Puppet Masters devote their lives to perfecting the movement of not only their own bodies, but of combat puppets they carry with them. These monks are often known as the two-body-armies, for their special abilities to fight many battles at once, in different corners of the battlefield. They use their ki to manipulate every inch of their weapons to get in the best position possible for them, and overwhelm their opponents from all sides.

YOUR COMBAT PUPPETS

Different monks style their puppets in different ways. Some prefer bestial looking puppets, used to intimidate weak-minded opponents. Others prefer stealthier models, to keep their weapons hidden until it's too late. A smaller group of monks model their puppets after themselves as a defensive measure.  

While Puppet Master monks can change the way their puppet looks to better fir different situations, your initial choice may give away much of your character's background or intentions. Consider what your monk wants out of their puppet. Is it merely a weapon? How do they like to use it in combat? Is there anything from your character's life until this point that they would model their puppet after, and why?

 

Combat Puppet

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you learn to manipulate your ki to control a special puppet created by you. You can activate your puppet at any point using a bonus action, and it remains active until it's destroyed, or you use your bonus action to shut it down.  The puppet can take any appearance of your character's choice, and you can change that appearance at any time after a long rest. Any creature can make a DC 10 + your proficiency bonus Intelligence check to discern whether or not your puppet is a construct. The size of your puppet is medium.

Your puppet shares your movement speed, and can move freely on your turn (no action required), but it stops working if it's ever more than 60 feet away from you. It has AC14+ your proficiency bonus, and hit points equal to 5 times your Monk level. The puppet regains all of its hit points after you finish a long rest and it's immune to poison and psychic damage.

Using your connection to your puppet, you can use it in the following ways:

• Immediately after you take the attack action on your turn, you can make an additional melee attack from the puppets position using your Dexterity modifier. The creature takes bludgeoning damage equal to a roll of your martial arts die + your Dexterity modifier.
• When you use your Flurry of Blows feature, you can choose to attack through your puppet instead. The creature takes bludgeoning damage equal to a roll of your martial arts die + your Dexterity modifier.
• As a Bonus Action, you can spend 1 ki point for your puppet to make a ranged attack against a target you can see using your Dexterity modifier. This attack has range of 60ft and, on a hit, the target takes 1d8 piercing damage and must succeed on a DC 10 + your proficiency bonus Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for a minute.
• As a Bonus Action, you can spend 2 ki points to force another creature within 5 feet of your puppet to make a DC 10 + your proficiency bonus Dexterity saving throw or be restrained until the end of your next turn. 

Nimble Servant

At 6th level, your puppet's attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Additionally, your puppet gains flying, swimming, climb and burrow speeds equal to your movement speed. Your puppet can hover and cling to any surface. As a bonus action, you can spend 3 ki points to turn your puppet invisible until the end of your next turn. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus.

Improved Combat Puppet

Your combat puppet gains the following abilities:

• When your puppet forces a creature to make a saving throw, you can spend 2 additional ki points to cause the creature to make the saving throw with disavantage.
• The damage from the puppet's melee attack increases to 2 rolls of your martial arts die + your Dexterity modifier.
• The damage from the puppet's ranged attack increases to 2d8 + your Dexterity modifier. Additionally, when you use your Flurry of Blows feature, you can replace one of the attacks with your puppet's ranged attack.
• When a creature within 5 feet of your puppet is targeted with an attack, you can use your reaction to grant that creature a bonus to AC equal to one roll of your martial arts die.

Master of all

At 17th level, when a creature fails its saving throw against your Stunning Strike, you can spend 5 ki points to take control of that creature until the end of its next turn. 

When you do so, you lose the ability to control your puppet until the end of your next turn