Way of the Many Faced God (5e Subclass)
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Way of the Many-Faced God
Monk Subclass
There is only one god, and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: 'Not today'.―Syrio Fore
The Many-Faced God, otherwise known as the God of Death, is a deity worshipped by the mysterious cult of assassins known as the Faceless Men who believe that through their assassinations they do his work.
The Faceless Men worship Death, whom they believe is the only god. The cult is a syncretic religion; its followers believe that Death is unknowingly worshipped by devotees of all the religions in the world, simply under different names. Every religion either has a god of death or has a god with dominion over death. The Faceless Men believe that all of these gods are simply different aspects, or "faces", through which Death has revealed Himself to humanity - hence they formally refer to their deity as "the Many-Faced God".
The Faceless Men see death as a gift from the Many-Faced God to end human suffering: either to euthanize the sick or bereaved who can no longer stand the suffering of living, or as a "gift" to end the lives of those who are causing suffering to others. As a result, these assassins view themselves as Death's servants, strictly bound to His service. In their at times inscrutable beliefs, they feel that they are only helping to carry out Death's will, and cannot choose their own targets: they can only target those whom death has selected - the targets of assassination contracts they have accepted. The Faceless Men practice extreme self-abnegation, each devotee believing that they are "no one", with no personal desires, and living only to serve the Many-Faced God. Faceless Men are also frequently quote the phrases "valar morghulis" ("all men must die [sooner or later]") and "valar dohaeris" ("all men must serve").
The Faceless Men have no known prayers or worship services - only their actions, by committing assassinations. Their only "clergy" are the Faceless Men themselves, above lower ranking acolytes and novices serving in the temple. Though houses of the Many-Faced God often have public sanctums open to any who are in pain and seek death: they are given a drink of water from a poisoned cistern, which grants them a gentle and painless death. In return, the Faceless Men collect their corpses to use their faces as disguises.
- No One
When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you have dedicated yourself to the many faced god by giving up your face and as such all you are, becoming no one. You gain proficiency in the Deception and Performance skills and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses the Deception or Performance skills. In addition, you gain a new face, a new name, a new persona that is now you.
- Many Faced
At 6th level, you can take on the "face" of a creature you have given to the many faced god. Over the course of a short or long rest, you can perform a ritual giving the body of a humanoid to the many faced god allowing you to use that creature's face as your own, the body then vanishes. You can have a number of faces you have given to the many faced god equal to your Wisdom modifier and may swap a face out for another each time you perform the ritual.
You can use the face as an action by spending a ki point. When you do so, you magically transform into a disguise that appears on you. You now look like the dead person, but healthy and alive. You can remove this face as a bonus action. While you're in the disguise, you gain access to all information that the humanoid would freely share with a casual acquaintance. Such information includes general details on its background and personal life, but doesn't include secrets. The information is enough that you can pass yourself off as the person by drawing on its memories.
If a creature has a reason to believe you are not the face you have taken on they can see through this disguise by succeeding on a Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check. Once you use a face with this feature, you cannot use another one with it until you finish a short or long rest.
- Faceless Soul
At 11th level, your thoughts can't be read by telepathy or other means, unless you allow it. You can present false thoughts by succeeding on a Charisma (Deception) check contested by the mind reader's Wisdom (Insight) check. Additionally, no matter what you say, magic that would determine if you are telling the truth indicates you are being truthful if you so choose, and you can't be compelled to tell the truth by magic.
- Valar Morghulis/ Dohaeris
At 17th level, you can mark a target for death or service to the will of the many faced god.
- Death. When you make an unarmed strike against a creature, you can spend a ki point to deal 2d10 necrotic damage to the creature. You can spend no more than one ki point when you use this feature.
- Service. When you make an unarmed strike against a creature, you can spend a ki point to afflict it with one of the following conditions: blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, or poisoned until they complete a realistic condition you specify when you make your unarmed strike. This condition ends early if you are killed, you choose to end this condition as an action or the creature is targeted by a remove curse spell or similar magic.
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