Monk (Class)

Dedication to the honing of mind and body, there are various monk groups throughout the world of Lumither, all of which with their own paths and goals that they dedicate their lives to (with a variety of morality as well).

## **Quick Build Tips**

Make Dexterity your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom.

## **Traits**

### **Hit Points**

* **Hit Dice:** 1d8 per monk level
* **Hit Points at 1st Level:** 9 + Constitution modifier
* **Hit Points at Higher Levels:** 1d8 (or 5) + Constitution modifier per monk level after 1st

### **Proficiencies**

* **Armor:** None
* **Weapons:** Simple weapons, shortswords
* **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**

* (a) a shortsword OR (b) any simple weapon
* (a) a dungeoneer's pack OR (b) an explorer's pack
* 10 darks
* OR starting gold of 5d4 gp

## **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.
Certain monasteries use specialized forms of the monk weapons. For
example, you might use a club that is two lengths of wood connected by a
 short chain (called a nunchaku) or a sickle with a shorter, straighter
blade (called a kama). Whatever name you use for a monk weapon, you can
use the game statistics provided for the weapon in the Weapons section.

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

### **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 Improvement or Feat**

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**

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**

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**

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**

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.

## **Monastic Traditions**

Most monasteries practice one tradition exclusively, but a few honor multiple traditions and instruct each monk according to his or her aptitude and interest. All 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.

* Way of the Open Hand = master of hand-to-hand
* Way of the Shadow = sneaky ninja
* Way of the Four Elements = in tune with the elements
* Way of the Drunken Master = that one Jackie Chan movie
* Way of the Kensei = master of weaponry
* Way of the Sun Soul = punch with soul blasts
* Way of the Cobalt Soul = knowledge ninja

### **Way of the Cobalt Soul**

Driven by the pursuit of knowledge and their worship of the goddess Ioun, the archives of the Cobalt Soul stand as some of the most well-respected and most heavily guarded repositories of tomes, history, and information across the world. To become of the Cobalt Soul is to give oneself to the quest for unveiling life's mysteries, bringing light to the secrets of the dark, and guarding the most powerful and dangerous of the truths form those who would seek to perverse the sanctity of civilization.

#### ***Mystical Erudition***

Upon choosing this tradition at 3rd level, you've undergone extensive training with the Cobalt Soul, teaching you extensively in history or lore from the monastery's collected volumes. You learn one language of your choice, and you gain proficiency with one of the following skills of your choice: Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion.

You gain additional language and an additional skill proficiency from the above list at 11th and 17th level. If you already have proficiency in one of the listed skills at 11th or 17th level, you can instead choose to double your proficiency bonus for any ability check you make that uses the chosen proficiency.

#### ***Extract Aspects***

Beginning at 3rd level when choosing this tradition, you can strike pressure points to extract crucial information about your foe. Whenever you hit a creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, you can learn the following attributes about the target: Damage Vulnerabilities, Damage Resistances, Damage Immunities, and Condition Immunities.

#### ***Extort Truth***

At 6th level, you can hit a series of hidden nerves on a creature with precision, temporarily causing them to be unable to mask their true thoughts and intent. If you manage to hit a single creature with tow or more attacks in one round, you can spend 1 ki point to force them to make a Charisma saving throw. You can choose to have these attacks deal no damage. On a failed save, the creature is unable to speak a deliberate lie for 1 minute and all Charisma checks directed at the creature are made with advantage for the duration. You know if they succeeded or failed on their saving throw. 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.

#### ***Preternatural Counter***

Beginning at 6th level, your quick mind and study of your foe allows you to use their failure to your advantage. If a creature misses you with an attack, you can immediately use your reaction to make an unarmed melee attack against that creature.

#### ***Mind of Mercury***

Starting at 11th level, you've honed your awareness and reflexes through mental aptitude and pattern recognition. Once per turn, if you've already taken your reaction, you may spend 1 ki point to take an additional reaction. You can only use one reaction per trigger.

#### ***Debilitating Barrage***

Upon
reaching 17th level, you’ve gained the knowledge to temporarily
lower a creature’s fortitude by striking a series of pressure points. Whenever you hit a creature with one of the attacks granted by your Flurry of Blows, you can spend 3 ki points to cause the creature to suffer a vulnerability to a damage type of your choice for 1 minute, or until they take damage of that type.