Warrior of Dancing Blades

Warriors of Dancing Blades, or Bladedancers, train to hone their focus into hovering blades that they use as an extension of their body and soul. They treat their abilities as an art form, performing a deadly dance of dexterity and accuracy.

Level 3: Crown of Knives

When you roll initiative, you may summon 2 blades of pure ki. The blades are partially incorporeal, count as Monk Weapons, cannot be held, and hover in an arc above your head in a formation known as your Crown. You decide what aesthetic form they take. You may also summon these blades as a Bonus Action out of combat.

Whenever you would make an Unarmed Strike, you may instead choose to flick one Ki Blade that is in your Crown at an enemy. Make an attack roll against the enemy, using your Dexterity modifier plus your Proficiency Bonus. The blades have a range of 30ft. and a long range of 60ft., and deal Piercing damage equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die, with a bonus of your Dexterity modifier.

Your blade attacks count as ranged Monk weapon attacks with the Thrown property for which you are proficient. They benefit from the following Monk class features:

Stunning Strike: The blades can trigger Stunning Strike.
Empowered Strikes: The blades’ damage type becomes Force damage.

The number of blades you summon increases by two for every four levels after level 1.

Player Level	Max. Blades
3	2
5	4
9	6
13	8
17	10

Level 3: Recall Blades

Once thrown, the blades must be recalled. You can use a Bonus Action to recall all of your thrown blades, which vanish and reappear above your head.

Level 3: Mortal Recall

When you score a Critical Hit or reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points using a Ki Blade, you may immediately recall that blade.

Level 6: Deflecting Blades

When you use your Deflect Attacks or Deflect Energy class features, you may use a number of your Ki Blades that in your Crown to assist you in deflecting the attack. For each blade you expend, roll your Martial Arts die, and subtract that number from the incoming damage. You may roll these dice one by one.

If you choose to expend a Focus Point to redirect the attack, you also throw the blades you expended. Add the value of the Martial Arts dice you rolled to the damage of the redirected attack.

The blades you use vanish after they assist you, and reappear when you use Recall Blades.

Level 3: Bladed Performer

You gain proficiency in the Performance skill, and you may choose to forego Charisma to roll with using your Dexterity modifier plus your Proficiency Bonus when performing using your blades.

Level 6: Imbue Blade

At the start of your turn, you may expend a Focus Point to begin imbuing your blades with elemental energy - Fire, Lightning or Gravity. Until the start of your next turn, your blades deal extra damage equal to your Wisdom modifier. Whenever you throw a blade, you may also choose one of the following effects:

Fire. The blade bursts into flame, and its damage type changes to Fire. When you hit a creature, it ignites, and takes a roll of your Martial Arts dice as Fire damage at the start of its next turn. The start-of-turn damage from multiple Fire-imbued blades can stack on a single creature, dealing every stack at once the start of its next turn.

Lightning. The blade flickers with sparks, and its damage type changes to Lightning. On hit, lightning arcs between the creature you hit and another creature within 10ft. That creature takes Lightning damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts dice.

Gravity. The blade’s mass increases and it seems to slightly warp the air around it. Its damage type changes to Thunder. When you hit a target that is Large or smaller, you may push it 10ft away from you.

If a blade is imbued in this way, it cannot be used to trigger a Stunning Strike.

Level 11: Blade Evocation

As an Action, you may expend multiple Focus Points to imbue that number of blades at once, and then immediately use them to trigger one of the following effects:

Evocation of Fire. Imbue a number of blades with Fire, then throw all of them at once at an enemy. Make a single ranged attack against an enemy within 30ft. On hit, the blades deal Fire damage equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die plus your Wisdom modifier for each blade you throw, and the creature takes an additional amount of Fire damage equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die for each blade you threw at the start of its next turn.

Evocation of Lightning. Imbue a number of blades with Lightning, and throw them into the air. Target a 15ft. radius sphere around a point you can see within 60ft. Creatures inside the sphere must take a Dexterity Saving Throw as the daggers rain down upon them. Creatures made of metal or wearing metallic armor make this Saving Throw with Disadvantage. On a failed save, they take Lightning damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts dice plus your Wisdom modifier for every enemy within the 15ft. radius sphere, as the lightning arcs between them. The maximum number of damage dice this ability can deal is equal to the number of blades you throw. On a successful save, they only take half of the Lightning damage.

Evocation of Gravity. Imbue a number of blades with Gravity, and rapidly spin around you in a vortex for one minute. When a creature comes within 5ft of you, you may force them to make a Dexterity Saving Throw or be hit by a blade. On failure, they take Thunder damage equal to a roll of your Martial Arts dice plus your Wisdom Modifier, and be pushed back up to 10ft. away from you. On success, they take half damage only. Regardless of success or failure, the blade is expended. You may use this ability again while active to add more blades to the vortex, which can contain up to your maximum blade capacity. Each creature can only be affected by this ability once per round.

Level 17: Danse Macabre

At the start of your turn, you may immediately spend 3 Focus Points to enter a martial dance of dexterous leaps and flashing blades. For one minute you gain the following properties:

• Your Ki Blades are automatically recalled after you throw them at no Bonus Action cost.
• Whenever you would normally throw one Ki Blade, you may instead throw two. They can have different targets.

Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you have completed a Long Rest.