Back in January, I posted the Way of the Wild monastic tradition, drawing on the Five Animals of Southern Style kung fu. There are a lot more than five animals and five styles in kung fu, so I wanted to add more options – Monkey Style because it’s a real thing; Panda Style because of, you know, the Jack Black films; at Otter Style because I joked about it in the first post, then decided it was a neat idea. I’m also trying something new with Tiger Strike, following (deeply-appreciated!) feedback from the earlier post.
Tiger Strike. When you hit with a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 ki to deal additional damage equal to your Martial Arts die. At the start of the creature’s turn, it takes piercing damage equal to your Wisdom modifier. At the end of each of its turns, it can roll a Constitution saving throw to end this damage. The target automatically stops taking this damage if it regains hit points from any effect.
Monkey Stance. At the beginning of your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to enter this stance. You can end this stance at any time. It otherwise lasts 1 minute or until you enter another stance. While you are in Monkey Stance, you can roll a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check instead of any Strength (Athletics) check you would roll. As a reaction when a creature misses you with a melee weapon attack, you can attempt to grapple it.
Monkey Strike. When you are prone and make a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 ki to ignore disadvantage on that attack. If your attack hits, you can stand without spending movement. You can do this even when your speed is 0.
Otter Stance. At the beginning of your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to enter this stance. You can end this stance at any time. It otherwise lasts 10 minutes or until you enter another stance. While you are in Otter Stance, you gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed + 10 feet, and you can hold your breath for 5 minutes + your Constitution modifier. When you are swimming and attack a creature in the water that does not have a swimming speed, you gain advantage on melee weapon attacks.
Otter Strike. When you are grappled and make a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 ki to gain advantage on the attack roll. If the attack hits, roll your Martial Arts die and add the result to the damage, and you can attempt to escape the grapple. Add your Martial Arts die to the grapple escape attempt.
Panda Stance. At the beginning of your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to enter this stance. You can end this stance at any time. It otherwise lasts 1 minute or until you enter another stance. While you are in Panda Stance, you can use your reaction to shove a creature starts its turn at least 20 feet from you and ends its movement within 5 feet of you. Add your Martial Arts die to your Strength (Athletics) roll for this shove.
Panda Strike. When you hit with a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 ki to deal bludgeoning damage equal to your Martial Arts die + your Strength modifier to a creature adjacent to the target of your attack.
Design Notes
As I’ve mentioned in Twitter, monk features that cost ki are hard to design, because of how incredibly good Stunning Strike is – can’t go down from 1 ki, can’t go much better than save-or-stun. What I’ve done, then, is leaning way into condition + damage, or negate-a-disadvantage + damage. Whether I’ve succeeded in creating features you want to use when you could just be stunning more targets is… up to you, my kind readers.
As a reminder, you get two Stances at 3rd level, two matching Strikes at 6th, and a new style (a Stance and a Strike) at 17th.
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