Way of The Forged Hand

A monk following The Way of the Forged Hand pursues physical evolution, honing their body as a smith sharpens a sword. Your body seeks to surpass all limitations, performing superhuman feats from breaking blades on your skin, to ending your foes with just a touch. Obtaining finite control, you use every section of your body and your mind, opening yourself beyond what is physical. While seeking to break your limitations, Your Ki will evolve and form martial techniques that enhance, or augment how you fight based on your preferred way of fighting.

 

Martial Discipline

Starting at 3rd level, when you adopt this tradition, choose a discipline and gain its feature.

The Forged Heart - This involves both the physical evolution of the body and harnessing the strength of steel and stone to expand stunning damage and enhancing their natural defense with their ki.

The Mind Blade - Rather than physical enhancement, the user infuses their ki with their psychic energy, generating psionic weapons and blending physical blows with psychic attacks to strike fear into their enemies. A user can also use their ki to conjure illusions or hide their presence.

The Living Weapon - A practitioner can stretch their limbs to strike distant foes or use their ki for specific elemental attacks by overcharging certain bodily features, such as shocking enemies using one's neurons, or burning them with one's body heat.

The Life Touch - The user dips down into their life force and weaponizes it, allowing them to steal life from their enemies or protect theirs. A powerful skill, but feared to use, for one who is powerful that choses this path can end their enemies in heinous ways.

Iron Heart

You can use Stunning Strike on your unarmed attacks.  In addition, as a bonus action, you can spend 1 ki point to cause an enemy within 5ft to make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, they can be pushed up to 15 ft away from you. On a successful save, they are not pushed back. When attacked, you can use your reaction to roll a d6 on to add to your Unarmored Defense (1-2=+1, 3-4=+2,5-6=+3) until the start of your next turn.

Life Touch

Your unarmed attacks extract vitality from enemies, 1d8 worth of hit points are restored to you per hit. This increases to 2d8 at 11th level. If you reduce a creature within 5 feet of you to 0 hit points with an unarmed strike, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Dexterity or Strength modifier + proficiency. As a bonus action, you can use 1 Ki point expand your vitality as a layer of protection. Until the start of your next turn, you gain extra AC equal to your Wisdom.

Living Weapon

Your reach is automatically extended by 5 ft. For every point of ki you spend, your reach can extend by an additional 5 feet (max 20 ft) until the end of your turn. You can also deal 2d8 of fire, lightning, or poison damage as your bonus unarmed attack.

Mind Blade

You can spend 1 ki point once per turn to assail all enemies within a 10 ft cone with fear, causing them to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, they become frightened of you until the end of their next turn. On a successful save, they are immune to the fear effect of this ability for two turns. This increases to 30ft at level 11. You can also manifest a weapon out of psychic energy as a bonus action and dispel it as a free action. Weapons manifested count as a monk weapon for 2d6 points of psychic damage and can reach up to 10 ft.

Sixth Sense

Through your training you have learned to see and tap into the supernatural energy of aura. You gain advantage on perception and insight checks. You also again a blindsight of 30 ft. In addition, when you spend two ki points, you are able to detect all sentient beings and their intent within 100 ft of you even if you can't see them for 1 minute.

Adaptive Abilites

Starting at 11th level, when you do a skill check, you can spend 1 ki point to roll with advantage. You must choose this ability before you roll.

Perfect Form

Your training has broken all limits of your body, bring you to a physicality beyond superhuman. At 17th level, you gain 30 ft of Truesight in addition to a feature based on a discipline of your choice. You can choose the same discipline you selected at 3rd level or a different one.

Iron Heart

You can spend 4 ki points to supercharge your Evasion, allowing you to use it on all saving throws you have to make that cause half damage until the start of your next turn. You can now use Deflect Bullets for melee attacks.

Life Touch

You can use a bonus action to force a creature you can touch to make a Constitution savings throw (DC 20) on a fail, roll a d4 for the effect you place for one round (1-Poisoned, 2-Frightened, 3-Paralyzed, 4-Unconcious). Only one effect can be placed on a creature at a time.  As an action, for 4 ki points, you can cast Flesh To Stone. 

Living Weapon

You now have a fly, swim, and burrow speed equal to your movement. Additionally, you can spend 4 ki points as a bonus action to gain resistance to all damage types until the start of your next turn.

Mind Blade

You can send psionic energy waves as your action attacks and bonus action within a 30 ft cone at 2d8 damage. You can also, as an action, spend 4 ki points to either cast Programed Illusion of yourself or Invisibility.