Iaido

Few monks train in the Way of the Blade, also called Iaido. It's a sacred tradition involving the katana, a curved longsword. The blade is a symbol of purity and balance. Those who practice this tradition are powerful monks who work towards peace and prefer to solve conflict with words before violence.

The Way of the Blade

3rd level Iaido feature

You have relentlessly trained with the katana, a longsword with a curved blade. You have learned how to use the katana masterfully, gaining proficiency with longswords. In addition, the katana counts as a monk weapon for you.

Imbued Blade

6th level Iaido feature

Through training you have learned how to imbue a blade with energy. During the period of a long rest, you can perform a ritual to enchant a katana. You gain no benefits from this long rest and the ritual must not be interrupted. Once the ritual is completed, the katana gains a +1 bonus to its damage and attack rolls. This effect lasts until you die or until you are 15 or more feet away from your katana for more than 24 hours. You can only have one blade imbued at a time. This bonus to damage and attack rolls increases to +2 at 12th level, and to +3 at 17th level.

This feature cannot increase a katana's attack and damage rolls past +3. For example, if a character were to imbue a +3 katana, nothing would happen because it is already at the maximum.

Extra Attack

11th level Iaido feature

You can attack three times per attack action, instead of two. 

Blade of Ki

11th level Iaido feature

Your newfound mastery of energy manipulation allows you to extend the blade of your katana during an attack. You can spend up to four Focus Points as a Bonus Action to make your next katana attack have increased range and damage. For every Focus Point, the range of that attack increases by 5 feet and 1d6 additional Force damage is added.

At 17th level, you can spend up to six Focus Points with this feature.

Perfect Stance

17th level Iaido feature

You have learned how to switch seamlessly between total offense and total defense. When combat starts, you may spend four Focus Points to enter a Defensive or an Offensive stance. You can change what stance you're in when you spend Focus Points, up to twice a turn. You gain the following features while the corresponding stance is active:
____Defensive Stance: When you are hit by an attack, you can cause it to miss instead. You can only do this once every round, regaining the ability to do so at the beginning of your turn.
____Offensive Stance: Once per turn, when you attack with a melee weapon or unarmed strike, you can add a Martial Arts Die to the attack roll. You must add this die before you know whether your attack hits or not. In addition, you regain a Focus Point when you hit a creature with a critical hit.

You leave your stance when either combat ends or you are knocked unconscious.