Monastic Tradition

Way of the Unyielding Soul (v2.5)

Monks who follow the Way of the Unyielding Soul are archons of resilience, protection, and tenacity. These monks train by meditating in harsh conditions, allowing others to attack them while they focus. In the same way that no one masters the sword without swinging one cannot have true defense without learning to be hit. Instead of focusing on the pain shooting through their body, they focus on their inner energy, pushing outward. Eventually the bruises fade, and steel remains. Now, it is not the monk who is bloody, but it is the bodies of those foolish enough to strike them or their allies.

Hardened Form

You channel you ki to harden your skin, turning it into stone, steel, ice, bark, or any other tough element. You gain the following abilities:

• Tough Skin You brace yourself against incoming attacks, hardening your body. As a bonus action, you may spend 1 ki point to gain temporary hit points equal to a roll of your martial arts die + your Monk level.
• Hard Counter You defend incoming blows against you and your allies, and can hit back with your tenacious strikes. You can spend 1 ki point to use your reaction to dampen an attack against you or an ally within 5 feet of you. When you do so, the damage of the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier + your Monk level. If you reduce this damage to 0, you may make one unarmed attack against the source of the original attack as part of the same reaction if they are within your range. This attack deals additional damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Defender's Ki

At 6th level, your ki has been shaped to have the unique effect of making others target you instead of your allies. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you may spend 1 ki point to cause that creature's attack rolls to have disadvantage against any target other than you until the end of your next turn. In addition, if creatures under the effects of your Defender's Ki deal damage to anyone other than you, your unarmed attacks against them deal additional damage equal to your Wisdom modifier until the end of your next turn.

Immovable

Beginning at 11th level, you channel your ki to become unbendable. When you use the Dodge action, you cannot be moved, pushed, grappled, frightened, or knocked prone against your will until the start of your next turn, even if magically compelled to do so. You must be standing on the ground to use this ability.

Unbreakable

At 17th level, you become a pinnacle of resilience as you perfect your Hardened Form. As a bonus action, you may spend 5 ki to become Unbreakable. In this state, you gain the following benefits for 1 minute:

• You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, as well as your choice of acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage.
• Any critical hit against you becomes a normal hit.
• You get a special reaction that you can take once on every creature’s turn, except your turn. You can use this special reaction only to perform Hard Counter, and you can’t use it on the same turn that you take your normal reaction. During Unbreakable, Hard Counter does not cost a ki point to use.

Art Credit

Red Riot by SHIN, Pixiv

Monastic Tradition by

/u/RaisinBrawn64