Way of Crimson

Monks that walk the way of crimson have mastered a special aspect of their body that most don’t even consider: their blood. They enhance it with Ki as it courses through their veins, becoming more durable against damage, linking their own blood with that of the enemy’s to leech life and vitality off them, and even outright controlling them like a puppet.

You could have acquired this ability in a number of different ways: perhaps you are vampire or a servant of one and have acquired mastery of blood through your connection to said undead, or maybe it’s a secret technique of your religious monastery dedicated to a deity of life and death, or perhaps it’s something you’ve trained on your own to escape prison. Whatever the case may be, monks of the Way of Crimson wield blood in tandem with their fists, leaving behind them a scarlet bath on the battlefield.

Scarlet Medicine

Beginning when you first choose this tradition at 3rd level, your connection to blood grants you additional insight and medicine into the living body. You gain proficiency with Alchemist’s Supplies and the Medicine skill.

Additionally, you have advantage on any Wisdom(Medicine) and any Wisdom(Survival) checks if the creature you are attempting to track or assess medically has blood.

Crimson Wound

Also at 3rd level, you have learned to exploit wounds to your benefit. Whenever a creature takes damage of a type other than fire damage within 15 feet of you, can use your reaction to harness the damaged creature’s lifeforce in either of the following ways:

Exploit. Roll a number of Martial Arts dice equal to your proficiency bonus. The damaged creature takes additional necrotic damage from the damaging source equal to the result.

Leech. Roll a number of Martial Arts dice equal to your proficiency bonus and choose a different creature you can see within 15 feet of you. The chosen creature regains hit points equal to the result.

You can use this feature twice, regaining the ability to use it again when you finish a short or long rest, or by expending 2 Ki points.

Scarlet Gifts

Starting at 6th level, your proficiency with blood and wielding it grants you the following benefits:

Scarlet Fortune. When you roll a 20 on any attack roll or saving throw, you regain hit points equal to half your monk level.

Scarlet Mantle. Whenever you use your Crimson Wound feature, you gain temporary hit points equal to the number rolled on your Martial Arts dice.

Scarlet Return. You treat a roll of 19 on the d20 on a death saving throw as if it was a 20. 

Crimson Blast

At 11th level, you have learnt to drain the life force from your enemies. As an action, or as a bonus action by expending 1 Ki point, you can choose a point you can see within 30 feet of you. Each creature within 15 feet of the chosen point must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your Ki save DC. 

On a failed save, creatures take necrotic damage equal to a number of your Martial Arts dice equal to two times your proficiency bonus and have their speed reduced by half until the start of your next turn. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage and suffers no further effects. 

You can use this feature once, regaining the ability to use it again when you finish a short or long rest, or by expending 4 Ki points to use it again.

Crimson Puppet

By the time you’ve reached 17th level, you’ve gained the ability to control the bodies of others with your dominion over blood. As an action, choose a Huge or smaller creature or corpse you can see within 60 feet of you that has blood. They must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC, and a corpse or unconscious creature automatically fails this saving throw.

On a failed save, on their turn, you can command it (no action required): you control their movement, and you can command it to use  its action to do one of the following:

• Interact with an object.
• Make a single attack.
• Do nothing.

An animated corpse or an unconscious creature takes its turn immediately after yours, but can’t move or take actions unless you command it to do so. If the creature is a corpse, they gain a semblance of life controlled by you and use the [monster]zombie[/zombie] statblock, except they use your unarmed strike modifier to hit and your unarmed strike damage roll instead of their own for their Slam Action. 

Your control lasts for 1 minute. An affected living creature can attempt to make a new saving throw at the end of each of its turns, and you can attempt to regain control over them as a bonus action on your turn against a creature that’s been affected by this feature in the past minute. 

You can use this feature once, regaining the ability to use it again when you finish a short or long rest, or by expending 5 Ki points to use it again.