Monks across the realms often draw inspiration from the natural world, developing techniques and defensive forms based on their observations of animals. While other cultures may develop fighting styles based on snakes, tigers or owlbears, the forest folk have learned to fight in the manner of smaller beasts. While the idea of facing off against a master of Squirrel Fist may seem comical to an ignorant adventurer, they will find it's no laughing matter when a shadow drops out of the sky and rips into their skull like an acorn.

Woodland kung-fu traditionally focuses on four core animal styles: the Squirrel (a master of evasion), the Badger (a ferocious brawler), the Owl (an all-seeing assassin) and the Toad (who engulfs and incapacitates foes). In addition to its signature combat techniques, practitioners learn a raft of skills and ki abilities to help them live in the wilderness. Practitioners typically use a set of small metal claws on their fingertips to slash at their opponents, although some Toad-style masters are also known to use weighted chains to entangle their opponents from afar.

Skill Proficiency

Initiates begin their training by studying small rodents. They learn to forage for nuts and berries, identify edible mushrooms and grubs, and find shelter and clean water. 

You become proficient in Survival (Wis) if you were not already.

Animal Stances

By studying the behaviour of woodland creatures and practicing Ki manipulation techniques, you have mastered certain postures and forms that optimise your movements, emulating the fighting style of animals.

As a bonus action, you may spend 1 Ki point to adopt any known Stance for up to 1 minute. While a Stance remains active it can be dismissed as a free action.

If you wish to change between stances, you must dismiss your current stance and then spend another Ki point and bonus action to adopt the new stance. Alternatively, if you have the Stance Mastery ability, you may choose to transfer your remaining activation time to a new Stance simply by spending a bonus action.

You can maintain the physical posture of a Stance for much longer periods of time, without needing to spend Ki - if you were having your portrait painted, for example - but you would not gain its mechanical benefits. The true power of your animal stances can only be unlocked through the internal manipulation of Ki.

Badger Stance

As a bonus action, you may spend 1 Ki point to adopt the Badger Stance. It remains active for up to 1 minute, but can be dismissed as a free action before then.

While your Badger Stance is active, you gain the following benefits:

• You have Advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws
• Your melee attacks deal +1 martial arts die damage

Grandmasters of the Badger school are tough and surly with a simple, down-to-earth attitude, but they are also socially reclusive. They usually live underground, using their Ki-enhanced digging techniques to build elaborate networks of stone cellars and tunnels, which they decorate with fossils and rare minerals. They take a no-nonsense approach to fighting, preferring to stand toe-to-toe with their opponent and beat them to a pulp with brute force. When that's not enough, they will use their prodigious digging skills to turn the environment against their enemies - burrowing underground to lay traps or launch an ambush, or by flooding or undermining an enemy lair. In desperate situations Badger masters have been known to dig a pit trap and bury their enemies alive, but they find this deeply unsatisfying.

Owl Stance

As a partial action, you may spend 1 Ki point to adopt the Owl Stance. It remains active for up to 1 minute, but can be dismissed as a free action before then.

While your Owl Stance is active, you gain the following benefits:

• Truesight in a 360-degree arc, with a 120 feet range
• You become temporarily proficient in Perception (Wis), if you were not already

Grandmasters of the Owl school appear distant and detached, but maintain a vigilant awareness of their surroundings. They live quiet lives in unremarkable homes, while employing networks of informants to keep them appraised of current events. When they move against an enemy, they prefer to ambush their opponent on the road with a lightning-fast assassination strike, before melting away into the shadows.

Squirrel Stance

As a bonus action, you may spend 1 Ki point to adopt the Squirrel Stance. It remains active for up to 1 minute, but can be dismissed as a free action before then.

While your Squirrel Stance is active, you gain the following benefits:

• You may use Patient Defence without spending a Ki point
• Your Climb speed is equal to your movement speed
• You become temporarily proficient in Acrobatics (Dex), if you were not already

Grandmasters of the Squirrel school are paranoid and highly-strung, but not aggressive. They can live anywhere that is rich in hiding places (but they don't like to say where exactly) and they often busy themselves with social work to prepare their community against perceived threats... which they see everywhere. When a Squirrel master is attacked in their home, the full horror of their technique is unleashed - enemies can expect to by attacked from all sides by an unseen, scurrying foe, stumbling into traps as they are driven back by an endless supply of thrown weapons, drawn from hidden supply caches. 

Toad Stance

As a bonus action, you may spend 1 Ki point to adopt the Toad Stance. It remains active for up to 1 minute, but can be dismissed as a free action before then.

While your Toad Stance is active, once per turn as a bonus action, you may secrete a thin film of contact poison anywhere on your body. You must choose what effect the poison has from the following list:

• Poisoned for 1 round, and suffer D10 Poison damage
• Paralysis for 1 round
• Frightened for 1 minute (your DM should select an appropriate 'source of fear' from the target's psyche, depending on the situation)
• Stunned for 1 round

The first creature (other than yourself, of course) to touch the poisonous film with exposed skin must make a Constitution saving throw against your Ki ability DC. If they fail, they suffer the chosen effect. The poisonous film loses its effectiveness after one round, but can be reapplied in your next round if your Toad stance remains active.

You can use this ability to apply the poison effects to your unarmed Attack actions, assuming you can hit the target in an exposed area. You can also use it in more subtle, passive ways, such as making your coating your back with poison to attack an unsuspecting masseur, or to incapacitate a target with a handshake. But only the first contact counts - even if the target passes their saving throw, they will not be enough poison left on your body for a second attempt to be effective.

The effects of the poison are created by the infusion of your body's Ki, so it loses its potency once it leaves contact with your skin - you cannot use this ability to produce vials of poison for later use.

Grandmasters of the Toad school exude an easy self-confidence - a seeming lack of concern for threats. They prefer to live on large but simple estates, where they can host visitors and engage in slow, rural pursuits like fishing, landscape painting and bird-watching. Their preferred killing technique is to lure their opponents in with the false appearance of weakness, before suddenly overwhelming them with grappling techniques, poisons, and environmental hazards. They are experts at creating chaos.

Owl Catches Prey

This striking technique draws on the form of an Owl swooping down to catch a fieldmouse.

When you make a successful melee Attack immediately following a descent from at least 10 feet above your target, you may spend 1 Ki point to deal bonus damage. The amount of bonus damage depends on the height of your descent, as follows:

• 10-20 feet: +1 martial arts die
• 20-30 feet: +2 martial arts dice
• 30+ feet: +3 martial arts dice

You do not need to be on the ground to make this attack, such as in situations where both you and your target are airborne.

Toad Jumps in Pond

You may spend 1 Ki point and a move Action to perform an empowered jump.

• If you perform a long jump, your maximum jump distance is equal to your Unarmoured Movement bonus.
• If you perform a high jump, your maximum jump height is equal to your Unarmoured Movement bonus.
• In both cases, you are considered to have used the Slow Fall ability - you may reduce your fall damage accordingly, but you cannot apply Slow Fall a second time.

This ability is unaffected by whether or not you had a running start before your jump. 

If you are grappling a creature up to one size category larger than you, you may carry them with you when you jump. You may allow them to land safely with you, or slam them into the ground. If you chose you slam them into the ground, they take falling damage as per the normal rules; usually this will be calculated from the maximum height of your jump, unless you have jumped between uneven ground.

You may combine this ability with Step of the Wind to double your maximum jump height/distance, but you must spend the necessary Ki points to trigger both abilities.

Sticky Hands

You have become adept at reading your opponent's movements, finding ways to pin their limbs, lock their joints and force their muscles to twist ineffectively.

When you attempt to make or maintain a grapple attack, you may use Wisdom (Insight) instead of Strength (Athletics).

When contesting an opponent's grapple attack, you may use Wisdom (Insight) instead of Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics).

This ability relies on exploiting the limitations of your opponent's anatomy, and cannot be used against creatures who lack discernible bones and muscles - plants, oozes, elementals, ghosts, etc.

Darkvision

As your Owl style training continues, you become adept at spotting distant targets in the dark.

You gain Darkvision with a range of 120 feet.

Stance Mastery

You have become accustomed to adopting different Stances and switching between them during combat.

Once per turn, while one of your Stances is active, you may use a bonus action to change to a different known Stance. This does not require you to spend a Ki point, but your remaining time is carried over to the new Stance - for example, if you have spent 40 seconds in your first Stance, you now have 20 seconds remaining in the second Stance.

Badger Finds a Way

Through further study of the Badger style, you have learned a rapid burrowing technique.

You may spend 1 Ki point and a bonus action to use this ability. When you do so, for this turn only, you gain a Burrowing speed equal to half your total movement speed. You may choose whether to leave an open tunnel behind you as you move, or to refill the tunnel with earth.

You may dig out a chamber, at a cost of 5 feet of movement per 5 cubic feet of space. (A 10'x10'x10' chamber would therefore cost 40' of burrowing movement, for example.)

In addition, using this ability gives you advantage on rolls to escape being Engulfed by an ooze.

Gulping Toad

Your study of the Toad style has taught you to hold your breath for long periods of time.

When determining how long you can hold your breath for, you may use your Monk proficiency bonus instead of your Constitution bonus.

Roosting Owl

Through continued studies of owls you have learned a Ki manipulation technique to gently anchor yourself on surfaces while sleeping.

You may safely fall asleep in any reasonably stable sitting position - on tree branches, cliff edges, the roof of a slow-moving carriage, and so on. 

You can still be knocked or thrown off by external forces; there is simply no risk of you accidentally shifting your weight and falling off.

Soaring Squirrel

Your mastery of the Squirrel form allows you to channel your Ki through loose sections of fabric on your outfit, stiffening them into a pair of rudimentary gliding wings.

Assuming you possess some form of suitable material - loose clothing, a bedsheet, a giant leaf - you may spend 1 Ki point to glide through the air at your maximum movement speed, with a minimum falling speed equal to half of your gliding distance. This effect lasts for one round.

You may choose to tuck your wings in for a dive, increasing your falling speed to anything up to 600 feet per round.

Hibernate

You are capable of curling up in a ball and hibernating for up to 6 months per year. You are Unconscious in this state, but you do not need to eat, drink, or engage in other bodily functions during this time. You may choose to come out of hibernation at any time during this process, although you will be Stunned for the first two hours while you wake up.

After each full month of sleep you may rouse yourself enough to perform a passive Perception (Wisdom) check without interrupting your hibernation. This should be enough to give you some sense of your surroundings - such as whether your house burned down while you sleep, or if your cave has flooded.

When you eventually wake up, you will be hungry and tired - you will suffer some degree of Exhaustion depending on how long your hibernation lasted:

• Up to 2 months: 1 level of Exhaustion
• 2-4 months: 2 levels of Exhaustion
• 4-6 months: 3 levels of Exhaustion