You are both kind and wicked, cruel and merciful, gentle and unyielding in your wrath. You have both the serenity of a breeze over a flower meadow and the fury of a firestorm. You are a monk who seeks not just balance in the realms of light and dark, but complete control and power over them. To you, there is no good and evil; there is only light and dark. You seek to become the embodiment of yin and yang. You control the light and dark ki within you, never committing to one side or the other. Only those with Neutral Alignments may follow this path, and those who are Lawful Neutral or Chaotic Neutral are turned to True Neutral.

As a disciple of the Way of Bright Shadow, you must take an oath of silence. You cannot be distracted by verbal communication on your journey to balance. Your ki must not be disturbed by unnecessary communication; too much sway to one side of the ki spectrum will disrupt the balance. However, monks are taught a rudimentary form of telepathy that grows stronger with experience. You may communicate with your PC allies telepathically, but you may not communicate verbally with NPCs without great effort. In order to communicate with your allies, you must first have spent at least 1 week with them to analyze their kis so that you can mesh it with yours and even out their ki temporarily. Then, you must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom Save. If you have not spent a week with said allies, the DC will increase to 17. To communicate with NPCs, you must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom Save. In addition, your Charisma drops one point from your extended lack of use of verbal communication with others. This is the price of the Way of Bright Shadow.

White Shield, Black Sword

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your inner light makes you become resistant to radiant damage and able to teleport up to 60 feet in an area with bright light that you can see as a bonus action. Teleportation grants you advantage on the next melee attack before the end of your turn.

In addition, the darkness inside you grants you the power to physically dominate your foes, permanently raising the die size on your unarmed strike by 1 (d4-->d6, d6-->d8, d8-->d10, d10-->d12) and, due to the evil ki inside you compelling you to destroy, your unarmed strikes are coated in black flames and can count as fire damage for the purposes of vulnerability.

As a way of achieving balance outside of yourself, all attacks done with light ki do increased damage on foes with Evil Alignments, and all attacks done with dark ki do increased damage to foes with Good Alignments. This damage is equal to 1d8+Wis+Dex. You do not need to know their alignments. However, due to your inexperience with isolating your balanced ki from others, you roll disadvantage on communicating telepathically with NPCs with Lawful or Chaotic Alignments whose ki is hard to manage with your own.

Dark Defense, Light Strike

At 6th level, you gain the ability to use your light energy to launch a blast of ki from your hands. With a range of 60 feet, it deals radiant damage equal to your unarmed strikes and uses the Wisdom modifier. You are proficient with it, and it is considered a monk weapon. For every point of ki you spend on this attack, the damage increases by your unarmed strike die.

In addition, the darkness you control grants you resistance to necrotic damage.

The ability to become a shadow and teleport in dim light or darkness up to 60 feet to a location you can see as a bonus action is also granted to you.

Your continued silence grants you disadvantage on Persuasion checks, but your continued telepathy training grants you advantage on communicating with teammates.

Wrath of the Contradiction

At 11 level, you are able to fuse your light and dark power into a destructive blast that explodes on impact. For 2 ki points, you may launch this attack and decide whether the orb deals radiant or necrotic damage. This does increased damage on both Good and Evil alignments. It is a monk weapon with range of 30 feet, you have proficiency with it, and all hostile creatures within 10 feet of the blast (unless they reside in the epicenter of the blast, the creature mentioned takes full damage) must make a Dexterity saving throw. All who fail the saving throw receive 3d10+Wis. All who succeed receive the half that damage.

In addition, your Deflect Missiles now works on magic and physical attacks (not AOE damage). If you reduce the damage to zero, your next unarmed strike deals twice the original damage to the foe who attacked you. If that creature has died by the time of your next turn, you may instead heal yourself the damage you would have received before the damage reduction.

Your intense dedication to your oath of silence gives you disadvantage on Deception checks, but your training in honing your ki balance now grants you the ability to communicate telepathically with your teammates without the need for a roll.

Full Balance

When you reach the 17 level, you may use 4 ki points to become the Yin and Yang. Because you are at first unaccustomed to the extreme amount of power, you must cast this twice with concentration: that is, it will take one action to charge it. You may not make a reaction while charging it. The first activation will trigger the light aura. The second activation will trigger the dark aura. These two separate activations are necessary for you to learn complete control of these elements. You can only use the color ki corresponding to these colors when you have them. After 2 activations, you may summon this form immediately, and with both auras. Upon activation of this form, you attain several attributes:

You become immune to both radiant and necrotic damage and damage inflicted by these types instead restore your ki points by 1 ki point per 10 points of damage.

You are immune to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage that is non-magical.

You are surrounded by an aura of 15 feet.

All hostile creatures within your aura or who move into your aura must make a Wisdom saving throw. All who fail are either frightened or charmed by user’s choice. A critical fail means both afflictions are administered. A critical success means neither is administered.

All hostile creatures within your aura or who move into your aura must also make a Constitution saving throw. Those who fail receive radiant damage of 5d10 and necrotic damage of 5d10. Those who succeed on the throw take half that damage. On the first and second activations, only the aura present will administer damage. For every turn they stay within the aura(s), they receive 1d10+Wis damage of each respective damage type. 

Your Dark Flame Strikes now do double damage.

Your Radiant Ki Blast now deals a base damage of twice its original damage with no ki cost. Additional ki points spent increase its damage by 1d10 as normal.

You gain access to your most powerful attack at and after your 3 activation: Solar Flare of the Void’s Shadow. As you gather light and dark ki from the surrounding area, your attack grows more powerful until you unleash a beam from your hands comprised of white and dark ki swirling around each other. For each turn that you do not use it, the power of this attack grows by 1d12 for a maximum of 10d12. You are proficient with it, and it uses the Wisdom and Dexterity Modifier. Those with the Chaotic Evil and the Lawful Good Alignment must make a Wisdom or Dexterity saving throw due to their extreme imbalance of ki. On a failed throw, the enemy’s ki is temporarily but forcibly balanced, causing the creature to take an additional amount of damage equal to 15+[difference between their Str and Int or Wis ability scores, whichever difference is greater]. The range of this attack is a 15’x120’ line.

This form lasts for 1 minute, and you must complete a long rest before using it again; for the first two activations, it requires a short rest. In addition, you must rest for 1 turn immediately following the loss of this form without using an action or reaction. If you use the Solar Flare of the Void's Shadow at 80% power or more (8 or more turns waited), you must rest for two turns.