You cover a portion of your body in intricate tattoos that enhance your ki. Choose one pattern from the options below. You gain another pattern which covers another portion of your body at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.
Arms: Serpent Pattern
When you attempt to grapple another creature you can use your Acrobatics instead Athletics for the check.
In addition, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 2 ki to magically cause your serpent tattoos to come alive and bite the target. The target make a Constitution saving throw against your ki DC, on a failure it takes 4d6 poison damage and becomes poisoned, or half as much damage on a success. A poisoned creature can repeat the save a the end of each turn ending the condition on a success.
Any: Holy Symbol(s)
You have advantage on Intelligence (Religion) and Wisdom (Insight) checks.
In addition, as an action you can touch one creature within reach. They gain hit points equal to 3-times your monk level. Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Body: Armour Pattern
You gain a +2 bonus to your AC while you are not wearing armour or using a shield
In addition, when you take damage of one of these types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder. You can use your reaction to spend 1 ki to gain resistance to that damage.
Body: Wings Pattern
Your jump distance increases by 10 ft.
In addition, you can spend 1 ki as a bonus action on your turn to magically summon your wings granting you a 60 ft fly speed until the end of your turn.
Legs: Flame Pattern
Artistry 3rd level feature
You gain proficiency in one of the following tools of you choice: Calligrapher's Supplies, Painter's Tools
Ki Storing Tattoos 6th level feature
Each tattoo you apply to yourself as part of your Inked Skin feature contains 3 ki points. As a bonus action you can regain the ki points stored in one of your tattoos. You tattoos regain their ki points when you finish a long rest.
Tattooist 11th level feature
You can spend 8 hours and 1000 gp of materials to apply one of your tattoos to another creature. That creature gains all benefits of the tattoo as long as it is on their skin, they can only use abilities that cost ki if they have ki points.
Swirling Tattoo 17th level feature
As a bonus action, you can spend 5 ki to cause your tattoos swirl and ripple across your skin for 1 minute. You gain the following benefits:
All attacks that target you are rolled at disadvantage
All your attacks are rolled at advantage
You have advantage on Dexterity and Strength checks and saving throws to avoid or escape being grappled or restrained.
Arcane Artrisy: Your extensive training and practice with tomes and needles finally begin to pay off. You gain proficiency with the Arcanaand Sleight of Handskillsas well as the [Tool]Caligraphy Tools[/tool].
Repository of Knowledge:
You can cast a wizard spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag and you have the spell in your spellbook. You have learned a number of spells that you can cast as rituals. These spells are written in a ritual book, which you must have in hand while casting one of them.
When you choose this feat, you acquire a ritual book holding two 1st-level spells of your choice from the Wizard’s Spell List. Your spell-casting ability modifier is Wisdom for these spells.
If you come across a spell in written form, such as a magical spell scroll or a wizard’s spellbook, you might be able to add it to your ritual book. The spell’s level can be no higher than your Wisdom Modifier, and it must have the ritual tag.
The process of copying the spell into your ritual book takes 2 hours per level of the spell and costs 50 gp per level. The cost represents the material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it.
Skin Scroll: When you complete a long rest you can infuse ink with your Ki and give yourself a ki-infused Tattoo. You gain additional options at the 6th and 11th levels.
Tattoo of Agility: Your Dexterity score and Maximum for this score increase by 2, and your Wisdom Score decrease by 2. These scores change to a +/- 4 at the 6th level and a +/- 6 at the 11th level.
Tattoo of Clarity: Your Wisdom score and Maximum for this score increase by 2, and your Dexterity Score decrease by 2. These scores change to a +/- 4 at the 6th level and a +/- 6 at the 11th level.
Tattoo of Night: You gain Dark Vision out to 60 ft, if you already have a dark vision from another source, this dark vision is increased by 60 ft. You have a disadvantage on attack rolls and on Perception checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
Tattoo of Fury: When rolling an attack, you now Critically succeed on a Natural 19 and Critically fail on a Natural 2. These Ranges increase to 18/3 at the 6th level, and 17/4 at the 11th level.
Level 6:
Improved Skin Scroll: When you complete a long rest you can infuse ink with your Ki and give yourself two ki-infused Tattoos. You gain additional options at the 11th level.
Tattoo of the Shieled: You have resistance to slashing damage, and you have a vulnerability to bludgeoning damage.
Tattoo of the Unbreakable: You have resistance to bludgeoning damage, and you have a vulnerability to piercing damage.
Tattoo of the Imperable: You have resistance to piercing damage and vulnerability to slashing damage
Mark of the Artist:
Copying spells into your ritual book now takes 1 hour and 25 gp per level.
You can now duplicate any Spell Scroll you come across (including writing a scroll using a spell book as reference) for 1 hour and 25 gp per spell level as long as the Spell Level is no higher than your Wisdom Modifier.
Level 11:
Master Skin Scroll: When you complete a long rest you can infuse ink with your Ki and give yourself three ki-infused Tattoos.
Master Artist: Over a Short Rest you can give one of your Ki-infused tattoos to a willing recipient. This Tattoo will last for 24 hours until the recipient dies or is dispelled.
While another creature is Tattooed, the number of Tattoos you can have is reduced by one.
Um... why would anyone use the Ki-Tattoos? a +6 Dex at a cost of -6 Wisdom ... kind of sucks. Tons of races already get Darkvision with no penalty. Only Tattoo of Fury is something I would actually want.
The level 6 ki-tattoos are even worse, I would never ever, ever use one of them. Vulnerability increases the damage you take by 100%, and resistance reduces the damage you take by 50% which means if you are subject to equal amounts of bludge/slash/pierce in a day using one of those tattoos means you will take 16% more damage than if you didn't have it. Simply awful!
The rituals thing is just the Ritual Caster feat (wizard) which is a complete waste of time if you've got a Book of Ancient Secrets Warlock or a Wizard in the party already.
It looks like these are modeled after the Order of the Mutant blood hunter subclass. That's okay, but please read the following revisions.
First of all, scrap the long rest based tattoos. With negative effects, and the fact you probably don't know what's coming in the adventuring day, this is unreasonable. Instead, force the user to use Ki points to create tattoos, and allow for a scribing time of 1 minute per tattoo. Maybe add a later feature which allows for spending additional Ki points for tattoos in exchange for an instantaneous tattoo as a bonus action.
Second, get rid of the ritual caster thing. Instead, if you want to keep a spellbook type thing, you could add tons of different tattoos and make the spellbook a tattoobook, modeled after the wizard's spellbook.
The Tattoos:
For the level 3 tattoos, make the negative effect not scale. The decreases are okay at -2, but any further than that is ridiculous. Same for the Tattoo of Fury. The Tattoo of Night is fine if you follow my previous suggestion, but you should probably change it to adding 30 feet to your darkvision if you already have darkvision.
For the level 6 tattoos, either get rid of the vulnerability or add another resistance. Also, you could move sharing tattoos to this level.
Add more tattoos at 11th and 17th level, preferably more powerful ones. Maybe they could be based on some elements or something; use Prisoner 13's stat block as inspiration.
You have advantage on Strength (Athletics) and Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
In addition, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 2 ki to magically cause your serpent tattoos to come alive and bite the target. The target make a Constitution saving throw against your ki DC, on a failure it takes 4d6 poison damage and becomes poisoned, or half as much damage on a success. A poisoned creature can repeat the save a the end of each turn ending the condition on a success.
Mark of the Healer
You have advantage on Intelligence (Religion) and Wisdom (Insight) checks.
In addition, as an action you can touch one creature within reach. They gain hit points equal to 3-times your monk level. Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Mark of the Flame
You have advantage on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks, and your walking speed increases by 10 ft.
In addition, as a bonus action you can spend 1 ki to ignite your feet with magical fire. Your movement does not provoke opportunity attacks, and every creature that you move within 5 ft of during your turn takes fire damage equal to your proficiency bonus, a creature can only take this damage once per turn. This effect lasts until the end of your turn.
Mark of Eyes
You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks.
In addition, you can channel your ki through this tattoo to form a magical beam. You can spend 1 ki to replace on of your attacks with a beam of energy, make a ranged attack against one creature within 120 ft of you. You use your Wisdom for the attack roll, on a hit it deals force damage equal to two rolls of our martial arts die.
Mark of the Night
You gain darkvision with a range of 60 ft, if you already have darkvision the range increases by 60 ft.
In addition, as an action you can spend 2 ki to cast Invisibility or Pass without Trace.
It seems like these are modeled after the blood hunter's blood curses (huh, cool) as in they're enhancable. I suggest changing the extra darkvision range to 30 feet, as lots of features do that. 120 feet darkvision is just too good. Mark of Eyes is good, but the enhancable effect is very lame. Mark of the Flame is good as well, but you could change this to something about moving through another creature's space to deal the fire damage. Mark of the Healer is too good, it's free healing from a monk. Besides, the proficiencies don't really match.
They are actually based on the Rune Knight Runes. 120ft Darkvision is a lamer version of Devil’s Sight Invocation from Warlock so I think it's fine.
Yeah for the Eyes ki power I couldn't make up my mind about it. 2d4+Wis is kind of bad damage, maybe 3 rolls would be better? Four rolls feels like a lot when you get to high levels (4d10+5 on each strike?), but maybe that's ok with the ki cost? Otherwise I considered maybe a Telekinesis type rider. Ranged grapple seems too powerful, maybe a push/pull like you can get with Eldritch blast+ invocations?
I'm trying to develop a tattoo-themed monk subclass for my upcoming campaign. Any help would be really appreciated.
Way of Inked Skin
Inked Skin
3rd level feature
You cover a portion of your body in intricate tattoos that enhance your ki. Choose one pattern from the options below. You gain another pattern which covers another portion of your body at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.
Arms: Serpent Pattern
When you attempt to grapple another creature you can use your Acrobatics instead Athletics for the check.
In addition, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 2 ki to magically cause your serpent tattoos to come alive and bite the target. The target make a Constitution saving throw against your ki DC, on a failure it takes 4d6 poison damage and becomes poisoned, or half as much damage on a success. A poisoned creature can repeat the save a the end of each turn ending the condition on a success.
Any: Holy Symbol(s)
You have advantage on Intelligence (Religion) and Wisdom (Insight) checks.
In addition, as an action you can touch one creature within reach. They gain hit points equal to 3-times your monk level. Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Body: Armour Pattern
You gain a +2 bonus to your AC while you are not wearing armour or using a shield
In addition, when you take damage of one of these types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder. You can use your reaction to spend 1 ki to gain resistance to that damage.
Body: Wings Pattern
Your jump distance increases by 10 ft.
In addition, you can spend 1 ki as a bonus action on your turn to magically summon your wings granting you a 60 ft fly speed until the end of your turn.
Legs: Flame Pattern
Artistry
3rd level feature
You gain proficiency in one of the following tools of you choice: Calligrapher's Supplies, Painter's Tools
Ki Storing Tattoos
6th level feature
Each tattoo you apply to yourself as part of your Inked Skin feature contains 3 ki points. As a bonus action you can regain the ki points stored in one of your tattoos. You tattoos regain their ki points when you finish a long rest.
Tattooist
11th level feature
You can spend 8 hours and 1000 gp of materials to apply one of your tattoos to another creature. That creature gains all benefits of the tattoo as long as it is on their skin, they can only use abilities that cost ki if they have ki points.
Swirling Tattoo
17th level feature
As a bonus action, you can spend 5 ki to cause your tattoos swirl and ripple across your skin for 1 minute. You gain the following benefits:
Ok there is a suggested framework. You'll need a bunch more tattoo patterns though.
Here is what I have so far ...
Level 3:
Level 6:
Level 11:
Um... why would anyone use the Ki-Tattoos? a +6 Dex at a cost of -6 Wisdom ... kind of sucks. Tons of races already get Darkvision with no penalty. Only Tattoo of Fury is something I would actually want.
The level 6 ki-tattoos are even worse, I would never ever, ever use one of them. Vulnerability increases the damage you take by 100%, and resistance reduces the damage you take by 50% which means if you are subject to equal amounts of bludge/slash/pierce in a day using one of those tattoos means you will take 16% more damage than if you didn't have it. Simply awful!
The rituals thing is just the Ritual Caster feat (wizard) which is a complete waste of time if you've got a Book of Ancient Secrets Warlock or a Wizard in the party already.
Okay, some feedback:
It looks like these are modeled after the Order of the Mutant blood hunter subclass. That's okay, but please read the following revisions.
First of all, scrap the long rest based tattoos. With negative effects, and the fact you probably don't know what's coming in the adventuring day, this is unreasonable. Instead, force the user to use Ki points to create tattoos, and allow for a scribing time of 1 minute per tattoo. Maybe add a later feature which allows for spending additional Ki points for tattoos in exchange for an instantaneous tattoo as a bonus action.
Second, get rid of the ritual caster thing. Instead, if you want to keep a spellbook type thing, you could add tons of different tattoos and make the spellbook a tattoobook, modeled after the wizard's spellbook.
The Tattoos:
For the level 3 tattoos, make the negative effect not scale. The decreases are okay at -2, but any further than that is ridiculous. Same for the Tattoo of Fury. The Tattoo of Night is fine if you follow my previous suggestion, but you should probably change it to adding 30 feet to your darkvision if you already have darkvision.
For the level 6 tattoos, either get rid of the vulnerability or add another resistance. Also, you could move sharing tattoos to this level.
Add more tattoos at 11th and 17th level, preferably more powerful ones. Maybe they could be based on some elements or something; use Prisoner 13's stat block as inspiration.
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian
Mark of the Serpent
You have advantage on Strength (Athletics) and Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
In addition, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 2 ki to magically cause your serpent tattoos to come alive and bite the target. The target make a Constitution saving throw against your ki DC, on a failure it takes 4d6 poison damage and becomes poisoned, or half as much damage on a success. A poisoned creature can repeat the save a the end of each turn ending the condition on a success.
Mark of the Healer
You have advantage on Intelligence (Religion) and Wisdom (Insight) checks.
In addition, as an action you can touch one creature within reach. They gain hit points equal to 3-times your monk level. Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Mark of the Flame
You have advantage on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks, and your walking speed increases by 10 ft.
In addition, as a bonus action you can spend 1 ki to ignite your feet with magical fire. Your movement does not provoke opportunity attacks, and every creature that you move within 5 ft of during your turn takes fire damage equal to your proficiency bonus, a creature can only take this damage once per turn. This effect lasts until the end of your turn.
Mark of Eyes
You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks.
In addition, you can channel your ki through this tattoo to form a magical beam. You can spend 1 ki to replace on of your attacks with a beam of energy, make a ranged attack against one creature within 120 ft of you. You use your Wisdom for the attack roll, on a hit it deals force damage equal to two rolls of our martial arts die.
Mark of the Night
You gain darkvision with a range of 60 ft, if you already have darkvision the range increases by 60 ft.
In addition, as an action you can spend 2 ki to cast Invisibility or Pass without Trace.
It seems like these are modeled after the blood hunter's blood curses (huh, cool) as in they're enhancable. I suggest changing the extra darkvision range to 30 feet, as lots of features do that. 120 feet darkvision is just too good. Mark of Eyes is good, but the enhancable effect is very lame. Mark of the Flame is good as well, but you could change this to something about moving through another creature's space to deal the fire damage. Mark of the Healer is too good, it's free healing from a monk. Besides, the proficiencies don't really match.
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian
They are actually based on the Rune Knight Runes. 120ft Darkvision is a lamer version of Devil’s Sight Invocation from Warlock so I think it's fine.
Yeah for the Eyes ki power I couldn't make up my mind about it. 2d4+Wis is kind of bad damage, maybe 3 rolls would be better? Four rolls feels like a lot when you get to high levels (4d10+5 on each strike?), but maybe that's ok with the ki cost? Otherwise I considered maybe a Telekinesis type rider. Ranged grapple seems too powerful, maybe a push/pull like you can get with Eldritch blast+ invocations?
I was thinking a temporary special sense, or the ability to see invisible creatures.
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian