Way of the Living Weapon

• The Forged Heart is a recent path, developed by warforged exploring the potential of their constructed frames. This involves both the physical evolution of the body and harnessing the strength of steel and stone.
• The Nightmare Shroud is a kalashtar tradition. Rather than physically transforming, nightmare monks generate ectoplasmic projections, manifesting claws of shadow. Blending physical blows with psychic attacks, they strike fear into the mind of their enemies. A kalashtar typically surrounds themselves with the image of their quori spirit, but the shroud can take any shape.
• The Traveler’s Blade was developed by tribal changelings, providing the practitioner with versatile weapons that can’t be taken away. A practitioner can grow bone blades or knuckle ridges, or stretch their limbs to strike a distant foe.
• The Weretouched techniques were developed by shifter champions of Olarune, honing the natural weapons and strengths of the shifter.

As a Living Weapon monk, you may draw on a singular technique, or you may instead combine different styles. Both the abilities you gain from this subclass and the base abilities of the monk class can reflect your ability to control and alter your physical form. When you use Slow Fall, you might be shifting shape to craft gliding membranes (Traveler’s Blade) or catching the air in an ectoplasmic cloak (Nightmare Shroud). Unarmored Defense reflects defensive shapeshifting, and when you develop Ki-Empowered Strikes it reflects an enhancement of your natural weapons.

Most of the Living Weapon techniques make use of natural gifts; for example, the Traveler’s Blade assumes that you possess the malleable form of a changeling. However, any member of any species can follow these paths. If you don’t possess any innate shapeshifting gifts or a bond to a quori spirit, it’s up to you and your DM to explain how you manifest these gifts. If you’re not a kalashtar, your Nightmare Shroud could be the ghost of an ancestor or lover, clinging to you and helping you fight. If you’re not a changeling, perhaps you were altered by the daelkyr or part of a Vadalis supersoldier program —you can’t change your face, but you can still grow bone blades and stretch your limbs to strike distant foes.

Mutable Strike

You have the power to alter your natural weapons, growing claws or reinforcing your fists. Starting at 3rd level, when you use Martial Arts to make an unarmed strike, you can choose whether you inflict slashing, bludgeoning, or piercing damage with the attack.

Martial Disciplines

Starting at 3rd level, when you adopt this tradition, choose a discipline and gain its feature. You may change your choice of a discipline upon a long rest.

Forged Heart

Your unarmed strikes are considered adamantine weapons. In addition, when you hit a creature with an unarmed attack, you can spend 2 ki points to cause it to make a STR saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 2d6 additional damage of the same type as the unarmed strike and can be pushed up to 15 feet away from you and knock it prone. On a successful save, the creature only takes 1d6 points of additional damage and is not pushed back.

Nightmare Shroud

When you hit a creature with an unarmed attack, you can spend 1 ki point to assail it with fear, causing it to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 1d6 points of psychic damage and becomes frightened of you until the end of your next turn. If a creature succeeds on this save, they are immune to the fear effect of this ability for 24 hours.

Traveler’s Blade

Your reach extends by 5 feet. Additionally, at the start of your turn you can expend up to 4 ki points to extend your reach further. For every point of ki you spend, your reach extends by an additional 5 feet until the end of your turn.

Weretouched

Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an unarmed attack, you can spend 1 ki point to rend your target and inflict deep bleeding wounds. At the start of each of the creature’s turns for the next minute, it takes 1d4 points of slashing damage from this effect. The effect ends early if the creature has one or more hit points restored, if any creature uses its action to expend one use of a healer’s kit, or makes a successful Wisdom (Medicine) check with a DC equal to your ki save DC.

When you reach 6th level, this slashing damage counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Manifest Blow

Starting at 6th level, choose one of the following damage types when you finish a long rest: bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, fire, lightning, necrotic, psychic, or cold. On your turn, the first creature you hit with an unarmed strike takes an additional 1d6 points of damage of that type. If you select bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, it benefits from your Ki-Empowered Strikes class feature and counts as magical damage.

Reflexive Adaptation

Starting at 11th level, when you make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, you can spend 1 ki point to roll an additional d20. You can choose to use this ability after you roll the check, but before the outcome is determined. You choose which of the d20s is used for the ability check, omitting the highest if this check was rolled with disadvantage.

Perfect Form

At 17th level, you transform your body to become a weapon of war. You gain a feature based on a discipline of your choice. You can choose the same discipline you selected at 3rd level or a different one. This discipline may also be changed upon a long rest.

Forged Heart

When you are hit by an attack, you can spend 1 ki point to use your reaction to add your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1) to your AC, against the triggering attack. This effect lasts for only one attack.

Nightmare Shroud

When you damage a creature with your Manifest Blow, you can spend 1 ki point to attack surrounding attackers. Excess psionic energy ripples to up to 3 different creatures of your choice within 30 feet. Those creatures take an amount of psychic damage equal to half of your monk level.

Traveler’s Blade

With your Manifest Blow feature, you can choose to spend 2 ki points to enhance your attack. At the start of your turn, you may change the damage type of your Manifest Blow feature or keep it the same. Additionally, you deal an extra 1d6 of the damage type on that turn.

Weretouched

When you use your Flurry of Blows, spending an extra ki point, totaling 2 ki points, you can make three unarmed strikes as a bonus action instead of two.