The fundamental teaching of this path is as follows: no attack is absolute. Monks following the way of the Patient wait for their opportunities to strike back at moments where an attack is most unexpected. By mastering patience and observation, they seek to gain spiritual unity with the material plane.

Parry

3rd level feature

As an action, you can enter a defensive stance, readying yourself. While in this stance, your Deflect Missiles feature can be used against melee weapon attacks. Additionally, while in this stance, the damage reduction from the Deflect Missiles stance is increased by 1.5 times (rounded up). This reduction increases to 2 times when you reach level 11 in this subclass.

If you reduce the damage of the attack to 0, you can make an unarmed strike against the creature that dealt the damage as part of the reaction, and by spending one ki point you can make another unarmed strike against the creature. Starting from level 5, you can make two unarmed strikes as part of the reaction without spending ki, and three by spending one ki point.

Chained Parries

6th level feature

At level 6, your body moves faster than the wind, blocking strikes left and right. When you use the Parry feature and reduce the damage of one attack to 0, you can use the Parry feature again as part of the same reaction against any other attacks by the creature whose first attack was parried. If all of the creature's attacks are completely parried (i.e. their damage is reduced to 0), you regain your reaction.

 

Deceptive Helplessness

6th level feature

Starting at 6th level, you can fool your enemies into a false sense of security when attacking you. You gain advantage on deception checks made to make you look harmless. Additionally, when you use the Parry feature and enter a defensive stance, you can spend one ki point to make yourself look weak and helpless, letting all attacks against you have advantage. If an enemy attacks you in this way, you gain advantage on all attacks you make as part of the Parry feature.

When you reach 11th level, you can spend an additional ki point while using this feature to force any number of creatures of your choice within 30 ft. of you to make a Wisdom saving throw against your Ki save DC. On a failure, the creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against any creatures other than you.

Parries of Hardened Ki

11th level feature

At 11th level, you learn how to control the flow of ki, making it repel forces most would consider impossible. You can use your Parry feature against spell attacks. Additionally, when you enter your defensive state you can spend two ki points to gain resistance against spells and magical effects till the start of your next turn.

Perfect Counter

17th level feature

At 17th level, you have mastered patience and control, and can now use your enemies' attacks against them. When you use the Parry feature against a creature, you can spend three ki points to copy any additional effects their initial attack had and apply them on the creature if your attack hits. This includes any bonus damage their attacks have.