Martial Stances: Revised Monk and Monastic Traditions

This is a revision to the 5e Monk. I've reworked most of the flavorful and features of the monk except Slow Fall to make room for a Stance based monk which juggles Ki management with a variety of combat options, mechanics, and cool new abilities. If you still want to focus on Stunning Strike, I've added some basic stances to the Open Palm Monastic Tradition that allows for more reliable stunning strikes that are less frequent. Also there's an 11th level Stance which gives you access to Stunning Strike once a turn.

I've inherently gone for a more martial based class with a couple of Martial Flourishes which serve to really cement what style of monk you want to play. If you want to be a monk who dashes across the battlefield and make your enemies life a living hell, then Crane stance might be for you!

If you want to hit things hard and repeatedly, then Tiger stance might be your cup of tea. The initial signature abilities revolve around activating a Martial Flourish, ending your stance and executing a finishing move on those poor fools who are near you.

I also reworked the Kensei Monk into two separate subclasses. One was a martial focused one which used their ki to strengthen their physical abilities. The martial one has allowances and mechanics designed for a ranged Kensei as well.  The second subclass was a Way of the Sword Saint (Kensei in English), but I gave it a Wuxia/Xanxia vibe with a Blade Manifestation as well as a technique to fuse your ki into your weapons. 

I also homebrewed a Stance shifting Monk Subclass called the Martial Mimic. I also did a rework of the Way of the Elements Monk. My design is an iterative step from Mark Hulmes' original Way of the Elements Monk. 

His was a more "caster" style monk whereas I've taken some of his concepts and incorporated it into a much more martial focused elemental monk subclass.

I added 8 more subclasses in v1.3 with subclasses for each of the 9 Monastic Traditions with various level of changes. Drunken Master and Open Palm are closest to RAW but as a whole I've done fairly comprehensive revisions across the board.

There are 17 magical items of varying power which can serve as a way for your players to dip their toes in some stance based fun or for you to start a whole adventure with.  There's also a small adventuring gear table of potential monk items you could drop in your games!

I've also added some options for a Strength Based Monk in an Unarmored Defense feature that uses your Strength instead of your Dexterity, and I've added a feature at 13th level which allows you to add your strength modifier to your initiative modifier on top of your normal bonuses. Also reworded the Kensei weapons a bit so you can be using a greatsword as a kensei monk. If that's your thing. 

V1.41 I tweaked Earth Stance and the Gauntlets of Geokinesis. I fixed up some typos. I'm currently going to be playtesting this a bit and revising it based on player feedback.

Cover Photo Image Credit to JLB1988 on Pixabay