Monk, Variant 2 (5e Class)

Creating a Monk

Quick Build

You can make a Monk quickly by following these suggestions. First, Dexterity should be your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom. Second, choose the Acolyte background. Third, choose whichever equipment options sound appealing to you. As a Monk, you do not make use of weapons or armor in the same manner that other classes do.

Class Features

As a Monk you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

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

Proficiencies

Armor: None
Weapons: Simple, Shortsword
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

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a dagger or (b) a quarterstaff or (c) shortsword
• (a) Sling and 20 sling bullets or (b) 10 darts
• (a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack

Table: The Monk

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Martial Arts	Ki Points	Unarmored Movement	Features
1st	+2	1d4	--	--	Unarmored Defense, Martial Arts, Dedicated weapon
2nd	+2	1d4	2	10ft	Ki, Unarmored Movement
3rd	+2	1d4	3	10ft	Monastic Tradition, Deflect Attack, Temple
4th	+2	1d4	4	10ft	Ability Score Improvement, Slow Fall,
5th	+3	1d6	5	10ft	Extra Attack, Stunning Strike, Focused Aim (Optional)
6th	+3	1d6	6	15ft	Ki-Empowered Strikes, Monastic Tradition feature
7th	+3	1d6	7	15ft	Evasion, Stillness of Mind
8th	+3	1d8	8	15ft	Ability Score Improvement
9th	+4	1d8	9	15ft	Unarmored Movement improvement, Ki Versatility
10th	+4	1d8	10	20ft	Flash Step
11th	+4	1d10	11	20ft	Monastic Tradition feature, Fighting Spirit
12th	+4	1d10	12	20ft	Ability Score Improvement
13th	+5	1d10	13	20ft	Soul Reflection
14th	+5	1d10	14	25ft	Diamond Soul
15th	+5	1d10	15	25ft	Timeless Body
16th	+5	1d10	16	25ft	Ability Score Improvement, Enhanced flash step
17th	+6	1d12	17	25ft	Monastic Tradition feature
18th	+6	1d12	18	30ft	Empty Body
19th	+6	1d12	19	30ft	Ability Score Improvement
20th	+6	1d12	20	30ft	Perfect Self

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, any simple melee weapons that don't have the special or heavy property, or your dedicated weapon. You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren't wearing armor, wielding a shield, or using the blade song feature: You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for athletics checks, and 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. You can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action. If your monk weapon has a smaller hit die than your martial arts die, you may use your martial arts die instead.

Dedicated Weapon

At 1st level, you can train yourself to use a variety of weapons as monk weapons, not just simple melee weapons and shortswords. You can become proficient in any one weapon during a long rest, as long as it lacks the heavy or special property. This weapon is considered a monk weapon for you. You may only have 1 dedicated weapon at a time.

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 + your wisdom modifier 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 Dexterity modifier

• Flurry of Blows. 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.
• Eye of the tiger. You can spend 2 ki points to cast darkvision on yourself as an action.

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

Information about Monk subclasses can be found in the official Player's Handbook and supplemental books. No changes have been made to existing subclasses, so you may freely choose any option of your choice

Temple

Starting at 3rd level, you have strong defenses on the outside as well as the inside. You are Immune to disease, and have advantage on saving throws against poison, and have resistance to poison damage. At 6th level you become immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.

Deflect Attack

At 3rd level, you can use your reaction to deflect or catch a strike when you are hit by an attack. When you do so any bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + half your monk level. If you reduce the bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage to 0, as part of the same reaction you can spend 1 ki point to make an unarmed attack against the creature if it's within range. If the attack was a ranged missile attack, you can throw the missile back at the creature if the missile 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 a range of 30/60 using 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. At level 8, you can use your reaction to deflect an attack and to put yourself in a defensive stance. In this stance, you can deflect an additional attack. It still costs 1 ki each time to attack a creature when you reduce an attack's damage to zero. This stance lasts until the beginning of your next turn. At level 13 you can deflect 2 additional attacks, 3 in total.

Ability Score Improvement

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.

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. Once per turn 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 with disadvantage or be stunned until the end of your next turn.

Focused Aim (Optional)

Also at 5th level, when you miss with an attack roll, you can spend 1 to 3 ki points to increase your attack roll by 2 for each of these ki points you spend, potentially turning the miss into a hit.

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.

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, your mind and body has been focused through constant meditation. You gain proficiency in constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma and death saving throws.

Ki Versatility

At level 9 you gain the following extra ki features

• Ki sense. As an action, you can use 3 ki points to get 30ft of blind sense for 8 hours.
• Leap of faith. As an action, you can use two ki points to cast the jump or levitate spell.

• Font of life. As an action, you can use 4 ki points to roll your hit dice as if you just took a short rest. Cannot use this ability if you have no hit dice to use.

• Charging strike. As a bonus action for 1 ki point you move an extra 20ft and make a melee attack adding a d20+Wis to the damage.

• Redirect Attack. For 1 ki point if a creature within 5 feet of you misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to force the attacker to reroll that attack against a creature of your choice that is also within 5 feet of the attacker.

You the choose one of the Martial techniques below, then another at 13th level and 17th.

Martial techniques

Conceal Presence For 2 ki points As an action, you can cast 2 invisibility on yourself only.

Disarming Movement As an action, you can move through the battlefield disarming your opponents, wether by using pressure points or a well placed attack. When using this feature, you can pass trough the space occupied by a creature, and your movement doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity. Any creatures who were in melee range of you on your path that you choose make a strength saving throw. On a failure the creature drops their weapon.

Shear will You have full control over your body. When your hit points drops to 0, but doesn't kill you outright, for 1 ki point you regain 1 hit point. The ki cost doubles each time you use this feature before a long rest.

After image You learn how to move so fast, to the point you appear to be in two places at the same time. For 2 ki points as a bonus action, you create a illusory copy of yourself. The copy remains for 1d8 rounds and, for the duration, mimics your movements and actions, shifting positions with you. Each time a creature targets you with an attack, roll a d20. If you roll an 11 or higher, the strike targets the copy. The copy has an AC equal 10 + your Dexterity modifier, and it is destroyed on a successful hit. The duplicate is not considered magical.

Monkeys paw Once per turn, when you hit a Huge or smaller creature with a melee weapon attack, you can attempt to push the creature away from you. The creature must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you push the creature back up to 30 ft.

Superior Monkey’s paw: (9th-level) You can use this mantra on Gargantuan creatures.

The bigger they are Once per turn, when you hit a Huge or smaller creature with a weapon attack, you can spend a bonus action to attempt to knock the creature down. The creature must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you knock the creature prone.

Superior the bigger they are: (17th-level) You can use this mantra on Gargantuan creatures.

Dancing Dragon When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can leap up to 15ft in a direction of your choice. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks from the creature you hit. You must have enough speed to leap this distance.

Superior Dancing Dragon: (17th-level) The distance you can leap increases from 15 ft to 20 ft.

Last stand a technique for when your back is against the wall and you find yourself sorely out numbered. You can spend 3 ki points as a bonus action to ready your fighting stance. Until the start of your next turn you may make a melee against any creature that starts its turn within 5 ft of you or comes within 5 ft. of you for the first time. These attacks do not consume your reaction. If you move or are moved for any reason, this effect ends.

Flash Step

Beginning at 10th level you can use your ki to teleport yourself and others, getting the drop on your enemies. You can spend ki points to magically teleport to an unoccupied space you can see as a bonus action. For each ki point you spend, you can teleport up to 10 feet, to a maximum of 30 feet. After you teleport, you then have advantage on the first attack you make before the end of the turn.

You can also touch a willing creature within 5 feet of you causing that creature to teleport instead of you. The creature you teleport has advantage on the first melee attack it makes before the end of its next turn. When you reach 16th level in this class, the maximum range of the teleport increases to 60 feet, and 90 feet at 20th level.

Fighting Spirit

At 11th level, If your dedicated weapon is magical, your ki becomes infused with the weapon's magic. Your unarmed strikes deal any extra damage that your dedicated weapon has, as well as gain any of its magical properties. For example, if you had a +1 longsword that dealt an extra 1d6 fire and had a chance to knock creature prone on hit, your fists would act as a +1 weapon and would also deal an extra 1d6 fire damage and has a chance to knock creature prone. If your dedicated weapon uses charges, you can use a charge from the weapon when you use an unarmed attack.

Soul Reflection

At 13th level whether you’ve tried to copy a technique from another monk, had someone teach you their way or simply developed it yourself. You’ve lived long enough to add on to your way of fighting, for that is the very essence of a martial artist. Pick one feature from a monk subclass that you aren't using and that you have the level for. You can choose an additional monk subclass feature at level 20 (This can be from the same subclass used previously. Any homebrew subclass make sure to run by your dm).

Diamond Soul

Beginning at 14th level, you are immune to being charmed . Additionally, whenever you make a saving throw and fail, you can spend 1 ki point to reroll it and take the second result.

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.

Enhanced Flash step

At 16th level, you’ve honed your skills of teleportation. Whenever you teleport you can also bring along one willing creature of your size or smaller. The creature must be within 5 feet of you when you teleport. Both of you gaining advantage on your first attack you make before the end of the turn.

Additionally, you can use your reaction when you are targeted by an attack or have to roll a dex saving throw to forcibly swap places with a living target you can see within 60ft and no more than one size category larger for 2 ki points. The target must succeed a wisdom saving throw or be subject to the dex save/attack. The attacker would have advantage on this attack. The monk can choose to improve the ability by using 2 ki points for every improvement they choose:

• Double the range of the spell
• Impose disadvantage on the targets saving throw
• Increase the size category threshold by one
• Cut the target's movement speed in half if the move succeeds

You can also use your reaction when an ally within 60ft and no more than one size category larger is targeted by an attack or forced to make a dex save for 2 ki points. You would now be subject to the attack or dex save potentially saving your ally. Since you are used to this form of movement and were prepared to intercept the attack against you does not have advantage.

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.

Perfect Self

At 20th level, your mastery of ki lets you perform basic techniques effortlessly. Flurry of blows, patient defense, and step of the wind now cost zero ki to use. Also your Dexterity and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24.

Multiclassing

Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into or out of the Monk class, you must meet these prerequisites: you must have both a Dexterity and Wisdom score of 13 or higher.

Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the <!-class name-> class, you gain the following proficiencies: Simple weapons, shortswords

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