Way of the Monkey King

The Monkey King. He is known by many more names, however it is his tendency for troublemaking and unstoppable willpower that pass his story into myth. Born from a magic stone atop a mountain, touched by the energies of heaven and earth, Sun Wukong emerged a vessel of yin and yang. From that day, he drew the attention of Heaven itself. The sprawling epic sees him become king of the monkeys, steal powerful artifacts from dragons, wipe his name from the Book of Life and Death to avoid punishment in Hell, befriending animal demons, and most notably defying the Jade Emperor. In their final conflict, Sun Wukong single-handedly defeated over 100,000 celestial warriors and many deities. It wasn’t until he was sealed under a mountain that the Heavens knew peace. Five hundred years later, he made a pact for his freedom to protect the monk Tang Sanzang on his journey to the West. Along their quest, the Monkey King found virtue.

Ruyi Jingu Bang

When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you have adopted the rapid and flexible fighting style of Sun Wukong himself. While you are wielding a quarterstaff, you may spend a ki point to increase your weapon’s reach to 15 feet until the beginning of your next turn. When you make an attack with this enhanced weapon, you gain 10 feet of movement this turn. Attacks of opportunity made against you during this bonus movement are made with disadvantage.

Return to Stone

Starting at 6th level, you are able to assume the primal shape of Sun Wukong before he was the Monkey King, before he was even a monkey — when he was a rock. As a reaction, you may spend a ki point and turn your skin to stone, increasing your AC by 5 and gaining the Petrified condition. You can use this feature as a reaction to being attacked after the attack roll has been made, potentially avoiding the attack. You remain in this stone-form until the end of your next turn. If you are mid-air when you transform, you fall to the ground rapidly and deal double the amount of fall damage you would normally take to anyone you fall on, taking no fall damage yourself.

Earthly Transformations

Starting at 11th level, you learn the fundamentals of shape changing and body manipulation. After completing a long rest, choose one of the following abilities.

Might of the Mountains. As a bonus action, increase your Strength and Dexterity to 24 for one minute.

Agility of the Forest. As a bonus action, double your movement speed while somersaulting for one minute. Additionally, your jumping distance is tripled and you gain a climb speed equal to your base movement speed.

I am Become Monkey. As an action, you are able to transform as if effected by the spell Polymorph. Your mental statistics, however, remain the same and you can still speak your native language. No matter what beast you transform into, you always have a monkey’s tail. You can remain in this form for one minute. After using this feature, you cannot use it again until you take a long rest.

Fruit of the Immortals

Starting at 17th level, you have learned so much along your journeys that immortality is not far from your grasp. When you drop to 0 hit points, you may roll any number of hit dice you have remaining and regain that many hit points. If you have no hit dice, you may spend all of your ki points to roll a single d8 and gain that many hit points. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you take a long rest.