet. When you are prone, you can stand up by spending 5 feet of movement, rather than half your speed.
• Redirect Attack. When a creature misses you with an attack, it makes that attack against another creature of your choice within 5 feet of you.

Dulled Pain

10th-level Drunken Master feature

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You learn to numb the pain of injury. You can use your action to spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus. For each power point spent, you gain temporary hit points equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die.

Drunkard’s Swagger

14th-level Drunken Master feature

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You are maddeningly slippery. When you use your Drunken Frenzy feature, you gain the benefit of the Dodge action, and can move through the space of any creature until the end of your turn.

Liquid Courage

18th-level Drunken Master feature

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You master the resilience of intoxication. You can use your Dulled Pain feature even when affected by a condition that would render you unable to use your action. Additionally, when you use the feature, you can end any of the following effects on yourself. If one such effect is imposed by the environment you’re in, you instead suppress it on yourself until the start of your next turn.

• Any conditions.
• Any curses, including attunement to a cursed magic item.
• Any reductions to your ability scores.
• Any effects reducing your hit point maximum.
• Any effects reducing your speed.
• Any effects imposing disadvantage on your attack rolls, ability checks, or saving throws.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Four Elements

The Way of the Four Elements is one of the most infamously disappointing monk subclasses: promising the opportunity to play the titular character from Avatar: The Last Airbender, it instead offers only a paltry selection of spells and pseudo-spells. Whereas one-third casters like the Arcane Trickster and Eldritch Knight find themselves with thirteen different spells to cast, the Four Elements monk ends up with a miserly five (and one of them is a limited cantrip). Worse yet, the spells are exceedingly costly to cast, with the monk frequently ending up without a subclass at all when also faced with their base class’s resource expenditure.

The following aims to change this primarily by offering the Four Elements monk a much larger spell selection, along with cheaper resource costs. Because the core class is changed to no longer use ki, the Four Elements monk would be able to put all of their resource into casting spells as needed.

Elemental Attunement

2nd-level Four Elements feature

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You feel the many ways in which the four elements surround you, perceiving even the slightest disturbance in their natural flow. You gain proficiency in the Perception skill, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with it.

Additionally, when you damage a target with an unarmed strike, you can change the damage type to cold, fire, lightning, piercing, slashing, or thunder (your choice).

Disciple of the Elements

2nd-level Four Elements feature

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You harness the power of the four elements, one at a time. You learn one elemental discipline of your choice at 2nd level, and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level. Each discipline grants you a range of spells to cast, using your monk save DC and attack modifier for their saving throws and attack rolls.

To cast a spell of 1st level or higher from one of your elemental disciplines, you must spend a number of power points equal to the spell’s level, but do not require material components. You can choose to spend any amount of additional power points when casting the spell, with each additional power point counting as if the spell was cast using a spell slot of one additional level. Spells cast in this manner cannot exceed the level of the highest-level elemental discipline spell you know.

For example, if you wish to cast the 1st-level spell Thunderwave, you must spend at least one power point. Choosing to spend an additional power point, for a total of two, will cast the spell as if using a 2nd-level spell slot.

Discipline of Air

Discipline of Earth

Discipline of Fire

Discipline of Water

Avatar of the Four Elements

18th-level Four Elements feature

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Your mastery over the elements allows you to embody their wrath. You can use your action to spend 5 power points and transform into the embodiment of the four elements, gaining the following benefits.

• Attacks against you have disadvantage.
• You have advantage on all saving throws.
• You can move through difficult terrain without spending extra movement, and take no damage from environmental hazards.
• You do not need to concentrate to maintain the effects of your elemental discipline spells.

This transformation lasts for 1 minute, or if you choose to end it early (no action required).

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Kensei

Intended to foster a weapons-based monk playstyle, the Kensei falls short on many levels. Many of its features merely paper over the core class’s awkward weapon selection, and some are made entirely redundant by magic weapons. The optional feats from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything further this problem by allowing monks to use more weapons and enhance their accuracy without opting into this subclass.

With changes to the core class letting the monk choose any weapon as a baseline, the objective of these changes becomes simple: to make the Kensei a subclass that enhances an already solid user of weapons, and wastes no budget on compensatory features. Accuracy remains key to this subclass, with features potentially allowing for tremendous burst damage.

Art of War

2nd-level Kensei feature

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Your brush strokes reflect your artistry with weapons. You gain proficiency in calligrapher’s supplies and painter’s supplies, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with either tool.

Path of the Kensei

2nd-level Kensei feature

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You master the art of weapons warfare, wielding them as an artist would their brush. When your stance’s secret technique would have you make an unarmed strike, you can attack with your weapon instead.

Additionally, when you miss with an attack using a weapon, you can spend 1 power point to roll your Martial Arts die and gain a bonus to the roll equal to the amount, potentially turning the miss into a hit. When you use this feature, you cannot use it again until the start of your next turn.

One with the Blade

6th-level Kensei feature

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Your spirit flows through your weapon. When you make an unarmed strike, you can attack with your weapon instead.

Seamless Strokes

10th-level Kensei feature

---

Your weapon’s attacks are so fluid that many appear as one. When you take the Attack action to attack with a weapon and hit your target, you can spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus. For each power point spent, you add your Martial Arts die to the weapon’s damage roll.

Unerring Accuracy

14th-level Kensei feature

---

Your accuracy with weapons is such that you frequently strike vital points. When you use your Path of the Kensei feature to grant a bonus to your attack roll, you can instead increase the roll directly by the same amount, up to a maximum of 20, potentially turning the attack into a critical hit. You can also use this feature even if the attack hits.

Strike of the Sword Saint

18th-level Kensei feature

---

You can vanish in a flurry of attacks. When you use your Seamless Strokes feature, you can target an additional number of creatures you see within 120 feet of you up to the number of power points spent. You then vanish and make an attack with your weapon against each of these targets, dealing the same damage on a hit, and teleport an unoccupied space you can see within 5 feet of your original location or one of the targets you attacked (your choice).

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Long Death

A weird little subclass from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, the Way of the Long Death has only a tenuous link to tropes and archetypes outside of the official lore upon which it is based. While not excessively strong by any measure, the class itself has some design issues: its Touch of Death feature suffers from the “bag of rats” problem, where a character can carry around low-powered creatures (such as rats) and kill them to gain disproportionate bonuses, and its Hour of Reaping feature affects allies and enemies indiscriminately. Furthermore, despite being designed to enable tanking, a Long Death monk offers little reason to be attacked.

To help address this, the following changes aim to change the Way of the Long Death into a masochistic tanking monk, one with a potent capacity for executions early on and incentives to lose hit points. This may not inherently address the subclass’s weird flavor, but should hopefully at least make its different components mesh better together.

Implements of the Long Death

2nd-level Long Death feature

---

You have extensively studied the means of meting out the perfect death. You gain proficiency in alchemist’s supplies and the poisoner’s kit, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with either tool.

Additionally, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you know its current hit points.

Escape from Death

2nd-level Long Death feature

---

Your familiarity with death allows you to evade it. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can choose to revive instead (no action required). If you do so, you spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus, and must spend the maximum number of power points you can. For each power point spent, roll your Martial Arts die. You regain a number of hit points equal to the total.

Touch of Death

6th-level Long Death feature

---

You can kill with a touch. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, and the creature’s current hit points are equal to or below twice your monk level, you can spend 1 power point to immediately reduce the target to 0 hit points.

Visage of Death

10th-level Long Death feature

---

Your unnatural resurrections terrify and warp those who witness them. When you use your Escape from Death feature, creatures you choose within 30 feet of you that can see you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of you, and have their hit point maximum reduced to their current hit points (minimum of 1 hit point).

A creature affected in this way can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effects on itself on a successful save. On each failed save, the creature’s hit point maximum is reduced again to its current hit points (minimum of 1 hit point).

Reaping Touch

14th-level Long Death feature

---

You can harvest the energy of creatures as they perish. When you use your Touch of Death feature, you can gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the creature’s current hit points before they were reduced to 0. When you lose these temporary hit points, you regain 1 spent power point.

Threshold of Death

18th-level Long Death feature

---

As death claims you, so does it claim your foes. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to choose any number of creatures you see within 30 feet. A creature targeted in this way must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take necrotic damage equal to the damage you took, taking half damage on a successful save.

Additionally, you can use your action to take necrotic damage up to your current hit points, ignoring any damage immunity or resistance you may possess.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Mercy

One of the stronger monk subclasses, the Way of Mercy works in large part because it covers for the main class’s shortcomings, giving it the damage it otherwise lacks while also allowing for the monk to function as a healer. Were the core monk not so lacking, this subclass would be doing too many things at once.

Assuming the core monk were rebalanced to deal adequate damage and be able to do more interesting things in combat, all that would be left for this subclass would be for it to enable a healer build. The following changes aim to do just that, making it easier for the Mercy monk to heal and offering more options along the way.

Implements of Mercy

2nd-level Mercy feature

---

You are a trained physician. You gain proficiency in the Medicine skill and with the herbalism kit, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with the skill or tool.

Hands of Healing

2nd-level Mercy feature

---

Your touch can mend wounds. When you make an unarmed strike, you can instead spend 1 power point to touch a willing creature and restore a number of their hit points equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die.

Physician’s Touch

6th-level Mercy feature

---

You can use your touch to administer even greater cures. When you use your Hands of Healing feature, you can spend 1 additional power point to end one disease or one of the following conditions affecting the target: blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, incapacitated, paralyzed, poisoned, or stunned.

Invigorating Touch

10th-level Mercy feature

---

You can activate the vital pathways of creatures to give them a surge of energy. Until the end of its next turn, a creature affected by your Hands of Healing feature can give itself advantage on one saving throw or impose disadvantage on one attack roll against it (its choice, no action required). The effect then ends.

Hands of Succor

14th-level Mercy feature

---

Your touch can cure even supernatural ills. When you use your Hands of Healing feature, you can spend 3 additional power points to reduce the target’s exhaustion level by one, or end one of the following effects on it.

• One effect that petrified the target.
• One curse, including the target’s attunement to a cursed magic item.
• Any reduction to one of the target’s ability scores.
• One effect reducing the target’s hit point maximum.

Hand of Ultimate Mercy

18th-level Mercy feature

---

Your mastery of life energy opens the door to the ultimate mercy. You can use your action and spend 5 power points to touch the corpse of a creature that died within the past 24 hours. The creature then returns to life, regaining 5d12 hit points.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Mind

There is a dearth of psionic casters, a niche the mystic class was intended to fulfil until it got iceboxed. The intent here is to provide one such option for the monk, whose flavor lends itself well to psionics already. The key mechanical goals here were to give this new subclass heaps of utility and versatility, in a manner that would complement the core class’s strength in combat.

Mind Over Matter

2nd-level Mind feature

---

You are exceptionally adept at projecting your mental force on others. When you gain this feature, choose one of the following skills: Animal Handling, Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion. You gain proficiency in the chosen skill, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with it.

Additionally, when you damage a target with an unarmed strike, you can choose to change the damage type to force or psychic (your choice).

Psionics

2nd-level Mind feature

---

You channel your psionic powers into potent effects, which take the form of spells. You use your monk save DC and attack modifier for the saving throws and attack rolls of these spells, and you do not require components to cast them. Your spellcasting ability for these spells is Strength, Dexterity, or Wisdom (your choice).

Spells Known

You know four mind spells of your choice, and learn two additional mind spells at 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level in this class. The spells must be cantrips or spells of level no higher than 1st, which increases as you gain levels in this class: at 6th level (2nd-level spells), 10th level (3rd-level spells), 14th level (4th-level spells), and 18th level (5th-level spells).

When you finish a short or long rest, you can replace a mind spell you know with another mind spell that is available to you.

Mind Casting

To cast a mind spell of 1st level or higher, you must spend a number of power points equal to the spell’s level. You can choose to spend any amount of additional power points when casting the spell, with each additional power point counting as if the spell was cast using a spell slot of one additional level. Spells cast in this manner cannot exceed the level of the highest-level mind spells available to you.

For example, if you wish to cast the 1st-level spell Charm Person, you must spend at least one power point. Choosing to spend an additional power point, for a total of two, will cast the spell as if using a 2nd-level spell slot.

Mind Spells

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Open Hand

The Way of the Open Hand is a subclass with one of the most easily recognizable features in the game. Unfortunately, it is the subclass’s capstone, and its prior features, while useful, are generic, purposely failing to expand on the core monk’s thematic and gameplay fantasy. This is a shame, as the manipulation of ki in other creatures’ bodies is a martial arts trope that could be significantly expanded upon.

On the assumption that the above changes would give the core monk a solid level of durability and versatility, and with the removal of its Stunning Strike feature, the goal of the following is to give the subclass a more distinct niche, and expand significantly upon its iconic Quivering Palm feature. Rather than be relegated to the subclass’s capstone, the Open Hand monk instead gets a version of it from the beginning, in exchange for requiring a bit more setup. The subclass also gets additional uses for their unarmed strikes, allowing them to disable foes in various ways as they prepare their key damage feature.

Deft Hands

2nd-level Open Hand feature

---

Your hands are instruments of incredible precision. You gain proficiency in the Sleight of Hand skill, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with it.

Quivering Palm

2nd-level Open Hand feature

---

You can set up a lethal chain reaction by disrupting a creature’s spirit. When you take the Attack action to make an unarmed strike and hit your target, you can spend 1 power point to mark it imperceptibly. You can also touch a creature that isn’t hostile to you to mark it.

When you hit a marked creature with an unarmed strike, you can choose to disrupt its spirit. For each of your turns that the target was marked, up to a number of turns equal to your proficiency bonus, the target takes additional force damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die. The mark then ends.

If you choose to mark another creature while one is already marked, your previous mark ends harmlessly.

Ki Blocking

6th-level Open Hand feature

---

You can strike pressure points to block your opponents’ spiritual flow. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 1 power point to have the target make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it suffers one of the following effects of your choice until the start of your next turn.

• The target cannot take reactions.
• The target drops any object it is holding.
• The target’s speed is halved.
• The target cannot make verbal sounds.
• The target is blinded.
• The target is deafened.

Exploding Palm

10th-level Open Hand feature

---

You can violently detonate the spirit of creatures you have marked. When you damage a creature with your Quivering Palm feature, you can spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus to choose an equal number of creatures you see within 30 feet of the target. Each chosen creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take the same force damage as the target, taking half as much damage on a successful save.

Expel Soul

14th-level Open Hand feature

---

You can knock a creature’s soul out of its body. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus to deal no damage and instead attempt to expel their soul. The target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or have its soul forcibly ejected from its body and pushed away a number of feet up to twenty times the number of power points spent. Creatures who lack a soul, or whose souls cannot be separated from their bodies, automatically succeed on this saving throw. A creature can also fail this saving throw voluntarily if it wishes to have its soul separated from its body.

While separated from its soul, the creature is paralyzed. The creature’s soul has the same statistics as its body, has a flight speed equal to its speed, can move through solid objects and creatures, and always knows the location of its body, but can only move while separated. The creature’s soul is immune to all damage types except force and psychic, and the damage it receives is instead redirected to its body.

When the creature’s soul moves into the same space as its body, the two reunite, and the effects end on the creature. The effects also end if the creature dies.

Distant Palm

18th-level Open Hand feature

---

You can lethally disrupt the spirit of creatures from afar. While you and a creature marked by your Quivering Palm feature are on the same plane of existence, you can use your action to spend 5 power points, deal 12d12 force damage to the creature, and end the mark. The creature must then succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be reduced to 0 hit points.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Shadow

Another classic archetype, the Way of Shadow aims to satisfy the fantasy of a ninja monk, adept in stealth and distraction. As one of the more successful monk subclasses, it largely achieves this purpose, and despite being a subclass from the Player’s Handbook, it has the advantage of not requiring much ki expenditure to access most of its features. In an environment where the monk’s resource becomes exclusive to the its subclass features, however, there is room for expansion.

The goal of the following changes isn’t necessarily to reinvent the subclass, so much as expand it: for a small cost, Shadow Step becomes a 2nd-level feature, and at higher levels the Shadow monk gets additional features to facilitate and reward stealth, to the point of being able to hide at any time.

Shadow Training

2nd-level Shadow feature

---

You are trained in subterfuge and misdirection. You gain proficiency in the Stealth skill, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with it.

Additionally, you can attempt to Hide even if you are only lightly obscured.

Shadow Step

2nd-level Shadow feature

---

You learn to step from one shadow to another. When you are lightly or heavily obscured, you can use your action to spend 1 power point and teleport up to 120 feet to an unoccupied point you can see that is also lightly or heavily obscured.

Shadow Arts

6th-level Shadow feature

---

You are attuned to the shadows. You can see normally in dim light and darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.

Additionally, you learn the Minor Illusion cantrip and can cast it without any components. You can also spend 2 power points to cast any of the following spells without any components.

• Alter Self
• Blindness/Deafness
• Darkness
• Invisibility
• Pass Without Trace
• Silence

Shadow Meld

10th-level Shadow feature

---

You seize the right moment to escape detection. When you use your Shadow Step feature or cast a spell from your Shadow Arts feature, you can Hide immediately after as part of the same action.

Shadow Strike

14th-level Shadow feature

---

You can exploit a creature’s distraction to deadly effect. Any hit you score against a creature you were hidden from is a critical hit.

Additionally, when you make an unarmed strike, you can use your Shadow Step feature or cast a spell from your Shadow Arts feature instead, spending power points as normal.

Shadow Cloak

18th-level Shadow feature

---

You have mastered the dissimulation of your very existence. You are always lightly obscured if you are not heavily obscured already, cannot be detected by divination magic or magical scrying sensors, and are immune to any effect that would sense your emotions, read your thoughts, or gain information about you.

Additionally, when you cast a spell from your Shadow Arts feature, you do not need to concentrate to maintain the spell’s effects.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Streets

A new addition inspired by the Street Fighter video game series, and fighting games in general, this subclass is intended to emulate mechanics such as attack combos, juggling, and finishers. In terms of flavor, the Way of the Streets is intended to evoke a rougher style of monk, one more familiar with brawling and breaking things in the streets than learning more refined techniques through formal training.

Key to this intent is a feature set geared towards grappling and shoving, favoring more Strength-oriented builds for a change and enabling a degree of crowd control, primarily by moving enemies around.

School of Hard Knocks

2nd-level Streets feature

---

On the streets, only the strongest survive. You gain proficiency in the Athletics skill, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with it.

Additionally, when you make an unarmed strike, you can choose to make an attack with an improvised weapon you are wielding instead.

Beatdown

2nd-level Streets feature

---

You can unleash a devastating combination of blows against trapped foes. When you take the Attack action against a grappled creature, you can spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus. For each power point spent, you make an additional unarmed strike against the target.

Super Throw

6th-level Streets feature

---

Your rough training has made you adept at pushing others around. When you Shove a creature, you can push the target in any direction you choose.

Additionally, when you successfully Shove a creature, you can spend 1 power point to push the target a number of feet up to five times your proficiency bonus in the chosen direction. If you chose to push the target, this distance is added to the base 5 feet.

Rising Fist

10th-level Streets feature

---

You are exceptionally adept at wrestling your opponents. You count as one size larger for the purpose of grappling and shoving creatures. This benefit increases as you gain levels in this class: at 14th level (two sizes larger), and 18th level (three sizes larger).

Additionally, each time you hit with an attack when you use your Beatdown feature, you can choose to move 5 feet in any direction you choose. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks, and neither you nor your target fall until the end of the action.

Brawler’s Rampage

14th-level Streets feature

---

You can topple even the mightiest of buildings. You deal double damage to objects and structures, and can Shove objects that aren’t being worn or carried.

Additionally, when the target of your Shove comes into contact with a creature or object, the entity with which it collides must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, both take bludgeoning damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die and fall prone.

The target continues to travel whether or not the saving throw succeeds, passing through the creature or object unless the target is of a smaller size. If the damage reduces the entity with which the target collides to 0 hit points, the target continues to travel regardless of its size.

Knockout

18th-level Streets feature

---

You can knock an opponent out cold with a single strike. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can spend 5 power points to render the creature unconscious.

While the creature has 1 or more hit points remaining, it makes a Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. On a successful save, it is no longer unconscious. You can also use your action to touch the target and wake it, provided it has 1 or more hit points.

When a creature succeeds on the saving throw for this feature or is woken, it becomes immune to its effects until you finish a long rest.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Sun Soul

Another notoriously disappointing subclass, the Sun Soul monk is a collection of poorly-designed features, with damage effects that compete with one another to do the same thing, and not all that much else. Given how its theme of a martial artist with energy-based attacks otherwise comes so close to so many widely-known tropes and characters, this subclass falling short makes it even more of a missed opportunity. It is thus unsurprising that the archetype of the Super Saiyan still comes up so frequently in homebrewed content.

With this in mind, the intent behind these changes is to redo the subclass almost entirely, condensing and redistributing its features so that the player can have a wide variety of energy attacks in one go. This should leave room for epic transformations to complete the thematic fantasy, while mechanically allowing for the Sun Soul monk to serve as the party’s artillery.

Radiant Body

2nd-level Sun Soul feature

---

Radiance flows through your body. You shed bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet. You can use your action to extinguish or restore this light.

Searing Burst

2nd-level Sun Soul feature

---

You can channel your power into devastating bursts of energy. When you end your turn, you can choose to gather your energy until the start of your next turn. During this time, your speed becomes 0, you cannot gain bonuses to your speed or take reactions, and you must concentrate on the effect to maintain it. You cannot use this effect if you have no power points available.

At the start of your next turn, you can immediately use your action and spend a number of power points up to your proficiency bonus to release the stored energy in an area you choose from the options below, which ignores cover that isn’t opaque. Creatures in the area must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take radiant damage equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die for each power point spent, and be blinded, knocked prone, or made unable to take reactions until the start of your next turn (your choice). Creatures who succeed on the saving throw take only half damage and suffer no other effects.

• The area is a cone whose length in feet equals ten times the number of power points spent.
• The area is a line 5 feet wide, whose length in feet equals fifteen times the number of power points spent.
• The area is a sphere whose radius in feet equals five times the number of power points spent, centered on a point you see within 60 feet.

Sun Bolts

6th-level Sun Soul feature

---

You can hurl bolts of magical radiance from your fists. The reach of your unarmed strikes increases to 120 feet, and you can change the damage type of your unarmed strikes to radiant. If you do so, your attack ignores cover that isn’t opaque.

Solar Flare

10th-level Sun Soul feature

---

You can transform into a being of pure radiant energy. You can use your action to spend 3 power points and gain the following benefits for 1 minute, or until you choose to end the transformation earlier (no action needed).

• You shed light through your Radiant Body feature, and its radius is increased to 30 feet of bright light and 30 additional feet of dim light. This light is sunlight.
• You are immune to radiant damage.
• Attacks against you have disadvantage.
• You suppress the effects of all conditions you are suffering from.

Soaring Sun

14th-level Sun Soul feature

---

Your aura of radiance renders you weightless. While you shed light through your Radiant Body feature, you have a flight speed equal to your speed and can hover.

Supernova

18th-level Sun Soul feature

---

Your spirit is as intense as an exploding sun. For the duration of your Solar Flare transformation, you can use your action to instantly use your Searing Burst feature on your turn, without having to gather your energy beforehand.

Additionally, creatures you choose who start their turn within your radius of bright light must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 3d12 radiant damage, taking half as much damage on a successful save.

While transformed, you can spend 1 power point at the end your turn to intensify your radiance, increasing your aura’s damage on a failed save by 1d12 for its duration. If you do so, until the start of your next turn, creatures who fail the saving throw are also stunned until the end of that turn.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Voice

This is a new addition, inspired heavily by Frank Herbert’s Dune. Thematically, this subclass is intended to emulate both the Bene Gesserit, a quasi-religious order whose members master their own body and voice to the point of being able to influence others, and the Kwisatz Haderach, a messianic figure capable of near-omniscience. Mechanically, it is intended to offer a monk subclass geared more towards crowd control and a degree of social interaction.

Although the core class already has many features that lend themselves well to the flavor of the Bene Gesserit, notably the immunity to poison and disease and resistance to emotional sway, no official subclass offers much in the way of mental control over others, or even more general mysticism. There is thus at least one niche, if not several, yet to fill for the monk there.

Truthsayer

2nd-level Voice feature

---

You have an uncanny ability to sense the truth. You gain proficiency in the Insight skill, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with it.

The Voice

2nd-level Voice feature

---

You harness the compelling powers of your speech. You can use your action and spend 1 power point to speak a one-sentence command to a creature within 60 feet who can hear and understand you. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or follow your command on its next turn. The target automatically succeeds on the saving throw if the command is directly harmful to it, or if it is unable to follow the command.

Prescience

6th-level Voice feature

---

Your attunement to the word of creation allows you to perceive time non-linearly. When you finish a long rest, you can glimpse the actions of a creature important to you. You can choose the creature by specifying its name, which can be your own, otherwise the DM chooses the creature. You then learn any of the following information:

• The creature’s appearance.
• A significant event directly involving the creature from its past.
• A significant event directly involving the creature that will take place within 7 days.

The information you learn is accurate, but need not be detailed or different from what you learned through previous uses of this feature. It also does not take into account any possible circumstances that might change the future course of events, such as the loss or gain of a companion.

Panoply of Prophecies

10th-level Way of the Voice feature

---

Your voice gains enough power to sway the masses. When you use The Voice, you can spend an additional number of power points up to your proficiency bonus. For each power point spent, you target another creature in range with the same command.

Additionally, when you use The Voice, you can choose to hide your influence. Each creature of your choice who heard you immediately forgets the command you spoke, instead remembering a benign sentence. A creature who succeeds on the feature’s saving throw remembers you tried to command it.

Golden Path

14th-level Voice feature

---

You can see clearly across time and space. You can use your action and spend 3 power points to immediately use your Prescience feature.

If you do so, you can also choose to enter a state of heightened consciousness for 1 minute instead of learning of a creature’s actions. For the duration, you have advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws, and other creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws against you. You can enter this state even if you are surprised, allowing you to act normally on your first turn.

Shortening of the Way

18th-level Voice feature

---

You have reached harmony with the word of creation, and wield its power with your voice. When a creature fails its saving throw against your use of The Voice, that creature follows subsequent commands you issue with the Voice without making a saving throw. The creature can also follow commands that take more than one turn to fulfil, though is no longer compelled to continue fulfilling the command after 8 hours have passed.

Each time a creature affected by this feature takes damage, it makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, this feature’s effects end on the creature.

PART 4 | WAYS

 

 

Acknowledgments

Art

This brew uses art assets created by a variety of talented artists. Gratitude and due credit go towards the following artists for their work, with indications on where their assets have been used.

Resources

This brew was created using resources and guides written by dedicated individuals. Without their contributions, this brew would not have been possible, and would not have been nearly as much of a joy to write.

Special Thanks

This brew was written with the feedback, input, and collaboration of several helpful people. Thank you so much for helping improve these designs, and for putting up with me.

Using This Brew

This is a homebrew intended to be read and used freely by all. If you were to use any part of this in your games, I would be honored.

I am always looking to improve my work, and would love to hear your feedback and suggestions. You can find me on Reddit as /u/Teridax68, and on Discord as 2B#7614.

I hope this was, at the very least, a fun read. Thank you for taking the time to read through this brew, and best of success and enjoyment with your own creations!

PART 5 | ACKNOWLEDGMENTS