Monks of the Way of the Iron Pillar are trained to be the strongest they can be. They do not merely aim to perfect their physique, but to surpass their limits and achieve what others consider impossible for the body to accomplish. They sacrifice the traditional route of quickness to focus more on strength of mind and body, relying less on speed to avoid harm by instead using perception and insight to predict the flow of combat, and using strength and durability to absorb or deflect attacks with ease. They aim to crush bones with a punch, slice flesh with a flick of the hand, and to pierce skin with but a finger. Monks in this style learn to become immovable objects, to strike with fists as hard as iron, and hone their bodies to withstand any blow.

Iron Pillar Technique

• Resilient Body: When calculating your AC for your Unarmored Defense, you may now replace your Dexterity modifier with your Constitution modifier, and you may also add your Strength Modifier to your AC (AC = 10 + Strength modifier + Constitution modifier + Wisdom modifier).
• Stance of the Pillar: Whenever you use your Patient Defense feature, you have advantage on checks and saving throws to resist being grappled, restrained, forcibly moved, and knocked prone.

Fists of Iron

Starting at 6th level, your unarmed attacks become even deadlier. Your unarmed strikes now deal 1d8 damage. This increases to 1d10 at 11th level, and 1d12 at 17th level. You may also now choose to deal slashing or piercing with your unarmed strikes instead of the normal bludgeoning damage.

Iron Defense

Starting at 11th level, when you are hit by a melee attack from a creature within 5ft of you, you may use your reaction to reduce the damage by 1d10 + your Constitution modifier + your monk level. If you reduce the damage of the attack to 0, you can spend 1 ki point to make an unarmed melee attack against the attacker as part of the same reaction.

Additionally, any time you make a DC saving throw to resist a spell, you can spend 2 ki points to add your Constitution modifier to your roll.

Iron Endurance

At 17th level, your body is at peak performance. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 2, to a maximum of 22.

Additionally, whenever you are hit by a critical hit, you can spend 3 ki points to negate the critical hit and take normal damage instead.