Way of the Mana Eater

The ceremony begins. The sacred incense glows with mystical power. A tap on the shoulders, then the head of a novice monk changes the colour to reflect destiny's advised tradition. Red - the colour of the Way of Kensei. White - the colour of Mercy. Black - the colour of Shadow. It finally arrives on you. Three taps and… nothing. The incense continues to billow its grey smoke. A gasp. A cry of sympathy. A vague suggestion of laughter. Tears well in your eyes. You are ungifted and dull. Forgoing formality, you stumble away in sorrow and shame.

Moments later, one of your seniors comes to comfort you. They suggest another option. They advise you to move to another, special monastery home to a particularly unique tradition few choose to study. You accept hastily. Anything to prove your work was not in vain. It will require persistence and diligence. The Way of the Mana Eater is not easy.

Devouring Ki

At 3rd level, by letting accursed magic into yourself, your ki is altered in mysterious ways. Replace Flurry of Blows, Patient Defence and Step of the Wind with Flurry of Bites, Devouring Defence and Step of the Accursed respectively.

• Flurry of Bites: Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to force the target to make a save against your Ki save DC. Upon failing you incur Disadvantage against rolling to hit with magic, and to save against your Ki save DC until the end of your subsequent turn upon successfully attacking a target. Attacking creatures with this Disadvantage allows you to make two attacks per attack you are able to make. Unsuccessfully attacking a creature with any additional attacks you are able to make consumes 1 ki point. If you cannot consume any ki points upon missing, you cannot make any additional attacks until the end of your turn.
• Devouring Defence: You can spend 1 ki point to Dodge as a bonus action on your turn. If you successfully avoid magic this way, you may move 15ft towards the caster, not using any movement you may have.
• Step of the Accursed: You can spend 1 ki point to Disengage or Dash as a bonus action on your turn. When you Disengage or Dash this way, you may move through solid objects though not end your turn in them. If you do not have the movement to go through the entire object, you may not enter it.

 

Spellcasting

When you reach 3rd level, you augment your martial prowess with the ability to cast spells.

Cantrips

You learn one cantrip of your choice from the abjuration spell list. You learn an additional abjuration cantrip of your choice at 10th level.

Spell Slots

The Way of the Mana Eater Spellcasting table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your abjuration spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

For example, if you know the 1st-level spell Shield and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast Shield using either slot.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

You know three 1st-level abjuration spells of your choice.

The Spells Known column of the Way of the Mana Eater Spellcasting table shows when you learn more abjuration spells of 1st level or higher.They must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 7th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the abjuration spells you know with another spell of your choice from the abjuration spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Spellcasting Ability

Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your abjuration spells, because you cast your magic through your connection to ki and its mysterious nature. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for an abjuration spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Way of the Mana Eater
Monk Level	Cantrips Known	Spells Known	Spell Slots per Level
3rd	1	3	1:2
4th	1	4	1:3
7th	1	5	1:4  2:1
8th	1	6	1:4 2:1
9th	1	6	1:4 2:2
10th	2	7	1:4 2:3
11th	2	8	1:4 2:3
13th	2	9	1:4 2:3 3:2
14th	2	10	1:4 2:3 3:2
15th	2	11	1:4 2:3 3:2
16th	2	12	1:4 2:3 3:3
19th	2	13	1:4 2:3 3:3 4:1
20th	2	14	1:4 2:3 3:3 4:1

Deflect Magic

Starting at 3rd level, in addition to Deflect Missiles, you are now able to manipulate and redirect opposing magic. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier + your monk level. 

If you reduce the damage to 0, you catch the magic. If you catch magic in this way, you can spend 1 ki point to make a spell attack using your spell save with a range of 40/120 using the magic you just caught, inheriting all the properties it had upon casting, as part of the same reaction.

Cursed Cage

At 6th level, you can channel your manadestructive ki into the ground, cursing and manipulating the very life beneath your feet. As an action, you may spend 2 ki points to trap up to 3 creatures within 30ft with cursed roots, rocks, or whatever manner of material you may be standing on. The creatures must succeed on a contested Athletics check or be Grappled. Creatures may begin to attempt to break the Grapple the subsequent turn after their next turn. Each time a creature fails to break the Grapple or whenever they cast a spell, the cage spikes into them, dealing Force damage equal to 1d6 + your Proficiency modifier + your Wisdom modifier. If the creature uses anything that may allow them to automatically escape, such as Freedom of Movement, they may do so, however they automatically take the above damage, and upon ending their turn or using all their movement they must make another contested Grapple check, this time with advantage, and upon a failure they become Grappled again.

Ki-Mana Hybridised Control

At 11th level, through forceful injection, you mix your ki with another’s mana and take control of their bodily movement. As a bonus action, whenever you land an unarmed strike on a creature that can cast magic or other magical creatures, you may spend a minimum of 4 ki points; they must make a WIS save. Upon a failure you gain control of the creature's bodily movements for 30 seconds. Spending additional ki points increases the timer by 30 seconds. The target still has full control of it’s thoughts, will, and speech (so it may still cast spells with only a Verbal component at any target it chooses) but, on your turn, you control its physical movement, actions, and determine whether or not they automatically fail a STR, DEX or CON save at no cost to what you can do on your turn. You may only control external elements - things like organs within the body are beyond your control. 

Disrupt Magic

Starting at 17th level, you detect and react to the origin of a spell, and halt it before it can take effect. As a reaction, you may interrupt the casting of any spell by a creature within 20ft you can see. Doing so makes you move adjacent to the target, make an unarmed strike and force them to save as if they were Concentrating. Upon failing, the spell has no effect. Additionally, you may spend 3 Ki points to cause the spell to misfire - roll the damage of the spell on the caster and cause it to take half; spells that require a save deal a quarter of the spells’ original damage.