You follow a monastic tradition that demands you train relentlessly until your blade becomes a stylish and graceful extension of your body and will.

Monks of the Way of the Sword typically serve either as elite guardsmen for influential noble houses, or as elite soldiers in the service of powerful empires. Often the most talented followers of the Way of the Sword retire to become well aggressively sought-after masters by students looking to be taught their deadly art.

Killing blow

At 17th level, you learn a forbidden technique that enables the user to effortlessly deal true death. As an action, you may spend 4 Ki points to ready a Killing Blow. While you have a Killing Blow readied, you cannot move willingly, or take actions or bonus actions. You can keep your Killing Blow readied for up to 1 minute, or until you lose concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell).

When a creature attacks you while you have a Killing Blow readied, you may use your Killing Blow after their attack is resolved, making a single melee weapon attack using your sword as a reaction. If the attack hits and the creature has 150 hit points or fewer, it dies and cannot be resurrected by any means less than True Resurrection. Otherwise, the attack deals an additional 10d10 slashing damage.

Sword mastery

When you chose this tradition at 3rd level, you learn how to wield the sword as an extension of your body. You gain proficiency with the longsword, and it counts as a monk weapon for you. In addition, your damage rolls with longswords are increased by 1d4.

Practice of form

At 3rd level, you gain skill in the deft strokes of art, granting you proficiency in your choice of either calligraphy or painting.

Deflect blows

Starting at 6th level, while wielding a sword, you can use your reaction to deflect a blow when you are hit by a melee weapon attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Monk level.

If you reduce the damage to 0, you can spend 1 ki point to make a single melee weapon attack with your sword against the creature that just hit you, as part of the same reaction.

You may use this feature a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier+1 (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

 

One with the blade

At 11th level, you can spend 1 ki point to become one with the blade as a bonus action on your turn. Until the start of your next turn, you can use your Deflect Blows feature without expending any uses, the additional damage die granted by your Sword Mastery feature increases to 1d10, and you gain an extra reaction that can only be used to Deflect Blows.