Way of Ink

You follow a monastic tradition that teaches you to treat your battlefield as a canvas. When you focus your ki, you can create streams of ink that allow you to move quickly and get the jump on your foes, and eventually swim through them. Some members of this tradition are fluid and move like a brush on canvas, others are merely having fun and treat battle like a game.

All monks of this tradition are assigned an ink color when they join the monastery, which can change if the monk so chooses. Members of this monastery usually wear their color prominently.

Battlefield Inker

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you can create splats of ink across the battlefield. You gain proficiency in Painter's Supplies if you don't already have them.

Whenever you make an attack roll you can spend a ki point to splatter the ground with ink. Doing so paints the ground within 5 feet of your target a color of your choice. Additionally, if you make a ranged attack roll instead of a melee attack, you can choose to paint a 5 foot wide line from you to your target instead of a 5 foot splatter around them. Creatures of your choice treat your ink as difficult terrain, however for every 2 feet you walk in your own ink you only use 1 foot of movement.

Main Splatter

At 6th level, you learn to constantly supply your weapons with ink instead of relying on ki. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with. When you attack with that weapon, you always create an ink splatter, even if you did not spend the ki point to do so. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest.

Ink Swimming

By 11th level, you have learned to become one with your ink. While you are on a space you have inked, you can spend a ki point during your movement to swim in your ink. You gain a swim speed equal to triple your walk speed, and can treat any space coated in your ink as if it's water you can swim in. You can use this feature to swim up and down walls coated in your ink. While you are swimming in your ink, you are treated as though under three quarters cover, and area of effect attacks deal half damage on a failure and no damage on a success.

You cannot make attacks while swimming, and are automatically removed from your ink if you end your turn while swimming.

Ink Strikes

At 17th level, you can fire off blasts of ink towards your foes. When you make an attack with your Main Splatter or an Unarmed Strike, you may choose to spend 2 ki points to fire an Ink Strike. Choose one creature within 60 feet of you, who must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 force damage or half as much on a success. Additionally, whether or not the target fails or succeeds, all spaces within 10 feet of the target are inked.