Variant Monk

When you choose this variant class, you gain the Extraordinary Techniques feature at 4th level instead of the following features presented in the Monk Table:

• Deflect missiles
• Slow fall
• Stillness of Mind
• Purity of Body
• Tongue of the Moon and Sun
• Extraordinary Techniques

In your pursuit of mystic truths and bodily perfection, you have mastered extraordinary techniques. These are ways you’ve learned to harness your ki that grant you exceptional abilities and supernatural power. At 4th level you gain one extraordinary technique of your choice from both the Path of Power and the Path of Serenity.

As your ability grows, you must strive to keep these paths in balance. When you gain certain monk levels, you gain additional techniques, as shown in the Techniques Known column of the Variant Monk table.

You cannot know more than one more technique of one path than the other.

Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the techniques you know and replace it with another technique that you could learn at that level, as long as you know no more than one more technique of one path than the other.

Path of Power

Breath of Building Heat

You’ve mastered a meditation technique that fills your lungs with steam and your blood with fire. As a bonus action, you can begin to concentrate on this meditation as though concentrating on a spell. As long as you do so, you have resistance to cold and fire damage.

Level	Techniques Known
4	2
7	3
9	4
10	5
13	6
14	7
18	8

Deflect Missiles

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.

Flowing Counter

When an enemy strikes, you can use the momentum of their attack against them. The first time each turn an enemy misses you with a melee attack, you can force that enemy to move to a space within 5 feet of you.

Grip of Stillness

Prerequisite(s): 9th level

As an action, you can attempt to grab an enemy at a special point on their body to interrupt the flow of their ki. Spend 2 ki points and make a melee attack roll using your unarmed strike against a humanoid you can see. On a hit, instead of taking damage the creature is grappled by you. While it is grappled it is also paralyzed. The grapple lasts until the creature takes any damage or if you move.

Once a creature has been affected by this technique, it is immune to the effect for the next 24 hours.

Iron Shirt

Prerequisite(s): 6th level

You harden your body to withstand incoming blows.

In response to being targeted with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and spend 1 ki point to give yourself resistance to any bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that might be dealt by that attack.

Purity of Body

Your mastery of the ki flowing through you makes you immune to disease and poison.

Supreme Form

Prerequisite(s): 18th level

As a bonus action, you can spend 8 ki points to focus your energy and transform into an avatar of supreme excellence and spiritual perfection. For the next minute, you gain resistance to all damage and every hit you make using your unarmed strikes or monk weapons in a critical hit. You also gain a flying speed equal to your walking speed. Once you use this technique, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

Whirlwind Attack

Prerequisite(s): 6th level

You can use your action to strike in a massive spiral motion and make a melee attack against any number of creatures within 5 feet of you, with a separate attack roll for each target.

Path of Serenity

Diamond Soul

Prerequisite(s): 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.

Meditative Insight

Prerequisite(s): 9th level

You can spend an hour in careful mediation contemplating an intelligent creature you are familiar with. The next time you interact with that creature, you can tell whether it is lying. You can only use this feature for one creature at a time, and if you use it on second your mystic intuition about the first leaves your mind.

Stillness of Mind

By focussing inward, you can use your action to end one effect on yourself that is causing you to be charmed or frightened.

Slow Fall

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.

Tongue of the Moon and Sun

Prerequisite(s): 9th 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.

Tranquil Archery

Prerequisite(s): 14th level

Once on your turn if you take the Attack action and make a ranged attack with a monk weapon, you can spend 3 ki points to add your Wisdom modifier to the attack roll.

Read Form

Prerequisite(s): 6th level

With a moment’s study, you can learn to predict your foes moves. As an action, you can observe a hostile creature that is engaged in combat. For the next minute your attack rolls using unarmed strikes or monk weapons have advantage against the creature and it has disadvantage on attack rolls against you.

This benefit also ends if, in any combination of three times, you miss with an attack or the enemy hits you.

Hyperbolic Meditation

You put yourself into a deep trance that causes you to appear dead. Any physical inspection fails to distinguish between your meditation and death, though magic will reveal you’re alive.

For up to 1 year, or until you choose to emerge from this state, you are blinded and incapacitated, and its speed drops to 0. You gain resistance to all damage except psychic damage, and you no longer need to eat, drink or breath. If you are diseased or poisoned when you enter your meditative state, or becomes diseased or poisoned while in this state, the disease and poison have no effect until your trance ends.

Empty Body

Prerequisite(s): 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.