Way of the Tortured Soul

Not all monks choose to follow this path of their own free will, some find the way to enlightenment only through surviving great amount of suffering, confinement, or fear. These tortured souls have usually been held captive for years, quiet meditation their only solace, escaping alive their only goal. While some find themselves on this path due to the cruelty of others, some are imprisoned for the heinous crimes they have committed and only seek to escape their jailers. Regardless, when they finally escape their captors, those that find the Way of the Tortured Soul are often distrustful of others or uncaring of their plights, their only aim to survive and look out for themselves.

These so called ‘monks’ usually have no affiliation with a monastery, no martial training and no guidance on their path. They have found their own way through hardship and anguish, lead only by their own force of will.

Way of the Tortured Soul Features

Bonus Proficiencies

3rd-level Tortured Soul feature

Your time in confinement forced you to hone your skills and gather tools that would aid in your escape. You gain proficiency in the Perception skill if you don’t already have it. You also gain proficiency with Thieves’ Tools.

Survivor’s Spirit

3rd-level Tortured Soul feature

When you reflect on the time you escaped your imprisonment, it grants you a level of resilience and a quickness of mind. You gain the following benefits:

Become Unseen. You can spend 1 ki point to take the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn.

Unbreakable. While you are prone, restrained or bound by other physical means which would normally restrict your attacks, you do not have disadvantage on unarmed attack rolls.

Irrepressible. You can spend 1 ki point to escape being grappled or restrained as a bonus action on your turn.

Restless Thoughts

6th-level Tortured Soul feature

Through your continued resilience, you regain some control over the thoughts and experiences that still haunt you, overcoming your fears and apprehensions. You gain the following benefits:

Contingency Plan. When you take an action that doesn’t deal damage on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to Ready another action (no action required).

Overreaction. When you take a reaction, you gain advantage on all attack rolls you make for the duration of that reaction.

Free From Torment

11th-level Tortured Soul feature

You gain the ability to focus your mind and body in even the most stressful situations. As an action on your turn, you can spend up to 3 ki points to gain one of the effects on the Take a Breather table. You must finish a long rest before you can use this feature again.

When you reach 17th level in this class, you can use each of the effects in the Take a Breather table once per long rest.

Take a Breather

Ki Points	Effect
0	You can regain up to 4 ki points at the start of your next turn.
1	You can take an extra action, reaction and bonus action on your next turn.
2	You gain Immunity to all damage but force damage for 1 round at the start of your next turn.
3	You can roll a number of Hit Dice equal to half your monk level to regain hit points at the start of your next turn.

True Survivor

17th-level Tortured Soul feature

Your inner strength allows you to fight to remain conscious, through sheer determination and a will to survive. When you would fall unconscious, such as by falling asleep or taking damage that reduces you to 0 hit points, you can choose to enter the Barely Conscious state instead.

Barely Conscious

While in this state, you cannot fall unconscious until the end of your next turn. You can be removed from this state by any effect that would normally remove the cause of being unconscious, such as regaining hit points while at 0 hit points. If you end your turn in this state, you must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or fall unconscious. If you succeed, you remain in the barely conscious state for another round.

When you start your turn with 0 hit points, or take damage at 0 hit points while in this state, you must make a death saving throw as normal, and three death saving throw failures can still kill you. You cannot be stabilised while in this state, except by regaining hit points.